Chapter 18
In surprisingly short order, Alex found himself in a twenty-foot-wide desert ring that he quickly came to understand was where such disputes and challenges at the academy were settled.
A surprisingly lively crowd had manifested in just the handful of minutes it had taken Alex and his companions to leisurely make their way over there.
The excited murmurs washed over them, filled with men and women eager for a pleasant distraction from the growing tension they no doubt all felt from the dire situation of their city.
So perhaps Alex shouldn’t have been so surprised at the excitement of the onlookers.
So, too, he noted it splitting in different clusters that he assumed were affiliated with the seasons, as seemed to be the nature of the sects here.
Though Spring had the largest representation within the grand structure of marble and quartz looming over them all, plenty of cultivators were in abundance, and a surprisingly large fraction gazed Alex’s way in cheerful approval.
Even if most of Spring looked on with the cold eyes of would-be executioners, he noted a few satisfied smirks before turning his attention back to where it belonged, upon the cold-eyed cultivator he had somehow managed to make an enemy of, over a single meal.
Which suited him just fine.
Nili’s death glare, however, stung just a bit.
So he gave her a look he knew she couldn’t read, and didn’t know whether to be surprised, relieved, or worried when Linnea’s eyes suddenly lit up and she began whispering to their companion, who, of course, caught every word.
Because somehow Linnea, adorable, brilliant in her own way, and still clueless at times—though so much better than she had been just a few levels before—got it.
Because they had been in a gestalt together, and her mind, on some level, was connected to his still. Yet as ashamed as he felt about that truth, he sensed nothing but warm happiness in the tiny corner of his mind she interfaced with him through.
His opponent’s glare, however, immediately caught his focus, Alex sensing the sudden buildup of spiritual pressure, for all that no official start to their match had been called.
But that was fine, he thought, drawing and saluting her with the dao a glaring Nili had at least been gracious enough to hand off to him as they made their way to the sands.
He had his own, of course, but now was not the time to be showing off the nature of his pommel, lest he reveal secrets just as carelessly as his foes had.
Still, he found it odd the way her eyes widened in surprise.
“You shouldn’t be armed, boy! How did you get that weapon?”
Alex just stared at her. “Wait, are you serious right now?” He gestured to the crowd, the sand-filled arena pit, then last of all, her.
“We’re getting ready for a duel. You’re putting together multiple protective wards beforehand so you can focus purely on offense—I’m guessing you’ll be trying to pepper me with ice spears and who knows what else—and I’m not even allowed a decent sword? Throw the odds in your favor much?”
“Outsiders are forbidden weapons, save in the delves!” A cultivator from the Spring camp glowered, earning cold chuckles from the other factions.
“Don’t be insane. Sun La’s challenging a jewel-less Ruidian boy, and he’s not allowed even a sidearm? And this is supposed to win us more of their desperately needed tribe?”
“Wrong! He challenged her for rights to delve!”
“Why should he have to challenge her at all? It’s every Ruidian’s right to delve!”
The arguing and betting intensified. Alex tuned them out with a cold smile, his eyes on his would-be opponent.
“Last chance to back out, fool.”
Alex snorted. “That isn’t going to—”
His words cut off as his instincts shrieked warning, and he weaved to the side, Wind itself helping him avoid the deadly flurry of icy spears tearing through the air as Enhanced Wind Qi Deflection proved its worth, the deadly weapons missing Alex by inches, but still packing enough punch to crack against the protective wards surrounding their fighting circle that had popped into existence a split second before.
The crowd’s good-natured chatter became surprised blinks, more than a few staring at the thick javelins of bitter sharp ice.
“Is she trying to kill him? That sure as hell wasn’t holding back. Wait, how’d he cross the sands so fast?”
Alex wasted no time. For all that a part of him would have loved to show both himself and the world how much he had grown since dueling wujen while demonstrating his techniques to the two girls who had won his heart, these were not his disciples.
This was a school filled with strangers and, he suspected, infiltrated by far worse.
He would reveal as little of himself as he could, for the sake of the concession he had managed to coax from his opponent in her fit of pique.
The right to delve freely and without reservations of any sort.
Because sure as hell, he wasn’t surrendering any beast cores to any hidden agent of his enemies.
You have successfully weaved past Ice Flurry!
Lightness techniques allow you to effortlessly leap over ice spikes!
Alex could sense the crowd’s murmur die down as he tapped into what was an absolutely insane speed for any Ruidian, damn close to Bronze Rank 5.
But his opponent’s surprisingly potent barrage of icy attacks and growing desperation all but demanded it.
And even that amount was enough to earn awed curses from the onlookers as he steadily closed the distance while weaving and juking past so many killing blows, realizing he was now balancing on a tightrope between revealing so many hidden aces, and the sheer impossibility that anyone below Silver-tier could have survived an onslaught from a woman who was no Bronze cultivator at all.
Sun La was a Silver-tier wujen. And somehow, she had hidden it even from him.
How? Why?
But none of that mattered.
What mattered was the look of cool contempt turning into desperate alarm as Alex steadily closed the distance.
And that was when he felt it, his opponent opening her mind to a technique that would have devastating consequences once it burst free of the containment ward that was already about to collapse under the pressure of her killing arts.
Was she truly blind to that? Or did she not care about the lives of her fellows?
Either way, it was time to quit holding back.
Good thing Biochemical Mastery and his old master’s lessons gave him access to smoke bombs even now.
Quickness check successful!
In the blink of an eye, the air inside the dome was filled with sulfur-filled smoke originating from where Alex had been standing a split second ago, and an explosion right behind Sun La.
Who flinched with such unguarded surprise when she felt cold steel press against her neck.
“No, impossible! I’m warded by multiple overlapping—” She whimpered when Alex pressed his blade against her throat.
“Cease your death chant now. Are you a fucking fool? This ward’s about to rupture. How many of your fellow cultivators are you willing to kill?”
She froze at those words, as did the wide-eyed crowd.
“How did he move so fast? And those smoke bombs… What kind of wujen trickery is that?”
“Enough trickery for him to win the fight. Look at Sun La’s face!”
“Foul! The boy cheated! He forfeits the match!”
“Are you insane? Your ‘Spring Princess’ was flat-out trying to kill him! His only crime was proving he was worthy of the delves!”
A harshly breathing Alex and a shuddering Sun La ignored the crowds. “Please don’t kill me,” she begged.
Alex flashed a cold smile, speaking in the imperial YanTu dialect. “How long have you been the Red Prince’s lackey?”
The woman blinked at him in horrified confusion. “What are you saying? Please, I yield!”
“Sun La!”
“Husband!”
Alex froze, his earlier confidence pricked by sudden uncertainty as he calmly stepped back from the woman clearly fighting not to burst into tears, unable to hide her shudder of relief when Alex’s naked steel no longer pressed against her jugular, too panicked to realize that he had only pressed it with the dull side of his single-edged blade.
Alex’s heart raced in confusion for just a heartbeat before he calmly sheathed his blade and bowed low to the shaking wujen, knowing the role he had to take if they were both to make it through this encounter without massive loss of face and enemies galore.
“This one thanks you for the pointers, kung fu sister.” Alex then chuckled, winking as if sharing a jest while reaching his palm out to the horrified wujen while the man who was supposedly her husband screaming at someone to lower the ward.
“Shall we explain our performance now?”
She blinked at him in a daze before jerking a desperate nod.
Alex then bowed to the crowd. “Thank you, one and all, for witnessing our demonstration! My gracious host was concerned that few would understand the nature of a clear jewel, so I begged her to allow a demonstration!”
He smiled fondly at a now upright and cool-featured Sun La, bowing his head deferentially once more.
“Of course, she was gracious enough to warn me where she would strike, even when I assured her that there was no need!” He chuckled ruefully.
“Though now I fear we put on a performance far more… realistic than originally intended.”
He then bowed solemnly and low before the outraged-looking body cultivator radiating a deep Bronze… no, a half-step Silver’s killing aura, who was clearly Sun La’s husband. Thankfully, his killing ire faded into a confused half-nod.