“No! Grandmaster Liu, do not falter! I beg of you! The gate is broken! Your disciple gave his life to rupture it!”
The demon's eyes widened with fury. "The gate, broken? No! None of you mortal swine have that kind of power!"
But Liu Jian’s eyes blazed all the brighter. His snarl was inhuman in its fury. He gazed at his trembling hand, dripping blood from countless spiritual wounds, before clamping it in a fist with a snarl, even as he stumbled to one knee, blood spurting from ears and nose.
The struggling demon shrieked as the chains blazing with ephemeral spiritual fire forced him to the ground once more. And they squeezed tighter, tighter, cutting into his flesh, pulling the abomination into the ground itself.
“Your mortal vessel has fallen utterly, demon! I abjure you for the final time! You have no anchor here!”
Liu Jian roared those final words like a curse, and the howling wail emanating from the massive abomination was no longer that of a monster, but the desperate howl of a man suddenly realizing he had doomed his soul for a thousand lifetimes.
The howls were cut off in an explosion of hellfire, the demon and his foolish host gone as if they had never been.
And for long seconds, the former captives stared at the fearsome cultivator so terrible he stood in the center of his own personal killing field, having effortlessly butchered scores of enemies and a cultivator so corrupted with infernal power that he had been more demon than man.
The nobles, bureaucrats, and commanders that had been chained just minutes ago were too shaken by their ordeal even to move, the cultivators among them making no attempt to use their powers, all of them staring at Liu Jian in awe and, it had to be said, fear as well.
Only Cui Chan and her brother dared to gaze upon Liu Jian fearlessly.
The girl offered a gentle smile.
“Beloved Master Liu. We thought you lost to us forever. I cannot tell you how grateful we are to see you hale and healthy, my brother and I both.”
The handsome lad beside her nodded emphatically. “Always where we need you most to be, as if providence or Fate herself had deigned you our family’s most valued and beloved treasure.”
The men surrounding the siblings gazed at the cultivator radiating death in wide-eyed disbelief, one going so far as to whisper. “Your Grace, I beg of you, let us be off. Let us disturb this cultivator no further. The Trade Road should be that way.”
The boy gave a firm shake of his head. “We will do no such thing, Duan Peng. Master Liu is revered by our family, and he deserves proper greeting.”
The girl nodded. “Without him, without the hero who had served him, we would be worse than dead. And we both know that with the High Road lost to us, we're doomed if we try to reach the capital in our present state, with only the Trade Road available to us, and no caravan or mask of poverty to protect us."
Administrator Duan Peng paled and trembled under the cold gaze of the cultivator still cloaked in a killing aura.
Before the latter faded, revealing a very tired-looking man who seemed surprisingly young, despite his weariness, as if age had been but a mask effortlessly torn free, though his eyes were filled with grief.
He fell to one knee, bowing his head.
“Prince Cui Long, Princess Cui Chan. I am grateful to see you both alive, and terrified by how close you all came to death. How may this one serve you?”
The brother and sister exchanged glances, before turning as one to the alchemist.
“Master Liu, your time of voluntary exile must come to an end. We need you back at the capital,” said the boy.
The girl nodded. “Don’t worry, we know of your secret mission. Father explained everything to us. We had intended to send for you once we were properly feted by the Seventh City Lord. But we were ambushed. I regret to inform you that treachery has infested even the Royal Legion. And it seems diabolism as well. It is only by fortune’s grace and your disciple’s intervention that we still cling to life.”
The alchemist paled.
“Master Liu,” said the boy, “The time for us to reveal our hidden card has come at last.”
The girl nodded. “Cui Li must come home.”
A look of despair crossed Master Liu’s features. “Alex… is he really dead?”
Administrator Duan Peng furrowed his brow. “That’s a Ruidian name!”
The young prince gazed coldly at the man who immediately paled and fell to his knees.
"It is the name of the brave and valiant warrior who fought fearlessly to rescue us. And he will forever be remembered as such.”
“Of course, Your Grace!”
The girl flashed the alchemist a sad smile. “The boy you had taken on as your disciple was worthy of you, Master Liu. Even when he desperately fought to save us, taking on two infernal cultivators, my heart blazed with hope that, somehow, even after all that has happened, you knew of our plight and were coming to our rescue.”
Cui Long nodded. “Very few ever learn to master non-affiliated techniques.”
Duan Peng frowned. “Forgive me, my prince, non-affiliated techniques?”
“Yes, techniques that require no element to channel, but rely on your pure Qi. Very few can make use of them, only those who are supremely gifted, such as the elite soldiers Master Liu had once forged into our nation’s greatest strike force.”
Cui Chan grinned. “And no one was more surprised to see your techniques than those monsters so set on butchering us. When first I saw that Ruidian boy teleport 20 feet before that Bronze Ogre could crush his skull with his enchanted meteor, I knew he must be your disciple.”
The boy laughed. “And when he kicked that monster in the crotch, the flaw in our foe’s impossibly resilient warding became instantly apparent. I had never even heard of your Adderstrike being used in that way, Master Liu.”
The alchemist quirked a sad smile. "Neither have I, before this moment."
Cui Chan furrowed a delicate brow. “I recognized two of your sacred techniques, but not the poisonous stream of bile that spelled the Ogre’s end. Even a monster must breathe, so your disciple spat it right down his throat. Is it a Water technique the boy used? It looked extremely effective.”
Liu Jian sighed. “No, Princess Cui Chan. Alex had no elemental affinity as of yet.”
The prince’s eyes widened. “But Master Liu, he took on dozens of fanatics and multiple Bronze cultivators! And his use of your sacred techniques...”
"That's the beauty of my techniques, Your Grace. Since they rely only on pure Qi, only those with true cultivating potential can use them, like you and your sister or the men once under my care, it's true. But one doesn't necessarily have to ascend to Bronze to make use of them. Even a basic cultivator can make use of those techniques, if his or her foundation is strong enough."
"A foundation so strong that most cultivators will never have the ability to master those techniques, even after ascending to Bronze," Prince Cui Long noted.
"But very much like Cui Li, who might one day achieve Gold, if only she were given the opportunity," the princess whispered.
The alchemist nodded, wiping away a tear. “Yes. Just like my precious blossom. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you, of all people, would know that.”
“How is she?”
The alchemist shook his head. “She took grave injury, not long ago.”
Everyone paled at that.
“And the shame is mine. I burned with it. It was then that I realized I could no longer embrace the guise I have lived so long it had become second nature. The cloak of Liu Jian, beloved fallen alchemist to the poor and wayward, had to be burned away for the man I once was.”
Sad eyes gazed into their own. "Even if it means unchaining a killing aura so potent, I dare not step into an alchemical lab ever again, lest I taint everything with my deadly aura." He gave a sorrowful shake of his head, keeping his distance. "Even now, I dare not greet you properly, for all that I have loved you both since you were infants. For if you get withi
n five feet of me..."
“Only until you learn to control your aura once more, Uncle!" snapped Cui Chan. "I remember the man who doted upon my brother and me for so many years, our beloved confidant, counselor, and guardian angel. Your aura tasted of peril, but love as well, and every morning you cultivated you were calm as the seas till nightfall, or our father insisted upon you attending Council."
The former alchemist flashed a sad smile. “I fear it will be many months of cycling the gentlest waves of Qi before I dare sleep in anyone’s presence again, let alone greet either of you properly. And now I must fear even to clasp the hand of my own child...”
He wiped away bitter tears. “And in this state, I cannot even make more of the Meridian Rejuvenation Pills my daughter will need if the dozen I have are not enough.”
The boy’s eyes widened with impossible hope. “Master Liu. You were the most potent alchemist in all of Yidushi! Please, tell me you have what we need.”
Liu Jian’s eyes widened, before his deadly glower made all those save the royal children quake in their boots. “Those monsters tainted your meridians!”
Cui Chan nodded sadly. “That they did, which is why we dare not use any of our powers, lest we would corrupt our very souls. They hurt us, Uncle, hoping to force us to submit to the use of infernal Qi. And they paid the ultimate price for their vile acts. At least my brother and I and a handful of our beloved men have their lives, only thanks to you and your brave disciple who I hope finds peace in the heavens, having acted so selflessly, giving up so much, to save a handful of mortals in this imperfect world.”
Liu Jian shook his head. “He had no idea you were there. Neither did I. We just sensed a disturbance in the area, kept carefully hidden by our enemies, but it had been enough to drive the spirit beasts wild with dark wrath ill-befitting their normal temperaments. I insisted he accompany me, expecting little more than a training exercise for the boy. But when we stumbled upon this clearing, sensing not just demonic intent but the weight of darkest destiny slowly unfolding? We knew we had been brought here for a reason.”
Cui Long bowed so low his men lowered their gazes in shame. “And we all owe you our lives. You and your disciple both. Thank you, Uncle Liu. We are supremely grateful.”
The alchemist sighed, slowly shaking his head. “I sense no further taint of the infernal, for all that this clearing wreaks of treachery and death.” He frowned, peering deeply into their solemn gazes. "Your meridians are damaged, but any ties to the infernal were severed with your utter rejection of their ways, and the collapse of their gate. Still, the damage must be mended as soon as possible, even if I can offer you nothing more than the gentlest of sacred cultivation techniques and elixirs made by the most novice of alchemists, for all that he had been inspired by genius worthy of WiFu himself." He snorted at the horrified expressions flickering across the faces of the surviving bureaucrats, though the prince and princess nodded with desperate hope.
“Come. I have shelter nearby, and perhaps it is time for my beloved little fox to meet her cousins once more.”
The beautiful princess gave a sad smile. “Please don’t tell me baby Li has forgotten us already?”
"She has no idea who she is," the alchemist admitted. "And I hope she can forgive her father for keeping so many secrets from her, or the fact that I dare not show her a father’s affection, perhaps forever. Such is the price I must pay for my fully awakened power.”
“A Silver Naga as strong as any Gold Dragon,” the boy whispered.
The alchemist flinched, but said nothing.
The princess smiled as it all clicked into place. "And that's why you never did try ascending to Gold. You were afraid your aura would become so thick that you would have to exile yourself from all of us. Is that not right, Uncle?"
The alchemist, who now looked barely thirty, sighed, denying nothing.
"But it might also bring you even better control," said the prince. "Such control that it would have been as effortless to contain your power as it is for me to sheath my blade when I am done training with it.”
“You are correct, both of you,” assured Liu Jian. “But should I not be able to control it any better than I can now, and my powers were to increase a full magnitude? I could never hold my child again. I did not think it worth the risk.”
His right hand crackled with a ball of shimmering green-blue Qi many times more potent than all the elemental magics he had commanded before he had been forced to unleash the true power and potency of his Qi. "Come, children. Let us return to safety. If you sense any trouble, you already know what to do."
The boy smirked. “Yell the cardinal direction and duck.”
His uncle solemnly nodded, but their trip back was uneventful, all of them breathing an audible sigh of relief when they sensed the wild woods all around fade to a dreamlike tranquility, as if entering a sacred clearing where no spirit beast would dare to follow. A sense reinforced by the remarkable difficulty that all but the prince and princess had in following their master into the glade, the royal siblings eventually having to link hands with their servants and soldiers to lead them to shelter.
Yet Master Liu remained at the very outskirts, smiling sadly as his shelter was opened to reveal his precious daughter, looking wan, beautiful, and somehow stronger than she had for weeks.
"How are you feeling, little fox?" her father said softly, though his Qi-enhanced voice carried across the clearing to his daughter effortlessly, her jade green eyes flashing with silver in the light of the setting sun.
“Father, what happened? Where is Alex?" Her gaze widened. “You radiate death!” She swallowed, holding her arms tightly to herself. “And you never brought guests before.”
One of the councilor’s eyes widened. “Her eyes. My prince, her eyes. You know what that means!” he whispered.
The prince scowled. “Calm yourself.”
Liu Li suddenly trembled, her fox ears picking up even the softest of sounds, before falling gracefully to one knee. “How may this lowly one serve you, Your Grace?”
And before she could blink, Princess Cui Chan had swept her up in a gentle hug.
“No bowing before us, beloved Cui Li, for we are family. Once, we spent entire days playing in the garden together. Do you remember those days, Little Fox? The pranks we’d play on my brother? You always had a knack for that. So like your ultimate grandsire, your mother would say.”
Prince Cui Long grinned. "It has been too long, Cousin. Far, far too long."
______________________________________________
Alex smiled, feeling as if a terrible weight had been lifted off his spiritual shoulders. He was like a man seconds away from drifting off into wondrous slumber, delicious warmth against his skin, softest pillows caressing his head, the sea's gentle susurrations bobbing him gently up and down upon its surface. A raft comprised of noblest intentions, a hero's karma allowing him peaceful rest at last, after a short, tumultuous reemergence into the waking universe once more.
He understood then that he was bobbing upon the river of souls, and he found himself strangely at peace with that insight, knowing he was seconds away from drifting off to sleep, and whether it was years, centuries, or millennia before he woke again, he knew his soul would be rejuvenated, free at last of all care from the trials and tribulations that had plagued the twin lives so recently lived.
Then he frowned, feeling the faintest stirrings of discontent, which he somehow knew he shouldn’t feel at all in that river of rebirth and renewal, which itself was a source of concern, forcing his weary soul out of well-earned slumber.
Or perhaps it was the sudden rocking of his spiritual raft as softest fur brushed against his nose, tickling him to increasingly resented wakefulness, when all he wanted was to slumber a lifetime’s worth of cares away.
A soft snort caressed his ear.
“Drifting off to sleep already, Disciple?”
Alex groaned.
WiFu. Of course. For who else could it be?
The inspector, who was simultaneously a dainty silver fox, padded softly upon Alex’s spiritual raft, tilting his wide-brimmed hat, flashing Alex a confidential smile.
“A remarkable string of feats you performed, Alex. Risking your life multiple times for a girl not of your clan, alone as you were in that world, earning the respect, even the friendship, of one of the deadliest cultivators Dragon Temple has seen in decades. Not that you realized it at the time. Months of training, learning to master your Qi as best you could, your natural proclivities letting you bend strictures that constrain all but the most gifted of cultivators, for all that no one would think it, looking at you.”
He gave Alex’s furrowed brow a friendly lick. “And then, to top it off, you manage to rescue the twin heirs of the entire principality, there in secret to retrieve their beloved cousin, the destined bride not just of the principality, but the entire kingdom of which it is the smallest part, claiming territories exceeding the surface area of the blue-green rock you once knew as Earth. And they just a tiny corner of one empire among many, vying for control of a planet with a surface area that stretches for an eternity. Distances you cannot even conceive, physics giving way to the powers of Dream and Qi.”
He chuckled softly. “Posidonius would have been disappointed at his utter inability to calculate the curvature of the Golden Realms, for it stretches the length and breadth of existence itself. Every lost city you could imagine, every ancient treasure, forsaken ruin, and forgotten wonder that you could fathom can be found somewhere within its vast, endless reaches."
Alex furrowed his brow, head throbbing with a pain he knew should be alien to him within the soothing embrace of the River of Souls. Soft fur brushed against him, soothing his concerns away.
“And then you performed the most idiotic and glorious act of self-sacrifice of all, in a land where even the most renowned of cultivators are more often than not selfish idiots concerned only with their own blossoming power. Power which you surrendered without a moment's hesitation, catching the soft desperate gaze of one of my daughters, many times removed, whose maternal line was broken, so lacks my glorious traits. But one of my children nonetheless. I am loath to say her name here, of all places, but your deed rung so gloriously among the heavens when you compressed all your hidden potential and all the potency within that sacred artifact I blessed you with into a deliciously potent brew, your mind crackling with such strong visions of exploding Doomstars that the matter-energy conversion was effortless, and you seared an entire Consort of Demons to oblivion with the explosion of Wu Wei that followed.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reborn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 1 Page 43