He chuckled softly. In so many games, which this universe admittedly was not, they were considered intertwined spheres, if not treated by Druids in stories as one and the same.
For long moments, he just stood there and meditated the way he used to in the Deep Wood, seeking simply to be one with the lush green grass under his feet. One with the swaying trees rustling with good-natured humor at his foolishness, just a few yards away.
Even one with the cool raindrops splashing across his brow as the starry night sky was hidden by clouds.
And Alex shuddered, suddenly understanding why the trees were rustling with such joviality.
And just how wool-headed he was being.
Water was the key.
And Fire as well.
For a waterless land was just as hostile to lush foliage as the driest desert.
It was rain that formed the bridge between hot, barren dust and rich, loamy soil.
Just as much as it was the golden sun above that allowed forests to reach great heights, soaring for the heavens above.
And as for metal…
Alex couldn’t help smiling, flowing into the forms of Silver Swan which he and Hao Chan had practiced with such fierce joy and abandon during the carriage ride that had lasted weeks, months, perhaps years, before being over in the blink of an eye.
And his sudden understanding of metal transcended the flow of time itself, everywhere and always part of the cycle, as it had eternally been.
Metal was tied to the rich minerals of the sea. To the nutrients in the soil that gave the trees soaring high above such life. Freed from stubborn stone by fire, forming the transient tools of man before dissolving into the gentle waters of lakes and oceans once more.
Slowly at first, then picking up speed, Alex embraced the deadly spinning kicks and sweeping blows that the sensual goddess of his heart had mastered so utterly. Feeling the power of the crashing waves, the roar of wild rivers bursting through all resistance with each blow, he lashed out with his legs and devastated training dummy after training dummy with whipping strikes and killing blows generated by nothing more than the fierce surge of Water and Metal Qi coursing through his meridians with each and every movement.
Water and Metal unified as one deadly whole, fluid and flexible before compressing to killing intensity at the moment of impact. The epitome of that lethal forbidden art manifested when a hyper-focused Alex spun around to face the final Silver mannequin, a fierce smile overtaking his features upon understanding what he had been missing. What should have been obvious from the beginning.
“Black Swan!” he roared as he whipped his body around, now sensing with greater clarity than ever before the fearsome concentration of Water and Steel Qi honed to a terrible razor’s edge that would slash through any lesser ward, any mortal armor. His spinning heel kick tore through the quicksilver mannequin with the force of a tidal wave, and Alex’s triumphant roar was nothing compared to the shriek of enchanted metal as the statue exploded in a shower of silvery droplets.
Alex shivered in the rain, his limbs tingling with insight and deadly potential. He took deep, shuddering breaths, desperate to grasp the tingling sense of transcendent insight shivering up and down his spine as the Silver-ranked mannequin reformed before his eyes.
And if he didn’t know better, he would have thought the metallic face before him had formed the tiniest of smiles.
Black Swan! Black Swan!
Ridge-Hand Strike pierces Silver-ranked Wards! You have successfully decapitated Silver-ranked mannequin!
Now!
Alex felt a fierce surge of potential, of endless possibility, as his ridge-hand strikes and spinning kicks cleaved through the mannequin like blades of impossibly sharp steel. The razor-sharp metallic water flooded through his Lower Dantian, filling his core and surging through his meridian channels. His body attuned to the deadliest of arts, so concurrent with those perilous waters that, did he wish it and did not fear death flooding these lands, he could cleave through a person’s very soul.
But those blows all still required full commitment and at least a 90-degree arc to his swing.
Only now, he held onto the sensation of the flooding river roaring down its banks, alongside the icy tang of a thousand piercing blades coating his stiffened fingers.
Knowing it was madness.
That agony would be his reward.
But refusing not to try.
Black Swan!
The sweet, hot joy of realizing that his pulpified hand had actually managed to pierce through five inches of indestructible Silver-ranked mannequin with his Spear Hand strike was almost worth the scream torn from his lips as his fingers crumpled to bloody pulp under the force of a thousand tons of crashing water.
You have attempted to alter an Advanced Silver Swan Assassination Technique! Skill check modified by Adept Status, Reaver’s Insight, Golden Apple of Wisdom, and Adept Water Strike (synergism emphasis.)
Saving throw versus meridian rupture made!
You have had Partial Success in altering the parameters of an attack that should be utterly beyond your ability to unleash!
Alex laughed aloud in the growing tempest, holding onto the sheer rush of channeling not just the power of the crashing waves, but the howling storm all around him.
He could the taste spiritual energy all but crackling in the air, struck anew by the vitality of elements that so many present-day paradigms pretended didn’t even exist.
Yet no one knew better than him, as his ridge-hand strike once more whipped through the air, cutting through the thick humidity as the night flashed with lightning which poured through him, just how real those elements were.
Stormstrike!
Black Swan!
Stormstrike!
You have saved versus Cardiac Arrest! (Major bonus for Eternal Fox Rank 12!) You have successfully channeled Lightning into your attacks!
Dual Path Limitations apply! Lightning may only affect single targets!
Alex paid the messages flashing inside his head no mind, eager to commune with an element he had only been able to embrace twice before, when he had been desperately struggling for survival in the darkest of storms.
He already had one skill that allowed him to race across the heavens.
Now, he would master Lightning itself.
Stormstrike!
Stormstrike!
Stormstrike!
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he rode furious inspiration, striking the mannequin with curled fists and sweeping kicks that would require no regeneration, no time wasted as he embraced the currents pouring through him and into his target.
Yet after only a double handful of attacks he was utterly drained, hair fried to a crisp, his heart racing with the currents that had both obliterated his target and resulted in burns throughout his body. And more than ever before, he was at risk of being discovered as he sensed others rapidly approaching. But what twisted his scorched flesh into a wild grin were the messages flashing across his mind’s eye.
He had finally learned how to channel Lightning Qi as an independent skill.
Congratulations! You have learned Stormstrike! Storm Strike is currently Rank 1! This Advanced Silver Swan technique channels lightning into your blows! Water-Metal-Lightning elements involved. Cost to use: Nine Qi and risk of Lightning damage. Increased skill rank will decrease cost, increase damage to all targets, and minimize damage to yourself.
Bullrush! Bullrush! Basic stealth check: Success!
You have successfully snuck back into your quarters!
Alex couldn’t help laughing in victory and exhaustion both.
For all that his night’s training had taken several unexpected turns, and he never was able to devise any independent Metal techniques, he now realized more clearly than ever why that was so, how everything was interconnected, and that, for him, Water and Metal would always be intertwined.
He had also managed to partially warp a killing skill that he probably had no b
usiness messing with. He had actually pierced that Silver-ranked mannequin with his spear hand strikes, for all that it had crushed multiple joints, despite him cupping his hand just as Master Liu Jian had taught him what now felt like a lifetime ago.
But what really filled him with awe and a fierce sense of exultation was finally, after having embraced flashes of the ability in dire moments with storms all around, managing to grasp ahold of the power of Lightning itself and lash out with a deadly series of Stormstrikes that, if he were fortunate, would allow him to summon lightning even when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Even if it would only affect one target.
Even if it singed him as well.
He winced and chuckled as he embraced Eternal Fox and did his best to heal his electric burns, both inside and out. The plus side was that he didn’t have to worry about increasing costs with each successive use on a target. And it was an attack he suspected very, very few enemies would be prepared for, if his recollection of both the brief flashes of lore he had read in the tales here, as well as the manga of the world he had once called his own, were true. Lightning was purportedly the best of all elements for destroying or abjuring creatures of the Underworld, both spirits and devils, and Alex was pretty sure it would work damned effectively against spirit beasts as well. Or at least, he hoped such was the case.
He did not get up from his meditation, feigning disciplined focus, even when he heard banging on his door accompanied by angry shouts. The interruptions were unfocused, disorganized, as if angry cultivators had come looking for answers that Alex was all too happy never to give.
As far as the school was concerned, he was a hard-working initiate doing all he could to study diligently and play by the rules.
But even so, he had dared an element known by very few who were not either of imperial blood, or the favored disciples of the gods above. A power so rarefied, few even bothered trying to balance it with the other five acknowledged elements. Even he knew that much from a single season at Dragon Academy. And it was the element Crown Princess Cui Zhe herself favored, she who was the unquestioned ruler of Cuijing Province, Baidushi city, and the chief patroness of this academy.
Somehow, he was certain that his halcyon days of peaceful study were numbered.
It was time to take the next step.
To enact plans regarding a certain library and all the secrets within that he had hoped to put off for as long as he could.
Fog of War Fate Card in play or no, Alex had no doubt that his foes could sense that a new cultivator had risen, able to control an element thought the domain of Lord Zheng Yi himself.
He could only imagine the things his enemies would do to lash out at the pawn who had dared to declare himself a player, now utterly beyond their gaze.
Even now, he feared he was running out of time.
34
“Aspirant, get up immediately! Morning meditation begins now!”
The words jolted Alex out of his exhausted slumber. He didn’t hesitate to hurry out of his pagoda, happy to find that he wasn’t the only one blinking tiredly in the first rays of dawn. He was careful to keep his expression as confused as everyone else’s, though he took no part in the gossip that students seem to enjoy, no matter the culture or location.
“Why do you think we were summoned so early?”
“Didn’t you see the lightning storm last night? Perhaps the gods are angry?”
“Quiet, he’s looking our way!”
Alex kept his head down, as did everyone else, kowtowing in the first light of dawn as a stern Bang Jiao and scowling Zha Shi approached the supplicants. All of them were ostensibly gathered for morning cultivation, but immediately supplicated themselves before their elders, who expressed their displeasure with a single glare and gesture.
The strained quiet was allowed to build for endless moments as now three elders watched them, the thin, heavy-eyed Nong now among their number.
Alex could have cut the tension with a knife.
A tension which strained against the lengthening silence before it was finally broken.
And much to Alex’s surprise, the words spoken were free of all anger, all judgement. The accusations, which Alex was growing to expect, never manifested.
He had taken steps just in case, of course, having kept his eye on a number of alchemically potent ingredients allowed to grow wild under the shade of nearby trees, to say nothing of mushrooms with the faintest trace of fluorescence flourishing between his own pagoda and several ornamental stones. That, in addition to the handful of vials a curious Zhu Bi had procured for him several days back when Alex had been thinking of putting his biochemical mastery to good use, was all he needed to prepare his own self-sabotage.
He was more than willing to take a hit to his prestige if it kept potential threats off his trail, no matter how much face it might cost him.
Fortunately, his greatest prizes had been safely hidden away before he had ever entered the school, sensing the powerful wards that would make summoning his Golden doors an effort. It was a cost he could more than pay with his Qi Pool, but he feared the alarms it would raise would dash all his plans to oblivion.
So he had chosen the slow and cautious approach, to enter and proceed as any other student, in order to see how far he could go before being forced to put cards into play from which there would be no going back.
His gut clenched when not one but three pairs of eyes locked upon him, fearing he might have gone too far with his cover. Because that alone could expel him if he wasn’t very, very careful.
And if he was really lucky, their ire would fall on a far more deserving student than he, or ignore their group entirely.
“A brilliant performance. Truly masterful!” Bang Jiao’s voice, wry with a tinge of calm, washed over them all. “Wouldn’t you agree, Zha Shi?”
The massive cultivator chuckled softly. “Indeed, I would, Elder. To think that one so gifted, of such prestige and caliber, would condescend to participate in such a humble training regimen as our own. Quite remarkable!”
“And we are quite flattered,” Bang Jiao assured. “Our only worry would be the loss of priceless opportunities, should one of such prestigious potential limit themselves to what we offer here in the Aspirant’s Quarter. No doubt they wished to get a head start on the Destined, due to arrive in a mere handful of weeks.”
“And of course, we support such a bold maneuver,” assured Nong. “The wise cultivator carefully examines all resources, all avenues, before taking the path best suited to his inclinations and objectives.”
“And in light of that truth, it is our desire to give that bold, daring cultivator what he or she truly seeks, the opportunity to avail themselves of all that our grand library offers!” assured Bang Jiao. “So, by all means, gather whatever resources you like, most especially any family or personal talismans you may have discreetly kept for reasons we need not get into. As soon as we are at the library, you need but show your true talisman to any librarian, and they will take immediate steps to allow you access to whatever tomes you desire, with one of our elite scholars designated to assist you in finding your most optimal path forward. Of course, this will come directly after making arrangements to assure you the finest living and dining quarters worthy of any Destined here at Royal Phoenix Academy, assuming your family didn’t already give you a guided study plan to follow. Either way, please know that the entire library will be at your disposal.”
Zha Shi flashed a toothy smile. “And for those of you Aspirants whose Talismans are exactly what we expect them to be, you too may rejoice! The Bronze section will be fully open to you to peruse at will, with twenty additional credits for each of you to invest in purchasing whatever mundane tomes you would like a copy of, or private study rooms you may use with any cultivation manual you select to borrow for the entire day in order to make use of this rare, golden opportunity.”
The three professors’ smiles grew at the excited murmurs overtaking the class.
> “Yes, quite a wondrous day to look forward to!” Nong declared. “Now, head to the dining hall and eat your fill. Double portions are available for all! And best you all fill your water skins before leaving. We’ll be at the library for the entire day, and though water or rice wine are permitted, food is absolutely forbidden, save for those who rent Silver tier rooms or walk the Ruler’s Path, of course!”
With that announcement they were all dismissed, a bemused Alex following his friends to the eating hall in a daze, more than slightly surprised by this unexpected turn of events.
“So, what do you think all that was about?” asked an animated Zhu Bi as they seated themselves at their customary table, closest to the door with a decent view of the entire room.
Alex swallowed a mouthful of delicious sweet and sour dumpling soup before answering. “I’m not sure, but the impression I got was that we were given one free escorted trip to the library per month that we remain Aspirants. Beyond that?” He shrugged. “I thought we were on our own. I certainly wasn’t expecting twenty bonus library credits. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
“We’re expected to have gained the strength and savvy to make the trip ourselves without fearing challenge, and with credits to our name either earned through work, crafting, or dueling,” said Yingpei.
Alex nodded in agreement with his merchant friend who was well-dressed as always in a perfectly tailored sky blue changshan tunic with matching pants, his sheathed jian skillfully secured by a crimson sash so as to be easily drawn while not hindering his ability to move freely or take his ease while eating and conversing, as he was now.
“Yet now we’re getting what’s essentially a free day to study whatever we like,” Yingpei continued. “At least twenty credits’ worth of materials, and free study room time. The question is… why?”
Zhu Bi’s features paled. “You guys don’t suppose…”
“The lightning? Yeah, I think that has something to do with it,” said Alex, keeping his expression as bland as possible.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 48