"Alex, is everything okay? Father's seeing if he can do anything further to repair my damaged meridians. We were hoping with the moonlight, being as it is aligned to my patron god..."
“Your ultimate sire, perhaps, Daughter. But he’s far too mercurial to be anyone’s god.”
She flushed at that. “And you would dare say that, with his disciple standing before us!” she snapped, turning back to her father who had the grace to look abashed.
Alex couldn’t help grinning in relief, seeing a trace of the old fire within her gaze.
“We still don’t know...”
She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Father, can you possibly doubt? The size of his meridian gates, the way his gifts skirt so many rules, the divine artifact upon his finger, the fact that absorbing all that wild Qi, all that Dark Qi, didn’t bother him at all! And you know damn well there is no way he should be able to learn Bullrush as a Rank 3 basic cultivator. You’re just pushing him as hard as you can for the hell of it!”
Her father had the gall to grin back. "And it's working. He can use Adderstrike with his kicks as well as his fists. No one not a Silver Giant should be able to do that. No basic cultivator not a half-step from breaking through to Bronze should be able to use Qi techniques at all. The fact you can use Adderstrike with your chosen weapons, daughter, is all the proof I need to know just how exceptional you are.”
She nodded. “Exactly.”
Alex blinked. “But I thought… you said… with all the royal troops.”
The alchemist had the gall to wink. “What I said was the absolute truth. For the king’s crack legions.”
Alex swallowed the strange lump in his throat.
The alchemists smile hardened. “And don’t think this gets you out of training, Alex. Yesterday’s performance was completely unacceptable. Mark my words, if you want to eat again, you will be charging those targets like a champion!”
Alex winced. “Yes, Master Liu. But in the meantime...”
His mentor’s bemused gaze, so like WiFu’s in that moment, instantly hardened. “In the meantime, you are sneaking into my daughter’s bedroom in the dead of night.”
Alex had the grace to flush. “It’s not that...”
“Really?”
His flush deepened.
“I came here because I think I know how to help!” he said at last.
Liu Li paled. Her father furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about, Alex?”
And in that moment, Alex felt a sudden weight upon his chest, realizing that a fork in the road was suddenly before him.
If he kept to one path, his sacred treasures would be his, forever.
And perhaps that ownership would transcend this single life.
Perhaps his domain over them would extend for lifetimes.
All eternity.
But one look into those vulnerable jade green eyes, and Alex instantly understood what he had to do.
Perhaps why he had been granted those boons in the first place.
What a secret patron desperately hoped Alex would do for his children.
But by the very rules his patron and those like him lived by, he could do absolutely nothing to force Alex’s choice.
Alex took a deep breath. “You already know who my patron is. He granted me with more gifts than just my ring.” He stepped over to Liu Li, gently clasping her hand. “Your affinities are those of the fox. And one of them includes the element of Shadow, yes?”
Her eyes widened. Master Liu’s gaze hardened. “How do you know this, Alex?”
Alex flashed a sad smile. “Because the one element I cannot understand within the sacred cultivation tomes I was given involves the element of Shadow. But now that I know to ask the right questions… a secret was revealed to me.”
He could all but taste the sudden tension in the air.
He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I think I can help treat your injuries, Liu Li. But in order to make a Meridian Rejuvenation Elixir aligned to your elements, we need an ingredient completely lacking from your father’s greenhouse cuttings below and from my own garden.”
Liu Jian’s gaze hardened. “What are you talking about, Alex? I have taught you only the basics! Adept as you are, you are in no position to make actual pills for anyone, let alone my daughter!” He took a deep breath, calming himself. “Still, if you have stumbled upon the workings of ancient alchemists, secrets lost long ago might indeed prove useful. Show me the tome, and perhaps...”
Before he could say another word, Alex solemnly presented him with his own creation.
Master Liu frowned. “What is this?”
Alex grinned. “It’s what I was working on the other night when I had my breakthrough. I call it an Unorthodox Qi Cultivation Elixir.” He gave an apologetic smile. “I’m afraid I lack your gifts. It’s in potion form. I can’t make cultivation pills that can keep for many years. In order to make Cultivation treatments I need to balance all five elements, or, at least the five as understood within your own culture’s treatises. Just limiting myself to Earth and Fire is far too difficult for me to balance. Every time I attempted such, my potion exploded.”
His mentor smirked. “Of course, Alex. It takes an apprentice alchemist dozens upon dozens of trials to properly balance Fire and Earth with even the most basic...” His eyes widened. “Wait, Alex, are you saying you can actually infuse your formulations with Qi? You have three affinities you have unlocked?” He furrowed his brow. “Impossible. You have not even ascended to Bronze!”
Alex flashed an almost apologetic smile. “I’m able to separate my own Qi stores into their elemental components within my ring.”
His mentor’s eyes looked ready to pop out of his skull. “What? You’re able to store sacred Heaven and Earth energy within your artifact?”
Alex nodded. "When I absorbed the power of that Greater Spirit Boar, I stored the power inside my ring."
Liu Li paled. “That much wild Qi… tainted by foulness… Alex should have been Demonized.”
Alex smirked. “Hardly. And that which you consider foulness is just the Qi of, well, motion. Action. The essence of that which allows everything to flow forward in time. Why do you think everyone gives off so much of it? It’s a byproduct of our mortal existence. I think. And yes, if you don't know how to channel it, store it, use it, it will eventually lead to corrosion and decay. But ultimately, it's not waste or trash. It's just the more chaotic, volatile side of Qi that allows everything to keep moving, even if it all eventually breaks down, whereas Light Qi, the sum of all elemental colors, allows for solidity, rigidity, ever-growing power and strength. They are just opposite sides of the same coin, or the Yin and Yang in balance, if you will."
He had the grace to flush under their disapproving glares.
“Admittedly, that’s just my pet theory, but that’s how it seems to work for me.”
“Babes trying to teach their masters,” Liu Li grumbled, her father nodding in accord.
“Sheer madness!” Master Liu declared. “No doubt it’s the fox’s blessing alone that allows him to endure chaos that would corrupt most so easily.”
Alex sighed. "And all that is neither here nor there. Liu Li? I need to harvest something called Shadow blossoms. And since that's something I have no hope of spotting in the wild… it's up to you to spot it, and right now, in the darkest hours of the night, is our best chance of doing so. But I’m not really sure where we can find it, or how safe it is, even around here, in the dead of night.”
Liu Li gazed at her father. “If there is even a chance!”
“Pure folly,” her father grumbled, before letting loose a tired sigh. “But within this sacred valley, it should be safe enough, even now, in the dead of night.” He glared at Alex. “We are taking a hard look at these texts you dug up when we get back, Alex.” He then hurried to his own quarters to get kitted up, as did Liu Li, gazing at him so intently before shutting the door to her quarters with a smile.
And before another quarter-hour
had passed, Alex and his closest companions in the world were all peering intently at the sketching of the Shadow blossoms Alex had made with the sketchbook and magical brush Liu Li had solemnly lent him just moments before, when he had popped into his ring’s library, transferring all the notes of the plant and the formulae for making the Shadow aligned Meridian Rejuvenation Pill before popping back.
"Most impressive," Liu Jian said. "It is fortunate indeed that an alchemist doesn't need affinity with all the elements he works with. Rather, he just needs the proper ingredients aligned to those affinities."
Liu Li grinned, her eyes suddenly bright with hope.
“Do you think it will work, Father?”
He sighed thoughtfully. “Who knows? Either way, it can’t hurt to try.”
And in very short order, they were enjoying the cool nighttime breeze, the air redolent with the scents of wildflowers and the refreshing tang of aromatic sap. Yet sharp optimism quickly transformed into mounting frustration as they continued to scour the area near their home, seeing no trace of any Shadow blossom.
Then Alex’s eyes widened, catching the lopsided smile of a silver fox.
“Liu Li!” He whispered, jutting forward with his free hand, the other holding the haft of his ji. “Look right there.”
Liu Li gasped, her hands tightly clenched to her own boar spear. “Father, do you see that?”
Her father frowned. “See what?”
But the silver fox had already darted off, and Liu Li immediately sprinted after it, Alex just a heartbeat behind.
“Slow down, you two! The sacred barrier ends just ahead!”
But Liu Li, possessed by desperate hope, only increased her pace, Alex for once finding that he could keep stride. And the fox led them on a merry chase, forever just beyond their reach, until it finally stopped just beyond the outskirts of a brooding forest, some miles distant from their home.
A panting Liu Li halted, quickly catching her breath, exchanging a look with Alex.
The fox just stared at the pair before nodding solemnly once, then turning around and pointing, snout first, much like a hound, at something that shimmered with silvery darkness just beyond the front line of sentinel trees.
It then turned to face Alex and Liu Li once more as a panting Liu Jian caught up.
And Alex shivered, the unspoken message coming through loud and clear.
The prize they sought was in sight, but these woods were not benign. They would have to make their choice, and the path they chose would be entirely their own.
With a curious bob of its head, the fox seemed to fade into the gloom, disappearing entirely.
“Alex. I think that’s it. That’s the plant we need. A Shadow blossom!”
Alex swallowed. “But you understood that stare, right? It’s a double-edged gift. What we seek is before us, but, well, the woods might not be safe. Maybe it’s guarded?”
Liu Li gave an angry shake of her head. “No. I refuse to cower from my own potential. I refuse to back down and accept mediocrity when all I need to show my patron is a little bit of courage, that I’m willing to dare what others are not and take the prize I would claim!”
“Liu Li, wait. Alex is right...” But her father’s cry for caution had no effect. Liu Li had already raced past the trees just ahead, showing boldness worthy of any front-line warrior when she darted down, carefully shifting soil and plucking free her prize. A pristine flower of shadow with just a tinge of silver, though his friend had been careful to pluck free soil and roots and all.
She flashed a fierce, triumphant smile, and not being so foolish as to linger, immediately darted back towards them.
And the entire woods seemed to reverberate with a howl as massive red eyes opened in the depths of the wood.
Liu Jian paled. “It’s a tiger spirit beast!”
Alex swallowed, though his dexterous hands did exactly what they needed to, his ji blade now coated with a pale green sheen that seemed to shimmer in the air. “That’s bad, isn’t it?”
“Run!”
19
Alex's heart hammered with terror and battlefury both. As much as he wanted to turn tail and run, he saw Liu Jian standing his ground, the ground shimmering in a circle by his feet, desperately waiting for his sprinting daughter to make it back to them.
Good. His mentor had made another protective ward.
“Run, Alex! I doubt this barrier will hold off that beast any more than it did the boar!” The man scolded Alex who now stood beside him, but Alex just flashed a fierce grin of his own, refusing to run.
His heart pounded as he caught sight of a frantically running Liu Li, feeling indescribable relief as she made it past the halfway mark.
And that's when the roaring tiger sprang free of the foliage, and the undergrowth at Liu Li's feet immediately sprang to life, tangling her up in knots of grass and vine.
Liu Li screamed in sudden panic.
“No!” roared Liu Jian, racing forward in his furious panic, though the entire field was alive with madly twisting knots of greenery, just beyond Liu Jian’s ward. His eyes widened in mounting horror, and Alex knew exactly what he had to do.
Pulling together the sum total of everything he had experienced on the training field just the other day, he compressed his desperate need, his furious resolve, into a single burst of explosive energy, one he refused to let go until he felt Qi tingle not just in his limbs, but over every inch of his body.
Only then did he explode forward, suddenly by Liu Li’s side as the roaring tiger made his leap, paying no mind to the hostile greenery wrapping tightly about his feet.
Bullrush successfully executed! You have achieved Novice standing in this discipline.
Alex flashed a fierce smile as the snarling beast, outraged that he dared step between him and his prey, lashed out with his claws to bat away the fragile human weapon before crashing down upon Alex.
"Adderstrike!" Alex screamed aloud, a crude attempt to further his Qi focus that worked perfectly as his suddenly glowing poison-covered weapon blasted through the massive paw that had been swatting through the air before plunging into the beast's chest.
And that’s when the entire weight of the beast crashed into him, pinning Alex with its crushing weight.
You have critically hit Greater Spirit Tiger.
Three ribs broken. Left Ankle dislocated. You have lost 50% of your total health.
And he accepted the horrific pain, the monster somehow still alive, despite the fangtian ji that had blasted through its chest.
A single heartbeat and 10 further health lost, and Alex sensed that Liu Li was not touching Alex in any way.
Good.
With a vicious smile, he then embraced the power of his ring, flipping into its spatial dimension before flipping back a heartbeat later, just long enough for the beast to press against the ground, the burden it had been crushing suddenly gone.
You have successfully prepared yourself for toxic immersion. No save versus inhalation needed.
4 additional damage suffered from Tainted Spirit Beast blood.
You are now 80% immune to all adverse effects of Tainted Spirit Beast blood.
Before a human-sized mass suddenly popped back into existence, scooping out almost two hundred pounds worth of vital organs, bone, and muscle from the now dying monstrosity.
And Alex blinked in and out again and again, his horrific lethal attack wrenching free additional flesh as the spirit beast's entire body seemed to collapse and cave in on itself.
Two additional damage suffered from Tainted Spirit Beast blood.
You are now 100% immune to all adverse effects of Tainted Spirit Beast blood.
Greater Spirit Tiger slain. Experience earned!
Until at last, with acid covered knife in hand, Alex found only ribs and extremely tough hide between him and freedom. His nemesis was no longer collapsing, and he was afraid of accidentally displacing portions of his friends, so he spent long moments just cutting himself free of his impro
mptu cage, grateful the ring displacement had allowed for an air pocket as well, glad that oxygen deprivation had never been an issue with the strange magic of his ring.
It was an awed father and daughter who gazed at Alex as he finally broke free, his dagger having long since corroded, having signaled to them moments ago to stay back with a shout, using castling once more and the tension of the skin to force a hole he could completely crawl out of.
“Alex!” Liu Li’s smile was like the heavens opening up above. His heart raced, captivated by just how beautiful she looked, tears of relief streaming down her dirt-stained cheeks, hair in disarray, freed fox ears quivering with emotion, gazing at him with awe. “You did it. I can’t believe you actually did it!”
Alex couldn’t help grinning, for all that his cheeks flushed furiously. “There was no way in hell I was letting that thing take you down. Not if I could possibly help it.”
And Alex felt a man’s pride with her father’s approving nod, and he was fiercely pleased to see that his mentor had only let terror freeze him for a moment, his spear also covered with the monster’s blood, his left hand still crackling with eldritch flame.
When Alex stumbled free, crying out with the pain of his dislocated left ankle, he couldn’t help noting the vicious wounds upon the creature’s face, both eye sockets and most of its face seared of flesh, as if it had been struck by the most caustic of acids.
Liu Jian’s work, Alex was sure.
And suddenly both father and daughter were helping to support Alex, who paused only long enough to transfer the massive Demon Beast to his storage ring before they assisted him in hobbling back to safer territory just as fast as Alex could endure.
Feeling the weight of so many deadly gazes peering at them from all directions, Alex found that he could endure quite a lot.
And by the time they were within sight of their woodland home once more, all hostile gazes had long since slipped away, Alex sobbing with relief as well as pain.
“That was just too close,” Liu Li said, after tending to a near-naked Alex, ankle reset and ribs tightly bandaged, for all that it had been slow torture for Alex to endure.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reborn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 1 Page 33
