A girl whose last moments had been spent gazing at Alex with the desperate hope of a woman longing for the man she would call hero all her days. The future father of her children.
Only to die howling like an animal in torment before the infernal merchant Hao Zei’s mocking laughter, the bloated monster smiling at Alex all the while.
It was all Alex could do to choke back the fury now blazing through his soul once more, wanting nothing more than to wring the neck of that vile monster. And for all that the bloated clerk looked only superficially like the grotesque merchant, the avarice in his gaze and the malicious smile were one and the same. Two peas in a pod. Or, perhaps, two cultivators walking a very similar path. A path of darkest excess, of corruption, greed, and damnation.
“Alex, what’s wrong?”
The inquiry immediately snapped Alex back into focus as Jing Le reached for the scrolls on the countertop.
Before Alex knocked them all away.
Artificer Skillcheck made. Familiarity bonuses in effect!
The clerk’s eyes widened in outrage. “How dare you, Ruidian cur!”
The fully armored instructor glared at Alex with a killing rage. “What is the meaning of this, Aspirant?”
Alex didn’t bother with words, merely picking up one of the contracts that had unfortunately fallen on the public side of the counter, darting down with gloves of Dark Qi upon his hand which he didn’t bother hiding, before a single student could touch the thing.
“I’m sorry, I think I accidentally knocked this over,” Alex said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “And how wrong it is for a lowly student like me to dare touch such a sacred treasure. Here, Master Wei, how about you hold it?”
Alex offhandedly tossed the black-ribboned scroll to the man, who actually squealed and stumbled back, gazing at the inert scroll as if it were a live viper.
Alex smiled coldly into the dead silence, a dozen students gazing at Wei, Alex, and Fu Bai the clerk, with looks ranging between confusion, horror, and fury.
“What’s wrong, Master Wei? That’s nothing but a perfectly inert job assignment, isn’t it? You were practically demanding we each take one and proceed to the… what was it? The processing center just as fast as we could, weren’t you?” Alex's cold smile grew. “If one didn’t know better, one would think you were afraid of that innocent little scroll. Almost as if it was a binding trap that would entangle our souls in bonds of inescapable Fate Qi, enslaving us to whatever master you deemed fit to sell us to.”
Alex raised his voice, looking not at a snarling Wei, but at the handful of late-stage Bronze cultivators making their way to the front with surly expressions, as if forced to accept that there was no choice but to deal with the smug-looking contract clerk. Surly expressions that abruptly twisted with horror and outrage as Alex’s words washed over them. “Be careful, those are infernal contracts! Phoenix Academy has fallen to the wiles of the Red Prince and his minions. Get out while you can, and warn your friends, or you’ll be wearing his colors and be bound by his chains before you know it!”
Three pairs of eyes widened with horrified alarm.
“We owe you, Ruidian,” said one, darting for the door so fast, he was clearly a speed cultivator.
Alex caught the gazes of the other two, intently regarding the tableau before them. “Here’s hoping you keep the source of your knowledge a secret, because I’m not done here yet. Not quite.”
This earned him dark smiles and nods, the pair of cultivators turning around and heading for the door as if they had not a care of the world, moving with the stance of former JiangHu sect members who knew how this game was played at least as well as Alex.
The other three Bronze-ranked cultivators were looking at Alex with cold skepticism.
“All I see is a fool of an Aspirant who nearly assaulted his master,” said one.
“You’ll pay for that, Ruidian, filth! You’ll pay for that in blood!” screamed Wei, lurching back to his armored feet while carefully avoiding the contract still rolling on the ground.
Qi Perception check made! Artificer skill check made!
Infernal artifacts are now in play!
Alex returned a humorless smile. “Well then, perhaps I owe you the gravest of apologies and should kowtow before both of you, were the clerk not in possession of a tainted war hammer!”
The clerk, now standing tall and radiating the dark, caustic fury of an infernal cultivator who reveled in his strength, stopped in his tracks. The sickly crimson energies radiating from the spiked hammer made of tortured steel so blatantly emanated torment and death that even the basic cultivators were stumbling back and crying out in mortal terror.
Alex chuckled coldly. “And perhaps it all could be a simple misunderstanding, our newest instructor looking at us like we were dirt and terrified of the very contracts he would bind our souls to. And who am I to judge another man’s hammer?”
Alex’s mocking smile hardened, even as he poured his Qi into Shield of the Grove, only now doing that which he had never dared, save in the privacy of his own warded hut… covering it all in Qi of perfect ebony darkness.
“That is, of course, if you’ll both give us all your cultivator’s oaths that you were unaware that those contracts were infernally tainted, and that you had absolutely no intention of binding us to fate-linked documents that would effectively make us the Red Prince’s soldiers or slaves!”
Alex stared at the pair of men, who did nothing but sneer and spit, glaring at Alex with caustic hate that said all that was needed.
Qi Perception check made!
Alex glanced up at the remaining Bronze cultivators, now gazing upon the infernal clerk and corrupt instructor so blatantly kitted out as one of the Red Prince's men in horrified awe.
“By the Fox, I think he’s right!” whispered one to the others, all of them now staring Alex’s way with transfixed awe; only one managed to cry out in time.
“Look out!”
But the roaring clerk had already struck, his deadly hammer whistling through the air like the screams of tortured children with the stench of brimstone in its wake, splinters peppering the shrieking basic cultivators, who were horrified to find themselves in the crucible of actual combat where the stakes weren’t rank or prestige, but life and death itself.
The diabolic clerk laughed like a madman. “You fools are next, daring to think you can take on a Silver!”
Only to gaze on in furious disbelief when the flooring ruptured in splinters and flame, but the Ruidian he had aimed for was nowhere to be seen.
Bullrush! Bullrush!
You sense your opponent’s weakness!
Infernal Wards detected!
Dark Qi Greeves successfully summoned.
Black Swan!
The massive cultivator howled like a wounded beast when his knee exploded in a spray of blood, gristle, and shattered bone as Alex acted on instinct, spinning around for a deadly heel kick with the power of a thundering tsunami behind his blow.
It wasn’t fatal.
Because it didn’t have to be.
Yet that didn’t stop the howling monster from trying to lurch back to his feet, seething with hate as he bellowed at Alex, before screaming in agony and stumbling back to the ground when he put wait on his mangled leg as Alex darted away in the blink of an eye.
“Kill them all; I have us warded!” roared the incensed clerk, whispering dark curses that caused the air to catch ablaze, forcing Alex’s classmates to scream in pain and scurry back.
Wei flashed a cold smile and nodded, rising back to his feet. “None of these fools will be able to penetrate wards as strong as yours, Fu Bai. And now they will pay the price for failing to defer to their betters! They wish to embrace the bitter? Then embrace it, they shall!”
With a final sneer, the man began chanting in an eerie monotone pitch as he drew out a serpentine blade that twisted and undulated with venomous Qi. The diabolic cultivator then summoned forth a swirling mass of ebony flame as
his undulating blade dove for the closest student’s throat, the infernalist flashing a cruel smile for the students freezing with horror, too stunned even to act.
Just before his head exploded like a pomegranate, spraying half of Alex’s shrieking classmates in crimson gore as his sword went flying. The girl who had caught death’s promise before her miraculous save collapsed with a cry.
But not before retributive currents tore through Alex’s flesh as well.
Adderstrike! Dark Qi Gauntlet successfully pierces all Infernal Wards!
You have critically struck your target.
Wujen has perished!
You are temporarily stunned!
A part of Alex wanted to howl like a wolf himself, reveling in a righteous kill. For too long, he had been forced to hold back as shadowy players advanced their pieces in such a way as to imperil an entire city, never knowing for sure who the real monsters were.
But here and now, against a treacherous serpent who had laughed at the thought of burning alive students who had entrusted their very cultivation bases to his munificence and wisdom, Alex felt nothing but fiercest vindication, striking the foul cultivator dead.
Before falling to the ground, screaming in agony without end, his opponent’s Death Curse now ripping through Alex’s soul.
Eternal Fox modifies save versus oblivion. Infernal Death Curse has been muted to Stunning Blow!
Eternal Fox skill check made. Power Healing successful, despite temporary incapacity!
You have successfully defeated Rank 1 Silver wujen. Experience earned!
Perception check failed due to Infernal Qi Backlash!
You have been critically struck!
It was everything he could do to channel that brilliant flood of experience which he received from his kill into the most concrete applications of force and power by summoning gauntlets of Dark Qi so resilient that not even infernal deathcurses could oppose his blows in that heartbeat, in a desperate bid to retain consciousness against the retributive strike that had come so close to spelling his doom.
The agony was extreme, yet the flood of potency he had earned meant that his insight into this battle had grown by leaps and bounds.
So much so that he knew, even without catching the widening gazes of a dozen cultivators seeming to look on in slow-motion horror, that he had overestimated the crippling power of his earlier heel kick.
Next time, he would strike with such force and fury that even an Infernal Rusted Mountain’s patella would rupture completely under the blow, no ligaments remaining.
But that would do nothing to stop the roaring monster that had just slammed Alex prone before gripping him between two inhumanly strong arms, effortlessly crushing bones as brittle as twigs compared to a Silver strength cultivator’s, his glaring weakness now imperiling his life like never before.
A moment’s loss of focus, a single stunning blow, and even the slowest of Strength cultivators could crush him like glass, as he had no bone strengthening technique at all.
Bones which were now being squeezed to pulp by an infuriated infernalist who, though hobbled, was more than able to launch himself through the air with his one good leg and slam into the temporarily stunned would-be hero. Alex was unable to pull himself from his desperate attempts to recover from an infernal curse before death crashed into him once more.
He had been only a split second away from leaping free of his foe.
But as he discovered to his agonized horror, a half-second was all that was needed to kill him.
Right humerus has been shattered! Left humerus has been crushed! You have no body enhancing techniques! Your frame is reinforced by zero bone strengthening techniques!
Resilience check versus Silver-ranked infernal body cultivator has resulted in critical failure!
Your opponent has successfully ripped right arm free of shoulder socket!
You are suffering from critical blood loss!
Rank 12 Eternal Fox enhances Vitality check: You have saved versus instant death from shock!
Your opponent is now beating you to death with your own arm!
You are suffering five points of bludgeoning damage and twenty points of blood loss every five seconds!
The room rang with the laughter of a madman.
“How does it feel to have your arm ripped clean out of your socket, fool? Daring to strike the great and terrible Fu Bai? An insignificant worm like you? Ha! Wei was a weakling, to die by your blows!”
The air rang with the shrieks of panicked students, and while all he could do was spit blood, no one was more horrified than Alex to see his own mutilated arm lifted up by a gleefully smiling madman before being pounded into his flinching skull. Again and again.
Power Healing engaged!
And it was only basest instinct, and the flood of excess potency finally having an outlet, that allowed the shattered splinters of his left humerus to fuse together once more as the spurting blood from his right arm lessened to a steady trickle. Yet Alex still had to endure his skull being slammed into the hardwood floor repeatedly, even with his one still intact arm raised to desperately ward against a Silver Giant’s strength.
Had it been anything other than bone, cushioned by his own meat, slamming against his skull, had his foe been anything other than a sadistic madman, Alex knew he’d already be dead.
As it was, the messages continuing to ring across his interface made it clear that he had suffered numerous hairline fractures to his cranium, his left forearm also crumpling under the furious onslaught of the laughing wujen’s attack. Power Healing could barely keep up with the damage he was enduring, his stunned body capable of nothing more than frantically twisting aside as death pounded into him again and again.
“Leave him alone!”
He was so close to dying like a fool before a feminine scream cut through the air. The voice was filled not with fear, but fury, as a shimmering jian plunged into the infernal clerk’s neck, thrust by none other than a defiant Jing Le.
The girl caught Alex’s stunned gaze with one of terror and desperate hope when he was finally able to lurch free of the madman.
Fu Bai roared and spun with furious eyes, pinning Jing Le with his killing stare as he effortlessly plucked free the jian that had no hope of penetrating a body enhanced by dark rites and who knew how many years of Rusted Mountain Body Cultivation technique.
“Jing Le! Run!” Alex screamed with his mind, desperately trying to shake free of his stupor. A surge of furious will finally cauterized his shoulder socket completely shut, health pool less than half of what it should have been.
But of course, without a single trace of Spiritual Qi affinity, Jing Le heard nothing at all and simply stood there, the beautiful girl frozen in terror as the monster before her roared, grabbed her hair, and tore her head off.
Time seemed to freeze in that moment.
Arrested as Alex shrieked within the frenzied madness of his own mind.
Never had he hated himself so much for having been caught so off guard, for nearly being killed by a grotesque bloated monster of a madman, after making a single mistake in a world that allowed absolutely none.
And for such horrors, there could be only one response.
His earlier fears and hesitancy meant nothing.
Whatever pathetic secrets this school held would forever be out of his reach.
General Shalu and his brothers had countless centuries of duplicity, treachery, and malice beyond anything Alex could hope to counter, and they would always, always find a way to sabotage his attempts at every turn.
It didn’t matter that they had no way to verify exactly where he was or what gambit he would try. WiFu had already made it exquisitely clear that Alex’s goal was the Jade tome here at Risen Phoenix Academy that Long Wang’s own son had left behind, countless centuries ago.
And Alex was now bitterly certain that if WiFu had let slip no hints at all, the darkest of gambits and maneuvers would instead be taking place in every single cultivat
ion school, within every single city, within the whole damned empire. One would almost think that WiFu’s goal had been as much about damage control, saving countless thousands of cultivators from the depredations of infuriated gods, as it had been about goading his brothers or leading them all on like marionettes, dancing to his tune.
In that awful, surreal moment, horrified eyes helplessly locked upon the laughing monster before him, drenched in an innocent girl’s blood, Alex had absolutely no doubt that Shalu, Long Wang, and Zheng Yi would let the entire world burn if it kept Alex from ascending. If it meant that they would never have to bear Alex’s reviled presence ever again.
“So be it!” Alex bellowed, embracing sweetest fury, hating himself just as much as he did his enemies at that moment, caring absolutely nothing about the flood of ice-cold water now under his feet. Shui Jun’s deadly sweet susurrations caressed his ear with the lap of perilous waves, serpentine tongue laughing at the madness of Alex daring to embrace the deadliest of waters when he was so close to death himself.
It was then that Alex began to roar.
Howling like a madman as the diabolic monster turned to face him, lips stretching wide in a fanged grin as Alex charged straight for his foe.
“So! The delusional worm actually has the strength to get up after all. Come! Charge at me, fool, your one arm against my three! It will be a fitting end to your life, when I tear all your limbs off and shove them up your—“
"SOUL CLEAVE!"
Alex roared the words aloud, closing the remaining distance in the blink of an eye.
The monster’s sneer turned to wide-eyed surprise when he gazed down at the massive rent spurting blood from the gaping hole in his chest.
Crashing to his knees in a shower of crimson, the infernal cultivator gazed at nothing save the green-eyed kitsune girl chained behind the counter, glaring her hate at the monster who had enslaved her, her eyes alone reflecting the image of death coming to claim his due.
“How did you pierce my… no… I can’t fall here! A single moment is all I…”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 61