River of Fate: Emerald Alchemist, page 22
A moment later, the courtyard was silent again except for the wind rustling the leaves.
Leaf’s weight landed on Verse’s shoulder, where he let out a stern chirp of irritation, but then he coiled around his neck and relaxed, seemingly content. Verse reached up and scratched his head as he looked around.
What he saw was reassuring. The natural formation in the courtyard was humming with vital Wood energy that had protected the plants growing here, and his emerald flames hadn’t damaged them at all.
As for all the brambles he’d summoned, they were slowly disintegrating into a layer of bright green specks that disappeared into the earth. The energy would act as nutrients for the rest of the plants.
Between Leaf’s efforts and the wards on the house, the courtyard was unharmed. He pulled out a Rank 3 spiritual herb and offered it to the elemental as a reward. Leaf snagged it in a claw and began to happily chew on it.
Verse sent his spear back into his spatial ring as he dismissed all of the flames and the emerald claw that was still around his left hand. The spiritual energy dissipated into sparks that faded into the wind.
He sensed the formation, and then he nodded. The wards were still strong, which meant they should have prevented the commotion from spreading outward. As far as anyone in the city knew, this fight had never happened.
“Good work,” Verse said as he scratched Leaf’s head. “It looks like Vesana wasn’t able to distract Renzer after all. Her suspicions about that connection were correct, one way or another.”
His voice was calm.
It wasn’t difficult to put together the origin of the attackers. Given the techniques they’d used, he had no doubt they were associated with the Crimson Shade Sect. That meant they were related to his appearance at the Alchemists’ Guild.
Renzer had acted more decisively than he’d suspected.
It meant the branch head had a lot at stake, enough that he was willing to kill Verse to keep him out of it. Whatever he was up to with the sect and the kidnapped alchemists, it was important.
Important enough to make the Crimson Shade Sect send two assassins after him.
“At any rate, it looks like I stirred up some trouble,” he added with a grim chuckle. “This just couldn’t turn into a peaceful year or two doing alchemy, could it?”
If he had his wishes, that’s exactly what his time in Boreas would be. But he didn’t dwell on that for long. He was too used to the world making things difficult.
“Well, let’s see if they have anything useful on them,” he said eventually. “Then we can see if the restaurant is still open.”
Chapter fifteen
Changing Winds
It didn’t take too long to finish cleaning up the courtyard. As he considered what to do about the sect, he searched through the assassins’ equipment and their spatial rings. He took everything that was interesting and tossed the rest into a pile to be burned.
There were two dozen vials of poison, as well as some of the grey disks, bones, and a dozen or so of the dark blades the assassins had used, which varied in length from daggers to short swords.
Most of it was useless to him, but the poisons could be studied. Some of them had unique spiritual signatures that spoke of Wood, Flame, Darkness, and other daos.
Strange energies radiated from the vials, which were made from different materials to contain the contents. Jade was present, but so was moonstone, silver, glass, obsidian, granite, carved wood, and more.
Most of them were at the Aligned realm in strength, suggesting they were the equivalent of Rank 3 poisons, but several were stronger, radiating a threatening presence. Those had to be Rank 4 and intended to kill Primal Spirit cultivators.
They’d come prepared.
If they’d had the chance, they might have been more dangerous, especially if they’d caught him by surprise and had a chance to use their strengths. They hadn’t been weak, just specialized, and they’d made a mistake in crossing his wards.
They’d underestimated him.
After he sorted everything, he piled the extra weapons into a separate storage ring, one that he’d used to store bandit equipment in the past, and then he stored the poisons away in a separate one for study in the future.
Poisons were a branch of alchemy, so those could be interesting to research.
Some of them were targeted at blood and spirits, which felt more like curses than standard poisons, while others were heavy with the scent of decay and corruption even as they combined an element like Flame or Water to strengthen them.
If he had to name those, it would be something like a Poison of Corrupted Flame or Venom of Petrified Bone.
There was even a vial that held something similar to the corpse poison from those Sky Rending Ghosts. That one made him frown, but he kept it anyway. It would be good to test out some of his recipes or to study to find a good antidote.
As for the rest of the bone and crystal items that contained fragments of trapped spirits or curses, he tossed them on top of the two corpses with the rest of the items he didn’t want.
Each of them had a tattoo of a red ghost on their chests, which seemed to be a symbol of the sect. It held a strange aura about it that made him not want to touch it. If his guess was right, it was a brand to show their loyalty and also a type of spiritual protection from some of the techniques they’d used.
With it, those ghosts probably would have avoided them.
Besides the poisons, there were half a dozen daggers and short blades and a couple of stand-alone defensive and evasive artifacts. One of those was a palm-sized ruby shield with ornate inscriptions on the surface that seemed clear of any traps.
Based on the traces of energy on it, it had been used recently, probably when the first assassin survived his attack. He studied it to make sure it was safe and then he bathed it in flames for good measure before he stuck it in his spatial ring.
That one might be useful in the future.
There were also four single-use talismans: two that looked like strips of white parchment and two that were yellow with a red inscription on them. The first type seemed to be targeted at warding off ghosts, while the second type was a brutal form of healing talisman, one that would give you strength to push through but damage your lifespan.
He put those away as well, although he had no intention of using the healing ones.
The other equipment from the assassins were limited, since most of what they had brought was for this single mission, boiling down to just a handful of spirit stones, which they were probably only carrying to recover their energy.
When he was done sorting everything, he incinerated the corpses and the debris pile in a wash of silver sunrise flames, letting his dao purge the presence of anything dark so that it wouldn’t disturb the courtyard.
Flares of dark green, black, and other colors of smoke let out screeches and howls as they burned in the flames, but the noise didn’t last for long. He sent another wave of flame across the pile just to make sure it was done.
He had no intention of leaving the bodies to decay into poison or to reveal anything that had happened here. As it turned out, his caution was well chosen.
As the corpses of the assassins turned to ash, half a dozen flares of red and black energy ripped away from their bodies and tried to escape, heading for the sky to the south. They were tiny, quick darts of energy, probably from spells that had been embedded in their bones.
A moment later, the spells struck the wards and disintegrated in a series of dull explosions.
At the same time, a dull explosion of red mist came from the assassins’ bodies, filling the area with more of the blood-tinged smoke, but before it could do any harm, it burned away.
He shook his head as he intensified the flames again, making sure the bodies were fully consumed, but he wasn’t surprised.
Cultivators from dark sects like this one always had some surprise in store, even if you killed them. Those spells might have even been planted in them by the sect without their knowledge, and who knew what spirits or beasts had been tortured to make the artifacts they used. Destroying it all was the best option.
Once he was finished, he summoned a wind to carry the tiny bit of ash that was left into a spare spatial bag to dispose of outside the house. It would have been a sort of poetic justice to feed them to the herbs they’d almost destroyed, but he didn’t feel like scattering their ashes across his courtyard. They didn’t deserve the honor.
Those herbs were going into his pills eventually.
By the time he was done, he’d made a few decisions about the near future.
The biggest one was that he wasn’t leaving Boreas. He’d come here to study alchemy and he planned to stick to it. It would be a shame to abandon the house and courtyard he’d worked on. If things got too hot, he could leave, but until then he planned to stay and see what happened.
His reasons were mixed.
Part of it was because he wanted to help Vesana and free the alchemists, and another part was that he didn’t want to let a sect push him around. He was still angry about the Ebon Seal Sect and others that had targeted Whitestone.
It was beneath his dignity as a dragon and as an Imperial Knight to run off at the first sign of a threat.
The foundation for all of those reasons, of course, was that he felt confident in protecting himself. There were some details to iron out, but it was something he could work on.
“The question is what to do about the sect,” he said aloud as he scratched Leaf’s head and headed toward the front door. He’d taken a little while to clean up, but there should still be enough time to catch a late dinner.
“If I announce that someone tried to assassinate an Imperial Knight, it will get attention,” he added, “but that might not be the best solution. Perhaps I’ll let the sect wonder what happened.”
Either way, they’d probably send someone else after him soon, once they realized these two had failed.
When he arrived, the restaurant was its usual pleasant burble of conversation and fragrant scents. He ignored the open dining room as he headed to one of the private rooms at the back, which the owner had reserved for him ever since he started coming here on a regular basis.
Before long, the table was filled with spicy noodles, chilled wine, barbequed wild meats arranged around sauces, and glazed vegetables layered with spiritual herbs. A loaf of freshly baked bread at the center released a tantalizing aroma.
Leaf had a separate plate, one filled with steamed buns that were usually only served at breakfast. The elemental leapt off his shoulder and curled around it greedily as soon as the waiter disappeared, his eyes gleaming.
Verse chuckled, but then he turned his attention to his own food. As he was eating, he considered the next step.
His personal strength was critical to surviving here, which meant he needed to focus on breaking through to the Aligned realm as soon as possible, but he would have done that anyway.
“There should be enough time,” he said aloud, speaking mostly to himself. As long as he stayed inside the city, he doubted the sect would try again too soon.
Their Aligned-realm assassins had failed, so they would either have to send more in a second batch or switch tactics. Switching tactics seemed more likely. To an extent, that meant he could predict their arrival and prepare for it.
The Crimson Shade Sect was far from the only sect in the area, and they were clearly up to something secret, so he doubted they wanted to draw that much attention to themselves. Now that their assassins had failed, they would try again, but it would probably be outside of the city.
The signature of an Aligned-realm ambush could be hidden here, since there were a lot of cultivators at that rank inside the city, but it was harder to hide a Primal Spirit cultivator’s signature, especially one who was fighting.
As long as he stayed here long enough to break through, he should have a bit of time.
When he did leave, whether it was for a mission or to collect herbs, he would have to be on guard. The next time they tried, it would be with something more dangerous, probably a Primal Spirit cultivator.
Either way, they were invested now, so they weren’t likely to stop. He would have to be careful, but it was a manageable risk.
If he was wrong, then he would deal with it.
Before long, the dishes on the table were demolished and he left behind a large tip as he headed back to his house. It was getting late, but he wasn’t tired. The fight and the meal had only helped to clear his mind.
Glancing across the empty dishes made him chuckle for a moment as a thought occurred to him. At some point, once they realized attacking in the city was too difficult, the sect might try a quieter method to kill him, like poisoning the food here.
It was difficult to poison an alchemist, and more difficult to poison a dragon, but he’d still have to take a look at those vials the assassins had left him and figure out the best antidote.
It wasn’t too soon to start working on the Cleansing Rain Pill either. It was a general antidote and the recipe was straightforward.
He would start on it as soon as he had a bit more practice with the Woodbalm Paste and his new understanding of Wood.
On the way home, down the dark street that was lit by a few spiritual lanterns, he whistled a simple melody, one that left a haunting tune in the night. It rose and fell like a promise on the wind.
To anyone watching, it was a daring provocation.
***
Back in his courtyard, he considered sending a message to Vesana about the assassins, but then he shook his head. She could meet him at the auction house, but it wouldn’t change anything.
More importantly, if she knew the sect was acting against him, her behavior might change. It would be disruptive if she gave away news about the attack before the sect and Renzer figured it out for themselves.
He didn’t want it to seem like they had too close of a connection.
That would put her in more danger and mess with their plans. She was already on guard and the fewer variables, the better.
Her status was high, so it was unlikely that the sect would harm her. If they did, her family and the guild heads would undoubtedly find out about it and probably wipe the sect off the map. That was the danger of offending strong organizations, and the Alchemists’ Guild was one of the strongest.
She would be safe enough.
He spent a few minutes browsing through some options for sale with his guard badge and then he tucked away a few small items, including a vial of antidote pills. They were odds and ends that might be important in the future.
When he was finished with that, he began laying out the Wind-aligned items. He had originally intended to practice alchemy tonight, but he’d changed his mind. Pills were a supplement and could be powerful, but personal strength was the best foundation.
It would be better if he studied the Dao of Wind.
With each dao he comprehended, there were advantages to his alchemy and his control with certain ingredients, so it wouldn’t be a waste of time even if he did it first.
He looked at the Wind-aligned elemental stones and the Silver Wind Stone in front of him. After a moment of consideration, he also set out the bottle of Bright Storm Wine. It held a more specialized dao than pure Wind, but no one could deny that a storm was made out of wind.
He didn’t plan to use it directly for his meditation, but a few drops of it might be useful.
With that, he settled down into a meditation pose and began to think of wind. Immediately, thoughts came to him of flying through the clouds on dragon wings. They were swiftly followed by the memory of streamlined starships in the darkness and then by the jade-tinted clouds of the Heavengold Imperial World.
He had many experiences with Wind to draw upon as he sank deeper into meditation.
He’d long ago familiarized himself with basic techniques that called on Wind, starting from his first days in Whitestone. The Six Transformations of the Eagle technique had given him Wind Blade, his first ranged attack, and later Eagle’s Cry and Eagle’s Claw.
He’d never mastered the technique, since it had been replaced by stronger ones, but it was still a part of him. Now, it was useful again as the memory of its principles filled his mind.
Around him, a subtle white breeze began to spin as energy condensed from the air and hovered around his body. It curled around his hands where he’d thrown wind blades, and then around all of his limbs.
As an Essence Condensation cultivator, he could fly through the air. That too was part of Wind.
Wind was movement, the flowing presence of pressure, tilt and shift with wings spread wide.
His eyes were closed, but his hand was unerring as he reached out and picked up two of the Wind-aligned spirit stones. He held one in each hand as he began to absorb their energy, letting the truth of the elemental attunement merge with his study of Wind.
Time flowed away on the breeze.
Three days later, the spirit stones in front of him had been reduced to shimmering dust and the spiral white winds around his body were five times the size they’d been before. He reached out again. This time he picked up the bottle of Bright Storm Wine in one hand and the Silver Wind Stone in the other.
With a casual gesture, he swallowed a mouthful of wine straight from the bottle and then he set it down again, turning his attention to the wind stone. He took it out of the jade case and held quickly held it between his hands,
Violent arcs of white Wind energy slashed outward from the stone the instant it was freed. They were like blades as they slammed into the winds around him and disrupted their energy before they struck his body like hammers.
Despite the ferocity, the strikes didn’t manage to break through his skin.
All around him, leaves and grasses were assaulted by the unleashed storm. They were pressed flat against the ground in some areas and yanked upwards in others, their roots trembling as they tried to hold on. At any moment, it looked like half the courtyard would be overturned by a tempest and all of his work lost.
