In that glorious moment, Alex forgot about the hard stares upon his back and how perilous his stay at this school truly was; his heart began racing with the furious exultation that came from riding upon a tempest of unstoppable force.
He flashed the fierce smile of a surfer daring a storm, determined to ride the wave of howling Earth Qi building up to intolerable levels as he channeled the devastating might of a mountain’s fury into his blow.
“Avalanche!” he roared, striking the shimmering metallic artifact for all he was worth.
You have struck Training Dummy with Silver-ranked Earth Striker technique! Ten Qi expended! You have saved versus mild meridian strain.
Training Dummy has taken Moderate Damage. Training Dummy is regenerating!
Rank 1 Avalanche fails to infuse your limb with the power of Earth! You have taken 1 Light Wound! You have temporarily strained your wrist!
For a second, all he felt was exultation when the silvery head before him exploded in shimmering blotches of metallic goop, then wincing at the sudden sharp throb in his wrist.
This earned a chuckle from a pleased Bang Jiao, the elder cultivator granting him an approving smile. “Well done, disciple. You were able to summon a Silver-ranked technique at will, even under pressure, and suffered only mild injury as a result.”
“It took the fool to the count of twenty to summon his Qi strike,” sneered none other than Duo Ku, the massive giant of a cultivator looming out of the darkness to measure Alex with a cold smile. “Even now, he pants with the strain. You know as well as I that to summon such a technique before Silver is a foolish move that will strain his channels, assuming he can even manage it twice in a fight.” Cold laughter washed over Alex. “As if any fool would wait a dozen heartbeats for him to summon it forth!”
“Oh, I know,” agreed Bang Jiao with a smile. “But that he could actually summon it forth speaks so much for his potential.”
Duo Ku sneered. “He still owes me, Bang Jiao, and he will pay. In blood, tears, and coin.”
“Of course he will!” laughed Bang Jiao. “One day, he will have to fight you and endure all your twisted depravity. And I have no doubt that fear of your retribution is what pushes him forward every day.”
Duo Ku lowered his gaze to meet Alex’s own. Alex fought back a sudden chill of apprehension, realizing there was absolutely nothing stopping his nemesis from treading these grounds. “Train hard, little Ruidian. As hard as you can. Impress your master and all the weak-willed sycophants by your side with your simplistic mastery of the most basic of disciplines. It will make it all the sweeter to break their spines and shatter their will to resist when I take their favored disciple and grind him to dust!”
Bang Jiao laughed aloud. “I look forward to seeing you try!” He fired a too-bright smile Alex’s way. “I look forward to more breakthroughs, my dear disciple. The sooner the better, for your sake.” With a nod and pat on the shoulder, Bang Jiao made his way back to the central pagoda, which held his own personal quarters, before turning around.
“Oh, and Alex? You might want to get up at a decent hour tomorrow. The week of revels are now officially over, and tomorrow you all shall be training in earnest!”
Alex blinked. “Wait, you mean these last few days…”
“Were just gentle exercise, compared with what’s to come.”
Alex groaned, his mentor responding with a final farewell smile as he disappeared into the gloom.
Duo Ko, still right beside him, laughed and cracked his oversized knuckles. “Do you want to know all the ways I’m going to break you in the weeks ahead, Ruidian? The bones I’ll snap, the joints I’ll tear, the symphony of screams that together we shall compose for the benefit of all my master’s… disciples?”
Ugly amusement rang in Alex’s ears, the smirking monster flexing menacingly. “First, it will be your wrist that I force out of alignment, before shattering your elbow.” His cruel smile widened. “Then a fist to your gut, leaving you too breathless even to scream, before I shatter your knees, break three ribs on your left side, four on your right side, until I finally twist your other arm clean out of its socket.”
Alex’s heart began to hammer. He took slow, deep breaths, refusing to flinch away from Duo Ko’s dark gaze.
“And then, perhaps I will show mercy. Or, perhaps, I will pull every finger out of its socket before crushing your tortured hands to broken splinters and bloody gristle in my fists!” the giant roared, looming over an Alex who suddenly understood what his nemesis was doing.
“Sorry, tall and stupid, but you’re not goading me to throw the first blow, no matter how much you shower me with your rancid breath.”
Alex smirked when Duo Ko’s eyes widened, his face mottling with sudden killing rage.
“Were things any different,” Duo snarled, “I’d tear your arms off and beat you to death with them, right here and now!”
“What, and make a complete mockery of your threats of just thirty seconds ago? Not very consistent, are you, Duo Ko?” Alex tsked. “I don’t know; such instability can’t be a good sign for your cultivation base, can it?”
For a split-second, Alex thought the monster would do his best to strike him dead right then and there, damage to his foundation from broken oaths notwithstanding, as had happened with another so eager to kill Alex and his friend. He could still recall the expression on the deep Bronze’s face when his inviolate cultivation technique had turned as brittle as glass in the brief time it had taken him to ambush Cheng Lei and Alex both.
Then, maybe, just maybe, Alex would have a chance against the monster he now faced, assuming he survived even a single blow to his skull without a decent body strengthening technique to his name.
Instead, Duo Ko roared with laughter, his mocking claps filling the air. “Well done, worm. You almost got the better of me.”
The giant’s eyes hardened, mock joviality frozen to ice-cold hate. “Almost. And for that audacity, I will offer you a prize in pain that will make every previous ordeal you have ever experienced feel like absolute bliss in comparison. Bliss!” Duo Ku spat at Alex’s feet. “And that exquisite agony will be yours to cherish for all the days of your soon-to-be shattered life. You may take that declaration as a fundamental truth of your pathetic existence! The only truth that will ever matter to you, save pleading for death to deliver you from the crucible of agony that will be your only reward for daring to cross me!”
With a growl, Duo Ko turned around and left. A shaking Alex spent long moments gazing at that giant’s back before finally turning around to glare at the perfectly reformed silver metal mannequin.
“Avalanche!” he roared aloud, his healed fist pounding into the potent artifact with all the power and fury of a boulder careening down the highest mountain, the tightly clenched appendage sustained yet more hairline fractures, even as his meridians suffered mild strain.
Yet the burst of agony and strain only made his grimace stretch wide, envisioning the mocking sneer of the head of the Spirit Wolves as he roared and pounded into the mannequin with all the force and fury he could muster.
“Avalanche!”
Alex’s next two hours were an exercise in furious focus and power healing, pausing only long enough for his cracked hands to heal and his Qi Pool to flood over once more; he took the time to visualize each of his furious strikes with crystalline clarity so as to not waste even a second in pounding his imagined foe.
“’Takes too long to summon forth’? Damn right, it does. So let’s take care of that right now,” he muttered between heaving breaths, not even paying attention to the internal messages flashing across his interface. A fierce hot joy filled him when it all started clicking, when twenty seconds was cut down to ten, then five. Still far too long, but he was improving, he could feel it. He had never felt more in tune with the trembles of the earth underneath his feet or the far-off avalanche he had channeled for what felt like endless hours before he hobbled back to his hut and slept the sleep of the dead. The eart
h shook even in his dreams as his fist smashed boulder after boulder into piles of shattered rock that rained down upon all his foes like an avalanche in truth.
Congratulations! Silver Earth striker technique Avalanche is now at Rank 3! Eight Qi per use, reduced risk of meridian strain, five second catalyzation time.
Wakening with a groan, he groggily realized that what he was hearing was the frantic knocking of his friend.
“Alex, wake up!” Classes are starting right now. You’ve already missed breakfast!”
“It’s not even good to eat breakfast. Best off letting your body recycle old cells, burn excess fat, and wait til noon before eating,” he muttered with a yawn, flickers of nutritional lore from a lifetime ago popping in his head as he yawned and rubbed his eyes, before sitting upright with a jolt.
“Zhu Bi?”
But she was already gone. “Get up, Alex! Zha Shi is already counting heads!”
Alex’s eyes widened, not even bothering with boots as he raced out the door, still dressed in the changshan tunic and pants that had been a gift of his benefactor and somehow miraculously resisted all wrinkles, odors, and dirt, looking and feeling just as fresh as if he had picked up his clothes from the cleaners, even if he had worn it countless days in a row.
Bare feet hardly touched the dew-covered grass as he dashed across the lush green field towards the group of students kowtowing before a chisel-featured cultivator who thought nothing of letting his hair flow in the breeze. His sleeveless changshan revealed a powerful physique, cold grey eyes widening as Alex drew rapidly to a close, who only then realized how fast he had been running.
Almost as if the grass itself had been adding spring to his steps.
The cold-eyed instructor scowled at Alex. “You’re late.”
Alex, being no fool, immediately bowed. “This lowly one apologizes for…”
“Shut up and assume dogeza.”
Alex swallowed the remainder of what he had been about to say, quickly kowtowing before the instructor, as was every other student. Alex was at least able to measure his posture and positioning perfectly with his Qi Perception.
“Bang Jiao has been lenient with you children over these past few days, in deference to the citywide revels below, and those among you who have recently ascended along the Path of Perseverance,” declared the man gazing down upon them.
“That leniency ends now. You supplicants will begin your training in earnest from this day forward. First, you will learn appropriate cultivation techniques with Master Nong and myself. Then you will learn the ways of the spear and naginata, weapons equally useful for war and hunting spirit beasts, or enemy cultivators too stupid to use anything more than a sword. Then you will all learn how to use the most basic wards and strikes associated with your element. Those of you still too weak to use Elemental attacks will spend that period cultivating as you did before, doing all you can to clear your meridian channels so we may forge you into cultivators actually worthy of attending this academy.”
He glared down at the students. “All of you should have already received and been studying your basic martial treatises, and all of you should be cognizant of the cultivation path you will embrace, even if you have not already ascended to Bronze. Is there anyone so far who has failed to do this?”
No one dared move a muscle.
The instructor gave a satisfied nod. “Good. This is Master Nong,” he said of the thin cultivator garbed in a threadbare gray robe belted tightly at the waist. Yet for all that his features were that of a middle-aged man, his eyes radiated the weight of countless centuries and seemed to miss nothing.
Alex felt a sudden surge of apprehension, doubting he could keep any secrets from this instructor.
“All of you are now expected to embrace your cycling or meridian cleansing techniques. Master Quian and I will examine the flow of Qi around all of you.”
Alex did his best to stifle his mounting anxiety while assuming the lotus position, just like everyone else. Because however deep and dark his secrets might be, or perceptive the instructors before him were, all they were looking to judge was his cultivation technique, and he would give them no cause to look any deeper than that.
He thought his best course of action was to use his modified White Crane Cycling technique as slowly and cautiously as he could, considering how close to over-saturated his meridians already were. Feeling only momentary discomfort before smiling and relaxing, he soon found himself enjoying the sweet rush of spiritual energies flowing through him as a gentle whole, carefully taking in no more than his meridians could safely absorb.
After countless deep breaths, he felt his stress and anxiety for the future slowly ease away. It had been so long since he had properly cultivated, instead absorbing so much power and potency through feeding upon his enemies or outright consuming their Soul Cores, that he had almost forgotten the sheer peace of mind that the meditative aspects of proper cultivation could bring him.
He was almost caught off guard by the firm tapping upon his shoulder.
“You. Ruidian. What cultivation technique are you using?”
“White Crane Cycling Technique,” Alex promptly replied to the scowling cultivator, Nong’s voice just as nasally and grating as his diminutive frame and haughty glare had suggested.
“Impossible; there is no such thing,” the man declared.
Alex politely dipped his head. “Nonetheless, I assure you that it is exactly what I’m using.”
“White Crane is a martial technique whose master practitioners seek to harness the flow of Light Qi as a whole to enhance their strikes. A flawed art, refusing all the benefits of elemental specialization, simply to make it more accessible to the masses,” said the man with a cold smile. “And few, save for the most foolish of cultivators, will bother with an art that takes so long to master, especially one that completely lacks any powerful striking or warding techniques associated with it. For how could there be? All it does is enhance your strikes with the flow of Qi as a whole.”
Alex bit his tongue. There was so much he could say to that, but he had no interest in antagonizing this man or revealing Master Panheu’s secrets.
He settled for simply bowing his head. “It is possible that there are more efficient techniques, but this seems to suit me well enough. Perhaps Ruidians are better off cycling Qi as a whole, as opposed to attempting to master any particular element.”
Nong snorted. “I know nothing of the flaws of the Ruidian psyche. Frankly, I find it a miracle that you can actually cultivate at all.” He paused before giving a considering nod. “Very well. If it works for you, continue. When you hit a roadblock, I expect you to make an appointment with your master to see me personally. You will find the cost in either academy credits or beast cores well worth the wisdom you will receive with my counsel.”
Alex dipped his head. “Thank you for your guidance, Master Nong.”
With an imperious nod, the cultivator moved on to examine the rest of the class. Alex was almost surprised to hear genuinely helpful advice sprinkled here and there along with the not infrequent suggestions that any number of students set up private appointments if they were to have any hope of getting past the roadblocks their inferior techniques would no doubt put before them.
Alex happily tuned out the murmurs, focusing solely on cultivating the pristine White Qi all around him, opening his eyes only when he sensed his fellow aspirants rising from their postures and stretching, exchanging quick whispers about what was to come.
“Good!” Zha Shi declared. “You’re all properly rested and focused, practically brimming with Qi! Head on over to the sparring area. Your training spears and armor should already be laid out for you.”
Within minutes, Alex’s peaceful, tranquil balloon was ruptured as he found himself staring at a sight that made his blood run cold.
“Alex, what’s wrong?” asked a concerned Yingpei.
Alex forced a smile. “Nothing. I… was just hoping for some fangtian ji,” he said,
quickly recovering himself, desperate not to give anything away to his instructors.
“None of those deadly axe-spears,” declared a grinning Zhu Bi. “Time to kit up!” She frowned at Alex’s hesitation. “Don’t be overconfident, Alex. When sparring with polearms, you always want to be fully armored. Even a quarterstaff hits with far more impact than your average jian or dao, and it’s easily able to shatter bones, for all that it’s just a long stick of wood, really.”
Alex felt an odd sense of déjà vu at witnessing a beautiful young kitsune, so reminiscent of his closest friend, kitting up in armor for sparring practice like he and Liu Li used to do.
Only, whereas he and Liu Li would spar in the bronze lamellar legionnaire armor in common use throughout the empire for countless centuries, today they were all expected to equip lamellar and helmets of hardened steel.
The expertly made and forged front-line armaments were primarily used by the vanguard of any force, or worn by either the scions of noble houses or soldiers who had already broken through to Bronze.
It was an absolute fortune in well-forged steel.
Steel that had never seen the inside of a Baidushian forge.
Steel whose make and manufacture exactly matched the armaments worn by the YanTu soldiers that had been hunting him down, just days ago.
Though Alex’s Qi Perception and Artificer skill sensed no curses or odd spiritual energies emanating from the perfectly inert steel armor, the class was at that moment dressed exactly like Prince Dongfang Hong’s elite companies.
Alex had to swallow the bile surging in his throat, his mind blinking to the double handful of cultivators he had been forced to put down in his desperate rush to rescue his friends and get to the city in time.
Zhu Bi beamed at Alex, picking up a tasseled spear with a leaf-shaped blade. Her gaze immediately hardened as she took a low, balanced warrior’s stance, spear in midguard, her expression shifting to an almost feral smile.
“Shall we?”
Alex grinned as he claimed a near identical weapon, pushing away the brooding thoughts flickering in the back of his mind, determined to focus on what he could control in the here and now. And that most definitely included fencing with a certain kitsune, who was obviously eager to test him. “Why not?”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 40