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

by M. H. Johnson

  WiFu’s eyes positively twinkled. “Careful, Alex. If you break the script any further, I’ll have to tell you how much it galls me, sticking my tail out for half a million dying souls, only to have my favorite card taken off the board.”

  Alex sighed. “Give me the damn ring, WiFu. Like I was actually going to stick it to you and countless innocents whose only crime was trying to live their lives as best they could.”

  WiFu’s shudder of relief was so profound that Alex was chilled to see it. “Thank you, Alex, I...”

  “Stop. Please. Just give me the ring and take out this divine spirit. Because if your brothers aren’t behind this gambit assuring that either way they win, I’ll eat my own shoes.”

  WiFu flashed a bitter smile as his hand speared into Alex’s chest and pulled out his heart.

  Alex fell to his knees and shrieked, instantly switching to Dark Qi metabolism before he could black out, gazing in wide-eyed horror and wonder as WiFu gently pulled the hissing jade serpent free of his heart and wound it about his gloved wrist before gently slipping Alex’s heart back between ribs that bent like clay, then sealing up his flesh seamlessly, save for a tiny fox-shaped scar.

  Alex took a shuddering gasp, switching back to aerobic metabolism as his heart beat once more. “What the hell!”

  “Thank you, Alex. With this sacrifice alone... had your karmic cords not been cut...” He shook his head and sighed. “I will remember your deeds always, disciple. Never forget that.”

  He gazed down fondly at the hissing jade serpent. “And now to get this little lady back in the River of Souls where she belongs.”

  Alex frowned. “Can she really do any good like that?”

  “Of course! Don’t worry, it might take her a couple thousand years to regain her old power, seeing as you both killed her and claimed her original divine pearl, but she is a god, after all, and the howling spirits in the river are weaker than soggy paper, so long as you keep them all in line before any of the rotten ones can slip free of the waters.”

  Alex nodded, gazing down at the tiny brass ring WiFu had slipped on his finger, where the tarnished copper wire had sat before. “So, I just will the potency of my kills into it, and I’ll get a sense of just how I can develop it?”

  “Precisely, disciple. Experience, beast cores, maybe even cultivation pills. Pretty much any source of potency you can think of.”

  Alex nodded, before he suddenly froze, gazing down at his ring, then back up at WiFu.

  The deity’s eyes were positively twinkling.

  “You said any source of potency, correct?”

  “That’s right, Alex.”

  Alex licked suddenly dry lips. “So, what if, instead of taking the slow and steady route, channeling a portion of my kills over weeks and months, advancing the rooms within my ring at a totally reasonable rate, I fed it some of my eternal Soul Stones instead?”

  WiFu’s brilliant gaze held Alex’s own. “The power of a soul’s ultimate potential through a dozen lifetimes, you would spend on something as trivial as the trinket on your finger? My dear Alex, one can only guess what outrageous distortions to the expected order of things such a blasphemous use of a soul’s potency would cause.”

  Alex flashed a wicked grin. “The General missed that one, didn’t he?”

  WiFu winked. “I took the liberty of setting up your starter room for you. It’s a bit full, right now. Don’t expect to be able to store much until you level up one or more rooms in your ring, but I did take the liberty of including a pristine copy of all the divine tomes you’ve ever written within the mundane and utterly powerless library your father and you used to love spending summer afternoons together in. Sorry, no room for any bed, I’m afraid. But still, it is a start, no?”

  Alex blinked. “Wait. My divine tomes? You actually managed to...”

  His mentor positively beamed. “Of course! Easy enough a concession to wheedle. My brothers were positive you were going to take the Path of Power and ignore me completely. Honestly, I’m half surprised you didn’t. In a world of countless billions, what’s a mere city worth?”

  “You don’t really believe that.”

  WiFu shook his head. “I don’t. But my brothers do. So yes. Your first room will be within the Eternal Palace that you may form at your leisure, each chamber within the ultimate in luxurious indulgence. I can’t wait ‘til you dream up a bathhouse complete with steam room and spiritual masseuses!” His smirk hardened. “Just be careful you don’t dream up too pretty a masseuse, lest you risk that all too fragile cultivation base before you hit Silver.”

  Alex felt his cheeks blaze. “You’re saying even a spirit...”

  “Yes. And with the potency of your seed, you just might bring her back to true life once more. But that does you no good if you’re stuck in Bronze forever after. Stick to a good backrub, Alex. At least for now.” His eyes positively twinkled. “Once you hit Silver, however...”

  “Okay, I get the point. The most exquisite mansion I can dream up will be available to me. And I’ll bet that too was an enticement from your brothers. If I’m investing my power into forging the perfect retreat, I might end up spending all my time living in the lap of luxury there, not bothering to develop any other aspects of the ring, or deal with the headaches in the outer world. Why should I, if I’m living in paradise?”

  WiFu nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly! And when I pointed out that allowing you to bring in mortals or cultivators would give you all the more reason to avoid the headaches of our fractious world, even my eternally grumpy grandfather was all too happy to agree. So rejoice! The food, air, and water within the chambers of your manor shall radiate the same amount of spiritual energy as to be found in any city manor!”

  Alex smirked. “Which is decent and more than enough for a healthy family, but isn’t that great for cultivation.”

  WiFu nodded. “But should you find yourself puttering in your garden after forming it into being, who knows what clever Feng Shui arrangement of trees, flowers, and herbs might allow for optimal Qi flow? Just remember, if you want any plants besides pleasant-smelling wildflowers or bland fruit trees, you’d best obtain your cuttings and seedlings from the world around you before you blossom your garden to its full potential!”

  Alex nodded, gazing down at his ring, excited beyond words to explore all the possibilities before him.

  Before lurching back when WiFu’s gloved hand covered his own. “Not now, Alex. Right now, your friends are fleeing for their lives. And if you can’t intercept three wayward descendants of mine, I fear your newest friends will be but one more bitter memory to bear. And Alex?”

  “Yes, WiFu?”

  “On the off chance you can stop those idiots without actually killing them, I’ll double your boon.”

  Alex’s eyes widened. “Wait, you can award me experience, and you’ll double it if I can stop those three assholes from killing my friends without ending their lives?”

  WiFu’s chuckle was like the rustle of leaves. “And I’ll reward you with even more if you manage to warn the caravan before they’re ambushed. What they choose to do after that is entirely on them.”

  Alex rubbed his eyes when the significance of WiFu’s request finally sunk in. “Hold on, you’re serious? Months didn’t just pass while I was stuck in some weird hibernation just trying to survive? I still have time to save them?”

  But Alex received no reply, squinting before the swaying hedge branches that for just a second had looked like his mentor... but were only shadows and wind.

  He swallowed, stealing a quick glance at the cheap-looking brass ring now securely on his finger to make sure his conversation had really happened, before dashing down the leftmost corridor as fast as his legs could take him, bursting forth from the mound of leaves and long dead branches he must have stumbled onto when his enemy had just missed his lethal strike.

  Or so he could pretend, looking back at what was now no more than a ruptured pile of leaves, no trace of any cocoon-like s
anctuary whatsoever.

  He took a shuddering breath, suddenly dizzy.

  Then he heard the screams.

  17

  Alex burst free of the trees, ready for anything.

  For a heartbeat he felt a surge of relief, seeing the familiar face of a caravanner, one that had greeted him and Ehuang both with warm smiles whenever she’d catch their gaze in the weeks gone by.

  Then he saw the horror in her gaze, realizing his mistake almost too late.

  Bullrush!

  Leaping for a tree branch on the other side of the small clearing he found himself in before a dozen steel knives could pierce his flesh, twisting around as fast as his Quickness would allow, beholding the arrogant sneer of a man who felt confident in his prowess, wearing armor identical to that of the company Alex had seen in the woods.

  At present he was glaring around in confusion, a storm of steel knives held up by a whirlwind of Metal Qi surrounding him as he glared about the trees.

  “Face me, fool! Are you this woman’s chosen? Come to rescue her honor? Ha! No braver than a mouse before his betters! Come out and face me, coward! If you don’t, I’ll slice this girl’s face right off her skull!”

  The girl had fallen to the ground. “Please don’t hurt me!” she sobbed.

  The wujen glared at the trees all around him, but Alex had already darted around the massive trunk whose branches he currently hid within, staying completely out of the cultivator’s view.

  It was only when the scout gave a snort and turned his attention fully to the girl even now scrabbling away in terror that Alex slipped back around the trunk once more.

  Though he had no special powers of Shadow, his wisdom had grown in the trials he had faced in both the underworld and in the forest, and he had found that few things beat woodland camouflage and sonar-like Qi Perception for staying out of his enemy’s line of sight. His only regret was stumbling into the clearing before waiting for his senses to fully align with this reality once more.

  “Tell me, wench! Was that man your lover?”

  A storm of steel Qi blasted wildly through the trees, scores of leaves and branches falling to the ground. The man’s fury was too much for the girl who scrabbled to her feet and fled for the far end of the clearing.

  Before being hoisted off her feet by a pair of knives biting cruelly into her arms, the girl struggling as she was turned in air, now shrieking with pain as her lifeblood streamed upon the forest floor, forced to gaze upon the man’s mocking smile.

  The man shook his head. “Foolish peasant! Do you truly think I will allow you or your lover to leave and alert your crew to the death awaiting them?” He shook his head in mock regret. “I had so hoped we could enjoy some private moments together. But since I must shepherd this caravan to its doom without interruption, and I now have your man to hunt down, I’m afraid we will have to cut our engagement short.”

  The girl’s eyes widened in abject terror. “No, please! Please don’t kill me!”

  The man snarled. “Then call your man back here! If you wish to live, you will do so now!”

  And just by chance, the girl’s eyes, wildly searching as if for some desperate answer to her prayer, caught Alex’s own.

  He shuddered, tasting the desperate terror within the young woman’s soul.

  And she didn’t say a word or reveal his presence. Instead she closed her eyes, giving nothing away, knowing death was coming for her.

  Before crying out when she was showered in an explosion of brain and blood.

  Find Weakness skill check made!

  Dark Qi protects leg from amputation via Storm of Knives! You have sensed the weakest point in your enemy’s Elemental Ward!

  You have critically hit your opponent!

  Your opponent has perished!

  Alex instinctively protected his face with one Qi-covered arm when he struck his foe heel first with his flying kick, but the storm of knives dissipated the instant his foe’s skull exploded in a shower of blood and brain. He was lucky the man had kept his ward of steel close to him, since the Dark Qi projections only went up to Alex’s elbows and knees. But his surge of exultation as he finally got the skill mod he had been hoping for after countless uses of Bullrush and Adderstrike in tandem was instantly muted by the look of horror the shaking girl was giving him.

  Which wasn’t surprising.

  He had just obliterated his opponent, and after rolling back to his feet when he and his enemy’s corpse hit the ground, he was now covered in blood, reeking of carnage and death the likes of which this girl had probably never seen before.

  He wracked his head for the girl’s name, but drew a complete blank.

  And the seductive lapping of the Waters of Oblivion were all but caressing his feet.

  “Go! Warn the caravan the Red Prince has set up an ambush two hours along the road, and that the captain must organize a retreat into the woods! Go! Do it now!” Alex roared, wasting no time as he turned around, a fierce, predatory smile lighting up his features as he gazed into the river that still hungered for his soul.

  Wading through the waters even now seeking to tug him off his feet, forest fading to mist as the howls of the doomed flooded his ears. Yet he paid the awful changes to the landscape no mind, hungry for the prize he sensed just ahead.

  He could tell, just by the way he had gazed at the terrified girl not as a man on a military mission but as a victim he wished to devour, that this man held not a single shred of decency in his soul.

  And Alex’s Soul Sight had confirmed it.

  Six blackened incarnations, stinking with the karma of betrayal and death.

  Alex’s predatory grin widened as he gazed into the eyes of the confused spirit before him, about to commit the greatest betrayal of all.

  Spirit Crane Strike successfully executed! You have claimed one Rank 6 Silver Pearl!

  Congratulations! Water Walking is now Rank 5! Adept status achieved!

  The spirit’s dazed eyes widened with sudden panic, but it couldn’t say a word with Alex’s shimmering Qi-covered forearm lodged in its throat.

  And then Alex pulled his terrible prize free, swallowing it with a smile.

  Arrogant youthful features filled with such promise and power for the next life shriveled to that of a bitter old man, understanding in that terrible moment that he would never again rise above his fellows in the dark glory that had been his birthright over countless lifetimes, that he was now just as powerless as the countless mortal souls he had so enjoyed tormenting.

  “No, please! Give that back. I beg of you, give that back!”

  But Alex had already turned away, stepping free of the waters of the dead and back into the living realm once more, caring nothing for the howls of the countless desperate spirits behind him, his victim just one of many, and paying the countless notifications that he had just risked oblivion yet again no mind at all.

  He knew he should be filled with mindless panic like the girl now gazing at him as if he were Lord Death himself, having failed to flee as Alex had requested. But after the hideous struggles he had endured, fighting with every scrap of his soul to remain among the living before finally being pulled free by death’s serpentine promise... before turning around and lashing out at the doom waiting for him with all his fury and hate channeled into a strike so terrible it had cleaved even a god in twain... Alex wondered if he’d ever fear that river again.

  A river he suspected terrified even the gods who enjoyed tormenting him whenever they could.

  Though he had no doubt he would wake up screaming from countless nightmares in the days to come, after all he had endured in what were either endless months or just a handful of minutes after being stabbed, quite literally, in the back, for now he would laugh in Death’s face until rest and reflection had torn his mad courage away.

  Alex’s icy gaze met the frightened girl’s eyes once more, her own soul’s gentle secrets suddenly bare before him.

  “Ye Lam, right?”

  The surpris
ed girl jerked a nod.

  “Good. You do understand that the shriveled corpse at my feet was planning on doing some extremely bad things to you, right?”

  She sobbed at that, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as she held her injured arms tightly to her.

  Alex thought her incredibly lucky that no artery had been severed.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I know.”

  Alex tried for a smile. “And the monster who was hurting you is now no more. I would hope that would make us friends. Certainly, you don’t need to fear me.”

  “I saw what you did!” she sobbed. “You didn’t just decapitate him. You devoured his very soul!”

  Alex nodded. “I did. Well, the juicy battery giving his soul such power, anyway. And you know what? I’m not going to apologize for it, either. The guy was a monster, Ye Lam. What he was going to do to you? He had enjoyed doing to people weaker than himself over half a dozen lifetimes.”

  Her gaze grew wider. “You judge the dead!”

  Alex furrowed his brow, then gave a slow nod. “Pretty much.” He then turned to the corpse with a discerning eye, quickly stripping it of coin pouch and a dark dagger radiating an odd sort of purple Qi. Alex flashed a happy grin when he found a small belt pouch radiating storage magic, quickly fastening it to his own belt after sensing the healing potions and beast cores within.

  He knew his ring had all sorts of wondrous potential, but knew as well that now wasn’t the time to test its limits, especially with the girl presently gazing at him with an odd mixture of horror and awe.

  “Alex?”

  Alex grinned. “I was afraid you had forgotten my name.”

  “Are you even, well, human?”

  Alex smirked. “What else would I be?”

  “I don’t know, an avatar of the gods?”

  Alex winked. “Just so happens I’m close friends with one god, and most of the others don’t like me very much. But that stays between us, okay, Ye Lam?”

  He handed her a red potion brilliant with healing magics.

  She nodded desperately. “My oath upon it!” she said, frowning at the potion. “What’s that?”