Author’s Warning: This chapter has graphic elements involving both abuse and Alex’s perception of righteous retribution. If that’s a bit too intense, then please skip this chapter!
“You here for the girl already? I’m afraid she won’t be much good for your regular customers. Not unless they like them toothless and well-tenderized,” sneered a cold-eyed soldier before flipping over an oddly decorated card upon a pile of copper coins. The other half-dozen men seated at their gaming table chortled coldly, all of them kitted in linen gambesons with dao at their hips, their sneers turning to icy glares and cold frowns when Alex calmly shut and sealed the door behind him.
Wind Ward successfully formed.
Barrier of Silence is now Rank 2(8)!
Alex cracked his neck, feeling the increasing tension and hot glares from the men who clearly cared nothing from the victim they had so cruelly broken. Only then did he allow himself to register the bruised and battered girl covered in blood underneath the soldier still rutting on the bed farthest from their gaming table.
“We’re allowed access to the girls all fucking night! So go tell your mistress to fuck off, you Ruidian mongrel. She’s lucky we even let you—”
Black Swan!
You have obliterated your target!
Sound grew tinny and faint, drowned out by the hot-blooded fury roaring through Alex’s skull as his fangtian ji tore through air. Or perhaps it was the howl of the storm crashing through him, flowing through his meridians and body much as it had, a lifetime ago.
He felt things shift within, his Dantian coming over closer to embracing an alignment so ideal for channeling the storm’s wrath as he became like the wind, weaving under a desperate thrust before blowing right through the closest living soldier. Or perhaps he was the crashing currents of the river, the entire chamber now awash in a sea of blood and gore.
All he knew was that haunted desolate eyes upon a face covered in blood could have been Hao Chan’s own, in the awful life her tormentors had so eagerly anticipated. Eyes that pinned and tormented him with their desperate intensity. A silent plea that might never be uttered. A voiceless cry that summoned the might of an ancient storm.
It was as much howling hurricane Winds as Water crashing through and obliterating all resistance, the stone walls themselves scored of all ornamentation under the furious Metal salts saturating the bitter tears of that storm. Blackened waters filled with Dark Qi and regret. Yet somehow, there was a bubble of tranquility in that storm of bitter retribution, a single girl’s shattered bed the only bubble of calm in that furious cauldron of rebuttal as every last soldier save one drowned in that bitter black sea… before slipping into far colder waters still, where the howls and screams of every last victim to fall to their blows would haunt them for centuries, if not eternity.
The only one left standing when the violent storm passed was a heaving Alex, drenched in the crimson aftermath of his fury, ankle deep in the spattered viscera of his foes.
The girl in the far bed trembled, gazing at him with an odd mix of awe and horror as System messages rang inside his head, even as he felt his Dantian finish settling comfortably and irrevocably back into the position that he had embraced so utterly a lifetime ago, now perfectly aligned to channeling the storm that was and had always been one with his soul.
Congratulations, you have had a breakthrough! Visions of the past and insights in the present have helped you unlock a Silver Tier Martial Art! This art embraces the flow of howling winds so drenched with Water and fury that they might as well be rivers of retribution, smashing through all your foes. Move with the grace of the swan as you weave and dart past all foes while forging a masterwork of retributive destruction!
You have Learned Storm Swan Kung Fu at Rank 1.
This art fully incorporates the elements of Wind and Water, and you sense it has the potential for SO MUCH MORE!
Each Rank of your art Adds to all applicable Silver-tier combat modifiers in martial contests against your foes!
Alex felt almost as if he were in a trance, for the first time in this lifetime feeling so viscerally the flow of joyful sparring and furious battle that had comprised so much of his adventures in the life he had lived before. Embracing the dance that had gained him a world and love of his own, and had cost him everything as well.
Yet even a lifetime away, so deeply had he imprinted Silver Swan upon his being, forging an art that had allowed his disciples and would-be wives to ascend the golden steps of ascension all the way to the first steps of divinity, that it had clearly left an imprint upon his soul as well.
Even if he only sensed a whisper of its potential, it was as if a damn had cracked, bringing water to a lifeless desert. Yet his own lessons and experiences of a literal lifetime ago had benefited from his most recent forging, his greater mastery over Wind as he learned to embrace the echo of that ancient pristine art and reforge it anew. This time echoing the howling weight of nature’s mightiest storms. Skies blackened with the weight of bitter rain, unleashing downpours so furious and violent that it might as well be drowning in the sea.
A sea so welcoming of lightning’s fury. A sea just a heartbeat away from incorporating the bitter Dark Qi saturated metallic salts of a thousand lifetime’s worth of tears… or perhaps just the salty tang of the sea itself as Air and Ocean became one, Wind and Water fused, and Alex’s art was reforged anew.
Yet it wasn’t entirely the art he had mastered at least once before, having evolved it organically, incorporating an entirely new element. An art demanding a flexibility that ancient ascended masters utterly rigid in their perfection couldn’t hope to understand.
It was a path that would allow him to embrace old masteries once again… and hopefully stay forever out of the bitter gazes of ancient, presently sleeping, foes.
Foes he was desperate to avoid at all costs.
At least until he could ascend so far and assure a victory so complete that they would never dare challenge him again.
He trembled with that furious thought that earned the memory of a rueful chuckle from a certain mischievously smiling inspector before fading to reverie once more… and Alex found himself ankle deep in gore, gazing upon a girl so shell shocked and damaged that his heart ached for the fragile soul eager to leap into the river she could just barely perceive as being all around them, and end it all. A river Alex refused even to look at, already sensing that he was going adrift, slipping ever further from the safe and happy shores of blissful anonymity a part of him was desperate to embrace for this one lifetime, at least.
Yet the hopeless tear-filled gaze of the girl shivering beside the groaning soldier still on the bed demanded that he embrace that hero’s mantle once more.
No matter how bitter and cold its burden eventually became.
“I’m dreaming, right? I’m dreaming, and this is the end? Please tell me this is the end?”
Words Alex barely heard through bloody lips, cracked jaw, and broken teeth.
Yet he still felt a desperate glimmer of hope, willing to embrace a path that made him so uncomfortable… appreciating all too well how it could lead to a life of monstrous tyranny. And with so many of the desert’s children of mixed decent…
“I’m going to touch your brow, and no more than that, alright? Please close your eyes.”
The girl trembled. “Please… the pain!”
Alex’s fingers touched her blood spattered hair.
Shivering when his cheerful interface rang with the messages he both dreaded and was relieved to hear.
Slave Node successfully accessed.
You have successfully formed a party with Ling Ri!
Warning! Multiple organs have been bruised. Internal bleeding detected!
The girl’s eyes bolted wide with horrified disbelief. “No, no, no, no!”
“Ling Ri?”
“Please! Make it stop! Make the pain stop!”
“Only you can make it stop, Ling. Do you see the man beside you?”
The girl trembled, eyes filled with an unexpected mixture of horror and fury. “He’s still alive! He has no arms or legs, but that bastard is still alive!”
Alex nodded, solemnly putting the soldier’s own blackened steel dagger in her terrified hands. “How would you like to be healed in full, with no memory of the horrors you suffered tonight? And, should you wish it, no memory of your life before whatever fateful choices had you walking the path that led you here.”
The girl trembled and sobbed. “I want to forget. I want to forget it all!”
Alex flashed a gentle smile, before his eyes turned hard and cold, glaring at the whimpering monster who lived only because Alex’s mastery over Water was potent enough that he refused to let the monster before him bleed out. No matter that the predator was now filled with agony and despair near the equal of his victim’s.
“Then thrust the dagger right there,” Alex said, gently placing the point of the blade upon the carotid artery of Dongfang Hong’s foot soldier. “And plunge. Do that and—”
She didn’t bother waiting for any further explanation, eyes going wild with fury as she snarled and plunged the blade deep into her foe’s neck. No matter that the man was a Rank 2 Bronze, his resilience brought him only a final handful of agonized seconds before he too joined his friends in bitter cold waters they would drown in for centuries.
Ling Ri trembled, stick thin arms dropping the dagger as haunted eyes gazed into Alex’s own. “Please, make me forget? Forget ever coming here,” she sobbed. “Please make me forget all of it!”
Alex swallowed, knowing that there was one question that still needed to be asked. “Do you have any children?”
The girl flushed, shaking her head. “No. I only had my uncle, but he perished as a guard on a caravan expedition. And then I was alone, and didn’t know what to do. And then…” She shrugged helplessly, fresh tears flowing from her eyes. “And then I ended up here.”
Alex nodded, gently touching her brow. “Then let’s reset the clock, Ling Ri. And give you a fresh start.”
Current party members have participated in shared experience point accrual. Collective party experience points may be freely exchanged.
You have authorized RESTORE TO SAVE STATE.
You have successfully directed claimed potency of Slave Node Ri74365.
Warning! Decreasing biological age beyond short term storage limitations WILL revert all cognitive experience gains to biological age chosen.
Warning acknowledged.
Party member has been RESET to biological age of 16.75 years.
Party member cognitive experience has been reset to 16.75 years.
Spirit Qi Skill check successful! You have successfully implanted revulsion to all previously imbibed narcotics!
It was several seconds before the girl in his arms jerked herself awake, gazing at him in puzzled confusion.
He couldn’t hide the relief in his smile.
The gaunt cheeks and dark circles under her eyes had transformed to the plump vitality of healthy youth. And the awful wounds, shattered teeth, and thousand yard stare of a girl who wished only for death… those traumas were gone as if they never had been.
His smile assuaged her fear, causing her to look curiously up at him and somehow ignore the blood and gore as they quickly made their way down the completely empty hallway, Alex’s air ward so powerful, and now incorporating Earth as well, that neither sound nor vibration from Alex’s slaughter had disturbed anyone in the adjoining chambers. Still, he walked at a fast clip back to the water cistern as the girl in his arms gave him a puzzled look.
“I know you, don’t I? You helped me… rescued me from something?”
For just a heartbeat, a flash of horror overcame her features, replaced by confusion just a second later.
“It’s alright,” Alex smiled reassuringly. “You were at a cantina, spilling your troubles to a nice-seeming gent who was anything but. He plied you with poppy infused wine and tried to talk you into going away with him, but one of the serving girls talked you out of it. She told you what the life he was trying to entice you with was really like. You swore off poppy-infused anything for life, and made a new friend as well as a possible work contact for a future job, now that you’re living on your own. Of course, that was when you and dozens of other girls were kidnapped. Fortunately a nice guy with a really big fangtian ji happened to be in the neighborhood, so we’re now sorting everything out.”
The girl gazed at him for long moments, a strained smile caught between wonder, disbelief, and fear. “Is that what really happened?”
Alex winked. “The beautiful thing about the past is that it can be whatever we need it to be. So long as we move forward. So long as we leave no loved ones behind.”
Ling Ri looked suddenly on the verge of tears. “My uncle… he’s all I had left, and now he’s gone!”
Alex gave a sympathetic nod. “I know. Let me introduce you to some new friends. You’ve all had a rough time of it, and together, I think you can all pull through.”
Alex hurried his pace to superhuman speed once he braced the girl who gasped against his chest, grateful that his attire was so resistant to battlefield spatter, the gore fading away like a summer mist seconds after the storm of conflict had passed. Then he was carefully slipping inside the vast cistern, the still shaken and confused girl in his arms inviting whispers and looks of surprise, confusion, and concern.
“Jinni?” Lini’s hopeful features immediately fell as she and the young cultivator approached, though her expression turned tender with concern a second later for the girl in Alex’s arms.
“Hero?” Li Li gave him and the girl a pointed look. Somehow, she knew not to say anything that would break the fragile peace Ling Ri’s psyche desperately clung to, the other girls already following the young cultivator’s lead.
Alex smiled. “Ling Ri’s another one of the captives that I was able to free in the nick of time.” His gentle smile turned intent with meaning. “She’s been through a nightmarish ordeal and has no family left at all. It would mean a lot to me if she could find friends who might know a place where she could work and start life anew.”
Li Li exchanged looks with a girl who’s discerning gaze and thoughtful frown reminded Alex so much of his merchant friend Yingpei Lin of a lifetime ago. She and Li Li shared an understanding nod that eased the bitter storm still howling in his heart.
“Good. I might be back later with more captives. Once I’m finished handling things, then we’ll head out and find your families.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Alex…”
He caught Lini’s worried gaze. “And I’ll keep a look out for your friend as well, Lini. I promise.”
He then turned around and headed back towards the exit, his exquisite Perception picking up their whispered comments as he left the cistern once more.
“Wait, what’s he doing? Why can’t we all leave together right now?”
Li Li’s gentle voice soothed the other girl’s panic. “Because he has to make sure they can’t follow us, or kidnap anyone else.”
“How’s he going to do that?”
“You’re not stupid, Sulia. I think you can figure it out.”
“But he’s just one man!”
Lini snorted. “You know who he is, right?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sulia… have you never read the Fox’s tales?”
“Of course I have. But those are fables! Everyone knows that the gods and their champions left the world when lush forests and fields became endless desert.”
“Tell him that.”
The whispers and murmurs from girls caught between hope and dread cut off with absolute finality when he placed his Wind ward across the once-more sealed door. They would hear anyone trying to get in, as would Alex, and be able to take steps, but no one would hear them from without.
Alex gazed at the near dozen reinforced doors lining the hallways that had been repurposed into an extensive barracks. He quickly considered the opportunity costs of slow and cautious versus fast and furious. Foolish as he might be when allowing his passions to get the best of him, he was still wise enough to know that he couldn’t expect a slow pace to work for very long. Sooner or later a slip would be made, guards would catch sight of him and alert both Nili and Chaoxiang. And If his kitsune friend was vulnerable, with her daughter effectively trapped here with nearly seventy other captives…
Alex frowned as he considered his next step while still trying to hold on to his near transcendent epiphany, his exquisite sense of the storm of Water, Wind, and bitter tears he was so close to understanding completely, so ready to embrace bitter retribution once more.
His hands tightly squeezed the hilt of his resummoned weapon as he slowly made his way to the next room, before changing direction and racing all out for the farmost door leading to Chaoxiang’s wing. Because the solution was obvious, once it finally clicked.
He didn’t need to prevent his targets from alerting anyone else. He just needed to keep them from alerting Chaoxiang.
Not until it was time to spring the trap in full.
And wash this entire underground base in crimson tides without end.
Skill check successful!
You have successfully placed a Barrier of Wind and Earth upon East Wing door.
You have successfully synergized Wind and Earth into one unified technique.
You have successfully incorporated Earth’s impermeability with Wind’s buffer!
Now neither voice nor vibration will alert your targets before it’s time.
Barrier of Silence is now Rank 3(9)!
Alex allowed himself a single fierce smile of satisfaction, all the more so because he could still hear the voices of Nili and presumably Chiaoxiang like a tiny echo inside his head, as he got back to work.
The pair laughing and chatting like old friends.
Alex placed his fingers upon the hardwood face of the next door.
He sensed the desperate screams within.
And with a single twist and click of the door, he was through.
Qi Perception check allows you to sense all the foes before you.
You are now one with the storm!
“Who the fuck are you?”
“That Ruidian fool dares to bare live steel before us? There can be no forgiveness! Cut him down no—”
Alex’s fangtian ji moved in a blur so fast that an eye-blink would have missed it when the closest guard’s still-blinking head finished tumbling to the stone tiles in a sea of blood and shattered steel tiles.
The remaining half dozen soldiers gazed at Alex and his blood-spattered weapon as if he were their worst nightmare. And certainly the wild-eyed monster with blond hair whipping about his head in currents affecting him alone would have startled even him, were he not already seeing smiling death reflected in their eyes.
Just a heartbeat before the vision was split in twain forevermore, along with his target’s skull.
Bronze Tier cultivator FAILS to resist the fury of the storm!
Your opponent has been cut in half!
“He’s a monster, we must flee!”
“Warn captain Dong! He is our only—”
You have critically struck your foe!
“Run! Run for your lives, fools! It’s the monster we were warned about!”
Alex allowed the howling winds wet with so many bitter tears to flow right through him, and from him to his foes as together they became far greater than the sum of their parts.
Through the fury of conflict a spark was ignited that catalyzed a storm that washed completely through the underground compound, gouging floors and ceiling, tearing off numerous iron reinforced doors, before drowning one chamber after another in a sea of blood that left nothing but cleaved limbs, ruined bodies, and shattered suits of armor in its wake. For not everyone had been lax in their dress or behavior, yet all of them fell to the storm just the same.
Alex felt it then, the pressure of an actual Silver in a sea of low and half-step Bronze that could have devastated a smaller unprepared city all by themselves… if not for him.
The final door before his ultimate target burst open as a wild-eyed man wielding a pair of obsidian axes glowing with dark enchantments and pristine sharpness burst into the hallway, covered in thick armor reinforced by infernal wards and runes.
The Silver-tier monster chuckled coldly as Alex stopped and took his measure.
“Your slaughter stops here, Ruidian scum!” The man roared. “Su Lin, Gonzi! Unleash the trap, now!”
The man’s smile widened when filaments of twisted Qi smelling of rot and despair spun about Alex like a spider web, earning cold dark laughter from the pale-faced pair of wujen who slipped out just behind the powerfully built Silver radiating such fearsome killing intent.
“Well done, Lion,” whispered the older wujen in a raspy voice, smiling so coldly as Alex stood perfectly still, hair still whipping about with the fury of his own breakthrough. “This Ruidian beast has earned the unenviable displeasure of our master. And as it is us that have caught him, it is we who shall profit when he is finally in our master’s—”
Artificer Skill check successful!
You understand the nature of this trap!
“Dongfang Hong is your master, right?” Alex let the words slip out with a furious hiss, earning a flinch and snarl from the pair of pale-faced, almost sickly-looking wujen, and a sneer from the powerful Silver.
“That foolish mongrel would dare to ask such a question aloud? For that offense alone, he should be put to the stake!” The Silver Body Cultivator roared.
The older Wujen smirked, rubbing his long spindly fingers together, a sickly contrast to the fine silk robes radiating protective wards that he wore.. “All in good time, Lion. For now, we but need to...”
His words were caught off in an explosion of lightning.
Storm Strike enhanced Spell Cleave combined modifier of +22 effective ranks UTTERLY obliterates Silver Tier wards!
Your foe has been temporarily stunned by backlash!
The older wujen groaned and stumbled back.
“Master!” Cried the younger wujen as the roaring Silver-tier cultivator charged, obsidian axes positioned low and high with the deadly grace of a man well versed in his killing tool.
A sight which brought a fierce grin to Alex’s lips.
“The dirge of your existence ends here and now, Ruidian Scum!” Lion roared.
Alex answered with Steel and Storm, his fangtian ji weaving low, winding under the man’s warding axe and lunging for his foe’s sternum, an instant before his snarling foe hooked the haft of the polearm with his second axe in a clearly well-rehearsed technique.
Alex’s blow earned a sneer of contempt. “Fool! You think you can overpower a Strength—”
Lion’s eyes bulged a horrified surprise when his obsidian axes failed to redirect Alex’s weapon shaft, the axes effortlessly pushed aside by currents of Wind and Water far beyond Lion’s ability to counter, no matter his Strength and the Metal Qi radiating from what Alex instantly understood to be deadly artifacts, able to cut through stone and steel like butter. Yet Lion’s affinity was balanced and countered by the metallic salts that now infused Alex’s art, ancient lessons brought to the fore once more, thanks to the bitter tears of horror and conflict he had just endured.
Lion’s desperate snarl of denial became eyes bulging with horror as blood shot out from between his lips when the bitter sharp spear head of Alex’s fangtian ji blasted right through the man’s reinforced steel plates like hail through a spider web.
The air shook with Lion’s furious roar, the snarling Silver lashing out with Metal-reinforced axe after-images that tore right through the stone where Alex had been standing, the air ringing with the crack of shattered rubble, the air thick with dust and splintered stone.
But Alex had already darted back, fangtian ji held in a high hanging guard as he flashed his foe a vicious grin, eyes wild with the crackling fury of the storm.
Lion spat blood and laughed coldly, a heartbeat before he slashed through the air with his eerily glowing axes, ghostly after images that could shatter stone now whirling through the air for Alex’s head.
Spell Cleave successfully counters Ghost Axe!
You have successfully ruptured your foe’s Mid-Range Qi Manifestation!
“No, impossible! My Ghost Axes should have severed your arms!” The furious cultivator’s snarl turned to a look of confusion as he spat pink, frothy blood, as if only in that moment sensing the spurting hole in his chest.
“My armor is warded!” Lion cursed, before sparing a single moment to glance down at the steel tiles of his lamellar armor, all of them turned rusted and brittle, whatever enchantments that had been on it long since faded, leaving only the corruption that all such avenues to power eventually gift desperate students who dare such tragic paths.
“Now anymore,” Alex said with a pitiless stare. “And you should thank me. The infernal cords damning you to the blackest pits of tartarus for the weapons and armor you value so highly have been severed as well.”
“No… no, no, no! You don’t have that power, no one has that power!” Lion howled in protest, ignoring the still spurting wound and charging Alex with fury that bordered on desperation, as if, in that instant, his wild eyes were all too aware of the price he would pay for his corruption. Desperate to do all he could to escape his fate, including abruptly stop his charge, scoop the panicked younger wujen by his head, and toss him right for Alex before fleeing into the east wing and slamming the door shut behind him.
Alex blinked at the act of impressively brazen cowardice as the younger Wujen who was a half-step Bronze with physical stats that were all too mortal howled in surprise as he tumbled awkwardly through the air towards Alex. Yet the words he screamed in his panicked desperation revealed the undeniably ruthless practicality of Lion’s cowardly act.
“Don’t kill me! I’m warded! We’ll both—”
Artificer skill check: Critical Success!
SPELL CLEAVE!
You have ruptured all infernal wards!
You have decapitated your foe!
The howling storm tore through all resistance as pounding rains of crimson hue met lightning’s rebuttal as ancient talismans that hadn’t changed an iota between Alex’s most recent lives were effortlessly cleaved in twain.
As was the neck that the warding collar had been forcefully bound to.
Alex smiled coldly down at the stunned elder wujen who was only now shaking off the backlash of his ruptured art, for only a handful of seconds had actually passed. Yet in a world of blindingly fast cultivators who had both achieved at least one rank in Silver Quickness, entire battles might have played themselves out in that time.
The ancient wujen’s eyes were wide with desperation as he gazed upon Alex. “You shouldn’t have been able to break through my trap. You shouldn’t be here! You’re an abomination. The elder gods are dead!”
Alex choked back his killing fury. As much as he wished to embrace the absolute depths of his epiphany… there were other causes beyond his own crimson ascension. So he stayed his killing blow for one fateful second too long.
“I’m guessing a man like you has plenty of reason to fear what comes next,” Alex said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his pitiless gaze. “If you ever wish to feel the warmth of the sun caressing your skin for a few more precious days before being strangled in infernal vines that will tear free every last shred of power your soul had ever claimed as you drown in the river for countless centuries… then I suggest you tell me everything you know about Dongfang Hong’s operation here in Wanshi.”
The wujen blanched. “No. No! There’s no way you could know. No way! But you do.” The man flashed a twisted smile. “Good. That information, the knowledge that you’re actually here… my master will be most eager to find this out.” The shriveled old man began to cackle, eyes glittering cruelly. “Farewell, fool! When next we meet it is you who will be squealing at the end of my dark magics, fool!”
Alex felt a cold chill when he sensed something change. He wasn’t sure what, or how, he just knew that all wasn’t as it seemed.
And his foe was delaying him. He could taste the odd desperation and excitement in the wujen’s twisted mind. Somehow, Alex just standing there would lead to his death. His enemy was certain of that fact.
So Alex lashed with his blade once more.
You have FAILED to strike your prey!
Alex glared at the afterimage of the wujen as the smirking old man laughed mockingly Alex’s way, somehow growing ever more distant even as he was lying prone right before Alex, yet Alex’s fangtian ji couldn’t hit the man, even while embracing the fury of the storm.
Alex’s eyes widened with dismay. For even saturating the fury of the storm with Dark Qi, such that the metal salts would cut through almost everything, wasn’t enough.
“Fool! You’re too late! Nothing you can do will touch me, worm! When my master hears of this, he will demand retribution immediately!”
Alex blinked, feeling a cold shiver of dread and illumination, realizing his mistake just a heartbeat before it was too late. He was following concepts and ideas tied so closely to the physical conceptualization of the storm that normally served him so well. Infusing his Dark Qi to the metallic salts howling through the Winds and Waters of his wrath.
But there was another path he could take.
One where Dark Qi was free to strike out in directions both physical and spiritual. Even if the backlash was one that he too would feel.
“Wanshi will fall, fool!” The ancient Wujen chortled, now little more than a ghostly after-image, about to slip out of Alex’s reach entirely. “And the blood of every Ruidian and mixed-blood within will be on your—”
Doom Strike!
You have channeled Black Lightning and have successfully struck your foe!
The currents of oblivion recognize no master! You have suffered: Backlash! Severe wound minimized to Medium Wound. You have managed to choke back your own scream!
The wujen’s parting sneer turned to a look of surprised disbelief. He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was blood and boiling darkness as inky black lightning tore through his spiritual form.
The wujen’s eyes abruptly bulged open and he began to shriek silently in ethereal currents Alex couldn’t fathom as the ancient cultivator’s body… his soul? Seemed to twist and stretch impossibly vast distances as his flesh boiled furiously into the ether like water splashed upon a superheated kiln. The entire shrieking spirit twisted and stretched in hideous multidimensional knots before seeming to wink out of existence altogether.
Alex shivered, ignoring the quickly healing burns sizzling on his forearms as his prismatic bones greedily drank in the majority of the Dark Qi backlash from his most perilous attack. One that embraced Dark Qi far beyond using it to simply enhance a cleaving blow.
He wasn’t exactly sure what he had seen, but sure as hell, whatever art that man had been using, Alex wanted no part of it. Not ever. As to whether or not that bastard’s allies would sense that not everything was right with their plans in Wanshi, or if his foe had effectively vanished without a trace… Alex wasn’t going to bet on a best case scenario.
The clock was now most definitely ticking, and he feared it was only a matter of time before a certain contingent of Silver-tier killers slipped inside Wanshi’s walls with the goal of eliminating Wanshi’s royal family before putting puppets in their place.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! I should have been quieter. I shouldn’t have given that asshole even an instant to prepare!”
Alex took a deep breath, turning frustration into focused resolve. What was done was done. There was no point in castigating himself over may-have-beens. Only learning and moving forward.
He glared at the door before him. If there was one tiny bit of consolation it was that no one had yet broken the sound ward. Which meant that he had done at least one thing right, besides purging this quarter of the underground facility of every pawn of the Red Prince that he could find, in addition to rescuing another handful of girls… though sadly, he had found no girl named Jinni, and most of those girls would have to endure their trauma without the benefit of a Ruidian mental wipe.
As much as he might have wanted to do more… he had done all that he could safely do.
He glared at the door now before him, knowing that the mastermind behind so much betrayal and horror could be found just beyond. And as much as he wanted to ask questions, so many questions, he couldn’t help but fear that the wujen’s almost successful exit was thanks to an enchantment or device that perhaps all of the Red Prince’s favored pawns might have access to. A weaker, flawed version of Shalu’s original Divine-tier artifact, but effective enough, in the right circumstances. Such as when Alex wasn’t around to channel black lightning through it. Still, all it took was a single alarmed pawn giving Wanshi’s enemies an accurate account of the situation that could spell absolute peril for the entire city.
So before Alex pressed his hand against the lock, aligned the tumblers into place and slowly opened the door, he made sure his thoughts were cold and focused.
He had stepped off the stormy heights of ascension.
Now there was only the icy gaze of a man prepared to do anything and everything necessary to stop his foes from emitting even a single cry of warning… even if it meant bathing these richly appointed chambers of silk and luxurious excess in pink frothy blood. No matter how desperately Nili might scream for him to stop.