“Who dares to raise their hands against the JiangHu sect? Who dares to poison my men?”

Ya Ling flinched and squeezed Alex’s hand. He frowned at the powerful voice resonating throughout the entire caravan, earlier attempts at stealth surpassed by a Silver’s outrage, the man’s killing aura now washing over them all. The formerly sleeping caravanners woke with a start, many shouting in alarm or crying out in dismay.

“Qing Wu! Reny Wu! Lady Ya Ling! I know you are here! Reveal yourselves at once, or the entire caravan will pay for your crimes!”

“Love, are you awake? Please, we have to escape while we can!” Reny’s panicked whisper broke the silence between them as Ya Ling did her best to help her aunt get the formerly comatose man seated upright. Reny immediately placed a clay jug of potent smelling brew under his nose, smelling so ripe that Ya Ling covered her mouth and even Alex found his eyes tearing up at the stench.

You have been exposed to Stinkwort! Saving throw made! You now have 20% immunity to Stinkwort!

“Qing, please, wake up! We need you coherent and able to--”

“That’s enough, woman!” Qing Wu snapped, eyes blazing with an icy heat that sent shiver’s down Alex’s spine. The formerly comatose man who had looked almost fragile, curled up in sleep, now radiated the killing aura of Deep Silver, far more than he had when so obviously impaired by poisons only now fully purged from his system. Purged, and if Alex’s Qi Perception was any indication, saturated with the same beneficent brew Reny had dosed him with. Which made perfect sense, in Alex’s mind, and might have explained why he was so vulnerable to losing himself to deepest sleep once more.

Yet Qing Wu was finally awake, and it showed.

Showed when the formerly hot & stuffy wagon interior grew crisp and cool. Showed when Alex suddenly sensed the powerful ward over the bottom hatch protecting it from intrusion, and most of all showed when Alex got a good look at the man when he wasn’t putting on a grandfatherly persona.

He saw the pitiless howling depths of a winter storm in the man’s gaze, and he couldn’t be happier.

“It’s good to have you with us, Elder Wu.”

The man honored Alex with a nod. “It’s good to be back, and finally feel like myself again.” He then frowned, gazing at the wagon wall in the direction of the Silver radiating such killing hate.

“You have till the count of thirty, fools! Every additional thirty seconds is another life lost! And make no mistake, when the final count is done, I will happily burn all you fools alive!”

Alex winced at the sound of desperate cries.

“Please don’t hurt us, we’ve done nothing!”

“Mercy, we beg you! Our families always pay our tithes!”

“It’s not me you should be begging to, fools!” Roared the irate Silver. “It’s the cowards hiding in your midst, willing to sacrifice your lives, so they may escape just punishment!”

Elder Wu snorted. “I never had a high opinion of Tan Guan, but I was willing to let things lie, for the greater good. Clearly, he’s a rot that should have been cleansed from Qianshi, long ago.”

He turned to Alex. “Your shield. Can it hold?”

So much asked with that one question as Reny paled and Ya Ling flashed an innocent grin, the long dance of acquaintanceship and growing trust between them all put to the test in that very instant. Eyes that had seen centuries had clearly spotted far more than Alex would willingly acknowledge to anyone… were their lives not riding on his answer.

Alex forced himself to nod, conceding so much with that single gesture.

“Good. You’re with me, topside.” He then favored a clearly anxious Ya Ling with a fatherly smile, before placing a handful of talismans that Alex could feel like a winter breeze, even several feet away. “Are you ready?”

Ya Ling gazed, wide-eyed at her uncle, before jerking a nod. “Yes. Just like you showed me. Just like we practiced a dozen times for the day we actually need to be ready.”

“Count’s halfway through, old man!”

“Good. If there was any other way...”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you down,” she said, before turning to Alex, looking on the verge of saying something before she abruptly turned to dart through the bottom hatch, instantly one with the sand.

“Come, Alex, no time to lose! The first few attacks should be him testing the waters. Showing off. Trying to throw you off your game. So try to keep him busy gloating for a solid minute, if you can! If everything goes well, my wards should be enough, and you won’t need your shield at all,” Qing Wu’s words were meant to comfort, but were belied by the urgency in his voice, and Alex actually felt the tension.

Lives hung on the balance, and if diplomacy and subterfuge didn’t work, then it was he that would lead the vanguard.

You have successfully forged Prismatic Shield.

You are now on the wagon rooftop.

“We’re here!” Alex roared into the darkness, Qi Perception and Desert Sense immediately locking on to the source of the killing aura and the threats. A powerfully built cultivator dressed in lamellar radiating multiple enchantments with spiteful black eyes and an arrogant curl to his lips, his expression went from fury to mocking contempt in the blink of an eye.

“So Ye Pan was right. A Ruidian daring to stand against me in affairs that are none of his business.”

The man flashed a cold, spite-filled smile. “Rest assured that your clan will pay a steep price for your interference, when this is all said and done, and I will be sure to tell them who they can blame before I burn them alive.”

Alex’s blood ran cold at the threat, sensing the murderous hostility in the man’s gaze. He choked back his outrage. Because it didn’t matter that he had acted in self-defense or to save an innocent, and that he had no truck with any Ruidian clans. It wasn’t about justice or even retribution, it was about power. It was about using fear and pain to break the backs and will of an entire population, so that they didn’t dare to protest or disobey.

Techniques favored by tyrants and underworld kingpins for as long as human civilization had existed.

The man flashed a pleased smile, sensing Alex’s discomfort. “Ah. Only now do you stop to think of the inevitable consequences for your actions. Well it’s too late now, fool. Though perhaps I’ll let you linger long enough to feel a lifetime’s worth of regret before I finally cut your throat!” The mans’ mocking smile turned to a furious snarl once more. “Now tell the rest of your little band of broken cultivators to surrender peacefully, or the pain they suffer here will be nothing compared to what my men will do to their families in Liushi!”

“Enough of your pointless threats and bluster, Tan Guan!” Snapped none other than the captain of the entire caravan, choosing that moment to appear, revealing his own Bronze tier physique as he sprung to Alex’s side upon the caravan. His armor might have been sloppily donned, but the spear he held was clearly wet with the blood of whoever had tired to do him in. “You know better than anyone the price of overreaching your authority! Which begins and ends at the walls of Qianshi. Though I’m sure Lady Ding Xiang will be thrilled to hear that you’re planning hits in her own territory.”

Alex instantly sensed Qing Wu’s dismay through his party interface, though his soft chanting never stopped. The captain was at risk of ruining everything! At least Alex could now sense the revitalization of over a dozen Silver tier wards now guarding the wagon and everyone within.

Alex could only pray it would be enough as he sensed hungry eyes on his back, for all that he kept his focus squarely on Tan Guan, who didn’t look at all happy with Captain Dui Zhong’s declaration.

“That bitch wants a war, I will give her a war! But not before I make you and your entire family of presumptuous bastards pay for daring to cross my sect! Mark my words, the Zhong clan and the Wu clan will both fall to my shadow blades, and all of them will know the cause of their suffering. All of them will know who to curse in the afterlife!”

Alex’s eyes widened at the threat even as his Qi Perception screamed warning.

It was all he could do to raise his now fully manifested Prismatic Shield in time to catch a massive blast of steel shrapnel that screeched with the harsh sound of steel teeth and claws scraping iron flesh as it tore into defenses inspired from Bronze wards that had no business parrying a Silver’s killing attack.

Yet somehow it did, a dazed Alex realized, interface blaring with rapid fire messages he didn’t need to read to sense how incredibly powerful was the synergism between elements. Not just two elements used in tandem, or, like with the strike that had eliminated a certain spider queen, three. This defense he had forged, had been on the cusp of forging since before the abrupt end of his last life when he had been a heartbeat away from transcendence himself… somehow those borrowed insights had translated with such pristine clarity that he had been able to take that final step forward. Only now fully appreciated how powerful his technique truly was. For hadn’t parrying with that shield kept him alive when daring that monstrous spider?

A shield of spiritual energy that naturally sought to pair any attack with its weakest element, using the surrounding elements to enhance its resistance. For the Wood that would crumble before Metal, in Alex’s case, fed the Fire that turned his enemy’s attack to a stream of slag, crashing against endless depths of Earth and Steel.

And if the awed look Dui Zhong, crouching next to him, wasn’t enough of a tell, certainly the messages flashing across his interface were.

Prismatic Shield counters 80% of Silver Tier Dagger Storm!

You failed to fully protect Left Foot!

You have lost three toes!

Dagger Storm has pierced Wagon Wards!

Party Member Reny has taken 2 Medium Wounds!

Party Member Qing Wu has taken 1 Light Wound.

Alex choked back a cry, his fierce sense of triumph overwhelmed by confusion when he lost his balance, only now seeing bloody stumps where his toes had been, and a portion of the wagon roof now obliterated.

Finesse Check made!

Even as he cried out with a furious curse, he forced himself to shift balance and suffer through the agony, all his focus split between Prismatic Fox sealing shut the toe stumps and maintaining his boosted Prismatic Shield like never before. Of course, it all came at a cost. The rapid depletion of his newly elevated 19 Qi reserves, for what truly was a Silver Tier defensive technique, and not a simple one either.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The only reason why he felt so filled with furious potency allowing him to more than keep up both his ward and the now painfully slow regeneration of his toes, was the 4 Qi he got per second with his kills of less than a minute before, for the next handful of minutes, thanks to Potency Mastery, a skill that refused even to populate on his character sheet, for all that it was clearly in effect, his own insights regarding his newly discovered prismatic arts increasing almost as sharply as was his peril.

He took in the battlefield in a second.

Alex noted the look of consternation on Tan Guan’s features, no longer bothering with bluster as his mind raced through calculations Alex could imagine all too well as he poured as much of himself as he could into healing his foot, visualizing the rainbow storm of spiritual energy swirling through his Dantians and into his shield as also helping to speed up his healing, furious metabolic rate’s excess heat effortlessly sent spinning into his disk, leaving it even better suited to countering killing waves of steel than it had been just seconds before.

You now dare to forge yourself in Fire! Your insights blossom even as your life hangs in the balance.

Prismatic Shield is now Rank 4 as you tighten the weaves to better catch deadly steel shrapnel.

You sense the first twinges of Meridian Strain!

Which was a very good thing, he thought, as he unsheathed his saber in the very instant not one but three killers struck at them from behind.

Finesse check made! You have successfully struck your target!

The closest of the shadowy killers smirked as he darted toward Alex, thinking him fully focused on the JiangHu sect head who was clearly seeking to distract them, just as they had been intending to delay him.

Yet Alex didn’t dare lose focus on the man who could obliterate them all, using his dao to counter the furious downward swing of a poisoned blade for his skull, then focus on just guarding his flank as a roaring Dui Zhong lashed out with a flurry of spear thrusts, disemboweling one crumpling assassin just as a second lunged forward with a dagger. Before jerking to a halt, eyes bulging in terror before rolling back inside his head as Dui Zhong spun and struck, spearing the man’s throat in a shower of blood as he showed off superhuman Finesse and Quickness far rarer in Bronze cultivators than pure Strength. And for just a heartbeat, the captain was vulnerable, a pair of shadowy assassins radiating a Bronze’s power springing for the lip of the wagon in that moment, daos synchronizing perfectly, like two pristine notes, as they attempted to strike the captain as one.

Before their symphony of destruction ended before it could even begin, The closest stumbling off the wagon with an agonized shriek, as Alex’s stream of Universal Solvent spiced with his favorite blend of poisons took the would be killer in the face.

A blend he was determined to share with the snarling cultivator who had just sprang out of nowhere to Alex’s side as the captain frantically took on the other would-be assassin.

Time seemed to slow as his opponent’s too fast blade plunged toward Alex’s ribs… before being hooked and forced off line by Alex’s desperate winding parry.

“Just die, you goddamned Ruidian!” Roared Alex’s would-be executioner, before the man jerked back with a shriek when Alex spat a stream of Universal Solvent into his opponent’s vitriol-spewing mouth, the man’s shouts choked off as hands wildly clawed at his own throat before stumbling right back off the wagon.

You have critically struck your opponent with Bitter Brew.

Poison Spitting is now Rank 6! You’re now as deadly as any desert cobra!

Perception check made.

You brace yourself for the storm!

“Alex! Everything rides on this! You must hold!”

He sensed more than heard Qing Wu’s cry in his group interface. Desperate as the man was to finish his chant as a snarling Tan Guan unleashed a second blast deadly knives now radiating the Qi of steel and burnt fate both.

Tainted knives that slammed against Alex’s shield to devastating effect.

Yet their enemy’s sneer twisted into a look of absolute fury when Alex’s prismatic shield refused to sputter out.

“No! You should be dead, Ruidian!” Tan Guan snarled. “There is no ward that can counter my Tainted Steel!”

Alex didn’t bother answering. He was too busy trying to hold his insides together.

Because the man was right.

There had been something different with that attack. Something that had actually pierced his ward.

Alex’s eyes bulged as he spat out blood, realizing what it was.

Ah yes.

It was an infernal technique.

This must have been what Qing Wu was so afraid of.

Tan Guan had clearly infused himself with power twisted enough to slip past standard elemental configurations. At least a few of those metal shards were tainted by infernal techniques, and one of those shards had just torn through his abdomen.

You have suffered Critical Wound from Tainted Steel Technique!

Draconic bloodline reduces Critical Wound to Serious Wound.

Prismatic Fox skill check: Successful. You have successfully avoided spiritual poisoning!

Prismatic Fox Restoration Technique is now Rank 3! You can regenerate up to 4 health per minute!

He felt powerful arms suddenly grip him. “Alex, maintain your shield! Our lives are on the line!” The captain roared in his ear.

Tan Guan’s eyes lit up with manic glee. “I can feel it tearing through you, Ruidian fool. Poisoning you from within. You are weakening… your shield is failing… you’re finally mine!”

But before Alex could crumple, the air rang with Winter’s promise as Qing Wu’s chant culminated in absolute breathless silence.

Tan Guan’s eyes widened, as furious outraged turned to a disbelieving stare. “No. I saw my men cut your throat! You’re already dead, Qing Wu! You think this ends here? I will obliterate both you fools! Sacrifices to the lords who would set these deserts blazing in eternal fire!”

The cultivator’s features took on a truly monstrous cast. Alex blinked his eyes against an unexpected flare in the increasing chill, for just a heartbeat imagining monstrous, demonic features being superimposed over Tan Guan’s own.

Before hissing and lurching back a step when he realized that it was no trick of the light at all. The man roaring his hate upon the desert sands less than forty feet from the wagon had just embraced the darkest of demonic infusions, tearing free the mask of his humanity to unleash the deadliest storm of tainted steel yet.

And Alex could do nothing. Nothing besides his utmost to ride through the horrific pain now searing through him, injured foot healing far too slowly for ideal maneuvering at this point, Alex desperate to cleanse the internal taint with the same stream of spiritual energy swirling through his Dantians and fueling his healing.

All that mattered, he thought, as he choked back an agonized groan as his insides burned from within, was hanging on and keeping his flickering Prismatic Shield vibrant and strong. Stronger than even he could have dreamed, alive with the furious crescendo pouring through him as he desperately channeled prismatic spiritual energy directly into his soul.

The storm of power roared through his meridians before surging through a shield suddenly blazing as bright as the noonday sun, just as a final barrage of tainted steel crashed against his defenses in a howling cacophony of doom infused with the crimson might of a fully revealed demonic cultivator.

The barrage of death that struck the wagon underneath the rim of Alex’s swirling shield tore through the warded wood as if being obliterated by artillery fire, promising death to whoever was within.

Death that a furious Alex braced himself to endure once more.

No one was more surprised than him to find that instead of crashing into the River of Souls yet again, it was his Prismatic Shield that he heard ringing like a choir of bells under the onslaught of deadly shrapnel being deflected in all directions.

Yet by some miracle, not one piece of tainted death slipped through.

Willpower check made! For what is transcending mortal limits to one who would dare the valley of death and wade the River of Souls?

You have channeled Desert Fox Cultivation and Prismatic Fox Restoration beyond all prior limits!

Divine tier Meridian Channels successfully save versus Catastrophic Cascade!

Prismatic Shield has been successfully enhanced and boosted!

Desert Fox Cultivation is now Rank 5! You can now channel spiritual energy with effortless grace.

Prismastic Fox Restoration is now Rank 4! All infernal taints are automatically purged from your system as effortlessly as your ward now deflects their attacks!

Prismatic Shield is now Rank 5! Your shield has evolved to Pristine Prismatic Shield! Your Pristine Prismatic Shield may now fully counter Unorthodox Techniques! Not even half-step arts or infernal curses can penetrate the pristine spiritual energy of your ward!

Lower Dantian has shifted to better ride the storm of power you have dared to channel through your soul once more!

“No. Impossible!”

Alex had just enough time to enjoy the look of perplexed disbelief on the crimson colored features of the demonic cultivator who’s forked tongue could barely curse the words through sharpened teeth… before he felt the awful lurch of freefall as he crashed onto soft bedding. The rooftop remnants he and Qing Wu had been standing on had finally collapsed into the shell of a wagon that remained. For the great majority truly had been completely blown away.

At least he could still see over the lip of the shredded wagon, still absolutely refusing to let go of his crackling shield, infused as he still was with the potency of his kills, no matter how much he could sense the fates laughing as his Dantian began to shift once more. Shifting far too easily, his soul far too used to channeling arts far beyond what his mortal shell should be able to handle.

He could feel the truth of that just as well as he could feel ice cold gusts of wind abruptly transforming into a howling storm, a whirlwind of ice and snow now surrounding the caravans and sucking not one but over two dozen reds inside those howling whirlwinds.

Yet what shocked Alex even more than that was the sight of a furiously roaring Tan Guan ready to leap right for the shattered wagon now free of all protective wards, so eager to rend and kill, before his crimson features took on an odd blue cast, monstrous roars turning to a desperate howls as the monster stumbled mid-leap, desperately clawing back to its feet with a look of genuine panic as the demonic cultivator was swallowed by the storm. Just one of nearly two dozen killers frozen in seconds to statues of perfect crystalline ice.

Alex was slack-jawed with awe and pain and wonder in equal measure. To think that he had once thought Qing Wu just a good-natured eccentric, A professorial Silver who could throw Bronze tier Ice Javelins with the best of them. A cultivator who had just squeaked into his ascension, yet had the knowledge and experience to help guide countless grateful Bronze and Basic as far along the path of ascension as they could go. And that had all clearly been an act. For Alex could now so clearly sense the man’s fearsome reserves of spiritual energy utterly freed of restraint.

Two dozen souls frozen to oblivion, including one Silver Demonic Cultivator who had almost killed them, and Alex was suddenly certain that they hadn’t even scratched the surface of Qing Wu’s true power.

Even if his spell had taken a full minute to cast.

Were ritual-specialized Wujens a thing?

Obviously so.

Alex shook his head even as he winced with pain. Everything was so clear as he shivered in the horrible cold even his draconic blood thought was a bit much, before the storm died away.

“Qing Wu, you’re going to freeze the mortals!” Snapped an exasperated Reny, popping her head out from under the bed. Alex was so relieved to see that the healer had actually survived the wagon-killing shrapnel blast that he would have cried for joy if his tears weren’t already frozen, or a fierce warm hug, if his Dantian wasn’t in exquisite agony, and he barely able to move.

For all that he now felt utterly in tune with the Prismatic Ward blazing away like never before, the prismatic stream of spiritual energy flowing through his meridians and healing his injuries with a grace and efficiency he had thought utterly beyond him, just days ago.

Worries for another day.

For now, he couldn’t help but shake his head at the sight of the frozen sands below where the howling winter storm had passed was a sight to behold. A blank canvas, broken up only by the untouched wagons and over a dozen statues frozen in various states of extremis.

Their faces locked in eternal rictuses of horror.

As for Tan Guan, the demonic mastermind of multiple poisons and assassinations, who had been crowing with delight and unleashing multiple waves of tainted shrapnel?

He would never unleash steely doom again.