Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5

by M. H. Johnson

  Congratulations! Storm Flight is now Rank 5! Adept rank achieved! Wind Running has now been incorporated into Storm Flight and enjoys the same rank. You can now race along the heavens during storms or ride the river of Qi along Ley Lines at no significant cost, with no need for any links to adjoining realms! You may additionally race along the sea of spiritual energy above all forests (so long as you are at least two miles away from any major population center) at significantly reduced cost!

  Note. Flight is still possible outside of these parameters, but Qi drain will be significant. Risk of meridian strain has been minimized in all circumstances!

  Growing anxiety turned to sharpest relief when he sensed the wagon train up ahead, making hardly a dent in the arboreal sentience so infusing the Wood Qi all around, most of the caravanners sunk in exhausted stupors after what had probably been the longest day in many of their lives.

  Save for three particular sentinels Alex was beyond relieved to sense.

  Though he was not expecting the sudden prickles of alarm his Forest Sense picked up when he touched down, still some distance off, taking long moments to catch his breath and restore his depleted Qi, beyond surprised to find he hadn’t caused himself any meridian strain with his mad flight at all.

  Though all traces of ebullience he felt with his accomplishment instantly dampened when he saw surprised glances transform to ice cold calculation as he slowly approached the three pairs of eyes glittering like silver in the moonlight.

  Alex stopped, suddenly breathless.

  The welcoming smiles he had been hoping for were gone.

  Replaced by cold measuring stares, and Alex realized what a fool he was being.

  In his mind, he was a hero coming to everyone’s rescue.

  To them? A rebellious Ruidian who had abandoned them, the captain’s curses painting his backside as he dashed off.

  And these three had never been what one would call fast friends, testing him every night he dared to stand among them, taking as much satisfaction in his struggle as his growth.

  And that was putting it kindly.

  Alex swallowed, bowing low before the three night sentinels.

  “This one humbly apologizes if his intrusion is unexpected, or... unwelcome. But I bear grave news. My only goal is to warn the captain that enemies lie in wait, half a day up the road.”

  Alex raised his head.

  The trio of men wore enigmatic expressions that gave nothing away.

  Alex frowned, stepping back, realizing, not for the first time, that even after almost a month of training diligently by their side, learning whatever they had to teach him, having suffered through countless practice bouts closer to torment than training, he had never once gotten a read on even one of these men. True, he eventually learned how to spot and master the most vulnerable points in their, or anyone else’s, physique. With their training, there was no way he couldn’t have, so hard had they pushed him. But none of his skills had ever pierced their wards, glimpsed their Qi flow, or gotten the measure of their souls.

  More than ever, he felt like a rabbit before three wolves.

  But before his flight of fancy could get the best of him, Sha Shou flashed his trademark smile.

  “So, our mascot has returned, after all. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought fondly of you in my own way, mascot. As much as I did enjoy watching your struggles, it was oddly delightful to see you not only survive, but thrive.” He chuckled softly. “I so missed our lessons together, disciple. Bittersweet as our meeting must be, still, it is good to see you one final time.”

  Alex blinked, surprised to see his deadly mentor suddenly before him.

  Perception check failed!

  He stumbled back before being abruptly steadied by Sha Shou. “Have a care, disciple. You almost took a tumble!”

  He patted Alex’s shoulder. “Raced here in the nick of time after sprinting for half the night to warn us of an ambush, have you? Well done. The captain will reward us in good silver for this information, won’t he?”

  Alex nodded. “I would imagine so, Master Sha. But there’s more.” He licked suddenly nervous lips. “These men were dressed in military armaments different from every other set of armor I’ve seen in this principality. The lamellar plates were different in shape and design, dyed black and green, of finest steel, each and every set, I’m sure of it, though the helmets were open-faced, like our own.” Alex swallowed. “But there’s worse. Far, far worse.”

  Sha Shou’s eyebrow inched upward.

  “They were Bronze. An entire company. Every member was a Bronze ranked cultivator! Worse, I think they were being led by at least one Silver, maybe two. And one of them either has a bow that shoots explosive arrows, or projects explosive Qi just like Administrator Wan Duan of Erjizhen! I was too busy fleeing for my life to analyze how exactly he was getting the trees behind me to explode in shrapnel, but there you go.”

  And here alone Alex finally earned a blink of surprise.

  And why was Sha Shou still gripping his arm?

  “You actually know Lord Wan Duan? Remarkable!” The man chuckled with odd mirth. “Oh, what a delightful tale we weave. It has been ages since we last... spoke with the man. He used to be our employer, you see.”

  Alex smirked. “Why am I not surprised?”

  Sha Shou’s gaze turned knowing. “You do understand that my brothers and I are killers, don’t you, Alex?”

  Alex swallowed. The man still hadn’t released his arm. “Your past is no concern of mine, and you wouldn’t be the first Jianghu assassin I thought of as a friend.” Alex held the man’s gaze. “My only goal in coming back was to warn you all of an ambush that could destroy you all. And I never knew a member of the Jianghu sect not to have at least as much honor as a Dragon Academy cultivator.” He chuckled bitterly. “More, in fact. Which is why I know you appreciate karma and wouldn’t cut down someone trying to save your life. To say nothing of our cultivator’s oath.”

  Sha Shou nodded, finally releasing Alex’s arm and stepping back. “You’re right, of course, I wouldn’t.”

  He pulled out a priceless jade flask, handing it to Alex. “We’ve come to a crossroads in the story of our lives, dear Alex. I think, for an occasion as significant as this, you’ve more than earned a lozenge.”

  Alex’s eyes widened as he took the small jade flask in trembling hands. He could sense the potency of the tablets within. “Wait, this is...”

  Sha Shou’s eyes positively twinkled. “Indeed it is. Priceless and perfect. Ten cultivation pills, each of which would allow a Bronze to break through to Silver, or for a Silver to strengthen their cultivation base so finely they would be able to ascend an additional rank over a period of months, not years or decades. And now a final challenge, my dear former disciple. All you have to do is open the flask, and all the pills within are yours. Every last one! And don’t worry about damaging the priceless jade. The container is all but indestructible. I mean, just look at the blade of Darksteel now clanging against it.”

  And that was indeed the case, though Alex himself couldn’t comment on it, as the blackened tip of a jian, now covered in his own blood, knocked the flask from Alex’s spasming fingers, the world seeming to topple end over end as he crashed to the ground.

  You have been critically hit by Black Lotus Blade! Spinal column has been severed! Brainstem has been damaged! Cognitive faculties have been d**a*ed! Y*u ar* dy*ng!

  Agony unlike anything Alex had ever suffered before tore through him, somehow feeling the awful slither of poisoned steel sliding free of his brain case, damaging the most sacred vessel within which were all the memories, feelings, and cognition of his very soul, a violation unlike any other.

  Yet somehow he was still registering Sha Shou’s bemused smile, every awful word imprinting itself upon Alex’s soul.

  “Isn’t it delightful to know no oath was broken? Not only have I caused you less pain than during our gentlest training session, I offered you a prize like no other, had y
ou the skill to survive a Darksteel blade cursed by the queen of spiders now destroying your brain, even as we speak. A blade neither my hands nor Tusha Zhe’s hands have ever touched.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “And you had come so far in your training, Alex. So close to earning all three of our names and becoming our disciple in truth. But the whims of fortune and fate would have it otherwise, it seems, and so our training was sadly cut short.” He gently shut Alex’s now vacant orbs. “All you had to do was leave, Alex. We gave you every chance. A pity it has come to this. It would have been so nice to have a fourth among us, after all.”

  Sha Shou then claimed the bottle of cultivation pills. “Well, I do believe this accelerates our time table, gentlemen. The Red Prince has arrived even sooner than we thought. ‘Tis a shame he will find not a single one of the prizes he seeks by the time he gets here.”

  A gruff voice Alex had never heard before spoke. “You two handle the girl. And you already know what to do about Yan Song. That will send a message to the Red Prince he won’t soon forget.” All three of them chuckled at that. “I’ll take care of the merchant and the captain. Our enemies won’t find one missive that doesn’t say exactly what our master wants them to. Now dump the body in that clump of vines, Tusha Zhe. The forest will consume any corpse not left on the road. And the next time you feel like picking up a stray puppy, Sha Shou, try to avoid idealists.”

  Sha Shou chuckled as Alex was roughly dumped into an inviting cluster of vines. “But he was such a dear boy. A cultivating Ruidian, of all things! You could almost taste the sense of honor blazing behind his bright blue eyes! He would never have betrayed us, and his bitter edge was just gaining bite. He had no qualms with our company, which is rare, to say the least. Had we just a few months more to shape him...”

  “Which we didn’t, and we already know mutts can cultivate. Now take out the mutt guarding the princess, and be discreet. Best if no one here suspects a thing. We can let the ambushing fools clean up after us when they slaughter the caravan entire in their frustration, destroying all evidence we were ever here. Now go!”

  And suddenly the hideously sharp pain of steel and betrayal transformed to a dreamy haze Alex wanted to drift right off into.

  Only two things prevented him from allowing the last flickers of sentience to escape entirely.

  One was the awful sense that he was suspended upon the thinnest of webs. Damaged as the machinery of his brain now was, he knew that the minute he burst through, he would jolt to full, awful awareness.

  A horrific pristine sentience with every faculty in full working order.

  As he plunged, stripped of all cultivation and power, down into the black depths of the River of Souls. A fragile spirit cruelly gripped in the coils of a vindictive guardian who would never allow Alex’s soul to break the river’s surface ever again.

  He would feel the agony of drowning.

  For eternity.

  In that sudden moment of terrible clarity, knowing he was slipping into oblivion, Alex dared to tap into that sentience between life and death to scream one final warning to a man he knew would have no choice but to obey.

  A single shrieked command, daring to look at and accept that node he had only glimpsed for an instant when Yan’s gaze had met his own after Alex had brought him back from the dead. The oddest mixture of gratitude and terror.

  In that single flash of recognition, as Alex had been flashing through the air to cut down his second target, Yan had realized what Alex had done.

  Understood that Alex had known who Yan was.

  What he was.

  And that Alex wasn’t a Ruidian at all.

  All that in an instant, and Alex had pushed it completely out of mind in the frenetic fury of battle.

  And had never spoken to the man since.

  Save for now. Daring that which in any other circumstances would be unforgivable, Alex’s crystalline internalized matrix perhaps the most intact part of his brain left, receiving and transmitting his message perfectly.

  “Yan Song! Run! Grab the kids and run!”

  Sl*ve node ac**ssed.

  Co*mand given.

  And that desperate message, conveying to a suddenly wide awake and terrified Yan the multiple threats heading his way, had cost Alex as the last of his cognition began to slip free of the final strained tendrils of life, as if his soul was now slipping through the earth. Not for quiet, centuries-long meditation, but to fall eternally into the abyssal depths so eager to torment him below.

  And somehow, by some miracle, he found just enough sentience, just enough cognition, to fire one desperate signal through his brain and body before his cells were irreversibly destroyed.

  Ski** c*eck made! Dar* Qi Met*bo**sm acce**ed!

  An eternity that passed in an instant. And suddenly his horrific descent into oblivion was jolted to a halt.

  Barely.

  His sentience was just a fraction of what it had once been, barely registering cold fingers that stripped him of artifacts and spirit beast choker.

  Power Healing was now impossible.

  His body and severely damaged brain were now all but dead as time flickered oddly forward.

  Blood had stopped flowing.

  It was Dark Qi alone that maintained all his cells, kept them from breaking down, heart forcing beats only sufficient to keep his blood from clotting, his awareness little more than the rustle of the branches as a cool breeze blew through him, savoring the warm sunlight caressing his leaves even as the strange, dead contraptions of wood filled with denizens began to scream and bleed as scores of animals radiating sharp potency more jagged than any spirit beast butchered them unmercifully before sacrificing the bodies to the surrounding woodlands, and the rustling trees thought no more of it.

  Such was the crucible of the forest, predators and prey fighting for dominance, supremacy, and sheer survival.

  And so long as creatures with the scent of man gave as much as they took, midnight soil for fruit, herd dung for ripe green grass, rich waves of expelled Qi and fresh nutrients in return for small human dens permitted amongst the trees, all was in balance.

  All was in harmony.

  And the odd human who had given such rich sacrifices to a certain sentient grove was protected from scavengers by thorny vines, rain by sheltering leaves, his body infused with sugar-rich sap far more than any other fallen predator would have been. For his blood was sweet, and the forest knew that should it nurture this fallen cutting, it would honor the covenant struck.

  Blood for blood.

  Life for life.

  15

  Even with a body perfectly sheltered from external hardships, Alex still fought the most desperate battle of his life. Spiritual hands twisted in desperation as he clung to fecund ropes of vine lodged in the thin soil between oblivion and the awful chasm of darkness and the howling of all the horrors eager to claim his soul at last.

  There would be no rebirth for him.

  He knew that, even in his broken mind, still too damaged to form a coherent thought, save at absurdly slow speeds, so much of his awareness now anchored in the simple ebb and flow of fecund arboreal life that had wrapped him up so protectively. Just like a certain patch of roses and lilies had, countless lifetimes ago, before he had become reviled by so many deities eager for his final death.

  And still, he hung on.

  Even as the metabolic demands put on Dark Qi Metabolism left almost nothing to repair the massive cranial damage that had made it impossible for him to survive in any other way save what Eternal Fox allowed, still, like a bud slowly blossoming in the harshest conditions, leaf by leaf, or in his case, cell by cell, he strove desperately to heal the horrific damage done, knowing that no matter his stats and abilities, such catastrophic damage had forever destroyed a piece of his mind, taken away a portion of his soul.

  Acts he would never forgive.

  And no matter how dire his circumstances became, his grip becoming ever more desperate as his soul was pu
lled toward the abyssal depths below, he never surrendered his grip.

  Because that was the key.

  No matter how much his soul-flesh burned, no matter how much venom the ancient guardian of the River of Souls poured into his spirit with serpentine teeth gnawing upon the dangling fruit of his soul, eager to rip him free of the branch holding him to the mortal realm, still he held on.

  Even damaged as he was, he recognized one fundamental truth.

  No matter how awful he felt, his enemies would only win when he surrendered his final move.

  “Give in, worm. Your time is done. You have already lost. All you earn with your stubbornness is unending pain!” The divine serpent’s laughter shivered through Alex’s soul. “And you understand every word I say. I know this, Alex Hammer, just as I know your pristinely aware soul has almost shucked itself free of its shattered shell.”

  Alex shrieked as the serpentine neck wrapped about his spirit, eager to tear him free.

  And still he hung on.

  Still he endured, no matter how much his shadow form broke and bled.

  He did not surrender in his darkest hour.

  Because in that moment, more a soul clawing desperately for his own existence than the broken shell above, his suddenly flawless memory tormented him with visions long forgotten every time he woke up in the land of the living once more.

  Countless women he had loved and lost.

  Wives and children, loyal friends and stalwart companions.

  Moments of pristine beauty and joy that had made each perilous existence worth the struggle.

  Before it was all torn away.

  How many tears had he shed in cemeteries beyond count as spiteful gods laughed in the skies above?

  Taking such delight in doing all they could to destroy the final piece in play of a broken god they had caged in torment when he was just a fragile boy.

  Before a single one of them had ever ascended.