Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path

by Johnson, M. H.

  Alex nodded respectfully. “So, I can take them back to the aspirant’s quarter?”

  The girl behind them snorted, shaking her head.

  “Of course not,” said the smirking man before him. “You would use one of the studies. It is one credit per hour to make use of a first-tier study, two credits per hour to make use of a second-tier study on this floor, and three credits per hour to make use of the studies above us. You may leave this library with no tome you did not purchase here, for only those with the strongest Silver talismans or on the path of rulers may actually remove tomes from within this floor of the library.”

  Alex frowned. “But you just tried to sell me a basic elemental fist technique for thirty credits.”

  The female librarian was actively snickering.

  “Yes, fool,” said the librarian, clearly growing inpatient. “A basic treatise encapsulating a limited number of elemental or martial techniques can be copied and infused by any artificer or scribe within this library, and they are of course sold freely to all students with appropriate standing. Yet these lesser works are nothing compared to the masterwork Silver tomes within this section of the library.”

  He smirked again. “If you’re looking for mundane tomes regarding history, scholarly pursuits, trade, or cooking, or the like… your race excels in the culinary arts if nothing else, no? You can of course borrow those at your leisure on the first floor, shelved as they are among all the lesser cultivation tomes. They might even have elemental treatises suitable for one of your… temperament.”

  Alex nodded politely, refusing to let this man get under his skin. The last thing he needed was to make an enemy of the librarian. “Thank you.”

  “If that will be all, then, the door to the Bronze floor is that way,” he said, pointing to a door manned by a young lady who looked very much like the three beauties on the floor below. She radiated the same deadly Metal Qi as the three girls downstairs, while gazing at Alex with thoughtful brown eyes.

  Alex swallowed, wondering if he’d ever get a chance to come up here again, or how many hoops he’d have to jump through to get in.

  He had no doubt Elder Wu had done him a solid favor, and it was up to Alex to make the most of it, regardless of how rude the librarian before him was.

  So he took a chance.

  “I was wondering if your revered Silver section had any tomes regarding White Crane Kung Fu or… Silver Swan.”

  The girl at the librarian’s desk furrowed her brow with the second request, and Alex heard the gasp from the sentinel behind him—a deadly rose whose thorns he had no desire to be pricked by.

  The librarian before him just snorted. “Nice try, Ruidian. Did one of your friends put you up to that request? As if we’d keep forbidden texts here.”

  Alex frowned. “White Crane Kung Fu is a forbidden text?”

  “Not that one, and don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about!” The man gave an angry shake of his head. “If all you came here for was to waste my time…”

  “No, honored sir. I truly would like to borrow any tomes on White Crane Kung Fu the library might have.”

  The man blinked, gazing thoughtfully at Alex before his lips curved in a strangely pleased smile. “Very well. You’re…actually serious. I will see if I can find something appropriate for ten credits. Are we agreed?”

  Alex frowned. “Ten credits was the minimum amount for borrowing a tome on this floor, correct?”

  The librarian smiled. “That is correct, Ruidian. Ten credits per hour. A room here is an additional two credits.”

  Alex kept his tone polite. “That’s fine, then.”

  The librarian’s favored him with a smile that was almost pleasant. “Excellent. Wait right here. I’ll return shortly.”

  He nodded, and the man was off in a flash.

  Alex winced upon catching the smirk of the girl turning back to her tasks, wondering how badly he had been played.

  He sighed and made his way to the table, earning a glare from the busy-looking girl.

  “I believe you’re already being helped?”

  He grinned in spite of himself. “I am. And I’m hoping you can help me as well.”

  Dark brown eyes frowned up at him. “What more could you possibly need, Ruidian who wandered up to the second floor like a lost sheep?”

  “First, I need to ask: how many credits per hour does a student librarian earn?”

  Her gaze hardened. “Do you have any idea how stupid you look, even asking that question?”

  He sighed, placing one, then a second, then a third silver token on the table. “And how many credits is that?”

  She paled and swallowed. “Thirty.”

  Alex smiled. “And how many favors would that buy me from a librarian who had my best interests at heart?”

  Sharp eyes burrowed into his own. She didn’t look away, even as she pocketed one and refused to touch the others. “Guan has already played you for a fool twice over. You’re paying him ten credits just to pick up a White Crane cultivation manual. Paying for his services, not to borrow the tome itself. Any librarian should be able to point you in the general direction for a smile, or a single credit if you’re hunting down an entire list of books for them.”

  Alex grimaced. “I see.”

  “And next time, go with him so you can see exactly where the books are kept and make your own choice as to what exactly you would spend your hard-earned credits on. And believe me, Aspirant, they will be hard-earned.”

  Alex felt his cheeks flush, realizing he had indeed been played for a fool.

  She then granted him a half-smile. “At least you’re not a complete idiot. You can buy pristine copies of the elemental treatises all new students are expected to learn downstairs at a price of fifteen credits, payable whenever you can earn them. And if you’re really smart, you’ll buy a used copy from another disciple for ten credits or less. Or beg or borrow them from someone of like alignment for a favor to be paid later.”

  Alex nodded, grateful that she had decided to be so forthcoming. “Do you know how long new aspirants spend getting their spiritual reading?”

  She frowned and shrugged. “Anywhere from two to three hours. Rarely longer than that.”

  Alex bowed his head. “Thank you.”

  She smirked, flipping back the other two coins. “You can’t afford what I cost beyond that, Ruidian. Now go. Guan’s right there. Tell him you paid me the fee to use the room, right down the hall there, and don’t forget to turn over the sand glass. When it’s up, your time will be too.”

  Alex bowed his head once more before taking the tome from a smirking Guan’s hands. “One hour, Ruidian. Then we will square up what you owe.”

  Alex quickly handed the man two silver tokens, took the tome, and sped walked for the study rooms, holding back the urge to smash that man’s smirk with a Dark Qi covered fist.

  “He already paid for the room,” said the girl, earning a scowl.

  “What did you tell him?” Guan hissed, once Alex was out of sight.

  “Nothing he wouldn’t have learned anyway, and I earned nine credits doing it. At least he wasn’t stupid enough to pick a fight over it.”

  Guan snorted. “I almost wish he had. I would have loved to smear his face to the ground before getting him kicked out of the school entirely.”

  “Did you even get him the right manual?”

  “The first one I could find. I won’t forsake my librarian’s oath for that trash.”

  The girl sighed. “You really hate Ruidians, don’t you?”

  “Of course. They’re the filth of the world, and the source of all Dark Qi. If they hadn’t snuck inside the bosom of the trickster god, they would have been purged from this world centuries ago.”

  “That’s your Yidushian heritage talking.”

  “Well, our city would still be the capital of this entire province, if it hadn’t been for those damned invaders!”

  “Over a thousand years ago. Most Ruidians thes
e days limit their invasions to their farms and the finer kitchens.”

  “A true son of Yidushi never forgets.”

  “Clearly.”

  Alex tuned out their words, out, dispelling the momentary surge of ire he felt and taking comfort in the fact that, if nothing else, this truly was a White Crane Kung Fu treatise.

  He knew it to be true. He could feel the waves of spiritual energy emanating from it.

  Filled with reverence and no small amount of awe, Alex made himself comfortable, turned the hourglass beside the door, placed the tome upon the hardwood table provided, and reverentially cracked open the cover, eager to explore all the secrets within.

  You have successfully tapped into Spiritual Energy flow! 1 Rank of Spiritual Teacher accessible.

  One Hour has passed! You have mastered this tome! You have gained ten hours’ worth of independent study!

  No new techniques have been discovered or learned.

  Alex closed the small tome with a sigh.

  There could be no doubt. This treatise was genuine, and how delighted he had been seen to see sigils he’d recognized from Master Panheu’s pavilion, now recalling so clearly those early lessons on tapping into the flow of spiritual energy all around, using it to knock enemy weapons off line, and add speed and power to all angled attacks. This treatise mainly involved using those techniques with either unarmed attacks, jian, or dao. It didn’t even touch spear, the heart of Master Panheu’s form. It did incorporate the winding lunge his mentor favored, so useful for knocking enemy weapons offline while simultaneously thrusting for the kill, but it was a variant designed for the jian straight sword, not for the spear or fangtian ji held in a wide two-handed grip.

  At least the tome served as a solid refresher, and it was always useful approaching familiar lessons from a new perspective. If nothing else, some of the techniques for the jian should be transferable to the dao. Learning to better combine winding parries with his off hand while embracing a sweeping slash with his right would be a useful technique he could practice when next he got his hands on some dao, training or otherwise. And it had been nothing short of a thrill to actually see what the author was visualizing underneath the script, somehow tapping into the faintest level of Spiritual Teaching and trying to lose himself in the writing, as opposed to focusing only on the most crucial diagrams, as he had done in forging his tri-state cords with the aid of multiple Gold cultivation manuals in a certain spiritual garden that still seemed more ephemeral than real. But other than that…

  “I don’t suppose there are any other White Crane Kung Fu manuals somewhere in the stacks?” Alex asked the female librarian when he had returned, handing her the tome.

  Guan snorted, overhearing his request. “That one wasn’t enough for you? A tome instructing the most worthy aspirants in the first crucial steps that must be embraced in the mastery of White Qi? I shouldn’t be surprised. More likely, you’re just trying to glean martial combat techniques. In which case, you’re a fool. There are far more efficient fighting styles. White Crane’s strength is in mastering the circular flow of Qi as a whole in combat.”

  Alex clenched his jaw before seeing what was in front of him. “You’re actually trying to tell me something useful.”

  The man scowled. “I am a librarian. That’s my job. You borrowed a tome. You studied the tome. It seems obvious that you don’t even understand the significance of the information it contains!”

  Alex took a deep, frustrated breath, slowly easing it out. “Will I be permitted to return another time, to study other tomes?”

  “Only if your Talisman shines with at least the power of Silver,” said the elegantly dressed young woman with a sheathed dao at her hip who had eyed him earlier, now approaching with a professional smile and a gaze that brooked no argument. “Be grateful that chance and confusion gave you even this one opportunity to browse the stacks of Silver. Now come with me, lest you would see Bang Jiao even more displeased than he already is.”

  Alex paled at that. “But… yes, thank you, honored one.”

  He didn’t dare hesitate, quickly racing down the stairs as fast as his escort’s demure pace allowed, feeling a singular sense of relief when he got back down to the ground floor, the massive vault-like door closing behind him as he was gently ushered through. He could not even recall the winding journey down too many corridors for the memory to really make sense, at least not without consulting his internal map.

  And for all that he was relieved now to be back in familiar territory, that relief turned to instant dread when he saw not one face he recognized.

  He quickly turned around. “Forgive me, but you wouldn’t happen to know where…” But the guardian was already gone, his gaze met instead by three pairs of disinterested stares.

  Alex grimaced and headed out as fast as his feet could take him, wondering if his master had already grown impatient and left. It was silly to think he would, especially when he had been told the reading would last well over an hour… by a librarian who owed him nothing, and for all he knew, was enjoying a laugh at his expense with her coworker at that very moment.

  With a cold jolt of terror, he poured on the speed, racing for the edge of the cherry trees demarcating the boundary between library and common grounds. He felt a flush of relief when he spotted a certain distinct pair of ears in the distance, along with the rest of his class. “Zhu Bi! Wait up!” he called.

  Zhu Bi and Yingpei Lin immediately turned around with welcoming smiles.

  Others responded with bored expressions or irritated scowls, and a still-bruised Dineng with a dark twisted smirk.

  Bang Jiao’s smile did not reach his features. “Were you enjoying your study at our expense?”

  Alex felt a cold chill race down his spine, realizing how perilous his position was.

  He immediately fell into dogeza. “This lowly, foolish aspirant apologizes. When my reading was done, I found myself in the Silver rooms, somehow. I took the time to question the librarian, who assured me readings normally took two or more hours. I thought it prudent if I invested what I could in preparing myself for my time here at the school.”

  The elder frowned. “And you didn’t even think to make use of the sand-glass?”

  Alex blinked. “I promise you I did just that, sir. The moment a full glass had passed, I returned the materials and came straight down.”

  Hard eyes met Alex’s own from a good fifty feet away. “And yet somehow, you arrive long after the readings were finished.” Bang Jiao shook his head. “A librarian’s oath of diligence applies to the tomes they would give you alone. You were foolish to assume any stranger would have your best interests at heart, even if they were guilty of nothing more than indifferent recollection. You were even more foolish not to return the second your reading was done, having no true idea of the inner-workings of this school. Especially knowing as you do, the price of folly.”

  Dineng nodded. “And he cost us time, master. You said there would be a price to pay for that.”

  “And pay he shall,” said a voice that filled Alex with dread as he caught the unforgiving yellow-eyed gaze of a powerful Silver glaring at him from the other side of the trees swaying between them.

  The Silver Giant flexed powerful muscles under his changshan tunic and cracked his knuckles, his handsome features twisted in a malicious grin. Alex would have found his six-and-a-half foot frame intimidating enough, had it not been backed by a bright Silvery aura of mayhem and coiled power. The man’s every movement hinted at deadly grace that would make his blows so much more lethal than a pure strength cultivator’s, the latter of which were far more common in Alex’s experience, and far less likely to kill him.

  Not so, this monster.

  “It appears the fates themselves disapprove of the karmic debt between us.” The cultivator’s smile grew. “And now it is time for you to pay.” It was a threat so dire that Alex felt it in the pit of his gut, while knowing that none but he and the monster before him could hear. The veins
in the man’s arms popped as he clenched massive fists. “My name is Duo Ko. You will be screaming my name from your blood-flecked lips countless times before we are through.” Dark green eyes glittered with a predator’s hunger. “And then you will refer to me only as master for so long as you attend this school, and every day forward, till death finally claims you!”

  Far from intervening, Bang Jiao flashed a too-wide smile. “As Dineng and Zhang both learned via your thorough administrations, there is a steep price to pay for arrogance and folly. I fear it is now your turn to teach us the fox’s most painful lessons, Ruidian.” He then gave a curious tilt of his head. “Then again, you are safe from Duo Ko’s wrath for so long as you don’t step past the cherry trees demarcating the library boundary, and few things inspire innovation quite like the terror of imminent bodily harm. If you can think of a way to stand by my side within the next, let’s say… two minutes, then perhaps it is you that will be laughing by WiFu’s side, snatching success from the jaws of folly, just like your ancient namesake.”

  Those final words earned Alex more than a few condemning stares, but Alex could waste no time on glares and scowls and pained looks from the very few he could call friends, instead wondering what he could possibly do to survive.

  “Submit,” hissed the intimidating giant. “Submit and beg me to break your flesh just as you broke my disciple’s!” Duo Ko’s malicious smile grew. “And your name shall be Rat, from this day forward. Should you embrace that shame like the spineless coward you are, I shall permit you to skulk and scurry about our school, so long as you always give my wolves the lion’s share of every prize you weasel free of your betters!”

  For a long, hot second, Alex stared into those hateful eyes, terror and fury welling up in a horrible amalgamation that could have only one outcome.