Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reborn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 1

by M. H. Johnson

  Heart roaring with an odd mixture of fear and impotent fury, Alex bowed at the waist, lowering his gaze to the man’s feet. “How may this flawed employee assist the great lord before him?” He did his best to keep the mockery out of his voice, but inside he was jeering. The stupid lordling appeared momentarily mollified, however.

  “Better. Now go scurry off and tell your master Lai Wei will see him immediately.”

  “What is it?” Snapped a frustrated Liu Jian when Alex entered the back, waiting endless moments for the man to finish grinding together with mortar and pestle the herbs and mushrooms he would later infuse with his Qi. Alex immediately recognized the unique scent combination of plants that, combined with an alchemist’s gifts, could be used to make the humblest of cultivation pills, those designed to help purify one’s Qi and break down the impurities blocking a cultivator’s meridian gates.

  Arcane Formulae Witnessed: Basic Cultivation Pill. 75% Comprehension achieved. - Ingredients recognized. Physical Procedure understood.

  You are unable to replicate the mystical elements of said process. You presently lack sufficient Qi reserves and elemental mastery to synthesize Basic Cultivation Pill.

  Since Alex’s own Dual Path Cultivation Technique was based on separating and later making use of both types of Qi, the pills were of limited use to him, and Liu Jian had made it quite clear that with the size of Alex’s gates and blockages, it would cost a fortune to clear even a single gate.

  “Someone is here to see you, Master."

  He wilted under Liu Jian’s glare. “Then go inform my daughter. You know I’m not to be disturbed while compounding!”

  Alex swallowed. “He said his name was Lai Wei.”

  The alchemist paled. "Wait here," he said, before taking a deep breath, focusing himself, and proceeding at a sedate pace to the front of the store. Alex couldn't help peering through the cracked half-door, his acute hearing picking up every word.

  "Here, old man," said the youth once Liu Jian made an appearance, handing him a slip of pale green jade shaped much like a playing card in length and thickness, perhaps half as wide. "I believe you'll find my father's offer for your property more than generous."

  Liu Jian scowled, nevertheless putting the piece of jade against his forehead.

  He paled and lurched back. “He wouldn’t dare!”

  “He would,” smirked Lai Wei, too-handsome features twisting with contempt. “You’ll have no customers by the time we’re through with you. You don’t belong in this city, old man. The school doesn’t want you here, and neither do we. And a hundred platinum phoenix for your pathetic little blotch of land is more than generous. We know for a fact you purchased all of this property for less than a handful of gold after half the block burned down. One might almost wonder if you were the one behind the fires.”

  Liu Jian stiffened, his baleful gaze causing the arrogant youth before him to pale and step back. Alex’s own eyes widened from where he spied the conversation, wondering if this was what was referred to as a ‘killing gaze.’

  “You may tell your father that the answer is no, and will always be no, not even if he offers a full dozen spirit stones! Now take your damned slip and your sorry ass out of my store!” He roared the last. The nobleman’s son had actually tripped in his haste to back away, so deadly was the aura radiating from the alchemist, before it suddenly disappeared as the older man drew in a steadying breath, and he was just old Master Liu again.

  The boy blinked, shaking away his momentary horror, replacing his acute embarrassment with an angry glare. “My father will give you one week to take the offer. Frankly, I hope you don’t. It will be a pleasure to watch you fall as a penniless pauper, in debt to all his betters! When your daughter’s up for auction—”

  “You would dare to say such things to me!?” Alex’s stomach dropped with those words, and the entire building seemed to shake, for all that Master Liu did no more but stand there, the air around him crackling with deadly Qi.

  Lai Wei paled, forgoing any final attempt to salvage his pride as he gasped and stumbled out through the door as fast as his panicked legs could take him.

  For an endless awful moment, the alchemist seemed to shake with pent-up fury, and Alex was afraid the entire building would explode with the terrible energies he sensed crackling just beneath the surface, before the older man abruptly deflated with a sigh, shaking his head.

  Then he turned around, glaring straight at the crack where Alex had heard everything, as implacable as a natural force.

  “You will mention nothing of this to my daughter. Understood?”

  A pale-faced Alex quickly bobbed his head. “Yes, Master Liu. I won’t say a word.”

  The old man gave an exasperated shake of his head. “I’m being an old fool. No doubt that boy’s father told him just what to say, hoping I’d be goaded to rashness, willing to sacrifice his own flesh if it got him what he wanted.”

  Alex swallowed. “What’s that?”

  The man flashed a mirthless smile. "My apothecary, and all its secrets, of course. For though we sell but the simplest tinctures, infused with no more magic than what our carefully harvested plants obtain from the spiritual energy all around, I was once far more than that, and the school never forgave the fact that their greatest cultivation pill-making secrets went with me." He snorted. "The damn fools at the academy thought they were so clever, foisting their hand-picked assistants on me, thinking I’d allow them to squirrel close and claim all my prizes for themselves.”

  He shook his head. “That Lai Leng is a crafty one, I’ll give him that much. He was arranging to have me disenfranchised of my greatest treasures seasons before he made his move to force my family off Dragon Temple grounds.”

  Alex blinked. “Who’s this Lai Leng?”

  A soft chuckle. “One of the instructors at the most famed Cultivation Academy for a thousand miles in all directions, and a second-rate alchemist who hated both my wife and daughter, and couldn’t stand that he would always be my inferior. He’s no doubt using his family as he does everyone else, including that brat of a boy we saw earlier.”

  Alex nodded. “Where is this famous academy, Master Liu? Do you think they might have cultivation manuals I could use, assuming I can ever open my meridian gates?”

  The older man laughed. "It's Dragon Temple, lad. The pride and joy of our city, and they have more Qi purification and cycling manuals than you could shake a stick at. Just climb up the plateau to the east of the city and there it is, in all its bittersweet glory."

  He then gave Alex’s shoulders a friendly pat. “But never you mind that, Alex. Best you forget this day ever happened. In point of fact, why don’t you finish our compounding orders?”

  Alex blinked. "But, Master, aren't you in the middle of creating your Basic Cultivation pills?"

  His mentor smirked. “I fear my cultivation pills will be wasted effort, today, and I don’t have nearly as many beast cores and other ingredients as I would like to risk wasting them.”

  Alex had, of course, been only too happy to comply. Not only did he enjoy the work, but he felt a wave of delicious anticipation whenever he gazed at the brilliant blue bar in his mind’s eye as his interface showed him his steady progress to Biochemical Mastery Rank 5.

  When he went to help out front the next day, however, Liu Jian politely shook his head.

  "I am sorry, Alex, but I'll attend the front for the next few days. Other high-strung fools might come by, spoiling for a fight or trying to force a hard sell. The Lai Clan is powerful, and Lai Leng isn't the only cultivation instructor at Dragon Academy who hates anyone who's not descended from ‘pure blood,' or just had the misfortune to be born poor. They make the training and tribulations of young acolytes far harder than they have to be, sometimes doing their best to hinder their ability to even open their gates, for all that it's in the city lord's best interest to generate as many candidates for the Royal Army as possible."

  The alchemist frowned, giving an angry s
hake of his head. “Those fools are an insult to the very traditions of our school. But in the game of politics and favors, few are their equal.”

  He patted Alex’s shoulder. “But don’t worry. That obnoxious boy can waste his time blustering all day, but he’ll get nowhere. My former status in the Royal Army secures me liberties not even those fools at the school dare deny me, for all that they have forbidden their own cultivators to make use of my services.” He gave a sad shake of his head. “So I find myself with strange bedfellows indeed, these days. Now here, take this.”

  Alex glanced at the pack full of deliveries he was to make, his master handing him a compact wax tablet with the concise code of addresses and directions he had struggled for hours trying to decipher the night before.

  "This is why I had you learning Mapsign and studying the city layout. Far better than covering each package with crude directions. You now know this area almost as well as any native, and once you have the knack of it, you can convey an address with just a few dashes.”

  Alex’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help smiling as he turned to face due South, now able to orient himself immediately and deduce by the dots and lines exactly how many blocks in which direction he had to go, and how many houses down it would be far more efficiently than the first time he had made deliveries, just weeks ago.

  “Thank you, Master Liu,” Alex said, grateful to be able to get out of the store and explore the city. “I won’t let you down.”

  The older man’s eyes twinkled as he gave a soft chuckle. “It’s that kind of enthusiasm that will get you far in life under any master, boy. Now go, make your deliveries. Lai Wei and whatever crony he tries to put in front of my store will have a hard time intimidating people from using home delivery! And here are a couple copper pennies. Buy yourself a snack, or save it up for whatever you like.”

  Alex blinked, strangely touched to be formally paid. It wasn’t the coin, so much as the sudden sense of belonging he suddenly felt.

  His master smirked. “Well? Get going, boy. Those packages won’t deliver themselves.”

  And so, Alex began making regular deliveries and befriending the apothecary’s clientele, every other morning after his martial practice. He slowly gained ever more familiarity with this tiny corner of what was a truly vast and magnificent city; towers, pagodas, endless shops, restaurants, and flower gardens in the wealthier areas were all waiting to be explored, to say nothing of the exciting panoply of flavors to be experienced in the multiple miniature food courts that reminded him so much of Singapore and that one exciting trip he had taken there when his entire family had been hale, whole, and healthy, his life as sweet as he could have hoped for.

  He sighed and shook away the grim thoughts, enjoying the exotic mix of cultures and flavors to be found, the equivalent of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls covered in a honey glaze one stall over from delicious red bean paste sticky buns, and the rich scents of cloves and cardamom from the curry cooking in one of the stall's behind him made Alex dizzy with happiness.

  It seemed that in this reality, you could find any and every culinary delicacy you could imagine, and Alex could imagine quite a lot. Probably one of the big advantages of such lush, fecund land so rich in spiritual energies that produce grew at a breakneck pace. And both domestic and dangerous wild animals and spirit-beasts flourished, all of them possessing particularly succulent meat.

  From what Liu Li had said after morning practice the other day, meeting a violent end was an all too common fate in this world, but it seemed very few people actually starved.

  So Alex couldn’t help but spend his copper pennies within the plentiful food stalls, doing his best to capture tastes that reminded him of home, a world away, with the surprisingly cheap fare. It was a wonderful way to spend his afternoons, and as long as he kept his head politely lowered when individuals of rank went about their business, and made eye contact only with males, most people were content to leave him alone.

  Perception check made! Dodge successful!

  “Out of the way, foreigner!” This from a group of arrogant-looking young men wearing what Alex thought of as sky blue Tang Suits, the de facto uniform of the Dragon Temple, and matching glares that said the world was theirs.

  Alex turned his dodge into a pivot and polite bow. “Apologies, young masters.” He quickly hurried on his way before being abruptly lurched off his feet, then slammed to the ground.

  You have suffered 10 damage and one Light Wound. You are temporarily disoriented.

  “You dared to dodge my blow and actually have the gall to speak to me? Don’t think we’ll let you scurry away after that offense, vermin. I didn’t give you permission to leave,” sneered the tallest, who would have been a handsome young man with his aristocratic features and piercing gaze, were it not twisted by a cruel sneer.

  Perception check failed! You have been stunned!

  Alex didn’t even see the snap-kick that sent him slamming into the ground again as one of the young cultivators grabbed the wicker basket of herbal compounds Alex had been delivering.

  Alex swallowed his humiliation as the young man sneered down at him, ripping open the packages and allowing the medicinal powder to spill in Alex’s face.

  Alex’s eyes widened, shock and adrenaline clearing sufficiently for him to instantly understand what was happening and why.

  Cruel lips curled in a hate-filled grin.

  “I recognize you, now, foreigner. You’re the one who dared gaze right at me like an equal. Liu Jian’s monkey, right? You think you have the right to mock me to my face in public?”

  His palm cracked against Alex’s face. “I could challenge you here and now, worm, run you through and leave you to die, kicking and screaming upon the ground." His cold smile grew. "But perhaps you can be of use, after all. How would you like to earn some coin, boy? All you have to do is confess your master's criminal acts. He is an alchemist after all, no? Too many years circulating amongst his betters to resist the lure of the alchemical arts once again. And we all know the only people he could be selling it to." His cold smile grew. "The Jianghu sect. No? Which is technically… illegal. You witnessed your master selling some of his tinctures to members of the Jianghu sect, no?"

  He taunted Alex with a coin displaying a crown on one side, a bird of prey on the other. Alex’s eyes widened with the flash of gold.

  He swallowed.

  Lai Wei chuckled with dark satisfaction. “It tempts you, doesn’t it? Go on, monkey. Take it. The coin is yours.”

  Alex slowly shook his head, backing away, realizing that the crowd of busy people by the food stalls was somehow an impossibly far memory, Alex having been hustled and pinned in a dirty, stinking alleyway, food rinds on him even now.

  And before Alex could blink in protest, his world became a blinding flash of pain, and he was both awed and horrified to realize he had sensed the Qi buildup a heartbeat before Lai Wei smashed his fist into Alex’s side.

  He groaned and cried out, hearing his ribs crack under the blow.

  Lai Wei smirked, twisting Alex’s ear as he desperately tried to breathe.

  “What’s that, monkey? I couldn’t hear you. Is there something you wanted to say? A confession, perhaps?”

  His laughter became mocking. “You’re going to need some extra coin to get a proper doctor to look at those ribs.”

  Alex groaned, blinking as five golden coins settled on the dirty cobblestone pavement, inches from his trembling hands.

  He gasped, forcing himself to look up into the mocking faces of his aggressors.

  He slowly shook his head as he stumbled to his feet. “I’m not taking your damn coin!”

  Alex burned with shock, humiliation, and yes, fear. But he would never sell out his friends.

  Qi channeling sensed!

  He barely got his arms up in time to block a second hammer fist, hearing as much as feeling one of his wrist bones snap as he crumpled to his back, still fighting desperately to breathe.

  And all he
saw was Lai Wei’s cruel face, sneering into his own. “Too stupid to take the wealth at your feet, are you? Determined to die with your fellow vermin, rather than rise above your filth. How pathetic.” He sneered, savoring Alex’s agony, his desperate struggle to breathe, the fact that his moment of righteous indignation had turned to fear.

  Lai Wei patted Alex’s head as he fought to breathe. “I think you need to be taught a lesson, monkey-boy. Of course you’re an affront, just existing. But what I find particularly offensive are your shiny locks of golden hair. How about I relieve you of that offense, worm?”

  Alex’s eyes widened as a razor-sharp dao was unsheathed, its killing edge sparkling in the sun.

  Then the blade flashed and Alex cried out as his scalped exploded in pain.

  “Lai Wei, you actually scalped him!” whispered one boy.

  “You took it too far!” snapped another.

  “Don’t be cowards,” sneered Lai Wei. “He is nothing. Less than nothing! A foreigner. I could kill him and suffer nothing worse than a fine my father would gladly pay, getting rid of scum like him.”

  He sneered at Alex. “Whether he dies here or survives long enough to crawl back to his master, that old fool will get the message. And I didn’t even need to waste a single gold eagle.”

  The three departed in a wave of mocking laughter.

  But Alex didn’t even bother glancing their way, wheezing and struggling just to breathe. Time seemed to stretch into a tunnel of agony, and he sensed death just a few labored gasps away.

  Then he suddenly felt an odd nip on his hand that brought to mind a fox's angry bite, and soothing blackness was utterly denied him. He was forced to full consciousness and all the pain it promised, eyes widening as he struggled just to gasp for air.

  Before channeling his humiliation and fear, grabbing ahold of the awful pain his world had become, and forcing himself to breathe according to the cultivation techniques he had spent the last few weeks practicing, somehow forcing his wheezing body back to its feet, his limbs suddenly flooded with Qi that allowed him, somehow, to stumble back to the apothecary before collapsing with a groan, energy spent, into a panicked Liu Li’s arms.