“I notice you have Spirit Pearls as well,” said one young man hopefully.
Alex smiled. “I do.” He also revealed just some of the priceless botanicals in his possession, earning several wide-eyed stares from at least a few who knew of their value, their gasps all the incentive that the other students needed to cram forward as well.
“I’ll swear to that oath!” declared one thin young man with a single Silver sigil on his Bronze talisman. The boy radiated a happy energy, despite still remaining a basic cultivator, as were most of them, no matter that they all had the potential for Bronze, deep Bronze, and in a handful of cases, like his friends, Silver.
Alex nodded happily before feeling an icy-cold shiver down his spine. Time seemed to slow as his heart began to race, Qi Perception and a survivor’s intuition both sensing the killing intent attempting to circle behind him.
Finesse check made!
In a heartbeat, his treasures were securely contained in the dimensional storage pouch he had every intention of keeping or only giving to a very special friend, as he spun around to face the ferociously smiling young man focused on him, his jian already unsheathed.
His dark eyes radiated a sharp intellect, and his twisted smile held a ruthlessness that Alex wasn’t surprised to see in a cultivator. “I think not, Ruidian. Before you think yourself so clever, giving away a fortune and securing a dozen friends, I’ll happily claim it all and leave you nothing but scars for daring to think you’re the equal of one of us!”
He smiled shrewdly. “A duel to the death, with jian! A weapon I already know is beyond you, since you were so foolish as to show pity to your fallen enemy by returning a weapon I know you can’t use!”
“I think NOT,” roared the instructor, eyes ablaze with extreme displeasure. “Do you truly believe I will allow death matches between young fools who know nothing about this school or their own potential, inside a single day? You will have decades to grow in animosity and hate, as even your conflict helps this school ascend to heights undreamed! Only then will your talismans, or the headmaster’s own special sanction, permit such madness. Change the terms, or concede the match, this instant!”
The scowling swordsman paled, jerking a quick bow the elder’s way. Still, his lips crawled in a cruel grin. “To first blood, then. This fool clearly knows nothing about the true art. It will be nothing to bleed him and claim his prizes, leaving him clothed in nothing but his own naked shame!”
This earned several ugly chuckles. Mostly, though, the aspirants were staring wide-eyed at what must have been, to their minds, free entertainment. Surprisingly, Alex thought he heard a few sighs from those who no doubt thought they were about to earn some easy coin just for swearing not to cross him.
He spared an unconcerned smile for the smirking student, strutting up to him with his talisman extended.
“So, how does your school handle matches in which students declare a weapon that the other party obviously doesn’t have?”
The challenging student’s smirk widened as he placed his Silver talisman imprinted with a single gold glyph below Alex’s own.
“Simple,” said the master. “There is no such stricture. It is unarmed or armed. You can always use whatever body cultivation techniques, elemental affinities, or spiritual attacks you might have. He merely confirms it is to first blood, with any and all weapons at hand.”
Alex saw the way the youth’s pupil’s dilated, already knowing what was coming with the caress of his talisman against Alex’s own. “It’s clear!” he roared, lashing out in a quick, snapping slash with the blade he had pretended to hold so casually at his side. A jian was well suited for the thrust, but a whipping slice would still draw blood and potentially cut deep. The latter, the cultivator obviously intended, his blade lashing through the air.
He snarled when he realized a smirking Alex had already flipped away, hands claiming prizes on the ground as he scurried back. The suddenly furious cultivator roared, charging him and thrusting with his straight sword point-first. “Get back here, fool! You can’t run!”
Find weakness skill check: successful!
“Nothing was said about maneuvering, idiot!” Alex noted scornfully.
Finesse check made!
As he quickly darted down to scoop up several other valuable items he immediately placed in his storage pouch, laughing all the while as the panting Bronze gave chase. Alex knew his opponent had broken through to Bronze and had at least one rank in Speed, but he knew nothing else for certain.
Save what he needed to know most.
That the contest was only to first blood.
Though he dearly missed his deadly fangtian ji, and bitterly regretted the spiteful gods tearing free his shark-toothed artifacts, he had other tools on hand with which he could secure victory.
Best of all, he could do so without revealing a single card before an obviously skilled master, wishing to keep as many of his gifts secret for as long as he could.
The fewer potential enemies who knew about what he could accomplish, the more likely he was to survive the weeks, months, and hopefully years ahead.
His right hand gave a gentle squeeze to the hard, circular chunk of stone he now held, one side broken flat, as if it had been the ancient head of a club, who knew how long ago, perhaps disregarded for a thousand years.
Only by a chance dip of his hand had he scooped up this ancient prize from the thick grass.
And how he smiled as he squeezed his prize, flashes of playing pitcher and shortstop blinking past his mind’s eye as he darted about the laughing cluster of students and teacher, his sputtering, red-faced nemesis roaring for Alex to stop and put up a fight.
When Alex judged the moment perfect, allowing their chase to align with the sun and knowing his enemy would be squinting in that very moment, Alex did just that.
Spinning around, he wound up his whole body before twisting his hips and whipping that ball of granite through the air just as fast and hard as he could.
It had been years since he had last played baseball, but even with a 9 strength, he had been so close to being an all-star player.
How much better was his fastball, now that all his physical attributes were well beyond even a gold medal athletes?
As it turned out, pretty damned effective, he realized with a horrified chill. He’d released his projectile with such force that it whistled through the air before slamming into his opponent’s chest with such wicked speed that the cultivator’s eyes bulged. Blood spewed out of his mouth and nose with an awful gurgle as he crumpled to the ground.
Congratulations! You have critically hit your opponent!
Four ribs shattered!
Solar plexus cracked!
Your foe has stopped breathing!
Your foe is in cardiac arrest!
Death imminent!
Experience earned!
Alex groaned, head spiking with sudden dizzying pain, only then recalling how much peril he was in, so saturated with potential that he didn’t dare quantify. Not yet.
And now the entire cluster of students was gaping at Alex and the dying cultivator spasming upon the ground with horrified disbelief. Elder Bang Jiao’s gaze grew heavier than a winter storm.
It was all Alex could do not to wilt under that killing aura, to force himself forward as the elder roared for the closest student to run for the Blue Pagoda nearby. To step beside the elder, now fixated upon him with his deadly stare.
“You fool! Do you have any idea what you just—”
However, Alex paid the instructor no mind, forcing one of his remaining healing potions, seized from the Red Prince’s own henchmen, down the young man’s throat.
His fellow students were gazing at Alex with looks that ranged to gamut from awe-struck, to horrified to disgusted, though all of them were thankfully silent as he gently massaged the throat now gasping for breath, Alex’s opponent writhing and screaming for endless, horrific moments before lurching up with a gasp. He gazed up at his savior with
horror, desperate to crawl away. “No, no, Please! The match is yours, the match…” before blinking down at himself, taking in his repaired state with disbelieving eyes.
The young man swallowed, then stared up at him in shock. “You threw a stone. Right at my chest.”
Alex solemnly nodded, no one else saying a word. “I did.”
“It… I could feel my heart… I was dying, wasn’t I?”
Alex nodded again.
“But you saved me?”
Alex risked a small smile. “I did.”
“Why?”
Alex chuckled. “Because I didn’t want to get on Master Bang Jiao’s bad side just a quarter glass after meeting him. That would be a new record, even for me.”
The young cultivator cursed softly, giving a resolute shake of his head. “It seems you have earned my name, outsider.” He forced a bitter smile. “As well as my purse.”
With that admission, he tossed Alex a purse made of supple leather. Alex’s eyes widened, sensing the beast cores within. “You may call me Zhang.”
Alex nodded respectfully. “Alex,” he replied.
This earned him a fresh round of stares.
“That any mother would dare…” one girl whispered.
“What was she thinking?” scowled another.
Bang Jiao chuckled softly. “This has been a most interesting afternoon, Ruidian, heretofore to be referred to as ‘Alex’ by all present, at least before me. I have no doubt my students will learn much from interacting with you.” His warm gaze hardened yet again. “And if you are smart… you will learn from them as well.”
Alex swallowed, bowing his head obediently. “Understood, sir.”
“Good.”
Shrewdly measuring eyes looked over the class entire. “What have we learned this hour as we await our noon repast?”
Several hands shot up.
“Speak.”
“That the Ruidian is good at throwing stones?”
“That he kicks hard, whatever style he is using. He knew just where to strike Dineng, who had sent us all flying when we had sparred earlier!” declared one sprightly youth garbed in somewhat worn cultivator’s robes.
“That he’s a powerful friend and a deadly adversary, and one would be a fool to underestimate or disrespect him,” said none other than Han, one of the young men Alex had saved from being forced into servitude by the Red Prince’s corrupt pawns. The young cultivator evidently had not forgotten Alex’s deed, though he seemed discreet enough to say nothing more as he solemnly bowed Alex’s way, earning a couple speculative frowns.
“Did they?...”
“Shush, Zeen. You know one must never speak of the trials.”
Whispers gone as soon as they were uttered. Bang Jiao pretended he hadn’t heard a word of the latter, while nodding his head in approval of the earlier comments.
“That’s right. Our Ruidian friend is no fool. He could sense Dineng’s recent breakthrough, mighty like the mountain, as he roared forth with the power of a landslide. To have attempted any sort of throw would have been folly, save for a master. But our young friend has yet to synergize the mountain’s might with stone’s resilience, and therefore, he was vulnerable in ways he will not be five or ten years from now, if he takes the humiliation in his heart and nurtures it into bitterest resolve to forge the strongest foundation imaginable: flesh as tough as granite, joints so resilient that any opponent who tried to strike them would shatter his own foot!”
He glanced over at a still-huddled Dineng, cheeks blazing with shame, though he had since scurried into fresh clothes. The fine textiles were obviously befitting the youth of a minor lord, though his humiliation was so great that such noble wear only heightened his failures and humiliation. “As it is, a youth’s impetuousness and imperfect techniques have cost him absolutely everything. A wealthy beginning, with resources worthy of the best tutors a Bronze aspirant could hope for, and the respect of newfound friends, has been replaced by the burning humiliation of absolute defeat. His mind torments him with everything he did wrong, now forced to acknowledge that any decent martial artist, even a Ruidian, could take him down by striking the weaknesses within his foundation. And once he has collapsed, any grappler could finish him off with the most basic joint locks. For he is the mountain, and when the mountain crumbles, so does he.”
He chuckled softly, a hair’s breadth from outright cruelty. “If Dineng is smart, he will keep the fires of his humiliation burning in his heart every day that he is a student of this academy. It will forge him upon the hardest of anvils, and he will be all the stronger for it. Struggling every day, in order to earn the credits necessary for a copy of Granite Mountain body cultivation technique, will drive him to spend every night practicing until he’s ready to forge his body anew! With that growth, the next time he fights, a snap kick to his patella and a heel kick to the back of his knee won’t send him crashing to the ground like a great big fool!”
Dineng choked back a sob, too ashamed even to raise his head. Yet still, he managed to whisper, “Yes, master. It will be so.”
The class nodded sagely at the exhortation, eyeing Alex with newfound respect which he knew he didn’t deserve. Far from the Elder’s brilliant analysis, Alex hadn’t been five steps ahead of his opponent. He had just sensed at the last moment that Dineng would be far harder to throw than he looked, and far easier to take down by weakening his supports. The only weakness his gift had sensed was the knees and lower legs of his opponent, and nowhere else, which had been frightening in its own way. Until, of course, Dineng had finally crashed into the ground, at which point, his whole body had flared with sudden vulnerabilities. But while he had been charging, he had reminded Alex of the idealized version of the Sumo wrestler, an unstoppable mountain of force and fury charging and ready to knock him over like the mightiest of bulls.
“And what did we learn from Zhang?”
“That you can be as skilled with the jian as a master, but it does you no good if your opponent can pelt you with chunks of stone,” declared Lady Fu, beaming brightly at their instructor and earning a chuckle.
“Close enough, Lady Fu,” Bang Jiao agreed. “For the jian is indeed a gentleman’s blade, favored by duelists. but the true soldier knows that its strength is all the greater when used in conjunction with the shield, which it was when actually used in war, centuries ago, before being phased off the battlefield with dao and gladii taking over its old role.”
Several cultivators scoffed. “The jian is a true cultivator’s blade. Master cultivators can butcher anyone they face with it, even a phalanx of spearmen!” declared the one closest to Alex, glaring daggers at him for some reason.
Bang Jiao nodded. “True, if he is deepest Silver or destined to rule. But very few of you are destined to channel so much Qi that your weapon is just an extension of your power. For most of you, your weapon will be the lever which you will use to destroy or disable your opponents. Few weapons are better for battle than polearms, and few polearms more devastating in war when used in disciplined formation than the longspear.”
One student frowned, tentatively raising his hand.
“Yes, Zhong?”
“If polearms are superior, why do all the cultivators I see in the city below favor the sword?”
Their instructor smiled. “A fair question. It is as much because they are easy to carry at your hip and so much easier to channel elemental Qi through as for any other reason that you will find the dao and jian to be the favored weapons of cultivators not actually on campaign or actively defending the city.”
He turned to the class at large. “All weapons have their place. A lone cultivator walking along a busy city street would, of course, find that the longspear which served him so well fighting in phalanx formation to be absolutely ridiculous trying to wield in such a tightly packed crowd, not that he would be permitted in the city with such a weapon in any case. And even a short spear or fangtian ji would earn so many stares by city guards and frowns by shopkeepers t
hat said soldier would soon find himself wearing dao or gladius, and perhaps a reinforced armguard at most, like every other legionnaire on leave.” His gaze turned thoughtful. “Though you might be able to get away with a shorter bladed staff, especially if you are a female. There is historical precedent for females being granted extra considerations in that regard, and the wise cultivator uses every advantage available to them.”
Several girls smiled at that, including Zhu Bi.
“But for those of you who do choose the path of the sword, there is much to be said for synergizing your favored weapon with a shield, or with a shield Qi technique, tied to your elemental affinities, strong enough to halt a storm of arrows or the most powerful of blows.”
The elder beamed, patting the jian at his own hip. “And lucky for you—at least for those of you who have broken through to Bronze—your first true class at this academy will be learning the most basic battle Qi attacks and counters as a key component of your curriculum.”
This declaration caused an instant stir; the entire, class, it seemed, was overjoyed to know that some practical lessons on how best to use the flow of Qi in battle were in their future, and Alex definitely counted himself among their number.
“Of course, we will be going to the library first for a free consultation for all of you, where a master will analyze your meridian channels before one of the librarians takes his diagnosis and helps you determine the cultivation manuals and masters most ideally suited to your proclivities.”
Alex was pleasantly surprised by this. He had been given to understand that even new students had to pay for this privilege, but it made sense to him that the school would at least invest sufficient resources to make sure every students knew what treatises and cultivation techniques best suited their affinities. That way, no matter how many assignments the students had to complete or hoops they had to jump through in order to earn lessons and access to the manuals best suited to them, at least the path forward would be clear, and the school could be assured of forging the strongest cultivators possible.
Bang Jiao quickly confirmed Alex’s analysis.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 29