《Silver Fox and the Western Hero》Book 7 - Chapter 26 - A Silver ascends. A god weeps tears of blood.

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Alex noted the flash of lightning and the boom of thunder as the heavens howled with a storm like no under as he stepped free of the River of Souls, gazing at the pair of Golds whose horrified countenances made it clear that they had heard every word that had transpired between Alex and his prey.

Which could only mean that they had been linked in a party.

In ways only Alex might have shown them, countless lifetimes ago.

Before they had betrayed them utterly.

Chui sobbed, gazing at him like he was death’s avatar himself.

“You tore free his soul… You tore free his soul!”

Alex nodded. “His core, at least.”

“Please… we didn’t know! How could we have possibly known?” Tears of terror ran trails down a face streaked with dirt and grime, utterly unable to penetrate the wards around her, able only to kick up the dust trapped inside.

“You didn’t know. And neither did I. And still, it all would have ended the same,” Alex said, drawing his blades gently across his neck, washing them in a spray of his own arterial blood. Horrifying his prey like nothing else, for all that the shallow wounds closed up in seconds.

“You don’t know that!” Te Chang desperately cried, the beautiful perfect youth looking exactly like Alex’s classmate of a lifetime ago. A world ago. A vision of sweet golden perfection forever frozen between the cusp of youth and adulthood, who had charmed so many men and women at every village, town, and city they had explored together, so many lifetimes ago. “Shi Xien would have been the strongest, bravest, most noble Ally you could have possibly hoped for, if you had given him a chance!” he sobbed, sharing a desperate gaze with the panicked Chui as he did so. “Even now, it’s not too late! Chui and I could be your greatest friends and the staunchest allies you could ever ask for, if you just gave us a—“

“Soulcleave!”

And in the blink of an eye, Alex’s blade, shimmering a ghostly hue, cleaved through barrier, throat, and a dozen different wards of protection and retribution, the pyramid trap at last shining in all its blazing glory as it held in enough energy to light up a second sun.

Before fading to the darkness of death as Alex claimed his second prize of war as Chui’s desperate wide-eyed shrieks turned to a despairing wail.

“Soul Cleave!”

Before choking off with a ragged gasp, despair turning to desperate panic as she lurched and struggled within her cage of force as Alex’s blades effortlessly tore through protective wards and raised arms with equal ease. And at any other time, his heart would have burned for the terrified cultivator struggling for all she was worth as she squirmed and bled. In any other life, he would have fought to save her from the monster so viciously assaulting her as blood sprayed from her cleaved arms as her desperate struggles weakened, her panicked gaze locking with Alex’s own one last time.

But the bitter life he now lived was one where his descendant had just been burned to ash so utterly he could never even recover her body, an existence where he was now haunted by the memories of countless lifetimes’ worth of betrayals at the hands of people he had once loved with all his heart, orchestrated by a hideous monster Alex would do anything and everything he could to tear free of the mantel of existence for all time.

So he gave the only answer he would ever give his foes. Especially ones he had once loved so deeply.

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Before they had stabbed him in the back, ending his first attempts at glorious ascension, countless lifetimes ago.

“Soul Cleave!”

Tearing free Chui’s core and refusing to even look at the desperate face sobbing for mercy, showing no more pity than he had Te Chang’s specter, just seconds ago.

Stepping free of the River of Souls, roaring in victory, awful regret, and fiercest resolve.

Realizing that even here, Shalu had had his bitter victory, as he crashed to his knees and sobbed for the laughter and friendship and countless memories over who knew how many lifetimes that he had once shared with the three desperate Golds he had destroyed so utterly, so completely, that not one would ever awaken from the death’s waters again.

His howl was equal parts fury, resolution, and crushing sorrow.

Never hating himself more than he did at that moment.

For all that his body now trembled with inconceivable power.

You have consumed the power and potency of 3 Rank 2 Gold Cultivators!

Maximum potency storage capacity reached.

You have successfully saved versus rupture!

You have declined venting excess potency to panicked party members!

You have severed all party links, save those to party members: Yinzi & Hao Chan.

You have successfully claimed Tier 3 Golden Core!

You have successfully claimed Tier 1 Jade Core!

And Alex sobbed for the woman he had once loved with all his heart.

Once called wife.

Because the prince who had melted and won the heart of the princess of deepest Silver so hungry for power had been himself, in one of the very few eras Ruidians had ever been welcomed, in one of the very few lives that had ever truly been sweet.

A love that had even carried over to their next life, where the fierce memory of their bonding had left enough of a mark that Shalu, much to his surprise, had been unable to win his fiance over with a core of Gold.

So that demonic monster had promised her Jade instead.

You have dared the forbidden! Your soul blackens with the karmic weight of golden potential torn free of its rightful host for all time!

You have disregarded your internal code of only harvesting corrupted souls! Your corruption is now absolute.

Candidacy for Honorable Hellion has been revoked!

You have claimed the eternal soul stones of men you once swore to protect for all time! You have claimed the eternal soul stone of a woman you once swore to love and cherish for all your days!

You are now considered one of the Fallen, the wings of your soul now so blackened with karmic debt that purgatory can be your only reward.

Cleaved Fates card in effect!

All karmic ties have been severed.

Your karmic virtue has been reset to zero!

Alex howled once more, tilting his head to roar at the deep blue sky high above.

“I’m coming for you, Shalu! I will not rest until I have broken you utterly! I will not surrender the board until I have smashed your piece under my heel and scattered you to the winds for eternity!

“We are at war, Shalu! From now until the end of time!”

Alex screamed the words aloud, laughing and trembling when he felt fate and destiny warp itself to the terrible oath he had uttered, realizing to his awe and horror they weren’t the empty promise of a furious broken Bronze.

They were the words of a god.

Jade Divine Fate Card: Nemesis is now in play!

You may pick one host (including yourself) and one target. Host will be permanently obsessed with killing target over all future lives. Host will automatically know where his target is at all times. Host has +8 to all stealth checks against his opponent. No detection techniques will alert target to his rapidly approaching death! All Body Cultivation Techniques, armor, and Qi Wards used by the target are nullified against host. All regeneration techniques are nullified against wounds caused by the host.

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Warning: Once in effect, this card cannot be revoked.

You have chosen to invoke this card on yourself! Sanity will remain intact! You can now sense traces of your foe wherever he has left his mark! All your foe’s efforts to trick or trap you, all attempts to mislead or misdirect you from your chosen path, are doomed to fail. So decrees fate herself!

Hunt well, vessel of the gods!

“No! That’s impossible! He can’t make that oath. He should be dead! He is trapped and pinned! I bested him! I have broken him! He should be screaming in Shui Jun’s coils for all time!”

Alex sensed his foes desperate howls even as he screamed in sudden terrible illumination.

Suddenly understanding all his foe’s weaknesses and foibles.

The massive fears and insecurities behind his horrific gluttony. The cowardice beneath his bluster.

The desperate need to crush anyone he feared smarter than him. Cleverer than him. Better than him.

Alex found to his awe and furious glee that he understood his Nemesis utterly.

And the fiery hate blazing in his soul was exactly the same as it had been before he had cried his oath to the heavens.

The card didn’t compel him at all.

It didn’t need to.

His nemesis had already committed every dark act conceivable to assure Alex’s enmity for all time.

A foe he could somehow sense even now, through WiFu’s eyes, for all that he was a world away.

The bloated pile of rotting filth suddenly paled, eyes widening in horrified awe, and Alex could taste his sudden rank fear when he gazed at the empty seat WiFu was holding so diligently for his disciple and friend.

“What is the meaning of this?” Shalu roared.

All the gods looked equally aghast. Even the beautiful goddess of the moon and fertility was now gazing at her midnight husband with something close to fear.

“WiFu. What does this mean?” asked Qing Bai.

Eyes of brilliant jade gazed at his lover and foes.

“It means the Nemesis card is now in play.”

WiFu flashed a cold grin, cocking his ear. “And what’s that I hear? I do believe it’s the sound of three more of your favorite pawns being cleaved free of the Board of Fate, brother dearest. Just like a certain pair of headmasters and your pet alchemist before them!”

And Alex could hear Shalu, Long Wang, and Zheng Yi howling their outrage and fury as all the lands within Cuijing Province began to buckle and shake under the frustrated wrath of the gods.

Yet it was nothing compared to the mad roaring inside Alex’s skull, still overwhelmed by the weight of bitterest memory, the cruelest, blackest gift Shalu could have possibly given.

Yet even as he drowned in bitter regrets, time stretching horribly as if to assure he savored every awful betrayal suffered, every exquisitely bleak loss endured, Alex squeezed tight the massive Jade pearl still in his hand, turning all his focus to one particular set of halcyon recollections as everything else was washed away.

-------

As welcome as a warm dry shelter in the midst of a howling storm, Alex stepped into a bittersweet memory he would embrace like no other. A momentary reprieve from countless visions of grief and sorrow, he welcomed the flood of memories and images that was a young lord at the very peak of his power, laughing for sheer joy, as he accomplished his ultimate achievement after countless decades of training, studying, and fighting beside his friends, taking out both perilous spirit beast and enemy cultivators so determined to destroy their sanctuary.

Because with his friends and the girl he would cherish above all others by his side, he had done the impossible, and dared that which none of his kind had ever dared before.

Closing his eyes to savor the sweet, sublime perfection of a single impossibly potent Silver cable comprised of seven cords of harmonious Qi. He could feel the tears in his eyes, so profoundly moved he was by his accomplishment, and the hope and security it would bring to his city, his people. A slowly revolving cable of twined spiritual energy around his soul. As to how he would ever forge the other six, that, he thought with a soft chuckle, was a struggle for another day.

He furrowed his brow though, to the unexpected whisper of steel behind him, as an unexpected mischievous voice, filled with such an odd mixture of pride and sorrow, whispered in his mind’s ear.

“Well done, Little Fox.”

Lord Alex smiled in fond memory for his mentor and friend. “Thank you, Inspector WiFu. We’ve certainly had our share of adventures, have we not?” He chuckled softly. “Were it not for you, I’d still be little more than a penniless street urchin lost in a city that cared not whether I lived or died. Yet somehow, after all our adventures, I find myself the lord of my own city, surrounded by people I love and cherish, having accomplished a dream few would dare. So thank you, my friend, from the bottom of my heart. I will always be grateful.”

WiFu chuckled fondly. “I will always remember the warmth of this moment, but the path that led you here was taken by no feet save your own. I but showed you the way.”

Alex laughed. “Indeed you did! And no better teacher could I have asked for.”

“Alex?”

“Yes, Master WiFu?”

“Is this the limit of what your soul is capable of? Cords this large, and no larger?”

Alex furrowed his brow. “You know how hard I worked, how great the trials endured, the risks taken, truly were in the forging of this singular cord!”

“I do,” said his implacable master.

The young lord chuckled ruefully. “You know how many years I devoted in the simple pursuit of forging one perfect silver cord as a foundation for everything else I might ever accomplish! Unless one had cords as strong as reality itself, and the power of the gods above at their disposal, there is no possible way to make this cord any stronger than it already is.”

“Thank you, disciple.”

Alex’s lips warmed in a silent chuckle. “You are welcome, my master, as always.”

“Please know that, whatever happens from this moment on, you will never be forgotten. Your work this day will not go in vain.”

And with those words alone, Alex’s triumph turned to fear. Suddenly sensing so much left unsaid.

So much his master was forbidden to say.

Yet after all the years of working together so closely they were sometimes two halves of a single hole, Alex knew.

Knew to dart his head and tumble, even as his soul screamed with disbelief, unable to even bear the thought of what his mentor’s unspoken and completely un-uttered warning could mean.

Never in his dreams having thought that those he had loved as family would betray him here and now, at the height of his life’s accomplishments.

Yet being a disciple of his master, he had trained to react to any eventuality, most especially to the threat never to be expected, embraced as pure mental exercise as he embraced his Silver Chariot movement technique and darted through the massive chamber of his ascension, leaving pools of inky darkness and mirror images in his wake.

Even as he swore to himself that he would laugh it all off as practice training, expecting the unexpected before slamming down rice wine with his friends just hours in the future, at that moment he felt nothing but a growing sense of dread.

His sole comfort embracing a retreat combining speed, bindings, and illusion that no Silver could hope to match.

Such that it was surprise as much as agony that left him breathless when he found himself flying through the air, in such horrific pain he couldn’t even scream, before tumbling to the ground, ears ringing so loud he couldn’t hear a thing when his face finally smacked against cold stone tiles after being sent flying, his mouth unable to utter a single word of protest as he choked up a fountain of blood, gazing into not one but three pairs of eyes staring down at him.

Eyes that had once been Silver, warm with laughter and oaths of eternal friendship and brotherhood.

Eyes that were now Gold, and ice cold with the resolve to claim their prize.

“Shi Xien, why?” Alex cried out with his mind alone, unable to utter a word as he caught sight of the coldly staring strength cultivator’s golden dao, a spiritual treasure Alex himself had helped forge, earning laughter, a fierce hug, and an oath of undying friendship when he asked for absolutely nothing in return.

A sword now covered in his blood.

“Sorry it has to be this way, Alex,” said a voice the dying soul, screaming in his own mind, knew to be Te Chang, who had been telling him the most outrageous stories just the other night over go and wine, enjoying themselves after a hard day’s training, as they had a thousand times before. “I know it is scant comfort, but I meant every word I said the other night, for all that you thought I was speaking in jest. I will do my best to get your concubines and children out of the city, before the hoards claim it. And should I ever encounter another blond haired Ruidian like yourself in the millennia to come, I will honor him with the guidance, council, and friendship that should have been yours. You will want for nothing when next we meet on the wheel of life, my former friend. I swear it.”

“That’s not what was commanded of us!” said the chill voice of Chui, the very ground resonating with the terrible power of one who had somehow ascended directly to Jade. Nothing like the warm husky laughter that had tickled his ear before they had embraced rapture so sweet they had both cried out to the heavens, just the night before. A fresh queen upon the board of fate, Alex found himself thinking as his horror and disorientation grew, his dying wheezes became ever more difficult to pull into his lungs.

“We have given our oath to our master, and we are beholden to that oath. Now come. A single final, ugly task, and we are free to live the remainder of our lives as we see fit.”

“But Chui...” Shi Xien’s voice died off in a sigh, heavy with unspoken regret.

“We have to do this! We have no choice! We took the divine bounties offered. Ascension beyond our wildest dreams! But now we must pay the price. No matter how it tears at our hearts!” Chui choked back a sob, her ice cold demeanor cracking. “What Alex did was forbidden. Forbidden by the gods themselves! That was explained to us when we took our master’s bounty. But at least Alex will be reborn, a fresh chance to atone for his sins! Yet if we fail to cleanse the foulness he left behind… if we grant him even the mercy of a quick death, before he can be properly humbled before the gods...”

“It is we who will be damned for all time,” said Te Chang, his voice also heavy with regret. “Very well. We purge the whole damned city we helped build to glory with our own hands! But only this once, Chui. Only this once! If I ever stumble across a boy that looks like him in my travels...”

“I know,” whispered Chui. “I would do the same.”

Alex, sputtering heart now pounding away his final moments in abject terror tried desperately to scream, to beg for his one time friends to at least spare his city. His family.

His children.

But they did nothing but gaze back once with cold pity, before leaving Alex trapped in the agony of his final moments, wheezing for breath that would no longer come.

Even as Alex screamed, the air reverberated with Shalu’s wicked laughter. “As our mutual hatred connects us, so I give another gift to you, Alex Hammer! May the bounty of your own bitter visions destroy you utterly, filth!” The bloated monster roared. “May they become as real for you as if every wound was inflicted upon your flesh anew! May time’s cavernous maw stretch so wide that you are swallowed whole!”

Your Nemesis General Shalu has played the Calamity Card: Bitter Fruits!

You have been bound to the final moments of the life you had once thought sweetest, before suffering the bitterness of Absolute Betrayal! You will be locked within this memory until you submit to oblivion, or your opponent relinquishes his card.

For endless moments Alex’s terror and despair was the equal of that dying lord raising his one clawed hand, as if to beg his former friends to abstain from committing the most hideous of crimes, yet knowing, somehow, that everyone he loved would never see another day.

Perception check successful!

Before his dying eyes widened, noting the way his trembling hand clawed around a prize like no other, the ageless lord only in that moment remembering the youth he was destined to become, forced to endure more in a pair of years than he had in the decades spent forging his greatest accomplishment.

A gift he freely gave to the spirit that was himself, allowing himself to be consumed utterly by the youth willing to bear his burden, even as he was forced to accept that everyone he loved wasn’t only doomed to perish, but had perished, countless thousands of years ago.

“Avenge those we loved!” Pled the final whispers of fading memory, and Alex sobbed, even in the final endless moments of a dying dream.

Willpower check: Successful - You have mastered your nightmare!

Until it was just Alex trapped in those horrid final moments of pain and betrayal choking back a scream even as he clenched the prize in his hand and held tight to the gift his spirit had given him in turn.

The pristine perfect memories of countless years of dedicated study along one singular path, forging his own perfect Silver cable.

A path now recalled so well he remembered even the forbidden notes that would have had no chance of success for that earlier self, brought to mind by none other than WiFu’s final words, uttered thousands of years ago.

A divine Silver cable so potent that even the gods would envy its creation.

Yet what had taken his ancient incarnation countless months of deepest meditation to forge after decades of study would cost Alex an eternity in effort as he dared to transcend even his spiritual ancestor’s accomplishments, now visualizing so clearly a singular massive cable made not of Dark and Light Qi blended in gentle harmony, but the tri-state degenerate matter cords he had forged in this, the last life he would ever live.

Forged of a breadth and size his earlier self hadn’t dared pursue, knowing how perilous it was to step from mortal limitations to dare the divine.

Limitations he now happily ignored. All the more so as he squeezed tight the prize still held in a clawed hand locked in the final moments of asphyxiation’s awful caress.

A pain he had long ago learned to endure in his pursuit of Dark Qi metabolism. Yet this wasn’t a single handful of moments, but a constant unending pain that would have no end til either he, or Shalu submitted.

And how Alex’s soul howled with laughter, embracing visions of running track and field once more, where his legs blazed with pain and his lungs ached for air with every stride. Pain that would have had him collapse in exhaustion, had he not learned the trick of transforming every single moment into its own separate slice of eternity.

There was no past. No future.

Just that singular moment as Alex endured yet another second of choking agony. With the comfort of knowing it was the only second he would suffer. An eternal second as he twisted the cords of his soul into an impossibly thick cable, vast and wide as the heavens themselves.

Then he sensed the limits of what even he dared, understanding the fearsome inconceivable strain that would tear apart even divine tri-state cables, even as dense and durable as they happened to be.

So he embraced that which no cultivation manual he had ever glimpsed had even hinted at, feeling a furious sense of exhilaration at an act he sensed alarmed even his own master.

Taking each massive cable that was itself seven twisted cords of degenerate matter and countertwisting it with six equally massive cables, forming cordage so impossibly thick that the feat would have been impossible, were his brilliant, impossibly thick band of spiritual potential not so vast that Alex could visualize it surrounding his entire realm, a lunar orbit all its own, while simultaneously being no bigger than his massively enlarged lower dantian.

Smiling through his pain, Alex couldn’t help wondering if his Silver strand’s tensile strength could be severed by anything less than the event horizon of oblivion itself.

Of course, it was a feat that came at the steepest cost imaginable.

For nothing less than a god’s sacrifice, or a Divine Soul Stone, could have accomplished such a feat.

Or, for one who was owed a debt of potency in forging his Silver Cords by a foe that had overextended in trying to destroy him, a debt that would put 6/7ths of the burden upon his greatest nemesis, one only needed a core of Jade.

And Alex couldn’t help but laugh even as fate’s cards bound him anew, hearing the terror underneath Shalu’s sudden furious howls of protest, the look upon his normally imperious porcine countenance when his eyes bulged and he stumbled back amongst surprised shouts and looks of dismay upon the faces of countless fellow gods.

Alex’s manic grin widened like a wolf’s in truth.

Pouncing upon his foe’s folly, tearing free the prize he had been after all along.

As if he had known Shalu’s hand even better than his suddenly flustered foe.

“No, wait, you can’t do that. No!” Shalu shrieked and screamed as his flesh began to wither and deflate before the horrified expressions of countless deities.

And of them all, only Silver Fox’s coldly smiling features were free of horror or dismay, crossing his legs and tilting his tricorn hat at a rakish angle as he took a sip of wine from his fluted glass. Wine as thick and rich as the blood of a god. Or the crimson tears pouring from Shalu's countless weeping wounds.

“Dear brother! Finally losing some of that excess weight? I commend you! It has only been what, 20,000 years?” Silver Fox flashed a wicked smile. “Sadly, though, you don’t look nearly as rejuvenated as one might hope! If anything, you look just a bit… withered.”

“This is your fault, WiFu!” Zheng Yi roared, flushed features ill-befitting the serene countenance implied by the divine robes that he wore. “Your cursed pawn dares to threaten Shalu’s life a second time! Unless you wish for me to flood the entire realm in storms without end with a catastrophe card of my own, you will curb your rabid mongrel disciple this instant!”

The entire table grew deathly silent with those words, before the vast, heavenly chamber rang with the Ice Queen’s laughter. “I always knew you were an arrogant fool, Zheng Yi. But to hear you reveal the nature of your card so readily, threatening to destroy your own realm, simply to spite your grandson and the player you abjured before he could embrace a single turn is simply beyond belief! A player your deliciously conniving fox could have slipped so easily onto your team. Instead, you have done all you can to destroy him, even threatening to put your own realm in jeopardy to do so! Truly, Zheng Yi, you are a fool so foolish that even WiFu would counsel you to temper your idiocy!”

“Silence, woman! You think I don’t know the locations of all the pieces you have snuck upon my board? How much you prize your own avatars? You think they haven’t been marked? That I won’t flood your lands just as readily as my own? You think your imperial legions won’t drown just as surely as all the dross I’m happy to get rid of?” Roared Lord Justice, who was anything but, ignoring his opponents’ outraged glares as he snarled WiFu’s way, a cobalt blue card crackling with lighting held in his hand, sparing a single anxious glance for a groaning, writhing Shalu.

“Well, Fox? What will it be!? Surrender your damned pawn for the last time, or I’ll happily let you drown in the screams of countless billions of deaths that will on your head!

“You wouldn’t dare include my kingdoms in your madness!” The Ice Queen hissed.

“You flooded our realm with your spies and agents long before our match even begun,” said the cold, pitiless voice of Grandmother Yi Wang. “Therefore, your realm has itself become a piece upon the board, as per the rules of Fate, subject to the same edicts and catastrophes as our own.”

Long Wang spared a moment to flash the stricken queen a mocking smile. “Did you truly think we lasted this long by being fools, woman? That we wouldn’t use WiFu’s idiocy to lure you into a false sense of complacency? That we wouldn’t ruthlessly kill our own mortal agents, to make sure no word of your treachery reached anyone’s ears? To make it seem like those cards were free for the taking? Ha! We’re happy to let you over-commit before ringing your neck!”

But Zheng Yi was now paying the byplay little mind, all his focus on his howling son and a smirking WiFu.

“Make your choice, Fox, and be damned by the consequences either way!”

And for all that Zheng Yi’s eyes glared with unfathomable hate, the threat of the card in his clenched fist unmistakable, WiFu appeared utterly unfazed. “Have you forgotten already, Grandfather?”

“Don’t call me that, you bastard fox!”

“Your beloved bloated son is bound by fate to bear the burden of my dear disciple’s Silver ascension. Why do you think that grotesque bundle of love and joy has been so free with his cards, trying so desperately to kill Alex of late?”

“I know that, fox!” Snarled Zheng Yi, his countenance now just inches from a coldly smiling WiFu’s face. “Even now, your damned pawn should be writhing in the unending torments of betrayal! His greatest heights of triumph turned to bitter tears of folly a thousand times over, until finally he succumbs to the eternal damnation that he so richly deserves!”

WiFu winked. “Shalu is indeed a master of intrigue and timing… in his own way. Forcing my disciple to fight the same three ascended Golds who had betrayed him so deliciously, before cutting down all his kin and raising his own city to the ground, so many centuries ago. And what is my disciple’s reward for surviving that brutal little ordeal? Shalu’s card of Bitter Fruit, endlessly torturing Alex with the hour of his friends’ ultimate betrayal. The one transcendent hour in the one glorious life where he had actually managed to ascend to Silver!”

WiFu’s smile grew teeth when Zheng Yi paled and stumbled back with a snarl.

“That’s right! Our dear tactician blessed Alex with the doom of his greatest failed ascension, forcing my disciple to endlessly endure the agony of savage wounds designed to make him linger with the knowledge that his family would be next, as Shalu had demanded of his pawns, all those years ago. Locking Alex in a mind tormented by regret… and the insights and research that went into forging his one Silver Cord over so many decades, now mastered in one eternal moment of darkest triumph!”

A groaning Shalu blanched, even as the flesh continued to wither off his frame. “No… you monster! You’re...you’re saying that I caused this? Impossible! Your damned pawn’s original ascension forged a single Silver cord that would have seen him to the heights of Gold, but no more, had I even permitted him the time to forge a full set of seven! Even Jade would have been forever beyond his reach!”

WiFu’s vicious smile grew, a near perfect mirror of Alex’s own. “Indeed! That earlier version of Alex had embraced the Path of the Scholar, as he did nearly every time he actually managed to slip free of your bitter sights. But thanks to your constant intervention, my dear disciple’s present life has been absolutely filled with delightful challenges, allowing him to forge his soul like never before! Thanks to my disciple’s present set of tri-state cords, and the incredible bounty of resources suddenly available to him, he was able to forge a Silver Cable that his original self would never have dared! And with the Jade Core you yourself used to corrupt his first love into selling him out, and the delicious obligation you incurred after trying so desperately hard to have him killed last turn, my disciple found himself blessed with the unique opportunity to forge a Divine tier Silver cord quite unlike anything I have ever seen before!”

WiFu tilted back his head and roared with laughter as Shalu groaned. “So hold that Bitter Fruits card as tight as death to your chest, dear brother, and surrender it for no mortal or god! Because thanks to your delicious sacrifice, Alex has exceeded even my expectations!”

This earned a bitter, furious howl as Shalu screamed aloud. “I surrender the card! I surrender the damned card!”

A flashing sliver of darkness and light, absolute destruction and infinite potential the size of a tarot card, now grasped in the hand that had so recently held a jade core before forging a Silver cable that might never see its equal.

Because even if Alex’s divine feat of madness might never be repeated, even if he could never manage another silver cable like the one he had already forged, still, a dark gleeful part of his soul thought it well worth the cost, tasting Shalu’s bitter screams as Alex tore free a full divine tier’s worth of power from his shriveling foe, howling with manic glee as he caught a glimpse of his Character Sheet before crashing into himself once more.

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Alex Hammer

Class – Cultivator: Disciple of the Dual Path (Unlimited potential. This is a Divine path.)

Rank 1 Divine Silver Cultivation Achieved!

Physical Characteristics

Strength - Silver Rank 3 (116) (Relentless Resolve and a dragon's might are now recognized as core elements of your path.)

Vitality - Silver Rank 3 (116) (Eternal Resilience and a dragon's fury are now recognized as core elements of your path.)

Quickness – Silver Rank 1 (65) (Chaotic Unpredictability is now recognized as a core element of your path.)

Finesse - Bronze Rank 1 (65) (Mastery of Oneself is now recognized as a core element of your path.)

Spiritual Characteristics

Scholarship - 14 (Exceeds 90% of Population.)

Perception - 18 (Exceeds 99% of population.)

Willpower – 20 (Rank 1 Bronze achieved the hard way! - You have the resolve to walk in the Valley of Death and slip free of the River of Souls.)

Qi Pool – 165 (145) (Silver Rank 5 - 20 Points reserved: Divine Soul Stone anchored. Note: forged and peripheral channels now enjoy added resiliency!)

Health Points: 1526

Perks

Insightful – Rank 2

Charismatic – Rank 3

Lesser Shadow Affinity - You can now see Shadow Qi! You have +6 to spot all those using Shadow to ambush or confuse you.

Draconic Ancestry. - The blood of golden dragons flows through your veins! You enjoy inhuman strength (+1 Silver Tier to Strength and Vitality once adulthood has been reached. You may now purchase additional ranks in Strength and Vitality as if they were 1 tier lower than they actually are, in terms of cost and requirements!)

You are Immune to all environmental temperature extremes. All damage from heat and flame, spiritual or mundane, is reduced in severity by 2 Damage tiers. All cold-based attacks are decreased in severity by 1 Damage tier.

You have inherited Draconic Resilience. All physical damage is reduced by 1 tier! Note: Basic regeneration enjoyed by all dragons has been superseded by Eternal Fox. Draconic Ancestry grants 20% bonus to Eternal Fox regeneration rate!

- Note: Aforementioned traits are now a part of your genetic heritage. Expect unusually strong and hot-tempered offspring when you finally marry your chosen one!

- Note: You have gained one divine enemy. The Lesser Deity Long Li now seeks your destruction for daring to fuse his blood with your own.

Fog of War is now in effect!

Neither Long Li nor any other deity hostile to your cause can detect your whereabouts within the Golden Realms, nor can any agent of any deity reveal your location.- Singular exception - Shui Jun (who may, or may not, be your enemy) who automatically senses your presence whenever you dare the River of Souls.

Golden Apple of Wisdom consumed: increased chance of cultivation breakthroughs.

Favored Skills

Golden Realms Kung Fu – Rank 7

White Crane Kung Fu – Rank 7: You may now freely channel Light Qi to aid your strikes at all times and sheathe your limbs in Dark Qi while doing so, even in the pits of Hell!

Silver Swan Kung Fu – Rank 8: You may now use this martial art in conjunction with White Crane and channel the force and fury of the sea in any and all circumstances! Reduced risk of straining meridians when using forbidden techniques!

Poison Spitting – Rank 5: This skill has evolved from knack to martial technique! You can now spit a stream of water (or caustic poison) with enough force and accuracy to knock jade hairpins free of scalps with ease!

Stealth – Rank 4

Qi Disciplines

Silver Wing – Rank 1 (This Silver Swan subdiscipline allows any practitioner to cover any limb they choose in a sheath of liquid metal with protective benefits similar to Dark Qi Projection! Particularly strong against Fire and Wood! Weakest against Earth. Damage absorbed increases with rank achieved. Can counter any attack of Silver rank or lower. Counter counts as Gold against Fire and Wood. Only counters as Bronze against Earth. Cost to use is negligible, unless boosted for added resilience!)

Potency Mastery - Rank 4. (You may now safely channel a full 40% of the potency (experience) needed to gain any Bronze Rank into your skills before Vitality/Willpower checks are needed to avoid meridian strain or potential obliteration! - You may now recover an additional 4 Qi Points per second for the 4 minutes after achieving victory or a kill as you claim a portion of your foe's spiritual energy as your own!)

Dark Qi Projection – Rank 7. Adept status achieved! (You can now sheathe feet, shin, fists, and forearms in Dark Qi! You may now sheath the first foot of any weapon in Dark Qi effortlessly! With a skill check, you may sheath up to 3 feet of any weapon in Dark Qi! Dark Qi is resistant to all positive elemental Qi attacks! Dark Qi Projection can pierce all Light Qi Wards. Qi drain is in effect when used in the Mortal Realm! Adept status reduces this cost! Note: You have successfully synergized this skill with Spirit Crane Strike!

Adderstrike – Rank 8 (Expanded Comprehension / Efficient Strike. 0.5 Qi cost per strike. Internal Qi is undetectable and lightning fast. Extremely hard to counter. Temporary invulnerability at moment of impact.)

Bullrush – Rank 7 (Instantly move 5-70 feet in any direction. 1 Qi cost per blink. / Temporary weightlessness / Can be chained for what is effectively near instantaneous flight.)

Black Swan (Soul Cleave) – Rank 8 (You have discovered an advanced Silver Swan assassination technique! Strike with the fury of a tsunami behind your blow! This technique can shatter lesser wards. Water-Steel Qi elements involved. Cost to use: 3 Qi and risk of mild meridian strain, unless used after Silver breakthrough made, or in a storm.)

Straight Line attacks may now be incorporated into Silver Swan paradigm! Spear hand strikes may now be used with Black Swan with additional risk of Meridian Strain. You must save versus shattered bones at the moment of impact, until Silver Swan Rank 8 is achieved!

You have learned the advanced Black Swan variant Soul Cleave. You may pierce any ward or cultivation technique below Gold as you slice through your enemy’s spirit directly, channeling the River of Souls itself! Cost 5 Qi + mild meridian strain. Adept status achieved! Your repeated exposure to the River of Souls has boosted your deadliest attack to transcendent status! You may now modify Soul Cleave to pierce defenses beyond Silver! Each Rank of Gold or higher requires 5 additional Qi to pierce! You now have added resistance against being claimed by the River of Souls with repeated uses in the same day! Reaver’s Insight gained! Soul Cleave may now be executed at reduced cost! You have an additional +4 to all saving throws versus oblivion, and suffer significantly less meridian strain while channeling the River of Souls. Note: You have triangulated the River of Souls. You have increased spiritual affinity with The River of Souls. Additional survival bonuses are now in effect. Decreased cost and risk of Peripheral Meridian Strain with use of Soul Cleave.

Storm Strike – Rank 2 This Advanced Silver Swan Technique channels lightning through your blows! Water, Metal & Lightning elements involved. Cost to use: 8 Qi and risk of Lightning damage. Qi Absorption skill and increased rank will decrease this damage. Note. There is no cost penalty to multiple uses upon the same target during a single bout.

Qi Perception – Rank 7 (Sense all physical and Qi manifestations around you (like sonar!) within 70 feet with concentration. Sense spirit beasts and mystical herbs! +7 to Perception checks.)

Find Weakness – Rank 5: Adept status achieved! You enjoy an additional 100% penetration bonus against all physical defenses and body cultivation techniques when striking humanoid targets whose weaknesses you have found! (This bonus has no effect on Qi Wards.)

Soul Sight – Rank 5 (Sense the flow of Qi through any spirit beast (effortless) or cultivator (difficult)! This allows you to predict enemy cultivator or spirit beast movements and attacks. Success also allows Find Weakness to pierce Qi Wards as well as physical defenses. Adept status achieved! Specialization chosen! You may now automatically measure the karmic merit of any soul’s past (skill rank) lives with a basic skill check!

Spirit Crane Strike – Rank 7 (You can sense the specific potency of all eternal Soul Stones claimed! Adept Rank achieved! You may now pluck the eternal spirit cores of lesser deities or Jade opponents! You may now pluck even Divine Cards of Fate from the bosoms of your enemies’ souls! Your feat of triumph within the River of Souls has made the river leery of trying to claim your own! Reduced risk of being pulled into its depths with repeated uses of this technique. Note: You have triangulated the River of Souls. You have increased spiritual affinity with The River of Souls. Additional survival bonuses are now in effect.) Note: You have successfully synergized this skill with Dark Qi Projection, giving your limb unparalleled protection, even as you claim your prize!

Water Walking (Soul Stride) – Rank 6 (Water Walking has evolved into Soul Stride! Whether a trickling stream or the River of Souls, you can stride them all with equal ease!)

Storm Flight – Rank 5 (You may now effortlessly race through the heavens during storms, over ley lines, or over wild forests 2+ miles from any major city.)

Forest Flight – Rank 5 (Move through the forest as fast and effortlessly as a flying squirrel or bird of prey! You have chosen the Diffuse Movement Perk! Your movement through the forest is as subtle as that of any jungle predator! The sounds of your passage blend in with the background noise, and your Qi signature is lost in the web of spiritual energy all around!)

Forest Sense - Rank 5 (You can now see the forest as a map in your mind’s eye that grows in exquisite detail the more ground you cover! This skill will allow you to sense landmarks of significance and see blinking red lights for known hostiles and green for friendlies up to the limits of your range in miles. Significant skill check penalty to spot those well-versed in Shadow. This skill is particularly useful for sensing predators nearby and gathering spiritual herbs. Only works in the forest.)

Artificer - Rank 6: Adept rank achieved! Specialization chosen. In moments of sublime inspiration or peril, transcendent insight may allow you to forge Cards of Fate. (This is a transcendent feat. You have no control over this feat. Limitation is in now play! No mentor or text can further increase your mastery of this skill as you have embraced an unorthodox paradigm and no mortal is capable of this specialization.)

Piercing Strike (Spell Cleave) – Rank 5 (Successful use of this skill allows you to partially or completely bypass all elemental wards! Skill check modified by Rank of cultivator and strength of wards. – Note. This applies to defenses based on spiritual energy only. It has no effect on techniques naturally strengthening the resilience or durability of a Body Cultivator’s physique.)

Piercing Strike has evolved into the skill Spell Cleave! Thanks to your insane need to show off for your friends, you’ve grown particularly adept at cleaving Wujen spells out of the air, deflecting them just before the ruptured remnants can kill you! Additional +3 bonus to rupture spiritual energy constructs of all tiers. Additional +3 bonus to deflecting the ruptured remains before it explodes in your face!

Using Spellcleave with Stormstrike will give additional bonus of +3 + Stormstrike Rank to rupture and deflect all incoming spells! (This bonus is increased 100% When used against opposition elements!)

Qi Deflection – Rank 4 ((Successful use of this skill allows you to partially or completely deflect an opponent’s Qi attacks. The greater the distance between attacker and target, the easier it is to deflect the attack.+3 bonus when used with Spell Cleave!)

Qi Absorption – Rank 5

Qi Flood – Rank 2

Spiritual Teacher – Rank 6

Water Shield – Rank 5

Water Strike – Rank 5 (Full compatibility achieved.)

Oak Strike – Rank 5 (Fully compatible with Silver Swan & White Crane Kung Fu.)

Thorn Shield – Rank 5

Shield of the Grove – Rank 2 (This Silver Ranked defense has all the strengths of Elemental Wood! Cost to use is 8 Qi points Per 10 minutes plus risk of Mild Meridian Strain. Shield can be maintained indefinitely without strain while cultivating. 15 seconds to summon shield, reduced by 5 seconds per each additional rank earned. – Note. Meridian strain and cost are significantly decreased with increasing Rank or ascending to Silver Giant cultivation status.)

Flame Fist – Rank 4

Fire Shield – Rank 4

Earthern Shield – Rank 4

Stone Fist – Rank 5 (Fully compatible with Silver Swan & White Crane Kung Fu.)

Avalanche – Rank 3 (This Silver ranked variant of Stone Fist can hit with force of a crashing boulder, or more! Cost to use: 8 Qi plus risk of Mild Meridian Strain. Note. Strike is Delayed due to buildup of spiritual energy. Delay, Qi expenditures, and Meridian Strain are reduced with increased Rank in skill or ascension to Silver Giant Body Cultivator.)

Summon Portal – Rank 4 (11) (Thanks to your Personal World Seed, you can now forge gates between worlds with an ease that would be the envy of most gods, if any save your patron actually bothered to talk to you! Note. Rapid summoning & boosted skill rank Perks are now in play!)

The Eternal Fox Unified Cultivation Technique – Rank 12

0.975 pounds of lost flesh will fully regenerate per hour. This is now automatic, whether meditating, sleeping, or in combat! Cuts will be healed in seconds. (Power Healing can boost this one-hundred-fold with the use of a beast core, spirit pearl, or unspent experience.) Additional breakthroughs include the following: Immune to Infernal Taint / Ageless / Pristine Form (120 Damage resisted from all caustic agents and poisons).

Metabolic Mastery Subskill is now at Adept Rank! (You can survive for a significant length of time without food, water, or oxygen! Dark Qi Metabolism will now automatically activate when needed, even when unconscious. Physiological strain from switching states and neural discomfort has been minimized!)

Note. You have successfully transcribed your Divine Technique within the Hall of Jade Emperors! Your Divine Cultivation manual and Jade Imprint has upgraded itself so as to be able to fully integrate 7 and 12 Meridian configurations into the lessons within. Additionally, Basic cultivators with imperfect meridian configurations will no longer perish, should they dare to make use of your tome!

A Path Cloaked in Mist

You have permanently gained 8 points of Impact Resistance, 4 points of Cutting Resistance, and 2 points of Piercing Resistance! Your peripheral meridian channels are now Extremely Resilient, and enjoy a total +5 modifier to all durability checks, +6 against all meridian-searing attacks based on Flame.

Biochemical Mastery – Rank 6

You are now able to near effortlessly synthesize hydrochloric acid, alcohol, and most other compounds naturally found in limited quantities within the body, as well as synthesize or cure any poison or alchemical formulae mastered, save those reliant upon silverbell or shadow blossoms. You may now effectively store said concoctions in your bladder in addition to your mouth, should other storage means prove limited. Eternal Fox synergism in effect. You no longer feel weak or dizzy synthesizing modest quantities of reagents using your own personal physical reserves! (Your body automatically regenerates depleted elements nearly effortlessly if you are otherwise in good health!)

Cultivation Breakthroughs

Congratulations! You have successfully forged your first Silver cable!

Unorthodox paradigm detected: This Silver cable exceeds all known size parameters. This Silver cable exceeds all known potency parameters. This Silver Cable is counter-woven with six mirrored cables!

Rank 1 Divine Silver Cultivation Achieved!

Path of forward advancement: Unknown.

Note. You have 6+2+4=12 potency points remaining.

Enlightened Treasures

Unused Eternal Soul Stones

1 Divine (Rank 1 Lesser God. 20 Qi Points reserved to anchor Pearl.)

2 Gold (Rank 5, Rank 4, Rank 3, Rank 3)

4 Silver (Rank 6, Rank 5, Rank 2, Rank 6)

Divine Boon: You have managed to best one Elder God and survive the ordeal! You have earned a boon (and saved a city)! A portion of his potency is now your own! Each Rank of Silver you might one day earn will cost no more experience or potency than it cost you to form your original Bronze cords!

Divine Promise: For successfully making it to Royal Phoenix Academy before the end of the month, there will be one Divine Tome of particular use to you somewhere within the stacks of the school’s libraries. Assuming you can find it, and earn access to it. – NOTE! Long Wang has played an additional Fate Card! This tome has been discovered in the stacks by one of the librarians and will now serve as the grand prize to be won in the annual competition! - Fate decrees only a chance to participate. Winning is by no means guaranteed!

Divine Fate Cards Possessed – Note! You have claimed a seat at the Table of the Gods! Your cards now rest upon the table of the gods! Cards are inviolate! Your patron is safeguarding your hand. Your cards no longer weigh down your soul! Zero Qi points reserved!

Bitter Fruits

Category – Calamity

Rank of Card – Gold

Specifics

Lesser Power (no trigger required) - You may overwhelm any number of opponents with the memories of every betrayal or injury ever inflicted upon them by you or any agent working on your behalf in this or any previous life!

Greater Power (specific trigger required) – You may bind the final moments of any singular target who claims any of your tainted prizes to memories of darkest betrayal in this life or any other known incarnation! Your target will be forced to relive all the emotional and physical suffering of that final hour until successfully making a Willpower check (at -10 difficulty!) If willpower check fails, target will be locked within memory until you have relinquished your card or your foe surrenders his life to oblivion!

Note. You have discovered the flaw (boon) within this card! Should you find it within you to master the torment of your final hour, you may access all memories and insights embraced by your spiritual echo!

Soul Link

Category – Avatar

Rank of Card – Bronze

Specifics – This card may be placed upon any target you choose. All damage taken by linked soul will instead be taken by yourself. This card may be removed any time after sunset and may be placed upon a fresh soul after sunrise. You may surrender this card at will, so long as your words can be heard by all parties. Warning: Contenders are now in play who can channel the River of Souls! Saving throws versus oblivion must be made against all such attacks, regardless of ascension base.

Additional Divine Fate Cards that you have forged:

A Gift Freely Given

Category – Unknown

Rank of card – Unknown

Specifics – You may place this card upon the Board of Fate and claim all cards in play of this card’s rank or lower!

Seas of Titan

Category – Catastrophe.

Rank of Card – Unknown.

Specifics – Hidden by you! (You have triangulated the interface points: Hall of the Gods + River of Souls! What do you think this card does?)

Divine Fate Cards Currently Affecting You:

Cleaved Fates

Category – Calamity

Rank of Card – Gold

Specifics – You have been cleaved free of Karma’s wheel. No virtuous deed done in this or any past life will result in unexpected boons of luck, elevate your soul, or have any effect on others’ impressions of you. No ancestor of any soul you rescued in a previous life will show you unearned kindness in this one. No person you aid in this life will feel any obligation of gratitude beyond that which their temperament would normally allow. Additionally, no deed, no matter how vile, will affect your standing in any future life, risk sending your soul to hell, or have any effect on others’ impressions of you.

Note: Elder Forest takes exception and will judge you according to your actions in the wilds, just as it has during all previous incarnations. Tree of Wisdom takes exception and counts you as Friend and Ally. Golden fruit allowed to grow within your realm will share fruit infused with the essences of Longevity and Spiritual Potency with those deemed worthy, and will not seek to consume hapless mortals who become tangled within their roots.

Fog of War

Category – Wild Luck

Rank of Card – Jade

Specifics – You are completely invisible to all your divine enemies! All communications between them and their earthly allies will be fraught with miscommunication, effectively rendering you immune to direct retaliation! Note: your divine enemies can still attempt to strike at you indirectly through traps, enticements, or by targeting those of your race or group, though they will not be able to sense your location directly. Note: oaths are now in effect. Your enemies are no longer permitted to indiscriminately slaughter Ruidians, kitsune, or natives for the express purpose of causing you harm (though they may do so as otherwise permitted by the rules of The Game).

Nemesis

Category – Avatar

Rank of Card – Jade

Specifics – You may pick one host (including yourself) and one target. Host will be permanently obsessed with killing target over all future lives. Host will automatically know where his target is at all times. Host has +8 to all stealth checks against his opponent. No detection techniques will alert target to his rapidly approaching death! All Body Cultivation Techniques, armor, and Qi Wards used by the target are nullified against host. All regeneration techniques are nullified against wounds caused by host.

Warning: Once in effect, this card cannot be revoked.

You have chosen to invoke this card on yourself! Sanity will remain intact! You can now sense traces of your foe wherever he has left his mark! All your foe’s efforts to trick or trap you, all attempts to mislead or misdirect you from your chosen path, are doomed to fail. So decrees fate herself!

Hunt well, vessel of the gods!

Transcendent locations successfully triangulated: Garden of Eve / River of Souls / Hall of The Gods

Note. These locations are now Soul-Linked. These locations are now Interface-Linked. These locations cannot be barred from you. You have added resilience and spiritual resonance at these locations.

Congratulations! Fate now recognizes you as a Rank 1 Contender!

Karma may no longer affect you, but The Game is still keeping score!

___________________________________________________________________

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