She flashed an impish smile. “And train me every day, so I won’t disgrace myself in the competition?”
He couldn’t help chuckling softly. “I’ll do my best, Hao Chan, and that’s a promise.”
She nodded solemnly. “Good, Alex, that’s good.” She tilted her head, lips still curved in a grin. “That still doesn’t explain how you crossed the battlefield in a flash or managed to strike killing blows in a beast as high at the withers as me standing on your shoulders, or how you managed to pull a spear from the ether with your ji still stuck in its side.” She smiled at his swallow, eyes twinkling merrily. “But I guess it doesn’t really matter.” She squeezed his hand. “What matters is you’re alive. What matters is that you didn’t abandon us. And for that, I’ll always be grateful.”
Alex blinked, heart racing when her eyes caught his own once more. An endless moment where neither said a word as they stood there, lost in each other’s gazes.
“Hao Chan! Daughter, where are you? I don’t care if you need to relieve yourself, you are not to leave my sight!”
Hao Chan blinked and flushed as Alex pulled away, surprised by how close their faces had come together, feeling oddly breathless as he shared a rueful chuckle with the girl only now slipping her hand free of his, who quickly darted forward after flashing a single warning glance his way. “I found him, Father!” she said excitedly. “I thought I heard a rustling in the bushes, and there he was! It’s a miracle he’s still alive. I’m just amazed he found us again!”
And there Hao Zei was, his overly-corpulent form stuffed into too-tight fitting attire that would have looked elegant on anyone but him, dark glittering eyes locking onto Alex’s… and then, of all things, the man flashed a relieved, almost simpering smile.
“Alex, my boy! You’re alive. Alive and whole, with hardly a scratch on you, it seems. Well done, lad. Well done!”
Alex painted a neutral smile on his features, though he bowed his head respectfully. “It is good to see that you and your kin are hale and healthy, master merchant.”
The man flashed a rictus of a smile. “Yes. Our lives we have. That, at least, and hardly anything else! This trip has been a disaster. An absolute disaster!” His eyes bulged with displeasure. “The worst of all possible encounters repeatedly strikes! First spirit wolves, and now a greater spirit beast. Worst of all, the damned thing disappeared! After we went to all the trouble of killing it, after it cost me the life of one of my men and near-maimed my second, the damned thing disappeared, not even leaving its beast core behind!”
The man shook, grinding his teeth. “And we so weakened that I had to leave my second wagon behind!” He turned, glaring at the carriage, which Alex had to admit still looked nothing short of magnificent, with its flat roof, grand size, and sturdy construction. “Fortunately, our carriage is steel reinforced with a flat roof, and you would think it wide enough to strap all my treasures upon. But the damned thing was in danger of tipping over! We could only bring the smallest fraction of my treasures. The smallest fraction!”
The merchant spat the last, glaring at his wagon, and Alex truly did think it an impressive feat of engineering, the sheer size of it, a quick look at the wheels and undercarriage making it clear it was far more complex and sophisticated than any layman would comprehend with a glance. It also looked pretty damned stable, to Alex’s mind.
Then his eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of the carriage’s insides, noting how it was near-filled to the brim with crates, bolts of silk, and numerous bags marked with symbols for exotic spices and alchemical supplies, among other items.
“If you’ll forgive my saying so, it looks like you were able to secure a quite a lot of goods in your carriage.”
The merchant glowered. “Only the most precious of my prizes, boy. I had to leave over half of it behind! And now there is only room for me and Sun Sun within. The children must sit on the driver’s bench or upon the wagon proper. And they have no reason to complain. The rooftop is flat; they have plenty of room!”
Alex frowned, gazing up at the wagon. The merchant flashed a placating smile. “Best of all, with all four horses hitched and that nephew of mine finally earning his keep, we’re making excellent time! It should only take us weeks to get to Yidushi, not months!”
Alex blinked. “Months?”
The older man snorted. “Of course months. We’re nearly a thousand miles from Yidushi, boy, and we were traveling at a slow walk! Now our horses can move at a decent clip, or at least a fast walk. If fortune favors us, it shouldn’t take much more than three weeks to get to Yidushi.” He frowned at Alex, looking him up and down. “The children feared you dead, but you don’t look overly injured.”
Alex nodded blandly. “The bull did knock me over and leave me in a daze. When I came to, everyone was gone. Even the bull was gone.”
The merchant snorted. “Damned spirit beasts, so many tricks, and now we can’t even claim them after death!” His eyes darted back and forth, features suddenly furtive, speaking quietly. “You’re sticking with us, right, boy? Until we see this through?” Anxious eyes peered into Alex’s own before the man cleared his throat, nodding as if it were a foregone conclusion. “Of course you are. It would be madness to dare these roads alone. Absolute madness.” He flashed an oily smile. “Even better, you get to ride on the carriage top, rest your feet, and enjoy the scenery. Almost a vacation, and I’m not even charging you extra!”
“You’re not charging me anything. We have a wager, and you’re paying me when the trip is done,” Alex quickly amended.
The merchant waved off his words as if they were of no import. “Of course. But we have to make good time. So by all means, relax and enjoy the countryside! But we will be keeping our stops short, only when darkness hits. You and Sun Sun will split watches.”
Alex frowned at this, hating having his sleep so badly cut up, but he understood the need for security, and trusted Sun Sun to be alert more than the merchant.
But before he could nod, Hao Chan spoke up. “Father, Yin offered to help as well. And that would be better for Alex and Sun Sun, since they can hardly protect us if they’re half asleep.”
The man glowered for a handful of seconds.
“You know she’d probably be the best guard out of all of us,” Hao Chan softly insisted.
Her father snorted, giving an angry shake of his head. “Fine. But she’s taking middle watch. Our fighters will take first and last.” He turned and glared at Hao Yin, making herself comfortable as she prepared for sleep on the spacious, flat wagon top, and staring their way at that very moment, bonnet twitching as before.
“You hear that, girl? You get middle watch. Alex will wake you. You’ll guard until the moon descends to those trees. And if you fail to knock on the carriage door for Sun Sun, or if you knock so loud you disturb me, you and I will have very strict words on the morrow. Do you understand?”
Hao Yin paled, then jerked a nod.
“Good,” said the merchant, dismissing her with his gaze.
Hao Yin quickly lowered her head, and Alex had no doubt that she was lying on furs, ears twitching trying to get some sleep on what was admittedly far safer bedding than daring the forest floor after all they had endured so far.
Alex couldn’t help frowning at the man, who’d so offhandedly taken the offer to help as his due, and instead of thanks offered only threats.
Yet when he turned to Alex, his oily, placating smile was in place once more. “You’re not overly injured are you, lad? I see no blood. You look fine! Need food? Hao Yin’s in charge of rations. We cook at lunchtime only. No need to attract any other… guests with food at night.” He actually patted Alex’s shoulder. “Fit as an ox, I have no doubt! Well then, I will leave you to your duties. We leave at first light,” he said, turning to the carriage.
“But Father, how will I train?” Hao Chan asked, immediately flinching when her father, fists clenched, glared her way.
“Those damned beasts nearly killed us twice ove
r, foolish girl! Indulging your fancy isn’t worth our lives.”
The girl paled. “But Father...”
“Enough with your delusions!” The man hissed. “You think I don’t know my own daughter’s capabilities? Where she is strongest? Where she is lacking? What she is truly destined for?” He flashed a placating smile, patting her cheek softly. “Relax, my beautiful swan. You have trained hard, now put your heart, your soul, your passion into the dance of movement and motion, as graceful as any fish in the sea. I have no doubt that you will perform admirably well for the masters that will see your performance. But really, my dear, what more could you learn in three short weeks that you haven’t learned over the past three years?”
Hao Chan trembled, the fight seeming to flow right out of her. She lowered her head. “Of course you are right, Father. A handful of weeks compared to years of rigorous training...”
“Which you embraced to the fullest. Your mastery of the Heartbreaker form does your father proud! And you have managed a third breakthrough, have you not? Now if you were to take your father’s advice, you would spend every day embracing your dance, your cultivation, so you can truly shine when it’s time for your interview.”
The young woman sighed, flashing a frowning Alex a despairing gaze. “I… I’ll consider it, Father.”
Her father’s eyes flashed with icy cold. “You will do more than consider, you will do!” he hissed.
Before blinking and chuckling softly, patting his now-flinching child on the head, for all that she was taller than he. “Of course, I know you will think long and hard about all we’ve spoken of, and make the right choice. The correct choice. I trust you in this, Daughter. I know you won’t let me down.”
Alex’s throat burned at the look of defeat and despair on Hao Chan’s features. He forced a smile through clenched teeth, hating the fact that with perilous danger that had nearly killed them twice over, some of her father’s words actually made sense. Movement was safety, and the sooner they got to the city, the better.
Then his roving eyes caught sight of what was right before him, struck with sudden inspiration. “Master merchant, about our wager...”
The man turned around, glaring at Alex, fists clenched. “With all I’ve lost, you would dare delay us further? Dare to challenge me yet again?” His eyes crackled with something truly cold when Alex flashed a neutral smile.
“Actually, no, sir. In fact, I completely agree that we’re best off riding as many hours as we can manage, so long as the horses stay strong.”
The merchant gave a curious tilt of his head before nodding in unexpected approval. “Finally using your head and accepting your place in the scheme of things. This is good. This is very good.” He flashed another oily smile. “So it is agreed between us that further training is completely unnecessary, and we can trust her to her own cultivation devices in preparation for her… challenge?”
Alex flashed a cold smile of his own. “I didn’t say that, sir. We made a wager, and I would see it through.”
The man glared at Alex, a snarl in his throat. “And I will not let you waste the mornings away any longer, boy. The stakes are too high!”
Alex dipped his head. “I wasn’t planning on it. I was, however, planning on teaching her what little I know while we’re moving.” He tapped his foot on the ground. “And after dark, when we dare not travel further, we’ll spar as we see fit.”
Hao Zei’s gaze narrowed further before he gave an abrupt snort, shaking his head. “So determined to try to win back your coin, aren’t you, boy?” His laughter was almost cruel. “Go ahead. Teach her what lore a guard little more than a boy would know. Do you have any cultivation tomes she could possibly use? I’ll bet you don’t even know how to read.”
Alex sighed, lowering his head almost as if on cue as the mocking merchant spun about to the carriage.
“I wouldn’t waste any more time on that foolish boy, Chan. But if you want to spend your days listening to a peasant’s stories instead of properly cultivating… you will have only yourself to blame.”
Hao Chan gasped at those words as her father stepped up to the carriage filled near to the brim with his most valuable cargo, abruptly slamming the door shut behind him.
Alex raised his head, catching Hao Chan’s despairing gaze. He flashed a reassuring smile.
She flushed and smiled back. “At least we can spar in the evening… right, Alex?”
Alex winked. “That we can. And if my hunch is right? We can do far more than that.”
She furrowed her brows and when he explained his idea, she looked at him like he was mad. “That would never work, and our lives would be in danger!” But after Alex explained his reasoning, the precautions they would take, the pair of them ignoring a sleeping Hao Yin and Hao Lin, the former’s ears twitching as they made plans for the next morning in detail, Alex finally got the hopeful nod he had been praying for.
“Alright, Alex. For you, I’ll try it. I would think it risky madness, but it isn’t so different from high-dancing, and the more I think of it… yes. As long as we’re careful, it could work.”
Alex grinned. “Then don’t worry about your father’s blathering. You already know how far you’ve come, just in the week or so since we started training together. Imagine how much better off you’ll be after achieving mastery of these martial forms.”
Hao Chan couldn’t help grinning at that, eyes twinkling with excitement, a completely different girl from the crestfallen one of just minutes before.
21
You have successfully synthesized 1 dozen Basic Sterilization Pads.
You have successfully synthesized 1 dozen Basic Healing Compresses.
You have failed to synthesize Ointment of Bonding. Ingredients wasted.
You have failed to synthesize Ointment of Bonding. Ingredients wasted.
You have successfully synthesized 5 vials of Ointment of Bonding.
That night Alex made extensive use of his garden, making sure he was well prepared for any injuries that might occur, though a part of him dared to hope that such wouldn’t prove necessary, if Hao Chan had the courage to embrace techniques never in common use before. But perhaps most important, at least for his peace of mind, were the final set of vials he had made, filled with soft, pliable resin that would stick to almost anything and become rock hard as soon as they were exposed to air, very much like Insta-Glue back home. It was one of the few components apothecaries formed that were very popular with carpenters and jewelers alike.
The far more common sticky pastes used for rough work might have been far easier to create but weren’t worth more than a copper by the pint, so his mentor had never bothered teaching Alex the manufacture of any joining compounds save the strongest, most valuable formulae he knew, which Alex always thought of as a vaguely floral smelling superglue. Fortunately, his alchemical garden had enough cuttings to manufacture the sticky substance, and he judged it worth the loss in plants, even if he ended up using up all of it, for the opportunity it would give him and Hao Chan both.
Generating the adhesive hadn’t gone quite as smoothly as he would have liked, wincing in memory of peeling hot splatter off his arm, along with a fair bit of skin, for all that he had the advantages of his ring. But it was all worth it the next morning to see the excitement on Hao Chan’s face, to say nothing of the looks of awe and wonder Lin and Yin favored him with at first light, when they saw the improvements to the wagon that Alex had made.
Best of all was the penurious merchant’s look of sublime fury. “You imbecile! What have you done to my wagon? You will remove this travesty at once and rest assured, sirrah, the cost of repairing the finish on my wood will cost you more than you make in a year!”
Alex met the hot-eyed merchant with a cool smile. “I’m sorry, I thought you said you wanted us moving at first light. Wasn’t that what I had heard? And with that in mind, I was free to instruct her as I saw fit during the ride. Come to think of it, the terms of our bet were that I was free to te
ach her in whatever way I saw fit, with no restrictions placed on any modifications I might or might not make.”
The merchant’s eyes bulged with outrage. “You will restore my wagon to its former state now, Ruidian!”
Alex’s smile vanished. He stared coldly at the blustering man before him. “Or what?”
“Or I’ll make you regret the day you were ever born!”
Alex took a deep breath, swallowing the hot fury roaring in his heart, catching the panicked gazes of the siblings, the anxious eyes of Hao Chan who had been gushing with excitement just moments ago.
“Or I can just leave,” Alex said softly. “Leave you to your own devices in a wilderness that almost took your lives twice over.” Alex pinned the blustering man’s gaze. “Would have, if I hadn’t intervened. And all you’ve given me is your miserly bullshit from the moment I offered to help escort you.”
“You’re bluffing!” snarled the red-faced merchant. “We’re in the deep wilds between cities. You need us as much as we need you! More so. More! I’m the one with the steel-reinforced carriage and the supplies, not you!”
Alex chuckled coldly at that. “Are you a betting man, merchant? If both of us go our separate ways, who would you put coin on surviving the trip?” He flashed a coin in the air that sparkled with silver.
The merchant hissed. “Sun Sun stripped you clean. You should be penniless!”
Alex just smirked. “I know who I’d put my money on.” He gave a sad shake of his head, looking all around him. “Well, I’d get a move on, if I were you. If you’re lucky and ride at a good clip, set up no camps, leave no spore, and eat as you go, you might just survive a few more days.” Alex shrugged, turning around, heading off. “Maybe.”
“Wait.”
Alex smiled at the desperate peep from the formerly blustering man’s mouth, as the reality of his situation abruptly sunk in.
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reforged: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 2 Page 26