Alex whistled in amazement, perceiving a marvel which transcended the most glorious baths he had ever seen in any documentary of ancient imperial palaces or the most luxurious of hotel suites. “This spa is nothing short of incredible!” His eyes lit with a certain hunger. “Well, I think I know what my next palatial upgrade is going to be.”
Cheng Lei, however, was staring at Alex with increasing consternation and wonder. “I’ve been meaning to ask, Alex, how did you ever come across such a pair of fascinating dao? And are they actually serviceable in a fight?”
Alex flashed a chill smile. “Bought these off a merchant who thought they were junk. And they cut like you wouldn’t believe.”
His friend chuckled softly. “Oh, I think I just might, at that. Any particular reason why you have them unsheathed at the moment?”
Alex nodded solemnly. “These shark teeth make it a bitch to unsheathe on the fly. So best I have them ready the moment we ascend, just in case unexpected… guests are waiting for us.”
Cheng Lei paled and shivered. “Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something very important?”
Alex shrugged. “I doubt it’s anything you really need to worry about. So long as we keep moving.”
His friend nodded, eyeing him curiously. “Speaking of moving, I can’t help but notice that you seem to have a knack for, well…”
“Blinking through the air and walking on water?”
Cheng Lei grinned. “Couldn’t have put it better myself.”
Alex grinned back. “I know. Awesome, isn’t it?”
This earned a raised brow. “Several times you’ve used that word. I’m not quite sure what it means.”
“Awesome? Oh. It’s English. Basically, it means incredible, elite, prestigious, and worthy of much admiration and praise.”
His friend chuckled. “I’m afraid that word trips my tongue. Nevertheless, you definitely possess some unique talents, my friend.”
“So. The bell. Do we ring it?” Alex gazed pointedly at the fiercely intent expression Cheng Lei wore before carefully resheathing his blades. “Or do we push on?”
“Normally, the custom is for any ascendant who dares such an achievement as we have to ring each golden bell as he ascends, alerting the school, the headmaster, and the city below that an aspirant worthy of Gold is being forged, with each additional rank achieved being one more golden peal to awe and delight all those bearing witness to our once-in-a-lifetime achievement. But I think you already know what we’re going to do, Alex.”
Alex returned a hungry smile. “We push on. Just as far and as fast as we can, without alerting a single soul, and we see just how far we can go. Because the less your enemies know of your potential, the easier it will be to catch them unawares at a time and place of your choosing, not theirs.”
Cheng Lei bowed his head. “From your lips to the gods’ ears.”
“Hopefully not,” Alex quipped, leading the way to the far golden staircase. He noted that each step was considerably more massive than those that had come before, all of them shimmering with an iridescent fiery gold hue.
He gazed back at his friend. “Are you sure, Cheng Lei? You already warned me what the price for failure will be, and I do think things are going to get very serious from here on out.”
Hard blue eyes met his own. “The first handful of steps it is safe to fall, even here, earning you nothing worse than a massive splash and a painful dose of humility. It is only when those steps cross the realms yet again that we are in dire peril once more.”
Alex gazed with a certain amount of satisfaction at the spectacular vista behind them. “And now we have shown the fates themselves that Gold in all its glory is within our grasp. I take it the second and third tier are for those destined for true greatness, one day mastering their abilities to the utmost as they forge cores so dense that they are just a single impossible breakthrough away from transforming them altogether.”
His friend nodded. “Correct. And the steps after that are the province of the imperial clan alone. None, save those with imperial blood running through their veins, or those who would walk beside the most powerful cultivators who have ever lived, would even dare them.”
Alex grinned. “Challenge accepted! I can’t wait to see what Jade looks like.”
Cheng Lei laughed at that. “Let’s just see if we can make it to the second golden tier, my friend. For as you said, the real challenge is finally upon us.”
Together they took the stairs as one, but after just a handful of steps, the young noble was visibly leaning forward as his hair blew back from his face, and Alex was surprised to see actual drops of water bead and fly away.
Bright blue eyes caught Alex’s own as the youth smiled fiercely, his steps no less sure than they had been before. “Exhilarating, is it not?”
Alex smiled and nodded as he took in the magnificent starry heavens all around them, almost pleased to find that his toes were finally feeling the damp, now tingling with an oddly familiar chill.
They proceeded at a steady pace, the prince stopping only once to slowly, carefully, uncork his water flask and drink deep, nearly draining the contents and shivering once before giving a satisfied nod. “Well, I can unequivocally say that pristine water carried on your own person is a net positive, should you find yourself dizzy with thirst.”
Alex nodded his agreement, impressed by his friend’s stride, yet subtly maneuvering himself to be right behind his friend… just in case.
Cheng Lei was no fool, flashing Alex a single chagrined smile, realizing what he was doing. But all he said was, “Tell me about yourself, Alex. I’m curious about the origins of the only cultivating Ruidian I’ve ever heard of, aside from the oldest of tales, of course. To find myself walking beside a man who thinks nothing of ascending the ranks of Gold by my side… I can’t help but wonder, what exactly forged you into the person you are today?”
Alex smiled. “I’m just someone who was fortunate enough to find a sponsor willing to teach even me the rudiments of cultivation and compounding before I ended up experiencing many highs and lows in a very short period of time after joining a handful of caravans, some far more pleasant than others.”
Alex then gave a very concise account of his experience as an apothecary, training under Liu Jian, nearly losing his life while battling infernalists, being forced to travel back to Yidushi in less-than-ideal circumstances, then fighting for his right to train at Dragon Academy until leaving with friends for gentler pastures.
He left out quite a bit, of course, but he took solace in the fact that every bit of his life story he shared was, in fact, entirely true.
“Fascinating! So, you were a student of Elder Panheu? Rumor has it he now runs Dragon Academy, with any number of whispers pointing to an extremely unsavory past before his notable ascension. Of course, rumors will always follow a man on his path to greatness, so I take them all with a grain of salt. Still, I understand he’s not a man to cross.”
Alex smirked. “He will forge you in fire, and you will find yourself either hammered into the deadliest of weapons or crumpling into slag, never to cultivate again.”
Cheng Lei nodded, his expression thoughtful. “He favors the crucible of conflict, as opposed to the ascetic’s meditation or the lotus’s wisdom. One of the quickest paths to insight and ascension, and among the most perilous as well.”
“That pretty much sums him up perfectly,” Alex admitted.
Cheng Lei smiled. “There are Golds who swear by each of those paths, Alex. And others besides. If the crucible is no longer to your taste, there are other paths to excellence as well.” He gazed pointedly at the steps they were ascending. “Dare I say it, we are on what is perhaps the most perilous of all, right here, right now.”
Alex nodded. “I recall what you said. These stairs don’t just measure your potential, they can help forge you into your true ideal, so long as you don’t mind wrestling against your own imperfections while they try to rip you clean off the steps and send
you hurtling into the starry night sky below. It might not teach us any exotic cultivation techniques, but after enduring this, I doubt there is too much else we couldn’t handle.”
Cheng Lei’s grin turned fierce. “To say nothing about the degree and caliber of librarians, seers, and scholars that would do all they can to see us succeed, for the school’s honor and our own, should we dare show them talismans of gold marked with sigils of jade.”
Alex smirked. “But we’re not going to ring a single golden bell or claim a single talisman. Not for as long as we can still ascend.”
Cheng Lei’s grin widened. “Exactly. And I do believe we’ve just made it to the next basin. Well done, my friend!”
And it was true, Alex flashing a smile of fiercest satisfaction before unsheathing his dao and Bullrushing through the air in a flash the instant his feet had cleared the last step. He scanned the massive spa just like before, awed by the spectacularly luxurious accommodations awaiting them, were they to stop now, and sensing absolutely no hostile presence, curse, or trap, any more than he had at the floor below.
“Well?” his friend asked, still a single step below, his own jian unsheathed. He did not question Alex’s caution at all, instead falling effortlessly in line.
“Everything looks okay from here,” Alex said, and Cheng Lei chuckled softly upon finishing his ascent, gazing at the magnificent golden wonder that was this basin.
“Impressive. Beyond impressive! What say we rest for a few minutes before we dare a Gold so deep, even kings would dip their head in deference?”
“Sounds good to me!” Alex concurred, happy to spend a few minutes organizing his thoughts and centering himself after all he had experienced, not to mention preparing himself for what might very well be the last leg of their journey, at least as far as Cheng Lei was concerned.
When his friend nodded and proceeded towards the stairs once more, Alex was right by his side, then just a step behind as Cheng Lei braved the first of a flight of steps that would lead them both to the very heights of Gold, his hair whipping wildly in the storm of heavenly energy crashing into him with the force and fury of a howling gale. His previously rapid pace had slowed to a steady plod, and he bowed his head down at last, now proceeding as slowly as their friends had when first breaking through to Bronze.
For Alex, he sensed the growing chilly trickle of water by his feet before pushing it firmly out of mind, his concern only for Cheng Lei, knowing that, unlike the ascents to Bronze or Silver, a single slip could cost him his newest friend forever. It was a loss that would please the gods to no end, and which Alex was desperate to avoid.
“Alex?”
“Yes, Lei?”
“Is that really necessary?”
Alex peered down at the handful of robes clenched in his fist. “Maybe?”
Cheng Lei chuckled. “Fortunate we are that Gold tier automatically forgives so many transgressions. But if I’m actually so foolish or weak as to lose my grip and go flying off, you aren’t afraid you’d be pulled off right along with me?”
“Not really.”
“Is it because you can fly, or close to it?”
“Something like that, though I doubt Bullrush would work on these particular steps as we walk at right angles to multiple worlds, spiraling in and out of reality in ways words can barely describe.”
Alex could feel Cheng Lei’s shiver. “You can truly sense that?”
“Educated guess.”
For a time, they proceeded in silence, Alex taking his friend’s quiet for simple exhaustion, his panting breath making it clear that this was, for him, becoming a mighty hike.
“Alex?”
“What’s up?”
“Are you… well… human?”
Alex peered thoughtfully at the majestic heavens for some time, day having turned to night in just the handful of minutes during which they had crossed the last plateau. Or perhaps this was a different heavenly realm entirely. In any event, the sparkling golden cities visible in the distance were even more futuristic and grand-looking than the ones he had seen gracing multiple mountaintops before. Or perhaps the haunting luminescence just allowed him to catch a clearer glimpse of those architectural wonders.
“Does it matter?”
Cheng Lei chuckled softly. “Perhaps it doesn’t, at that. Regardless, I’m happy to have you by my side.”
“Likewise.”
They continued to proceed apace, and for all that his friend seemed absolutely determined to ask for no help whatsoever, there could be no denying the increasingly ragged rasp to Cheng’s breathing, nor how white his fingers had become while clamping the steps as he continued to ascend, much like their friends had been while pushing themselves to their absolute limits.
“Cheng Lei…”
“No!” his friend cleared his throat. “No, friend Alex, I must do this myself. It’s important. More important than you know.”
“Alright, but I’m still hanging onto your cultivator’s robes. Just in case.”
His friend snorted before jerking a nod. “And you’ll never know how grateful I am, even as I forge myself in this crucible. I can feel my meridians tingling, as if pure spiritual energy is renewing me from within.”
Alex grinned. “Using a trial of endurance, now little more than an academy entrance test, to remake yourself and your potential in order to one day be capable of forging bonds of deepest Gold within your very soul. You would have made a fantastic gamer, had you been born in a different place and time.”
Cheng Lei didn’t even bother answering, barely managing another nod as the night grew strangely silent, save for the blowing of strange winds and the rasping grate of Cheng’s breath.
And just when Alex sensed that his friend had been pushed to his absolute limit, gasping like a bellows, they were rewarded by a truly breathtaking sight.
No longer were they in a glorified spa.
They had ascended instead to a magnificent garden sanctuary with the most spectacular view imaginable, an Eden befitting the very heavens.
Where before there had been gold-lined baths and pools and marble tables for reclining, eating, and soaking, there was now a magnificent shallow lake surrounded by a field of roses, tulips, and orchids of every color under the sun, along with countless varieties of wildflowers more imaginary than real, flashing and sparkling like a sea of jewels under the majestic heavens. Beyond the borders of the lake they gazed upon lush verdant fields, endless forests, and a spectacular view of what seemed to be the entire world below in all its natural splendor.
Alex shivered with something close to awe when he dared look heavenward once more and caught sight of magnificent ivory white palaces and pagodas floating on beds of clouds against the backdrop of the bright blue sky.
But what truly left him breathless was the sight of the magnificent creature so like the dragons portrayed on his favorite gaming tomes of a lifetime ago, quietly sipping lake water while gazing calmly at them with golden eyes and a brilliant ivory white horn upon its brow that shimmered like a thousand stars as it caught the light overhead, the very tip blazing like a tiny sun that Alex instinctively knew would send any infernal intruder straight back to the abyss from which it spawned.
It seemed to give Alex the tiniest of nods before aiming its horn at that which had captivated Cheng Lei utterly. Alex was also spellbound by the sight, and when next he looked at the lake proper, the mysterious guardian was gone.
But not the magnificent vision overhead.
“By all that’s holy… no wonder even the scrolls do not contain any record of this wonder,” Cheng Lei said with an awed whisper. “We have truly stepped into the land of the divine.”
All Alex could do was nod as his eyes were captivated by the fiery vision of a bird of flame blazing overhead, radiating such power and potency that, in another time and place, it would have sent Alex crashing to his knees. And perhaps it explained how the academy had gotten its name in the first place, if this was its guardian avatar.
Whatever its true origins and nature, the magnificent phoenix actually deigned to land before them, gazing at them both with eyes of glittering flame.
Alex was breathless, eyes wide with disbelief as the crackling heat scalded his flesh, Eternal Fox easily repairing the relatively mild burns as they occurred. Yet Cheng Lei merely stood and smiled, eyes closed as the massive Gold-ranked spirit beast tore at his skull with its beak… only to inflict the tiniest of wounds, a rough tongue reminiscent of a parakeet’s, darting out to taste the merest drop of crimson before the bird, much to Alex’s awe and amazement, actually bowed its head.
“I find you worthy,” was all it said, its voice simultaneously the cry of an innocent newborn babe and the shrieking howl of a dying man consume by flame. Life and death, renewed eternally. It then dropped a golden key covered in jade runes at the feet of an awe-struck Cheng Lei before blazing for the heavens once more.
Eyes wide with wonder met Alex’s own. “Incredible, my friend. Absolutely incredible!”
Alex smirked. “Even though he ignored me completely.”
His friend laughed. “Don’t feel slighted, my friend. In truth, I thought him little more than legend myself. But to hear his words, to suddenly understand the prophecies of my clan with a greater degree of clarity than I ever have before, to be presented with a…”
Alex grinned, picking up the key the phoenix had dropped.
Before being stunned by the powerful grip clasping Alex’s wrists. “Don’t! No one not of the…” A trembling Cheng Lei slowly turned Alex’s hand over, gazing for long moments at the sparkling golden key in his palm.
“Alex?”
“What’s up?”
His friend gazed at him for long moments, face taking on an odd pallor. “There’s no way you should even be able… that artifact is untouchable by anyone not of…” he swallowed and shook his head, gazing at Alex more intently than ever.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 12
