Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reborn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 1

by M. H. Johnson

  And since he incorporated all five elements into the potion manufacture anyway, he found it almost effortless to shift focus upon whichever elemental affinities the prospective user might have of those five.

  When all was said and done, he had created dozens of elixirs. He had also gleaned one very important insight he shared with his mentor, presently just staring at the dozens of vials Alex had popped out of storage after so many days of hard work.

  “For anyone with more than one Elemental Affinity, whatever the combination, using a nonspecialized Qi rejuvenation pill will work almost as well as specific, highly specialized combinations. Even if someone has all five elements, a basic rejuvenation pill will work just as well as a highly specialized 5 element version, since you don't need further differentiation to repair damaged meridians."

  Congratulations! Alchemy Skill is now Rank 4! You have learned every single known variant of Meridian Rejuvenation Elixir (standard paradigm) and have learned one very important lesson! Unless you're a descendant of WiFu with Shadow affinities, Basic Meridian Rejuvenation Elixirs will do you almost as much good as specialized ones, unless you use but a single element!

  Alex gave an exhausted smile. "I'm sorry I haven't performed better during the morning exercises, Master, but hours I should have been resting I was busy cultivating flowers inside my artifact. Rest assured, I will now strive to get proper sleep, so I can better master your challenge."

  And it had been a challenge. After endless mornings of diligent practice with Piercing Strike, only once had it finally clicked, Alex somehow buffering his fingers with Qi such that he was able to slip through Master Liu’s elemental wards, almost as if he were wedged inside a mountain crevice, only popping through for the split-second his Qi had coated his fingertips with the equivalent of lard.

  The sensation had only lasted a moment, and he had yet to repeat the feat.

  But despite his shortcomings, his mentor was giving him the strangest stare.

  “Master?”

  “Alex...” the alchemist gave a rueful chuckle, carefully uncorking one flask, taking the faintest whiff before recorking and putting them all in storage, dashes of charcoal upon each cork designating its designated demographic and 12-fold heightened potency.

  “Yes, Master?” Alex said, waiting for his mentor to finish his train of thought.

  But Master Liu just gave Alex the strangest smile. “I had no idea you were working so diligently night after night. I thought you had taken the underlying lesson to heart already. This was supposed to be a lesson in futility and humility, as every master gives his student at one time or another. To show students what one is and is not capable of, to highlight their resourcefulness in at least attempting to meet the challenge, and what they can learn from the experience.”

  “I don’t understand...”

  Liu Jian sighed and shook his head. "You were supposed to give up deducing the intricacies after making restoration potions for the five basic elemental affinities and general Light Qi potions. I didn't show you any others. The Dual Affinity Meridian Rejuvenation tome I lent you should have been beyond you. And you weren’t supposed to actually deduce the manufacture of even more advanced variants and make them. There are dozens of variations, here!”

  Alex nodded. "There's actually a mathematical formula for that, and you did lend me additional Alchemy tomes you had on the various types of cultivation pills. They were all variants on the standard pills, and since I link all five elements together anyway to increase stabilization and potency, it's really easy for me to allow that affinity to bleed into the potion, or not."

  Liu Jian held Alex’s gaze for long moments before chuckling ruefully.

  “Cycling pills are the only cultivation pills worthy of this effort. The only ones where specific elemental affinities being accounted for is utterly crucial. Your work represents both a priceless treasure and incalculable waste. I had no idea you even had this many Silverbells to spare! I've never had a student quite like you, Alex."

  Alex grinned, bowing at the waist. "The highest of compliments, sir. Thank you. I will strive to be worthy."

  His mentor smiled. “How many of these priceless blossoms do you have in storage anyway?”

  Alex winced. “Lots?”

  His mentor chuckled, leading Alex to what he knew was his greenhouse, and Alex couldn’t help but admire the brilliant artifice that had gone into designing the system of windows and mirrors that allowed it to shine as brightly as the midday sun, for all that they were deep within the burrow.

  His mentor sighed at the garden. "I've had to use every Silverbell we originally harvested and near every other ingredient just to finish my orders for the year ahead, and Elder Ying's order is the tiniest fraction of that." He grinned at Alex. "You'd be surprised how many cultivators are willing to buck Dragon Academy edicts for the sake of increasing their cultivation base, so long as they can place their orders in secret, and my daughter makes an excellent diplomat.”

  Alex’s eyes widened, suddenly understanding what Liu Li had been up to when not in the compound.

  “It will be a profitable year, sure to placate many Houses who will know not to trouble me again for a good half-decade, having made the limitations of my resources more than clear. But now, with your incredible gift… I don’t suppose you’d be opposed to restocking our garden with your own cuttings?”

  Alex bowed his head. “It would be my pleasure, Master Liu.”

  His mentor grinned. “Good. And don’t for a moment think you’re not going to get a fair cut of every one of those restoration potions we actually manage to sell back at Yidushi.” He frowned. “Though most of your creations are exotic and specific enough that selling them in Erdushi might be the wiser move.”

  Alex nodded upon hearing the familiar names of their home city and its nearest neighbor, carefully placing the various blossoms from his storage ring into the rich, loamy soil of the planters, Liu Jian making sure all the plants were transplanted to his garden successfully.

  Alex gave a satisfied smile after planting his twelfth Silverbell, the entire garden now filled with a serene glow. And though there was plenty of room for further blossoms, it was the maximum this garden could sustain indefinitely, though they would help the countless varieties of transplanted flora bloom as never before.

  “Come to think of it, Alex, Baidushi might be the best of all possible choices to sell your exotic wares.”

  Alex frowned at the unfamiliar name.

  “Why Baidushi, sir?”

  “Because it is the capital of the entire Principality, Alex, and the home of the Royal Jade family.”

  Liu Jian sighed, shaking his head. A melancholy air suddenly filled the room.

  “Is everything alright, Master?”

  A quick nod. “Absolutely, Alex. And as for the Silverbells and the other herbs, thank you for entrusting them to me. With any luck, we’ll never need to raid that cockatrice’s territory again.”

  Alex gave a relieved smile at that. “I hope you’re right, Sir. How’s Liu Li?”

  His master’s gentle gaze hardened. “Cultivating for the sake of her future, Alex. And never have I been more furious with Dragon Temple's paucity of Shadow Manuscripts. For all that they pay lip service to Lady Jin Yu's noble descendants, they stock almost no Manuscripts depicting the correct ways for my daughter's people to cycle. It is a deliberate slight! Seeking to deny any and all those of Kitsune blood the ability to blossom to their fullest, so deeply do they despise Silver Fox, seeing him as an enemy to the pantheon, not the necessary jester and seer he has always been."

  Alex swallowed, eyes widening. “But I thought, you being a former master of the school… doesn’t she know the best Cultivation techniques possible?”

  Her father snorted. "For her three natural affinities, Fire, Earth, and Metal, yes. Of course. As does every Kitsune of noble birth. All branches of the temple will teach that much, and gladly. It is only their hidden affinities that the academies would ab
jure if they could, and why almost all cultivators with the blood of WiFu in their veins are so much weaker than they could be, none ever breaking through to Silver, let alone beyond. Because they have so few tools to harness their true potential!"

  Liu Jian gave a frustrated sigh. "I teach her as much as I can, how best to surpass her limitations and excel. But this injury, Alex. Even with your miraculous Shadow Meridian Rejuvenation Elixir, it can only do so much good without cultivation techniques that incorporate all her elements, and those damn fools at the temple deny Shadow even exists!”

  Alex bowed his head. “I am sorry, Master Liu.”

  His mentor flashed a reassuring smile. "I have high hopes for your wondrous elixir, despite the limitations in my rejuvenation cultivation techniques. So fret not, Alex. All will work itself out in the end. Just allow her to cultivate in absolute peace, free of all distraction. It is all we can do for now. Understood?”

  Alex nodded, soon returning to his quarters, his mind in a whirl, realizing that once more a choice was before him, one he should have sensed days ago.

  He had been given priceless artifacts, he knew. Prizes that no one had ever glimpsed outside of his ring. Even when he had read the tomes in the privacy of his room, the ring containing his prizes had always been in contact with the manuals, sheltering them, somehow, from all prying eyes. Only notes copied from his own carefully hidden tomes had any other soul ever seen. A truth he grasped utterly only in that moment, having somehow been oblivious to how tightly he had held his prizes, how securely he had guarded them. And somehow, he just knew that were he to relinquish control, much like letting loose a bottle upon a stormy sea, the currents of fate and destiny would forever pull those priceless cultivation manuals free of his grasp.

  It would be an irrevocable choice. He knew in his bones that he would never be able to reclaim that which he would give away so freely.

  But someone he cared about deeply needed his help.

  And when he entered his ring that fateful afternoon, approaching the bookcase containing the pair of Divine Manuals gifted to him by WiFu himself, he already knew what he was going to do with them.

  He was startled by the familiar voice he heard behind him.

  “You’re no fool, cub. I think you already know what will happen if those divine tomes ever leave the sanctuary of this ring.”

  Alex swallowed, fingers gently caressing their spines. “I can imagine. Even so, the times I had—”

  “—They were but projections, silly cub. Those divine tomes never truly left this library. Nor could they. Until now. Are you truly ready to give up their secrets forevermore?”

  Alex grinned, still not turning around. “I made mental copies of them, stored right here in the library. I know I can never take them out, I know they are only as good as what I have already inferred. But tell me true, Silver Fox. Could I glean anything more from them than I already have?”

  A soft, quiet chuckle emanated from behind him. “You have mastered both the Twin Paths Purification technique and the Dark Qi Cycling technique, though the latter you practiced only in your dreams. When the time comes for you to advance to Bronze and beyond, you will be surprised at how easily this one aspect of Cultivation comes to you, cycling your Dark Qi, for all that you will need to endure countless bitter struggles if you are to have any hope of discovering, let alone mastering, Long Wang’s Eightfold Path.” He flashed an approving grin. “And you’re wise enough to understand that so much of what secrets those tomes hold will forever remain in shadow for you.”

  Alex felt as curious shiver as he slowly turned around, tomes in hand, at once understanding the bemused smile his mentor flashed under the brim of his hat, very much in human form save for his ears, wearing the exact same attire as he had a thousand years ago.

  “Shadow. These tomes were never meant for me. Not really.” He swallowed, his master’s silver green eyes saying so much, and nothing at all.

  “They were meant for someone who can master the element of Shadow.”

  His mentor chuckled softly. “Actually, the tomes suit you well enough. You can unlock secrets very few souls could hope to comprehend. Most mortals are utterly unable to harness Dark Qi, which is why, even if their lives stretch out for millennia, should they have sufficient talent, they can never truly achieve immortality."

  “Because Dark Qi, the Qi of catalyzation, motion, and decay, is also vital to all living things. That which allows us to live at all. If we were truly, utterly free of Dark Qi, there would be no biochemical reactions happening at all. We would be like the statue of the Buddha. Utterly perfect, eternal, but also unchanging."

  His mentor grinned. “And he who controls the flow of Dark Qi controls the flow of life and death, if he can but understand it." He gazed at the tomes in Alex's hands. "You have priceless tools, boy. Tools you have only scratched the surface of, for all that you already have the keys you need to advance to Silver and beyond. Still, your powers might increase even further, should you hoard all the secrets locked away in hopes that you might one day glean lost secrets that are, at this moment, the province of the gods alone.”

  Alex paled under his mentor’s merciless gaze, but refused to bow his head. “I will always be grateful for the lessons I have learned within these tomes, within this ring. Without your artifacts, I would have had no hope of learning Alchemy, let alone how to cultivate my Qi.” He swallowed. “But if these tomes can help my friend cultivate her Shadow Qi, repair her meridians, it would make all the difference in the world for her.

  “I already know how much she struggles, the tears she pushes back with a smile whenever we share meals, the desperate look in her gaze… it is a weight my soul can no longer bear. My rejuvenation pills are not enough, since she knows no cultivation technique that incorporates Shadow. If there’s even a chance that these tomes can help her cycle all of her Qi and repair her meridians, bridge the awful chasm in her path to ascendancy, if there’s a chance I can help her so she can one day smile free of worry or care...” He squeezed his eyes tight, unable to bear his patron’s unfathomable gaze.

  “Then I would choose to save her, even if these tomes are lost to me forever.”

  A soft chuckle washed over him. “So you understand, then. Intuitively, you understand. You will be putting divine artifacts in play, boy. Treasures the gods themselves would hoard if they could, just for the sake of hoarding. Treasures only your ring and similar artifacts could possibly keep hidden.”

  Alex dared open his eyes once more, grinning back at WiFu. "Or those with the gift of Shadow, who I suspect are able to hide prizes others would take, almost as well as you can."

  WiFu stilled. “So you understand even that truth.” His odd smile grew. "I see you learned much in those years we traveled together, in a life you never lived."

  Alex flashed a confused smile before pushing away the god's strange comments, focusing only on what mattered. “This gift. Freely given. If I give it to Liu Li… I’m surrendering it to the daughters of your tribe.” He chuckled softly. “She’ll feel duty-bound to share it with her Kitsune sisters, won’t she?”

  WiFu grinned. "Kitsune indeed." He tilted his head. "You understand, of course, that I can offer you nothing? No extra promise or boon, no formal declaration. You would be gifting the daughters of the fox, and stepping on perilous ground while doing so. Ancient oaths and edicts bind us, such that none have dared forge such tomes as these before, and even I, for all my power, am forbidden from giving it to those who feel my blood pulsing through their veins."

  Intent eyes of jade and silver peered deeply into his own. "Only you, Alex, owed a debt accumulating interest for a thousand years, who dared the unthinkable, combining two divine paths, could slip past those edicts. And so of course I may offer you no boon whatsoever for the act of folly you now contemplate."

  Alex bowed deeply from the waist. "I understand completely. Nothing would give me greater joy than yanking the beards of all those who thought themselves righteous i
n denying your descendants the chance to blossom into their true potential."

  The laughter he heard was a balm to Alex’s soul.

  “And yank their beards we will, little fox! Go then, follow your heart, surrender to utter folly. For what could be more foolish than surrendering your most sacred prizes? And what could be wiser, more noble, than sacrificing yourself for the sake of love?”

  Alex flushed at those words, his patron’s bemused gaze seeing secrets Alex refused to acknowledge even to himself.

  But before he could splutter a word of protest, he was in his room once more, suddenly feeling the weight of the sacred tomes in his hands, glowing with a divine light he understood at once to be Wu Wei.

  And he felt the earth itself shake, understanding at once that Fate’s mantle recognized his move.

  He took a deep breath.

  There was no going back now.

  His priceless treasures had graced the mortal stage.

  It would only be a matter of time before they were pulled from his grip, forevermore.

  23

  The walk to Liu Li’s room was the longest of his life.

  Every foot seemed to stretch for an eternity.

  Every bend around every corner was like stepping into strange dimensions unseen.

  Somehow, he knew that were he to give in to dizziness and trip or fall, his tomes would spill out, and bizarre mischance or simple confusion would assure they slipped out of his grasp and sight forever.

  Perhaps they would fall into a crack, crevice, or rift. Perhaps the entire building would collapse, and both the tomes and their lives would be lost forever to Alex’s desperate gamble, so foolish he now realized himself to be, daring to dance upon the stage of gods, just a tiny piece upon a board vast and terrible, for stakes beyond his comprehension.