Chapter 15 #6
“Yes, we are,” Rachel happily assured. “Tong and I joined Lin’s caravan for adventure and profit. And now that we’re here at the academy, we’ll find other ways to make our fortunes. Maybe we’ll even find a Water beast core. You never know!”
Alex gave a measured nod, trying to keep his cool, even when Rachel began changing the script.
This earned a grunt. “Are you two a pair, then?”
Rachel gave a happy grin, leaning against Alex. “He’s my desert husband, and I don’t love him any less for his silence. He’s a master of his weapon, you understand.” She then gave a saucy wink. “Both of them.”
This earned a handful of looks from the cultivators, and good-natured chuckles from the pair of Ruidians, male and female, who held hands and shared a smile.
“Good for you, child,” said the female Ruidian, her bright-red hair and freckled features a rich contrast to the brilliant green jewel sparkling upon her brow.
The man beside her, sporting features that revealed only a trace of Ruidian blood, dipped his head in agreement, his sapphire-blue gem twinkling as bright as his eyes, though they were closer to hazel than green.
“It’s always refreshing when tribes take a more…
liberated view of things. Better for us all in the long run, I think. ”
His wife happily nodded. “Ernest’s jewel flashes just as brightly as my own, even if most people think he’s a true blood at first glance, and it was three generations before his mother’s line blossomed once more.”
She then turned to Alex. “So, what’s it like having a Ruidian wife?”
Alex’s wink and grin earned a couple good-natured chuckles, and suddenly he felt welcome at the table.
“Don’t worry about my husband. He lost his ability to speak with his last attempt at ascension,” Rachel said with a soft, sympathetic sigh, kissing Alex’s cheek before seating herself next to him.
The Silver Giant gave a sympathetic wince.
“Few things are more painful than a failed ascension. My condolences. Clearly it didn’t cripple you, though?
” The man gave an approving nod. “In fact, your body radiates such Vitality that it’s clear that you managed a half-step ascension at the very least. Did I not know better, I would think you a fully-fledged Silver, in truth. ”
“He followed a potent path, once upon a time,” Rachel said with a gentle smile, truly getting into her role.
“And there was a price to be paid for his daring. Yet none can argue that his foundation isn’t as strong as steel itself, as the bandits that thought us easy prey soon found out for themselves. ”
This earned a solemn nod from the near seven-foot-tall giant who made Alex feel better about his six-foot-two-inch frame, hardly ridiculous, before the giant raised his chalice, a gesture quickly copied by all the other cultivators present.
“To those of us who dare to ascend past all expectations! May the Path of Peril guide us to greatness, no matter how flawed our foundations. May the eternal sands cushion our fall, even as we leap for the heavens!”
Alex gladly raised his goblet in sentiment to the toast and drank deep, tasting nothing but sweet, rich red wine and a sense of kinship with so many cultivators with cracked and flawed foundations.
Men and women willing to strengthen themselves along the path that very few from his old life would have dared by his side, save for Master Panheu himself.
And he couldn’t help but look at his laughing, joking, and boasting dining companions, somehow knowing that none of them, save, perhaps, the Silver, would have ever ascended past the servants’ plateaus along the golden steps of Rising Phoenix Academy.
Soul Sight Perception check: success!
You are temporarily stunned by your findings!
Yet somehow, in pitting their lives against constant hardship and struggle, they had managed to do just that.
Ascend past all expectations. Even if Mid Bronze was the rank most had achieved, they had done it along pathways that Alex found both warped and wonderful, more than one managing the feat with a flawed seventh meridian gate.
They had somehow wound peril itself into a foundation so knotted and flawed, so heavy with its burdens, that it nonetheless managed to support their cultivation like a knotted oak trunk supporting branches soaring for the clouds high above.
Alex was both humbled and moved, bowing his head in respect to them all, no matter their scars, missing teeth, and rough manners compared to the refined elites he had butted heads with so often in so many lives.
These cultivators, so radiant with Vitality and potency, even if their violent path made the very scars that warped them part of their strength, part of their identity, showed that the fury of conflict was just as valid a way to ascend as to inherit the most pristine of mentors and foundations.
Indeed, Alex fancied that he sensed a certain resilience, a certain permanence or reality to these men and women that made him think that, in some ways, like a rough oak log absolutely ruining the edge of a finely made and polished jian hacking futilely at its scarred bark, they were far more resilient then some of the most promising Bronze-tier elites he had met in either Yidushi or Baidushi.
Most were no match for Silver, but then again, very few souls were. As far as Bronze went, however, these men and women were truly among the elite.
Yet as the dinner proceeded and appetizers of tasty stew and fresh fruit gave way to grilled spirit beast meat, poached duck, and caramelized pheasant, Alex sensed the mood turning solemn even as his belly squealed with delight.
For his table companions were now recounting the final deeds and battles of so many fallen brothers and sisters who had dared to fight by their sides.
Alex sighed, knowing that he could say nothing at all in his present role, merely raise his silver goblet in toast and share a sympathetic bowing of his head, reminded once more of the lessons Elder Panheu had taught him.
Because for all its incredible potential, the Path of Peril was just that.
A way forward that could enable the most flawed cultivator to ascend to heights he otherwise would never have achieved, not even in the most prestigious and nurturing of academic environments.
But it might also see them slaughtered before their foes, surrendering precious insights to opponents walking a similar perilous path before their souls returned to the eternal river once more.
As so many clearly had, even in these desert sands.
Because the survivors at this table truly were the exceptions, not the rule, in so many ways.
And that alone was distinction enough for the prince himself to acknowledge and honor them, during this one celebratory meal, at least, and that made it clear just how perilous a path they walked.
Yet Alex, filled with both genuine sympathy and the awe of profound revelation, his mind and body all but brimming with indescribable potency and well-being after soaring to Silver Rank 3 and 4 in so many attributes, wouldn’t have it any other way.
A crier began calling out names, and Alex felt his first twinge of anxiety. Thankfully, the ceremonial commendation was just as brief as he could have hoped for.
“Gongniu and company, please rise!”
With those words, the giant Silver and a handful of men and women by his side rose as one, their drinking vessels raised toward the throne. The dapper-looking prince and his elegantly attired consort, who Sunlay clearly resembled, raised their golden chalices in turn.
“The royal family toasts your triumph by your side. Your heroic acts defended the Western Quarter when the dead dared to rise! Your deeds will not be forgotten, for they have been forever recorded in the annals of our city!” declared the crier.
“Together, we morn the passing of those who have fallen and glory in the triumph of your victory over the forces of darkness and despair!”
Gongniu was blinking away actual tears as his entire company took a knee, drinks still raised, before a tiny nod from the crier bade them all to seat themselves once more.
Gongniu and his party’s mood turned solemn then, tear-filled smiles exchanged between them as they drank in toast. Alex could only wonder just how bad the undead rising had been.
“Lisa and Jacob, please rise!”
The pair of Ruidians quickly rose, holding hands and blushing as they were commended for finding not one but three Bronze-tier Wood cores that, Alex was given to understand, would help tremendously in ensuring rich, fecund crops, even with the decreasing water supply below.
The pair had even earned a title, and Alex could only imagine the fortune they had hopefully squirreled away in coin or credits.
“It is upon the shoulders of heroes like these that our city’s fortune depends!
For land, title, and privilege will forever be the boon that Lord and Lady Jacob have earned this day, their clan always welcome within our fair city.
Yet there can be no greater prize or boon to be earned than by any man or woman who might retrieve a pristine core of the element upon which all else thrives! ”
These words, Alex was surprised to hear, came not from the crier, but the prince himself.
Alex’s eyes then locked on to Sunlay, looking so different from what he was used to, wearing finest silks from head to toe, her skin pale with face paint, save for rouge and rubied lips.
She looked nearly the mirror image of the girls beside her, clearly sisters, and though their beauty was nearly identical, they lacked the vibrant vitality Alex could feel from Sunlay alone, even from where he sat.
And just by chance, she glanced his way.
The smile on his features froze.
For all she did was frown and glance away.
Clearly not recognizing him at all.