Chapter 31 #4
Xien Su forced a bleak, bitter smile. “Well done, ‘Tong.’ You have bested my brother. And I believe he will benefit from the boon of your martial contest, just as I have. Even if he won’t ascend in power as quickly as some half-divine monster such as yourself!
” He chuckled before Alex’s glare. “Yet one thing the stories make abundantly clear is, however flawed and warped and twisted you and your master’s goals might be, you never step on the skulls of those who lifted you up from obscurity. ”
His gaze hardened as he pulled Sunlay’s hair up, revealing her milky-white neck as she sobbed, making it damned clear that he could decapitate her in the blink of an eye.
“In other words, you don’t betray your friends. Else why would even the most desperate fools aid the villain of every tale ever told to help you if they can’t at least count on you to have their backs when your madness eventually plays itself out?”
“Let’s get something clear here, asswipe.
I didn’t start this shit. YOU did when you and Dongfang Dickhead’s men decided to invade this city!
” Alex snapped. “You did when you assholes hunted down the royal family and put half of them on fucking crosses! You did when you let your men go wild and the city was filled with the desperate cries of woman and children being dragged from their homes!” Alex snarled the last, summoning a dao that felt so RIGHT in his hands and appeared in an instant.
An ancient dao of alloyed bronze caressing a trembling Xien Tang’s neck with serrated shark teeth radiating the essence of sharpness.
He ignored the wide-eyed looks of dismay, the horrified glances of apprehension. Carefully not looking at the blade he knew he’d recognize. The weapon of a lifetime ago, saturated with Dark Qi—and if he wasn’t damned careful, it could so easily be saturated by Death’s own waters as well.
It was all he could do not to immediately dispel the blade.
“It’s fuckheads like you who always start this shit.
All I do is fix what you assholes are always breaking!
I’m the one who pulled the Ice and Water cores from the deeps.
I’m the one who did all he could to secure the ritual sites and save both cities that your brother was so fucking eager to conquer in the Red Prince’s name!
My only crime is trying to protect innocent people minding their own business from fanatic freaks like you.
And if your best response is to cast shade on me and my mentor?
Well, of course you are! Propaganda’s been the tool of assholes and tyrants since time began! ”
Guo snorted. “There’s no point in discussing religious doctrine with the fork-tongued Disciple of the Fox.”
Xien Su barked with laughter. “Entertaining, though, to hear such madness and delusion spouted with such naive conviction. There’s a reason why you and your master are referred to as fools, boy. Now let’s come to an arrangement that leaves us both ahead.”
Alex flashed a bitter smile. “Don’t you mean leaves you with your head?”
Xien Su gave a shameless nod. “Indeed. And my brother’s as well.”
“And why should I truck with you at all? You’ve already proven that your Cultivator’s Oath carries no weight.
Your pathetic excuse for a wujen twisted all bindings of karma upon just a handful of your hapless slaves who crumpled to ash at the cost of Xien Tang using his fucking Gold-tier Gravity Well shit on me.
And your men are the real fools if they think for even one moment that they’re anything other than the sacrificial pawns of a mad tyrant who doesn’t give a fuck about how corrupted all your souls become, after being forced to endure a lifetime of tainted bonds.
Or how many centuries their spirits will be screaming as Dongfang Hong’s sins are purged from their spirits in the River of Souls. ”
Alex smiled coldly at the handful of blanching soldiers who had been roaring and cheering with delight at seeing him nearly bested, just minutes ago.
Sure as hell, they weren’t mocking him now.
No. What he saw in their eyes now was nothing less than existential dread.
Much to Alex’s surprise, Xien Su gave a measured nod as Xien Tang trembled in Alex’s grip, blood still spurting from between his fingers. Actually trembled as Alex’s blade drew a fresh trickle of bright-red crimson drops.
“Alex!” Linnea whimpered, a suddenly wild-eyed Xien Su cutting the Ruidian girl just as deep as Alex’s blade had cut…
and no deeper. Certainly not mimicking the gusher that a wheezing Xien Tang was desperately trying to staunch with shaking hands.
That and a Gold-tier physique were the only reasons Tang was even still alive.
“Careful, ‘hero,’” Xien Su hissed. “Control your temper, or it won’t be my brother alone that bleeds.”
Alex clenched his jaw, slowly easing his blade from the still-wheezing and profusely bleeding foe who had thought Alex nothing more than a stepping stone for his own ascension.
“Still, you have a point.” Xien Su turned to his coldly smirking wujen. “Sworn servant of our master. You will lead the troops out of the city in an orderly fashion, and you will do so now.”
“But Lord Xien!”
Xien Su coolly shook his head. “We will take nothing beyond the grain and water tributes we’ve already claimed.
For I will make sure that my brother’s oath is honored, but I won’t allow my men to die between cities to do so.
And I doubt a fool as ‘wise’ as this one would wish it any other way. Would you, fool?”
Alex forced his gaze to meet Sunlay’s own. Despite her tremble and the faint trickle of blood from the blade still pressing against her throat, the princess gave the slightest of nods.
“So be it. Take your grain and go.”
Time passed oddly then, Alex sensing the slow withdrawal of the troops even as Xien Tang continued to whimper and groan, growing ever weaker as his lifeblood slowly trickled away.
Alex could see the tension in Xien Su’s gaze. The iron control he showed was considerable, slicing neither of the trembling girls’ necks any deeper than he already had.
Distant bells coaxed a strained smile from the powerful Silver.
“A full third of our men have already left. Now that our wujen associate is out of the city and our men are forming up beyond the caldera, let us come to an accord. My brother and I and the quartet of flying wujen who could so easily slaughter everyone you hold dear in this city with enough fire to send you all straight to hell will also depart in peace. You, in turn, will give my brother the vial I’m about to pass you… before he bleeds out in your care.”
He casually tossed a vial that Alex effortlessly claimed, hand covered in a protective gauntlet of the elements that earned a raised eyebrow even at this late hour.
“Fascinating. Of course, I don’t have to tell you that should my brother perish in your care, I will do my absolute best to make this tale the most bitter one you and your Fox god have ever endured, whether or not I die by your hand.”
Alex snorted. “Your loyalty to your brother is admirable. It’s a pity you’ve both devoted yourselves to a complete psychopath, but that’s on you.”
Xien Su’s eyes flashed. “It’s not for one such as you to judge my allegiances or my king!
” The fire in his eyes quickly dulled to amused relief when Alex, unfazed, calmly placed a trickle of the vial’s contents upon Xien Tang’s savaged throat.
And far more slowly than would be the case with a lesser cultivator, or perhaps it was just the nature of Alex’s nine-element-infused synergistic strike, the wound began to heal.
“But who am I to discuss politics with the antithesis of my faith? Of course we will be in perpetual disagreement, just as readily as the tiger will always hunt the elk, and the fish will always fear the heavenly skies.”
Alex smirked. “Sure. That’s one way of looking at it.” He then glared down at Xien Tang. “Behave yourself and give the oath you gave before Guo tore free your karmic debt to place upon some hapless victims like so many of the fallen and now very dead Hao Zei’s infernal pawns are wont to do.”
He then handed the still-desperate-looking Gold the rest of the vial, the monster not hesitating to drink it down as fast as he could, unmistakable tears of relief coming to his eyes as the gaping wound finally closed in full.
The Gold titan then slumped in exhausted relief, though he was now visibly pale from blood loss.
Xien Tang gave a soft chuckle, smiling fondly at his sibling, showing a brotherly love that filled Alex with an odd mix of envy, outrage, and sorrow.
For them to care so deeply for each other, yet be bound by such a twisted master…
Alex shook his head. In the end, what mattered—all that mattered, really—was getting these monsters out of the city while rescuing as many lives as he could.
“You did well, little brother. And you, fox get… damn well fought.”
Alex smirked. “Were we anything but foes, I would thank you.”
The giant actually chortled, as if amused.
“As you damn well should, Ancient Disciple! You actually broke through to Gold. Ha! The sheer madness of such a feat. In the middle of combat? In a dying desert corner of YanTu that hasn’t seen a native Gold forged in centuries?
Only the madness of the Fox would even allow it!
And were we anything but foes, our perilous path would have been nothing more than a casual sparring session.
Path of Perseverance, maybe, needing scores of duels and tribulations to move even a single inch forward.
But this way, fox get, my brother and I both benefited from honing our blades against the grit of your master’s hate! ”