Alex was so shaken with dismay that Nili's words barely registered. “It was just a city. A city I saved! How? What happened here?”
The kitsune's gaze was one of genuine pity. “You truly have no clue, do you? You poor, poor lost boy.” She sighed, shaking her head, turning back to her mistress, her words shifting in tone and inflection, Alex only then realizing that they had been speaking in an ancient tongue different from the language filled with rolling R’s and W’s that was the common tongue of Liushi and quite similar to the high tongue of YanTu, at least compared however many years ago it had been since he had last spoken it.
The words Nili urgently shared with Sunlay and the others washed over him, Alex desperately trying to process what the kitsune had implied, if not actually said.
Was he truly responsible for turning a third of the nation into a desert? Had ZhengTu ultimately been consumed by the Red Prince?
He shook his head, gazing at his own trembling fist, momentarily overwhelmed by horror as the potency of countless millions continued to spin with ever greater speed about the swirling void impossibly far away as he grew ever closer to mastering his deadliest arts, and himself.
His ears rang with both the horror of what he might have done, and the dissonant screams of an accretion disk howling around the singularity of his own soul from which there was no escape. Not for himself, or all the pitiable souls he had somehow consumed.
He trembled, crashing to the ground even as he could feel a terrible power growing inside him, a dozen deadly epiphanies just a few life and death battles away from blossoming along paths he increasingly feared to tread.
“Alex...” Linnea’s silent plea pulled Alex free of his deadly dismay. Her smile was filled with understanding, sympathy, and fierce hope for the future. Saying so much as she clasped his hands. “We can do nothing for past regrets, or pasts lives that are no more real to us than ancient history texts. All we can do is learn from the triumphs and mistakes of our ancestors. Even if those ancestors are our own previous incarnations, as we forge a present and future that we can all be proud of. And what could be more noble than coming to the rescue of a city being stripped of all water in high summer?”
Alex trembled with the weight of words he had never expected to hear from anyone else as Sunlay gave an unexpected glare Nili’s way, before meeting Alex’s gaze once more and surprising them all with a curt nod.
“Alright. I agree to your cultivator’s oath. So long as my life or those of my friends aren’t on the line, your secrets will be safe with me, only to be discussed amongst ourselves.” She then flashed her most winning smile. “Now please, show us what you can do. Because as is becoming increasingly clear, time is one thing that’s in short supply, and Nili’s made it clear that even standing a mere dozen yards from the entrance is exposing us to increasing corruption.”
Alex swallowed, taking a long moment to gather his thoughts and steady himself before giving a solemn nod. He inhaled deeply before exhaling all hesitation and regret for a past he could never hope to change.
Expelling it all free of his body and soul.
Because in the end, he could only control the present. Save as many lives as he could and forge as many happy endings as possible in the present moment as they forever raced to the future. The past, bitter and tragic as it so often seemed to be, could only serve as a compass pointing to a better future.
Or so he hoped.
“A third of a nation? How many lives did I take? How much of a monster am I?”
He desperately shook away those horrific thoughts as he clasped Sunlay’s hand and offered her a party invite.
The bottom line was that he could do absolutely nothing to change what had come before. No matter how badly he excoriated himself. But if he manned up and did what needed doing, then maybe he could help save a city of half a million souls that had, for the most part, treated him with a degree of warmth and welcome he had never experienced before.
You have offered party invites to… Princess Sunlay. The hidden princess of Wanshi city! / Nili, the JiangHu head of Wanshi city and devoted friend of the Sunlay Clan. / Quing Da, the sworn bodyguard of Princess Sunlay / Zichen, Fire wujen and second cousin to Princess Sunlay / Elden, Metal wujen and second cousin to Princess Sunlay.
All party members have accepted! Full third-party autonomy maintaned! All sub-nodes will be aware of all other sub-nodes and master node at all times!
Sunlay’s eyes widened with awe. “I sense where you all are. This tactical interface is incredible!” She said, even as Quing Da stumbled, rubbing his temples.
“Too much,” he muttered.
The pair of wujen, if anything, were looking even worse off than he.
“Don’t worry, you get used to it pretty quick!” Linnea cheerfully informed them, before turning to Alex with an excited smile. “Now do it, Alex! Wick all their waste Qi away!”
Alex winced as Linnea’s words carried a bit too well, but fortunately no one else was anywhere near a rift now radiating such chaotic energy. Energy which soon filled Alex with a fierce sense of vitality and well-being as his bones greedily drank in the whirlwind of Dark Qi, and Alex felt increasingly certain that he could channel the potency into shields of Water, Wind, and hopefully offensive applications as well. With nine souls now tied to his own, the stream of sweet dark potency approached that of squeezing tight a pearl of glossy Dark Qi.
He took a deep breath, feeling almost guilty with how damn good it felt to feel so vibrant and alive, drinking so deeply from peril’s crimson chalice and the potency of his kills. No matter that he was still haunted by Nili’s offhand comments, words that implied tragedies of unimaginable depth and scope, and the dreadful certainty that somehow the fault lay upon the shoulders off himself and his ultimate master, the god of Chaos and Change.
Alex closed his eyes and leaned his head back, allowing the morning sun to dry his bitter tears.
He ignored the looks of discomfort this earned, even as Ya Ling’s hand gently squeezed his own.
“It’s alright, Alex.”
Alex cracked a bitter smile. “Is it? I killed nine people in less than an hour’s time. And I’m as cool as a fucking cucumber, which I’m sure makes no sense to you.” He swallowed the lump in his throat, gazing at his own two hands, fangtian ji secure in his storage ring once more, no longer caring who among their group knew the absolute least of his secrets. “I’m on the cusp of a breakthrough, remembering so many bittersweet lessons I had thought, maybe, this time around...”
He shook his head, before turning to force a bright smile on his features, gazing at five pairs of eyes that were peering his way with various degrees of apprehension and uncertainty.
Looks of vague discomfort, that soon became looks of wonder, when Alex, with a hesitant nod from Sunlay, gently touched the bare skin of her neck.
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“Sunlay!” Nili gave an anxious cry when the noblewoman paled and stumbled to one knee.
But just as Nili’s killing aura flared and Alex sensed death in too quick hands that were definitely at deepest Bronze, an awed-looking Sunlay raised her fist.
“Stop, Nili. It’s alright!”
Nili froze as Sunlay’s trembling fingers caressed Alex’s brow in awe. “It’s more than alright. Far more!”
Neither Quing Da nor her wujen looked reassured. “My lady, what happened?”
Sunlay swallowed, turning around to boldly meet the gazes of her awed companions. Her cheeks now glowed with unmistakable Vitality. The formerly elegant features of a Mid Bronze who looked an ageless thirty were now the unlined exquisite features of a woman savoring womanhood’s first blush, barely past twenty.
Zichen paled, eyes wide with disbelief. “No, that’s impossible! To wick away so much waste Qi as to set back a clock that can only be slowed? It cannot be done!”
“And yet it has,” her male counterpart declared with an awed whisper.
Zichen, who was so clearly holding on to whatever scraps of Vitality she could, looking like a woman desperate to hold on to forty and losing the battle, now gazed at Alex with desperate eyes. “Is it true? Can you truly...”
Alex flashed an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, but the deeper your foundation, the further you’ve advanced, the less I can do to wick away waste Qi that’s not already embedded in your foundation without any balance or harmony. But that doesn’t mean I can do nothing,” he quickly added, sensing her dismay as he held out a hand that she eagerly clasped.
Alex met Sunlay’s gaze as Zichen trembled, revealing a vulnerability Alex sensed she would never normally show, desperation alone compelling her. “This might take a few minutes,” he softly warned.
“Take all the time you need, hero,” assured a positively beaming Sunlay, who was gaze gazing with a beatific smile at the reflection showing from the silver hand mirror her smirking kitsune assistant had handed her.
Alex nodded, doing just that, refusing to rush a few precious minutes that meant so much to the woman who had sacrificed so much in her desperate pursuit of ascension, pained by bitter regrets that the power and prestige she had earned could allay only somewhat. Only to tremble with wonder of her own as ancient deposits of plaque, waste, and regret washed themselves free of ancient, newly regenerated flesh as waste so akin to a Basic breakthrough’s ascension briefly filled the air before being absorbed by the grimly smiling Ruidian as a stooped Zichen seemed to blossom and fill out before their eyes. And where a bitter woman who appeared to be in her late forties had stood, there was now a vibrant lady who didn’t look a day past her prime. A graceful, elegant cultivating beauty of perhaps thirty summers who was now openly sobbing as she clasped Sunlay in a fierce hug, the minute a beaming Sunlay showed her her reflection.
“Your grace, forgive me… this is the greatest gift I could have ever...”
“It’s alright,” Sunlay said, with a teary sparkle in her eye. “I feel the same.”
Alex winked at the kitsune. “You already look fantastic, but as long as you’re here...”
Her knowing smile froze him where he stood, before gentle throaty laughter thawed him with her warmth once more. “Please, hero. Give me a gift that I know will please my husband to no end.”
Alex chuckled, gently clasping her warm hand and closing his eyes, taking nothing for granted as he gently coaxed what he thought of as the equivalent of arterial plaque from both meridian channels and vasculature as well, giving hints to just how old the beautiful looking kitsune before him truly was, even as he coaxed free the buildup of waste Qi in cells that seemed far more adaptable than most, and probably explained why she looked as good as she did.
“And now you look about eighteen,” Ya Ling noted with a wry smile, minutes later.
The kitsune winked. “And I have absolutely no problem with that.” Her teasing demeanor turned serious as she solemnly bowed before Alex. “This lowly fox thanks you, hero, and bids you to have a care. You’re already revealing far more than is good for you, no matter how well my ultimate ancestor seeks to cloak you in artifice or time.”
Alex felt his cheeks blaze under the kitsune woman’s probing gaze.
Now there could be no doubt that even if most everyone else save for his gestalt was still clueless… she most certainly was not.
Alex bowed his head. “I will do my best, Nili. That’s all I can do.”
“I know,” she said sympathetically, before turning to the pair of men gazing at Alex with barely concealed hope that soon turned to grateful chuckles and fierce grins when Alex did for them what he had done for the others, pleased with the message he himself received.
Dark Qi Absorption is now Rank 5
You have given five additional cultivators the boon of youthful appearance and longevity! You have gained significant positive karma for your deeds. All your party members now feel as close to you as kin and the cords of fate could easily flow into patterns of love and devotion with multiple potential partners! Note. Karma transcends any single incarnation. You now have nine additional souls that will find themselves warmly disposed to you in countless lives to come!
Congratulations! Prismatic Fox Restoration Technique is now Rank 7.
Synergism with Dark Qi Absorption is now in effect.
Ancient memories past and present have blended to grant you mastery over the arts of rejuvenation!
You may now wick away the waste Qi of any compatible mortal or cultivator, permanently rejuvenating their physiological clock by skill check + 10 years! Note, reduced efficacy with repeated use (save for Ruidians, who are particularly amenable to this art) – rate of aging after cellular restoration is dependent upon targets cultivation foundation.
The wujen known as Anjen bowed solemnly before Alex. “Thank you for your kindness. You have granted me an incredible boon. My name is Anjen, and you may call upon me any time you need a favor, a friend, or simply a place to stay.”
Quing Da gave Alex a hearty chuckle and a firm clap of his shoulder. “I will say the same, boy! So long as it doesn’t interfere in my duties to Sunlay, I should be honored to assist you however I may, should the desert sands blow us of all together once more.”
Alex swallowed, surprised by how choked-up he felt by the sudden burst of warmth and affection, and the kind words from so many who had viewed him with frank suspicion, such a short time ago. But he was most shaken by the interface message he had gotten regarding karma, wondering why he hadn’t received any messages about all the others he had assisted since waking up to his fresh new life… not to mention all the rot he had so ruthlessly purged.
Yet it only took a moment’s insight to realize that those messages, both the soothing and the bitter, were there. It was more a case of him having muted down interface messages that almost seemed a taunt with his Cleaved Fate’s card… having forgotten, it seemed, that during this precious life he was free of that card’s burden, for better or worse.
Here and now, he was once more very much a part of this precious desert world and the people he was even now desperate to save.
Alex cleared his throat, catching so many ebullient gazes. “Assuming you all are still up for it, if we’re going to dare the rift… it has to be now.” He flashed a cheeky smile. “Either that, or we all leave this doomed city in tandem, along with a couple additional friends, just to make sure we survive whatever intrigue, ambush, or folly might meet us between here and your own home city, which I would very much like to experience since it isn’t here!”
This earned more than a few chuckles.
“No way we’re fleeing with our tails between our legs now,” Sunlay declared, summoning forth a spear glinting with the essence of sharpness. “Not when I feel younger and more vibrant than I have in well over a decade. Not since my very prime! Only with the experience of one who’s embraced Bronze for over twenty years.” She gave a hard nod, glaring at the rift entrance that was somehow both inky dark and dazzling with a myriad gently flickering stars that perhaps could have just been the glitter of water spray and morning light.
She turned to her companions, including even the Ruidians with her infectious smile. “Are we all ready?”
As one, they nodded.
“Good. Then Nili will scout ahead and position herself for ambushes, should we not be swamped the very moment we enter. Alex, Quing Da, and myself, will form the bulwark of our team while Ruidian and Wujen arts obliterate our foes from the rear. Any questions?”
Alex grinned, nodding his approval. “Sounds good to me,” he said, everyone else echoing similar sentiment. Delaying no longer, they linked arms and approached the rift, reaching out their hands to enter as one.