Alex groaned, unable to bear meeting their gazes, a pair of titans striding across the land who could tear the heavens with swipes of their massive hands, fiery furnaces for eyes crackling with all the potency of the noonday sun.
"Silver Fox! You owe me a debt, cur. Did you think you could hide from me forever?"
Alex blinked, forcing his eyes upward once more as Inspector WiFu gave an apologetic chuckle, rubbing his eyes not to see a giant, but rather an irate-looking man wearing fine silken robes with a neatly trimmed snow-white mustache and beard and an odd, square crimson cap upon his bald pate. Upon his fingers were rings that sparkled and flashed, and Alex could all but feel the waves of crackling potency emanating from the jian at the man's hip. Thankfully, the weapon remained sheathed, for all that the elder man of obvious means continued to castigate the abashed inspector.
"Grandfather Justice, please! I fear there has been a misunderstanding of sorts."
"I misunderstand nothing, whelp! And you're no grandson of mine! To think, I took you in, gave you culture, civilization, a home, and you repay me by seducing my precious Qing Bai! Tempting her with all the bittersweet fruits of the mortal coil! Youth is all well and good, and a thousand generations to bear her features seems a fine prize, but did you warn her of the burdens faced by all those who embrace the seasons? Now her blood and yours will forever be a part of this land, and you must bear the responsibility, Silver Fox!" snapped the elder man as his second approached, the man now by his side a good six foot five slab of glowering muscle, kitted out in what Alex's imperfect memory thought of as ancient samurai armor, though instead of a katana or naginata, he held a massive war hammer with a golden dragon rune upon each side of its obsidian head. Just gazing at it filled Alex with a dreadful sense of awe, having no doubt that it could shatter his bones like glass with the slightest effort.
Then the man's eyes peered into Alex's own and it was all he could do not to collapse again, groaning as a pain that was not a pain nonetheless left him utterly spent, as if the man before him had just flipped his psyche open, reading his life story like a book.
Alex cried out as the elder by the giant's side, lord of these lands, Lord Zheng Yi himself, seemed to be taking the measure of Alex's very soul, his distinguished yet somehow ageless features frowning slightly at whatever it was he saw, which made Alex want to sob with shame, though he couldn't say why.
You have made psychic contact with a cultivator. Imprint user's matrix for further study?
You have made spiritual contact with a cultivator. Imprint user's matrix for further study?
He gave an internal yes to both statements, before collapsing to the ground, unable even to move.
"That fool dared to imprint us?" said the giant of a man in outraged disbelief.
"Silver Fox, what is the meaning of this?" roared Zheng Yi.
Inspector WiFu chuckled apologetically. "I fear my little assistant bit off more than he could chew. Please forgive him, Grandfather, Uncle. He thinks he is playing a game. He believed it so well, Grandmother Yi Wang believed it too, and because of that, he was allowed to keep his memory while in the River of Souls."
The old man snorted. "Grandmother forgets her place! What sort of madness is this?"
"It's complicated," the inspector sighed. "In his former life, the laws of his realm allowed for intelligent automatons that mastered strange mirrors that could display whatever you wished upon them. Before long, they commanded these automatons to generate artificial worlds they could explore, pretending they were heroes in the stories they would tell themselves."
"So, what does their deluded storytelling have to do with this boy being able to imprint Celestial Meridian patterns?" demanded the giant of a man.
Silver Fox shrugged. "That is harder to say. This boy was dying of an incurable illness no cultivator would be plagued by, promised by charlatans the chance to live forever as a spirit playing his favorite games when they froze his body in ice. So, though his body died, his soul remained convinced that when he woke up, it would be within his game. Grandmother Yi Wang seems to have found this strange logic either captivating or amusing enough that she allowed him to continue in his delusion, and so this poor, strangely sentient spirit found itself in our realm."
The lord snorted. "That still doesn't explain how he awoke as anything other than a babe from between his mother's legs."
Silver Fox coughed awkwardly.
"This was your doing!" the warrior snapped.
"I did nothing but provide an opportunity! And he grasped hold of it perfectly!"
"And you risked everything in a war between pantheons, fool!" roared the old man.
Alex groaned as the skies cracked with the sound of thunder, a howling storm whipping ice-cold rain across his back.
Inspector WiFu chuckled placatingly. "Not at all, Lord Justice. Not at all! I made absolutely no contact with the boy until after he managed to destroy that ship, completely on his own initiative, an innate sense of justice and basic survival instinct compelling him upon the path he took! And, if you'll recall, our enemies conceded one card with their follower's campaign. I but placed the card in the heart of our enemies' ship!"
"Without consulting any of us! Are you truly such a fool as to give no thought for the bigger picture?" roared the giant.
"I, the fool, Long Wang? I, the one who begged you all to treat these invaders as the threat they were? The one whose exquisite nose detected endless flasks of death-fire and enough poison to send Grandfather's entire city into the grave? I, the only one who understood our enemy's strange generosity to be a token sacrifice so the cosmos itself wouldn't demand retribution when their forces butchered five million innocent souls? No, Long! The foolish move would have been to do nothing!"
WiFu dared to glare at the older man. "You claim such concern for these people, Grandfather, but the pair of you have been content to do nothing more than stare at the horizon promising the deaths of our followers. At least I acted!"
"At the cost of incurring a massive debt of karma our enemies can use against us!" Zheng Yi roared.
"Not true!" WiFu corrected. "And the proof lies before you! Look at the karmic strands connecting this boy to the ships below. Karmic strands our city's earthly rulers can use to orient their catapults, trebuchets, and ballistae! Even now, my beloved Qing Bai, having descended to the earthly realm along with our daughter, is marshalling the lord's forces to fortify the city and bring those weapons of war where we stand! It is mortal forces alone that will sink the fleet of our enemies."
He gazed down at an exhausted, speechless Alex.
"Mortals like the boy before me, nearly dead thrice over at the hands of murderous invaders and corrupt bureaucrats both, who alone bears the karmic gratitude of five million souls, and the eternal enmity of our opponents. Were this not true, were we not free of all karmic blame, this child, who has failed to open even a single meridian gateway, would not be linked so strongly by fate and karma to his newfound allies and enemies as to pick out an entire fleet of foes, just hours away from their invasion!"
The howling storm only grew in intensity as the powerful Zheng Yi glowered. Alex was near delirious with pain, craving a blackness that wouldn't come as his soul screamed and burned while forces both beautiful and terrible seared themselves upon his spirit, changing him forevermore.
"So be it," Zheng Yi said at last. "But the boy's fate is your burden to bear, Fox, and the path he takes will be his alone to decide!"
The inspector bowed so low that the wide brim of his hat brushed the lush field of rain-soaked grass. "It will be as you say, Grandfather."
"And do not call me that again, Silver Fox! I do not forgive you for enticing my beloved Qing Bai to walk the land of seasons, forced to endure countless winters before she may ascend once more!"
"Knowing that fox, he'll seduce her forevermore, fathering a thousand mortal daughters, so she never returns to me," growled Long Wang, somehow both man and, by an odd trick of perception, a
titanic giant glaring down at WiFu from the stormy heavens above.
WiFu didn't deny it. "Why not? She is my mistress by night as much as she is your wife by day, and she will love our thousand mortal daughters just as much as she does your one divine son."
The strange inspector winked at the near delirious Alex as he suddenly dodged aside with blinding speed as a roaring Long Wang slammed the ground with his hammer.
The rock face of the cliff exploded outward, showering the black ships Alex still felt a strange link to with tons of jagged rock as a laughing WiFu continued to roll and dodge at the edge of the cliff face while the roaring titan behind him used his massive hammer to smash to smithereens the land he had strode upon just moments before.
Alex's eyes widened in awe and wonder as a furious looking Zheng Yi continued to glare daggers of retribution WiFu's way, the storm now crackling with lightning bolts that struck the sea first dozens then hundreds of times, and to Alex's amazement it seemed that Inspector Silver Fox was truly intent on taking his namesake, for the laughing rascal of a man had turned to a giant fox, tongue rolling out in a canine grin as he dodged and darted the titan's massive hammer, now as large as a tank, smashing the sea as a nimble fox darted from wave to wave.
The titan's frustration only grew, his size now that of a small mountain, his hammer now the size of an aircraft carrier. He roared and slammed the seas with titanic force, sending massive tidal waves slamming against the steep shore cliffs as thousands of tons of sea spray and the shattered hulls of countless enemy ships became a churning froth of furious titan and laughing fox, all showcased in brilliant crackling detail by the storm of lightning setting the sea ablaze.
Insight gained! The pantheons might have given oaths not to directly interfere with each other, but if a domestic dispute results in incidental casualties, their enemies only have themselves to blame for putting their pieces so close to their opponent's playing field!
Alex rubbed his eyes as the churning seas struck by the wrath of gods became the sharp, disciplined cry of a beautiful woman kitted out in a pristine dingjia covered in pink silk, her ebony locks done up with a dozen jade pins, needing no reins to control her magnificent white horse with a silver horn that made Alex think ‘unicorn.'
His eyes widened only slightly at the fox ears he could see through her pinned-up hair, awed by the sense of power and potency he could feel radiating off her in waves as she snapped her hand down, roaring "Fire!" at which point three dozen catapults and trebuchets unleashed burning balls of naphtha, sulfur, and pitch upon the fleet of vessels below the shore cliff's edge.
Alex smiled as he could sense black strand after black strand of karma between him and the ships burn away as each vessel was sunk, bitter lives washed clean of all hate in preparation for the next life. The faint tinge of dark spiritual karma remaining was now just a tiny speck compared to the brilliant golden glow he sensed from the city behind him, knowing it would be a wonder to catch sight of it, but too tired to move.
The beautiful noblewoman continued to shout out commands until a dozen volleys had been launched and all but a limping handful of enemy vessels had sunk. Yet even the survivors were shown no mercy, as the city's own armada, very much intact with the collapse of the enemy's plans to destroy them, quickly finished off the stragglers, the invaders now unable to hide in the enchanted fog with their masts and hulls burning so brightly.
Only then did she turn to gaze with curious silver eyes upon the shivering boy at her unicorn's feet.
She furrowed her perfect brows. "Captain, who is this child? And how did he get here?"
A hard-eyed granite featured man decked in the metallic scales of some exotic beast gazed down at Alex with coldly detached eyes. "I know not, my lady. But he is clearly a foreigner, like our enemies. Shall I send him to his maker?"
Alex closed his eyes, too exhausted even to be afraid.
He could sense her thoughtful head shake, her pert little nose scenting the air. "You will do no such thing, Captain. I suspect he is a pawn of my father's. The rain just masked his smell."
Alex smiled at that, too exhausted to even be curious at how a raging fight between gods and an unexpected divine pregnancy had turned into a fully-grown fox-woman leading an army against the same armada of enemy vessels… assuming it was the same. Assuming Alex hadn't spent 17 years here, or stepped out of time, or if this really was all just a dream.
A strangely alarmed voice could be heard in the distance as soothing blackness washed over Alex at last. "My lady, what's happening to him?"
Soft fingertips caressed Alex's cheek.
You have made physical contact with a Cultivator. Imprint user's matrix for further study?
Yes, Alex thought with a smile, barely hearing the gasp from far off.
"Definitely my father's pawn. Do nothing, men. Even now, the earth covers him in roses and lilies. That old fox is done with his piece and is now putting it neatly away. I just wish I could say the same about all his escapades."
4
Alex felt a deep weariness overtake him, and for all that he was lying on the rain-soaked ground, his body slowly overgrown with roses and lilies, he felt no pain, no discomfort, just the sweet sensation of drifting off, as if he was on the plushest of beds enjoying a well-earned rest.
Even when the starry night sky transformed to a golden dawn, he was quite content to lay comfortably nested in his bed of roses and lilies as day bled to night bled to day once more, endless afternoons and seasons passing in a few deep breaths as time carried him away in a gentle stream, rich fecund earth embracing his weary bones as his soul strove to comprehend the marvelous constellations emblazoned upon his soul with the clasp and touch of gods and men.
The cruel Officer Wan had the least significant configuration, three oddly placed meridian gates, the rest too misaligned to ever open, doomed never to ascend even to the noble ranks of Bronze, let alone esteemed Silver and pristine Gold, the latter as rare as diamonds in beds of coal.
The three immortal configurations he had glimpsed, their meridian gates touching the divine, transcended even Gold ranks in their perfection. And it was his desperate bid to grasp their infinite nuance and pristine perfection that demanded his soul embrace a journey of centuries, meditating upon concepts so profound each breath of his soul lasted an entire cycle of seasons. It took one hundred cultivating breaths before his mind unraveled the mysteries of the Fox, sensing the perfect configuration of seven meridian channels that resonated with transcendent truths, for all that his affinities were limited; Fate and Karma, Shadow, and, unlike all the other mortals and deities he had encountered, a balance between Yin and Yang, darkness and light. He did not reject the so-called taint and blockage, the impurities that represented chaos, entropy, and change. He embraced them with rigorous discipline and focus so at odds with the chaos it represented, somehow separating those strands of darkness and light, mirror image meridian configurations of both, flowing very much like a classic Yin/Yang symbol within that mischievous deity's very soul.
An additional hundred breaths Alex took, absorbing and interpreting the profound insights he had gleaned under the Dragon King's regard. And the land above him was now considered the sacred ground of legends and prized by cultivators for its connections to Heaven and Earth, each breath seeming to revitalize one's spiritual energy allowing for effortless channeling into the purest Qi. Master cultivators eventually established a renowned academy that only the most gifted and diligent of cultivators were even allowed admittance to, all Disciples having achieved the third rank of Bronze at the very least, the school free of any teacher who had not transcended to the ranks of Silver, forging powerful links between meridian channels and their Lower Dantian or, as it was commonly referred to, their Inner Core.
Even as young man dueled for the right to meditate for a full season undisturbed in the tiny woodland clearing near the cliff's edge that had become his grave, Alex thought he finally understood the rigid control and overwhelming p
ower behind Long Wang's fearsome potency. For all that he was, at his most chaotic and mighty, a dragon that could devour the world entire, he had proven stronger than the wild passions with which he had forged this world in the first place. Instead of risking catastrophic destruction, he chose instead to lower himself and confine his terrible power to his mighty body alone. Being the all-father and creator of all things, he had a strong affinity for all the major elements and the connections between them, but his fearsome powers were confined to his body and what he could touch, or to the masterwork weapons and implements he chose to create.
Alex understood that Long Wang's fearsome powers could forge great works, compelling the inner truths hidden within wood, metal, and stone, his healing magics and affinity with wood giving him the potential to bring even the most decrepit soul back to a state of wholeness, so long as consent was given.
But he could never consume his enemies in a storm of fire, lest the world itself be consumed. He could never strike his foes with lightning, lest the very atmosphere be seared and charred to oblivion. He was, in other words, the ultimate body cultivator, as were those very few souls who followed the Path of the Eight Elements, and the strictures within.
And so rare were those few of his bloodline, he, the least likely of all gods to fall for the wiles of women, meant that perhaps no more than a mere handful of cultivators within the billions upon billions of citizens that made up this vast, seemingly endless world of seas, kingdoms, and continents even had his gifts. No doubt few masters, if any, believed that balancing all the opposing elements was even possible.
Yet save for cloaking shadows and the chaotic darkness that stunk of change and was the antithesis of ivory white order, Long Wang's path embraced them all.
Lord Zheng Yi's meridian constellation was the most exotic of all, possessing twelve, not seven meridian gateways, and aligned to Water, Earth, and Air, as well as the adjoining elements of Wood, tied as it was with healing, and Lightning, so vital for dispelling and destroying Hungry Ghosts, Devils and other abominations. To say nothing of a natural affinity for the sea.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reborn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 1 Page 8
