And there was Seneschal Dong Xiao, greeting Alex with a tearful smile filled with such awe and gratitude.
“Master! I cannot tell you the sheer relief I feel, just seeing you hale and healthy when just two hours ago, your death seemed all but assured.” He swallowed, flowing into dogeza. “And I can never, ever repay you for the spark of life, wisdom, and enlightenment I now feel flowing through my body and soul. I am yours forever, master, in this life and all others!”
Alex winced at that. “I just woke you up to the life you were perhaps always destined to live, or perhaps had lived before.”
But the healer would hear none of that, and Alex swallowed with the sheer wonder of it all, finally accepting the fact that in the extremis of his own agony, he had brought this half-aware spirit back to true life. Dong Xiao was now every bit as real as Alex was. At least on this world. He was sure of it.
Alex clenched his priceless jade ring in a trembling grip, its true worth showing only in this world, wondering just how close he was to actually embracing the powers of a god, at least in this tiny realm.
As if the sobs of gratitude from the man presently banging his forehead upon the marble tiles wasn’t indication enough.
“You think your elevation is amazing? All I have to do is invest the power of my Gold Soul Stone into my Eternal Palace and I’ll show you something that will really blow your socks off,” Alex said to himself as much as the man before him, his gaze filled with awe nearly the equal of his newly-risen seneschal’s. “Because I’m now pretty certain that the minute I do that, absolutely every servant within my palace won’t just be living a waking dream, but will truly be aware. Alive. With all the memories of the life they almost lived before they, well, came into being. Became truly alive. Able to pass on their traits, their experiences, their very powers of cultivation, to the offspring they will then be able to have.”
Alex sighed and shook his head. “But I fear I’ll have to hold off on that wondrous investment. Because if I’m going to have any chance at all against that bastard with a Nemesis card, I need to figure out how to use his own strengths against him. And more than that, I need to secure safe passage for Xian Hong to the palace proper. Because if she’s forced to walk that silver bridge guarded by her sworn enemies... she’s as good as dead.”
“Of course you’ll make the correct decision, Child of the Heavens. The stars above foretell it! This lowly one is supremely grateful to be the first of your servants to whom you have gifted with true enlightenment and pulled free from the waking dream that is a lesser man’s existence!”
Alex winced at the dull thud of his healer kowtowing a bit too enthusiastically.
“Stop it, Dong Xiao. You’d be a poor role model if the palace healer were to hurt himself over injuries I’ve already healed.”
“At once, master,” said his seneschal with a beatific smile upon his features.
Alex winced at the blood trickling from the abrasion on the man’s forehead, but a single whispered word and a surge of Water and Wood Qi and it was near instantly healed.
“Neat trick,” Alex noted. “I’ll have to learn it from you.”
His seneschal immediately bowed. “The moment you hit Silver, I will teach you everything I know. I swear it.”
Alex couldn’t help but smirk at that. “Silver, huh? And now that’s going to take longer than ever. Besides, you actually want to help me. No bitter conflict in that at all. I wonder if that will actually slow me down? Hope not. Either way, your offer is accepted. As soon as I hit Silver.”
He then frowned. “Dong Xiao?”
“Yes, Child of the Heavens?”
“Alex is fine. Just Alex.”
“Of course, Master Alex.”
“What happened to my, well...”
“Your organs infected with the blackest of curses?”
“Well... yes.”
“I believe your lower body turned opaque and slipped free of this world entirely, your glorious realm having no desire to be infected by such a foul taint as that.”
“Oh. Well, good. I guess that makes sense.”
“Of course it does, master. You must be famished. Shall I ring for all of your favorite foods, Child of the Heavens?”
Alex smirked. “Yeah, why not. And better make it double portions. I’m going to be inviting some friends.”
“Guests? How wonderful! I’m pleased to say we have more than sufficient capacity to provide the most luxurious of quarters for, and indulge every culinary whim of, at least one hundred of your closest friends.”
“Wonderful. I’ll be back shortly with three.”
Giving a rueful chuckle as the now all too real and exceedingly potent Silver healer quickly left Alex’s personal chambers, he focused on what he had too long put off. Because as much as Alex hated the expenditure, stored power did him no good at all if he was dead.
And if he truly understood the power that mysterious chamber would give him access to, it just might give him a trump card when facing at least one type of wujen, not to mention a flexibility and maneuverability that would give him a much-needed edge when fighting homicidal cultivators after his head.
Or getting his friends deep behind enemy lines.
World Seed interface sheet accessed!
You have invested one Rank 1 Gold Soul Stone in your Chamber of Doors!
You now have 22 Ranks to invest in your Chamber of Doors!
You have chosen the following feats for all your Doors:
All doors can link to any area you have ever seen. You can anchor any one door to you that will move with you and that you may step through at will. You may channel specific elements of your Qi or soul through any of your doors. You receive a significant bonus to Summon Portal skill checks and enjoy a significant reduction in the time needed to summon forth any door.
Your doors may pierce any spiritual or physical barrier of Gold Rank 7 or lower. You may transport any object (individual or transport vehicle) voluntarily seeking passage, or any sized territory you own, if all requirements are met. Doors may be hidden or seen and used by anyone you wish at any time you desire. You may reassign any door you own at will.
Gold ranked cultivation base, or Gold Soul Stone investment is required for multiple feats! Requirements met! 18 Ranks have been spent for all door enhancements. You have 4 Ranks remaining to invest in actual doors.
You have purchased 1+2+3+4 = 10 doors, which you may place at any time. 22 out of 22 points spent.
Alex took a deep breath and smiled, feeling an odd mixture of loss for the priceless Soul Stone he had surrendered, and sweet excitement for the wonder he had forged. In an eyeblink, he could sense the black door leading to his Chamber of Doors, at the far end of his palace’s central hall.
It would take only minutes to walk along the grand hallway, enter that mystical chamber and step through any of the ten doors that would open anywhere he wished within the Golden Realms, so long as he had been there at least once, or it was a location that had caught his eye during his travels, no matter how distant, so long as he could remember it with any sort of clarity at all.
But he found it just as easy to open a sliver of dimensional darkness inside his own room, using one of his ten allotted doors to jump into the Golden Realms from his own pocket dimension that way. Either method of egress, of course, had the distinct advantage of not forcing him to pop out at the automatic anchor left by his ring, which was exactly where his nemesis had been torturing him, just hours ago.
Instead he found himself stepping through a golden portal only he could see, now anchored hundreds of feet in the air, right above one of the countless ley lines acting as trade routes crisscrossing the great forest covering so much of this world, Alex’s present location midway between where he had last seen his friends and Baidushi.
For a handful of seconds he enjoyed the glorious sensation of freefall before turning his rapid descent into the swooping dive of an eagle as he embraced Storm Flight and howled with jubilation
and laughter, savoring the sheer joy of soaring above the treetops in a body hale, healthy, and flooded with sweet spiritual energy, when less than an hour before he had been fighting for his life against wounds so terrible that only the most desperate of measures had saved him.
Yet here he was, racing across the sky, savoring the sensation of the normally indifferent forest’s now oddly friendly presence flooding his mind, his friends now blinking bright green in his Forest Sense-enhanced interface, just a few miles further down the road.
“Do you think he’ll be alright?” asked a worried looking Xian Hong as she diligently practiced the drills Master Yan insisted she master, no matter that she was already panting with exhaustion, her younger cousin already curled up in his blanket, snoring away.
Her mentor and protector didn’t bother with false platitudes. He furrowed his brow and shrugged. “We can only hope, Fangsu. We can only hope.” His gaze hardened. “We’ll proceed as we planned, but if he fails to intercept us before we come to the outskirts of the city... you know what we must do.”
Fangsu, or Princess Xian Hong, glared at her protector. “Turn tail and run, so terrified of my monster of an uncle that we refuse to even approach the city? At that point we’ve surrendered the board entirely, Yan. We might as well lay down our pieces and die.”
Her powerful guardian snorted. “Hardly, Fangsu.” His voice dropped an octave. “It will be nothing to cadge a few coins from the wagon master for our service. His kind knows that half the caravan guards are the farthest thing from bonded, and will sign off with one caravan and join another right by the forest clearing, avoiding pesky things such as tithes, customs, and guild taxes entirely. Not to mention few guards want to surrender their staves, glaives, and naginata here, which they need do at no other city, just because Baidushi is the capital. We’ll then work the trade roads for a year or two, heading ever farther away from the border, and find ourselves a decent training academy with strong enough wards it might actually be safe enough for you to remove your shadow amulet.”
Xian Hong smirked, giving a cold shake of her head. “You’re lying, Yan. You know damn well it will never be safe for me to take off this amulet, that I will never be able to ascend to my true strength ever again, let alone advance any further. I’ll just be hiding until I eventually die of old age.”
Her mentor sighed, denying nothing. “At least you will enjoy many peaceful years, someplace far away from the machinations of princes and madmen. A chance to savor all the sweetness life offers you, perhaps find a love who fills your heart with fire, even if not a single drop of noble blood flows through their veins. You could be happy, Xian. I’ve seen the way you look at those homesteaders accompanying the caravans, young men and their expecting wives, eyes bright with excitement at the thought of starting new communities, new families, new lives. Who’s to say we couldn’t be a part of just such a community? Perfectly hidden, perfectly happy. A mother yourself, one day, with a home full of healthy children no enemy would ever think to target, remarkable only in their exquisite degree of cultivation talent, and their ability to fill your heart with a mother’s bliss.”
Princess Xian Hong choked back a sob, her hands clenched in tight fists. “I refuse to give up so easily, Yan. I refuse to run away with my tail between my legs, knowing my uncle’s mocking laughter will be at my back for the rest of my life!”
“Then don’t,” Alex said, seeming to appear out of nowhere, earning a surprised gasp from Xian Hong, whose crestfallen features lit up in a beautiful smile. She immediately dropped her naginata and clasped Alex in a heartfelt hug.
“I knew you wouldn’t abandon us,” she sobbed. “I knew it!”
Yan gave Alex the strangest look before dipping his head in greeting. “It is good to see you, hero.”
“Likewise,” Alex said, flashing the sobbing princess in his arms a rueful smile. “So, no longer terrified I’m an agent of death come to judge everyone’s soul?”
She snorted at that, backing up a step. “What you are is a headstrong idiot who risked his life to rescue people you hardly even know. And me? I’m an even bigger idiot for being frightened, even for a moment, of the man who saved me from a fate worse than death or, well...”
“Actual death?”
She paled at those words. “Yeah, pretty much.” Soft brown eyes gazed into Alex’s own. “Please tell me you have good news, hero?”
Alex’s bemused grin turned serious, his gaze suddenly intent, his words solemn. “Actually, there’s a lot we have to talk about, and very little of it good. But first, I’m going to need something from you guys in turn.” He frowned, gazing at her sleeping cousin. “Him as well.”
Yan furrowed his brow, but didn’t hesitate to wake up a grumbling Tung whose eyes widened with awe and perhaps a tad bit of fear upon catching sight of Alex, and he was the first to give an emphatic nod when Alex asked for his unconditional Cultivator’s Oath.
Xian Hong’s eyes widened. “Alex, is that really necessary?”
Alex nodded. “If I’m going to reveal my deepest secrets to you, I need your unconditional word that, unless I say otherwise, my secrets will never leave your lips or be conveyed by any other means, save when speaking with me or any of my other friends or allies you might meet during the journey we’re about to embark upon, just as soon as you give me your word.”
Slowly, the princess bowed her head. “I don’t think you realize just how grave a concession you’re asking, hero, or the mark of honor I’m showing in tying my foundation to my oath, but very well.” She swallowed, forcing herself to say the words. “You have my word.”
Alex gave a relieved smile, bowing his head in gratitude. “Thank you.”
He then turned to Yan. “Yan?”
The man scowled for just a heartbeat before chuckling softly and shrugging. “Considering that we owe you our lives, an oath of trust is the least we can do. Very well, Alex, you now have our oaths. I can’t wait to gaze upon whatever wonder you think necessitates such strong precautions.”
Alex flashed a secretive smile before leading them some distance from the caravan and the pathetic excuse for a night watchman who was sleeping on duty at the back of the caravan. Then Alex proceeded to embrace his newfound mastery of a feat that still filled him with awe, bringing with it such sweet remembrance of a wizard’s power in ancient games forever lost to him, that he almost felt it worth its steep cost.
Almost.
Xian Hong gasped when a door of light and shadow appeared out of thin air.
“After you, Princess,” Alex said, gesturing to his gate with a sweeping bow.
“Alex!” said a wide-eyed Xian Hong, pointing through the dimensional rift at Alex’s admittedly luxurious bedroom, the opening giving a grand view of the magnificent table now piled high with a king’s feast beside his bed and the pair of servitors holding chilled bottles of rice wine just beyond.
“This is portal magic. It must be! And where does this lead? Why, it looks like royal bed chambers!”
She turned about, gazing at Alex in wonder. “Alex, are you a prince?”
Alex smirked. “What I am is hungry.” With those words, he entered his own portal, waving for his friends to join him. Exchanging a few hesitant glances, they did just that, Alex closing the door behind him with a thought, though of course the portal had been invisible and unusable by anyone save himself and his friends.
He gestured to the table. “Lobster rolls, Peking duck, crepes, apple fritters, fudge brownies with fresh whipped cream, perfectly seared Wagyu steak, chocolate chip cookies, the soft and chewy kind with candied walnuts and extra chocolate chunks, chicken pot pie, glazed donuts, and a dozen other delicacies I’m sure you’ve never heard of before. But all of them taste absolutely fantastic, trust me on that. Best of all, they come with a sweet twenty-four hour bonus to your alertness and skill checks!”
Wasting no more time, he began ravenously digging into the massive repast, smirking at the thought of his mother’s expression if
she could see what a pig he was being in front of actual royal guests.
Tung, eyes wide with wonder, his belly growling so loudly even Alex could hear it, didn’t hesitate to grab a lobster roll and a bottle of a fizzy drink a smirking Alex called orange soda, before taking a tentative bite and sip, eyes widening with wonder.
“You’ve got to try this food, cousin! And these lobster rolls. Saints mercy, I don’t even know what that means, but it’s so bloody good!” he said, mayo dribbling down his chin.
His cousin winced. “I think I’ll stick with the fried duck and rice wine.” Her cautious expression soon mirrored her cousin’s when she finally took her first nibble, quickly devouring everything she had tentatively put on her porcelain plate, before filling it with as much food as she could fit on it from impressive spread before them.
Only when the ravenous hunger that had caught even her off guard finally eased did she put down her plate and slowly turn around to face her savior, eyes alight with awe, wonder, and something else Alex couldn’t quite place. “Alex? How is this even possible?”
Alex grinned. “Simple. I invested in Silver-tier sleeping and eating facilities. Expect sweet bonuses to your stat checks, and the tastiest food and best sleep of your life.”
“I’m not quite sure what half the words you just said mean, hero, but your point is well taken.” Xian Hong took a moment to truly appreciate the exquisitely decorated bedroom she found herself in, admiring an actual water clock and countless miniatures of gold and jade set upon finely-polished end tables along with chess and Go boards of finest hardwood with pieces of ivory and jade, priceless decorations placed around the suite for maximum effect, all of it somehow showcasing the plush, four poster bed.
She then gazed critically at her own near-flawless features in one of the room’s many fine glass mirrors, wiping a bit of mayo and sauce from her lower lip before her attention turned at last to a number of murals that Alex did his best not to look too closely at, but that had most definitely caught Xian Hong’s gaze.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 52
