Maybe it would be better if he headed out on his own after all.
When he entered the captain’s boxcar-like carriage, Dui Zhang studied him for long, discomfiting moments across his compact table before slowly pulling the cork from a bottle of rice wine, pouring the clear liquid into a pair of gold-lined tumblers and solemnly sliding one Alex’s way.
“Finest sake you’ll find in the entire province,” the captain assured, slowly sipping, measuring Alex with his thoughtful gaze.
Alex nodded, taking an equally thoughtful sip, surprise by its mellow aftertaste, not expecting the hint of apricot. And though Eternal Fox and his Biochemical Mastery skill could be voluntarily suppressed just enough to allow him to enjoy a good buzz, right now he feared he’d need a clear head more than ever.
So he took the polite sip expected of him, and no more.
The moments crawled by as Captain Dui Zhang continued to take Alex’s measure, showing no embarrassment with his uncovered arms and a torso sheathed in slabs of muscle, his left shoulder covered in bandages, Alex’s nose immediately picking up on the familiar scents of poultices he had once happily made by his former mentor’s side, that were no doubt speeding the man’s healing anywhere from five to twenty-fold the normal rate, depending on the skill of the apothecary and the potency of the herbs.
Alex took a deep breath and glanced out the barred window of Dui Zhang’s carriage, appreciating both the ventilation and the excellent view of the forest, matching the one on the opposite side, and Alex didn’t blame the man a bit for the seeming breech in security protocol. He couldn’t stand the thought of being stuck in what amounted to a stuffy cubicle for hours on end without being able to catch a glimpse of the world beyond or enjoy the occasional breeze airing out the carriage.
“Alex.” He heard the clink of metal upon the desk.
Alex turned to face the giant of a man, seeing the silken bag now before them.
The man flashed a hard smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I remember when first we spoke, you offered to join us for no promise of coin at all. ‘Just pay me what I’m worth,’ you said.”
The man nodded at the silken bag. “Take it.”
Slowly, Alex claimed the small pouch, glancing at the contents within.
Filled with shining silver, far more than the five promised for only the sturdiest of guards.
“Thirty silver. And you’ve more than earned each and every one.”
Alex bowed his head. “Thank you, Captain Dui Zhang.”
The man shook his head. “It is I who should be thanking you, Alex. I never would have believed a Ruidian could be a cultivator, but I’m not so foolish as to deny the evidence before my own eyes.” His jaded features showed just a flicker of wonder before he schooled them once more. “The way you blinked across the battlefield. A strike that bore no taste of Qi that any foe could sense or prepare for. Those are internal Qi techniques you’ve mastered, are they not?”
Alex just gazed politely at the man, not saying anything at all.
The man shook his head ruefully. “While we were serving, some of us heard rumors. Rumors of a certain general with a knack for the unorthodox, for seizing the initiative and overrunning enemy outposts while a dozen other commanders were still drawing up master strategies. A man who was committed to forging an elite unit that specialized in internal Qi techniques. No one knew exactly how difficult they were to master, General Cui Jian trusting very few with his secrets. But even among those of us who caught his eye and rode under his banner, eventually forming the core of his elite units, only a handful of cultivators were able to grasp his methods, even after months of study.”
Intent eyes gazed into Alex’s own.
“In the end, he entrusted over a hundred of us with the secrets of his internal Qi disciplines. Five Silvers and three Bronze were able to master them. No one else.”
The captain flashed a hard smile, gazing intently at Alex who could feel his cheeks heating up for some stupid reason, knowing if he reacted at all, he would be revealing far more than he wanted to. About his relationship with the former general when he hid himself in obscurity as an apothecary under the name Liu Jian, humble enough to serve clientele from all walks of life after leaving Dragon Academy under a dark cloud, years before, with strong ties to the Jianghu Sect and the kitsune who led it. And, most recently, of his ascension to Gold and acceptance of his royal name once more; he and his daughter, Cui Li, now acknowledged members of the ruling clan of the entire principality.
So Alex said nothing at all, fingers not trembling a bit as he sipped his rather fine sake that now tasted of tension and uncertainty and a sudden desire to Bullrush away from the caravan entire in just a few heartbeats, a bird flying forever free of the cages of duty and expectation.
Dui Zhang chuckled softly, saluting Alex with his tumbler. “But of course, I saw no use of internal Qi techniques from the unacknowledged mixed offspring of one of General Cui Jian’s favored disciples, or perhaps Cui Jian’s own, for all that the youth before me takes after his mother so strongly that no one would think a drop of the True People flows through his veins. Thus, there is absolutely nothing of note that I will have to report when I arrive at the capital city.”
Alex forced himself to smile at that. “This one is glad to hear it. Life becomes awkward when unfounded rumors pave one’s way to mixed fortunes certainly unearned, and definitely unasked for.”
Captain Dui Zhang bowed his head. “Master Yan also wanted to make sure you knew just how grateful he was for your intervention; in case he was unable to tell you himself.” The captain’s hard eyes bore into Alex’s own. “A man who was being flayed by fire. A man who, no matter how strong his cultivation base, should have been far beyond any healer.”
Alex took a careful sip of his drink, saying nothing. The biggest mistake he could possibly make was floundering in the shoals of unspoken questions, lest the anxiety that provoked desperate responses reveal the very things he would keep hidden.
“Alex?”
“Yes?”
“That cultivator was a half step away from Silver, and a wujen besides. A Fire element specialist. The deadliest element of all, when it comes to pure, indiscriminate killing, however much academy elders would frown at my saying so. He possessed a Shield of Pristine Incandescence capable of flash-frying the flesh of any Bronze, to say nothing of the protective ward amulet we found around his neck. An amulet so foul and obviously tainted that we buried it along with his shriveled corpse, but even I could tell that it should have protected him from at least a few fatal blows, even from opponents savvy enough to strike him from behind.”
Alex blinked, staring at the man now tapping the table.
“Yet, somehow, you shattered the man’s neck with a single blow.”
Alex clenched his teeth, heart racing, just waiting for the man with his too-knowing eyes to say it. To speak of the sheer horror and disbelief he had felt, watching Alex stride upon the shadowy borderlands between the realms of the living and the dead, daring to wade within the River of Souls itself and pluck free the prize that empowered cultivators through all their future lives.
Alex could all too easily imagine how grievous the sin he had committed would be in the eyes of any civilized man. The utter depravity of a crime he had willfully engaged in not just once, but twice that day.
“And then the gong of doom sounded, and it was as if the bandits knew it was ringing for them. Morale shattered with that man’s death.”
The captain paled, lowering his gaze. “And it was you coming to my rescue as that monster whipped about his meteor with such speed and power that not even my Metal Ward-infused shield could counter the full force of his infernal treasure. Yet, somehow, it was you who slipped past his lethal weapon before it could blast through your flesh, and for all that we mocked your bizarre-looking shark-tooth dao, it was your sword that sliced through his flesh as easily as paint splashes across a canvas.”
Hard eyes stared into Ale
x’s own. “Cutting a powerful Bronze completely in half, when our finest blades bounced off his hide like he was made of steel.”
He sighed and shook his head. “Half the men swear you tore out his heart when he shriveled to an ancient husk at your feet. But I know for a fact you did nothing but whisper in his ear, informing him of his no doubt well-deserved doom.”
The man took another thoughtful sip, Alex utterly rigid, forcing his racing heart to calm.
So, they couldn’t sense, or perhaps had simply forgotten, exactly what had happened. The Cleaved Fates or Fog of War cards were somehow working to his advantage, because the act had been so horrific, so depraved, it would have caused irrevocable changes in the psyche of anyone who saw firsthand what Alex was truly capable of.
Destroying a man’s cultivation base not just for this lifetime, but for countless future ones as well.
“Alex?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“How the hell did you do it?”
Alex closed his eyes, Ehuang’s final panicked moments blazing to life in his mind’s eye once more. “By being stupid enough to dare forbidden techniques that demanded a price that burdens me even now. Because if I hadn’t...” Alex shook his head. If I hadn’t, I think Ehuang would have been safely asleep in my cot. And for all that I would pray that Hao Chan, who I fear I’ll never see again, would eventually forgive me, at least Ehuang would be alive. Shaken but alive, and tending to her flock when not teasing me with her wit in the evenings, and even if we parted ways in a few short, sweet weeks, she would still have a joyous life ahead of her. She would not be rotting in an unmarked grave, countless miles away from everyone she had ever known or loved.
“If you hadn’t, that monster would have been a threat that even a fully-healed Yan fighting by my side would have found tough to beat. Which brings me to my final query.”
Alex raised his brow.
“How the hell is it that man up and on his feet with nothing but nightmares to show for his ordeal?” The captain’s gaze hardened. “Even in the midst of combat, I recognized his screams. I caught a glimpse of his broken, charred body. I know how close he was to death.”
Alex shrugged. “I’m not sure what I can tell you. Save for being able to make liniments much like the one on your shoulder, I was never taught the healing arts. Only how to fight, and, if I’m lucky, survive.”
The captain peered at Alex for long careful moments before finally shrugging. “Either way, a lot of people owe you a lot more than I think they realize. Normally, people instinctively smile at the man or woman who saved their life, or flinch from the man who killed a family member, even if they have no idea why, at the time. But I guess since the battle was so distant from the villagers hiding in the forest, guarded by the night watchmen protecting our rear so those bastards couldn’t flank us, they don’t know what to feel about anything.”
“That could be it,” Alex said. Or a Cleaved Fates card, he thought.
“Nonetheless, we who witnessed your deeds will never forget.” The man offered an almost fatherly smile, reaching out with his massive paw of a hand. Alex solemnly shook it.
“Please know that you’ll always be welcome aboard our caravans, whatever else might be in flux with the world around us, Alex.” His eyes twinkled. “And I’ll always make sure you’re paid double master rate. A full ten silver for the Ruidian who has mastered a general’s favorite killing arts.”
Alex winced. “Let’s leave out that last bit, shall we? Even five silver’s enough, so long as I’m seen as nothing special.”
The man solemnly nodded. “If I may ask, Alex, what is it you hope to find in Baidushi?”
Alex’s heart hammered with sudden excitement. This was it! He could almost feel it. Not karma per se, but the hands of destiny finally acting in his favor!
Insight check made!
Before his stomach lurched, suddenly sensing the seductive trap before him, realizing how perilously close he had just come to damning the entire caravan he had fought so hard to defend.
And how easy it was to imagine the gods’ mocking laughter, even now.
He dare accept no deliberate help from any native, kitsune, or Ruidian with getting into Baidushi. No matter how sweet the prize he had to forgo, if he dared accept an iota of aid beyond that normally given to a mercenary or stranger from anyone who knew his true objective, all his dreams would end in folly and disaster.
And with Captain Dui Zhang being a native True Blood, that might be all the pretext the gods and their awful cards needed to have Fate’s consent to rain catastrophe down upon the very city Alex was desperate to save.
He chuckled bitterly, somehow utterly certain that the gods whose spite he knew all too well, including the powerfully-built Long Wang with his massive warhammer, Elder Zheng Yi with his cold glare and crackling lightning, and the bloated tactician known as General Shalu, were all gazing down from the heavens with predatory smiles at that very moment, sensing his peril, eagerly awaiting that one fatal mistake that would allow them to wipe the board free of the piece that had dared to do other than meekly die for their pleasure.
Fog of War card in play or no, Alex had absolutely no doubt that they would sense the instant he ran afoul of any of their curses or traps.
At this very moment, the captain’s gratitude, sharp insight, and willingness to come to his aid was putting them all in jeopardy. It meant that Alex was no longer a nameless Ruidian nothing in the man’s eyes. A clever man such as Dui Zhang wouldn’t hesitate to read between the lines, to suspect that Alex was being cagey. Yet he would still want to help.
And if he smoothed Alex’s path to Baidushi in the least, Dui Zhang no longer seeing Alex as a faceless mercenary but as a friend to whom a debt was owed…
He would doom them all.
And it was only the fact that Alex wasn’t truly a Ruidian that might let him slip free of that particularly malicious twist to the curse and enter the city at all.
Enter the city and at last be able to nullify this vile curse. From that moment on, he would finally be able to embrace friendships and aid without risking inadvertently damning his friends.
But for now, at this very moment...
He could accept no aid. No help of any kind.
Not even boots for his feet.
Not even to retrieve his precious and damned expensive fangtian ji.
He could only hope his prizes were where he had left them at battle’s end.
Clenching his jaw so hard he thought his molars would crack, he solemnly put down the bag of silver he dared not take.
Spitting out drink he dared not let aid or nurture him.
Refusing to look towards a surprised, alarmed stare flashing between shock, outrage, and the sudden sense that all was not as it seemed.
Too perceptive by far.
“Do you truly think I’d poison you, after what you did for us?” Dui Zhang asked softly.
Alex flashed a bitter smile. “Pray you never get on the bad side of powerful men that despise you, lest anything you do, and every friendship you make, be used against you. You’re a good man, Captain, and were I anyone other than the fool before you, I’d accept your overtures of friendship with deepest gratitude, and work to earn and be worthy of your continued warm regard.”
Alex sighed. “As it stands, I must leave immediately. I hope you understand. But if you can, please don’t tell me. I’m not allowed to accept comfort or aid in achieving my objectives from anyone who actually values me, you see. And now that I am more than a nameless nothing in your eyes, now that it is clear that you would help me in whatever way you could...”
Alex grit his teeth, glaring at the man. “Never speak my name save in spite. Tell no one I was anything but the most contemptible of employees. Your hatred of me will please those who could destroy you utterly. To do otherwise will earn their wrath.”
Alex held the man’s eyes. “Promise me you will do this.”
“Alex, I...”
“P
romise me!” Alex roared, his suddenly Dark Qi-covered fist suddenly shattering the table he sat upon, to the sudden cry and alarm of nearby guards, all hyper-alert after the attack recently survived.
The Captain’s surprised glare met Alex’s own. “You have it, Ruidian. Now leave immediately!”
Alex didn’t bother to respond.
Bullrush!
Blinking out the door as fast as it opened, zipping past confused guards before they could even blink, not even daring to look back at Master Yan or the disciples under his care he so wanted to say goodbye to. But Captain Dui Zhang’s kindness had opened Pandora’s box.
He had known in his gut that a nameless guard meant nothing to anyone, and his presence was just incidental to their own journeys. The very few who cared about him he had made damn sure had no idea what his true objectives were, or even if he was going all the way to Baidushi. He could be getting off anywhere, and had gone to great lengths to make sure even Yan knew he couldn’t count on Alex’s continued presence beyond a single morning’s sparring, as the whim took hold of him.
No card of condemnation would come into play if he was no more relevant than smoke floating in the breeze. And how it pained him to remember Ehuang’s ruminations about breaking with tradition and making her own way after selling her herd, so eager to follow wherever he might go. He would laugh off her flippant comments, pretending he hadn’t truly understood the depth of her growing feelings, putting her whole livelihood in peril for a fool’s dream. But at least, at the very least, her warmth and affection had been given without any thoughts of Baidushi or his ultimate destination at all. And for that reason alone, she should have been safe!
Alex seethed, clenching his fists, thoughts racing with regrets he could never assuage. He hadn’t even intended to take any pay, but rather slip away upon reaching Baidushi, so not even the captain’s coin could be declared by vindictive gods to be aiding him. And Alex would have passed through those gates with a finger to the heavens, because the moment he passed through, their curse would be broken, and he would be able to form friendships without fear, and accept people’s help once more.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 23
