And if the second Silver’s spear had lanced Yan’s flesh before exploding into fragments, it didn’t affect the giant’s deadly barrage of blows at all, all shock and pain and visions of death and a damaged larynx ignored as he moved like a marionette to Alex’s will, his own mastery of the fangtian ji synergizing perfectly with Yan’s incredible prowess, and perhaps making their surprising assault far harder for experienced enemies to read. But whether it was thanks to Alex or Yan, or both fighting as one, the result was the same. The spearman exploding in a crimson shower that sprayed over the bridge entire, his still blinking skull soaring high in the air before plopping into the river even now burbling with the gibbering cries of countless tormented souls.
Your party has slain two Silver Ranked Cultivators!Experience earned!
You have sent shared experience pool in the form of Healing Surge to Alpha Silver One.
Your party member has been fully healed!
Yan howled with the desperate fury of a mighty lion trapped in a cage he alone could see, his mighty roar cowing the Silvers still struggling to cross the bridge, no matter their fears for their master, no matter the orders of the fork-tongued agent in their midst, despite the tiny clawed hand of Shadow a snarling Yuci had summoned to plague Yan once more, that hardly seemed to hinder the powerful giant at all.
All had been cowed by Princess Xian Hong’s champion, and Alex understood in that moment why such a man had been entrusted with one of the most precious lives in an entire kingdom.
Yan’s cloaking amulet removed, the near-Titan could take on a small army.
And were it not for the fact that the Red Prince seemed willing to flood this province with not one but dozens of elite Bronze companies, the equivalent of multiple small armies, Alex knew the man would never have conceded to cloaking his awesome power.
Only for the sake of a princess he adored, a girl who, it seemed, also happened to be his sister.
Yan was deepest Silver, just a half step from ascension. Alex understood this intuitively and utterly, Yan’s soul laid bare for him to see. And if Alex’s own Qi Pool was anything to go by, the giant possessed a Strength and Vitality upwards of 165, or Rank 5 Silver, and no doubt Quickness at the peak of Bronze, at the very least.
A warrior worthy of protecting any princess or queen.
A warrior who had earned the unending hate of the kitsune wiping blood and gore from his eyes, crackling with fury.
Alex could sense the growing alarm from the castle they were desperate to reach. He knew they were running out of time.
“Alpha Silver One! Retrieve your sister and race for the palace as fast as you can! Stop the minute you reach a safe distance and announce Xian Hong’s rank and station!”
In an eyeblink, the giant spun around on what seemed marionette strings, so fast that by the time Yuci had turned around after ducking behind the remaining guards he obviously intended to use for meat shields, the giant body cultivator had already scooped his panicked sister up and was racing for the palace as fast as his feet could take him, the claw of Shadow about his neck fading to nothing the moment he left the bridge.
“You!” roared the snarling kitsune, and Alex could feel shadows bubble and swell all around him. “This is all your fault!”
“Always glad to fuck with an asshole like yourself,” Alex said, flashing Yuci a mocking smile as he got the message he had been waiting for.
You have successfully Anchored Gold tier door. Warning! Door has been designated to allow for limited transfer!
Summon Portal is now Rank 2!
Alex swallowed his nervousness as he gazed into eyes of the monster now desperately eager to kill him.
If worse came to worst... he only hoped his mad plan would work long enough for him to survive the next couple of minutes. At least there was the silver lining that summoning portals linked to local proximities cost only the tiniest fraction of those bridging the distances between realms, because he had the sinking feeling he would need all of his Qi reserves if he was to survive the battle to come.
“Commander Yan Song of Yantu nation formally announces the arrival of Princess Xian Hong of Yantu nation! We request immediate entrance and full guest rights per diplomatic accords between the nations of Yantu and Zhengtu, as dictated by imperial decree!”
“No, no, no!” roared a furious Yuci, glaring daggers of hate Alex’s way and clenching his fists.
Alex could feel the storm of Shadow Qi roaring towards him.
“You will pay for this, Ruidian. Pay for this in blood!”
Yuci’s eyes widened as Alex just stood there and smiled, pulling out his fearsome fangtian ji glistening with a wet sheen from his storage ring in an eyeblink, readying himself for the two Silver Giants finally pulling themselves free of caustic goop, one leaving bloody footprints, the other with only smoking tatters left of his boots.
Alex took a deep breath, readying himself for the deadly dance about to commence, taking comfort only in the fact that he just needed to keep buying his friends time.
“What trickery is this?” the kitsune hissed, lashing out with his clawed hand repeatedly at Alex, having no effect at all.
And the nearest Silver snarled and charged, speed comparable to Alex’s own.
But Alex was no fool.
Even weaponless, Alex could tell that the Silver Giant could shatter stone with a single swipe of his massive paw, and he looked ready to tear Alex’s head free of his neck, before lurching back and covering his now smoking eyes with a scream.
Find Weakness skill check made! Poison Spitting skill check made! Critical success! You have successfully struck Silver Giant with Caustic Brew!
Your foe has been temporarily blinded!
Bullrush!
The second guard immediately swooped in to cover for his friend, massive halfmoon axe heads cleaving through the air as he sliced exactly where Alex would have been standing if he had charged in to finish the first Silver off.
Which might have worked, if Alex hadn’t been the student of a certain general at one point, who, along with his daughter, had taken definite delight in hammering as many military lessons as he could into Alex’s thick skull.
Often with bruises.
The upside was that after learning to fight against father and daughter working in tandem to pummel him, and numerous other melee engagements survived since he first learned the ways of Golden Realms kung fu, Alex could quickly spot experienced soldiers who were skilled in covering for each other in the madness of melee.
But that aside, Alex was all too aware that it was only because he had been able to use the bridge to his advantage in conjunction with his Chamber of Doors that had allowed him, a mere Bronze, to keep his foes off-balance for so many precious seconds. And even if his opponents had only just broken through to Silver, they were still light years stronger than any Bronze, all other things being equal.
Good thing Alex was far beyond the typical Bronze.
But now that his enemies were finally off the bridge that had been absolutely covered with his caustic goop, which had served as the ultimate bottleneck, his strengths having played so well to the silver bridge’s limitations, everything had suddenly changed.
Especially once two furious Silvers became four skilled, heavily armored combatants. And even if inhuman strength was far more common than supernatural quickness in the paths walked by body cultivators without access to any interface sheets, and two of the Silver Giants were walking on bloody feet, Alex knew he was in trouble.
A single misstep, and he was as good as dead.
He wondered what was happening with his friends, the sudden Golden aura behind him blinding even his Qi Perception, but he knew he dare not turn around, lest the cultivators now seeking to encircle him on the lush grassy courtyard they now all maneuvered upon would cleave off his head off before he could blink.
Keeping all his focus on his enemies, Alex gave a single curt mental command.
“Alpha Silver One! Autonomy has b
een restored.”
“Kill him!” roared the kitsune, and all four Silvers flashed cold smiles as one, Alex suddenly sensing the surges of Earth, Steel, and Water Qi, realizing that his foes had been playing him just as he had played then, and were now just a heartbeat from blasting him to oblivion.
You are unable to make use of Bullrush!
You have been stunned by Golden Cultivation Aura!
You have failed to save versus Paralysis!
And Alex froze where he stood, the very air suddenly alive with crackling lightning.
He tried to scream as he twitched and fell to the ground, his only comfort being that the same fate had struck each and every one of the Silvers who had been about to strike him in tandem.
Even the kitsune, so hungry for his head.
All of them paralyzed by a golden corona of Lightning Qi that seared through their channels, crippling them, draining them dry, one Qi point at a time.
And never had Alex felt so powerless as he did at that moment, utterly in thrall to the will of a powerful Gold.
“By the power of Lightning and Storm, I declare this brawl over! You who dare squabble like children before my guests and family will drop your weapons and kowtow immediately!”
The voice of a mighty queen shivered through Alex’s soul. He did not dare resist the surges of current crackling through his body that brought him to his knees, his head banging upon the loamy carpet of grass he was fortunate enough to be on, before he, still kneeling and hands now free of any weapon, was allowed to lift his head once more and gaze upon the strikingly beautiful features of the woman radiating such a powerful Golden aura, the Sovereign Princess of all of Cuijing Principality, Cui Zhe herself.
She was dressed in the most elegant gown Alex had ever seen. An explosion of silk and jewels sparkling brilliantly in the midday sun, complementing her ethereal beauty to a degree that she seemed almost otherworldly, though that could have been from the corona of lightning she wore like a crown.
Alex blinked, finding the stamp of her striking features somehow familiar as she glared down upon them from a high palatial balcony where she and a number of other potent-looking royals and nobles were gathered, gazing down at the chaos below.
Then he instantly understood why the Crown Princess looked so familiar as he caught sight of the girl he had last seen in the grip of an otherworldly horror after being chained within a bloody pentagram along with so many others, what now seemed a lifetime ago.
And Alex thought it probably had been, that being the first time he had actually pulled himself free of the River of Souls with the cajoling words of a certain smiling fox, just before being swept off into his next life.
And the way the girl’s eyes widened when she caught his gaze made it clear she remembered as well. Though how she could possibly recognize anyone after all she had endured, considering the remarkable difference between a dark and smoky chamber filled with slain diabolists and the brilliant royal courtyard, alive with streaks of crackling lightning, was utterly beyond him.
Alex noted as well the elegantly dressed youth whose aristocratic features also mirrored his obvious mother’s, now looking far more like a young man than the boy he had first seemed when desperately calling for Alex to rescue his sister, however many seasons or years ago that had been.
Considering eyes locked with Alex’s own before the prince tilted his head to whisper into his mother’s ear.
Of course there were other figures of note glaring down at the courtyard, one in particular radiating a potency so similar to Yan Song’s own. Deepest Silver just a heartbeat away from breaking through to Gold radiated from a man wearing an amber-studded square hat secured with a jade pin, dressed in an exotic crimson changshan jacket covered in shimmering blood red scales that looked as much like serviceable armor as it did royal attire.
Cold eyes more red than amber glared from a haughty face down at Xian Hong and Yan Song both.
Alex felt an awful twisting in his gut as he beheld the calculating gaze of the man that could only be the Red Prince, Dongfang Hong.
Crown Princess Cui Zhe gazed down at Xian Hong. It seemed that Xian alone had been spared the crackling Qi draining the strength and freezing everyone else in place. Of course she was wise enough to flow into a bow of her own, at precisely the degree one would expect from sovereigns of equal rank. Anything less would have been arrogant, especially as a supplicant, and Xian Hong technically ruled nothing. But she was the direct descendant of a man who had once ruled an entire nation, many times the size of this single province, so any further genuflection would have been servile and demeaned herself in the world’s eyes.
“Warmest greetings and salutations to the revered Sovereign Princess of Cuijing Principality, the jewel of Zhengtu nation. I, Princess Xian Hong of Yantu nation, sought to present myself before the ruler of Cuijing Province, and formally request guest rights for myself and my entourage, when we were attacked without provocation from the handful of men you see behind you. Were it not for my brave and loyal retinue, I fear your courtyard would be covered in the blood of butchered royalty even now.”
Cui Zhe flashed a humorless smile. “Then I am most pleased that tragedy has been avoided.” She turned a hard eye the Red Prince’s way. “Prince Dongfang Hong. Per your insistence, to assure your absolute safety, I allowed one of your men a place within my peripheral retinue. I am sure you can imagine my concern to find he failed even to recognize a member of your immediate royal family.”
The man’s troubled nod was exactly what one would have expected of someone who hadn’t sent numerous companies of highly trained assassins flooding across his neighbor’s borders. “Indeed, I quite agree,” said the prince with a surprisingly melodious voice, eyes filled with what seemed genuine regret. “Unfortunately, Princess Xian Hong and her mother disappeared the very night my own father mysteriously died. Thus, you can imagine my surprise to see Princess Xian Hong hale and healthy before us even now, ten years after she and her mother had vanished. I myself have many questions I would like to ask her about that fateful night, and why she chooses to make her presence known, here and now.”
He flashed Xian Hong a cold smile that none but those below could see.
“Still, daring to threaten any member of the Royal Hong family, no matter how grave the cloud of suspicion hovering over them, is an unforgivable offense. And one for which I myself must take some measure of blame, for I never thought to have my personal retinue study the portraiture of relatives thought long dead. Furthermore, I have heard darkest rumors that enemy agents from the neighboring Jade empire were seeking to infiltrate our great empire and sow discord. My spymaster has kept abreast of these matters far better than I.”
The Red Prince turned to his hostess. “With your permission, Princess Cui Zhe, I would question my servant.”
She gave the most infinitesimal of nods, and suddenly Yuci was free of the awful crackling paralysis still infecting Alex and the others.
Alex’s heart quailed, still held in helpless thrall as his sworn Nemesis righted himself, free of constraint and the horrific drain of his spiritual energy that Alex and the others around him were still suffering.
“Agent Yuci, please explain to us the nature of the events that have occurred?”
Cold green eyes promised Alex an agonizing death.
But the man was no fool.
He flowed effortlessly into the deepest of bows before addressing the royals on the palatial balcony above.
“I fear I have a sad tale of woe to report, Your Eminences, involving duplicity, treachery, and murder.”
These words immediately invited exited whispers the kitsune let build for several moments before speaking on.
“As you so rightly noted, I have been on the hunt for rumors of agents and assassins eager to infiltrate not just the nation of Zhengtu but Cuijing Principality itself! Worse, as my men and I tracked down rumor after rumor, we found out that their target was nothing less than all the surviving mem
bers of the Cui family, ancestral rulers of Baidushi and this entire province! This is why I personally took it upon myself to join the retinue and assure that all cargo shipments were secure, and that palatial guests could come and go unmolested.”
He glared down at Alex. “It was then that my sensitive kitsune ears sensed the first whispers of trouble! Of course I took the initiative and investigated, only to find within the burnt-out husk of a nearby building a handful of enemy agents discussing how they were going to penetrate the palace, assassinate Prince Cui Long, Princess Cui Chan and Princess Cui Li, and pin it all on my master as a failed coup! All in the hopes of sparking a war between our nations for the purposes of weakening our empire as a whole before our enemies can invade!”
The kitsune flashed a cold smile for Alex alone. “My Cultivator’s Oath upon it.”
And Alex’s heart quailed.
For the cords of Karma themselves sung with harmony at his words.
He had told the vilest of lies.
And would take no penalty at all.
Worse, far worse, his outrageous declaration had earned the icy cold regard of Red Prince and Crown Princess both.
Alex could sense the direst of proclamations hovering in the air, hearing the faint mocking laughter of the General a world away, his paralyzed gaze forced to watch the kitsune’s gloved hand clutch his dao so tightly.
“Soon, maggot. Soon you will be mine!” Words hissed so softly with the help of Shadow magics, that Alex alone could hear.
+5 modifier for desperation in effect! Willpower check made!
It was all Alex could do to fight against the crackling current coursing through his body, searing his channels, scarring his soul. But fight against it he did.
Somehow, he managed to gasp and wheeze, earning a surprised glance from the Crown Princess herself.
And when he, somehow, actually managed to stumble to his feet, the entire audience grew deathly still, gazing at him with looks ranging from surprise to disbelief.
“I, Alex Hammer, declare this kitsune to be a murderer and a liar, my Cultivator’s Oath upon it!” He forced his hot eyes to look the crown princess’s way, in too much agony with currents still crackling through him to do other than grit his teeth and glare, currents the Crown Princess could have ceased at any time, but didn’t. Of course, she could have fried him to a crisp at any time, but didn’t do that either. “Tell me, Crown Princess Cui Zhe, are your guests short a valued associate? Perhaps a young scion affiliated with the Azure Kingdom?”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5 Page 56
