Alex felt a lurch in his gut. “Please don’t tell me I’m being kicked out of yet another cultivation academy?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Whatever my father might think, I am now quite firmly in your debt. Whether or not Mother dulled the blow… or there’s far more to you than an unusually strong gem master’s grip… you’ve more than earned my favor. The aspirants who survived the gauntlet and ascended to Bronze or above are now gathering in the Aspirant’s Circle. And I can think of no better way to pay you back than to take you there right now.”
17
A breathless Alex soon found himself being led past numerous hurrying servants up multiple flights of stairs and along wider halls and passageways. The upper levels were populated by better dressed servants, many wearing pristine white changshan shirts and flowing silk slacks. The women were attired in very similar functional yet elegant cheongsams, all of their hair done up in silver pins. Most were carrying covered porcelain trays giving off the most enticing aromas, as a smiling Liqin kept Alex to the center of the hallway.
“They’re preparing the midday meal for the Elders,” she whispered, exchanging friendly nods and smiles with more than a few. “Fried duck with sweet sauce, silver peaches, spring rolls, fish cakes, and egg drop soup.”
“Sounds delicious,” Alex whispered back, eyes squinting in the suddenly brighter light as they continued down yet another corridor, more spacious than most.
“It is. And I should know. I prepared most of it myself.” Alex’s eyes widened at that, but before he could say a word, Liqin abruptly pulled him down a side passage.
“Father is heading this way. And I think that, at least for now…”
Alex quickly nodded. “I understand. No need for any last-minute misunderstandings, when a month from now…”
“You both can pretend nothing ever happened.” Her eyes fairly twinkled. “I see you do know how this game is played.”
She furrowed her brow as the passageway dimmed, taking several turns before ducking down corridors far less polished and orderly than the ones lined with intricate tiles, polished stone, and lacquered wood. Little effort had been made to disguise the fact that their present surroundings were most definitely underground.
And heading deeper.
Liqin shivered. “Though perhaps we should have just bowed our heads, after all.”
“Why do you say that?” Alex asked.
Then he felt it.
Like a cold winter breeze on a bright summer’s day. Or the way warmth, bonhomie, and good cheer of festivals could quickly fade to nothing if one drunkenly stumbled down the wrong alley, until all that was left was the sound of your own anxious breaths and the scrabbling rustle that could be the wind, or perhaps a foraging animal in that cold, dark alleyway, or the hiss of steel leaving a sheath as the final despairing notes of your life’s song were reluctantly sung.
A weight of frigid darkness and despair settled around them. It was a strikingly sharp contrast from the enthusiasm and domestic warmth of the servant’s corridors just a short ways back.
But just one wrong turn…
“This area of the tunnels we’ve pretty much abandoned, Alex. We used to store goods here, but the present storage rooms with external ventilation are far more convenient… and safer.” Liqin’s gaze grew strangely haunted, her voice little more than a whisper, though no one else was in sight. “So best we make our way as quickly and quietly as we can. We turn left just ahead, and it will be like we were never here.”
Qi Perception check made!
Alex understood it then, sensing the play of corridors and the space between them, thanks to the flow of Earth and Air Qi, including the long passage he saw no obvious connection to.
A hidden passage in the warren of tunnels.
He allowed himself to be led along by his increasingly anxious-looking friend…
Until he detected it.
There!
A surge of something dark. Something awful.
Accompanied by what he was sure would be, should be, a scream.
Though he heard nothing. Nothing at all.
Alex slowed down, gazing at his increasingly agitated companion.
“Liqin? What’s beyond this corridor?”
The girl’s soft brown eyes widened in alarm, her voice barely above a panicked whisper. “Alex, please. Let’s just go!”
Instead, Alex slowed down further, sending Liqin to the verge of panic. She might be a bit faster than even he was, but he was leagues stronger than she could ever hope to be.
Her alarm turned to sudden ire. “Curse your stubbornness, Alex!”
“Liqin…”
“Alright!” she hissed before biting her lip nervously. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone?”
He just sighed. “Who would I tell? Why would I tell a soul? You’re just about the only person who’s shown me even a trace of kindness since I woke up.” Which was why he felt acutely bad about putting her on the spot.
But he had to know.
She glared. “And yet here you are, risking both our necks!” She paused, gazing in the direction Alex had felt such awful peril… before it faded to nothing. “Listen. Our school received a handful of… unexpected guests, around a month ago. We’ve been told to treat them with the utmost courtesy, that our jobs just might depend upon it.”
Alex blinked in astonishment. “Really? Who has the authority to order that?”
She shrugged, her discomfort plain. “The Headmaster, the Sovereign Princess, or anyone in position to lord it over my father. The point is, if they want to inhabit these abandoned tunnels and are content enough to leave the rest of us be, and not force our dismissal, then that’s just fine with us. Out of sight is out of mind, after all. But maybe I do know one or two servants who got too curious, or who didn’t lower their heads deferentially enough when tasked with delivering whatever it was that they requested, mostly food. And wouldn’t you know it? They were gone by the time breakfast rolled around.”
Her gaze grew haunted. “Gone without a word being said to anyone. Worse, no one even acknowledges their names, as if they’re afraid the same will happen to them, should they even discuss what happened, let alone protest their treatment at the hands of men we do all we can just to avoid.”
Alex winced, suddenly understanding the odd mix of energy, enthusiasm, and anxiety he sensed from so many servitors in the short time he had been here.
Her eyes flashed dangerously. “And should those hot-eyed fanatics actually catch us this close to their quarters…”
Alex nodded, holding up a placating hand. “Alright. I get it.”
“Good,” she said, immediately grabbing his hand and seeming to fly down the passageway, darting around first one corridor, then a second, until finally, they were in the main tunnel once more. Her demeanor grew just as bright and cheerful as before, though her troubled gaze begged Alex not to say a word.
Alex hoped his smile conveyed his understanding, for the weight in her eyes soon eased, and she was once again regaling him with the wonders of the school as they approached a brilliant white light at the end of the tunnel.
Whatever he was going to say in response was lost in breathless wonder for the spectacular view now before him. Eyes now long used to dim light blinked away the brilliance of a glorious sunny day with not one but a score of majestic pagodas capped by brilliant gold domes flashing in the sun amidst the backdrop of a cloudless blue sky.
He took a deep breath and smiled, feeling as if a burdensome weight had suddenly lifted off his chest, a weight he hadn’t even noticed until its absence.
Lush green grass rippled in the brisk breeze as Alex and Liqin began walking along a road of pure shimmering quartz that cut across the emerald field. The spectacle of countless pagodas, towers, and palaces of brilliantly polished stone, of such scope and grandeur that they seemed to reach for the very heavens, was like glimpsing something out of a dream.
Qi Perception check made!
His eyes darted to one side as he was was torn free of idealized fancy to be reminded of the very real perils that would soon be his own, taking in the sight of a pair of young men dressed in tight-fitting robes secured with leggings that went down to the knee and sashes of dark silk. They stared each other down as they slowly circled one another from half a dozen paces while a few similarly dressed cultivators looked on, before the leftmost one exploded into action, slamming into his opponent with a blistering series of jabs and kicks.
Alex slowed down his walk, peering intently at the pair of sleekly muscled youths.
At first, the cultivator on the defensive was smiling coldly. Alex’s Qi Perception and sight picked up the way his powerful ward forced his opponent’s assaults aside, though his own punches failed to connect with his swifter opponent.
“You won’t find me so easy to beat as last time, Mou Xi,” said the smaller man.
The one named Mou Xi glared. “That smile just bought you a week’s worth of agony.”
And the warding cultivator’s smile did indeed began to fade, his face taking on a definite pallor as his opponent redoubled his attack, contemptuously laughing off the grass and weeds that suddenly tried to wrap about his ankles before unleashing a devastating swan kick that ruptured the smaller man’s wards and sent the him staggering back with a cry before he doubled over, crashing to the ground with an agonized wheeze. Only then did Mou Xi dart forward to punch his fallen opponent in the solar plexus with an audible crack.
Alex felt a chill in his gut at the vindictive smile of the victor as he darted down to grab the pouch at the fallen aspirant’s belt, opening it up to reveal a handful of silver tokens and several cuttings radiating potent spiritual energy. Mou Xi smirked in satisfaction, before kicking his fallen opponent in the crotch. “You think you hurt now, fool? Next time I ask you for your credits, you’d better just give them. You’d make me waste this month’s matches fighting dirt like you? I’ll leave you so broken, you’ll be begging just to escape this school!”
He bent down to hiss sharply into the gasping cultivator’s ear. “And if I found out you went to the healer and dared to charge my account? I’ll break every bone in your gods-damned body. Are we clear, filth?”
Words Alex heard with crystalline clarity as he rapidly approached the pair, regardless of Liqin’s insistence that they back away.
Of course he knew he was being a fool. He had just arrived, with no real idea what the underlying power dynamic of this school was, and the last thing he wanted to do was get on the radar of unknown enemies who otherwise would have no real reason to know or care about his existence. With the timing being what it was, he couldn’t help but think how convenient it would be for certain larger-than-life figures if he made waves now.
What a perfect trap it would be.
Yet somehow, none of that made a damn bit of difference when Alex caught the gaze of the terrified cultivator wheezing and choking on the ground, whether anyone else realized his peril or not.
With unexpected strength, Liqin tried one more time to pull Alex away. “This is none of our concern, Alex. Looking for trouble is not the path to a peaceful stay at our school!”
She hissed when Alex refused to retreat. “Alex, you’re no better than Copper! You’re going to get hurt!”
Perhaps the leering Mou Xi heard those last words, his body fluidly uncoiling from a crouch to face Alex and Liqin with a cold scowl, now utterly ignoring the broken boy whose face was locked in an agonized rictus, still wheezing for air.
“And who the hell are you, outsider? A servant?” said Mou Xi, turning his scowl on Liqin. “Best you keep your servants in their place, Liqin. Daring to approach so close with that look in his eyes? Unless he wants to be sent back to your father a toothless wreck, he’d best kowtow and leave.”
Alex smiled coldly at that.
“Alex, please. At least wait till you’ve learned the ropes as a fresh Aspirant before you go looking for trouble! Bow and leave.”
Mou Xi’s sneer grew. “An outsider who can cultivate? Who actually earned the rights of an Aspirant?” He chuckled coldly. “Oh, no. I don’t think he gets to leave with a simple bow of his head, Liqin. Not when he dares to glare at me like he has the right to judge me. Like he’s my equal!”
Alex felt a cold jolt of alarm when the defeated cultivator’s wheezing turned to a dying rattle.
He stared boldly into the sneering, pockmarked countenance of the man before him. “I didn’t come here looking for a fight, idiot! You spear-handed that kid’s larynx! If you don’t get him to a healer this minute, he’ll asphyxiate, and his death will be on your head!”
Liqin’s eyes widened. “Lou… I think the Ruidian is right. The boy you beat up doesn’t look so good.”
But Mou Xi’s hot-eyed glare refused to leave Alex’s for a heartbeat. “That fool’s Wood-aligned! He can heal himself anytime he wants to. He’s just trying to get back what he lost, forcing me to drag his pathetic body to a healer!” His smile was cold and unyielding. “And if you think I’m so stupid as to turn my back to a treacherous, backstabbing foreigner…”
Soul Sight Skill Check penalized by lack of familiarity. You have failed to predict your opponent’s moves!
So fast that Alex hardly blinked, the young man’s powerful hand, radiating sharp Metal Qi, had bunched up his changshan shirt, his other hand manifesting a silver talisman with a single golden rune.
Liqin hissed at the sight.
Mou Xi flashed a feral grin. “I challenge you, Ruidian! Submission match! Everything is permissible save death itself, including maiming! The prize is everything you own. Every last scrap of clothing, every last coin!”
The pair of jaded looking onlookers gaped at the pair of them with widened eyes. Evidently this challenge was not typical.
Liqin hissed, eyes horrified. “Mou Xi, that’s madness! You know he’s a newblood that I’m escorting to the aspirant’s quarters! And this foolish Wood disciple really is suffocating!” She glared at the pair of onlookers. “Well, don’t stand there like fools; get this boy to the infirmary!”
Yet the pair of surly-looking young men just snickered, refusing to budge.
Mou Xi chuckled, but not so loudly as the echoes of the gods above, which Alex could so easily imagine gloating at the scene, knowing that yet another of their gambits had been sprung, even if they were forbidden from spying upon Alex directly.
Mou Xi’s face mottled with rage. “Well? Show your talisman, coward, as you are compelled to!”
And much to Alex’s horrified surprise, his nearly translucent slip of palest jade had indeed been summoned, earning cold smirks from the pair of onlookers and ugly laughter from Mou Xi, who immediately placed his silver talisman under Alex’s own, eyes lightening with vindictive glee. “Too bad you were such a fool as to let the world know how weak your pawn is, Liqin! I knew Silver would force him to fight, even against the most brutal of contests, and I feel no pressure against my talisman at all.” He laughed with cold glee. “This is going to be sweet!”
Find weakness skill check made. +6 modifier for spotting obvious vulnerability!
You feel the storm of Qi swirling around you!
You feel the force and fury of the sea pouring through your blows!
Mou Xi’s mocking laugher turned to wide-eyed surprise when he felt a grip as tight as steel lock onto his wrist. Alex abruptly twisted and pivoted his hips, forcing his opponent’s arm to jut straight out. And how Mou Xi glared with hate when he was forced onto the tips of his toes.
The Silver cultivator snarled, metallic spikes of energy suddenly erupting from his flesh, right where Alex was holding him.
No less than three were jutting from Alex’s hand.
You have taken 2 Light wounds! Right hand suffers Mild Impairment. -1 to Strength checks. -2 to grip checks.
You have successfully used Dark Qi Projection over limited surface area!
“That’s what you get, fool, for daring to touch one desti
ned for Silv…” The words broke off with a cry as the metallic Qi abruptly cut off.
Just a heartbeat passed before Alex’s left palm slammed into his opponent’s fully extended elbow with all the force he could bring to bear, not just from hips, torso, and chest, but from the whirling storm of White Qi howling around them both.
Exploding completely through flesh, shattered bone and fine red droplets washed over the pair of shocked onlookers and a shrieking Liqin, though no one shrieked so loudly as Mou Xi himself, gazing down at the startlingly white fragments of bone sticking out from what had once been his elbow. The ragged joint continued spurting a crimson shower as his lower arm dangled like a broken lever, drenching the shrieking young cultivator with his own blood.
“Submission match. That’s what you said, right?”
Elbow slash critically strikes opponent’s right temple! Right ocular orbit has been shattered!
Mou Xi shrieked, crumpling to the ground, his one good arm cupped around his cracked skull. And how chillingly easy it was for Alex to sense just where his opponent was most vulnerable, spotting over a dozen ways he could end the man’s life at that very moment, almost as if his old mentor Tusha Zhe and his dark kitsune brothers had been whispering those secrets into his spiritual ear.
Alex gazed impassively down at the mewling wreck of a cultivator for long seconds before staring down Mou Xi’s obvious lackeys. “Are we done here?”
The pair quickly nodded.
“Yes, honored cultivator. It’s a submission match,” said the closest, paling under Alex’s killing glare. “Any fool can see you beat him, even if he’s in too much agony to beg for mercy… but you don’t have to strike him anymore! You bested him; I’ll vouch for that.”
Alex coldly dipped his head. “Good,” he said, before roughly flipping the moaning Mou Xi over and patting him down and tearing free absolutely everything of value, including the dao at his hip, a silver bracelet radiating a faint aura of Qi, a bag full of silver tokens, and the pouch the young healer had borne. A pouch he instantly realized was worth far more than a mere handful of silver.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 25