Her spear and her hands had become tools only to evade, avoid, and redirect.
All her killing blows came from her legs, which in those moments, her eyes filled with odd, piercing transcendence, she delivered with breathtaking execution.
Alex knew better than to wreck her flow, focusing his gaze instead upon the horde of squealing boars still tearing gouges into the wagon when not leaping for a chance to do battle with the transcendent cultivators on top.
They were struck completely off guard when Alex, armed with fangtian ji once more, tore into them with savage abandon, Adderstrikes and overhand chops piercing hearts, skulls, and spines, Alex’s feet moving automatically as shin kicks sent squealing beasts flying, a perfectly-executed crane kick stunning one boar long enough for Alex to chop into it with crescent axe heads, realizing only after that boar collapsed in a shower of blood that Hao Chan wasn’t the only one who had incorporated at least a bit of another’s techniques into their form.
For the shin kick Alex had ingrained so deeply into her, the one blow she had consented to use along with the others of her form that now sent the final boar squealing through the air, had far more in common with the deadly flowing grace of her form than the powerful, brutal blow he knew so well, for all that they were one and the same.
Most profound of all, her strike had also been filled with Qi of both Water and Metal, just as every kick she had used that night.
Something Alex already knew that no cultivator at their level should be able to do.
Alex wheezed, collapsing to one knee, realizing it was over.
And just in time, he thought, panicked heart fluttering, eyes glazing over the battlefield as he took desperate breaths.
For like a fool caught in the glorious moment, he had used the last of his Qi.
And it was at that moment the carriage door slammed open, a cold-eyed and fully armored Sun Sun bursting out, short spear in hand, Hao Zei just behind him, pinning an exhausted Alex with a too-knowing smile.
“Ah. Well fought, young Alex. Truly an epic battle. And just before we reach the capital! And you, dear boy, look ready to collapse on your feet. Weak as any kitten!”
Sun Sun gave a cold, measuring nod, his frame no less powerful for all that his face had aged a decade. “He can barely move, sir.”
Hao Zei, strangely enough, looked full of energy, even excitement, his skin radiating the odd glow of someone who had rejuvenated themselves, for all that he had never worked out that Alex could see, his body just as red and bloated as ever. But the vitality crackling off him was unmistakable as he practically sprung out of the carriage, eyes pinned on Alex, giving an odd little laugh.
“And how well our fierce Ruidian fought on our behalf. With a strength and skill that has served us so well. A potency that is almost… uncanny! But all drained away now, it seems.” His grin widened. “Tragic! Well, after spending so many days, weeks, really, with our bare-bones encampments, all of us lost in our own little worlds, hardly speaking a word to one another, I think this victory calls for a feast! Doesn’t it, Sun Sun? Surely victuals and commendations are in order.”
He turned to the giant of a man. “Our poor, dear Ruidian is stumbling on his feet! Let’s get the poor boy inside and put some meat on his bones! Frankly, I’m surprised those children haven’t been clamoring for food these last couple weeks. If I didn’t know better, I’d think our clever little Ruidian managed to steal a holding-container from his betters. Pure absurdity, is it not? Yet it would explain so much!”
His grin widened as Alex, desperately wishing for his strength to return quicker, stumbled to one foot. “Ooh, I do believe the dear boy is definitely the worse for wear. Injured, too! Well, we can certainly catalogue any stolen property after we make sure the lad is properly cared for, and when you think of the penalties to be paid for even a native, let alone a Ruidian, to possess reserved magical artifacts, the boy will need the munificence of a beneficent employer willing to pay his fees upfront, at a very reasonable rate of interest!”
Alex’s eyes widened as the man’s smile grew, suddenly feeling in greater peril than he had facing the spirit boar.
And Sun Sun, for the first time Alex could recall, flashed an awful smile. “It only hurts for a moment after you sign it.”
Alex swallowed, sensing an odd surge of Qi flowing between merchant and servant.
Hao Zei chuckled softly, holding up a crimson quill. “Come, Alex. Come this way while Sun Sun claims my spirit beasts. We have much to talk about as we contemplate the close of our wonderful little venture together.” Knowing eyes smiled into Alex’s own.
“I can tell you’ve grown, Alex. Just as we all have.” He chuckled almost fondly at the now hard-featured Sun Sun. “Some of us have paid a steeper price than others, but I think there’s a core in you I overlooked, and how silly of me to do so. It explains so much.”
He gestured to the wagon smelling of incense and something else. Something that chilled Alex to his very core.
Powerful hands gripped his shoulders.
“Don’t fight it, boy,” Sun Sun whispered into a dazed Alex’s ears. “It’s always best not to fight it.”
Alex gasped, realizing he had been caught off guard, and the smile the merchant flashed his way made it clear he understood everything.
Almost everything.
Even as Alex knew his peril, he kept certain secrets close.
His Rank 5 Golden Realms skill, the quantification of hundreds of hours of intensive training that felt like thousands, came to him as naturally as breathing.
Lift feet. Duck head. Roll right.
Flowing out of a surprised Sun Sun’s grip, to stumble to his feet. “My apologies, master merchant, but I’d rather rest before worrying about anything else.” He forced a weak grin as a wide-eyed Hao Chan peered over the side, eyes still crackling with transcendent energy.
“Let me get a good night's sleep first, then I’d be happy to discuss matters of employment with you, if you’d like,” Alex whispered, too exhausted to speak up, but not such a fool as to break politeness’s guise any sooner than he had to.
Hao Zei’s smile hardened. “You will come before me, Ruidian boy. And you will do it now!”
And to his horror, Alex found his exhausted body lurching forward.
The merchant’s cold smile grew, before he lurched back in surprise as Hao Chan effortlessly flipped over the carriage top, almost floating to her feet beside Alex, her protective hand gripping his wrist.
“We did it, Father!” she crowed, the exultation in her voice no act. “All our training paid off! Best of all, I’ve had a breakthrough! Master Pitiao was wrong, Father. I am capable of more than just mimicry of the Silver Swan art. I can feel it through my veins. I can feel it through my soul!”
She spoke even as she moved, one word effortlessly flowing to the next, her nonplussed father unable to stop her any more than a hot-eyed Sun Sun could reclaim his target, the pair sliding past Sun Sun’s lurching grasps so adroitly it was almost comical, effortless to play off as nothing.
She chuckled warmly, almost playfully. “Sorry, Sun Sun. No bargaining with my sparring partner tonight. As soon as he catches his breath, I’m going to push him to the limit!” She beamed at the surprised-looking merchant. “You can be proud, Father! I feel myself on the verge of yet another breakthrough, and this silly Ruidian’s going to help me achieve it!”
And paying her dumbstruck father no further mind, she walked to the far side of the wagon, boosting him up the rung.
“Come on, Alex. Lift yourself up! You know my arms aren’t nearly strong enough to get you back up without you helping me,” she urgently whispered.
But her legs could shatter bone, Alex randomly thought as he desperately grabbed the rungs with sweaty palms, absolutely hating himself for how utterly weak he felt, having used up every point of his reserves and temporarily depriving his body of a cultivator’s true strength. And every moment he struggled, he feared an all-too-knowing Sun Su
n would snatch him up with an evil smile.
But it never happened.
And when an exhausted Alex finally slid to the carriage top, he sobbed with relief, Hao Yin looking on with confusion even as Hao Chan gently kissed his cheek.
“Thank you for saving our lives. Again,” she said, with the gentlest of smiles and eyes that begged Alex to say nothing about the father she loved.
Alex obeyed the silent request, still feeling like such a fool for letting himself be so vulnerable. Instead he flashed a grateful smile, knowing she couldn’t bear to actually hear the words he would say. “Me? You’re kidding, right? The way you flowed, the way you moved! Incredible, absolutely incredible!” Alex enthused with genuine awe, still amazed by what he had seen. “I saw your Water Qi flow through you, Hao Chan. Water laced with Steel. When you struck those beasts, it was like you struck with the force and fury of a raging sea!”
His friend couldn’t help but beam at that. “I know! Sometimes I’ll get flashes, glimmers of insight, when we spar. But just now, fighting for our lives? I feel like I was on the cusp of some deeper understanding. A connection to the world that can only be felt, only truly sensed when we’re in the depths of sparring or, well, fighting for our lives! Only then do I feel a part of every moment, moving through life as if to the flow of a dance I’ve already mastered, not just stumbling blindly in the dark. Does that make sense?”
Alex slowly nodded his head, realizing it did. Recalling how she had moved during those transcendent moments, dodging spirit beast attacks almost before they had launched, her bone-shattering kicks striking her foes when and where they were weakest, almost as if she knew the flow of that terrible battle like a dance.
Alex bowed his head. “I think the student has definitely surpassed her teacher.”
She chuckled ruefully at that. “Hardly, Alex.” Her gaze grew haunted. “I saw parts of it, you know. Just a few moments, before those beasts charged en masse, so damned determined to kill us all.”
And now it was her gazing at him with awe. “You were taking on that mammoth monster, daring it, goading it, laughing when it flung you through the air. And then when you almost flew into it, charging like a falling phoenix, running it completely through with a spear you summoned out of thin air.” She chuckled ruefully, looking at the arms and armaments they now fought with.
“Like so many things you pull out of thin air. And somehow you perched on the tree you were flung atop like a bird measuring its prey, before striking for the kill, harrying it on all sides, moving as fast as a fox, before finally bringing it down!”
She swallowed, gazing strangely at him. “And now the entire massive beast the size of a house is gone. Just like that greater spirit bull was.”
Alex had the cheek to wink. “Looks like we both have our tricks. And at least using yours doesn’t send you crashing to the ground in exhaustion.”
She chuckled softly at that, her gaze still locked upon his own. “I meant what I said, Alex. I still want to spar with you. Right now! I can feel the inspiration slowly starting to trickle away. But I don’t want my epiphany, my greater understanding of art, of the Dao that shapes and moves us all, to leave quite yet! I was hoping, well, maybe if we train all night, maybe I can somehow grab ahold of whatever secrets I can before it leaves me forever.” She then sighed, crestfallen, the light beginning to fade from her eyes. “But I see how exhausted you are.”
1 Qi point restored. Stats returning to baseline.
And Alex smiled, taking another deep breath of air almost alive with spiritual energy, delighting in the sudden surge of strength, a distant part of his mind gaining at least some benefit as he let his Dual Path purification technique flood him with renewed energy.
But it wasn’t enough. Not after the injuries he had endured. Not after all they had been through. Not unless he took an additional step.
Alex caught her gaze. “Watch me cultivate for a bit, see if you get anything from it. After that? I’ll be happy to spar with you all night, and all day tomorrow as well.”
You have slain fifteen Spirit Boars. You have successfully killed Greater Spirit Boar! Experience earned! Quantize growth?
Yes!
And Alex was true to his word as an awed Hao Chan and her cousins, both suffering only superficial injuries, gazed breathlessly at Alex as he seemed almost to glow with the flood of Heaven and Earth energy pouring into his soul as he harnessed the energy of so many spirit beast kills via the Eternal Fox technique. And for all that he knew his focus should be on clearing his massive seventh meridian gate, he couldn’t deny the wonderful benefit and incredible transformation leveling up his Eternal Fox cultivation technique, which used Ranks instead of percentages, had given him.
He needed to heal in minutes, and if he was lucky, this soon after a breakthrough, his friends might glean extra insights into the inner-workings of the Eternal Fox technique while watching him gain the benefit of a thousand hours for every hour he spent cultivating that night, processing the massive potential of the hideously potent beast he had personally slain.
You have claimed Greater Beast Core. Do you wish to quantize its potential?
No!
All this, even as Sun Sun dutifully gathered all the lesser beast cores Alex and his friends had risked their lives for, the greedy merchant that was Hao Chan’s father forever squeezing whatever advantage he could out of any situation he found himself in.
Alex suddenly stood and smiled as the first rays of dawn caressed his frame, taking distinct satisfaction that he was more than halfway to Rank 6 in his divine body cultivation technique in interface terms, to his own mind understanding the flow of Qi streaming from peripheral meridian channels like oxygen from capillaries, fueling and healing all his cells with glucose, lipids, oxygen, and now a constant stream of rejuvenating spiritual energy, Dark and Light Qi so much stronger when directed in careful tandem than when at odds with themselves. Or such he fancied in those hours that stretched a thousand-fold, and the look in Hao Chan’s gaze made it clear her night of revelations had yet to reach its peak.
“I think I understand, Alex,” she whispered with the softest of smiles. “I could feel it, somehow. I could feel the flow of Qi through you, the tiniest pieces of you. Darkness not corroding but flowing effortlessly past the streams of time, being channeled to aid you like a mill wheel uses the force and flow of the river to grind grain instead of being pounded to sand like rocks on the shore.”
She flushed at her own awkward analogy. “At least, that’s how I understand it. And the flow of movement, perpetual liquid motion, redirecting force to serve you, soft dark motion turning to solid white deadly application at the moment of impact...” She shuddered. “It’s so like my own elements, Water and Metal, or Steel, as my master would say. For what is more resilient than steel? And if not properly tended, it can rust away, just as it can if one’s technique is filled with corrosive impurities. But Water and Steel used in perfect tandem? Like your Dark and Light conception? Perfect. Unbeatable.”
She flashed a brilliant smile. “Even without sparring, these hours gazing upon your form, my mind going over the feel of combat, recalling the flow of every strike, the dance of feet and tusks and killing blows...” She shivered again. “I’ve never felt so connected to my art, to our shared arts of battle and meditation, than I do right now.”
Alex flashed a brilliant smile, never having felt so alive as he did at that moment after condensing thousands of cultivation hours into a handful, having processed so much experience via a body cultivation technique that was derived from a meridian rejuvenation technique and his own interfacing abilities, so seemed to bridge the gap between mind and body. Not to mention the sheer joy he felt, inspiring this girl he felt so protective of, cherishing her more each and every day he spent in her presence.
A girl who would soon be leaving him, perhaps forevermore.
Unless…
He shook the treacherous thought away.
“Then let’s seize
the moment,” he said, as streams of brilliant morning light caressed their forms, the twin miracles of their massive mounts having survived unharmed. And the strangely gifted Hao Lin, having somehow known just where they would be and having the ability to coax them back into their harnesses and get them going, with the surly merchant spraying invectives and bemoaning the spirit hides they were forced to leave behind as they began the last leg of their journey, meant they were heading out even now.
And this was perhaps the last time he and Hao Chan would ever be able to spar like this again.
He was determined to make the most of it.
And he could tell by the way the beautiful girl was gazing at him, soft lips opening in the slightest ‘oh’ of wonder, that she felt the same.
Hao Chan grinned, saying nothing when Alex summoned two fresh sparring uniforms out of storage and reclaimed their blood-spattered armaments once more, and before the sun had even finished peeking above the horizon, they danced and spun and fought as one until morning blossomed into midday, laughing with the sheer joy of their contest as afternoon faded to the first gentle rays of evening and they approached the magnificent city of Yidushi at last.
25
Hao Yin was gazing at them both, mouth agape with awe. “The way you two moved… incredible! It was like the most beautiful of dances, and you never let up for a second!”
Hao Chan laughed, eyes twinkling merrily. “You’re right, cousin. We did flow together and apart just like a dance between swans, or the swirling currents of the sea. I think my beloved mentor is finally understanding the grace and beauty of a higher art.” She flushed at Alex’s thoughtful smile. “I know you saw its flaws when first we started training together that… wow, it now feels almost as long ago as the four years I spent under my master!”
“But was merely four weeks,” Alex assured. “And within the first week, you had grasped the basics of everything I had to teach. More than grasped, really. And by the second week, you had somehow made it your own.” He chuckled ruefully. “These last two weeks? I’ve just been trying to keep up with you! Your sense of tactics and timing improved so much with someone actually willing to teach you what it means to measure the flow of battle, willing to strike full force.” He flushed. “Or almost full force, now that we know the secrets of healing past all injuries and stacking our training sessions with growth in hours that should have taken days.”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reforged: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 2 Page 32
