Linnea, now out of her thick winter attire, pouted as they formed up just under the exit, the group prudent enough to tie a colorful formation flag right at the entrance that they could use as a landmark, at least before getting too deep into the thick lush maze of fruit bearing plants, the air alive with the caws of parakeets, the screeches of monkeys, and the low throaty rumbles of far deadlier animals still.

  “I can’t believe my strongest flames couldn’t even mark the icy barrier between paradise and frigid winter!”

  “But maybe that’s for the best,” Rachel softly said, wincing before Linnea’s sudden glare. “I mean… you wouldn’t want to destroy this beautiful paradise, would you? Assuming that this world is really… well… real.”

  Linnea’s scowl turned to a thoughtful nod. “Maybe your right,” she said. “Maybe I couldn’t mark that glass-like ice because in my heart of hearts, I really didn’t want to! And these mulberries are delightfully sweet!”

  “As are the calabash,” said Ya Ling, holding what looked like a yellow cucumber with a happy smile. “So sweet and tart, even if they normally grow in trees, not bushes. At least they do in properly tended caldera basins.”

  Tang grunted his agreement while devouring a cluster of lychee, for he too was happy to stuff himself with all the fruit he could from the bushes heavy with tantalizing fruit within just a couple yards of the entrance. Fruit they had all claimed and savored, before forming into a group once more, having refreshed themselves and now ready to explore the area.

  Alex noted by the bright eyes and excited smiles that he wasn’t the only one eager for the adventure to come, even if he was the only one who sensed the weight of that which was unseen… and hungry, loping across the top tier canopy of what truly was a multistory jungle, blossoming to rich life above the lower level maze of fruit laden bushes.

  “I think you were right, Alex. To discover such a miraculous find, after enduring such hardship… truly this will be an adventure worthy of the storytellers! Come, friends. Let’s make our way through this maze and discover what wonders and secrets that await us within this tower we all thought lost to time!” Lao Tie’s eyes glittered with excitement, even as Alex felt a cold sweat prickle his pack.

  Guts roiling.

  Abruptly realizing that he recognized that subtle pressure. That awful shiver racing down his spine that revealed only a tiny fraction of the nightmare hidden in shadows and gloom.

  He didn’t sense a Bronze cat that failed to cloak itself against the soothing rustles of this arboreal sanctuary, leaves revealing so many frantic secrets in their rustles.

  No.

  The awful pressure so well cloaked in the enticing aroma of gloriously fresh fruit so ripe with spiritual energy was that of a Gold-tier monster.

  A demonic beast in the skin of a giant cat.

  A deadly pressure that tasted of the screams and pain he recalled so damned viscerally while coming so close to death while fleeing for all he was worth in lush delve jungles that could so easily have been his end.

  Alex locked gazes with a jubilant Lao Tie.

  “We have to go. Now!”

  Lao Tie furrowed his brow. “Alex, what are you talking abou—”

  Alex was before the man before he could blink, Alex seemed to appear before the man, ignoring the horrified looks of both Tang and Kuaisu as his silent plea… but not a command… had Ya Ling instantly gathering up Linnea and Rachel and racing for the exit as fast as she could.

  “We are being stalked by a greater spirit beast, Lao. If we don’t get out now… we never will.”

  Lao Tie, clearly a youth of privilege, for all that he was upright and honorable, was clearly not accustomed to being spoken to so directly, so forcefully, even if by a somewhat admired companion.

  His furrowed gazed met Alex’s own. “Surely there is no need to panic. I know that jungle terrain can be perilous, but your partner made it clear how skilled she is at sensing heat, and don’t forget that the pair of us are masters of—”

  Lao Tie abruptly paled, only now appreciating his peril when the sudden killing aura of a Gold crashed down upon them all.

  A Gold getting ready to strike as the air filled with a furious roar so loud and violent that Alex could see the blood pouring from Lao Tie’s ears even as his own rang with pain.

  Before he and everyone who had remained were struck by the crushing weight of a Gold-monster’s fury.

  Yet for one who had dared to stand tall while facing down tyrannical Jade… for one who had once sat at the table before gods eager for his death… the pressure was nothing he couldn’t overcome.

  And he felt no shame in darting away just as fast as he could.

  Saving throw versus Gold-Tier killing aura successful!

  Yet as determined as he was to keep at least some of his cards close and not play the fool… when push came to shove, he wasn’t going to leave his companions behind to die if there was something he could do to make a difference.

  Even if he knew there would be a price to pay later.

  “Run for the exit! Use the rope Ya Ling left!” It wasn’t a request, it was a command.

  Alex ignored the messages suddenly blaring across his inner eye as he grabbed a stunned Lao Tie and flittered through the lush foliage-lined maze so fast that Lao Tie barely had time to gasp before he was gently tossed through the icy air vent and into the howling storm of ice and snow, just beyond.

  “Ya Ling!”

  “It’s okay, Alex. I got him. Save the others!”

  Yet he was already Bullrushing back through the lush foliage before a pair of massive golden eyes met his own, freezing him in his tracks.

  Willpower check successful!

  A surge of horrified dismay shuddered through him as he caught sight of the tableau of crimson horror before him.

  Kuaisu sobbing and screaming and desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood from a leg that had been torn completely free at the knee.

  Tang, caught between horror and agony as he gazed down at his own shredded torso, a pool of entrails and blood replacing his shattered lamellar armor, the loamy floor of the jungle maze covered in his blood.

  Wu Xien alone remained unharmed, even if the spiritual weight of the massive Gold-tier tiger before them had him falling to one knee, his guandao held in trembling hands.

  Alex’s heart was roaring in his ears as he forced his gaze to meet the tigers own.

  The air rumble with the beast’s ire as Alex refused to kneel and pay tribute...before the tiger killed him.

  It was in that moment, gazing at the imperious beast who thought nothing of darting forward and sending Wu Xien cartwheeling through the air, despite his heavy steel armor, with a single flick of its paw as Kuaisu gave a despairing sob that Alex’s fear—and he could finally admit that it was fear that made it so hard to lock his Soul Perception to his target—turned to fury.

  But it was only when the contemptuous feline approached the groaning Wu Xien, who by some miracle hadn’t been crippled by the blow, for all that there were now multiple rents in his armor, that Alex struck.

  The curious expression of the Gold-tier monster, who so clearly enjoyed playing with its food, when its prey abruptly appeared right next abruptly turned to surprise and fury when lightning flashed and blood erupted.

  Storm Strike critically strikes your foe!

  Note! Gold Tier wards & Spirit Beast Vitality reduce Catastrophic Blow to Medium Wound.

  The cat roared his fury as Alex momentarily froze with dismay.

  He had wasted precious seconds locking on with Find Weakness and Wu Xien had paid dearly for his hesitation.

  He had enhanced his blow with Piercing Strike.

  What should have been a catastrophic if not outright lethal blow was now a medium wound that had sliced open his foe’s nose and bloodied its maw… and no more than that.

  Because he wasn’t fighting an overly clever wujen with Soul Cleave…

  He was facing a Gold tier monster and was only now forced to appreciate just what beast-lord Vitality truly entailed.

  Even his eye-blink of hesitation was enough time for his opponent to lash out with claws even as Alex sprung back for all he was worth as his face lit up with hideous pain, nose torn completely off, and it was all he could do to keep his focus as blood sprayed from his face and poured down his throat, Rank 4 Silver Strength and prismatic bones the only reason why his skull hadn’t burst and his neck hadn’t snapped.

  Yet the shock of pain, the spinning disorientation as he went flying, the awful wrench of multiple neck muscles being torn as he dared challenge a beast with Gold tier Strength and Vitality with Quickness at least the equal of his own… meant nothing.

  Nothing before Kuaisu’s desperate scream.

  Nothing before Wu Xien’s cry.

  Alex howled as a desperate hand touched a single passing vine whipping down just where it needed to be, before he disappeared in a flash, porting right in front of the Gold tier beast a heartbeat before it could snap a critically wounded Tang in half, tearing him free of a family that loved him. A daughter that needed him.

  And that was one tragic twist Alex REFUSED to allow into the telling of his tale.

  BLACK SWAN!

  Alex roared as his ji turned black with Steel-shredding Water whipped by bitter Wind saturated with so much Dark Qi it mirrored a river he would never infuse to his weapon again.

  But damn if he wouldn’t get just as close to that precipice as he could.

  FEELING the river’s hunger…

  And refusing its call.

  So that when the air exploded with a geyser of pink frothy blood smelling of wild musk and deadly power, it was utterly free of the River’s dark gift.

  So that no abomination would twist about in his suspension pod… and no table-full of self-righteous tyrants would find pretext to slaughter everyone Alex cared about yet again.

  Yet it was enough to get the wild-eyed tiger’s attention… tearing it completely free of desperate sobbing prey, and force it’s attention right back on the one among them, the only one among them, that posed any threat to it at all.

  “You’re fight’s with me, motherfucker! Let’s get it—”

  Bullrush! You have successfully avoided Fatal Swipe!

  Bullrush chained three times! You have successfully pivoted behind your foe!

  Storm Strike!

  Lightning Blast!

  You have temporarily stunned your—

  Your foe has critically struck you!

  “Let’s get it on!” Alex roared, flashing a fierce hot smile as his fangtian ji whipped through the air with the howling force and fury of the storm crackling with lightning’s fury. Lightning that chained from his cleaving blow tearing right through its flank into a forking explosion of blue-white bolts that crackled through his foe.

  A foe that should have crashed to the ground, its heart fried by lightning.

  A foe that instead twisted around so fast that Alex barely had the heartbeat he needed to register, locking gazes with predatory hunger that made it clear that it had been holding back.

  The Gold-tier predator had been HOLDING BACK it’s abilities, Quickness now the equal of the highest rungs of human Silver… Rank 5. Perhaps it was even Rank 6, which was normally beyond any cultivator who hadn’t achieved a Gold core. But seeing as how this WAS a Gold-tier greater spirit beast...

  It was more than fast enough to catch the abdomen of the foolish disciple that dared to challenge it. Ripping past fangtian ji, rupturing skin and plunging into muscle.

  An instant away from tearing pink intestines free… had Alex not managed to blink away, a rustle in the trees and a choked off scream answered by a demonic roar as the massive spirit tiger glared into the foliage above the fruit-filled maze… licked its claw… and smiled with the malice of the vilest of cultivators as it sauntered over to Kuaisu and prepared to dig in.

  “No, please… Wu! Help me!”

  “Kuaisu!”

  Wu Xien desperately launched himself forward, taking bubbling gasps from blood-speckled lips as he stumbled toward that tiger that would surely spell his doom… when fresh screams rang through the air.

  Screams emanating from the wild-eyed Ruidian who dared to fight even with a perforated intestine, paying a horrid price in pain for his daring.

  You have strained your injury! Medium Wound fails to stabilize! You have suffered additional blood loss! (Vitality save prevents intestines from spilling forth!)

  Doom Strike!

  You have dared to channel Black Lightning! Your foe has suffered 1 Serious Wound!

  Vitality check penalized! You have suffered one additional Medium Wound!

  Alex was nearly stunned with pain almost the equal of the tiger’s when Wu Xien stiffened with a directive the man had no ability to resist… darting forward to claim both Tang and Kuaisu and stumble over to the entrance at a speed beyond any he had ever managed before even as a wild-eyed Ya Ling reached desperate arms to grab the still bleeding and slowly dying Kuaisu, followed by a sobbing Tang, forced to suffer such agony with his intestines spilling as he was forced through and all but dumped on the ice cold cushion of a howling snow storm beyond…

  And last of all was Wu Xien, struggling up the rope with Ya Ling’s frantic help as Gold tier death froze them both on the rope, the air filled with a killing aura so intense that Ya Ling was on the verge of collapsing and crashing right down to her doom.

  Before the air exploded with black lightning once more and the furious howls of a wounded Gold.

  YOU have successfully dodged Fatal Swipe!

  You have been momentarily stunned by Suppressing Roar!

  Quickness check: Success!

  It was all Alex could do to Spring Leap for the uppermost branches as the fearsome Gold below roared its fury, shocking Alex with Light Wounds he could do nothing save suffer through, even as he cycled the potent Dark Qi energy all about in a desperate bit do heal what he could in the moments he had before the terrible vessel of destruction came for him once more. For despite it’s enormous size, the Spirit Tiger was every bit as agile as he.

  Yet somehow, despite the peril and spiritual pressure seeking to consume him, to drown him in the depths of despair, he was forever a single leap ahead as his communion with the lush jungle grove increased with every desperate leap before wood was shattered to kindling and fury.

  With every drop of sweat and blood to soak those mystical trees that were as much dream as real… making Alex’s sacrifice all the more sacred.

  All the more profound.

  You have successfully dodged Doom Pounce!

  Spring Leap – enhanced quickness avoids Deadly Swipe!

  You have accessed: Dark Beast Core.

  Power healing engaged!

  The forest acknowledges your sacrifice.

  You are now one with this grove!

  Yet for all that Alex had given up on anything save survival as he led the furious beast ever deeper into its own sanctuary, doing all he could to make sure his battlemates had successfully fled… it wasn’t panic or terror that motivated him.

  It was an ice cold fury the equal of the most bitter seas.. A roiling calculation as he peered past the deadly Golden glow that scalded the senses to measure and understand as best he could the furious streams of potent animalistic fury radiating both the wild savagery of woodland predators and the fluid grace of liquid perfection that was this recently broken through Gold-tier monster.

  And just as Alex suffered his most perilous exchange yet, throat coming so close to being torn open in a spray of blood, the slicing of Gold-ranked claw against Silver Tier Draconically enhanced flesh still enough to send blood drenching the forest anew…

  It all suddenly clicked.

  Sensing the subtle hot flare of furious blazing Qi through meridians far more powerful, and subtle, than any crude beast of countless other shadow realms or deep wooden glades.

  Clicked as he breathed in time to the rustling susurrations of the leaves all around him.

  Now just an extension of the forest as the Tiger glared up at Alex with a cold, all too human grin as it licked fresh crimson drops off its claws once more.

  Making a promise as a gurgling Alex grit his teeth and engaged in power healing as best he could.

  “You will die now, mortal.”

  “Bring it, motherfucker!”

  A promise that Alex had every intention of keeping.

  “Alex, we’re all free! Please get out now, while you can!”

  The tiger laughed, eyes twinkling with such malice that Alex felt nothing but dread, knowing what it must mean.

  “There is no escape. You know that, don’t you, mortal?” The tiger’s grin grew. “Not for them… and not for you.”

  Alex forced a laugh even as he choked back a scream, enduring his forced healing, sensing to his dismay that his closest companions could sense every word exchanged by Alex and his final opponent. “You’re right. There’s no escape from our destiny… so let me show you yours.”

  “That you would dare!” The tiger roared and charged, eyes wild with the scent of Alex’s blood that he had already shed in such copious amounts, yet no more as Alex darted from one branch to another as fast as thought, frustrating the tiger to no end as Alex’s smile grew.

  Grew as furious claws and snapping teeth found it ever harder to score the flesh of the prey the spirit beast yearned so desperately to finish, the tiger growing increasingly frustrated as he crashed about the forest as clumsily as a galleon caught in a storm that rocked both mast and till. A storm of Water laced with steel and fury, Wind and Dark Qi. A storm that lit up the increasingly damaged grove with white-blue flashes of lightning as the Tiger’s furious roars slowly turned to gurgling snarls.

  Smoke flowing from fur singed and blackened. An ancient, terrible predator that had put down countless opponents over who knew how many decades. A beast that had been trapped here in a greenhouse in the middle of this winter certainly had no reason to think that death by the sea would be its eventual doom.

  Yet when brilliant arcs of lightning became crackling ribbons of death, carving fresh tracks of ruin upon both it and it’s assailants flesh… when once-effective roar earned only mocking laughter, no matter blood leaking freely from the prey’s nose and ears… when one’s foe began step-sliding away from what would have been absolutely devastating blows, as if they could sense your very flow of Spiritual Energy…

  It was time go. Attack with everything you have!

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  Alex blinked, truly surprised to see the Gold-tier monster perform such a deadly feint. Whipping around to rip out Alex’s eyes… and actually managing to rip open a now screaming Alex’s cornea.

  But the giant tiger didn’t escape unscathed… like a galleon so eager to take on a privateer that it was purposely led to perilous shallows… more than capable of shredding any hull. The tiger looked almost comically surprised to find itself hurtling back through the air, spinning like a ragdoll, wearing an expression that would have been comical, even to Alex, had his foe not come so close to killing him already.

  Alex lurching to the loamy forest floor, desperately doing his utmost to engage in power-healing while not losing himself in the aftermath of a Sage’s Insight.

  Avalanche! You have successfully struck and stunned a Gold-tier Greater Spirit Beast!

  You now understand the devastating potency of Earth better than you ever have before!

  Avalanche has hit Rank 5!

  Adept-tier perk automatically chosen: One With The Storm.

  A desperate Alex pushed away the agony of a ripped open eye, the furious exultation of transcendence along Peril’s Path. All his focus was on seizing this sudden opportunity. Flickering through the sea of forest green faster than he ever had before. For he now truly was one with the Sea.

  Such that when a momentarily stunned ascended beast went skipping over verdant waves of rippling green, it was to smash against hull-sheering shoals repeatedly.

  With such terrible force that even Gold-tier Vitality began to waver, as blows that should have destroyed any cultivator’s Silver-tier physique, no matter how enhanced their body cultivation, did nothing but bruise the hardened knuckles covering prismatic bone... it was Gold tier organs that were bruised, and monstrous ribs that suffered hairline cracks that would, over time, surrender to the pounding seas.

  Yet Gold-tier beasts were the farthest thing from easy prey as a roaring Alex found when he suddenly found himself flying back once more, his shoulder nearly torn out of its socket, crimson drops of blood spraying the air, thanks to a back claw that would have so easily sliced through ribs and heart, were it not for prismatic bones.

  Somehow, the galleon had managed to right itself with the desperate will and fury of the pilot itself…

  And it was the sudden flare of spiritual energy that would have warned Alex, had not the frenzy of battle replaced the ice-cold analysis of tempered fury that made him so much deadlier than poorly flash-hardened steel.

  Steel that cracked, yet did not break, as a now wheezing Alex power-healed once more, gripping so tightly the pommel of his sword, sensing his foe wheezing just as he was in the woodland sea, the maze itself now near completely destroyed, thanks to their engagement. A tragedy he promised himself he would correct, one day, should he manage to survive and return.

  “You will pay for that, mortal! I will crack your bones and savor your marrow, and your screams. Then I shall leave this maze, and hunt down all who dared savor the spirit fruit within my domain!”

  Alex forced a smile through his still aching chest, choking back a scream as his nerves blazed with the agony of countless hours worth of painful healing forcefully crammed into the handful of seconds he could spare, all his focus now on riding the epiphany he could now feel roaring through him.

  Fearing no longer the Sage’s Insight, no matter its cost.

  One with the storm.

  He furrowed his brow, seeing it in his mind’s eye so clearly.

  The perfect synergism of eight elements that had made up the potentially life-saving Prismatic Shield. The very technique that Long Wang had tried so desperately, so hungrily, to steal from his mind. As if fate allowed him a singular attempt it had taken Alex all he had to thwart.

  A technique he had lost access to anyway, so eager to dare a storybook cultivator’s path with fortuitous encounters, divine-tier spirit fruit, and daring to fuse Wind’s blessing to his soul. To his children’s as well, perhaps, unlikely as he was to live so long as to ever be able to cherish that dream.

  Yet the cost of such daring had been losing the ability to harmonize the flow of all eight elements, and not even he was foolish enough or idealistic enough as to think that he would ever stumble across eight different divine tier spirit fruit that would enhance each of the elements that so readily defined his soul. Nor could he crush the gift that now at least partially defined him, defined his path as White Qi Techniques were replaced by Wind, and in some ways at least, Piercing Strike and Storm Swan kung fu and so many other arts were made all the stronger as he reforged so many old paths that his enemies would otherwise sense. So many skills transformed along new paths that made his abilities even stronger and, hopefully, impossible for his enemies to detect, no matter the struggles he had endured to get to wear he was.

  He had reforged himself anew and in so many ways benefited from the transformation.

  Save the loss of his prismatic shield and strike, that might serve as such a boon in the present as he dared to face a Gold even now roaring for fresh blood.

  Alex flashed a smile and spat blood, now so in tune with the sea of trees that he knew exactly where his opponent stumbled through the underbrush, furiously devouring spirit fruit for what sustenance and recuperation it might offer him.

  For now was the time to strike. The absolute best time to strike.

  Yet Alex couldn’t ignore the whisper of an epiphany now thrumming through his soul.

  Already having reforged a path to power, adding ever more elements to an elemental technique that was truly one with his path.

  Storm Swan. Storm Strike. Storm Wing. Martial techniques and Qi abilities that dared to fuse not just Wind’s fury with the sea’s bitter metallic salt tears, but the furious Lightning of their collision with Dark Qi of the stygian depths as well. A synergistic communion of five elements that now allowed for a sixth as well, as an art originally based on the sense of rolling boulders slowly gaining momentum became the instant crashing ruin of foes slammed by stormy seas into pitiless rocky shoals that ground them to oblivion.

  Which meant that he was on the cusp of understanding a path to fusing six elements to at least some of his attacks.

  Yet there was more. So much more even as the sacred grove’s fecundity cried out against the furious guardian that ravished what it should be protecting. Gnashing on precious lychee, spirit peaches and guava trees, before destroying their roots with sharp vicious claws, honing killing blades and steeling boons in twisted ways, all so it could kill the interloper that had dared to wound it so badly.

  It was a defiling, a travesty that filled Alex with fury.

  A bitter hot fury that roared and blazed within his soul.

  For he could do nothing about the terrible monstrous cost that had been paid by sacred forests in his desperate battle with a divine general so eager to purge both Alex, all his ancient progeny, and any ethnicity that didn’t fit monstrous standards of purity. He could do nothing to save the forest that had surrounded the sacred city he had been able to claim for his own realm.

  A realm now the size of Earth, or larger, covered with the forest he had made a pact with, in the life he had lived just before.

  Yet still he felt the weight of his actions, his choices, and the terrible price so many had been forced to pay.

  And he could do nothing to ease the past’s bitter burden.

  Yet it was in this moment, in the glorious here and NOW, that he could affect changes that might one day shake the entire world.

  He shivered with intensity, summoning once more a sacred Silver tier art, or it’s echo.

  Shield of the Burning Grove. Yet the endless forests he now visualized were an echo of this tormented grove… and the shocking devastation of the seven thousand plus square miles of forest that had been devastated as he dared to claim an entire world’s elite forces attempting to cross the gates between worlds while shattering the gate… and unleashing a hellfire storm of shocking proportions.

  A quark bomb of furious, deadly potential.

  A quark bomb of FIRE filled with the bitter Spirit Qi of fury and regret that made it so shockingly hot. Hot enough to melt slag.

  And that was when epiphany struck once more. For he had seen enough recordings of volcanoes and nuclear explosions to know that both Wind and Lightning were as much the province of the clash between Fire and Earth as Water.

  Wind and Lightning and Spirit Qi itself. Elements that both surrounded and embraced the five fundamentals. Catalyzing so many reactions, allowing reality to be aware of its own existence. Autonomy and will in what would otherwise be a universe of blind chemical reactions and soulless automatons.

  Spiritual wrath that tasted of the Wood’s fury, Fire’s madness, and so much more.

  The disk of blazing wood fastened like a shield upon Alex’s trembling arm took on one layer after another. Blazing with shocking monstrous heat as white-hot magma gave rise to bitter sharp elements of Steel flash-cooled by Water that became furiously hot steam propelling the spinning disk of flesh-shredding teeth covered in the Dark Qi of pristine destruction spinning around the rim of his monstrous shield faster and faster.

  The air began ringing with an unending thrum as Alex felt the sudden sharp drain of his Qi Pool that was a new technique of perilous potential and power being forged in a moment’s epiphany while daring to take on a Gold.

  His agonized face twisted in a rictus of fierce vindication, holding tight to the epiphany even as he squeezed tight the hilt of his now ebony black dao.

  Walking a tightrope between transcendence and exhaustion, not daring even to Spring Leap as he leaped from the tree branches he had hid within and slowly made his way to the center of the grove, where the Roaring sentinel of this place waited.

  He flashed a bitter smile, wanting to laugh as he embraced the Fox’s tale once more.

  Instead he gave a wordless cry.

  One the tiger, covered in still bleeding wounds that low-tier spirit fruit had done nothing to heal, its one remaining eye crackling with monstrous fury, immediately answered.

  “You will pay for daring to mark my flesh, mortal!” The tiger’s roar rocked Alex with a wave of dizziness that was nothing compared to the horrors of chemo. Yet still he stumbled back, crouching over and groaning as the Gold-tier monster howled with mocking laughter as he pounced. “Worthless, inferior trash! My wounds will be revitalized with the sweet nectar of your blood! My eye reforged with the insights of your obliterated soul! But fear not. I will leave you alive after I tear free your entrails and devour your manhood! Long enough to howl and gnash your teeth when I present the skulls of each of your friends who dared to feast upon my prizes! Who dared to gaze upon me with their unworthy—”

  The words cut off when a snarling Alex snapped back into a warrior’s crouch, his shield of swirling elements, crackling lightning, and ripping steel was suddenly before the tiger that roared and swiped it as casually as a house cat batting a mouse to the side.

  Before his Gold-tier paw was neatly sheered through, earning an ear-screeching yowl of pain as the creature jerked back on three paws and one bleeding stump in stunned disbelief.

  A heartbeat of confusion that was all Alex needed as he roared and plunged his midnight blade under the tiger’s massive jaw, filling its skull with thick bolts of furiously crackling black lightning that tore through the guardian’s body even as Alex was flung back with a spasming swipe, groaning as his skull smacked against a nearby trunk before he could even blink away.

  Shield of Wrath has torn free Gold-tier Tiger’s Paw!

  You have successfully Stabilized Shield of Wrath!

  Shield of Wrath is now Rank 1!

  Doom Strike! - You have seized the Vor, taken advantage of a stunned and critical opponent, and critically struck your foe!

  Vitality check successful! Backlash channeled into Prismatic Bones.

  One Light Wound taken!

  You have been struck by a Stunning Blow!

  You have been sent flying!

  Power Healing engaged.

  Alex felt himself wavering in and out of consciousness, feeling like he was at risk of slipping into sea of crushing blackness, his ears alive with the roaring thrum of an accretion disk now spinning with such force that space and time were visibly warping to his senses.

  Frozen, horrified, knowing that he had to get up. He MUST get up, heart hammering with peril… and despair.

  Slowly twisting around to see the inevitable… a trick of perception. A cage comprised of a single spinning thread of silvery degenerate matter just large enough to fit an apple-sized singularity was suddenly a massive event horizon the size of the sun surrounded by a shrieking accretion disk and over one hundred and fifty millions souls.

  Shrieking and howling as epiphanies and revelations caused the accretion disk to spin faster and faster as countless doomed spirits slipped past the point of no return.

  It was a sight that filled him with such dread, fury, and despair.

  Praying it was naught but metaphor, even as he felt his body trembling with newfound strength, his mind shuddering with flashes of insight… now so close to Rank 4 Divine Silver in such a shockingly short period of time that he couldn’t help but wonder if his ancient master had a hand in it.

  Or perhaps, it was about reclaiming the power that was his own.

  Had always been his own.

  Power that should never have been taken away.

  Or perhaps… with the terrible bounty he had already claimed…

  (No. It’s a dream. A metaphor. Nothing else!)

  The terrible secret he and WiFu had shared with a bitter smile. Accepting the stricture of their enemies without dispute. Soul Cleave might be off the table, and his ability to devour souls would be a declaration of all-out war.

  A stricture he was more than willing to accept.

  What need did he have for Soul Stones, after all, when he had already claimed so many?

  So many shockingly powerful enemy soldiers lost in a cataclysm he wondered if even the gods above truly understood, forced to surrender their secrets with every epiphany he made, every step he dared along the Path of Peril, every time he reforged himself anew in the crucible of conflict... pitting his life, his very existence against hostile assassins, Silver tier Wujens, and ascended beasts of Gold.

  A beast which could even now be stumbling back to its ravished paws, the couple that remained, and be dragging itself to sup upon the helpless flesh of the stunned fool that had dared to challenge a Gold in its domain.

  - Get up, fool! -

  A stunned fool who even now felt multiple presences swarming toward him…

  Flooding his stunned chest with panic as he

  Wheezed for breath and—

  “No, Alex, don’t!”

  Linnea’s desperate cry. His mind was momentarily stunned by flashes of the beautiful green eyed girl’s panic, looking down at him a heartbeat before he could lash out with a blade so filled with darkness that it was obvious that yet another skill had ascended along Power’s Path, no matter the perils it promised.

  Congratulations! Doom Strike is now Rank 5!

  Adept tier automatically chosen: Oblivion’s Kiss! Your Black Lightning Strikes with such fearsome intensity that even a Vitality specced Gold-tier Spirit Beast will now have cause to fear your blows! - Backlash has increased! Even a successful Vitality save will result in a Medium wound! - NOTE daring this ability outside of Delves might raise flags!

  Hidden Perk. Your increasing mastery (and consumption) of your own darkness means that it’s far less likely to shatter priceless beast cores, should you successfully make your Vitality check! (Or maybe you were just lucky, this time around?)

  “No, Alex, don’t!”

  Alex lurched to his feet with a cry, Dizzy and disoriented and sure as hell not expecting to see a worried looking Tao Lei of all people gazing at him with such awe, such wonder… and what was that scent? Ah yes.

  Fear

  Lao Tie was gazing at Alex with an odd mixture of hope and the look of a man who feared that a single misunderstood gesture or poorly considered phrase might elicit the wrath of a spirit beast every bit as mad as the tiger determined to kill them all.

  And how awfully ironic would it be if that was the moment the awful spirit beast chose to kill his newest friend.

  “Look out!” Alex wheezed, surprised by how rough and ragged his voice was. How filled with energy was.

  Blinking as he belatedly understood. Potency Mastery. Instinctively channeling so much of his potency toward mastering his skills even as his mana reserves shot up to full in just a handful of seconds, no dark beast core needed.

  Because the Gold tier Titan he had fought that could have so easily cut his story tragically short…

  “You killed it!” Lao Tie’s voice was filled with something close to awe as he stumbled forward, a trembling cheek lifting to touch Alex’s bloody chin before pulling it back with flushed cheeks. “I’m sorry I… do you want a healing tincture?” He immediately handed it to Alex that he numbly claimed, but didn’t use. Because why would he?

  He was already healed.

  And Prismatic Fox Restoration Technique was now just a hairsbreadth away from Rank 10.

  Just a nudge away.

  Just like he was from Silver-tier Rank 4.

  Shuddering with power, illumination…

  and the screams of all those who had been caught between the crossfire of raging gods so filled with bitter hate that they would destroy an entire world.

  Alex choked back a sob, filled with such an odd mixture of triumph and awful regret as he gazed upon the fallen body of the massive spirit tiger, still smoking from Black Lightning penetrating so deeply only because Soul Sight and a spirit beast’s weakness had synergized with Piercing Strike and Find weakness to sense the fragile ridge of bone in the roof of the beasts’ mouth to pierce with his blade… striking in the instant it coughed surprise as its fatal swipe had turned to the agony of a missing limb shorn off by an eight-element technique… before Black Qi Lightning… and how fucking deadly was that? Had blazed through its skull.

  Black Qi lightning that would now strike with a fearsome intensity utterly beyond the pale.

  And he would be forced to channel that agony right back into his bones… without jolting himself so badly in the heat of combat that he himself was vulnerable to a finishing move.

  Fuck.

  Talk about double-edged skill evolutions!

  He’d have to be damned careful before using it in live combat for so many reasons… but at least it was a tool he could now use to absolutely wicked effect.

  And the shield he had summoned forth in such a dazed epiphany that it had been like a dream…

  He summoned forth his Shield of Wrath once more, smiling with relief to see that his epiphany was REAL! Even if the heat radiating off it was enough to give him pause while outside the heat of combat, realizing that he had been healing himself even while using it… and the startled cry and curse of his companions reminded his dazed self that he was most definitely not alone.

  “Heaven’s mercy! You forged a shield of the elements!”

  Alex tensed at Lao Tie’s awed look, fearing the repercussions, should word get out before he was ready.

  “He’s terrified you! Can you believe it? He so clearly wants to marry the princess… but he doesn’t dare order your death! He sees himself as upright and honorable, and besides, you already saved the men who normally handle his dirty-work! He prays you’re just as noble as in the storybooks, and he hopes you won’t kill him and claim Sunlay for yourself!”

  “Wait… he’s no Ruidian. We’re not node-linked! How do you even know any of this?”

  Linnea grinned, speaking aloud. “I have no idea!”

  Alex’s cheeks flushed even as he turned to face her, filled with heartfelt relief that he had NOT swung the terrible blade that had been glooming with such fearsome dark potency that he quickly sheathed the weapon out of shame. Yet his exquisite hearing still picked up the words he heard.

  Alex winced, sensing both his friends’ and Linnea’s discomfort even with their fire alignment, dispelling the odd hybrid shield that was, he feared, a far cry from offering the defensive capabilities of his Prismatic Shield, or even his Dark Storm Shield.

  But as far as proof of concept went… he shuddered as much from dizziness as wonder, realizing that he had just opened the door to so many possible paths to power, so many glorious epiphanies that were, for the moment, utterly beyond him as he stumbled on his feet, before being gently clasped by none other then Ya Ling, giving him such a fond, gentle smile.

  “Of course we came back, Alex. Lao Tie’s magical potion actually healed Wu Xien and Tang. Even if he had to use up the entire priceless vial… and a good portion of their armor is all but ruined. Yet still, their weapons are sharp and there was no way we were going to abandon you without trying to pull you free.”

  “But it was a Gold-tier monster.”

  Ya Ling’s smile wavered, a sudden pallor coming over her features before she shook her head in wonder. “And yet you actually managed to kill it.”

  Alex blinked, opening his mouth, knowing he should say something as Ya Ling, Linnea, and the others stared so pointedly at him. Even Tang and Wu Xien were gazing at him like he was a living legend come to life. Ya Ling’s thoughts suddenly so clear in his mind’s eye that he was forced to look away.

  “Where’s Kuaisu?”

  “Stable,” Ya Ling whispered. “But Lao Tie’s potion, marvelous as it was for closing the ugliest wounds and forcing intestines back where they belonged, couldn’t regenerate missing flesh. Only fuse and reset and stabilize the flesh you already have. Tears can be mended, wound’s sealed, but it can’t grow back a missing limb. Even Tang will need to see a healer once we leave to make sure his insides are truly stable and he can eat and defecate without growing terribly ill… and Kuaisu is, for the moment, crippled. Rachel hid her by the entrance, surrounded by protective vines and a ward that makes even I look away.”

  She flashed a rueful smile. “In truth, Alex, we had to come back inside or leave as fast as we could. It’s just too cold. Even colder than it was before! And too much protective gear was destroyed. And when Linnea’s communion with you made it clear that there was only a single enemy to face and that you were in dire peril… as was our foe… the choice was clear.”

  Lao Tie nodded. “Please rest, my friend. You’ve done well. Incredibly well.” He gave Alex a comradely pat on his shoulder. “Rest. We’ll take it from here.”

  Alex opened his mouth, only for Ya Ling to gently touch his lips with a smile. “I think you’re on the verge of … how did grandfather put it? A Fool’s Folly after embracing whatever insights actually allowed you to take out that… thing.”

  She shuddered even as Rachel raced up to him and clasped his hand, her eyes twinkling with unbridled joy as Alex felt himself wrapped in a gentle hammock of woody vines cushioned by cotton balls.

  “This forest is so alive, Alex. And it likes you so much! It’s so effortless to embrace Wood, here. And I went up so many levels!” She all but squealed with joy. “Don’t worry, I invested it in my elemental affinities this time! Sand was already at Level 3 from my time as a caravan guard… And pushing Wood to Level 5 gave me a free rank of Earth! I’m betting if I get Sand to 5, Earth will automatically go to Rank 3 or 4!”

  Alex smiled fondly at his friend, feeling so many words of gamer wisdom tickling the back of his mind, yet finding he barely had energy to do anything more than yawn as he slipped into a drowsy doze. And when he felt Linnea somehow curling up on the viny hammock next to him, he was too tired to fight it. Didn’t want to fight it.

  So hungry to be held. Cherished. Loved.

  Yet the pressure in his Dantian made it clear there would be a terrible price to pay as it shifted ever closer to its deadliest configuration.

  A configuration now part and parcel to his soul.

  A configuration that would finally reveal itself to be nothing but a boon…

  Once he hit Gold.

  His final thoughts as he surrendered to the same oblivion he sensed so many souls falling into was a promise to himself that it was not the end… only the beginning.

  150 million souls that might one day be reborn anew.

  An event horizon might forever keep them from ever inhabiting the worlds of warring pantheons… but nothing said they couldn’t be reborn into the realm he had forged for himself.

  It was only when he had slipped into the restorative sleep so vital even to Silver cultivators daring to ascend as fast as he that fate’s mischievous machinations added a delightful twist that would change absolutely everything.

  Words he only registered when he woke up with a gasp exactly eight hours later, gazing at a near naked Linnea looking back at him so raptly, even as he felt no twinge to his Dantian at all.

  “We did it!” She whispered with a gloriously happy smile.

  Alex felt a surge of absolute panic with those words, frantically checking himself to golden peals of laughter, realizing to his relief that he felt… just fine?

  “No, silly. Not that!” Her eyes twinkled with mirth when she whispered in his ear. “Though I wouldn’t mind a bit.” She stood up and gave a sinuous yawn, cracking her back before pecking his lips with a kiss that tasted of cherries, sunshine, and happiness.

  “I mean we found a core! And Lao Tie is absolutely ecstatic!”

  Alex blinked, then nodded. “Well, excellent. I take it that Gold-tier beast actually gave us a clean core? And thank goodness it didn’t break!”

  Ya Ling made an appearance at that moment, frowning down at Linnea only for a second before flashing them both a teasing smile. “Looks like you two got your beauty sleep. So, are you ready to return to the palace and be feted as heroes by the king?”

  Alex blinked. “What? I thought that Lao Tie wanted to explore this place and make the most of this fortuitous encounter? Maybe see if we could discover an inheritance…” he flushed, suddenly shame-faced. “But you’re right. We have injured friends who need healing, and you were all gracious enough to wait until I had actually had a chance to fully recover myself.”

  “We did indeed, my dearly beloved kung fu brother!” Lao Tie gushed, making an appearance with his bloodstained robe and oddly worshipful gaze. “For we have done it! We have done it and so must now be at our absolute strongest!”

  Alex blinked. “You found a spiritual treasure while I was sleeping?”

  Lao Tie’s smile grew as he presented a prize that left Alex breathless, filled with a sudden mixture of awe and dismay as he feared that poor Sunlay was going to be furious with him very soon.

  Even if they had pulled off a miracle.

  For the massive core glittering with such pristine clarity without a single crack, inclusion, or flaw, was near the mirror of the one that had saved Liushi.

  A pristine Water Core of Gold.

  “With this core, we can save our entire city!” Lao Tie gushed.

  “And now you get to marry the princess!” Linnea declared happily, earning a silent groan from Alex.

  Yup. Sunlay was definitely going to kill him.