“What took you fools so long? You nearly didn’t get here in time!”

Alex felt as if he were floating on soft, billowy clouds, and there was nothing he wanted to do more than drift away back to the wonderful dreams he had been having, going over with his seneschal all the improvements and changes that had taken place over his magical little world that wasn’t nearly so little any more, in the time he had been away. But before his surprised-looking seneschal could do more than shout silently at him when Alex asked just how long he had been away, he was pulled out of that beautiful dream by the cheerful voice he had least expected to hear radiating such bemused contempt.

“Watch your tongue, Ye Pan. Not unless you wish Tan Guan to hear just what you think of his methods.”

“I would never disparage our master, and you know it!” An irate-sounding Ye Pan hissed. “I sent the signal to you an hour ago! Qing Wu has been snoring like the trusting that fool he is, and I dared risk nothing stronger than a simple sleeping tincture, even if fit to put down a giant, lest we risk a retributive strike!”

“It is good you held off on deadlier brews, baker. Tan Guan wants him alive. All of them alive. You know why.”

“Of course,” the baker snorted. “A collard Silver would be worth a fortune. And with his wife being such a skilled alchemist, she’s worth a fortune in her own right, and best of all, serves as leverage forcing best behavior from Qing Wu himself!”

“Good. Now what’s the status on the other wagons?”

“The guards are already fast asleep, courtesy of their favorite baker passing them the same midnight snacks they’ve enjoyed for the past two weeks. As for the mortals, a little poppy extract assures them peaceful dreams.”

“Good,” declared the saki-roughened voice. “Our master made it clear that the mortals were not to be killed unnecessarily.”

“Yes, I know. A handful of missing cultivators will raise far fewer eyebrows than a well-guarded caravan train lost to the desert.”

“This is why our master keeps you on, Ye Pan. You understand the virtue of discretion.”

Alex could vaguely hear the clink of coins. Not the harsh tinny sound of copper or the steel-like ring of silver, but the warm burnished ring of pristine gold. Ye Pan grunted his approval, then spoke with the cool voice of a detached professional, the lighthearted philosophical baker gone as if he had never been. “Ware the alchemist, Tang. She’s too savvy for me to risk poisoning a second time, so your men had best collar her quietly.”

The one known as Tang chortled coldly. “Qing Wu and his cohorts made a grave mistake, daring to cross our master not once, but twice. Rest assured, my men and I will make sure that never happens again. Now, what of the girl and her Ruidian lover?”

“Sleeping like young fools drunk on love. So blind to anything besides themselves that they didn’t even notice me, all the times I was watching them.” Ye Pan said with a cold chortle that a half-asleep Alex could now sense so exquisitely, as well as the half dozen men speaking quietly, their desert ponies secured a short distance away, as they all gazed upon the caravan. Yet their soft whispered words resonated against the desert sands as if they were whispering into Alex’s ear.

“The girl can hide in the sand surprisingly well. But they should be no problem to ambush and collar with how blind they’ve been to their favorite baker. Reny and Qing Wu are even allowing them to consort unsupervised in their own wagon. As if they truly were newlyweds, not a mixed-breed mongrel and a prize who just cut her value from second wife to fourth concubine.”

This earned a grunt from Tang. “Your contract is complete. Now head back to Qianshi. Our master has another caravan you’d best be ready to infiltrate before the new moon.”

“Understood,” Ye Pan said, and Alex’s sense of the man stepping across the sands to approach a nickering pony became a desperate gasp as he pulled himself free of sleep’s cloying embrace.

Only to hear the roaring silence in his ears, nothing beyond the hush of softest breathing and the tiny murmur of Ya Ling, curled so sweetly in her sleep, a single divider away.

He took a deep, ragged breath, his heart pounding in his chest.

It was a dream. He so wanted it to be a dream.

Had he really been so focused on not falling for Ya Ling that he had been blind to predators in their own midst? And the baker. Why the hell did it have to be the baker? The first time he had enjoyed such a crusty delicious loaf of bread so damned good with olive oil… demanding butter and garlic… in who knew how many lifetimes.

Of course it was the fucking baker. Who else had made such overtures of friendship to him, save for Ya Ling’s own extended family? Everyone else had been nice, yet their eyes had been filled with hesitancy and reservation, even if the gratitude he had sensed in their eyes and the spiritual connection between them genuine and true. A connection he hadn’t felt for far too long, with Cleaved Fates card in effect.

He furrowed his brow. Was that why he hadn’t been more suspicious of the baker? Hadn’t he felt an absence of any karmic connection, good or bad? An agent carefully timing his move as opposed to someone who had yet to strike… or ever really needed his help? And of course, so used to having no karmic connection at all, he hadn’t thought anything of it. And it was such an exquisitely subtle connection, that Alex wasn’t surprised no one else had caught on to it as well. He recalled hearing before that few people ever did. Yet despite the card that had once allowed him to freely strike gods and tear free souls without consequence, he had once been so exquisitely attuned to the golden cords of karma and the black cards of bitter balance as to directly aid WiFu’s firstborn in spotting and drowning an entire fleet of cloaked enemy vessels determined to take ancient Yidushi by poison and force.

In the very first life he had ever lived.

He quickly blinked away bittersweet memories that had no place in the here and now, losing only a heartbeat’s time before snapping back into the moment, doing all he could to sense trouble approaching.

He closed his eyes and twitched his ears, finding that his sensitivity to the sand was far less under the noise of his thoughts, than lying against the bed in the stillness of sleep. He spent just a moment flickering over his interface messages of the night before, the exhilaration at his breakthrough in terms of perception and spiritual energy reserves paling before the dread of what they might well have to face.

Yet more trained assassins. In just seconds.

It was a shame he couldn’t link his new Desert Sense skill with his Interface and…

He froze, eyes widening in surprise.

AS soon as he had thought it, half a dozen angry red lights immediately flickered on his interface map without affecting his external vision at all, in the same way he had kept track of miles of primal woodlands within the rift they had so recently left. And even if his present sense only extended a hundred or so yards in all directions, it was more than enough to give him a top down view of the wagons, the sleeping greens in those wagons, and the blinking reds, rapidly closing in.

“Ya Ling, Reny, wake up!”

To their credit, bleary eyes transformed to panic, then iron-hard focus, Reny’s disciplined squeeze keeping Ya Ling from uttering a word.

It was Reny who whispered into Alex’s ear. “Assassins?”

“They’re here for all four of us. They drugged Qing Wu. He’s out, but not dead. I was the gods damned baker. He was the plant. I think he spiked the chutney.” Alex’s eyes widened. “They’re forty feet out and steadily approaching. We have to go now!”

Even before he had finished the words, Reny darted for her herbs and pouches as Qing Wu sprang for the trapdoor. “Alex, help me!”

Taking full advantage of Bronze Tier Quickness and grace, he slipped out the hatch in an eyeblink, Alex immediately making out his targets, his Qi Perception and Desert Sense overlapping and working in perfect tandem for 360 perception to 80 yards with blinking red lights overlaying that, making sure he knew exactly where his targets were at all times. He briefly held Ya Ling’s urge to scramble top side just long enough for her to glare her way before spotting a comatose Qing Wu, and sliding him right through the hatch into Ya Ling’s arms before crawling inside himself a heartbeat later.

But not before wasting a couple precious seconds, leaving a present behind.

“Alex?”

“I had to wait until several slipped into the captain’s wagon and the rest were circling to our left.” He flashed a cold smile. “And I made best use of that time.”

Ya Ling quirked an eyebrow. “You make it sound like you know exactly where everyone is with some sort of...”

“I do.”

Ya Ling momentarily froze. “Seriously? Sometimes, when I’m on the sands… but never mind that. Come on, bottom split deck!”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Wasting no more time, Alex took Qing Wu’s comatose weight and followed Ya Ling deeper into the compact, maze-like multileveled wagon as much like a childhood gym as storage space, for all that it fit storage, living quarters, and apothecary quite comfortably. With any luck, it would catch any enemies who managed to break through off guard.

“Alex, bring him here!”

He winced at the urgency he heard in Reny’s voice, as she quickly made her way to her husband, professionally going over his vitals despite the tremble in her hands and the anxious worry in her voice. To her credit, she said nothing when Alex pricked Qing Wu’s palm and drew a drop of blood. Merely gazing at Alex with eyes that he felt boring into him as he processed what he had consumed at a frantic rate.

You have successfully saved versus comatose stupor! (Minimal dose & Biochemical Mastery of multiple similar toxins give modified +15 to Vitality check!)

You have achieved 20% Immunity to Limberroot Extract.

You have achieved 40% Immunity to Limberroot Extract.

“Ya Ling, ready the bottom hatch, they’re here!”

You have successfully mastered Limberroot Extract.

You have created Limberroot Extract Antidote!

Quickness Check made!

Before Ya Ling could remove the steel bar securing the bottom wagon hatch, Alex grabbed her hand, angrily shaking a negative.

“Alex, we don’t have time to waste!”

“Ya Ling, stop! Let Alex finish!” A suddenly cognizant Reny implored as they heard sudden banging topside, and a surprised, strangled cry.

You have successfully treated companion Qing Wu with Limberroot Extract.

Only when he had finished spitting his cure into a vial that made Reny wince but she didn’t hesitate to slowly pour down her husband’s throat, did Alex speak.

“Remember the baker! He knows the construction of these wagons, and their secrets! Two reds wait for us below, two are tying to break in topside!”

Ya Ling’s eyes widened. “We’re doomed!”

“Not really.”

Barely contained panic turned to a furrowed brow. “Alex, what are you talking about?”

He couldn’t quite hide his grin. “Let’s just say the pair topside has a gift waiting for them.”

“But you were only there for seconds!”

“True.”

Her eyes widened. “They stopped trying to break through.”

“I know.”

That was when they heard it. A choked off strangled cry.

Alex sensed one red fleeing haphazardly, bumping against a nearby wagon before collapsing in a drunken sprawl. The other his exquisite ears picked up wheezing desperately for air that just wouldn’t come. Heart fibrillating so frantically against the wooden slats of the roof that Alex couldn’t help but sense each dying flutter… until it too grew still.

“Alex?”

He forced himself to meet the healer’s worried gaze. “I coated the hatch handle with Universal Solvent and Silver Tier venom. There’s enough spiritual energy in the latter that it doesn’t corrode before my specially tweaked solvent. And don’t ask how long I spent dreaming up that combo. Anyway, the solvent’s more than strong enough to eat through mundane gloves… and you might need a new hatch. Because this one’s going to be a pitted broken mess by tomorrow. But the universal adhesive sealing the hatch means they won’t be breaking through your spiritual-energy reinforced wood slats anytime soon.”

Reny stared at him for long moments. “You can generate a toxin capable of eating through leather gloves, pitting metal, and fatally poisoning whoever touches it?”

“Yes. Unless they’re a body cultivator of Silver Tier or better… or follow a poisoner’s or healer’s path. But even then, they’re pretty much goners, once even a trace of that spider queen venom hits their blood.” He gazed pointedly at her. “As you well know.”

She blanched and lowered her gaze. “I had pre-dosed myself with every Qi-infused antidote I knew before daring that delve. With extra doses if anyone else was envenomed while we were there. I knew the creatures we might face, and Qing knew to follow my lead at all times. Yet that spider still came so close to killing me, even with you extracting so much of it... it doesn’t bear thinking about. And you can create that on the fly?”

Alex smirked, shaking his head, acknowledging his own limits. “Not at all. Right now I’m at -2 to Finesse and Strength checks until I’ve fully recovered from the expenditure. I’m just glad that generating the cure is almost as effortless as making alcohol.” His eyes widened in sudden alarm. “Shit.”

Ya Ling’s eyes widened. “Alex, what’s wrong?”

“I can tell I just put some strain on my Dantian, from generating actual Silver Tier greater spirit beast venom, when I’m still just a Rank 6 Basic. And if this ever gets out, like I told you, I’m as good as dead. The paranoid will seek my removal, the devious will seek to trap me into working for them, and the ruthless will use me as a scapegoat to poison all their enemies. So please, if you have any concern for my wellbeing at all, you’ll never tell a soul about what I can do.”

Both Reny and Ya Ling gazed at him with something close to awed disbelief, and Alex himself was surprised to find he had such a sharp limitation. But he supposed it made sense. It wasn’t just poppy extract with a Silver cultivator’s potency spiritually enhancing its properties. This venom was far beyond the Universal Solvent that had once eaten off the face of Duo Ku who had come so close to killing him. It was liquid death filled with blackest spiritual energy in the heart of a now dead Silver Tier monster. And in that moment, Alex knew. He understood the source of the strain to his Dantian was the equivalent of once giving Hao Chan a lingering kiss.

The potency, with his screaming vortex of a super cable, he could easily handle.

The problem was that the poison was infused with Dark Qi. He was skirting on the edges of that which was now forbidden to him. Somehow, his bones could absorb and safely assimilate all the waste Qi he could generate… but he was crossing a line when he dared try to force it the other way, and Biochemical Mastery was a backdoor at risk of being slammed shut, if he wasn’t very careful.

Even with that awareness, he allowed himself to generate the tiniest of trickles with exquisite care, like flexing an injured muscle only until it hurt… immediately stopping when he felt a second twinge. He absolutely refused to cause himself permanent damage, or almost as bad, warp his Dantian like he had in his previous life, lest that have unforeseen consequences that would once again utterly fuck him over.

“Alex?”

“It’s fine.” He forced a smile. “I almost played the fool yet again… but stopped just in time.”

5 doses.

He had generated 5 additional doses and, thanks to his Biochemical Mastery’s evolution, he could store it indefinitely.

Now he really needed a good 24 hours of meditation to relax the strain he felt, and figure out how often he could safely generate this poison without destroying himself… or alerting sleeping giants he would rather forever let lie. Unfortunately, as the sudden slamming on the bottom panel made clear, they didn’t have that kind of time at all. Fortunately, he thought with a cold smile as he summoned dao, fangtian ji, and spear, one after another in the confined quarters with his extra storage pouch as he sensed powerful acids corroding the hinges of the hatch, he had a hell of a lot more options besides those 5 doses.

Reny gazed at Alex intently, even as her hands gripped a wide-eyed Ya Ling’s. “Do you have a plan, Alex?”

Alex nodded. “I do. Ya Ling, please tell me you can slip into the desert sands under moonlight as easily as you could during the noonday sun when you were still injured.”

“Not quite,” Ya Ling admitted, before cracking an anxious smile. “But almost. So, yes. If there weren’t assholes waiting to take us right on the other side of the hatch...”

Alex raised a fist, carefully preparing himself, weapon at the ready. “They’re coming.”

Reny furrowed her brow. “Alex, that’s a Silver Tier hatch. Those fools will be losing all subtlety if they think they can break through without a...”

her words cut off as the hatch abruptly fell away, making it clear that Alex wasn’t the only one with access to exotic compounds.

But he was the only one of the three of them that could make out the death slipping through shadow. Death holding neither collar nor cord but serpentine dagger, making it clear that plans had changed with the death of two of their own. A plan the shadowy killer was no doubt eager to execute, blade plunging for a worried-looking Reny’s guileless features, who still didn’t understand what happened.

Before being splattered in shadows that soon turned bright red.

Lesser Shadow Affinity enhanced Qi Perception spots Shadow Assassin!

Alex was horrified at how many precious moments had been lost trying to spot foes that he knew EXACTLY where they were. And not even the scream of whoever was waiting beneath the first darting shadow when Alex spat a mouthful of caustic death quenched the dismay he felt when the first attacker was in position to ram his dagger into Reny’s throat.

So he rammed his spear with furious, killing intent, recalling how powerless he had once felt as a Basic cultivator forced to take on Bronze monsters and worse, forgetting for a single moment his own strength… until his foe’s head exploded under the force of his blow.

Water and Wind have successfully pierced Bronze Tier warding-amulet!

You have fatally struck your foe!

Alex could see Reny’s eyes widen in horror as blood spattered across her niece’s body. But before she could finish inhaling for a scream, Alex was plunging his spear once more, glaring down at a snarling countenance silently screaming curses Alex’s way. And perhaps those hate-filled words would have actually had some weight, if Alex’s razor sharp, spirit-beast enhanced spear hadn’t just plunged through the man’s throat, Water Strike aided by Wind’s fury once more rupturing Bronze tier wards as effortlessly as Alex had once ripped through an invading army’s talismans. Even without using elemental attacks, he already knew just where to strike so his weapon didn’t slide off the sides of the field, but rather pierced right through.

Quickness check made!

A bloody hand abruptly covered Reny’s mouth. “Is Qing Wu coherent? Because we need to go!”

And it was true. They did. Even with five more assassins down, Alex could sense that their trial had just begun.

And it was clear from the way Reny flinched that she sensed it as well.

What they had faced so far had just been a warm up.

The air was now heavy with the weight of poisoned steel.

A Silver’s killing aura.

Clearly Tan Guan, the head of Qianshi’s corrupt JiangHu sect, wasn’t going to let them kick sand in his face a third time.