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

by M. H. Johnson

  Congratulations! You have successfully imprinted Divine World Seed!

  You may grow this seed along any path you wish!

  Path One: Palatial Manor. Though your manor begins existence as but the humblest of libraries, with enough potential, you may forge a grand palace that would leave princes, kings, even emperors green with envy!

  With sufficient potency, you may bring forth a library capable of forging any tome within its hallowed halls, with corridors connecting to a shadow-remnant of any or every library you have ever entered before, every mundane book within available for your viewing pleasure! You may additionally enhance your library to have within its hallowed halls a copy of every cultivation book you have ever touched. (With increasing cost per Rank of tome you wish to emulate.)

  Other palatial enchantments include the most glorious of dining halls equipped to serve any delicacy you can dream of, or magnificent bedrooms equipped with saunas, showers, and bedding so soft that you will wake up completely refreshed after dreaming the dreams of your choice, filled with inspiration fit to do any cultivator proud!

  Should the rigors of the spartan path wear thin, modest investments are all that are needed to enjoy countless hours of entertainment as your palace evolves to fit your tastes in terms of games, performances, and enchanted palatial windows showcasing the most glorious vistas you can imagine!

  With sufficient power invested, even the shadowy servants who will inhabit the halls of your home will be blessed with increasing awareness until the spark of true life lightens their smiles as they fall to their knees in reverence to their lord and master as you take your first steps in forging a realm of your own!

  Additional ways of improving your palatial manor include improving spiritual resonance and karmic resilience. (Cultivation limitations apply.)

  Path Two: Eternal Garden. You will find, just outside the grand entrance of your palace, a discreetly-walled garden from which you may gaze with delight upon the heavens above. Your garden will be nurtured by a gentle sun and just the right amount of rain, and though it will start as a humble plot at just over forty feet in diameter, each additional rank will double its size, with any transplanted specimens doubling as well!

  Additionally, you may invest ranks in increasing the frequency, potency, and variety of mundane and spiritual herbs within your garden. Note: spiritual herbs and alchemical formulae made using these plants may not be transported outside of this ring, though said potions may be freely used inside World Seed, and all benefits or detriments post-imbibing will persist regardless of world transfer. This limitation does not apply to mundane or spiritual plants or fungi gated in. Such plants and all shoots and cuttings may be freely transported between both realms.

  Additional ways of improving your garden beyond size include improving spiritual resonance and karmic resilience. (Cultivation limitations apply.)

  Path Three: Alchemy Lab. Forge the alchemy lab of your dreams! This magnificent multi-storied pagoda will connect to both your palace and garden. Enhancements include the ability to forge alchemical creations by manipulating strands of Qi directly, each rank giving you access to one additional element, bypassing the need for any alchemical training or cultivation rank, allowing you to intuitively understand the makeup of any potion! All mundane supplies will automatically be provided, and Qi-infused elements, beast cores, and cuttings can be stored indefinitely.

  Additional enhancements include limited control of reality within, so even the most catastrophic of failures needn’t harm you at all, giving you the ability to reclaim all lost supplies as well!

  Path Four: Chamber of Doors. Forge doors of memory and dream. Advancements in this mysterious building allow you to build doorways only you can see, to any spot you’ve stood upon before. Enhancements include the ability to summon forth an ever increasing number of doors, create doors both you and those you designate can access, or summon doors with such skill and efficiency that you can effortlessly connect to any place, no matter how well cloistered or inaccessible, that has ever caught your gaze!

  Alex’s spine tingled with awe as he stepped back from the empty doorway, realizing he was truly on the cusp of something magnificent.

  He had the sneaking suspicion that Silver Fox had gifted him with far more than a simple trinket to distract himself, which no doubt WiFu’s opponents would love for Alex to do.

  Because with just the handful of hints given when his interface was flooded with sudden knowledge so like the world-building games he had once so loved playing, he instantly realized the potential of this ring.

  First, though, he had to make sure he understood how much various advancements would cost him in terms of power and potential. Because if he could develop all four paths without each one making the other more expensive, that would be fantastic. But if absolutely everything stacked... he already knew what his emphasis was going to be.

  First, to get a sense of basic costs.

  He closed his eyes to help himself focus before pressing his hand against the nothingness filling the doorway once more.

  You have accessed Ring Interface.

  Ring Interface can also be accessed by pulling open World Seed menu in your interface.

  Cost to advance along any pathway is one High-Grade Lesser Beast Core, 5% of the experience needed to bring you from one Bronze Rank to the next, or one basic cultivation rank inherent in any claimed Soul Stone.

  Note: Additional paths may become available to you as your World Seed develops. (Please keep in mind at all times the ultimate form you wish each branch of your World Seed to take!)

  Alex, knowing he was on the cusp of Rank 5 Bronze cultivation, had absolutely no intention of tapping into and losing that potential. His level-ups were just too vital to him.

  But there was one experiment he could easily conduct with the handful of beast cores still bound to his leather choker.

  You have elected to sacrifice 1 High-Grade Lesser Beast Core to establish Eternal Garden. Congratulations! Your manor is now surrounded by gardens and grounds radiating forty-two feet in all directions. Environmental spiritual energies are equivalent to Golden Realms urban average.

  You now have a Rank 1 Eternal Garden!

  Alex flashed a pleased smile, truly excited to explore all the possibilities of that garden. But first, to make sure that advancement hadn’t hiked the costs of anything else.

  You have sacrificed 1 High-Grade Lesser Beast Core to establish Rank 1 Dining Hall. Your manor’s dining hall will supply one person with simple, hearty fare sufficient to satiate any degree of hunger, or quench any amount of thirst. Note: this food does not exist beyond this World Seed, but physiological benefits will transfer between worlds.

  You now possess a Rank 3 Palatial Manor. (2 Ranks free: gift of patron god.)

  Alex flashed a relieved smile, sensing that improving his manor did not in any way increase the cost of his garden, or vice versa, which was good. More than good, it was fantastic, because it meant that he could develop a separate plan for developing all available resources, or branches to this World Seed, so to speak, without worrying that giving in to luxury or convenience in one area would hinder his ability to develop any other area.

  Still, he wanted to make sure that he completely understood the costs for improvement, and with a little further digging into the stream of data suddenly available to him, this time using the added tab in his interface, he began to get a true scope of the potential of this magnificent wonder.

  As well as the extremely steep costs he would soon be paying for that privilege.

  It seemed that each seven ranks increased the costs seven-fold, which meant that the first handful of advancements along each path were effectively dirt cheap, but things would rapidly begin to escalate as he tried to turn his humble home into a true manor, or create a garden that would be the envy of any alchemist.

  Alex couldn’t help thinking of how it almost perfectly mirrored a cultivator’s own progression.

  He shook his
head, sensing the enticement and the trap of forging a truly wondrous palatial retreat here, one he could perhaps spend lifetimes within, if he poured all his energies and resources into improving his World Seed as opposed to himself.

  But the thought of a magnificent palace responsive to his every need, golden plates piled high with divine food fit for the gods, or spending each night sleeping in beds so soft and comfortable it was like lying upon a mattress of soft, fluffy clouds, losing himself in endless dreams he could master completely, effectively allowing him to rule as the most ephemeral of gods without even having to leave his bedroom, was an enticement beyond compare. Though leave he would, if just to stop by his library that would connect via mysterious corridors to his memory of all the metropolitan libraries he had visited as a kid which had held such a vast collection of books that, if this artifact truly could hold a copy of every one, would allow him to while away who knew how many years, just catching up on all the delightful tales written within his lifetime. And for all he knew, with the right advancements, perhaps his library would have access to every book that had ever been written over a span of a thousand years.

  Until mankind had fallen, ascended, or who knew what.

  And just the chance to find out what had happened to his people, somehow knowing he could use this World Seed to bend even WiFu’s edicts of needing to leave his world’s past behind, was a temptation that burned through his soul, even now.

  He chuckled softly, realizing how brilliant a trap, and distraction, this wondrous palace could quickly become.

  But first things first.

  He had two incredibly precious blossoms to plant, and could only hope he was doing so in time.

  You have successfully transplanted Silverbell Blossom! You have successfully transplanted Shadow Blossom!

  Alex gave a satisfied grin as he stepped out of the sheltering conifer in the heart of his front yard comprised of lush green grass filled with fragrant blossoms alongside a tiny grove of budding fruit and nut trees, in addition to a modest vegetable garden overflowing with fresh green produce.

  He smiled into the warm sun shining overhead as a gentle breeze caressed his skin, his single act of forming his garden all it had taken to transform nothingness into a living, breathing world, even if it was comparatively tiny, sloping before his eyes such that he knew if he walked through his grove and past the vegetable garden, he’d find himself at the backdoor of the modest pagoda that served as his modest-sized Rank 3 Palatial Manor.

  He gave a satisfied nod, knowing there was one final test he wanted to embrace before making his final decisions regarding how he would shape his World Seed.

  But before he did that, he had every intention of taking full advantage of his garden’s potential.

  With a smile of farewell to his sanctuary, he closed his eyes and slipped free of his garden.

  Black Swan!

  Cleaving through the air with his enchanted dao, glaring with all the hate of a beast who would be hounded no more, half expecting to gaze into the eyes of a stalking bounty hunter, surprised when his prey became his doom.

  But there was nothing.

  Just the tiny clearing in the middle of deepest woodlands, golden shafts of light dancing across the leaf-covered mulch of the forest floor as the canopy rustled with the breeze overhead.

  But he didn’t trust it, not for a minute.

  Bullrush!

  Disappearing in the blink of any eye as he darted straight up and into the branches of an inviting tree, springing from branch to branch as he did his utmost to connect his awareness to the ancient half-sentient forest all around him, unlike the sad collection of soulless plants that made up his pathetic excuse for a garden inside his ring.

  Plants that, save for the two he had transplanted, would survive transfer no more than a dream.

  So he didn’t hesitate to gaze in his mind’s eye and imagine ripping free every single tree, flower, and vegetable from his previously picture-perfect plot of land, tearing free every blade of grass and carefully landscaped piece of shrubbery as well.

  Until there was nothing but a single conifer sheltering the two precious, priceless blossoms he had dared the audience of a Gold serpent just a half step away from evolving into a true dragon to obtain.

  And he could only hope it had devoured the damn assassin that had relentlessly tracked Alex down for a solid day and night.

  Which was why, even now, with Qi Perception at Rank 7 and Forest Sense at Rank 5, he still spent countless minutes Bullrushing from tree to tree, ever moving, never staying still for longer than a second, trying to get a sense of any threat.

  But there was nothing.

  No stalking predator eager to sink its fangs into his flesh. No cold-blooded kitsune summoning a storm of Wood and Shadow, eager to kill him with exploding shrapnel.

  As far as Alex could tell, not a single man or beast was within miles of him, save the very few he sensed fleeing with animal terror from the potent natural cultivator as fast as they could.

  And that truth unnerved him most of all.

  But he was wise enough to take advantage of both his heightened senses and need for constant motion as patches of plants rich in spiritual energy all but flashed in his mind’s eye. And despite the constant weight of tension he now felt, knowing he could be in someone’s crosshairs, and that death could be reaching for him at any moment, he still found great pleasure in being able to harvest unlimited quantities of plants all but glowing with spiritual energy. So much that a full day of foraging with his heightened senses securing him large quantities of sageroot, lotus blossom, spirit grass, and young saplings of fruit-bearing trees unlikely to grow much at all with the thick canopy blocking nearly all light from hungry leaves, just to name a few of the numerous varieties of plants and fungi he collected. And Alex swore he could almost sense their eager anticipation as he offered his blood to this forest in return for its bounty of saplings, seeds, and dozens of varieties of herbs, blossoms, and lichen, determined to fill his considerable plot of land with nothing but truly living plants. Or, to put it another way, flora that could survive in both worlds, even if the soil was primarily that of his garden.

  And as grateful as he was to find so many vines, blossoms, and shoots all but glowing with beneficent Qi, he did not hesitate to pluck samples of blackcap head, deathwort, crimson parsnip and a dozen other botanicals that could be used to forge the deadliest of poisons, all of which he intended to place by the trunk of the evergreen he had just claimed from the forest around him, along with his silverbell and shadow blossom, already knowing how the former thrived when feeding upon the chaotic effluvia of Qi released by plants so deeply tied to discord and death.

  To say nothing of the sense of balance it brought to his garden, blinking back once more, and how beautiful he now found the churned-up earth, loose upturned soil interspersed with a profusion of greenery one had to look at with a very forgiving eye to see as any kind of order or harmony.

  But by the time late afternoon had arrived, Alex could no longer deny the fatigue he felt after several nights without sleep. And much to his satisfaction, nearly the entirety of his World Seed’s garden was covered in plants either radiating spiritual energies or budding with the promise of magnificent bounties of fruit, nuts, and produce, or, in some cases, just filling the air with the heady scent of flowers in bloom. The sight of countless varieties wildflowers transplanted for their beauty alone filled his exhausted heart with a strangely profound sense of happiness, the ghostly image of his mother puttering about her tulips and roses smiling back at him through memory’s veil.

  Of course he had taken full advantage of his ability to demarcate large clusters of plants with circles drawn in the loamy forest soil, even if they arrived as a disorderly mound upon arrival in his garden, and it was up to him to properly tamp everything down.

  At least his ring allowed him the massive time saving shortcut, and Alex burned through not one but two beast cores in thanks to the forest fo
r allowing him to plunder absolutely as many Qi-enriched plants and the choicest fruit and nut trees he could find.

  And even with Power Healing, he still felt more than slightly dizzy after spraying the greedy forest with yet another gallon of his lifeblood.

  Though the notification he got honestly surprised him, considering how impossibly vast the forest truly was.

  Golden Realms Forest acknowledges your Gift of Blood! Divine potency sensed!

  Your standing within the entirety of the forests of this continent has marginally improved!

  The Card of Cleaved Fates severs all karmic ties!

  The forest’s favorable status towards you is unchanged! Golden Realms Forest is displeased by the games of fate played by gods and men!

  Long Wang’s status has decreased within the Golden Realms Forest!

  Long Wang is howling his outrage!

  A surprised Alex couldn’t help but flash a darkly pleased grin as the cloudless skies thundered with the sound of storms to come.

  Or gods displeased that their own gambits were now working against them.

  And with a final satisfied smile as his wrist fully healed up once more, Alex bowed his solemn thanks to the forest as a whole before flipping back inside his ring, ready to begin the next stage of his World Seed evolution.

  22

  Alex’s gaze grew thoughtful as he checked upon his plants, so many blooming with fecund health, the flowers and newly-budding saplings seeming to thrive under the gentle sun, free of the strangling limitations of the thick forest canopy which served to keep so many plants in check, Alex’s garden now allowed to grow and blossom as much as it possibly could.

  But not all of his plants were blooming.

  He clenched his jaw in growing anxiety, examining his silverbell gently transplanted for what he hoped was the last time under a now-truly living conifer, Alex careful to select the same exact breed as he had seen host other silverbells under their bowers, though of course the one he had found and selected had been free of any priceless treasures.