Chapter 27
“Die, Ruidian scum!”
The strangely discordant words washed over Alex as he weaved under his wild-eyed foe’s guandao, swung with desperate fury and just a touch of Steel Qi.
It was as if this desperate, panting body cultivator, feet sunk to the ankles in tricky sands that Alex could glide right over, was on the cusp of a breakthrough that would change absolutely everything for him.
For the crucible of combat could reveal hidden strengths or unlock heretofore impossible evolutions such that even the most flawed foundation might find resiliency and strength, as if channeling one’s desperate struggle to live might allow one’s soul to evolve multiple peaceful incarnations’ worth, in one single desperate encounter.
Yet the Silver-tier’s much delayed epiphany meant nothing as his moment of wonder was replaced with the crack and boom of Alex’s Avalanche-enhanced fist pounding into the man’s ribs with such force and fury that they exploded into brittle steel-laden fragments that tore like a gunshot blast right through the heart and lungs of his foe as a fatal flaw in what seemed a common technique in the Red Prince’s army revealed itself yet again.
For what did it matter if the Steel technique was just a bit brittle, if it allowed countless thousands of Dongfang Hong’s troops to ascend all the way from basic to Silver?
A relatively accessible, cheap, and powerful Silver-tier technique that might allow tens of thousands to survive who would otherwise fall.
And the handful of men whose bones would explode catastrophically when forced to fight a foe over twice their power were dead fools anyway, so no reason to change their path.
Or such was the pragmatic philosophy that Alex could all too easily imagine coldly practical generals contemplating when forging an army of literal millions.
Even if, on an individual level, the elites would have been far better off being equipped with individually tailored techniques built upon the most solid of foundations, no matter how long they took to forge.
Lest one risk absolute disaster at the worst possible moment when quickly learned and mastered yet ultimately flawed techniques ultimately gave out.
Just like the shattered bones of the soldier who’s ragdolling remains were flopping through the air, and Alex was racing to another panicked killer before his latest opponent had even crashed to the ground.
“You killed him in a single strike. Abomination!” Alex’s latest foe screamed, furiously lashing out with his guandao as Alex, sensing how well Ya Ling had overcome the hidden mastermind and tasting how close his next breakthrough was, dared to embrace the crucible of peril to forge himself anew.
Alex’s lips curled in a fierce smile even as the night filled with the roars and shouts of panicked, scattered men.
His desperate plan had actually worked! A blitzkrieg strike to slaughter wujen before they could kill him or summon more trouble, the storm and lightning a potent combination to kill the speedsters who would otherwise pose such a threat to the girls he cared for, regardless of his own safety.
A final trump card put down by the woman eager to claim him just as thoroughly, and he was tearing through Silver-tier monsters that had once filled him with such cold fear.
Only now, as his daring took him ever higher upon cultivation’s eternal ladder, it was they who had cause to fear him.
His foes had scattered.
The field right about the ritual site was clear.
“Lini! The wujen are dead and the assassins have fallen. Instill the core now!”
And Alex couldn’t hide the jubilation he felt when he sensed the young kitsune’s affirmation of his party message, now hiding in Shadow so well that even he couldn’t make her out if he didn’t use his party interface, save knowing that there was only one place she could be.
And he could feel the rich green arboreal wonder slowly emerging from its eons-long slumber as the entire area at the lee of the caldera grew rich with the promise of gloriously lush and fecund arboreal life, Alex’s earlier shower the final component allowing Rachel’s gifts to blossom like never before.
He dared to feel a moment’s fierce exultation even as Desert Sense made it clear that absolutely no foe was skulking behind him, daring to think him an easy mark.
There was only the desperate opponent before him.
Lashing out with his guandao in a vicious chop that could have so easily cleaved the Alex of just weeks ago in half.
And all he did to counter it was parry with his naked arm. A winding counter so like the ones his mentor had taught him, a lifetime ago.
It was a move that earned Alex his foe’s absolute sneering contempt.
Before the man’s eyes bulged in disbelief when his entire body was jerked off-line, space itself seeming to warp as he was thrown off-balance, his guandao torn out of his hands as Alex chose to hone himself against this lackey of his hated foe just as he had once striven to hone his greatest arts against Elder Panheu.
One master to whom he’d be grateful to all his days.
Rank 1 Storm Wing + Rank 7 Storm Swan Kung Fu successfully parries Rank 4 Silver Mantis Guandao Mastery!
Space itself folds to your will!
“No. Impossible!” the man hissed in his native tongue.
Alex met his foe’s furious dismay with a cold smile.
“Well, is that the best you can do?” Alex’s mocking laughter rang through the air, eager to grab the focus of any and all scattering Silvers who might otherwise catch sight of that which Alex was doing all he could to distract them from, having no problem making himself the target if it kept Lini safe as she dared to put her life on the line for the sake of her entire city.
“You would dare to make light of me, Ruidian monkey?” the snarling Silver roared while quickly retrieving his guandao. Alex’s mocking smile and upturned middle finger was all that was needed for this powerful opportunist’s fear to turn back into fury.
The man’s chillingly familiar features curled into a fierce snarl as he unleashed fearsome cleaving techniques terror had slipped from his repertoire, just moments ago. Yet now? His guandao became a whirlwind of cleaving death in his hands.
And Alex was reminded once more of the perils of underestimating any foe, just like so many had once underestimated him.
Yet as the Jade monster, whose soul was even now shrieking as it spun about Alex’s accretion disk of a Silver super cable, had known all too well, sometimes the absolute best way of honing oneself along the Path of Peril was playing with one’s prey.
It gave countless heroes the chance for a miraculous save in the storybooks, sure. But in truth, it was one of the best ways for monsters like Dongfang Hong’s elites—and himself—to ascend.
Yet there was more to it than that. The thought of killing this particular opponent outright, without making the absolute most of this opportunity, without pushing himself and his opponent just as far as he could, made him… uncomfortable.
He couldn’t even say why.
Even if there was a price to pay in blood as Alex choked back a snarl and his wild-eyed foe crowed with laughter, the air awash with his own blood.
Storm Wing FAILS to counter Serpent’s Strike! (You have spotted a Hidden Internal Technique!)
Your bowels have been pierced.
Power Healing engaged!
“You thought you could underestimate me, worm?” the surprisingly young Silver crowed. “You will pay for daring to assault the Red Prince’s Chosen!” He dared a glance over his shoulder. “Men! To me! I have him! He bleeds before my blade!”
Alex choked back a snarl and said in perfect noble YanTu dialect, “Is that the best you can do?”
His foe blanched. “You should already be dead!”
Alex answered with a smile and a winding parry that jerked his opponent’s guandao three feet off course as space itself folded and snapped in ways that not even the strongest Gold could have resisted as Alex’s inner eye snapped wide open in perfect comprehension of truths last embraced a lifetime ago.
Technique familiarity gained! (You once used a technique quite similar yourself!)
You have successfully parried Serpent’s Strike.
You have elected NOT to obliterate your foe!
You’re on the cusp of a fresh breakthrough!
Alex’s eyes widened with furious hunger.
His heart was pounding as he gazed into the eyes of his trembling foe.
“Again.”
“Monster!” the man hissed.
In a heartbeat, Alex was in his space, caring nothing for the man’s cry of dismay, nor the half-dozen men rushing toward him even now.
He tore off the man’s ear as casually as another would crush a fly.
“Again, fool, or I’ll tear off every member of your body, one my—”
“No!” his youthful opponent screamed, eyes wild with terror and fury as he unleashed an absolute blitzkrieg of Serpent Strike lunges and slashes.
And Alex laughed. Eyes wild with absolute glee as he parried one attack after another.
Before being run completely through by the final strike, spitting up blood even as his eyes bulged.
“I will kill you, abomination!” the youth screamed, snarling as he whipped his guandao in a final overhand chop, lips curling in a snarl as he gazed down at the wounded Ruidian who looked so damned much like his grandfather, a secret shame he would reveal to no one, most certainly not his tough but fair commander, as his guandao, jerked off-line a final time, exploded into the desert sands in an explosion of grit.
And the soldier only had time to cry out for a single heartbeat before he felt cold steel kiss his jugular.
He sobbed only once before harsh words whispered in his ear.
“What was his name?”
The youth froze.
“Who?”
“Your grandfather.”
“Lex! Hold that bastard tight! We’re coming!”
The monstrous Ruidian’s eyes widened at that.
Lex swallowed in disbelief when a silk pouch was placed in his hands, before being thrust roughly forward. “Those black cords that bound you are no more. NOW GO!”
A confused Lex could only blink when the wild-eyed Ruidian—He knows! He knows everything!—seemed to disappear… before reappearing in front of each of his battle brothers.
Lex’s spine crawled as he heard the cackling laughter of a madman when his companions were struck with such killing force that their shattered bodies were sent cartwheeling through the air with techniques that didn’t smell at all like the furious storm or the wet stone of the caldera that his grandmother’s clan had once called home.
Rather the technique smelled of no art at all.
Because it was a hidden technique, Lex realized to his dismay.
Because the Fox’s ancient disciple had actually learned Lex’s OWN internal technique, the very one his grandfather had taught him, over countless weeks of diligent practice and far too many beatings, this wild-eyed Ruidian fool had learned it in the literal blink of an eye.
After taking blows that should have disemboweled him.
Yet he was leaping across sands heavy with moss and succulents and cacti and date trees that had NOT been there, just minutes ago, as if space meant nothing to him, laughing like a madman as one elite after another was brought down with monstrously fast hooks, crosses, and spinning heel kicks.
Yet Lex had frozen for another reason as the madman’s words registered in a brain finally free of the painful throb that had been his burden, ever since he had joined the Red Prince’s legion.
The pain was gone.
The awful weight he had felt upon his soul for so many years… was now no more.
And the ear that awful being had broken, mangled, or outright torn free of his face?
Was whole.
Had always been whole.
“How?”
He crashed to his knees, only in that moment allowing himself to recall all the haunted looks and mocking smiles sent his way, the whispered murmurs of the eventual fate of all those lacking the purest of bloodlines indoctrinated into Dongfang Hong’s elites.
Rumors that had once compelled him to train all the harder and do everything in his power to prove himself as one of his beloved king’s most loyal followers.
No matter how often he awoke with tears in his eyes, heart shuddering with the screams of women and children, feeling in those moments so keenly the black oath that seemed to bind his very soul.
A black oath that somehow, by some miracle, had been lifted free of his being.
And he almost thought, for just a heartbeat, that when he caught the wild-eyed monster’s gaze, as yet another elite was slaughtered before this monster’s fury, that he wasn’t looking into the eyes of a wild-eyed killer, but the pitying gaze of his grandfather.
“Go now, Lex. And never look back.”
And with a confused sob and the first sliver of hope he had dared allow himself in over three years, the young Silver did just that, his perfect sense of direction letting him know in exactly what direction the closest neighboring commune happened to be. And if he could just survive the distance…
Only then did he dare look into the pouch holding contents worth far too much for any man to give his foe in battle.
“I know who he is. If only Grandfather were here!”
Ten jugs of water, a month’s worth of dry rations… and a priceless Ice core sliver.
He trembled at the find. Knowing, as did any soldier worth his salt, that putting one of those in a water jug with even the simplest enchantments would keep it full of ice-cold water for years.
An enchantment that just happened to be scribed in chalk, like the most basic decoration, upon each and every one of the clay jugs within.
A part of him was stunned beyond words.
Another part of him was desperate to confront the man, the monster, who he realized to his horror was the furthest thing from his enemy. Was, in fact…
And that was when he felt it. The sudden terrifying spiritual pressure of an actual Gold-tier monster stepping between worlds.
And there was at least enough kitsune blood flowing through his veins that when the spirit of his grandmother yelled at him to “RUN! RUN, YOU STUPID FOOL OF A CUB!” he did just that.
Even when the air flashed with hellfire and the furious roars of titans and risen gods, he ran for all he was worth, desperate to escape madness and memory and hope and regret. To run and embrace the desert’s strength…
To lose the man he had once thought he was… and be reborn anew.
To start life over.
And perhaps even become the hero that a tiny piece of him had always wanted to be.
So long as it didn’t involve him getting killed.
Because unlike legends come back to terrifying life, legends that would have him fearing his own reflection, the next time he shaved…
He was the furthest thing from an immortal monster that not even the gods could keep down.