“And now for the next match: The reprehensible Ruidian versus the just and honorable leader of armies and beloved hero of countless troops: The great and terrible Wei Gang!”

The crowd roared and cheered as Alex looked up at the massive titan smirking at him from across the arena stands. The eight foot giant wore neither arms nor armor, because as Alex already knew from watching his earlier bouts, he didn’t need them. Even Silver tier treasures would only get in the way of a Powerful Gold that Alex suspected was far beyond anyone else he had fought or even seen today. Because comparing him to the pale Golds he had already faced and seen fighting, no matter how deadly they were compared to Silvers, it was like comparing toddlers to men. And if the monster had a body hardening technique to match his monstrous strength… Alex did his best to ignore the lurch in his gut, knowing all too well this could be the fight of his life.

Which was exactly what he wanted, he promised himself, as the cruel-looking giant with the shaven head slammed his fists together with the sound of boulders crashing, smirking down at Alex. “So the puny Ruidian actually made it this far. Having thrashed a handful of tin pot Silvers, a newly forged Gold, and an overconfident fool of a speed cultivator who isn’t half as fast as he dreams, with a physique as brittle as glass. Wonderful! I cannot tell you how eager I am to test your skills for myself!”

Alex, for his part, didn’t bother answering, tuning out Wei Gang’s words even as he did the screams and shouts of the crowd, the constant roar that sent his heart thumping and left him feeling like he was floating on air were sensations he did his best to suppress, all of his focus now on the giant titan still smiling and roaring his declarations for the crowd as Alex stood utterly still, doing his utmost to study his opponent’s every move.

Sensing the way Wei Gang moved his massive frame that was near a thousand pounds if it was an ounce. Yet as terrifying as the monster was, radiating the might and fury of the mountain with his every step, Alex still couldn’t help smiling, for all that he feared a single misstep on his part might end up with even his bones broken. Because Alex sensed that his foe’s own cultivation path had been as wild and violent as an avalanche, and just about as graceful, relying on fury, power, massive talent and the most extreme cultivation to have pushed so far. And not a single soul below the most elite of Gold or Jade dare judge his path, for he had indeed achieved phenomenal greatness.

Even if his meridian channels, far from being hidden, radiated the power of a volcano, the fierce indestructibility of granite, and curiously enough, the soft cushioning power of rich, life giving loam. That as much as anything filled Alex with both awe and trepidation. This monster smiling with massive granite-colored teeth wasn’t a simple brute. He was a living avalanche of power, as much elemental as man… even if his meridian pathways blazed so bright that Alex was almost blinded by what was so obvious to his gaze.

Soul Sight Perception check made! You sense the blindingly obvious flood of Fire and Earth Qi blazing through your opponent’s channels! You’re not quite sure how much good this will do you against an opponent this powerful, but at least you’ll see the deathblow coming!

Find Weakness skillcheck made! 100% Penetration bonus in effect! - Note, you opponent is already approaching quasi-elemental status. Critical Strike multipliers have been minimized!

Alex’s guts twisted under the growing sense of tension and peril he felt. How ironic it was that both skills that allowed him to sense his foe’s intentions and weaknesses had worked spectacularly well… because his target radiated so much wild spiritual energy and was so blatant in his stance and movements that it was almost impossible to miss. Yet the information he had gleaned would probably do him less good against this opponent than anyone else he had fought up to now.

And truly, what did it matter if someone like him could sense his opponent's meridian flow? Just because you knew every inch of a mountain's most perilous face wouldn’t protect you from an avalanche if you were too stupid to flee before it was too late.

Much like the avalanche promised when the massive monster moved forward at speeds that were beyond chilling, using Fire and Earth techniques to race forward almost as fast as Alex’s own Eternal fox allowed.

Still, it was fast enough that Alex was forced to reveal one of his own hidden aces, earning an ooh from the crowd and an approving smirk from Wei Gang when he Bullrushed thirty feet back, in the blink of an eye.

“An internal Qi techique in a Ruidian halfblood mutt! How unexpected! No wonder you’ve managed to survive this long!” Massive fists lashed out with enough force to shatter any battlement’s fortifications, missing a furiously backpedaling Alex by mere inches. Then the creature’s scowl deepened, his arms vibrating the rumbling of an earthquake when he began to get serious, roaring as he charged forward with a knee bomb while attempting to close and grapple, fists flying out for his darting opponent with force sufficient to tear off the head of anyone with an inferior body strengthening technique.

And if Wei Gang furrowed his brow a bit at the way his punch seemed almost to slide off the air where Alex’s head had been just a second before, Alex’s fist hammering into the man’s floating ribs would hopefully distract.

Quickness modified Golden Swan skill check made! You have successfully dodged Deep Gold flurry!

You have weaved under hammer fist!

You have successfully struck your opponent multiple times! Tier 2 Gold Strength enhanced by 15 Ranks of Silver Tier martial arts have been absorbed by the mountain!

Heart hammering, Alex ignored the excited cheers of the crowd, all his eyes on his foe, the bitter reminder that despite his humbling breakthroughs and ever growing defensive abilities, Golden Swan would only count as Silver tier ranks until he ascended. He cursed bitterly when his opponent’s smirk made it clear he had taken no real damage at all

That was when he sensed the sudden sense of Qi building up behind him.

The massive Gold laughed. “You punch well, Ruidian. Better than any Silver whose skull I tore off and drank from like a cup on the battlefield. You’re almost worthy! Maybe my master will let me make a pet of you when this is over.” His smirk froze to a cold glare. “Farewell, Ruidian.”

At that moment the monster roared with an echo of a god’s fury and charged.

It was a roar so filled with killing intent that Alex sensed hundreds of spectators freeze with terror in their seats. He sensed that, just as he sensed the massive slab of stone behind him, fighting against the all too human instinct to stumble or at least a step back from a charging beast, which would have caught his foot on a cruel sharp slab, before stumbling against a spike-covered wall.

Willpower check made! What is a Gold’s fury compared to a god’s hate?

In that split second where he sensed the Avalanche’s inevitability and the rocky peril just behind, he knew his path forward was to embrace the unexpected. So he did.

Bullrush! Bullrush!

Blackswan!

You’ve embraced the fury of the storm!

The spectators went deathly silent as the elements themselves began to roar and howl, stone pounding furiously against stone as the storm roared and howled, Alex having darted forward instead of back, rushing toward his prey at an angle before leaping right back, making contact with the heel of his foot against the back of his foe’s neck, wanting to howl with the sweet fury of perfection as he sensed the power of his entire frame unleashed in one devastating blow as Gold Tier 2 Strength synergized with a modified 15 Ranks of Black Swan, Piercing strike shattering the handful of warding tattoos the creature had seared into his flesh in the blink of an eye.

His opponent stumbled to one knee, a howl of fury slamming against the protective Silver Tier wards guarding the arena goers… and shattering them as Alex himself was pushed back by the sudden surge of furious Qi.

That was when Wei Gang spun around, laughing like a wild-eyed madman, and began to grow. “Yes! Show me your fury, Ruidian! Pound me with your killing intent! Give me a fight worthy of my rank, Ruidian monkey, so that I may grow and ascend like never before!”

Alex’s eyes widened, chilled to see a kindred spirit in eyes blazing with manic glee as they both shook under the sheer exhilaration of embracing a crucible that would either destroy them utterly… or forge them anew.

Alex laughed aloud. He couldn’t help it, the giant echoing him perfectly, the manic grin on the man’s face a mirror of what Alex saw in the man’s reflection, before they charged forward in perfect tandem, as the might of the mountain attempted to overcome the fury of the storm.

Obsidian covered fists and shins struck his opponent with devastating force, as Alex desperately weaved and dodged past blows that would have killed the Alex of just two months ago in the blink of an eye. He only dared smile once, darting past a fist radiating an Avalanch’s worth of fury before lashing out with an angle kick of his own, right for the back of his opponent’s knee.

That was when alarm bells screamed in his head, remembering earlier lessons learned against Dineng and a particularly skilled Silver Giant, recalling that sometimes the most powerful Qi attacks could hide subtle strikes hidden just underneath. He darted back, but not quite fast enough to miss the jab that smacked against his ribs.

A blow that would have shattered his rib cage to shrapnel and ruptured his heart before he had forged his bones on the pearlescent steps leading to the heavens above, fueled by the bitter shrieks of his most hated enemy.

Bones that were now so strong that when he was sent slamming in to the far barrier they did not break, for all that he struggled just to breathe for an endless moment as his body crumpled from the blow.

You have been critically struck with a single jab from your opponent!

Prismatic Bones have saved versus collapse!

Eternal Fox counters Internal Rupture! Your lungs are intact! You have successfully taken a breath of air!

Alex felt himself bounce off the warding field, surprised to find himself toppling through the air as the titanic Gold laughed below. He so wanted to surrender to the bliss of oblivion, calling out to him like a warm blanket. Before his eyes bolted open in terror, sensing that he was falling just a tiny bit faster than he should. A minute difference. But one that reminded him of the rustle of Shui Jun’s scales winding about one another and the dry laughter of a snake eager to wrap him up in her coils for all time.

That jolt of terror had him wide-eyed and alert and just feet away from crashing into the waiting fist of his smirking foe.

Bullrush! Bullrush!

Who scowled in disbelief when Alex somehow avoided what would have been a devastating finisher. Though Alex was now heaving like a bellows, glaring at the smirking titan who gave an unexpected nod of approval as Alex power healed the last of the unseen ruptures his foe’s shockwave blows had torn through his body.

Wei Gang chuckled. “Good. You’re still alive! So let’s continue, Ruidian.” He turned to roar at the stands. “You’d better all be celebrating, fools! This is the best fight I’ve had in years!”

And Alex couldn’t help nodding in agreement, feeling his own focus and abilities hone themselves to a killing edge like never before as he faced the immovable mountain before him, with Shui Jun’s slithering coils reminding him of terrible peril, just a single misstep away.

He took a breath in, then released it as Wei Gang slowly turned around, seeming to savor these final moments.

But not nearly as much as Alex, who had never felt more connected, more truly alive than he did right then. Savoring the endless eternity of every second. That priceless miracle of life and existence that could be taken away in an instant. The knowledge that he could lose it all with a single miscalculation, a moment’s carelessness, made it all the more precious.

That was when he felt it. A sudden epiphany of understanding, sensing that he too was profoundly connected to this impossibly beautiful tapestry of existence.

Connected by countless cords of cause and effect. Feeling the ripples of spiritual energy with every roar and scream from the crowd, every dancing particle of sand as its master stepped forward, the tapestry of existence containing the Deep Gold Titan so gloriously vibrant, every glossy thread glowing with life and Qi, tied to so many other threads that Alex could now feel the pull of the weave about them both, like never before.

Connected to his opponent in mind and body, like never before.

Such that when Wei Gang roared and charged, while simultaneously unleashing not one but two shockwaves to slam and stun Alex between them both, because he was far more than the typical body cultivator with mastery over his elements closer to a wujen’s than not, Alex wasn’t just ready, he was already leaping free of the trap, heart overflowing with admiration for the magnificent monster he faced. A beautiful living work of art, of furious focus, glorious potential, and surprising majesty that Alex honored him in the only way he knew how.

By joining the notes of his glorious song of life and triumph with the inevitability of death, the dirge of oblivion.

A wondrous symphony of creation and destruction they embraced with furious abandon as the sands themselves came alive to slice and destroy… while the crash of thunder could now be heard echoing through the arena as lightning tore through the air.

Limbs channeling the might and fury of the storm alternated explosions of lightning blasting into the mountain side, creating minute cracks that themselves only invoked inhuman laughter...before being tightly gripped by tenacious roots as the first shoots of the forest that would eventually turn even the most rigid granite face into soft mulch manifested in the execution of countless hammer fists, spinning heel kicks, and ridge hand strikes.

Alex was suddenly witness to a sight that both exhilarated and saddened him, having been swept up in the glory and majesty of the mountain in those moments of glory and inevitability.

Fear.

“No. Impossible!” The massive giant stumbled back, trembling hands feeling the back of his neck where something had most definitely cracked. Utterly ignoring the wild screams of the crowd, having eyes only for Alex, gazing down at his arms.

“No one can mix opposing elements in a strike!”

Alex said nothing. He just stared at the furious looking Wei Gang, sensing the buildup of Qi he could sense with such exquisite clarity.

Just as he could now sense the cracks in the strongest body strengthening technique he had ever faced before. Making it clear that he wasn’t the only one who had received fortuitous encounters.

Wei Gang’s eyes flashed with desperate fury, early smugness now completely burned away. “I will not fall, Ruidian! Least of all not to the likes of you!”

But Alex was already moving as the ground erupted beneath where he had been standing just seconds ago, an explosive carbuncle that sent countless thousands of razor sharp fragments of stone slicing through the air with such force that the silver tier wards ruptured, and now it was the crowd screaming in dismay and pain as they were speared by shrapnel.

But Alex paid it no mind.

Didn’t dare to.

Not when every movement needed to be perfect, if he wanted to survive.

You have successfully dodged past hammer fist!

You have avoided Hidden Strike!

Your opponent unleashes Avalanche!

Silver Wing Parry successfully counters!

Alex felt a jolt of dread when the Titan he had thought himself so close to besting revealed just how skilled he was, stepping and weaving in odd sync to Alex’s own movements, using his massive reach advantage to dominate, Alex doing his best to slip and weave past until the Titan’s look of dismay turned to fiercest satisfaction, Alex sensing the setup a moment before it was unleashed, balance shifted at just the wrong moment as a fearsome avalanche of power channeled into a straight line punch right for Alex’s solar plexus.

Yet the giant’s look of fierce vindication turned to surprised disbelief when space itself seemed to bend around his arm, his whole body jerked and snapped to the side as the explosive power of Earth Qi struck empty air.

“No! There is no such technique!” The Titan roared in furious dismay, and Alex didn’t blame him one bit as he spun around his foe and struck the base of his foe’s neck in an explosion of lightning for all the world to see, hiding the spear-hand strike just below it as the titanic monster stumbled to his knees and collapsed with a hideous shriek, spine severed.

Alex leaped away as the crowd roared and howled, as much in disbelief as any sort of awe as the monstrous Wei Gang gazed up at Alex with disbelieving eyes.

“No. No! My technique is ascended!” The man sobbed as blood spurted out his back. “Lightning might scar my channels but it cannot destroy my frame! Even Wood would take a thousand...” His eyes bulged as he spat up blood, gazing at Alex in horrified dismay.

Alex nodded his head. “I could tell you had an ascended technique. Because with Blackswan at my skill level and Tier 2 Gold strength... you barely even flinched. Let me guess, a fortuitous encounter is pushing it up to Jade?”

Wei Gang gazed at Alex in wide-eyed disbelief, shaking his head. “How? How is it even possible? You’re a Silver. Just a Silver!”

Alex flashed the man a sympathetic smile. “I think it’s about that time. Don’t you?”

The Titan’s eyes bulged… before he erupted in sudden laughter that became a desperate wheeze. “The same oath you pinned Kuai Su to? An oath to cause no deliberate harm, directly or indirectly, to you and yours?” Dismayed eyes glittered with dark bemusement, glancing toward the near panicked-looking announcer racing forward.

“Humor me, Ruidian. Do you really think you could kill me before that waddling buffoon even gets here? Or kill me at all, even crippled as I am, before my arms wrap around you and I tear you limb from limb, as I should have done from the moment our match begun?”

Alex locked gazes with the massive Titan. “I could end your life in a heartbeat. And if you’re not a fool, you know why I don’t.”

The man paled and blanched. “Forbidden techniques.”

Alex shrugged. “Who can say? Announcer’s coming. You have three seconds.”

The man glared at Alex before barking a short laugh, monstrous hand now holding a Gold talisman with not one but two jade sigils. A man worthy of becoming the king of an entire nation, if cultivation power actually translated to administrative prowess and just rule. “I accept.”

His eyes widened when he saw the color of Alex’s own talisman, hidden by shadow that did nothing to hide secrets from one so attuned to Earth.

“That explains much. As if the lightning didn’t give it away. Emperor’s get?”

Alex smirked. “A most interesting match, Wei Gang. Thank you for the pointers.”

His gaze turned serious when the screaming announcer bounced off a barrier he couldn’t see. “Before I leave… would you like me to take a look at your back?”

The titan gazed at Alex in disbelief. “Why do I feel like if I decline… I’ll never walk again?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

You have successfully claimed trace residue from the River of Souls.

Blood Mastery is now Rank 4

Soul Stride is now Rank 7!

The river knows its master!

You have freed Wei Gang from oblivion’s waters. Wei Gang is no longer fated to die before sunset, and may now regenerate from his injuries normally!

“You will remove yourself from the sands immediately, Ruidian, or you will forfeit the match!” Screamed the red-faced announcer.

“Sorry little man, that’s not how this works,” Alex calmly said, not even looking the way of the screaming little blow-hard. Not until he had carefully fastened the healing patch so like the ones he had once made by master Liu Jian’s side, giving a satisfied smile before clapping the massive Titan’s shoulder. “There. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re back on your feet in, well, however long it takes a Gold to regenerate from a broken spine.”

This earned an agonized wheeze of a chuckle. “You’re a monster, aren’t you little man?” The Titan’s voice turned serious. “Thank you for sparing my life.”

Alex blinked, realizing how much that confession had cost the man. “I’m not stupid,” Alex said in a low voice. “I know damn well you could have snapped poor Xu’s neck, just like your master wanted. Instead you spared him for the sake of his sobbing wife, leaving with such contempt that none could mistake it for pity… most especially not the asshole glaring down on us from above. Of course, the psycho then had Fu Lan burn them both alive, because he really is that much of a vindictive asshole.”

“Watch your words, mixed-blood,” Wei Gang said with a tired sigh. “Emperor’s get or not, they could get you killed, if you’re not careful.”

Alex smirked. “Like Dongfang Dickhead doesn’t want me dead already. I hope you heal quickly, Wei, and get the fuck out while you can.”

Alex then spun around and walked right past the screaming announcer who stumbled on his face when the wall he couldn’t see abruptly vanished. Alex knew he probably shouldn’t have said what he had before Wei, but he’d been unable to hold back. Still, he did his best to ignore the countless eyes boring a hole in his back as he rapidly made his way to the closest exit, relieved to find himself cloaked in shadow, for all that Jidihu was giving him the strangest look.

“What?”

She just shook her head, leading him back to their seats.

“Alex, your back!” Hao Chan gave him a heartfelt hug. “My heart was in my throat every second of that last fight. Every time that monster unleashed a punch… I could feel the mountain pressing against me, even from here!”

Alex nodded, turning to catch Liang Song’s eye. “That man made the Tier 1 Golds we faced up to now seem like raw recruits before a true veteran. I get the feeling that Bronze and Silver is just the beginning of what we have to overcome. That the true measure of a one’s power can only be found ascending up countless steps of Gold. Far more than the seven or twelve we need for Bronze or Silver.”

Panheu chuckled softly. “It is a remarkably humbling experience, is it not, disciple? To think we are finally on the cusp of grace, only to find that the true ascent has just begun. A journey that will take millennia for most that can even manage to struggle past those first few golden steps. And in the entire province, the man you just faced down is perhaps the only Deep Gold who would even bother revealing himself before the likes of you and I.”

Liang Song gazed at Alex for long moments. “You struck him with lightning.”

Alex nodded. “I did.”

Liang smirked and shook his head, turning to Panheu with a smile. “You truly are a bold one, master.”

Panhue chuckled. “Oh, he’s not the one with imperial blood flowing through his veins.”

“Are you sure of that?”

Panheu gave Alex and Hao Chan a frank stare. “It would be very awkward, were it otherwise.”

Hao Chan flushed, anxious eyes gazing into Alex’s own. “Alex...”

“No, Hao Chan. I was born Terran, died Terran, came back as a Terran.”

Hao Chan furrowed her exquisitely sculpted brows. “I’ve never heard of this Terran faction.”

“Exactly,” Alex said, kissing her lips and ignoring the twinge he felt, before stepping away. “What can I say? I’m one of a kind. Without a drop of imperial blood in my veins.”

Liang had frozen, however, widened eyes now locked firmly upon a blushing Hao Chan.

Jidihu squeezed his arm. “No, Liang. Best we say and do nothing that would draw attention to that which has been hidden so well in plain sight for so very long.”

Alex gazed up at the stands, catching sight of Dongfang Hong’s furious glare as a pair of Silver healers tended to the still crippled Wei Fang. “With with the clear bias and contempt Dongfang Hong’s shown half the contestants, not to mention all the attempted murders of deepest Silver and Gold that’s occurred over the last few days, I’m surprised as hell a certain someone hasn’t already stepped in to intervene.”

Panheu exchanged a look with Jidihu. “You’re right, Alex. It’s not like them to wait this long before acting. Even if you should be just as leery of encountering them as Dongfang Hong himself.”

Liang frowned. “I’m not sure I understand...”

“The imperial inquisitor should have already revealed himself.”

Alex’s gut lurched once more, instantly realizing that his mentor was right.

If nothing else, the final strike he had performed. Had no choice but to perform, while facing off against a monster so resistant to even his strongest blows, should have had compelled any imperial observer to action.

No matter that Alex had spent long minutes risking death to set it up. No matter that he had covered it with a punch infused with the power and fury of the storm, the ultimate distraction, a blinding flash implying the flashing brilliance of imperial bloodlines… for just a heartbeat, the waters of death had still infused his left hand.

He had dared channel the River of Souls in front of an entire audience filled with Silvers and Golds… actually thinking misdirection was enough to get away with it.

Even if a Gold tier inquisitor was getting a case together or lining Dongfang Hong in their sights, then Alex was no doubt just as suspicious to their eyes as was the Red Prince himself.