The seagulls cried with the first light of dawn as Alex and his fully armored disciples bowed before the Headmaster, the salty ocean breeze ruffling robes and hair as Panheu gazed at Alex’s charges for long moments, before cracking a smile.

But he said not a word, nor did the two cultivators by his side, gazing at Alex with the fierce intensity of predators eyeing a potential kill, sending shivers down his spine.

Ning Jing and Jidihu were both present, the pair dressed in form fitting lamellar armor the color of midnight, radiating powerful enchantments and hugging their forms just as well as their daughter’s own.

The perfect armor for Silver tier assassins no longer bothering to hide their true nature.

Yet there was no animosity, only the same intensity radiating from them as from Panheu.

As if they too were eager to see what could be forged this day.

Of course, there was far more to it than that.

And still, no one said a word as they sipped their tea, for all that Alex could taste the desperation in their stares as they gazed upon their daughter, Alex feeling as well the swirling turmoil of emotions that Yinzi and Hao Chan were both feeling. Had been feeling from the moment Alex had jumped through the gate, informed them of his plans, and bid them both meditate on every battle they had ever fought by his side, to use the power of their enchanted beds to visualize every lesson they had ever learned in their dreams, just as he had.

One look in his eyes, and both girls had paled by whatever they had seen, neither daring a word, and Alex too focused on the day to come to temper his words.

They had taken his lesson to heart, all three forming a party before heading to bed, Alex using the abilities of his now Gold tier palace to the utmost, training them as hard in their sleep as he went over Panheu’s brutal lessons with the both of them, as he ever had in the world of the living.

Yet they had been ready to jump through the gate Alex had left open into the garden shed, fully kitted out in armaments not even a princess would be ashamed to wear, with the first light of dawn. Both of them were just as focused and in the zone as he was, such that they said not a word even as they jumped between worlds, readying themselves in palatial quarters one moment, then sipping tea across from Headmaster Panheu at Dragon Academy the next.

And still no one said a word, this moment somehow more profound, more important, than the revelation that both Alex and the shadowy head of the JiangHu association had access to gates that could transport one thousands of miles or between actual worlds in the blink of an eye… or at least hidden paths or one sort or another. As to if the carriage ride Alex had been a part of had even been necessary… he could only wonder.

Alex quickly tuned out the tension in the air. He would use the tension he felt, the crushing weight of so many measuring stares as added pressure to fuel the fires of conflict, of struggle, of his own inevitable ascension.

For endless moments everyone took each other’s measure as the sea breeze whipped hair and beards until the final member of their impromptu tea ceremony, Headmaster Panheu and Jidihu’s son, Zhao Doushi, rang a tiny silver gong in his hands. Alex noting that he looked just the same as he had when Alex had first caught sight of the solidly built Silver tier Water cultivator acting as guardian of the gates to Dragon Academy, when Alex had been nothing but a basic cultivator who wanted nothing more than to rescue his friends and have a chance to butter himself. Evens that now felt like a lifetime ago, but had, in fact, been just over a year.

“You all know why we’re here,” Zhao said, earning a smile from Jidihu and a snort from Ning Jing, though no one else said a word. “The path forward has been blocked. For all of us. No matter our station, or our resources.”

Alex could only imagine how it goaded, that not even the head of a feared clan of cutthroats and assassins could get her hands on Gold tier techniques of any sort. Alex shuddered to imagine just how well guarded those secrets were, knowing first hand that the traps placed on even Gold tier cultivation tomes was enough to utterly destroy a full score of Deep Silver cultivators, and disorient and injure even Golds to the point that Alex was able to change the fate of an entire school. If Gold tier martial techniques were even more highly prized than those tomes…

“It’s madness,” Ning Jing scoffed. “You’re just spitting in the wind, old man.”

“Mother!” Yinzi hissed, crimson eyes glaring at her dam.

Ning Jing just shook her head, ignoring Jidihu’s disappointed gaze. “Alex might have the fox’s tongue, I’ll give him that much, my own daughter leaving her family for the sake of a boy on the run from practically everyone. But all I see before me is a Ruidian riding WiFu’s tail, slipping into places he has no business being, claiming prizes that will never be his!”

Her eyes flashed, glaring Alex’s way. “If you think this wayward Bronze will teach you anything but folly, old man, then I pity how far you’ve fallen since we were forged in the fires that made us both!”

“Ning Jing, you will stop!” Said Jidihu, no longer wearing the gentle countenance of a mother missing both her children but instead looking every inch the deadly woman that she was. “Our husband and our son-in-law have chosen their path. It is for them to follow it to the very end. It is for us to grasp what illumination we can from their struggles, whether it ends in success or bitterest folly.”

Eyes flashing with ire, Ning Jing gave an angry shake of her head. “No, I don’t think so, wife. This boy doesn’t get a pass that easily.” She flashed a feral smile. “Before we continue this farce, Alex will be facing me.”

The table went silent.

Yinzi gasped and sounded, for the first time Alex could recall, panicked. “Mother, you can’t!”

“You will use no killing techniques, Ning Jing,” Jidihu declared.

Ning Jing snorted. “As if I would need such against this boy.” She locked gazes with Alex, a cold smile playing across her features. “Well, boy, are you willing to bleed for your arrogance, or are you willing to call an end to this farce, return my daughter, and scurry off back from whatever hole you crawled out of?”

Hao Chan’s gaze was one of horror. “You’re jealous of him. For taking Yinzi away. You want to hurt him. I can see it in your eyes!”

Ning Jing scowled but Panheu actually chuckled.

“Wonderful. By all means, wife. Exchange pointers with my youngest disciple. I’m sure we can all gain illumination from the exercise before the real trial begins.”

Ning Jing flashed a cold smile. “I am certain that we will.”

Panheu raised an eyebrow Alex’s way.

Alex bowed his head, still saying nothing as he stepped away from the fine teak table and proceeded to the grassy training area, just a few yards away, honoring a still smirking Ning Jing with the slightest of nods, tuning out her sarcastic quips as he focused intently upon his opponent, trying not to see the darkly sensual woman who had intimidated him so utterly on their first meeting, instead noting how her stance and balance so mirrored her daughter’s own.

He couldn’t help but quirk a smile as she shifted her posture and balance, now facing him properly, Alex sensing the coiled power in hips and shoulder as she casually raised her arms in a manner so like his disciple’s. He already knew she trained in a killing art with roots in Golden Realms. He suspected she used a Silver Tier variant that channeled Steel exclusively.

Find Weakness skillcheck made!

He couldn’t help smiling at her sudden glare, suddenly recalling the deadly advantage she had over almost any other Silver, bones that were nearly indestructible, using Dark Qi itself, encased in Metal Qi, to give them a resiliency beyond what any standard Silver technique could expect.

Which meant that he’d be a fool to strike her skull, he thought, as Zhao Doushi rang the tiny silver gong, ignoring his sister’s plea, and Ning Jing exploded into action, and Alex was suddenly doing all he could to counter a deadly barrage of hooking blows snapping kicks as the deadly Silver assassin immediately sought to close, snarling as Alex steadily gave ground, parrying and avoiding most of her blows.

Before flashing a savage grin when Alex winced, forced to shin check a particularly savage angle kick, having almost fallen for the tiger claw strike that had been a faint.

You have successfully saved against cracked patella!

Your Quickness matches your opponent’s!

Your Strength is superior to your opponent’s!

Rank 9 Eternal Fox kung fu successfully counters Rank 7 Deadly Mantis!

Alex grimaced as he leaped back from a spinning heel kick that could have snapped his neck had it landed, weaving past a spear hand strike radiating so much Qi Alex knew it would have torn open his abdomen had he allowed it to land.

“So, killing strikes, after all?” he said with a bleak smile as he claimed her wrist before slamming his palm against her elbow, earning a sharp cry before he sprung back, as his opponent whipped her torso around for a deadly roundhouse that didn’t come close to hitting a coldly smiling Alex.

“The boy is fast,” Jidihu observed, still sipping tea and earning a smiling nod from her husband, Alex noted peripherally, for all that he was now so in tune with Ning Jing, he could taste her growing anger, her frustration, as if it were an extension of his own.

“If I wanted you dead, you’d already be dead!” Ning Jing snarled, no longer holding back her ire as she charged him once more.

Just as Alex had known she would.

Soul Sight skill check made!

Now sensing her shifts in balance and countering before she had even completed her blows, smirking as he slipped past increasingly furious attempts to tear him open, the pair moving in strange unison, a dance of battle that could only have one outcome.

“My goodness, he’s actually reading her blows,” Jidihu said with a grin, chuckling softly. “You did it, Panheu. You actually raised that boy to Silver!”

Ning Jing instead of being impressed, now wore a look of blinding fury. “Do you think to mock me boy, I’ll make you bleed for—“

Find Weakness skillcheck made!

You have successfully countered your opponent!

Silver Wing correlations to Dark Qi projection partially incorporated!

Silver Wing is now Rank 4!

And before a charging Ning Jing could finish her threat, she was sent flying through the air when Alex seized her wrist with limb covered in Water Qi, choosing to make use of the variant Hao Chan herself could one day master, before sending her cartwheeling through the air as he twisted his hips and arched his back. He was surprised by just how easy it was to cover his limb in Qi of Water and Steel. Just a fraction of the effort it took to sheathe his limbs in Dark Qi, truly just an extension of Silver Swan and his other art. And why had he never thought to use it before?

He shook his head, his focus on a roaring Ning Jing once more, her gaze locked upon his own so intently she didn’t even catch the surprised look Jidihu was sending their way, or Yinzi’s look of horror.

“Alex! She’s going to frenzy!” Yinzi screamed in their interface.

But Alex already knew as he countered spear hand strikes sharper than steel blades, accepting the cuts that sliced him all the way to the bone as he traded her strikes with roundhouse strikes slamming into the meat of her thigh with such force that the sound of pounding flesh echoed dully through the courtyard, earning another furious snarl as Alex batted those deadly hands aside before darting back, flashing an agonized grimace as he Bullrushed back just for the couple seconds he needed for the cuts to heal.

Yet he deliberately held off from using Adderstrike or Blackswan, focusing only on counting her blows with limbs sheathed in water that slowly, painfully, began to take on more of the elements of the steel intermixed within, Alex truly honing the blade of his soul against his foe’s blood file.

And all the while, his angle kicks could be hear slamming into the meat of his opponent’s legs.

“Mother, what’s he doing?” Yinzi breathlessly whispered, in that moment forgetting how angry she was with both her mothers, earning a coy smile from Jidihu.

“You’re a smart little fox. I think you can figure it out.”

Yinzi furrowed her brow. Then her eyes widened, and she flashed a please smile. “Oh, he’s honing his arts against mother’s killing hate! This works almost as well as him sparring with a Gold!”

Jidihu, gave a pleased nod. “Indeed it does. Now hush and watch. Let’s see what we can both learn from the byplay.”

And Alex snapped all his focus on his opponent once more, no longer threatening or boasting, just lashing out at Alex with fearsome deadly intent. And perhaps there was a tiny measure of control. For she limited her Qi attacks to those deadly spear hand strikes, otherwise relying on her art alone, and a deadly art it was, whipping her hips about to twist around with deadly spinning heel kicks almost, but not quite, as deadly as Silver Swan.

Fortunately, it was an art he knew how to counter as well as anyone, for all that his heart was racing with equal parts exhilaration and dread.

For if he had lost focus for even a heartbeat, particularly with her last high kick, the indestructible steel in her limb would have effortlessly shattered his skull.

So he refused to lose focus, letting his understanding of his opponent continue to grow as he parried blows in limbs now sheathed in Water Qi that could absorb the force behind her blows almost as well as Dark Qi itself could.

Their movements then became a dance, Alex slipping past straight line attacks with the crack of shin against thighs the only sound of his passage, avoiding knee bombs and spinning backhand fists as his own fists and knees slammed into his opponent’s kidneys, always slipping away with limbs bruised and bloodied, but never broken.

And by unspoken accord, it was over.

A snarling Ning Jing, panting for breath, now stumbling on thighs covered in crippling bruises, took one look at Alex’s limbs, now covered in Water and Steel Qi with such a metallic sheen it seemed liquid metal, before abruptly stopping, gasping with laughter.

“You little bastard! You think I’m too stupid to not know when someone’s holding back? This whole time, you been using me to hone your art!”

Alex gazed at his opponent for long moments before bowing his head. “This one thanks you for the pointers, Lady Ning Jing.”

Ning Jing’s furious ire faded to a rueful chuckle. “And not once did you strike at my skull, or try to force a joint lock you knew had no hope of actually crippling me! Focusing on my thighs and under my ribs, like an opponent who actually knows what they’re doing.” She chuckled bitterly, spitting some black blood.

You have bested your opponent. Experience earned!

Silver Wing correlations to Dark Qi projection fully incorporated!

Silver Wing rank now matches Dark Qi rank!

Silver Wing is now Rank 7.

“Yay, Alex won!” Yinzi declared gleefully. “He’s won and he’s totally not dead, as I knew he wouldn’t be!” Though she frowned at the sight of his limbs. “But why aren’t you using Dark Qi? You wouldn’t have gotten cut at all, if you had.”

“Just look at your future sister-wife, Yinzi, the answer should be obvious,” Jidihu gently reproved as Panheu finally left his seat and tended to a now visibly stumbling Ning Jing, Alex surprised to feel a healer’s surge of power from the Gold as the now groaning assassin’s bruises and less visible injuries bean to fade.

Yinzi furrowed her brow, before gazing at Hao Chan with wonder.

Alex grinned to see Chan looking back at him with a beatific smile, eyes filled with revelation, her arms now covered in metallic looking sheaths of Water and Steel just as strong as his own.

“The party link worked, Alex! Hao Chan’s had a breakthrough! Just look at her!” Yinzi then squeezed her friend’s mercury-coated hand. “Well, don’t hesitate, come on, we have to practice and stabilize your breakthrough!”

And within seconds a bemused Alex found himself seated, along with Ning Jing, both with cups of tea as they gazed at the pair of girls going over their forms at a speed approximating that which Alex pushed them to embrace every day.

Ning Jing frowned. “They practice no less intently than when they were under my care.”

Alex nodded. “Of course. Why bother, if you’re not willing to push yourself to the utmost, forever seeking perfection?”

Ning Jing snorted. “You’ll meet few cultivators who practice that diligently.” Her brows furrowed. “Even your opponents will only keep that up for a few weeks a couple times a year, when inspiration strikes. Then it’s back to one light session every couple of days or so. That’s human nature. And it’s the norm, even for most claiming to seek perfection.”

Alex flashed a bleak smile. “That might explain why so many of them are dead.”

Ning Jing roared with laughter. The rest exchanged hard smiles. None of them were innocent, all of them understood the stakes involved, and Alex felt an odd, unexpected warmth, knowing that by some unspoken accord, he was now being treated as an equal.

Zhao Doushi gave Alex a nod, saying only, “Congratulations on breaking through to Silver, Alex. Maybe sometime after father wipes the floor with you, you’ll tell me how you did it.”

Alex grinned, but before he could engage in dialogue with the man… did he even know he was a Father? Panheu knocked the table with his knuckle, and all was instantly silent, such was the power of a Gold. Even Yinzi and Hao Chan immediately broke off their fast-paced sparring, stepping back and bowing low before the table.

“It’s time,” Panheu said, his hard focused gaze meeting Alex’s own.