Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path

by Johnson, M. H.

  “Yes. It’s true. You are all receiving a Spirit Pearl’s worth of a spirit doctor’s time to chart out your strengths, weaknesses, and the best path forward for you. What you do with that wisdom is up to you. For though you will have the librarian’s most sincere recommendations, it is up to you to follow them and to earn the credits necessary to access the tomes and—perhaps most importantly—compensate the teachers for their instruction.”

  He gazed at fully half the students, who all bowed their heads.

  “Of course, not all of you are fresh arrivals. Some of you have found the path forward far rockier than you had first anticipated, and a fair number of you are still cleansing your meridians in preparation for Bronze. No matter. Those of you who already have future ascension charts written up will spend this time perfecting your meridian cleansing and cycling techniques, while the newest among us enjoy a short tour and stop at the library. And finally, for those of you accompanying me who have yet to ascend to Bronze, you will be taught a suitable meridian cleansing technique that plays to your strengths, free of charge.”

  Alex was pleased to see the handful of relieved smiles this welcome news generated. Which, again, made perfect sense to him. In a school so focused on competition and blossoming elite students, low-ranked basic cultivators would be ground under the heels of others so easily that they wouldn’t stand a chance. Not unless some steps were made to facilitate their ascension to at least the first tier of Bronze. And no doubt they would be forced to stay in the novice’s quarter, relegated to only attend what classes their master thought sufficient, while spending the remainder of their days gazing at the magnificent city all around them that was simultaneously utterly out of reach and just a breakthrough away. It was clear that this combination would compel them to focus and cultivate with absolute intensity, eager to ascend as fast as they could.

  Alex thought it was pretty clear what Master Bang Jiao and other instructors were hoping to instill in all of them: the desperate hunger to succeed and ascend, and the basic tools they needed to do so, with ever more attention and resources given to those who continued to prove themselves.

  He blinked when Bang Jiao’s enigmatic gaze met his own, but all their instructor said was, “Lunch has arrived. Eat well, aspirants. For so many of you, your first day as Royal Phoenix students has now officially begun!”

  At last, the class was able to relax when a handful of polite servitors brought over a massive kettle of piping hot fish stew and several wicker baskets full of rice. The elder quickly led them all to the closest open-air pagoda, which had a number of well-polished hardwood tables and surprisingly well-crafted chairs.

  Alex happily ate his fill of sweet and savory fish stew, surprised to find how hungry he was, and somehow not surprised at all to find Liqin personally serving Master Bang Jiao his own tray of soup, sushi, and fish cakes on a silver platter. She flashed Alex a quick smile before pouring the Elder a cup of what Alex’s nose declared to be finest rice wine, before parting with a final bow.

  “It is good to see you, Alex!” declared none other than a brightly smiling Yingpei Lin, who had immediately grabbed a seat beside him, Zhu Bi nodding her agreement as she sat on his other side.

  “We missed you, Alex.” Zhu Bi’s gentle gaze turned solemn. “To be honest, when we never saw you at the revels… when three days turned to four, and we were all led here by Elder Ru without a word said by anyone about what happened to you and Cheng Lei…” she swallowed. “We had feared that you two had dared too much and were now shooting stars, blazing across the heavenly skies.”

  Alex grinned at his friend’s somber declaration, carefully avoiding the intent gazes being sent their way.

  He forced a rueful chuckle. “Our mutual friend did indeed make it past the first rank of Silver, but I dared heights that perhaps I shouldn’t have, and fell quite a ways,” he admitted.

  “To the Servants tier!” snapped a still hot-eyed Dineng, not bothering to hide his eavesdropping. “Because you’re little better than a servant, Ruidian! With a talisman so weak, it was nothing to challenge you!”

  Alex flashed the still furious Dineng a lazy smile. “Yet somehow I came away with the fat purse filled with gold and Spirit Pearls. What does that say about you, Dineng?”

  The cultivator’s face blotched with humiliated fury. “I challenge you, Ruid—”

  “—You will do no such thing!” barked a suddenly irate Bang Jiao. “You have already cracked in the crucible of combat, and your steel must be reforged anew!” He glared at the suddenly trembling youth. “Well do I know the humiliation that seethes through your veins. How much it burns your ears to hear mocking whispers where before you only knew admiration and your sire’s praise. And how weak that easy life made you!”

  Their sifu shook his head, Liqin’s feast momentarily untouched as he gazed reflectively at a trembling Dineng. Hot tears streamed from the young man’s eyes as others snickered, not a single soul deigning to eat near him as he clenched the table with trembling fingers, consumed by his own bitter humiliation.

  Alex winced and turned away, all his fierce sense of triumph instantly soured. He feared Dineng would have thrown himself off a ledge, had any been nearby.

  “Hold tight to your humiliation, Dineng, that inner fire burning in your craw. Whenever your desperate drive to better yourself begins to cool, whenever you even think of taking your ease… remember the face of the smirking Ruidian who stripped your false pride away. Let that heat warm you, boy. Let it kindle a fire in your heart that will never be quenched as you forge yourself into the strongest Stone Body cultivator our school has ever seen!”

  Dineng swallowed. “Yes, Master Bang Jiao,” he whispered.

  “Good! Your cycling technique is actually acceptable, even for those who would dare Silver. Your father’s absurd expenditures did that much good for you, at least. So the credits you will earn serving your fellows at this table, starting tomorrow, will be carefully hoarded and secured so that you may one day purchase lessons from a master of Granite Mountain Body Cultivation technique. And if our spirit doctor doesn’t recommend that very tome so that you may master the basics first, I will cover the credit cost, myself!”

  Dineng banged his head against the table. “This worthless one thanks you, Master Bang Jiao.”

  The elder smirked. “And right now? That’s just what you are.”

  Dineng trembled as the entire table laughed, save for Alex and his two friends, exchanging concerned looks.

  “But you have the power to change that, Dineng. And if this humiliation is truly the most painful of lessons you have to learn here, then you may count yourself very lucky indeed.”

  Now their instructor flashed a cold smile at everyone else at the table. “Most of your fellow aspirants will likely suffer far worse in terms of pain and humiliation while they are here, striving to forge themselves into cultivators worthy of their ancestors, worthy of the most prestigious school in all of Cuijing Principality, if not the entire kingdom!”

  Alex, Yingpei, and Zhu Bi exchanged knowing looks but said nothing. Not until lunch was finished, and they were well and truly on their way to the library.

  “I think Master Bang Jiao was actually trying to help, Dineng,” opined Zhu Bi.

  Yingpei nodded in agreement. “Beneath that scathing tongue lies a helpful soul. But it doesn’t do to show too much kindness to fresh cultivators eager for every edge.”

  “And sometimes the lessons best learned are the most painful ones,” said Alex with a bitter smile. “Whether we like it or not.”

  Yingpei clapped Alex on the shoulder with a sympathetic nod that said so much, before facing forward again, Zhu Bi’s hand somehow slipping into the young merchant’s own.

  Yingpei only stiffened for a moment as the petite girl’s ears wilted, before clasping it tightly as she began to hum.

  Alex smiled, guessing that his friends had made the most of those revels and the sheer joy of breaking through to the Silver plateau to
gether. He wasn’t surprised that such shared triumph between two people in the peak of health with naturally kind temperaments might turn into so much more.

  But that was a journey best explored without outside interference, so Alex kept his smile discreet as he gazed upon the marvelous dome-like structure of brilliantly shimmering bronze and perfectly polished marble that served as the academy’s central library.

  20

  Alex’s eyes widened as the building seemed to grow increasingly larger the closer they came, now that he was actually paying attention to their approach and the excited whispers of his fellow students, as opposed to hurrying to keep up with a madly-racing Liqin. How fast had they been racing throughout the college anyway? Alex gave a rueful chuckle, wondering if anyone on Earth could have even kept up. He could barely hold back the shiver of excitement he felt to actually have an opportunity to look inside that magnificent edifice somehow combining so many elements of the grandest of pagodas with the ancient Parthenon of Athens. After all the obstacles and hardships he had been through, was finally going to have an opportunity to enter a proper cultivation library without someone trying to kill him!

  Alex craned his neck to take it all in, its sheer scope and size leaving a silly grin on his face, like a country boy finding himself in a major metropolis for the first time. Yet the awe he felt only heightened as they approached with Master Bang Jiao in the lead, their mentor giving the tiniest of nods to the ageless cultivator dressed in the simplest of pristine white robes who stood before the grand entrance to the library proper.

  Soul Sight skill check made!

  Alex didn’t even flinch as a powerful gaze flowed over him and the other students as well. He didn’t return the stare, didn’t dare, but suspected his own spiritual energy had been examined by an exceedingly powerful wujen, undoubtedly deepest Silver, if not actual Gold, whose gaze then flickered over everyone else entering the grand building.

  Alex exchanged a quick glance with Zhu Bi, whose ears had reflexively wilted with the intense Qi pressure, but no one else seemed to have paid it any mind.

  “Guardian?”

  “Almost has to be.”

  Alex blinked the instant Zhu Bi nodded and turned around, realizing their quick exchange had been so silent only because neither had said a word. But it made sense. As much as guards were viewed so casually on the world of his birth, here they were quite literally vessels of power, and he could certainly appreciate why even a man as important as that Silver, with no doubt any number of services he was more than capable of performing for the school, was assigned the role of sentinel.

  The cultivator radiated so much spiritual potency that Alex thought it the equivalent of a mixed unit of tanks and snipers calmly watching a bank. Only a fool would try to break in, and he would probably be obliterated before he could even enter the building.

  And once Alex caught a glimpse of the spiritual energy radiating from the floor-to-ceiling books he spied from the doorway of a nearby grand chamber as they walked along a hallway of jade-lined marble, he instantly understood why such precautions were being taken.

  Sensing a sudden deadly pressure, he immediately snapped his gaze forward once more, noting the appearance of several exceptionally beautiful women waiting for them at the end of the hallway. All of them wore the most eye-catching qipaos that did nothing to mitigate the deadly Silver potency he sensed from each of them as they smiled and dipped their heads without ever taking their elegantly made-up eyes off the band of young cultivators. Only then did he observe other women assisting what were presumably other cultivators in the back of the large central room they approached. Alex found himself wondering if these women served as both guardians and librarians.

  “Welcome to the Central Library, Elder Bang Jiao,” said the closest assistant. “How may this one help you?”

  “Silver Petal, a pleasure as always, my dear. We are here to see Elder Ru and Chun An. I believe we have an appointment?”

  The beautifully made-up cultivator smiled, placing the pale jade slip Bang Jiao handed her to her brow. “Indeed you do, revered Elder. Through the leftmost doorway, and please forgive the delay.”

  “Not at all, my dear. A pleasure to see you and your sisters faring well, as always.”

  At that, all three nodded and bowed before the foremost one placed her palm upon a door fastened tight with crackling spiritual energies, which abruptly faded as the massive vault-like door of enchanted bronze slid open so silently that Alex could actually hear the voices of the library patrons behind him. “Of course. I see you are in good standing, with a positive balance. Let me open the door to the central chambers,” he heard a soft voice declare as he turned around to see a young cultivator presenting a bronze talisman to one of the librarians who brushed it with crimson lacquered fingernail.

  Alex frowned. If he didn’t know better, he’d think that to be the exact same talisman aspirants used to challenge one another.

  Then all was breathless silence as Alex’s group was led down a corridor lined with exotic silk tapestries depicting fantastic battles between cultivators and vast armies, as well as tiled frescoes of cold-eyed generals glaring at each other over either go or Chinese chess boards, the pieces and tokens clearly representing powerful cultivators fighting for the generals’, or perhaps deities’, pleasure. It sent shivers down Alex’s spine when he gazed into furious dark eyes that looked absolutely nothing like Long Wang, Lord Zheng Yi, or General Shalu, yet nonetheless made him wonder just how old this building truly was.

  And just as Alex was shaking away the chills the last fresco had sent racing down his spine, he found himself in a well-appointed room with a fantastic view of the school and the vast countryside so clearly seen from this mountaintop cityscape, thanks to the height of the library tower they had obviously been climbing, despite the lack of any noticeable incline at all.

  The furrowed brows and confused looks of his friends and fellow initiates indicated they too were more than slightly puzzled.

  Then all such wandering thoughts faded when none other than Elder Ru enter the room from an adjoining chamber, radiating age, benevolence, and deep-seated wisdom as he favored them all with his trademark gap-toothed smile.

  Much to Alex’s surprise, the elder’s appearance wasn’t met with the deep-seated reverential awe that he, Yingpei Lin, and Zhu Bi clearly felt, all three of them falling into dogeza before the master. Everyone else merely looked on with jaded gazes or bemused smirks, from what Alex could tell with his exquisitely sensitive Qi Perception.

  “How skilled can this elder be if he cannot even fix his teeth?” whispered one student amidst a handful of murmurs, and Alex winced with shame for the fool of a student, before realizing that no one else amongst their group had actually ascended to the Silver Plateau, so they hadn’t met Elder Ru or Lady Chun An, who was entering the chamber at that very moment.

  At least Alex’s peers were respectful before the regal woman radiating such astonishing beauty and power. Her silver eyes seemed to peer into the very souls of half the class, though her slight smile did not reach her measuring gaze.

  “Greetings, supplicants. I am sure Bang Jiao has explained why you all are here. I would suggest you all embrace the lotus position and take advantage of the majestic view before you for cultivation, or simply meditate upon what you hope to accomplish at this school. Most importantly, I would advise you all to do your utmost to keep your mind both serene and open, so Elder Ru and I can best sense your strengths, proclivities, and what cultivation path would lead to the strongest foundation possible for you to achieve.”

  She then pulled out a long thin wand of bamboo, tapping the floor with it. The very air seemed to echo and vibrate with its touch. Alex could feel the spiritual energy radiating off the magical treasure. “We will do this in orderly fashion. Silver before sigil, those who walked the path preceding those walking in their ancestor’s footsteps. Then Bronze, then last of all Copper, who, by virtue of even being here, prove to t
he world that focus and dedication can, at times, transcend even the limitations of fortune and folly, forging a path forward that not even the river of fate can always predict.”

  Elder Ru smiled benevolently. “Please do so now.”

  The class exchanged glances, and a blushing Yingpei Lin, wearing his finest merchant’s attire, took the lead, with Zhu Bi still holding his hand by his side, hiding neither fox ears nor snow-white tail only partially covered by the thinnest silken folds of her pink Qipao.

  Alex was both pleased and surprised that no one dared say a word disparaging the kitsune in their midst. Then again, considering the nature of the princess who had been welcomed with open arms within Cui Zhe’s court and who now had the blessing of the Emperor himself, with multiple nobles and royals from neighboring principalities and kingdoms all attempting to woo her…they would have been fools to mock her under any circumstances.

  Lady Fu, Zhang, and two others possessing silver talismans then formed up behind them.

  From there, the line continued to grow, until at last Alex found himself behind two young men who were for some reason glaring at him, both of them displaying talismans of burnished copper.

  “Did you hear how he insulted our master, made a mockery of the celebration?” hissed one.

  “Damn Ruidian shouldn’t be here at all,” snorted the other.

  Alex just smiled, doing his best to tune out the pair while gazing out at the strikingly beautiful view of the landscape from the top of the library tower and the mountain it crested, having no doubt it would be a long wait.

  “Alex.”

  Alex blinked at that, realizing his name had been called twice.

  He was as surprised as everyone else to see Elder Ru addressing him specifically. “Please come forward, aspirant.”

  Alex swallowed but complied, ears burning at the hot whispers he heard behind him. “Why is he going forward? He’s passing the Silvers!”

  “Must be because he is a Ruidian. No doubt the elders have never seen one of his kind cultivating before.”