Tan Wu gave a chuckle, devastating Alex’s ruptured arm no further, though his grip on Alex’s trembling wrist was like steel.

“A worthy battle, young genius. To see any cultivator dare to embrace, let alone attempt to forge forbidden Gold arts before their third decade. Remarkable! You will make a fine disciple.” He flashed a hard smile as Alex prepared himself for fresh agony. “And I’m not such a fool as Ruizhi might think. You and Elder Panheu will both be welcome to stay, and his ocean-side pagoda will remain his own. He would make a fine second, I think, and I’m not nearly as rapacious as most in my position.” His eyes turned flinty hard. “I will spare you oaths that bind far too many. Indeed, I can all but promise that your school will prosper under my care, at least compared to the stewardship of rapacious fools who care nothing for—“

His eyes widened as Alex endured a fiery agony that left him screaming when he appeared before a grimly staring Panheu, crumpling to the ground as he embraced the art that defined him above all others, unable to bear looking at a ruined arm spurting blood, a glaring flaw in his own body strengthening techniques.

Panheu snorted. “Truly remarkable, disciple. You’ve managed to forge a Gold tier art, and your imperfect body strengthening technique has cost me the school in a single day. You do your ultimate master proud. A wise fool in every sense of the word.”

Alex snarled through clenched teeth, as a no longer smiling Tan Wu stalked forward, glaring Alex’s way. “Elder Panheu?”

“Alex?”

“Kindly shut the fuck up and let me focus!”

His words froze the entire table to silence, assuring no less than four killing glares being sent his way. He couldn’t help but flash a bitterly satisfied smile as he choked back another scream, not even having enough time to reassure the pair of girls he was falling so hard for gazing his way with such desperate worry before being forced to Bullrush away as a roaring Tan Wu crashed into the tea table, sending tea and wood flying, though thankfully only the clumsy administrator ended up spattered with hot tea and wood splinters, everyone else having back-flipped away as gracefully as shaolin masters of any larger-than-life wuxia movie Alex had ever seen.

“How dare you!” howled a petulant Ruizhi, glaring up Tan Wu’s way before the near Gold glared down at the now sniveling excuse for an administrator. “Mercy!”

Tan Wu sneered, no longer bothering to hide his disdain for the slimy little bureaucrat as his hard gaze scanned the property for his opponent, settling at last on a panting Alex unable to hide his agonized grunts or flash anything like a mocking smile as he shuddered, holding his arm close to his side.

“Very clever, future disciple. Using the most basic of tools, lubricant, to slip free of a master grappler’s grip.” He snorted, trading glares with Panheu. “And here I had been given to understand that most academies in Cuijing Province forbade the use of grappling, as if it were somehow beneath them. An act of absolute foolishness I will do away with once I am headmaster.”

Panheu clenched his jaw, before dipping his head. “A point well made. For nothing proves the validity of technique or the foolishness of proscribed behavior like the crucible of battle where all techniques may prove their merit in the only arena that matters.”

“There are reasons why grappling isn’t emphasized in our college,” Ning Jing waspishly snapped.

Tan Wu smirked. “Oh, I know. Two Gold Titans wasting their time in clinches while battle rages about them, or supposedly pricked a thousand times by basic cultivators whose weapons would never even pierce their flesh is just one of the more egregious exaggerations too many legionnaires from Cuijing believe. As if it didn’t take more than a second to knock someone off balance, claim the wrist, and shatter their joints!”

Alex felt his cheeks blaze even as Ning Jing and Panheu both lowered their heads.

Before he suddenly got it, understanding what was going on. Why his mentor was gruffly conceding a point he had never adhered that closely to in their own practice, joint grappling most definitely being a part of their practice sessions, even if a very small part. Tan Wu hadn’t taken Alex’s arm out of commission because Alex was a fool. No. Rather the man was a master tactician with countless battles under his belt and Alex, for all his profound insights and the revelation resonating through his soul in that very moment, still tasting the glorious sage-like ascension of a newly forged Gold tier art, he still only had a tiny fraction of the experience Tan Wu did.

Experience the man almost couldn’t help lecture the shame-faced Headmaster with, fulfilling every up and coming leader’s innermost desire to be both recognized and admired, as one’s supposed betters were humbled and grateful for the knowledge you possessed.

Alex could sense that truth quite plainly even as Jidihu flashed Alex a look from where he huddled in shadow, telling him to hurry the hell up as he took full advantage of those endless moments to power heal tendons and ligaments that had been so utterly destroyed in his opponent’s grip.

But Alex’s fierce, pain-filled smile made it clear that he was doing more than just huddling in pain, taking full advantage of this day of brilliant insights and humbling lessons, acknowledging the flaw in his own path, and doing his utmost to assure his arm would never be so easily ruined again.

Insight made! You understand the flaw in your personally forged Prismatic Bone path!

You forgot to account for tendons and ligaments!

You have attempted to (very cautiously!) infuse the power of Dark and Light Qi into reinforcing and strengthening your joints and ligaments without affecting flexibility! Tensile strength alone has been emphasized!

You have achieved an additional Rank along your Prismatic Path!

Skillcheck: Success! You have managed not to freeze your joints or otherwise cripple yourself along a Path Shrouded in Mist!

1 Additional Tier 2 Silver Soul Stone has been consumed!

Shalu’s screams now exceed your own!

Alex took a shuddering breath, for all that he wanted to collapse with relief at the sudden cessation of pain he felt, before all but dancing with jubilation to find that his worse fears were groundless. He could move just as fluidly and effortlessly as he had before, having been very, very careful to assure that the mesh-work of prismatic cords of Dark and Light Qi saturating and reinforcing joints and ligaments were as supple as a fine chain mail shirt. Extremely strong when abruptly yanked taught, but would move as supple and effortlessly as silk, when the natural give and take of flexing his limbs was in play. Of course he knew he’d need to make a point of stretching his limbs to the absolute limit and being as flexible and limber as he possibly could, so his muscles would never be in danger of being torn in the extremis of hyper-contortion again.

Then Alex hissed, in sudden alarm, noticing that his thoughts were starting to wander.

His glorious sage-like ascension was rapidly petering to a close, and very soon he would be as foggy-headed as a half-drunk fool, easy pickings for anyone even half his strength, if he didn’t draw things to a close very soon.

And to his credit Tan Wu was no fool either, his pleased smile turning to a cold-eyed glare. “No. You’re agreeing with me far too easily, Panheu. You and your wife both. Even the most prudent warrior wise enough to learn from his opponents wouldn’t be so free of a Headmaster’s pride, or he would never have bothered with claiming the title at all!” He immediately spun around, catching sight of an exhausted-looking Alex.

“You sought to buy the boy time.” The giant chuckled. “A boy no longer on the cusp of illumination. A Sage’s wisdom borrowed, a fool’s exhaustion soon to be his own.” He smirked. “And you’re up on your feet, standing tall and proud. Good! You will indeed make a worthy disciple, boy. But I believe our fight is at an end… wouldn’t you agree?”

Alex gave Jidihu a pointed look, fingers flashing in the golden shafts of sunlight piercing the steel grey clouds overhead.

The kitsune’s eyes widened, before she flashed a bemused smile and nodded, all of them ignoring the administrator’s complaints that it had suddenly gone as dark as pitch… and he couldn’t hear a thing over the storm overhead.

Tan Wu frowned, glaring down at the man by his feet, before his gaze darkened. “Treachery this late in the game?”

Alex slowly shook his head. “Not treachery at all. But opportunity.”

The giant glared intently at Alex for long moments, before darting for his discarded and seemingly ignored pile of armor and weapons, then abruptly landing back on his ass with a startled cry, eyes filling with an expression utterly alien to his countenance.

Fear.

Quickly mastered as carefully felt the air before him with powerful fingers… before being stopped cold.

By a barrier he couldn’t even see.

He gazed Alex’s way in sudden understanding. “It was you who killed my quartet of wujen yesterday.”

Alex dipped his head. “It was.”

The man gave a cold, rueful chuckle. “You’re no YanTu noble at all. You’re WiFu’s eternal disciple, still protecting the city that’s done its best to destroy you for countless thousands of years.”

Alex gazed at the man for long seconds, ignoring the expressions of his friends, so many of his secrets laid bare.

Alex smiled Hao Chan’s way. “It’s alright. It seems that YanTu nobility is far less interested in eliminating all signs that I ever existed as they are here in CuiJing province. Probably because YanTu was founded by Qing Bai and Long Wang’s firstborn son who fled his father’s tyrannical rule, took a Ruidian wife, and created a kingdom of his own. Of course, Long Wang, being the ass that he is, disinherited his own son, but no one can deny that the blood of both gods and Ruidians flows through the veins of their descendants.”

Tan Wu snorted. “Wise Fool indeed.”

Alex tilted his head. “Did you order the strike, yesterday?”

The man furrowed his brow before giving a bitter shake of his head. “I did not. The aerial assault squads might defer to me, but I have no authority to countermand their own directives.”

Hao Chan, however, was gazing at Tan Wu with horrified disbelief. “But… why? If you and those men are YanTu agents, and your noble bloodlines contain Ruidian blood… why would you allow your squad to purge your own kind in the city, no matter their bloody secret orders?”

Tan Wu looked strangely stricken, actually lowering his gaze before her question. For a heartbeat Alex smiled, his beloved looking as striking as any mistress of stage and screen, her hauntingly beautiful gaze compelling even the most bitterly fallen man to cry with guilt for his transgressions, to ache to be worthy of her warm regard once more.

But he could say nothing in his own defense. And Alex understood why.

“It’s not his fault,” Alex said at last.

Hao Chan gazed at Alex in puzzled consternation. “Beloved?”

Alex sighed. “He’s under orders from Dongfang Hong, the ursurper of YanTu’s throne.”

Tan Wu paled, glaring Alex’s way. “Watch your words, boy!”

Alex flashed a pitying smile. “You know it’s true. Because if Dongfang Hong was actually secure in the path to succession, he wouldn’t feel the need to bind so many of YanTu nation’s officers and soldiers with seemingly unbreakable infernal contracts that turn his soldiers into soul-bound slaves. And their only reward for such vile bondage is for their own souls to be enslaved to demonic wiles for countless future incarnations upon their deaths.”

Tan Wu gazed at Alex with a look beyond horror. He crashed to his knees, unable to speak as the weight of an awful doom Alex had dared to say out loud, a weight the man had clearly been doing all he could to distract himself from. A truth he could no longer deny.

“He implied to all of us of noble blood that he would free us once we’d proven ourselves. Once he was secure in his throne.” The man flashed a bitter smile, though his hands frantically felt all around him, now sensing that he had been trapped in a three-sided cage. “Of course he would swear no bloodoath to that effect, and all we could do was hope and pray. It’s not like we could deny his orders, in any case. We only knew that if we tried to sabotage him through inaction, then we would all be damned no matter what happened. Because if he doesn’t successfully claim YanTu’s crown, sure as hell, he’ll make us all pay.” The man shook his head, flashing Alex a bitter smile. “And now you’re going to kill me, after using me to hone your Gold tier art to a killing edge. Proving the man who had thought himself the absolute master of this city to be nothing more than a blind fool. You do your master proud, Eternal Disciple.”

Alex gazed at the man for long moments, feeling the weight of Panheu’s terrible gaze as the whole world held its breath.

And he knew without a word being said what Headmaster Panheu expected of him. Jidihu and Ning Jing’s cool gazes were those of women expecting the worst, and withholding all judgement. Understanding that sometimes the ends most definitely justified the means.

And sometimes they didn’t.

“What if I were to tell you that there was a way to free yourself of infernal bindings? To cleave forever free of tainted contracts you, and so many thousands were forced to sign, the unwitting tools and fools of power-mad tyrants and corrupted cultivators?”

Alex ignored the dark glare Panheu gave him as Jidihu flashed him a quiet, strangely approving smile while Ning Jing rolled her eyes and muttered about jesters and fools.

Tan Wu’s eyes were filled with desperate hope, but that man knew better than to play the fool.

“I would say that dreams are for children… no matter how much I yearn for them, every day.” He flashed a bitter smile. “Because if such dreams were true, then why were four Silvers destroyed so thoroughly that I can no longer even remember their names?”

Alex flushed under the man’s too intense gaze, Panheu giving him a curious look as well.

“Those four were not bound by contracts. They traded virtue for power, of their own free will.”

Tan Wu frowned. “Are you certain?”

Alex flashed a sad smile. “I saw their final minutes play out before their own desperate eyes in their final handful of seconds upon this world, even as damnation’s vines wrapped about them for what I fear will be centuries of torment before their souls are so utterly wrung that they’re no more than sad wisps too weak even to be reborn as mortals.” His gaze hardened at the Gold’s look of absolute horror. “They were promised a never-ending foundation of blackened Silver. But the only way for them to continue to ascend was to sacrifice ever greater numbers of people to their furious pyres of flame.”

Hao Chan hissed. “A foul, murderous pact!”

Tan Wu’s expression stilled, gazing at Alex for long, painful moments.

“And still I tried to save them. Even after tearing free prizes that made them suddenly unappetizing to the grasping infernal vines so eager to claim their souls. I tried harder than you might believe to free them. For the sake of the innocent lives some of them might have lived before, for the sake of the innocent children they once were and would be again...” Alex sighed and shook his head. “Yet still, I was unable to pull them free.”

Tan Wu’s probing gaze became Alex’s entire world for long, painful seconds. “What you are describing… a wild yarn for youling jesters to spin the darkest of tales around… no, worse. It borders on blasphemy. No one dares wade within the river of rebirth and redemption.” He flashed a bitter smile. “Not even the gods above. For that is death. And nothing can walk those waters without...”

He paled and lurched back, stumbling against the far forcefield barrier as Ning Jing gave him an arch look, perfectly mirroring Yinzi’s own, Alex reminded anew of how near identical mother and daughter looked, were it not for Yinzi’s crimson eyes and pale skin… and of course, her kitsune ears and tale.

Alex gave the shaken man his warmest smile. “How would you like to be part of a tale worthy of the bards yourself? A tale where foul usurpers are brought low and a righteous queen is crowned in their place?”

Tan Wu gazed at Alex for long, breathless moments. “You cannot mean who I think you mean.”

“I mean the girl Dongfang Hong was so eager to hunt down, before she successfully claimed asylum in Crown Princess Cui Zhe’s palace, where even now I sense her peril. I mean the firstborn granddaughter of YanTu’s rightfully crowned king, the man slain by black arts all refuse even to acknowledge.” Alex held the man’s fearsome gaze. “I mean none other than Xian Hong, the rightful heir of YanTu’s throne.”

Tan Wu stumbled to the ground with a cry, before gazing up at Alex with awed wonder. “You dared to say that which must never be uttered aloud… and I am under no monstrous compulsion to kill you, or to hunt down the princess...” He trembled, massive tears welling in his reddening eyes, gazing down at his own shaking hands. “My burden has been lifted! I’m under no dark compulsion at all!”

Alex bowed his head. “Then but give the oath that you won’t seek to cause me or my friends grief or injury, or deliberately reveal to anyone what you have seen or experienced here today, in any way, shape, or form, save what story we might all agree to, and you are free to step through the barrier before you, and start your life anew.”

Jidihu’s eyes widened, her fingers flashing Alex’s way. “You have access to oathbound gates?”

Alex winked, before turning back to the forbidding countenance of Tan Wu, radiating the killing aura of exactly what he was. A cultivator on the cusp of true Gold.

“After all I have endured. To be bound by yet another oath…” the half-titan sighed and nodded, flashing a grim smile. “But yes. It does naught but assure your safety and that you won’t have to end me to keep your secrets close. And this, after you have given me the greatest gift I could have asked of man or god.”

Tan Wu’s heavy features tightened as he closed his eyes, whispering silently to himself as his massive hand touched the now visible portal now being below Jade could hope to force open, and effortlessly stepped through. A portal that didn’t send him into the heavens or the deepest sea, but exactly one foot beyond where he had stepped through.

“It is done,” he pronounced with the air of someone who had accomplished a great feat, locking gazes with Alex for long moments, before giving a bow more fitting a general to a king than Gold to Silver. “I owe you a great debt, and I could ask for nothing more than a chance to fight for the honor of my country… and our rightful queen. What is our next move?”

Alex flashed a cheeky smile. “Absolutely epic, my man. Next move is you and my friends decide what you want to do about administrator blithering idiot who’s stumbling about like he’s still trapped in Jidihu’s endless Shadow Woods enchantment while I get some shuteye.”

He smirked at the stumbling Administrator Ruizhi, even now looking about with vacant eyes, crying out as if he were desperately lost, stumbling into a mulch pile by Panheu’s feet.

Alex then flashed a put-upon looking Panheu his cheekiest grin. “I just had an absolutely massive breakthrough and my mind’s turning to mush. I’ll catch you all after I get some shuteye.”

Tan Wu’s unreadable gaze fixated upon Alex for long moments. “So this pagoda is yours, then? Does the headmaster work for you?”

Alex roared with laughter, paying no mind to the dangerous glint in Panheu’s hard smile. “Hardly. My bedroom’s through the garden shed.”

“Speaking of gardens...” Panheu said.

“Sorry, what was that? I’m sorry master, I couldn’t hear you over the epic sweet flood of insights I’ll be sharing with you during our next practice session! Oh, the burden of forging a Gold tier unified art.”

Panheu’s face scrunched up like a prune as Yinzi and Ning Jing burst out in laughter. “He’s got you there, glorious Headmaster,” they both said in perfect tandem.

Panheu’s smile was all teeth. “That’s quite alright.” He turned to Tan Wu. “You have enjoyed quite the experience, kung fu nephew. Perhaps you’d like to exchange pointers...” his smirk widened at the way the battered and bruised cultivator only now showing his exhaustion, flinched at the suggestion. “Or perhaps you’d like to embrace my disciple’s favorite method of moving meditation?”

“Headmaster?”

Panheu’s casual wave took in the entirety of the devastated garden, the countless former perfect rows of spiritual herbs, all planted to harmoniously balance the flow of spiritual energy while assuring ideal sunlight, alkalinity and moisture exposure… now little more than massive piles of shredded plants and churned earth.

“You and your kung fu brother enjoyed a most illuminating and energetic display of martial prowess, but there is as much merit to creation as there is destruction… and many useful lessons can be learned restoring harmony to chaos. Wouldn’t you agree, Commander Tan Wu?”

The man grimaced, glaring Alex’s way just in time to see him slip into the tool shed, Hao Chan and a wickedly chuckling Yinzi just behind, Alex barely having the energy to soak off his sweat and grim soaked body in his absurdly luxurious gold-lined palatial hot tub before he was gently padded dry and found himself falling into his cloud-like down-stuffed mattress beside the pair of too silent girls gazing at him with such a fierce hunger that Alex thought his cultivation would have been at an end right then and there… if he hadn’t collapsed into the soothing darkness of absolute exhaustion.

Before facing Hao Chan and Yinzi in their shared dream, the three of them having fallen asleep together, now facing one another fully kitted in lamellar armor with their favorite weapons, Alex determined to imprint upon their souls every lesson he had learned during that day of wondrous breakthroughs, where he had come so close to oblivion before blows that should have absolutely shattered him, before learning to slip past them with a sagacious grace he was eager to share.

Eternal Fox kung fu is now Rank 10!

Congratulations! You have achieved Rank 10 or higher with all underlying skills and have successfully forged a Gold Tier Unified Martial Art!

You now know Golden Swan Kung Fu at Rank 1!

Golden Swan Kung Fu has been designed with a Primary Emphasis on redirecting the flow of all external Qi. A master of this art will find it as effortless to pierce an enemy’s spiritual energy wards as it is to slice through water. Deflecting Qi strikes and rupturing Wujen spells will come as naturally as redirecting the flow of a spiritual breeze around you.

Golden Swan Kung Fu has a secondary emphasis in channeling the storms of the sea, manipulating the force and fury of Water (or liquid Dark Qi), Lightning, and Metal against all who would oppose you! Whether that would be an ocean of spiritual energy you would channel, or the River of Souls for the immortals who would dare this art, your currents will wash away all resistance, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.

Your Golden Swan Kung Fu rank will be added to all skill checks involving Silver Swan skills and the manipulation and deflection of spiritual energy as a whole, including Black Swan, Silver Wing, Dark Qi Projection, Qi Deflection, Piercing Strike (Spell Cleave), Storm Strike.

NOTE! There is a price to be paid for forging a Gold Tier martial art on a foundation of Liquid Metal.

Your Lower Dantian has been further shifted into an unorthodox alignment!

Your foundation might be more stable than a Gold Titan’s, but you risk absolute destruction if you dare to share your life force before you have stabilized yourself in the crucible of Gold!

Your disciples now know Golden Swan Kung Fu at Rank 1!

The Pearlescent Path has been polished to Deepest Gold!

There is now no limit to how deeply your disciples can ascend as Gold tier cultivators!

Note. All disciples who dare the Pearlescent Path must now maintain chastity until at least Light Gold Sheen has been achieved, or their foundation will rupture!