Chapter 6
“Look, there’s Wanshi below, Alex. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Alex’s lips curved into a gentle grin before Sunlay’s bubbly enthusiasm, her relief and excitement palpable as her home was finally in sight.
It was another beautiful caldera sparkling like a jewel in the endless desert sands as their magical carpet soared across the cloudless deep-blue sky after a full day’s travel, the sun’s warm rays reflecting off the lake at the heart of the bulwark against the barren wastes, though Alex couldn’t help but furrow his brow.
Because if the distance from the surrounding buildings of white sandstone on the lip of the caldera to the lake in its heart was anything to go by, their source of water had shrunk considerably from what it had once been.
And that wasn’t the only troubling sign.
“My lady, those bandits are ambushing a caravan!” Zichen hissed, pointing a distance along the eerily straight desert road.
In that regard, at least, it was no different from any of the grand trade roads or ley lines that crossed the Golden Realms, surprisingly free of the sand that otherwise streamed through the desert.
Just as the roads bisecting the great forests were free of all growth, for all that the lush canopy of trees spreading out on either side of the road did wonders for keeping caravanners cool and comfortable.
Not so here, where the road provided no shelter from the sun’s rays… or the eyes of bandits.
Quing Da cursed. “My lady, that’s no bandit horde!”
Alex frowned, realizing that the Silver Giant was right. For all that the imperiled caravan was desperately trying to circle and defend with crossbows and spears, the attackers had sprung up from camouflage with fast desert ponies, weapons instantly at the ready.
They moved with the grace and deadly efficiency of experienced soldiers, many of whom had clearly broken through to Bronze.
Alex’s senses seemed to sharpen, taking in every detail of a distant cold-eyed soldier expertly darting under a caravanner’s panicked lunge before skewering the man with a wicked thrust of his dao. And there was no mistaking the nature of the caravan being struck.
“That’s a grain caravan,” Quing Da said with a curse. “It’s a calculated assault to starve and isolate us. It must be!”
Alex’s heart began to pound. “All right, take us down, now!”
“Alex!” Sunlay’s eyes held an anxious plea, and Alex already knew what she was going to say.
“Alex, we need to get the Water core to my father as soon as possible! For all we know, this is just one prong of a multifaceted attack. They could be trying to pressure him even now for access to our city!”
Alex clenched his jaw, but he couldn’t deny that she made an excellent point. “All right. Go on ahead. We’re still party linked. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Alex, we don’t dare sto—”
Sunlay’s words cut off with a disbelieving cry when Alex leaped off the side of the rug, summoning forth his fangtian ji as he peered down at the murderous band of soldiers taking orders from a man crackling with a wujen’s might from the rear.
The wind he now embraced so easily as he swooped down like a bird of prey kept no secrets from him, not even from this distance.
He could clearly make out the desperate screams and cries of the caravanners, as well as the barked-out orders from the smug-faced asshole with scarred cheeks below.
The crimson-scaled armor he wore was revealed whenever his dark cloak was blown back by the desert winds.
Alex glared at the sight. There could be no doubt.
They were the Red Prince’s colors, even if everyone else was wearing the local armor.
“Strike them down, all of them! No slave collars and no survivors!” the wujen roared, sneering his contempt for the desperately struggling caravanners, before cursing his fury when one of their number actually managed to put up a swirling sand ward.
“A desert charlatan would dare to match arts with me? You will pay the ultimate price, fool!” the wujen declared, before erupting in an explosive flash of lightning.
The air cracked with the boom of thunder as thought became action, Alex now blitzing across the gap between the shredded remains of the wujen and the scores of soldiers ruthlessly attacking the desperately defending caravanners.
Which meant that all their focus was on their would-be victims, not the roaring monster tearing into their flanks.
Alex’s crackling fangtian ji tore through flesh, bone, and steel as effortlessly as the dirk of the chortling soldier plunging into a screaming child’s abdomen just a heartbeat before Alex sent the would-be killer to hell.
“Tan! We’re being attacked!” cried the closest of the soldiers, finally cognizant of the threat that had torn through their flanks.
Yet the looks of alarm and furious resolve as dozens of distracted soldiers turned their focus to the new threat meant nothing to Alex, his ears ringing with the desperate sobs of a mother cradling her mortally wounded child.
Despair turned into fury as blood pounded through his veins.
“There he is! A Ruidian gem master! Kill hi—” Words grew tinny and slow as Alex tore into his prey, Rank 2 Silver Quickness and Rank 10 in multiple martial skills allowing him to weave past furious thrusts and sweeping blows that would have been a fearsome thing to face, for any mortal soldier.
But now it was as if they embraced the moves of a carefully choreographed dance.
Desperately swung swords missed by inches while plunging spears kissed nothing but sand before the air rang with the sheering screech of steel tiles exploding in showers of blood.
Faces filled with cold disdain slowly morphed into expressions of surprise, dismay, then terror before the furious cultivator effortlessly tearing through their ranks.
“He’s a monster. He’s not human!”
“He’s a desert spirit! Run!”
The words meant nothing. Nothing compared to the sobs and laments of the surviving caravanners, so many cut down so ruthlessly in just the handful of seconds it had taken Alex to fall from the heavens. And if these MOTHERFUCKERS thought he would just let them flee…
“No, no, leave me be! Leave me be!” shrieked one wide-eyed soldier, freed of both helm and dao as he stumbled through the desert sands that pitilessly sucked at his leather boots as he stumbled to the ground with a panicked cry.
He desperately scurried back to his feet before blanching back in horrified dismay to see the wild-eyed Ruidian covered in spattered gore, holding a massive fangtian ji drenched in blood.
“Please don’t kill me! Please!”
The blond-hair executioner’s cold lips twisted in a bitter smile. “Wow. The very same words the caravanners were screaming, before you assholes began slaughtering them.”
The soldier froze, eyes widening in horrified dismay. “No, wait, you don’t have to do this! I could serve you. Pledge my life to—” His words were cut off in a shower of shattered steel, ruptured organs, and blood.
You have successfully bisected your opponent. Experience earned!
“Fu Tan! Strong resistance! Get your ass over here and deal with it!”
Alex’s lips stretched in a fierce rictus as the grizzled voice of a sergeant filled the air, and he could sense it. The weight and pressure of Silver.
Good.
He spun around to catch sight of a giant of a man radiating power dwarfing all the other soldiers present, quickly surging up from the sands as the surviving soldiers all gave relieved shouts, pumping their fists.
“You show that bastard, Fu Tan!”
“Bring me his head!” the grizzled sergeant with his salt-and-pepper beard and hooded gaze roared, jabbing a crooked finger a smirking Alex’s way.
“With pleasure!” The seven-foot cultivator umbered forward, wielding a massive obsidian hammer in one hand with a half devoured roasted pig in the other.
He glared at Alex as spittle and food sprayed from his cavernous maw.
“You interrupted my meal, fucker. And for that, you’ll pay!”
And in a move so fast that it clearly caught the entire regiment by surprise, the roast abruptly disappeared, replaced by a whirling shield of stone as the man roared and raced forward, the ground suddenly as hard as granite beneath his feet as the clearly Earth-aligned warrior harnessed spiritual energy in ways few body cultivators could.
He expertly lashed out with his hammer and struck the ground Alex had been standing upon in an explosion of sand and stone shrapnel.
The man smirked, clearly feeling no need for a direct hit. It was a Silver-tier killing blow radiating the potency of an Avalanche technique that would have no doubt proven lethal to any number of would-be opponents.
“You got him, Fu Tan!” cheered one of the soldiers as the air was filled with sand and grit.
“Make that Ruidian pay!” hooted another, the entire regiment celebrating the kill, their relieved laughter and excited shouts an awful counterpoint to the panicked sobs and pain-filled moans of the caravanners themselves.
Yet when the dust cleared, even Fu Tan was furrowing his brow, gazing down where he struck. “Doesn’t make sense. I’ve killed dozens with that technique. There should at least be traces of…”
A smirking Alex, positioned right behind the man, chose that moment to clap.
“Nice one, Fu Tan! Let me guess, you’re an Earth-aligned body cultivator who found a path that lets you enhance Strength and Speed, am I right? Because that was at least Rank 1 Silver Quickness, and that blitz attack might have caught even me off guard, not that long ago.”
Alex chuckled into the disbelieving silence before his mocking grin turned hard as ice. “But that’s the thing about life. It’s all about choices. I chose to get stronger; you chose to attack a caravan full of innocent traders. Now we get to see how all our choices play out.”