"Good."
"The game is up, cursed fox-spawn! The power of the Red Prince is now at my disposal!" Sudong's cold, ugly laughter resonating from Alex's spy portal seemed to fill the entire inner sanctum. "Oh, how eagerly I look forward to having you in my hands, you despicable cur! My clan will exalt me when I am done with you, you monstrous abomination!"
Only with those words did Alex pop back up to glare through the portal. "If you enter this chamber, you will be embracing your own death. Leave this library and never return, if you want to live!" The empty threats brought nothing but derision and laughter from the Gold masters, Silver instructors, even his former classmates, both Basic and Bronze. Of course, the handful of Adepts who had tried so hard to crush him were there as well.
"It will be good to see you pay for your crimes, Ruidian filth!" spat Cao, the Fire Adept who had so despised Alex for getting the best of him.
Alex said nothing, keeping his face perfectly blank as his portal conveyed the hostile glares of dozens of cultivators, all of them no doubt eager for his head.
"Now, fools! Everyone join hands and embrace the power of Flame. Feel the Red Prince's fiery might flowing through your veins! Let it pass through you and into this damned door!"
With eerie discipline, absolutely everyone simultaneously closed their eyes and began to cultivate.
The raw, unbridled power which Alex could sense, even from the other side of the barrier, was beyond impressive.
And catching Sudong's gaze, reading the maniacal hatred in the man's eyes, gave him chills, despite all the cards he now had in play.
But ready or not, Alex was determined to see this through.
Even when Sudong flashed a too-knowing smile his way. "You thought yourself so smart, disciple of the Fool. And a fool you truly will be, when I have you castrated and in chains, begging for mercy before Prince Dongfang Hong himself, who will no doubt delight in pulling free your intestines, one bloody loop at a time!" Sick, ugly laughter filled the air between them. "I am eager to show you the errors of your ways, abomination, with such exquisite precision that it will haunt your shattered soul for a dozen lifetimes to come!"
Only then did Alex flash his coldest smile, hiding his true feelings no longer.
"Thank you for that. No, really, I mean it. Knowing what kind of creatures you all are makes things so much easier." And with a single surge of will, one gate was closed and another revealed. "Well then, what are you waiting for, Head Fool Sudong? Come and claim your tomes!"
The headmaster's eyes widened, perhaps having sensed that his surge of focused Qi, while truly impressive, had done absolutely nothing to collapse the gate.
Until the moment it disappeared, and the silvery sparkle of the inner sanctum's abruptly unrestricted portal revealed to everyone that something had changed.
"We have done it!" Sudong roared, eyes flashing with wicked triumph. "Come, men! Prove your worth as soldiers of the Prince! We will capture that bastard for our master's pleasure and be rewarded above all other men!"
And with a bloodthirsty cry, Sudong, covered in shimmering wards, was the first to jump through that gate.
Followed by dozens of others, just a heartbeat later.
Until only a handful of Alex’s former classmates shifted from blinking awkwardly to glaring intently at his still coldly smiling visage looking right back at them through the portal.
"You're going to die; you know that, don't you, Alex?" sneered his former classmate Yu Chun, along with two other boys and three girls, none of them even Bronze. All of them fingered their earlobes uncomfortably as they continued to glare.
Alex shrugged. "Always possible. But then again, that's pretty much been my destiny for more lives than you can count."
This earned him a couple confused stares and a few lowered gazes. He merely shook his head. "Is this really how you want your life to end, Yu Chun?"
The boy's eyes widened. "Us? We made the right choice! We're on the winning team! It's you whose life is in mortal peril!"
"Do you really think so? Because I'll tell you what I see from my end." He solemn gaze held their own. "I see six young cultivators who had heard such wonderful things about this academy that they had been willing to risk their lives for a shot at achieving their dreams. For a chance to form alliances and friendships with wise, gentle instructors who would help them ascend to glorious heights. I see classmates, much like I had once been, daring to believe there really was a school where integrity, hard work, and bettering oneself meant something, where the school would find its strength in nurturing brilliant minds for the benefit of future generations."
They lowered their bitter stares as his voice softened with compassion.
"Only for all their trusts to be betrayed, even after they had risked their lives in good faith, only to find that the ugliest of world-weary politics had infected even this sanctuary, right before they were basically forced at swordpoint to swear their allegiance and taint their souls, or die by the blade."
Alex's gaze met the red-rimmed eyes of a girl whose name he had only caught once. And really, why hadn't he paid more attention to those who had just taken their first steps? He had been in their shoes, not so long ago.
"Is that not true, Feng Song?"
The girl abruptly sobbed and nodded. "We had to join. If we didn't..." She choked up.
"They would have killed us just as eagerly as they are about to do to you," another girl softly whispered, and none of the six denied it.
Alex nodded his understanding, sensing their bitterness, their vulnerability, so acutely he had to blink back a hot sting and hold tight to his boiling fury, knowing that now was not the time. Knowing that time would come very, very soon, as he blithely ignored the forty plus cultivators doing all they could to shatter the inner sanctum vault door and break through, keeping all his focus on the half dozen youths he was desperate to save.
"How would you six like another chance at a school where you will actually matter? A school where the path might be steep, but should you have the strength to put one foot after the other in pursuit of your dreams, your brothers and sisters will have only commendation for your growth? A school with a magnificent library and more resources than you can imagine? A place where you truly can achieve your dreams and be feted for your accomplishments, where the only requirements for entrance are loyalty to the school and founder, and dedication to your own studies?"
This earned scornful laughter from Feng Song and the other girls. "As if there was such a place. As if any school wasn't just as twisted and corrupt as this one. As if someone we swore to kill would extend worthless basics like us a shred of mercy!"
Summon Portal skill check successful! Dark Qi component in place! Double normal cost for complex portal crossing two separate realms! Sixty Qi expended.
Between one heartbeat and the next, Alex surrendered to insight and impulse, daring that which he never had before, as one emergency portal in his private quarters disappeared while another sprung to life right behind the handful of startled cultivators. They turned around as one to gaze with awe and wonder at the magnificent palace of gold, jade, and polished marble behind them.
Alex flashed an exultant smile even as he felt a sudden wave of exhaustion, gone in a heartbeat, thanks to Biochemical mastery, letting him know just how close he had come to peril. Yet how sweet it was to know that everything Cui Chan had suffered, and all he had done to rescue her, had not been in vain.
Yu Chun licked his lips. "What... what is that?"
Alex smiled gently. "Your salvation, should you wish it."
Haunted eyes raised longingly to look up at Alex...before the young cultivator gave a despairing shake of his head. "No, there's no way I could believe..."
"Give your oath never to deliberately harm, hinder, steal from, or damage the property of the lord of that realm or any fellow guest, save in agreed-upon sparring matches or the like... swear to heed the lord's call in times of invasion, and you may all start your second
lives in a realm free of the bitter strife and madness of this one."
Feng Song gazed wistfully at the admittedly fairy tale castle, before sighing sadly. "If only it were that easy," she sobbed. "If only..."
"The minute you pass through, the infernalist taint tying your souls to predatory monsters eager to use you until you have nothing left to give will be severed. Your karma will, I'm almost positive, be reset. And whatever oaths you made to serve any lord of this world will have absolutely no effect, once you leave this realm completely behind."
The bold claim resulted in half a dozen stares from the absolutely shell-shocked cultivators in the library below.
"Or at least, I'm eighty percent sure that's how it will flow. But either way, at this point, unless you want to be soul-bound to psychopaths and slavers... I really think my offer is the best one you're going to get this lifetime." His gaze turned sad. "Or any other."
"But...why, Alex?" Feng Song swallowed, lowering her head in shame. "I...when you came before us with a hero's smile, everything coming to you so easily when most of us who had been there for seasons were still struggling..." She clenched her small fists tightly. "I'm not perfect. I felt the same bitter jealousy that so many of us did. And I... I did nothing to earn your friendship."
"And I did nothing to earn yours. So I say we all deserve a fresh start, and if you agree, then by all means, step through." Smiling graciously, Alex gestured to the portal. "Step through, and I promise you won’t be disappointed, And should you wish to leave? I'll make sure there's a gate leading to an anonymous trade town that you can make use of, so long as you swear never to reveal what you learn within my realm."
The admission earned several oddly intent stares. "Your realm," whispered Feng Song.
"Pretty much."
"So... what the headmaster said was true. You really are—"
"—doing my best to help you, and the headmaster is a psychopath spawned from a deity who has done all he could to destroy me over who knows how many lifetimes. But really, that's neither here nor there. All that matters is deciding if you're willing to take a chance and jump through that gate to embrace a lifetime of wonder, growth, and possibility. A life where you are well and truly free to walk your own path.”
He gave them all a pitying smile. “Or, after being the heroes of your own life tales for too brief a time, having gone so far as to dare the Path of Perservance, which only one in a million Baidushians do on any given month, have you all been so utterly crushed by your enemies that you've already surrendered all hope? Doomed to be Sudong's and Prince Dongfang Hong's slaves in all but name for the rest of what I promise you will be very short, painful lives?"
His gaze hardened. "Those are your options: salvation or damnation. Choose one or the other, or just flee the school until Dongfang Hong's men eventually track you down and make examples of you. But choose now. I'm closing the gate to your redemption in twenty seconds."
And it said something, Alex thought, that not one of the six spared any more time than it took to tear free the crimson drops from their ears, bow low, and swear that oath before they all jumped through.
He spared a moment for a relieved sigh before the deadly pounding of a furious Gold made it clear that he too was running out of time.
56
"Alex! Quickly! They're breaking down the door!"
Alex closed the gate linking him to the outer library, chilled despite himself at feeling the reverberations of a true monster pounding on the jade doors.
He felt a surge of something he refused to call panic, but the look in his eyes was enough to make Xun Hu pale. "Heaven's mercy, Alex!"
"There's no such thing."
"The outer ring is full of Silvers and Golds. And besides that maniacal headmaster, there's a massive Gold Titan actually pounding against the door with a giant warhammer!"
She hugged herself and shuddered. "Alex, I saw cracks on the door. Cracks! I don't care how strong your talisman is against others, those monsters are using brute force to break right through!"
Bullrush!
Heart lurching in his chest, Alex knew he didn't dare waste another second, quickly darting from the stairwell and racing back down the luxuriously appointed passage. He had no eyes for the grandeur of the surrounding accommodations, only for the monstrous doom making shockingly good progress at breaking through.
Alex hissed in alarm when he caught sight of the grand door of enchanted jade that he’d previously thought could survive even a Titan's blows. For the cracks running up and down the once pristine barrier made it clear just how wrong that assumption had been.
And the voice he heard roaring on the other side of that door, a voice echoing perfectly, thanks to the resonance crystal whose magics Alex had foolishly deferred from even studying, made it clear just how perilous his circumstances had become.
"Quake in your boots, disciple of the Fool! For we have seized the artifacts you had hoped to hide, and we found the weakness you had thought to conceal. With sword and hammer, we will destroy you for all time!"
With a single touch of one of the crystals upon what was effectively a panel by the door, the view within the chamber beyond became suddenly clear, though the myriad cultivators smiling with darkest anticipation appeared as ghostlike projections, quite different from the near-perfect windows his gates could summon.
Alex's guts clenched, realizing just how badly he had underestimated his opponent. He had thought, hoped the man would take the time attempting to solve the puzzle of the door, which he had completely changed after securing it with his key not of Jade, but of actual divine rank.
But it appeared that if a massive Gold Titan had a powerful enough hammer in their hand, pretty much any barrier could be breached.
And how it chilled Alex to see that massive hammer of obsidian with a pair of Gold Dragons embossed in the head. The artifact shimmered as if it was both larger than life, and not even there at all.
An artifact that perfectly matched Long Wang's own.
The sword brandished in the hands of another of the Golds that eagerly awaited admittance was one he recognized all too well, with its bronze alloy blade and sharktoothed edge. And how the hell it had ended up in the hands of his enemies, he had no idea.
He only knew that seeing it here and now chilled him to the bone.
Its unsheathed state was somehow a promise of death in the air.
Alex clenched his teeth against the tide of terror making him want to vomit, realizing that even here, this late in the game with Fog of War working for him, his enemies had still found a way to play yet another damned card against him.
"You would risk your greatest treasure on the whims of squabbling mortals below? I'm surprised, brother. Normally, you have more common sense than that," said the voice of a glib WiFu, whom Alex could so perfectly visualize gazing down at the world-sized game board with his characteristic sangfroid.
"Did you really think we were so stupid that we couldn't figure out the limitations of that card, WiFu? Truly, you live up to your name, Fool!" mocked Shalu, before his laughter turned to a ragged wheeze.
"The kitsune assassin we broke so badly that he swore his soul to eternal vengeance was just a test, WiFu! We now know the limits of that damned card that never should have been played! No matter that we cannot see that living blasphemy, save for the instance when that vile piece of excrement actually dared to enter our hall as if he were an equal. Because even if our pawns cannot give us the information we demand, no matter how much we entice their hearts or torment their souls, we can still grant their requests for divine aid just fine!"
Long Wang nodded, revealing a predatory smile of his own. "You did nothing to hide your greed for my tome, WiFu, nor that you had infected your tool with that same avarice. We all knew where he was destined to arrive, the only place he could have arrived, to dare ascend this high! Thus, his location is known to all of us. And when one of my disciples, gifted with the dragon's own blessing, actually dared to plead for
my hammer while knowing full well the cost, how could I not fill him with the rapture of a blessing from his god?"
"And yet, daring to wield that Hammer with a core below Jade has effectively destroyed his cultivation potential for all time," WiFu countered with a sad sigh. "How you do like to spend your pawns."
"We have millions, WiFu! Whereas you have only a handful of favored tools!" Shalu roared. "And what does it matter if a Silver core was crushed to nothing? That glorious, brainless hunk of muscle has a dragon's heart beating in his chest, and he will have served us better in this singular existence than he would have over a hundred lives as a worthless Silver cultivator, so long as he can crush your pawn to dust!"
"And if he doesn't, my own pawn will, just as soon as that damned jade vault is breached!" Zheng Yi hissed, and Alex could fairly sense the deity's pale white goatee crackling with lightning the match of his ire, even as more hairline cracks formed upon the jade door before a shaken Alex's eyes.
"Alex!"
Alex lurched out of his stupor, a terrified part of him wondering if WiFu's siblings, perhaps far more clever than their passions implied, knew about his ability to listen in, and were using it even now to lull him into a trance. It was madness to embrace that degree of paranoia, perhaps. But what wasn't madness was the fact that he needed to focus, now!
Stress penalties in effect. Summon Portal skill check failed.
Alex felt a jolt of terror as yet another hairline crack formed across the door of jade, and he was bitterly forced to accept that he had over-extended like a fool, both in his gambit, and in only having one reserved door, and now he was freezing up when he most needed to act, when he felt his doom closing in. Trapped like a rat in a cage.
"Alex!" the terror in the young kitsune's voice forced Alex into action.
No matter how much of a fool he had been, that meant nothing now. All that mattered was survival. And he had at least one gambit left.
Time to play it to the hilt.
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Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior’s Path Page 84