Alex peered out into the horizon from the top of the lead wagon platform that served as his favorite mediation and training spot, eyes vainly searching for something, anything, besides the endless undulating dunes of sand. Save for a single wavering mirage in the distance… there was nothing. Qing Wu had again cut their lesson short today, his normally cheerful smile and tolerance for Alex’s carefully worded questions had waned to little more than a bitter glare for the sands before heading back inside, grumbling that it was time to give fresh lessons to the three former mortals who had actually profited from the bitter brew that had caused the Bronze and Silver among them such tragedy. As Reny had explained when Alex first woke up to a trio of caravan guards crying actual tears of joy, Dragonbane Root actually served an extremely legitimate purpose, for all that almost all cultivation sects and major academies frowned upon their use.
For it seemed that given in extremely low doses with the right combinations of herbs serving as neutralizing agents on hand, it could be used to forcefully burst open blocked meridians, even those of men and women possessing no cultivation techniques at all. In short, it allowed city rulers to very quickly and cheaply awaken perhaps hundreds of cultivators who could then be further honed into warriors grateful to be elevated above the mortal masses, eagerly learning basic cultivation techniques that would allow them to further break through whatever blockages remained. For remarkably, that which was so destructive to advanced cultivators at higher doses served as extremely efficacious and potent meridian cleansing pills that could be cheaply given to the masses, so powerful that it would allow those who had never sought, or could never afford any sort of cultivation training, to unlock gifts they might not have even been aware of having, as well as a chance at the cultivator’s life.
Of course there were risks. Serious ones. A good fraction of those mortals given dragonbane root ended up permanently crippled or worse, when ruptured meridian channels resulted in a tragic, lingering death. But if a desperate ruler needed to bring a thousand troops who could at least ascend as Basic cultivators into his armies to better ward against foreign threats, there was no more effective path forward.
Of course it was extremely controversial. At academies, it was never used, with many arguments made within academies about it damaging long term potential if not outright killing those who dared those desperate brews. But no one was foolish enough to try to censure a ruler’s ability to raise thousands of cultivating warriors up from utter obscurity. Cultivators that would then be diligently trained and risen up as soldiers to the extent their patrons could afford to do so. Cultivators that might eventually join the very academies that so denigrated the use of that poison that could bring such peril to a Bronze or Silver foundation, with no blockages to absorb the poison.
And so what had been a tragedy for Ya Ling and her aunt and uncle, and the captain as well, had been a remarkable boon, a fortuitous encounter for no less than three of his men who had thought themselves doomed to mortal lives. Alex could recognize them on sight, literally feeling their excitement and fierce hope for the future whenever they saw Alex and Ya Ling spar. All three of them dedicated themselves to the lessons that both Qing Wu and Dui Zhong were giving them daily, something to pass the endless hours of their daily journey. One of the three was already on the cusp of Basic Rank 2 after having learned the most basic of meridian cleansing techniques, so thoroughly had the poison ground through his once hopelessly clogged channels, opening the way for future opportunities he would never have otherwise dreamed of.
And the fortune of those three guards, who Reny had dryly informed had remarkably suffered no long term damage at all from the poison, was a faint silver lining to the bitter fruit the others had suffered. It showed just how precarious and mercurial fate could be, even with no gods looking their way at all.
Or so Alex hoped.
He winced in memory of Qing Wu’s exasperated departure of just minutes ago. The man had taken his own grievous wounds with good humor and remarkable forbearance, all things considered, naturally falling into a teacher’s role for all who needed his aid, wayward disciple and recently elevated mortals alike. But even the most stalwart flower would eventually shrivel and wilt when the land was a vast, barren wasteland devoid of hope’s nurturing springs altogether
Even Ya Ling had retreated after their latest sparring match, glaring with frustration at her spear, declaring that she’d go back to sparring with her jian alone, since it was obvious that they wouldn’t be in need of any other weapon, as there had been no sign at all of anything like an oasis or a rift whatsoever.
There was nothing to be seen, save a handful of damaged cultivation bases and endless blowing sands.
Alex alone was out there during the midday break, reveling in the steady progress he was making with both his prismatic cultivation technique and Prismatic Shield, sensing his increasing proficiency, comfort, and mastery with both. Even if they had yet to solidify as a fresh pair of rank-ups, he still felt intense satisfaction with his increasing understanding of both paths. It also helped serve to distract him regarding the fruitlessness of their quest as he glared at the shimmering heat mirage in the distance.
As frustrated by their lack of success as he was for the sake of his boon companions, he was still filled with fierce hot joy for how far he had already come in just a handful of days. Unveiling priceless echoes of gifts he had once called his own, the memories of a lifetime ago, without the horrid weight of vindictive gods eternally trying to turn all his triumphs into bitter ashes.
He gave an angry shake of his head, immediately fighting off the wave of howling, bitter regret that threatened to overwhelm him, filled with grief for all he had loved and lost during his last lifetime… and who knew how many before.
No. That was over. The past would remain forever in the past. And if his sense of things was correct, perhaps WiFu’s final blessing for services rendered over who knew how many bloody millenia… he now had a fresh restart point where he was so much better off, so much more, than that clueless boy with near straight 9s in his physical stats who had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do after waking up near naked and without any resources in a cold, uncaring city, let alone how to form cords of Bronze or cables of Silver, utterly vulnerable to a world both savage, beautiful, and perilous.
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At least now he was reborn as someone on the cusp of Bronze with a handful of valuable skills and even more precious memories serving as a customized guide as to what paths he might best pursue going forward, and perhaps just as importantly, what tragedies in the making he’d be far better off avoiding entirely.
Politics. Daring to make waves and enemies he had no business making. Sticking his foot in high profile matters that had absolutely nothing to do with him.
“Kind of like what I’m doing right now,” he muttered to himself with a soft chuckle.
Yet even as his smile blossomed in memory of those final wondrous moments he had seen Hao Chan truly shine, ascending to Gold before his very eyes, he was still wiping away bitter tears quickly drying under the hot desert sun, to think he would never see her again.
“How long’s it been, really? How many times have I woken up in that cave and lived a life perilously short, or sweetly fulfilling? What happened to everyone I loved before?”
He choked back the cry clawing at the back of his throat, taking deep, steadying breaths, focusing only on the glorious flow of spiritual energy resonating in a synergistic symphony of notes within his meridian channels, and his soul.
The past was the past.
And perhaps one day he’d be able to figure out just how much time had truly passed, and if there was any chance at all to connect past with present once more. If perhaps Hao Chan and Yinzi had grown and evolved who knew how far, with Eternal Fox promising so much longevity, such glorious power…
No. He was holding out foolish hope for women who might be centuries or millennia old, even if he could cross the bridge of time and see them, somehow, once more. With lives filled with countless challenges, triumphs, experiences, and maybe beautiful families of their own, honoring him with the occasional wistful smile to memory’s sanctum… before moving on with their days.
Assuming they were alive at all.
“And if this isn’t my first life since I drowned in the river… if this is my ninth, my tenth, and countless centuries have passed between each one...” Alex desperately looked towards the horizon where endless ocher sands and the deep blue sky met for any distraction, anything of note at all, beyond heat ripples in the air. His attempts at cultivation had come to an abrupt halt, Hao Chan’s beautiful smile and sultry, knowing eyes haunting him even now.
He saw nothing out of the ordinary at all.
Then he blinked in sudden wonder at the sheer mundanity of the view, instantly understanding what was wrong.
The deep blue skies and endless dunes had always been crystalline in their clarity. Whether that was due to the spiritual energy that so directly permeated this world, subtle changes in the universal constants relative to his own reality, or just his 18 in Perception which had carried over completely from his most recently remembered life, making him the equivalent of an elite eagle-eyed scout, he didn’t now.
What he did know was the distant heat mirage he saw to the northwest of them was oddly distinct in its outline, and was the only sign of any heat mirage he had seen in all the days he had been cultivating in plain view of the glorious desert vista.
From the brilliant fiery-red sunrises to golden sunsets to the deep clear blue skies under the midday sun, this was the only time he had seen any sort of mirage.
Which begged the question, what if the mirage was not a mirage at all?
What if it had nothing to do with light bouncing off two distinct bodies of heated air by the desert sand?
What if it was indicative of an entirely different phenomena altogether?
Say… a localized rift?
Alex’s bittersweet torpor transformed to a sudden surge of hope for the sake of his new friends. Of course he couldn’t deny that he was just as excited for the chance to explore new wonders and perhaps profit from spirit fruit that might grant as glorious a transformative boon for him as well as for everyone else.
He couldn’t slip through the roof hatch fast enough. He wasn’t even deterred Qing Wu’s angry glare when Qing Wu and his wife were also wakened by Alex’s urgent whispers as he pried Ya Ling from her afternoon nap in perhaps the only naturally air conditioned wagon to be found anywhere.
“Alex, if you’re planning what I think you’re planning, you’re timing couldn’t be worse!” An irate Qing Wu snapped when he lurched from sleep, tendrils of icy doom a heartbeat from manifesting, only to see the way Ya Ling was squeezing his hand, gazing up into Alex’s eyes with a hunger that was unmistakable.
Reny was also giving Alex an exasperated glare. “True, husband. But considering our state… perhaps it would be best if those two ran off together. He clearly cares for her, and damaged foundation or no, Ya Ling’s powers in the deep desert will always be an asset, and that boy’s heat tolerance would bring even a scorpion to shame.”
Ya Ling flashed Alex a teasing smile. “Well, hero? Is aunty right? Are you here to whisk me away to a better life free of intrigue and betrayal? Where a crippled foundation means nothing in the eyes of my one true love?”
Alex snorted at that. “First of all, you’re hardly crippled. Under the midday sands, you’re absolutely badass, and you know it. Secondly, I think I found it!”
Qing Wu frowned at that, but Reny and Ya Ling shared a look and grew absolutely still, eyes matching shades of softest brown locking upon Alex’s own.
“Alex, are you sure?”
He winced, hating the intensity in Reny’s voice, so much laid bare. He felt cheeks flush under the looks the trio was giving him, their earlier banter the flimsiest of bandages for the bitter wounds upon their souls.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. But maybe? Anyway, I saw a heat mirage, or something that might be a heat mirage, but considering that this world… I mean this desert hasn’t hit me with any light-bending overlapping bodies of air until now...” he shook his head at the strange looks they were giving him. “Look, the point is I think maybe the trick of the light I’m seeing might be because of spiritual energy radiating from a nearby area.”
“A rift!” Qing Wu’s eyes lit up with desperate hope. “Ready yourselves, while I inform the captain. We have no time to lose!”