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

by M. H. Johnson

“The spirit?”

  Hao Chan’s eyes widened. She broke off her kiss.

  “You’ve never interrupted me in a dream like this before.”

  Alex chuckled softly. “And you remember all your dreams, do you?”

  She nodded solemnly. “Of course. Everyone in my family does.”

  Alex laughed. “You have me beat there, Hao Chan. Truth is, I’m lucky if I remember a single one, even a minute after I wake up.”

  She gave a bemused shake of her head. “My poor Alex. It’s like half the wonder of your life is forever lost to you. I guess you’ll just have to make up for it by being an incredibly gifted cultivator and the chosen of the gods.”

  Alex chuckled ruefully. “Only one god, Hao Chan. The rest despise me and wish only for my death.” He frowned, correcting himself. “Or at least most of them do. And not my death so much as my permanent removal from the board, one way or another.”

  Hao Chan furrowed her pretty brows and really, Alex thought, seeing the girl he adored with her hair falling like a seductive waterfall around her strikingly voluptuous breasts that somehow didn’t seem to affect her martial prowess at all, was almost more than he could stand.

  Hao Chan caught his gaze and flashed a wicked smile. “Like what you see?”

  Alex swallowed and laughed. “More than you can imagine.”

  She chuckled throatily. “I can imagine quite a lot, lover of my dreams.”

  “I bet.”

  Her gaze grew soft, hopeful. “Are you really here, Alex? Somehow, really here?”

  He swallowed and nodded, then he gently placed a finger on her soft crimson lips. She promptly nibbled it before sucking it with a too suggestive look in her impish gaze.

  He swallowed and laughed. “If you keep that up, it will be very hard to continue this conversation without risking both our foundations.”

  “Why should it even matter, Alex? We’re here in dream, not the flesh.”

  “That’s... actually not entirely true, Hao Chan. I have it on very good authority that when cultivators make love, they’re not just entwining their flesh, they’re actually fusing their Lower Dantians, somehow. It’s how cultivation power is passed from parents to children, and seems to also handle genetic imprinting as well, but don’t worry about that. The point is, if we make love in your dream, with my artifact perfectly connecting our Spirit Qi?” He smiled into her eyes. “You really could get pregnant.”

  She blushed and lowered her gaze. “I’d love nothing more than to feel our child growing inside me.”

  “And both of our cultivation bases would be damaged forever.” He frowned. “Or at least until Eternal Fox healed them once more, which might take, I don’t know, decades?”

  She chuckled throatily. “And we’d never be good that long and we’d always be starting over, wouldn’t we, Alex?”

  Alex nodded. “That’s my fear as well. Now I have a couple vital things to share with you. And this is important. Mention absolutely nothing aloud, even in your dreams, except what I tell you to mention to the others.”

  Hao Chan furrowed her brow. “I love you, Alex, but I’m not going to spend the next thousand years playing your obedient demure servant whose only goal in life is to fulfill your every desire.” Her hard expression instantly softened to sultry laughter. “That is, not until nightfall, and our kids are tucked abed. Then I’ll happily fulfill my king’s every desire as your eternal goddess between dusk and dawn.”

  Hao Chan shuddered as his lips caressed her ear. “I am WiFu’s piece upon the Board of Fate, and countless gods have sought my death since last we spoke, love of my heart.”

  Desire instantly transformed to fear and awe.

  Alex shook his head before she could say a word. “And as much as they have tried to damn and destroy me, they have failed. Though I don’t mind telling you I’ve had far more close calls than is good for anyone to endure.” He chuckled ruefully. “Honestly, I’m grateful I can’t remember my dreams. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve jolted awake with my heart pounding, a scream building up in my throat... before it all fades in confusion with the first light of dawn. All I can say is how grateful I am to be able to put aside the night’s awful, half-forgotten dreams or memories for the promise of a fresh new day.”

  He smiled at the terrible pity he saw in her eyes.

  “But look on the bright side! I’ve gotten stronger. I’m now Rank 4 Divine Bronze, and will soon hit Rank 5. But again, don’t say that aloud! The point is, that even after everything that was done to me, including gods slamming down the cards of destiny or damnation upon the board that makes up our world, I’m still here. And those deities have placed any number of cards atop the tiny black and white chip representing my soul. One of them includes a Cleaved Fates card, assuring that no act of virtue that I perform will have any impact on people’s impressions of me, any more than they normally would for a guy who risked his life to save their own. Which means that Ning Jing and Jidihu won’t feel their hearts swelling with unexpected gratitude at the sight of me, except what they’d normally feel for anyone risking his neck to help them out. And I know I’ve offended Ning Jing on more than one occasion. After all the inconveniences they’ve suffered, if any level of their psyche were to blame me for it…”

  Alex sighed and shook his head. “I’ve seen one man’s hard eyes filling with unexpected kindness for the hero who took down the Gold threatening his entire city, only to watch it turn to cold contempt for my being the focal point of so much destruction when the Cleaved Fates Card was first laid down. Lord Wan Duan of Erjizhen, one of Sovereign Princess Cui Zhe’s retired assassins, went from wishing to fete me to wanting to kill me in the blink of an eye.”

  Sad eyes gazed into Hao Chan own. “And I can only hope that damned card didn’t have any effect on how you feel about me, because that would hurt me worse than even that former assassin managed.”

  The girl he adored chuckled softly, squeezing him tightly to her. “If you really think I’m that shallow, Alex, you truly are an idiot.”

  “Probably,” he agreed with a relieve smile. “But here’s the good news. And again, don’t say any of this aloud to anyone else! One of the cards WiFu, who has claimed my piece as his own, played upon my soul is the Fog of War card. That means that from this point on, not one damned god who sees me as a foe can sense the moves I make, or see what I do. Not until after it’s done and the ramifications are apparent to all.” He flashed a cold smile. “That also means they can’t order their servants to strike a Ruidian matching my description, and any intel flowing back to them will become garbled and indistinct.”

  Then his gaze hardened. “But it didn’t stop them from using their pieces to encircle all the major trade routes leading to the city of Baidushi, with standing orders to eliminate any and all Ruidians that approach. Because my patron god just had to push our luck, insisting I’d arrive at a certain nearby temple by a certain date that I’m now obligated to arrive at.”

  Hao Chan frowned. “But... why?” she carefully asked, revealing nothing of what he said, earning his smile.

  “Because in return, one of my enemies will be forced to leave in the Royal Phoenix Academy library a divine cultivation manual originally left by his son, giving the student who can find that tome unparalleled insights into the best ways to smash the shit out of anyone with a warhammer or any other polearm.”

  Hao Chan’s eyes twinkled. “Damn shame you can’t smash some other things while you’re at it.”

  Alex earned a delighted gasp with his fierce kiss before pulling back. “I’m going to do my bloody best to reach Silver before the year is out.”

  Hao Chan’s eyes widened with awe and surprise. Alex kissed her again before she could say a word.

  “And here’s what matters. Here’s what I want you to keep close to your heart! I’ve had an epiphany, Hao Chan,” he said, eyes lighting with sudden excitement. “I think I’m on the verge of a breakthrough, to designing a cultivation technique that has
almost nothing to do with forging ropes of knotted power the way every cultivator since forever has done, up to the point that they can forge a Silver basket to hold a Golden core with the cords strong enough to squeeze that Gold core so tight it transcends to Jade and beyond.”

  Hao Chan looked stunned. “Is that what they’re doing?”

  Alex nodded. “Of course I’m simplifying the process to an absurd degree, and I still have to determine the particulars for my own path forward. It’s like understanding how a sword is forged, versus learning how to forge your own sword. But this is the important bit. I think there’s another way to advance oneself as a cultivator. A way that has nothing to do with tension, and everything to do with compression!

  “It’s path that involves synergizing the martial techniques I’m already close to mastering, and forging an endless spiral atop our core! The power builds upon itself in a balanced fashion, much like the growing spirals of a sea shell. Best of all, it’s a path that has everything to do with the dance of Silver Swan and White Crane and perhaps a bit of Golden Realms as well. All of those movements and a few specialized techniques forged into one deadly whole. And, so long as you diligently practice that path that has everything to do with the martial dances we so love to practice, there is no limit to how far you can ascend!”

  Alex’s eyes blazed with intensity. He squeezed her hand tight, Hao Chan’s desperate, hopeful gaze locked with his own.

  “Truly, Alex? You can forge such a...”

  Her eyes widened when Bronze Rank 2 Quickness covered her mouth before she could blink. “Remember, the gods can’t hear my words, but they can surely hear your own. You are the only soul I have ever shared this secret with. And I would have no enemy know what I’m up to, before I can accomplish the feat!”

  Hao Chan shuddered before nodding her understanding.

  “It’s not without its drawbacks,” Alex cautioned. “This is going to be something completely new. Completely different. Unlike the twisting strands that make up the cables of power serving as the meridian channels for most, there will be limitations.” His gaze was almost apologetic. “You and Yinzi will only be able to learn a small handful of techniques. Especially at first. You won’t be able to ‘hang’ dozens of techniques like experienced cultivators do over time.”

  He winced at Hao Chan’s suddenly solemn gaze.

  “But that doesn’t include my Eternal Fox cultivation techniques, or the synergized Qi bone strengthening technique I can only hope I might find some hints in forging and somehow combining with Eternal Fox. But that, I fear, is a long way off. Still, you will be limited to a handful of techniques at most.”

  Hao Chan’s gaze grew thoughtful. “You mean like Adderstrike and those techniques I saw you use while actually fighting Silvers?”

  Alex grinned. “Adderstrike and Black Swan will most definitely be tied into the Cultivation Path I plan on forging.”

  “Jidihu’s been trying to make me feel better about being limited to Silver at best. She herself knows dozens of deadly, forbidden techniques. Techniques that make her far deadlier than the average Silver. Even deep Silver.”

  Alex sighed. “I know.”

  “Alex?”

  “Yes?”

  She tilted her head, enigmatic gaze meeting his own.

  “Just how far will I be able to go?”

  He winked, crooking his finger. She leaned closer. His lips caressed her ear.

  “Jade.”

  She paled, eyes widening, knowing better than to say a word.

  “If I’m successful, if this actually works, you and Yinzi will be able to ascend to the status of Jade Queens upon the Board of Fate. You will both be true powers that the gods themselves will have to respect, and WiFu would take such delight in calling his own.”

  He grinned at her awe-filled gasp.

  “And you will grow in power far faster than any cultivator before you,” he said with teasing lips now caressing her own, kissing her with sudden passion she returned in spades. And how perilous a song they sang with their bodies before breathlessly pulling away once more.

  Hao Chan chuckled throatily, eyes alight with brilliant hope. “Alex, if this is possible, if you can truly do it...”

  Alex flashed a fierce grin. “Tell Yinzi to wait. And tell her not to be a fool and embrace a Divine path that risks her eternal rebirth when there will be another path waiting for her, if only she will be patient. But don’t speak the details to anyone aloud!”

  Hao Chan nodded solemnly. “You’ve given me hope, Alex. More than you can possibly know.”

  Alex swallowed. “But of course Ning Jing, Jidihu, even your own instructor will continue to push you to commit to Silver Swan. And for all that I’d love to study that tome and learn all its body cultivation secrets and forbidden striking techniques, the actual meridian pattern it teaches is anathema to you and Yinzi both.”

  Hao Chan chuckled throatily. “I will diligently study that tome, and incorporate every tidbit of knowledge that will help me to master my deadly dance, but its martial techniques alone I will seek to master, doing my best to incorporate them so thoroughly that even my mentors will see the transformation I hope it brings me. But of the meridian patterns that would doom Yinzi and I both? I will forsake them just as you say.” She flashed an impish smile. “And I don’t think my beloved mentors will sense a thing. If they ever think to question my slow progress, I will laugh and say that I would only conspire against the path they set before me in my dreams.”

  Alex chuckled in approval. “Sounds like a plan. Learn all you can without imperiling your own path forward. I can’t wait for you to put me in my place when next we can spar together for real.” His bemused gaze turned solemn. “But sadly, time waits for no one, and our enemies are already advancing their pieces in ways that I fear will most definitely imperil our own. So let me give a few tidbits of information that will both serve to inform our Jidihu of current events, and prove the veracity of your midnight vision, without you having to speak aloud that which none save us must know.”

  Hao Chan’s eyes widened when Alex shared all he knew about the Red Prince’s company of Bronze and Silver cultivators and his attempts to either capture or kill his niece, Princess Xian Hong of Yantu nation, bordering their own nation of Zhengtu at the farmost edge of Cuijing Principality, just a couple hundred miles from Baidushi city. He then shared the history that explained both the origins of the sacred tome he hoped to find and why Baidushi enjoyed favored status with both nations, Long Wang’s son having elevated that city before his descendants founded an entire kingdom just beyond its borders. That favored status and trust between the nations was also why the Red Prince’s cultivators had been able to penetrate so deeply, without raising any suspicion.

  Of course, with the Red Prince and all his machinations in play, centuries of peace and prosperity that had been all but taken for granted might soon be put in serious jeopardy.

  “Since Xian Hong isn’t next in line for the throne, my guess is that her clan seeks an alliance with Prince Cui Long, who is next in line to rule Cuijing Principality, after his mother. Even if a principality is a tenth of the size of the neighboring kingdom, this close to the edge of Zhengtu kingdom, it’s almost as good as marrying into Zhengtu’s royal family itself, especially considering all the ties between the city of Baidushi and Yantu nation.”

  Alex smirked at his girlfriend’s awed expression. “Of course I’m cheating. I learned from the tainted letters made out to the princess and her prospective betrothed that some relative of Xian Hong was seeking the downfall of her and Prince Cui Long alike. So it makes sense to assume they will be connected, probably by marriage, unless their enemies put a stop to it. And that’s in addition to the three kitsune assassins I met, enslaved by some means I don’t understand, the tools of some mastermind they refused to make clear, also interested in the princess. So please make sure to tell Jidihu all of that, and that there are at least three lost sons of her tribe, enslaved to anot
her.”

  Hao Chan just gazed silently at Alex for long moments, as if looking for the words to say that would give nothing away.

  Then she suddenly smiled, eyes alight with the clever intelligence Alex so admired, summoning a strikingly detailed map of the kingdom out of thin air. Which shouldn’t have surprised Alex nearly as much as it did. This was her dream, after all.

  Alex gave her a fierce hug. “You never fail to amaze me,” he whispered into her ear before making her gasp as he nibbled her lobe, surprised by how hard it was to pull himself free of her suddenly fierce grip as he turned his attention to the incredibly intricate map before them, carefully placing lines between the capital city Baidushi, the neighboring kingdom of Yantu, and the trade town Yizhen, where Alex had first signed up to the caravan.

  Hao Chan frowned, pointing at Baidushi. “But still, Alex, there seems to be a lot of interest in this location right now. Do you know why that is?”

  Alex flushed and looked away. “Maybe.”

  “Can you tell me?”

  Alex gazed for long moments at Hao Chan.

  “Alex, you’re making me nervous.”

  “Don’t be mad, alright?”

  “Okay, now it’s worse.”

  “Okay, I’m assuming you picked up on the gossip going around at Dragon Academy that Cuijing had just welcomed a newly-discovered princess into the fold, right?”

  Hao Chan nodded. “Her father was Cui Jian, brother to the Sovereign Princess Cui Zhe, and one of our king’s most favored generals, correct? Then, after putting down the Moudushi Rebellions a few decades ago, he disappeared from the public eye, practicing alchemy under an assumed name, before reemerging as a Gold once more.”

  Her gaze met Alex’s own. “And his daughter is of mixed kitsune descent, and for some reason, even the Emperor’s clan has deigned to look the way of our humble principality. Even as we speak, any clan with ties to the imperial throne, most especially the first and second born sons of a number of royal clans within the empire, are now visiting Cuijing Principality and buying up all the property they can in Baidushi proper.”