Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path

by Johnson, M. H.

  He was the farthest thing from a broken cultivator. In fact, he was overflowing with spiritual energy.

  So much so that he felt dizzy and off-balance, and only then, stumbling to his feet and falling over, did he realize what was wrong.

  Suffering from a sensation he hadn’t felt for a very, very long time.

  He had dared ascend beyond what even he had thought possible, flooding his core and channels with power undreamed.

  He was ready to level up, all the way to Bronze Rank 6.

  More than that, he was brimming with such power that he felt ready to burst.

  He shook his head as Deng shoved him forward, mocking him with laughter as he lurched before gaining his feet once more. Alex chuckled wryly as his hostile guide led him onward, well aware of the irony before him.

  More than anything else, he needed weeks of rest and deepest meditation to channel his stored potential into not just one, but two more pristine tri-state cords.

  But peace was the one thing he would not have for who knew how long. And he didn’t dare risk summoning his golden portal door and disappearing for weeks on end. Not just because that could kick him out, permanently denying him an opportunity which required only that he temporarily endure hardship… but also because he feared even discreet usage would trigger whatever Gold-ranked cultivators guarded this academy, and he was not so stupid as to think such wise and powerful personages would not be on the lookout for any rifts forming here, after what had happened at the palace.

  So Alex gritted his teeth and forced himself to smile at Deng’s continued curses and castigations, stumbling up the steps before finding himself in a large chamber well-suited to revels just beyond the lowest tier Bronze Spa, every bit as covered in excess as a smirking Deng had implied. The young cultivator quickly pointed to broom, bucket, and rags. “I assume you’re not a complete fool and don’t need me watching your every step. Now sweep up whatever’s sweepable and dump it in the slop bin for the pigs before you scrub every last stain on these chairs, cushions, and floors. And if you find any silverware the other servitors forgot to pick up, you put it right here,” he said, pointing to a silverware container at the back of the large chamber that looked close to the state Alex would expect after battle.

  Deng furrowed his brow, shaking his head in contempt. “You look like a pathetic wreck, and what a fool you were, daring more than you could handle.”

  Dizzy as he was, Alex couldn’t help smirking at that assessment. “Is that what you say to justify never having the guts to push yourself further than you had?”

  Sarcastic disdain turned to sudden hot wrath, Deng’s sausage-like fingers jabbing at Alex’s face. “Don’t you talk to me like that, Ruidian trash! You have no idea what I had to…”

  The young man’s voice broke off in a scream when he found himself slammed to the ground, shoulder wrenched back and elbow hyper-extended, with fingers twisted so far back, they were just a feather away from breaking.

  “At least I tried!” Alex hissed. “There is no shame in pushing yourself beyond what anyone thinks you can manage. The hell with them all. The only shame is giving into your own cowardice, being too damned spineless to even put up a fight!”

  This earned Alex a whimper that broke into a scream as his dizziness got the best of him, lurching forward just an inch.

  Quickness check made!

  It was only by dint of lightning-fast easing of pressure that he avoided snapping Deng’s elbow and shattering his fingers.

  And by the way Deng lurched back, eyes filled with shock and pain as he whimpered and clutched his arm, it had been far closer than Alex was comfortable admitting. He glared at a terrified Deng for only a moment before grabbing the broom with a curse and a sigh. Doing what he could to clean the cesspit of a room, he already knew that his best chance of being given the space he needed to get his dizziness and throbbing headache under control was by complying calmly, slowly, and avoiding all confrontation until he felt sufficiently recovered to take the steps he knew he desperately needed to achieve.

  Then he could get the hell out of this maze of cavernous rooms burrowed into the rock itself, it seemed, and ascend to the fresh air and green grass above, where he would actually have a chance to prove himself as a cultivator and secure rooms where he could feel safe cultivating for however many weeks might be necessary.

  Or if nothing else, he’d find a pretext to leave this school entirely, such that he could eventually return… before porting to his own realm, where he knew he could cultivate and savor his too-long delayed breakthroughs in absolute safety, in the most luxurious quarters he had ever experienced in this life or any other.

  But that day wouldn’t be today, he admitted with a bitter chuckle as he worked his way through the room, Deng having long since parted with a final curse.

  He could only hope it would come sometime within the next three months.

  Assuming things weren’t even worse than he had thought.

  Which, of course, they were, as he found out the moment he was done cleaning not just the first Bronze-tier revelry chamber, but the second as well, where the handful of Silver champions had also savored sweetest victory, along with guests pulled from the school proper, who were eager to make new contacts and forge fresh alliances, or perhaps vicariously savor their own sweet accomplishments.

  Whatever the case, Alex found himself scrubbing and cleaning well past dawn, having the grace not to disturb the pair of entwined cultivators who had claimed the back corner of one of the chambers as their own. He found himself grateful that at least his Eternal Fox mastery kept his body revitalized, for all that he had to fight to hold back jaw-cracking yawns, though he hesitated doing anything more than rejuvenating his body with the barest caress of power, as he still felt like he was on the verge of bursting.

  “You finally finished, supplicant? Good! Master Puren wants a word with you.”

  The sneer with which Deng greeted an exhausted Alex made it clear that this day was going to be every bit as bad as he had feared.

  A prediction that turned out to be absolutely true when a smirking Puren coldly eyed Alex up and down. Deng slammed Alex from behind, attempting to trip him to his knees, after shoving him into a comfortable-looking room, lined with rugs and woolen tapestries of bucolic countrysides in addition to idealized portraits of soaring phoenix. The room was complimented by a slatted window that showed a glorious view of the very real countryside far beyond, the shafts of sunlight illuminating a large hardwood table covered with scrolls, wax tablets, quills, and parchment.

  And here, unlike before, Alex saw the wisdom in feigning weakness, crumpling to his knees by his own will alone.

  “Ah. Alex, is it? What an intriguing name. Reminiscent of so many ancient tales of glory and daring and madness, of which you are clearly only worthy of the latter.” Puren, impeccably dressed in tight-fitting pristine white cultivator’s robes gave a mockingly thoughtful tilt of his head. “I think a new name is in order for you, don’t you, Ruidian? Fool.” He gave a cold smile. “I think that shall be your name for so long as you work under my auspices, you backstabbing, smart-mouthed cur.”

  Alex gazed coldly at him, saying nothing.

  Puren’s cold smile grew sharp. “Perhaps you’ll be happy to know that your victim is expected to make a full recovery. One day, he will even be afforded the right to challenge for Bronze. Too bad the same can’t be said for you.”

  Alex felt a cold chill in his gut, knowing the question Puren was so hoping he’d ask, waiting with bated breath.

  And Alex did not disappoint.

  “And why is that?”

  “Because, Fool, you dared to strike him from behind, nearly killing him with a crippling blow that would have spelled his end if he had fought any harder with his ascension, bleeding as he was. A murderous act that would have seen a Ruidian like you hung in any other circumstances, but, much to your good fortune, resulted in no more than the loss of a single rank.”

  Pur
en’s icy sneer widened even further. “Which is one rank below those who are permitted to challenge for Bronze. Or challenge at all, really.”

  Deng’s mocking laugher washed over Alex, as the boy held a six-inch-long strip of bronze that he waved in front of Alex’s face. “You have to be a third-rank servant to earn one of these, dog!”

  “Your point?”

  Deng’s eyes widened, looking at Alex like he was an idiot. “The point, Fool, is that you can’t force a challenge against anyone else if you don’t have a talisman of your own! It means that no matter how many months you patiently wait for your talisman to charge up to the point that you can actually force a Bronze to challenge you, it will do you no good, since you’ll never earn one of these.”

  Alex frowned. “Are you saying students can’t offer and accept challenges without using those talismans?”

  Deng furrowed his brow. “Of course not. You can challenge anyone to a match at any time, if you’ve used all the spiritual energy your talisman has stored and have a partner who wants to spar you back, though don’t expect them to offer any stakes for it.”

  “But they could if they wanted to, right? Accept a challenge, for the same stakes as a talisman allows, if both are willing?”

  Deng blinked, gazing curiously at Master Puren. “Master?”

  Puren glared at Alex. “Of course you can. Not that it matters at all for someone such as you, Fool; so happy to play the idiot, when you could have enjoyed the sweetest of probations.” He gave a cynical shake of his head. “And this is why Phoenix Academy is set up exactly the way it is. To weed out stupid, violent cultivators like yourself.”

  Alex felt a sudden chill in the air as the cultivator uncoiled a whip of that radiated a bitter, icy aura.

  Artificer skill check made! You have discovered Ice Qi Whip! Peripheral potency detected. Damage is Water (Ice) Based. Damage penetrates all metal armor. Target will be slowed and chilled. Tier 1 Body cultivation will not counter resulting damage.

  Alex felt his heart start to race, adrenaline forcing his dizzy fugue into crystalline focus.

  But Puren did no more than weave the whip through a complicated, graceful series of movements, such that it formed an elegant web of freezing agony in the air.

  “You’ll find I am both tough and fair, even to idiots like you, Fool. So long as you do as you are told, obey orders, and cause no trouble, you will find your punishment nowhere near as bad as I have every right to inflict upon you. But don’t expect much in the way of rations or sleep, until I judge you redeemed. And should you actually manage to surprise me and finish this semester without any marks against you?” He recoiled his whip with a single adroit twist of his wrist. “You might even earn your name back, Fool. And won’t that be sweet music to your sad Ruidian ears?”

  Alex’s smile didn’t reach his gaze. Instead, he slowly held out his hand. “I can only imagine how much honor means to a man like you. How deeply you value your Bronze cultivation base.”

  Puren’s supercilious half-smile hardened, eyes growing flinty and severe. “Ware your words, Ruidian.”

  “Happily. The moment you return what’s mine.”

  Puren’s glare hardened. “You have the servant’s clothes on your back, all such as you will ever need. Any other trinkets on you when you washed into my chamber are forfeit, after ruining our celebrations twice over with your arrogant disregard for safety or the lives of others!”

  Alex’s smile grew. “Will you swear a cultivator’s oath to that effect?”

  Puren’s mouth twisted in a snarl.

  “Will you swear that—"

  “Deng! Leave us now!” the man snapped. The young cultivator gasped and did just that, with a final glare fired Alex’s way.

  And in a flash, Puren was glaring into Alex’s eyes, whip handle jutting under his chin as the icy chill permeated his flesh.

  Qi Absorption temporarily inert. You are at Maximum Storage Capacity! You are suffering 1 damage per second. Damage is within Eternal Fox regeneration parameters.

  An agony Alex quickly brought under control as Puren snarled into Alex’s face.

  “Be glad a purse buys you clemency, Fool, more than just compensation for daring to disrespect your betters! Things could be so very much worse for you, if I wished it.”

  Alex gazed at the man. “I believe you.”

  “Good,” Puren said, withdrawing his deadly frost whip once more. “Then we are done here. I expect you to follow the orders of every servant under my care. You are now their dog. Their scuttlebutt. You will do what they say, when they say it. You will not rest until the last servant has lowered her head in sleep, and you will awaken when the coal boy gets up to prepare the morning fires. Now leave. Deng will take you to your first assignment.”

  He turned away from Alex, heading towards his desk and its stacks of parchment and papyrus, as if Alex were less than nothing.

  Abruptly, he turned around with a furious glare. “And if I ever find that you have abused one of my serving boys again, rest assured, I will inflict the same pain upon you, many times over, and will still expect you to work, no matter how many bones are broken. Even if I make you a cripple, you will still serve!” Puren roared.

  Alex didn’t flinch, merely staring at the hotly glaring man while taking in everything he saw.

  Find Weakness skill check made!

  Soulsight skill check failed. You are unable to sense the flow of Qi through this cultivator at this time!

  Puren clenched his jaw, scowling back at Alex’s unflinching gaze. “Well, Fool? Unless you wish to start your lessons in pain this very moment, you will do as you are told.”

  “You still haven’t answered my question. How much do you value your cultivation base?”

  Puren’s eyes widened with fury.

  You have been struck by Ice Whip! You have suffered 10 points of damage! You have saved versus Slow. You have saved versus Chill.

  His weapon flashed across Alex’s shoulder before he could even blink, his first hunch about the man now a certainty.

  Puren was a speed cultivator, far more experienced than Alex; of that, he had no doubt.

  “You may consider that the gentlest of warnings, dog! Leave now, or by all the gods, I will not rest until you’re sobbing for mercy!”

  Alex’s smile widened. Power healing engaged! Potency pool directly accessed! You are absolutely flooded with excess potential!

  “Too afraid to look at it head on. Very well, I’ll remind you. I gave you a Spirit Pearl worth at least ten platinum on the open market. You took it with a wink and a smile and an easily uttered oath, as all your kind does. But then when you found out you actually had to earn that Pearl, which any Bronze would fight and bleed through how many battles to gain, years upon years’ worth of a common man’s labor, you couldn’t even keep your panicked crew in check! Flooding that chamber, and breaking your oath. Your commitment!”

  Quickness check failed!

  You have been struck 3 times for 30 damage! You have saved versus Slowing Step. You have saved versus Chilling Cold!

  You fail to sense the flow of Qi through your opponent!

  Find weakness skill check – critical success! You have imprinted your foe’s basic attack sequence!

  Guarding his eyes with his left forearm, Alex allowed the furious cultivator to lash out with his whip at frightful speeds. The blows came so fast, he couldn’t even see them, but he could feel the pattern upon his flesh, sense the storm of fury with his exquisitely precise Qi Perception.

  When his snarling opponent fell into a sequence more befitting a torturer than a warrior, Alex, already in tune with the swirling storm of White Qi all around him, acted.

  Allowing the whip to coil about his right wrist, he pivoted his hips and snapped back with all the power of a Rank 4 Bronze and the roaring fury of a surging river flooding its banks and smashing through all resistance, which he could now visualize so vividly, after all he had endured.

  His opponent was in
humanly quick, clasping tightly on, before Alex could snap the weapon out of his grip. Which meant that Puren went flying with surprising force across the room when Alex snapped his arm back, the man smashing into the far wall and collapsing in a groaning heap as Alex slowly coiled up the whip.

  Then he was once more the picture of calm, gazing impassively at the snarling cultivator stumbling back to his feet, rubbing a massive welt upon a skull which Alex feared was closer to a mortal’s in terms of durability than even a recently broken-through Bronze.

  “Really? You’re a body cultivator, and you didn’t boost Vitality?” Alex sadly shook his head.

  Before blinking as the furiously snarling cultivator unsheathed a thin, light Jian so quickly, it gave even Alex chills.

  “I don’t need monstrous strength to take down brutes like you, Ruidian dog!” snarled Puren, shaking off the last of his dizziness. “I can’t tell you how many arrogant bulls I’ve bled until they were broken, mewling pups, eager for my mercy and guidance! Speed is everything, fool! What good is strength if you’re never able to hit your target?”

  Alex dipped his head. “Touché. But what good is speed if you don’t even have the strength to move at full capacity for more than a few seconds? You’re no fool, Puren. You must know that you need ever-increasing Strength just to create sufficient force to move your blade fast enough to match your enhanced Quickness.” Alex frowned at the needle-like blade aimed at him. “And even an enchanted blade has limits, I’m betting. No doubt you’ve already surpassed them with any normal jian, which is why a light, thrusting blade so similar to the thinnest fencing swords is your preferred weapon. You don’t have the Strength for anything else. Not if you want to still be able to use your speed to its utmost.”