Yingpei gave a sympathetic nod when Alex filled them in on what exactly had happened. “It never feels good to lose coin or opportunity, but if nothing else, you are far wiser now than you were a few hours ago.”
Alex grimaced. “And the worst part of it is, that tome taught me almost nothing that I didn’t already know! Next time, I am definitely following whatever librarian would ‘assist’ me and paying no more than a single credit for the privilege, and I’ll pick out the book I want myself.”
Zhu Bi nodded. “Whenever I play the fool, I just think of what my mother would tell me whenever I fell on my face in life. ‘The wise fox does not dwell on the bitter lessons of today. She focuses only on learning what is necessary to forge a sweeter tomorrow.’”
Yingpei nodded. “You now know never to trust that librarian; for all that some areas of the city are quite enlightened, and most small towns welcome anyone willing to work hard to earn their keep, old prejudices still run deep, at least for some people.”
“It’s only because that man’s from Yidushi. From what my cousin tells me, it’s awful for anyone who looks different there!” Zhu Bi was quick to add.
Yingpei grinned across the table at his friend. “And you were smart enough to tip the other librarian before you could be led too badly astray, and you now know how to handle yourself when you next want a cultivation manual to study. Best of all, you’re still up several hundred credits, and your lessons were far less bitter than those a number of other people have been forced to embrace today,” the merchant noted.
Alex couldn’t help grinning at that, glad that his friend was keeping his voice low enough to be easily drowned out by the background noise.
He met Yingpei’s gaze and chuckled softly. “Now I just need some way to find or borrow a couple of those tomes, and I’ll feel a lot better about a lot of things.”
Suddenly he frowned, catching Dineng’s hostile glare once more, and felt the eyes of Zhang, a few spots over, on him as well. Surprisingly, the latter’s gaze wasn’t hostile, but they were definitely measuring Alex’s every move.
Alex winced, realizing that, as skilled as he liked to think he was, it was only a matter of time before the worst happened. He had already done what he could do to secure his position with a certain spirit doctor whom he could only hope would do him a good turn sometime in the future. But perhaps there was something else he could do to secure himself right now.
“Yingpei? I don’t suppose you have special accommodations, thanks to your Silver rank?”
His merchant friend grinned. “I do indeed, friend Alex, as does Zhu Bi. Which makes things far sweeter than they might otherwise be.”
Zhu Bi immediately flushed and lowered her eyes, but her smile was wicked. “Make sure you can handle the bitter with the sweet before you commit to the meal, merchant.”
Alex was surprised by the intensity of his friend’s expression. “You know I can.”
He caught Zhu Bi’s flustered gaze and smiled. “I’m glad to see Yingpei has such excellent taste in what really matters.”
Zhu Bi blushed deeper, arching a sardonic smile his way. “And I note that you won’t even look the way of the girls you so nobly saved, who now call you hero. Because you’re wise enough to know you don’t dare show an interest in either of them, without a safe place to rest your head.”
Alex blinked, then winced. “Was it that obvious?”
The kitsune flashed a sympathetic smile. “For one of my kind? Yes. Besides, I can feel the hostile glares you’re getting, and not just from the obvious source. You need a safe place to rest and cultivate. And even though all of us were shown the private pagodas, far nicer accommodations than any lone aspirant would need …” Her cheeks reddened.
Alex hid his smile. “I understand. And I’m grateful.”
Her gaze turned solemn. “But Alex, you can only access them if your talisman will open them. When we first asked Bang Jiao who got to sleep in those luxurious quarters, as opposed to the oversized boys’ and girls’ bunkhouses where you would have absolutely no privacy, he looked at us like we were idiots and just said, ‘you figure it out.’ And, well… we all did.”
She flashed a conspiratorial smile. “And you won’t believe how furious Dineng was to find out he’d be sleeping with all the other boys, that his talisman would do nothing for him, no matter that he was the first to race to the fanciest of the private residences. Then he started challenging anyone else who thought to approach! That’s why, well…”
“Why his purse was so full?”
She smirked. “His story about it all being his family fortune was hogwash. Perhaps some of it was, but for the most part, he was just trying to wheedle it back from you or justify to himself why he should have it. Of course, the bad news is that a lot of those credits you have, not to mention the actual silver and gold coins and even more precious treasures, belong to a handful of clan heirs who would absolutely love to challenge you for a chance to get their treasures back.”
Alex frowned. “Wait, he didn’t grab anything from you and Yingpei, did he?”
She chuckled softly. “Of course not.” She happily patted a grinning Yingpei’s arm. “My Yingpei just smiled and waved at the residence, as if inviting the hothead to claim it, while letting him fight it out with a handful of other angry students who also thought they could earn that honor through combat. Once Dineng was panting in an exhausted heap after his last match, we applauded his fighting spirit, then strode right up to our dwelling and claimed it!”
Yingpei positively beamed. “And how furious that hothead was to see me do it. Of course, he challenged Zhu Bi and I to a duel the minute after we left, only to find that his completely drained Bronze Talisman had less than a ghost’s chance to challenge a Silver.”
Alex’s eyes widened, and he grinned. “So, you guys let the Bronze hotheads fight it out, knowing it would come to nothing, and also assuring that they couldn’t force you into any unwanted fights. Well done!”
Then he blinked. “Wait… you guys entered it together? And no one…”
Zhu Bi flushed.
Yingpei gave a sad shake of his head. “Of course they did. Anything to score a point or try to make competition look bad. But all Bang Jiao did was glance our way before snorting and telling the class entire that a Silver talisman-holding kitsune could go wherever she damned well pleased, and best they remember that.”
Alex nodded. “I see.”
Zhu Bi lowered her gaze. “I know it’s only because of the princess, but still…”
Alex nodded sympathetically. “On the one hand, it feels awkward, benefiting from the political environment, such as it is. But on the other hand, after a lifetime of fear and having to hide everything about yourself from everyone…”
“It feels good not having to hide anything at all,” she said with a determined nod, glaring in defiance at the nearby students, none of whom were even glancing her way.
By the time they had left the eating hall, the sun had set, and the cultivators had begun to retire to their respective barracks, ostensibly to study the treatises they had all purchased.
“Take all the time you like, heading to the barracks,” said a coldly smiling Dineng. “None of us would want you to have anything but a trouble-free night’s sleep, after stealing all our coin!”
Alex flashed a saccharine-sweet smile. “No need to worry on my account, dear Dineng. How could I not have a wonderful night’s rest, with your coins jingling in my purse and the memory of your desperate, groveling pleas to keep me snug and warm through the night?”
Dineng’s pockmarked features twisted in sudden outrage, the furious young man spitting at Alex’s feet and storming off.
Zhu Bi chuckled throatily. “You are an evil one, aren’t you, dear Alex?”
Alex grinned. “I, of course, have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” He leaned back and chuckled. “And as Dineng made perfectly clear, before I can do anything else, before I give another thought to
cultivation manuals, I have to arrange something in the sleeping department.”
Yingpei flashed Alex a smile devoid of the innocent naiveté Alex now realized was purely a disarming act. “I think we both know you should have no problem with that, Alex,” he said, discreet enough to make sure his voice didn’t carry.
Zhu Bi’s grin was likewise far more like Jidihu’s than the innocent anime-like expression she normally favored. “I’d be very surprised if there weren’t too many places you couldn’t get into, if you really put your mind to it.”
Alex smirked. “Maybe, but as you both saw, I’ve already managed to piss off a powerful Silver who cultivates speed and strength in tandem, and that, my friends, is a bloody deadly combination.”
Zhu Bi pointedly looked at the five pagoda huts, made of finest lacquered hardwood, just a handful of yards away. “So, don’t leave the Aspirant’s Quarter. Even with Four Silvers amongst us, only three huts were claimed.”
Alex smirked. “And some cards I’d rather keep as close to my vest as possible.”
Zhu Bi frowned. “Vest?”
“Figure of speech.”
“Ah.”
Alex winked. “But if you were to permit your eccentric friend permission to, say, spend the evening stargazing upon the rooftop of your rather magnificent little pagoda…”
Yingpei grinned. “Say no more, my friend. Feel free to cultivate, meditate, or stargaze to your heart’s content.” He gazed down at Zhu Bi. “That is, assuming you don’t mind?”
“Of course not,” she said, beaming at Alex. “If it weren’t for him and the—”
Her eyes widened when the merchant’s finger gently covered her soft ruby lips. He then put another finger upon his own and flashed a quick grin.
She grinned back, kissing his finger before nipping it, smirking at his shocked expression.
“Just a love bite, merchant boy.” She clasped his hand, wrapping herself in his protective arms. “As I was saying, if it weren’t for our friends, neither of us would have felt the waters of life roaring through us, filling us with all the potency of heaven and earth… at least for a few heartbeats in time. Thanks to them, we might actually achieve Silver one day.”
Solemn eyes locked upon Alex’s own. “The wells of our souls actually grew, because the disciples of emperors and gods took pity on us. We owe them everything. And I think my… ultimate sire would be disappointed if I didn’t return the favor.”
Alex blushed at her declaration, wondering just how much she actually knew, before frowning, realizing he couldn’t hear a sound or see anything beyond a thousand shades of black and grey, endless shadow. Silvery eyes gazed into his own. “Alex?”
“Yes, Zhu Bi?”
“How high up did you go?”
Alex just grinned, peering through the shadowy gloom. “You ever wonder what’s beyond the starry night sky, Zhu Bi?”
Her eyes widened. She began to shiver. “Alex?”
He gazed her way.
She continued to tremble, licking suddenly dry lips. “Are they real?”
“Are what real?”
“The gods!”
“As far as I can tell? Yes.”
Yingpei’s gaze widened with an odd mix of awe and fear.
Zhu Bi clenched her petite hands. “Is he real?”
Alex gazed at the beautiful, quaking kitsune girl staring back at him with such an odd mixture of wonder and fear. “You already know the answer to that, every time you look in the mirror.”
She swallowed. “Are you…”
“—I think it’s time I called it a night. Thank you both for your friendship, and your hospitality,” Alex said, bowing low and taking advantage of the kitsune’s cloaking shadows to spring for the farmost pair of pagodas which his Qi Perception sensed no living souls within. He gently pressed his talisman against the door slot of the nearest one on the off chance that, despite the fact that he was unable to decline even a single fight with the lowest Copper, he might actually be able to fox his way in.
He was almost surprised to find himself lying down upon an elevated cloth-stuffed pallet just seconds later, truly grateful to be taking his ease on a bed that felt like resting on clouds, compared to sleeping on the ground. But he’d be a fool not to assume that trouble would come knocking in the form of an angry Silver when he was at his most vulnerable. So he got up just long enough to place his bed beside the door before collapsing back on the inviting mattress, closing his eyes, and drowning in tides of nightmare.
24
It was strange, Alex thought, how easily one’s confidence and resolve faded to a child’s vulnerability when lost in darkest dream. Or perhaps, the endless caverns of memory.
One moment, he had been desperately racing to save a princess crying out in terror as infernal claws began to mark her flesh with hideous runes. Claws belonging to a demonic aberration that had cost him his life in order to banish it once before. And just when he had swallowed his shock and surprise, commanding legs frozen with horror to charge forth to the princess’s rescue yet again, he was instead fighting for his life, facing off against Headmaster Bingwen in the River of Souls.
Only this time, instead of a roaring inferno, the man’s soul was as chill as death itself. And just when Alex feared drowning in the laughter of his foe as the river froze solid as ice, the mocking voice of the bloated merchant Alex hated above all others slithered into his mind. “You’ll get what’s coming to you, damned Ruidian! For Hao Zei gets the best of every trade! And there’s no cargo more precious than the souls I will tear free of countless broken cultivators, just like you!”
The monster’s mocking laughter joined Bingwen’s as the memory of Princess Cui Chan screamed in terror and despair, and Alex felt no greater fear or sense of peril than he did at that moment, drowning in his own dreams…when he was pulled free of nightmare by the most unexpected of sources.
A clod of dirt, aimed for his head.
“Did you get a good night’s sleep Ruidian?” sneered none other than a smirking Dineng the next morning.
Alex made a show of shaking fragments of dirt from his hair before untying the piece of bedding he had jury-rigged into a rope so as to secure himself upon the sloped roof of his friends’ pagoda, his lifeline when he had been drowning in a sea of memory and nightmare the night before.
He had thought it best to act as if he were truly as weak as his enemies hoped, happy to get up far earlier than he should have and mime coming down from the rooftop later, as opposed to actually letting them catch him using a hut reserved only for Silvers or better.
He had not expected to fall back to sleep, let alone into the depths of nightmare, before being pulled free by a chance clod of dirt that could just as easily have been a deadly chunk of stone.
Alex grinned down at Dineng, leaving his mock harness and blanket in place as he tumbled to the ground.
Finesse check made!
Landing flawlessly upon his feet, he graced the cultivator before him with a beaming smile.
“I slept wonderfully. Best of all, I didn’t have to listen to your piggish snores or smell your fetid breath. Couldn’t have asked for a better night’s rest than that,” he declared, earning a couple soft snickers from the students behind the beet-red Dineng now sticking his sausage fingers in Alex’s face.
Or would have, if Alex hadn’t flowed away so naturally that it looked like the lumbering strength cultivator had intended on speaking at him from an angle as he began spewing threats and invectives. Alex smirked and step-slid away from him the whole time, until the furious young man tore free his Bronze talisman once more. “I challenge you, Ruidian! For everything you own!”
Alex scoffed, not bothering to reveal his hand, in spite of the fact that, much to his horror, he felt his talisman shimmer into existence with the challenge. “And why should I accept? It’s not like you have anything worth challenging for.”
This earned Alex a contemptuous sneer. “Wrong, fool! I managed to acquire both a Gr
anite Mountain cultivation manual and the Stone Fist and Earth Shield treatises!” His eyes glittered with dark malice. “I had a breakthrough last night, and I’m eager to test it upon your flesh!”
This pronouncement alone filled Alex with foreboding, recalling just how deadly he was when on the verge of an epiphany. And the way he could sense a shimmering swirl of Earth Qi forming in the boy’s left hand made it clear that his enemy was now truly a force to take seriously.
Alex spent long moments just staring at Dineng, noting his shifting stance and movements, recalling with almost crystalline clarity the fight of the day before.
“Are you sure about this? I think Bang Jiao was going out on a limb, getting you that Granite Mountain tome, and I seriously doubt you own it outright,” he said, stalling for time as he attempted to manipulate a skill in a way he had only dared once before. Icy cold darkness formed up underneath his boot, uncomfortably crumpling up one woolen sock before he eased his will and prepared to try again.
“The debt means nothing if I crush you first!” Dineng roared, smacking his talisman against Alex’s own before lashing out with a powerful overhand blow.
You have successfully dodged Earth Strike!
You now feel the storm of Qi all around you!
Alex skipped back as his enemy’s glowing fist tore free a few strands of golden hair, forced to wonder if that simple blow could have crushed his very skull, had it landed.
His foe followed up with a left hook that Alex darted away from, only to be clipped by a right cross when a muscular spectator abruptly shoved against him at just the wrong time.
Deliberately, of course.
“Break that fool!” roared the voice behind him.
Dineng charged, and Alex sensed sudden peril, tasting the smile of the spirit wolf cultivator waiting just beyond the pear tree boarder. He understood his enemy’s intentions at once as Dineng’s fist smashed into his shoulder and not his skull while he did his best to roll with the blow, feeling his clavicle creak and snap.
Silver Fox & the Western Hero: Warrior's Path: A LitRPG/Cultivation Novel - Book 6 Page 35
