She shivered as Alex’s eyes widened, realizing that he had been underestimating her. If she could truly sense that much about him…
“And the way you moved. Your stride as sure and powerful as Mother’s grandest stallions!”
Her gaze grew strangely luminous as she bit her lip, gazing boldly at Alex before suddenly blushing and turning away. “Where are Yan and Tung?” she asked, her voice now hardly more than a whisper.
Alex gazed in their direction. “Just a few minutes back.” He had the grace to wince. “I hope I didn’t push Yan too hard...”
Fangsu shook her head. “No, I doubt it. Mother wouldn’t have assigned him to me if he was incompetent.”
Alex raised a bemused brow. “Speaking like a true noblewoman, now.”
She had the grace to blush. “I don’t mean it like that, it’s just that... anyway, I see him as family much as I do my guardian. A treasured protector whose loyalty has always been beyond reproach.”
Alex smirked. “Does he actually do any recruiting for this Thunderbird Academy?”
She nodded solemnly. “Of course! And he can give his Cultivator’s Oath to that effect as well. It’s the perfect cover. And if the students he happens to recruit all end up leaving the province to take service under my family’s banner, that’s just icing on the cake.” She flashed a cheeky grin before wincing. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that aloud.”
Alex grinned back. “Who am I going to tell? After all, we both have our secrets, don’t we?”
“Alex! They’re still coming! I’ll try to hold them off! Defend the princess!”
Yan’s desperate words tore through Alex’s psyche. “Shit!”
Fangsu’s eyes widened in sudden alarm. “What’s wrong?”
“They’re still coming. After all the switchbacks and crossed streams, there’s no way they should have been able to pick up our trail! Yan’s facing down the lead pair of scouts now.”
“Alex!” He could taste the desperation in that one word.
“I know. Wait here.”
And before she could blink, he had sprung up the nearby tree, racing back the way he had come.
Congratulations! You have selected your Adept Forest Sense specialization perk!
Alex’s eyes widened, suddenly sensing the entire forest for miles around, almost as if he were accessing a gaming map as something in his mind suddenly clicked, his Forest Sense now synergizing perfectly with his interface. He could see the blinking images of two red dots facing off against the green and white dots Alex had dubbed as Yan and Fang in his interface with almost exquisite clarity, far better than when he had only a rough sense of where enemies or prey would be, having to rely on his Qi Perception to snap things into focus when he approached.
But now? Now he could sense the reds coming from miles away.
Fortunately, only three were close by.
The two facing off against Yan, and a third red circling around, heading right to where Fangsu waited.
As if they too could sense exactly where their target would be.
Alex’s eyes widened with alarm as he quickly made use of Forest Flight and Bullrush in his race back to the outskirts of the clearing.
Finesse check made!
Flowing to his chosen perch so gracefully that not even Fangsu below sensed his return, Alex forcing himself to wait, enduring countless seconds that he could only hope Yan was managing to survive.
The Red Prince’s scout, a hulking giant of a man with wide, armor covered shoulders burst through the underbrush. The giant was covered in mail as opposed to lamellar scales, no doubt to facilitate ease of movement despite his massive size, which, together with a fearsome killing aura that chilled even Alex to the quick, hinted at all sorts of deadly techniques he was loath to face.
But Alex knew he had no choice.
Heavy feet tore through the underbrush, the enemy cultivator flashing a wide, feral grin when he caught sight of suddenly terrified Fangsu, now grasping a naginata that had appeared with a single thought into her trembling hands.
The beast of a man let lose a low, throaty chuckle. “Do you truly think you can take me on with your toy, princess?” The smirking giant drew not the dao and axe hooked to his belt, but instead a pair of two-and-a-half-foot long metal rods, twirling them through the air with a killer’s grace, as if they weighed no more than chopsticks.
Find Weakness skill check made! You sense your targets surface weaknesses!
Alex held his position, doing all he could to measure the giant’s shifts in motion and stance, the way he scowled before swiveling his head, checking that all was clear, the low to high moulinets he habitually favored as he wove his weapons through the air, closing on a terrified Fangsu who sobbed once as legs, robbed of the grace Alex knew she normally had, stumbled and tripped on the roots of the trees demarcating the edge of the clearing she now leaned against.
Dark Qi Projection accessed!
The giant snorted, giving a pitying shake of his head. He placed both metal rods in one hand, pulling out a slave collar, tossing it to the feet of a shaking Fangsu.
“Just put the collar on, child. I have no wish to shatter your bones. If you obey me, I’ll make sure you’re fed, watered, and that no one will molest you while we travel back to our master. My oath upon it.”
Fangsu was so terrified she could barely speak, the man’s killing aura having cowed her utterly.
Alex swallowed his alarm, realizing the monster before him was a powerful Silver.
Alex suspected that even the pair of reds facing off against Yan were but one more feint.
This man was the true threat of the three.
And he had somehow known right where Fangsu would be. The girl even now looking the farthest thing from a princess, dressed in a serviceable qipao with little ornamentation, leather boots, wooden hair pins, and a shimmering magical treasure on her finger.
Alex’s eyes widened.
The ring.
It had to be the ring, or something stored inside.
Nothing else made any sense.
The giant’s gaze hardened. “Put the collar on, princess. Now! We’ve wasted enough time on this foolishness.”
“What about my cousin? My mentor?” whispered a breathless Fangsu, somehow finding the strength to question, to delay, despite the fact that she was so terrified she could hardly move.
Soul Sight perception check is a partial success! You sense the karma of past lives! You are not yet able to sense the flow of Qi through your foe. You are not yet able to sense any weakness in your foe’s wards.
Alex’s jaw clenched. He knew he could delay no longer, that he was running out of time.
The giant whipped one metal rod about before smashing the ground by a yelping Fangsu’s feet. “No more delays, girl. Take off your ring, and don your collar.”
Fangsu’s eyes widened. “My ring.”
The giant chuckled with darkest mirth. “Of course, girl. How the hell you think we—”
Bullrush!
Adderstrike! You have successfully struck the base of your foe’s spine! Dark Qi Gauntlet pierces Elemental Ward. Damage has been mitigated by Unknown Body Cultivation Techniques.
A screaming Fangsu desperately rolled and darted away as the giant roared, massive booted feet pounding the ground as he stumbled forward, and Alex knew if he didn’t put this monster down now, he was as good as dead.
Seizing the initiative, overwhelming his foe was the only chance he had.
So he didn’t hold back, channeling his darkest gift, even as the split second gave his foe the chance he needed to spin around, slicing the air with his lethal metal pole, shattering Alex’s Dark Qi-covered left forearm and blasting into his shoulder, instantly shattering bone and shredding muscle.
Willpower check made! Dark Qi Metabolism accessed!
The giant’s fierce smile and glittering black eyes made it clear he knew he had inflicted a lethal blow.
Before his eyes widened in disbelief,
gazing down at spools of his own shiny intestines pouring out of his ripped abdomen in a shower of blood and viscera as he crashed to the ground.
You have embraced Soul Cleave!
Saving throw versus Oblivion made!
You have critically struck your foe!
Yet his Silver Giant foe was so massive that the single strike had not killed him as Alex’s blade whipped through the air, the giant’s deep Bronze Finesse and Quickness allowing him to avoid instant death, and Alex’s warding arm had just been pulverized even with his Dark Qi Gauntlet, probably the only reason why the Silver-strength blow hadn’t hammered down with such force that he exploded like an egg smashed into the pavement, all his organs ruptured.
Bullrush! Bullrush! You are now in the topmost branches!
Power Healing engaged! Willpower check failed! You cry out from pain!
The massive giant, now curled up in a ball after one final blow of his metal rod that would have torn right through Alex’s skull, had it landed, instead blasting a massive crater of mulch and dirt now raining down upon the massive cultivator.
“You should be dead, wild one. You know that, right?”
“I know,” Alex gasped, surprised by the depth of agony he felt as his obliterated forearm and shattered shoulder fused themselves together, Alex’s mind lit up by a shocking amount of pain as bone fragments extracted themselves out of organs they had pierced like shrapnel, his critically wounded body healing itself in seconds that felt like hours to the wildly firing nerves erupting like fireworks throughout his body, Alex choking back his exquisite pain while the giant below groaned in his own agony, panting like a man knowing he was near his end as powerful sausage-like fingers scrabbled for his pouch.
And Alex knew exactly what he was searching for.
“You’re the one unknown variable our agents couldn’t figure out. You know internal Qi techniques only General Cui Jian’s favored hounds were ever permitted to learn.” The deadly giant sniffed the air with his massive nostrils. “Yet you strike with techniques that smell of the Underworld. And how the hell did you cut through my defenses?”
Alex flashed a bleak smile, knowing this game just as well as the man below.
Knowing that for all his familiarity, did Alex dare his deadliest technique too often, there would be a terrible price to pay.
But the giant before him had shrugged off an Adderstrike with the full force of an accelerated Bullrush behind it like it was less than nothing, causing the giant nothing worse than an awkward lurch and grumble.
Before he had shattered Alex’s limb like a ruptured sausage, nearly killing him.
So Alex did what he knew he must. He had no choice.
The giant’s eyes widened with mortal terror, desperate to gulp down his healing potion as a grim-faced Alex slowly approached, his exotic bronze blade shimmering with deadly waters that even the Silver before him could sense.
The cultivator quickly raised his massive rod of steel with his powerful right arm, his left desperately holding tight his ruptured abdomen, having only managed a single gulp of his potion. Gruesome injury aside, in a Silver Giant’s hands, there should have been no blow that thick steel rod couldn’t counter.
“No! Please! Quarter!”
It sounded so wrong to hear such desperation in that fearsome giant’s voice, holding a rod of thick steel with the desperate grip of a man who knew he was doomed.
Alex gazed into the man’s eyes almost sadly as he did what he must, even as he knew he would pay for it with the growing sensation of the River of the Dead lapping at his feet, the subtle discontent of the forest as Alex brought the stygian waters forth.
“Soul Cleave!”
The forest itself seemed to shudder with those terrible words.
And the surprisingly fast giant desperately tried to duck and roll even as he parried.
All to no avail as Alex’s deadly blade, shimmering with the Waters of Oblivion, cut through his enemy’s massively-enhanced resistance that Alex had no doubt the cultivator had spent rigorous decades, even centuries perfecting, as if it weren’t even there.
12 additional Qi Points spent! You have successfully channeled the Waters of Oblivion once more!
You have slain a Rank 2 Silver Cultivator! Experience earned!
And Alex felt the terrible weight of those dreadful waters, enticing his soul even as they slowly, ever so slowly, began to fade. But no worse than every time he embraced mad hunger and bitter ruthlessness, plucking free eternal Soul Stones from his foes.
But it was far less of a strain on the forest for Alex to enter another man’s final moments than to summon the river to the mortal plain directly. And this man’s soul, gazing with confused wonder into Alex’s own as it drifted off in what would soon be the gentlest of dreams, had been a good man who had done many noble acts of kindness for those in need in every life save this one, where hardship, starvation, and desperation had forced a once-idealistic boy along a far harder path than he would have chosen, had his parents survived the hardships of wars long past.
Alex flashed a gentle smile at the spirit of a boy now glowing with a Golden core. “Sleep well. May the next life be everything you could have hoped for.”
Before stepping free of those waters completely, breathing deep of the fresh air smelling of loam, ancient oaks, and wildflowers, before immediately jolting back to himself, sensing Yan’s imminent peril.
He didn’t even spare the time needed to reassure the terrified Fangsu, her gaze one of horror, instead springing for the trees as fast as his feet could take him, both shark-toothed blades sheathed, his injuries now fully healed with a final jolt of agony as experience and beast cores both entwined together, boosting his healing all the more.
Bullrush! Bullrush! You have spotted your foes!
One of your foes has spotted you!
Alex wasted no time upon spotting a fallen Yan, arms glowing with brilliant Earth Qi as a roaring Bronze battered him with a dao crackling with deadly enchantments, his partner circling around, eager to stab Yan in the back with venom-covered daggers Alex could tell had already pierced Yan’s flesh multiple times, slowing his movements and weakening him, pus streaming from half a dozen wounds.
“You should be dead already!” snarled the stalker from behind.
“Pengsu! Look out! Enemy in the trees!”
A scowling Pengsu immediately turned around, eyes widening in a curious expression as his head exploded in brain and gore.
The second cultivator gasped in horror. “How? No!”
Bullrush! Bullrush! You have parried your foe’s enchanted dao!
Adderstrike! You have critically struck Body Cultivator! 2 ribs shattered!
Adderstrike! Your foes’ left arm has been broken!
Your foe is howling for mercy!
Adderstrike has been chained thrice more!
Your foe is dead!
A snarling Alex glared at the bloody smear of a man he had shattered so badly that the corpse fell to the ground like a wet sack of spoiled meat before turning his gaze to Yan, who was peering back at him in stunned disbelief.
“Alex?”
Alex turned away, avoiding Yan’s gaze, making a quick perusal of his enemies, giving a pleased smile of satisfaction when he claimed two pouches filled with thirty silver and fourteen gold tiles and two vials, each containing carefully wrapped cultivation pills, in addition to the pair serpentine daggers radiating a deadly combination of Wood Qi and Metal venom, according to his artificer skill, and the shimmering dao emanating Metal Qi so sharp Alex suspected it could cut through any mundane metal with ease.
Alex was chillingly certain that had Yan’s combination of toughened flesh and Earth Wards been anything less than the nearly impregnable defenses that they were, at least for any normal Bronze, that dao would have lopped his arms clean off.
“Alex.” The voice had turned to a wheezing gasp.
Alex quickly turned around, alarmed to see Yan hunched over, eyes widening as he gripp
ed his throat.
Alex instantly understood. Those serpentine daggers hadn’t been able to take Yan down immediately, but the poison which most cultivators seemed so vulnerable to had done its work nonetheless, Yan beginning to choke as his Bronze resilience could hold off the toxins no longer.
Alex didn’t hesitate, quickly pulling off the cork of one of the two red healing potions he had claimed from the pair of Bronze, now having four in total, gently easing one down Yan’s throat, the man’s eyes wide with the terror of imminent death.
“Easy, Yan. Try not to panic. Just drink this down. Even if it just sits in your mouth, it should soothe your throat to the point where you can swallow it. Good!”
Alex frowned, still sensing the poison, though it had been somehow subdued for now.
He pulled one of the pair of serpentine daggers from his claimed storage pouch and didn’t hesitate to prick himself.
Yan’s eyes widened in alarm. “Alex, you fool! What are you doing!?”
Alex flashed a bleak smile, taking a deep breath, focusing on the poison flowing through his body.
“What happened to Tung?” he asked, expanding his senses, feeling a sudden flood of relief when he sensed the boy, not far off.
“I told the boy to pick a direction and run. He’s no coward, but against these monsters...”
“I know. All he can do is distract you, presenting a soft target our enemies can use to force your hand.”
You have been exposed to Steel Serpent Venom. You have suffered 20 Damage from Steel Serpent Venom. (Pristine Form reduces this damage to Zero.)
You have gained 20% immunity to Steel Serpent Venom.
You have gained 60% immunity to Steel Serpent Venom.
You have gained 100% immunity to Steel Serpent Venom.
Biochemical Mastery skill check made! Alchemy skill check made! You may now synthesize a cure to Steel Serpent Venom at will!
He glanced down at his brass ring, imagining taking out a dozen useful potions that had been stored in his former sacred treasure that were now lost forever. To say nothing of the artifacts and solutions he wanted put in for safekeeping right away. But he knew there was no room to do so, having had no chance at all to unlock the secrets within and improve his artifact. Who knew how much storage space he might eventually have? So much potential within, he was sure of it. And so far, he had had absolutely no time at all to see just what he could do with it.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 34
