Chapter 59

I let Silver Light rest while I got to work butchering the corpse of the reaper beast in search for its core. Thankfully, Silver Light being passed out allowed for me to work without reservation of fully utilizing my manifestation techniques. It took only half an hour using my Giant form to its maximum and to my surprise, I found I could grow to nearly eight feet tall with it now. When I finally pulled the core from its guts, I could barely believe what I was seeing. The thing was the size of an orange, smooth like an egg and the color of opaque jade. It had to be worth over a thousand spirit stones, maybe even more. I couldn’t sense anything from it, of course, but it had to be full of Wood-based Qi.

Flower girl would probably kill her own mother for something like this, I thought with a chuckle.

I looked to Silver Light who was still passed out on the ground. She looked peaceful, which actually made her already gorgeous face far more attractive to me—sans the perpetual bitch-face and rich girl scowls. As pretty as she was though, she’d likely become a hellcat on wheels again once she woke up, the subject of my inexplicable strength the obvious question of focus.

And I needed to be prepared for it.

But first I needed to get us somewhere safe. Granted, nothing would probably come within ten miles of the dead reaper beast corpse now. The death of an apex predator like that sent a warning to any other would-be predators to stay the hell away. Still, I was covered in blood and stunk like hell.

I needed to find someplace to clean myself up.

Salvaging what unbloodied clothes I could find, I turned them inside out and used them as a barrier between my blood-smeared skin and Silver Light’s pristine robes as I hoisted her onto my back. She was light as a feather, and I carried her easily while also balancing the bamboo pole across my shoulder, which was laden with her bags full of junk.

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I stuffed the beast core in the basket with the crockery and then got underway.

Leaving the Reaper Flats, I headed south, closer towards the gate and the residual protective influence the dome would provide. Sparse shrubland turned into denser clumps of trees as I wandered deeper into the forest.

Silver Light snored deeply on my back the entire time, her silken hair tickling the back of my neck as her head bobbed up and down. I didn’t mind it though and after another half hour of travelling westward I finally found what I was looking for.

From the top of a forested knoll, I spotted it, a small but pristine lake with a small beach on one side. It was a place I’d found years ago, to safely skive off out in the field when things were slow. The lake had to have been man-made by how uniform it was, plus the beach—part of an old resort or something. But now nature had claimed most of it back, with trees and tall grass growing right up to the unnatural white shoreline of its sandy beach.

Silver Light began to stir as I made my way down the slight slope towards the lake. Her arms hung loosely about my neck and shoulders, her legs straddling my hips, but being unconscious she couldn’t cling to me with her own strength. I kept her in place instead, by putting my arm behind my back and using my forearm as a seat for her butt.

She began to wiggle some as we neared the lake and then subtly, I sensed her movements become more rhythmical. I thought I was imagining it at first, just the jostling of her body against mine as I bounced along the path, but then I sensed a huge amount of lemonade building within her as a faint moan escaped her lips.

What the hell? Was this girl humping my frigging back?

“Hey, are you awake?”

The sudden tensing of her body as she went completely still answered my question in full. She must have stayed like that for a couple seconds before her lemonade quickly shifted to fear and then sudden anger.

“Huh?” she said, sounding like the worst actress in the world. “W-what are you doing, handler?”

“What am I doing?” I was tempted to call her out for what the hell she was doing to my back just now, but I figured she was probably embarrassed enough already. “You passed out. Or don’t you remember? I’m carrying you back to the gate.”

“Put me down!” she shouted and began thumping me on my back with her tiny fists. “Unhand me! Unhand me now!”

She had to be kidding? I endured the baby-like thumps to my back until we reached the beach where I unceremoniously dumped her right on her ass into the soft sand.

“There! Happy now?”

Silver Light looked up at me like a spoiled brat, her brows fixed in a scowl, but her soul was a tempest of waning anger and building fear.

“I did not give you permission to touch me,” she snapped. “Handling me in such a way was completely inappropriate.”

“Is that right?” I said with a smile of [Indifference]. “Next time, I’ll be sure to ask your unconscious self for permission. Or maybe I’ll just leave you there to be eaten by demons when the Bloodmoon rises.”

Her anger flared again, genuine this time.

“I know what you are,” she said, her words like venom as her eyes focused on me with a predatory stare. “I saw what you did fighting that thing.”

It was my turn to leak fear as my heart rate increased.

Please don’t say it, I thought. Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.

The last thing I wanted to do was kill this girl—and in her weakened state I could probably do it too—but I just didn’t know how much she’d actually seen of my transformations. I swallowed back my fear with [Indifference] as I matched her stare with [Struggler’s Resolve].

“Yeah? And what am I then?”

She smirked at me like a child withholding a secret. “You’re a fraud.”

“What?”

I wasn’t expecting that word, but I’d take it for now.

“You’re no handler,” she said. “I know what you really are…or who you really are at least.” She then grinned and lifted her chin at me like she was Jian Yi. “You’re the Iron Bull.”

Holy shit…

A huge sense of relief filled me and I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

“What?” she snapped, growing irate. “What’s so funny? I’d know that chiseled body anywhere. And the axe techniques? Don’t try to deny it. I know it’s you!”

I thanked the stars for my fake ring persona. I guess she hadn’t seen much after all. Or perhaps—judging by how she’d just described my body—she’d only seen what she wanted to see. Still, being tagged as the Iron Bull was a hell of a lot better than being branded a heretic Berserker.

She’d just given me an out that I was more than happy to take.

“Look…I wear a mask in the ring for a reason,” I said, flexing with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “So, I’d appreciate it if you could keep this little secret between us. Alright?”

Her eyes went wide with excitement, all anger quickly turning to lemonade.

“I knew it!” she said triumphantly, like we were playing some sort of game. “I knew it! I knew it!”

“Do we have a deal or what?”

Silver Light stared at me smugly, like she’d just raised an axe above my head. “I suppose that depends on what secrets you may be willing to keep for me.”

I squinted at that one. “What secrets?”

She ignored my question, looking instead out over the lake while smiling. “You know, I would say that you’re masking a whole lot more than just that handsome face of yours in the arena.”

What was she getting at now?

“Are you truly Terran?” she asked, swiveling her head back to me. “Or have you come here from offworld and are simply masquerading as one?”

“What?”

“There’s no way you could be this powerful as a Terran. Not unless you’re some kind of prodigy or something.”

There was that word again.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Really?” she said. “We ladies all have our theories about the true identity of the Iron Bull.” She leered at me again, licking her teeth. “Luckily, I’m the one to actually find out the truth about you. So tell me now and I’ll keep your little secret. Where are you truly from?”

This actually was some kind of game to her. One she played with her rich snobbish friends, I guessed. I thought quickly on my feet. Passing myself off as an offworlder was tempting, an easy way to explain just how powerful I was, but I knew jack-shit about the empire outside of Earth, or even the city for that matter.

No way I could pull off anything like that.

“I’m from here,” I said. “I’m Terran. I just used a lot of cheap tricks, like Mu Lin said.”

“You don’t get skills and powers like that from using cheap elixirs.”

I shrugged. “I told you there was more to me than just Qi. I train hard and fight harder. That’s it.”

She studied me for a long while then, her eyes shifting as if contemplating something. And then slowly her soul began to fill with lemonade. “Perhaps you are indeed gifted then. One of the prodigies the princess boasted this planet would be filled with.” And with that the lemonade within her doubled. “That’s even more perfect.”

Perfect for what? I thought.

“I wouldn’t know,” I said, trying to play it off. The last thing I needed was her thinking I was special somehow. That’d only lead to more questions. “The Furious Lightning Sect has its secrets too, you know? I’m sure my advancement would be seen as nothing special within a normal context.”

She crinkled her nose like something smelled bad. “That’s the only thing wrong about you. You’re already the member of a rival sect.”

I looked back at her oddly. Although I supposed, if that was the only thing she found wrong about me, I was probably getting off lightly.

“What’s it matter to you what sect I’m in anyway?”

She opened her mouth as if to say something but then quickly closed it again.

The fear came back.

I didn’t know what was going on, but I needed to change the subject.

“I need to get cleaned up and wash these clothes,” I said, heading towards the lake. “I hope I didn’t get any blood on you. I was being careful not to.”

I got about halfway to the water’s edge when she suddenly called out to me again.

“Handler! I need my chair,” she shouted.

“What?”

“My Dantian is depleted. I need my silver chair to help me focus my cultivation and meditate.”

“In a minute,” I said, pulling off my bloodied clothes right down to the boxers. “I need to wash off. I reek of reaper beast guts, or didn’t you notice?”

I turned back to give her a wink and smile, and Silver Light had her mouth open again as she stared back at me. She blushed and filled with lemonade, before quickly diverting her gaze.

“I need it now!” she yelled, not looking at me. “Get it now!”

I laughed. “I’m not getting it for you right now. You’re just going to have to wait.”

“What did you just say to me?”

“You’re free to come and reprimand me if you like,” I said, wading into the water. “But I warn you it’s a little cold.”

With that I dove into the cool crisp water as her anger spiked. It was cold enough to make my balls shrink but I didn’t care. Washing off the grime of not just the reaper beast, but the blood of the murderous Shen Ju and his men felt like a baptism. I was finally clean of his ilk in more ways than one.

As I scrubbed myself with my clothes, I looked back at Silver Light who was still writhing with anger while blushing like a beet. The sight made me laugh again. Teasing her was just too much fun. But I was relieved now as well. Clearly her judgment of me had to be clouded for how easily she accepted who and what I was, but I wasn’t complaining.

“These are going to take a little while to dry,” I said as I finally left the water, laying my clothes out on a fallen log next to her. “I’ll make a fire and then fix you your chair. Maybe make us something to eat too. How’s that, my lady?”

She nodded, keeping her head straight as an arrow as to not look at my half-naked body. “That will be acceptable, handler. You may proceed.”

I stifled a chuckle and got to work.

I started by lighting a fire with my faux lightning and then set up her tea set and chair. Silver Light sat atop it in lotus position, her eyes closed in meditation, but I’d catch her sneaking a peek at me every so often once while I prepared us some noodles and dried vegetables.

We sat in silence eating once I served it to her, me sitting on the log next to my drying clothes while she sat daintily on her silver chair. It made sense now why it was made of silver. At first, I had assumed it was mere extravagant opulence, like her stupid tea set, but being metal aspect, I realized the chair, made of silver in particular, was more a cultivation tool than a symbol of luxury.

That made me remember something else.

“Hey, I have a present for you,” I said and reached into the crockery bag for the beast core. When I dropped it into her hands her eyes widened in shock.

“By the twelve heavens! I’ve never seen one so huge.”

I resisted the juvenile urge to say, Yeah that’s what Xi Xha said and settled for a chuckle, especially since she wouldn’t understand the joke anyway.

“It’s pretty amazing what we both did,” I said. “Few people can say they’ve killed an awakened S-Class monster.”

“Few people of our ranking, you mean,” she said, almost distastefully. And while I got that in her world there were people way more powerful than even her, what I picked up on was the use of the word ‘our’. She had accepted me as an equal. No questions asked.

Or few anyway.

I was grateful for that.

“What will you do with it?” I asked. “Will you use it to cultivate?”

“Me?” she said and looked at it quizzically again. “I have no use for something like this. Even if it were the right aspect, I don’t like to make use of augmentations. Even if it takes me decades longer, I value strength gained from my own skill.”

I nodded. “I can respect that. And the difference truly shows. As I said before, you hit way above your arena ranking, my lady.”

I smiled and she blushed again.

“I would be forced to say the same for you, Mr. Iron Bull,” she said and gave me a smile in return. “Honestly for what I saw you do today, you should be competing in the Gold Bracket, not Iron.”

“Holy shit, was that an actual compliment?”

She looked offended until I teased her with a laugh. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Thank you though. That’s very gracious of you to say.”

She simply blushed again.

I wondered if it were true though. The Gold Bracket? Considering what I’d done, I was perhaps at that level in a technical sense, but the reason I had fared so well against the reaper beast was more than just the use of solid Frenzy. I’d been free to make full use of my manifestation techniques as well. Something I’d still be hard pressed to do in the ring.

“So what will you do with it then?” I asked, pointing to the reaper beast core.

Silver Light paused to marvel at it once more. “It’s quite valuable. Something of this nature is what one would expect for an engagement gift even.”

I shrugged. “Well, I just gave it to you. Does that mean we’re engaged now?”

Silver Light stiffened and blushed sharply until I began to laugh.

She then filled with anger.

“You should not jest about such things!” she said, glaring at me. “A marriage within my family is a sacred affair. Our royal lineage is passed down through the women of the Clan. And as an only daughter, the responsibility of continuing the bloodline all falls upon me.” She then paused, her silver eyes staring at the ground. “I’m not free to simply love whoever I want like Xi Xha. My marriage will be one of orchestration and strategy. An alliance more than a marriage. It’s not something I look forward to.”

I felt genuinely bad for her then and a bit like an ass as well. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make light of your situation. It was a stupid joke.”

She sighed and looked at the core once more. “It’s fine. You do not know our customs and ways.” She then looked at me and a sadness entered her eyes. “Not everyone can have what they want in life. Even if it’s sitting right there in front of them…”

I didn’t know what to say to that, but it caused my soul to stir.

“It would still make a wonderful gift, I suppose,” Silver Light said, looking back to the core again. “To my mother perhaps. Or even my dreaded Great Aunt.”

I raised a brow. “You mean the Warden?”

She nodded silently.

I could still picture the woman in my mind. The infamous Lady Silver Tear. I’d seen her only once before since she took me from my family over a decade ago. A school visit or something like that. Even then just seeing her had paralyzed me with fear. But now I was looking forward to when I finally got the chance to look her in the face again.

“She’s the reason we all came here, you know?” Silver Light said. “My family and I. She uprooted the entire clan. A fresh start in a new territory, that was the promise. But in the end, it’s just turned out to be more of the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought I could be free here,” she said. “To wander a new realm, find myself. To cultivate and reach the heavens before being chained to the duties of becoming a royal lady of the Silver Leaf Clan. But this place is more of a prison than the Lower Courts ever were.”

“I have no idea what the Lower Courts are,” I said. “But they don’t sound like much fun.”

She chuckled. “They are not. But neither is Jurin. Not to me anyway. I’m trapped day in and day out within the imperial city and the dome. Even venturing here, I had to come in secret so as to not lose face for taking part in activities far below my station.”

She said the last part like a quote, and I could imagine someone like that bitch Warden saying that to her. I was beginning to see what life was truly like for her. I always thought it a bit cliché to consider the struggles of the rich, but I suppose even for cultivators the same held true.

“Well, you’re free out here,” I said, gesturing to our surroundings. “Outside the dome there is no Warden, no empire, no rules. It’s just you versus the wild.”

Silver Light nodded as she looked out over the lake. “Is that why you became a handler? To have this kind of freedom?”

“Me?” I laughed. “No. It was the only work I could get as a mortal, honestly. It’s something most people are too afraid to even do. But now that I’m a cultivator, I appreciate it more. Out here I can truly be myself.”

I meant every word of it too. This was my true domain. A place where I could let it all hang loose and reach my full potential.

Silver Light was quiet for a while and then finally she said, “This is what I want.”

“Huh?”

“This,” she said, gesturing all around her. “This freedom that you have. I’m envious of it. I’d give anything to just stay and be free out here with you.”

Her words caused my soul to stir again. “Things can’t be that bad for you, can they?”

She laughed. “Were we back in the imperial city, I would be punished severely, and you beheaded for just being seen together like this.”

I raised a brow at that. “Are you serious?”

She glanced down at me. “Have you forgotten that you are wearing next to nothing?”

Oh shit, I did kind of forget.

“Sorry,” I said, checking on my clothes. “You probably have a point there. These are pretty much dry now anyway, I’ll just throw them on.”

As I stood to get dressed her hand suddenly caught my wrist. “Wait…”

I looked down at her quizzically and her eyes filled with desperation, her soul trembling with fear. I could hear her heart thudding in her chest as her breathing increased.

“I… I don’t know how to even say this, but…” She then turned her head away. “Lie with me.”

I couldn’t believe what she’d just said. “What?”

“You heard me!” she said, sounding angry now. “I command you to lie with me!”

Whoa, this woman had to be crazy.

“Look, I don’t know if that’s how you think things work down here, but I’m not about to—”

“Please!” she blurted, and I saw tears welling within her eyes as she looked up at me again. “By the gods, this is humiliating enough for me already. Please don’t make it worse!”

What the hell was this?

Genuine concern filled me as I sat back down next to her again.

“Hey, what are you talking about? Why are you crying?”

Her bottom lip quivered as her eyes melted into a sob.

“I am well over thirty years old now,” she said. “And I’ve never even felt the touch of a man.” The admission took me by surprise. She looked only twenty or so, but she was a mature woman the same age as Xi Xha. The fact that she was sharing this with me was even more mind blowing. “By the way my life is headed, it will be another thirty more before I’m forced to either marry a man I hate or become a bitter old spinster like my great aunt.”

Holy crap…I wasn’t expecting things to get heavy like this. I didn’t know what to say. I rested my hand on her back as her shoulders began to shake with another sob.

“I don’t want to look back on this day with regret,” she continued. “This rare opportunity…away from my family…away from everyone. My one chance to experience true happiness with a man…without pressure or circumstance. A man that I want. That I choose.” She then stopped and blushed. “That is…assuming that you would want me, in return.”

I saw the desperation and fear come into her eyes again and I finally knew what it was that she’d been afraid of this entire time.

My rejection.

“Hey,” I said earnestly with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want you, Silver Light. From the first moment I saw you even.”

She looked up at me, as if surprised. “Truthfully?”

I laughed. “I don’t need to tell you how beautiful you are, do I? What man wouldn’t want you? But do you really want me to want you for that reason alone?”

She blushed more at that.

“I’m not going to do something for the wrong reasons,” I said. “Didn’t you just tell me that marriage is a serious deal in your family? I’m not going to mess that up by taking that away from you.”

“No please,” she said. “This is something I want. Something I need. Something I may never have the chance to experience again.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I don’t want this to become something that you later regret. I refuse to do that to you. I’m just not that kind of guy.”

Silver Light shook her head at me as more lemonade stirred. “You saying that doesn’t make me want you any less. Quite the opposite. And trust me, I feel like I’d be more taking advantage of you than you me.”

I considered that a moment. Maybe it was true. But this didn’t feel the same as it did with Xi Xha. And I didn’t feel good about giving her my pity either.

Silver Light blinked, staring at the ground for a moment.

“Perhaps I’m not being forthright enough with you,” she said and then she heaved out a deep and uneasy breath. “Do you know how many of my friends yearn to catch the eye of Xi Xha’s secret little handler? That’s what we call you, by the way.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, so I gathered.”

“But then also how much we all yearn for the mysterious Bull Man in the ring. For me to find out that you are one and the same… it’s like… it’s like a fantasy come true. A one in a million chance.”

“I still don’t understand what this has to do with messing up your marriage.”

“I don’t wish to be married,” she said. “That’s what the Warden and my mother want.” She then took my hand in hers. “But if things could be differently between us, between our status, our sects, our clans… you’d be the man I would have best me in the ring.”

Holy shit… was that a damn proposal?

She then looked away. “I know that was forward of me. But I say all that to say, I’m not interested in you to just fulfil a need. I could have done so ten times over with the pandering fools who endlessly seek to court me. What I’m saying is. You are the kind of man I would actually choose if I could. That is… if you would also choose me.”

I didn’t know what to say. I barely knew her, but here she was baring her very soul to me. From the first time I’d seen Silver Light in that skiff, I’d felt the obvious attraction, but there was more here now. This was a strong woman, a powerful cultivator and a fearless warrior, but her heart was a delicate flower. A rose she hid deep within a thorny bush of arrogance, aloofness, and pride. She’d pushed all of that aside to finally reveal her true self to me.

A kindred soul that craved freedom just as much as I did.

“I know you perhaps favor Xi Xha more than me, but… If you gave me the chance, I would do my best to please y—”

I shut her up by pressing my lips to hers and she yelped and gave me a slap.

She looked more shocked than I was, eyes wide with fright.

“I-I’m so sorry!” she said. “It was a react—”

I slapped her right back with a playful grin and the look on her face was priceless.

She was too stunned to speak, her mouth hanging open as she held a hand to her face.

But then her soul spiked with lemonade as she literally pounced on top of me.

Her lips found mine in a fervor and I had to catch my breath by the way her tongue darted into my mouth.

“Hey, easy!” I said pulling away from her a bit. “Slow down. We have time.”

“I’m sorry, handler,” she said, undoing her robes. “I’ve just wanted you so badly and even more so now.”

Hearing a woman as gorgeous as Silver Light say that to me, was an ego boost my body couldn’t ignore. To hell with it, I thought. I want this woman as badly as she wants me. And if the Warden would be the one to suffer from Silver Light not getting married to extend her clan, then so be it. The irony of that made me smile.

I guess there was more than one way to screw over the enemy.

“You know, you could make this a bit less awkward by not referring to me as ‘handler’,” I said. “You do know my name from Xi Xha, don’t you?”

Silver Light blushed. “I thought it would be too intimate of me to refer to you by your personal name.”

I grinned. “I think we’re about to do something far more intimate than that, don’t you?”

She turned red as a tomato. “I suppose… yes, you are right… Chun…”

I smiled.

“Good,” I said and kissed her softly as I stroked her cheek. “But you can call me Max. Max is my real name.”

“Max…” Her eyes widened in surprise but then she nodded. “I suppose it is only fair for me to share my personal name with you as well.”

I cocked a brow at her. “It’s not Silver Light?”

“No.” She shook her head. “That’s more of a title.”

“So what is it then?”

“My name is Fia,” she said as she leaned down to kiss me. “Fia Dong.”