And if the weather outside still howled with the winds of Lord Zheng Yi’s hate, then Alex had everything he needed to soar across the heavens, using no Qi save the storm alone.
He wasted no time, not hesitating to enter his enemy’s sought for library to pilfer the additional two Golden tomes before placing all the Bronze and Silver manuals in his possession inside before slamming it shut once more.
Only then did he race to his visualized alchemy lab, experimenting not with Qi but rather making some of his master’s favorite potions with the incredible reserves of herbal ingredients from his garden that he had on hand, most especially flamewort and crimson blossom, not to mention coughing up a considerable amount of his own concoctions, especially a considerable quantity of both his Ideal Solvent and Caustic Brew, his Rank 10 Eternal Fox along with plenty of spirit meat and fruit replenishing his nutrients almost as fast as a beast core would have.
And then, in far less time than he would have thought, he was ready.
Kitted up in legionnaire bronze once more, with his magical fangtian ji in hand, Alex flipped out of his ring and Bullrushed for the heavens, laughing with furious joy to find his enemy’s caustic hatred was more than enough to keep him afloat on a waves of stormy Qi as he tacked against the storm, using his enemy’s hate to his own advantage, racing for Erjizhen just as fast as the howling winds could take him.
He encountered no spirit beast or any other foe as the ancient woodlands whipped by underneath his soaring feet, exchanging his magical weapon for the shimmer of a Gold so striking any cultivator would be caught breathless with a glimpse as he circled what had once been a bustling center of trade, and would appear to be still, were it not for the wave of desperation and panic he could sense, even from here.
The flash of fire filled him with dread.
It was the masts of countless ships set ablaze, though thankfully not the pier itself. And though all four gates had been reduced to mounds of blazing wood and rubble, with portcullises having crashed down as countless tension cords were shattered or burned, the city itself was intact, for now.
If anything, Alex’s dread had only increased.
It was now painfully obvious even to him that Bingwen was deliberately holding the entire city hostage, deliberately destroying all exit points so that none might escape.
All no doubt to assure the maximum amount of death and destruction, should Alex fail to comply with the psychopath who wished for the death of all Ruidians and kitsune, a man who despised Alex for the unforgivable crime of his own existence.
Alex patted his storage belt. Though it possessed only the tiniest fraction of his ring’s potency, it was vital to his plans.
“You know this is sheer madness, right? If you had any common sense at all...”
Alex smiled at the voice in his head as he circled the walled palace in the heart of this city, noting how countless tree-lined walkways connected it to a number of squat, practical-looking buildings no doubt quite functional in nature, the entire complex seeming to serve as much as an administrative hub as it did a hall of splendor.
Only now, the entire complex was smoldering. Numerous fires had broken out throughout the complex, the air smelling of smoke and fear, for all that it seemed under control, for the most part. Though whether that was Bingwen’s doing, or Lord Wan Duan’s, Alex had no idea. He only knew that he had to get to the central throne room, and pray that his mad scheme had even the slightest chance of working.
“Master Bingwen, is there anything my servitors can get you to make your wait more comfortable?” asked Lord Wan Duan in the most deferential of tones.
Alex was able to both see and hear them perfectly as he cut off his flight when he was fifty feet from his target to better hide any Qi flow disturbance just before he landed upon the sill of one of the open ventilation windows, right where the walls met the roof supports. He was pleased to find that he had a magnificent view of the proceedings below, horrified to catch sight and smell of the still-smoldering musicians, and overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of Bingwen’s aura.
The man was currently taking his ease upon the throne itself, sipping from a golden chalice, a trembling girl of perhaps sixteen summers holding a tray of sweetmeats and other delicacies for his pleasure.
Bingwen flashed a cold smile. “Yes, Wan Duan. You can pull up another chair. I believe our guest has arrived.”
Terrible eyes of flame then jerked up, pinning Alex with his gaze.
Alex’s heart started to hammer. He could all but feel the sweat and potion of fire resistance evaporate from his flame, knowing that did his enemy but will it, he would erupt in flame.
Alex was facing a Gold.
He was an idiot to think he would accomplish anything save dying here.
Nonetheless, he would play this through.
Bingwen’s lips curled up in a sneer, almost as if he were reading Alex’s mind. “Careful, boy. Any tricks, and I will set this entire city ablaze, just like this young lady here.”
The servant girl’s eyes widened, and she looked around in confusion before bursting into flame.
Her cool decorum transformed to dying shrieks before she crumpled to ash. Bingwen adroitly plucked the silver tray she had been holding before it also tumbled to the ground, munching on the tray of treats with considerable relish, deadly smirk never shifting, eyes the color of crimson madness pinning Alex where he crouched.
Yet despite his terror, Alex felt a single jolt of hope.
Horrifically powerful his foe might be, but his Quickness and Finesse were no higher than Rank 1 Bronze.
It seemed like everyone specialized to their strengths, here. If anything, Alex was disappointed the man even had the body of a Bronze. Mortal would have been better. Because the man so clearly had the elemental powers of a Gold, and an incredibly deadly one at that.
Bingwen’s brows furrowed just a hair. “You have arrived early. This is good. I will permit you a moment to grasp just how utterly outmatched you are. Then you will come before me, surrender your ring and all its prizes, and explain to me exactly how it is that you and not Xiao Shen stand before me. Then you will fall to your knees and beg for mercy, and if I find your pathetic blundering attempts to abase yourself amusing enough, I might just let you live. Just as soon as I burn away all traces of your cultivation base.” Bingwen flashed an icy smile. “A cultivating Ruidian is one travesty I’m afraid we cannot allow under any circumstances.”
Alex bowed his head. “I understand, Headmaster Bingwen,” he said.
Finesse check made!
Before seeming to disappear in a puff of smoke.
And perhaps the unexpectedness had jolted Bingwen more than even he would admit, a single reflexive snarl parting from the man’s lips as the window ledge Alex had been perched upon exploded in fire and shrapnel.
Heart pounding, Alex spoke quickly from behind the man, promising himself he would vanish in a heartbeat if he felt the temperature around him suddenly spike. “My apologies if I startled you, Master Bingwen. I’m afraid my Bullrush skill is imperfect at best. You can still see the cloud of dust kicked up in my wake.”
The former headmaster spun around, glaring at Alex.
Alex trembled. It was all he could do not to collapse to his knees and beg for forgiveness.
Bingwen looked on the verge of snarling. Alex could see the man struggle not to clench his fists.
Before carefully schooling his features, affecting a demeanor of utter calm.
“Do you have my books?”
Alex solemnly nodded. “But let’s not mince words. You and I both know you have every intention of killing me, once I hand them over.”
Bingwen’s icy calm broke into furious wrath. “Do you dare to defy me, you pathetic worm? I will fry your soul to ash!” he roared.
Willpower check successful!
Alex flinched but swallowed back the desperate fear he felt consuming him, as if he were daring to enrage a deity to its face.
And
considering that he had done just that in the not too distant past, a Gold should be no problem at all.
Or so he desperately told himself, as his breath cracked and he tried to speak. “If you kill me, you’ll get nothing! Do you really think my magical belt will stay with me if it’s not freely given? WiFu will claim it and laugh in your face when it fades to nothing, leaving you a cripple with poisoned Wood Qi forever! And how strong do you really think your cultivation base will be, once your Wood has shriveled to nothing?”
The sudden look of animal panic upon the Bingwen’s countenance made it clear that Alex had hit home.
But this madman wore such a look of feral hate that Alex halfway thought the man would butcher him just for the furious satisfaction of it, even if he howled his frustrated outrage and burnt the entire city to ash just seconds later.
“But I will bargain in good faith!” Alex cried, rubbing his belt as he summoned the prize he had claimed at Morning Dew Temple.
And not even he had expected the entire library, still encased in the stone Alex had ported it in with, to manifest in one intact whole, a temple made of nearly indestructible enchanted stone, the shimmering rune-covered door back in place as Alex had first seen it.
Alex flashed a desperate smile, speaking into the sudden breathless silence when both Bingwen and Lord Wan Duan looked on in stupefied silence. The library had just crashed into existence, right in the center of the massive palatial hall.
Alex had to admit he was startled as well, but his tongue knew better than to freeze. “That library contains every Silver and Bronze tome that was in there when I claimed the room, and every Silver and Bronze tome I claimed from your flunkies. My Cultivator’s Oath upon it.”
That being said, he held up a shimmering book of Gold.
Bingwen’s blazing eyes lit up with sudden desperate hope.
“But if you seek my Gold tomes, and don’t wish them to be locked away eternally beyond your reach when I die, I need your assurance that you will pursue me no further, that you will do nothing to harm or kill me directly, indirectly, or by third party proxy.”
Bingwen’s gaze hardened. He flashed a cold smile. “You’ve been a massive thorn in my side for too long to think a single Gold tome will save you.”
Alex shrugged, a second Gold tome popping in his hand.
He carefully placed the first one on the ground.
“Here. Take it as a gesture in good faith. But if you want the second, third, or fourth, you’ll promise to leave me, this city, and those that look like me or my patron alone. The choice is yours.” And with another puff of smoke, Alex seemed to disappear, Bullrushing not once, but twice, to the farthest corner of the domed roof, holding onto a support beam and remaining as quiet as a mouse.
Bingwen snarled, glaring all about. He whispered a few quiet words, nodded, and strode toward the golden tome waiting for him on the floor, Alex counting the seconds that passed. With a warning glare to an intimidated Lord Wan Duan who immediately held up his hands, Bingwen bent down and snatched up the priceless manual after staring down at it for long, cautious seconds.
He flipped it open and couldn’t hide his relieved smile before his expression smoothed and he gave a nod of lukewarm satisfaction.
Bingwen then turned to the library entrance, glaring at the door. It shimmered a golden hue and opened. He took a quick look inside, placed the Golden tome within, and slammed it shut. “I bind this chamber by will and breath. No one not of my blood may enter this chamber, lest they’d have their flesh boil off their bones. No one not of my blood may touch this door, lest they’d gift their souls to the netherhells below.”
He then turned to Lord Wan Duan, flashing a cold smile. “Your throne room has just become my study chamber.”
The administrator gave a desperate bow. “It is as you say, Master Bingwen.”
“It is good that you understand this. Assuming that pale-faced monkey surrenders the remaining tomes, you may both get to live to see tomorrow, and the Ruidian may live out the remainder of his pathetic life, so long as he never crosses my path again!”
Alex flashed a bleak smile, grateful to feel his Qi reserves replenishing despite his terror, generating another cloud of smoke as he ported exactly as many paces away from the Gold cultivator as he had been when surrendering the first tome.
Holding a second tome before him like a shield, to deter any startled or vindictive attack, Alex spoke from behind the man. “Then here is a second Gold tome, my lord. Savor its secrets. And if you can additionally promise not blow this city up or otherwise go on a kitsune or Ruidian killing spree, there are two more tomes where that one came from.”
Alex had the cheek to smile as the startled mage turned around, snarled at Alex holding the book like a shield, before Alex disappeared once more in a puff of smoke.
Just as cautiously, the mage approach once more, whispering quiet words before slowly picking it up, giving a thoughtful nod of satisfaction. This volume he also returned to his recently claimed library, slamming shut the shimmering door before spinning around, taking careful inventory of the entire chamber before his eyes lit on Alex at last, crouched over yet another support beam.
The mage flashed a cold smile, clearly expecting to have found him, though Alex noted it had taken long moments.
Bingwen gave a satisfied nod, understanding Alex’s play.
When he disappeared, Bingwen knew Alex hadn’t actually vanished. He had simply Bullrushed or, at his present level of skill, effectively teleported somewhere randomly in the vast cathedral-like chamber in a puff of smoke to cover his tracks.
“Very well, worm. You have played this round well enough that even your patron can be proud. So be it! I give you your life, and I won’t even burn the fools you leave behind out of spite. I care not for your disgusting kind, so long as you keep yourselves hidden from my gaze, just as Jidihu kept hidden her wenches and brats! Now surrender those final Golden tomes, and get out of my sight!”
Alex nodded. “So be it.”
And in another puff of smoke, he vanished from the ceiling supports, appearing behind Bingwen once more, the man having the sense to immediately spin around, smiling coldly when a now trembling Alex, who didn’t have to fake his mounting anxiety, slowly put down first one, then the second Golden tome.
Bingwen’s eyes flashed with fierce pleasure. “Very good, filth. Now begone forevermore!”
With those words, Alex vanished once more in a puff of smoke.
And just as cautiously as before, Bingwen approached the pair of books.
Alex closed his eyes from his safe spot, hands wrapped around a prize covered in his own blood.
He could so clearly visualize the man frowning down at the tomes, whispering the first of a pair of incantations, just to make sure no traps lay in wait.
Bingwen was no fool. He already knew his opponent’s moves, knew Alex must be spying on him from the palatial rafters. A mere Bronze might be helpless against the protective wards of a Golden Fire cultivator, but he was at least in an ideal position to dart away if Bingwen attacked, and now would be the perfect time to plant a false book.
And much to his relief, Bingwen would find the books to be exactly what he hoped for as he reached down, picking up the first.
NOW!
“Popcorn, motherfucker!” Alex roared, his fangtian ji fully extended, springing forth not from the rafters, where he had conditioned his foe to expect him, but from a divine artifact which, if Alex was damn lucky, might actually pop at least some of his enemy’s wards.
Maybe.
Alex knew it was madness, knew that the former Headmaster, mind and body sheathed in an impossible corona of wards, enchantments, and protective barriers no Silver, let alone desperate Bronze, could hope to break through, was the farthest thing from a wild spirit beast.
But at this point a desperate, furious Alex didn’t even care. He had been hounded to the literal gates of hell and back, the very gods above doing all they could to guarante
e his death, until fear and terror had morphed into the darkest of killing rages.
He didn’t care what it took.
Didn’t care if he had to haul his shattered, dying body out of the River of Souls a dozen times to taste his enemy’s dying screams but once, he was going to make this bloodthirsty murderous psychopath pay for all he had done to Alex’s spiritual kin and the kitsunes he cherished.
Even if he did but put the fear of a certain god of chaos in this man’s spiteful heart, even if his desperate dimensional leap did no more than shatter a single Golden ward, Alex would welcome any cost, even if it meant porting back into his ring a shattered wreck, screaming as he reknitted his flesh from a burnt husk, having every intention of stalking this vile Gold and haunting his library for however many weeks, months, or years it took to break him, so Bingwen knew nothing but fear, never knowing if he was stepping into Alex’s deadly shadow.
Alex might be blasted to the point of death a dozen times.
But if he could bring the fear of that same doom to his enemy’s eyes even once... it would be enough.
Alex howled in fear, terror, and gleeful wrath as he burst through, taking bleak satisfaction that if he failed to yank himself free of that terrible river, it would be because he had been obliterated so badly he had not one brain cell left to form a cogent thought, at which point the river could hold him under for eternity. For Alex, it would pass in the blink of an eye, nothing left of him at all.
Lord Wan Duan’s eyes widened in impossible shock as he gazed at Alex from the other side of the grand chamber, and Alex felt his heart pound in panic as his ji hit only air.
His worst fears were realized.
His opponent had been aware of Alex’s gambit the whole time. Had outfoxed him better even than WiFu himself, goading Alex to play all his cards before backing away, no doubt a heartbeat from obliterating Alex in a pillar of flame that very instant.
Alex cried out in sudden panicked terror, spinning around with his fangtian ji streaking through the air in a desperate attempt to buy himself a startled second to flip back into his ring...
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior's Oath: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 4 Page 53