Alex winked. “Leading a slave revolt is actually pretty damned profitable. Who knew?”
Qie Qie laughed at that, before furrowing her brow. “Are you serious?”
Alex winked. “As serious as the slave collar no longer around my neck.”
“Alright, I’ll play along. How did you keep from getting burnt to ash with a collar around your neck?”
Alex smirked. “Simple. I killed the cultivator who had ensorcelled it.”
Qie Qie frowned. “Alex… even with how well you did today, besting you-know-who, not even you could take out a Wujen sorcerer. They’re not just body cultivators, they project their Qi in physical form. Walls of ice, streams of fire, a storm of steel, an unbreakable shield glowing with the power of Wood or Earth. And you basic cultivators have been carefully sheltered, for now, but once you ascend to Bronze and cross the inner gate… you’ll see just how powerful cultivators really are.”
Alex gazed off in the distance. For all that the bulging shape of the cliff face meant his master’s view didn’t include anything but the wondrous sea, he knew that to the right, a short distance off, but connected by a spirit road much like the High Road between entire cities, lay an island hidden by mists, the sacred inner sanctuary of Dragon Academy, where the true marvels were forged. Not that the outer academy wasn’t a treasure trove of knowledge and wisdom that would be a golden boon to any cultivator’s foundation, but if one truly dreamed of reaching the pinnacle of their potential… it was rumored that the inner academy was even home to at least one, and maybe several, Gold. And all of them were supposedly able to manifest their Qi in physical form like deadly martial-arts wizards in Alex’s favorite games, last played a thousand years and two lives ago.
“Alex?”
Alex winked at his friend. “You don’t really think I showed you or that idiot who just cost me a fortune all my tricks, do you?”
Qie Qie smirked at that. “I don’t know, Alex. I do know you’re just full of surprises.” She gave a rueful chuckle, eyes twinkling with bemusement and admiration both. “Deadly, honorable, and resourceful. I’ll tell you, Alex, if my heart wasn’t already taken...”
Alex smirked. “And if I wasn’t a Ruidian?”
She had the grace to blush, lowering her gaze. “The girl bold enough to claim you will be a lucky girl indeed.”
Alex chuckled. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Thank you.” Then his expression froze, heart racing as he caught sight of the people politely waiting just outside the gate, including Lady Jidihu herself, with Hao Yin flashing Alex a shy smile by her side, both ladies wearing hats and scarves that would have looked elegant even back on Earth, carefully pinned in place so as to conceal awkward secrets, even when practicing martial forms.
But what truly captivated Alex was the beautiful angel grinning back at him. Glowing with health and beauty, capturing Alex’s heart anew with her heartfelt smile, her twinkling eyes setting his soul ablaze.
Time blinked strangely and he found himself wrapped in her arms, or she wrapped in his, holding her fiercely, tightly, savoring her warmth, the salt of her tears, her lush curves flowing so perfectly against his cultivator’s physique. And underneath her softness, he sensed that her body was now every bit as powerful as his own.
“Alex, oh gods, the rumors I heard, that you were just a heartbeat away from death! And when we got here, no one answered Lady Jidihu’s summons!” She smiled with tears in her eyes. “I was afraid I had lost you, feeling such a fool, training harder these last two months than I ever had before our magical carriage ride, and the whole time I completely neglected you!”
Alex flashed the gentlest of smiles. “It was for the best. I was a pariah. To be associated with me could spell your doom.” He frowned, taking in his environment, already knowing he could trust Qie Qie, if no one else at this school who wasn’t kitsune. “Even now, I’m afraid I’m putting you at risk.”
“I don’t care.”
Alex was about to protest when a soft finger gently pressed against his lips.
“I don’t care about any of that, Alex.” She squeezed his hand. “Come with me?”
Wordlessly, he swallowed and nodded, Qie Qie actually having the gall to wink at him before turning her attention and greeting Lady Jidihu and Hao Yin, who he really should have greeted far more properly than he had, but now he found himself strolling quietly in the empty plot of wild grass growing between Elder Panheu’s walled domicile and his neighbor, a bit of quiet no-man’s land that no outsider dared make use of, and perfect for a gentle stroll with the girl by his side.
“Alex?”
“Yes, Hao Chan?” Alex swallowed, surprised by how dry his throat felt.
“I had a breakthrough.”
Alex’s grin widened. “That’s wonderful! With the rate you were growing during our carriage ride, I had hoped you would continue to shoot up like a sprout reaching for the heavens above!”
Hao Chan chuckled throatily. “I didn’t mean that kind of insight, but yes, my master trains me to the point of tears every day, and her solemn words of praise with every dinner we share fills me with such fierce pride and joy I can hardly wait to start again on the morrow. She even thinks that, one day, once I make Bronze, I’ll be able to project Water and Metal Qi in physical form!”
She chuckled throatily when Alex’s congratulatory hug became something more, her soft lips suddenly whispering into his own. “But that’s not the breakthrough I was talking about, Alex.”
Alex swallowed, heart pounding in his chest. “No?”
She flashed a playful smile, eyes twinkling into his own, her lips so close he could taste them. “The breakthrough I had was the one in my heart. The foundation of my soul.”
Alex took a deep, ragged breath, captivated by the vision of beauty before him, craving her with a desperate intensity he had never experienced before in his life.
Holding back from his desperate hungers, denying himself the warmth of her lips, took all the fierce discipline that months of iron-hard training had brought him.
“What was the breakthrough?” he forced himself to ask, desperate for distraction.
Soft, ruby red lips caressed his own. “You, Alex. The breakthrough I had was you.”
Contest of skills failed! You have been caught off guard!
And before he could blink, he found himself on the soft loamy ground, cushioned by the tall springy grass that now hid them both from view, legs swept out from under him as the vision of beauty devoured him with her eyes just a heartbeat before her lips caressed his own and Alex was blazing with sweetest ecstasy, never wanting to let go.
“Alex! What the hell are you doing?”
Alex gasped, taking deep ragged breaths when the Bronze-ranked Qie Qie yanked back his ears.
He blinked, flushing with sudden embarrassment. “Qie Qie?” He stole a glance at a furiously blushing Hao Chan, who nevertheless flashed him a hungry smile.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better, Alex,” Hao Chan softly said as she readjusted her uniform, hiding all traces of a passionate kiss that had almost become so much more.
Qie Qie frowned. “And you! You’re the Silver Swan girl, right?”
Hao Chan, if anything, lowered her gaze further, bowing her head.
Qie Qie shook her head and sighed. “Girl, you’re no fool. You must know the perils of that method. Until you’ve ascended to Silver...”
Hao Chan flushed. “I know,” she whispered.
Qie Qie flashed a strangely sympathetic smile. “And Silver Swan means you’re a Water, like me. There are other paths you can take that will still let you have your heart’s desire. I’m learning several of them now.” Her bemused gaze hardened. “But it won’t be a prime Silver technique so few of us even have the talent for, almost guaranteed to take you past the shoals of Bronze that most of us can never surpass. Still, you could go far in life, even as skilled as you are now. I’ve seen you dance and perform with Lady Jidihu’s coterie. The plays are exquisite,
the choreography masterful!”
She flashed a teasing grin. “There are far worse lives than traveling the cities as a cultivating performer, and then you could marry the silly boy who thought he could hide you. Marry him, and have a dozen cute babies together.”
She caught Hao Chan’s sparkling eyes, as if knowing she had teased free the girl’s secret dream. Then Qie Qie’s gaze hardened. “And you would have to fear for their safety all your days, your ability to protect them so much less than it could have been, had you had the discipline to keep true to yourself, to your resolve to ascend to Silver! Then you will be so powerful that no one would dare insult your offspring, and so talented you could teach here for centuries, your children living sheltered, perfect lives.”
She then gazed coldly at an acutely embarrassed Alex. “Or you can claim him right here and now, and put the sweet perfect future you both might one day share in utter jeopardy.” She shrugged. “The choice is yours.”
13
Alex feared that night would be one of the most restless of his life, Hao Chan’s bashful smile as she gazed up at him after a single chaste kiss farewell almost more than he could stand. And the way her eyes widened with a gasp as Alex suddenly squeezed her tight, kissing her fiercely before letting her go, made it clear that it had been no easy thing for her, though Lady Jidihu’s smile showed nothing but sympathy as she prepared to lead Hao Chan away, Qie Qie having sensed the mood and already fled after escorting them back to the kitsune noble and flashing Alex the most sympathetic of smiles just moments ago.
“Thank you for understanding, Alex,” Lady Jidihu said as Hao Chan bowed her head in farewell. “And please forgive the unexpected meeting. I know how deeply she missed you, and her mentor, a brilliant teacher if, perhaps, less understanding regarding matters of the heart than some, made it exquisitely clear that Hao Chan must choose. Love or knowledge. It can be one or the other, but not both. Not for many years, I fear.”
Hao Chan flushed and nodded. “It’s true. No matter how hard I train, Mistress Feng Huang senses my distraction.” Warm amber eyes gazed into Alex’s own. “Whenever I think of you.”
Alex felt his cheeks flush, for all that he couldn’t hide the grateful grin. “I’m flattered.”
She snorted. “Shut up, Alex. At least now I know you want me just as badly as I want you.”
Alex’s cheeks blazed. He coughed and cleared his throat as the girl he hungered for chuckled throatily. “I fear we will both have a hard trial ahead if we want to prosper, my Alex, since your fall will be just as steep as mine if you stumble.”
Alex blinked. “What?”
Lady Jidihu’s gaze grew concerned. “Dear Alex, do you truly not understand?”
“Understand what?”
“Well, I thought it obvious from the moment I saw your duels. You’ve been incorporating Silver Swan techniques into your kung fu as well, in ways I would have never thought possible for a basic cultivator. Which is a blessing, as it shows you too have affinities for Water and Steel, beyond remarkable in a Ruidian, and have the potential to ascend to Silver, much like your future wife.”
Alex blinked, stunned by both declarations. “Really.”
She nodded, her grin almost teasing. “But if either you or your beau surrender to your passions before ascending to Silver, both of your foundations will crumble to dust.”
Alex froze, chilled to the core. “No one told me that. How? How is that possible? I practice Golden Realms, White Crane, and, yes, maybe I have been incorporating some Silver Swan...”
The kitsune nodded. “And you’ve never moved faster, quicker, or had more control or finesse over your movements than you do now, am I right?”
Alex winced, slowly nodding.
Soft eyes that reminded Alex of shadows and moonlight peered intently into his own. “Then you’ve accepted the boon of a once-forbidden art. You must accept the cost as well.” She shook her head ruefully. “I won’t even ask how you managed to absorb principles that should have taken years to master, but I saw firsthand that you know it well enough to kill with your arts. Knowing it so deeply, it is now part of the foundation of your soul. Were you to cut the roots of your potential at their one vulnerable point, I would count you a fool.” She winked. “Though if it were for the girl you loved, it would be a foolish act worthy of WiFu himself.” Her gaze hardened. “But were you to cheapen your sacrifice for the sake of base lust...”
Alex adamantly shook his head. “I wasn’t planning on being intimate with anyone.” Hao Chan’s sultry gaze met his own. He swallowed. “Well, almost anyone. Right now? I’m just trying to survive.” He locked gazes with the noble kitsune before him. “Because we both know, even with the ability to throw a mean spin-kick, against Bronze or better cultivators, a single wrong move could kill me.”
Lady Jidihu didn’t deny it.
Alex swallowed. “And there are a whole group of Bronze-ranked cultivators who would like nothing more than to see me dead.”
There. He said it, knowing it was true. Horrifically and utterly true. He was like a basic adventurer who had trained up his skills as best as he could, before he was arbitrarily thrown into a deathmatch zone where only elites had a chance of making it.
Alex felt a lurch in his gut, flooded with anxiety, knowing that if he didn’t advance soon, he was as good as dead.
Hao Chan’s gaze grew haunted. “Alex.”
Lady Jidihu bowed her head. “Then you know exactly what you have to do if you wish to survive the trials to come, Alex. Train. Train more intensely than you ever have before. Let your kung fu be your cultivation, as it is for so many warrior-monks. So even if you are unable to ascend to Bronze for years, like most cultivators of your status, at least you’ll be able to give your enemies a run for their money.”
She flashed a sympathetic smile. “In the meantime, I recommend you travel only to the most well-populated areas of the Academy, Alex; to and from your master’s residence and your classes and no further than that. And accept only duels to first touch where verbal surrender is always an option. Whatever else you do, be very, very careful before you take on any more work assignments.”
Alex flushed. The breadth and depth of this kitsune’s knowledge was beyond remarkable.
Insight gained!
Eyes suddenly widening, he couldn’t help but wonder if the elegant noblewoman before him, with such gentle eyes and the flawless features of a model in her prime, had ties that went beyond her fellow kitsune sisters. Perhaps far beyond.
Alex couldn’t help but think back to his compounding days, remembering catching glimpses of the mysterious, deadly head of the local Jianghu sect, recalling all too well Elder Ying’s fascination with Liu Li. Yet as uncomfortable as the attention had made her, Ying had never been less than respectful to Liu Li, gaze and voice both filled with genuine admiration. Perhaps even reverence.
Which made particular sense if the true power behind a guild of rogues and assassins was, in fact, someone like the winsomely graceful woman now gazing so intently at Alex. A woman whom all the instructors seemed to hold in highest regard despite, or perhaps even because of, her delicate kitsune nature.
And what a perfect disguise it would be, for someone deep in the organization. With powerful connections she could tug on at will from up high, while safely taking up residence within the most heavily-fortified domain imaginable, amongst numerous powerful Silvers who counted her as an ally and friend.
His eyes never leaving her own, Alex flashed a handsign he had seen pass between Liu Jian and Broken Fang, as well as Elder Ying. Just one of many that his former mentor had taught him in preparation for what was to be Alex manning the shop independently one day, which meant he had to know how to deal with the Jianghu contacts who would stop by for supplies as well.
All is safe. Yes?
Lady Jidihu chuckled softly. “I see your master taught you well, young apothecary. I regret my men scared you, those many months ago.”
Alex froze, havin
g instantly caught the significance of what she was saying. Men.
Which meant that not only was Broken Fang, a low-ranked if loyal enforcer, ostensibly under her authority, but that Elder Ying, the supposed head of Yidushi’s entire Jianghu sect, answered to her as well.
It chilled him to the quick to think that his odd flight of fancy had hit so close to the mark.
Just how high up was Lady Jidihu within that guild ostensibly responsible for all the underworld activities within Yidushi?
Hao Chan frowned. “Lady Jidihu?”
The noble kitsune flashed Hao Chan a reassuring smile. “It’s alright, dear. Alex was just surprised to find that we have mutual acquaintances out in the wider world. And even they appreciate what a wonderful catch your future husband will be.”
Alex’s heart was pounding, wondering if the sweetest, most motherly cultivator he had ever met was perhaps the deadliest of them all. Wondering if Lady Ning Jing, former Silver Assassin for that very sect before fleeing for the sanctuary of Dragon Academy, knew that her daughter had befriended one of the Jianghu masters pulling all the strings.
Alex bowed formally and low. “This lowly one hopes he has given no offense.”
Soothing warm laughter washed over him. “Of course not, dear Alex. How could I possibly despise a boy who rescued not one but two daughters of my tribe? Not to mention brought this lovely specimen to my attention.” Her wink was playful, and Hao Chan blushed.
Alex’s gut squirmed, wondering if the beautiful kitsune before him was, in her sweet gentle way, scouting for a future replacement for the Silver that had gotten away.
Hao Yin was suddenly before him, looking so much like a slightly younger, slenderer version of her cousin, with the addition of beautiful silver-white fox ears and a carefully hidden tail, quickly gave Alex a heartfelt hug of her own.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Forsworn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 3 Page 21
