Silver Fox & The Western Hero
Warrior Redeemed
M H Johnson
Copyright © 2020 by M H Johnson
Cover art by Andrey Vasilchenko
Typography by Bonnie L. Price
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and events are the work of the author’s imagination and all locations are either fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons or events is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Character Sheet
Thank You
Additional Links
1
Alex came to with a scream, feeling cold, clammy hands wrapped about his ankles, unable to breath as icy cold waters and the laughter of vindictive gods spelled his doom.
Before his eyes bulged open and he took a heaving gasp of fresh woodland air, realizing he was the farthest thing from drowning in the gloomy depths of any ocean or lake, having tied himself high above the forest floor in the bough of a particularly inviting fruit tree. He couldn’t help chuckling softly, delighting in the feel of warm shafts of golden sunlight caressing his skin, the lush canopy overhead rustling in the breeze, his ears serenaded by the coos of doves and the cheerful chirps of songbirds that had made this primeval woodland their home.
He brushed back roughly chopped locks of bright blond hair before slipping on his changshan shirt, quickly untied and buttoned up once more, already looking freshly pressed and ironed, as did his finely woven pants and soft leather shoes. He flashed a grateful smile for the boon of clothing that never seemed to wrinkle, stain, or suffer lasting damage.
It had been a prize given to him by his mischievous patron when he had first stepped out of an ancient tomb that had been the place of his rebirth after a sleep of a thousand years. Or perhaps just the latest in a countless string of lives he had lived. Alex wasn’t really sure. But his first clear memory after waking up was dodging the wrath of an outraged guard when he finally stepped out into the world.
Alex smirked at the recollection as he effortlessly leaped to the forest floor.
It seemed like he had been doing an awful lot of running from any number of mortals, cultivators, and even gods, of late. Perhaps from the moment he had first set foot within this fantastic realm of wondrous magical forests and magnificent cities of incredible size, somehow safely supporting millions of happy, healthy citizens in an ancient world that never was, blending the historical architectures of China, India, Thailand, and countless other civilizations into one grand, unified whole, all of it leaving him feeling like he had emerged in the heart of his favorite cultivation novels, last read a lifetime ago as he wasted away in a hospital bed.
Alex shivered in memory of that pale, dying boy with his stick-thin arms spending his last days dreaming of adventure and wonder he knew would never come. He then bowed his head as the branches overhead rustled in the blossom-scented wind, spending just a moment in profound gratitude to find himself today in a body radiating vibrant good health, as powerfully built as any six-foot Olympian gymnast could hope to be. So much faster and stronger than he could ever have dreamed of becoming, even as a varsity baseball player back in high school, before cancer had taken all his dreams away.
All he had to do was look at his character sheet, the last surviving remnant of his AI interface, to appreciate the incredible transformation that had occurred since he had first woken up in this world and taken those first, perilous steps as a body cultivator, to appreciate just how far he had come.
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Alex Hammer
Class – Cultivator: Disciple of the Dual Path (Unlimited potential. This is a Divine path.)
Rank 3 Divine Bronze Cultivation Achieved
Physical Characteristics
Strength - Bronze Rank 2 (25) (Relentless Resolve is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Vitality - Bronze Rank 2 (26) (Eternal Resilience is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Quickness - Bronze Rank 1 (20) (Chaotic Unpredictability is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Finesse - Bronze Rank 1 (20) (Mastery of Oneself is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Spiritual Characteristics
Scholarship - 12 (Exceeds 75% of Population.)
Perception - 17 (Exceeds 99% of Population.)
Willpower - 17 (Exceeds 99% of Population.)
Qi Pool - Bronze Rank 5 (40) (All meridian gateways are open. Forged and Peripheral Channels enjoy added resiliency!)
Health Points: 385
Perks
Insightful – Rank 2
Charismatic – Rank 2
Lesser Shadow Affinity - You can now sense Shadow Qi! You have +5 to spot all those using Shadow to ambush or confuse you.
Favored Skills
Golden Realms Kung Fu – Rank 5
White Crane Kung Fu – Rank 7 (You may now freely channel Light Qi to aid your strikes at all times and sheathe your limbs in Dark Qi while doing so, even in the pits of Hell!)
Silver Swan Kung Fu – Rank 6 (You may now use Silver Swan in conjunction with White Crane and Dark Qi Projection, channeling the force and fury of the sea in any and all circumstances. Reduced risk of straining meridians when using forbidden techniques!)
Poison Spitting – Rank 4
Stealth – Rank 4 (At least you can be sneaky at night, or if you stay out of your opponent’s line of sight!)
Qi Disciplines
Adderstrike – Rank 6 (0.5 Qi cost per strike. Internal Qi is undetectable and extremely hard to counter. Temporary invulnerability gained at moment of impact.)
Black Swan – Rank 2 (You have discovered an advanced Silver Swan assassination technique! Strike with the fury of a tsunami behind your blow! This technique can shatter lesser wards. Water-Metal Qi elements involved. Cost to use: 4 Qi and risk of significant meridian strain, unless used after Silver breakthrough made, or in a storm.)
Bullrush – Rank 6 (Instantly move 5-60 feet in any direction. Balance on any object, even leaves and shadows, so long as your feet are still. Can be chained multiple times for near instantaneous flight!)
Dark Qi Projection – Rank 4 (You can now sheathe feet, shins, fists, and forearms in Dark Qi! Dark Qi is resistant to all Elemental Qi attacks. Dark Qi Projection can pierce all Light Qi Wards. Dark Qi Projection will disperse or deliver concussive force as if plate armor had been worn. Minimal Qi drain when summoned in Dark Qi-
saturated areas or the Netherworld. Significant Qi drain when used in the Mortal Realms.)
Piercing Strike – Rank 1 (Excellent for piercing elemental wards, once Soul Sight and Find Weakness have been successfully used.)
Qi Absorption – Rank 4 (Breakthrough made! An additional 15 points of damage is absorbed from all Fire Qi attacks.)
Qi Deflection – Rank 0 (You do not yet fully comprehend this art.)
Qi Flood – Rank 2 (Flood a grappled target (or artifact) with Dark Qi!)
Spirit Crane Strike – Rank 2 (You can now harvest the Soul Stones of enemy cultivators for yourself upon their death! Warning! Extreme Karma penalties may apply. To claim the cultivation essence of your target will indelibly relegate them to mortal status for countless future lives!)
Storm Flight – Rank 3 (You may now travel along ley lines as fast as a phoenix, whether or not foul weather manifests. Multiple experiences riding along magical conveyances channeling the energies of Heaven, Hades, Earth, and Shadow have allowed you to transcend mortal limits! So long as you have within your possession artifacts of all Four Realms, peripheral channel strain is minimized.)
Water Walking – Rank 2 (Now you can race upon waves, or ride the very raindrops in the air! Qi drain: Minimal. Synergizes with Wind Running during stormy weather.)
Wind Running – Rank 2 (Now you can race through the storm of Qi flowing all around you! Qi drain: significant, unless accessing a spirit pearl, beast core, or you are in the middle of an actual storm.)
Qi Perception-linked Disciplines
Qi Perception – Rank 6 (Sense all physical and Qi manifestations around you within 60 feet with minimal concentration. Effortlessly sense spirit beasts and mystical herbs. +6 to Perception checks.)
Artificer – Rank 4 (Understand, manipulate, or destroy magical treasures, defensive wards, or cultivation artifacts.)
Find Weakness – Rank 4 (Works on artifacts, constructs, demons, spirit beasts, and cultivators. A basic skill check with Qi Perception lets you sense the weakest points in any opponent’s physical body and technique. Advanced skill rank and successful use of Soul Sight is needed to spot the weaknesses in a cultivator’s Qi Wards.)
Soul Sight – Rank 5 (Sense the flow of Qi through any spirit beast (effortless) or cultivator (difficult). If this skill is not successfully used, Find Weakness can only sense surface weaknesses. Adept status achieved! You may now measure the karmic merit of any soul’s past (skill rank) lives, with a basic skill check.)
Spiritual Teacher – Rank 6 (You may now directly impart the knowledge of any and all Cultivation disciplines upon suitable students with a skill check. This skill allows suitable students to enjoy multiple breakthroughs up to Spiritual Teacher rank. Diligent focus is required over a period of days, weeks, or months, depending upon student-teacher compatibility and mystic connections being harnessed.)
Qi Purification Techniques
Dual Path Purification Technique (100% Efficiency.)
Cleansing Breath Purification Technique (100% Efficiency.)
Qi Restoration Techniques
Golden Realms Meridian Restoration Technique (100% Efficiency.)
Qi Cycling Techniques
Dual Path Dark Qi Cycling Technique (75% Efficiency.)
Dual Path Light Qi Cycling Technique (75% Efficiency.)
Divine Quantum State Cycling Technique (50% Efficiency.)
White Crane Cycling Technique. (100% Efficiency.)
Body Cultivation Techniques
The Eternal Fox Unified Cultivation Technique – Rank 10 (Master Rank achieved)
This divine technique now incorporates Golden Realms Meridian Restoration Technique (can regenerate damage meridians), Cleansing Breath Purification Technique (can cleanse all meridian gates), and White Crane Cycling Technique (additional 5-fold increase in rate of healing) at 100% efficacy! Works with all elemental affinities at all levels of cultivation.
0.5 pounds of lost flesh will fully regenerate per hour. This is now automatic, whether meditating, sleeping, or in combat! Cuts will be healed in seconds. (Power Healing can boost this one-hundred-fold with the use of a beast core, spirit pearl, or unspent experience.)
Note. Tapping into experienced earned immediately after killing an opponent will allow for healing that transcends all normal limits with a successful skill check, depending upon the severity of the injuries suffered!
Breakthroughs currently in effect include Saintly Aura, Longevity, Regeneration, Power Healing, Dark Qi Recycling, Pristine Light Cultivation, Pristine Dark Cultivation, and Pristine Form.
You are effectively immune to all toxins and caustic agents that do less than 100 damage per second. You have achieved Cellular mastery. All cells naturally revert to their ideal age. Eternal youth has been achieved!
Congratulations on achieving Master Rank in your first discipline! A feat even Golds would envy!
A Path Cloaked in Mist
Thanks to your constant training and the crucible of abuse you endured pushing yourself to Bronze, you have permanently gained 8 points of Impact Resistance, 4 points of Cutting Resistance, and 2 points of Piercing Resistance! You have taken your first step in forging a new body cultivation technique. Details: unknown.
Your peripheral meridian channels have expanded, and can handle significantly greater amounts of Qi than ever before. Your meridians have been forged in fire! Your peripheral meridian channels are now Extremely Resilient, and enjoy a total +5 modifier to all durability checks, +6 against all meridian-searing attacks based on Flame.
Biochemical Mastery – Rank 6
You may now synthesize or cure any poison or formulae mastered, save for those reliant upon silverbell or shadow blossoms. You have full immunity to the caustic and toxic effects of all poisons mastered and all alchemical reagents used.
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If a Strength of 9 or 10 had been the equivalent of a healthy athletic high schooler back home, and 18 marked the upper limits of what most human beings could hope to achieve unless they were Olympians, all he had to do was note the Bronze Rank 1 in Quickness and Finesse, the equivalent to a score of 20, to realize just how far he’d come. And even if a few lightning fast gold medalist fencers might still beat him in terms of quickness, he was pretty sure his Bronze Rank 2 Strength and Vitality now transcended the capabilities of any human back on Earth.
Of course he hadn’t just striven to improve his physical body, but his ability to master the flow of Qi within himself as well. And how amazing its was to actually achieve Master Rank in a skill. Any gamer’s dream, especially if it involved an elite discipline they themselves had forged into being.
He frowned then, forced to wonder if he had just found a hard limit in exactly how far one could advance in this world, at least in terms of skill levels and ranking up disciplines and body cultivation techniques.
Either way, he knew his was a remarkable achievement for any mortal. Even more remarkable, after enduring countless trials, hardships, and losses, having to constantly fight and kill just to survive, he had found to his wonder and horror that he could actually drain the locked potential of every foe he defeated, a fraction of their soul’s eternal potency somehow becoming his own. That, along with his character sheet, made him feel, at times, as if he truly had been reborn in a universe with at least some RPG mechanics. No doubt thanks in part to the interface left in his mind after being reborn into this world in the oddest of fashions, with the intact memories of a high school senior who had spent countless hours in PvP matches and raids playing his favorite games when not studying to the point of tears, trying to please the mother he had loved so fiercely before cancer tore them apart forever.
Alex swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. “Don’t worry, Mom. Even if Dr. Wilm had been pulling a fast one when he dipped me into that vat of liquid nitrogen, it seems like I really did get a second chance at life.”
He chuckled softly, thinking fondly of his mother’
s beautiful smile whenever he made her proud. “It really has been an adventure; beyond anything you could imagine. I think you’d be proud of how just how far your son has come.”
He then performed a backflip, seeming to flow through the air with the same ease as he could swim through water in his previous life, reveling in the effortless grace with which his body now moved. And far from constraining him, his exotic clothes effortlessly flowed with his movements, especially his changshan shirt, remarkable for its bone buttons, high collar, and the fact that it never took on a single stain or crease. It was a truly beautiful article of clothing, and Alex was surprised it looked so good on him, for all that it could have been pulled right out of the historical Chinese dramas his mother had once so loved to watch.
“Thank you, Silver Fox. For all my trials, for all my hardships, despite all the blood on my hands, you gave me a second chance at life. One I promise to savor and do my best to keep, even if every other possession I ever owned was taken from me.”
Alex closed his eyes, thinking of the girls he had loved a lifetime ago, and the women he had come so close to loving in this one, before the cruel whims of jealous gods had seemingly torn them all away.
He then shook away the gloomy thought with a chuckle. As perilous as his last adventure had been, no matter that he had lost absolutely everything he had struggled to claim, a priceless fortune in treasure, including his now inert divine storage ring, he had decided it was all a fair trade for the final divine card WiFu himself had tied to Alex’s destiny.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 1
