Chapter 13
Spell Cleave critically ruptures enemy wards!
Your foe is drifting away in spiritual winds.
The air rang with the roar of Alex’s foe, and he knew there was no way he could avoid the snarling Lion’s axe. Not if Wanshi’s fate hung in the balance.
You have critically struck your foe with Black Lightning!
Silver-tier Wujen FAILS to save versus oblivion.
Silver-tier Wujen’s soul has been lost to Ethereal Currents.
You have been critically struck by Metal-infused axe!
Your right arm has suffered Severe Wound.
Your right arm has been partially crippled!
Tainted axe head FAILS to cleave through prismatic bones!
Alex cried out as his forearm was infused with sudden awful fire, and he could no longer hold his fangtian ji in a proper two-handed grip.
“You thought you could strike imperial forces without consequence? Fool! When I present your head before the feet of my master, I will be rewarded beyond all other men!”
Lion’s ugly laughter filled the air even as Asp’s doomed spirit shrieked her last before being shredded to oblivion, Alex having only a split second to wonder if her fate was now worse than even the lowest soul lost in the depths of the frigid waters, for she had been denied the river of death and rebirth completely, so terrible was the art she had dared.
Yet the cost of Alex’s killing blow was Black Lightning that had stunned him for the split second needed for his foe to land a crippling blow, even if the same backlash had Lion stumbling back as well, blood spurting from burns up and down his arms even as Nili and Lini both cried out, having clearly suffered injuries, despite leaving the room entirely.
As for the supposed head of the JiangHu sect who had taken Nili’s place, the man was wheezing and groaning on the ground.
Lion roared, “Die, Ruidian scum!”
He swung like a man who had nothing to fear. For he had indeed crippled Alex’s right arm, fangtian ji now worthless to him. So he let it fall as his madly grinning foe charged and lashed the air in a deadly series of crosscuts sure to slash open Alex’s throat.
Yet the howling storm of Alex’s fury wouldn’t be so easily washed away, Alex weaving under the deadly pair of axes that could have sprayed his blood across the chambers so easily.
Instead, they kissed nothing but air even as Lion lurched back and wheezed, blood shooting from his nostrils, gazing down in utter disbelief as Alex’s stiffened hand covered in shimmering liquid Qi plunged into Lion’s chest and pierced his heart.
Find Weakness skill check successful!
Enhanced Water Strike (Black Swan) incorporates all the lessons once learned a lifetime ago.
You may now embrace piercing and cleaving blows with your deadliest art.
You may now embrace Black Swan with your naked limbs just as well as with dao and fangtian ji!
You have successfully pierced the heart of your foe.
Silver-tier body cultivator has been slain.
You now feel the storm of ascension howling through your soul!
Potency-enhanced Prismatic Fox fully repairs Crippling Injury.
You have full use of your right arm once more!
Alex couldn’t help but shiver with revelation, sensing that he was on the cusp of a Sage’s Insight.
A state of truly sublime awareness of self and environment that was almost transcendent, but treacherous.
For no soul could bear its burden who wasn’t actually ready to transcend to divinity or the next life, and he knew all too well how flawed actual divine personages were.
He suspected that it touched a path far closer to Nirvana and oneness, becoming one with the heavens as opposed to utterly defying it.
Yet either way, it was a perilous state for one who was the furthest place from a safe, cloistered sanctuary where favored elites could safely push themselves to the limit without any worry of consequence when exhaustion eventually struck.
The irony was that those who dared the Path of Peril could only dare transcendent epiphanies and the resulting exhaustion at the risk of extreme peril.
Just one more reason that seemingly ruthless cultivation academies both allowing and even encouraging duels with live steel were in fact a vital method of walking Peril’s Path.
For win or lose, most students would be ensured escort to shelter and safety to meditate on their failings or breakthroughs.
Yet Alex wouldn’t completely deny the revelations and insights he was on the cusp of embracing—a storm of potential he rode with the lightest of steps, a howling storm he allowed to lift him, buoy him up like a kite upon a breeze.
For he could taste just how close he was to crashing through to Rank 10 in what had once been his favorite art.
His deadliest art, before combining so much in Golden Crane, forging that legend right before challenging the gods themselves.
The free enhancement his own quantized interface would allow him to evolve.
A backdoor path to power gifted by his ancient mentor in a format no native could comprehend and no one from his culture would even think to deny was truly a double-edged sword.
The skill evolution could tie the powers of his path to the reality of his present like nothing else if he were not very, very careful.
Already skirting the razor’s edge with the cloak of anonymity that he pushed so hard along Peril’s Path, as Enhanced Water Strike, now in a form that echoed his deadliest art, and Storm Swan Kung Fu, which enhanced all his Silver-tier martial maneuvers, were both just the slightest push from exploding in rank once more.
It was all he could do to take a deep breath and center himself. Steady himself. To ride the howling winds and roaring rapids and not crash over into profound revelations and the exhaustion to come.
Yet his movements were effortless as he rode those perilous currents of wind and water, seeming to float across the ground as he picked his way through the now shattered former office of the piteously groaning man who had thought to coax and intimidate his former master.
A man who was either a cold-blooded sociopath with nearly seventy girls paying the price for his gluttony, or the biggest of fools with absolutely no awareness or control over his own supposed operation.
Either way he was Nili’s problem, Alex decided as he effortlessly plucked the whimpering fool with his now fully regenerated forearm and turned back to the hallway where his serene state of mind was pricked by bitter chagrin.
He gazed upon Nili, who sported burns over face and hands and a death glare for Alex. And Lini, looking so much like a chastised cub, for all that she suffered no worse than reddened hands.
“You brought my daughter into this, Alex Hammer? How dare you! I don’t care what twisted games you and your ancient master so enjoy playing with us all.
We’re just tiny little pawns upon heaven’s game board and no more than that, yes?
No, you bastard! You don’t get to play with my daughter’s life like that!
Not after abandoning us for a thousand years, you don’t.
Not after allowing the entire world to turn into a desert with your callous neglect! ”
Alex winced, deciding that now was not the time to bring up that he had never told her his last name… nor the look of wide-eyed wonder Lini was now giving him.
“Mother…”
“Shut up, cub! Daring to dance with this fool? I don’t care if you’re eighteen summers old. He’s the last boy you should ever bring to your bed. You’re lucky I don’t clip your tail, right here and now!”
Alex cleared his throat. “Okay, first of all, you don’t have to worry that I would ever—”
“Shut up!”
Alex sighed, dropped the whimpering Chaoxiang covered in shreds of charred silk and lightning burns, and turned to the furious kitsune. “Did you know that women are being held here, Nili? Does this fool who lives only at your sufferance know?”
“Everyone is here by their own choice!” Nili snapped. “Some girls like a little vice and bed play! And we take care of those who are ready for a fresh start. We’re not monsters. Not everyone chooses to walk the same path as you, Eternal Disciple!”
“I’m not talking about the women above, Nili. I’m talking about dozens of girls who were kidnapped and imprisoned here!” Alex snapped, losing control of his voice, his patience, allowing his temper to flare just the tiniest bit.
Nili’s eyes widened, her daughter whimpering by her side.
It was all Alex could do to rein in the killing storm. “That’s right, Nili. More than seventy captives. Innocent victims who are about to be shipped right to Dongfang Hong’s troops, to be used up until nothing is left.”
Nili’s jaw dropped with absolute horror before she turned her deadly glare to Chaoxiang alone.
“Did you know?”
Her words were a sibilant hiss. Her former underling, who moments ago had so enjoyed giving her a hard sell, lording it over her even as he promised her a fortune, sobbed and whimpered like the broken man he now most definitely was.
“You will answer me, you pathetic sack of filth, and you will do so now!”
And at that moment, distant sounds had Alex jolting with sudden alarm as his cistern ward was suddenly breached. He exchanged a look with Lini, who, unlike Nili, wasn’t even trying to hide her quivering ears.
“Alex I hear soldiers trying to break through the far cistern door! Come on, we’ve got to get back before they slaughter everyone we rescued!”
Yet Alex was already sprinting at full speed, the wind at his back, even as Nili and Lini’s conversation continued to wash over him.
“Lini! Embrace shadow, you foolish chit! This complex is full of enemy soldiers!”
“Yes it is!” Chaoxiang gurgled in a scarred, broken voice. “You must leave, now! Just go, Nili. I will make sure no one ever knew you were here.”
“Oh, we don’t have to worry about that, Mother. Alex already slaughtered them all!” Lini assured in a too-cheerful voice.
Chaoxiang gave a despairing whimper.
Nili hissed. “He slaughtered… you know this? Lini, did you participate in this?”