And that’s when he felt it.
A presence both wondrous and terrible, that filled him with awe just to sense the tiniest sliver of sentience from, lost as it was in ancient dreams of wonder and glory.
Then Alex shuddered, stumbling to his knees, struck by just a glimpse of a man with hair of flame and eyes that saw the world’s deepest secrets. An ancient wild cultivator embracing that which his enemies had so feared.
Transforming himself into that which Alex dreaded trespassing upon, even as he entered that sacred grove, all but choking on a Golden aura he suspected that he alone could sense, so cloaked as it was in ancient dreams of serpents and men.
Alex took a deep breath, forcing himself to slow his mad dash from tree to tree to a solemn walk, for all that his heart pounded with terror as Shadow’s deathly whisper locked upon his frame once more.
“I would bargain with the master of this grove. Ten spirit pearls and two enchanted swords enhanced with pristine sharpness and lightning, in return for but two silverbells and two shadow blossoms.”
Qi Perception check made!
Alex jerked his hand free of his pouch, pulling forth a shimmering fortune in pearls, prizes claimed from the ring of a princess he had risked so much to rescue, wealth so grand that even the kitsune assassin behind him held his blow.
For a single moment in time.
“Drop your wealth and face your death.”
A voice rough as rusted steel, cold as death.
Alex choked back a scream, feeling as vulnerable as a child before a monster.
He didn’t dare turn around.
“I taste your prizes. I know your worth. You will give me the prizes in your silver pouch and your golden ring. You may keep the Fox’s gift. You may pluck one budding shadow blossom and a single silverbell, and you may leave with your life and limbs intact.” The sibilant words washed over Alex’s soul.
A Gold so potent, so terrible, Alex’s heart lurched in his chest.
“You have brought yourself twenty seconds of life,” said the ice-cold assassin behind him. “Drop your remaining prizes, and I shall make your death quick and painless.”
Alex jerked a nod, still not daring to turn around. “Deal!” he shouted, allowing his purse filled with all his worldly wealth to fall to the ground, and the ring Princess Xian Hong had gifted him with as well.
Before darting under the nearest massive conifer’s low hanging branches, so massive a tree it was that he could stand up freely in the space between trunk and the domed ceiling of branches overhead.
Perception check made!
His eyes were instantly drawn to the handful of brilliant silverbell blossoms alongside a thriving mass of blooming botanicals at the base of the conifer that would have done his old alchemical master proud. Alex recognized a dozen different varieties of flower and fungus absolutely vital for Liu Jian’s most prized alchemical formulas, and he dare not take a single one.
Gently gathering a single silverbell in trembling hands, carefully securing the roots in the soil, roving eyes having to scan the profusion of plants not once but twice to finally make out the shadow blossom even his eyes, now enhanced by the same Lesser Shadow Affinity that had kept him alive so far this night, finally picked out nestled in the heart of the wild profusion of flowers just beside the trunk, and Alex gently plucked it free even as the assassin’s cold laughter washed over Alex like death’s promise.
“Your time is up, Ruidian. Time for you to die.”
And Alex could taste the storm of Wood, Shadow, and Death coalescing around the massive tree like the most terrible of cages.
He didn’t even bother trying to break free of the prison of branches the massive conifer had become, merely using Forest Flight and Bullrush to race up the trunk, ascending the branches like a gymnast, fists now covered by gauntlets of Dark Qi as he burst out the top, feeling the web-like aura of invisible Qi press against him as the tree suddenly twisted under terrible pressure.
Quickness check made!
Before lashing out with his gauntlets, the Dark Qi just managing to tear through the thinly stretched Silver tier barrier that made the terrible explosion of the entire massive conifer all the more lethal even as Alex sprang free, taking only a Medium Wound from wooden shrapnel that tore through his left calf as he sprang through the rip he had torn in his foe’s trap, the rest of the explosion contained by the very ward intended to assure his death as Alex strung together no less than a dozen Bullrushes, moving over seven hundred feet in the blink of an eye, even as the ground below shook with the roar of a Golden serpent awakened from endless slumber by an assassin who had dared to damage its hoard.
You have failed to save against Golden Killing Aura! Strength and Finesse have been lowered 3 Ranks! You are temporarily stunned!
Alex was knocked flat to the ground by the terrible wave of pressure he felt as a roar pierced the heavens.
“Who dares trespass upon my sanctuary without offering or oath? Who dares destroy my sacred grove? I smell a kitsune who dares to embrace both Wood and Shadow! I will have your head for your trespass, treacherous little fox!”
Alex heard a man’s shocked screams as the air came alive with flame, and he didn’t waste a second, Bullrushing like mad, his Qi Pool draining away like water from a ruptured flask as he flashed across the night sky, leaving the nightmare of desperate shrieks and a serpent’s fire far, far behind, only then becoming fully cognizant of the prizes he was gripping too tightly, now gently placing them in his very mundane pouch, secured by their own soil, praying they’d be perfectly fine for a single day in that dark, cramped container as he continued to race away for dear life.
You have embraced Storm Flight! 20 Qi remaining!
For countless hours, Alex rode the surging sea of spiritual energy coming off the forest in waves, grateful it kept his Qi drain down to just a fraction of what it would otherwise be.
Nonetheless, as the terror over an endless day and night dodging death slowly transformed to sheerest exhilaration, racing along waves of potency perhaps he alone could see, giddy with sweetest ebullience as the first crimson rays of dawn kissed the horizon, Alex realized how utterly exhausted he was, Qi depleted to almost nothing.
And what a foolish risk that would be to take, he thought, immediately darting under tree cover before the morning’s golden rays could paint him in sharpest relief for any enemy scouts that might glance up at the sky through the rustling foliage in exactly the right direction at exactly the right moment. For all that the odds of such occurring would probably be infinitesimal for anyone else, he had escaped death too many times of late, with the bitter knowledge that yes, even the gods above were after him, not to treat the entire world with a survivor’s paranoia.
Besides, he already knew that if he didn’t make it to Baidushi, he was as good as dead, and in anticipation of Alex’s inevitable arrival, his enemies were waiting to ambush him, both along the city periphery in the form of agents for the Red Prince, as well as in the city proper, through the medium of corrupt guards and Jianghu mercenaries.
So now the stakes were higher than ever before.
And he wasn’t so foolish as to think WiFu’s siblings would accept a month from the date the bet was made. Rather, they would seek his death the moment the present month ended, and Alex had absolutely no idea when that was.
But he’d assume it was soon.
On the plus side, his mercurial patron had finessed the most glorious of concessions.
Should he actually make it into Baidushi and be accepted at Royal Phoenix Academy, he just might find, within the library’s stacks, Long Wang’s own divine cultivation manuals, supposedly brought down from the heavens when his own son had fallen in love with a mortal before shaping Baidushi into the powerhouse of a city it was today.
And for all Alex knew, Long Wang’s desire to destroy Baidushi was as much to punish his son as it was to advance a piece in some massive conflict taking place over inconceivably vast kingdoms with su
rface areas many, many times that of the planet he had once called home. Because the clan of cultivators that had forged this realm and now called themselves gods really were that vindictive.
But a greater treasure Alex couldn’t hope to take from his enemies than Long Wang’s prized tome. He couldn’t wait to see what secrets might be locked within a Divine cultivation manual, and all the ways it might enhance his own growing mastery, synergizing with all his other techniques into a terrifyingly deadly whole.
Or it might be so utterly beyond him that even attempting to make use of that tome would be laughable folly.
Either way, he wouldn’t know until he had actually retrieved that tome, and he had absolutely no doubt that he’d find plenty of obstacles in his way.
He couldn’t help but chuckle, recalling the fundamental truth of the path through life he had chosen.
He did indeed live in interesting times.
As the first rays of true dawn became the sun’s golden shafts of light warming his skin even through the thick forest canopy, Alex sensed the final flickering traces of the tiny doom triggered whenever he dared Soul Cleave leave him at last, knowing that only now could he sleep without any fear of slipping into the River of Souls unawares.
He gazed down fondly at his tiny brass ring, taking a moment to close his eyes and truly get a sense of the forest.
Detecting no one and nothing of significance nearby, save for the glow of a number of spiritual herbs nearby that he might just harvest a portion of, if everything went according to plan.
Of the Red Prince’s contingent of cultivating cutthroats, they appeared to have long since dispersed, and Alex was all but positive Long Wang had manipulated fate to assure their next order of business would be to prevent any Ruidian from entering Baidushi proper.
Which meant they had long since given up on chasing him, and, if fortune favored his friends, the soldiers now had no interest in harassing the caravanners he had journeyed for so many weeks beside. Alex could only hope that Captain Dui Zhang and the people under his care made it to Baidushi in one piece, surviving what was perhaps the most perilous journey of their lives, even if their prospects had turned bitter, their wealth lost to the whims of the road.
Alex took a deep breath, pushing that which was out of his control firmly out of mind, before suppressing a sudden surge of excitement as he gazed down at his tiny brass ring.
He had been forced to wait long enough to explore whatever mysteries and wonders lay inside.
Finally, it was time.
21
Alex’s eyes widened with awe and wonder, feeling a sudden pang in his chest when he found himself in his old family library once more, choking up at the sight of the worn and well-loved leather recliner his father had once spent so many evenings relaxing in, reading a favorite novel or an intriguing startup plan that had caught his attention, happy to bounce ideas back and forth with Alex while his sisters read tales full of princesses, castles, and highest adventure, his mother baking everyone’s favorite chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen below.
A memory of domestic bliss that brought tears to his eyes.
And then he was outright sobbing, choked up not only with the memories of his childhood so brutally torn away with his father and sisters’ deaths and his own diagnosis of stage 4 cancer, but with sheerest relief that he was, even if just for a moment, truly safe in the bosom of his beloved family library, sheltered from the constant stress of battle, the immutable promise of death in a world both wild and savage, with the enticement of unspeakable power compelling him and countless millions of his fellow cultivators ever onward, all of them striving to forge themselves in a land so brutal that life and death were seen as two sides of the same coin tossed in the air for everyone, every day of their lives.
Only now, in this priceless moment, did Alex finally feel a brief respite from the constant stress of awful death forever just a single mistake or misstep away.
Only now, when he was truly secure for the first time since his former ring had been lost, did his mind even feel it was safe enough to flood him with the horror of countless deaths so narrowly dodged, no longer needing to numb his soul in darkest bloodlust, realizing how utterly insane he had become, laughing in death’s face so loudly he thought nothing of wading in its waters and plucking its greatest prizes free.
Gambling with his soul every time.
And in those moments, not even considering the risks worth batting an eye.
And perhaps only because he had so become one with his own battle-madness, so blinded by adrenaline and fury while fighting for his life, that fear was burned to ash before the deadly waters could choke his soul with terror while he tore free from his kills their final prizes that had allowed him to escape those stygian rivers so many times unscathed, Alex now more like his patron than ever before.
And never was his risk greater than when he wielded a warped feat that should be so far beyond him that none would dare it before Gold, if they were sane. Slicing open another mortal’s soul with his own.
And had he not found such mad insights after a thousand breaths lasting a thousand years, cultivating betwixt Heaven and Hell, hovering somewhere between life and death, so as to be able to forge divine cultivation techniques, his soul would have surely shattered along with his enemy’s the very first time he had dared use his darkest gifts.
His gifts had culminated in their most extreme form as his life wound down to its final second, cleaving the stygian river’s very guardian in twain, somehow channeling the power of an entire realm through his body and soul with his final blow. So much easier when he was falling into the Realm of the Dead in his final seconds of life, than when he was pulling free the tiniest kernel of that terrible power that was the River of Souls and forcing it into the realm of the living.
And how close to death had he come, each and every time he dared to channel power that could strike down a Silver in his prime?
Power that, in the right circumstances, could kill even a Gold ranked cultivator.
Or a god.
Those memories, more than any other, filled him with awe spiked with dread.
Humbled by just how perilous a game he dared to play.
Because all he had to do was look at the oak bookshelves filled with so many childhood favorites; Goodkind, Pratchett, Rowling, and a dozen others, to realize the source of so many of his mad flights of inspiration. Reading so many novels filled with adventure and wonder had trained his brain to think outside the conventions of his own world, long ago. To say nothing of too many hours working out tactics to hack the rules governing whatever game had caught his and his friends’ fancy.
Only now the game was all too real, and the stakes as high as any he could imagine.
Twenty million lives, including people he knew and cared for. Not to mention his own fragile soul.
Then his eyes widened as he gazed upon a collection of tomes incongruously plopped alongside his childhood favorites, between Corvin and Eddings.
The Divine tomes he himself had forged, including perfect copies of the cultivation manuals he had given his friend Liu Li with, the first containing all the secrets of Fire, Earth, Metal, and Shadow. Everything a kitsune with an alchemist’s affinity would need to ascend all the way to Jade, if they truly had the potential for it. He had also gifted her with his Dual Path Cultivation manual for the added insights it would bring her when her life had hung in the balance. Unlike WiFu’s tome, his own had been incomplete at the time he had gifted it to Liu Li, save for its mastery of Dark Qi, yet the techniques within had been instrumental in helping him forge the middle state of the unified trio of states encapsulating order and chaos, creation and destruction, the order of life and the chaotic madness of death, that now made up each of his Bronze cords. And much to his awe and wonder, his Dual Path Cultivation manual had updated itself with all the transcendent insights he had gained forging those Bronze cords that had come so close to killing him.
Cords that could
serve as the unbreakable foundation needed to one day ascend to Silver, Gold, and beyond. Perhaps one day to transcend all mortal limits forevermore.
He chuckled softly, his gambits and sacrifices this past year and a half emphasizing like nothing else what it meant to play for keeps, in every possible sense of the word.
How many people’s lives had he cut violently short in just the past couple days?
He shook away the thought and glanced at his third tome, perhaps the most wondrous of all, Eternal Fox Unified Cultivation Technique containing within it the secrets of healing from any injury, achieving immunity to all poisons and caustic agents, even how to defeat the inevitable doom of aging itself, to say nothing of a cultivation path relying on Light Qi alone, no specific elemental affinities needed. It was a path that would allow anyone with seven intact meridians to ascend to Gold, filling their vessel, no matter how fragile the container of their soul, with at least a few wisps of divine spiritual energy.
Of course, those who chose to walk that path might take well over a thousand years to achieve such enlightenment.
Alex bowed his head in reverence to his patron, beyond grateful he had these three divine tomes once more, knowing there would have been a cost to his soul, did he dare forge them anew himself.
Or, at least, a cost in the bonus level-up points he received each rank, which he supposed still counted as a part of his soul.
And even filled as he was with momentary exultation, realizing he finally had the opportunity to safely level up, he was almost positive he lacked the time.
So he pulled his eyes away from tomes familiar and grand, and turned to the library entrance, looking exactly like the hardwood door with the squeaky hinge he remembered from his childhood.
Only upon opening it did he glimpse not the long hallway that would lead to his sisters’ bedrooms or the staircase to the second floor, but rather a strange wall of absolute darkness. Of nothing at all.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 38
