And now a Silver alchemist wanted his head. But unless Alex wanted his enemies convincing the school it was okay to lie and break their oaths to him free of all consequence… he had had no choice but to do exactly as he had.
He chuckled ruefully. It seemed that no matter what path he took, all choices led to ever greater conflict with an increasing number of powerful enemies who all wanted him dead.
And for some reason he could so perfectly visualize WiFu laughing at the irony of it all, right along with him.
He quickly returned to Qie Qie, having the grace to pull fresh fruit and chilled water from his divine storage artifact, though acting like it had come from inside Elder Panheu’s compound. “No, it’s just me, for right now. But at least I got us snacks.”
Qie Qie flashed a pained smile, but didn’t hesitate to drink down the cold water, quickly devouring a sweet, crunchy apple. “Thank you, Alex, but I’m afraid I might just have bitten off more than I can chew. And I don’t mean the apple.” Her anxious gaze as she looked furtively around made her situation painfully clear.
Alex winced in shame. “It’s all my fault. You were nothing to Lai Wei until you refused to back down when he and that foul Hao Hai tried to destroy me. But after Lai’s meridian gates were seared, no doubt he’d be happy to include you in his vengeance, just for daring to stick up for me.”
“To say nothing of his uncle,” she whispered. “I sensed his killing aura when we left.” She flashed a bitter smile. “I was more than willing to get on that petulant nephew’s bad side. I can get basic Water affinity pills from anyone second-hand, and my family’s not poor, though did I hope to make it by my own efforts. But now, with the chance that the head alchemist of this academy has it in for me...” She gave a sad shake of her head, as if just in that instant realizing how precarious her situation had become.
“I have to assume any pill I can get my hands on will have his taint,” she chuckled bitterly. “Now I can’t ever trust a single cultivation pill I find in this academy ever again. If I dare to stay, I think Master Pan will be very happy finding another disciple choosing a spartan path like his own. And though there are few deadlier Silvers than he when it comes to pure martial arts, it took him countless years to get there, and he’s far more naturally-gifted than I.”
Alex bowed. “I’m sorry, Qie Qie. It’s all my fault, and I owe you big time.”
“Yes, you do,” she said archly, looking pointedly at his newly acquired bag.
He chuckled ruefully. “Here. you’ve more than earned it.”
She blinked in surprise, quickly shaking her head. “No, Alex, I was kidding. You need those purification pills far more than I. You’re still a basic cultivator!”
He flashed a bitter smile. “Trust me, they will do me little good. Besides, I just made life for you here far more difficult than it had to be. Trade these, sell these, maybe get a Water cycling pill out of it from someone you trust, I don’t know. But please take them. I’ll feel a little bit less terrible about putting you in such a precarious position.”
Qie Qie furrowed her brow before eventually nodding and accepting the bag. “Thank you, Alex. Now we’re more than even, whatever those bastards do.” She gave a rueful shake of her head. “Now I just have to figure out how to get back to my own residence with as few eyes looking my way as possible.”
Alex nodded.
“I wouldn’t recommend that, not if you actually want to see daylight again.”
Perception check made!
Alex froze to stillness, slowly turning around, peering closely into the shadows of the pair of trees beside his master’s walled residence they rested under, making out at last the brilliant crimson irises gazing calmly into his own.
“Hello Yinzi,” he said, bowing his head.
The strikingly beautiful girl grinned as she penny-flipped free of the branch she had been hanging upside down from to her feet, hair falling like a cloud of winter snow before settling back into place with almost eerie precision. She was clad in midnight silks that hugged her frame perfectly, silken slippers making not a sound.
She smiled, showing off perfect ivory white teeth, and Alex couldn’t help but note how the shadows around her were far darker than they had any right to be, flowing around her so perfectly that the eyes tended to skip right over her.
He couldn’t help grinning back, no longer feeling so embarrassed about having the beautiful young woman catch the pair of them off guard.
He had no doubt she was very good at not being found, if she didn’t want to be seen.
Yinzi flashed Alex a teasing grin. “Hi Alex.” She peered thoughtfully at a flummoxed Qie Qie, tilting her head. “She’s pretty enough. Are you going to risk your cultivation base sleeping with her? I wonder what Hao Chan will say.”
Alex blinked. “I’m sorry?”
Yinzi smirked. “Well, introduce us!”
Alex grinned. “Of course. Qie Qie, allow me to introduce you to my friend Yinzi, daughter of Lady Ning Jing.”
Qie Qie immediately paled at those words, though Yinzi had already clasped her hands. “Hi Qie Qie. I’ve seen you spar in the arena any number of times! But the way you held the crowd’s attention when Alex was fighting the alchemist’s bastard son was masterful! I loved how you stretched the count, giving Alex all the time he needed to destroy his foe.”
Her grin widened like a wolf’s when Alex paled. She winked. “It was absolutely delicious to watch.” She then frowned, turning back to Qie Qie, giving a sad shake of her head. “But you dare not return to your old quarters. Best assume the alchemist wants you both dead, even if he can’t prove that Alex used Dark Qi to destroy his enemy’s meridians. Because, of course, no one can use Dark Qi.” She winked at Alex. “No one at all.”
Alex paled, flummoxed. “You were there? And you saw...”
She flashed a teasing smile. “Of course I was! I’m just amazed to see someone actually has a forbidden technique like Mother’s! Not that most people can see techniques. That’s probably thanks to my father. And we should probably never mention it again, or everyone here will do absolutely everything they can to kill you, and if people actually knew what my mother could do, we’d be swimming in a river of blood. Anyway, I sneak out whenever I get bored of those romances Mother bribes me with. And nothing’s more exciting than grudge matches disguised as sparring contests! I check the fight journal whenever I slip into the academy proper, and I already know how much Lai Wei hates you, so I knew today would be exciting!”
“But wait, isn’t it forbidden to… Never mind,” he said, wilting under her bemused gaze, her crimson irises making it clear that no one would dare make her follow any rule she didn’t want to follow.
But it was like Qie Qie hadn’t registered a word they had said, frozen with the initial introduction. “You’re Lady Ning Jing’s daughter! Oh my.”
She quickly kowtowed before the bemused young woman. “This humble Bronze begs forgiveness if she has caused any offense.”
Yinzi furrowed her brow. “That’s really not necessary, you know. I’m not my mom, and she hasn’t killed anyone in, well... Anyway, I’d hate to lose my favorite gardener, and he seems to like you, so we really should get going.”
Qie Qie was still looking a bit disoriented, so Alex gently took her hand and followed his eccentric friend as she led them into a nearby cluster of trees. Alex found himself frowning at the growing gloom, though he was simultaneously soothed by the soft rustle of the trees overhead and the chirping of birds, just doing his best to keep his eyes on the brilliant flash of Yinzi’s silver-white hair, all but glowing in contrast to the gloom.
“Alex!” hissed a suddenly-panicked Qie Qie.
“Yes? Oh, watch your foot, those are some thick roots. Come on, we have to hurry up! Yinzi’s not slowing down, and we don’t exactly want to get stuck here.”
“Alex! This is impossible! Where did these trees come from? This forest shouldn’t be here!”
Alex nodded. “I know.
So it’s probably a good idea that we keep up.”
Qie Qie whimpered, no doubt utterly shocked to find her sense of the world and the powers in it abruptly shifting in unexpected directions. Alex, on the other hand, had lost his ability to be stunned on the night he had been reborn naked in a barrel filled with poison, only to sabotage a vessel full of raiders and nearly get killed by treacherous bureaucrats for his sacrifice before finally being rescued by a god of mischief who might or might not be the sire of the mysterious and extremely eccentric young woman leading them through a forest that shouldn’t exist.
At last Yinzi stopped, flashing a brilliant grin. “Alright, we’re here! And both of you were able to sneak just as well as I. You guys should join me more often!”
Qie Qie blinked in sudden confusion, looking around, realizing there was no forest, that there never had been. But they had walked carefully in the shadows of vine-covered walls and convenient trees and thick tall grass that either servant or goat should be keeping in better trim, and somehow they were here. But wait, hadn’t there been more trees?
Alex read all that in a single blink as Qie Qie trembled and shook her head.
He stole a glance at a grinning Yinzi. “Is that Shadow Qi?”
Yinzi chuckled softly. “No one can catch a kitsune.” Her gaze turned soft, a warm finger gently caressing his lip as she bit her own. “That is, not unless she wants to be caught.”
Sultry laughter washed over him as he swallowed and felt Qie Qie’s sudden glare. “Don’t you dare!”
But before he could say a word in his own defense, a humming Yinzi was ringing a tiny golden bell that rang with beautiful notes beside a nondescript gate in a snug little corner of the academy grounds that was all but unnoticeable with the way the walls abruptly angled, home to a wonderful garden and a couple of trees no doubt grown for shade that somehow totally blocked all view of the gate only now being opened by none other than a concerned-looking Lady Jidihu.
Her eyes warmed as she caught up a grinning Yinzi in a motherly hug. “It’s good to see you, Yinzi. And I see you managed to find and snag our young Alex before his missteps became even more perilous.”
Alex felt a cold chill in his gut. “You mean the fight.”
Lady Jidihu gazed up at him with the oddest expression upon her features. Her face might have been that of a strikingly elegant woman in her early twenties, but her eyes held a weight and a piercing regard that left Alex breathless, saying only, “It’s good that you came when you did. Come, let’s waste no more time.”
With that, she led them further onto her spacious property, passing trees heavy with sweet-looking fruit Yinzi didn’t hesitate to pluck free and devour with a happy little shiver, the air alive with the scents of lilac, primrose, and honeysuckle, countless flowerbeds dotting the grounds before a stately-looking manor that appeared oddly European, for all that the design blended quite well with the Yidushian architecture in the city below.
Alex’s eyes widened as he caught a familiar sound, feminine laughter and shouts, eager eyes at last catching sight of none other than Hao Chan, chest heaving and drenched in sweat, launching a flurry of acrobatic kicks against a hard-eyed woman of indeterminate age and bone white hair that nonetheless radiated the strength of a mountain, effortlessly parrying each one of her student’s bone-shattering strikes with a forearm that didn’t shift a hair.
Yet her nod was approving. “You have finally broken through.”
Hao Chan gave a pleased nod, cheeks flushed with the exhilaration of a successful training session. “It’s about time, right?” Before wincing and flowing into a bow. “Your unworthy disciple is grateful for her teacher’s wisdom.”
Her teacher snorted at that. Then Hao Chan gasped, cheeks turning bright red as she caught sight of the guests slipping free of the cover of fruit trees so oddly-placed near the gate, Yinzi immediately flashing Hao Chan a playful grin, cheeks covered in peach juice, tossing her flustered friend a ripe peach as well.
“It’s just us. And look who we brought! Your would-be lover and his friend!” Yinzi flashed a teasing smile. “Now I know why you’re working so hard. He is awfully cute for a Ruidian, radiating deliciously forbidden power, and you can’t even touch him until you’ve hit Silver.”
“Behave, Yinzi,” said Lady Jidihu, before catching the hard-eyed gaze of Hao Chan’s trainer. “The boy actually managed to win, but it came at a cost.” The two experience cultivators immediately fell into discussion, but Alex only had eyes for the vision of beauty approaching him with the sweetest smile he had ever seen.
“Alex! You came! I was wondering when you’d be able to visit me. Oh, I’m so glad you came! Did you see me training with Lady Feng Huang?”
Breathless, Alex just smiled.
Hao Chan laughed, cheeks flushing prettily as she approached him. “I missed you, Alex,” she said, her beautiful amber eyes saying so much more, asking so many questions he wished he could say yes to with all his heart.
“I missed you too,” he softly said, lost in the world of her gaze before remembering himself and bowing before his hosts.
“This lowly cultivator apologizes to you all for disturbing you.”
“Nonsense,” said the almost delicate-looking kitsune who might or might not be the head of the most dangerous organization outside of Dragon Academy. “We are happy to have you guest with us for a time, at least until Elder Panheu returns and we can put certain concerns to rest.”
Hao Chan’s happy features transformed with worry. “Alex? What’s wrong? What matters need to be put to rest?”
Yinzi grinned. “Your ex-brother and the alchemist’s bastard son he calls his nephew both did their best to destroy Alex. So he turned the tables on them. Chaos ensued, and now Lai Leng is out for blood.”
It chilled Alex to hear Yinzi say it so matter-of-factly.
Hao Chan paled. “Oh, no.”
Lady Feng Huang furrowed her brow. “And where were you when all this happened, child?”
Yinzi smirked. “Oh, I snuck away and watched the fights, of course. It was glorious! They kept pounding Alex to dust. I could hear the crack of breaking bones, even from where I sat! But he’d always get up with a cocky grin and be ready to fight again within minutes!”
Hao Chan looked positively pale. “Alex, what did they do to you? How badly are you hurt?”
Alex smiled. “Nothing a little rest won’t cure.”
Hao Chan blinked, suddenly getting it. “I’m glad to hear it,” was all she said.
“It was incredible!” said an enthusiastic Yinzi. “No matter how badly they beat him, he kept springing right back up, mocking them to their faces! And even though he was ridiculously outclassed at the beginning of the fight with Hao Hai, instead of getting weaker and more exhausted with each defeat, he kept getting stronger, kept getting better and better at avoiding their blows, until at the end of the first hour their movements were so coordinated, it was like watching one of your dances!”
She shrugged. “Then Alex destroyed him, and the joke of a judge wanted to kick Alex out of the school for beating up your pathetic excuse for a brother, Hao Chan, but instead he ended up fighting Lai Wei, and it was just like before. Alex went from getting absolutely pummeled to his enemy hardly landing a hit on him at all.”
Yinzi flashed Alex a secret smile. “And then it was Lai Wei getting destroyed. From the inside out.”
Lady Jidihu and Feng Huang exchanged a puzzled glance. “How, precisely, was he destroyed?”
Yinzi’s grin widened. “It’s a secret!”
Lady Jidihu’s gaze was intent. “Alex, it’s important you explain exactly what happened in your own words.”
Alex nodded, gazing at an impishly grinning Yinzi as he did so. “Lai Wei promised to use nothing more than his sword and fists, though I knew he was channeling Qi through them. But then he broke his word and summoned an actual whip of flame, announcing to the entire audience that since I wasn’t human, just a lowly Ruidian, that made me lower
than dirt, and there would be no spiritual penalty for breaking any oaths given to me. Needless to say, if people started to believe this, I was as good as dead.”
Alex flashed a bleak smile. “Sadly for Lai Wei, he was proven wrong. Of course, arrogant monster that he is, completely unwilling to take responsibility for his own actions, he blames me for what happened next, and no doubt his uncle does as well.”
Lady Feng Huang frowned. “So because he broke his cultivator’s oath, he felt his cultivation purity begin to fade that quickly? He felt a shiver in his foundation, and realized he should make amends or his progress would start to slow?”
“Oh no,” said Yinzi with a wicked smile. “His meridian channels were completely fried! He couldn’t even summon a lick of flame!”
Lady Feng Huang and Jidihu gazed at the young woman in unmitigated horror. “His cultivation base was destroyed?”
“Utterly!” crowed Yinzi, as if delighted by the news. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer asswipe, as Alex would say. Right, Alex?”
Hao Chan paled. “That’s terrible.”
Yinzi laughed. “You obviously don’t know Lai Wei. Oh, good news, by the way. Your rotten stepbrother is now short an eye! And a tongue. The spirit doctors might grow it all back, though.”
Hao Chan began to tremble, Alex quickly taking her into his arms.
“That bastard… you don’t know the things he said to me, the one time he caught sight of me between classes! He’s why I don’t even attend them anymore. I just train with my master. And I train as if my life depended upon it. Because I know that one day...”
“One day I’ll kick you out of the nest and you will have to face him,” said her suddenly hard-eyed mentor. “Him, and countless monsters like him, who will do all they can to break you, to savor your anguish as they tear free your transcendence, eager to destroy you before you can ever blossom into Silver, becoming far more than those fools could ever be.”
Hao Chan squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Alex could taste her sudden terror. “I know,” she softly said. “It’s why I train so hard. Why I’ve progressed so fast. It’s not a joyous dance any more. It’s not a game. It’s a race to see if I can strengthen myself before those monsters can hurt me.”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Forsworn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 3 Page 32