Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path

by Johnson, M. H.

  A single mistake that allowed a Silver Giant to get his hands on him could spell his end, shattering his bones as if they were glass, even if he was already more than their match in speed. And if he was forced to fight a Silver-ranked speedster whose cultivation path also incorporated Strength, like that monster Duo Ku, then it was all over. Even revealing his deadliest secrets might not save him, and would expose him in ways that might necessitate fleeing this kingdom just as fast as he could.

  But before he worried about anything else, he had to be ready for tomorrow. Which meant striving to master that which his opponent would least expect.

  He opened his eyes after several hours of meditation, having visualized and compartmentalized everything he had learned that day while ensuring that his mind was refreshed and ready to embrace the next step on his path to enlightenment: Water.

  He considered the shimmering blue treatise and shook his head, knowing it was madness to think he could learn all its secrets well enough to take on a Deep Bronze in a single day and night. But of course, that wasn’t the point. It was about taking those first steps along that journey, so that even if he failed to absorb more than the smallest portion of the secrets within, eventually he would learn to summon forth a disk of Water just as easily as he now did a shield of Wooden Qi. And in the meantime, he hoped that having a better sense of the flow of Water would allow him to strengthen his Shield of the Grove, using Water to nurture and strengthen Wood.

  It was only when he first peeled open the cover of that pristine tome, which Yingpei and Zhu Bi had been gracious enough to procure for him, that he realized what an idiot he had been, even as his mind was flooded by understandings both striking and profound. The flow of crashing water thundered through his veins every bit as well as if he had parted the pages of a story long known and loved, with only a few alterations differentiating it from what he already carried deep within his soul.

  There was a reason why his Shield of the Grove had been protected by a constant flood of rain-soaked mist which his enemy’s flames could do little more than scorch, despite being struck a hundred times or more by Adept-ranked Fire Strikes in the time he and Cao had fought.

  He had already been feeding the shield a steady supply of Water Qi, naturally boosting the power of Wood, along with his near mastery of Silver Swan Kung Fu. Of course, his forbidden art, and the Silver-ranked techniques within, fused Water and Steel into one, and additional Qi had been spent containing Metal as his advanced Wood Qi ward took in all the water it needed to truly blossom as a near-indestructible defense.

  Yet it was nothing compared to the maelstrom of effort he had expended in seeking mastery of a Forbidden Art, an Art so deeply evolved, he could channel not just the power of crashing waves and overflowing banks, but also the deepest waters bridging the gap between life and death, even the River of Souls heeding his call.

  He couldn’t help chuckling softly at how easy it was to summon a fist full of Water Qi, fingers leading, hands cupped just enough to ensure that the deadly force of a spear-hand strike would be transmitted to joints at an angle generating minimal injury, like carefully doing pushups with one’s fingers.

  Still, he stared at the training mannequin he now faced for long moments, focusing as he felt the bubbling current of Water Qi sliding up and down his stiffened fingers while ignoring the murmurs of the handful of students looking on as the wind rustled his hair and the grass caressed his still naked feet.

  “Who does that fool think he is, daring a Water technique with his fingertips? He’ll snap every finger, and it will be his own damned fault.”

  “Don’t know about that. I heard he took on two of our sifus today.”

  “Yeah, but he lost those fights, didn’t he?”

  “I know he lost the second fight, but not by much, I hear.”

  Alex took another slow breath, tuning out the murmurs of his classmates, his body tingling with adrenaline and Qi. He knew as well as anyone that should he not strike with his spear-hand correctly, being so stupid as to strike a bronze-covered wooden mannequin rather than the fleshy underside of someone’s neck…

  “He’s a coward,” snorted none other than Quiang, scowling at Alex with contempt. “The master’s obviously throwing the fights in that Ruidian’s favor to goad us. All of this is a test to make us—”

  “Water Strike!” Alex roared, twisting his hips and snapping forward with all the coiled power in his body. His spear hand arced through the air oddly slowly, as if he were truly thrusting the appendage through water, yet the wood under the chin of the mannequin, covered in toughened rawhide, gave way before the power of his spear-hand strike.

  For long moments, he stared at the hole in the wood right where the jugular would be as a couple seconds of Power Healing repaired jammed finger joints, before cracking a fierce, satisfied smile. Again and again, he performed the technique, lashing out with each hand and reveling in the way the Qi coating his fingertips allowed him to pierce several inches of wood without injury after the first dozen strikes, until he got to the point that his hands seemed to slip past all resistance at the moment of impact, and even bronze lamellae tiles bent to the piercing power of his blows without doing more than bruising his fingertips.

  Only after the training dummy was riddled with bent bronze tiles and punctured wood, and no less than half a dozen students were gazing at him with something close to awe or, in one case, absolute contempt, did he take note of the messages flashing across his interface.

  Congratulations! You have learned Water Strike! Natural synergies detected! Your mastery of this skill is heightened by Mastery of Forbidden Silver Techniques! The flow of Water Qi is aided by Unorthodox Dantian Alignment!

  Water Strike is now Level 4!

  Water Strike is now Level 5! Adept Rank achieved! You have deferred the perks of Added Damage and Reduced Qi Expenditure and have chosen Heightened Synergism! You have increased your ability to synergize Water Strike with all other elements and martial forms!

  Deliberately avoiding the gazes of the whispering onlookers and declining to watch the handful of students doing their best to master their own elemental strikes on the training mannequins, he made his thoughtful way back to his personal pagoda, fairly trembling with anticipation to open the next tome on his mental checklist, eager to see if his deadly, wonderful hunch was right.

  Qi Perception check made!

  Just barely weaving to the side, he managed to keep his balance as a surly Qiang tried to jostle into him, blocking his way forward and glaring with hate.

  “What’s your game, Ruidian? Do you really think you can keep fooling us with your trickery?”

  Alex took a deep breath, pulling his thoughts away from the verge of enlightenment as he was forced to deal with the annoyance before him. “I’m sorry, Qiang? What the hell are you going on about?”

  “You! Pretending to take down our guest instructors!”

  The young cultivator fumed, hand on the hilt of the sheathed jian by his side. “It’s all just a game, isn’t it? Confess! You and Master Bang Jiao are setting this whole thing up! What, so you can make us feel inferior, like we’re nothing? Push us to the heights of enlightenment as we’re forced to eat so much bitter, we’re puking blood, desperate to ascend? Is that it?”

  The youth spat. “I risked my life taking that golden staircase so I could be taught by enlightened masters, not be hoodwinked like a low-class drudge who thinks three opened meridians makes him anything more than simple fodder for the army!”

  “Qiang! Don’t say such things! Are you trying to pull the tiger’s tail?” whispered one girl, who looked both disgusted with the hotheaded cultivator and worried as well. Several other nearby students made similar comments, but Qiang just gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “It’s a farce. For all we know, this is the test! The master is seeing if any worthy cultivators are smart enough to realize that they are being made fools of. To see through the deception and dare to challenge the insult before them.”


  He wore a fierce smile, as if he had just achieved his own sort of twisted enlightenment.

  “That’s it, isn’t it, Ruidian? You’re nothing. Nothing more than a jester, a fool, paid in silver and gold to mock us all! You’re a test, just like in the storybooks, where upstart Ruidians like you are riddled with flaws, when you’re not speaking in riddles, and your weaknesses are always apparent to anyone who dares to see the truth! Isn’t that so?”

  Alex just stared at Qiang. “Move or challenge, I don’t care, but cease your asinine blathering. I have better things to do than listen to you bleat like a sick sheep.”

  Qiang’s face mottled with rage. “Why, you pustulent bastard!”

  Before he could blink, Alex had pulled out his talisman. “Challenge me or get the hell out of my way.”

  “Damn right I will!” the now furious cultivator roared, Bronze talisman shimmering brightly under Alex’s own. “We fight to the death, worm, for everything we’re worth or ever dared to claim! Anything goes!”

  Alex’s near-translucent white jade talisman briefly shone with the clarity of perfect glass, making it clear that even death matches were permitted by his seemingly flawed artifact, no matter their master’s prohibition, the supposed sanctuary status of this training area, or even the fact that Alex was presently unarmed.

  The entire cluster of students stared in shocked disbelief as Qiang unsheathed his blade and slashed in one deadly motion, his fiercely vindictive smile growing wider as his jian struck with a surge of Metal Qi and killing speed.

  Before blinking with disbelief when his sword was knocked off-line with a clang.

  Spitting up a mouthful of blood, a disbelieving Qiang stared down at the spear-hand strike that had just pierced the soft flesh underneath his sternum.

  With an awful wheeze, he crumpled to the ground.

  Alex carefully removed his hand, the first three inches covered in blood.

  But no more than that.

  He gazed down at the bleeding youth in contempt before glaring up at the speechless onlookers.

  “Well, what the hell are you all waiting for? Get a healer! Get Bang Jiao before he bleeds out!”

  Meanwhile, Alex didn’t hesitate to claim both dao and purse from the cultivator who lay curled up in a ball, hands pressed against his bleeding abdomen as he continued coughing up blood with every wheeze.

  Alex scowled at the wide-eyed spectators all around, only then bothering to scan his interface messages.

  Dark Qi Projection successfully parries Cleaving Strike!

  You have struck your foe with Water Strike! You have found your enemy’s weakness!

  You have pulled your blow. You deliberately avoid fatal organ rupture.

  Your opponent suffers 1 Heavy Wound.

  Your opponent is stunned!

  You have bested your opponent.

  Experience earned!

  Alex gave a frustrated shake of his head. He felt equally furious at the fool moaning and sobbing and coughing up blood in the wet grass before him, and at himself.

  Now everyone knew that his talisman was so weak that there was no limit to the stakes that could be forced upon him. He could even be compelled to fight against armed foes at any time.

  And he had parried that cleaving strike with a gauntlet of Dark Qi that he could only hope no onlooker had truly gotten a sense of, having had a solitary heartbeat to act before he lost his arm and possibly his head to a blade that had temporarily embodied the essence of sharpness with a surge of Metal Qi and killing intent.

  He scowled down at the sobbing Qiang, keening like a little boy, or perhaps a wounded animal, not having the heart to finish him off.

  If the cultivators around him were so nasty and jaded as to take that as an invitation to challenge him to death matches, thinking him too weak to resist the fight or finish them off should they lose… he gave a furious shake of his head, hating how bleak a corner this forced him into. Despite intellectually knowing he was playing the fool, at this moment, he couldn’t kill a broken boy sobbing at his feet in cold blood.

  All he could do was gaze on with contempt, as if the youth was beneath his notice, when a furious Bang Jiao was suddenly before him, a worried-looking Zhu Bi and Yingpei panting by their master’s side.

  “What is the meaning of this? Did you truly challenge Qiang to a death match?” Bang Jiao roared.

  Alex flashed a bleak smile. “As a matter of fact, no, I didn’t. This idiot challenged me and lashed out with a sword technique designed to unsheathe and strike in a single instant.”

  Alex glanced down at the bleeding youth still sobbing and keening, then up at the frozen onlookers just beyond his much more sympathetic friends. “As you can see, his attack failed, and he paid the price.” He snorted. “It would be nothing to kill him, but I have no desire to face censure or penalty for a fatal duel. You were very clear that such had consequences.”

  Bang Jiao regarded Alex for several long moments before frowning down at Qiang, putting a single hand on the young noble’s abdomen and whispering a few words reminiscent of the soothing pattern of the soft spring rain that was now sprinkling down upon them all.

  Qiang still held his stomach, but his keening sobs had stopped. He took a deep breath and gazed up in teary-eyed gratitude. “Master. Thank you! I was dying. I—”

  “—You are a fool. A fool, an idiot, and an embarrassment. Challenging a Ruidian forged in fire, who gleefully spends his mornings taking on Deep Bronze masters that consistently put you all in your places! And you try to goad him into a death match, thinking a single treacherous sneak attack would assure you victory? Pathetic!”

  Bang Jiao then raised his eyes to glare at everyone looking on. “His life was forfeit. Do you fools understand that? Had Alex not been worried about standings, he could have taken Qiang’s life without any repercussions whatsoever! It would be his right! And the next time one of you is so stupid as to challenge him to any fight you can’t walk away from… I have no doubt that you will get exactly what you deserve.”

  He then turned around with a final glare, grabbing a whimpering Qiang by the hair. “You’re coming with me, halfwit! A month learning what it means to serve this school under my dear friend Puren will be just what you need to understand some grace, humility, and how damned lucky you are to be alive and a Bronze!”

  Qiang’s eyes widened in shock. “Master! You would make me a servant?”

  Bang Jiao stopped cold. “If you would leave this school forever, boy, the gate’s that way.” He pointed to the north.

  Qiang sobbed and dropped to his knees, desperately kowtowing, despite his pain and the blood seeping from a wound still not fully healed.

  Alex froze, stunned.

  It seemed that, gifted as Bang Jiao was, even two healings in twenty-four hours had taxed him.

  “No, Master. Please, I want to be a part of this academy more than anything!”

  “Then come. And be grateful two cultivators, far more enlightened than I fear you will ever be, have elected to show you mercy this night.”

  Without another word, a sobbing Qiang followed Bang Jiao, who was soon out of sight.

  “Alex, are you alright?” Concerned words from Zhu Bi, and the worried expressions on both friends’ faces were a soothing balm to Alex’s soul.

  He smiled, appreciating that they had waited until entering his pagoda, away from outsider’s prying ears and further cloaked by shadow, before saying a word.

  “I’m fine, guys. Thank you both.” He chuckled softly. “I was just on the verge of another breakthrough, I think, when that idiot decided to pick a fight with me.”

  “And he’s damned lucky you chose not to kill him,” said Yingpei, shaking his head.

  Alex’s smile hardened. “Yes. He is. More lucky than he will ever know.”

  Zhu Bi paled, obviously recalling what he had done to certain agents of the Red prince, to say nothing of others he had taken care of even more ruthlessly when ascending far beyond the po
int where his friends had left off. But all she said was, “Alex, you missed lunch! Would you like us to get anything for you?”

  Alex smiled her offer. “That would be lovely. As it stands, I think I’ll be studying these treatises for the rest of the night. I just know I’m on the verge of something, and I’d love to see if I can actually get it to work.”

  Yingpei chuckled. “I’ll say this, Alex: you are committed. I don’t think I’ve ever known a cultivator as focused as you.”

  Alex laughed, shrugging with a feigned nonchalance. “I guess that’s what happens when you know that the cost of failing to ascend as rapidly and skillfully as you can is a rather brutal death at the hands of people who despise your very existence.”

  Zhu Bi paled, lowering her head. “That sounds like a terrible way to live.”

  Alex gently shook his head. “Actually, It’s an incredible rush, grasping ahold of brilliant concepts and fresh new insights while feeling your body grow stronger, faster, and more coordinated than you ever thought was possible, let alone the joy of learning to harness the flow of the elements coursing through your blood. So please don’t worry about me. I embrace this path because I enjoy bettering myself, and I absolutely love the fact that I’m slowly coming to understand the natural forces of this world. The fact that it allows me to defend myself against idiots like Qiang is just an added bonus.”

  His merchant friend nodded in approval, before blinking in surprise as Alex tossed Qiang’s purse his way.

  “Alex?”

  Alex grinned. “One of these days, I’m going to lose a fight with maximum stakes. It’s inevitable. But any gift I give you can’t be claimed by another, and I think it’s better that I don’t even know what’s in there.”

  His friend gave an approving smile. “Well then, I accept your gift. And if, one day, I choose to gift you in turn…”