Alex smiled appreciatively, raising up his cup and bowing his head formally and low. “Your humble disciple thanks you. And thank you as well for the tip. For the sake of a brew this delicious? Farmost corner of the Golden Empire, here I come.”
Alex smirked when WiFu’s grin suddenly faltered. “I’m kidding, of course,” he said, bemused gaze turning hard as steel. “We both know where I’m heading, and that I might not even survive the journey, with the rest of your family doing everything they can to stop me.”
WiFu nodded solemnly. “True.”
Desperate eyes, suddenly void of all humor, locked with Alex’s own. “But I’m betting all in, Alex. Same as you.”
Alex grimaced. “No pressure, right?”
His old mentor of a lifetime ago abruptly chuckled. “Just the fate of this beautiful little world, filled with fanatics and fools, wonders you can scarce imagine, and countless billions just making their way through life, savoring its sweet moments and triumphs, in the only reality their souls will ever know. No pressure at all.”
He then waved his hand, excited eyes peering at Alex, who found his exquisite mocha coffee suddenly on a small table before him, along with a crystal plate filled with his favorite childhood pastries. “You can nibble later. Let us seize the moment! I sense my favorite disciple is on the cusp of something... momentous. So, I thought I’d pop by and see how you were doing.”
Alex smiled, holding up his hand, displaying a visualization of his insight, how he imagined manipulating his Qi, shimmering in a dozen different colors. “Twelve strands for the twelve elements, perhaps the twelve forces and fields, that make up this reality.” Alex mimed twisting them together in a complex weave, the weave spiraling between his hands as he slowly pulled them apart, displaying a shimmering rope of multicolored Qi. “I imagine that somehow the secret to me forming the perfect meridian cords relies on a pattern like this. All my elements woven neatly together in a pattern that resonates perfectly for me.”
He shifted his gaze to enigmatic silver-green orbs that gave nothing away. “As epic as I first thought my Dual Path Cultivation Technique was, manipulating not just a couple but all eight Light Qi elements and Dark Qi as well, I thought my original set was complete. But, of course, it’s not.”
WiFu nodded. “No man or god has access to all twelve, Alex. Not unless he is the All-Father of everything, and if such a being even exists, he has never bothered making himself known to me.”
Alex nodded, feeling on the cusp of something momentous. “But to forge a truly divine cultivation technique, I need to account for all twelve fundamental forces anyway, don’t I?” Alex frowned, gazing at the complex weave glittering so prettily between his hands, knowing three of the twelve perfect strands he could never form in real life, only here in a dream.
Then he blinked, WiFu’s lazy hand bursting his illusion.
“Have a care, disciple. Even here, in a dream, in the ancient heart of our sanctuary.”
The dark smile he flashed chilled Alex to the bone. “If our enemies actually knew how close you were to truly understanding the next step you must take in order to truly ascend a mountain with absolutely no limit...”
Alex swallowed, jerking a nod as he devoured yet another cream-filled pastry, washing it down with sweet black coffee as tasty as the richest dark chocolate he had ever savored on a cold winter’s day.
“If only I had access to some tomes. If only I could correlate what I learned within those...” he looked furtively around, for all that they were alone. “Snow globes...”
WiFu snorted. “Snow globes indeed.”
“With actual cultivation manuals, if only I could put it all together in a way cultivators like me could use!”
His mentor nodded. “Manuals our foes have happily broken every rule to keep out of your greedy little paws.”
Alex closed his eyes and sighed. “And my ring...”
“Yes. It’s in the belly of a massive spirit wolf, the brother of the greater spirit beast you slew, incidentally, and many miles from here.”
Alex nodded. “I dreamed the death of the cultivator that dared to claim it. That bastard got what he deserved.”
WiFu sighed. “I know. It’s why I can tell you this now without accruing even the tiniest penalty. But, if anything, you should pity that fool of a man.”
Alex blinked. “For getting chomped by a wolf, a quick death before enjoying seven perfect lives?”
WiFu shook his head. “It’s not about those seven perfect storybook lives. It’s about what happens after.”
“He’s forced to reincarnate without a cultivator’s gifts, like Lai Leng, after Elder Panheu somehow claimed his golden soul stone?”
“No, Alex. After those seven glorious lives, that poor foolish man will never reincarnate again.”
Alex blinked, surprised to see WiFu looking so solemn, eyes glimmering with actual pity, of all things.
Alex’s gaze hardened, his voice turning cold. “I was raised in a home that believed in no god, no destiny, save the one we ourselves forged. And for all that I stupidly thought myself far too clever and competent to ever need the comforts of religion, when my father and sisters died, when I was diagnosed with cancer, I would have loved nothing more than the comfort of some divine father figure there to protect me.” He gave a bitter shake of his head. “To... care for me.”
He flushed under WiFu’s benevolent gaze, both awed and shaken to realize that he, former atheist, was most definitely sharing coffee with a god.
“But there was nothing. Nothing save the promise of an agonizing death, and the despair of knowing that nothing and no one was waiting for me, that no gods cared about the insignificant speck of matter and life that was me. Knowing that only blackness waited for me in the end.”
Alex glared at his coffee cup. “I lived every day of my life after the car accident knowing how fragile we all were. That once our lives ended, there was nothing! No solace. No comfort. Nothing. And that awful truth became all the more ugly and real with my diagnosis and my mother’s tears.”
He clenched his fists, shattering his coffee cup, trembling with sudden fury. “For what that selfish bastard did, I’d gladly take his life, and tear away each of those promised reincarnations, even if they were his last! I’d happily consign him to the same bleak death and perpetual blackness that I suffered, that every single person I knew and loved back on Earth themselves suffered! The fact that he won’t be burning in hellfire for a billion years is the only mercy I will ever give!”
And much to Alex’s surprise, it was WiFu who seemed shaken, strangely fey eyes gazing into his own. “Out of all the times we have danced this dance before...” He gave a wondering shake of his head. “You never fail to surprise me, Alex. At least that much is true.”
Alex clenched his jaw, feeling suddenly judged. “I refuse to pity that man for having seven extra lucky lives no Terran will ever get to experience! Don’t you get it, WiFu? By making my life harder, he’s putting twenty million souls in mortal peril, including Liu Li’s own!”
But Alex knew there was no more point in venting.
WiFu was already gone.
He gave a bitter shake of his head, glaring at his shattered coffee cup and the table soaked with the sweet brew, though he took some solace in the still fully intact eclairs before him. As long as he was in what could only be a dream, he thought he might as well enjoy what creature comforts he could.
Then he blinked, hands trembling with awe. Hit by the wildest of thoughts... recalling his mentor’s words... how the inspector, or god, dared give nothing away.
But here Alex was, in the dream of his own library.
Where every detail came into absolute perfect focus.
Including countless bookcases now filled with the volumes of every text book or novel he had ever read.
And somehow, Alex just knew that if he walked down the central most pair of bookcases and turned the corner, he’d find the grand hallway leading to a library wi
thin his library, containing a pristine replica of the entire collection of tomes he had held for Jidihu.
Heart racing with delicious possibilities, he suddenly froze.
Knowing that this was one path he dared not take. If there was even a ghost of a chance, no matter how ridiculous or unfair, that even dreams would be counted against him, he dare not take it. Not when someone he loved might perish to a mad god’s vengeance, if he dared glimpse even the dream of forbidden text books.
But the pristine memory of his own shadowy tome aligned perfectly to WiFu’s own affinities, a sacred tome he had given to a certain kitsune who had touched his heart? Yes. That he could pick up, free of obligation or penalty.
Alex’s hands were trembling with strange hope, after his feet took him exactly where he needed to be in the dream of a library he had once known so well, reaching out for the tome that he knew would be there, flipping open pages he had last explored with Liu Li gazing at him with such fervent, desperate hope.
And how desperately he had wanted to kiss those soft red lips, lose himself in those twinkling silver-green eyes, hold her fragile body close and make her his own.
He swallowed, heart pounding, shaking those treacherous thoughts away.
Focusing only on the tome, all but laughing aloud as he saw what he most wanted, most desperately needed to see.
In his dream he could recall the entire tome perfectly, even recognize the images and myriad patterns involving strands of Shadow Qi, even if that particular element was one that he would never manipulate directly.
But it almost didn’t matter, as he desperately flipped for what he most wanted, most needed to see.
Before it was too late.
Forced to wake up unexpectedly with a single jolt from any jealous deity seeking to crush even his most private dreams.
But not before he caught a glimpse of the page he only half-remembered before recollection came back to blazing life, seeing the clever way four strands of Fire, Earth, and Metal Qi twined around Shadow Qi. And how twelve strings comprised of those strands twined together to form a fiber, and how twelve fibers twined together to form a solid cord of Qi.
A rope connecting seven meridian channels in a configuration that was ideal for any student of WiFu’s path.
Alex quickly flipped back several pages, carefully noting the first step of the process, the winding of four strands of Qi. His eyes widened with wonder and he couldn’t help laughing aloud as he noted the odd spacing between the strands twined together to form the first string.
He took a deep breath, swallowing, holding up his hand just like he had shown WiFu minutes before. Carefully visualizing those twelve winding strands, aligned according to the elemental affinities and how they resonated with one another that he now sensed so profoundly after his mad, perilous gambit, trying to channel a greater beast core in his understanding of a completely alien paradigm. Risking his own death like a fool, yet the insights he had gained had been the stroke of genius that just might allow him to survive whatever hurdles would follow.
He couldn’t help chuckling at his own folly even as he exulted in his revelation, ruefully accepting that he was the epitome of the Wise Fool himself, when, upon making eight of those elemental Qi strands disappear, the configuration wound about exactly as shown in the diagram of his divine cultivation manual, now in the care of his closest friend.
Insight gained! You have unlocked the secrets of forging your first symmetrically ordered Bronze cord!
Alex fell to his knees as it all clicked and began to make a profound sort of sense in ways he hadn’t even fathomed before.
Trembling hands carefully took away the strand of Shadow Qi and visualized instead all eight Light elements and his Dark Qi element all twining about each other according to their affinities, with space for the other three elements that he had no strong affinity for.
When he was done, his twined strands formed a thread that resonated within his very soul, and he could taste just how close to perfection his insight would take him.
Working with feverish intensity, knowing he was running out of time, he visualized twisting about exactly twelve of those threads counterclockwise to the direction the strands had been twined in, forming a fiber.
And from there, one final step, forging twelve of those fibers and then twisting them all clockwise once more, forming a massive shimmering cord of elemental Qi, resonating its significance through his soul.
Then he felt his incredible breakthrough fade away as an all too familiar voice resonated through his soul. “Our opponents have gifted their pawns with dreams. So we shall do the same.”
22
“It has been three days, and you fools have still failed to open the door?”
Ice cold words from a glaring Xiao Shen set the pair of men before him in his well-appointed office quaking in their robes.
“Apologies, Grandmaster! We have done all we could, but even infernal talismans can’t diffuse Golden wards twisted out of true, after contact with that Ruidian.”
“You are never to call me that outside of the ceremonies, fool!” snapped Xiao Shen at the shorter man, who immediately crashed to his knees and kowtowed.
Xiao gave an angry shake of his head, gaze now firmly upon the pale-faced man still standing before him. “It should have taken no more than one Golden ward, one! To slaughter anyone lower than Silver! Yet you claim that a full five were discharged, and the other five have sealed the door permanently shut!”
The trembling cultivator before him swallowed. “Yes, Grand- I mean, honored gatekeeper. This is so.”
The secret head of Morning Dew Academy rubbed his brow thoughtfully, eyes flicking across his room, glancing off treasures of jade and silver as if finding comfort in the exquisitely carved statues underneath masterwork paintings displaying perfect gardens lining his walls, the pair of men before him trembling upon a carpet of finest silk.
Xiao Shen tapped his fingers upon his polished hardwood desk. His gaze was almost pitying. “You mean you fools truly haven’t figured out the most obvious solution to our dilemma?”
The man before him gulped. “Master?”
“What discharges the wards?”
Eyes widened with dawning comprehension. “Only when one... of course, master.” His pallor turned ghastly. “You don’t mean...”
“Of course not, fool! We, the chosen, are sacred. You did drug the last adventuring party to come through, did you not?”
The man nodded. “Of course. The cultivator among them is amenable to our cause, willing to do anything to strengthen his cultivation.” He flashed a cold smile. “And since he too hails from Yidushi and considers his Ruidian companions less than human, he had no problem slipping those gem masters tainted drinks himself.”
Xiao Shen gave a soft chuckle. “Excellent. One bit of good news. Our Baidushian guests sometimes have unfortunate... reservations. But I’ve always found my Yidushian brothers to be enthusiastic fans of the philosophy of personal advancement above all else, understanding that sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the sake of the bigger picture. And we have been short a disciple ever since that one fool ran off.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Still, he was a bit too eager to betray those barbarians, even for my taste. They had been hunting together for a full season by his own admission, the only reason why they trusted him. Best we bind him to our most secure oaths, just to avoid any future misunderstandings.”
“Of course, gatekeeper. He is enjoying one of our pleasure maidens as we speak. We thought it best to allow him to savor the sweet before embracing the necessary bitter.”
“Excellent. Then we shall spare him this bit of ugly business, lest it awaken any last-minute twinges of regret. While our newest recruit is savoring poppy and spice, you will use his former companions to open that door.”
The man bowed his head. “It shall be done, Master Xiao.”
“Good. For all that I regret the sweet coin those enslaved gem masters might have brought us, that
door must be opened. Headmaster Bingwen comes!”
Widened eyes gazed with sudden horror into Xiao Shen’s own. “If he suspects...”
“We will give him no reason to suspect anything! But the library must be opened. We must make sure...” Xiao gave an abrupt shake of his head. “All will be fine. I know it. But appearances must be kept! He will forgive us if his wards struck down fools. But not if the door itself is fused shut!”
“We will see to it at once, master,” said the cultivator, grabbing his still kowtowing companion and heading off at a fast clip.
Xiao Shen’s cold, calculating smile suddenly froze upon his features, his pallor every bit as deep as those of his men just moments before. “Demon’s mercy, he is here. It’s too soon. Too soon!” he cursed before darting out of his chamber just as fast as his underlings had as a Gold’s crushing aura suddenly weighed down upon them all.
Amber eyes crackling with fire gazed into his own as a mist that was almost rain drenched robes laced with gold and dozens of sparkling jewels. All this Xiao Shen took in after racing to meet the man he feared above all others, just outside the temple.
The gatekeeper fell to his knees, as if the crushing presence of the man before him was more than he could bear. It did not matter that the ghost of Alex could all but taste the stench of poison fouling a foundation of Wood and Fire. The Gold’s deadly potency was obvious to all three of the trembling cultivators who had rushed outside to greet the former headmaster of Dragon Academy, and if any truly sensed the damage Bingwen had suffered, none were so foolish as to say it aloud.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior's Oath: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 4 Page 35