Alex quickly nodded, the man’s vice-like grip turning to a sympathetic pat. “Get some sleep, Alex. You have a long day picking alchemical ingredients tomorrow, if I’m not mistaken.” The man sighed. “I can’t say the move you made was a poor one, for all that you’re definitely in their eye and you’re only eating one meal a day. If nothing else, playing gather-boy at least shows your worth and lets you keep your head.”
Peng said nothing else, feigning a soft snore when a distracted guard did his expected rounds moments later, regular as clockwork.
But for Alex, the night had only begun.
Failure! You have failed to destroy Slave Collar.
Backlash suffered! Critical Failure averted! Fire Qi surge successfully channeled back to collar. Surge has melted lock. Collar is now fused to your flesh! You have taken 10 Damage and 1 Light Wound! No significant penalty save pain and 20% chance of infection.
Alex choked back a cry as the collar he had thought he had fully gained an understanding of reacted to his attempts to destroy it. First, he had tried Fire Qi, to overwhelm it, the natural antithesis of Metal, but all that did was fill the collar with deadly potential that the damned item was already designed to handle. Too late he realized he was being a fool. One thing he already knew from working under an alchemist was that mankind had long ago found the secrets for using Fire and Metal elements and Qi in tandem, whether it was using fire to forge a priceless steel sword or combining the elements in a powerful alchemical whole, refining instead of destroying the ingredients in the process. And for the ultimate example of refinement, he needed look no further than this vile masterwork of a collar, using Fire and Metal Qi in a deadly perfect balance that, coincidentally, made it nearly impossible to destroy.
At least for a Rank 1 novice like him.
And when he tried, almost in desperation, to use a highly purified strand of Wood Qi, all that did was cause the tiniest instability and fuel the Fire Qi such that it had to flow somewhere, the lock or his flesh being the only places it could go.
And so now he had a near-indestructible slave collar permanently sealed to his neck, that with the slightest surge of effort, his enemies could use to turn him into a torch.
He closed his eyes in bitter frustration, wondering if his only chance at survival would be to flee into the woods and scratch out a meager existence, branded by his collar and helpless against any slaver caravan possessing any guard with a collar binder at their disposal.
At first the solution had seemed so simple, and he thought himself so damned clever, able to use his divine ring to store both Dark and Light Qi with his Dual Path purification technique, this time leaving absolutely no trace of residue with the gateway fully open, having advanced to the point where he had been able to reform his old family library and form an orb of crackling Dark Qi, just like he had before, without even entering his ring.
When it came to reconstructing his remembered alchemy lab or separating the spinning disk of White Qi into its component elements without actually entering his ring, that was far harder, taking hours where if he actually visited the ring, he thought he could form it within minutes. The beauty of his prize was that anything he could visualize, such as flasks to hold his alchemical reagents, a cistern for holding the hundreds of gallons of water he had funneled from the stream, or an ice-cold meat storage locker, he could form in his pocket world by an act of will. He was effectively able to act as a lord of creation within his prize, but he could only take out what he put in. So he could bring in ingredients for a potion, put it together in an imagined lab, and, so long as he had a real vial to put it in, exit his ring with his completed prize.
For the garden he was putting together with the plants he had gathered, it was different. He needed only bring soil and water, and whatever grew within would be his to claim, free for him to pluck out. Any naturally or pseudo-naturally occurring transformation, like soil, water, and seeds transforming to vibrant Qi-laden plants, or base ingredients transformed to a potent finished potion, he could pull out at will, though it required effort, know-how, or time to enact the transformation.
The few things his ring couldn’t form were fresh living things without seeds and soil, so reincarnating spirit beasts seemed to be out of the question, and he couldn’t form any sources of Qi out of nothing, but air, comfortable temperature, and even summoning heat or cold, were all available options. Previously he had used a combination of his Dark Qi and Silverbell blossoms, natural sources of Qi that could be used to create cultivation pills and elixirs, to sustain his garden. Now, he had a saintly glowing artifact for that.
Yet what he could manage right now was drastically limited by his unwillingness to enter the ring, lest the slave collar around his neck kill him out of hand. He didn’t know any such thing would happen, of course, but since he would literally be risking his life… he did his best to manipulate the contents of his ring from outside, difficult as that was.
And so the stream of separated Wood Qi wasn’t as steady or as potent as it could have been, and when his plan utterly backfired, he feared he might just be denied the shelter of his ring in addition to the comfort of people if he was forced to flee in a desperate bid for survival. And wouldn’t his then miserable existence be a fitting punishment for his daring, at least to the minds of those gods who felt threatened by his very existence.
He could just imagine them laughing at his plight.
And this image filled him with indignation fit to battle the despair that sought to claim him.
Refusing to give up, the brilliant moon overhead made its steady way across the nighttime sky as Alex forced himself awake, thinking long and hard about his problem, before the obvious solution struck him so hard he felt like he was playing the fool yet again. He could just imagine even Silver Fox enjoying a chuckle at his expense.
Chuckling ruefully if quietly at himself, he regathered his focus, peered once more at the brilliantly constructed artifact so securely binding him, all too well aware that if his plan went awry, he’d be a charred corpse by morning.
Hesitating only for a second, he gathered the necessary Qi and slowly, carefully, began pouring it into the artifact. First a trickle, then a steadily increasing stream.
For as pristine and well-constructed as the artifact was, all things decayed with time, minute disequilibriums oscillating in negative feedback loops until dichotomies became blatant stressors that only worsened as the system was thrown further out of equilibrium until any closed system eventually ruptured, surrendering at last to the powers of Entropy, the transfer of energy from highly ordered states to diffuse chaos once more.
With those thoughts in mind, communing with the destructive potential that was but one facet of his Dual Path cultivation technique, Alex carefully flooded the artifact with Dark Qi.
And when the slowly corroding artifact began to overflow with Fire Qi, Alex knew he had no choice but to draw it in, his mind desperately locking on those afternoon lessons with his former, far kinder master, and the insights he would sometimes gain into the nature of Qi, viscerally recalling that pristine moment he had pierced all elemental ward resistance with his one successful spear hand that hadn’t resulted in pained fingers, or the times that, instead of pushing away those elemental forces and wards, he had somehow drawn them in, at least into his ring, just like he did when cultivating Dark and Light Qi with his Dual Path technique. And since he could already separate his Qi and store it, spooling up the surge of Fire Qi was just within his capabilities.
But it came at a cost.
You have suffered 5 Damage due to burns.
Willpower check successful!
You have suffered 4 Damage due to burns.
You have suffered 6 Damage due to burns.
The minutes passed, and it was all Alex could do not to cry out, so consumed he was by the storm of fiery Qi flooding through him before being channeled into his divine artifact. He felt as if he were balancing on a precipice, hot fiery winds seeking to topple h
im over into a lake of lava below, so hot it was already singeing his clothes and searing his flesh. But somehow, even when he wanted to scream for the effort of holding the flood of fiery Qi in place, he managed to endure.
Even as his flesh slowly cooked around his neck, body slowly cooking under a growing fever, he continued to endure.
Until at last, with only a fraction of his health remaining, the flood of fiery hot Qi dried up, the collar he wore now inert metal that had been fire-hardened to incredible resiliency.
He sobbed at how difficult it would be to get rid of, but he still felt a fierce sense of relief.
The artifact, for all that it was seared to his flesh, was now utterly inert.
From the whims of fiery tyrants who could set him ablaze with a thought, he was now free.
The poorly tanned fur hid his trembling and the smell of his own burnt flesh, giving him just enough of an aroma that he now blended in with all the other miserable captives.
Yet his night of suffering and exhaustion came with unexpected benefits in addition to the mixed blessing of his collar.
Congratulations! You have learned a new Qi Discipline. Qi Absorption is now Rank 1. You now have the ability to absorb a modest portion of Fire Qi you are exposed to upon successful skill use. Practice with additional elements will broaden the scope of this skill.
Alex couldn’t help smiling with a fierce sense of satisfaction. He was growing. Despite all the bitter hardships he had endured, all that he had lost, the fact that he was presently under the thumb of a gang of slavers with a Fire Qi-hardened band of steel now firmly bound to his neck, he was still growing, still advancing along his chosen path.
No matter how slow the progress, at least he was moving forward once more.
And as much as he wanted to immediately crash into an exhausted slumber, knowing dawn was just a few precious hours away, still he took the time to place one of his healing poultices around his neck, knowing it would speed up the Full Regenerative Capacity perk that had saved him from crippling injury so many times before.
And when he woke up the next day, moments before the glaring guard could find an excuse to kick him, he felt a curious sense of exultation, breathing the crisp woodland air redolent with the scents of cedar, oak, and a thousand different wildflowers for which he had no name, in addition to the aromas of sweat, fear, and woodsmoke, what he tasted strongest of all was the scent of freedom. He couldn’t help smiling, knowing that even though he was surrounded by enemies eager to sell him off to market, he could escape at any time.
For all that he was virtually penniless and still wore the collar of a slave, he was well and truly free.
Then he winced in sudden pain as Peng cuffed him. “Wipe that smile off your face. It doesn’t belong!” the man hissed, sending a chill down Alex’s spine. “You’ll draw attention to yourself, fool.” Alex’s heart skipped a beat. He grimaced in apology before quickly bending down and tying up his sleeping furs.
His friend was right. A young man wearing a smile of freedom, let alone one of excitement, had absolutely no place in a slaver camp. He’d be a fool to call attention to himself now. Especially since he had no plans of going anywhere.
Not when scores of captives were still in desperate peril.
He jerked a quick nod, trying to remember his earlier expression… exhausted and intent, finding desperate solace only in his ability to gather and prepare alchemical treasures that might keep him from becoming a eunuch or pleasure slave, buying him at least a shred of mercy.
Peng grunted. “Better,” he said. “Now don’t break pattern. Get your ass out there, harvesting whatever the hell a Ruidian apothecary can find in these endless forests. You can fill me in on whatever bit of madness put that smile on your face when the day is done.”
Alex nodded, finding no flaw in his friend’s plan, having intended much the same himself. Yet he couldn’t help flashing the occasional quiet smile as he harvested with greater earnestness than he had since starting his new life, though the quartermaster would only sigh in tired disdain when his harvest turned out to be smaller than ever, the tiniest fraction of the alchemical treasures he found that went straight into his dimensional garden, along with close to another ton of rich earthy loan he could teleport larger and larger chunks of, simply by drawing a circle in the dirt with his fingers, visualizing how deep he would stake his claim, and pulling in his prizes.
He felt nothing but sweetest exultation when he spied hidden flower beds full of vital ingredients, exotic herbs and flowers saturated not only with Wood, Water, and Earth Qi, but mushrooms, moss, and lichen oozing Dark Qi as well. Alex knew just by looking at them that they could be distilled into potent toxins, for all that his mentor had rarely bothered with fungi. But Alex thought he had a better use for them still.
A single careful experiment, and it was all he could do not to whoop for joy. It had worked! Though they had no place in his garden, and would receive no benefit from his saintly artifact, all he had to do was imagine placing the deadly fungi he was collecting into the tiny ball of Dark Qi he had managed to manifest inside his ring in the handful of hours he had dared to cultivate, cleansing his meridians while pretending to sleep, and that seemingly insignificant ball of darkness began to grow by leaps and bounds.
He wasted no time with careful harvesting, instead transporting entire plots of priceless herbs or toxic fungi with a single drawn circle and a surge of his will, even as he reserved the smallest quantity of the most benign plants for his captors, having every intention of weeding his garden of unwanted plants sometime in the future. And though a tiny portion of him frowned at leaving large plots of raw land barren of their prizes, he felt no regret at stuffing his now respectable-sized orb of Dark Qi with all the tainted lichen he could find, knowing they would only cause sickness and death when consumed by normal people and animals, and he sensed that the endless forests full of Wood, Water, and Earth Qi would reclaim those freshly turned plots of earth with fresh shoots of healthy, life-giving herbs and flowers before the week was out.
If all went well, Alex’s garden would be blessed with the richest prizes of forest and field before long, and would grow hale and strong over countless years. Best of all, if his growing sense of the true scope of his ring was correct, his garden would be as vast as any farm before its diameter exceeded the life-giving rays of spiritual energy now emitted by his saintly artifact.
He couldn’t help smiling with wonder at the very thought of it, though it felt strange to somehow hold a claim over an artifact so pristine and virtuous that he knew with his own base hungers and lust for growth, freedom, power, and yes, desires of the flesh, that he was the farthest thing from a saintly warrior who was worthy of that prize. Not with all his mortal cares and concerns. Even if it was he that had transcended the limits of his own soul and forged that very artifact in a moment of pristine virtue that was, for all intents and purposes, the final saintly act of his last life before being reborn a flawed human once more.
At least his current abilities and memories allowed him to imagine it all as one continuous life that he had lived, though he supposed it was actually three, lived over a thousand years.
“Because if I was still on my second life, I’d be up a whole dark host’s worth of experience right now,” he muttered with a bemused smile, grateful that at least his meridian matrix hadn’t been seared to oblivion, as it had been the last instant of his previous incarnation. Then he winced and frowned, recalling Silver Fox’s warning; that the vile demon king he had slain once before would also find a way to come back, and would very much want to settle the score.
That dark thought had him looking over his shoulder for wild spirit beasts if nothing else, knowing that even if dark powers weren’t actively conspiring for vengeance, wandering predators were still very much a concern.
And here he presently was, unarmored and unarmed, as vulnerable as anyone could be in the middle of wild forest.
And why was he so focused on
gathering plants anyway?
He shook his head, chiding himself, knowing that in truth he had other things to focus on if he would have any hope of accomplishing his objectives. At least the plants he had gathered would allow him to fake many busy days, even if his focus would now be on other matters entirely. Such as the inner-workings of the caravan as a whole. With that in mind, he spent many discreet hours studying the slave caravan that day, noting the shift and change of the fourteen surviving slavers tending to their three wagons along the Trade Road and the defeated looking captives that had utterly given up all hope.
He suspected there were at least sixty captives, depending on how many victims were sheltered in the wagons, allowed out only during breaks to eat, relieve themselves, and maintain their health with stretches and the natural Heavenly energy radiated from the sun above, the entire guard surrounding those prized, and admittedly beautiful, young captives, a protective wall armed with dao, glaring at any slave who dared to look their way, for all that the wagons were positioned such that only a diligently harvesting Alex, who everyone had already dismissed as the lowliest of helpers, was able to spy on them at all.
Alex halfway thought Scar had deliberately gone overboard so that the guards were effectively keeping an eye on each other, none in position to sample the goods and thus lower their value when heading to market. Save for the quartermaster and cook, all the slavers would be clustered in that one area, and only Scar and Tang Dan bothered patrolling at those times, the evil mage’s cold smile and the way he’d look at everyone’s collars keeping all the male slaves in line while Scar just smirked at them all, the pair of them enjoying specially prepared meals the cook made for them in addition to the rich stew prepared for everyone else.
Alex smiled coldly, content to gather intel from a distance, the first steps of a plan slowly clicking into place.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reforged: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 2 Page 8