Over days or hours that might have been mere moments, Alex felt a growing pressure upon his psyche, realizing that there was indeed an end to his journey through the void. Several endings he could choose from, in fact! Yet as exciting as this revelation was, he was also filled with the sudden sense that if he didn’t take advantage of the faint tugging he now felt on his soul… he truly would be drifting in endless astral currents until he found himself slipping into an endless doze once more upon the River of Souls.
Rank 8 Qi Perception and Extensive past experience has allowed your soul to sense MULTIPLE EXIT POINTS from Ruptured Portal Exit!
Alex’s eyes lit up with hope and sudden desperation in equal measure. Feeling almost like he had fallen asleep in waters so warm and soothing, that it would have drowned him effortlessly if he didn’t break free of the water and catch his breath NOW! But it was like someone had covered the top of the water with a tarp.
Panicked, Alex immediately pressed the weight of his psyche against what he sensed were three distinct, nearby exit points, panic turned to surprised disbelief at the interface’s interpretation of each of those doors.
Congratulations! You have successfully found a rift exit resonating with the Path of Prosperity! - Exit this path and dive right into streams of good fortune and perfect serenity as you find yourself swept up in a lifetime filled with warm memories, warmer laughter, sweetest bliss and the pristine joy of a peaceful life well lived. If you’ve ever yearned for a path free of the desperate accrual for ever more power, a life free of all woes and regret, then this is the door for you! (The first of seven pristine lives you have been promised. For even Shui Jun recognizes the gift you gave her… With the understanding that you STILL owe her Shalu’s heart! And you’ll be plucking it free of his suppurating body as soon as your seven sweet lives have run their course, or you can expect nothing but eternal suffering from that moment on!!)
What had started as a moment of awed wonder quickly transformed into dismay when it became painfully obvious that stepping through that door WOULD mean starting a new life, putting an end to the wild adventure he had relished, as bittersweet as he had been. And after coming so close to illumination, so close to remembering all that he had experienced in both those incarnations that his cultivation had ascended at a furious pace and his pristine Super Cable that spun around like an accretion disk around the singularity that would serve as the mantel for his core… would effectively have never been.
But still… to be able to taste sweet halcyon days of joyful innocence and tender moments in the arms of a woman who loved him… cherished him… and would never slip away to tragedy’s clinging embrace… that alone was priceless. Yet after experiencing countless years wrapped in Shui Jun’s coils… he knew damn well the price of playing his 7 lives card now when a ledger balance still lay between them. Because after everything he had endured in this life, he sure as hell doubted he’d ever have the strength to endure it again. Especially not after seven sweet lives where he wasn’t being constantly forged in the crucible of pain and peril.
Which meant that after seven lifetimes to savor for eternity, he’d never ascend past an eternity of suffering.
With a shudder, he turned away from the door, his mind immediately sensing the shape and weight of the next.
Door of Bitter Triumph
Ready to embrace a world RIPE for your righteous wrath? Then dare to tread past the crimson lintel and embrace your new life.
You will find no allies here.
No heartfelt friends to share your triumphs or mourn your woes.
Instead you will find overweening contempt and Machiavellian plots, intrigue, and treachery worthy of most celebrated grimdark fantasies of the world you LONG left behind! A game of kings and thrones like no other, where even the maidens you save from certain peril will have a dirk kissed with blackest poison the minute your back is turned!
For their cultivation is based on purity alone and absolute CONTEMPT for any who dare to look different, act different, speak out of turn, think differently, or walk any path other than their own.
Be reforged by their bitter cruelties and twisted cultivation practices and embrace your WRATH like never before! Feel JUSTIFIED in forging the darkest of all the Fox’s bittersweet tales once again and work to destroy an entire city’s, nation’s, WORLD’S twisted tale and feel JUSTIFIED in giving them ALL the gift of eternal oblivion!
For we all know how the darkest of tales starring the Fox’s Eternal Disciple ultimately end.
Only now, you’re not just claiming their bodies, are you, Alex Hammer Highblood?
And who can blame you?
What idealistic fool would stop with a little bit of blood, when you can claim their very SOULS!
All of them.
And a new God of Death shall be forged.
A desperate Alex couldn’t pull himself free of that terrible, awful door fast enough. Yet much to his dismay, unlike the almost ephemeral door leading to a Path of Prosperity that was so alien to his nature that it would have been a struggle to finally slip through that wondrous portal… the pulsating crimson lintel overshadowing a door of black bitterness and regret drew him in like the event horizon of oblivion itself.
Calling out to a soul that understood it so well.
For all that Alex desperately struggled against the pull, the remembered roars of defiance and shouts of despair echoing and resonating over countless lives pulled him inexorably toward the door that was now as inevitable as slipping past the event horizon of any black hole. The arrows for time and space had flipped. Now all directions aimed toward the event horizon of the blackest of ascensions, time itself the inevitable singularity event of a howling Alex crashing into the bitter black destiny that desperate hope and self-delusion had kept at bay for far, far too long.
“Ancient disciple! Please… I know there’s not a chance in hell you can save us. I know that boy hiding in plain sight and daring to live yet another one of his wild tales can’t possibly be you. But if you can hear this message… please. Save this foolish fox if you dare. Or at least protect my kits from the depredations of a Gold monster who would torture and kill us all.”
Alex’s eyes widened in desperate hope and fierce resolve.
Recognizing Nili’s voice, the beautiful kitsune woman who now looked far closer to twenty than the hundreds of years she probably was. A woman with children who needed her. A woman now wearing the weight of a black iron collar around her neck. As were all her companions, including her husband, if the flash of terror and despair he saw in the kitsune’s haunted gaze was anything to go by.
Alex desperately struggled for all he was worth to dart his soul along this unexpected tributary, so damn close to the falls that promised a dark ascension he absolutely refused to embrace. He could almost imagine a dark bitter voice howling in furious dismay… before realizing it was his own voice. His own darkness hungry for validation, bittersweet mourning, and the destruction of all his foes for all time.
Then, between one moment and the next, the terror of the space warping singularity that was his own howling bitter soul about to consume him for all time was replaced by a blinding flash of light as Alex collapsed and wheezed desperately for breath.
Tears sprung to his eyes, gasping as if he had run countless sprints… or just narrowly avoided drowning.
“That was too close,” he sobbed to himself, taking a quick look at his character sheet, grateful as all hell to find that the glorious ascension he had dreamed was, in fact, his actual status, and that it hadn’t faded to the memory of a life lived long ago.
Only then did he open his eyes and take in his surroundings, surprised by how comfortable he was before feeling the soft itch of sandy grit against his bare skin, his ears catching the mournful sigh of desert winds as the air smelled of salt and sand and distant sobs and orders roared.
His eyes widened with unmistakable wonder.
Was he really back? Did he actually make it back to the desert before countless years or lifetimes had past?
Fearing grogginess or trouble, he carefully eyed his surroundings before slowly getting up to his feet, seeing nothing but endless desert dunes… save for a handful of individuals in the distance wearing either black leather armor or underclothes.
His brow furrowed, noting the hunched posture of those stripped of robes, armor, our outer garments, making it painfully clear the nature of the group.
Captives, and those who would dare to collar them.
Alex’s jaw tightened, feeling like he was waking up after recovering from a bad fever, sweaty and just slightly out of sorts, haunted by fever dreams that he was forced to acknowledge at that moment might have become all too real, had he dared any path save this one.
Saved by a kitsune’s desperate plea.
Seeing distant figures hunched before others in the distance.
His nose twitched at the scents of terror, fury, and sacrifice.
He clenched his jaw, summoning his fangtian ji as he carefully eyed what he just knew would be his distant opponents.
OF course that was when the limitations of what was now his favorite movement technique of all time became apparent. He might be a god of maneuverability in lush jungle canopy, but here on the desert, he was reduced to striding across the sands same as the figures in the distance. Whatever his strengths, it certainly didn’t include mastery over sand.
Then he held back a chuckle, leaping for the air with limbs that hadn’t felt so spry and powerful since before he had woken up in a cave as a basic cultivator, all those weeks ago.
And now he had ascended to Silver once more.
His lips stretched wide in a fierce grin as he took to the skies, racing after what he suspected were his friends so silently that no shadow cloaked foe, no matter how clever, would feel the trembles of his feet upon the ground.
You have successfully embraced Wind Walking! You are now flying faster than any falcon!
Your foes fail to sense your presence.
“Damn right they do. I’m stalking them from altitude, behind them,” he said to himself, for wind mastery meant that his words would carry to no ears save his own.
Instead he peered down at the ant-like figures below, diligently trying to make out the distant female shapes he had seen from afar.
His eyes lit up as his interface map pinged with fellow adventurers he had bonded with once before, refusing to think too deeply about what allowed him to zero in on them with unerring accuracy. Before stopping cold, eyes widening with awe and dismay, when he took in just how many thousands of armed men were waiting just a mile or so away from captors and captives.
Not just a handful of spirit beast leather-clad warriors like the handful that had come so close to intercepting his party when they dared to fuse cores of Silver and Gold to Qianshi’s basin, assuring centuries of pristine water. No. Where before there had been a deadly handful… now he saw countless thousands upon the desert sands. And in the distance, just a few miles away, he spotted, the basing that he knew and loved, his interface map pinging a perfect match.
He was home. Or at least, as close to home as he might ever come again in this desert world.
Which meant that Nili and her band had been intercepted and captured while leaving Qianshi’s territory… but hadn’t they set off at least a couple of days ago? Alex shook such extraneous thoughts away. What mattered was that they had never even had a chance to head home to wherever that was, before being intercepted.
Intercepted by powerful men radiating deadly Silver intensity and the exact same attire as that worn by the killers who had been so eager to steal Alex’s prizes just days ago. Killers from Zuihaoshi. Or the final city. A presumptuous name fitting for the arrogant tyrant who thought he had the right to claim whatever desert treasures he desired. Yet as was evidenced by the handful of Silvers that had managed to capture his friends, and the thousands of soldiers below… it was painfully clear that this mysterious tyrant could back his words up.
Alex shivered with apprehension, realizing what he was doing as he gazed upon the handful of Silvers soon to meet what Alex suspected was the main contingent of their forces, all of them so clear from his present altitude, a mile away still, though rapidly closing.
He was delaying.
As if fearing ultimate peril, recalling all too well what happened the last time he had taken on an entire army. Even if it had been many times bigger than this one.
“Bullshit! We fucking DO THIS and we do this NOW!” He castigated himself even as he dove with silent, furious determination, falling to the earth a good thirty feet behind his prey. Yet even so, even with full control over the air currents around them, one of the Silvers raised a gauntleted fist, seeming to smell the air, before slowly turning around.
Artificer skill check made!
So Alex dashed forward for all he was worth, refusing to hesitate. Knowing he didn’t dare delay and that the only option he had was to spring forward NOW!
He slipped past the furiously glaring men moving with odd slowness for Silver-tier speed monsters as Alex darted right past them, his dao instantly summoned as he struck his target.
The air rang with a surprised scream instantly cut off as the white bearded man who had been holding both collar box and a wand made of bone collapsed to the ground holding his ruptured belly before his neck started spraying gore when it lost its head a split second later, the clean desert sands now smelling of coppery blood and freshly spilled offal.
You are using Wind Walking to effortlessly race just above the desert sands!
Spell Cleave successfully ruptures all wards!
Rank 7 Doom blade enhanced by Tier 2 Silver Strength and Rank 8 Wind Crane Kung Fu EFFORTLESSLY ruptures all wards and armaments!
You have critically struck enemy Wujen!
YOU HAVE DECAPITATED YOUR FOE!
You have claimed Collar Control box!
You have claimed the body of your foe.
Collars are now safe from retributive blasts! (You are unable to remove collars with control box at this time.)
You have switched dao for fangtian ji!
Four Silver tier cultivators designated as Zui Flunkies are charging you!
“Collars are inert! Strike at will!” Alex roared as he flanked his foes, glad that the four hot-eyed killers were now putting all their focus on him.
Alex flashed the would-be killers a fierce smile.
“Hi assholes, how’s it going?”
The closet thug’s eyes lit up in surprised fury. “It’s the blond-haired Ruidian! He dares to interfere outside his doomed city? Strike him dead! Prince Xien Tang has offered a five thousand silver bounty for his head!”
“We can’t do anything, Alex! The collars bind our abilities!” Sobbed Zichen, earning a glare from both Quing Da and Nili. Yet it seemed that her reminding their foes just how vulnerable they are wasn’t the death sentence it might have been, all four Silver monsters charging straight for Alex with furious roars and blades covered in poisons identical to the ones their fellows used just days ago.
All of which brought a happy smile to Alex’s lips as he backpedaled as if in fear, making sure that his enemies were well and truly separated from his allies.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“Look at him run, the coward! Poison daggers out now! We finish this!” Roared their obvious leader.
Alex couldn’t help laughing at that. “Seriously? What the fuck, man? Just how slow are you assholes? The shits moved so much faster than you just three nights ago! I mean, talk about inferior quality Silvers!”
This earned Alex bulging eyes and outraged snarls. “That you would dare say such things to Prince Xien Tang’s elite? Death by torment can be your only reward!” The closest assassin roared before his words choked off in surprise.
Because a coldly smiling Alex was now right in his face. And before the thug could regain his balance, initiative, or get his weapons back in play after Alex had so smoothly dodged the man’s poisoned throwing knife with the slightest tilt of his neck… the air erupted with the crack and boom of thunder and an explosion of lightning so perfectly dark that the main encampment wouldn’t see a thing.
Or such was Alex’s hope even as he accepted yet another handful of furiously stinging wounds… and system notifications that made his bitter heart glow with sudden warmth.
You have successfully struck your opponent with Doom Blast!
Dark Lightning has ruptured ALL Silver tier wards.
All major organs have been ruptured.
Fatality!
You have taken 3 Light Wounds.
“No shit,” Alex thought with a snarl, forced to blink away boiling blood and brain while smarting from second degree burns all over his arms before his prismatic bones greedily drank in the majority of the backlash from what truly was his most perilous skill.
The three remaining thugs were blinking at Alex in momentary surprise, caught absolutely flatfooted and Alex happily took advantage of their sudden confused hesitation, refusing to slow down for even a second as he pivoted and darted at an angle, missing another pair of poisoned daggers to collide with the largest of the three, who was even now roaring and chopping at Alex with a pair of obsidian axes glowing with tainted infernal Qi that Alex recognized all too well.
Yet surprisingly it was almost effortless for Alex to weave and dart past the tainted axe heads that promised soul sickness and a most agonizing death before responding in the only way he could.
Countering foul embers with the cleansing power of rain. A rain so heavy and filled with so many metallic salts that it was practically the sea. Or the sea if it was so violent that it could rip through spirit hide like a water jet through tissue paper. Just like his fangtian ji cleaved through his foe from hip to armpit, a jagged bisection that was Enhanced Water and Wind strike with a hell of a lot of razor sharp Dark-Qi covered metal thrown in.
Most definitely not Black Swan.
But just for shits and giggles...
Rank 8 Synergized Enhanced Water Strike infused with Dark Qi infused Metal shrapnel and Rank 9 Enhanced Wind Blade has pierced all defenses! Synergized combo has successfully bisected your foe!
NOTE! This attack is most definitely NOT the metaphoric echo of arts relegated to a life lost long ago.
NOTE! You have chosen to name this synergized attack BLACK SWAN for no reason whatsoever!
Synergized attack will from now on be referred to as Black Swan!
You have successfully dodged past the remaining pair of desperate Silvers that are somehow slower than you!
You have struck your targets!
Black Swan!
Black Swan!
You have DECAPITATED your foes!
Experience earned!
Enhanced Water Strike is now Rank 9!
Enhanced Water Strike is now at parity with Enhanced Wind Strike!
Do you wish to permanently imprint Wind/Water/Steel/Dark Qi infusion as a separate attack?
You have chosen: YES!
You have successfully learned this four element attack ideal for cutting through any defense (and almost everything else) below Gold-tier effortlessly!
Congratulations! Black Swan is now Rank 9!
It was all Alex could do to resist the urge to howl with fiercest exultation as his fangtian ji glowed with the might and fury of the storm once more, a bloody crimson spray even now washing upon the midnight desert sands as the final headless Silver collapsed in a geyser of crimson, head rolling down the shallow dune.
He laughed in the midnight air, the brilliant starts above twinkling as if in warm approval as his boon companions of just days ago stared at him in stark disbelief, awe, and perhaps just a little bit of fear.
“Hell Yeah! Black Swan’s back, baby!”
His furious exultation immediately cooled when he sensed just how exhausted and terrified his would-be rescuees were. Now gazing at him as if he were the monsters.
“Um, guys? It’s okay. I’m, ha ha, here to rescue you, princess,” he said, looking a shaken Sunlay’s way.
Her eyes widened, cheeks flushing a warm hue against her dusky skin. Wait, hadn’t she told him that she was a princess?”
Nili fell to her knees. Her eyes fell with tears as she held her hands together as if in prayer.
“You came! By WiFu’s mercy, you actually came!”
Alex gazed at her for long moments, feeling his cheeks blaze just as hotly as Sunlay’s. “Well, yeah. I was in the area and you called. Of course I came.”
Her husband held the shivering kitsune close, Quing Da giving Alex the strangest smile. “I take it you didn’t come from the city?”
Alex swallowed, gazing at those too knowing eyes. “Um… that’s sort of a complicated question.”
This earned a snort. “You do know you’re as naked as the day you were born?”
Alex froze. Feeling his cheeks heat up as he realized just how comfortable, soothing, and all embracing the desert breeze was to his exceedingly resilient, and sensitive, skin. “Um… yeah. Then how did I…” He decided not to think too deeply about where the hell he had summoned his weapons, or where exactly the body he had claimed and had thought put into storage actually went, instead recalling that he hadn’t always woken up fully clothed.
Sometimes he was buck naked with clothes in his hand, needing just a moment to put them on before an outraged guard or such chased him up a tree. And other times…
He closed his eyes and smiled, raising up a hand to catch the prizes revealed by a gust of wind. Treasures left by a long lost caravan, perhaps, only now revealed and lifted upon a nighttime breeze.
Alex ignored the looks his friends gave him as he donned his favorite changshan jacket, pants, and bone button shoes once more. And the tricorn hat and inspector’s cloak were nice touches as well, Alex thought, his fingers feeling out a ring in the pants pocket that somehow slipped on his finger as if it had always been there. And perhaps it had.
He doffed his hat with a rakish grin for the flustered looking Sunlay.
“So, how do I look?”
“Like a hero stepping right out of the pages of grandmother’s book of tales,” Nili whispered, the tears in her eyes shining so brightly under the stars high above.
“How did he do that?” Anjen, the male wujen dressed in what were now tattered cultivator’s robes, was giving Alex a look of slack-jawed disbelief.
Alex smirked, doffing his tricorn hat once more. “I mean, it’s not that hard. It’s how you smile when you flow into the one-legged bow so you look like your paying respects while simultaneously giving off smug vibes of insouciance that drive everyone crazy.”
Nili shook his head, chuckling softly. “You and eldest were always good at that, weren’t you, hero?”
Alex winked. “I, of course, have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” He then pointedly looked heavenward. “But the less we actually mention certain wild tales aloud… the less chance of headaches of a certain nature coming our way, you know?”
Nili blanched. “May they never look our way again.”
Alex carefully said nothing,
“I don’t suppose you would happen to have the key to this collar on you by any chance, hero?”
Alex grinned. “As a matter of fact…” With an act of will he pulled the fallen wujen’s control device out of storage, earning nearly half a dozen reflexive flinches, making it damn clear that their enemies had already inflicted torments on them at least once.
Alex clenched his jaw, his killing hate for the corrupt Gold, the city he represented, and his cronies only grew. “It’s okay guys. We just need to tap the right button…”
“No, wait!” Zichen, the female wujen, cried. “If you don’t know what you’re doing you’ll…” Her look of fright turned to one of wonder when her neck collar latch popped off, the woman immediately yanking it off her neck a split second later, as did everyone else.
Alex winked. “Rank 8 Artificer, and I’ve dealt with these things before.” His smile turned to a pained grimace. “You’d better believe the first thing I did was neutralize the kill-surge.” For some reason his words didn’t seem to make his friends feel better. Not until all their collars were off, at least, and then it was Princess Sunlay, choking back sobs as she hugged him tightly, shuddering in his arms for long moments before taking a steadying breath and stepping back, eyes twinkling with warmth and gratitude.
“Thank you, Alex. We owe you a debt that I fear we’ll never be able to repay.” Soft delicate fingers reached out and clasped is hand. “But if you wouldn’t mind accompanying us to Wanshi city… I will do my best to fete you as you deserve. With rank, honor, and title… hero.”
“Alex is fine,” he said, smiling gently, sensing the anxious desperation behind the princess’s declaration. He sensed as well how truly perilous their situation remained, no matter how miraculous and storybook like this singular rescue might have seemed for them.
He turned to glare in the direction of the corrupt Gold and his men. “And why the hell is that bastard lurking in the shadows of Qianshi city anyway?”
Even as he said the words, he noted how everyone save the princess were rapidly flipping over the bodies of their would be kidnappers and perhaps executioners, claiming armaments, weapons, and other prizes Alex didn’t bother looking too closely at, already knowing the ultimate prize they sought.
Sunlay gave Alex a pained smile. “I’d caution you against getting any closer than we already are, Alex. There are several thousand desert-warfare specialists led by a Gold. It’s a miracle that you came when you did. Had it been any later, had we crested the sand dunes just ahead, we’d already be in their sight and fleeing for our lives with little hope of making it.” She swallowed, giving Alex a haunted look. “Alex, I’m sorry. So sorry. Had I known what they were planning, I would have warned you on the instant.”
Alex dipped his head. “I have no doubt of that, Lady Sunlay.”
Her hand squeezed his own. “Please, just Sunlay. Far more convenient with boon companions on the road, wouldn’t you say?”
Alex’s smile matched her own. “Fair enough, Sunlay. So, did those assholes explain it all with gloating monologues?”
Sunlay snorted even as a crestfallen Nili strode up to the princess, giving a despairing shake of her head. “They are, or were, elite Silver tier speed cultivators who had also managed to ascend past Bronze in Strength as well. Some of the deadliest foes you can imagine, and well aware of their own importance. Of course they gloated, while spitting in our faces and calling us worthless trash.” She shuddered as she gazed down at the assassin squad that had been so ruthlessly cleaved through. She then swallowed, locking gazes with Alex once more. “That monster Xien Tang who I refuse to call a prince manipulated the largest water clan faction in Qianshi city to aid them in installing dark formations within multiple rifts.” She took a steadying breath. “Those Duo Yi fools thought the Ice and Water cores would rupture and the waters stop flowing, forcing the city to bow before that corrupt Gold and the water merchants who had given him an in. But it was more than that. Far more than that.”
Her companion’s went deathly silent as she uttered those words, even Nili radiating uncharacteristic fear, frozen like frightened animals before him. As if fearing that Alex would blame them for Qianshi’s peril.
“Alex, what you have to understand is that Xien Tang is the most ruthless and savage of monsters. He might have been bound by oath not to invade Qianshi directly if they failed to elect him prince… but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t leave contingencies in place such that your entire city would be forced to pay a terrible price if he was forced to leave before he could diffuse his own traps.”
Alex’s jaw clenched. “So. He’s the bastard to blame. Why am I not surprised?”
Nili gave Alex a concerned look as Sunlay spoke on.
“Alex, it’s more than just a carefully orchestrated attempt to choke off Qianshi’s water supply and force submission. Those configurations were designed to unleash waves of monster breakouts from multiple rifts that will doom your entire city and force everyone to flee the caldera or perish to the abominations that will soon be overrunning the entire basin.”
Nili glared in the direction of Xien Tang’s men. “And that’s when Xien Tang plans to strike. When the survivors of your city are fleeing and desperate. Easy prey for slaughter, slave collars, and absolute dominion. Once outside the city, the truce that Xien Tang was forced to sign will have zero weight upon him and he will be able to do exactly as he wishes. Whether through conquest or desperation, promising the citizens that he will clear the threat, or just outright slaughter and collaring everyone he can, he will claim your city before the week is out.” She lowered her head, ears wilting, “I am so sorry, Alex. Even with all my investigating, I could only pluck a few strings free of the plot before, well…”
Alex gave her a fond smile, before plopping his hat and cloak about her head and shoulders.
He could sense Quing Da’s alarmed glare, instantly fading to a bemused smile when he realized what Alex had done.
Nili’s eyes widened, gazing at the cloak now donning her petite frame, and the hat that fit her head so comfortably as if it had been made for a kitsune.
“Don’t blame yourself, Nili. You didn’t have your dashing inspector’s uniform on! If you had this on your person, you would have run down the culprits in no time, crying out ‘the game’s afoot, Watson!’ whenever we pass a shady establishment and the bad guys would have been falling out of every gambling den and speakeasy, fleeing in clear guilt or bragging so loud that we would have picked up all the juicy tidbits. Or perhaps they would have left scraps of paper with clues we would have tracked down just at sunset before dueling the masterminds with sabers… or dao… upon a steam locomotive or maybe a merchant wagon!” He laughed aloud. “It would have been awesome!”
His friends stared at him for long moments.
“Alex, you do know your city’s in dire peril, right?” Sunlay snapped. “Even worse, those rifts are being flooded with Silver tier abominations even now! Not just a handful but dozens, perhaps hundreds! It would be absolute suicide to…”
Her words choked off when a smiling Alex revealed treasures even he hadn’t been aware that he had been carrying, revealing over half a dozen prizes obsidian prizes reflecting the stars under the midnight sky before making them banish once more.
“Those things are perilous, fool! You’ll poison us all!” Anjen cried.
But Nili was shaking his head, her gaze one of stupefaction. “The way you’re smiling… even knowing the peril your city faces… you did it! You and your friends actually managed to rupture their ritual sights!”
Alex gave a rueful chuckle. “Don’t give me too much credit. The Headmaster and the prince were the true power houses. They let me hold on to the Dark Qi stones since I can store them pretty effectively. And I won’t even bore you with how close we came to getting absolutely slaughtered. But somehow we made it, and I just happened to be in the area and heard Nili’s cry so… yeah. Here we are.”
Sunlay gazed at a smiling Alex for long moments, as if unable to believe the words she was hearing. “Alex, are you certain? Both the West and South…” Her awed smile grew. “It’s true. I can see by the look in your eyes that you actually managed to break the formations in both rifts. Were it otherwise…” Her eyes grew haunted as she gazed toward the caldera. “I fear your citizens would already be fleeing for their lives, and right into that bastard Xien Tang’s trap.”
“According to our enemies’ agitated mutters, at least one of the rifts should have already burst by now. I suggest we leave the area with all haste, my lady, before Tang and all his thousands of soldiers grow restless,” Zichen urged.
Sunlay’s relief turned to tense anxiety once more. She turned to Nili. “Did you find it?”
The kitsune lowered her gaze. “I fear not, mistress.”
Sunlay gave a bitter laugh. “All this effort and hardship, and in the end we’re no better off than when we…” Her words cut off with a gasp of wonder at the prize a grinning Alex gently placed in her unresisting palm. “Oh look what I just found. It’s amazing what pretty stones you’ll find in these ochre sands.”
“Alex, you did it! This is the Water core that…”
“The wujen who was never here had stolen from you? Could be. Or maybe it was just a loose stone among the sands.”
Quing Da’s expression tightened. “My lady, we must be off. But first we must see to the bodies, lest the madman so eager for conquest realize just how close his prey is to capture.”
“I’ll handle that,” Alex said, quickly darting from corpse to corpse, until only a few splatters of blood remained, quickly absorbed by the thirsty sands, and it was as if the Silver-tier thugs had never been.
“Well, that takes care of that,” Alex said brightly. “Now, shall we get going? I’m guessing Wanshi is some distance away, and there’s getting there in the nick of time like heroes… or getting there too late for anything but a tragic ending.” Alex winced at the haunted looks this earned him. “Okay, sorry. That hit too close to home. Let’s look at the bright side! You’re free, you have a water core, now let’s get going while the going’s good!”
The pair of wujen exchanged looks before catching Sunlay’s eyes. She gave the slightest of nods, earning a pair of resigned bows. “At once, Your Grace.” Alex could sense Sunlay’s wince as her cousins gave what was no doubt a well-conditioned answer. Though it was nothing he hadn’t already suspected, Alex keeping his gaze at the beautiful star-filled night sky, pretending he hadn’t heard a thing.
“It’s okay,” Sunlay said with a smile. “I already know you know. Now come. Let me show you something that will ignite a spark of wonder even in someone as remarkable as you.”
Alex smirked, meeting Sunlay’s gaze, before his eyes widened with genuine awe as he looked upon the exquisitely woven rug covered in a collage of harmonious abstract designs absolutely saturated with Wind Qi as the whole thing began to float in the air.
“Are you serious? An actual flying rug? You have this?”
Nili chuckled. “Finally, something that impresses you! Well, come on, hero. In case it wasn’t obvious, there’s no way we would have had any chance of exploring multiple rifts in time to save our home if we lacked any means of transport faster than a trade caravan. And thank all that is merciful that those thugs were too stupid to realize just how much of a prize this rug truly is.”
Alex couldn’t help but nod as he slowly crawled on to the rug, smiling with awed bemusement when the entire thing began to rise, feeling more like sitting on a water bed than anything else as the rug floated higher and higher in the air.
“Be careful, Zichen. We don’t want to fly too high right now, and we want to be well out of sight of Xien Tang and his men!” Sunlay urged, earning a curt nod from her wujen and suddenly they were off, racing along the desert stands parallel to the trade road so clearly visible even a hundred feet up by starlight.
Alex closed his eyes and sent an anxious Linnea a final, heartfelt message before saluting his friends with the silver chalice a laughing Quing Da handed him.
“To honored friends and fortuitous encounters!” Quing Da declared as they drank, everyone’s eyes alight with the sheer joy and wonder of being alive after having escaped what had no doubt seemed certain doom.
Alex then took his ease, enjoying the sweet fermented drink with dates and honey as he gazed at the starry heavens above while they raced past the dunes below at breathtaking speed. He couldn’t help but laugh for the sheer joy of having survived certain peril before ascending straight to Silver, now reveling in the feel of strength and potency flowing through him. And though he was all but certain that the next leg of his journey with his boon companions would be filled with peril, he savored this halcyon moment of friendship and camaraderie, eager for the adventure to come.