“I don’t suppose the blood of kings flows through your veins?”
Alex couldn’t help it. He roared with laughter at the very thought. “Hardly! My father was a savvy investor, with his fingers in a dozen pies, and my mother? Well…” he shook his head and sighed. “Brilliant, beautiful, and as wonderful a mom as any boy or girl could want, happy to play homemaker not by obligation, but by choice. So, no. No kings or lords in my family, just a… well, a merchant and his loving wife, I guess.”
Cheng Lei searched Alex’s face intently for several heartbeats, Alex gazing with equal fascination at the key in his hands. He barely even registered the words coming out of Cheng’s mouth as his eyes fastened upon a particular jade symbol that sent a jolt through him, then another, and another.
The hammer. The lightning bolt. The Phoenix, the budding flower, the Fox. Among countless others. Just seeing the twinkling eyes in his patron’s depicted likeness sent shivers through his soul.
“Alex, that is a divine treasure. There is no way you should be able to hold it. Not, well…”
Alex smiled, quickly surrendering the key to his friend, who grasped it with trembling hands and odd reverence. “So, where do we go to announce our rank before the world?”
Cheng Lei pointed to a golden pagoda surrounded by lotus blossoms and wisteria in the middle of the shallow lake. “You ring the bell within, and you wait. It could be a while. Anyone who achieves this rank, well, best expect a bit of pomp, and maybe a title or two thrown your way.” He flashed a cynical smile. “Careful, my friend, or you’ll find yourself betrothed before you know it, and whether the girl is a virtuous saint or a conniving monster is anyone’s guess, but two traits she will most definitely possess are striking beauty and the potential for deepest Silver, if not outright Gold.”
Alex smirked. “Sounds like love at first sight.”
His friend laughed aloud at that. “More like securing wildcards and consolidating one’s power base, but that’s politics for you. And with so much in play here in Baidushi already…”
“Like a kitsune noble in possession of the only Divine cultivation manuals known to man?”
The noble’s smile hardened. “Yes, Alex. Exactly like that. You are a remarkably well-informed Ruidian, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
Alex shrugged. “Word gets around.”
Cheng Lei’s hard gaze peered once again into Alex’s guileless features searchingly before he finally sighed and shook his head. “And there’s the rub of it: a beautiful princess hidden amongst the common population, her father surrendering everything he had, delaying his ascension for decades, sealing even a Silver’s power away, all to keep her safe. And now, revealed once more, all the jackals in the court see is a ripe plumb for the plucking. How many actually care about the girl who is now being all but strangled by an Emperor’s favor?”
Alex’s gaze was equally intent. “And you’re saying you actually do care about the girl beneath the prize?”
Soul Sight skill check made! Your companion’s Qi flow blazes brightly in your eyes after being reforged and strengthened by the spiritual river you have braved, side by side.
Cheng Lei sighed, eyes strangely pensive, before shaking his head and turning his gaze to admire the magnificent palaces floating through heavenly skies, just a few hundred yards, or perhaps an eternity, away. “I’d like to think that I do. For all that we shared only a couple dances during the galas thrown by the Crown Princess—so eager to secure her niece, and by extension, the Province entire, a strong match—I’d like to think our moments of shared banter and laughter meant something.”
He shook his head, chuckling ruefully. “I know it must sound absurd to someone not born into to our world, yet so much must be read between the lines, understood by inference, if one is to have any hope of peering beneath the mask of a potential mate to determine if there is any actual compatibility behind the strikingly beautiful package you would tie your life, perhaps your very soul, to.”
He gave a tired shrug. “And with a certain player doing all he can to control the flow of access to Cui Zhe’s entire clan, to say nothing of monopolizing all interactions with her niece … it makes it more than challenging to claim anything like the time needed to see if I might have actually met my soul mate. Because for all that my heart rejoices at the sound of her laughter, or how she makes my heart sing when she flashes her mysterious smile my way, it means nothing if I don’t know for sure that these feelings are real and might possibly be returned. And the only hope I have of achieving that is…”
“If you have a chance for some quality one-on-one time, where you can see and appreciate who she is without the masks of noble etiquette and propriety forever in the way,” Alex finished, earning a pleased nod from his friend.
“Exactly, Alex. That’s precisely the truth of it. The question is, how does one go about doing that?”
Alex smiled. “Surely you’ve given it some thought?”
Cheng Lei returned a weary smile. “I’ve been forced to give a great many things quite a bit of thought, my friend. And I think it behooves me to put all my focus on the choices before me, right here, at this moment in time.”
Alex nodded, his eyes inevitably pulled to the steps winding up the hill to a portal that crackled with brilliant flashes of Dark and Light Qi.
Unlike the golden steps of before, these were made of emerald-green jade.
Alex felt a shiver of awe and wonder at the sight, sensing, for the first time, that both power and peril awaited him if he dared to climb any higher.
He turned to gaze thoughtfully at the young noble he was now all but positive was the Blue Prince, Cheng Lei, who was presently staring at the jade steps and the crackling portal with a captivated look that was equal parts wonder and dread.
Alex chuckled softly. “You know the safe bet is to savor your accomplishments, knowing you have the potential for transcendent gold worthy of any king, and the phoenix’s blessing as well.”
His friend licked dry lips, jerking a nod. “You’re absolutely right, Alex. With this, if I’m lucky…”
“You can earn even Cui Zhe’s approval in courting Liu Li far more intimately than you have so far, no matter how much of a manipulative asshole Dongfang Hong is being.”
The Blue Prince froze at Alex’s response, turning to face him with the strangest expression on his face. “How could you possibly…”
Alex smirked. “But no matter how much that play would be the smart play, no matter how much of a fool you would be to gamble away however many thousands of years of Gold ascendance you might otherwise savor, risking almost certain oblivion with a single misstep, a part of you still hungers for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Because these steps, and the river of Qi crashing down them, do more than measure your potential. The heavenly spiritual energies just might strengthen and purify your core to a point that one day, however many years from now, you might actually be able to compress your future Gold core not only to transcendent status, but to actually break through to Jade.”
Alex’s smile widened.
Insight check made!
“A feat normally reserved for a handful of powerful Jade Queens and Warlords upon the board of fate, and the Emperor’s clan itself, of course. And wouldn’t it be serendipity itself to find that the Emperor’s transcendent Jade ascension had as much to do with his clan daring these spiritual waters as it does the strength of their bloodline alone? The best kept secrets are those hidden in plain sight, after all.”
Utter silence fell as the world entire seemed to still, the spiritual waters frozen in that timeless moment. Cheng Lei stared at Alex with such furious intensity, as if desperate to catch a glimpse of his friend’s soul, that he seemed heedless of his own soul now bare for Alex to read completely.
“Just who are you really, Alex?”
Alex winked. “I think there’s one more staircase for us to climb together, don’t you?”
Cheng Lei took a deep, shuddering b
reath, giving a quick jerk of his head. “I think maybe you’re right. And I can’t tell you how much that inevitability both exhilarates and terrifies me.”
Alex chuckled softly. “I think you just did.”
Unfortunately, his quip seemed to wash right over Cheng Lei, who was staring so intently at the jade stairs they were rapidly approaching, no longer taking in the striking beauty all around. Alex alone admired the herd of pristine white unicorns galloping across a field of vivid wildflowers before lifting off on marvelous eagle-like wings and racing across the heavenly skies overhead.
The Blue Prince’s hands were clenched in tight, anxious fists. He took a deep, shuddering breath, brilliant sapphire eyes pleading with Alex’s own.
“I’m putting my life in your hands.”
Alex swallowed, his odd transcendent ebullience crashing down to a solemn acknowledgment that this was no clever puzzle or deadly game. He really was goading a young man who, whatever deceptions or guises or intrigue might be guiding him through this life, had at least five resplendent past lives that had left only the tiniest stains of sin upon his soul, such that his essence was polished to a dazzling sheen with all the positive karma he had accrued.
In short, the life of someone whom Alex had every reason to believe was everything one could want in a friend, a ruler, or a hero, was now most definitely in his hands.
Alex bowed his head, acknowledging that truth.
Cheng Lei flashed a rueful smile. “Because, somehow, it’s not me coaxing my Ruidian acquaintance through the shoals of Bronze, but instead the Ruidian who dares to presume he shall be able to brace my spirit in order to reach the highest ranks any human has ever dared before.”
Alex grinned mischievously. “And for all we know, there are multiple tiers to that as well.”
Cheng Lei’s anxiety burst forth as uneasy laughter. “Surely you jest, my friend! Jade Rank alone is transcendent. Anything more must be, can only be, the province of the gods above!”
“Maybe. But I seriously doubt they’re too much higher than we are, right now.”
“Oh, but they are, Alex. Now let’s ascend these steps, so we may finally look them in the eye as equals!”
Alex laughed at that. “Let’s!”
With their decision made, they ascended that first step as one, with only a thousand more to go.
11
“Alex. Please. Let me rest. I need to rest! I can’t… the pain, Alex. The pain!”
“Shut up and climb!” Alex roared, glaring at the shuddering wreck of a man who had glowed with such optimism and vigor countless steps below, but now trembled with exhaustion and agony. Every fiber of his peripheral and core meridian channels blazed with unspeakably potent streams of spiritual energy, reforging him with the same furious intensity as a ruthless smith working a bar of living steel in a crucible of pain.
The prince looked about to crumple. To surrender.
So Alex grabbed his ear and twisted until his friend screamed in sudden pain.
“This is all you are? This is all you are capable of? All your vaunted ideals and aspirations of glory, nobility, transcendence, and you mewl like the most pathetic farm boy who lacks the courage even to ascend to Bronze! You think this is worthy of Liu Li? You think this is worthy of anyone? Pathetic!
“You think your ascent is an affront to the gods? It’s your pathetic mewling weakness, the broken cries of a fool who would dare this crucible, committing with your words and actions the ultimate transcendence, only to break your oath, an oath to the very same gods, and failing in your own ascension! Fools like that deserve nothing but death. Nothing but eternal flame! And should you fail to crawl up those stairs, I’ll pull you off and toss you to the hells myself!”
The skies above rumbled and flashed with lightning as Alex’s roar echoed endlessly through the heavens, and Cheng Lei’s desperate howl was that of a man terrified for his very soul as Alex’s glare burned him from within.
Because no matter how Cheng Lei shuddered and sobbed, no matter how much his living flesh caught spiritual fire and blazed like an inferno as the heavenly energies reforged him anew, he knew death’s specter was just behind him, willing, even eager to throw him into the abyss, should he not scurry up just one more step. Not even the sweet surrender of exhaustion was permitted to him as the immortal energies healed his physical flesh almost as fast as it broke down, forcing the prince to spend every moment of every hour he endured that crucible in a state of agony that transcended the concept of mere pain.
Until at last, it was over. With a single touch, they slipped through the shimmering portal of heavenly light and obsidian darkness before them, fading away, as if figments of a heavenly dream.
12
Alex took a deep breath, shivering with the sweet rush of power caressing his veins, as he too could all but taste the sweet storm of heavenly Qi flooding through him as intensely as did the howling wreck of a man before him. The shriveled husk reformed before Alex’s very eyes, Cheng Lei’s crumpled form unfolding into a young prince whole and new, like a miracle of origami, until not one crease or stain to his soul remained, and the agony that would have driven him mad with horror for a dozen years faded within seconds into a memory a dozen years old.
A weight the prince would certainly bear all his days, endless as they might be.
Like all who survive the crucible of conflict, forged in the fires of adversity, he would finally emerge all the stronger for it, his scars accepted as the bittersweet cost of ascension.
And if the look of rapturous wonder on Cheng Lei’s face was anything to go by, his friend was already making peace with his terrible ordeal.
Alex smiled, no longer the monstrous taskmaster that had so terrified his ally, for all that he had braced Lei’s every step. The sheer force of the waterfall of spiritual energy had threatened to tear free the young prince nearly every step of the way, but every step he had crested, and every bloody scrape of hands and knees against the hard jade stone had been his own.
Alex had kept his friend from being hurled off by the howling might of the ethereal storm, but Cheng Lei alone had been responsible for his ascent.
“How do you feel?”
Rapturous eyes, blue no longer, but a vibrant shade of green so like WiFu’s, gazed back into his own. “Never have I known such agony as I have endured.” Cheng Lei swallowed, suddenly choked up. His fists clenched with remembered pain, eyes watering with remembered humiliation. “Never have I been so terrified, nor known such furious hate as when you flayed me with your words and dire threats and the feel of your soul crushing my own like the worst demons of hell, propelling me onward to what I feared would be my eternal damnation.”
And much to Alex’s surprise, the prince bowed so low, his shimmering locks of ebony touched the ground. “And never have I been so grateful to any man as I am to you, for standing by my side as a true brother, compelling me onward when all I wanted to do was surrender to oblivion, walking by my side as I endured the most difficult trial of my life.”
Alex felt his cheeks burn, both embarrassed and touched by the display of humility and gratitude the prince showered upon him. Gently, he squeezed his friend’s shoulder.
“Get up, kung fu brother. I did naught but push you forward, just as my former master once pushed me.”
Cheng Lei flashed an effervescent grin, Alex only then noting that his friend’s robes now shimmered a resplendent jade hue. “And I will never be able to repay you for inspiring me as you did. I owe you my life for that. But tell me true, Alex, did your master actually threaten to toss you off the side of a mountain?”
Alex laughed. “As a matter of fact, he did. Though it was more the cliff face overlooking the rocky shoals just beyond his pagoda, down to a stormy sea that would have pounded me to oblivion before I learned the trick of leaping across the infinite tiny drops of condensation in the sky.”
“Or this very basin of water that’s far more spiritual energy than any earthly liquid,” the youn
g prince softly said, contemplating Alex’s feet, which floated above the pool of water that shimmered and flashed with so many rainbow hues, jade green chief among them.
Alex nodded. “Exactly.” Filled with relief to see his friend not only recover, but thrive, in the gentle flood of spiritual energies caressing both their forms, Alex finally tore his gaze away to behold the marvel he found himself within.
It was an impossibly massive pantheon-like temple, supported by enormous pillars of priceless gold-veined jade. Each column glowed with spiritual energy, all the walls constructed of similar material, and the entire structure was so vast in size and scope that the walls seemed to soar into eternity.
Toward the far end of the temple, Alex beheld proud figures made of ivory and gold, dressed in the regalia of emperors and kings. Each was spaced some distance apart, and Alex thought he saw sparkling runes behind them, feeling a sudden shiver in his soul as he approached.
“Alex, where are you going?” The prince’s voice sounded strangely alarmed. “The scriptures are clear. Should any aspirant or ruler dare go too far into the Palace of the Immortals, the netherrealms will be their ultimate reward. Best we heed the advice of travelers far wiser than you and I, don’t you think? Come. The exit’s this way. So long as we stick to the prescribed path, we stand to profit handsomely from our trials, regardless of what we share with the school below.”
Alex took a quick look in the direction Cheng Lei was pointing, noting a door that shone like the sun, and one that glowed softly like the moon. Beside one was a jade talisman in the shape of a crown; beside the other, a jade talisman in the shape of a crescent moon.
“It is rumored that, should one claim the jade crown talisman and enter the golden door, horns shall trumpet in the halls of every capital, even within the imperial palace itself! Emissaries shall immediately be sent by our glorious Emperor to collect us and sweep us away into a life of unspeakable privilege and luxury. Upon giving our life-oath in service to the Emperor, every master of every martial and scholarly discipline known to our people as well as the Emperor’s own sacred Jade texts shall be made available to us, all with the goal of forging us into the most powerful Golds imaginable before aiding our ascent to Jade. Upon reaching such a venerated status, we shall be feted with rank, honors, and vast territories of our own, tasked as serving as the Emperor’s Jade fists against all threats to the Golden Realms, as well as being revered and beloved by every mortal and cultivator that shall behold our exalted forms.”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 13