“Sweet dreams, Alex,” he said, before disappearing completely from sight.
Alex smirked at that.
Sweet dreams indeed.
He then proceeded to do what he had been yearning for since the first day he had arrived in Yidushi, entering the oversized sauna and bathing facilities and enjoying the best warm shower and hot soak of his life, before dressing in a fine cotton robe left out for him, nearly identical to the fluffy ones his mother would leave outside his shower for him a lifetime ago. He smiled in pleased satisfaction when a quick check of his wardrobe showed his swords polished and his clothes in pristine, blood-free condition, before slipping under the downy soft covers of his magnificent four poster bed and savoring the most luxurious sleep of his life.
23
“Try harder, Hao Chan!” snapped Lady Ning Jing, former Jianghu assassin and second mother to Yinzi, the kitsune girl nibbling her hair and gazing intently at her friend.
Lady Feng Huang’s hard glare for the exhausted girl shaking in her thin silken qipao after performing an acrobatic series of leaps, spins, and pirouettes that quite took Alex’s breath away, was the same as Ning Jing’s own. “You have to try harder, Hao Chan. If you are to have any hope of advancement, you must forge your Bronze cords before it’s too late, or you’ll never be anything more than a talented dancer.”
“But I can’t!” Hao Chan sobbed. “I can’t forge these damn cords, not even in dance! It hurts when I try. None of the manuals you’ve presented me feel right, even when combined with battlefield katas.”
The courtyard outside the cliff-faced fortress that must have been Lady Jidihu’s hidden retreat, rang with the crack of palm against cheek.
Hao Chan fell to the ground with a sob, her silken uniform that she had kept previously so clean, even as she had dazzled the audience with spinning kicks so fast and powerful they could shatter stone, now covered in streaks of grime, a glaring Ning Jing pinning her with a Silver’s killing aura.
“The time for leniency has passed, Hao Chan. For you and my daughter both!”
Yinzi, her kitsune daughter with ears and tail of midnight shadow only Alex could see, save during the full moon, gasped along with Hao Chan. “Mother, you promised!”
“How many weeks has it been, daughter? You and your battle sister allowed to follow your passions, your hearts, to study that tome that has already killed three of our own!”
Yinzi paled, lowering her head. “That’s not fair, Mother, and you know it.”
Ning Jing glared, open hand clenching into a fist.
Before her hand was gently clasped by her kitsune wife, Jidihu’s jade green eyes locking with Ning Jing’s own, both of them kitted in tight-fitting qipaos of ivory and jade, suitable for dancing or fencing, and even in his dream, or Hao Chan’s dream that he was peering into, Alex could see the love the two women had for each other.
Ning Jing gave an angry shake of her head, slowly relaxing her fist. “We lost three girls, Jidihu. To that boy’s forbidden tome!”
“I know, love. And it grieves me, too. Those village children we rescued were told not to touch it, that only those who had a complete set of meridian channels were suitable for the lessons within.” She sighed and shook her head. “If only we could tell beforehand who did and did not have the potential to open all seven gates. But we don’t, and those girls should never have been allowed anywhere near our sanctuary’s library, only two of them having opened any channels at all. And that is why we now keep Alex’s divine tome under lock and key, allowing its use only for those on the verge of breaking through to Bronze and beyond.”
“But Hao Chan and I have been teaching all the girls we rescued what we’re learning from that wondrous tome,” Yinzi said. “As long as they learn from us, they are perfectly safe. And the value of the lessons themselves would make any cultivator hot with envy! Mother, you can’t imagine the look in their eyes when they finally understand the subtle connections between Dark and Light Qi within all their cells, when they find that injuries that might take weeks to heal with the risk of deadly fever can instead be made to heal up in less than a day, impurities burned away, once they learn the trick of coaxing their own body to better repair itself! And fatigue! Mother, I can’t tell you the glory of finding all my fatigue washing away with just a few moments of meditation. And those are just a few of the breakthroughs Hao Chan and I have discovered!”
Ning Jing’s renewed glare caused her kitsune daughter to wilt. “And you dared to dip your hand in your mother’s caustic brew!”
“That was pretty stupid, love,” Jidihu said, shaking her head with a sigh, gazing at Yinzi’s gloved hands. “I agree, it’s a miracle the flesh wasn’t seared right from your bones. But your screams, the withered claws you made of your hands… I fear it will forever haunt my dreams. And it will cost a fortune in spiritually rich blossoms and a healer’s time to repair the damage you have done to yourself. Precious resources that could have been spent elsewhere, daughter.”
Yinzi stood up straight and lifted her chin. “Really, mother?”
Jidihu, looking so much like an older version of her daughter at that moment, tilted her head, a tiny smile quirking the corner of her lips. “Are you going to show me something remarkable, second-born?”
Yinzi chuckled throatily, tearing off her bandages, revealing graceful hands miraculously free of any signs of injury, the farthest thing from being withered claws, without a single scar or blemish marring their perfection. Save, of course, for the callouses she had earned after countless hours of striking pels and training with her battle sister, which was not an injury so much as the body’s own way of toughening itself.
Hao Chan, standing upright once more, the mark on her face already fading as she channeled her internal Qi using Eternal Fox technique, couldn’t help but clap. “Well done, Yinzi!”
Jidihu winked her approval, before poking her wife in the ribs. “I told you Alex’s techniques could heal almost anything, as long as we gave it time.”
But Ning Jing was gazing at her daughter’s hands in awe. “No healing magics short of a deep Silver’s should have been able to heal those injuries, you foolish child! Whatever drove you to dip your hands in your second mother’s most caustic brew in the first place?”
“Hao Chan and I have finally reached the stage where we’re beginning to learn Pristine Form. It gives immunity to all poisons, acids, and pretty much anything that can dissolve the flesh.” She had the grace to wince. “It’s just that my skill wasn’t quite enough to overcome, well...”
“The strongest caustic agents we have?”
“Yes, Mother.”
Ning Jing shook her head, holding her daughter close. “What am I ever going to do with you, child?”
“Exactly what you have been doing. Let Hao Chan and I find our own way forward. We’re already mastering a sacred cultivation manual that is just as powerful as it is subtle. A cultivation path that holds the secrets of ageless perfection at its core!”
Ning Jing nodded. “I do. I allow both of you to devote your entire mornings to that path, teaching those secrets you safely can to all your sisters who can learn it from your lips far more safely than they can from that terrible tome directly.”
Yinzi nodded. “Thank you, Mother. But you don’t have to push Hao Chan and I so hard to incorporate those flawed cultivation techniques our library is full of. You know as well as I that within Alex’s tome is a configuration that can allow one to ascend to Gold. Even... further, for those who dare.”
And before the girl could say another word, the crack of Ning Jing’s open palm echoed through the training grounds, Yinzi stumbling back with a cry. “His absurd technique would take you a thousand years to ascend to Gold! And you can only go further and faster at the cost of your soul!” screamed Ning Jing. “You yourself admitted it! Don’t you dare tie your own soul to that meridian pattern! Give me your Cultivator’s Oath you will never do that, or I will forbid you from ever studying that tome again!”
Even Jidihu, Yinzi’s second mother, nodded. “I would hear those words as well, Yinzi. I won’t have my only daughter risk all her future incarnations for a single lifetime’s worth of power, no matter how enticing.”
And much to Alex’s surprise, not sure if he was truly in a dream or just a spirit somehow anchored to Hao Chan’s side, Yinzi didn’t bow her head in meek acceptance. She glared, ruby red gaze seeming almost to catch fire as she clenched her pale fists. “Did you limit yourselves to similar oaths, Mother, when you dared an infernalist’s path, forging Dark Qi into your bones, sealing it with the souls now bound to your own till the day you die? And how dark a path did my second mother walk to rule an entire clan of assassins in secret? You have both come so close to damning yourselves for power, neither of you have any right to tell me what path I must take!”
With those words and a final glare, Yinzi seemed to fade into the growing shadows as the sun set behind them.
“Yinzi!” Jidihu snapped.
But her daughter was gone.
Alex, for his part, was stunned. Well did he remember that loquacious, eccentric, and strangely charming girl’s persona. But never had he seen her truly angry before.
Jidihu sighed and shook her head. “I never realized she had your temper until now.”
“Blame the deity who used you to put her in me,” Ning Jing snapped. “God of Chaos and Change, my ass. Pure trouble, more like. Just like our daughter!”
Hao Chan, now trembling in her too-thin qipao as ice cold air bit into the cliff side their sanctuary had been carved out of, gave a respectful bow. “With your permission, I will retire.”
Jidihu nodded, but Ning Jing glared. “You will not, Hao Chan. You will take that Silver Swan cultivation tome we invested so many resources in acquiring for you, the very style you and my daughter practice every night, and you will take the first steps to forming cords of Bronze. I have seen how well you fight, girl. I know exactly how strong you are, and your Metal and Water Qi is perfectly aligned to this technique that allows for deepest Silver!”
Hao Chan seemed almost to wilt under the former assassin’s hard glare. “But Lady Ning Jing...”
“Enough! Your cowardice in taking the next step, expecting some magical golden tome to pop out of the ether, is sheer absurdity. And it is giving my Yinzi the excuse she needs to put off advancing to Bronze forever!” The former assassin folded her arms, glaring down at a trembling Hao Chan. “I was willing to put up with a certain amount of recalcitrance. More than willing to let you do things at your own pace. But now I think this is less about finding a perfect technique than about sheer fear of commitment! Thinking you’re somehow destined for what, an Emperor’s Jade manual?”
Ning Jing roared with bitter laughter. “If only you knew how blessed you are that we had the resources and that Jidihu cared enough to secure a tome over half a millennium old! A tome once used by the Emperor’s own favored assassins! A tome that will get you to Silver and into your boyfriend’s arms at the very least. And with your potential, you might have to fight for it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you one day ascended to Gold! And even if you never got beyond a half step away from that mark, what of it? Less than one in ten million can claim even that much. Far less, in this day and age. And this art, child, as you already know damn well, is utterly in tune with who you are. What you are, Hao Chan.”
Hao Chan lowered her head. “I’m a dancer.”
Ning Jing flashed a cold smile. “You’re a warrior. A killer. Just like all of us here. Now quit hesitating, and devote yourself to that tome. And maybe, just maybe, when Yinzi sees that ascending to Bronze isn’t the end of the world, but just the first step to forging a new beginning, she won’t be so damned headstrong as to risk her very soul in your boyfriend’s work of divine madness!”
“That might be a bit harsh, love,” said Jidihu.
Ning Jing snorted. “Alex’s patron god is so obviously Yinzi’s father. Just consider the title he dared to put on his tome! And whatever twisted insights allowed Alex to pen that cultivation manual, a safe, gentle path forward that doesn’t imperil one’s very existence certainly wasn’t a concern for fox god or reborn soul when they forged that tome!”
Jidihu nodded. “All true.” She flashed a sympathetic smile Hao Chan’s way. “I do understand the draw of Alex’s tome, dear. It has so many wonderful secrets to share. And the thought of slipping free of time’s burden altogether, embracing ageless perfection, is a technique that might one day net us an incredible fortune, should Alex give us permission to teach it to select rulers, perhaps even the imperial clan. For I can think of no greater path that will lead to the acceptance of my tribe than having such a delicious secret to share. And it is you and my daughter, learning and mastering the gentler secrets of that tome, that will lead the way. But I beg of you, Hao Chan, forsake learning or teaching that one forbidden cultivation path in your would-be lover’s tome.”
And with those words she raised Hao Chan to her feet once more, pressing a priceless Silver tome into the girl’s trembling hands. “My wife is right. It’s time for you to take the first steps along a path that was all but made for you. Deepest Silver is a rank no cultivator ever need be ashamed of, lest they were born into one of the double handful of royal families ruling over the hundreds of principalities underneath them, or the imperial clan itself.”
Alex could sense the steel beneath Jidihu’s gaze. “Go to your quarters and study, child. I will make sure Yinzi joins you shortly.”
And a silently observing Alex found himself walking beside a teary-eyed Hao Chan as she made her way back to her quarters, carefully placing the cultivation manual upon her finely lacquered desk. Then she slipped into the pile of spirit beast furs lining her fine hardwood bed and began sobbing her heart out.
And it was only when her sobs had eased, soft full lips parting in gentlest slumber, that Alex felt like he was truly there, by her side, gazing at the vision of beauty that had so captivated his heart, now needing his comfort more than ever.
He didn’t second-guess himself, he just lay by her side, wrapping her in his arms, taking such sweet delight in feeling her lush curves against him, savoring the scents of strawberries and jasmine as he kissed the back of her neck, content just to hold her, even if the god’s strange enchantment didn’t actually give him the ability to speak to her.
So when she stiffened in his arms, wide amber eyes turning to gaze into his own, the look of surprise and wonder on her face quite took his breath away.
“Alex, you’re here! Saints mercy, you’re actually here!” Her laughter turned to a low throaty chuckle as he wiped her tears away. She grabbed his hand and rubbed it against her cheek, sighing in bliss. “I know I’m dreaming. I know I have to be. But just being able to hold you close, to know that I can feel your body against my own, even in my dreams...”
“Hao Chan—”
A lacquered fingertip touched his lips. “Say nothing. Let me savor this dream of you, okay, Alex?” With those words her soft lips caressed his own, soft butterfly kisses soon turning to so much more.
Heart pounding, Alex couldn’t hold back the growl in the back of his throat as he wrapped his own powerful arms around her, holding her so tight her eyes widened as she gasped. He immediately loosened his grip, then saw the hungry look in her gaze.
“I see the wildness in your eyes. Feel the power in your grip. You’ve become so fierce. So strong. You look like you could eat me alive, Alex.”
Her lips caressed his ear. “So do it. Devour me, lover. Wash away all my sorrows with the kisses we’ll one day share, for real.”
And for a timeless moment, Alex did just that, savoring the taste of her lips, her throat, the tangy sweat covering her quivering body as she sobbed and shuddered in his arms.
Before stopping himself cold.
As his body gave him the only warning it would before he imperiled them both.
“Hao Chan?”
“Don’t stop, Alex.
Please, don’t stop!”
“Hao Chan! Do you feel that?”
She stopped. Swallowed, gazing at him with awe and horror. “I feel it.”
Neither of them had to ask what was meant, the sudden, sharp, painful tug in their shifted Lower Dantians that told them they were about to do something very stupid.
Her gaze turned to one of confused wonder, gazing at Alex strangely. “How is that possible?”
It was all Alex could do to force himself away, sitting up on the bed, afraid to even look at her now naked body with its sensual curves, dusky aureoles, and her hungry gaze, all at risk of sending him over a perilous cliff of desire and regret.
Alex swallowed, gazing at the far wall. “What do you mean?”
“Why, I dream of you every night! Every night you fill me with your passion. Every night I savor your body and you make me scream with pleasure, and it all means nothing. It doesn’t affect my Lower Dantian at all, thank the gods, because I know, even when you’re laughing in my arms and we speak of the wonderful wedding we will have and the cozy home we will build together for all the children we will one day share... I know, even then, that it’s all just a dream.”
Soft amber eyes gazed beseechingly into his own. “So why can’t you make love to me tonight?”
Alex chuckle softly, heart racing far more than it should as he held her gaze. “Because tonight, I’m really here.”
Hao Chan froze, gazing strangely at Alex. She flashed a bemused smile that instantly transformed to a curious look of confusion. “Oh, Alex, if only that we’re possible! This is just another dream of you, is that it?” She flashed a seductive smile. “One I have to seduce anew, to lead into my arms for the first time once more.” Soft lips reclaimed his own. “To cherish and love and swear my heart to, as I have a hundred times before and will do so every night of our lives, when you’re finally mine in the flesh as well as–”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 43
