Chen Lei nodded. “She is.”
Alex closed his eyes, forcing himself to say it. “What happened?”
His friend didn’t bother mincing words. “They broke her, Alex. They tortured her body and forced black oaths upon her soul.” He clenched his jaw, his look of blackest fury mirroring Alex’s own. “Even now, she is bound by Dongfang Hong’s own collar.”
“A right mess, that girl is,” sighed Caojin. “We’ve had to turn off the sensory crystals within the inner sanctum from the moment we sought sanctuary here, after burning those diabolists hiding in the tunnels to ash.”
Cheng Lei nodded. “We got to her just barely in time. Her mind is still her own, but the minute she hears a single command from the headmaster or Dongfang Hong, she will obey.”
Alex closed his eyes and trembled as the winds of oblivion caressed his soul. Hearing the desperate shrieks of a girl in torment, and the mocking laughter of demons who would never let her go.
When he opened his eyes once more, he saw nothing but fear in the gazes of those he would call friends.
All stared at his arm, now as pale as the styxian waters he had made his own.
It was everything he could do to squeeze tight the black fury consuming him.
To pull his arm free of the River of Souls.
To force his mind back upon the path of insight, so as to devise the best path forward to achieving his goals.
His words were husky as he felt the hot sting of salt in his eyes. “Take me to her,” was all he said.
With a solemn bow, Cheng Lei gestured for Alex to enter their inner sanctum.
“Cousin, in her present state…”
“Move, Caojin.”
Mercifully his cousin quickly obeyed, Xun Hu slipping silently behind them as they entered the deepest heart of Phoenix Academy’s greatest treasure.
53
The innermost sanctum was exactly what one would expect for the study hall of future emperors and kings.
Hardwood furniture upholstered in padded silk, tables of finest marble, inlaid with jade and gold, their surfaces covered with priceless artifacts, works of art, and magical flowers that somehow survived on the ambient spiritual energy alone, a beautiful sanctuary hidden behind the mightiest of wards. Of particular interest was a golden chest which Alex sensed would duplicate whatever foods were placed inside every dawn, assuring even the most isolated scholars hot, filling meals at least once a day. There was also a jewel-encrusted silver carafe whose spiritual enchantments somehow tapped into the endless cold waters of distant lakes, allowing one to parch one’s thirst without ever having to leave this luxurious yet cozy shelter.
Yet more captivating than anything else was the magnificent display of golden tomes that would take any man’s breath away, each one resting upon its own felt-lined shelf, radiating the burnished glow of privilege, prestige, and mastery.
To say nothing of the countless stacks of fine leather-bound books of empty vellum, and quills he sensed would never run out of ink, all resting upon adjoining shelves to the masterworks in question. For there would be no stinting of supplies for the precious few souls whose destiny it was to enter these fine chambers.
Alex ignored it all.
For all his fierce resolve to secure his own objectives first… someone he had already risked his life to save once before was once again in desperate, dire peril.
Alex could sense her peril, even as his friend led him past the magnificent library and study, worthy of any prince, along a short corridor of marble and jade, and down a series of spiraling golden steps. He was somehow not at all surprised to find that this inner sanctum, containing prizes which any prince or king would hunger for, would also possess the most luxurious and grand apartments deep within.
Yet he paid no attention to glimpses of silk bed sheets, wardrobes of jade-lined teak, or game boards fashioned of jade and pieces of ebony and ivory. The exquisitely rendered landscapes of vibrant color upon the walls, or squid ink alone applied upon wood panels with such exquisite mastery that a dozen colors were implied, were masterworks that he caught only the barest glimpse of, as he followed his friend to the farthest royal chamber, feeling as if he were walking through a dream.
Or perhaps, a nightmare.
Tasting the rot in the air.
A sickly stench of agony and despair so reminiscent of his final days.
Horrors locked in the vaults of his memory, ones he had hoped never to glimpse again.
Until he did.
Inspecting a face once beautiful, now ravaged, Alex’s heart clenched at the sight of Cui Chan’s exquisite features—though he’d glimpsed them only for a second when he had been desperately struggling to free her from a nightmare’s grip—now covered in awful looking runes the shade of dried blood, radiating what felt to Alex like a corruption of Fate, Fire, Metal, and Spirit Qi.
Marked, just as he had dreamed, before pushing it all away.
And to his horror… he could sense that the wounds covering what seemed to be every inch of the sleeping princess’s flesh hadn’t just branded her skin.
The twisted curses of burning karma were tattooed upon her very soul.
Alex lurched back as the princess abruptly thrashed and cried, the very room reeking of illness, sweat, and despair, as if she were lost in some feverish nightmare, though her frightened eyes were wide when she twisted and thrashed upon her bed.
And then Alex saw it, when shaking claw-like hands reached out and she began to sob, the collar of bitter steel around her neck.
“Alex?”
Alex clenched his fist, his friend instantly falling silent as he bit back the scream clawing at his throat and forced himself to focus for all he was worth upon the dying girl before him.
Qi Perception Check made! Critical Success! You sense the miasma of corrupted Qi. You recognize the mark of the one who made it!
And for a horrid split second, Alex was there.
There when Cui Chan’s inquisitive gaze, surrounded by gushing assistants, turned to one of horrified disbelief when the friendly headmaster ushered her to what should have been her private retreat, before turning into the darkest of fiends, binding her in ice as fawning sheep revealed the fangs of wolves. Spirit Wolves. All of them radiating the stink of absolute corruption as they gripped her tight, and a laughing monster of a man, looking as demonic as human, leaned down to leer at her.
“So this is Cui Zhe’s firstborn? Wonderful! I can think of no greater way to pay that bitch back for closing my coven’s contracts than by corrupting her daughter’s very soul with the bitter black debt in karma that will now be Baidushi’s burden to bear for all time!”
The cavernous chamber roared with mocking laughter. “Pathetic fools! Thinking they could get the best of me!”
Alex’s horror was almost as great as Cui Chan’s own, before pain, agony, and the nightmare of absolute betrayal washed all cogent thought away.
Yet one horrific truth burned through his soul like no other.
The monstrous diabolist who had covered the princess in infernal runes and infected her very soul with his taint…was none other than the infernal merchant Hao Zei.
A monster who should be long dead.
A monster alive only because gods mad with hate had forced him back to life, simply so he could drag Alex back to the Realm of the Dead with him.
Yet that hadn’t quite worked according to plan.
Instead, that monster of a merchant had fled the Cards of Calamity just as expeditiously as Alex himself had, involving himself in acts so dark and repellent, it was almost as if Alex’s enemies had played their card against the realm entire. As if they were more than willing to destroy an entire nation, if it took Alex out along with everyone else.
And the collar around Cui Chan’s neck… he trembled in revulsion, having no doubt, absolutely no doubt, that had he hesitated for even a moment in the mad path through life he had dared, had he fallen to peril’s caress instead of rising up like the phoen
ix reborn, time and time again… that collar or its dark twin would be tightly clasped around the neck of the girl who had already claimed his heart.
Instead of cutting into the flesh of the now very much awake princess, who watched him with red-rimmed eyes filled with fathomless despair.
Yet still, she managed, somehow, to force a broken smile.
“You’re here.”
Alex squeezed back the tears stinging his eyes… now flowing free.
“I am,” he said.
And why did he feel such a bitter ache in his chest? He had known her only for a heartbeat in time.
Yet his fierce desire to rescue an innocent soul from ultimate damnation had inspired a moment of such transcendent grace that he had actually ascended.
For a single heartbeat in time, he had embraced sainthood.
Before falling to depths that would have already damned him… had karma not been cleaved from his soul for all time.
Her smile grew into something bittersweet and poignant, as tears streamed freely from her bloodshot eyes.
“I had so hoped you would find me, like a hero out of legends, coming to my rescue, before they… before they…”
She broke down in sobs, and somehow Alex was holding her as she shrieked and wept into his arm.
His friend Cheng Lei raised a single concerned hand, before slowly lowering it once more.
Alex nodded, instantly understanding, as he held the broken girl close.
Sensing the girl’s awful taint.
Before burning it away with a single fierce surge of his will.
Eternal Fox trumps Infernal Taint! All traces of Infernal Taint have been cleansed from your body!
“I dreamed of you, coming to my rescue, hero, even when those monsters laughed and made every waking moment a living hell. Still, you were there, smiling back at me with that same sad smile I’ve seen every night that I dreamed of you coming to my rescue. Unchanged for the last ten years. The same gentle smile I see on your face even now.”
Alex froze.
Heart lurching in his chest.
“Ten years?”
He barely whispered the words, but it was enough to earn the faintest of wry smiles.
“And you look just the same as you did then.”
Only for a moment did Alex allow shock to overwhelm him, wondering just how long he had been lingering between wakefulness and oblivion in death’s waters before he had finally pulled himself free.
It had felt like only moments, perhaps hours, before a certain smiling fox had coaxed him to swim for shore.
But according to the ravaged princess before him…
An entire decade had gone by.
Now there could be no doubt.
He really had died that day.
Utterly and completely.
Yet he had risen once more. From death’s coldest depths, he had risen, with his memories and experiences both intact.
And somehow, he was utterly, absolutely certain, that even if this wasn’t the first life he had lived, not by far, never had he held on to experience and memories between lives before. At least, not so thoroughly as he had this time.
The final life he would ever live, if his enemies had their way.
Alex gently smiled down at the girl trembling in his arms, even as he swallowed his screams, sensing a thousand vicious, burning cords connecting her soul to countless others, a flood of tainted karma and bitter corruption continuously flooding her soul.
His mind flashed back to desperate moments when he had been racing through endless ruins, chased down by men who wanted him dead at all costs, helpless before the blood curse that unerringly led them right to him.
Until he had figured out the secret to slipping free of that deadly trap.
He smiled down at the once beautiful woman secured in his arms. “First things first. How about we see about slipping you free of that collar?”
“Alex…” Cheng Lei’s expression was pained even as Cui Chan shuddered.
“You can’t!” she whispered.
He raised a polite eyebrow. “Why not?”
“Because to even try is to invite a wave of agony that burns you from within! And I… I was ordered to fight off any attempts to remove it. And now, even though there is nothing that I want more than to be free of this collar and this nightmare…” she sobbed, panicked eyes gazing desperately into his own. “I can’t help but obey!”
Alex clenched his jaw at the declaration, all but hearing Hao Zei’s mocking laughter in his mind. He remembered all too clearly that monster’s malevolent smile while butchering An Li right before his eyes, just as she broke free of her collar, her eyes alight with desperate hope before it was forever torn away as Hao Zei ripped out her heart.
And that monster had done it out of sheer spite, savoring Alex’s pain and bitter, helpless fury.
“Hero?”
Her voice was little more than a despair-laden whisper, the weight of her sorrow bowing her too-thin neck. Knowing there was nothing that could be done.
“I’m sorry, Alex,” said Cheng Lei. “Caojin and I have wracked our brains, and keeping her isolated, away from the study area and any chance of hearing commands, the few times we dared tried to negotiate with those damned monsters… it was the best we could do.”
“And only a genius or a fool would dare attempt manipulating one of those collars without the key,” said Caojin, who had slipped in the room beside them, frowning and shaking his head as Cui Chan sunk upon the bed, immediately slipping into an exhausted slumber once more.
“Was she always this weak, since you rescued her?” Alex asked.
Caojin scowled.
Cheng Lei sighed and shrugged. “Regrettably. I’m no healer, Alex. But I fear if we can’t find her help soon, especially with the headmaster doing everything he can to capture and, let’s be frank, collar us if he possibly can…”
“Can you truly get us out so discreetly that even Cui Chan can slip free of this noose, Ruidian?” asked a frowning Caojin.
Much to the noble’s surprise, Alex nodded. “I can form a gate and port you through at any time. But I’d rather not risk any infernal ties slipping through. That would be a very, very bad idea.”
That earned a cynical snort. “A gate? An artifact of legends? Do you truly think we’re such—” Caojin’s eyes widened in sudden alarm. “Stop, you idiot. You’ll ki—”
Artificer skill check made! +4 familiarity bonus in effect: Critical success! Previous experience means you understand this slave collar almost as well as the original maker!
You have covered Slave Collar with a thin sheen of your own blood.
You have forced Dark Qi within lock.
Artificer Skillcheck made! Fire Qi surge neutralized. You have successfully popped open Slave Collar!
Caojin’s eyes bulged. Cheng Lei flashed an awed smile.
“What you just did is impossible! How did you…”
Alex quickly placed a finger to his lips, slowly, ever so slowly pulling the now inert collar free of Cui Chan’s flesh, though he couldn’t help wincing at the pus-filled sores just underneath. “Shh! Not another word. You might wake her!”
“Heaven’s mercy, he did it! He actually freed her!” whispered an awed Caojin.
“Alex… you know that what you just accomplished is impossible for anyone below Gold, right? And I fear this feat is beyond the mastery of even my newly ascended cousin,” Cheng Lei murmured, unable to mask his own astonishment.
“If I had dared… I could have freed the collar, but she would have been a pile of ash,” Caojin breathed, clearly shaken by what he had just witnessed.
Alex ignored their words, frowning down at the girl still covered in pulsating runes.
“Alright. It’s done,” said Caojin. “Now let’s get out of here while we can.”
Alex shook his head, horrified by what he still sensed.
Soul Sight skill check: Success!
In a flash, he saw it. More than saw it, he cou
ld feel it. The horrific twisting in the gut as one’s nightmares came to life. The screams of innocent servants begging for mercy, gazing wide-eyed at a stunned princess, told only she could save them… before their hearts were torn free of their chest with the sickening crack of bone and gristle by a manically laughing Hao Zei.
“It is you that allows us to do this, harlot! Your weakness! Your cowardice, your unworthy soul, daring to wear a ruler’s mantle! And you will pay for those sins, whore! Pay with the weight of all who perish in pain and fear as your soul greedily drinks in the sin that shall be yours!”
And like the most horrific of nightmares, the monstrous, demonic Hao Zei loomed over her, face stretching in an inhuman grin. “You feel it, don’t you? Your veins blackening with sin. For we have bound you to us, jezebel, for all time!”
His chortle became a roar of laughter as he smeared her trembling skin with the blood of his sacrifices, whispering horrific words that seared her soul as her flesh began to burn.
“And now you truly feel the weight of your family’s failures and your eternal folly! For we would never dare consign these innocent souls to hell, did you not accept the weight of their sin! Therefore YOU are responsible for their deaths, YOU are responsible for their damnation, and YOU must weep with the bitter tears of karma so black, you will be sent to hell for eternity, even as we revel and feast upon the power before us!”
And the horror of it was, those words had destroyed her. She had crumpled before them, her mind ravaged by agony even as they ravaged her flesh and soul. And to Alex’s disgust and fury, it seemed as if that infernal ritual had worked. He finally understood how Hao Zei and monsters like him were able to get away with such vile savagery without being condemned to hell.
How many incarnations had they walked this identical path? Souls so black, they didn’t just poison themselves, but all those unfortunate enough to cross their paths.
Alex’s fists clenched with something beyond outrage, observing the broken girl curling into a ball, shaking with the abomination of her own existence.
The monsters who had done this to her… there could be no forgiveness. No mercy.
Not in this lifetime.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 80