Alex couldn’t help it; he had to wink back. “Missed you too, Guan. Hope you’re having an absolutely wonderful day!”
His grin widened at the librarian’s sputter of impotent fury.
“Smart. Antagonize him for no reason,” Peng Jin snapped.
Alex snorted. “Like he didn’t absolutely despise me the moment we met, doing his best to rip me off and take advantage of me from the second I spoke to him. He chose to position himself as my enemy. Most people who do that tend to regret it.”
She stopped, turning around to snarl at him. “If you think to threaten…”
Alex shook his head. “Absolutely not. Nope, sorry, I’m not planning on plucking a single a hair from his head, so don’t try to use that as a way to weasel out of your oath.”
Her glare was so hot that Alex halfway thought she’d try to tear out his throat. “You can’t even imagine how much I hate you right now.”
“Because I asked for an unusual title?”
She just growled and continued straight down the central-most corridor, bisecting stacks lined with multiple secured tomes, all of which radiated a potent aura of spiritual energy that left Alex feeling more than slightly humbled by the breadth and depth of the powerful collection within this scholarium, though he did frown speculatively at the sight of not two, but four, Guardians ahead.
Before he was struck with genuine awe at the intense corona of spiritual energy now buffeting him from the golden door directly ahead, so many times greater than the energies given off by the already impressive collection of cultivation tomes filling the stacks behind them.
Qi Perception check successful!
Artificer Skillcheck made.
Alex blinked, looking back and realizing that he and Peng Jin had just been gated into a massive chamber lined with secured bookshelves that seemed to circle a central hub made of solid gold. As if the entire chamber was an impossibly vast donut, but instead of a hole, there was a magnificent door of priceless jade leading to the innermost heart of this sanctuary. A door Alex doubted even a Gold Titan could force open. The shining surface had been inlaid with thousands of deep green sigils, radiating such potent wards that Alex was both awed and utterly certain that any attempt to pierce those defenses would result in his instantaneous destruction.
And really, as absurd as it was, it made perfect sense. He couldn’t even claim the gods were deliberately spiting him. In a school that had been built at least in part to measure the worth of future emperors, why wouldn’t the most sacred of all chambers have an emperor’s defenses? Alex wouldn’t be at all surprised if such wards lasted as long as the sun rose and set upon this world.
He choked back bitter laughter, realizing his enemies had outplayed him yet again. No less than half a dozen Guardians, at least three of whom had been perusing tomes, quickly rose from their reading tables as guandao and naginatas gleaming with deadly Metal Qi were braced in steady hands. All six maidens were also fully armored in full lamellar armor that shimmered like liquid silver, radiating protective Qi of both Earth and Metal.
Their stances were relaxed, yet focused, as if use of the gate was uncommon but not extraordinary.
“Peng Jin, why are you here?” asked the closest guardian, her guandao casually aimed at Alex’s sternum.
Peng Jin actually sobbed, gazing at Alex in wide-eyed horror before falling to her knees. “Please, Spear Mistress, do not ask me what is forbidden. For if I fail to keep the counsel of my charge, my cultivation base will be destroyed!”
Six pairs of widened eyes fixed upon Alex with lethal intent.
If anything, the lead guardian’s expression became even more grim. “So, you’re saying you were tricked, fooled by this Ruidian, and would dare forsake your most sacred oath, breaching our defenses, with the unworthy one only able to cross because he stood by your side?” Her laughter was cold, merciless. “That alone breaks your oath.”
Peng Jin crumpled as a short, strangled sob escaped her throat, and Alex could fairly sense the shiver in her foundation, one that would soon lead to cracks and utter destruction.
Even now, six merciless pairs of eyes fixated upon his own, glittering as brilliantly as the rubies shimmering at ears and throat. “And as for the interloper…”
Alex forced panicked words from a chest frozen with horror as the six deadly guardians focused upon his presence.
“Peng Jin broke no oath! Elder Ru himself said I had full access to this library!”
The killing glares shifted to looks of surprise and severe skepticism, but their stances had shifted back to neutral, and Peng Jin’s foundation instantly solidified, the poor girl sobbing with relief.
“I find that hard to believe,” the lead guardian finally stated.
Alex sighed. “Would you like my Cultivator’s Oath?”
Her gaze regained its unyielding rigidity, her spear caressing his chest. “I would like to see your talisman.”
Alex gulped audibly, his throat suddenly parched. But before she could do more than caress his flesh, the air suddenly smelling of copper and crimson as his chest erupted with agony, he manifested his token, which she grabbed before dragging him back to the shimmering gate, ignoring his agonized hiss.
The portal began flashing a whirlwind of color, her venomous words caressing his ear.
“I see a strange talisman of crystalline jade. If you’re an agent of our enemies, you’re so damned stupid that you couldn’t even forge a proper talisman, not that anyone would believe a Ruidian had royal blood. If you’re some sort of anomaly who made it this far by trickster’s luck alone… then you’d best hope you’re lucky enough to return without entrapping our librarian!”
Before he could say a single word of protest, he was thrown back through the gate.
He cried out, clenching his eyes shut as he plummeted into the grizzly death which that vortex of crackling Qi promised…
Only to crack his chin upon hard stone tiles, falling in a heap.
Power Healing engaged!
Coughing and wheezing, Alex did his best to get his bearings as his chest healed. His changshan shirt mended itself almost as quickly as his skin from what had been, thankfully, little more than a flesh wound. Alex chanced a quick look back the way he had come, finding nothing but a book-lined back corridor, clearly at the very rear of the library.
And a pair of smirking guardians, hands on the hilts of their blades.
“I think you have some explaining to do, Ruidian,” said one.
Alex boldly met their gaze. “The Spear Mistress accused me of foul play and threw me through the portal! All I wanted to do was borrow a damned book.”
The guardian to his left just smirked and nodded, while the one on his right stared balefully at him.
“Correct. You do stand accused of foul play. On multiple counts. We did think it odd that you were by Peng Jin’s side. So, were you threatening her with a death technique? Blackmailing her? Threatening her child? Do you represent a Ruidian-led faction of some sort?” She flashed a pitiless smile. “I’d swallow my pride and prepare to reveal all your accomplices, if I were you. We have pain techniques that will leave you a broken, sobbing wreck that even your enemies would pity. Your death will be far swifter, the more complete your confession is. And believe me, we will know if you’re lying.”
Alex didn’t flinch at that matter-of-fact pronouncement. “I think you’re overlooking the obvious.”
A bemused eyebrow raised as deadly steel caressed his neck, the guardian’s dao unsheathed in the blink of an eye. “And what would that be, Ruidian?”
“If my talisman wasn’t genuine, I should have been destroyed the moment I was thrown back through the portal.”
Both women froze where they stood, watching him warily for long moments.
Abruptly, blades were sheathed. “Well, isn’t this a conundrum.”
The rightmost one smirked. “By rights, you should have ceased to be a problem when Peng Jin led you through.”
He
shuddered with horror, hot bile surging up his throat. His gaze turned accusatory. “So, when she led me through… you both expected me to, what, become utterly incapacitated?”
This earned him a cold chuckle. “If you want to call it that.”
“But wait, I saw that room was filled with—”
Alex’s words were abruptly cut off as deadly steel lay against his neck once more. “If you are wise, you will never say a word about what you saw within.”
He swallowed, nodding gingerly. “May I ask a question?”
The closest guardian chuckled darkly. “By all means. It might help us figure out what we are to do with you.”
Alex glared. “Treat me as the student I am?”
“Hardly.”
He gave a frustrated shake of his head, careful not to jostle the blade at his throat. “Well then, how is any student supposed to get access to the books within, if attempting to cross whatever barrier Peng Jin dragged me through will utterly incapacitate the unworthy?”
“Are you truly so stupid?” sneered the rightmost guardian. “You ask for it!”
“That treacherous bitch!” Alex chuckled bitterly, realizing his mistake as he recalled exactly what he had said. Peng Jin’s earlier looks of horrified desperation had not been faked. When he refused to take the outs she had offered, she clearly felt she had no choice but to lead him exactly where he wanted to go. ‘Keep your coin and show me those tomes,’ he had said. And she had proceeded to do just that. She had been fully aware that he didn’t know protocol, happy to let him lead himself to his own destruction. All by his own choice, he would be destroyed seeking the answers she was willing to provide. If he survived the journey, and she had been so certain he wouldn’t.
All he’d had to do was ask for her to retrieve the tomes and bring them to him.
He scoffed disbelievingly. “And you’re going to tell me that had I simply asked for the tomes within, I would have gained them?”
“Of course not, fool!” the leftmost guardian hissed. “You possess no talisman of deepest Silver, let alone sacred Gold. You have no right to anything within.”
Alex clenched his jaw, just imagining General Shalu laughing his head off at his expense, no doubt sensing the blinking gate and able to infer what it meant, even if he technically couldn’t see Alex at all.
“I can sense your sigil forced back and forth across the gate. Trapped your piece again, Fox!”
WiFu chuckled. “If my pawn is too foolish to sense the path forward, then he deserves to be caught in the trap you have set.”
“He is a pawn no further, my love,” interjected a soft, airy voice by his side, “but a player.”
WiFu grinned. “Who says he can’t be both?”
Alex sighed, staring at the guardians before him. “Then let me ask you this. Who can activate the gate before us?”
The rightmost guardian tossed her head scornfully. “Only those with amulets of deepest Silver, noble Gold, or a librarian’s talisman.”
The leftmost one chuckled. “And I doubt you can even activate the gate!” Her humor faded to steely disgust. “Leave, Ruidian. Leave, never dare the Silver floor again, and be grateful we allow you even to live.”
Alex’s gaze didn’t waver, taking in the hallway before him.
Artificer skill check made!
It was no great effort to sense the jade sigils embedded in both bookshelves on either side of the hallway which the pair of guardians had boxed him within. “So, we’re agreed that only those cultivators worthy of the tomes within can open the gate, yes?”
The nearest frowned. “Of course.”
“So, naturally, if I can open the gate, I may use those tomes freely, right?”
Alex’s heart skipped a beat when he recognized that which he should have caught from the beginning.
Not just the flinty gazes stabbing at him like he was less than nothing, fists gripping pommels as deadly killing auras washed over him.
But the flashing rubies upon rings of gold gracing ear, choker, and fingers.
Just like in the chamber beyond.
The distinction was nothing so obvious as a house sigil, but Alex was now utterly certain that he knew exactly what it meant, even as his memory of Yingpei’s animated discussion with Zhu Bi over breakfast as they waxed eloquent over the library’s wonders made it clear just how close his salvation was, how easy it would be to have absolutely everything he wanted at this moment… so long as he could skirt the death menacing him so intently. He’d initially missed hints that even the guardian below had revealed.
A guardian free of any ornamentation at all. Like every other guardian he had seen on the first floor, unlike the pair of women before him, shimmering rubies marking them as pawns of Dongfang Hong.
The Red Prince of the neighboring YanTu Kingdom who so eagerly sought control over Baidushi, and CuiJing Principality as a whole. And what better way to cement his influence here than by marrying the Crown Princess’s niece, Cui Li—the first friend Alex had ever made in this world—whose sacred Divine tier cultivation manual ideally suited to kitsune had caught even the Jade Emperor’s interest? Such a marriage would also help shore up Dongfang’s legitimacy as the sovereign ruler over YanTu nation, of which he was but one of several potential heirs. And of course, securing his influence within Royal Phoenix Academy was but one piece moved forward in his pursuit of the prizes he so eagerly sought to claim.
If the Red Prince had his way, court, kingdom, and academy would soon be his.
Thoughts flickering across Alex’s mind in an eyeblink as he was forced to accept just how deep the rot had already spread in the school which he had so foolishly thought could serve as a sanctuary from the political storms all around. No matter that the rot sparkled with the brilliance of rubies, the glittering jewels of allegiance worn by all the cultivators guarding the chamber beyond, serving as the final defenders of that inner sanctum of sacred knowledge.
Though no jewel sparkled so brilliantly, so perilously, as the rubies caressing the ears and throats of the deadly maidens presently glaring down at Alex. And in the blink of an eye, they were armed not with dao, but cleaving polearms. These two alone were more than enough to kill any competing prince who dared enter independently, no matter how talented a Silver he might be, Alex was suddenly sure.
He forced a defeated sigh, his thoughts racing at desperate speed. “And I have no idea how to safely open any portal right now.” Which was absolutely true. Any portal he activated would most certainly result in his death by decapitation.
He wilted petulantly before the guardians appearing so ready to kill him, like a clueless fool unaware of his own peril. “You may tell Peng Jin she got the better of me and won the bet, and I’ll never bother asking her for help again. I know neither of you are librarians, but can you at least tell me how to get back to the main floor?”
One guardian turned to the other. “Shall we?”
The second paused, considering. Alex kept his defeated mask in place, doing his utmost to hide the pounding of his heart as ice-cold horror flooded his veins. Knowing how close he was to death. Knowing that if they realized how much he knew, how much he understood, General Shalu’s greatest wish and Alex’s eternity of torment would begin in an eyeblink.
The rightmost guardian, with her terrible beauty and contemptuous sneer, just shrugged and gave the tiniest shake of her head. “He’s hardly worth the cleanup, or the explanation.”
She turned back to Alex, who kept his face utterly still, desperate to reveal nothing of the terror welling up within him.
“Go back the way you came. All the way down the corridor. The librarian on duty can point you to the stairs, if you’re truly too stupid to see what’s right in front of your face, which I am increasingly certain is the case.”
Alex bowed his head. “Thank you, guardians, and I do apologize for the librarian’s prank.”
He then turned on his heels and left in a frustrated huff, as if a simple lark was all that had
occurred. And the allowance of that fiction due to the pair of guardians not wanting to have to bother with cleaning his spurting blood from floor, ceiling, and countless leather book spines, was perhaps the only reason why he was still alive.
Totally ignoring Guan’s hot glare—who, to his credit at least, seemed completely oblivious to the dark, murderous undercurrents within his own floor—Alex quickly made his way down the stairs to the main floor once more, ready to enact the next stage of his plan.
36
Thanks to his internal map making up for any flaws in memory or sense of direction, Alex made his way down the convoluted corridors which Peng Jin had previously used in an attempt to both throw him off her trail and avoid making contact with anyone else who might later ask where a certain Ruidian had disappeared to. He was more than happy to use them now to his advantage, encountering absolutely no one on his way back to the Bronze stacks and picking up exactly where he had left off. Once more his fingers danced across the spines of countless tomes lining the bookshelves with the air of someone who knew their sought-after book was around their somewhere, all for the benefit of anyone who might look his way, acting as if he hadn’t just narrowly escaped death after overplaying his hand. Even now, he wasn’t sure if he hated her or pitied Peng Jin more. She had set him up for a hard fall, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he too would have happily sentenced a manipulator to their death if forced to either destroy his cultivation base or lose his head, no matter if his blackmailer had no idea of the true stakes involved.
He sighed, remembering all too well the dread he had noted in her gaze. Yet he had been so hungry for the tomes he needed, so desperate not to be waylaid by yet another damned obstacle, that he had tuned out her terror.
But she could have told him. Should have told him! He wouldn’t have destroyed her cultivation base just to get what he wanted, especially if he knew he was walking into what was effectively the Red Prince’s trap for any competitor. His enemy’s tendrils already ran far deeper in this school than Alex could have fathomed, though the hundreds of sets of crimson steel armor gifted to the school was definitely a hint.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 52
