Liu Jian paled. “If you know the true value...”
“As I told you, the Jianghu values the craftsmen under its care. Only a fool robs the farmer of the seed stock that will ripen into the richest of harvests. And I assure you, dear Liu Jian, the fools within our sect were purged free with fire, long ago.”
The darkness seemed to grow, Liu Jian blinking and looking away, Liu Li peering intently into the gloom before lurching back. The clink of the belled door opening and closing could be heard, and the store was empty once more.
“Father… he knows everything about us. Everything!”
The older man sighed and nodded. “And he has made it very clear that it is by his grace alone that my prized harvesting grounds were never cleared of the sacred herbs and Qi blossoms I gather, the choicest spirit beasts whose elemental configurations are perfect for my cultivation pills allowed to grow in purity and potency deliberately.”
His daughter nodded. “Because all those ingredients together are used to make the most potent cultivation pills to be found anywhere within a thousand miles, including Dragon Temple. And we end up selling almost all of them to Elder Ying.” She gave an angry shake of her head. “Because for all intents and purposes, we now work for him.”
Alex took a surprised breath as he crashed back into himself, his cultivation upset by his shaken breathing as he fought to center himself once more. He held off from cultivating for a time, just taking in his surroundings, the rustling foliage of the cherry tree he meditated under, the sway of the greenery before the gentle breeze, the feel of the warm dappled sunlight caressing his skin.
After several moments of just being grateful to be relatively healthy and very much alive, he took stock of himself, yet felt very much on the mend. As to the veracity of his vision, the strange, intent gaze Liu Li sent his way as she crossed from the back door of their shop and home to the center of their deceptively large garden, Alex was chillingly certain it had been real.
“Alex, how are you feeling?”
He smiled, gazing into Liu Li’s beautiful, troubled gaze. “Perhaps I should be asking you that very question.”
She blinked. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “You seem… stressed. Is everything okay?”
“Just a bit preoccupied. Father just informed me we’re running low on a number of crucial ingredients for our shop, so we’re going to go hunting for exotic herbs and spirit cores. I just wanted to let you know that you might be alone in the shop for a few days, but Broken Fang will still make deliveries, even if we’re not really ready to let him man the front of the store. But the elders who count on our apothecary for their medicines adore him for some strange reason. Probably because he’ll compliment any cooking, no matter how bad, and they always insist on feeding him. Frankly, I’m surprised he’s not Fat Fang, at this point.”
Alex grinned. “And you need me to stick around and be prepared to compound any orders that don’t need to be infused with Qi. And since the only ones in need of such are cultivators forbidden from making use of Master Liu’s shop, or the Jianghu sect which knows you’ll be gathering spirit cores, no alchemist needs to be on site right now.”
Liu Li’s approving smile froze into something hard. “How the hell do you know that, Alex?”
Alex blinked. Crap. “Know what?”
“That the Jianghu sect knows we’re going harvesting.”
Alex winced, thinking fast. “Broken Fang works for us now, I mean, practically speaking, right? So, it’s only natural for him to inform his sect about your whereabouts. I’m assuming your father would use him as the perfect go-between. And the Jianghu Sect are the only ones who would dare buy cultivating pills from you guys anyway, right? Since it’s your most valued product, and they your most valued or richest customer, it makes sense that they’d know when you’re off to get more supplies to make more of what they love you best for.”
Liu Li furrowed her brow before at last relenting with a shrug. “You’re mostly right, Alex. Good insight on your part.” She sighed. “Though it’s not only the Jianghu sect that buys our most valuable pills, they are, by far, our most important customer. It’s a shame you haven’t broken through, though. We could really use a third cultivator with spiritual ties to Father for the hunt. No matter. We’ll be careful enough, just the pair of us, so you just need to hold down the shop, and most importantly, stay out of trouble.”
Alex gazed into those beautiful jade green eyes, filled with a sudden sense of dread.
“How soon until you two are off?”
She shrugged. “A few days just to get everything in order, but then we’re gone.”
Alex forced himself to meet her gaze. “I know it sounds crazy but if, well, if I’m able to break through during that time… will you guys let me join you?”
Her eyes widened, her smile transforming into a burst of incredulous laughter. “Are you serious? Alex, we already talked about how unlikely that will happen for years but, sure! If you manage to start breaking through, I’ll make sure Father holds off until you’re good and stabilized, and then we’ll go hunting together.
“But I’m warning you, Alex, the chances are minuscule, so don’t get your hopes up, okay?”
But Alex didn't even respond, save with a nod, his eyes already closed as he immersed himself with cultivating once more.
He could feel the purified Qi flowing through him, strands of Dark Qi carefully separated and stored in the quickly growing orb of power he had formed in his artifact, and he thought he saw flashes of his brilliant Light Qi break into a handful of different colors, as if looking at light reflected through a prism.
He was feeling so strong that he ached to test himself, to get up from his never-ending Cultivation and really push his body like never before.
But he held fast and continued to cultivate, even as that day became a second and then a third, and he sensed how close his benefactors were to leaving on their trip.
And then, finally, after countless hours spent cultivating, he got the notification he had been desperately striving for.
Dual Path Purification Technique is now at 90% Maximum efficiency.
Dual Path Purification Technique is now fully ingrained. Do you wish to use stored souls towards your next level? Soul use efficiency will only be 90% of ideal.
Yes! Alex roared within his mind, and his soul suddenly exploded in golden flame.
Your First Meridian Gate has been opened. All Qi fully processed. Rank 1 Basic Cultivator Achieved. All physical attributes have increased to the next tier.
Unaligned Qi is now available to you! You have 2 Qi points to use with Qi disciplines you gain access to.
Your Second Meridian Gate has been opened. All Qi fully processed. Rank 2 Basic Cultivator Achieved. All physical attributes have increased to the next tier.
You now have 4 Qi points to use with Qi disciplines you gain access to.
99.67% Percent of Third Meridian Gate blockage has been successfully cultivated.
Alex howled, lost in the sea of agony and ecstasy crashing into and through him, as what felt like thousands of hours of intensive cultivating was compressed into a few heartbeats of time.
An endless flood of stored Wu Wei from the souls he had claimed roared through his being, the hyper condensed and purified spiritual force decompressing itself into pristine Qi of a caliber that was beyond anything he had personally condensed or sensed from Master Liu Jian’s cultivation pills.
He shuddered and gasped as Qi flooded through his body as his first gate was finally opened.
But the flood of Wu Wei, potency heightened after a thousand years bearing witness to his forging his Dual Path, did not abate.
It only grew.
Alex’s trembles grew into spasms as the flood of power ate through the pearlescent blockage at his second gate at a shocking pace. It was only sheerest desperation and grit that kept him true to the Dual Path Purification Technique, sending the Dark Qi into his ring not as a trickle
but as a chaotic flood, and it was a testament to the inconceivably rapid transcendence that his Divine caliber artifact actually grew warm.
Then so hot that the flesh of his skin sizzled and smoked as his second gateway was cleared.
Thousands of hours of intense dedication and effort using the best purification technique even a deity could devise for him had been compressed into a handful of heartbeats as his body rang like a divine bell, his second gateway cleared, the storm of power now devouring the third.
His ring began to glow a brilliant red. He screamed as his flesh smoked and sizzled, the sickly-sweet stench of seared pork in the air.
His flesh.
And he did not allow the agony to steal his concentration, his focus.
Images of Lai Wei's mocking smile as he ground a once powerless Alex into the dirt, inflicting gruesome, normally fatal injuries upon him kept Alex focused, a fierce smile upon his lips. Though in that moment the wrath keeping him strong was far less pure than the Wu Wei in his veins, it did not matter. So pure was the resultant flood of Qi that when the storm of stored energies was finally absorbed, Alex found to his amazement that he was just the tiniest hair from clearing his third gateway entirely of its pearlescent blockage.
He opened his eyes moments or hours later, dizzy, disoriented, gasping with pain, yet feeling curiously triumphant.
Then it all came to him in a flash, for all that he cried out, bending his fingers, finding his left pinky ring appeared its unremarkable copper self once more, though the flesh around it had been blackened and seared.
His gut twisted. He hated the thought of losing his finger and sought to remove the ring, only to find it utterly bound to his flesh.
He grimaced, having every intention of putting a healing poultice on his wound as soon as possible.
But first, to stabilize his foundation, almost fearing what damage that sweet, incredible flood of power might have caused him.
Only to open his metaphoric eyes with wonder as he sensed his own body from within.
There was no imbalance, no unstable foundation. If anything, it was stronger than ever. As if the flood if hideously sweet power from close to a dozen trapped souls really had been the equivalent of countless hundreds or thousands of hours in deepest meditation, having not only cleared multiple gateways, but strengthened his body and spirit as a whole, as if he really had been cultivating for all those hours.
He frowned at the revelation, knowing Master Liu’s own Cultivation Pills caused temporary imbalances that had to be smoothed over with a good week’s worth of cultivation before one dared use any other enhancement. And that was for what were considered masterwork quality pills, the best to be found within this tiny corner of the kingdom, which was itself the smallest piece of the vast and sprawling empire they were a part of. But still, for the ten million souls that called this city and the adjoining wildlands their home, Master Liu’s pills were considered the best.
Yet the Qi Alex had processed had been transcendent. He had used the term Wu Wei perhaps too casually, and indeed, it had been laced with as much darkness from the brutal nature of their deaths and his dominance and destruction of their life force as it had the pure Light Qi of life itself. A combination that might have proven toxic to most. Yet the mix was perfect for a Disciple of the Dual Path to cultivate.
And poison for anyone else.
He shivered, gazing at his ugly burns, the powerful plain-looking artifact he seemed to have forged a permanent, unbreakable link to, and how deadly a game he was playing, claiming and devouring the souls of his enemies with every kill.
Had he chosen any other path…
The mixed Qi and taint would have killed him.
But he knew the secret, that the taint was nothing more than Qi representing chaos and change, the counterpoint to the immortal, eternal, rigidly perfect ultimate form of Qi most cultivators embraced. Whereas Light Qi represented the house that maintained and nurtured the body, Dark Qi was the force that catalyzed change. Movement. The virtue of transformation, which Silver Fox was said to embrace above all others. Though he was just a novice, to Alex it tasted of the state beyond the spirit, where Fire and Earth met. It tasted of free will itself.
And being gifted with the deadly double-edged boons that could destroy him as easily as reforge him did indeed seem like a fitting gift from his ultimate patron.
Alex, still dizzy, solemnly bowed his head to the east and the west. The birth of new things, the destruction of the old, paying honor to his patron in his own way.
“Thank you, Silver Fox. I will use the boons you have given me to the best of my ability.”
“Every day I will train.”
“Every day I will strive to be worthy.”
Then Alex bit his lip, realizing he wasn’t alone.
Slowly he turned around, catching the incredulous gazes of Liu Jian and the fox-eared daughter Alex was in perilous danger of falling for.
He flushed and gazed at his feet when her wondering eyes caught his own.
“Alex? We felt the earth shake with the flood of Qi! What just happened?”
Alex swallowed, meeting Liu Jian’s gaze. The old man paled. “No. No, it’s been less than two months. And I know the size of your gates, the burden of your blockages! There is no way...”
Alex cut him off with a gentle smile. “It seems I’m now a Rank 2 Basic Cultivator.”
Stunned silence greeted his words.
“Impossible,” the older man softly whispered.
"How?" Liu Li squeaked.
Alex grinned. “And I’m on the cusp of Rank 3.”
If anything, their gazes widened, Liu Jian giving an abrupt, angry shake of his head. “Impossible, lad! I know you’re capable of a great many things, but to walk in the footsteps of our city’s greatest legends? You?” He sighed, gently placing his hands on Alex’s chest and brow, before abruptly gasping and lurching back.
“Father?” Liu Li’s voice was filled with sudden alarm. She turned to Alex, the strangest look on her face. “Alex, what did you do to my father?”
“It’s alright, my child,” he said at last, flashing an awed grin. “It appears I was… mistaken.”
He solemnly bowed his head. “Truly, lad, I am impressed. Whatever insights you garnered cultivating on the cusp of death itself, it has proven to be a boon beyond all others for you.”
“Wait, Father, are you actually saying...”
“He is indeed a Rank 2 Basic Cultivator now. Feel his body, my dear. Even you, untrained, can feel the hot waves of Qi now radiating from his flesh.
Liu Li’s eyes widened as she did just that.
The old man chuckled. “He is indeed one of us, now.”
He turned to Alex with a bemused smile and an ironic bow. “Let me be the first to greet you as a newly forged cultivator. You now walk a perilous path, boy, but the view from the summit of your potential is beyond all others.”
He then furrowed his brow. “Alex, when you said you were on the cusp of purifying your third gateway… you weren’t exaggerating, were you?”
Alex solemnly shook his head. “Not at all, sir. If I’m not fooling myself, I can clear it in less than 100 hours of meditation.”
The older man snorted. “And you’d be a fool to push yourself any further than you have already. Rest, Alex, for as long as your body demands it of you. We’ll bring you food when you awaken. Then you’ll take the time necessary to adjust to your newly empowered body. Only then would I recommend further cultivation.”
Liu Li nodded. “Whenever I ascended a rank, I’d eat ravenously, my body blossoming in strength. Every day I would train hard, and sleep the sleep of the dead the entire night through. Only after a week of that routine could I be certain that my body had fully stabilized and adjusted. Only then could we be absolutely certain it was safe for me to cultivate further, and frankly, I enjoyed the change of pace.”
For some reason, Alex didn't think any of that was necessary. Despite his sense of exhaust
ion, coupled as it was with sweetest satisfaction, he was almost certain he could cultivate for days at a time, now. Not only did he not think his channels had been strained, he sensed that they had been strengthened. Almost as if he had been cultivating for the entirety of every day for months or perhaps even years.
All in the span of a couple minutes, so intense had been the flow of power and potency coursing through him been.
Nonetheless, he gave his closest friends in this world a respectful nod. “It will be as you say. I’ll rest, relax, stuff my face, and do my best to be a worthy sparring partner.
Liu Li had laughed at that, favoring him with a bemused smile. “I look forward to seeing just how much you’ve grown, Alex. See you on the morrow.”
And as energized as Alex felt, the moment he performed his ablutions and his head hit his pillow, he was out like a light, the entire night seeming to pass in the blink of an eye.
When he got up, however, his muscles were stiff and sore, and he needed to use the bathroom more urgently than he ever had in his life.
His awkward stumble to the cleverly made and discretely placed outhouse wasn’t helped by his master’s snort. “Getting rid of impurities, are we?” the man chuckled as Alex groaned with relief, washing his hands in the basin of water provided, only then exiting with a sheepish smile.
“I guess I needed that nap after all. Speaking of which, I’m dying of thirst.”
Master Liu’s eyes widened. He then snorted with laughter. “I’m not surprised, Alex. You were out for three days!” He gave Alex an appraising once-over. “Frankly, I’m surprised you’re not feeling famished. Your arms don't look quite so scrawny anymore, but you hardly have an ounce of fat on you! Just muscle."
Alex winced, at that moment realizing he was indeed feeling utterly famished.
And within moments, he was stuffing himself with the chicken and rice soup his wonderful mentor had prepared for him.
“Eat your fill, Alex, then head to the garden. I know my daughter is very anxious to see how you’ve improved since your last match.”
Alex did just that. He couldn’t help smiling when he met up with Liu Li in the courtyard, underneath the central-most cherry tree he loved to sit beneath for cultivating, and at times reflecting on the sparring sessions they had under those branches as well. Kitted up as she was in her standard lamellar armor and helmet of bronze, the weapon she was holding was different from the 15-foot-long spears, gladius, or dao they trained with most days. Instead, she held a far shorter polearm in hand with a long, narrow spearhead almost the length of a short sword, with a pair of crescent blades positioned just below it, close to where a halberd’s axe head and back hook would be located. The weapon head itself was attached to the shaft with steel langets, protecting it from being easily broken off.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reborn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 1 Page 21