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

by M. H. Johnson

  Thanks to his disguise, he was able to slip through the crowd with relative ease. People winced and coughed and quickly gave him space, normally aggressive hawkers turning up their noses and darting away before getting too close. No one bothered to peer too closely at the hunched, smelly figure, happily giving him all the room he needed to get by them as quickly as possible.

  Before too much time had passed, Alex was able to break free of the grand boulevard before it hit the massive open market near this gate entrance which Alex suspected acted almost like an artery for the city, where countless wagons would unload their goods and sell it all in bulk lots, said produce and supplies then quickly making their way deeper into Baidushi’s interior, eventually showing up in restaurants, food stands, and crafting stalls throughout the massive city.

  Alex took a deep, calming breath as he slowly reabsorbed the pungent substances back into his body, removing his bandages soon after, and within seconds he was free of all but the faintest of lingering odors, grateful as always for how well Eternal Fox and his Biochemical Mastery perk worked together.

  He discreetly dropped the slip of paper the guard had handed him, just glad his ruse had worked. For all that the gods themselves might have done everything they could to fill the locals with animus against his kind, up to and including infecting the Red Prince’s own soldiers with the compulsion to find and capture any Ruidian they could, Alex had still managed to slip past his foes. Because with Fog of War in effect, his enemies had absolutely no way of knowing just how skilled he had become at flowing through the forests, sensing and avoiding enemies before they had the faintest inkling as to his own location.

  Gifts that had served him incredibly well. Even now, feeling half blind without his Forest Sense, his seventy-foot range Qi Perception immediately clued him in to the presence of multiple cultivators he could sense peering down at the crowds below, sending chills down Alex’s spine.

  They were hunting for something. Of that, Alex had no doubt. And were it not for his cloak and the wide-brimmed hat he still wore, completely hiding his build and features from the spotters overhead, he would be even more nervous than he already was.

  Even with the advantage of his earlier bird’s eye view, it was some time before Alex finally made it through the heart of the city, still amazed by the size and scope of Baidushi, considering the limits of conveyances and local technology. But all the faces of late-night revelers, and there were many, showed well-fed features flush with health, happiness, or perhaps just good quality spirits.

  The men were dressed in form-fitting changshan jackets, leather shoes, and silken pants, the ladies by their sides dressed in elegant-looking qipaos or long gowns set off by short jackets with pieces of fluttering silk artfully tied about hair, wrist, and hemline, their lips painted bright shades of scarlet, Alex catching sight of more than one strikingly beautiful girl flashing a brilliant smile when colorful flowers were slipped behind gem studded ears by the men at their side.

  It was clear that all the late night revelers brimming with vitality and good health had never known a day’s worth of hunger or deprivation in their lives. Which was an incredible feat in a city of twenty million, and showed the benefits of careful city planning in a world where cultivators could embrace paths of healing, alchemists could formulate miracle elixirs as potent as any medicine from Earth, and spiritual energy could preserve food for months if not years, Alex thought as he strode through an obviously wealthy section of the city, or at least one of them, earning the occasional pointed look by half-inebriated men fingering their jians as they made their way from one late night establishment to another.

  Though more than confident in his own skills among this crowd, Alex sought discretion, not confrontation, so changed his path for a more discreet route.

  Before long, the sounds of ribald celebration and the scents of spirits, hashish, and poppy wafting out every time one of the ochre-colored doors fronting a number of opulent pagodas opened made it clear that his attempts at a discreet route to the heart of the capital had taken Alex past an upscale red-light district, further evidenced by the handful of ladies lounging just outside several colorful establishments, all wearing tight-fitting qipaos that left far less to the imagination than the outfits worn by ladies of more noble birth that Alex had passed by earlier.

  Most of the girls boldly revealed their pale ivory necks as much as they did their shapely thighs, ebony tresses piled up high atop their heads with sticks of silver and mock-jade, more than a few flashing inviting smiles Alex’s way, trying to catch his eyes with their winsome glances.

  But Alex kept his head low, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze, his wide-brimmed hat hiding so many secrets he didn’t dare share. Because all it took was a single surprised glance, or whisper of the word ‘Ruidian’ upon the night breeze, and the dozens of rooftop sentinels eyeing all the major thoroughfares between city and palace would no doubt hone in on him like a pack of wolves to unexpected prey.

  And the last thing Alex wanted right then was trouble, doing everything he could just to scout out the perimeter of the royal quarter, hosting the palace and so many other residences, parks, and buildings that were the exclusive province of Crown Princess Cui Zhe and her family alone, while getting a feel for just how safe it would be for Princess Xian Hong to present herself to the palace directly, or if she would be walking into a kill zone.

  And his growing fear that it might be the latter, for all that he dearly wished he could label the dozens of cultivating crossbowmen stationed on various rooftops as nothing more than a ruler’s understandable precaution, turned to ice cold certainty when he saw just who was manning the silver bridge connecting the royal quarter to the rest of the city proper, the only way over a moat of shimmering liquid Alex could sense crackling with living Qi.

  Just a single glance at the contents of that moat sent icy shivers of horror trickling down Alex’s spine.

  What the hell were these fools doing?

  Qi Perception check successful! +8 Modifier for familiarity bonus in effect! Qi Artificer skill check successful! You understand the origins of this defensive ward!

  The crackling storm of Qi radiating from the waters was no doubt more than capable of warding against any invasion, and might be seen as the absolute perfect protection any anxious ruler could hope to have in place to protect their family from any threat, real or imagined.

  But that truth did nothing to mitigate the horror Alex felt, gazing at the palace and gardens that shimmered as if seen through a black and white haze.

  He now thought he understood what was placing this city in such terrible jeopardy that everyone around him seemed oblivious to, gazing upon a moat filled not with the pristine waters from the lake a short distance beyond this major metropolis, but rather with the impossibly frigid waters that could only come from the River of Souls.

  The entire royal quarter was surrounded by waters pulled directly from stygian banks promising only oblivion to any fool that dared truck in forces they couldn’t possibly understand.

  And Alex did his best to hide in the shadows when a band of well-dressed merchants saluted the handful of bored-looking guards radiating the fierce power of Silvers guarding the glittering bridge.

  “Purpose?”

  “Supplies for the feasts, my lord,” said one merchant, immediately flowing into dogeza, as did all the merchants before him, apparently thinking nothing of getting their silken robes dirty.

  The lead guard smirked, and truly Alex felt the cold clammy grip of fear clench his heart when the wide-brimmed hat the man wore, so like his own, lifted enough for Alex to see the sneering smile of the man underneath.

  There was a weight to his deadly gaze. And Alex wasn’t so blind that he missed the hideous maiming suffered at the hands of some caustic agent or other that had made a scarred ruin of his once-handsome features, the oversized patch over the left side of his face no doubt an attempt to cover as much of the horrific scarring as possible.

&n
bsp; For half a second the man frowned, glaring with his one good eye into the shadows, before shaking his head as if it were nothing.

  “You may leave the goods here. Standard payment, I assume,” the cultivator said in a bored tone, the merchants flowing into grateful bows and accepting what seemed to be a promissory note before rising upright and rapidly retreating the way they had come with their empty wagons while the guards, much to Alex’s surprise, began to act as porters. Once the powerful guards brought the supplies across the bridge, servants with carts and mules who had arrived when one guardsman rang a bell rapidly gathered up the goods before heading back to the palace.

  Alex thought it strange that such powerful Silver guardians of royalty were the ones carrying supplies across the bridge, then thought no more of it when his eyes caught sight of a lone youth rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck as he waited for his turn. Alex assumed he was a noble scion of one clan or another upon catching sight of the elegantly filigreed jian at his hip and the exquisitely tailored clothing he wore, the youth now quirking his lips in a bemused half grin at the sentinels before him.

  “Your name and purpose?” asked the maimed guard who had blended perfectly with the shadows on the near side of the bridge.

  The youth chuckled softly, turning around to meet the man’s gaze as the five powerful Silvers who had been acting as porters on the palatial side just moments ago crossed the bridge in unison with bored expressions, as if this was all expected protocol, forming a quiet half circle behind the smiling aristocrat now flashing the silver amulet around his neck. “Surely you jest. I left not half an hour ago on behalf of the Blue Prince. Your memory can’t be that bad, can it?”

  The lead guard smiled coldly, his one good eye flashing silver. “Ah. Perhaps you are right, young sir. But where are your companions?”

  The youth snorted. “Out carousing, I expect. I, however, believe in taking my duties seriously.”

  The guard before him nodded. “As do I, young sir. As do I.”

  A cold nod was shared with the other five guards, one of whom turned around for a quick cursory glance, and how odd it was to Alex that this area wasn’t filled with people. No matter how cleverly the buildings had been arranged near the entrance to the royal quarter, for defense or privacy or whatever reason, this was still a city of twenty million!

  But with the departure of the merchants down a thoroughfare that had immediately cut off their view, there was no one else in sight. Just the windowless backs of a number of buildings, and a grassy area with a bed of roses and space for several merchant wagons near the actual bridge.

  The young man frowned. “May I ask the reason for the holdup?” And then his eyes bulged as the five guardsmen drew their blades and ran him through.

  Much to Alex’s amazement, multiple powerful Qi-enhanced strikes bounced off what must have been a Gold-ranked protective artifact he could now sense shimmering from the young man’s wrist, showing just how valued this youth was by his patron.

  The young man turned around, the blade of his unsheathed jian now blazing with fiery Qi, glaring at the five treacherous guardsmen. “You would dare to strike a scion of the Azure Kingdom? You will pay for that, worms!”

  And before the youth could do more than blink, he was throttled by his own shadow as the lead guard, now the only one behind him, clenched his fist. “How easy fools like you are to goad and bait. That toy by your hip might actually have caused me... inconvenience,” he said, glaring at the sword of glass dropped from desperate fingers scrabbling for purchase upon the shadowy claws throttling the bulging-eyed youth. “Soon, your blue master will have no pawns left to do his bidding, and then he too will tragically disappear.”

  Cold laughter washed over Alex as the struggling noble was lifted up by his own shadow and tossed into the deadly waters of the river, disappearing without a splash as his body instantly discorporated and his spirit was sent straight to the River of Souls.

  And how brilliant a kill move it was, Alex thought as his heart pounded in terrified disbelief, Qi Perception sensing a dozen sophisticated triggers and wards diffuse before they could even be activated, their owner simply ceasing to exist from one moment to the next.

  And it seemed that not even the priceless bracelet of shimmering elemental Qi, so good at protecting against elemental attacks and blades of steel, could defend its wearer against Shadow’s grip.

  Alex clenched his fists, finally forced to acknowledge why so many nobles in positions of power feared the kitsune race so deeply.

  Even as he castigated himself for having done nothing to intervene, shock and horror as he gazed at his own death freezing him on the spot. This wasn’t just some cold-eyed murderous stranger Alex was looking at. This was the very assassin that had tried so hard to butcher him, a monster that had given chase for a full day and night, deadly shadow and exploding Wood Qi always a heartbeat behind him, no matter how desperately he had fled.

  Until that bastard had walked into a trap that had finally given Alex a chance to break free of this monster, for all that it had cost him nearly everything he owned.

  Alex had led that bloodthirsty assassin to the lair of a fire-breathing Gold. He had thought, or at least hoped, that this bloodthirsty kitsune was long dead.

  Even when the five guards were crossing the bridge once more, returning to their station while they laughed and joked about the look of surprise on their victim’s face, Alex still tried to make sense of all he had seen, all that it implied.

  The entire staff, or at least Sovereign Princess Cui Zhe’s security by the bridge leading to the merchant’s quarter, was entirely compromised, willing to kill for the Red Prince’s henchman upon command. And Alex suspected this was just the first step to Xian Hong’s uncle enacting a coup, no doubt having every intention of securing Baidushi as part of his extended holdings and securing himself a kitsune wife with Jade potential besides.

  Alex clenched his teeth, the fire in his gut burning away the last traces of that crippling fear that had unmanned him for far too many seconds.

  A part of him wondered if he could have done more than just stand there.

  But against five Silver ranked guardians?

  He shook his head. It would have been suicide, and then there would have been no way he could have secured his friends a safe route to the palace that would bypass these monsters.

  Alex hated the thought of doing what he knew he had to do, hated it because it was playing right into what WiFu’s brothers wanted, which was for Alex to either die, or use up all his resources trying to counter their gambits. But it didn’t change the facts before him.

  He knew what must happen if he truly intended to get Xian Hong safely beyond this perimeter of death, already sensing just how powerful a ward generated by the River of Souls would be.

  And exactly what would be needed to break through.

  -Damn!-

  Then Alex froze, his racing mind quickly going over what he had seen, what he had said in his own head.

  Five guards.

  -There had been six, not five!-

  His heart raced in sudden panic, realizing his mistake.

  This was just like what had happened in the woods! Some trick of Shadow, no doubt. Perhaps linked to Spirit Qi, perhaps not. Either way, he had his planned jump point by the front entrance to the impossibly grand palace covered in shimmering mother of pearl that he had been gazing so intently at locked firmly in his mind. Now he had to leave immediately before—

  “How fickle the fates can be, is it not so, Ruidian?”

  Alex gasped, feeling the razor-sharp point of a steely blade ripping into his kidney, instantly flooding his body with poison.

  Alex stumbled forward, suddenly surrounded by mocking laughter.

  Realizing too late how stupid his chosen vantage point had been. For all that it had put distance between himself and that awful river whose secrets he understood all too well while still giving him a perfect view of the proceedings at the bridge,
his hiding spot was the alcove of a building no doubt magnificent in daylight, but at the moment was nothing but cold-faced stone in pitch darkness.

  Darkness now alive with a storm of shadows clawing at his flesh, pinning him where he had stumbled with bonds as unbreakable as steel as a shadowy figure came into view, flourishing an elegant bow with the removal of a wide-brimmed hat so like Alex’s own.

  Or perhaps WiFu’s own, the hungry silver-jade eye of a killer now glaring into a struggling Alex’s own as the man flashed a too-wide smile, revealing in far clearer detail the horror of a face scarred by the most caustic of acids, flesh melted away to scar tissue and bone. The eye patch had been removed, as if for Alex’s benefit alone.

  The very sight combined with his captor’s foul breath filled him with sickening revulsion, made all the worse by the shadowy binds that pinned him in place, Alex finally caught by the hunter who had taken such cold delight in chasing him through deepest woods for nearly a full day and night.

  A predator Alex had thought himself free of, after the forest air had rang with the panicked screams of a mortally-wounded kitsune and the hot roar of a serpent on the verge of becoming a true dragon.

  Yet, clearly, Alex’s nemesis had survived.

  And just as clearly, the Red Prince’s deadly assassin recognized exactly who and what Alex was.

  “Strange. You should be writhing in exquisite agony from the spirit beast venom now flooding your veins, yet all you seem to feel is ice cold dread as you gaze into the orchestrator of your inevitable death.” Bone white teeth flashed in a bleak smile. “This pleases me more than you could know, Ruidian. I am glad to see the sweet terror that is but the gentlest prelude to the storm of agony that is soon to be yours.”