Te Chang gazed upon the fallen lord in stunned disbelief. “Alex, what have you done?”
Alex’s ruthless grin didn’t budge an iota as he solemnly bent down to pick up a piece of flat sandstone by his feet. “Oh my. A rock. I guess I slipped. How tragically unexpected and sad.”
Te Chang’s eyes bulged in outrage. “You stupid fool! Do you even realize what you’ve—“
His words cut off when his wife desperately squeezed his hand. “It was out of our control, husband. Do you understand? The wild acts of a foolish Ruidian boy who was never made to take any Cultivator’s Oath at all… utterly unpredictable. Topography hidden by wild desert storms. Such things are utterly beyond our ability to fathom or understand. Do you not agree, husband?”
Te Chang blinked, exchanging awed looks that slowly became fierce grins with everyone else present. “I do believe you’re right, my wife. Absolutely none of us could have predicted that an aspirant cultivator would be so utterly foolish as to slip on a rock and accidentally decapitate a noble prisoner in front of a score of witnesses!”
The soldiers suddenly broke out in nervous laughter. “My foundation… I feel fine!”
The Captain gave a relieved chuckle of agreement, gently squeezing the shoulders of a few dismayed-looking soldiers. “As well you should! Lord Duo Li’s passing had absolutely nothing to do with any of us! We couldn’t have stopped a wild swing or… someone tripping over a stone, any more than I could have saved him from those walkers a certain hero actually managed to bring down. Saving all our lives. Including a certain scheming power-hungry lord’s. Wouldn’t you lads agree?”
Captain Goizing’s smile hardened, glaring at his troops, who all quickly nodded in unison. “In fact, for all we know, that fallen fool wasn’t the just and honorable Duo Li at all!”
Alex grinned, dipping his head in agreement. “No doubt it was a foreign agent trying to besmirch the Duo Li name and sow dissension within our ranks.” He gave Linnea a knowing look. “And considering how badly his body was burned when we confronted the enemy agents and thwarted their schemes…”
Linnea blinked in confusion before Ya Ling gently squeezed her hand. “It means you should fry that asshole to a crisp.”
Linnea positively beamed. “With pleasure. That bastard! I mean… enemy city agent? Wanted to kill me! I just acted in self-defense!” She declared, wild eyes dancing with flame as she unleashed a torrent of fire that absolutely obliterated the lord’s remains, though not before Alex had stripped him bare.
Captain Goizing gave a satisfied grin. “Well done. And best we protect the honor of the Duo Li clan by putting this entire band of impostors to the torch and letting the desert winds scatter their ashes.”
Everyone nodded their relieved agreement, and if Linnea’s triumphant chuckle had turned to a mad cackleas she set the corpses ablaze in a magnificent pyre, no one bothered to comment upon it, only sigh with relief when all that was left were melted lumps of bronze, a few warped steel spear heads and swords, and piles of oily ash. All of which Ya Ling effortlessly consigned to the desert sands, the twinkle in her eyes making it clear that they would be hidden from even the most inquisitive explorers for a very, very long time.
Ya Ling collapsed with a sigh, gazing up at the star-filled nighttime sky with a bemused smile on her face. “I think this has been the longest night of my life.”
Alex gave her a sympathetic smile. “And it’s not over yet,” he said.
Her gaze turned solemn. “I know.”
“Our trials were all for this moment,” Sulia declared, her earlier relief replaced by tension once more. “We’ve faced unspeakable peril multiple times this evening, from both the living and the dead. Yet so long as we can accomplish this final task and restore this waterfall upon which our city depends...”
“All our hardships will have been worth it, and all misunderstandings will most certainly be forgiven,” Te Chang declared solemnly, gazing up at the magnificent display of sigils and runes completely covering a good chunk of the smoothly polished cliff face before them.
“It’s time,” Sulia whispered.
Her husband nodded, solemnly approaching the cliff face with the ice chip Alex had first handed him, just in case the guard weren’t as upright as they had thankfully proven themselves to be.
Alex, along with most of the cultivators beside him, gazed on with awe when the silvery sigils began to glow with a gentle luminescence as the powerfully built cultivator solemnly approached the carving of a pedestal in the center of a scene depicting dozens of figures kneeling before a waterfall.
The closer Te Chang got, the more the image seemed to waver and the more sharply defined the pedestal became, quickly transforming from basalt bas relief to a massive pedestal of pristine white jade.
It was a sight that filled Alex with awe, only noticing at the last night that, for all his sangfroid and control, even Te Chang was paying a cost in exhaustion and stress, forgetting his own deception. In fact, he was completely oblivious to Alex’s presence until he desperately grabbed the man’s hand just a second before he could push the icy fragment through what now looked to be a wavering reflection of the pedestal.
Eyes tight with surprise and barely suppressed killing intent glared into Alex’s own.
“Is here where you will betray us all?”
Alex blinked in surprise, before realizing that he was still covered in blood, and had shown his companions a side of himself that was far more ruthless, and savage, than he had intended to that night.
If he were to unveil himself as a double agent reveling in slaughter on all fronts… he sadly doubted that anyone would be surprised at all.
“Are you forgetting?” Alex gently asked with a smile. “That ice chip’s the bluff. The prize we can afford to lose to our foes. Why not instead use the ice core that might assure our city had fresh clean water for how many years?”
Te Chang’s eyes widened, before he chuckled ruefully. “For decades, Alex. And that ice chip, imperfect and flawed as it is, would be lucky to last a week.” He gave a rueful shake of his head. “If only we actually had whatever ancient core it originated from, we’d never need to worry about water again. And for both of these prizes, you have my eternal thanks.
With a solemn bow that earned a hiss from his wife, showing such deference to one who was the rank of failed student and no more, was utterly beyond the pale, Alex had no doubt. Though when he turned to smile she flinched and stepped back, which Alex wasn’t expecting. Then again, he had moved and struck as a Silver forged in the crucible of peril. The farthest thing from a stumbling basic or newly forged Bronze.
Te Chang chuckled softly before moving in a flash that sent shivers down Alex’s spine, as if to underscore just how much he was still underestimating the cultivators around him. Speed that could have just as easily have been a knife through his own throat. Yet Senior Cultivator Te Chang’s prize was the farthest thing from an instrument of death. Instead he held so tenderly a precious treasure in the form of a core as big as a plumb. A prize so rich and blue that in gentler times, Alex could lose himself for hours staring into its depths and trying to puzzle out its secrets. It was a magnificent wonder that earned gasps from all who saw it.
“That’s no sliver of a shattered ice core,” Captain Goizing said with unmistakable reverence, before turning around, glaring at his men. “About face, soldiers, eyes all around! If there was ever a time for our enemies to strike...”
Those words were an abrupt wake-up call to all of them. If enemy seers or sages were about, casting their senses to the desert winds, looking for impossibly rich prizes or cracks in the foundation of Liushi… now would be the perfect time to strike.
Alex winced before the feeling of sudden terrible weight upon his soul, dismayed to find that he wasn’t the only one feeling it.
“Husband!” Sulia desperately gasped. And Alex’s eyes widened with horror to sense the formation of a rift just a short distance away… and a deadly pressure slowly growing that could only be Gold.
Qi Perception check modified by previous skill mastery: Critical Success!
For just a heartbeat, he could sense it… the inconceivably complex weaving of Earth, Water, and Spirit Qi being used to create a gate between two distant points in space.
Enemies were amassed in terrifying numbers… countless miles away.
The air suddenly tasted of a Gold-tier Wujen’s killing fury.
And Alex was still just a dreaming remnant of the mighty hero he once had been.
Then, in a flash of blinding silvery light and the peels of golden bells, a gentle wave of spiritual energy washed over them that left Alex feeling as refreshed and clean as if he had just emerged from the depths of a pristine blue lake.
Between one moment and the next, the light was gone, the caress of Water had receded, and they were all back in the desert sands once more.
“Prepare yourselves!” Captain Goizing cried in a ragged voice the moment his vision cleared, no doubt having sensed the peril as well as Alex.
But the feeling of furious spiritual pressure had receded. If any hostile presence had been spying on them or readying an ambush, it was gone.
And Alex had to do was turn around to understood why.
The priceless Water Core was now affixed to an exquisitely carved white jade pillar, glowing with a gentle radiance that left Alex breathless as the entire cliff face began to pulse with a soothing sapphire glow. He didn’t even need Qi Perception to sense the gentle shield of spiritual energies now pulsating through the entire interconnected masterwork. And when Te Chang gave a satisfied nod, wiping his hands and declaring with no small amount of pride that an entire army could strike at the cliff face for a century without damaging a single sigil or glyph… Alex believed him.
Even from where he stood, he could sense the entire weight of the inconceivably massive caldera somehow giving added potency and resilience to the glyphs and sigils both empowering the ritual and securing the core.
Alex’s heart heart skipped a beat as he dared meet Te Chang’s eyes.
Knowing all too well how close they had all come to peril just then.
If whatever that was had actually broken through…
But still, for the sake of an entire city, Alex was willing to dare peril’s kiss one more time.
And he’d be the farthest thing from a wise fool if he didn’t at least make sure it wouldn’t all be in vain.
That of course was the moment that Sulia spoke, haunted eyes boring holes in Alex’s back.
“I think it’s time you told us where you found that sliver of ice… hero.”
Alex braved the chill winds of her regard. “In the Southern rift, Lady Sulia.”
He allowed the weight of their regard to press upon him before speaking further. “Upon the corpse of a massive worm that must have been at least a hundred meters long, lying deathly still upon the desert sands.”
His words earned surprised hisses and gasps from all those present, Sulia’s expression suddenly wide with alarm. “No, it cannot be. Those things haven’t been sighted for centuries!”
The captain blanched. “If such a thing escaped the rift...” He gave a tired shake of his head.
“What, Captain?” Whispered an anxious-looking guard before being cowed to silence by the glares of his seniors.”
The captain flashed a bitter smile. “Then such an abomination would obliterate the entire city and poison the entire caldera, devouring everyone and anything not fast enough to evade it’s awful maws. The survivors will die of thirst in the desert, with not chance of gathering supplies, and the final the remnants of our city lost to the desert sands. Our home would then become its nest, and a scourge would soon be unleashed upon the desert kingdoms that we are ill-prepared to face.” He shrugged. “Or such is the accounts we have regarding the fate of at least one other city in the last five hundred years, and the desperate efforts taken when it and its brood sought to spread. And for all that humanity emerged victorious, it was at the cost of the very few Gold champions that called the desert sands their home… and not a single Gold has ascended in all the years since.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Save for the Gold now trying to claim our city!” Ya Ling hissed.
Sulia flinched, face growing ever more pale with every word the captain spoke. For all that her eyes made it clear that she knew it all at least as well as he, Alex was sure it had never felt so real as it did this night, after all the trials and tribulations they had faced, all of them having seen just how fragile their lives were… how perilous existence was upon the warm desert sands.
“Tell me true, children! This is vitally important!” And the way she pinned Ya Ling’s flinching gaze made it clear that she knew they had both been involved, and didn’t bother hiding her knowledge in this, their most perilous hour. “Did either of you see any other signs of Emperor Worms? Please, children. This is vitally important. Our city’s fate depends upon it!”
Ya Ling opened her mouth.
Alex smoothly clasped her hand and gently squeezed.
His actions were lost on no one, though he did naught but smile as he met their gazes. “We did indeed sense a monster beyond even an Emperor worm… but the minute my kung fu sister tore those Dark Qi stones free of our enemy’s foul configuration, the strange warping and stretching of reality seemed to snap into place, and we sensed no further sign of that abomination. And we saw no traces of living worms larger than the far smaller sand worms by the time we darted back through that portal.”
Ya Ling stiffened at Alex’s words, before smiling and quickly nodding her head, earning furrowed brows from Te Chang and Sulia both, having clearly sensed something… but Ya Ling was utterly sincere when she said, “All that is true and correct, honored cultivators. Breaking that formation stopped the sand’s dreadful trembles, and by the time we left, we had gathered over twenty sand worm beast cores… and Alex had managed to claim several Ice fragments from the dead monstrosity that was there when we left.”
Of course the Silvers among them were no fools. Dui Zhong and Instructor Ren both giving them pointed looks. But before they could speak further, Alex forced himself to speak… no matter the glorious prize it would cost him, or the perils his daring might inspire.
Though his throat was surprisingly dry when he asked… “The shattered fragments of an ice core that I retrieved… you said it be enough to restore the final waterfall for at least a few weeks, yes? Is there any way we could fuse several such fragments together at once?”
Te Chang exchanged a look with his wife, who gave a sad shake of her head. “Unfortunately not, Alex. No matter how incredibly priceless or massive the original core might have been, a core that might have been so close to perfection as to last our humble caldera a thousand years, a mere brittle fragment so skewed from perfection cannot be repaired, and would only last a few short weeks before dissolving to nothing.”
Alex flashed a relieved smile. “A couple of weeks is a heck of a lot better than nothing, right? So who’s up for daring the ritual one more time!?”
The tightness of Sulia’s gaze as she forced a nod made it clear just how strained she felt.
The captain of the guard, however, frowned. “For us to leave our posts any longer on this night of all nights, with our foes attempting a coup and undead prowling the desert sands… and it won’t be any quick jaunt, either. We need to travel a full quarter of the city’s diameter to get there. Farther, as we’re past the caldera rim, treading upon the desert sands.”
“And yet we must,” Te Chang said, flashing a tired smile. “Whether a few weeks or a dozen years, what matters is that the water flows before the counsel is forced to vote. If we can manage to get all four rivers flowing at peak strength once more...”
“The prince will be safe, and so will we,” Instructor Rah finished, before flashing a cynical smile. “Or so we can only hope.”
Linnea nodded in heartfelt agreement. “I can’t tell you all how sleepy I’m feeling, but it hardly matters! Because if our enemies manage to put both prince and counsel under their thumb… then there’s hardly any point in my kind returning to the city at all.”
“And we’ll be lucky if their new puppet head doesn’t make a point of trying to purge our clans altogether,” Lieberman said, voice laden with dread he couldn’t quite hide with his stoic demeanor.
Te Chang’s gaze softened. “No matter what else happens, we won’t let things come to that,” he assured, with a gentle clap on the man’s shoulder. “Cynical and ruthless as driven cultivators often are, an equal number are as warm and compassionate as the morning breeze, and all of us know what group has done more for our city’s water supply than any other. Even if Duo Li’s corrupt clan manages to enact their darkest schemes, with so many familial heads already fallen to our blades, not even they can force my colleagues and former students into committing acts of genocide.”
He turned to his wife, sharing a nod. “There are other cities scattered across the desert sands. I have no doubt that any number of them could use a few dozen or a few score talented cultivators and a Ruidian clan or two that knows what it means to work hard for the benefit of the collective.”
Lieberman swallowed, before bowing his head. “I always knew you were an honorable sort, Senior Cultivator Te Clan. My clan was right to delve under your patronage.”
Te Chang flashed a genuine smile. “It pleases me to hear you say that, Lieberman. Certainly you have proven your worth and your clan’s honor many time over this night, already.” He furrowed his brow, gazing off into the distance. “Yet it is my sincere hope that you and your kin will have no need to do so, ever again.”
Hanz chuckled softly. “Assuming no further night stalker, assassin, or Duo Li flunky tries to kill us, I hope so as well.”
Ya Ling flashed an encouraging smile. “I think you all should trust your feet. You might find it easier to stride the night time sands than you had all thought.”
This earned her a number of frowns and curious looks before people noticed just how steady their feet were upon rigid sand that gave no more than a dirt trail, their stride now nearly that enjoyed while walking the boulevards along the city proper.
“What a blessing this is!” The captain commended, his tight features loosening with a relieved smile. “This should cut the time it takes us to reach the northern face into just a fraction of what it would otherwise be.”
“And best of all, no walkers,” Instructor Rah commended, now using his spear like a walking staff as half the guard did their polearms as they continued along their way.
Alex felt the slightest tingle of alarm, fearing his acquaintance had set off red flags of one sort or another, but even his eagle eyes spotted nothing but cool desert sands, a brilliant starry nighttime sky, and the steep, almost overbearing ledge face of the caldera to their right. As far as revenant walkers, corrupt soldiers, or ambushing assassins went, he saw neither hide nor hair.
Yet still, he knew he’d be a fool to lower his guard. Even if his senses could detect nothing but the mournful desert breeze and the near certainty that they weren’t entirely alone. Yet their pace was quick with the sand so firm beneath their feet, Alex sending a grateful smile Ya Ling’s way.
“How are you feeling?”
She flinched for only a heartbeat, before giving him a heartfelt smile. “Still awed by the sight of the caldera accepting our gift.” Her gentle gaze then hardened, eyes turning flinty as her voice dropped to the softest of whispers the others were graceful enough to pretend not to hear. “And I can’t tell you how good it felt, to see that bastard die by your...”
Quicker than she could blink, his powerful hand gently touched her soft lips.
Beautiful brown eyes caught his own.
He winked.
“To a tragic accident. A pretender daring to disguise himself as a just and honorable water clan member who got exactly what he deserved... thanks to folly of his own making.”
Ya Ling blinked, before matching his Cheshire grin with her own. “Exactly.”
Alex gave her hand a gentle squeeze before picking up his pace, intent eyes scouting the lonely desert sands as far as he could see. Yet there was nothing. Nothing save the glorious panoply of stares blazing overhead and the ocher windswept sands. Of undead abominations or hidden assassins… he saw no trace at all.
Which did nothing to ease the tension in his gut when Te Chang cleared his throat, immediately gathering Alex’s attention. His eyes went from the politely smiling man to the magnificent display softly glowing silver runes overhead. He took an awed breath and couldn’t wipe the silly grin from his face. Glorying in the majestic perfection that was near identical to those on the far cliff face. Even the bas relief carvings were near perfect copies of one another.
“Are you ready, Alex?”
Alex smiled, dipping his head and embracing gestalt with his Ruidian friends, even as the others looked his way curiously.
“Ready how?” asked the guard captain in a concerned whisper.
“He means enter communion with his Ruidian friends,” Ya Ling whispered back. “It allows them to fight more effectively. As a cohesive unit.” She quirked an eyebrow. “As you no doubt saw earlier.”
“Well of course,” The captain said, flustered expression immediately turning to professional focus. “Ready yourselves, men! If our enemies were to attempt any last second interference…
“It would be here and now,” Dui Zhong noted, glaring out in the darkness as he held his guandao in an experienced grip.
Te Chang, delaying only enough to share a smile and nod with his wife, solemnly approached the mother-of-pearl alcove that began to visibly glow as he held his tiny sliver of an ice core high… before he was sent stumbling back with a cry.
“Husband!”
Sulia’s alarm was mirrored in all their faces… yet no enemies had emerged. The alcove and the bas relief carvings surrounding it remained utterly undisturbed.
The strained hush was broken by Te Chang’s rueful chuckle. “Ah, what fools we are, to think we can outsmart the Jade tier makers who brought our cities salvation in the first place!”
“Husband?”
The man sighed and shook his head. “As if a masterwork artifact a half-step from a divine creation would be fooled by a cheap fragment of a core. Of course it was rejected,” he said, gazing sadly at the pile of frost salts now in his hand. “I suppose I should be thankful it didn’t suck me dry of all cultivation and life-force for my daring.”
Sulia blanched, before peering at the alcove with an odd mix of both wonder and fear. “Perhaps this is for the best, husband.” She squeezed him tight, smiling as if trying to put the best spin on things. “Can you believe the reactions of any delvers if all they achieved for their daring were the smallest of cracked beast cores and herbs so weak that the treasures in the basin would be of greater spiritual potency? That alone would imperil our reputation. Worse, the delve would contain water cores no better than the shattered fragment in your hand.”
Te Chang sighed, bowing his head in deference to his wife’s point even as Alex’s heart raced, stunned by the words he had heard.
“Wait… wait, wait, wait! Are you saying that the quality of the beast cores within depends upon the quality of the core we instill in these alcoves, here and now?” Alex’s urgent words earned displeased hisses from the men behind him, and glares from both Sulia and Te Chang.
“Know your place, disciple,” Sulia said in a huff, Alex so lost in his racing train of thought that he barely registered the significance of her words. “But yes, that would be correct.”
Alex shook his head, stunned by the revelation to the point that he actually began to laugh. “Oh this is too much. And here I thought… but all the care and exquisite attention to detail, crafting treasures that would surely doom whoever forged them! Such a sacrifice just for the sake of destruction made no sense. Who in their right minds would give up so much of themselves just for bitter satisfaction? But what if the point wasn’t destruction… but salvation?”
Alex ignored the increasingly irate looks most were giving him, lips stretching wide in a fierce grin. “Now, it all makes sense! Destroying our city was the first step. Reforging it in their image was the second! Where those who took a knee and surrendered their freedoms would find salvation, and all others would be forced to eat bitter salt and die.” He gave a rueful shake of his head. “In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if those Duo Li idiots didn’t even understand the original intent of these double edged prizes… and were using it only to weaken the caldera and force city-wide dependence on them alone! Because their seers might have predicted a Water core to one day emerge from the North, but how could it, with no core installed at all? Clearly those arrogant fools are being played just as much as they think they’re playing us.”
He shook his head in wry bemusement, paying no mind at all to the increasingly intent stares he was receiving, everyone’s countenance a mixture of varying degrees of alarm, displeasure, and concern.
Yet it was Ya Ling alone who dared to interrupt him. “Alex, just what the hell are you talking...”
Her voice broke out in an awed gasp, as did the entirety of those who bore witness to that which he suddenly revealed.
“A miracle. A bloody final hour miracle!” Dui Zhong cried triumphantly.
The captain and his men had fallen to one knee themselves, and looked a heartbeat from saluting him as Te Chang chuckled softly himself. “You never fail to amaze, disciple.”
Sulia was gazing at Alex’s prize with open-mouthed wonder. “Is that… by all the saints, that’s an intact Gold-tier beast core! Where? How?”
Alex winked. “Let’s just say there was more than one Titan worm in that rift. And we weren’t lying when we said that none remained by the time we left.”
“And you, a mere boy, killed it?” She asked incredulously.
Alex’s grin widened. “Does it matter, so long as the prize is in my hand?”
She swallowed, quickly shaking her head. “Not in the least,” she hastily assured. “Now if you would be so good as to hand it to my husband…” Her eyes widened in sudden alarm. “Hurry, we’re running out of time!”
But Alex felt it too. A sudden sharpness to the air. As if this sweet, halcyon moment of redemption was but the sweetest of serenades right before the shark discordant notes of malice, avarice, and fury, abruptly tainted the air.
Te Chang cursed. “Grey seers. Here!” He turned to Alex, a desperate look in his eyes. “Boy, we have no time! If you would save...”
But Alex had already tossed the priceless, baseball-sized glittering jewel into Te Chang’s trembling hands before darting off into the desert sands. The older cultivator wasted no time, immediately striding toward the pedestal once more as the entire cliff face began to take on a rich, golden glow.
“Husband, be careful!” Sulia cried, before flinching and stumbling under the sudden terrible pressure she felt bearing on her.
Now bearing upon them all.
Orders of magnitude above a Deep Silver’s ire, or the paltry toys of a defensive prize that might deflect a couple half-hearted blows.
This was the essence of a Titan’s might, a Ruler’s privilege, and wujens that could devastate entire armies with the deadliness of their prowess.
This was the killing weight pressing down upon all of them, earning awed curses and desperate cries.
“Move, husband! Now! It’s our only chance!”
Sulia’s desperate cry was abruptly cut off, when even she crumpled to the ground with a groan.
Qi Perception check: Success!
Willpower check successful! For what is a Gold-tier monster’s hate before one who has survived the roar of gods eager for his head?
Yet there was wonder even in the horror that came so close to freezing Alex where he stood, before sheer stubborn grit had him racing above the sands on wings of wind. An exquisite tapestry of sigils and runes of Earth, Water, and Spirit… and perhaps a seer’s mastery over fate as well. All of which abruptly revealed itself as a mesh-work of silver sigils pulsing to life right above the ochre sands as a trio of dark shadowy shapes flickered free of the portal so fast and covered in inky gloom that Alex could sense nothing save their killing intent.
His heart stuttered in terror, suddenly certain that if those flickers of shadow crossed the sands to his friends… not one of them would survive.