Chapter 87

“I’m sorry,” Xie Jin said. “I had promised to help you get settled in Zumulu but…”

Chen Haoran clasped his arm. “Family comes first. Thank you, for everything. I can take it from here.”

As soon as the sun rose over the horizon Xie Jin had been out the door and preparing to leave with Bao Si, despite seeming dread her company. Sister Jia watched them bid farewell from the door.

Xie Jin sighed. “If you need any help then look for Brother Ang when he comes back. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Chen Haoran waved off his concern. “Don’t worry about it.” He hooked a thumb toward himself. “I’m an expert when it comes to adjusting to unfamiliar places.”

Xie Jin didn’t seem to have much faith in that statement. He wasn’t necessarily wrong. Chen Haoran was run out of the last unfamiliar place he found himself in. Those were extenuating circumstances however.

“Touching,” Bao Si drawled. “I don’t mean to interrupt your moment but we don’t have all day.”

“I’m already not looking forward to this,” Xie Jin growled. He stalked over to his so-called fiancé and loomed over her. Or rather, tried to loom over. It was hard to do that when they were the same height. “If I find out you’re lying to me…”

Bao Si rolled her eyes. “Please. I actually respect your grandfather.”

Chen Haoran wasn’t sure which was more messed up. Xie Jin thinking she would lie in order to drag him back home or Bao Si for not directly denying it.”

She saw him watching her and winked. “Until next time, Chen Haoran. I’ll make sure to repay you for your gift.”

Chen Haoran shivered.

Xie Jin pushed Bao Si away and down the road. “Take care, Brother Chen.”

“Safe travels, Brother Jin.”

Phelps squealed at Xie Jin. A goodbye perhaps.

Chen Haoran watched them go until they rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight. When they were gone he sighed and stretched his back. He scratched Phelps’s chin and then marched the opposite way.

He had work to do.

——————

“What do you think, Young Master Chen. 2 thousand taels a month is quite the good price   wouldn’t you say?” The agent rubbed his hands together as he and Chen Haoran toured the house.

It was a secluded house on the northern side of the city, not particularly close to the river or the markets but those places were currently out of his budget. This place was larger than Sister Jia’s home. Tall walls separated it from the road and gave its residents some privacy. The home itself was toward the back and the space between it and the walls had been turned to a simple dirt courtyard. A single willow tree grew in the corner and offered some shade from the hot southern sun.

It would do.

“I’ll in advance for the year,” Chen Haoran said. He pulled out a wad of gold banknotes from his sleeves and counted handed 24 thousand taels to the agent.

“Wonderful, Young Master Chen!” The agent accepted the taels with both hands and handed over the lease  and key before bowing and leaving Chen Haoran to enjoy his new home. He put Phelps on the ground and the sloth happily floated around to explore the new scents.

After Xie Jin left Chen Haoran went around and sold 20 thousand more taels worth of jewelry before, with Sister Jia’s directions, going to find an agent to rent a place to stay. He was planning on living in Daqing for a while and an inn just wouldn’t cut it. Especially not for training.

He walked over to the tree, shrugging off his robe, and sat down.

Yellow River Dragon Refinement

The sounds of the city disappeared and his sight was cast inward. Yellow Qi burbled through branching meridians, a yellow dragon rose from the depths. It cast a single golden eye out and Chen Haoran felt that for a moment it was looking directly at him. It quickly turned its gaze and began to dance through the flow of his qi. Rather than devour everything it came across however it was picky and ignored most of the qi that Chen Haoran drew in with every breath.

Thanks to he Machu river he’d reached the limit of the Qi realm and he could keenly feel it now. The qi he absorbed entered his body but only the slightest amounts of it were being converted, the rest were cycled out of his body by the flow of his qi. It wasn’t the same feeling as a bottleneck, his qi had been blocked but it at least still converted. Beyond maintaining himself there was no point in trying to cultivate now. It was a shame, there was more ambient qi in this courtyard than there had been in his whole mansion back in Clearsprings. He was once again left thinking the obvious.

He had to advance.

The dragon narrowed its eyes and roared. It descended through his meridians and settled in an area near his gut where it began to coil. Song Yuelin’s face flashed in his mind, lit by the green glow of the Mourning Pool.

“In the Qi realm, one concentrates the qi into a single point until a drop of liquid is created.”

The dragon shrunk and began to glow brighter.

They shepherd that droplet through their meridians as it grows larger-”

The dragon began to slowly drift, carried by the natural current of his qi around his body.

“-becoming a stream, a river, a torrent, and finally-”

Nothing.

The yellow dragon roared out its unwillingness as Chen Haoran’s qi faded to black and he opened his eyes. He slammed his fist into the dirt. It had been too weak. Barely any different from the normal density of his qi. He needed to condense it more. It had to reach a critical mass and snowball on its own for him to properly make the jump to the Liquid Meridian realm.

He closed his eyes and meditated.

The dragon roared once.

He failed.

The dragon roared twice.

He failed.

The dragon roared three times.

He failed.

Much like his Harmonization training his attempts at condensing his qi were slow going and made no observable progress. When he opened his eyes again night had fallen and Phelps was angrily squealing at him.

He sighed and picked up the annoyed sloth. “Let’s go eat.”

The interior of the house was thankfully furnished although it lacked both the character of Sister Jia’s quaint home and the opulence of his former mansion. He settled Phelps at a low, rounded table, and dumped out a bushel of glowing moss on top of it.

Phelps gave him a look.

“What?”

Phelps squealed and slapped his claws on the table.

“What, you want more or…?” Sudden inspiration took him as he looked at the moss strewn haphazardly across the table. He gathered the moss into a neat little pile and presented it to Phelps. “How about now?”

Phelps squealed.

Wrong answer. If not that though then what? He cast a quick glance around the room. The kitchen wasn’t far. He rushed over and rifled though the cabinets and pantry before finding what he was looking for. He brought over the ceramic plate and stacked the moss on top of it before placing it in front of Phelps once more.

Phelps happily squealed and dug in.

Chen Haoran snorted. “You learned some manners huh?” Or perhaps Phelps just liked the feeling of eating off a plate. He shook his head in exasperation and sat down next to his spoiled sloth and pulled out his own meal, some bread baked with berries that Sister Jia had given to him before he left. It wasn’t the heartiest of meals but some of the berries held some qi within them.

“It looks like its going to be awhile before I can reach Liquid Meridian realm bud.” His slumped over the table, watching Phelps eat. Chen Haoran patted the sloth’s head but his ministrations were ignored in favor of eating. “That’s not too bad on its own. I knew it would take awhile. I just don’t feel safe.”

Could he fight a Liquid Meridian with the White Tyrant’s Harmonization? He touched his scimitar’s hilt. If they stood still and let him cut their head off maybe. He rose from the table and lit a few lamps to have some light in the dark room. His hand ghosted across his neck, he could feel phantom fingers on it. Lan Fen’s knife-like digits. Elder Lan Qianbei’s iron grip.

It didn’t matter how high a rank his cultivation technique was, or what resources or skills he had. A Qi realm wouldn’t let him stop being pushed around by Song Yuelin. A Qi realm couldn’t save him from the clutches of Lan Qianbei. A Qi realm certainly did nothing for him in front of Jiang Lei.

He needed to advance.

There was a spike of qi from his storage bag. A thin line of terror shot down Chen Haoran’s spine as he ripped the storage bag off his waist and yanked it open. He stopped. Slowly, carefully, he reached into the bag’s expanded space and pulled out a metal purple token embossed with a golden lily. The word Gold was engraved into the token and now glowed the same color as its namesake. He flipped the token around to see golden words appear in the blank metal surface.

One month. Daqing.