Sunrise Alchemist 16: Wind and Wrath (Patreon)

An intensifying storm filled the center of the courtyard around Verse. It was contained with the sphere of Wood energy that Leaf had created, which kept it from tearing apart the herbs here, but within those confines, dark clouds crackled with lightning along the edges and released bolts of brilliant force.

It looked like a portal to a world of storms.

By contrast, at the center of that sphere, the air was calm and breezy, like the eye of a hurricane. The clouds there were gentle white streamers twisting around Verse’s body. In his hands, the Silver Wind Stone continued to release blades of wind and fuel the force of the storm, but its energy was changing.

It was still fierce and wild, but it no longer struck Verse so frequently. Here and there, the blades of wind changed into streams of hardened air, curls of mist, and warm zephyrs that floated around him.

It was these winds that created the calm space at the center of the storm, while the force continued to rotate around him.

That wasn’t to say the winds were all calm. Lightning left crackling trails across his body and now and then a wild blast of uncontrolled wind tossed him around like a leaf inside the tempest, but he always found his balance again and sat back down at the center of the storm.

Six weeks passed like this.

Suns rose and fell, clouds covered the sky, and stars shone down on the trees in the courtyard. Light and shadow flowed across the constantly changing tempest contained in the sphere of green energy.

To the side, Leaf opened an eye now and then to see what was happening, and then promptly closed it again.

Eventually, the Wind-aligned spirit stones had all turned to dust and with a sudden movement, Verse absorbed the Silver Wind Stone into his dantian, sending its wild force directly to the center of his spiritual energy.

The silver stone floated above an ocean of jade essence that stretched to the horizon. The jade sea was vast and deep, far greater than a normal Essence Condensation cultivator would have possessed.

The Jade Scripture was not a simple cultivation method. Its effects were equally wondrous. It enhanced the quantity and quality of Verse’s essence and helped to attune him to Jade and the celestial dao.

The collision of celestial energy at the Heavengold Imperial World was called Jadefall. Sparks of jade essence rained down through the clouds and then night sky, creating an aurora and shooting stars unlike anything seen elsewhere in the universe.

It was a unique celestial event that had been turned into the foundation of this technique.

A cultivation method like this one was far better than an earthly method, and the real potential of the Jade Scripture hadn’t even appeared yet. That would come later, when his control of higher energies relied more on his attunement.

He was still in the foundational stages, but even at this realm, the method was better than anything else he’d seen.

His thoughts were filled with Wind and his memories flowed between the worlds and lives he’d seen as the Silver Wind Stone floated above the jade sea.

Slowly, the stone began to melt away. Wisps of white wind flowed from it and turned into clouds hovering above the sea, creating a sky that hadn’t been seen before. Eventually, the entire stone disappeared, its substance turned into clouds.

At that moment, a howling gale roared across the surface of the jade sea and reached the center, where it swirled into a massive vortex. In the world outside, the green sphere around Verse suddenly shattered as the clouds in the sky began to churn.

The storm around him escaped into the air, growing larger as it drew energy from the world. Whipping winds surrounded him, turning into the towering column of a white tornado that stretched from heaven to earth.

In the courtyard, Leaf opened one eye again and sighed, and then a second ring of green energy sprang up to replace the sphere that had been there. This time, it didn’t create a sphere, just a division between Verse’s tornado and the rest of the courtyard. Grumbling, Leaf put his head down again and wrapped his tail more firmly across his eyes.

The tornado intensified in strength until it felt like the entire courtyard was shaking, but it was firmly contained by Leaf’s barrier. Some of the higher winds tried to rattle the house, but the wards on the walls stood firm against the barrage, like ancient stones on a mountainside.

At the center of the tornado, Verse floated off the ground. This time, he wasn’t held up by spiritual energy like most Essence Condensation cultivators could use to fly, but rather by the force of the Wind itself.

The harmony of wind and storm flowed around him, lifting him weightlessly from the ground. If he’d wished it, he could have flown far away from Boreas on those winds, accelerating toward the distant horizon.

On the spur of the moment, he let himself soar into the air, heading upwards to where the storm clouds gathered at the height of the tornado. He paused there, floating in the air as his robes billowed around him, his hair blown gently like it was touched by a summer breeze.

Below him, Boreas sprawled across the land in a wave of buildings and walls, towers and temples. His home was a tiny speck below on the edge of the city. In the distance, the Obsidian Forest and the volcanic plains stretched endlessly to the horizon.

He laughed as he turned a somersault in the air, his balance held perfectly on the wind, and then he dove down, heading like a meteor for the courtyard. Just above the ground, wind flared around him, lifting him up again, and he set down with a light footstep that barely made a tap against the stones.

The area where he had been sitting was scoured clear, leaving only the now shining stones of the courtyard’s decorative plaza laid neatly side by side.

All around him, he could sense the movement of every breeze, as well as the potential of the distant storm in the sky. It felt like at any moment, if he willed it, he could rise away from it all.

On a simpler level, he also knew that his agility had drastically improved. His techniques with Wind would come more easily and his speed would be faster.

In his dantian, the clouds of the Silver Wind Stone were still there. It looked like they’d taken up permanent residence. The stone had been formed from the world’s wind, and now it was part of him.

They had created a sky to his own internal world.

He hadn’t expected that to happen, since it hadn’t with his other daos in the same way, but cultivation was a path of exploration. It felt like they fit, so he didn’t worry about it. Maybe it was a dragon thing, since dragons were supposed to be able to soar among the clouds and summon the rain.

“Noisy,” Leaf complained from nearby as he pulled his tail more tightly over his eyes, but at the same time his attention was fixed on Verse. His green eyes peeked out from beneath his tail, his irises gleaming. “Food?”

“Let’s go celebrate again,” Verse agreed with a laugh as the wind settled down around him. His robes were still drifting in an unseen breeze, almost as if they had a life of their own, and strands of his hair were floating around as well, but it was a minor effect.

He hadn’t thought the breakthrough would be so dramatic. If Leaf hadn’t been here, the winds would have shredded everything in the courtyard. The house wards would have held for a little while, but they might have failed too. That storm was strong enough to burn through the spirit stones maintaining the formation.

“Good.” Leaf sat up with a yawn. Then with a blur of movement, he reappeared on Verse’s shoulder and coiled around his neck. “Restaurant?”

“Yes, you can get more steamed buns,” Verse agreed, knowing what the elemental was really asking about.

“Good work,” the shrine agreed in Verse’s mind, speaking up for the first time in weeks. “Your progress is quick, but that’s to be expected for a dragon. Now you just have Stone left and you can break through to the Aligned realm.”

“That one will be fast, but I need to leave the city for it,” Verse agreed as he headed for the street. “The disruption it will cause would probably level the house, even with the wards. I want to find a mountain. A natural cave system would work too. Anything that has a strong presence of elemental Stone to commune with.”

“The assassins will probably be looking for you,” the shrine said. “Are you planning on dealing with them now?”

“They can follow me if they like,” Verse replied, “but it won’t be as easy as they think, especially now with the Dao of Wind. It’s the best method to increase speed. Between that and the talismans I picked up, I should be able to guarantee my own safety. But I do want to prepare a few more things first, just in case, and I don’t plan to announce my departure. I want it to be quick, there and back again.”

Ideas wove through his mind as he considered the options.

He didn’t plan to wait for long, but it would be good to prepare better and do some alchemy before he left.

While he did that, he could start building the support structure for his Jade Foundation. That way, he wouldn’t waste any time. Once he reached an understanding of Stone, he could break through immediately to the Aligned realm.

The increase in strength from that breakthrough would give anyone pursuing him a shock.

If he was being chased, he might need that breakthrough to help, so he had to make sure to be ready for it.

If he timed it right...perhaps he could even lure some of the Crimson Shade Sect assassins out after him, into a trap they wouldn’t expect. It would be a good way to eliminate some of the danger in the shadows.

Plans and potential tactics to eliminate assassins filled his mind as he reached the restaurant. It wasn’t long before he was in a private room again and plates of sizzling meat and fragrant herbs filled the table.

“For you,” Verse said to Leaf as he pointed at half a dozen plates of steaming buns and vegetables cooked with spiritual herbs. “We’ll take anything extra back with us for later. Thank you for watching over me and protecting the courtyard.”

It was an enormous pile of food that was three times larger than the elemental himself. He scratched at the scales on Leaf’s head as the elemental rubbed against him with a hiss of delight.

Leaf leapt onto the table and curled around a plate, while his tail swept out to hook another one, and a claw dragged a third toward himself. A rumbling sound like a purr made the table shake, which made Verse laugh.

He still wasn’t sure how old the elemental was, but his help in the courtyard hinted at his power. Perhaps the elemental was so old that his perspective on life was different from regular mortals.

He appreciated the small things, like steamed buns.

It was a reminder to Verse that he needed to stay present and not let his mind float away into the clouds like Memory had. Perhaps dragons and elementals had always balanced each other. He didn’t know enough about history to say for sure.

Either way, he could learn from him, even if it was a reminder that the good life boiled down to a nice nap and dinner.

Or tea.

For a moment, the memory of Lord Jao came to him, telling him to drink the tea dry rather than save it. The two ideas weren’t at odds with one another. Right now, that meant enjoying dinner.

Before he ate, he examined the food minutely, but he didn’t sense any indication of poison on it. Leaf was also happily munching away on a steamed bun that he was holding delicately between two claws. With his senses, that basically guaranteed the assassins hadn’t tried anything here.

The rest of the evening was spent in a long and satisfying dinner, one that was filled with a series of other dishes, chilled and sparkling wines, a few sips of spiritual liquors to separate the courses, and finally a warm, spicy wine to finish it off.

If he hadn’t been a cultivator, he probably would have exploded from eating that much, but it was all quickly broken down into spiritual energy, leaving him with a rush of energy that he stored in his jade essence sea, which made the waves rise and the new clouds turn denser.

He could survive purely on spiritual energy, but since he hadn’t eaten in the past six weeks, real food was a nice change of pace.

Leaf had eaten two of the plates of buns and his belly looked like he had swallowed a pot of wine whole. Now he was curled around a third plate, snoring with his eyes closed. Verse had to stop himself from laughing as he stored the other plates away and headed out.

On the way back to the house, he was in a good mood, but he still kept an eye out for the sect’s people. Nothing was out of the ordinary as he turned the corner back to his house.

When he was just coming into sight of his door, however, something tickled at his senses.

He hurled himself to the side, his attunement to Wind turning the movement into a blur of speed that was accelerated by wisps of white energy.

A tiny feathered dart whispered through the air where his head had been. It made a clang as the dark tip struck the flagstones of the street. It was only a few inches long, with a slender, deadly point and a tuft of fur at the back.

He continued his movement as Wind surrounded him, and then he leapt into the sky, heading for the direction the dart had come, but when he arrived at the rooftop where the assassin had been standing, the area was clear.

Only shifting shadows filled the night, as well as the fading presence of someone who’d hid among them. An aura of darkness and the metallic spice of some corrosive poison were the only signs that a person had been here.

He studied the area for a moment, but then he leapt back off the roof and returned to where the dart had landed. His attention was fixed as he held his hand above it, studying it from every angle.

Then a wave of flame enveloped the dart, scorching it. A cloud of reddish mist rose up from the dart, not just the tip but the entire thing.

It was soaked with poison.

There was no way to touch it without contaminating his hand. If he’d been foolish enough to pick it up, he would have been doing the assassins’ work for them.

The signature from the poison was the same as one of the Primal Spirit-ranked poisons he’d collected from the earlier assassins, and if his guess was right, it was a type of bone-melting poison that would liquify someone from the inside, but there was only one dart.

They could have brought more people and tried to ambush him with a group, but no other presences marked the night. It looked like they weren’t underestimating him any longer, but at the same time, they were being cautious. They didn’t want to stir up a real fight.

He would have to stay on his guard.

As he headed to his door, he remained alert. They must have been watching the house and waiting for him to come home. He studied everything around him, and soon enough his alertness bore fruit.

There was a strange smell coming from his door, one that was just strong enough to notice if he moved slowly. A human probably wouldn’t have smelled it at all. It only took a moment to figure out what it was.

The doorway, the ring for the door handle, and the flagstones at his step were all coated with some type of contact poison.

Leaf hissed in warning from his shoulder as he smelled it too, but he didn’t leap off. He trusted Verse to deal with it, and his stomach was too full for him to want to move.

“They’re trying to be clever now,” Verse said as anger boiled in his chest. He summoned a wave of flame to bathe the doorway. Fortunately, it was mostly made out of stone, and the wood of the door itself was old and as hard as iron.

The wards activated as the flame met the doorway, pushing the contact poison away from the inside, and a moment later everything that didn’t belong here turned to smoke. He shook his head.

Attacking him was one thing, but if one of his neighbors or their children had knocked on his door or sat on his doorstep while they were playing in the street, they would have died from this.

He looked over his shoulder at the rooftop where the assassin had been. His mood was dark.

These were probing attacks.

The sect was testing him, but they were testing his patience at the same time. They had no morals, and their actions were dangerous to everyone around him. It was a good thing he didn’t have many guests.

A wave of his hand erected a barrier of wind in front of the door, one that would gently push everything away from it. He would need to renew it frequently or turn it into a formation if he wanted it to stay permanently, but it would do for now.

As for the sect, his plan for how to deal with them was swiftly advancing. When the time came, he didn’t plan to be merciful.

The sect had already enslaved alchemists, but until now he had only considered how to get them back and how to stop the sect from doing it again. Tonight had changed that.

Now he planned to destroy them.

His anger continued to rise like a raging flame through his blood and bones, building toward something that could only be called a dragon’s wrath.

It was like a living thing, an emerald flame that refused to die until they suffered for their transgressions. He could have suppressed it, even left Boreas and chosen another path for alchemy, but he saw no reason to.

Everything in his blood and memories cried out to destroy them.

Despite that, or perhaps because of it, his mind was clear and his blood surged with power. The emerald thread of his bloodline was pulsing, drawing in energy from the world as it grew stronger on its own.

The ancient wood of his doorway creaked in response as vital energy surged through for the first time in centuries, and the stone of the street beneath his feet rumbled.

The steps he needed to take to deal with the problem were clear.

If he were strong enough, he would fly to the sect and flatten it with a single claw, but since he wasn’t yet, he had to be more careful.

When the time came, it would be best if he had the support of a strong organization to deflect attention, one whose destruction of the sect would be seen as justified and that had enough public backing that no one would stir up any more trouble.

As an Imperial Knight and now an alchemist, the guild would work fine for that. No one would question why they destroyed a sect that kidnapped their people.

Even if the real reason was the fury burning in his blood.