“What a fine prize you have brought before me. Silver-tier, if I’m not mistaken, yes?” Senior Cultivator Te Chang, Master of the Delves, and advanced martial instructor to the worthy, or so he titled himself, pinned them all with a too-knowing smile that had Alex’s stomach twisting in knots, for all that he kept his face perfectly blank.
Su Rin blanched under Te Chang’s benign smile. Lu Gang, made of sterner stuff, merely nodded his head.
“That is correct… Senior Cultivator Te Chang.”
The man nodded his head, still admiring the beast core giving off such intense Wood Qi. “Indeed it is. And more potent by far than any core I’ve seen pulled from the western rift in quite some time.” He tilted his head. “I trust none of you are going to claim that was the origin of your good fortune? For if so, you’ve either delved far deeper and risked meridian toxicity beyond what anyone has been so foolish as to attempt in years, or your luck is that of a fool living a fairy tale life of fortune and favor.” He snorted. “If so, may you be spared the bitter end that so many of those would-be morality plays turned into, before our bards, finally realizing that they had no jaded overlords to impress, made happier endings for all their tales.” He quirked a curious brow. “None of you are going to suggest you’re characters in such a tale, are you? Or that you were anywhere near the northern escarpment this evening, correct?”
Lu Gang kept his chin high, despite the tremble he couldn’t quite suppress. “We wouldn’t dare argue with your assessment, Senior Cultivator Te Chang.”
“Good, good! I am so very glad to hear that, Lu Gang. And I know you and your kung fu brother wouldn’t dare defy a direct edict from our headmaster by daring the Southern Delve, deliberately being reserved for our guests expected next week, to assure maximum saturation.” He chuckled good-naturedly, eyes twinkling as if sharing an inside joke with close friends. “Even if we all know that daring cultivators slipping between delves that are part of a diplomatic gesture will have a minuscule impact on the quantity and quality of the spirit beasts or other treasures to be found within, no?”
Lu Gang emphatically shook his head. “We wouldn’t dare! No, Senior Cultivator. We would never defy the headmaster’s direct decree.”
Te Chang raised a bemused brow. “Are you certain? A quick delve, in and out, and no one at all the wiser?”
Lu Gang shook his head all the more adamantly. “We would never defy the master of the college.”
Te Chang’s understanding gaze, inviting confidence and sympathy, faded to a satisfied nod. “I believe you.” He then blinked, as if struck by a sudden thought. “Oh, that reminds me. Our banquet hall has recently put in an order in the assignment hall for high quality spirit meat, and they’ll be paying prime rates for it. In credit slips or silver! If you have any kills saved from your most recent foray… assuming they aren’t completely tainted with Dark Qi of course… you could make a tidy profit selling them tonight, just in time for our guests’ first feast on the morrow.”
Su Rin gave a strained chuckle. “Should we find ourselves blessed with the bounty of prime spirit meat, we will of course be willing to sell it all to the Silver Sands dining hall.”
Te Chang nodded indulgently. “Of course you will. I take it that you’re lacking any pristine spirit meat at the moment?”
Su Rin sighed, lowering his head. “That would be correct, sir.”
“Then that means you dared the eastern rift adjoining our academy.” Te Chang’s demeanor went from indulgent uncle to cold-eyed disciplinarian in the blink of an eye. “The one delve forbidden to all parties lacking at least two Silver-tier delvers by your side!”
He glared at them all, but most of his ire was focused on the pair of trembling Bronze who could maintain their proud bearings no longer, immediately crumpling into kowtows before their superior. Te Chang was built much like a sumo wrestler, bridging the shadowy gap between bloat and power, his entire body infused with potent spiritual energy Alex felt coming off the man in waves. Rank 2 Silver, Alex judged, with an instinctive fluidity and grace to his movements that showcased just how deadly he would be in any conflict beyond brow-beating a pair of desperately kowtowing cultivators.
Alex suppressed a smile, having decided that this was one case where he’d happily don the mantel of Ruidian guest, presently being showered with praise and concern by the soft-spoken Bronze tier healer tending to whatever cuts and scrapes the Ruidians in their party hadn’t fully healed, which was very little, and Alex, which was none at all.
“Now why don’t you tell me what bit of madness enticed you imbeciles to dare the Eastern Rift, defying strictures designed to keep you alive, failing to bring even one Silver-tier with you, and imperiling not one but four clearly gifted Ruidian guests?”
A kowtowing Lu Gang exchanged a quick, furtive glance with Su Rin. “The Northern Rift gave no ice or Water cores at all, when my kung fu brother and I scoured it last month,” Lu Gang muttered, Su Rin quickly nodding his head.
“And Little Lan made it clear that the western rift was no better,” Su Rin quickly jumped in. “The spirit beasts and abominations were hardly a threat, yet they were so scarce that it was hardly worth the effort! So there would have been no point saturating ourselves with foulness and have absolutely nothing to show for it,” he declared.
Lu Gang quickly jumped in. “And everyone knows you’re reserving the southern rift for Qianshi’s Wujen, due to arrive tomorrow. So what other options did we have?”
“What you should have done is just held off until our guests finished their delve!” A glaring Te Chang snapped. “All you had to do was wait a couple of weeks, and you could have had your fill of southern rift delves. And for your information, the Northern rift is perfectly fine. It’s ideally suited to your strengths and party make up, and it was luck alone that dictated your previous poor haul. As for the west, its strengths never had anything to do with the strength of the monsters, but the purity of the meat, the quality of the spiritual plants and ores to be found within, and a miasma level so low you could have delved in there all day and suffered only a fraction of the spiritual plaque both of you fools have built up over just half a night alone!” The man continued to glare. “Now, let’s cut to the heart of it, shall we? You, like every cultivator on the planet, were eager for knowledge and resources, and were hungry for cores that paid multiple times the going rate for any other element. I dare you to claim otherwise!”
The pair of cultivators paled and trembled, immediately kowtowing before the senior cultivator, earning a snort.
Te Chang sighed, gazing sadly down at the pair. “Now, why don’t you tell me the real reason why you forbore forming a party with any of the Silver Wujen? I know for a fact that both Instructor Lin, Lady Sulia, and Elder Wu have made themselves available to any party that would have them.”
Alex felt a jolt with the final name, doing his best to let nothing on his expression show.
Lu Gang’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t say a word.
It was Su Rin who spoke, his acidic tone not even blunted for Te Chang’s sake.
“With all due respect, sir, Instructor Lin insisted both that we take Lady Sulia along, and that they get three party shares for their assistance.”
Te Chang furrowed his brow. “Three shares for two Silver...”
“Each,” Lu Gang snarled, before lowering his head. “Forgiveness, elder. But they wanted three shares each.”
Te Chang’s eyes widened, unable to hide the surprise in his gaze. “They did, did they?”
Lu Gang flashed a bitter smile. “They did indeed. Instructor Lin made it perfectly clear that their putting their exalted lives on the line meant that they should be compensated what they were worth, and that we were fools if we thought any Silver would dare the rifts for less than three shares each.”
Su Rin gave a bitter chuckle. “And it’s a good thing we managed to seize what opportunities we could. Because when word gets out about the games they’re playing and that we refused, no Silver will ever work with us again.” His jaw hardened. “Or teach us. So even having survived that madness, winning grand prizes, we still lose in the end.”
Te Chang rubbed his chin. “I’ll look into things and help clear up any… misunderstandings. Declining a party shouldn’t be grounds for any sort of censure, unless you’re actually foolish enough to mouth off to your future instructors, which I wouldn’t put past either of you, thinking you could live storybook lives, not even appreciating just how close you came to death tonight, and how tonight’s good fortune could so easily be your demise, the next time you dare the eastern escarpment without appropriate backup!”
Lu Gang and Su Rin immediately flowed into relieved kowtows. “We understand and will obey you in all things, master.”
“I seriously doubt that,” said a once-more chuckling Te Chang. And like flipping a switch, the man’s face lit up with a positively jolly smile. “But all that being said, these are some of the choicest beast cores I’ve seen in weeks! Earth, Wood, and Metal. Wonderful! Our Alchemists and Artificers will be most pleased.” With that he wrote down a number that had both cultivators gazing at the flap of parchment with open-mouthed wonder.
“Now by all rights, I should cut this figure by a full three quarters for your absolute idiocy… but since you managed to get all the Ruidians safely back, and it would be unfair to punish them for your folly… I will give you their full value. This once! With your promise to avoid the Eastern Rift until you have at least two Silvers agreeing to accompany you… with the understanding that they will be demanding no more than two shares each!”
The pair of cultivators immediately fell into dogeza. “Thank you, Senior Cultivator Te Chang. We will heed your words, we swear it!”
The man snorted, before opening his palms, the pair of cultivators immediately surrendering their Bronze Tokens as the man whispered an odd chant that had both of them glowing a warm hue. Then Te Chang handed them back. He then turned to Alex and the others, a warm smile on his face as he impressed the hell out of Alex, actually troubling himself to speak in the local Ruidian dialect.
“Honored guests, disciples of the elements, you have all outdone yourselves! The correct value of the beast core haul presented is 2,876 credits. I’ve decided to round it up to 3,000 to keep things simple. Split 6 ways, that’s five hundred credits for each of you. Is that acceptable to you?”
By the way Hanz and Linnea enthusiastically nodded, Alex got the impression it was more than fair, so happily nodded as well.
Te Chang positively beamed. “Excellent! Now if you would present me with your pins, I will be happy to infuse them with my mark.”
Alex furrowed his brow, taking a closer look, noting the bloody thumbprint, to his surprise. He felt an odd shiver, for all that he sensed absolutely no foulness or taint, just the faintest trickle of power. Yet like mastering the half-step elements of Sand and Ice, he was even more surprised to find Blood in use, even to this exceedingly modest degree. He was so bemused, in fact, that he only realized how thin the ice that he himself trod upon was when Senior Cultivator smiled his way.
“And you, young Ruidian. I’m sorry, I don’t believe we have been introduced?”
Alex immediately flowed into a 45 degree bow. “Alex Hammer, Senior Cultivator Te Chang.”
The man snorted. “Senior Chang is fine, lad. And though I regret seeing you blooded on such an… interesting delve, I would hasten to assure you that future trips into our rifts will be far smoother and easier than this one. And by all means, if anyone tries to entice you to dare the Eastern Rift once more without at least two wujen among their number, just let me know, and I’ll make everything right as rain! Is that agreeable to you?”
Alex was all smiles. “Yes, Senior Chang.”
“Excellent. Then if you would present your pin?”
“Of course, Senior Chang.”
The man’s smile turned brittle before crumbling altogether as he noted the pin Alex had handed him. “I can’t help but note that this pin… this copper pin, is indicative of a freshly inducted disciple.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“That would be correct, Senior Chang.”
“Which means that you entered this academy... let’s make sure we understand each other… as someone who channels Heaven and Earth spiritual energy. Not the mana your companions channel through their forehead jewels.”
“That would be correct, Senior Chang.”
The man furrowed his brow, glaring at Alex. “If you would be so kind as to take off your hat and what I note to be a fine steel helm, a warrior’s helm I’ve never seen a Ruidian wear, claiming that such interferes with their jewels… and present to me your forehead? And what an interesting shade your hair happens to be. Like golden wheat. And I can’t help but note that you have no jewel at all.”
“That would be correct, Senior Chang.”
The man’s tired stare belied the intense wave of spiritual pressure Alex now felt crashing down upon him.
“Are you going to tell me that you’re actually a cultivator, boy? Capable of infusing your body with spiritual energy like the two Bronze fools here who should have known better than to take you along?”
Alex dipped his head, stiffening his knees under the spiritual pressure that had everyone else collapsing to their knees. “That would be correct… Senior Chang.”
The man pinned Alex with his deadpan stare for long moments before breaking out in unexpected laughter. “Oh, that’s rich. Wonderful, in fact!” His mirth faded as quickly as it came. “Tell me you weren’t dead weight. Tell me you did at least something to help out your compatriots as they risked their lives against Silver-tier horrors.”
Alex met the man’s hard gaze for long moments, both Lu Gang and Su Rin gathering breath to speak, before freezing under Chang’s glare.
“That would be correct, Senior Chang.”
“Show me,” the man snapped.
Alex’s heart started to pound. “Do I have your oath that this goes no farther than this room?” He managed to utter, finding the words far harder to speak than he had thought, and not having the gall to add ‘cultivator’ to ‘oath’, lest he cross a line even he knew better than to dare.
The man snorted. “And if I don’t?”
Alex forced a bitter smile. “Then perhaps this academy isn’t the best fit for me and it would be time for me to seek my fortunes elsewhere.”
The man quirked a bemused eyebrow. “Even at the cost of five hundred academy credits?”
Alex forced himself to nod. “No one ever said the cultivator’s path is easy, and no cultivator worth his salt ever got anywhere who failed to be true to themselves.”
“And my keeping your secret is key to this bitter path that you walk?”
Alex shrugged. “Who can say, Senior Chang?”
The man smirked, lips stretching in a feral grin. “Alright, lad. You’ve piqued my curiosity. Show me the worth of this secret that I’m...”
The man’s words died out when the chamber flashed and sparkled with Fire, Lightning, and all the colors of the rainbow.
Skill check successful! You have successfully summoned Prismatic Sphere under significant Spiritual & Mental Pressure!
“That spell… or cultivation discipline, is beyond anything that any Bronze could hope to summon forth. So it’s almost like we had at least one elite wujen with us, sir. It’s also why I don’t have a giant scorpion’s stinger in my chest,” Su Rin said, before wincing as he gazed Alex’s way. “Which reminds me, I think I owe that brilliant idiot whatever share of my haul was the Silver Tier scorpion’s core.”
“That’s half of your credits right there,” Te Chang absently noted.
Su Rin groaned.
Hanz cleared his throat. “And my father and I would both probably be, well… dead, if our friend here hadn’t managed to intercept a pair of shadow cats eager to tear out our throats.”
Linnea nodded. “And that’s to say nothing of his playing defense while that unholy abomination was trying to tear us apart with its tendrils.”
This immediately got Te Chang’s attention. “No one mentioned anything about abominations!” the man snapped, the pair of Bronze immediately flowing into Dogeza once more.
Alex sighed, presenting the trio of powerful beast cores he had claimed. “No doubt they forgot, all their focus on the cores actually worth something to this school.”
The senior cultivator blanched. “Those cores radiate waste Qi, boy. You’re a fool not to get rid of them immediately! I’ll pay you five credits for each as a courtesy, even though preparing them for a fertilization array is more trouble than its worth and will require 3 days of my putting aside all other duties to purify myself after close exposure!”
The man’s grimace turned to a look of wonder when the waste Qi pressure abruptly vanished. “How...” His eyes widened, no doubt realizing that he hadn’t felt it before that moment either, which could only mean one thing. “You have a storage device!”
Alex grinned. “Hence the oath.”
The man shook his head with a snort. “Very well. Your secrets will be kept by everyone here, I’m sure,” he said with a reproving glance for his companions. “It still doesn’t explain why you want waste Qi beast cores.”
Alex winked. “Much like what you said. It’s good for cultivation. Plant cultivation, if nothing else.”
This raised an interested eyebrow. “So you’re an herbalist, are you? Or perhaps… an alchemist?”
Alex grinned. “What I am is someone who might love a lush rooftop garden of his own, some day. And maybe I’ll buy an out of the way property here in the city and get started on it. One day.”
“Fair enough,” Te Chang said, now looking genuinely intrigued. “So what do you hope to accomplish here at the school?”
“I’d like to see if I have any aptitude at all for the wujen’s arts, and I’m more than happy to delve the school rifts as frequently as you’ll all let me, for fun and profit.”
This earned a snort from Lu Gang. “As if he’ll be doing that more than once a month.”
Te Change gave Lu Gang a reproving glare, the man immediately stiffening and dipping his head once more. The Senior Cultivator’s brow furrowed with sudden concern. “Lu Gang, Su Rin, please face me,” he said in an oddly calm voice that had both men paling with expressions oddly close to horror.
“Master, please...”
“Shut up,” Te Chang sighed, before placing two fingers on both of their brows and closing his eyes in intent concentration.
“How are they?” Asked the soft voice of the delicate-looking healer so meekly blending into the shadows that Alex had forgotten she was there at all.
Alex frowned at the unusually petite girl, noting a twinkle in her soft brown eyes and the fullness to her lips that made him wonder if there were any secrets to be revealed underneath her carefully pinned hat complete with unnecessary brim, no matter that it was now closer to dawn than dusk.
Te Chang sighed. “So full of waste Qi they’d be a fool to do anything else save embrace desert purification for at least six weeks.”
Su Rin paled at that number. “But surely no more than a month is needed...”
Te Chang shrugged. “Sure, you can push yourself, be mostly better in a month, and dare a second delve. No doubt your weapon mastery will improve, but don’t be surprised if your foundation cracks and you find it almost impossible to form another Bronze cord.” His smirk turned to an ice cold stare. “Because it’s clear even to me that you failed to fully cleanse yourself the last time you dared the rifts. Even now I sense three stress-lines within your foundation, thanks to waste plaque that has only hardened with repeated rift exposure. Now you can either take the time to heal yourself fully…”
Su Rin’s eyes widened in dismay. “Six weeks Desert Purification. We will begin immediately at first light.”
“Well, it’s not like you don’t have more than enough credits to see you living high and mighty for the next year at least!” The Senior Cultivator declared with a chuckle. “Or it could last you a lifetime if you cash out and invest in a property or a business of your own. Start families of your own, and step off this path that promises peril to match any power you might hope to accrue.”
The pair immediately shook their heads in fierce denial. “We would never betray our kung fu brothers or our school. We swear it!”
Te Chang’s smile was strangely pitying. “It’s your choice, of course.”
He then turned to Alex. “If you would permit me?”
Alex resisted his own natural inclination to flinch, hating feeling vulnerable before powerful men, or putting himself at the mercy of another. It was all he could do to lower himself for the man to rest fingertips against his forehead, and something in the man’s gaze made it clear that he understood just how hard it was for Alex.
His sympathetic smile turned to a look of disbelief. “Yili, touch his forehead. How much Waste Qi buildup do you sense?”
The young healer was suddenly before Alex, gazing at him with gentle, sympathetic eyes. “May I?”
Alex smiled. “Of course.”
Her gentle smile was replaced by a look of disbelief matching Te Chang’s.
“None at all, Master Chang.”
“Of course he doesn’t,” A bemused Linnea noted, despite Hanz and his father glaring daggers at her. “He’s Ruidian and levels up just like we do, even if he made himself a cultivator class, which should be impossible, but who knows what blond-haired Ruidians can do?” She snorted, her gaze an odd mixture of exasperation and hunger. “He’s such a pure-blood, and doesn’t act like an inbred monster at all! Who knows what juicy secrets he has access to that were bred out of the rest of us?”
Hanz groaned, looking like he wanted to melt into the floor. Even Lieberman rubbed his brow.
Surprisingly, Te Chang favored her with a gentle, almost fatherly smile. “It is good to see you again, Linnea. I sometimes forget just how free-spoken you are.”
She positively beamed at his praise, doing a quick pirouette. “And look! I’m now almost as graceful and quick and nimble as a cultivator! Or at least… I’m faster. Because Alex said I should put some points in Quickness, Vitality, and Perception, so my throat doesn’t get torn out by a spirit beast, and I’m quite happy that I took his advice. Now I feel absolutely great!”
“As well you should,” Te Chang said indulgently. “But even you must admit that too many delves isn’t good for Ruidians either.”
“Oh, I know. After half a dozen we get an experience point penalty that can turn to lingering impairment if we don’t quit by a full dozen! Then it’s a full season of tending our sanctuary gardens under the desert sun and all the plaque gets absorbed into our crops and we have the sweetest, ripest tomatoes you could want with your pesto and pita!”
Senior Chang chuckled politely. “So that’s how you get such ripe tomatoes. I know they’re a popular treat whenever your clan comes to the city for trade.” He gave an approving nod. “It sounds like you have your path all planned out. Now, we will work on our friend Alex’s path.” He turned to Alex, a warm twinkle in his eye. “So, a Ruidian who appears to have a cultivator’s knack, or at least, a Ruidian interface class that mimics those who seek to ascend as cultivators while additionally being open to multiple monthly delves, and eager to explore a wujen’s arts.”
Alex grinned. “A close enough summation, I suppose.”
He gestured to Alex’s companions. “Are you sure that studying your colleagues’ crystalline paths wouldn’t be of best aid to you?”
Alex solemnly shook his head. “I’m afraid not. There is a significant difference between their power source and my own. If you’ll recall, the Prismatic Shield I generated that we’re absolutely not talking to anyone else about, and I do hope that includes your clever nurse, is a spiritual energy manifestation. It has nothing to do with mana.”
Te Chang nodded. “And you have no interest in seeing if you have any affinity as an alchemist, apothecary, spirit herb tender, gardener, or cook?”
Alex grinned. “Though I might have a certain knack in those directions, except for the cooking part, somehow, I just know that if I dare that path, I’ll soon find myself happily ensconced in a lush little corner of the valley below, tending to spirit herbs and impressing my supervisor so much that they’ll be afraid to ever let me out of their sight.”
He forced a chuckle under the handful of suddenly too-intense stares. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather walk a different path, this time around. And the better I can master a wujen’s arts, the more flexibility I’ll have, daring your rifts and doing my best to claim the Water cores you clearly need.”
Te Chang’s smile instantly hardened. “And what makes you think we need Water cores?” he quietly asked with a voice that sent chills down Alex’s spine.
Alex’s mind raced, suddenly certain that him so easily sensing the Shadow and Water Qi enchantments hiding a telling truth about the northern falls was the farthest thing from common knowledge. He felt a sudden chill, forced to wonder just how far this clearly powerful cultivator would go to hide that secret, did Alex dare to reveal it.
Sensing the sudden mounting tension Alex turned his worry into a jaded smile, recalling Su Rin’s earlier words. “Because if you’re offering a six-fold bounty on Water and Ice cores compared to what you offer for most others, there can only be one reason. Only a fool would think otherwise.”
Te Chang chuckled. “Fair enough. Though of course we have a healthy reserve, we do place a priority on having as many in reserve as possible.” He winked. “The exorbitant bounty is just to keep our loyal students and guests from selling them all to our nearest neighbors, even if they are many weeks away by caravan.” He gazed thoughtfully Alex’s way, before slowly nodding to himself and presenting him with a bronze pin.
“This is yours now.”
Te Chang grinned at the surprised looks this earned him. “Yes, I know, a Bronze pin for a new recruit is definitely out of the ordinary, but your physique is beyond any basic cultivator still clearing their meridians, and your Spirit Shield’s perhaps the strongest I’ve ever seen. And that stays between all of us,” he said firmly, earning a quick nod from the diminutive Bronze healer that Alex was certain had at least a dash of kitsune blood in her veins.