“Well, decide quickly old man, the crowd is thinning!” urged the panicked alchemist.
Alex felt a sudden lurch in his gut as the older cultivator flashed a predatory grin, clasping the alchemist’s sweaty palm before he could think to dart away. “Done and done!”
Panheu sat back and smiled, cracking his neck, looking like a cat who had claimed all the cream, or perhaps a master player who had just reeled in his biggest catch of the day. “It pleases me to know that your coffers run deep, friend alchemist. I would certainly hate for our wager to cause your clan any… inconvenience.”
And as much as Alex couldn’t help but admire Panheu’s masterful handling of the alchemist, something in the other man’s coldblooded smile sent icy tendrils racing down his spine.
Perhaps the man hadn’t been quite as desperate as he had seemed.
Perhaps the fisherman had gotten hooked by his own lure.
And the way Panheu shot a suddenly suspicious frown at the grinning alchemist made it clear Alex wasn’t the only one with sudden reservations.
“I see you making no efforts to cry for further students to accept your purse,” Panheu carefully noted.
And now it was Lai Leng flashing his dark little smile. “Why would I want to do that, Elder Panheu? Haven’t enough prospective students been ruined by this monster’s blows?”
Panheu’s brows furrowed. “You have three hundred spirit stones riding on this wager, friend alchemist. You’ve never before been concerned about the welfare of a single student in this entire school, save for your nephew. Useful enough in an alchemist, when your own animus helps catalyze and strengthen the cultivation pills you sell so dearly, but I find it odd to see you showing such concern now.”
Lai Leng raised a single finger. “Hold that thought,” he said, as a desperately panting running runner burst into the box seats.
“Master Lai Leng, he will be here shortly!” gasped the panting youth.
The alchemist flashed a grim smile, gazing down at Alex who was already seated, eyes closed save for slits, embracing Eternal Fox for all he was worth.
“Enjoy your respite while it lasts, slave. For soon the arena will ring with the sound of your screams, and I shall savor every one!”
Panheu glared at his opponent. “Our bet was for Alex to survive his next challenger, of which you made no effort to offer bounty or secure a single student!”
“Wrong!” snapped the alchemist. “If you recall, the nature of our final bet was that you would receive your three hundred spirit pearls only if Alex survived anyone who challenges him this night. No limitations were placed on the challengers! Who he will face, or how many matches he will have to endure.” He chuckled coldly at his now-silent opponent. “Ah, only now do you realize the depth of your folly. The cost of your greed! What was it that you had said? The wise general feigns weakness where he is strongest, and strikes where his opponent least expects it!”
Panheu blinked, before smiling and dipping his head in wry approval. “And should the Ruidian fall to whatever cultivators you sent messages to this evening, you will enjoy one of the most prized cultivation spots in all of Dragon Academy.”
He calmly poured himself a drink from the tiny stone pitcher of what Alex’s exquisitely sharp sense of smell recognized as fortified rice wine, even from that distance, giving his opponent an oddly admiring nod as he sipped his drink. “Should the evening go as you intended, I suppose I will have to put off classes for a week, preparing my manor for a new tenant. Well played, alchemist.”
The other man blinked, as if thrown off by Panheu’s grace when he had expected outrage. He smirked and accepted the tiny stone cup his opponent handed him, sipping and nodding his approval. “A fine blend. From your family estates?”
The other man nodded. “Of course. I do hope you will humor this foolish cultivator with a few modest requests?”
The alchemist’s gaze hardened. “And what would they be?”
“Only one challenger at a time.”
The alchemist snorted. “Of course.”
“And whatever purse promised shall be in their possession at the time of the fight.” The cultivator’s bemused gaze hardened. “As precedent has established for every fight so far.”
The alchemist’s eyes flashed. “You really think that foolish boy has a chance of surviving even a single match? Fine!” He turned, gazing coldly at the rapidly thinning crowd of contestants, most especially at the handful of curious cultivators who had elected to stay.
“In return, a cultivator’s oath will be sworn by everyone here. Whatever displays of Qi or power are witnessed this night will not leave this arena, lest the speaker risk their very foundation!”
Alex felt the weight of Panheu’s gaze as all this was being said. It was all too easy to imagine what dire stratagems were hidden within the alchemist’s plot, maneuvering for such a concession, but surprisingly, Panheu was all too quick to agree.
“So be it! Whatever techniques are witnessed from this hour until the midnight bell will be spoken of by no one save the witnesses, and only amongst themselves.”
The alchemist flashed a tight smile as he nodded, whispering to the wide-eyed servant behind him who quickly conveyed the terms of the engagement to the remaining cultivators and aspirants who had stuck around.
Which of course arrested the remaining dozen or so witnesses in their tracks, all of them now far too intrigued to do anything but nod to the terms and retake their seats, waiting with excited speculation for whatever odd twist was to come.
35
Alex was wise enough to take full advantage of the reprieve as he waited for his next opponent to show, pretending he hadn’t heard a word of the discussion between Panheu and Lai Leng. He didn’t know what blessing had allowed him to hear the conversations in the box seats as if he had sat beside them this day, but he sure as hell would do his best to prepare, kissing his ring as he thought of all his hard-earned prizes, knowing it was time to gird himself for a battle unlike any he had endured before.
Fearing it wouldn’t be enough, however long he had to cultivate, before realizing that, once again, he was playing the fool.
He had some fifty odd beast cores he didn’t dare cultivate at that moment, as he still didn’t know if he would be in dire peril, unable to break his cultivation trance for at least an hour while absorbing each one, and death could come calling, would come calling, at any moment.
He dare not enter the ring itself, lest his most desperate secret be revealed to a world far vaster and more deadly than he could fathom, with any number of parties so powerful they could make Silvers wilt like flowers, he suddenly sensed in a terrible prophetic flash, as if gifted with his patron’s dire warning.
But nothing said he couldn’t draw upon all the Dark and Light Qi he had been so carefully storing with his cultivation techniques. Tremendous reserves of power freed whenever he used his Dual Path purification technique as he slowly cleared his massive seventh blockage, Qi which might one day be used to forge meridian channels strong enough to support a divine cultivation base.
Qi which could also be used to flood his own body with healing potency, as he was at that very moment.
Artificer skill check made! Eternal Fox cultivation skill check made! You have managed to tap directly into your Qi stores! Willpower check made! You are able to regulate the sweet, intoxicating flow of Qi roaring through your blood and bones! That which could destroy can also create and rejuvenate! Dark and Light Qi have found synergistic balance!
Congratulations! Eternal Fox technique is now Rank 6! Your technique has further evolved to incorporate Power Healing. This breakthrough requires storage of Qi from Beast Core, Spirit Pearl, or Divine Artifact. Upon successful use of this skill, healing rate will temporarily increase one-hundred-fold until meditative trance is broken or Qi source is fully used up. Requirements: Rank 6 in Eternal Fox technique. This is a Divine Body Cultivation Technique. Warning: you can only use in an out-of-combat meditative st
ate.
Alex felt a shiver of awe and wonder race down his spine. He knew as the founder of his divine body cultivation technique that further breakthroughs would be possible, but he felt himself growing by leaps and bounds. Or perhaps, just gaining deeper understanding of his body, its strengths and limitations, that much better as he continued to perfect his skill.
And perhaps he shouldn’t be surprised. All the hours his companions had enjoyed multiple breakthroughs during their mystical journey, he had spent exclusively upon this one technique, reaching profound depths of understanding. Each beast he had burned through had intensified his training an additional thousand hours’ worth, and here he was once more, cultivating for his life upon the crucible of ultimate peril, where the most profound breakthroughs were to be made.
Assuming one survived the trials leading up to them, of course.
“Ah, he is here!” crowed Lai Leng, flashing an evil smile Alex’s way. “I hope you enjoy the show, old friend. As you were gracious enough to accept concessions sufficient to allow for a most satisfying outcome, I will even concede to allowing you that week you had hoped for to clear out your quarters before they become my own.”
Panheu flashed a humorless smile. “Your generosity knows no bounds. And what concession was this, dearest alchemist?”
“The oath that binds us all to silence, of course. So that no matter how dark, how delicious our contestants’ techniques, no one may utter a word of them, merely sit in awe at how utterly your pawn was mastered.”
Panheu chuckled softly, and Alex felt a curious lurch in his gut when he stretched and smiled, catching the silver-haired cultivator’s strangely approving gaze.
For all that he had been fighting for his life, harried by a growing list of never-quite-healed injuries, pushed to the point of exhaustion, he now felt utterly invigorated. Alex knew what he had done was utterly outside the bounds of what any cultivator should be able to accomplish in a mere quarter hours’ worth of healing.
And Panheu’s smile made it aware that he knew it as well.
“This is true, friend Lai Leng. Just remember, that oath goes both ways.”
The alchemist frowned. “What are you talking about?”
A soft chuckle as Panheu tilted his head, gazing at his opponent. “Do you truly not understand? Look at the Ruidian, alchemist. Look and understand.”
The hot-eyed Lai Leng did just that, furrowed brows going wide, fists clenched. “He is healed. His broken teeth, shattered nose… he is healed!”
Panheu flashed an icy smile. “A power you acknowledge only now, and are thus oathbound to never tell a soul.”
“How? How is such possible? He is just a Ruidian. They can’t cultivate. It must be one of his race’s odd gifts, but I see no jewel upon his brow!”
Panheu shrugged. “Who knows? And at this point, does it even matter? What matters, all that matters, is the boy you’ve had your heart set on killing has survived every match so far.”
“Save the one where he was whipped to within an inch of his life for losing!” the alchemist hissed.
Panheu’s smile hardened. “He showed the poor fool of a farmer mercy. And you taught him just how foolish such idealism is in this school when his only reward for virtue was a crippling injury.”
Lai Leng paled. “He should have been barely able to walk. Lord Yuren’s son should have had an easy victory!”
Panheu chuckled. “Ah, the truth of it at last.” He quickly raised a hand, forestalling any protest. “Not that I care. The Ruidian pulled victory from defeat and assured me a nice profit. As we already agreed, the past stays in the past.”
Lai Leng swallowed, jerking his head. “Agreed.”
Panheu smirked. “And it never occurred to you to wonder how he managed to survive Painfire poison without suffering crippling injuries?”
Lai Leng frowned, saying nothing.
Just then a messenger rushed to the alchemist’s side, whispering in the man’s ear before bowing to both elders and quickly departing.
Lai Leng flashed a cold smile that sent chills down Alex’s spine as he caught the look of a man who desired nothing more than his death, and was now utterly confident that such would happen. “I fear we will never know the answer to the odd puzzle of the Ruidian’s remarkable vitality, for his doom has just arrived.”
36
Heart racing, Alex gazed at the coldly-smiling man entering the arena opposite from him. He possessed inky black hair tied in a topknot, his changshan jacket of finest silk with crimson dragons embroidered upon each sleeve.
Coal black eyes peered into Alex’s own, upper lip curled up in a sneer. “This is the Ruidian causing you so much trouble, master?”
Lai Leng chuckled softly, smirking at a frowning Panheu. “He is causing me no trouble at all, disciple Shu Yao.”
“He looks like nothing more than your average Ruidian, but with eyes that flash and sparkle like the raiders of a thousand years ago. Why is he not already dead, master?”
“My dear compatriot judged the spectacle of this poor fool’s desperate struggles to be ripe with lessons for this year’s batch of disciples,” Lai Leng said. “Only now, when my foolish old friend has grown a bit too fond of this piece on the board, do I judge the time right to finally remove him.”
Shu Yao flashed an evil smile, but refused to take his eyes off of Alex, instead raising his hand.
Lai Leng frowned, tossing a small silken pouch in the air that the cultivator caught with a smirk and tucked away behind his back, never taking his eyes off of Alex.
“Then it will be my esteemed pleasure to remove him from the board for you, master,” Shu Yao declared.
That was the moment Alex felt the first stirrings of genuine fear, sensing strands of dark, bilious Qi form itself into a serpentine-like whip, lashing about in his opponent’s left hand, a shield of crackling gray-brown Qi in his right.
Shu Yao tilted his head, peering intently at Alex as he slowly circled him, before flashing an ugly smile.
Perception check made!
In an eyeblink, the cultivator lashed out with his whip of bilious Qi, eyes furrowing when his weapon struck the sands with a caustic hiss, missing his target completely, Alex having already darted back.
Shu Yao sneered his contempt. “A bit of speed and animal cunning will not save you from the doom in store for you, Ruidian worm!” he promised, lashing out with his whip again and again.
And it was all Alex could do to stay out of range of that vicious weapon, pouring all his effort into measuring his opponent, desperate to read those flickering glances, darting back just a heartbeat before Shu Yao lashed out with his whip once more, already weaving aside as the projection of wildly-lashing Qi danced through the air, and it was only by dint of desperate dodges that Alex was able to keep the assault at bay, always stepping back and retreating, his foe’s smile only growing as Alex was forced ever further back against the arena wall.
Soul Sight check made! You begin to sense your opponent’s rhythm!
So much of Alex’s energy had been put into getting a read on his opponent, dodging death multiple times until finally his ability to sense his opponent’s intentions with his physical movements had heightened to a transcendent pitch. Finally he saw an opening, flowing forward as if mirroring a dance with his enemy, weaving a deadly barrage of attacks before step-sliding back just before the whip could slash out his throat, even if his forearm had to eat the blow.
Find Weakness skill check failed: you are unable to pierce your opponent’s defenses!
Yet now matter how powerful his blows, he was still unable to pierce his opponent’s shield of Qi, the properties of the shield utterly opaque to him, knowing the taste of the whip only by the agony coursing through him even now.
“No place to run now, Ruidian,” sneered the cultivator after endless minutes of their one-sided struggle, Alex having received no less than three lashing cuts in that time, robes charring instantly on contact, his skin hissing in respons
e to the caustic poison now flooding his veins.
“The venom burns through you, doesn’t it?” An ugly chuckle as the man suddenly lashed out, seeking to pin Alex completely in. “The agony will only grow with time. Your doom is assured!”
And still Alex refused to go on the offensive, no matter that the poison burned through his veins, head still on his shoulders only by use of a desperate tumble as he dodged and weaved away from that deadly whip, sprinting back to the center of the ring as the laughing disciple pivoted around.
“Fool! You are the lowest of worms, without any true attack or defense, save base weapons that are forbidden in this match! What good will running do you? My shield will ward all your blows even as my whip burns the flesh from your bones!”
His frustrated smile turned to a look of coldest calculation when Alex suddenly stopped darting about the battlefield and turned to the cultivator. His breathing was slightly ragged, but nothing like the bubbling cough that had affected him only moments before.
You have suffered 4 Physical and 9 Fatigue Damage from Dragon Viper Venom Qi attack!
Qi Absorption skill check has successfully absorbed 3 points of damage.
You have deduced the elemental underpinnings of this attack! Fire and Metal Qi have formed spiritual echoes of Viper Venom. Venom spiritual echo defeats all Earth and Metal countermeasures! Venom spiritual echo allows for Biochemical Mastery Perk usage.
You have achieved 50% Immunity to Dragon Viper Venom attacks.
Synergistic use of Qi Absorption and Biochemical Mastery in effect. You now enjoy an automatic 5 Health & Stamina per second damage reduction against all advanced Alchemical Techniques using any venom paradigm!
Alex stood upright, muscles still burning, but the air now flowed freely in his lungs.
The cultivator scowled, shooting an angry glance at Lai Leng before glaring back at Alex, lashing out with his whip faster and faster. “I scored three strikes against you, for all that you dart about like a fox. You should be on the ground, gasping for breath, your nerves burning with fire!”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Reforged: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 2 Page 47