Chapter 192 - An Unexpected Development

Eric hissed as a fresh wave of dizziness nearly sent him sprawling, inhuman strength and finesse alone letting him lurch back to his feet with a roar as he gazed at the wildly rocking world all around him.

It was all he could do not to throw up, let alone take out the final cultivator, finding little comfort in mocking interface messages telling him he had fully quantized his second Qi skill, and leveled up his Windfire Strike as well.

Because no matter how great his potential, it would do him little good if channeling three elements at once in untried and unpolished combat techniques left him so drained and off balance that, in an actual battle, he’d be as good as dead.

And the fact that he had seized the moment, that sweet rush of battlefield insights transformed into a breakthrough that had the potential to allow such rapid growth, meant nothing if his epiphany then left him so drained that he wouldn’t live long enough to make use of it.

His punch alone had been enough to shatter Xien’s ribs, rupture multiple organs, and shock the guy’s heart into fatal fibrillation after being sent flying through the air like a broken rag doll.

Flooding the man with an absolute storm of swirling white-hot Qi, so much that the 30th level cultivator had literally exploded in flames, had been pure overkill.

But the scream cutting through the air made it clear that Eric wouldn’t die for overextending himself this time, at least not until he made his next fatal mistake.

For what could so easily have been the roar of a berserker charging in for a quick kill of a fatally dizzy and disoriented Eric was instead the cry of a terrified boy in way over his head, now running in a desperate panic from a wild cultivator covered in his guardian’s blood.

Admittedly, it was a cultivator who had somehow managed to kill every one of the sentinels sent to purge the area and retrieve the prizes within, so perhaps Lai Wei’s fear wasn’t completely unfounded.

Which gave Eric the desperate handful of minutes he needed to bring his roiling Qi back under control, tapping into the absolute storm of spiritual energy he had gained from three more kills, the culprit of his dizzying weakness just as much as his over extending himself experimenting with new powers had been, since the only outlet he had for that spiritual energy was rapid, System-enhanced skill progression, and cultivating the fierce flow of potency through his gateways once more, purifying and building up his channels as best he could as weeks or month’s worth of dedicated foundation strengthening was condensed into a single hour’s time.

A precious hour free of curious spirit boars or backstabbing cultivators, so that instead of being a corpse on the ground, he found himself bright-eyed, refreshed, and utterly in tune with himself and his environment once more.

More than anything else, he was just grateful to be alive, savoring the sweet sense of power and absolute mastery over his own body that had become his, after his incredible and at times excruciating ordeal. Still, a part of him thought it a bloody miracle that the wild forest boars had left him completely alone, his exquisite senses detecting nothing that would force him out of his trance before he was ready.

Perhaps it was because the tuskers had sensed the demise of their leader.

Perhaps they had left him alone for some other reason.

Like the massive cage of beast hide flesh and bone spikes he had instinctively surrounded himself with, he thought with a grim smile. Because he might play the fool sometimes, but he wasn’t a complete idiot.

Even if there were times that he sure as hell felt like one.

Either way, Eric now felt a connection to the forest beyond anything he had ever experienced before. As if this endless grove of peach trees and a thousand varieties of grass and wildflower had become somehow an extension of his own body. His own soul.

A revelation that filled a now brightly smiling Eric with wonder.

He didn’t need the blinking interface message to alert him to the possibility he was balanced on the very lip of embracing. Yet there was one final step he was determined to take before he dared to acknowledge his prize.

***

“They’re dead. They’re all dead. He killed them all!” Breathless wheezing sobs from a panicked young man clearly kitted in the most exotic of armaments worthy of any prince, at least in less prosperous realms, even if he was currently without a helmet, his wide, panicked, tear-filled eyes plain for the entire forest to see. The young cultivator, little more than a boy, really, trembled and sunk to the ground. “Why? Why did this happen? All I wanted was those peaches. The peaches promised to me!”

Wide eyes filled with dread soon forced the youth back to his feet. “I’m not safe here. Everyone’s dead!” Words that were barely more than a whisper as the now whimpering boy tore through the forest, focused no longer, it seemed, on the magnificent orbs radiating spiritual fire dangling temptingly from a thousand rustling branches, but only on the quickest passage out of a territory that had so quickly gone from quaint safari filled with exotic prizes to terrifying forest filled with predators and death.

It was as if wide, anxious eyes didn’t even appreciate the complete lack of fearsome rhinoceros-sized predators that could so easily have gored and slain his panicked self, predators whose spore and markings left on countless trees was enough for even he to understand how fearsome the denizens here were. Had he not been involved, or at least borne witness to, the periling of a towering sentinel of porcine glory?

With perfect equanimity. Nay, even a smirk of contempt. For what did he, the chosen scion of Feng Ren clan, protected by the strongest of all sentinels permitted in this newly blossoming world at last being integrated with the galactic unity have to fear from the denizens of lands his people had conquered so long ago?

As it turned out, everything.

Even the rustle of the branches overhead made him whimper in terror. Or perhaps it was the sound of bark against bark echoed in his head like his stalwart guardian’s mightiest Wind Blade slash, that should have completely cleaved that wild cultivator in two.

Before he ducked the blow with inhuman speed, bound his constant companion’s blade with a single-handed grip on his own, a display of such contemptuous strength it was as if his roaring mentor’s valiant efforts to save his charge, to end this chapter of his story’s life on the most valiant of notes, meant absolutely nothing before this monster’s strength.

A cultivator who’s odd shimmering facial tattoos and sapphire blue eyes, as if he were actual Sylvan royalty, couldn’t hide features that were no older than Lai Wei’s own.

A cast-off human, or a reviled roundear, looking so much like the apes they so frequently rutted with that there was hardly a difference between their tribes. And that monkey mocked them all, daring the features of the elite rulers of their realms.

Features that would, and should, have had him executed on sight.

No wonder that awful mongrel thing had fled civilization for the savage isolation of a pocket realm.

Why the hell did that thing have to invade his family’s property? Why couldn’t it be somewhere else? Anywhere else?

Lai Wei choked back a whimper. “No. He couldn’t actually be royalty. He’s a monster. An abomination! No one can be that strong on the mortal plane. No one who hadn’t already broken through! He shouldn’t even be here. He defies the natural order!” The boys sobbed, wiping hot stinging eyes, swallowing the awful lump in his throat, frantic hands fighting with the straps and chains of his expertly secured sheath, as if he would dare to discard the exquisite, priceless spiritual artifact that really was far too heavy for his current strength, if his frustrated gaze and trembling muscles were anything to go by.

“I can barely move in this goddamned armor. This dachi that digs into my hips, a bitter reminder of my weakness every day, no matter how many nights I cultivate the soreness away! Why did father insist on me wearing it at all time? As if sweat were the path to strength, the crudest animal bulk from bestial labor that is the province of slaves alone, a mockery of cultivation’s pristine blessings!”

Words Lai Wei uttered so bitterly, as if he dared defy his father even in his thoughts, only in a separate realm, with the ugly spectre of his own imminent demise throwing all caution to the wind.

He gazed bitterly up at the trees. “If only I hadn’t been denied the prizes that would have allowed me to ascend. Allowed me to become great! Then I would be strong enough, fast enough, that my armor would weigh like a feather on my shoulders, my blade able to cleave through even that monster’s cursed skull!”

It was then that he heard a sound that transferred his ire to sublime terror, spinning around before falling right on his ass, exhaustion and the struggle of carrying hundreds of pounds of weight that was too much even for a youth as strong as any mortal Olympian finally catching up with him, as he gazed at death mocking him with his twinkling sapphire eyes, essence tattoos, and a too knowing smile.

It was as if those glittering eyes were peering directly into his soul.

But the mocking golf-clap was the worst of all.

Until the monster actually spoke, and a sobbing Lai Wei was forced to tear free all arrogance and pretense, realizing in those awful moments just how precious was the sweet nectar of the only thing that mattered, life itself, and how fleeting and transient it truly was in the face of monsters that could end him in a heartbeat.

“Such bitter tears, young master. As if you truly thought yourself the wronged hero of this farce. How fucking remarkable. Not surprising at all, even if utterly lacking in self-awareness.”

This was too much for Lai Wei to take lying on his ass, now struggling desperately to right himself before collapsing under the weight of hundreds of pounds of essence-infused mail he now couldn’t even to stand back up in. And his bitter frustrated tears as he sunk back down in exhaustion just might have saved his life, forcing Eric to recognize truths it would be so easy to ignore, under the weight of so much death.

“Of course I’m the wronged hero! You stole my fruit, butchered my men, and now mock me moments before you’re going to...” The boy closed his eyes, choked up on his own words.

“Say it,” Eric said, voice hard as steel, bemused smile gone as if it had never been.

“Kill me,” the boy sobbed. “You’re going to kill me. Like you did all my men!”

***

Eric gazed at the pinched aristocratic features so at home with sneers and disdainful smiles crumpling into what he truly was. A terrified boy who knew his time was at an end, now sobbing unashamedly, utterly broken, completely unmanned.

“I think you’re forgetting the part where you had your sentinels try to kill me.” Eric’s features grew stone cold. “Multiple times.” He sighed, gazing up at the heavens. “And the twisted-path assassins that the system makes clear are permitted to use every sneaky trick in the book to assure their kills, well, they sure as fuck took away any remaining high ground you could claim, using Bronze tier poisons you and I both know your clan had no business bringing to Earth.” Eric’s gaze hardened. “Under any circumstances.”

Eric was surprised by how the boy paled and looked away. “It wasn’t me,” he softly said, before flashing a bitter smile. “I’m just my father’s dutiful son, expected to forge himself into a worthy warrior, and hold tight to our sect’s claims.” he swallowed, gazing up desperately into Eric’s ice-cold features. “You… you have to understand. You weren’t supposed to be here! No one was supposed to be here! We… we expected nothing but Spirit Boar. No one was supposed to get hurt. I was just supposed to ascend!”

Eric snorted. “Yet whoever organized your little foray was savvy enough to equip you with a squad of personal guardians, scouts, and assassins.”

The boy flushed, but didn’t deny it.

Eric smirked and shook his head. “And you weren’t even going to pick your own fruit! You were going to have your henchmen do it.” Eric caught the youth’s surprised gaze. “Yes, I know about the fruit. Anyone can accept it as a gift. But no one lacking pristine channels may claim it. However, a mortal or cultivator who consumes even one will enjoy added lifelong vitality and strength. Best of all for those who walk our path, single peach might help burn away countless months or years worth of blockages, if you know what you’re doing. But only those with elite, pristine foundations would actually dare to try implanting the Spirit Fruit, pits and all, into their meridian gates, and never more than one per month.” Eric’s eyes twinkled with wild mirth. “Only an absolute madman willing to risk his life would try anything else.”

He then crouched down, gazing intently at a curled up Lai Wei. “And there’s the crux of the matter. Only those with meridian gates so pristine that the fruit will actually implant themselves into their gateways like rich loamy spirit soil can tap into the true potential of the spirit peaches over our heads. And if you’re not even willing to gather the fruit yourself, how the hell did you expect to get any real benefit from them?”

“It’s not that simple!” Lai Wei cried out, much to Eric’s surprise, before flushing in shame. “I… We had a short window to claim our prizes. We had to claim the fruit now!” He swallowed. “As for myself… my channels are no longer as pure as they must be. The fruit were to be held until I could purify myself once more… or until an alchemist distilled an elixir that would have at least given me most of the benefit of those divine fruit, even if I was no longer pure.”

Eric furrowed his brow. “What do you mean by pure?”

The boy’s cheeks positively blazed. He lowered his gaze. “Please don’t make me say it.”

“Fuck, kid, over a dozen people are dead because you assholes refused to talk, thinking you could just take my piece off the board!”

Lai Wei sobbed with a child’s terror when he felt Eric’s mithril blade kiss his neck, the furious heat Eric could barely control tempered it seemed, by the boy’s own affinity to flame.

“You damn well better say it,” Eric snarled, “because I’m this fucking close to saying the hell with this redemption arc bullshit, and just taking your fucking head!”

The boy cried out, and Eric’s hand froze. “Fuck,” he whispered.

“It’s because I slept with a girl, okay? I’m not pure!” Lai Wei sobbed, an odd look of awful regret and unexpected fury came over his features. “No matter how many times my father beat me, nothing I can do will change that! Not even the death of the girl I would have married! Nothing will take away my great fucking shame. Just ask my father, asshole! All I can do is get the damn fruit, and by pit or potion, infuse my gateways and either redeem myself with ascension, or die trying!”

Eric gazed at the trembling boy for long moments before slowly pulling back and resheathing his blade. “Let me get this straight. Your father had the first girl you ever loved put to death, for daring to claim your heart?”

The boy clenched shut his eyes, too choked up even to speak as he jerked a nod.

“And even with your so-called imperfect foundation, you’re to either prove your redemption by eating fruit that might be too much for you… in which case you’re forgiven, or you’ll die, probably horribly, in which case your father pretends you never existed in the first place, your only worth being the weapon he can forge you into.”

The boy flashed a bitter smile that made even Eric’s bitter heart twist in sympathy.

“Now you understand.”

Eric snorted. “So that’s why you were a bit of an unfeeling asshole. What good’s love and tenderness, the joy of warmth and family, when your psychopathic father can butcher your loved ones and command you to obey or die trying? In a world that fucked up, strength is everything, the only thing that matters, and getting close to anyone’s fucking stupid, if your own father will just cut them down on a whim.”

The boy’s bitter chuckle lacked all humor. “Yes, asshole, that’s exactly what it’s like. And don’t you dare pity me!” He sobbed. “Don’t you dare be the only one in the whole fucking galaxy who gives an ounce of a shit for what I’ve been through! Why is it you? Why isn’t it Svetlana?”

He closed his eyes and rocked himself, trembling with horror beyond simple regret. “Why the fuck didn’t we just run away?”

“Because you had no idea your father was that much of a psychopathic monster. Not until it was too late.”

Lai Wei swallowed, gazing at Eric for long moments. “You’re right,” he whispered. “I thought, I thought...” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” He sighed, his demeanor an odd mixture of relief and acceptance tinged by despair. “I will never get Svetlana back, and I will never be strong enough to make that bastard pay. All I can do is die here, along with everyone else who dared enter by my side.” He barked with bitter laughter. “A fitting end for fools who thought the worst monsters in this forest, haunted by the ghost of my clan’s ancestral enemies, would be the boars guarding it’s groves.”

Eric gazed at the youth before him for long moments, knowing half a dozen problems would be solved with one final, lightning fast thrust.

But he could only imagine the monster he would have turned into if his mother had done more than just attempt to entice him, charming his girlfriend and nearly catching him flatfooted.

What if she had actually succeeded in binding Eric to her will? Locking him in chains of obligation and submission he was chillingly certain were a thing in Elven tribes, having held so tightly to his own human heritage that he was able to slip free by only the slimmest of margins? He knew there was no chance in hell of Rica wanting anything to do with him, after being forced to endure so much twisted family drama, Eric now disappearing for months on end, after she was forced to face his mother alone. Eric still winced at that memory.

He could only imagine the twisted fury that would have consumed him, if instead of having to cut ties and flee, his girlfriend had been forced to pay the ultimate price for daring to love him, and he forced to watch, while his body and soul were held in thrall.

How deeply would that have warped his own psyche? Burning away all concern, all pity, leaving only a bitter furious husk who would never expose his heart to anyone again, focused only on getting stronger at all costs. A twisted warped version of himself, that could so easily be the boy bleeding tears of regret, Lai Wei’s expression now that of someone who almost welcomed death as much as he feared it.

But not quite.

Eric sighed and stepped back. “You’re father’s a fool.”

The boy chuckled bitterly. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“I’m no more a virgin than you are.”

The boy blinked and paled. “You mean…” he swallowed. “Did you… did you actually eat the fruit? Or just gather them?”

Eric smirked. “I consumed a full set of twelve.”

Lai Wei blinked in disbelief. “So you really are a royal… what? Human? Elf?” He then violently shook his head. “No, no, that’s impossible! To eat and process a full set of twelve in just a week’s time? We thought you were gathering, biding your time, and when the assassins fell… we knew our guess was right. Waiting us out with weapons every bit as twisted as the dark ones use, with food and water to outlast us all.” He chuckled bitterly, before his smirk turned to a look of horror. “But your foundation is so strong you actually consumed… not seven, but twelve. And… and you have even known the touch of a woman.”

His look of disbelief turned to one of horror, warping into fury. “So my father killed her for no reason. No reason at all!”

Eric nodded. “To be fair, he might not have known. But that he jumped the gun and reacted so violently was pure vindictive spite, for you daring to disobey him. For not being his puppet in all things, at all times. Of that, I have no doubt.”

“Neither do I,” the boy whispered. He gazed up at Eric with a look he couldn’t quite puzzle. “Are you truly one of them?”

Eric frowned. “One of what?”

“A Contender.”

Eric froze at those words. After so adroitly mastering his foes, and nearly mastering this conversation, for Lai Wei to even suggest that meant that Eric had to be very careful. That he was nowhere near the master he almost deluded himself into thinking he was. A lucky adventurer who had gotten some fantastic breaks. But no master of intrigue, and he doubted he ever would be. Even the bemused smirk the boy flashed him made it clear he had paused for too long.

“Yes,” he admitted. Because it would be stupid and smack of weakness for him to deny it, at this point. “I am.”

Lai Wei swallowed, and much to Eric’s disbelief, performed dogeza before him. “Then let me serve under you!”