This earned him a chilly smile. “Come now, dearest fox. All one has to do is witness how you fools carry on in order to realize that this will be a very short game indeed. And as for mischief? There will always be a seat at the table for one as wicked and wily as yourself, Silver Fox.”
WiFu’s eyes positively twinkled. He winked and saluted the queen, though he was careful to say nothing at all.
“Have a care, my queen,” whispered a stick-thin man with translucent scales upon his flesh, seated next to his mistress. “Their conflict could be but a ruse. They did lure the Ruidians into a false sense of security before obliterating their navies entirely; the remnants that survived are now counted among WiFu’s most loyal servants.”
Hooded eyes narrowed as she took the measure of WiFu and his entire clan, her sapphire gaze passing over Alex last of all, chilling him to the bone.
Her eyes widened with disbelief.
“He’s just a Bronze?”
She glared at WiFu. “What game are you playing at, Jiu Weihu?
The air grew thick with serpentine shadows swarming behind the seat of Alex’s patron. “It has been a very long time since anyone called me that, Ice Queen. You know as well as anyone how many tails I sacrificed for the souls of my daughters.”
The regal-looking goddess let loose a sly smile. “Yet I see their shadows still. I think you got the better end of that bargain, wily fox. It still doesn’t explain how this Tier 4 Bronze is able to sit on that chair, when his mortal flesh should have evaporated into the ether, along with his screaming soul.”
WiFu snorted. “I think that should be obvious, even to you.”
The Ice Queen furrowed her elegant brows, gazing at Alex with an intensity that demanded an answer.
“Well, spirit, wearing the guise of a mortal boy? Why are you here?”
Alex peered down at the massive board, feeling the weight of over a dozen pairs of eyes fixed firmly upon him as he desperately strove to find what he was looking for.
Until, at last, he found his prize.
He flashed a fierce smile at the sight of the black and white tile with numerous cards placed upon it, two still fully in play. A piece the eyes of so many gods seemed to skip right over.
A piece he needed to secure at all costs.
“I know that all the pieces upon mundus are subject to the whims of the gods above.”
Alex forced his eyes upward, meeting gazes both potent and terrible.
It was all he could do not to flinch before them.
“I know Grandmother Yi Wang has promised three of my questions answered by my patron before any of you are permitted to strike at me directly while I am here.”
He swallowed, heart racing, forcing himself to smile. “And I know that upon this table you all wager for the fates of empires, countless millions of lives riding upon a single gambit or ruse, more than willing to sacrifice the lives of a city’s worth of souls, should it assure an entertaining game.”
To this, the Ice Queen nodded. “Of course. It’s why we breed them in the first place.”
Much to Alex’s horror, every single visiting god, along with the bloated General Shalu, still bearing the scars of his folly, nodded in simultaneous accord.
It came as surprising comfort to Alex that both Qing Bai and WiFu held their heads rigid, for all that Long Wang snorted, and Zheng Yi glared as if the question was beneath him.
Alex clenched his jaw, forcing himself to choke back utterances that would only doom him and instead choosing his words as carefully as he could.
“Yet no one at this table has sought the destruction of another. Only cards are used.”
The queen smirked. “Of course. It is for gods to rule, and for mortals to taste the brunt of our blows. To them is consigned the agony of the mortal coil and the bliss of forgetfulness. To us is consigned the infinite glory of eternity, to shape as we will.”
Heart hammering, Alex’s smile grew ice-cold, worthy of the queen now glaring at him so intently.
“And I note that each of you have stacks of cards. Seven or twelve before you, with any number of others held in reserve.”
The queen returned a bleak smile of her own. “Seeking answers to free questions? Very well, pawn, I will humor you with information that will be torn from your skull soon enough. A fresh turn has just started. You may play as many cards per turn as you have meridian channels, and no more. Not unless a card says otherwise. A clever player will hold his turn for as long as he can, seeing every other card in play, before daring to make a move of his own.”
You have pulled free three Fate cards from storage.
Alex nodded once, before slamming down four cards, face down, upon the lip of the table by his seat, exactly the way WiFu had his own hand of cards set up, six out of seven remaining, whereas Long Wang had seven, the general twelve, and Zheng Yi, ten.
“Then I claim my piece from the board and my seat at this table!”
His voice echoed eerily through the chamber entire.
It was all he could do to speak up under the crushing weight of so many divine stares.
As he dared the unthinkable, he fought back a scream of surprise as he flew through the air.
Removing a black and white tile without dropping a single one of the cards of fate stacked on top of it, he carefully placed it beside his seat.
“A pawn no longer, I declare myself a Contender!”
15
The room erupted in shouts, a cacophony of surprised disbelief and outrage, as WiFu howled with laughter.
“Well done, Little Fox! What a way to stir up the pot!”
“How dare this worm think to ascend before us!” roared Long Wang as the Ice Queen hissed.
“So, this was all just a gambit to bring another player onto your team?”
“Enough!” bellowed Zheng Yi, and silence fell. “The rules of this match are clear! Teams of five or less! You had best take care of this mess, WiFu!”
Silver Fox chuckled softly. “Oh, I’m afraid you misunderstand, Grandfather.” He turned to Alex, smiling wickedly. “Would I be correct in assuming that you have absolutely no intention of putting your soul into the hands of gods who have sworn time and time again that they would crush your spirit to oblivion?”
“Not a chance in hell,” Alex agreed.
WiFu nodded in approval, before beaming at the hard gazes of the deities glaring back at him. “There you have it!” he said before clapping Alex’ on the shoulder, causing a wince as he cracked bone. “My dear disciple—former disciple?—has declared himself a free agent. He’s his own man, head of his own team, without a single resource of significance to call his own... on this game board at least. Which is a wonderful thing, because it means he has so very little to lose!”
His grin turned predatory, and he tapped the table beside Alex’s cards. “Yet he has such a delicious hand, modest as it is. My brothers and I know the nature of two of those cards already. Don’t we, bloated one?”
General Shalu’s face blazed with humiliation and fury in equal measure, a hand reflexively reaching for his well-armored throat. “Don’t you dare, WiFu…”
Silver Fox smirked. “Don’t worry, dearest brother. We’ve aired out enough of our dirty laundry in front of our patient guests. Besides, it’s not like her spies don’t report absolutely every delicious detail of our petty squabbles as they relate to the mortal realm at nauseating length. Is that not so, dear Queen of all things crisp and cool?”
But the regal goddess in question was gaping at Alex with disbelieving eyes. “Wait… him? He’s the one who did that to you, Shalu? Not some rogue Jade king?”
“He did nothing!” thundered Zheng Yi. “He is but a tool of the treacherous rat who dares to pretend he is on our side! Now, enough of this farce! Free agent or no, he presumes to sit at this table before me with no fog of deception blocking him now!”
With those words, he slammed down a card bearing the image of a tiny figure being swept up in a whirlwind of forc
e and fury and hurtled from a broken tower.
A moment of possibility and peril that remained frozen in time, of which Alex only caught the barest glimpse before he was sent hurtling away in gale-force winds. He screamed as he was tossed between worlds, and a yawning chasm of blackness opened wide for his soul once more.
16
“Get up, supplicant!”
Alex groaned, rubbing raw, stinging eyes and wincing at a throbbing headache, surprised to find himself feeling so uncomfortable, even for a few seconds’ time.
The first thing he felt when the soft woolen blanket was torn off his linen-covered sleeping mat was a bitter chill, just as the warm flesh that had been resting next to him gave vent to a feminine curse. A voice which Alex found, to his horror, he recognized.
“Spirits take you, Deng. It’s the middle of the night! We have three days of revels to savor, and Boahzhai gave him to me to care for.” The lithe, sensual girl curled up next to Alex gave a sultry sigh. “She can tell this boy will be a tough nut to crack, and knew I’d be just the one to soften him up.”
This earned a sarcastic snort. “Afraid you’ll have to find a new boyfriend, Liqin. This fool was stupid enough to mouth off to your father, and the minute he flooded down the stairs, along with half the sea to drench us all well and proper, you saw how Puren’s eyes lit up like it was bloody providence!” He gave a cold chuckle. “I bet this fool will be kissing your father’s boots and wishing he’d never been born by the time the year’s up.”
Liqin shook her head, cursing under her breath. “Why is it always the cute ones that are so desperate to play half-mad fools? If only he had taken the drink I’d given him, we could have had the sweetest three months of his life. Or, if he really took a fancy to me, who knows where it could have led?” She gave a melancholy sigh, gently nudging a still woozy Alex, who only then opened his eyes. He was not having to feign being dizzy or disoriented at all, though his cheeks flushed at Liqin’s sensual curves and capricious smile, swallowing when her pert, dark areolas caught his eyes.
She teased him with her smile. “Like what you see? Do what you’re told, make amends to your new master, and who knows? I might just give you a second look.” Soft, warm lips caressed his own. She squeezed his shoulder. “But stop playing the fool, okay? Keep your head down, do what you’re told, and he’ll forgive you faster than you might think. Especially if he knows I’m looking after you,” she whispered, quickly wrapping a shift around her supple shoulders and dropping her gaze, instantly the demure, proper young woman once more.
She shot a glare up at a smirking Deng. “You wish to challenge me, Deng?”
He shook his head, raising his hands in mock surrender. “I’m not stupid enough to challenge a Bronze, not even one as cute as you. If you want to play the love-struck fool for this hopeless sop, that’s on you.”
He then scowled down at Alex. “Well, get up, newblood!” He flashed a wicked grin at the still painfully dizzy Alex. “You wouldn’t believe the revels those damned Bronze enjoyed up above. Made a right proper mess of things, and guess who gets to clean up the puke?”
Alex didn’t resist the young, muscular basic cultivator as the man dragged him into the hallway, using a groan to both avoid the need for talking and to give himself the space he needed to think.
What the hell had happened to him? How did he end up in the third basic tier, of all places, now feeling so dizzy that he wanted to keel over?
He was filled with sudden terror as he toppled to the ground.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Deng cursed. “I don’t care how shitty you feel. You were stupid enough to mouth off to our master, so you’d better hope this is all he puts you through! This could be so much worse, idiot. Better believe me on that one.”
Alex’s heart raced as panic began to set in. Panic he was careful to keep coiled tightly inside.
He clenched his fists, remembering all too well Zheng Yi’s furious countenance, the card he had slammed down before Alex’s spot at the table, Fog of War providing absolutely no protection while he was right in front of their faces.
He chuckled bitterly. It seemed his desperate attempt to lift himself free of the damned game of the gods and force a position of strength, demanding respect as he pushed himself to his absolute limits, had backfired spectacularly.
If his foe’s card had somehow robbed Alex of all his power, all his potential, casting him off as little more than a broken Bronze, no matter that Grandmother Yi Wang had assured his safety for the duration of three answered questions… were they assuming that anyone’s answer to statements of fact, deliberately worded, were also to count as questions? He shook his head in bitter fury.
Of course, he should expect any gauntlet involving the gods to fall out of his favor. His enemies were not at all above using trickery, guile, and whatever cheating they could get away with to assure their victory, all of them more than happy to slice his metaphoric throat if they thought they could get away with it.
Then his eyes lit up as he noted the scratches on the stone tiled floor, the way his torn fingernail and a moment’s blistering pain began to slowly, oh so slowly, heal before his eyes.
He felt a fierce sense of exhilaration, quickly pulling up his interface, grateful to see that he was the farthest thing from a broken cultivator.
___________________________________________________________________
Alex Hammer
Class – Cultivator: Disciple of the Dual Path (Unlimited potential. This is a Divine path.)
Rank 4 Divine Bronze Cultivation Achieved (Ready for breakthrough to Rank 6!)
Physical Characteristics
Strength - Bronze Rank 3 (31) (Relentless Resolve is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Vitality - Bronze Rank 3 (31) (Eternal Resilience is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Quickness - Bronze Rank 2 (25) (Chaotic Unpredictability is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Finesse - Bronze Rank 2 (25) (Mastery of Oneself is now recognized as a core element of your path.)
Spiritual Characteristics
Scholarship - 14 (Exceeds 90% of Population.)
Perception - 17 (Exceeds 99% of population.)
Willpower - 19 (You have the resolve to walk in the Valley of Death and slip free of the River of Souls.)
Qi Pool – Silver Rank 4 (140) (20 Points reserved: Divine Soul Stone anchored. Note: forged and peripheral channels now enjoy added resiliency!)
Health Points: 451
Perks
Insightful – Rank 2
Charismatic – Rank 2
Lesser Shadow Affinity - You can now see Shadow Qi! You have +5 to spot all those using Shadow to ambush or confuse you.
Golden Apple of Wisdom consumed: Increased chance of cultivation breakthroughs.
Favored Skills
Golden Realms Kung Fu – Rank 6
White Crane Kung Fu – Rank 7
Silver Swan Kung Fu – Rank 6
Poison Spitting – Rank 5
Stealth – Rank 4
Qi Disciplines
Adderstrike – Rank 8
Bullrush – Rank 7
Black Swan (Soul Cleave) – Rank 6
Dark Qi Projection – Rank 5
Forest Flight – Rank 5
Forest Sense - Rank 5
Piercing Strike – Rank 3
Qi Absorption – Rank 5
Qi Deflection – Rank 1
Qi Flood – Rank 2
Spirit Crane Strike – Rank 6
Storm Flight – Rank 5
Storm Strike – Rank 1
Summon Portal – Rank 3 (10)
Water Walking (Soul Stride) – Rank 6
Qi Perception Linked Disciplines
Artificer - Rank 6
Find Weakness – Rank 5
Qi Perception – Rank 7
Soul Sight – Rank 6
Spiritual Teacher – Rank 6
Favored Body Cultivation T
echniques
The Eternal Fox Unified Cultivation Technique – Rank 12
Biochemical Mastery – Rank 6
Enlightened Treasures
Unused Eternal Soul Stones
1 Divine (Rank 1)
2 Gold (Rank 2, Rank 5)
4 Silver (Rank 1, Rank 2, Rank 5, Rank 6)
Divine Boon: You have managed to best one Elder God and survive the ordeal! You have earned a boon (and saved a city)! A portion of his potency is now your own! Each Rank of Silver will be seven times easier to achieve, as General Shalu himself is forced to foot the remainder of the bill!
Divine Promise: For successfully making it to Royal Phoenix Academy before the end of the month, there will be one Divine Tome of particular use to you somewhere within the stacks of the school’s libraries, assuming you can find it and earn access to it.
Transcendent locations successfully triangulated:
Garden of Eve / River of Souls / Hall of The Gods Note: These locations are now Soul-Linked. These locations are now Interface-Linked. These locations cannot be barred from you. You have added resilience and spiritual resonance at these locations.
Divine Fate Cards you have claimed from your foes: Nemesis / Soul Link
Additional Divine Fate Cards that you have forged: A Gift Freely Given / Seas of Titan
Divine Fate Cards Currently Affecting You: Cleaved Fates / Fog of War
You have claimed a seat at the table of the gods! Your cards now rest upon the table of the gods! Cards are inviolate! Your patron is safeguarding your hand. Your cards no longer weigh down your soul! Zero Qi points reserved!
Congratulations! Fate now recognizes you as a Rank 1 Contender!
Karma may no longer affect you, but The Game is still keeping score!
___________________________________________________________________
His smile filled with relief when he sensed that his meridian channels were not only intact, but were vaster than he could imagine, his foundation stronger than ever before. Even his tri-state cords encapsulating both the ordered elements and wild Qi had grown, filling ever more of his widened channels. His meridian configuration itself had endured only the most miniscule of alterations. A thousand breaths and a thousand years lost between ecstacy and oblivion, heaven above and purgatory below during his very first incarnation, had already forged his configuration exquisitely close to perfection, at least for his soul.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 20