Alex felt his heart skip a beat, never having felt the weight of an entire crowd that wanted to kill him before. He seriously considered summoning a Golden door and porting out that very moment, and the hell with any consequences.
“I challenge you, Ruidian! For daring to strike an instructor of this school, for assaulting a member of my clan, I demand satisfaction!”
Alex clenched his jaw, pain and dizziness fading once more. He felt his limbs tingle as his mind honed in on this bitter moment with absolute clarity, taking in the entire crowd arrayed against him, as his shins and forearms instantly coated themselves with obsidian-hued Qi.
He flashed a cynical smile. Of course petty gods would make a complete mockery of his ascent, and of course Puren, the one man he had finally lost his temper with, would be the individual overseeing his stay. And why shouldn’t he absolutely despise Alex, after putting down a man determined to kill Alex and anyone else who didn’t play by the Red Prince’s rules? All he had seen or heard were the screams and the blood, after Alex finally got the best of at least one foe. And why shouldn’t the one girl who had showed him kindness now wish for his death after her beloved father was bruised and battered by the servant she had been so eager to save?
He could all too easily imagine a certain bloated god’s derisive laughter. “I don’t need to see you to know where you are now, worm. And if you’re stupid enough to fall for my traps? You deserve all the pain that’s coming to you.” And he didn’t need to hear the mocking words echoing through the gaming hall of the gods to visualize General Shalu’s smirk, even as Liqin favored him with a killing stare.
“Accept the challenge, Ruidian scum, or leave this school like the coward you are!”
Alex granted Liqin, who had gazed at him so hungrily just a handful of hours ago, a cold smile. “I can’t help but notice the jian hanging at your hip and the warded qipao radiating Metal Qi which you wear like armor, so well suited to battle. I have no doubt that, were I to nod my head in ascent, you’d happily charge me, unarmed and unarmored, wearing nothing but the servant’s clothes you yourself put on me the night before.”
This comment earned a number of animated whispers and a furious scowl.
“How dare you insult my honor, cur!”
Alex smirked. “I insult nothing, save your assumption that I’m stupid. You want to fight me because I actually had the gall to defend myself? Fine. But we need to agree on the terms of battle and the stakes involved.”
Liqin gazed hotly at Alex before holding up a bronze talisman with three shimmering silver sigils upon it, earning more than a few admiring whispers from the crowd, who collectively turned to glare daggers at Alex once more.
She flashed a smile the equal of Alex’s own. “I see the choker covered with beast jewels you seized from my father, and he tells me you even took back the Spirit Pearl you gifted him with!” Her eyes were filled with unmitigated hate. “He told me what you did to him, and what you threatened to do as well. All he asked was that I avoid you. And that is one thing I can never promise, not when my blood boils with the need to destroy you!”
She spat her contempt upon the ground. “But killing invokes a penalty I am loath to pay. Not even for one as forsaken as you! I will settle for carving my runes of hate upon your flesh before taking everything you own!” Her smile grew bitter. “And I don’t think you will be nearly as pretty when I’m done with you as you were before, Alex!”
All Alex had to do was catch the contempt-filled gaze of the healer beside her to realize just how true that was. A marred healing was the least of his concerns, however, when Liqin approached him, the shimmering talisman of bronze etched with silver glittering so captivatingly in her hand.
“I saw the base color of your talisman, Alex! Is it because of your Ruidian blood? No wonder you hide it, like the coward I now know you to be. Lower than low; even the basest third-tier servant would be able to challenge you!” Her cold smile matched her icy gaze. “I doubt it will grow opaque, no matter the stakes put before you. No wonder you fell so far. You’re less than the lowest servant here, and too stupid to appreciate the family you could have had. The home you could have had. Well, you’ve lost that forever, and I’ll make sure you’re forced to face your own vile nature every time you dare to look in the mirror!”
Alex was too stunned even to register her threats, focused on those first few words.
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s too late for apologies or excuses!” she roared, jian instantly unsheathed as she lunged for him with chilling speed.
You have successfully parried Deadly Onslaught with Dark Qi Gauntlets.
You are retreating from your opponent.
Hostile Crowd prevents you from retreating any further.
You feel the storm of Qi all around you!
He spent a desperate handful of seconds doing all he could just to ward his face and neck from a vicious onslaught of whipping slashes from a blade no heavier than her father’s. Still, unarmored as he was, against any mortal, any one of those slicing cuts could have torn his throat out effortlessly.
Quickness check: failed! You have failed to grab your opponent’s jian.
Worse, she was both fast and smart, pulling back the blade after each whipping cut so she never overcommitted. Her cautious assault meant that no slice would cut too deep, but also assured that Alex had little chance of grabbing her weapon.
He spent long moments studying her stance and posture. Light on her feet, twisting her torso and snapping forward with her blade with a dancer’s grace, she still kept most of her weight on her back foot as she pressed forward, so that she could spring effortlessly away from any abrupt charge.
Her style almost perfectly mirrored what little Alex had seen from her father.
And he had no doubt that if he sprang forward, she would dart back with a snapping cut, blade forever guarding her line, eager as she was to run him through in the heartbeat he might be vulnerable and unable to counter after charging forward.
Indeed, with dozens of witnesses watching, unless he wanted to reveal his hidden techniques, or just how effective his gauntlets were, there was very little he could do that wouldn’t risk killing her.
And the less potential enemies saw of his techniques, the better.
Instead, he just returned a hard smile.
“Just like your father. Darting back and forth like a coward, too afraid to commit.”
His smile grew when her eyes lit up with sudden rage.
“You wouldn’t believe how surprised he looked by the end of our fight. He even called me a monster. And if you knew the things I did to his broken, bleeding body… it’s no wonder he begged you to stay away from me. He didn’t want me to hurt you the way I did him. I won’t even tell you how hard I laughed, nor how much he begged, because with this pretty choker I claimed, I don’t really need to say a thing, do I? You already know.”
Her face had gone from flushed to mottled with fury.
“Monster!” she screamed, holding nothing back when she lashed out for his head. Her jian whipped furiously through the air, scoring several wicked cuts to his flesh that his hands and forearms couldn’t completely parry in time before she twisted her blade in mid-swing. The tip darted and weaved forth in the air before she aimed right for Alex’s abdomen, eyes alighting with fiercest hate when her blade plunged into his flesh, her target collapsing at her feet.
You have taken 1 Medium Wound.
You have saved versus Stunning Pain.
You have successfully struck your target!
Her look of furious triumph turned to a puzzled snarl, her blade not plunging nearly as deep as she had hoped. Her mortal strength had only been able to push three inches past hyper-tensed 31 Strength abdominal muscles fortified by 31 Vitality and the very beginnings of an unformed body technique. Alex rolled with the blow, crumpling just as the blade pierced to mute its force, the remainder of its inertia stopped entirely when his Dark Qi Gauntlet got a good grip on
the blade just a heartbeat later.
Liqin’s furious gaze widened with horror when, far from groaning in pain and begging for a healer, Alex slowly got up to his feet. She gaped at her own struggling hand when Alex calmly withdrew the jian from his flesh, only the first two inches covered in his blood.
Abruptly, she was sent crashing to the ground, a stunned look upon her dolled-up features when Alex’s sweep kick sent her flying after she had sacrificed her own speed advantage and balance by putting all her effort into fruitlessly trying to tear free a blade gripped by a Rank 4 Bronze cultivator.
To her credit, she only spent a handful of seconds with the wind knocked out of her after being sent crashing to the ground. Yet a heartbeat before she was ready to spring to her feet, all she could do was give a terrified cry when she felt the razor-sharp edge of her own jian caress her lower abdomen. Positioned not for a perfect kill, it nevertheless assured there would be no possible way she could weave or dodge aside before Alex was able to fill her belly with cold steel.
Powerful blue eyes crackling with the promise of death glared into her own.
“This is how you duel at this school? Anyone you decide you don’t like, you can attack with edged steel, without a chance for rebuttal or terms offered?” Alex scoffed. “No wonder you like hiding down here. Who’s ever heard of a cultivator willing to put in an honest day’s work?”
This earned several nervous chuckles, despite the perilousness of the situation.
Liqin remained frozen, gazing at Alex with a curious mixture of shame tinged with disbelief.
“Please, Alex,” said the healer, her hands raised in desperate placation. “Be worthy of the man Liqin first thought you were. Prove you’re not the monster we all came to fear you to be.”
Qi Perception successful!
Alex smirked. “No need to butter me up with your bullshit. I know you’re getting ready to launch a Qi Attack.”
The healer froze, pleading eyes turning icy cold as she lowered her hands, though they were now clenched into tightly trembling fists. “If you think killing my daughter will earn you anything save the most agonizing death you can imagine when the entire school comes for your head…”
Alex stepped back, presenting the jian hilt-first to a trembling Liqin as she stumbled to her feet. “I think you might have dropped this,” he said. Tentative hands reached for the hilt, but when she tried to pull it free, it wouldn’t budge a millimeter. “I assume the match is over and that you have no further designs to challenge me, run me through, poison my food, or otherwise do me harm?”
Liqin’s eyes flared with bitterness, tears running freely from the corners. “Yes!” she hissed. “Despite what you’ve done... you defeated me. Damn it, you actually beat me!”
She closed her eyes and shuddered. “And I forced you to fight, without terms, without formally acknowledging the stakes, save that I intended to maim you.”
Swallowing, she hung her head, blade forgotten in her hand. “Which means I just gave up absolutely everything.” She choked back a sob. “What have I done?”
Alex sighed. “Would it make you feel any better to know that I didn’t savage or brutalize your father? That I did nothing more than disarm his weapon, much as I did yours, and his bruise was because he was forced off balance?”
Her eyes widened, her beauty only enhanced by her tears. “But you said…”
Alex smirked. “You were too maneuverable with your weight on your back foot. We were in battle, and I goaded you into overcommitting. That’s all it was.”
“But…”
Alex sighed. “The bruise on your father’s forehead was because he held onto his ice whip at just the wrong moment. He took a bad tumble. It wasn’t because I struck him with any deliberately vicious blow. And I caused no further harm, save perhaps to his pride, and stoked his fear that I would steal your heart. My Cultivator’s Oath upon that.”
The whole crowd grew silent. Even Liqin paled. “Alex, for you to even offer to say that… but my father—”
Alex crossed his arms but met her eyes unflinchingly. “Sees me as a violent monster, I know. Would you believe I grabbed the whip and tried to jerk it out of his hands only after being whipped repeatedly? And that the asshole I stabbed, the act fueling your father’s animosity toward me in the first place, had been intending to kill me from the moment he had entered that basin? His plan was not to halt my ascension, not to shove me down a step, but to actually kill me. He probably planned on throwing me off the ledge once he had hounded me up the stairs and out of your sight. Merely because I had dared to cross him and his cronies, dared to take them by surprise when they began assaulting and intimidating students at the first plateau. The three had been trying to force half our group into the lowest rungs of servitude, denying them even the chance to ascend. And Liqin? You have my Cultivator’s Oath on that as well.”
The entire crowd gasped at his statement, all eyes filled with horrified outrage, and perhaps remembered bitterness in a few cases. Alex was suddenly certain that this wasn’t the first time such an ugly maneuver had occurred in this school’s history. If nothing else, the gazes upon him didn’t seem quite so hostile as before.
“Of course, your father probably worded things in the worst possible light, Liqin, and not out of spite, but just because he was trying to protect you from trouble. Which I most certainly am. I don’t even blame him, aside from you getting goaded to the point where you almost wanted to kill me.”
Liqin flashed a rueful smile. “More than almost, Alex. But now…” She swallowed, soft brown eyes gazing into his own. “I can tell you’re not lying. You really were trying to protect your fellow aspirants as best you could.” She slowly approached him, trembling fingertips gently stroking his cheek, and for some reason, he let her. “You don’t have to say anything. I can see the truth of that in your gaze. I had treated you like a monster when you were just… well, maybe a misunderstood hero.” Her cheeks flushed prettily. “And I played the hot-headed harridan, just like in the tales.” She lowered her head. “I think I have a lot to make up for.”
The healer frowned. “Don’t offer the boy more than you’re willing to give, Liqin.”
Alex gazed at the healer. “You say this after she just admitted owing me… what was it? ‘Absolutely everything’?”
This earned him a cold-eyed glower. “If you ever expect to eat food that doesn’t taste like maggots, or receive a healing that won’t leave you disfigured…”
The harsh words were cut off by Liqin’s hand upon her own. “Stop, Mother. I’m a big girl. I can take responsibility for my own mistakes, and Alex now has every right to see my prizes and make his claim.” With that, her hand clasped his own and she began gently tugging him through a crowd that now gave him approving smiles and congratulations on a well-fought match. A very confused Alex soon found himself being dragged along the corridor outside, now intersecting a hallway he immediately recognized. His internal map clicked as he realized he had come full circle.
Out of nowhere, he found himself shoved through a doorway as a soft, husky word was whispered, and a globe of radiant Qi suddenly lit up the rather luxurious servant’s quarters which Liqin called her own. The chilly floor was covered in woolen rugs, as was the perfectly made bed, which stood beside the rice paper room divider that had been painted with elegant depictions of flowers and cranes he had been in too much a confused rush to pay any attention to earlier. Before he could examine the room any further, soft, firm hands guided his cheeks to a pair of very serious and very pretty brown eyes.
He felt a surge of something besides fear with the hitched way she was breathing, biting her lip nervously before she spoke. “I meant what I said, Alex. You defeated me in what I’m ashamed to admit was no mock duel, and I had the advantage of steel that you did not. And I attacked without giving you any chance to explain or arm yourself, which shamed my mother, and without forcing any terms. Without even touching talismans, which shamed the school entire.”
Alex smiled in return, ignoring his own racing heart. He was not so foolish as to miss what was being said between the lines, nor to ignore the sudden uncomfortable pressure he felt in his Lower Dantian.
Before she could say another word, while pointedly ignoring the way that her elegantly lacquered fingertips were loosening certain articles of clothing, Alex flourished a sweeping bow.
“I thank you for the unexpectedly exciting match, Liqin. As for squaring things between us, you could afford me no greater honor than to serve as my friend and ally as I do my best to navigate the halls of this school and find my place within it.”
He held his bow for several long seconds, sensing Liqin’s sudden flush and hurried rearranging of tassel and button, so that by the time Alex stood straight, she was the epitome of propriety, giving him the most curious of stares.
“So. You’re saying you’re not interested in any of my… what you’d really like is for us to be, well, friends?”
Alex winked. “Exactly.”
Her cheeks flushed. She bit her lip, lowering her gaze. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance you would want to be, well…”
“I follow a forbidden path,” Alex said softly. “If I perform certain acts before I achieve certain milestones…”
Liqin’s eyes widened. “Oh, so it’s not… oh.”
Alex smiled in confirmation. “And I hope that will remain between us. A secret between friends.”
She swallowed, then jerked a nod. “Of course, Alex. I… yes, of course.”
She flashed a more confident smile and squeezed his wrist, a move he reciprocated, if gently. Though she still winced. “I would be glad to have a friend as strong and clever as you, Alex.” Her grin took on a teasing curve. “Even if you’re not so good at, well…”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 23