Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path

by Johnson, M. H.

  Zhu Bi nodded eagerly, and Alex couldn’t help but note the breathless stares of the entire class of students beside him, recognizing so few of them. Of course, the handful of aspirants to walk the steps by his side was only the latest group to make it here. For all Alex knew, the students present had been working on strengthening their foundations and finding the best path forward for themselves over many months, perhaps even years.

  Alex winced. He could only hope his own face wouldn’t be among them in the seasons to come.

  Assuming he dared advance at all, while he was here.

  He quickly shook away his brooding thoughts, focusing on the elder’s thoughtful gaze.

  “In all of the last two decades, the Golden bells have been rung thrice, for two kings and one future queen.” His piercing gaze seemed to spear through each and every one of them. “And as they each refused to rely upon their clan’s soul-bound treasures that could have assured exquisite comfort with their first footsteps at the golden gate, for all that each dared to forge themselves in the fires of ascension, knowing that to fail was to risk the displeasure of their great grandsire and quite possibly risk oblivion, not one of them lacked imperial blood flowing through their veins.”

  Alex couldn’t help but raise his hand to ask the obvious follow-up question amongst the animated whispers.

  This earned him a curious glance. “Yes, Ruidian?”

  “This aspirant was wondering how many of those with imperial blood embraced the Path of Perseverance without ringing the Golden Bells?”

  Even as the words left his lips, Alex felt a twisting chill in his gut. The animated whispers around him silenced in terror as dark eyes promising annihilation peered into his own, until the elder cracked a humorless smile.

  “How strange. I almost thought I heard someone utter a question that could earn them instant death.”

  For long moments, Bang Jiao held Alex’s gaze before turning his hard stare to the group entire. “Obviously, the rustling leaves are having their jest with us, the Fox’s own laughter upon the air. Best heed the wisdom of the Fox, students, who teaches even as he embraces folly. There are some questions no mortal dares utter aloud. Wandering thoughts and speculations best uttered by no one, save the rustling pear trees that provide shade and shelter from all those waiting beyond this tiny sanctuary. Ruthless cultivators would happily challenge and destroy the unprepared, which most definitely includes each and every one of you.”

  As one, the entire class flowed into dogeza. Alex would have been lying if he had denied feeling death’s judgment passing over his head, as did everyone else, or that he didn’t entirely deserve the whispered curses sent his way.

  It had been, he realized, an incredibly stupid question. All it would take was one tiny slip, for even a heartbeat forgetting that this world was culturally alien in so many ways, compared to the one he had grown up in.

  He had to remember that here, so very different from the USA of his childhood, no insight or question, no matter how cogent or brilliant, would be forgiven if it offended the pride and prickly egos of the powerful. To forget this bitter truth was to risk the very death that Alex had already courted so perilously, so frequently. So hungry to claim him for all time.

  He had to do better. He knew that. Including doing his best to offend no elder who held power over him.

  His entire future depended upon it.

  Bang Jiao continued speaking as if he had never been interrupted.

  “Thus, Silver is the highest rank of opponent you are ever likely to face. As most of you are Bronze, best tread carefully. Not all Silvers are content to follow their own path to ascension. Some, much like the Earthly powers below us, find strength in making use of the efforts and resources of others.” His smile was colder than Alex would have liked. “You will find that this school echoes the realities of mortal life in many ways, and I will leave it for you to find the… compromises that will serve you all best in the months and years to come. In this, as in many other things, coming to an understanding with your seniors can be a useful tool, both in terms of getting ahead, and in simply surviving the day to day as smoothly as possible.”

  He gazed thoughtfully at the aspirants before him while stroking his snow-white beard. “Of course, there are some among you who will follow your own code, no matter that it is closer to Heaven’s ideals than this earthly realm’s realities. You, above all others, will truly find out what it means to forge yourself in the fires of conflict. And I have absolutely no doubt that those of you who dare to go your own way will indeed go far!” He chuckled dryly. “Either that, or crash and burn like the phoenix who fails to rise from the ashes of his own demise. So best you chart your paths carefully, young aspirants, and choose the way forward that serves both your dreams, and your tolerance for hardship.”

  One of the larger students, wearing knee high pants secured with silken sash and a finely tailored short-sleeved cultivator’s robe of exotic fabric, glared at Alex, a Bronze talisman forming in his hand. Soul-bound, Alex now understood.

  The hard-eyed youth flashed Alex a cold smile. “With the master’s permission, I would be happy to demonstrate for the class how the talismans work… with our newest aspirant.”

  Elder Bang Jiao beamed. “What a marvelous idea.” He gazed intently at Alex. “Can you manifest your talisman for us?”

  “Does he even have one?” snickered one student to another. “I bet he’s one of the servants. No doubt Liqin put him up to it.”

  “If Liqin didn’t have the master wrapped around her finger…”

  “By the Fox, he actually has a talisman!”

  Alex tuned out the whispers flowing around him, gazing into the pox-scarred features of the bulky cultivator who challenged him, whose sneer grew all the wider when he caught sight of Alex’s talisman.

  “By Long Wang’s hammer, it’s translucent!” he scoffed, quickly putting his talisman underneath Alex’s own. “I can see right through it! And I don’t feel any pressure against mine at all!” He positively beamed, chuckling cruelly as he shoved his fist against Alex’s chest. “You’re nothing at all! Lower even than a copper, I bet. A Ruidian who can cultivate? So weak you shouldn’t even be allowed above ground. Admit it! You are one of Liqin’s jokes, aren’t you?”

  The youth then frowned, realizing his shove hadn’t moved Alex an inch.

  He grunted, shoving again with all his strength.

  To his astonishment, the effort sent him tumbling to the grass when a placidly smiling Alex shifted his hips, somehow tripping his would-be opponent without moving his feet at all, the aspirant’s big greasy hands slipping free of Alex’s waist-length changshan tunic as he crashed to the ground face first.

  With a frustrated shout, the young cultivator sprang right back up, fury in his gaze. “Why, you slippery little rat! Think you can outfight me? Weak as you are?”

  He was about to charge the unaffected Alex, when a single throat clearing froze him solid, all of the aspirants looking Master Bang Jiao’s way.

  “You have to set terms, Dineng. Only if his talisman remains translucent are those terms acceptable.”

  “Terms?” asked one of the girls.

  Their mentor smiled. “Yes, Lady Fu. Terms. Specifically, the terms of the fight. Armed, unarmed, or using Qi attacks, to the point of mastery over one’s opponent. This can be to the first solid blow, until one concedes, until one is crippled and physically unable to go on… and exceedingly rarely, to the death. However, should you kill the one you challenged in anything but a deathmatch—of which I have only witnessed four legally given—you may expect significant repercussions, unless you actually walk the Path of Kings.”

  He chuckled softly under the intent gazes of his students.

  “Once that’s decided, the challenger states the stakes of the fight. A handful of credits is the most common stake and causes the least pressure buildup in your talisman, meaning you will be able to enjoy more competitions that month.” He raised a finger. “Of
course, if your talisman holds enough spiritual pressure, or your rank is high enough, you can force whatever stakes you can get away with.”

  Lady Fu, an attractive young woman wearing a pink qipao of finest silk and a dozen silver pins in her hair, quickly bowed before their master. “But not including their Silver treasure chest, right, master?”

  Bang Jiao smiled patiently. “Only a select handful of you have Silver talismans and the perks that such includes. But yes. Unless you are actually so stupid as to deliberately get on the bad side of one of the secluded royals in attendance, those items locked in your storage container are, for all practical purposes, beyond contest.”

  The cultivator Alex now knew to be Dineng flashed a hungry smile, eyeing both the credit purse Alex had claimed and the fat pouch full of priceless alchemical ingredients which Alex had had no chance to safely squirrel away, aggressively holding out his talisman once more. “Then the terms are this! We’re dueling for everything he has! And it will be an unarmed match, to submission. No tricky footwork’s going to let the slippery Ruidian slide free, one I get my hands around him!”

  He snickered with cold glee when Alex’s talisman, remaining perfectly translucent, allowed Dineng’s Bronze talisman to so clearly shine through that every detail of his single silver sigil could be seen.

  Alex frowned. “I sure as hell know this kid’s pouch isn’t as full as mine is. So how the hell is this a fair match?”

  Bang Jiao cracked a stiff smile. “I’m afraid there’s no such thing as fair in this life, Ruidian, as you yourself should know, having made it even this far. But there is reciprocity. There is balance. In order for Dineng to have forced such an unbalanced confrontation, either his bronze Talisman has a tremendous reservoir of stored spiritual energy, or yours is exceedingly weak. Either way, it is time to see if you truly belong among us. Begin!”

  Dineng immediately roared and charged at Alex with a feral glint in his eyes.

  Alex couldn’t help but match the young cultivator’s rictus of a grin, his heart also surging with the exhilaration of combat, especially when he got the notice he had been looking for since the moment that Dineng’s talisman had tapped his own.

  Find weakness skill check made!

  Instinctively noting the manner in which the lumbering youth plodded forward, Alex shifted his entire body to brace for balance, as opposed to ease of movement.

  The boy was incredibly gifted in terms of strength.

  Not so much in terms of finesse.

  You have struck your opponent for 15 damage and 1 Light Wound! You have pierced your opponent’s defenses!

  When the roaring Dineng charged with everything he had, it took only the slightest bit of weaving aside to dodge past his tackling form, Alex lashing out with a lightning-fast snap kick to his foes’ left patella. The strike earned a startled howl as the young cultivator tripped and stumbled before lurching back to his feet once more, only this time with a definite limp, seething as he glared at a smirking Alex.

  “I will kill you for that, Ruidian!” he roared, stumbling forth once more. Amused, Alex dodged his opponent’s vicious series of hooks and haymakers with mocking ease before seeming to twist right around his foe. With hardly any effort, his sweep kick against the already injured leg sent the lumbering giant crashing to the ground.

  Before Dineng could do more than groan and try to get his hands underneath him, Alex struck. Dineng’s roaring sharpened into howling once Alex had his left arm hyper-extended, twisting the wrist and dislocating the thumb as he put pressure on the arm bar, opting to restrain himself a single jerk away from tearing ligaments and dislocating both radius and ulna.

  Alex’s blisteringly fast strikes and effortlessly flowing movement had earned a few furrowed brows, only his wide-eyed friends truly seeming to follow how fast he had acted. However, what really drew attention was the fact that Alex hadn’t needed to twitch a muscle, no matter how Dineng roared and struggled.

  His frantic struggles turned to a desperate shriek as Alex upped the pressure just the tiniest bit.

  Dineng gazed desperately at their instructor. “Make him stop, master. Please! Make him stop!”

  Bang Jiao, looking nothing like the grandfatherly figure of moments before, met the mewling aspirant’s petition with a pitiless smile.

  “Only you can make it stop, Dineng.”

  “How! Master, please tell me how!”

  “By conceding the match and giving the Ruidian absolutely everything of value that you own.”

  The youth visibly paled. “But master…”

  He screamed as his own struggles brought him added pain.

  “You were the one who set the stakes. You were the one who charged in like a fool, without considering that one such as he couldn’t have possibly made it this far without being far more than he seems. And now it is you embracing the Fox’s folly, about to share your bitterly earned wisdom with your peers.”

  “But master, my family’s entire fortune… stop! Please! The match is yours. The match is yours!”

  Within seconds, a bitterly glaring Dineng was handing a small belt purse filled with silver and gold coins to Alex. “You’re robbing me blind, you bastard; that’s everything my family owns. Everything!”

  Alex quirked a surprised brow. “Really? Silver and gold at a cultivation academy? No medicinal herbs, cultivation pills, or Spirit Pearls?” Alex’s mocking grin widened as Dineng gulped and stumbled back.

  His pleading gaze met the master’s own. “No, please, I gave him a full purse!”

  Hard, pitiless eyes locked with Dineng’s own. Formerly placid features had hardened to a deadly stare. “Do you dare to insult all of Royal Phoenix Academy, supplicant?” roared the master as the trembling Dineng collapsed into a sobbing heap.

  “No, revered master! Please forgive this unworthy aspirant!”

  “Then divest yourself of everything you own, or flee this school as less than dirt, too shamed to cultivate ever again!”

  The entire group of aspirants trembled at that oath, or curse, perhaps. The weeping Dineng desperately stripping himself bare, so panicked that he didn’t dare stop until he was completely naked and huddling in a ball of shame. Several students jeered at him, though most wore expressions of solemn gravity, heads averted, perhaps humbled by how steep the shoals of failure were, and how easily they too could fall, should they misstep even once or let panic get the best of them.

  Alex solemnly bowed before Bang Jiao before picking up a second hidden pouch containing small fortune in platinum coin, priceless herbs, and not one, but three Spirit Pearls. The fine silken clothes, Bronze-ranked cultivation tomes, wax-wrapped food packets, and finely-crafted jian which he found in the young man’s storage pack, he left beside his trembling foe. “Your clothes and jian hold no real value to me. Keep them,” he said, turning to the master, who was silently gazing Alex’s way.

  “If this aspirant might ask, revered elder, are there any prohibitions against making gifts or forging alliances anywhere in the school, or here, in the aspirant’s quarter, in particular?”

  The elder practically beamed at the question. “Why, no, young Ruidian, there are not.”

  Alex dipped his head in appreciation before turning back to the collection of students still gazing wide-eyed at him.

  “None of you are fools. All of you can appreciate the windfall that has been awarded to me.” He flashed a cool smile. “I can only image how some of you might hunger to seize hold of any opportunity to claim that fortune for yourself.”

  More than one young cultivator was watching Alex with glittering, hungry eyes.

  Alex stole a quick glance the master’s way, but he found the man’s intent expression impossible to decipher. “Assuming the master allowed further challenges to ensue.”

  “And I will, Ruidian. Today, between you all, you are free to challenge each other, savoring sweetest victory and bitterest folly, to your heart’s content. In fact, I will allow you all to challenge each other
to your heart’s content for as long as you all inhabit the aspirant’s quarter! For what stimulates growth more than stiff competition?”

  Alex bowed low before Elder Bang Jiao’s declaration. “And we can certainly take that path. But I have another proposal as well.” He held up a handful of coins, the metallic discs glittering in the afternoon light as they splayed through his fingers. “It’s an uncertain, violent world we now find ourselves in, fellow disciples.” He flashed a weary smile. “I believe those who swore oaths to reveal no secrets kept it so well that very few, if any, of us realized that all our wealth would be vulnerable to the challenges of anyone with a higher-ranked talisman than our own.”

  “Within limits,” Bang Jiao interjected. “If Bronze is your watchword, then every challenge faced puts you one sigil higher. Over time, your talisman will be as hard to face as Silver, or even Gold. At least, before it resets with each new moon.”

  Yinpei Lin’s eyes widened. He exchanged a look with Zhu Bi. Both shared a quiet smile.

  Alex grinned in turn. “Still, it’s a dangerous world we live in. A world where we can all use allies. A world where allies are rewarded for their grace and forbearance.” Doing a handful of quick calculations, Alex held up a small coin of shimmering gold, and three larger ones of silver. “A prize, I will offer to any of you willing to swear a cultivator’s oath to do nothing deliberate, directly or indirectly, to cause me harm or hardship for the duration of our stay at this school. Which, simply put, means you won’t be spying on me or trying to stab me in the back by intrigue or physical act.” He met several pairs of eyes in turn. “Though you’re free to lie to those who would work against us, as far as I’m concerned. Tell me who’s working against me, and extra coins, Spirit Pearls, or favors, you will earn as well.”

  Half of the prospective group of students gazed at Alex with wide, curious eyes, obviously tempted.

  Alex smiled and began pulling out more silver and gold. Within seconds, he was surrounded by half a dozen hungry-looking students, though they weren’t biting quite as quickly as he had hoped.