Alex’s heart was pounding with awe and wonder as the hot dry desert sands whirled about him, and he actually felt himself near jerked off his feet, compelled by the currents until he revealed his own affinity with the Wind.

For long moments Ya Ling’s eyes remained closed, her hair whipping across her brow as she strove to master the storm that shrieked and howled behind them, seeming to channel the will of the desert itself. Then she abruptly collapsed, Alex darting forth to catch her as the desert sands were replaced by clear still air once more, the enormous twister fading as abruptly as it had come into being.

Alex gazed down at his friend with concern. “Ya Ling, your lips are pale. You look exhausted. Are you okay?”

Ya Ling managed a soft chuckle. “I recall embracing that ritual countless times before, reliving the life of an ancient ancestor, her story becoming my own. But to cast it in real life, is like onto a dream suddenly become reality… and I have nowhere near the Spiritual energy reserves that my ancestor did.”

Alex grinned. “You’re still a Bronze, and I know rituals and spells haven’t been your focus… save for being a badass warrior, a true mistress of the sands. But Ya Ling, who cares? What you did was incredible! You have the makings of a wujen as well as that of a kickass warrior. Of that, there can be no doubt.”

Ya Ling’s lips curved in a bemused smile. “Impressed you, did I?”

“That massive tornado could have devoured an entire block! I’m more than impressed, I’ll tell you that.”

“Then why are you marrying the Ruidian girl?”

Alex blinked, at a momentary loss for words at the abrupt change in conversation.

Ya Ling had the grace to lower her gaze, dusky cheeks flushing prettily even as Alex handed her a water flash. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t even intending to say that out loud! It just sort of...”

“Slipped out?”

She winced. “Exactly.”

Alex sighed, sitting on the once more still desert sands. “Have a seat. Maybe it will make more sense if I explain it.”

Ya Ling solemnly did just that, her eyes widening when he explained his duel with Lieberman, and the customs, as he understood them, of the Ruidian tribes in this part of the world.

“So you literally have to marry her or her uncle can force her to marry some sickly inbred?”

Alex dipped his head. “I don’t think malice is motivating him either. As much as I want to hate him… I genuinely think that he thought he was doing right by her. That he believed their clan ‘elders’ declaring it a safe match. And yeah, I think he’s desperate to marry and have another family of his own while he still can, lest his own gifts and family heritage die out.”

She furrowed her brow. “But doesn’t he have a son?”

Alex nodded. “Linnea, once her anger cooled, seemed far more sympathetic toward him that I thought warranted. Then she explained how life normally was in the clans. The pressures that had been constantly put on him and everyone capable of doing what we do… and the death of his wife and daughters.” Alex shrugged and sighed. “I don’t think he ever got over it.”

Ya Ling scowled. “Well the solution is simple, then. There are nearly half a million people here in this city alone, and Ruidians are both welcomed and valued, at least as long as the Duo Li clan doesn’t ascend. It would take very little effort at all for him to win the notice of any number of women, especially since a single beast core will set you up for years, if not for life, in the more modest areas of the city. With that kind of earning potential… and being both stronger and healthier than the average mortal even if he’s nowhere near a Bronze tier cultivator… it’s only his stubbornness that prevents him from seeing the opportunities before him right here.”

The last she said with a pointed look that had Alex’s cheeks blazing.

She solemnly clasped his hand. “He could have the world, if he wanted. Even if it took two generations for his gifts to manifest once more.”

Alex’s heart was pounding with the way she was looking at him right now, her dusky lips surprisingly close to his own. “What do you think, Alex? Could he find a prize worth waiting a generation for a fresh jewel?”

Alex swallowed. “He’d be an idiot not to try.”

“That’s what I think too.”

Finesse check failed!

Alex then found his feet swept from under him as he fell to desert sand so soft it felt like a cloud, blinking to see Ya Ling gazing impishly down at him before her lips brushed against his own.

And before he could even react, she was curled up against him, her cheek against the changshan tunic that was all that stood between her soft form and his too hot skin, wrapping his arms around her.

“I missed you, Alex.”

Alex swallowed at the hitch in her voice. “I did too.”

Soft fingers stroked his cheek. “Are you going to do it?”

“Do what?”

She gave him an arch look. “Marry her?”

Alex sighed. “I don’t know.”

She snorted. “You shouldn’t marry someone you’re ambivalent about, you know.”

Alex chuckled softly. “I know. But she’s my friend. A dear one. As are you.”

She squeezed him close, soft brown eyes pinning his own. “What if I want you to be more than my friend?” She bit her lip. “Far more?”

Alex grinned. “Then I would say that the Alex who didn’t have a Dantian shifted out of true would be very, very lucky to claim you.”

Her teasing expression fell. “So that’s still an issue, I guess?”

Alex nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

Her look turned arch. “Didn’t you say that might leave you, once you ascend?”

“Why do you think I’m in such a hurry to delve, train, and learn as much as I can?”

“So you can gain enough inspiration to ascend and break through to Silver!”

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Alex winked. “Exactly.”

Ya Ling’s gaze grew thoughtful. “Linnea’s not a bad girl. I think I could grow to like her, over time.”

Alex grinned with relief. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“But I still want to be first-wife.” She immediately broke into laughter. “Oh you should see your expression!” Ya Ling sprung to her feat, gently bringing Alex back to his own with her one good hand. “Thank you, by the way.”

Alex blinked. “For what?”

She glared down at her arm stump. “For never looking at me with pity, or worse, contempt. For not letting your eyes always drift to my pathetic stump.”

Alex wrapped his arms about her in a supportive hug. “It’s alright. The important thing is that we survived.”

She nodded solemnly, before her eyes turned fierce. “Worst case scenario? The damage is permanent. At least until I reach Silver.”

Alex blinked, chilled by those words. “but I thought...”

Ya Ling smiled bitterly, shaking her head before allowing her eyes to longingly gaze upon the endless desert dunes. “It’s the price that I might be forced to pay, Alex. At least it is if I ever wish to be one with the desert sands again. And after daring to fuse my meridians with the power of Wind and Sand conjoined, I must hold fiercely to that union. To my current sense of self.” She sighed, lowering her gaze. “If those cats had chosen any other time to strike… but they didn’t. So the damage they inflicted at the worst possible time could very well be forever. I sense it, and I know that Reny does as well, for all that she absolutely refuses to admit it out loud.”

Alex swallowed the sudden bitter lump in his throat, wishing at that moment so fiercely that Fire was one of her elements. Then he could change absolutely everything for her, show her paths of metabolism and regeneration so like the ones that had formed the cornerstone of his greatest art. But she lacked any flame affinity at all, so he had no other good way to correlate his first world metabolic conceptualizations with the flow of Qi in this realm. Which meant that he had no idea how to heal her at all. “So that’s it, then? You have no choice but to give up?”

Ya Ling took a steadying breath. “Not necessarily,” she said, now boldly meeting his gaze before giving him a shy, anxious smile. “Do you remember all our desert sparring of just a week or so ago?”

Alex grinned. “Yup, one of the sweetest, most carefree months I can imagine, save for all the creatures and diabolists and undead trying to kill us, I mean.”

She snorted. “Yeah, except for those. Anyway, do you recall how I managed to beat you all those times?”

He grinned. “Of course! All you had to do was become one with the...” the words died in his throat. He gazed for long moments at the endless ochre-colored sands and the blushing girl before him, now deliberately unwrapping the bandages around the ugly mangled stump that Reny had closed with a flap of skin. He winced. The stump had been successfully sealed with Reny’s liniments and Alex’s own surge of potency, but the ugly red scars were still puffy and inflamed. Alex didn’t think it was infection so much as a body desperate to fight its own maiming… yet constrained by the limitations of all higher order mammals. Limitations that cultivators could normally surpass, though Alex had had no idea that it might come at such a cost.

He looked at the pitiable stump to the otherwise sleek and healthy girl before him, radiating a Bronze’s Strength and grace, and a fierce determination to ascend far beyond her own limitations.

His breath caught in his throat. “Do you think it will actually work?”

Ya Ling forced a trembling smile, choosing that moment to unsheathe her blade. “I think it’s worth a try. Don’t you?”

Alex’s eyes widened, suddenly understanding. “Where else but the crucible of battle would you feel so in tune with who you truly are?”

“When I’ll do whatever it takes to survive. To dodge your blows. To blossom into my true self.”

Alex locked gazes with the striking desert queen he faced before nodding solemnly, summoning both dao and a shield of his own.

Or at least, trying to.

You have failed to synergize Wind Shield with Water Shield!

Alex hissed, dismayed by his failure, dismayed by how hard it now was to infuse Water with the Wind that now howled so freely through his soul.

Certainly Wind wasn’t a problem. It came at his beck and call easier than it ever had before. But balancing that breeze that had become such a glorious whirlwind of potential, Wind Blade slicing through foes with chilling ease in the killing jungles of the Western Rift, revealed at last the bitter sharp double-edge to his gift.

He might enjoy power like he could scarce fathom with that one element, thanks to his bold, perhaps foolish consumption of spirit fruit unlike any he had ever savored before. Determined to grab a hold of treasures as if desperate to hoard good fortune that might never be his again… only to find that his very act of defiance against the pitiless heavens might be what destroys him in the end.

He grimaced, slowly shaking his head, before summoning the power of endless oceans once more. “No way in hell will I give up after forging multiple prismatic techniques! I just need a bit more power. I just need to keep tight control.”

And it was endless moments before he found the secret to infusing Water into the howling winds. Yet find that balance he did, even if his Qi Pool rapidly depleted before he finally found the balance he needed, tying down the swirling streams of spiritual energy given elemental life with knots of Qi.

Ya Ling’s eyes widened at the howling storm of wind now forming the core of his Water Shield when he was finally done.

“Alex, I’ve never seen it radiating that much potency before!”

He forced a strained smile. “Thanks. Now if only it wasn’t three times as hard to summon and control than it had ever been before, I’d consider it a win. But as it is...”

Ya Ling flashed a suddenly sympathetic smile. “That’s right. You once told me you had an affinity for all eight major elements. And your balanced techniques reflected that. But the legendary boon we both embraced… that kind of threw it all off for you, it seems.”

Alex grimaced, all his concentration just on maintaining his shield. A shield he deliberately made as blunt and forgiving as pounding rapids, which wasn’t perfect, but a damn sight better than infusing it with steel shrapnel and bitter sharp killing intent.

Because he was sparring with a friend. A friend he refused to hold back with any more than he had to, knowing how desperate she was for a fresh breakthrough in her striving for a miracle, yet still knowing better than to form a shield infused with sharp, killing intent. Because few appreciated just how deadly effective water could be at flaying and piercing ones opponents than himself and the girls he had once cherished so deeply.

Ya Ling’s focused gaze softened. “Alex, are you alright?”

He jerked a nod, forcing a smile. “Yup! I think I got a two-element shield under control. Finally.” He flashed a fierce smile. “And I don’t recommend you take it for granted, even though I did blunt it’s killing intent.”

This earned a smirk, Alex’s eyes widening as the girl before him effortlessly formed a swirling shield of Wind and Sand that she felt no need to anchor to her left hand at all, meaning she was as handy as any warrior, with a shield far more powerful than most.

Yet no matter Ya Ling’s triumphant grin or the tilt of her chin, Alex could sense the fear underneath her bravado.

“Ya Ling, what’s wrong?”

She flashed a rueful smile. “Nothing, Alex. It’s just…” she shook her head. “I’d never want to cross your instincts, that’s for sure.”

He blinked, tilting his head. “I’m not sure I understand?”

She chuckled softly, eyes twinkling as she stepped back. “Alex, what elements are best for countering sand?”

Alex blinked, gazing at her for long moments before flashing a proud smile. “Wind! That’s right, You managed to find harmony with at least one of the elements that could tear apart any sand dune. But at the same time, when properly harnessed, Wind and Sand make the most fearsome of storms together. So your stronger than ever before, turning your weakness into a strength that you only could with a half-step element!”

She flashed a sad smile. “True. But what do you think will happen if I’m dueling with someone who could tear through me with a whirlwind of water? The power of a hurricane Alex, ripping through mud like a knife through chutney.”

Alex winced, not hesitating to let his whirlwind of water ease to a gentle spray of mist, soon replaced by rich green sprouts winding themselves into a leafy wood ward excellent for catching blades and deflecting blows.

Ya Ling’s eyes twinkled. “Much better, hero. An element combination that won’t jeopardize me. Now I’m just worried about you!” She said, patting the exquisitely sharp steel blade at her hip.

Alex grinned. “Don’t be. Because no matter how well Steel bests wood, green springy brambles and gummy sap are still the bane of any masterwork blade.”

This earned a wince from Ya Ling. “True.” Her gaze brightened. “Which means this will actually be a challenge!” She saluted Alex with her sword. “Shall we?”

He dipped his head.

And in the blink of an eye, they charged as one.