Silver Fox & the Western Hero: Warrior's Path: A LitRPG/Cultivation Novel - Book 6

by M. H. Johnson

  “Must be because he is a Ruidian. No doubt the elders have never seen one of his kind cultivating before.”

  “He shouldn’t even be here!”

  Alex did his best to tune out the harsh whispers of his peers as he solemnly walked forward, stopping to kowtow before the elder, who gently stopped his descent with a frail hand… that nonetheless held him effortlessly before he quickly righted himself.

  “This one apologizes,” he quickly said.

  “No need for that. You just seemed lost in your thoughts.”

  Alex blinked, surprised that the elder would deign to speak so casually with him.

  “Well? Come on, lad. This way.”

  With final parting smiles from Yingpei and Zhu Bi, the only Silvers who didn’t seem outraged at Alex cutting ahead, he followed the elder deeper into the chamber beyond.

  21

  Before long, Alex found himself sitting across from the ancient Silver on the other side of a lacquered table which radiated what Alex was chilled to realize was Fate and Spirit Qi both. Upon the walls were charts of human bodies with notations for what seemed to be the peripheral meridians, the upper, mid, and lower dantians, and—much to Alex’s surprise—over a dozen separate meridian configurations radiating faint spiritual energy from multiple depictions.

  Upon the table sat a deck of cards.

  Ancient eyes peered into Alex’s own. He smiled and waved to the deck. “It is good to see you, my young Ruidian friend. If you would show me your talisman?

  Alex hesitated for only a moment, summoning forth his translucent jade talisman to fit comfortably in the palm of his hand with a single act of will.

  Slowly, he brought it before the beaming countenance of Elder Ru.

  The Elder’s eyes widened. “How remarkable, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a proper…” his words abruptly cut off. He paled, gazing at the talisman for long moments.

  Solemn eyes met Alex’s own. “Have you read what it says?”

  Alex slowly shook his head. “The first time I saw it was just, well, a few hours ago, when a fellow cultivator gave me challenge. Then I thought it best to keep out of sight.”

  The solemn gaze locked upon his own did not waver. “Why don’t you take a look at what it says, Alex?”

  Alex frowned, taking a moment to truly study the artifact supposedly bonded to his soul. It was crafted of translucent ivory jade, with only the palest tinge of green. Just underneath the inscription was a taijitu, or yin-yang symbol, with each opposing eye depicted in the shape of a tiny fox.

  Alex blinked, realizing he had gotten it wrong.

  It was a tiny etching of a sitting fox, smiling right at him, with taijitu symbols for its eyes.

  Then it was both at once.

  Alex paled, his heart skipping a beat.

  “Alex? Can you read what it says?”

  “No challenge may be refused. Thrice won is sacred,” Alex whispered, shivers racing up and down his spine as the words echoing strangely through the room.

  The ancient Silver gave Alex the most curious of stares.

  Only then did Alex realize that he had spoken in English.

  Exactly what was written on the talisman.

  A language that Alex doubted anyone besides himself had used in over a thousand years.

  The ancient cultivator before him, a being who Alex was strangely certain could crush him to dust with a single act of will, only smiled. “Fascinating. Can you translate that into the true tongue?”

  Alex grimaced. “I think it’s saying…” He swallowed, carefully contemplating what the words implied. “I can refuse no challenge given.”

  The elder frowned. “Troubling. No limits at all? Even the weakest copper shouldn’t be forced to endure more than a handful of opponents every new moon… Not surprising, considering the nature of that talisman, but still.” Hard eyes continued to hold his own. “Is that all it says?”

  Alex swallowed. “I think… I think it’s also saying that no one may refuse my challenges either.”

  The elder stilled. “No one?”

  Alex shivered. “I… I’m not sure.”

  Slowly, the elder drew a thick talisman of deepest silver with three golden glyphs upon it, shimmering with a rich fiery luster in the waning afternoon light.

  The elder’s eyes held Alex’s own. He flashed a gap-toothed smile that for just a heartbeat echoed with all the power and peril of death itself.

  Before becoming the harmless smile of a curious old man.

  “I don’t suppose you would challenge me to a draw of the deck?”

  Alex swallowed. “But sir…”

  “The stakes will be a single nod of the head to whomever draws the… most interesting card.”

  Alex swallowed, heart racing with sudden anxiety, suddenly wanting to be anywhere but in that spacious chamber filled with diagrams depicting the human body, facing a man who was, Alex feared, deciding whether he would live or die with his smile.

  Alex forced his trembling hand forward, frowning as the talisman he held shook.

  Adroitly, the elder placed his thick talisman that seemed so weighty, so real, that the world itself would pale and fade away before its presence, above Alex’s own.

  Only to watch it fade to utter immateriality as Alex’s own talisman took on the hue of liquid darkness broken up by countless flashes of pure silvery light, like stars twinkling in a pitch-black sky, with Alex’s whispered words. “I challenge you to a single draw of the deck. The stakes will be a single nod to whoever draws the most interesting card.”

  Both of them stared at the spectacle for endless moments.

  Only then did the elder give a shuddering sigh.

  Alex’s heart roared. He surreptitiously glanced out the open front of the chamber, captivated by the magnificent vista stretching out endlessly beyond the overhanging roof protecting the inside from foul weather and rain. He was halfway tempted to Bullrush for all he was worth and pray he could gain enough distance to open a single Golden door before this smiling elder could blast him into oblivion.

  His panic only grew as the smiling elder gave the tiniest shake of his head, as if to make it clear that Alex didn’t stand a chance.

  But far from crackling death, his wizened old hands only gestured to the deck.

  “I don’t think I even have to tell you how absurd a match this is. Outside the precepts of martial combat altogether.”

  Alex swallowed. “No, sir. You don’t.”

  “And yet still… here we are. Bound by a covenant you can’t even begin to appreciate.”

  “I… suppose you are right, sir.”

  The elder chuckled softly. “Well, then. By all means, my young Ruidian friend. Please. Take a card.”

  Not taking his eyes off the elder for a second, Alex slowly drew the top card off the deck, keeping it face down.

  Solemnly, Elder Ru did the same, neither of them gazing upon the secrets their cards held.

  “Now, Alex. On the count of three, each of us will show the other their card, without looking at the one we hold. Then? Then we will go from there.”

  Alex frowned. “But then how will we know…”

  “Trust me, lad. We will know.”

  Alex nodded. What choice did he have?

  His heart began to pound when Elder Ru slowly raised the card before him, Alex doing the same.

  Then as one, they flipped them over.

  It was all Alex could do not to blanch and cry out upon seeing a pair of pitiless blue eyes, so lifelike it was chilling, within an otherwise rough sketch of a man standing upon a pyre of burning corpses including man, wolf, and serpent. A few quick strokes of a sketcher’s pencil somehow conveyed the death and destruction of an entire city, giving odd life to the terrible image.

  It was impossible. Alex knew that. But still… it was all he could do not to flinch and flee the chamber, for all that a tiny corner of his mind was certain such would spell his doom.

  Elder Ru, for his part, was gazing a
t whatever it was Alex held with wide-eyed horror.

  The blood roared so loudly in Alex’s ears he could barely think. He found himself too terrified to move, lest the Elder’s horror turn to wrath and assure Alex’s own destruction.

  Long moments passed, the pair of them frozen in that odd tableau, before Elder Ru spoke in a breathless voice. “You may put your card down now, Alex. But do not look at it!”

  Alex didn’t dare say a word, doing his best to ignore the trembling in his hands as he did just that.

  “Elder?”

  Elder Ru merely smiled, adroit hands quickly gathering both their cards and reshuffling the deck with an almost audible sigh of relief.

  “Normally, I would draw cards to determine a prospective student’s ideal meridian configuration… but I don’t think that’s necessary in your case, is it, Alex?”

  Flushing, Alex solemnly shook his head. “No, sir. It isn’t.”

  Elder Ru chuckled softly. “Look upon the charts upon the wall. Do any match the path you follow?”

  Alex replied with an almost sad smile. “No, sir. None do. I already checked.”

  Elder Ru sighed and bowed his head. “I concede the match, young Ruidian. As much as I would love to be able to counsel such a fascinating young student… I sense that your tale is far older than mine.”

  Alex swallowed and said nothing. He was beyond grateful that Elder Rue hadn’t bothered looking at the card he had been holding. Because the monster depicted so perfectly with just a handful of brushstrokes wore the same face Alex saw every time he looked in the mirror.

  “Alex?”

  “Yes, Elder Ru?”

  “I am given to understand you have already made a powerful enemy today.”

  Alex blinked. Word did indeed get around fast.

  “You do know you will soon be forged in the fires of your enemies’ hate, do you not?”

  He winced. “I know I probably don’t stand a chance.”

  “As you are? No.”

  His apprehension grew.

  “But you already know what you need to do to correct that failing, do you not?”

  Alex flashed a mirthless smile. “Get stronger. Whatever it takes, however I must go about it? Get stronger at all costs.”

  Elder Ru solemnly nodded. “Obey the tenets of this school and do your best to prosper, the path which all students of this school must follow.”

  Alex chuckled softly. “I will do my best in that regard, Master Ru. I promise you.”

  “I have no doubt.” Sympathetic eyes gazed into Alex’s own. “You have humored an old man, and apparently there is little I can do to help you along your own path. Not without learning secrets I fear would put me in peril nearly as great as your own.”

  Alex winced. “Ouch.”

  Elder Ru chuckled. “Allow me to offer you a boon in return. If there is any particular knowledge you require, or a small service I can perform…”

  Alex locked eyes with the man, heart racing.

  How easy it would be to ask for the location of what he most hoped to find. But if the Elder didn’t know… if he would, in fact, be setting off all sorts of flags by saying the words allowed…

  There were far safer questions he could ask.

  But those questions could be answered by anyone, at a far more humble price.

  For he sensed in that moment, with enemies closing in, there was one favor this elder could do that no one else could, or would.

  He had been blessed with strikingly good fortune even amidst his peril, well-fitting of his patron.

  Fortune that could be gone in an eyeblink if he was too foolish to take advantage of the opportunity before him.

  And his hands were already two steps ahead of his racing thoughts, the elder giving him the strangest look when Alex made his request, lighter now than he had been since the moment he had first felt the warm light caressing his skin by Liqin’s side.

  The elder furrowed his brow. “What you are asking, Alex…”

  Alex flashed a quick grin. “It’s alright, Master Ru. Please feel free to return it to the Blue Pagoda, if nothing else. At least that way, the herbs will do some good. Otherwise, the only ones that will benefit will be the Spirit Wolves when they eventually rip it free of my battered body.”

  This earned a sad sigh. “To have made such powerful enemies within hours of your arrival.”

  Alex smirked. “My master would expect no less of me.”

  The elder paled. “Please, Alex. Don’t say such things aloud. Not ever.”

  Alex bowed his head. “My apologies, Elder Ru.”

  The ancient cultivator sighed. “Very well, Alex. I will take this burden, which we both know will do you little good before you are stripped of everything once more.” He flashed a pitiless smile. “You do understand I promise absolutely nothing in return. And what’s worse, clever old man that I am, I might actually try to coax you into doing me a favor. In fact, let’s just skip the preamble and assume I did just that. A wily old man so clever as to leave you penniless and in debt, without us worrying about all the intermediary steps, which we really don’t have time for, with several dozen increasingly impatient aspirants in desperate need of readings themselves.”

  Alex chuckled softly. “So long as your favor does not require me to maim or kill myself, any innocent soul, or those I care about, I am not opposed to doing a favor for one as revered as you, Master Ru.”

  This earned Alex a hard stare. “With such open-ended qualifiers…”

  “This one knows all too well the power of oaths given without qualifiers, so often used to destroy would-be heroes,” Alex quickly explained. “And with so many variables already seeking my destruction, I’d rather not have my own words be among them.”

  Elder rue gave soft chuckle. “I suppose that shall have to do.” He then waved one stick-thin arm at a door so cleverly hidden by shadow and unexpected angles that Alex had completely missed it. “I trust you to find your own way out. I’d recommend you not dally so long that your master leaves for sanctuary without you, however.”

  Alex bowed his head. “It will be as you say, Master Ru.”

  And with those words, Alex left the chamber, soon finding himself walking along a rather spacious corridor, well-appointed with thick silken rugs, exotic tapestries, and hardwood stands supporting exquisitely painted pottery, and no one but him to enjoy the museum-quality display.

  Eventually, he found several hardwood doors that he hoped would serve as an exit.

  The first led to a room remarkably like an old-fashioned English restroom, if it had been made of finely polished hardwoods, bamboo, and rice paper. It was also equipped with running water in a gold-veined marble basin, he was happy to find, though the strong lye-based soap left his skin pink and raw and very clean before fully recovering in an eyeblink, thanks to Eternal Fox rejuvenation.

  Shortly thereafter, Alex at last found what he was searching for, a hallway leading into a vast chamber that quite took his breath away.

  Books. Tomes covered with finest leather, cloth, parchment, and in some cases, exotically ornamented wood, all of it was shimmering faintly with spiritual energy, each and every beautifully illustrated book kept behind glass panels that radiated protective fields of Qi.

  You have detected Synergized Elemental Ward. Synergized Elemental Ward is now at 1% Comprehension.

  “You. Ruidian. What are you doing here?”

  Alex spun around, sensing sudden killing intent...

  Only to gaze into the jaded grey eyes of a high-ranking Bronze wujen radiating deadly Wood Qi.

  The man wore the robes of what Alex instantly understood to be a librarian, or so the amulet around his neck and those of two similarly attired librarians beside a table nearby suggested, their attire quite different from the cultivators downstairs who had perhaps been serving the dual roles of greeters and guardians both.

  He took a steadying breath, striving for calm.

  “My name is Alex. I’m a new student
to this school.”

  This earned him a cold smile. “Obviously, Ruidian. It still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.”

  “I just got finished with my spirit doctor consultation, so I came to speak with a librarian such as yourself in terms of acquiring cultivation manuals,” Alex said, thinking fast. He was determined to seize the moment, fearing it might be a very long time before he was afforded any safe passage to the library again.

  This earned him another cold smile. “So, you came to the Silver section looking for a basic treatise? Fitting. Very well. What element are you aligned to? I would be happy to personally procure you a copy of the Elemental Fist and Ward treatises your master will expect you to obtain copies of before you leave for a mere… thirty credits per treatise. Shall I get them for you? You need but tell me your elemental affinity, and I will happily set up your account and your balance with us when I return.”

  Alex felt a fierce surge of excitement. Finally! The chance to learn fresh techniques! he thought to himself. And not internal techniques or techniques he shouldn’t even know and dare not show, but skills he was actually expected to learn and master.

  He loved the idea of finally being able to study properly and learn just how far he could go, how well he could put his Qi pool to use, how he would compare to his peers.

  And with a purse still containing a considerable amount of credits, he now had an opportunity to claim the resources he so desperately needed, a chance that might not come again in a very long time, if those damned Spirit Wolves were as bad as Alex feared.

  Suddenly, Alex froze.

  He’d spotted the poorly hidden smirk from the female librarian, who quickly went back to organizing a handful of treatises, unlike the third librarian, who was already heading down one of the many tome-laden cabinets, having better things to do, perhaps, than watch the scene presently unfolding.

  Perception check made!

  He couldn’t help noticing the way the first librarian’s helpful smile didn’t quite reach his cold, calculating eyes.

  “Actually, I wanted to ask about that. How do credit hours translate to borrowing or purchasing cultivation manuals or treatises?”