“The western fall’s lost,” Linnea said with a horrified whisper, sound returning once more.
Alex’s heart was pounding. He forced himself to think, no matter how much it felt like they would be forced to survive at a mad sprint, an entire city’s fate now thrust into their hands.
His mind raced at the horrific implications, of not one but two rivers abruptly cut off. He was now certain that this had been the ultimate goal of the Li clan’s dark formations. It hadn’t been about just making the rifts perilous to anyone save perhaps themselves. It had been about shattering the Water cores and plummeting the city into absolute chaos.
And If the precious sanctuary below, an oasis of rich green life in a desert of endless sands were to be lost… and tens or hundreds of thousands of people die to deprivation, the Duo Li bastards and their allies were clearly more than willing to have others pay that price.
That’s when Alex heard it, mocking laughter that made his blood boil.
He glared towards the Southern rift entrance they had been less than a hundred yards from when disaster struck.
A full half dozen men wearing lamellar stepped out of the shadows with cold smiles on their faces. The largest of the group patted the hilt of the dao at his waist, favoring them all with a condescending smirk.
Qi Perception check made!
Alex felt a cold chill of dismay as he sensed that all of them were at least mid-Bronze. These were experienced warriors. It was a horror that quickly turned to fury, however, when he noted the pin that each and every one wore on the linen tabards they wore above their armor.
A pin that matched the one worn by Tan Yi’s bodyguard Guan.
“This rift and all the others are now closed. Go back the way you came,” the leader said with an imperious sneer.
Sunlay’s back stiffened with outrage. “Impossible. Senior Cultivator Te Chang himself gave me permission to dare any delve I so chose with anyone I so chose without restriction.”
This earned a contemptuous snort. “Senior Cultivator Te Chang is not who you should be worrying about.” He turned to gaze at the western rift, the once glorious waterfall flooding the basin with life-giving water was now utterly free of any but the faintest trickle even Alex could barely make out. The man turned back to regard Sunlay with contempt, a mocking twinkle in his eye. “Things are going to be changing for the better very soon, lady. And considering the company you keep… I’d turn right around, join the nearest caravan, and never look back.”
Alex clenched his jaw, heart hammering as he noted the cold smirks all of them wore.
They knew.
Their eyes showed no shock or surprise as the sudden surge of spiritual energy that had flooded the basin. And the way they gazed at the western rift satisfied smirks made everything shockingly clear.
They were in on it.
Each and every one.
But still, even as time seemed to stretch and Alex’s mind raced to capture every nuance and detail of their relaxed, casual stances, the way they favored a certain posture, the contemptuous disregard half of them had for Alex’s party… even as Alex felt the desert winds howling furiously as he tempered his fury with Water and the bitter sting of iron’s truth… he had to make sure.
He had to give them one last chance.
“Outrageous!” Sunlay snapped. “The Senior Cultivator’s authority is second only to the headmaster herself! And it would seem to me that any loyal disciple of this academy would be racing to dare the rifts in desperate pursuit of Water cores before all is lost.”
This earned nothing but a cold chuckle from a man who revealed himself to be Silver, as he unleashed his formerly cloaked killing aura. “Change is in the air, foreigner.” He glanced at the western bank once more. “And if you ever want to dare these rifts again, then I’d suggest you turn around and go back the way you came.” He flashed a cold smile that didn’t reach his icy gaze. “In the game of kings and thrones...”
“… it’s the pawns that will crushed to dust under the pieces that would rule the board,” Sunlay finished for him, crossing her arms. “Have you never stopped to wonder that your masters are using you as pawns as well?”
The man’s smirk hardened into a contemptuous glare. “Unless you wish to make enemies of the Duo Li clan, you’ll turn around and leave right now.” He then sneered and spat. “And you Ruidians better leave right now as fast as your scrawny frames can take you. You’re no longer welcome here.”
Alex forced himself to smile, holding the shaft of his fagtian ji like a walking stick as he deliberately stepped off the scrabble path and onto the lush grass just beyond, careful not to step too far, lest he go right off the escarpment and be forced to reveal things before it was time.
He deliberately held the leader’s gaze. “This isn’t just about politics and your masters reclaiming lost power. You know that, right? This is about the lives and well-being of almost half a million innocent souls that you and your Duo Li cohorts are putting at risk with these games.”
The man chuckled coldly. “Of course I have no idea what you’re talking about! But if fools who care nothing about the water cisterns that nurtured this city for a thousand years found themselves paying a bitter price when false water from tainted stones gathered by mongrels like you are forced to go thirsty, well that’s the price they’ll pay for supporting a corrupt puppet throne and a race of mongrels that should be purged from this desert forev—“
Bullrush!
Stormstrike!
You have successfully decapitated your foe!
Before the man could even finish his sentence, Alex was before him. A single step all that was needed to close fifty yards of grassy turf and swing his fangtian ji now shrieking with a killing edge of Wind, Water, and Steel shrapnel howling at speeds he couldn’t have imagined before daring his affinity for Wind.
Prismatic shield was still beyond him, Alex barely able to balance the trio of elements with such a fearsome and wild base. But it was enough to cleave flesh from bone, tearing through steel like butter as Alex’s bitter sharp blade kissed Silver Tier flesh, Alex having expended long moments getting the measure of his targets, how fast the shifted their balance, how quickly they jerked their heads when stones out of nowhere clattered behind them, a certain kitsune who had been one with the caldera cliff-face shadows choosing to reveal herself with twinkling eyes and a bright smile, knowing just what to do to in the seconds before Alex struck.
Even as the trail rang with surprised cries and furious curses, even as he sensed the horrified surge of disbelief behind him, Alex got to work.
He had given the Duo Li pawns a chance to walk away. With their laughing contempt for the tens or hundreds of thousands that would suffer for their master’s political machinations, not a single flicker of dismay or regret had been shed by any of them, so Alex knew how this had to end.
And by the desperate looks in their gazes as they drew their dao and readied their spears, so did they.
You have critically struck your opponent!
Fatality!
Alex weaved and dodged past confused men gazing at him in disbelief, still drawing their weapons.
Alex, not being a fool, struck with savage ferocity, determined to cut down as many flat-footed foes as he could before they were in a position to retaliate.
Yet they moved so slowly, like clumsy oafs, a dispassionate corner of Alex noted as the rest of his psyche embraced retribution’s storm. A second enforcer collapsed, then a third, their furiously thrust dao and spears effortlessly forced off line with the indestructible haft of his weapon before Alex’s devastating rebuttals leveraged past flawed defences to cleave through flesh, bone and steel with shocking ease. Even as the vortex in his soul howled, Alex struck with a berserker’s savagery and a fencer’s grace. Darting and weaving past spear and dao crackling with Fire, the essence of sharpness, or raw killing intent, his fangtian ji flowed past all resistance like a summer storm.
Lightning flashed, leaving only the stench of ozone and spurting flesh left in its wake as men screamed and stumbled back, gazing with horror at their own missing limbs spurting their life blood before lightning flashed once more and a howling storm of fury washed all resistance away.
“No! What you’re doing is forbidden! You will be hunted down and put to the sword!” Screamed the final enforcer, stumbling back from a pitiless Alex before tripping on the dismembered remains of his companions. He shrieked as he caught sight of empty gazes already glimpsing whatever horrors awaited them in the river that would soon be his own.
“No, please. Please don’t kill me!” The man shrieked, face set in a terrified rictus as he desperately tried to flee, a look of desperate madness in his eyes as he abruptly darted for the escarpment edge, willing to risk a perilous tumble if only to escape the bloodthirsty Ruidian who had just butchered A Silver and four Bronze in just a handful of seconds.
Only to cry and stumble to the ground when his knee was parted with a single whisper of deadly wind, his panicked shriek as he stumbled abruptly cut off as still blinking head tumbled and spun through the air, leaving a patina of scattered crimson raindrops behind as it fell to the valley hundreds of feet below.
And then it was done.
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Alex came back to himself with a gasp, eyes wide as he gazed upon the killing field he had wrought, refusing to flinch before the sight of six savaged bodies almost all of which were missing limbs, the stench of blood, ruptured bowels and death heavy in the air.
Before disappearing almost as quickly as it came, Alex working with chilling efficiency as six bodies became heaps of compost in a storage pouch, and shattered steel tiles, bent blades, and a fortune in steel armaments vanished just moments later.
Alex took a deep steadying breath as he wiped the last of the gore from his own steel lamellar hauberk before clenching his jaw and turning back to meet the gazes of the men and woman looking back at him with an odd mixture of horror, disbelief, and other expressions as well.
“It’s done,” Alex said in a voice far rougher than intended
“Murdering monster!” Hissed Zichen, only now shaking out of her shock enough to respond to Alex’s sudden burst of brutal savagery. Her male wujen counterpart nodded coldly, the air suddenly alive with steel blades and swirling flame.
Alex quickly shook his head at the looks Ya Ling and Linnea were giving him and the pair of wujen a heartbeat from striking.
“No, do nothing! Our future depends on you doing NOTHING to hurt them!” Alex mentally roared to his three Ruidian companions.
He then solemnly shook his head, as if he wasn’t phased at all by the swirling storms of steel and fire slowly forming to do him in.
“In case you haven’t already figured it out, the Duo Li clan is the one responsible for setting the fires, tainting the rifts and, I’m almost certain, shattering the western Water Core.” He took a shuddering breath, glaring down at the still bloody kill sight, before turning his focus to Sunlay alone. “Those bastards were in on it. You saw the way they looked at the western rift. You felt the same awful pressure I did. As if our world was shattering, as if something had just gone horribly wrong, right when that Water core ruptured and the falls stopped. Yet those assholes were utterly unfazed. They were smirking even, because this was all part of their plan! Those six bastards were part of a coup happy to let half a million people die of thirst, if it secures the power of their master. So yes. I seized the Vor and struck them down with everything I had.”
He gazed with fierce pride at the howling storm of Water and Wind still surrounding the head of his fangtian ji, himself surprised by just how well it had torn through even a Silver tier cultivator’s body and enchantments, thanks to the steel shrapnel carried so well by Water and Wind.
Fortunately, there had been no Speed cultivators among them, rare even in the last life he had lived, or he would have struck them first.
Alex flashed a brittle smile, knowing he was kissing the power of Black Swan, an art he had utterly mastered in a life he still remembered so clearly. He had reforged Silver Swan and all its killing variants in all but name.
He dipped his head in respect of the killing elemental storms before them, but did not flinch from either. “Sure, you could strike, and you’ll note that my friends are doing absolutely nothing to harm you. Because they are utterly innocent of my choice, and because I desperately hope that we can still delve as a group. Because the fate of a city literally depends on us finding a fresh Water core.”
Alex flashed a bemused smile at Sunlay’s enigmatic gaze.
“And if you ever wanted to be a hero, if you ever wanted to get noble recognition from the prince himself, coming to his city’s rescue now, in its most desperate hour, is certainly one way to win his regard. And who knows? Perhaps his heart as well.”
Sunlay’s eyes widened, her cheeks taking on a surprisingly rosy hue. “You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about!” She snapped, even as her glare had both wujen desultorily easing back on their own killing intent, storms of Fire and Steel fading to nothing in seconds.
Alex bowed his head in apology. “You’re right, I don’t. And clearly there’s nothing to see here,” he declared as Ya Ling glared at the blood stained path that had sufficient sandy soil for it to bubble and swirl over the stained remains. Within seconds, there truly was nothing to be seen.
“And I don’t know about you, but I, for one, would love to play the hero and earn the warm regard of a prince who will no doubt be more than willing to forgive all sorts of unorthodox approaches, so long as the city’s saved by the end.”
He flashed his brightest smile. “The southern rift is now right before us. Who’s up for playing hero and pretending that the last five minutes never happened?”
“Oh I most definitely am!” Declared none other than Nili, the adorable little kitsune popping out of nowhere with a cheeky smile and a teasing bow to Alex as she made her very serious-looking double-shot crossbow vanish in the blink of an eye as Sunlay gave her a discrete nod.
“What a delightfully bloodthirsty little savage you are! Fortunately, I can corroborate your claims.” She then turned to her mistress, giving a solemn bow of her head as her demeanor changed from almost childlike playfulness to the deadly grace of a highly skilled professional. “It is as you feared, my lady. The Duo Li clan is behind the attempts on your life. The immediate agents involved have been dealt with. The primary parties should suspect nothing, as per your orders.”
Alex blinked, a tiny smile creeping to his lips. “A double-shot of all things. Never thought I’d see it here, but historical China was famous for its mechanical crossbows long before anyone else, so why not?” He then chuckled. “And don’t think I didn’t spot that Crimson Wort poison on those quarrels, Nili. I thought I saw the third cultivator stumble at the perfect time to follow up.”
He dipped his head. “I guess thanks are in order.”
“She would have killed you, had I given her the order,” Sunlay said with a half-smile.
Alex winked. “But she didn’t. Instead, she crippled the fastest Bronze before he could pivot behind me, so all she has is my gratitude.”
This earned a throaty chuckle from the beautiful kitsune. “Were I not already happily married with a houseful of kits, I would gladly cash in on that, Alex.”
Now it was Alex who felt a flush creep up his cheeks as Linnea and Ya Ling both snorted. “But I meant… you don’t look a day older than me!”
Nili grinned. “Wonderful isn’t it? The joys of cultivation. And maybe falling in love a bit young, even for my kind. Now I do believe you mentioned a rift to dare and perhaps a chance for my lady to earn the regard of a certain prince?”
Alex chuckled at that, leading the way to the rift after a final look around, neither Qi Perception nor borrowed infravision telling him anything he didn’t need already know, surprised but at least in control of himself not to react when a gentle hand patted his shoulder.
“It’s alright,” Nili whispered. “Your kills were righteous. You gave those fools multiple chances to back down. In the end, you placed the lives of half a million innocents above the schemes of would-be usurpers who thought nothing of trying to assassinate visiting nobility.” She winked at his surprised glance. “Most importantly, no one was looking our way. These fools were here to take care of would-be delvers like us. No one thought they’d be taken out by a single boy.”
“With a bit of help,” a grinning Alex noted, earning a bemused smirk.
“A single bolt, and I sensed you flowing even as he moved, almost as if you could sense all the players on the field, even without having your eyes on them.”
“Everyone except you,” Alex noted as they approached the rift now radiating potent waves of deliciously Dark Qi.
But Nili froze and paled, her banter immediately ceasing. She turned to gaze Sunlay’s way. “Change of plans, dear one. We leave now. With this much waste Qi radiating from the rift… your foundation will be in jeopardy within seconds. And you’ll be rendered barren by the waste within.”
Alex blinked, knocked out of his bemused state by the spikes of dread and dismay he sensed from all his newest companions. Even Ya Ling flinched and paled.
“Alex...”
Zichen gave an angry shake of her head. “Those fools are messing with forces they don’t understand, trying to rupture the Water crystals powered by these rifts, forcing so much energy through at once that they’re compounding the waste Qi as well!”
Linnea’s eyes lit up with sudden understanding. “So that’s why we claimed so many delicious Silver tier cores so quickly! It was all being compressed and funneled at once!”
Alex frowned. “Personally, I thought some sort of gate was being setup from the depths of the delves, forcing critters to rise up to the surface, and that explained both the peril and the high spiritual energy levels.”
“It doesn’t matter either way,” Quing Da said, in a voice rough with alarm. “Come, my lady. Enough of this cursed place. We leave at once!”
“Alex...”
Alex winced before Linnea’s pleading gaze, bemusedly realizing in that moment that his dear friend had already come so far in the short level or two she had invested in herself more than her power. Already putting so many stray facts and experiences into a logical construct, sensing the outcome. An outcome she immediately shared with him. An outcome he already knew.
If the rift wasn’t dealt with, it would rupture, and soon. And then the fate of Ruidians would be as bleak and bitter as it had been hundreds of years ago. And with the ruthless malice the Duo Li clan had shown since the fires, Alex had no doubt that they’d do all they could to purge the desert sands of all Ruidian clans, so that there would never again be competition for the rifts, or any chance of any desert city surviving without the graces of the most ruthless water merchants imaginable.
Heart racing, knowing damn well the risk he was taking, he cleared his throat. “What if there was a way you could all dare these rifts without suffering any buildup of waste Qi… or any damage to your fertility at all?”
The party of visiting cultivators froze at Alex’s words, gazing at him in wide-eyed disbelief.
“Impossible!” Zichen snapped, for all that her eyes burned with a desperate hope.
Sunlay’s elegant features met his own. “Truly? You have access to such an exotic technique?”
Nili gazed at Alex for long moments, tilting her head as her lips quirked in a curious smile. “I do believe our cultivating Ruidian friend has stumbled upon a most interesting path. Or at least… he believes he has.”
Alex unflinchingly held Sunlay’s gaze. “Would you be willing to give your cultivator’s oath not to deliberately reveal whatever secrets or techniques I reveal before you, save amongst ourselves?”
“That you would even dare suggest such a thing!” Zichen hissed and stepped back, hands crackling with fire, and even Nili’s gentle gaze turned hard and cold.
Alex felt his cheeks flush with tension and unexpected embarrassment, but refused to back down.
Quing Da glared Alex’s way. “That this offensive mongrel would dare try to bind royal blood!” He hissed.
“I would do no such thing!” Alex snapped, voice cracking like a whip, for all that he refused to take his eyes off the noble woman before him. “I do naught but assure that I don’t become an asset enslaved to the whims of the powerful or a target that assholes like the Duo Li clan would do everything in their power to suborn or destroy. Even sharing as much as I have, in sincere good faith, puts me at risk, and we all know it.”
He flashed a bitter smile. “You all could turn around right now and report what I’ve implied to any Duo Li asshole you like and leave this city with fat purses and fast friends, all past misunderstandings forgotten, I have no doubt, even as I find a collar around my neck as the city falls, the prince is removed, and a new power claims the throne.”
Even as Alex said the words, he felt his cheeks flushing with his own foolishness.
Really, he should have said nothing at all.
Nili, now acting nothing like an over-exuberant isekai fox girl at all, gave a cold shake of her head. “Come, Your Grace. I believe we are best off counting our blessings and leaving this boy’s doomed tale while we still can.”
Alex lurched, feeling a cold chill clawing at his guts with those words. He forced himself to face the knowing gaze of a kitsune who clearly was no fool. “You’re not even trying to pretend you don’t know.”
She flashed him a bittersweet smile. “You do know why a third of YanTu nation is a desert, don’t you?”
Alex froze, staring at her with speechless disbelief. His pounding heart roared in his ears.
“A third of ZhengTu? It was just a city. Just a single bloody city!” He trembled, filled with sudden horror.
Nili gave him a strange look. “YanTu nation. Not ZhengTu. Do you even know where you are?”