“How do you feel?” Alex gently asked the girls gazing about the massive parthenon-like temple supported by enormous pillars of gold-veined jade. Each column glowed with spiritual energy, just as he remembered, the structure so vast in size and scope that the walls really did seem to soar into eternity, like a living dream.

Hao Chan took a deep breath, shivering with the sweet storm of heavenly Qi that Alex could taste flooding the air and caressing his veins, just as well as she. And unlike Cheng Lei, she did not rise from a crumpled form nearly crushed by his ordeal before being reforged into something greater. Rather, she glowed with the sheer rapture of her ordeal, angelic silver eyes now staring so intently into his own.

“I feel like I’m caressing heaven’s fire. I feel like I’ve finally come into my own.”

And when she kissed him, it was an agony and an ecstasy he never wanted to end as his veins blazed like fire.

Before she pulled away after several breathless moments, the sweet notes of spiritual energy singing so brightly in their veins that even their Dantian had been buffered, almost as if they had already achieved Gold. Or at least they had for the duration of a single kiss.

“Soon,” She promised with a breathless twinkle in her eye. “I feel so close to a breakthrough like no other, my love. I know it will be soon.”

Alex swallowed the lump in his throat, doing his best to ease the desperate pounding of his heart as he gently took an awed and dazed Yinzi’s hand, lifting her to her feet. “How do you feel, beloved kung fu sister?”

“Future wife,” she declared with a fierce smile, before squeezing him so tightly he found himself breathless and awed by her strength as she sobbed in his arms. “Never have I felt so afraid, or liberated! Never have I felt so strong, every fiber of my body and soul singing with spiritual power beyond even my parent’s wildest dreams! And it’s all thanks to you.”

Alex blinked in surprise, feeling a sudden sharp sting as she moved so fast a chilled Alex realized he couldn’t even keep track… Alex raising his hand to his stinging earlobe, feeling a hard cold knot of liquid darkness.

His very first earring… before he lurched back in sudden memory of a wild Kitsune girl who had done much the same, once before.

A lifetime ago.

And then it was a gone. A wisp of dream forgotten seconds after spiking his head with a bittersweet ache he had no name for.

“The boy I would claim as my own,” Yinzi said with a cheeky grin, her eyes twinkling with mischief and silver fire, licking a single ruby drop from her lips as Hao Chan, having grown yet another inch, turned her flawless features to calmly regard Yinzi who smirked, claimed the giantess’s hand, and kissed her palm before squeezing her tight, grinning wickedly as she snuggled against Hao Chan’s bosom.

Because Yinzi, also blazing with spiritual energy, had grown several inches as well.

“I claim both of you as my own, forever.”

Hao Chan’s eyes crinkled with tears more liquid Qi than water as she gently kissed Yinzi’s brow. “And we love you too, kung fu sister. But you already know what we must do before we claim any prizes of the heart.”

Alex’s sense of awe and wonder turned to a wince of dismay as his eyes skipped across so many alcoves filled with proud figures of ivory and gold. He had no care for the ones dressed in the regalia of emperors and kings, the secret configurations more than a few held in the alcoves behind them he had already claimed.

It was the ones further down that he worried about.

But first… Alex directed the girl’s gazes to the pair of portals Cheng Lei had first showed him.

“The sun and the moon!” Yinzi squealed. “We did it! We’re in the hall of emperors, just like mother described!”

Alex blinked. “You’re mother heard tales of this place?”

Yinzi flashed a bemused smile. “She’s a powerful kitsune who can cloak even a delirious Gold’s utterings in perfect Shadow. Shadow so fine that not even our worst enemies can hear the secrets shared between foxes who embrace the arts of seduction like others embrace the paths of liberation or death.”

Alex grinned. “In other words, a few golden royals fell for cute kitsune and whispered all sorts of late night forbidden secrets.”

Yinzi winked. “And were we any place other than in the alcove of my father, I wouldn’t even utter that much, hero of my heart.”

Alex blinked, spun around, and was surprised to see that, far from being hidden deep in the depths of the tunnel-like ascent, his smiling patron was now front and center, revealing the secrets of a divine cultivation path that would allow any cultivator who made it this far a path to power unlike any other, assuming they had the wit to appreciate it.

Hao Chan squeezed Alex’s hand. “It’s all here. Everything we’ve seen, everything we’ve done! Somehow captured in two pristine configurations for those with your meridian configuration...” She swallowed, gazing at Alex with suddenly haunted eyes. “Or my own.”

Alex nodded, squeezing her hand far more gently than necessary. “I think at least one of your relatives will find it very useful along his own chosen path.”

She paled and looked away, trembling from those words far more than the impossibly rich spiritual energies in the water which Alex was halfway certain would obliterate almost any lesser cultivator almost as assuredly as the River of Souls.

A river his angels could now stride almost as readily as he.

“I know,” Hao Chan whispered at last, before turning around, eyes filled with a worry Alex would never have expected, and a clarity that was nothing short of profound.

Yiniz chuckled softly, her eyes glittering with unexpected insights. “Heaven knows how many rules were breaking,” she said, fondly patting her father’s likeness. “And I can’t tell you how deliriously happy that makes me.” She then frowned, gazing back up at Hao Chan. “I know you have your cousins, still in Mother’s care. I didn’t know you had other relatives?”

Alex gently clasped his beloved’s hand. “Chan. The mental blocks we spoke of before...”

“Completely washed away when we dared enter this temple, saturating my soul with waters that would have obliterated the bastard that dared to do this to me.”

Yinzi frowned, blinking when she truly took a moment to study Hao Chan’s countenance. “How did I never see it before?” Her eyes abruptly widened and she stumbled back, before flowing into a nervous kowtow.

Of course she was immediately lifted back up to her feet by a snorting Hao Chan.

“Don’t you dare, kung fu sister! I’m the same dancer, martial artist, and friend you’ve known for as long as we’ve all walked this path together.” She flashed a bitter sad smile. “I just also happen to recall in all too painful detail the first eight years of my life that I’d rather forget… but I won’t.” Her eyes lit with fierce intensity. “For those memories are a part of me. Now I’m finally whole once more, and I will let no force on earth break me again!”

She then strode toward the door that shown like a sun and firmly gripped the jade talisman with the symbol of a crown at it’s top, another one appearing in its place as she defiantly raised it up high and the ground shuddered with her act. “It’s done,” she said, silver eyes flashing. “Now there is no way in hell Dongfang Hong can hide his twisted attempts to anex QuiJing Province or taint this school with infernal pacts. Now, at least my father will know!”

Her fierce demeanor quickly became the wide-frightened eyes of a girl who realized she had just unleashed a dragon, and would be forced to hold on to it’s tail for dear life.

Yinzi skipped to her kung-fu sister’s side, proudly claiming a talisman the mirror of Hao Chan’s own, her eyes twinkling with dark mischief as the entire grand temple shuddered with the low thrum of a note just below the range of mortal hearing. A note that only deepened as Alex followed suit. Though his talisman stayed much the same as it had been before, his act had definitely been acknowledged.

“I wonder how fast we’ll get imperial notice if two Jade Queens dare claim greatness in a single ascent? Ooh, and one Jade King as well. That’s three for three!” Yinzi crowed.

Alex shared a nervous smile with Hao Chan, as if they were only now realizing the temerity of what they dared.

“This could go wrong in so many ways,” Hao Chan whispered.

Alex chuckled. “Good thing we have a backup world we can escape to, long before ten thousand royal troops can physically flood the school.”

Hao Chan tilted her head. “Do you really think it will come to that?”

Alex smirked. “Honestly, I have absolutely no idea as to whether or not anyone will care at all. Maybe people will think it a part of the celebration, or maybe it lost its significance a thousand years ago. But if hearing Gold and Jade gongs ringing through the city throws the Red Prince off his game, even if it goes no further than that, then that’s a win in my book.”

Alex didn’t hesitate to clasp both their hands and lead them past the massive statues and their mother-of-pearl alcoves. “Eyes straight ahead. Because if you can’t see your enemies...”

Yinzi flinched and paled as they strode a very shallow incline, now wading through a very physical manifestation of spiritual waters. “Hao Chan!” she hissed.

“What?”

“Don’t look at the statues glaring at us on either side!”

“I know!”

Alex pretended his desperate grimace was a bemused smile, sensing the weight of death from so many stoney glares he very deliberately refused to meet the gaze of even once. A terrible pressure that only eased after they had passed the alcoves completely and the currents racing up to their ankles became a terrible roar as much the ground shaking as it was souls shrieking, as inconceivable quantities of water came crashing down as if from the heavens above, to the netherrealms below.

Bronze Card: Avatar presently covers Jade Queens card.

Your disciples fates are now linked to your own!

You have saved versus oblivion!

Your disciples have saved versus oblivion! Soul Stride has gone up 1 rank for all disciples!

Even as Alex shuddered with the abrupt interface messages, having muted so much for the sake of his singular focus, the air rang not with the screams of those he adored, but by ebullient laughter.

Hao Chan, covered from head to toe in spiritual waters that kissed damp clothes so tightly to her form, clothes so close to disintegration that it didn’t bear thinking about, was wearing an expression of sheerest exultation, her entire body blazing with a brilliant silvery glow that was the match of Yinzi’s own as the growing incline became a shimmering jade stairway once more, the three now daring an ascent that even an emperor might fear to tread.

Alex and his companions gloried in dashing up the steps, laughing with the sheer joy of racing between the majestic moons in what was now a silver blue sky, eyes alighting with wonder as they caught sight of lush valleys, snow-capped mountains, and tiny miniature cities, all of them seeming just a single leap away.

For just a heartbeat, Alex thought he spied a singularly exquisite palace of jade and gold. Wondering if it was his own.

He caught sight of Hao Chan and Yiniz’s eyes, filled with pristine revelations even as their bodies filled with liquid potency so intense that their transcendent Silver cores were now giving off a constant high pitched ring as they spun at increasingly absurd speeds, the sparkling backdrop of their souls slowly darkening from deepest gold to lustrous green to a jade hue the color of midnight as they visibly grew another inch before Alex’s eyes, all of them breathing deep of misty golden light, laughing with sheerest joy and wonder, embracing a transcendent waking dream they all knew would never come again.

And neither of his disciples showed the slightest trace of painful discord. If anything, whatever sources of discomfort that had struck them before had been literally squeezed free of their liquid silver cores like slivers of impurities flung to the heavens and all that remained was pristine perfection and the sheer sweet joy of being alive as they all raced across the heavenly white clouds with each jade step they took, until at last they broke through the cloud cover and Alex was struck by a sight that filled him with just as much awe and wonder and cold dread as the first time he had ever seen it.

A massive throne of jade at the center of a pristine white pagoda, resting upon a bed of silky white clouds that gave them all a bird’s eye view of the entire world. It was a throne that would allow its master to view the entirety of a kingdom, an empire, perhaps the entire world. Alex instinctively sensed, just as he had before, that everything he could imagine could be zoomed in on and viewed in on in the blink of an eye. From the grandest mountaintop vista to the tiniest scurrying ant underneath the mulch in any corner of any forest floor in all the countless tens of thousands of miles the world stretched out in all directions.

Just as before, the jade throne enticed and called out to him.

But this time, he was ready.

Quickness check made against someone faster than you!

“Yinzi, don’t! Trap!”

The last word alone froze the blindingly fast kitsune where she stood, turning wide, haunted eyes Alex’s way.

Only for Hao Chan to boldly claim the throne neither Alex nor Yinzi dared even touch.

Alex’s heart lurched with dread, desperate eyes locking with his beloved.

“Hao Chan!” He choked back a cry, filled with sudden blinding fury for his foes, yet all his giantess did was gaze about her with rapt wonder, silvery orbs widening as her breath hitched, tears of such intensity streaming down her cheeks that her attire sizzled and disintegrated at their touch.

“I see everything!” she whispered, hands caressing the arms of her chair. “I can see a dozen armies across the jungles, forests, and vast windswept plains of ZhengTu nation alone! I can taste the clouds growing dark and heavy with rain. I can sense the spark of lightning so many promise, with a single touch!”

Her eyes widened with wonder as Alex was forced to accept a truth he had too long pushed aside.

Zheng Yi’s blood flowed through his beloved Hao Chan’s veins.

Curious eyes turned to meet his own. She paled and trembled, seeing so much with her heightened gaze. “Alex?”

Alex ignored the pounding in his chest and the heat rising to his cheeks, saying the only thing that mattered. “I love you with all my heart, Hao Chan. Now, and forever.”

She gasped, tears streaming freely down her cheeks. “I can see it. The truth of your words. I can feel your love for me.” She closed her eyes and smiled towards the heavens before leaving the throne and clasping Alex’s hand.

“Hao Chan?”

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and shook her head. “We’re done here, I think. Let’s just go.”

Alex exchanged a long look with Yinzi who gave an anxious nod before flashing an excited squeal. “Ooh look, I see more stairs rising through the clouds! Come on, let’s go see just how far we can soar!”

Hesitating not a moment longer, all three raced for the staircase of deepest blue-green jade, exhilaration turning to instant panic when Hao Chan almost stumbled, before Alex’s hand was bracing her back once more. She flashed him a single grateful smile as she blazed with heavenly energies so bright from currents that demanded even Alex have a care with his step, all three now proceeding one careful step at a time up stairs that spiraled to infinity, laughing with furious exhilaration as they dared that which few could even dream of.

“Brace yourselves, you might start feeling motion sickness,” he warned, not hesitating to link arms between both girls he felt so fiercely protective of, previous strictures long since faded to the mists of mortality, endless steps below.

But what truly awed him even as he embraced Eternal Fox and focused, was that the girls by his side were moving even straighter than he was. Not a single wobble or wince giving evidence of feeling nauseous or disoriented at all.

In fact it was Hao Chan and Yinzi gripping him as much as the other way around. Alex couldn’t help but grin, for all that previous experience and a Vitality higher than ever meant that his discomfort had been just a handful of seconds, and he was the master of himself once more.

“How are you doing, Alex?”

Alex smirked, as Hao Chan panted beside him, finally feeling the burn.

Just as he was.

“I feel like I’m back doing sprints in track and field. How about yourself?”

“I feel like I’m at the end of a three hour long dancing session with my old master, pushing me to the absolute limit, and demanding ever more,” Hao Chan admitted with a breathless chuckle. “And I know we have a thousand more steps to go.” She turned Yinzi’s way, who was humming happily to herself.

“Kung fu sister?”

Yinzi’s smirk was belied by the sweat, or perhaps spiritual energy streaming off of her. “I’m just happy I get to hold Alex’s hand.” She mock glared his way. “Now I’m just waiting for his confession.”

Alex laughed. “Somehow I don’t think admitting feelings with our Dantians being what they are is a very good idea, soaring this high up in the heavenly clouds. Whats say we weight til Gold? Then we can all say exactly how we feel.”

Yinzi’s throaty if breathless chuckle was all Alex needed to hear to know that she was thriving with their ordeal, despite the growing strain that could be so easily mistaken for the burn of a good workout, but was so much more. Of course, the way both girls were glowing like brilliantly blazing stars, their cores now spinning so loudly that the ringing seemed to echo through the heavens themselves, made it clear that they were enjoying gains not even the storybooks would dare grant their most favored heroes. At least, not in the cities that were now tiny seeds of potential, impossibly far below.

And far faster than he had thought they would, the magnificent vista was replaced by soft cottony white clouds of mist and spiritual energy, and they were through.

Before stumbling with a desperate cry…

And taking no harm at all. Though Hao Chan did smirk at the sand now covering her palms and the remains of her almost entirely shredded Qipao Alex thought was being held together more by Hao Chan’s will than any actual fabric integrity. For a single lurching step had sent them from misty white clouds to warm, wet sand and the sounds of the roaring surf and crying seagulls behind them.

“Ooh, we’re by the sea!” Yinzi declared. “And look, I’m now as tall as you are, Alex!” She darted in for a kiss on his cheek, brilliant silver eyes peering into his own so intently. “You have no idea how badly this fox wants to claim you right here and now on these warm silky sands, Alex Hammer.”

“But you’re not going to, because that would fuck up our cultivation bases big time,” Alex whispered.

Hao Chan bit her lip and glared, before darting around a pouting Yinzi so fast Alex knew damn well her Quickness was now well above Silver Rank 5.

He chuckled softly. “Faster and stronger,” he gave a playful bow of his head. “I do hope my kung fu sisters will go easy on their brother the next time we spar in earnest.” He then wrapped them both in fierce hugs as warm shafts of emerald green light broke through the thick green foliage overhead, heavy with the ripest, juiciest spirit fruit imaginable bobbed enticingly over head.

“We did it! We made it the very shores of wondrous possibility, the border between the world below and divinity, just a single staircase away,” he said, not even bothering to hide his tears of joy as he gestured towards the most magnificent garden imaginable. Rows of roses, tulips, marigolds, and countless other varieties of exotic blossom, both real and imagined, all graced the rich loamy ground between trunks of countless trees. The grove’s boughs were heavy with exquisitely ripe fruit, leaves rustling in the softest of breezes, and in the heart of it all stood a tree so grand that it towered over the entire massive garden, branches laden with golden fruit kissed by drops of honey-sweet dew.

Alex couldn’t help but flash a pleased smile when the closest branch of the most magnificent central tree gently lowered it’s fruit-laden bower, all the other fruit trees seeming to deferentially shift their branches aside, such that there was now but a single grapefruit-sized golden apple hovering directly over the outstretched hands of an absolutely awed-looking Hao Chan and Yinzi both as another limb bobbed before Alex, as if in warmest greeting.

“Of course you recognize this tree,” Alex quickly said, catching their gazes and giving the slightest shake of his head. “It is the mirror of the one blossoming so contentedly in our own magical realm. And the stricture in place there also holds here. If you eat the sweetest apples imaginable, you will indeed be blessed, perhaps for countless lifetimes to come. But this world alone will forever be your home.” Alex cracked a bitter smile. “Which wouldn’t be so bad, if a certain pantheon didn’t absolutely have it in for everyone refusing to live by their twisted ruelst… and if it wouldn’t then prevent you from ever returning to the palace we call our own.”

Hao Chan and Yinzi froze, before simultaneously curtsying before the great tree.

“These lowly disciples give thanks to the blessed tree for blessing our world with its golden fruit,” Hao Chan solemnly whispered.

“And your offspring even leveled up! She now gives +1 level Divine tier fruit!” Yinzi added with a squeal. She turned to frown Alex’s way as the tree’s branches shook with what Alex prayed was happiness. “By the way, Alex, I’ve been meaning to ask, what exactly does +1 level Divine tier spirit fruit do if you eat it?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m not really sure, to be honest. But we should probably find out before we start offering it to people, right?”

Hao Chan chuckled throatily. “Considering that we just finished wading through Jade tier waters that would have obliviated any cultivator not capable of at least Gold, that’s probably a good idea.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “How did you...”

“Qi Perception check, of course.” She flashed a brilliant smile. “Let’s just say your strange mind is rubbing off on me in all sorts of unexpected ways.”

Yinzi’s ears perked up as her gaze darted off in the distance, looking to the far side of the this mystic grove filled with countless spiritual treasures as far as the eye could see, the air ringing with the song of countless Silverbell blossoms rustling in the breeze as the massive sentinel tree stood protective sentinel over it all.

“Do you see the doors in the distance?” Alex quietly asked.

Yinzi nodded. “One is of gold, the other of mist and shadow.” Her eyes filled with tears as she looked to her left as the magnificent grove seemed to stretch endlessly towards the horizon, catching sight of a final set of stairs the color of ivory and dream. “And there… those are the steps that only those worthy of divinity would dare.”

Alex squeezed Hao Chan’s hand, heart racing as he gazed for long moments at the far off set of stairs.

A part of him hungered for nothing more than to embrace fiercest conflict, to put everything on the line in one terrible, glorious ascension.

But no.

He took a deep breath of Silverbell-laden air, so like the miraculously sweet air of his own realm, exhaling lingering traces of bitterness, ire, and desperation, purifying his soul and trembling with sudden fresh insights of his own as he stared at the two curiously smiling girls with bemused wonder.

Who the hell cared about the god’s petty games or the eternal madness that would forever plague the Golden Realms?

He had already achieved the greatest prizes imaginable. Not one but two women he was perilously close to falling in love with, and both just a couple seasons worth of revelations and reflection away from achieving Gold at an unthinkably young age.

And he had a foundation so strong that he might pay a price, but it would hardly be oblivion, especially secure in the Gold tier chambers of his own palace.

And how anxious Hao Chan looked when she caught his gaze, looking so hungrily at the heavenly stairway just a few hundred yards, or miles, away, before she saw him shake his head.

“No need. I already have the most priceless prize I could possibly want. So long as I’m willing to take my time. All of us take our time… there’s no need to play the fools any longer. We’ve already won the board.”

Her face lit up with wonder, instantly understanding what he was forgoing, and perhaps even why. She sobbed and swept him up in a wordless embrace.

Yinzi was gazing at Alex with something close to awe.

“You’re willing to forgo limitless power… to ascending those steps and rubbing it in the faces of the gods a second glorious time, all for our sakes?”

Alex grinned. “More like there was a certain stone I was going to refine, a divine tier spirit pearl, before I realized just how perilous it would be to dare in the realms below.” He shrugged. “But you know what? Maybe it’s better this way. I could just as easily use it to make a world so vast and grand with so many enchantments and blessings that every day would be an adventure right out of my favorite Wuxia novels of a lifetime ago. And our adventures would always be sweet, with happy endings for all, even if the lack of conflict made it a thousand years before I ever hit Gold.” He flashed the girls before him a wicked smile. “And I’ve just gotten the most wonderful notification from both Seneschal Dong Xiao and Aiko, our goddess of wisdom. It seems that a certain threshold has been reached.” He swallowed, squeezing Hao Chan’s home. “We might be Silver, but you and Yinzi have both ascended to its depths, and my cords are the literal stuff of legends.”

Hao Chan gazed at him with a sudden breathless hope. “You mean...”

He chuckled softly. “I mean that the world seed we call home is my own, and our palatial suite is most definitely Gold.”

Yinzi’s cheeks turned bright red, before she squealed and joined in their hug.

Alex blinked away the hot sting in his eyes, his heart overflowing with emotion, humbled anew by just how precious were the prizes he had claimed from mercurial fates, and he was now desperately determined to hold his prizes tight, and never let them come to harm.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home.”

He took a final nostalgic look at the majestic tree soaring so magnificently high above its kin, it’s branches seeming to bob in odd approval for the home Alex would bless, a world that its seed now called home, blinking back a tear as he caught sight of the golden shafts of sunlight caressing the ground between the branches, sparkling upon the dew gracing a countless silverbell blossoms sounded like the final closing notes to the sweetest of adventures.

Only then did his eyes widen in sudden horrific understanding, having momentarily forgotten that for people like him, there could be no happy endings.

If he dared to dream otherwise...

Quickness check made!

Grabbing a confused Hao Chan as he screamed mental warning to Yinzi now cloaked in shadow as he Bullrushed at speeds not even he had dared before.

In the opposite direction of the exit and all the glory it promised, and towards the stairs that could so easily kill the girls he was working so hard to save.

He didn’t question his paranoia, not for a moment.

Darting away before his stomach could even knot in panicked warning.

Which would have been far too late as the ground exploded in a tsunami of shredded earth, spiritual flours and the roar of a mountain’s fury before being sent flying completely out of the sanctuary and into the crashing sea of brooding clouds now flashing with furious lightning before slipping under its cloudy depths forevermore.

Desperately raised walls that could block any Gold monster’s fury were instantly shattered, causing Alex to cry out with surprise and pain as he continued to zigzag toward the glowing ivory white steps that he feared would be his doom, before lurching to the ground as Hao Chan cried out, horrified to find himself being crushed by the sheer pressure of the Jade Juggernaut radiating such dread power that the ancient garden itself seemed to warp and bend around the nine foot behemoth of living stone. The mighty titan’s jade green eyes glared a shuddering Alex’s way with a killing aura that would have instantly struck dead any flawed cultivator who dared even to meet his gaze.