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

by M. H. Johnson

  Biochemical Mastery – Rank 5

  You may now synthesize or cure any poison or formulae mastered. Limitations apply.

  Botanical Formulae mastered: 22

  Botanical Poisons mastered: 8 Ancient / 4 Modern

  Arcane Formulae mastered: NONE

  Bio-Contaminants mastered: Tetanus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

  You have 60% Immunity to the effects of all caustic compounds or inhaled irritants.

  You have full immunity to the caustic and toxic effects of all poisons mastered and all alchemical reagents used.

  You have 30% Immunity to Ethanol intoxication.

  Full regenerative capacity – Heal rate based on Vitality. Injuries will be free of scarring. Missing limbs will require 2 weeks per pound of bio material lost to regenerate fully.

  Cultivation Talents

  Rank 3 Basic Cultivator. (3 Meridian Gateways opened.)

  Body Cultivation Techniques Learned: – NONE

  Qi Purification Techniques Learned: – Dual Path Purification Technique (90% Efficiency) / Cleansing Breath Purification Technique (3.25% Efficiency)

  Qi Cycling Techniques learned: – NONE

  Qi Disciplines learned: – NONE

  _____________________________________________

  As much as he was awed by the changes, he was almost embarrassed to see his spitting ability ranking higher than his martial abilities, but perhaps it made sense, since so much was relative, he thought, sucking in a mouthful of cold water from his ring, streaming it with perfect accuracy at the fly that had landed on his door.

  It was basically a worthless skill that few people would bother to master, save in the most eccentric of professions, and he was surprisingly accurate, compared to the first time he had tried it. Still, it would be a lot cooler if his top martial skill was the exotic crescent-bladed fangtian ji, or his saber-like dao that he was top-ranked in, but he knew he had no cause to complain.

  And he didn’t need to look at any conceptualized character sheet to see how he had improved. Just looking in the mirror was enough to make him smile, a far cry from the former high school student wasting away from terminal illness, either a couple of months or a thousand years ago. Either way, it didn’t matter. He would do whatever it took to never be so vulnerable to the wiles of cruel fate again.

  And that necessitated him forging his own path, becoming so strong that no one could determine his fate but himself. After all, if he was doomed to live in exciting times, he’d rather be the titanic ship making the wave, than the fragile fishing vessels so easily overturned by life’s choppy seas.

  He chuckled softly at his reflection. “I got a long way to go before I’m a titan in anyone’s book.” He flexed his arm. “Still, it’s nice to actually see some muscle pop, for the first time in my life.”

  With the quickest of ablutions, grateful that his purification technique left none of the icky residue that seemed to plague so many cultivators, he quickly donned his still pristine changshan tunic and the rest of the clothing WiFu had gifted him with. He closed his eyes in a solemn moment in gratitude for the wonderful attire that was so useful for repelling dirt, grime, and all manner of odors, never irritating his skin or needing any cleaning or maintenance, looking like he had just stepped out of the tailor’s when he finally left his quarters, blinking into the golden rays of the rising sun.

  13

  “Alex! You’re awake! You were cultivating so hard I was afraid we wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye!”

  Alex caught site of Liu Jian and Liu Li kitted up in their odd combination of soldier and hunting gear, both of them with recurved bows, quivers, and boar spears, both of them wearing the armaments they sparred with regularly. No doubt excellent for keeping their hides safe from spirit beasts as well as more human foes.

  He gazed at Liu Li’s gentle smile and felt a curious knot in his chest, knowing they were just minutes away from leaving, heading to what had been mysteriously referred to as the High Road, though he had never seen elevated pathways of any sort in his rounds about this corner of the city.

  “I did it,” he managed to say at last.

  Both pairs of eyes widened.

  “Seriously?”

  He nodded.

  Liu Jian took off his helmet, flashing Alex an approving grin. “This is good news indeed, lad! My only question is this: how do you feel right now?”

  Alex grinned. “Like I could run a dozen miles. I don’t feel fatigued or drained at all!”

  The older man's mysterious smile grew. "Then kit up. You know where your gear is. Secure your armor well, Alex, especially your boots. And as for armaments..." He looked at his own boar spear and frowned. "Bring the ji you and my daughter were sparring with. Not quite the same as a boar spear, but close enough, and I reckon you just might have the strength, now, to use it as easily as our own spears. The twin crescent blades will keep our prey from charging up the shaft to tear your life away, same as the lugs on our own spears, and if things get dicey, you can cleave some vicious wounds into their flanks.”

  Alex couldn't help grinning from ear to ear. "Yes, sir!" he said, quickly kitting up and returning, making extra certain that the woolen tubes he wore for socks and the boots were both as comfortable on his feet as they could possibly be, grateful once more to find the leather so supple that they didn't feel any more cumbersome than his old track shoes.

  Strangely, it was Liu Li who looked a bit uncertain as her father secured the shop, placing several talismans over the front entrance, giving a look of satisfaction when he was done. “There. Any fool that tries to break in will get a lesson they won’t soon forget. And the back of the shop? No one but a cultivator who has reached the Silver ranks has a hope of breaking through.”

  "Alex, are you sure about this? The game we hunt is fierce, and after all you've been through..." Liu Li gently squeezed his hand with genuine concern.

  He blinked, surprised to see her worry.

  “Of course he’s certain,” her father said offhandedly, immediately leading the way toward, Alex assumed, wherever the High Road was to be found. “If he has truly cleared his third gateway as he claims, his body will be awash in raw vitality right now, and you have trained him as well as you could in the ways of a soldier since his first days among us, as I have witnessed countless times. And if our dear friend Alex is at all… mistaken in his growth, he will be unable to join us on the High Road. Are our supplies all packed away?”

  “Yes, Father," she said, patting the backpack on her back. She smiled at Alex. "Father managed to win a Storage Pack during his years as a student at Dragon Temple. However despicable the politics of some of the teachers there, no one can deny that they make high-quality artifacts."

  Her father snorted. “And worth no more than as storage for our supplies and the game we bag, as far as I’m concerned, now stop wasting time.”

  His daughter rolled her eyes and Alex couldn’t help grinning, finding the light jog the trio were taking through the city as effortless as they seemed to, all three of them earning no small number of stares, even if mostly a brief flicker, acknowledging that cultivators were passing by.

  What really caused some eyes to widen was seeing Alex among their number, his wide blue eyes and distinctive Caucasian features standing out against his companions. He heard the word ‘Ruidian’ more than once. Some said it with awe.

  Others said it like a curse.

  Fortunately, his brilliant silver and blond locks were hidden by his helmet, or he’d stand out even more.

  Cold dark eyes glared into Alex’s own. “No Ruidian is to use the High Road,” said the glaring soldier, hand suggestively fingering the hilt of his dao, the guards beside him glaring with similar hostility.

  Alex stepped back, carefully keeping his body language as demure as possible, for all that he was holding the Chinese equivalent of a halberd.

  They had just finished ascending a hundred steps up a gloriously wide staircase of pe
arlescent marble that shimmered and sparkled with the morning sun shining upon it. The entire vast city below was laid out below, awing Alex with the countless pagodas, ivory domed towers and numerous architectural wonders on brilliant display, dotted with soothing bits of green from the numerous miniature parks and tree-lined boulevards that made this city such an amazing place to explore.

  It was like living in a wondrous historical paradise, if one could discount the intense disdain for foreigners that some of the natives had, such as the guard upon the shimmering platform of stone before them, positioning himself almost pugnaciously between Alex and the brilliant stream of milky white light arching from the platform over the city and off into the horizon. A rainbow of pure white light that arched into the heavens, soaring high overhead.

  Alex gasped in wonder, part of him terrified by the thought of stepping off the platform and onto what seemed no more than a bridge of light, secretly hoping he would have no choice but to turn around and put his feet safely back on the ground, where they belonged.

  And for all that Liu Li glared at the soldiers, clearly offended on Alex’s behalf, Liu Jian merely chuckled, taking a sip from a flask that Alex’s interface enhanced sense of smell marked as very high grade sake, before passing it to the glaring guard who, nonetheless, didn’t hesitate to take a swig, eyes widening at what was, it seemed, a very fine brew.

  “A fine blend, isn’t it?” Liu Jian asked, the guard giving a grudging nod. “I was lucky enough to pick up an entire cask, when last I served under General Lin what was it, thirty years ago?”

  The guard’s eyes widened at that. “The General Lin? He who repelled the Mongit Hoard at Sacred City?”

  “The very same,” Liu Jian assured. “He was particularly famous for using any tool at his disposal, if it would aid in the cause. His unconventional tactics and use of mixed unit regiments was never acknowledged formally, but it had won him any number of battles. He was the one who spearheaded the use of shield walls leading the charge before long spears and ji turned our foe’s broken lines into a slaughter.”

  “A good man,” acknowledged the still reserved soldier who had first blocked their way.

  “Best general I ever served under. One of the most important lessons he had for all of us was to never fear taking the initiative, or using the tools before you. And this boy, odd-looking as he might be, is proving quite the useful tool! As you know, all sins of birth or judgment are washed clean of any man who joins the Royal Army. And what's the one requirement beyond all others that must be met?"

  “To be able to walk the High Road,” the soldier smirked. “For those who have not opened their third gateway will die the presumptuous fools they are.”

  Liu Jian nodded. “And all others?”

  A breathless pause. “Are redeemed,” the lead guard said begrudgingly. “Can this boy really walk the path?”

  Liu Jian winked. "Truth is, I don't even know. But either way, we have one more future soldier joining our army's glorious ranks, or one less Ruidian to worry about. Either way..."

  "It's a winning bet," said the guard, smirking at Alex. "You sure you want to play this game, boy? There's no way to fake walking the path. You either ascend the High Road..."

  “Or you fall.” Alex swallowed, glaring at Liu Jian, who had the gall to wink. “I get it.”

  Liu Li looked increasingly worried. “Father...”

  Liu Jian patted her shoulder. “Have faith, my dear.”

  She swallowed. “Alright, but at least we can rope him up so if he falls...”

  “No!” snapped the formerly bemused guard, now glaring. “If he can actually walk the path… we will count him worthy. For all that his sins are far more grievous than most soldiers reborn, black as his origins are. But there is no way in hell he will be allowed to mock our nation, our empire, making jest of the Qi that sustains us all, and live to tell the tale.”

  He glared at Alex. “You understand, boy? If you act in jest, think to make fools of us… lower your head and turn around and for the sake of your master alone, I’ll permit you to live without cleaving free your head. But if you dare step upon the High Road, it will lead either to your redemption, or your death.”

  Alex swallowed, his heart suddenly racing. He forced himself to nod, for all that he realized he was putting his life on the line, about to step upon a path as insubstantial as a beam of light, over a hundred-foot drop.

  “What should I expect?” he asked breathlessly, stealing a glance at a pale-faced Liu Li.

  Surprisingly, it was one of the guards that spoke.

  “A crushing weight, lad, as if gravity squeezed not your flesh, but your soul.” His gaze turned reflective. “Or as if the gear on your back had just doubled. But you can walk it, if you have sufficient cultivation. If you, a foreigner, can truly channel and cultivate the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth.”

  A second guard nodded. “But you will begin to feel tired long before you’ve reached any of our sister cities, especially if you have only just opened your third gate, and are inexperienced with sky marches. Your march will end at a platform much like this one. Open air, wide enough to support hundreds of soldiers flooding in, smooth flat stairs allowing for an easy, fast exit. But best you keep your balance. Other than that, if you can walk no further, you jump off.”

  Alex blinked. “Wouldn’t that be bad?”

  “Not once you’re past the city proper. The buildup of Qi you generate with your march helps to cushion you, should your commander order the entire regiment to jump off between cities.”

  Liu Jian nodded. “It is that tactical flexibility that allows us to quickly overtake enemy soldiers or barbarian encampments, which are rarely situated right next to our cities, allowing us to maintain the principality. This is true for the kingdom at large and with the empire as a whole. Were it not the case, it could take us weeks just to arrive at where our seers or scouts have spotted enemy troops. This way, even if they are still some distance off, we can at least shave miles from either latitude or longitude and make it far more difficult for our enemies to escape traps we set for them.”

  “But our city’s defensive magics means if you jump in the city, you’ll end up a very red stain on the pavement blow.”

  Alex swallowed, his ears roaring with the sound of his own madly racing heart.

  He looked back at Liu Jian and his daughter, touched by the concern he saw in Liu Li’s gaze.

  “Alex...”

  He felt sick with sudden vertigo, reminded all too well of the time he had been ten, he and his friends all daring each other to take the high dive. It had been built years ago, when regulations had been more lax, well over ten feet above the pool’s edge.

  He had flashed his buddies a cocky smile and climbed up the ladder willingly enough. But when he saw how high it was, he had felt so sick with vertigo he was afraid he’d just stumble off to his death. Or such was the excuse he told himself, heart hammering with dread much as it was now, climbing down on shaky legs and hands so sweaty he was afraid he’d slip right off, to the laughter and jeers of his former friends, seeing nothing but cold contempt in faces that had once been filled with admiration.

  He had scurried back home in tears and shame.

  He would rather die than ever be so badly humiliated again.

  “Here goes nothing,” he said, taking that first terrible step for the bridge of light before his nerve left him entirely.

  “Father!”

  “He has to do it, Liu Li. If he is ever to be a man in his own eyes, he must do this.”

  “But what if...”

  And Alex deliberately tuned out whatever else was said as his rapid breaths turned erratic, forcing that first step off the ledge into empty space.

  His started cry turned to a gasp of wonder as he felt himself being buoyed up by a shimmering current of power, even as the weight of armaments and gear on his back seemed to double. He swallowed, feeling an odd sort of weariness already, and took his first step forward.<
br />
  Feeling an intense flood of relief when that buoyant wave of flexibility hardened to a road of shimmering ivory, as solid to his feet as the road they had taken through the city.

  “Alex, wait up!”

  Alex blinked, surprised at how far off the voices seemed.

  “Don’t turn around, just stay there!”

  Alex nodded, heart still racing, fear replaced by wonder, as he gazed down at the city in all her glory and wonder.

  He felt Liu Li’s soft hand clasp his own. He dared to turn his head then, touched by the smile she gave him, winking one jade green eye.

  “I knew you had it in you,” she said. “Now come on! Let’s press on as fast as we can. If we’re lucky, we should be able to reach our jump-off point before nightfall.”

  Alex blinked. “So we’re not traveling all the way to the next city?”

  She laughed at that. “That’s well over a thousand miles away, and this is your first Sky March. You’d collapse long before you got there.”

  Alex frowned. “But if most soldiers are, well, Rank 3 Basic Cultivators, how do they manage to travel from city to city without stepping off the road? And once you step off, how do you get back on?”

  Liu Li sighed, though her pace didn’t slow. “There’s the thing. No, you can’t hop back on the High Road until you’re at the next city… and what might take us twenty hours by High Road would take a peasant maybe thirty days by foot, assuming they had supplies and smooth roads.”

  Alex’s eyes widened. “Wow. That’s… just…” He shook his head, awed once more by the incredible scope of this world. That major cities, massive and impressive as they were, with millions, not tens of thousands of inhabitants, were separated by hundreds if not thousands of miles.

  Liu Li smirked. “Don’t worry. The fact is that with a few month’s training, most enlisted cultivators become far more potent third rankers than they had been before joining the military, thanks to the intense spiritual energy gathered as they practice what the army teaches as a marching cultivation, assuming their Fourth Meridian Gateway hasn’t already opened. At that point, almost any regiment can reach an adjoining city in less than 24 hours, no breaks needed. But we’re not going to bother with teaching you any marching cultivation right now, since we're just doing this for a few hours, and we need all your focus on the High Road."