Plutusauthor

Chapter 167

The room was a mess of motion. Red light bloomed at Chen Haoran’s feet. The Golden Child escaped from beneath the bed in a yellow blur. Phelps and Xie Jin threw themselves to tackle it bodily. A valiant but fruitless effort as the Golden Child dodged them effortlessly. Books and papers went flying across the room. Phelps’s muscles bulged and he grew to twice his size, shrieking mad. Xie Jin rolled to his feet in a mess of ink and paint ready to pounce. The Golden Child darted to the door.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

Chen Haoran appeared inside the door frame before it could escape. The Yellow Dragon spiraled from his back, covering the exit entirely and roaring with enough force to make the sound visible, shaking the room and whipping up the fallen books and papers. The Golden Child stopped in its tracks.

There was a pause. All parties halted.

Chen Haoran raised a finger and pointed at the Golden Child. “I found you,” he declared. “You’re it.”

Silence.

“Brother Chen what the fuck?” came Xie Jin’s confused whisper.

Phelps and the Golden Child seemed just as confused, tilting their heads at him simultaneously.

Chen Haoran ignored them and continued to stare down the Golden Child. “I found you,” he repeated. He pointed to himself. “I win.” He pointed at the Stainless Purity Lotus. “I’d like that back please.”

The Golden Child clutched the Lotus tighter and shook its head.

“Brother Chen I hope you know what you’re doing,” Xie Jin tightly said. He slowly circled around the Golden Child, poised to lunge into action at any moment.

“How about something new then,” Chen Haoran said. He reached into his storage bag and pretended to rummage in it. In reality, he was trying to figure out what he could possibly use from it. His gaze settled on the glowing pearl set above the desk.

Numinous Pearl

The Machu River had gifted him many things that proved to be invaluable to him that he just didn’t recognize at the time. The Yellow Dragon and the Bodhi Pear were the chief examples of it. Yet another thing it gave him was something called a Luminous Pearl. Chen Haoran didn’t know much about its purpose or its value. Still didn’t in fact. Xie Jin had expressed envy upon seeing it so it wasn’t valueless but it wasn’t something Chen Haoran knew what to do with either. The same held true when he upgraded it into a Numinous Pearl. What it did, what he could use it for. He didn’t know and much like many of his rewards of unknown value, he didn’t investigate its purpose for fear of someone getting an idea of what he possessed. Such is what happened with the Bodhi Pear. Such is what happened with the Pearl.

It’s pretty. That was Chen Haoran’s first thought when he saw it. The Numinous Pearl was a rich seafoam green. A large gem about the size and weight of a baseball and cool to the touch. The outer shell seemed to be lit up from within. Giving the impression the Pearl was filled with liquid.

As soon as it was revealed the color in the room shifted. As if a spotlight had turned over to bring all attention to the Numinous Pearl. Chen Haoran could feel the qi in the air be drawn over to the gem. Sparks flew as qi shattered across its surface into its composite energies. A riot of five-colored rainbows surrounded the Pearl like an aura before re-condensing into dew containing all five colors of the elements.

Chen Haoran held the Numinous Pearl out to the Golden Child. “Want to trade?” He bounced it in his hand. “It’s pretty to look at. And you can play with it.”

The Golden Child took a step forward, shoulders leaning forward, skull tilted, staring at the Pearl. Chen Haoran could practically imagine the expression of interest and curiosity it would have if flesh covered the bare bones of its face. The skeleton looked up and Chen Haoran felt they would have locked eyes at the moment. It took a step back and hugged the Stainless Purity Lotus towards itself.

“It’s alright,” Chen Haoran softly said. “Here.” He knelt and rolled the Numinous Pearl across the floor to the Golden Child. It made a pleasing sound as it rolled, smooth and rhythmic, like a glass marble in play.

It was about halfway across when the Golden Child lost its reservations. It dropped the Lotus and ran forward to scoop up the Numinous Pearl with both hands. A black shadow darted behind it faster than the eye could see and snatched the Stainless Purity Lotus. Chen Haoran tracked the Black Beetle Gu as it returned to Xie Jin and handed over the flower.

The stone in Chen Haoran’s heart lifted now that their only means of survival was safely in hand again. He looked at the Golden Child.

Now they had to make sure they kept it.

The Golden Child was rolling the Numinous Pearl between its hands. Sensing Chen Haoran’s gaze it looked up, and just as quickly looked back down, shrinking in upon itself.

Chen Haoran sighed, long and exhausted. He stepped away from the door.

The Golden Child disappeared in a yellow blur.

“Well that ended pretty well,” Chen Haoran said.

Phelps growled at the door and returned to his original size. Floating over to claim his place on Chen Haoran’s back.

“I’d have been more comfortable drinking from the Peachwine,” Xie Jin spat. Chen Haoran noticed that he was drenched in sweat. Had he really been that stressed out?

“We got the Lotus back at least,” Chen Haoran said.

Xie Jin sighed. “Until the monster decides to screw with us again.” He shot Chen Haoran a curious look. “What was that pearl you gave it anyway? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Chen Haoran shrugged. “I dunno.”

Xie Jin did a double take. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I know it’s called a Numinous Pearl but that’s about it,” Chen Haoran said, helpless. “I didn’t know what to do with it.”

Xie Jin stared at him. “Brother Chen that pearl was refining the five elements into a liquid.”

“Sounds valuable.”

“You-” Xie Jin made a strangled sound as he sought words to finish his sentence. He slumped his shoulders, evidently not finding any. “Gods and Ancestors I’m glad you’re rich.”

Chen Haoran patted his soldier. “Me too.”

Xie Jin’s expression became serious. “Are you sure it was wise to let the Golden Child leave?”

“I can’t beat it,” Chen Haoran honestly said. “I can maybe keep up with its speed but the Yellow Dragon is my main defense against Gu Magic and we saw how that matchup ended.”

Xie Jin nodded. “Okay. Time to run away then.”

Chen Haoran said nothing. He merely led the way back out of the camp headquarters. Right as they were about to exit the building he felt Phelps’s arms tense around his shoulders, basically confirming what he’d expected. Xie Jin was shocked into stillness as soon as he was out the door.

The Golden Child was waiting for them.

“Brother Chen we may fight on our hands,” whispered Xie Jin.

“We may not,” Chen Haoran said, pushing past him.

He approached the Golden Child, stopping only when he saw it scooting backward. He knelt to face it, though doing so didn’t even put him at eye level with it. It was really too small. It was still holding the Numinous Pearl in its small hands. The Golden Child clutched it close to its chest.

“Do you like it?” Chen Haoran gently asked.

No response.

“It’s called a Numinous Pearl you know,” Chen Haoran continued. “It’s like a Luminous Pearl but like, a hundred times better.”

Still nothing.

Phelps hissed at the Golden Child. Chen Haoran bumped him on the head. “Bad,” he scolded. “Go stand with Xie Jin.”

Phelps let out a whine but Chen Haoran was unmoved and shrugged him off. The sloth squealed in displeasure and retreated to Xie Jin in defeat, though not before shooting the Golden Child an ugly look.

“Sorry about him,” Chen Haoran apologized. “He’s just jealous of your new toy. Do you like pearls? You have a lot of pretty ones in your house.”

He could have been talking to a brick wall for all the reaction he got from the Golden Child. It made Chen Haoran appreciate just how exaggerated its body language was. Otherwise trying to divine any of its thoughts or feelings would be nigh impossible. Still, he persevered. These situations required a patient and even hand.

He pointed to himself and then to his friends. “I’m Chen Haoran. That’s Xie Jin and Phelps.”

“Don’t give it our names Brother Chen,” Xie Jin hissed too late.

“What’s your name?” Chen Haoran asked.

“They don’t have names.”

“Xie Jin shush.”

The Golden Child still wasn’t reacting. If Chen Haoran hadn’t seen its drawings he’d wonder if it understood anything he was saying at all.

“You know that pearl is a pretty good ball for playing catch,” Chen Haoran said. “Do you know catch? You throw a ball and the other person throws it back to you.” He snapped his fingers. “Xie Jin, throw me a rock.”

“You cannot be serious.”

“Just toss me a damn rock.”

Xie Jin made his feelings of the matter clear with native cursing that Chen Haoran filed away for personal use. Still, Xie Jin did as asked, kicking a rock into his hand and lobbing it to Chen Haoran.

He caught the rock without looking and showed it to the Golden Child. “See? Catch.” He tossed the rock back to Xie Jin. Then splayed his palm and pointed at it. “You throw it.”

“Brother Chen there’s not a Gu in this world that would willingly throw away its treasure,” Xie Jin said.

“A Gu wouldn’t,” Chen Haoran agreed.

It wasn’t just a Gu they were dealing with though. At least he didn’t think so. He saw it in the mess of knickknacks and curios in the headquarters. A story of objects used until the interest waned and the next took over. He saw it in the fort of blankets and pillows. He saw it in the pearl lights. In the drawings, carvings, and paintings. The clumsy spelling. The way it hid under the bed. How it let him hold its hand. Hell, it was in the damn name.

Golden Child.

The little skeleton crouched and with a swing from low to high threw the Numinous Pearl at him. Chen Haoran deftly caught it and smiled. Ignoring Xie Jin’s vocal confusion he gently tossed the pearl back underhanded to the Golden Child. It raised its hands high in the hair, standing on tip toes to give it just a little more height. Its physical abilities were more than enough to leap into the air and grab the pearl before anyone could react. Yet Chen Haoran watched it fumble with its catch, the pearl nearly slipping from its fingers before it tightly hugged the gem to its body. It raised the pearl above its head, spinning and jumping up and down. It made a sound like tinkling bells that Chen Haoran quickly realized must’ve been laughter.

They were dealing with a lonely child.

Chen Haoran chuckled but felt tight in his heart.

“We’ll be staying here for a bit,” he told Xie Jin.

“Absolutely not,” Xie Jin rejected. “Brother Chen I respect you but this is not a good idea. We just got the Lotus back.”

“We can’t avoid the Golden Child if it wants to follow us,” Chen Haoran pointed out. “And we can’t guarantee that we can always keep the Lotus safe from it. I would much rather deal with it here in its home than out there in the jungle. At the very least it won’t run off with the Lotus from here.”

“There’s a chance it will get bored and go off to do its own thing,” Xie Jin argued. “It’s a Gu. They don’t do long-term anything.”

Chen Haoran watched the spinning Golden Child. It finally stopped celebrating and threw the Numinous Pearl back to Chen Haoran. He tossed it back and the skeleton did its little celebration once more when it caught the pearl. Back and forth the pearl went. From man to skeleton. Adult to child. Simple tosses and clumsy catches and a child’s pure joy with each successful return. Back and forth and forth and back long enough that even in the timeless Green Hell they could tell it was going on for far too long.

Xie Jin went pale. Phelps howled. Chen Haoran smiled sadly.

The Golden Child was not going to leave them anytime soon.

Chapter 166

The barrier hadn’t moved while they caught their breath. It didn’t take a genius to realize the Golden Child was hiding and waiting for them somewhere within it. After steeling their nerves they crept into the ruins of the camp, crossing under a gate of grey wood that was still standing despite the disrepair of the rest of the camp. Chen Haoran noted the smashed hinges and the wood splinters spread out into the camp.

“Wait,” Xie Jin suddenly said. He crouched down and pinched the dirt between his fingers. His Gu hovered by his ear, leaning in as if whispering to him. “Figures. There’s an echo of qi here. Probably from whatever formation this camp used to filter the air.”

Chen Haoran whistled. Impressed. “I knew Gu were good at sensing but that’s impressive.”

He could barely sense anything in the ground. What little range his sense had in the Green Hell felt as if it were hitting a wall as soon as he directed it to the earth.

Xie Jin shook his head. “Formations tend to leave a deep impression on their environment. Plus the aura cleared out all the extra poison energy covering it up. It helps it wasn’t that deep to begin with either.” He looked into the camp. “It was a portable formation. Something that could be quickly set up and taken down. Kinda like what we saw the rebels using in the Trial Pyramid.”

They shared a look and stepped across the shattered gate. Phelps leapt off Chen Haoran’s shoulder and used his qi to glide across the ground as if he were swimming. Noise pointed down and snuffling the dirt. Chen Haoran stared at the bald spot in his fur and could only assume that Phelps was furious. He couldn’t blame him. He was too.

The camp had the look of a semi-permanent affair about it. Fabric tents surrounded sturdier structures of stone and that same grey wood they’d seen before. The scavenging flora of the Green Hell had already crawled their way back into claiming the outpost but time and nature couldn’t scrub away the original order of the camp. Ruins it may be but Chen Haoran took note of the neat rows the tents would have been in. Their uniformity and even spacing between tents and the larger presumably more important buildings in the center they were arrayed around. How distinct the dirt path that crossed the camp still was. How large it was that the lotus aura couldn’t entirely cover it.

This was no slapdash expedition. It was a highly organized affair, one that spoke to him of being military though it was just a guess on his part. He’d yet to see any insignia or flags of any kind. He did find rotted wood though. Beds and tentpoles and stools. Different from the grey wood that still stood strong. The air of the Green Hell had clearly eaten away at them.

He looked between the woods. Then he looked at that jungle.

“They used the Devil Trees,” he murmured.

It was an efficient use of available materials. Yet Chen Haoran couldn’t help the nagging feeling it was a bold move.

“You recognize any of this?” Chen Haoran asked Xie Jin.

Xie Jin rolled his eyes. “Just because I like history doesn’t mean I can identify kingdoms based on how they built their camps.”

“So you also think it’s military?”

“That much is obvious. Zumulu is rife with idiot River Kings who thought it’d be grand to send an expedition into the Green Hell for glory.” He waved his hand across the camp. “You can see how those usually ended.”

Phelps grunted and a flick of his liquid qi picked up a fallen tent and flung it away, investigating the dirt it covered before moving on. Chen Haoran winced but didn’t reprimand him. He’d like to treat the ruins with respect but they weren’t really in a position to care with their lives being on the line. The only reason Chen Haoran hadn’t started blasting the camp to pieces himself was because he was worried the Golden Child would react adversely. It reminded him of some petty people in his old life. People who liked playing games but didn’t enjoy having those same games ruined no matter how unfun they were for the victim. The kind who would get nasty real quick if their whims weren’t followed. Like children. Or managers.

“Damnit,” Xie Jin cursed.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Haoran asked.

“I’m too weak,” Xie Jin said, frowning at his hand. “Almost all my means have been limited by the Stainless Lotus. I never thought I could be made irrelevant like this before.”

“That’s just being too specialized. Not weakness.” Chen Haoran pointed out.

“We can’t survive if I have to rely on you to do all the fighting for me,” Xie Jin said. “You’ll die of exhaustion.”

Chen Haoran raised an eyebrow.

“Theoretically you’ll die of exhaustion,” Xie Jin amended. “In reality, it will probably be some other vicious death.”

“I’m no stranger to vicious deaths,” Chen Haoran said lightly. Both borderline and actual, though he kept that thought to himself.

“I don’t want to be responsible for it,” Xie Jin said. His expression firmed. “I would rather die than let that happen.”

Chen Haoran frowned. “Don’t talk about those kinds of things now. Focus on the issue at hand.”

Phelps’s investigations hadn’t born fruit yet. Xie Jin and Chen Haoran were content to just follow the sloth. Xie Jin’s Gu was kept close at hand. Sending it out with a Super Gu around would be the height of folly. The camp was barren. There were some miscellaneous items, furniture, and such, but little else. He couldn’t tell what had brought the downfall of the camp in the end. That there were no corpses wasn’t surprising, but the camp was in remarkably good condition for a place that presumably would have had many Liquid Meridians. He couldn’t see any evidence of a Final Flood wrecking the camp.

“You figure out a way to get the Lotus back?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Yeah,” Xie Jin said. “How fast can you swing your sword?”

Chen Haoran sighed. “I was kinda hoping we wouldn’t have the same idea.”

“Well, what else can we do?” Xie Jin griped. “It’s not like you have something more valuable than a 10 thousand-year-old Stainless Purity Lotus to exchange with.”

Chen Haoran considered the question. Did he have something more valuable than the Lotus? Maybe the Liquid Crystal Fruit but if worked at all like the Liquid Core Fruit it stemmed from, then Chen Haoran wanted to save it to give to the Yellow Dragon in case he needed a burst of qi in a pinch. The Star Core Dragon Keel Bone? That would probably definitely be worth it. Chen Haoran didn’t have a use for it anyway so even if it far exceeded the value it was worth trading their lives for.

Xie Jin blanched. “I was joking. You don’t actually have something, do you?”. “Obviously I’ll pull a Star Core Realm Dragon Bone out of my pocket and hand it over,” Chen Haoran faintly said.

Xie Jin snorted, and a soft, exasperated chuckle escaped him. “I suppose burning to death would be a better way to go out than whatever the Golden Child has in store.”

Chen Haoran missed a step. Burning to death? Was that what Dragon Bones did? Or was it because of the Realm? He knew the Star Core Realm was strong but was it that powerful? No. What was he saying? Was it really that outlandish an idea? When he himself was an example of just how powerful the scraps of a higher Realm cultivator could be?

No taking out the dragon bone then. Not until he needed a nuclear option at least.

“The most valuable things are probably the Metal Lotus and my armor,” Chen Haoran finally said.

“I don’t think handing over our most important defensive items is a wise move,” Xie Jin replied. He sighed. “Honestly nothing we could give it would be enough. It knows how important the flower is for us.”

“Does it?”

“Don’t underestimate its intelligence, Brother Chen. It’s the worst combination of Gu Greed and Human Reasoning.” Xie Jin shuddered. “Damn Green Hell.”

Phelps did his best to sniff out the Golden Child. Turning over every nook and cranny he thought suspicious and leading them on a path deeper and deeper into the camp. Gradually too did the Stainless Purity Aura shift as the Golden Child moved positions, slow enough that it couldn’t have been going far but still extremely noticeable.

“You think it’s time to put an end to this farce?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin nodded. “Any longer and it’d probably get bored.”

Chen Haoran whistled at Phelps to follow and together they all made a beeline toward the largest structure in the center of the camp. It was square with a flat roof and made entirely out of stone, though not of bricks. The walls were smooth and seamless as if a hand had reached down and pulled the building up from the earth, only broken up by the occasional window or thin arrowslit.

Ever since they entered the camp they hadn’t been seriously looking for the Golden Child. Well, Xie Jin and Chen Haoran hadn’t. Phelps was and they were content to see if he could actually track the Golden Child or not while waiting to gauge its intentions. In actuality, they knew where the Golden Child was the entire time. The aura barrier was centered on the Stainless Purity Lotus after all. It was just a simple calculation to determine where that center was.

The door was a heavy thing, made of slabs of grey Devil wood and banded with iron. It was unlocked though Chen Haoran was being generous with the term. It wasn’t connected to the wall at all, its hinges long ripped out. It was leaning against the door frame instead and fell with an echoing crash when Chen Haoran pushed it over with a finger. He shared a look with Xie Jin. Rested his hand on the pommel of his sword, and stepped in.

It was a mess inside. Light was faint, the only sources being small windows and a few yellow and green pearls that glowed softly. It was enough to reveal all the clutter. It was a hoarders paradise. If Chen Haoran had wondered where all the knickknacks and sundries of the camp went he had to look no further. Rusted pots and pans were piled haphazardly or stacked into pyramids. Bent cutlery, chipped cups, and cracked bowls littered the floor with along with clothes and uniforms. In the center of the large room was a stone table, atop which was a large cooking pot and inside of which was a suit of armor carelessly thrown. Plates and cups and a candelabra were set on it as if a meal was about to be taken. A horse saddle was lain across a bench with a riding crop dropped beneath it. Bits of colored glass were scattered beside the table, clumsily arranged such that it was clear they’d form some kind of picture were they just correctly fitted.

Chen Haoran and Xie Jin swept the room. The garbage strewn across the ground making it impossible to do so quietly. Xie Jin went and rooted through piles of pants and animal hide jerkins. Chen Haoran went over to a cluster of chairs with threadbare blankets thrown over them. He yanked the blankets off, revealing a bed of flat pillows underneath it, another glowing pearl, and a single leather book with its pages broken from the bindings. The ones with words had been left in the book while the pages with pictures of monsters, people, and a stylized old woman were separated from it in their own pile.

Chen Haoran frowned.

They overturned every nook and cranny in the room and sifted through every piece and pile of junk that had even the slightest chance of hiding the Golden Child.

Nothing.

They went to the next room. The building they were in seemed to have been part command center and part warehouse as the other three rooms they found were for storage or for meetings. Everywhere the presence of the Golden Child could be seen whether it be curious found in the camp cast aside like abandoned toys or broken Beasts Cores and half-finished fruits discarded without care. Signs that the Golden Child had lived here a long time, but no sign of the Gu monster itself. Soon enough there was only one room remaining. Another heavy set door guarded it, this time properly attached.

“The commander’s quarters,” Xie Jin whispered.

Chen Haoran carefully pushed the door open. His sword loosed of a serpent’s hiss as he pulled it from the scabbard. The room was a simple affair. A desk. A sturdy bed loaded up with yellowed pillows and thin blankets. A chest overflowing with worthless trinkets it had surely never contained before. A dusty bookcase whose contents had been thrown all across the floor. Drawings.

Lots of drawings.

The books had their pages ripped out and scribbled over in ink. Scratched into the walls were unintelligible lines and deformed shapes. As well as simple pictograms of insects, lizards, and birds. On the ceiling, Chen Haoran saw shapes made of two lines diagonally crossing a third, vertical line. All of them surrounding a circle with more lines extending from it. Some kind of fat, round insect with another circle drawn inside it was etched next to the big circle.

The Sun and stars, Chen Haoran thought.

Xie Jin made for the chest, Phelps made for the bookcase, and Chen Haoran crept toward the desk wincing over every sound of crinkling paper he made stepping on paper scraps. The desk was surprisingly tidy. There was a glowing pearl embedded into the wall in front of it illuminating a surface that was neither dusty nor cluttered. Just below the pearl were four stick figures and a drawing of a snake. Two of the figures were tall. One was short and stood between the tall. The last was set further away from the rest. With swords for arms and what might have been antenna on its head. Chen Haoran frowned again. He looked down at the desk and saw it covered in paintings made using old book pages as a canvas. The colors were simple, faded, and in many places flaky. Some were a nonsensical mess of riotous colors. Another was a green and red line crossing the length of the page. The one that caught his eye the most however was one of a short yellow figure surrounded by grey blocks with spikes blooming out their tops. Two red dots placed in their center.

Next to the painting was a clean paper with a golden sheen. It was untouched by any childish drawing or ink stain. Instead filled with a row of neat, pleasant-looking characters.

21st Year of King Tang, 100th Year of Bloomhaven

The search for the Water of Life remains fruitless and irony of ironies, casualties are mounting. Despite all our precautions the Green Hell seems to devise some new way to circumvent them and kill my soldiers. Already a new plague has somehow taken root, far deadlier than the last we sacrificed so much to be rid of. The number of lives spent to acquire the Water far outweighs the number it will potentially save.

Assuming it’s even real. We have yet to confirm its existence beyond the original rumor that it sprung from the same fountain as the Three Killers that originally had the king declare this disaster. I pity the soldiers forced to undertake this quest with me, a feeling I did not think I possessed. My grandfather used to tell me as a boy that the reason the warriors of Zumulu turned to foreign lands was because dying in Zumulu meant your soul being consigned to the Green Hell. I did not believe that trollop even then, but now that I write this in the middle of Hell I cannot help but wonder what will happen to my soul should I perish here.

I long for home I—

The entry cut off, as if the author had been interrupted writing it and was never able to continue. Chen Haoran looked from the golden paper back to the painting of the yellow figure. Underneath it was uneven, ugly handwriting.

homne-e

Chen Haoran’s bad feeling returned in full force. “Xie Jin,” he called. “Just how smart is a Golden Child?”

“Imagine a toddler with the power of a minor god,” Xie Jin replied as he dug through the chest. “That about sums up how terrible they are.”

“But it’s a child,” Chen Haoran pressed.

“Yes? It’s in the name.” Xie Jin pulled back from the chest, and with a single hand cleared the bed of its sheets. “Nothing,” he spat in disgust. “You find anything, Phelps?”

Phelps hissed in negative. Xie Jin hissed right with him.

“I don’t know where the hell it’s hiding then,” Xie Jin said. “The roof maybe?”

“It’s going to wait for us to find it before it does something,” Chen Haoran said.

Xie Jin nodded. “A Golden Child and its games. They’re infamous for it.”

“A game,” Chen Haoran slowly said. “Like Hide and Seek.”

Xie Jin finally looked his way. Worry on his face. “Brother Chen? Are you alright?”

He wasn’t. He felt like he was going to be sick. For many different reasons. He stepped away from the desk and stepped lightly over to the bed. His sword loose in his grip. They weren’t just looking for a Gu. They were looking for a child. Where would a child hide to avoid being found by adults?

Chen Haoran dropped to his knees and looked under the bed.

A Golden skull stared straight back at him.

He raised a hand. “Hello.”

The Golden Child screamed.

Chapter 165

“Golden Child,” Xie Jin said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Brother Chen, do not move.”

Xie Jin didn’t need to tell him twice. Let alone move he could scarcely breathe, staring both transfixed and horrified into the eyeless sockets of the little skeleton. The child skeleton. It was not merely a dwarf or something designed to be small but looked as if someone had mixed ash with gold leaf and beaten the mixture with a hammer into the bones of a baby. The cloth he had brushed in the dark was part of the skeleton’s outfit. A red collared suit jacket that once upon a time may have been something formal but now was patchy with holes and its color faded, its intricate designs and embroidery undone and barely recognizable. Tiny shoes covered its feet. A flattened hat with a dirty puffball sat on its head.

The skeleton was nearly weightless, a disturbingly calm part of his mind noted. It was hanging slack from Chen Haoran’s hand. It’s feet dangling in the air. If he had the mind to he could probably pitch the thing clear over tree cover. He wouldn’t though. He couldn’t.

In the skeleton’s other hand was the Stainless Purity Lotus.

Chen Haoran had so many questions he didn’t even know where to begin. When did it approach them? How did it take the Lotus? The darkness and total silence that just occurred was obviously its doing. How could its spells affect them through the aura? Why did it help them hide from the Crystal Transformation monster?

What was he going to do now?

He looked to Xie Jin for any idea as to what to do.

Xie Jin was paler than a ghost. He hadn’t looked this bad even on the brink of death in the Trial Realm. Chen Haoran notched up the threat of the skeleton several more places in his mind. Phelps’s was pressed flush against his back. He could feel the sloth bristle and it let out a low hiss as he stared down the skeleton. Even Xie Jin’s Gu, ordinarily a statue at the best of times, had opened up its wings in a threatening manner.

Chen Haoran added a few more notches to the threat rating.

“Great spirit,” Xie Jin said, splaying his hands open in a peaceful manner. He flinched when the skeleton tilted its head and regarded him with its empty eyes. Slowly, carefully, he bent down to one knee, then the other, and bowed to the skeleton. “Please have mercy upon us Great Spirit and return to us our treasure. In return, we will make an oath of blood to repay your grace.”

The skeleton tilted its head as if to ponder Xie Jin’s request. After a drawn-out moment, it shook its head.

“Right. Negotiations failed. Get it, Brother Chen!”

Xie Jin launched himself from his bow and went to grab the Stainless Purity Lotus. Chen Haoran acted at the same time and brought his other hand to grab the skeleton more securely. Phelps threw himself over Chen Haoran’s shoulder and bore down his claws atop the skeleton’s little skull.

With a twist of the skeleton’s hand, Phelps was suddenly behind it and it was Xie Jin who fell onto Chen Haoran’s back instead. He easily ignored the unexpected weight but faster than he could grab it the skeleton raised itself and bit Chen Haoran’s hand, easily piercing his skin and going straight to the bone. Chen Haoran cried out in pain and instinctively loosened his grip out of fear it would bite his fingers clean off. When he realized his mistake the skeleton had slipped his grasp and darted away. Phelps flung himself through the air to intercept, a spinning, screeching cyclone of fur and claw. The skeleton adroitly flipped overhead of Phelps, grasping the fur on his head and yanking hard, whipping Phelps’s head back and slamming him into the ground.

The skeleton suddenly stumbled back, its grip on Phelps’s head lost due to it ripping out the fur entirely. Xie Jin’s Gu took this moment to strike, flying in low and rising with hideous mandibles aimed at the skeleton’s neck. The skeleton didn’t even bother looking its way before slapping it casually, sending the Gu bouncing across the ground like a ball. The distraction served its purpose however as the Yellow Dragon was right behind it. Its body of Liquid Qi utterly dwarfing the skeleton, its mouth opened wide and ready to swallow it in one gulp.

Chen Haoran didn’t know how to describe what happened next. The skeleton grasped the air in front of the Yellow Dragon with both hands and then pulled them apart. Something twisted in his vision and the next thing Chen Haoran knew the Yellow Dragon had been split into two, the Liquid Qi body and a thin, see-through outline that matched it exactly. The Liquid Qi dragon abruptly collapsed into formless qi while the shade roared furiously its form becoming warping and shrinking and escaped back into Chen Haoran’s body. When the Yellow Dragon reappeared inside his meridians he realized what had happened. The skeleton had directly ripped the Yellow Dragon’s spirit out from the qi it had been controlling. Despite its indignation, the fact the Yellow Dragon didn’t immediately leap out again was telling. Having its soul directly exposed to the world without a buffer hurt.

If the skeleton could do that to the Yellow Dragon, what could it do to him? Chen Haoran raised his sword toward the skeleton and let the world’s color break against its edge. The skeleton looked at him in such a way that could be called curiosity. Chen Haoran gritted his teeth as he stared at it. The blade of the sword became a monochrome white but progressed no further. He was in a dilemma. If he messed up attacking the skeleton and hit the Stainless Purity Lotus then he’d condemn them all to a slow death to the Green Hell’s air. Or worse if he didn’t mess up but the skeleton took the initiative to destroy the Lotus then they were screwed. He stared fiercely at the skeleton. Not confident enough to move but also ready to end it in one overwhelming attack if the creature tried anything.

“How accurate is your sword?” Xie Jin asked.

“Do I need to explain it?”

He could hear the grimace as Xie Jin recalled his last attack in the Trial Realm. “Fuck.”

“Xie Jin what the hell is this thing,” Chen Haoran demanded.

“For now you can just consider it a Gu,” Xie Jin said, he slowly began to step to the side to flank the skeleton.

“You said Gu can’t use their spells inside the aura.”

“Well it can,” Xie Jin snapped.

“How strong is it?”

Xie Jin bent low, ready to pounce. “Peak Liquid Meridan.”

The skeleton took one look at Chen Haoran, then at Xie Jin. It raised the Stainless Purity Lotus shaking it in a clear taunt.

They tensed.

The skeleton turned around and ran into the jungle.

Chen Haoran’s and Xie Jin’s reaction was the same. “Fuck!”

Xie Jin shot after it. Chen Haoran flung a hand out and scooped up Phelps before catching up with him in an instant. They lost sight of the skeleton immediately amongst the trees, only able to track it through the direction the aura was moving. No matter how much qi they pumped into their legs, however, they failed to close the distance. Their chase quickly turned into running away from the edge of the aura as it quickly caught up to them and they found themselves running for their lives with exposure to the Green Hell licking their heels.

Where the skeleton was leading them Chen Haoran wasn’t sure but the change in environment couldn’t be missed. Devil Trees that once stood bare and alone became dressed with climbing vines and bloody red flowers. Heretofore unseen foliage began to take up the space in between the trees and fought their roots for more. Thorn bushes that sucked black sap from the bark. Mushrooms that spread like a rotting disease up trunks. Large flowers whose petals were filled with splinters and sap as if they’d finished a messy meal.

Chen Haoran and Xie Jin paid no mind to being quiet or stealthy. They crashed through the underbrush shouldering aside plants and crushing leaves underfoot. The Green Hell responded, hidden lurkers emerging from green shadows. A large pincer grabbed at Chen Haoran’s waist from a bush. He kicked it away with such force the claw cracked with a noise akin to metal rending. Phelps howled and blue qi flooded from him, catching a centipede that unnaturally extended from a tree above. The centipede’s inertia was dissipated and it helplessly floated backward, exposing its vulnerable underside to Phelps to gut with a quick slash.

A disc of earth popped open from the ground like a lid and a snake struck out like lightning to twist around Xie Jin. He chopped it in the neck, paralyzing it for a short second that his Gu took to swoop down and sting it. They abandoned fighting it and kept running and before the snake could turn around and chase them something bubbled beneath the surface of its skin and it exploded in a mass of green and purple poison the aura quickly purified away.

It wasn’t just the animals they had to be wary of however.

A mosquito flew straight to Chen Haoran, its proboscis a six-foot spear threatening to run him through. As it attacked a tall plant suddenly shifted amongst the shrubbery and it lashed out downward like a whip. Its head was full and heavy like a mace, covered in long hairs slathered in some kind of ruby-red liquid. Chen Haoran grabbed the mosquito by the mouth before the tip struck him, a violent rush of qi filled his arm and using the spear as a lever he swung the mosquito into the mace plant. It pulped the mosquito’s thorax and though it survived it could not move, the ruby liquid adhering it to the mace head as it was dragged away.

Above them, the red flowers decorating the Devil Trees bloomed, in the center of each one was a hand-sized spider as red as ripe apples. The spiders leaped down from their perches. Phelps screeched and his qi flooded to cover their heads, floating the spiders away before they neared them. The Yellow Dragon flooded out of Chen Haoran at the same moment, sliding across the ground and scattering the monsters ahead of them.

All the while the edge of the purity aura crept on them.

“Brother Chen you’re faster than me,” Xie Jin bit out, sweat dripping from his face. Liquid Meridian he may be but so was everything else here. Not to mention Xie Jin was only a First-Layer one. “Go on ahead and catch it.”

“No,” was Chen Haoran’s swift answer. While he could definitely move faster he wasn’t sure if he was faster than the skeleton. He didn’t forget how it suddenly appeared within their midst. If he sped up now it might provoke the skeleton into going even faster. At that time what would Xie Jin do?

So they ran. Through foul fauna and flora, across a trail of fouled earth made fecund by the Lotus for the briefest of moments till they passed. The skeleton never appeared in their sight but it would change direction rapidly forcing them to pivot on their heels. It would slow down slightly and give them hope before doubling its speed. It would abruptly run back the way it came, startling them into stopping and preparing to attack before it revealed the fake out for what it was and kept running.

It kept running until Xie Jin’s qi reserves started to lag and bottom out. Until even Chen Haoran was beginning to feel the bite. The Yellow Dragon aided his qi recovery to help him maintain himself but he had also taken over fighting the majority of the obstacles in their way. Chen Haoran was about to bodily pick up Xie Jin and run with him instead when the aura finally stopped in place.

They ground to a halt. Before them was a camp. It was in disrepair and disarray, its fence long rotten and fallen, its grounds overgrown and its tents in ruins. But it was a camp. It was built in the shape of a playing card. The remains of a wooden tower stood in the corner and Chen Horan could imagine the other corners would have had similar. His eyes lingered on the organized setup of the tents before settling on a blocky stone building in the center of the camp. One of the few structures still standing.

“It wasn’t running away,” Chen Haoran said.

“No,” Xie Jin agreed, hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “Damnit.”

“Take a minute to gather your qi,” Chen Haoran said.

Xie Jin collapsed into a haphazard lotus position and began to restore his reserves. Chen Haoran pulled Phelps off his back and checked him over. Some of his fur was a bit thinner on his back where a mantis monster almost skinned him but fortunately, Chen Haoran had reacted fast enough and he wasn’t cut. He was otherwise fine besides being a bit tired. He whined at Chen Haoran and shook his head. Chen Hoaran scowled seeing the bald spot where his fur was ripped clean off.

“Xie Jin what the hell is that skeleton?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin opened his eyes. “A Golden Child.” His expression was ugly. “A monster and the biggest taboo for every shaman.”

“You called it a Gu…” Chen Haoran trailed off. It was an infant’s skeleton. The realization filled him with revulsion.

Xie Jin nodded. “Many things can be made into a Gu. A child is no different.” His voice was filled with disgust. “It’s the most profane act a shaman can ever do.”

Chen Haoran was horrified. “Why the hell was something like that ever made?”

“For power, what else.” Xie Jin spat. “A Golden Child is something an order of magnitude stronger than even a Golden Silkworm. For that kind of power, there’s always going to be a madman that tries to acquire it.”

“So the fact it could use Gu spells inside the barrier…”

Xie Jin slumped. “Nine and Ten Hells I had heard the stories but it was worse than I thought.” He held out his hand. A trail of liquid qi sputtered from his fingers and dissolved in the aura. “A Gu’s spells are fundamentally based on miasma but not precisely unique to it. Miasma at the end of the day has its origin in qi. Whatever a Gu can do can thus be replicated using enough qi in the right way. It’s just that miasma is much more efficient and effective at doing it. Through their connection, shamans can learn the trick of a Gu’s spells and replicate some of them over time if not exactly. Black Bone Shamans can cheat this process because we’re connected enough to our Gu to mix a portion of its miasma in our qi though it’s screwing me right now inside the aura. Even then however I can’t use this miasma qi as effectively as my Gu can. Humans use qi, Gu use miasma, they don’t cross.”

Chen Haoran caught his meaning immediately. “At least that’s how it usually is.”

“A Golden Child uses both,” Xie Jin said. “One or the other, at the same time, mixed. It doesn’t matter. They can completely translate Gu spells to qi equivalents and vice versa. They invalidate nearly every method to counter Gu there is. Their abilities over regular Gu are so exaggerated they can even command them like a Gu does insects.”

Chen Haoran glanced at the Beetle Gu. “Will there be an issue?”

Xie Jin shook his head. “I’ll be fine. Our method of raising Gu make them uniquely resistant to that sort of ability. It’s why Black Bone Shaman’s were some of the first people looked for along with the Peach River Swordsmen to deal with a Golden Child.”

“Any idea on how to deal with it then?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin looked up to a sky that couldn’t be seen.

“If we’re lucky I’ll figure that out before that monster gets bored and decides to dance in our entrails.”

Chapter 164

Mistakes were made in the beginning of book 3. I failed to mention what was going on with Chen Haoran's armor. The answer as some have said is the restriction of Qi. It was an oversight and I'll be editing it later. I'm not very satisfied with the first chapter looking back at it. There are mistakes in it, its dialogue, and its thinking that I think isn't helpful or logical. It's due for a rewrite.

Next chapter will be on Friday the 14th.

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Chen Haoran gripped the hilt of his sword white-knuckled. He gazed warily at the hundreds of eyes surrounding them, staring at them, calculating them. Once again Chen Haoran was struck by how seemingly empty the jungle appeared only for its inhabitants to emerge from seemingly nowhere. Like the whole jungle was a pool of water that he couldn’t see beneath the surface of until the creatures chose to rise from its depths. Phelps clambered up onto his back and Xie Jin was at his side in an instant, his Beetle Gu tucked away within his sleeves. Purple qi appeared between his fingers and dissipated.

“I won’t be able to fight effectively in the aura,” Xie Jin warned.

“And you’ll die if you try fighting outside it,” Chen Haoran replied.

The eyes stared at them, their predatory light the only indicator they were surrounded. The bodies of the creatures remained obscured within the fog of the Green Hell. They drifted from tree to tree and branch to branch. Floating within the fog like hellish will o’ wisps. By Chen Haoran’s count there were at least a hundred creatures but who was to know if they were the only ones to reveal themselves? If more were not biding their time in the shadows until they too would open their eyes.

“They didn’t run from the noise,” Chen Haoran whispered. Xie Jin grunted in agreement but he had said it mostly for himself. It was supremely concerning that they chose to reveal themselves after he chopped down the tree. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know if he wanted to know why. The only blessing was that they hadn’t already attacked. Were they afraid? Or just waiting for an opportunity? Were they a pack? Or were they all individuals and Chen Haoran and co were about to be at the center of another spree of mass violence?

His fingers twitched toward his storage bag. A brief spike of qi would see it opened up and have his armor wrapped around him. He considered it then ultimately abandoned the thought. It would only make the fighting harder for Xie Jin and Phelps in the short term and him in the long.

Phelps grunted and Chen Haoran spared him a glance while keeping his sense focused on the eyes. Phelps was looking behind them and Chen Haoran appreciated having their backs covered but soon enough realized it wasn’t the eyes behind them the sloth was looking at.

He was looking at the tree.

“What’s the plan, Brother Chen?”

“Fuck this.”

“What?”

Chen Haoran raised his sword.

As above…

The color of the blade merged into white. The Yellow Dragon grumbled in displeasure and sank into his core as far away from the sword as it could. Chen Haoran stared back at the eyes. Stark white spread from his sword to the jungle. The color of the Green Hell cracked.

So—

The eyes vanished. Chen Haoran lowered his sword and color once more bloomed across it.

“It wasn’t like that before,” Xie Jin muttered, staring at the blade. “Enlightenment huh?”

“I won’t lie,” Chen Haoran said. “I kinda miss the old version right now.” He turned around and walked over to the tree stump. The fallen tree bled black sap like a man cut in half. Phelps crawled off Chen Haoran’s back and began sniffing the ground. “Xie Jin, can you get any traces from this?”

“Hold up.” Xie Jin flicked his sleeve and his Beetle Gu flew out and hovered over the tree stump. After a moment he shook his head. “No.”

Chen Haoran grimaced. “Walk.”

——————————

They walked. How long he did not know. How far he did not know. Alone…. he knew they weren’t alone.

“We’re being followed,” Chen Haoran said.

“I could’ve told you that,” Xie Jin muttered.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” He ran his fingers through hair damp with sweat and humid air. “How is it hunting us in this jungle? How does anything hunt in this jungle when the environment can suddenly change and twist directions?”

“A range limit perhaps?” Xie Jin said. “It’s not like we were separated from each other. Or maybe the bewildering effect only occurs around the borders of the Green Hell?”

“I wonder if it has anything to do with their ability to escape the Green Hell,” Chen Haoran wondered aloud. “That’s how the Hell Bugs outside it came about no?”

“A few do leave the Green Hell every year but compared to the numbers we’ve seen so far it’s nothing,” Xie Jin said.

“But they do leave,” Chen Haoran emphasized.

“Yes but that’s not really helpful right now,” Xie Jin reminded him. “Not when we have to deal with our stalker.”

“Can we though?” Chen Haoran didn’t want to speak those words but it had to be said. The silence they caused almost let them blend into the forest. Almost at least. It was hard to be quiet in a place where breathing was loud.

“If it were stronger than us it would have just killed us and been done with it,” Xie Jin said.

“If it were weaker than us it wouldn’t be making noise.”

Xie Jin frowned, his face a mixture of worry and frustration. Chen Haoran sympathized. The natural order in this unnatural jungle was that of quiet. A place where the trees did not let wind whistle through their leaves and where the creatures would rather die like stones than let slip any sound of life. What did it say of their stalker then that it chose to deliberately make a sound in a place where everything had been held to silence?

Chen Haoran held up three fingers and began ticking them down one by one. “Whatever is following us is intelligent, malicious, and fundamentally different from the norm.”

“I’m pretty sure I would’ve noticed if Bao Si followed us into the Green Hell.”

Chen Haoran gave Xie Jin a cross look.

Xie Jin merely chuckled. Smoothing out the frustrated lines in his face. “It’s probably a Gu,” he said. “The stealth, the hunting style, the audacity. Some sadist shaman’s Gu probably came to the Green Hell and found home.”

Despite himself, Chen Haoran let out a sigh of relief. A malicious Gu was dangerous but it was a familiar danger. He could deal with Gu.

“Any idea how to lure it out? I want to chop it in half and be done with this,” Chen Haoran said.

“It’s the Stainless Lotus,” Xie Jin said. “If it had the opportunity to use its magic we could find an opening.”

“I can’t exactly turn the flower on and off,” Chen Haoran said. “We kinda need it.”

“We do,” Xie Jin agreed, but Chen Haoran could practically see his mind tossing around thoughts. “We definitely need it to restore our Qi but it’s also our biggest attention drawer. We’ve been lucky so far that we haven’t attracted the attention of anything beyond the Liquid Meridian Realm.”

“So what’s your plan?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin looked out at the rolling noxious mists of the Green Hell. “Try to adapt. Maybe overcome. Hopefully not die.”

“What?”

“Just stay there Brother Chen. I’m going to test something.” Xie Jin walked to the edge of the purification aura. He pulled from his robes a blue pendant and wore it. Then he stuck his arm outside the barrier.

It was only Chen Haoran’s belief in Xie Jin that stopped him from stepping forward and re-enveloping him within the aura. His fears were proven unfounded when a teal aura covered his arm and it remained unchanged in the mist.

“So it even protects against the Green Hell’s air.” Xie Jin sneered, pulling his arm back into the barrier. “That bastard Lu Aotian really had something good on him. Now I’m even more glad I took it.”

He threw the pendant to Chen Haoran.

“That should be able to cover you and Phelps both so long as he doesn’t move much.”

Chen Haoran’s bad feeling returned in full force.

Xie Jin stuck his arm into the fog unprotected. His arm turned black in an instant, from the tips of his fingers all the way up to his elbow where it stopped upon hitting the purification aura. There was a horrible noise, both sizzling and wet, that Chen Haoran could only liken to rot given sound. Xie Jin merely grunted but Chen Haoran did not need enhanced vision to see the way his jaw flexed and his neck tensed. Whatever the sensation of rotting alive felt like it was not a painless affair.

Chen Haoran stepped forward.

“Stop!” Xie Jin raised his other hand. “Believe.”

Chen Haoran paused. He pursed his lips and frowned but kept silent and did not move further.

Xie Jin slowly curled black fingers into a fist with a squelch. A low whine escaped him and Chen Hoaran felt his qi recoil and writhe and surge to his arm. With a loud shout he yanked his arm back through the aura, the putrid skin sliding off it like a glove leaving the limb raw, pulsing, and red.

Phelps whined in distress and Chen Haoran, unfortunately no stranger to the mess that could be made of the human body, flinched despite himself. Xie Jin’s Gu on the other hand had no such compunctions, leaping from his sleeve and out the aura to devour the rotting pile that used to be Xie Jin’s flesh.

Liquid purple qi tinted with a green light quickly wrapped around Xie Jin’s arm and sank into it. New skin soon followed after that, crawling from his bicep and covering his arm. Xie Jin was pale and sweat ran down his brow in rivulets but his face spoke of satisfaction despite being twisted up from the lingering pain. His Gu returned to him having had its meal, shedding its shell again as it did so. A strip of pure green qi transferred from it to him and Xie Jin finally relaxed. He looked to Chen Haoran with a grin, though he faltered a little upon seeing his severe expression.

“I won’t bother with exclamations or the usual tripe that follows after a boneheaded decision,” Chen Haoran said. He nodded to Xie Jin’s arm. “Was it worth it?”

“Yes,” Xie Jin said, flexing his hand. “Don’t worry. I didn’t let the poison reach the bone. If I can do this a couple more times I should be able to adapt to the air.”

“Good,” Chen Haoran said. “For the record you’re an idiot.”

“I thought you believed in me?”

“I did believe in you. I also believe your an idiot. They aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Xie Jin rolled his eyes. “Whatever. It’s a step in the right direction. It’s not like anything we do in the Green Hell won’t be some level of stupidly risky.”

The was a scratch of something against wood.

Chen Haoran unsheathed his sword and faced the direction of the sound. Phelps pressed himself flush against his back. Xie Jin went back to back with him. His Gu crawled out his sleeve and settled defensively on his shoulder. There was no panic. Their fear long pressed down in their minds and pushed to the side.

“Took it long enough this time,” Chen Haoran indifferently said. He scanned they jungle for movement.

“The scratching is getting old,” Xie Jin said.

There was a knock against wood.

Then another.

They shut up as their unknown pursuer began rhythmically knocking on wood. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow. It was a beat of some kind that much was obvious but the meaning of it was unknown. An alert or call of some kind perhaps? Chen Haoran frowned and tried placing the direction but found he couldn’t no matter how much qi he sent to his ears.

“Any idea, Xie Jin?” He asked.

Silence was his answer.

If Chen Haoran wasn’t absolutely sure Xie Jin was behind him he’d be worried. As it was the silence was a concern. “Xie Jin?”

“This is a children’s song,” Xie Jin said. His voice was unsteady. “I remember the nanny’s singing it to us and clapping their hands to this beat.”

“So it’s confirmed to be from outside the Green Hell then. Most likely a Gu like you guessed.”

“Brother Chen has anything you’ve seen of Gu given you the impression they’d ever play children’s music?”

It was a question that didn’t need an answer. As soon as Xie Jin said it Chen Haoran’s memories flashed with every interaction and observation of Gu he had. Unnatural. Supernaturally stoic. Devoid of anything that would make them comparable to even the strangest forms of life.

Chen Haoran held his sword tighter.

Along with the knocking came a low humming, a steady, constant drone completely out of tune with the beat. The knocking slowed and grew weaker while the humming grew in sound and intensity such that the leaves of the devil trees began to shiver and the earth beneath their feet vibrated.

Chen Hoaran could tell the direction of the humming unlike the knocking. Back the way they had come from. He went cold.

Oh.

“That’s not part of the song,” Xie Jin said as he and Chen Haoran came to the same realization at once.

The knocking was one creature. The humming was something entirely different hunting them. Something coming in fast.

The world went dark.

One moment there was light. The next there wasn’t. As if someone had said, ‘Let there be light’ and then took back the decision. Even the light of the Stainless Purity Lotus had disappeared. If it weren’t for the fact he wasn’t immediately dying Chen Haoran would have thought it disappeared.

Even the humming was gone. The sound of it at least. He could still feel it through the earth, growing stronger as it approached.

“Xie Jin.” Chen Haoran mouthed the words but no noise came of it. His voice was gone. Ice cold fear raced through his veins and curdled into nausea within his stomach. Phelps’s arms tightened around his neck then. Chen Haoran could feel his warmth on his back. He was grateful for the pressure. That he wasn’t suddenly alone. He cast his sense out and found it fruitless as he expected.

His free hand reached for where he knew Xie Jin was. He brushed clothed and through a bit of fumbling finally found a hand. The rumbling of the earth suddenly spiked and it felt as if he were standing within and earthquake. Chen Haoran crouched down to steady himself. He could feel the very air vibrating and rattling his bones as something far too large came far too close and he was far too blind to see it.

He felt a growl echo from within him. The Yellow Dragon was staring at something in the unseen distance. Chen Haoran sent a silent plea it way. The thought poked the dragon and though it grumbled the splintered spirit of the river came through and Chen Haoran was allowed to see through its eyes.

It covered the sky.

A solid, circular crystal hovered above them, shining like a green sun. So immense that he couldn’t see the full extent of it, just massive interconnected crystal plates that formed its underside. They surrounded a hole ringed with uncountable crystal pincers and spikes and which led to endless depths of roiling qi.

Chen Haoran watched in horror as a column of green qi dropped from the hole. The light touched down to the jungle floor with a gentleness that belied its sized and it began roaming over it like a searchlight. What it was looking for was soon apparent as hundreds of Liquid Meridan beasts and thousands of Qi Realms rose up through the green light, unwilling pulled going by their thrashing up through the air. The claws surrounding the whole commenced their butchers work, ripping apart and grinding captured beasts and tossing their pieces up until they disappeared within the sea of qi.

It was a mouth. A giant monster was right above them and it was hungry. Chen Haoran tightened his grip on both sword and hand, both felt so small to him right now compared to the behemoth abducting the predators that had harried them since entering the Green Hell. He was struck by the sight. Both in seeing it and the fact he could see it at all. The Yellow Dragon’s vision was originally blocked. Had this creatures approach dispersed all the obscuring mist?

Is this thing the reason why everything’s so quiet?

A morbid part of Chen Haoran wondered if the beasts would finally scream in the face of this super monster. Another part wondered if he would.

The light beam wandered around to and fro. Chen Haoran’s heart rose and fell in his chest every time it approached and passed them by. There was nothing he could do if they were spotted by the thing. It was a Crystal Transformation Realm at the bare minimum. As soon as it found them they were all dead. He almost had the mind to cut the connection between him and the Yellow Dragon, ignorance was almost certainly bliss in this situation. He faintly regretted being curious at all. In the end he did nothing however. Just watched as the light beam swept the nearby jungle of all its monsters before swinging around on a course straight for them.

Chen Haoran pressed himself flat on the ground out of instinct more than any actual utility. He dropped his sword and pulled out the Metal Lotus Treasure. Whether he could use it or not without dying was irrelevant right now. The light beam approached them. It was so direct in its path that Chen Haoran was almost fooled into thinking it wasn’t moving at all. Perhaps the creature in the sky had already seen them long ago and was just coming to finish the job now.

Chen Haoran gripped the Metal Lotus Treasure tightly, ready to throw all the qi he had into it. The Yellow Dragon’s vision filled with green as the light column was almost atop them and—

It stopped.

Just before the light column could touch the aura of the Stainless Purity Lotus it stopped. It receded back into the sea of qi from whence it came and the crystal disc left, the world shaking violently as it moved. Chen Haoran watched it for a long time. Watched it for as long as the Yellow Dragon could before the mists of the Green Hell returned and its vision was obscured once more. Even then after cutting their connection Chen Haoran stared through the darkness in the direction the monster left. He didn’t know how long he stayed like that. Motionless. Waiting. Staring. It felt long, after a while. No matter what though it would feel too short. At least when it was dark he could pretend everything that went bump in the light didn’t exist.

Staying still forever wasn’t an option however. Slowly he picked himself up off the ground. As he rose the darkness disappeared as quickly as it arrived and he returned to the jungle. Phelps’s anxious squeals sounded like music to his hears.

“Holy hell we’re alive,” Chen Haoran said.

Phelps squealed and responded with a wet nose pressing his nose and a rough tongue licking his cheek.

Chen Haoran chuckled and looked to Xie Jin. He was staring at Chen Haoran, ashen faced.

“Brother Jin you wouldn’t believe what…just…happened.” Chen Haoran’s sentence slowly trailed off. Something wasn’t right. They were holding hands but Xie Jin was too far away. His hand felt small too. Chen Haoran hadn’t noticed it before since he was just relieved to have been holding onto something but his hand was completely wrapped around the other hand.

He looked down.

Right into the empty eye sockets of the tiny golden skeleton whose hand he was holding.

Chapter 163

The beginning chapters of this book are in a way even more difficult to write than the initial chapters of book 2 was. Not just due to the circumstances of it but also the fact I'm trying to go for a more horror-inspired atmosphere which isn't the easiest to convey. I think it's finally settling in a proper direction now.

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Not all silences were made equal.

Theirs was a terrified one. The silence of the Tenth Green Hell, terrifying. Chen Haoran could only wonder where between those two extremes the Puppeteer Beetle fell. Not once did it make a sound. Not it nor the parasite worm controlling it. Not when it charged them. Not when Chen Haoran had turned its body to mush and hacked the pieces that remained. It spoke volumes of the type of environment the Green Hell was, that its monsters avoided making any sound whatsoever even up to their final moments. Things were not that quiet for no reason. No mere hunting adaptation could be responsible for such a thing.

Gazing at the piles of squashed, smoking meat of the alien worm and its zombie beetle Chen Haoran was forced to consider that it too had things it feared within the Tenth Green Hell. Such that it would not utter a peep even when dying in the most horrible way.

There was a scratch of something against wood.

And that it might be following them.

They had maintained enough self-control to not openly panic and only secretly panic instead. Xie Jin harvested the core of the Puppeteer Beetle under Chen Haoran and Phelps’s vigilant guard then they beat a retreat in a random direction. The jungle was the same anyway. It wasn’t like they would get less lost. Devil trees wept hot smoke as the Stainless lotus’s purity aura swept over them. Chen Haoran found himself wishing he could retract the aura somehow, wrap it around themselves rather than cover an area. 50 feet was nothing compared to the trees let alone the scale of the jungle itself but Chen Haoran felt it was still far too large.

They did their best to move quietly. Using qi to lighten their steps to be as feathers. They took care to avoid crunching leaves, and scraping roots but Chen Haoran still felt the sound of their feet brushing against the dirt was too loud.

The was a scratch of something against wood.

Chen Haoran shared a look with Xie Jin.

They started running.

All thought of stealth was thrown to the wind as they flooded qi to their legs. The devil trees surrounding them became a wicked blur of dancing forms. Like a rock dropped into a still pond their sudden acceleration threw the whole jungle into a flurry of activity. Solid shapes emerged from between blurred trees, finally pushing through the curtain they’d been hidden behind. Chen Haoran had conjured a thousand images of the denizens of the Tenth Green Hell in his head before seeing them, he knew whatever he imagined would be wrong but he did not expect how. The monsters that crawled out of the dark to hunt them were living nightmares or freaks of nature but surprisingly banal in their form. Snakes, beetles, lizards, mosquitoes, butterflies, and a host of other insects and creatures, far larger than they had any right to be of course but otherwise surprisingly tame compared to what he’d expected them to be.

Then they started killing each other.

The snake opened itself down its middle, splitting into two halves that surrounded a beetle and recombined to engulf it whole. A giant mosquito speared straight through a lizard only for its skeleton to discard its skin and run away. The butterflies fell on unprepared predators and enveloped them with crystal wings, flesh morphing an combining until both forms disappeared and became a liquid-filled cocoon. Those were the opportunistic ones, the predators who decided to make prey of Chen Haoran’s and Xie Jin’s predators. Others yet ran up to the Stainless Purity Lotus’s aura to mixed reactions. Some flinched away from it and fled as if burned. Others stopped a distance away and chose to attack other targets. Some entered and froze. A few died outright within the aura.

Chen Haoran swept his sense over all of them and yet he couldn’t track a single one of the creatures through it even though he could see them. He had no time to dwell on the strangeness. A streak of red and gray feathers barreled through the aura and headed straight for Xie Jin. It was by far the strangest beast present, it looked like a parrot if someone had taken away its wings and elongated its body like a ferret. Chen Haoran switched courses, intercepting it with a hard kick to a beak that felt like steel. The parrot-ferret thing went backward and Chen Haoran flew forward matching pace with Xie Jin. The sound of dirt shuffling had him look back to find the parrot monster assailed by two scorpions as soon as they spotted an opening.

Gods. Had they been surrounded the whole time?

Why were they still quiet?

Chen Haoran ran. Monsters pursued them. Some hunting them. More looking for an opportunity to hunt their own kind. It gave Chen Haoran the impression that it was less they were prey inside the Green Hell and more that they were bait. It was not a good feeling.

“Xie Jin,” Chen Haoran called, reaching out his hand. Xie Jin grabbed it without looking and with a roar the Yellow Dragon flew from Chen Haoran’s head and engulfed them in yellow qi. Red light mixed with yellow.

One step beyond beasts.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

They were carried away from the silent violence. Chen Haoran was going to have words with whoever penned the original verse of the Heaven-Rank technique because one step did not, in fact, take them beyond the beasts. Some still stubbornly pursued them and more seemed to creep out of the shadows of the devil trees. They were just the most obvious thing to target. Perhaps the easiest too but Chen Haoran did not want to dwell on that.

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin suddenly said. “Roar.”

He shot Xie Jin a dubious look.

“Do it,” Xie Jin said with a nod.

“In for a penny then,” Chen Haoran muttered. He conveyed the thought to the Yellow Dragon. On a dime their momentum was arrested as the Yellow Dragon twisted its body and faced their pursuers. Chen Haoran could feel satisfaction bubble through his link to the dragon. It seems all the running away they had been doing had frustrated it to no end.

The Yellow Dragon reared its head and roared.

It was like thunder in the silent jungle. The monsters chasing them, each one at a level capable of giving Chen Haoran a fight stiffened and froze in their pursuit. The leaves of the Devil Trees rustled from the force of the roar, sounding like unwilling hissing as they rubbed together. Fresh black sap burst from sunken eyes.

The monsters fled.

Back into the shadows and poisonous fog, they went. Both the beasts in the open following them and even more that had been hiding in wait. Chen Haoran futilely cast his sense to track them to no avail. They disappeared as quickly as they came. The jungle quickly returned to silence, save for the smoking tears of the Devil Trees that seemed even more tortured than before.

Chen Haoran did not feel safe.

“Walk me through your plan, Xie Jin,” Chen Haoran whispered.

“Just a thought,” Xie Jin whispered back. “Your Spirit has proven effective on Gu before so I figured the same would apply to Green Hell’s denizens.”

“One small issue. Did they leave because of the dragon or because of the roar?” Chen Haoran recalled the utter silence of the rapid violence they just experienced. If sound is what scared these creatures then why? What made these things refuse to go bump in the night?

Phelps shifted uncomfortably across his shoulders and quietly whined.

“We need to keep moving,” Chen Haoran declared.

“Agreed,” Xie Jin said.

They picked a path that was probably one of the four cardinal directions for all the complete lack of them in the Green Hell and walked, not ran, away. Running was bad. As they had just proven.

The trees judged them as they left.

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Chen Haoran didn’t know how long they walked for. His nebulous grasp on the passing of time had been lost ever since they entered the Green Hell. The jungle certainly offered no hints what with its green sky and tortured trees. All he could say is that they walked for long enough to make even a Liquid Meridian tired and as such they stopped to take a break. Chen Haoran leaned his back against one of the devil trees and settled Phelps on the ground next to him. Much as the sloth wanted to sit in his lap it was simply to dangerous to completely relax and so his sword was laid across his legs instead. Xie Jin sat cross-legged in front of him. His Gu flew freely between the Stainless Lotus’s aura and the Green Hell’s poisonous air.

“Be careful letting your Gu roam,” Chen Haroan said. “I’m pretty sure they were targeting you earlier because of it.”

“Yeah,” Xie Jin agreed, looking perturbed. “It’s not completely unexpected. It’s in a Hell Bugs nature to devour their own kind. We use that principle to make Gu.”

A paranoid thought wormed its way to the front of Chen Haoran’s mind. “Xie Jin if that’s the case then is it possible for Hell Bugs to become Gu themselves once they eat enough?”

Xie Jin shook his head. “Gu are a strictly man-made creation. A developed Hell Bug could approximate it I guess but that’s only because they’re the origin of a Gu’s powers. They completely lack the rituals we use.”

“When you say they can approximate a Gu’s powers. I’m assuming the reverse holds true as well? A Gu can do what a Hell Bug does but better?”

“You’re talking about their disappearing,” Xie Jin said. It wasn’t a question.

Chen Haoran nodded. “I’ve tracked Gu before. But I couldn’t sense a single one of those monsters even when they were right in front of me until they released qi.”

“My Gu couldn’t track them either,” Xie Jin said, then he paused. “…for now maybe.”

“Real illuminating Xie Jin.”

Xie Jin scowled and flipped him off. “Do you know what makes a Hell Bug different from other beasts?”

“Considering you’re my sole source of information on most things South and you never told me. No, I don’t.”

Xie Jin rolled his eyes. “Well, they’re not special or unique, in and of themselves. A Hell Bug is a Hell Bug because it comes from the Tenth Green Hell. When they escape and breed that energy is gradually diluted over the generations. Part of the process of Poison Jar Ritual is to re-concentrate that power before turning it into Gu miasma.”

Chen Haoran processed that information. He glanced over at the Beetle Gu. It had molted yet again for the fourth time. It looked bigger even, though only by a fraction. “Xie Jin. What is going to happen to your Gu?”

Xie Jin looked over at his Beetle Gu with an expression that was half worried and half… expectant. “I think I’m learning the reason all Gu return to the Green Hell once they’re freed.”

“Will it be safe?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know but…. no shaman who’s ever gone into the Green Hell has ever returned.”

Gu being what they were it was easy for Chen Haoran to imagine they’d rather abandon their shaman rather than leave the allure of growing stronger in the Green Hell. If their strength grew beyond what the shaman could control on top of that…

Perhaps the local wildlife wasn’t the only reason a Shaman never made it out.

“Then again things might not play out that way,” Xie Jin hurriedly assured Chen Haoran and perhaps himself as well. “Black Bone Gu don’t return to the Green Hell anyway so how it affects them may be different. Plus I’m a genius shaman and you’re you so no matter what I won’t lose control of my Gu.”

Chen Haoran sighed. It wasn’t the most reassuring but it was better than nothing he supposed. “Maybe it’s a good thing Bao Si isn’t with us. Less Gu to worry about.”

“Ah,” Xie Jin said, looking conflicted. “Yeah. The Three Worm Sutra. It’d be bad if she came here.”

“Something the matter, Xie Jin?”

“Well, the Three Worm Sutra is just as stupidly dangerous as me performing the Poison Jar Ritual by myself. Maybe even more so,” Xie Jin said.

Chen Haoran stared at him. Xie Jin met his gaze for a brief moment before looking away. “You wanted it didn’t you?”

Xie Jin deflated. “Yeah. I wanted it.”

“What’s so special about it? Besides the obvious?” A flash of familiarity rose from the fog of memory. “You told me a story about three worms before I’m pretty sure.”

“Granny Three Worm,” Xie Jin said. “The method is descended from her.”

“I thought she was just some fairytale?” Chen Haoran said. “How is she related to the Black Bones?”

“She isn’t related to us. Not directly at least. I guess you could say she’s related to all shamans.” Xie Jin shook his head. “But whether she was real or not the Sutra is real. Maybe it even belonged to her. Or not. Or maybe there was someone who inspired the stories. Stories of Granny Three Worm were old when the Queen Mother of the Western Mountains was young and no one knows when she was young.”

“Sounds confusing,” Chen Haoran simply said.

“Either way the Three Worm Sutra is probably the most venerated and feared method among shamans. Just as if not more so than a Golden Silkworm Gu.”

“Because it lets you control three Gu?”

“No, because it lets you use three Gu.”

“The distinction being?”

“Half of why the Sutra is feared is because it requires controlling multiple Gu at minimum in order to be practiced. An exercise in death for all but the best shamans and even then it’s a matter of when you’ll die, not if,” Xie Jin said. “Splitting your attention between Gu like that is lethal and there’s the added difficulty of the Gu trying to eat each other because they don’t like sharing. If you can successfully do it however the Three Worm Sutra allows you to synergize the power of the Gu multiplicatively. That’s the other half of why it’s feared. It turns a shaman from a threat to a force.”

“And the reason it’s venerated?” Chen Haoran asked.

“It’s the pinnacle of shamanism,” Xie Jin said. He drew his legs to his chest and wrapped his arms around his knees. “There have been plenty of Golden Silkworms in Zumulu’s history but no true master of the Three Worm Sutra. All the geniuses who ever came close inevitably slipped and fell when they were about to reach the peak. But if they could… the legends say Granny Three Worm roamed Zumulu as she pleased. From its highest mountain to its deepest caverns and across its most dangerous jungles. Everywhere she went she freely took and dispensed old age, disease, and death. If people could gain even a fraction of that power… well, it should be obvious.”

Chen Haoran nodded. It certainly sounded like an immense power. “It’s a bit surprising your Elders let Bao Si practice it then if it’s so dangerous, given her status and all.”

“She’s Bao Si.”

Chen Haoran thought about it.

He conceded the point. She’s Bao Si.

“She was able to practice it with the help of the Grand Elder. She would seal a Gu in the form of a tattoo on Bao Si. Some kind of secret method or something.” Xie Jin said. “Of course, that was after Bao Si proved herself but she was always going to be the Grand Elder’s apprentice no matter what.”

“And you never got the chance.”

“No.”

“So then you performed the Poison Jar Ritual by yourself,” Chen Haoran said. There was no judgment in his tone.

Xie Jin hunched over. “Yes. Of course, after I did that there was even less reason to let me learn the method. There were doubts about my character and how it’d affect the nature of my Gu. They didn’t think my Gu would let me survive trying to bond with another one.” His lips twisted into a small, bitter smirk. “Of course, there were some who were worried not that I would fail but that I would succeed.”

“That’s an absolutely ridiculous worry,” Chen Haoran assured him. “Seeing as how useless you were comprehending the Seven Colored Steps I don’t know how anyone could think you a threat.”

Xie Jin snorted. His expression shifted to one of noble disdain. “Sorry, I can’t compare to peerless Brother Chen who needed literal enlightenment to learn the Technique.”

“Point,” Chen Haoran said with a smile.

They shared a soft laugh. Phelps snuffled at Chen Haoran’s leg. Xie Jin’s Gu flittered between purity and poisonous. Signs of its fifth molt already beginning to form. The jungle was quiet. Even the black tears of the Devil Trees had long since dried. Their small joy was loud in the Tenth Green Hell.

There was a scratch of something against wood.

It was behind him.

Chen Haoran’s sword was a silver blur as he whipped from its scabbard and felled the great tree with a single cleave. The Devil Tree collapsed to the ground with an unwilling roar of wood and slammed against its evil kin, smashing branches and stripping bark. When it fell to the ground it did so with a heavy thump that Chen Haoran felt in his heart.

On the other side of the tree was nothing.

In the shadows of the jungle, countless green eyes opened.

Interlude: The Peacock Prince

I originally wanted to include this interlude in the Epilogue of Book 2 but there was just no room. Then I wanted to make it the first chapter of Book 3 but forgot. So now it gets placed here. For those who need a reminder. Shen Jianyu is the prince who canceled the Exams Lan Fen wanted to take in book one and is the one whom Song Yuelin was fighting at the end of said book.

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In Shen Jianyu’s opinion, it was much harder to be born rich than it was to be born poor.

“May the Heavens smite you cursed Imperials.”

When you were born poor no one had any expectations of you. You could be lazy and a disappointment and people would just click their tongues and shake their heads. They wouldn’t do anything because of course the poor person wouldn’t measure up.

“A pox upon you and your hateful clan.”

Being born rich on the other hand came with responsibilities. It came with obligations and standards desired of you and if you failed to meet them then the bastard holding onto the wealth could easily choose to cut you off from it.

“May the world spit in your eye, may all the roads you take be muddy.”

Shen Jianyu was born into a family of immense wealth and power. He had plenty of siblings and even more relatives hungry for authority and desperate to take the reins of the family in hand and grow their reach further. Was it too much to ask that little old Shen Jianyu be left to his peace? To his nice bed and silken sheets. To his rose baths and candied delights. To his games and petty amusements. All within the confines of his luxurious, warm mansion filled with all the things that pleased his eye and let him tolerate the world.

“The Dragon King will rip of the crown of your weak emperor and turn your skull into a drinking flask.”

Apparently, he asked for too much. So now he was here. In a cold cloud. Surrounded by boorish soldiers and being cursed out by some barbarian of a man. Shen Jianyu lifted his eye mask and from his throne looked over at the prisoner struggling against the grip of two Cloud Dragon Guards. His chest was bloody from the acupuncture needles driven into it to interrupt the flow of his qi. His hands were bound in large manacles and the guards, not small men at all, had their arms on his shoulders, pushing him into the cloud. Still, he struggled. Still, he shouted profanities against Shen Jianyu and his family. He was unique in this regard. Chen Qitao’s warriors were a professional but otherwise mercenary force. It was just his luck that the one near him was more zealous in his loyalty.

Shen Jianyu raised a manicured eyebrow and looked at the idiots letting him mouth off. “I recall that even hearing an insult against the Emperor is punishable by having your ears cut off.”

The men stiffened and before Chen Qitao’s soldier could utter another word his throat was slit with a knife and his body stuffed into the cloud and buried. His Final Flood only slightly expanded the cloud before the controllers of the Soaring Cloud Dragon Formation contained it.

“Finally.” Shen Jianyu sank back into the plush cushions of his throne. It had taken extra effort on the Guard’s part to shape the Cloud Dragon to fit it but that wasn’t his problem. If he had to be here it would be in a nice, comfortable chair at the very least.

Across the hollow interior of the Cloud Dragon similar scenes played out. Men and women wept, begged, raged, and died. Neatly. Efficiently. Professionally. As the Cloud Dragon Guards were trained to do. The Cloud Dragon grew fat on the liquid qi spilling from their Final Floods, then with a rumble deposited the qi as rain to the water fields, forests, quarries or whatever it was they were currently flying over.

Shen Jianyu didn’t know and didn’t care to check. It was all the same in the end. The Cloud Dragon Guards would get ahold of a batch of Liquid Meridian prisoners and officials would lobby and grease palms to get the liquid qi to rain on their territory to reap the benefits. A dignified natural process profaned, industrialized, and sold for profit. Not as Heaven intended but as Man willed.

And Shen Jianyu had to be dragged out of the Capital for it.

He sighed. “So much for my vacation.”

The two idiot Cloud Dragon Guards silently bowed at his side. They were smart enough not to say anything but not smart enough to not pull tricks. Shen Jianyu let them back away a few inches, let them think he had forgotten about them.

Then he spoke up.

“I still need those ears.”

The way their hopeful expressions fell was hilarious and Shen Jianyu made his amusement clear. He did not pity them. They had taken their time in killing the loudmouth prisoner when they could have ended it in an instant. Their trick was plain as day. An act of pettiness from subordinates to a leader they disliked but could not touch. Unfortunately for them, petty subordinates were only so proud until they ran into an even pettier superior.

Shen Jianyu was lackadaisical, not lackluster. He was to be given trifles, not trifled with.

“Please give their punishment over to me, Your Highness.” A flare of qi heralded the approach of a massive man wrapped head to toe in silver armor. For a cultivator of the Crystal Transformation Realm, the flare was considered nothing. So weak it didn’t even blow a strand of Shen Jianyu’s hair out of place. Even so, it was a subtle warning.

Shen Jianyu smirked at the man’s audacity. If he were any other prince such a thing would be unthinkable even from a commander of the Cloud Dragon Guards. It was not Shen Jianyu’s first time with this unit unfortunately and thus they got to know each other fairly well.

“Oh? Will you be doing the cutting yourself, Commander Pan?” Shen Jianyu asked.

The Commander’s snarling Dragon faced helmet stared down at him. “I ask that you let me decide the punishment, Your Highness.”

Shen Jianyu chuckled. He leaned against the armrest of his throne and propped his head on his hand. “Dear me how capable you are Commander Pan. In the short time since we last spoke you somehow gained the power to determine Imperial Law.”

“I am capable of nothing but obeying orders, Your Highness. Even if you were to tell me to search an empty mountain.”

Shen Jianyu ignored the reproach in his tone. It wasn’t his fault Commander Pan was so capable. If he hadn’t sent him deep into the Clearsprings Mountains chasing shadows then they would have had a completely successful mission and that was something Shen Jianyu could never allow. Still, the man deserved some face at least.

“Since you’re seeking a reward then ask for it and I shall grant it,” he said.

“Mercy,” Commander Pan Said.

Shen Jianyu nodded. “Mercy it is then.”

Hope bloomed on the two Guards faces as they looked at their leader with respect.

“I’ll only need one ear each,” Shen Jianyu cheerfully said.

Hope turned into despair and they looked toward Commander Pan in search of a light to safety. Commander Pan hesitated, a minute action almost imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t Shen Jianyu.

Then he nodded and looked at his despairing men. “One each then.”

The Guards looked at each other and then at their Commander before they resigned themselves to the punishment. Shen Jianyu softly snorted in disdain. It was just a little amputation. It wasn’t like they had no means of regrowing body parts. The Guards knelt and in one swift motion drew their knives across their ears, cutting them off. They presented the bloody appendages to Shen Jianyu with outstretched hands.

He looked at them blankly. “Why are you giving them to me? I don’t want them. Throw them away.”

With steely eyes, the Guards tossed their ears through the floor of the Cloud Dragon and down to the earth below. Shen Jianyu lost interest in them now that the drama was over and lazily waved away Commander Pan who took the men with him. The other Cloud Dragon Guards who had been surreptitiously paying attention to every word continued their duties and finished processing the remaining prisoners post haste. Not a single one dared even to look in Shen Jianyu’s direction.

He sighed and pulled down his eyemask once more. Did he just make a lot of people hate him? Yes. Were they going to complain about it in private? Most certainly. Would they file a report to the Palace to have him censured? Gods above and below he hoped. The sooner he was stripped of all his commands and forced to stay in his mansion the better. He had come so close to being left alone for a while until some genius decided to recommend he go to some backwater city to look for suspected traces of Chen Qitao’s forces. He wasn’t sure who was responsible but he would start looking as soon as he got back to the Capital and make their life miserable.

It had almost gone so wrong too. Not only were there traces there was a whole port, hidden with the aid of the City Lord. On top of that Chen Qitao’s own blood was there. If Shen Jianyu had captured him then the Emperor would be beyond pleased and then he’d be well and truly screwed. That didn’t mean he could completely fail his mission either. He wanted to be imprisoned in luxury, not in a cell. It was a fine scale to be balanced. Overstep his authority and cancel the Palace Exams to piss off the old fogies in charge of the School. Let Chen Qitao’s son escape. Then absolutely crushed his operation in the area, destroyed the port, and captured many of his soldiers. Mission accomplished with enough headaches caused that there hopefully wouldn’t be a next time. Truly a rush job well done if he said so himself.

“Forgive my disturbance Your Highness, but there is a communique from the Palace.”

Shen Jianyu’s self-congratulations were interrupted by a thin and reedy voice. He raised his eyemask in annoyance and found his Imperial Aide kneeling in front of his throne. The man’s head was bowed and he held in raised arms a stand in the shape of a tower, upon which was perched a conch shell.

“Tell them I’m unavailable,” Shen Jianyu said. He at least wanted to finish his nap before he had to deal with the world again.

The Aide did not move. “I’m afraid I can’t, Your Highness. I have received the code, Purple-Gold.”

Shen Jianyu grimaced. Purple-Gold was the highest priority line short of a direct call from the Emperor himself. The only excuse allowed for not picking up was either being in active battle or dying. Anything else meant getting punished by both civil and military law no matter the station.

He heaved a long sigh and reluctantly picked up the conch shell, pressing it to his ear. “Patch me through.”

The tower in his Aide’s hands segmented and began spinning rapidly, sending out ripples of qi. Simultaneously his Aide’s qi flared and his surroundings blurred as a privacy barrier was erected. Shen Jianyu felt the energy within the conch shell pulse and extend outward, disappearing into the world and connecting far away to another Distant Shores Messenger treasure.

“This is Shen Jianyu. Who’s wasting my time?”

A woman’s voice answered him. “Greetings. This humble servant of the Throne has been invested with the duty of delivering this message according to Palace Communications Protocol.”

Shen Jianyu sighed again. A stickler then. “This is Shen Jianyu, Prince of the First Rank. Thirteenth Son of the Dragon, Twenty-Fifth Feather of the Peacock. Invested with Three of the Eight Privileges. Who is wasting my time?”

“Greetings to His Highness Shen Jianyu, Prince of the Blood. This humble servant is Gao Lishi, Imperial Aide of the Lower Third Rank.”

Shen Jianyu narrowed his eyes and stood up from his throne. He did not personally know who this Gao Lishi was but the context was telling. Imperial Aides were exclusive servants of the Palace. Taken in and specially trained to fill in many of the tasks required for maintaining it that wouldn’t be trusted to outsiders or those from powerful families. Anything that connected them to having a life outside the palace was erased to the extent they were assigned new given names. That this woman had a full name as an Aide was extraordinary. That her title was of the Lower Third Rank of the Nine Ranks made her the highest-ranking Imperial Aide he had ever heard of. There was only one person who could make such an aberrant.

The Emperor.

Shen Jianyu had a foreboding feeling. “And what business do you have with me, Aide Gao?”

“The first is to tender congratulations, Your Highness.” Her voice was warm as if she was genuine about it. “Your work in the Clearsprings province successfully weeded out the pirate Chen Qitao’s forces and exposed the corruption within the government of Clearsprings City. You will be happy to know the City Lord and his administration have been referred to the Imperial Censorate for punishment.”

Shen Jianyu froze. The City Lord’s corruption was no surprise to him. The lousy bastard had confessed that much to him on his hands and knees. He left the City Lord alone because he hadn’t wanted to make too meritorious a service. Instead, he was going to leave an anonymous tip to the Censorate to investigate at a later date and expose Shen Jianyu’s sloppy handling. How did he end up exposed?

“You’re too kind,” Shen Jianyu said through gritted teeth. He scowled and shot a ferocious glare through the blurred scenery of the privacy barrier. Someone in his Guard detachment must have leaked it to look good and inadvertently made him look good in the process. Oh, he was going to make someone pay for this.

“That being said this is not a call that comes with good tidings.” Aide Gao’s tone became serious and deathly cold. A harsh contrast to her earlier words. “An Urgent report has arrived from the Garrison Army of the Southern Special Autonomous Zone. Rebellion has broken out among the natives.”

“So much for the vaunted Imperial Intelligence Service,” Shen Jianyu sarcastically said.

Aide Gao unfortunately took his mockery in stride. “Yes. There will be heavy punishments for this oversight. His Imperial Majesty is furious.”

“I’m sure,” Shen Jianyu said, rolling his eyes. The situation was a bit serious granted. The fact that the local Garrison’s report wasn’t followed with ‘And the rebels were immediately put down’ meant the strength behind them was significant. He was sure there was some kind of foreign involvement as well. The Republic or the Eastern Lightning League, hell maybe even Chen Qitao. His Imperial Siblings were probably chomping at the bit to rush down south and bite out a piece of glory from putting down the revolt. “Well, thank you for informing me, Aide Gao. I’ll make sure to go over the reports in full when I return to the capital.”

Left unsaid was that it would be from the comfort of his bed and with a tray of sweetmeats at his side and that he’d probably, maybe, get around to reading them after a good book or three and a long nap.

“Unfortunately you will have to be briefed along the way,” Aide Gao mysteriously said.

“Pardon?” Shen Jianyu asked in confusion. His foreboding feeling grew stronger as he felt his bed suddenly become distant from him.

Aide Gao’s voice boomed. “Prince Shen Jianyu, in the name of the Emperor, Legitimate Heir of the Honored Sunset, Master of the Yellow River, Lord of All Beneath Heaven, Successor of a Hundred Kingdoms, accept the decree.”

Oh fuck.

Shen Jianyu hurriedly slammed the conch back atop the tower but it was too late. Golden light exploded out of the conch tearing through the privacy barrier like so much paper and terrifying the battle-hardened killers of Cloud Dragon Guard. Commander Pan flicked his wrist and cut the Cloud Dragon’s flight short, sending it crashing into the ground. Then he fell to his knees and led the rest of the Guard in prostrating before the golden scroll that materialized out of thin air.

Shen Jianyu fell to his knees in despair. The scroll unfurled and what it passed was not a written message but intent. A powerful voice rumbled like thunder and threatened to disperse the entire Cloud Dragon in its fury.

“Insects who know nothing of gratitude dare to defy the Will of the Heavens and break Our Peace with poisonous blades in the dark. It is hereby ordered that Prince Jianyu makes haste South and oversee the suppression of the rebels by way of fire and blood. Thus is Our will.”

The scroll rolled back up and the golden light disappeared. In the wake of the Emperor’s dominating voice Aide Gao’s smooth words were like a balm.

“Cloud Dragon Guard do you accept the decree?”

“We accept!” Commander Pan solemnly declared, his words echoed by every single Guard.

“Prince Jianyu, do you accept the decree?”

“I accept,” Shen Jianyu numbly answered. The scroll fell from the air into his open hands.

“I wish you luck then Your Highness. May Sunset’s light grace your path.”

Shen Jianyu looked down at the damned order in his hand. Strangely his first thought wasn’t of his faraway bed or his cursed Imperial Father. Instead, it was the son of Chen Qitao and the difference in their sires.

That dog was sent by his father to an unimportant city for years to laze around, eat, and play. Meanwhile, I have to go pull out bones in a place where the trees speak skeleton.

He was so envious he could die. Chen Qitao wouldn’t send his sons south. That was for sure.

The rising of the Cloud Dragon Guards stirred him from his moping. His expression became fierce in an instant. Right. He still had these assholes to deal with.

“Congratulations you bastards. We’re going South. May those damned jungles eat you alive.”

Chapter 162

Chapter 2 of Book 3 is here! It was tough to write this while constantly refreshing Amazon. Book 1 has been released and is doing quite well I'm proud to say. We finally broke though rank 1k on the sales ranking. It's done quite a bit better so far than I ever expected it too. We'll see how it goes from hereon. 

Enjoy the chapter!

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Despite what Chen Haoran said they did not, in fact, blow the joint. They were too tired and too hurt. At least while on the edge of the Green Hell they had a chance too recuperate in relative safety within the protective bubble of the Stainless Purity Lotus. So they did. They took turns to rest and keep watch over the next few days. Or what Chen Haoran assumed were days. The Green Hell did not change. There was no night or day and thus it was hard to determine how much time had passed. Perhaps it didn’t matter in the end.

Chen Haoran busied himself by rifling through his bag for everything they could use to make their recovery faster. Any of his rewarded items went to him and Xie Jin. Phelps meanwhile got the herbs and raw plants he had purchased while in Reservoir Town. These were materials fit for a Liquid Meridian. He would have to ration how much he gave to Phelps for now but over time his reserve would grow.

Received Hundred-Fold: Elegant Firefly Grass

Received Hundred-Fold: Body Nurturing Fruit

Received Hundred-Fold: Stone Mansion Incense

“Somehow. Someway. You always have something on hand no matter the situation,” Xie Jin said, shaking his head in disbelief as Chen Haoran handed him a Body Nurturing Fruit.

“It’s just luck that I happened to have what we need,” Chen Haoran said. He wasn’t even lying either….mostly.

“Praise Heaven for your fortune then,” Xie Jin wryly said. “We wouldn’t nearly be as comfortable right now without it.”

Chen Haoran glanced at Xie Jin’s Beetle Gu. It was darting in and out between the purified bubble and the toxic air of the Green Hell. Drinking in the fumes till its carapace began to rot before retreating into the bubble to molt and reveal a shiny new shell. It had done this three times already.

“I’m sure you would have managed somehow,” he said.

Chen Haoran was thankful that Stainless Purity Lotus’s aura didn’t seem detrimental to Xie Jin’s Gu. In fact it was positively starving for the flower. Which didn’t bode well for how the other creatures living in the Green Hell might react to it.

“At least we can still cultivate,” Xie Jin said. His Gu flew to his waiting hands and while Chen Haoran couldn’t tell how it happened he could feel Xie Jin’s qi slightly rise. “Things would be a lot worse otherwise.”

Ah. Yes. The other unfortunate discovery. It wasn’t just the air that was poisonous in the Green Hell. The qi was too. Needless to say, if it weren’t for the aura of Purity Lotus cleansing the qi they’d be in deep shit. Xie Jin at least could somewhat refine it through his Gu but that didn’t mean it was an easy process. As it stood the rate they could cultivate was massively slowed down even though the level of ambient qi in the Green Hell was several times higher than outside. There was only so much qi contained within the bubble, the area was barely big enough for one of them to cultivate regularly let alone both of them. It was why it took so long for Chen Haoran to discover his newest change.

Liquid Meridian Realm Third-Layer.

It was a pleasant surprise when he fully replenished his reserves and found he could keep going. The immense amounts of qi he ran through his meridians while powering the Metal Lily combined with the aftereffects of his enlightenment and the stress of combat had shattered the invisible barrier between him and the next stage. It wasn’t much but it was better than nothing and helped his peace of mind at least.

“Right.” Xie Jin stood up and cracked his back. “I’m ready to go.”

“Let’s get outta here then.” Chen Haoran let Phelps clamber onto his back and rose to his feet. The Stainless Purity Lotus gently cradled within a pouch hanging from his neck that he made from a spare robe. He brushed his fingers across it. This was their lifeline right now. If he lost it then they were well and truly boned.

“Shit.”

Xie Jin’s head whipped. “What’s wrong, Brother Chen?”

Chen Haoran shook his head. “It’s just…. I’m realizing our very survival hinges on keeping ahold of a valuable treasure in a jungle filled with Gu that can steal it with a thought.”

“I wouldn’t be that worried,” Xie Jin said. “All of a Gu’s abilities, even their weirder ones, use their miasma as a base. I doubt most Gu could work a spell past this barrier let alone on the plant itself.”

“And if we meet one that isn’t like most Gu,” Chen Haoran quietly said. “Like a Golden Silkworm?”

Xie Jin gave him a helpless look. “Do you really need to ask questions you already know the answer to? Wrap it in your liquid qi and pray at that point.”

“Fair enough.” Chen Haoran mentally prodded the Yellow Dragon. It growled a bit but a tendril of liquid qi emerged from his chest and covered the Stainless Purity Lotus in a thin film. Pan Gong’s comment on his over-reliance on the Yellow Dragon to control his own qi still stung but dead beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Phelps let out a shrill whistle.

Chen Haoran was immediately on alert. His qi surged and his sense instantly swept their surroundings. Xie Jin did the same. Phelps kept whistling and his grip on Chen Haoran tightened. Despite that, he couldn’t find for the life of him what had set Phelps on edge.

“What’s wrong bud?” Chen Haoran asked. “What do you see?”

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin gravely answered. “The trees are different.”

What? He observed the jungle, casting his sense over each and every tree and trying to recall what it looked like before. Slowly he turned his gaze upwards where there should have been a tree lifted entirely off the ground. It was not there, both it and the tree lifting it.

“But we haven’t moved,” Chen Haoran whispered. He looked behind them and instead of blank green fog, there was more jungle. “What the fuck?”

“Looks like it doesn’t matter,” Xie Jin said. His Gu orbited around his head like a moon. “No point in trying to find a direction. Still, believe in your idea about the Three Killers?”

“Not at all,” Chen Haoran said. “But I got a new one.”

“Oh?”

“The Hell Bugs. You said they’re from here. That means they can leave here. We just need to figure out how they do it.”

“Track a First Generation Hell Bug. Sounds easy enough,” Xie Jin sarcastically said.

“We both know I don’t know what that means.”

“Oh, nothing. Just a monster straight out of the stories by grandfather used to scare me into behaving as a child.”

“I don’t see whats so scary about them then. It clearly didn’t work.”

He and Xie Jin shared a chuckle that slowly died away. They stood there, fidgeting in place. Scanning the jungle. A bead of sweat rolled down Chen Haoran’s temple. Phelps oh so helpfully licked it away much to his disgust and Xie Jin’s quiet amusement. He rubbed Phelps’s head in return. Patting down raised hair and adjusting the place of the tense arms on his shoulders. Xie Jin’s fingers twisted into different hand signs until he had to do one that required his missing finger, forcing him to remember he was, in fact, lacking one, causing him to scowl. He did it twice more before stopping.

They had not moved.

Chen Haoran took a long breath, then exhaled, stirring up dust at his feet. He took a step forward. “Let’s go.”

Xie Jin fell into lockstep beside him. Phelps pressed his head flat on Chen Haoran’s shoulder, black eyes constantly roving. Together they entered the jungle of the Tenth Green Hell. The bubble of purification moved with them cleansing all that was in front of them and leaving all that was behind them to the clutches of the Green Hell. In the space they once stood green fog rolled back in, turning the purified soil into stinking, black mud. When they got close enough to finally envelop the trees within the Lotus’s aura they paused, tensing.

No reaction. Not from the trees at least. They didn’t come alive and try to eat them like Chen Haoran had been expecting. Nor did they rear back or lean forward once the Lotus’s aura touched them or did anything to imply they were nothing more than normal, albeit, scary trees. The worst that happened was the black sap leaking from their ‘eyes’ boiled away. An unsettling image but nothing immediately life-threatening. Chen Haoran couldn’t tell if they looked better or worse without their tears. He supposed it depended on what flavor of screaming face a person preferred.

They continued on. The jungle was silent. The sound of their feet on dead earth was too loud. The sound of boiling sap was even louder. It added an omnipresent his wherever they walked because everywhere they walked were screaming, crying trees. They loomed even more menacingly now that they were amongst them. Their clawed branches intertwined into a canopy overhead that looked as if it would fall upon them at any moment like a hunter’s net.

There was no other sound. Just them. Only them.

“Xie Jin,” Chen Haoran whispered, it was loud in the silence. Stupid. Why? It’s loud. Too loud. They were too loud. “How do you think Bao Si is doing?”

Xie Jin’s eyes never took his eyes off the jungle. He whispered back. “Probably having the time of her life. I’m sure she’s out there conquering Zumulu or something while we get the boring stuff.”

Chen Haoran’s grip on his sword’s hilt was white knuckle. “Just our luck eh?”

Shutupshutupshutp. It’s loud. Too loud. You’re loud. Something will HEAR YOU—

There was a scratch of something against wood. Soft, almost unnoticeable, yet it rang like thunder.

Chen Haoran ripped out his sword from its scabbard with a sharp hiss of steel. Xie Jin clapped his hands together and his Gu darted out of purified bubble, wrapped in purple miasma. Phelps’s claws dug into Chen Haoran’s shoulders as he hissed. They whirled toward the direction of the noise as their senses disappeared into the fog and found nothing. They waited. Motionless, like statues poised for violence. Their senses roamed, sweeping the area around them for a hint. An excuse. A justification for their paranoia. They waited and watched. Watched while waiting. For their nerves and their vigil, they were rewarded with….

Nothing.

There was nothing.

Chen Haoran licked his lips. Unbidden he looked at Xie Jin and their eyes met.

Something heard them.

It exploded out of the fog far too quietly for the intensity of its motion. It was fast and large. It’s sudden ambush a blur to Chen Haoran’s sense. When it crossed the barrier of the Stainless Purity Lotus it paused, its armored form seizing up for a moment as a creature that had only known filth took its first breath of fresh air. It was a beetle. Larger than a tank with mandibles capable of shredding one like paper. Its armor was grey and sleek. It’s eyes yellow and faceted like a dragonfly’s. It was an Eighth-Layer Liquid Meridian and it had critically hesitated in the middle of combat.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

One step took him beyond the beast, depositing Chen Haoran in the perfect place to immediately bury his sword deep into the creature’s bulbous eye and twist. Pus leaked from it like blood and dissolved under the Lotus’s power. Pain and threat of death return the beetle to its faculties. It did not scream nor did it cry out or threateningly roar. It had a sword in its eye and it was quiet. Why was it quiet? The beetle’s counter was swift, a leg that looked more like a blade lashed out at his waist. Phelps screamed from above and loosed a flood of liquid qi, leaching enough force from the leg blade that when the Yellow Dragon’s own protective flood of qi was breached Chen Haoran could afford to raise his leg and stop the edge. He could feel the sting the leg blade broke his skin but he paid it no mind. Instead he wrenched the sword further into its eye. The Yellow Dragon loosed a roar and surged out through his arm, into the sword, and down the blade to enter the beetle.

The insect thrashed as the Yellow Dragon roared and buffeted it from within. Yellow qi expanded and the beetle’s other eye popped. It slumped over, lifeless. Chen Haoran collected his qi and swirled his sword around the beetle’s eyesocket. He pulled the blade out and stabbed it in the head again several times for good measure. When he was done the beetle’s head was a smoking mess, its toxic fluids vaporizing under the Lotus’s aura.

He was just about to step back when he heard Xie Jin’s panicked shout. “The body!”

The dead beetle monster surged to life once again, catching Chen Haoran within its mandibles. Chen Haoran forcibly caught the mandibles, their serrated edges made a bloody mess of his hands and the power behind them made his bones creak but he stopped it. He flooded qi to his leg and stomped the beetle’s head in as he did however the bug’s back exploded in a shower of gore and viscera and a worm lunged out from the mess, its head splitting open to reveal a gullet of rotating teeth.

Xie Jin’s Gu fell atop it from above, his back opening up and revealing a barbed stinger that it buried into the worm’s body, interrupting its momentum. It bought Chen Haoran the time he needed to free himself from the mandibles and flood qi to his hand. His palm glowed green.

Blossom Picking Palm

A furious rain of heavy strikes pulped the worm’s head. Not content with that however Chen Haoran proceeded to grab the rest of the worm and rip it from the beetle’s corpse before dicing it to pieces with his sword. As if a testament to his good thinking the pieces of the worm writhed and wriggled, their immense vitality allowing it a last, futile attempt at survival. Chen Haoran and Xie Jin carefully squashed each one, making sure not to miss even a single one, before stepping back and warily watching the smoking remains.

“Puppeteer Beetle,” Xie Jin said as if that sufficed as an explanation.

“What the fuck,” Chen Haoran said. He could not think of anything better to say. Phelps fell from the air and landed on his shoulders.

It was loud. The smoke was loud. The fight was loud. They were loud.

The Beetle was quiet. The worm was quiet. The jungle was quiet.

Chen Haoran’s blood chilled to ice.

There was a scratch of something against wood.

Book 1 Publishing

Hello and greetings. A lot has happened in the long hiatus. Some of it okay. A lot bad. But this at least was very good. Book 1 of Immortality Starts With Generosity was picked up by a publisher and will be released on Amazon on March 12th. It will be my first book ever published. A lot of mistakes were made along the way but I've learned a lot as well and I'm happy that its grown to the point it has. I never imagined I would get here when I posted my first shoddy chapters a year and some change ago. I look forward to holding the physical copy in my hands soon. 

Thank you all.

In the process of editing some changes were made to Book 1 as well. Here is the change log. 

Change Log

Added additional backstory about Chen Haoran’s life pre-transmigration.

Changed Chen Haoran’s Low-Grade Spirit Root to Mid-Grade

Removed scene of Chen Haoran being struck by lightning in the Spa Caverns and removed all mentions of Lightning enhanced qi.

Adjusted the scene where Chen Haoran and Song Yuelin part ways with Lan Fen to change its nature and to better convey the original intentions.

Adjusted the scene of Chen Haoran escaping Song Yuelin to better convey his reasons for doing so.

Added an additional chapter with Lan Fen, Chen Haoran, and the White Tyrant prior to the final confrontation with Patriarch Lan and Lan Yao.

Various chapters have been combined into single chapters due to their originally short length.

Chapter 161 (Start of Book 3)

Out of the poisonous frying pan. Into the polluted fire. Chen Haoran was hurt enough to die three times over and tired enough to sleep through the world ending. His exhaustion seeped into his bones and hung like weights across all his aches and pains. It was because of this that he let himself go when they charged into the Tenth Green Hell. Surely he could be forgiven for taking a moment to collect himself?

As always, it was his careless mistakes that damned him.

He had been warned the Green Hell was a terrible, toxic environment. It wasn’t until the Yellow Dragon was poisoned that he realized he’d underestimated it. Yellow qi sizzled and died where it met green fog. The entire outer layer of the Yellow Dragon was stained a sickly green and the poison sprawled out like branches in its body. The Yellow Dragon roared in frustration. Chen Haoran could feel his qi mutate and twist as the poison infected it, turning into a weapon against him. Becoming so putrid that sensing it was nauseating to the mind. If the Yellow Dragon was not covering them there was no telling what their fate would have been. He could wager a guess however as the thorny branches of poisoned qi reached their gnarled hands toward them.

30-thousand-year-old Stainless Purity Lotus.

A lotus flower bloomed in Chen Haoran’s hand. Pure white light radiated from petals of the same color. As harsh as the White Tyrant’s but in a different way. A saint’s severe halo compared to the Tyrant’s naked blade. It passed through the Yellow Dragon unimpeded and banished death. His poisoned qi was stripped, the miasma pressing them driven back, the dead soil beneath their feet purified. The light kept expanding some 50 feet in all directions before stopping and impossibly a place of peace was created in the middle of Hell.

A heady scent filled Chen Haoran’s senses. Too fresh air mixed with what he could only describe as church incense. The sudden reversal left him even more nauseated than before and he was not the only one. Phelps gagged and Xie Jin’s paled even more as he held in his wracking coughs. Chen Haoran fell to his knees and dropped them. Weakness finally overcoming his limbs. The Yellow Dragon curled protectively around them, staring off into the jungle.

Chen Haoran was thankful for the protection because he truly needed a moment. His bones ached. His chest felt like an elephant was sitting atop it and pain throbbed in his heart and stomach. His meridians had been pushed to their limit and then some. His left hand in particular twitched without pause. It shouldn’t be this way. His regenerative powers and the medicines he took fixed the reality of his wounds but could do nothing for the memory of them. The constant fighting. The near deaths. The consecutive draining of his reserves without break. The body remembered and the mind was all the more burdened for it. As above, so below indeed. Chen Haoran was tired. He wanted nothing more than to wrap himself in a blanket and forget the world in his sleep. He wanted a plush mattress and cold pillows. A drink in easy reach. He wanted time to collect himself after the beating life handed him.

Chen Haoran wanted this. Needed it. But he was not alone.

Priorities

He carefully placed a hand on Xie Jin’s shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better,” Xie Jin weakly said. He was sickly pale and his qi a candle in the wind. Like it could be snuffed any second. Xie Jin had his own brush with death after all. Chen Haoran’s gaze fell to the bump on his hand where his finger used to be.

And unlike him, Xie Jin didn’t have a ridiculous body to power through it.

Chen Haoran let the thought merge into the background of his head. He brushed a hand down Phelps’s back. The sloth crooned and nuzzled his leg with his snout. Out of all of them, he was fine if a little tired and Chen Haoran was thankful for that.

“I’m sorry,” Xie Jin suddenly said.

Chen Haoran was startled. “For what?”

“The Trial. Fighting the Empire. And now this. It’s all my fault.” Xie Jin dragged lines into the dirt as he clenched his hands. “If I wasn’t so greedy. None of this would have happened.”

Chen Haoran sighed. “Then I can say the same. Don’t take it all on yourself. I chose to follow you. What happened in the Trial is just bad luck.” He handed over the Metal Lily, that lifesaving treasure. “And if it weren’t for you grabbing this from Lu Aotian we would have never escaped.”

“You did all the work. All the fighting. I would have died. We all would have without you. ” Xie Jin pushed the Metal Lily back. “Keep it. You’re the only one who can use it.”

“Not anymore. I used up all my spirit stones getting us away from the Crystal Transformation. I can’t power this thing anymore.” Indeed. Were it not for the Spirit Stones he’d probably be in an even worse state than Lu Aotian had been after using the Metal Lily. The Crystal Transformation treasure required too much qi to use. A price that he wouldn’t be able to pay for a long while.

Xie Jin shook his head. “Even so. Please.”

Chen Haoran conceded and took the treasure. Now was not the time to debate. He reached into his bag and handed over medicines and qi-recovering supplements to Phelps and Xie Jin. These they accepted without complaint and they all silently consumed then and restored their energies.

Around them, the dark jungle of the Green Hell loomed. It had been daytime when they made their escape from the Trial Pyramid but as soon as they had crossed the border it was as if all the light was swallowed up. Even the sky here was green, and the Sun could not be seen even through the few openings in the tree cover. In a way, it was like the environment within the Trial Realms, or more likely the Trial Realm was modeled after the Green Hell. Had it been developed for that purpose? To prepare people to enter the Green Hell itself? If so then it was a poor job because having been in one left Chen Haoran in no way prepared for the other.

The various jungles of Zumulu were defined in part by the trees that grew there. The trees around the borders of Zumulu were dense, choking things that seemed to only exist to make travel difficult. The trees within the Deep Jungle were towering pillars that covered the sky but created a bright home for the lands beneath them. The obscuring shadows of the Basin’s black trees blocked prying eyes from the hidden beauty within. So what did it say about the Green Hell that the trees looked like they would tear Chen Haoran’s flesh and feast on his marrow?

Giant, fiend-like trees loomed over them like devils, shadowed within the green fog. Their branches were akin to grasping talons, plumed with grey leaves. Thick mottled grey-green trunks bled black sap from recesses that from afar gave the appearance of a giant crying blood. There was no order to their growing. The devil trees grew around each other, above each other, in each other, through each other. One tree grew in the middle of the dying remains of another, having seemingly bursted out its trunk. Another bent and grew sideways, spearing straight through another tree and out the other side. Great roots emerged from dead earth and trampled over fallen trees, claiming victory over fallen enemies. More roots strangled trees from above, coming from a horizontal tree that had been lifted into the air by another rising under it. Black sap ran in rivulets where clawed branches carved into it but the bloody giant seemed intent on not going gently.

Wild. That was the only way Chen Haoran could describe it. Wild and vicious. This was the environment of the Tenth Green Hell. That wasn’t what made him uncomfortable, however. It was the quiet. Despite the violent scene in front of him the jungle was quieter than a grave. There was no roar of beasts, no chirping birds, or singing insects. No buzz, wail, screams, or cries. Not even the sound of wind whistling. Here in the Green Hell, all life in Zumulu went silent.

Chen Haoran nervously scanned the underbrush. Quiet was good for people, not for the world. He stretched out his sense and found nothing. He could individually count all the leaves of all the trees around him but he could not find a single bug or worm. No nests or lizards or anything that might call this place home. Unnerved he reached out for the Yellow Dragon, connecting their vision. What he found did not help him. All he could see was sickly green. No ebbs or flows of energy. Just a single motionless wall. He couldn’t even make out the shape of the trees he knew to be in front of him. The Yellow Dragon was blind here.

“For all my wanderlust I never thought there’d be a day where I would ever step into the Tenth Green Hell,” Xie Jin said. He looked sad, defeated even as he observed the jungle. Though when his gaze fell on the Stainless Purity Lotus there was a touch of wonder in his eyes. “I was expecting to die immediately with you, brother, and once again against all odds you have a way to save us. The Lotus we gave you must have seemed like a joke.”

“It wasn’t,” Chen Haoran forcefully said. “It was not a joke. Nothing I received from you and your family was.”

Xie Jin was taken aback but soon smiled. It wasn’t a happy one. “Thank you, Brother Chen. For everything. Of all my regrets, meeting you is not one.”

Chen Haoran punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t talk like that. You make it sound like this is the end.”

“This is the Tenth Green Hell, brother.”

“And here we are. Alive in it. And we’re going to get out alive too. We didn’t survive all that bullshit just to die here.” Chen Haoran breathed deeply and forced himself up. “Now come on. I want to get further away in case the Garrison’s Crystal Transformation decides to risk following us. Then we can figure out to get away from here.”

Xie Jin shook his head. “You don’t understand. We can’t get out of here. No one would risk following us and getting trapped in here.”

Dread gripped Chen Haoran’s heart. “What do you mean?”

Xie Jin smiled that damned sad smile of his. “It wouldn’t be called hell if it were easy to leave.”

“We’re only at the edge,” Chen Haoran said. “We can wait here for the Garrison to leave and walk back out.”

“Brother Chen, can you see the way we came?”

Chen Haoran whirled around. Behind them was the valley that led to the Trial Pyramid. He had only gone straight when he dashed into the Green Hell and they hadn’t even gone that far in.

So why couldn’t he see anything? Why did his sense not cover the distance?

“Xie Jin what the hell is going on?” Chen Haoran’s voice was tight. His hand twitched for his sword.

“The Tenth Green Hell is like a special Secret Realm or a natural Bewildering Formation. The specifics and the principle aren’t clear and don’t matter. The fact is that this hell doesn’t spit out its visitors easily. We could retrace our steps exactly and only go deeper into the jungle.”

“But people have escaped here before. You told me all about them. How did they do it?”

“For the few famous escapes, there are countless more who were buried here forever.” Xie Jin shrugged. “And of those who escaped they are one and all some of the strongest cultivators in Zumulu’s history. All we know is what they deigned to share and what they shared wasn’t everything. The powerful are tight-lipped like that.”

Chen Haoran pressed a hand to his forehead. The burst of energy he used to stand up faded and his knees sank to the ground. No escape? Was that it? “There must be something?”

“The only thing all the stories have in common is that they were lost before they finally found a way out. Some took months. Others took years. The Sunset Emperor came and left in a week.” Xie Jin did not look at him. “I’ve never heard of Liquid Meridians making it out.”

Phelps softly chirped, raising his arms and wrapping them around Chen Haoran’s waist but he couldn’t bring himself to pick the sloth up. He did move one of Phelps’s arms higher, however, to keep access to his storage bag clear. It was a move made out of instinct rather than any real serious need.

He paused, staring at his storage bag. A natural bewildering formation he said? Then he yanked it open and pulled out the golden compass Patriarch Qi had traded his life for. “Xie Jin what about this? It’s a Formation Compass. You said the Green Hell is like a Formation right? Can we use this?”

Xie Jin looked at him in surprise. “Brother Chen you know how to use Formations?”

“Well no, this was a payment,” Chen Haoran awkwardly replied. “Do I need to?”

Xie Jin helplessly laughed. “To use a specialist’s tools yes. I’m no Formation Expert either.”

Unconvinced, Chen Haoran fed qi into the compass, ignoring the tinge of discomfort in his strained meridians. The face of the compass separated and unfurled like flower petals, revealing a single needle inside with various symbols and celestial phenomena etched into the body of the compass. He tried using his qi to divine its operation but he managed to do was make the needle spin endlessly.

He dropped it. “Fuck.”

Chen Haoran’s mind furiously raced and he went over everything he knew about the Green Hell. It wasn’t much admittedly. It was one of those places everyone talked about but didn’t go into detail about. What did he know? It was dangerous. Hell Bugs came from here. Gu returned here after their shaman’s deaths. The three deadliest poisons in Zumulu’s history were brought out from here….

“Xie Jin,” Chen Haoran slowly said. “When you told me about the Three Killers you said samples had been brought back. But who did it? One guy for all three? Multiple?”

Xie Jin’s face scrunched up in thought. “There was one guy notorious for bringing out Prince Killer and using it to start a civil war. I think he was the first to use it? Prince Killer was the most commonly used of the three. It was a team that brought out Nature’s Exile and Trial of the Heart and they became famous for using them on each other. I can’t remember any others who were said to have brought them out but there were a couple more incidents across the centuries until all three were used on the Sunset Emperor during the war.”

Chen Haoran drummed his fingers across Phelps’s head. An idea blooming in his mind. “So what you’re saying is multiple people brought out the same three poisons? People who didn’t enter the Green Hell at the same place?”

“I suppose that could be the case?” Xie Jin frowned. “What are you getting at?”

“How is it possible that in this big ass jungle that no one talks about, people other than the original discoverers could find and bring out more samples of the Three Killers? They can’t be that common, even for this place. And the odds of them being randomly stumbled across are even lower….” He locked eyes with Xie Jin. “Unless there was a place they all went to and got them from.”

Xie Jin paused and Chen Haoran could see the gears turning behind his eyes. “They could have shared the source. Or sold it. The strong walk in completely different circles than us, the things they trade we could break our heads for but never acquire.”

“They’re cultivators,” Chen Haoran pointed out.  “In what world do they share the source of their deadly incurable poison?”

“It’s the Tenth Green Hell, only the brave or the foolish would come here.”

“But people have come here. And people have left. If it were me with such a dangerous weapon I wouldn’t admit it at all on the off chance someone could do what I did.”

“It could have been reserves from the original stock,” Xie Jin countered. “Not everyone who’s used the Three Killers has been to the Green Hell. The source might not have been shared but the poisons themselves certainly were.”

“By the original users? Those same guys who used them to cause a lot of violence and presumably died violent deaths. Those guys left reserves for other people to use?”

“Brother Chen you’re making a lot of assumptions here based on nothing but stories.”

He was. He so very much was. But what else did they have, did he have, but this?

“So what?” Chen Haoran bit out. “If I’m wrong I’m wrong and we die. If I’m right? We might have a way to leave. There’s got to be some trick to it or a way to figure it out in here.” He stood up again, with feeling this time, and swung Phelps onto his back. “I don’t intend to be fertilizer for these ugly ass trees or turned into bug crap. Not after all the bullshit we went through to survive.” He held out his hand to Xie Jin. “Are you with me?”

Xie Jin’s expression firmed and he grabbed Chen Haoran’s hand without hesitation. “Always brother.”

“Let’s blow this joint then.”

Epilogue: The Valkyrie/The Swordsman (End of Book 2)

In the middle of a frozen river there is an island. Atop that island is a ruined dome. Within that ruin is a basin lined with the runes of a dead culture. Before it was the sight of a great vengeance fulfilled. Filled with the last essence of a betrayer. Now it is dry. The little white flower had slipped its pot and strangled the garden, supping on their life to bloom anew.

Thunder brewed overhead as dark clouds glowed with hidden lightning that chased away the darkness of the endless caverns. Rain fell in heavy sheets through the hole in the roof of the ruined dome. Not a single drop touched the ground however. The rain hissed and impacted upon crackling metal white qi. The qi arced and scythed, blooming new metal white qi everywhere it impacted. It coated the floor of the basin and crawled up its sides, coiling at the feet of the dead warlord watching a flower become lightning.

The white qi within the basin pulsed. The crawling thunderbolts turned upon themselves, clashing and striking each other to the sound of horrible screeching. The dome glowed white with their harsh light and rang with its screeching thunder, briefly overcoming nature’s roar outside. The storm above seemed to notice this defiance. Felt the flowers beacon of challenge. Reprisal came swiftly. A single large bolt of blue lightning expertly threaded itself through the broken dome and speared the source of the white qi. Booming thunder, that proud herald of Heaven’s punishment, arrived as always too late to warn of the impending doom but just in time to serve as its final bell.

Except now the thunder came and went, but the lightning did not leave. It arced and shifted but its point remained buried within the mass of white qi and its body pillared up into the cloud flew down from. The white qi suddenly receded into the center and the blue bolt became white as lightning struck in reverse from Earth to Heaven, following the same path it had paved. The world turned white and thunder roared as a whole was torn open in the storm above banishing cloud and lightning and rain.

Lan Fen stood and ascended to the Liquid Meridian Realm.

White qi surged in from her surroundings. Covering her in small static as she absorbed it. Lightning raced within her meridians, in such numbers they became a flood. They arced through every cell and flashed deep into her bones. A constant river cycled throughout her body, all centered around the endless storm within her core that hammered out new metal qi with every strike from the raw energy she drew in from the air.

She marveled in silent awe at the power available to her now. Power beyond the wildest dreams of the little girl who wanted to make her father proud all those years ago. With this power she could have slain her grandfather on her lonesome. With this power there would have been no need to resort to trickery and plans. She wondered if she should have waited. Should have bided her time and focused on her cultivation before exacting her revenge on her family. She quashed that thought soon after. The longer she waited the more it would weigh on her. The more chances it gave to those she hated most to flee beyond her reach. Perhaps in another life she would have gone to ground. Silently cultivated and fought for scraps like a dog until she was strong enough. She hadn’t needed to though. She hadn’t had to fight alone.

I wonder if he advanced to the Liquid Meridian Realm yet.

An annoying cough done solely for attention broke her thoughts.

“Well. That was acceptable I suppose,” the White Tyrant said. “A bit weak but I can’t set my expectations too high.”

The rain fell again.

“I am glad you are satisfied, White Tyrant,” Lan Fen primly said.

The White Tyrant scoffed. “Do you think this much is enough?”

A single thought took the storm boiling within Lan Fen’s core and expressed it outward. A white shade that looked like the White Tyrant overlayed her and the surrounding qi flashed into clouds of gaseous white. The clouds rose and spun, growing as they collided and expelled white lightning. Where the lightning struck new white qi festered and the storm grew with each flash, soon engulfing the dome entirely. Every so often an errant lance of lightning would hit Lan Fen, seamlessly merging into her body and joining the rest of her reserves.

She looked at the White Tyrant and raised an eyebrow.

“Now turn it off,” he grunted, unimpressed.

Lan Fen obliged and the qi storm condensed into a single stake of lightning before sinking into her core. The phantom covering her like armor faded.

“Do you see the issue now?” the White Tyrant asked.

“Yes, my Harmonization is that of an old man. Truly a travesty.”

“That is exactly the problem,” the White Tyrant snapped. “Harmonizing with your Cultivation Method isn’t the same as with a Technique. It’s not possible to just stop Harmonizing once you’ve done it. The fact that you can proves your mistake. You haven’t Harmonized with the Method at all. Just with me who uses it.”

Lan Fen looked at the White Tyrant in shock. “Are you… talking down about yourself? You?”

The White Tyrant sneered. “This miserable planet has only ever produced two things worthy of praise in its history. The First Spark of Primordial World, and myself. When I flung myself into the wider Universe I wondered about my place in it. If I would have to give up everything and start anew. I didn’t. Because the countless sages who peered into the history impressed into our species blood created a truly peerless Method worthy of any Celestial Kindgom. Now you’ve screwed up your chance. Congratulations ant. You’ve stepped into my shoes. Now you’ll really be eating my dust for the rest of your life.”

“I can simply Harmonize with both,” Lan Fen casually said.

“Harmonize with both she says,” the White Tyrant repeated, laughing with mockery. “What a joke—” He paused suddenly, frowning.

Lan Fen’s frivolity flew away as she focused. “Is there something wrong? Is something coming?”

“No. It’s something to do with me. A resonance. Somewhere far.” the White Tyrant said, peering into space through senses she still was not able to recall correctly from his possession. He pinched the air with his fingers. A motion she knew to be some sort of trick of higher cultivators to better use their sense to divine things. It was the first time she’d seen it happen outside books however. “South. Doesn’t feel like any legacy or treasure I left. I never left any clone either. And what is this feeling of irritation I have?”

Far South… perhaps?

“It could be Chen Haoran,” Lan Fen said.

“Ah.” The White Tyrant clicked his tongue. “That explains why I’m annoyed. Where the hell did you send that idiot anyway?”

“It seems Chen Haoran followed his Shaman friend to the Southern Region.” That was good. The jungles of the south were a good place to disappear in and hide from searching eyes. He had seemed to hit it off well with the Shaman so he shouldn’t run into too much trouble down there.

“Ah, the bug thing,” The White Tyrant recalled.

“Did you truly not have them in your time?” Lan Fen asked.

“No, we had actual monsters to deal with unlike your generation.”

Lan Fen rolled her eyes. It was a bit interesting that Gu hadn’t existed in the White Tyrant’s era but in the end it was nothing more than a scholarly curiosity on her part. Then again it seemed he hadn’t interacted or heard of them at all after he returned to the planet either.

The White Tyrant snapped his fingers loudly in her face and interrupted her tangent. “You’ve yet to explain what you plan to do now,” he said, ignoring her annoyed glare. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to go follow that moron.”

Lan Fen shook her head. “Chen Haoran has his own path to follow as I do mine.” If those paths were to cross in the future she would welcome it but now was the time to truly spread her wings. “First we will go see just what lies in the frigid center of this Secret Realm.”

She had made a promise to her grandfather, after all.

“Ah yes. Walking.” The White Tyrant sighed. “At the very least grab one of those damn flying creatures like that Moron did.”

Flying huh? The memory of her possession came to mind. That moment when she pulled free her sword and allowed the White Tyrant control over her body. She had been aware of his actions the whole time. Had seen firsthand his killing blow and the ways in which he used her qi. Even now she could see her grandfather fleeing into the air atop a growing branch. She remembered the White Tyrant stepping into the sky after him. The restraints of the world simply sliding off his qi. She was not anywhere near his level yet, but that was fine.

As Above, So Below.

The White Tyrant’s phantom draped over her form and Lan Fen ascended into the air in a single step. She rose above the island, and the vastness of the Bathhouse Secret Realm stretched out before her. The White Tyrant flew up after her with a complex expression. His face debating between praise or indifference.

“Look, White Tyrant,” Lan Fen singsonged. “A flying ant.”

Annoyance won out.

“Still an ant.”

————————

Jiang Lei was a Peach River Swordsman. What that meant differed in many ways depending on the person. This was true both outside the order and, unfortunately, inside it as well.

For the so very few survivors of the Empire’s post-war hunts, a Peach River Swordsman was the Past. When the Peachwine still flowed free, and the lineage of the Peach River Sword Sect still passed from master to apprentice instead of orphan classes. Before Zumulu fell and the Queen Mother was slain. Before, those who lived like gods in the war died like dogs in the peace. Their war had not ended 400 years ago, even if they thought in their hearts their sect did. The new generations they were forced to raise against their traditions and history were not true successors. Could not measure up to their fallen friends and masters.

For Wang Xiao and his parents Wang generation, a Peach River Swordsman was Pride. The training of their generation was the Queen Mother’s first major order after gathering the shattered pieces of her sect and throwing all of her newly won resources into it. Theirs was the class that broke the rules of succession. No longer did Swordsmen carefully select apprentices and present them to the Sect for approval. Now, they were taken en masse and trained by multiple instructors before those who passed were knighted all at once. The Wang generation was the largest and the oldest. Winning the most resources and taking the most roles in the Queen Mother’s revolution. They and the children they sired would be the new inheritors of the Sect, taking that history and making it anew.

For the Jiang generation, a Peach River Swordsman was Service. Theirs was the generation raised on the eve of the war to overturn the Empire’s iron grip on their land. A generation of orphans brought and trained to step out of the shadows and become open warriors on the battlefront. Their cause was Noble. Their Duty, sacrosanct. The price they would pay, a worthy sacrifice.

For Jiang Lei…. he didn’t know what a Peach River Swordsman was to him. He thought he did, a long time ago. When his child’s mind went from blankness to real thought and he realized a history of honor and glory surrounded him. Now, his books and biographies, his stories and his histories, only confused where before they consoled. Created questions when he was seeking answers. He knew what others thought of when they saw Peach Swordsman Jiang Lei, however.

“Swordsmaster,” they whispered.

To the People, Swordsman. To the Swordsmen, Swordmaster. It was why he was here now instead of back in the field. He was entrusted to pass along the Queen Mother’s word to the Black Bone Tribe. Now, he was in the center of their revolution’s dangerous web, receiving reports he shouldn’t be hearing from people who shouldn’t be speaking to him. It wasn’t necessary to do this. Each and every person reporting to him could have been received by the Queen Mother herself. Yet it was his mouth she wanted to hear these words from, so it was his ears these secrets went into.

It was not good.

Jiang Lei silently padded down the halls of the Queen Mother’s residence within Reservoir Town and came to the door of the same room he once escorted the Black Bone Tribes Princess, shaman, and…. Chen Haoran.

He knocked on the door politely and waited.

“Enter.”

Jiang Lei opened the door and quietly closed it behind him. Then he fell to one knee and clasped his hands respectfully toward the Queen Mother, not daring to look at her. What is a Peach River Swordsman to her? Jiang Lei quashed the blasphemous thought. What did it matter? As the one who created it first and then brought it back from the dead, as the original Peach River Swordsman, it was whatever she wished it to be. Even if he was tired of living and voiced his preposterous question, he doubted he’d receive an answer.

Queen Mother of the Western Mountains, the First Peach River Swordsman, the Alchemist, the Old Lady of the Peach River. Mystery and Xi Wangmu went hand in hand. From her connection to the forbidden Western Mountains to how she created her legendary longevity pills. Greater cultivators than him had spent millennia trying to probe her secrets ever since the Queen Mother first appeared in the perfumed courts of the Orchard Cities.

The Queen Mother was sitting at the same table where she threatened the Princess of the Black Bones into submission. Where she was threatened in turn. Her back was to him, and at the other end of the room, the wall had turned transparent and offered a direct view outside to the Office of the Pacification Committee and the Palace of the King of Southern Tranquility.

“Report,” she ordered.

Imaginary papers shuffled in his mind’s eye as he decided what to lead with. “Word has been sent back from the ruins. The Garrison Officers have escaped from the Secret Realm. We’ve yet to get an accurate estimate, but they’ve been hit hard. Currently, the Pacification Commissioner and King Meng Huo are meeting within the Government Office. The Garrison has been raised to Warning Red and has reinforced the gates, though no order to close them has come down as of yet.”

The Queen Mother hummed. “And the Garrison Commander?”

“He left for the Coast not long after the Secret Realm was opened to respond to unexpected raids by the Chen pirates. He should have received word, however, and be rushing back now.

“Since they decided to force my hand, this is the least they could do, I suppose,” The Queen Mother darkly said. “This will burn countless resources.”

“Yes,” Jiang Lei said because what else could he say? “The Garrison and Pacification Committee have heightened their security. Though no restrictions have been placed as of yet on the Peachblood Auxiliaries.”

“They’re overconfident in their control.” The Queen Mother drummed her fingers along her armrest. “And what of our dear friends who gave us this unexpected surprise?”

Jiang Lei somberly shuffled his mental papers. The numbers were not good. “Total casualties—”

The Queen Mother threw up her hand and stopped him. “Irrelevant. Even those fools wouldn’t have wasted anything of real value inside the Secret Realm on top of everything else. I would kill them if they did.”

Jiang Lei said nothing and discarded three whole pages. He would properly memorize them later on his own time, if nothing else. “The treasure of the Secret Realm was secured and….” Jiang Lei paused because it really was the most unexpected thing to come of this mess. “Princess Bao is among them.”

The Queen Mother paused and finally turned to look at Jiang Lei. “This is confirmed?”

“Yes, Master. I spoke with Qiong Qi myself. He was the leader of the operation within the Secret Realm.” He had done a terrible job of it as well, but Jiang Lei withheld that particular opinion.

The Queen Mother pinched the air, and her gaze was distant. “She was going to become tied to rebellion either way, but it’s a bit frustrating to expose the Black Bones like this.” Her expression became ugly. “What about Chen Haoran?”

Ah yes…. Chen Haoran. The man he tricked. Or tried to trick at least. Used perhaps? But given what was later revealed, who was using who? Was it better that way? That Chen Haoran wasn’t just a random cultivator he chose to exploit and was instead a secret nobleman?

“He…. was present and engaged the Garrison. He and the other Shaman weren’t able to evacuate with the others and presumably teleported back with the Garrison. We have yet to confirm his status.”

The Queen Mother pinched the bridge of her nose. “He’s not dead at least. That man wouldn’t have wasted any time extorting me if he was. Figure out where the Garrison is keeping him. I’ll have to rescue him and save myself a future headache.”

“As you Command, Master.”

His thoughts must have leaked into his tone because the Queen Mother shot him a penetrating look. “Are you curious about him? Or rather, our relation?”

Jiang Lei bowed even lower. “I would not dare, Master.”

He truly wouldn’t. Even so, his treacherous thoughts rose their ugly head. Who was Chen Haoran? Who was his father? Who was this unknown daughter of the Queen Mother? Even with all these reports he managed for the Queen Mother, the name of Chen Qitao had never appeared, and those of the upper echelons barely spoke more than a whisper acknowledging him.

“Speak Jiang Lei. Others I will have hold their tongues, but your voice I wish to hear. Is it my daughter you wish to know about? Or the father she and that failure share?”

Jiang Lei did not look up. “This humble swordsman dares not overstep his bounds regarding the matter of the princess, Master.”

“Princess….” the Queen Mother mused. “That child does have my blood running in her veins, so you’re not entirely wrong. Do not be concerned with her, however. As part of our cooperation Chen Qitao asked for a child to use in his experiments and so I gave him one.”

That alone was a staggering admission. Jiang Lei had been in shock for days after hearing the Queen Mother had a child. He’d not breathed a word of it to anyone afterward. The uproar would be enormous. How many pursuers did the Queen Mother have in her lifetime? All of those great rulers and mighty warriors showering favor for a chance to court her. Even the Peach River Sword Sect was abound with tales of Swordsmen growing old and dying lovelorn. Their ghosts would be crying blood if they were to hear this.

Chen Haoran is the half-brother of our living legend’s only daughter.

The sound of bells suddenly sounded across the city, loud enough to shake the walls of the building. Through the transparent wall, he could see Reservoir Town thrown into a frenzy as the alarm bells rang.

“It seems that boy Meng Huo finished his meeting with the Pacification Commissioner,” the Queen Mother said.

She stood up from her chair and walked over to the wall, laying a hand on it. For several moments she said nothing and Jiang Lei held his breath.

“Tell me, Jiang Lei,” she finally said.  “Were you to be caught between a foreign dragon and a local snake, who would you feel more threatened by?”

The sudden question threw him for a loop. He was familiar with the terms, but the Queen Mother’s use of them was strange. They were part of an old saying: ‘A foreign dragon cannot suppress a local snake.’ It meant to describe the advantages one had within their own field of influence compared to someone outside it trying to fight them. It was a popular phrase amongst the defenders of Zumulu during the Sunset Invasion.

Jiang Lei tried to parse out the Queen Mother’s meaning. She was referring to herself. That much was clear. Who the foreign dragon and the local snake were was another matter, however. He struggled to wrap his head around it. She was Xi Wangmu. It was hard to imagine her feeling surrounded by anyone.

Still, the Queen Mother asked for an answer.

“The foreign dragon,” Jiang Lei softly replied.

The Empire had proven that much.

The Queen Mother chuckled. “You’re not wrong. Perhaps I’m getting caught up in my own age.”

“Master, you will live for Ten Thousand years!” Jiang Lei hurriedly said.

“Perhaps I will. But when I see these burning stars fly past me, I wonder. What of it?” She tapped her fingers against the wall. “Chen Qitao and the Sunset Emperor are men cut from the same cloth. If only they were born in the same era so that they might have killed each other and spared the world from their ambitions.”

A chill ran down Jiang Lei’s spine as the qi in the room began to rise.

“Oh, Zumulu. Could I but draw my sword o’ertopping heaven, I’d cleave you in three: one piece for the Empire, one for the Republic, one to keep in the South. Peace would then reign over the world, the same warmth and cold throughout the globe.”

Both of his knees touched the floor, and Jiang Lei was forced to prostrate himself as the pressure grew. Sweat beaded across his brow and soaked his back as he raised his qi to resist. Despite his efforts, all he could do was raise his head.

The Queen Mother was glowing so bright it was blinding. Fractals of five colors shimmered around her as the qi in the air broke into its component elements from the pressure she emitted.

This was too much. They would be exposed. The concealment formations within the mansion would not be able to hide this. The Garrison would soon notice and immediately surround them.

“Master!” Jiang Lei shouted.

“Since the stage has been so graciously set, I may as well step into the role they’ve made for me. Bear witness, Jiang Lei.”

The roof of the mansion was suddenly gone, evaporated in a single expression of pure power. The Queen Mother soared into the air, the peach light around her growing, intensifying, igniting.

“Master!” Jiang Lei hysterically shouted because what else could he do?

A new sun appeared above the sky of Reservoir Town as the Queen Mother ascended to the Star Core Realm.

The city was scoured by pink light, then by intense winds of pure qi. The intensity of the Queen Mother’s advancement ran unchecked and unrestrained. Jiang Lei was crushed through several floors of the mansion and ended up on his back on the ground floor, staring above. Reservoir Town groaned and screeched under a weight it was simply not meant to bear. Peach petals fell like rain, carrying with them a scent sweet enough to stupefy the soul.

Two more suns appeared in the sky. In one was a man dressed in scholarly robes that Jiang Lei had never seen before. In the other was a man he was trained to never forget.

“Foul rebel!” cursed First-To-Kneel Meng Huo, the King of Southern Tranquility. “You harm the city and its people and disturb the Emperor’s peace. A thousand deaths won’t be enough to expunge this crime!”

“And Ten-Thousand will not be enough to expunge yours boy,” the Queen Mother replied.

Both suns shook.

“Impossible,” Meng Huo said. “You can’t be alive. The Imperial Ancestor killed you!”

“Consider me a ghost then. Back from the Green Hell itself to exact revenge on traitorous dogs like you.” A giant peach tree grew from thin air and rooted itself in the Queen Mother’s sun. “Come! Let me see if you kids improved at all in 400 years!”

Amongst rubble and wreckage, Jiang Lei watched the rebellion begin with a war in Heaven.

Chapter 160

Chen Haoran crushed the Spirit stone in his hand, and the Yellow Dragon leaped to devour the energies, quickly converting them into qi. The silver light surrounding him was faint and weightless, but the pressure he felt under it was heavier than his armor.

Across from him, Lu Aotian desperately ripped out pills from his storage bag and stuffed them into his mouth. Xie Jin sent a wave of liquid miasma to engulf him, forcing Lu Aotian to shove the Metal Lily forward to break the wave and fend off the remnants with a weak flood of red qi. The five-colored aura did not return.

Which meant when Phelps’s flood of Liquid Qi hit Lu Aotian he was helplessly carried into the air before he could finally rip out of it by physically swinging the Metal Lily through it like a brick.

Ice and purple miasma exploded in the distance as Bao Si and Qiong Qi fought Pan Gong. Qiong Qi’s remaining Blue Lotus belched out freezing blizzards, hiding hyper-sharp shards of ice. One of Bao Si’s Gu spewed clouds of gaseous miasma while the other launched high-pressured jets of the virulent poison. Pan Gong was a storm in his own right. Clapping the air like thunder with enough force to weaponize it and scatter snow and poisonous clouds. The ice broke against his skin to no reaction, and the cutting jets of liquid miasma were avoided by only the necessary inches. Bao Si and Qiong Qi were fighting a retreating battle back towards Chen Haoran, while Pan Gong did all he could to cut them off. All the while, the silver shroud around them all grew in intensity.

He needed to move.

Chen Haoran gave over the all the effort to replenish his qi to the Yellow Dragon. He pushed himself to his knees, then with another heave to his feet. Qi whirled around him while he put his helmet back on as the Yellow Dragon ravenously began to draw it from the surroundings. His dried-out meridians filled with surging currents. He spared a glance at Lu Aotian, still fending off Xie Jin’s intermittent attacks. He thumbed his sword. No sword shadow rose off it. No metal white light shone. It was not gone but changed. Altered in that final moment when he peered into the White Tyrant and Yellow Dragon’s shared memory. Even now, he could call it again, but it would not be a light burden. The Yellow Dragon and White Tyrant had shared in some of the load before, and he was still almost drained. Another attempt would put him out completely. He wasn’t sure his sword could bear it either. The Earth-Rank weapon felt as hollowed out as he was. He’d only damage it further.

Lu Aotian would live then. Attempting to finish him off now without securing their escape was a pointless risk. Thankfully, it seemed using the Crystal Transformation Realm Treasure took just as much out of Lu Aotian. He wouldn’t be using it again soon.

“Brother Chen!” Xie Jin called.

They shared a look. Chen Haoran flicked his eyes first to Pan Gong, then to Lu Aotian. Xie Jin nodded in response, and he and Phelps redoubled their efforts, harrying Lu Aotian, forcing the man-beast to waste his energies on defending rather than recovering.

Beyond, Qiong Qi’s Lotus shuddered, sprouting thick vines from his Rattan Armor that surged forward and wrapped up Pan Gong’s limbs. He struggled once and did not immediately rip through them as he had before. This was the opening Bao Si’s Gu had been waiting for. One slithered like shadowed lightning to Pan Gong’s side while the other blasted him with miasma. Faced with the very real option of picking his poisons Pan Gong chose neither. His skin turned bright red, and his towering figure grew several times larger, easily snapping through the vines. Steam and heat and red mist bled off of him like clouds as he raised his fist, several times redder than his body, and punched out. Superheated air screeched, evaporating the miasma and engulfing the greedy Gu the flew too close to the sun.

It was the first time Chen Haoran ever heard a Gu scream.

Bao Si’s Gu flung itself away, blistering and bleeding purple blood. Bao Si blanched and backpedaled, calling her Gu back to her side. Pan Gong ignored her and blitzed Qiong Qi, whose lotus was blazing with blue light.

The silver light grew thicker.

Chen Haoran channeled qi through his legs.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

He arrived at exactly the right place to catch Pan Gong’s punch on his shoulder, filling his armor with absorbed force. He directed that force into his sword and drove it up into Pan Gong’s chest, where he’d split him open previously. Pan Gong caught the blade with his giant hand, and Chen Haoran’s momentum stopped dead. He looked up at the hulking monster Pan Gong had become, straight into his red face with its exaggerated proportions. Right into his eyes that were all too intelligent to belong on something this big.

“So you can’t use it like before,” Pan Gong noted with a booming voice.

The silver light grew thicker.

Chen Haoran’s tight grip on his sword quickly became a liability. Pan Gong flicked his wrist and wrenched the sword to the side, dragging Chen Haoran along with it. As soon as his foot left the ground, Pan Gong kicked into it. The force it transferred was negligible but it was enough to destroy Chen Haoran’s balance and leave him hanging by his sword. A fact that Pan Gong was quick to make use of when he lifted the sword and Chen Haoran into the air before he could rebalance and slammed him into the ground.

The damage was nonexistent, but before he could get up, Pan Gong was suddenly in his face and roaring with what seemed like all the qi and breath he could muster in his lungs.

Chen Haoran’s realization hit before his eardrums ruptured. The armor doesn’t protect against sonic attacks. Then, a sharp pain stabbed his ears, and all he could feel was nausea as he threw up bile into his helmet. Pan Gong’s unholy roar gave way to loud ringing. Chen Haoran laid there for what felt like forever. Then, the moment passed, his eardrums healed and he was back on his feet. Pan Gong had rushed past him and ran headfirst into a vine wall Qiong Qi had erected that, even in his giant form, he struggled to snap quickly.

The silver light grew thicker.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

Chen Haoran stepped into another of Pan Gong’s blows yet again, blocking it with his back. He whirled into a back kick straight to Pan Gong’s leg with all the combined force that landed with a viciously satisfying slap. The giant was hobbled for a moment, and Chen Haoran took it to slash at his legs, leaving shallow cuts on them when the sword failed to bite through fully. Another Red Step of Good Fortune carried him away from Pan Gong’s counter as Qiong Qi’s vines swooped in like snakes to restrain him before a massive sphere of icy blue qi swallowed him whole.

Chen Haoran appeared at Qiong Qi’s side in a flash of red qi. “You leaving nearly screwed us.”

“I will make sure to compensate you appropriately,” Qiong Qi said with a respectful nod. A streak of green qi slithered snake-like across the silver light shrouding him. “Please do not resist.”

Vines extended from his armor and wrapped around Chen Haoran and Bao Si’s waists. Another extended further out to do the same for Xie Jin. He had clasped his hands together, and his Gu hovered in front of him, wreathed in purple energy. That same purple energy was surrounding the Metal Lily treasure. Lu Aotian was roaring out curses as he gripped the Lily tight between both hands and covered it with his qi. Phelps wrapped his arms tightly around Xie Jin and protected them both with his special qi.

The silver reached critical mass.

Pan Gong burst out of the frozen explosion. Chen Haoran could see the frustration and resignation on his face. Their eyes locked one last time. He watched Pan Gong’s gaze shift to the vine. The intention was clear as day. Pan Gong disappeared, and Chen Haoran slashed out preemptively. Despite his movement technique, he was still beaten out by Pan Gong in pure speed and reaction time. Moving first was his best shot at keeping up with him. His sword hit nothing but air, however, because Pan Gong did not attack him.

He appeared behind them and severed the vine connecting Xie Jin with a swift knife palm.

The silver light shined.

Chen Haoran felt cold fear spike down his spine.

He cut himself loose and sprinted toward Xie Jin even as the qi churned in his legs and made red light. Bao Si melted through her own restraints, but Qiong Qi rushed over and grabbed her wrist.

“Let go!” she demanded.

Xie Jin turned his head. He was pale, but his face was tight with determination. “Si!”

By reflex, Chen Haoran looked over his shoulder at Bao Si. Wild fear had overcome her mask as she stared at Xie Jin. Whatever silent conversation she and Xie Jin shared he did not know. In the next moment however she stopped resisting Qiong Qi and brought her own hand up flat. Her two Gu flashed purple and two more purple auras simultaneously appeared on the Metal Lily.

“Damn you!” Lu Aotian roared. “I’ll kill you! I swear to Heaven I’ll kill you all!”

The Metal Lily disappeared from his hands.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

Chen Haoran crashed into Xie Jin and threw his arms around him and Phelps.

The silver light blinded them.

“Jin! Haoran!” Bao Si screamed.

They teleported.

Stone floors and clear air greeted Chen Haoran as he fell to the floor of the Trial Pyramids entrance altar, cradling Xie Jin and Phelps. Around them, the Garrison was in disarray, the teleportation not caring about their previous formation. Groans of pain and relief filled the air as the injured and exhausted released their pent-up voices. Other officers were still up and about, checking the situation. Pan Gong was one of them. He zeroed in on Chen Haoran.

They needed to leave.

“Capture them!” Pan Gong ordered.

The Garrison soldiers sprung back to motion, and several quickly surrounded them. Xie Jin’s Gu sat atop his head and belched out a cloud of miasma as Chen Haoran dragged them towards the exit. Red qi flashed at his heels as he used Red Step of Good Fortune. He crashed into a Garrison soldier and narrowly pulled Phelps away from a spear thrust. Using a movement technique while carrying multiple people was far different than just himself. He didn’t have time to struggle with it. They would all die if he did.

Phelps flooded out his floatation qi in just the right place to blunt Pan Gong’s sudden punch, giving Chen Haoran enough time to stab his sword into Pan Gong’s fist and stop the attack. The Yellow Dragon surged out of Chen Haoran with a roar, enlarging itself to cover the three of them, blocking several swords and a fireball. He felt the Yellow Dragon’s mind touch his own.

Red Step of Good Fortune

Red qi spread along the Yellow Dragon’s length, and when Chen Haoran stepped down, they were past the crowd of soldiers and on the pyramid steps outside.

Chen Haoran grimaced. Below them on the steps and spread out across the ruins were the Garrison forces selected to stand guard while the officers ventured into the trial. The Crystal Transformation Realms were nowhere to be seen in the sky, but that didn’t mean they still weren’t here. His mind was a riot of thoughts. Behind them, Garrison. In front of them, Garrison. If he could somehow get past them all and into the jungle— no. Xie Jin was good, but they were outnumbered, and the Garrison surely had their own jungle experts. Where would they even go? Where would they hide? There were Crystal Transformation Realms. One of them was a stronger Shaman than Xie Jin could even imagine. They couldn’t run. They couldn’t fight. He’d die. Xie Jin and Phelps would die. Pan Gong had damned them.

“Brother,” Xie Jin slurred, disoriented and pale. “Sorry.”

In his hands was Lu Aotian’s Metal Lily treasure.

Xie Jin stuffed it into his hand, and as Chen Haoran closed his fingers around it, he felt his resolve close as well. If they could not escape the Garrison in the Deep Jungle, then they just had to go where even they would not dare.

“Hold on, Brother,” Chen Haoran said. He spun on his heel and ran with all his might around the side of the pyramid.

Pan Gong appeared at the doorway of the altar building and, with a heave of his chest, shouted. “Warning Black! Snake In The Grass! To Arms Garrison!”

The valley was filled with a cacophony of noise and yelled orders as Pan Gong’s words echoed across the ruins. Chen Haoran could feel a multitude of senses fall upon him.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

The Yellow Dragon flew forward and narrowly avoided Pan Gong crashing into their previous location. Another red step put them in just the right place to avoid several long range techniques. A burning arrow seared past them. Deluges of liquid qi were surmounted. The air screamed as several officers with movement techniques pushed them to the limits and surrounded them. A red step neatly threaded them through the officers’ spears and axes and conveniently placed a few directly between them and Pan Gong, forcing him to abort his charge.

Chen Haoran flooded all the qi his legs could bear as he half ran and half flew across the ground ensconced within the Yellow Dragon. Phelps was screaming, and Xie Jin had thrown his arm around Chen Haoran’s shoulder and clutched it in a death grip. They were practically floating within his liquid qi as he carried them, whipping to and fro like flags in the wind with every sharp turn they were forced to make.

A large surge of qi that had his meridians screaming saw them fly off the pyramid and deep into the valley below, landing with enough force to crater the earth. A barrage of attacks flew from above at them. Lances of fire, a rockslide conjured from the air, tornadoes, scythes of cutting metal crescents, and the giant devil Pan Gong. Chen Haoran cycled the Red Step of Good Fortune without rest and flashed several times in a row. Each step put them in a safe spot amidst the rain, either by lack of coverage or where techniques collided with one another.

Pan Gong slammed into the ground with all the force of a falling meteor, rumbling the earth and causing it to break beneath Chen Haoran’s feet. The momentary stumble was enough for him to catch up to them in the blink of an eye, and Chen Haoran desperately pulled away with another red step as Pan Gong ripped off the Yellow Dragon’s tail. The Yellow Dragon roared at the indignity, but it would have to live with the offense.

Up ahead, Chen Haoran saw salvation. An almost solid wall of green fog with only the barest hint of tree tops peeking over top of it. It ebbed and flowed like waves at the valley edges. Thin tendrils of it reaching out from its limits as if to grab at the environment outside. All around the green fog, the land was stained black with death and rot. Despite this, there was a sweet and inviting scent in the air. The kind that made you want to explore and find out just where it could be coming from.

The Tenth Green Hell beckoned.

Pan Gong realized what Chen Haoran’s intention was and raced like a demon to catch them. His physical body alone carrying him with speed to keep up with the Red Step of Good Fortune and grasp at their heels.

One step beyond beasts.

Pity then that Pan Gong was no mere beast.

“Officer Pan, disengage.” The voice was not loud. That was because the rest of the world grew quiet as it spoke.

Pan Gong, who had been chasing them like the devil himself, suddenly flung himself backward with all the force he could muster, sailing all the way through the air and back to the pyramid.

Chen Haoran’s blood curdled. Phelps let out a strangled cry. Xie Jin said nothing but shook like a man mad. Even the Yellow Dragon had gone silent. Chen Haoran immediately summoned a Top-Grade Spirit Stone to hand and desperately flooded his qi into the Metal Lily. He pulled his sense back to his body as a sun appeared.

“Rebels? In my Empire?” The voice said, filled with so much disdain and contempt that it became a physical force. Qi warped, and Chen Haoran could no longer move. The world was no longer a place where moving was possible.

Please he prayed.

A five-color aura emerged from the Metal Lily. Chen Haoran’s qi rapidly depleted and he cracked the Top Grade Spirit stone in his hand as he and the Yellow Dragon desperately siphoned its immense energy to feed the Metal Lily. The five-color aura spread across the scales of the Yellow Dragon, and with a defiant roar, Chen Haoran could move again.

Red Step of Good Fortune

It was the heaviest step he’d ever taken and took half his qi to make. The Tenth Green Hell was so close.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

His second step only left him the barest slivers in his meridians. He summoned the rest of his spirit stones and they leached their energy into his yellow qi. The Yellow Dragon grew several times larger and denser and that refined qi then made its way back into Chen Haoran in a revered flooding.

“My first move was mercy,” the Crystal Transformation Realm said. “To make me take a second one is death.”

He flared his qi. A storm rose above them. The walls of the valley broke and turned in upon them like fingers of a giant hand. Beneath them, the earth split and shattered as a fathomless abyss reached up to seize them. He could not breathe. Qi and stone pressed in on them from all sides, and Chen Haoran felt so very, very small in the palm of this giant.

The Yellow Dragon roared, and Chen Haoran deliriously, soundlessly roared with it. The Spirit Stones cracked and crumbled into pure liquid qi that passed through Chen Haoran and straight into the Metal Lily. Its petals lit up one by one, and the five-color aura suddenly condensed into a large lily construct above their heads. Five colors flashed. Green, Red, Yellow, White, and Black. One color for each of the Five Elements.

Chen Haoran’s world became calm as the Five Elements Lily stabilized the destructive influence of the Crystal Transformation Realm. Chen Haoran looked up to the sky and saw the harsh face of the higher realm glaring down at him. The same Crystal Transformation Realm he had seen overseeing the Garrison’s operation in the ruins. He was alone. The Shaman was nowhere to be seen. He closed his hand into a fist, and the world matched his action. Closing around the Five Elements Lily and attempting to crush the flower. It could not break it immediately, however.

And that was enough.

Red streamers crisscrossed the Yellow Dragon.

Red Step of Good Fortune.

Chen Haoran dragged Xie Jin and Phelps into the Tenth Green Hell and disappeared into the fog.

Chapter 159

Bao Si was right. The first bite of the Bodhi Pear really was something else….

In that it was profoundly underwhelming.

There was no awakening. No sudden revelation. No grand inspiration bestowed upon him from up on high. Chen Haoran polished off the rest of the fruit but still there was no change.

……is this it?

He’d been expecting a bit…. more from a so-called enlightenment.

The others had yet to react to his sudden reveal of a Bodhi Pear. It was understandable. To them it was inconceivable that someone would keep such an immensely valuable consumable on their person and not use it immediately. That he seemingly pulled it out as an afterthought was probably the most incredible display of excess they’d ever seen. Bao Si certainly seemed to have those thoughts from the sheer confusion on her face. Xie Jin was little better but he’d been with Chen Haoran long enough and seen enough to be used to him pulling out incredibly valuable items on a whim. While he was still open mouthed with shock his eyes shined with racing thought as he re-evaluated what he knew. Based on what he could know it would probably end up being another misunderstanding of Chen Haoran’s background.

Their Gu were living examples of pragmatic greed. Chen Haoran had felt their voracious attention when he pulled out the fruit but the Yellow Dragon had left a strong impression on them and so they gave up Chen Haoran’s delicious morsel and turned their attention to Qiong Qi’s tasty morsel like hungry dogs. An apt analogy given the way their shaman’s qi wrapped around them like leashes.

Pan Gong’s reaction was much like the Gu. Envy, greed, wariness played across his features in a row before settling into depressed acceptance. The kind that came when it felt like life decided to say ‘Fuck you in particular’ and left you no recourse. He still watched Chen Haoran, but it was the way a soldier stood watch for threats. His human side was watching Qiong Qi. His knees slightly bent to instantly propel him as soon as he spotted an opening.

Qiong Qi certainly felt that weight. He kept a tight grip on the storage bag that stored his Bodhi Pear and looked extremely conflicted. He no doubt planned for a long time to get his hands on the Enlightenment fruit but now his perfect vision was meeting reality. Seeing Chen Haoran and Lu Aotian eat their fruits in succession was leaving him with second thoughts and he was forced to stew in them rather than act because there were several starving beasts waiting for him to slip.

The king of said beasts stared at Chen Haoran. It was a bit of a surprise. Chen Haoran had expected him to be the first to attack. He couldn’t really tell what he was thinking. There had been a brief flash of something but it had been schooled to neutrality. Perhaps his shock would have interfered with his enlightenment? Chen Haoran gripped his sword in preparation and spared a glance at Lu Aotian’s monstrous chimera. Clouds of qi roiled around it, slowly seeping into its patchwork skin. His initial impression had been wrong, Lu Aotian did not suddenly take command of the qi around him. Instead, the Chimera did as all cultivators did. Take in the qi surrounding it and refine it into its own. All Lu Aotian did was make external a process that normally took place inside the cultivator.

That’s not to say it was simple. It was fascinatingly complex. Chen Haoran had several ghosts of a thought on how to replicate it but nothing he was sure of. If only the Bodhi Pear could take effect already, he’d….

Chen Haoran paused.

Oh.

So it was working.

His previous thought processes were picked apart and compared to the prior information he’d been given and he quickly came to a conclusion about enlightenment. Based on Bao Si’s few words and his current state, it was wrong for him to expect he’d be given something out of thin air. It wasn’t a gift of knowledge. It was a gift of vision, and if he had nothing to see, metaphorically speaking, then he had nothing to learn or seek answers from. What he had to do then was obvious. He channeled qi to his feet. Red light licked his heels.

One step beyond—

No. A sharp thought cut the Red Step of Good Fortune before it could be born. Was it speed he needed? Yes. Without question. Was this the way to go about it? No. He’d get results but he wanted—needed more than that. He had to approach it another way. Chen Haoran’s eyes fell upon his sword.

The White Tyrant’s Harmonization draped across the blade like a mantle. Beneath its cover, he saw the shadow of another sword and another hand holding it—one smaller and thinner than his own, with fingers more dangerous than any knife. Phantom touches crawled across his neck, and he shivered, dispelling the sight of the familiar hand. His idea wasn’t wrong. Exploring the Harmonization of the Technique would accelerate his understanding but not this way. That way led to the same problem he had with the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. He had to start from himself first. What he had to do next was obvious, though a bit cliche.

Chen Haoran looked within himself.

Turning his sense inward had always felt to him like clicking through the layers of a detailed model. Every blink sent him further down from skin to veins, muscles, organs, bones, and meridians. It was not the first time he’d done it before. He would even be bold enough to say it was impossible for a cultivator to actually cultivate if they never looked within themselves. This time, however, it was like his eyes had been newly opened. He could only liken the feeling to wearing glasses for the first time and discovering just how fucked up his vision had been. He could see the eddies and currents of his qi and how they entered his cells, soaking them down to the nucleus. He could see near-invisible dark clots and cracks spread across his flesh and skeleton. Sequelae of his old severe injuries that had been left deep within his body and beyond easy healing. An errant thought directed his regenerative energy to gather in those places and wash them away. Another thought seized control of his qi and adjusted its flow where he found it inefficient.

They were small, almost unnoticeable changes, but if they could be improved, he would do so. This wasn’t what he was looking for, however. His sense brushed up against the Yellow Dragon in its dance. Swirling qi with every twirl and dive in ways he couldn’t see before. The Yellow Dragon took one look at Chen Haoran, snorted, then leaped out of his meridians. Chen Haoran chased after it from his brain to his heart and from his heart to his core. Then it kept going, past his blood and past his qi. The Yellow Dragon danced into the deep. A place that was close yet seemed so far all at once. Chen Haoran’s sense teetered on the edge of a chasm, and with a final leap of faith, his consciousness tipped over the edge, and he fell into his soul.

Suddenly, Chen Haoran found himself standing on the shore of a yellow river under a yellow sky.

“The Machu?” he wondered aloud. Everywhere he turned was just the endless expanse of the river he once traveled down. He cupped the water in his hand and found it no different from the actual thing. “So this is how cultivation reflects in the soul. No wonder the River liked me.”

Chen Haoran turned around. The island he stood on was the only patch of dry land around, and at the center of it was a humble tree blooming with pink flowers. Once they reached the fullness of their growth, the flowers fell and scattered as a petal rain, and new flowers grew to replace them, yet despite so many falling, none ever touched the ground.

He caught a streak of light at the corner of his eye and whirled around to find nothing. Another streak flashed, and yet again, he was too late to catch it. When it happened for the third time, Chen Haoran caught onto the pattern and, more importantly—the color.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Violet.

After the Violet flash, he couldn’t hope to track the light anymore, but he didn’t need to. He only needed to see the first. He looked left, not because of confidence but because he knew he was right, and sure enough, a red phantom was standing next to him. It was dressed in simple robes, and its hands were casually folded behind its back. It had no face, however, just a smooth, blank surface. The phantom took a step and a red stair appeared beneath its foot. Then it took a second. An orange stair appeared beneath it and the phantom’s color turned from red to orange. Its robes became thicker and well-fitted. So was the case with the next step, and the next. The phantom changed color to match each stair, and its robes grew finer and more elaborate with design and decoration. When it reached the Violet Stair, the phantom wore a luxurious gown fit for an emperor with a crown to match. Alone in the yellow sky, it appeared carefree. Then, with a final step, it shrugged off its finery and appeared at his side once more as a simple red phantom.

From the ground to the sky. Ascending to the peak and growing along the way. Stairs. No wonder he and the others struggled so much to get started with the Technique. They’d been too focused on the rainbow and not the colors. On the stairwell before the steps. Perhaps it was because of their youth. No wonder Xie Jin’s grandfather told him to wear his New Year’s robe while practicing. He’d been focused on the Red Step from the start. Chen Haoran looked down and found himself wearing his New Year’s robe. The one Bao Si had made for him. He thumbed the red silks. Red. The color of good luck. The color people wore when celebrating. He thought of the Basin festooned in red decorations. He thought of his wedding. Of Lan Fen in her red dress and white veil. New year. New wedding. Lucky red. It wasn’t worn just to symbolize luck, now was it? It was worn to welcome it. To bring in blessings on new endeavors. New futures. New beginnings.

Chen Haoran covered his face with his palm and pictured himself over the red phantom. The first step of the stairs. The first step of many. To bless the rest of the climb. A saying from his old life rose unbidden in his mind.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the First Red Step of Good Fortune,” Chen Haoran muttered.

He stepped. Red light licked his heels and he was treading water. Red flashed again. He dropped his hand—Red Step of Good Fortune. The world blurred, not with speed but like how scenery passed on a casual walk. Like no time passed at all, despite how far he went. He appeared back on the island. A long, exhilarated breath escaped him and a smile crossed his face.

Red light flashed next to him and when Chen Haoran looked the red phantom was wearing his face. Relaxed, happy, a bit excited. It was an expression Chen Haoran hadn’t imagined himself having for a long time now. When the red phantom stepped into orange it returned to the same blank slate. A sign he hasn’t mastered the Orange Step. A reward waiting for him once he did. What would be be like once his image was imprinted on every step? On the Violet Step? Harmonization? Or something more? What would the Seven Luck Strides of Rainbow Heaven be like? Chen Haoran was eager to find out. Just as he was about to continue observing the rainbow phantom a small splash at his feet interrupted his concentration.

Chen Haoran looked down and froze.

Reflected in the water was not him. It was a young woman. White of hair and gold of eye. Proud like an eagle and stunning the way a polished sword was. She was the very image of a triumphant warrior.

“Lan Fen?” Chen Haoran whispered. Here, of all places? He tentatively stretched out his hand toward the water and watched the image of Lan Fen mirror him.

Just as their fingers were about to touch, the image of Lan Fen suddenly twisted, cool disdain giving way to rage. The water rippled and gold eyes gave way to murderous metal white.

“No moron,” it said with a gruff, man’s voice.

Then the fake punched him in the face.

Chen Haoran wasn’t prepared at all for the attack or the force behind it and was sent rolling into the blossom tree with enough force that it would have surely broken were it a real tree. He clutched his nose and stared in shock as the fake Lan Fen rose out of the water, its face twisted in incandescent rage.

“Stand proud. You have almost restored my faith in Heaven,” the false Lan Fen spoke. It cracked its knuckles, and the sound was like screaming swords. “If only so I could make sure to send you to every single hell for bothering me with that fucking lizard.”

He knew that voice. He knew this person. Hysterical, Chen Haoran could only say his name.

“White Tyrant!?”

The White Tyrant sneered with Lan Fen’s face. “Surprise.”

“What the fuck? Why the fuck? How are you here?” Chen Haoran was horribly lost. Even enlightened, he couldn’t come up with an answer.

The White Tyrant sighed and rubbed his temple. “This is why I hate dealing with ants. You’re so far beneath me that you can’t even begin to understand the basics of just how amazing this is. Suffice it to say this has much more to do with me than it does anything to do with you.”

Chen Haoran’s mind raced. Was the White Tyrant in front of him some remnant personality imprinted when he comprehended the White Tyrant’s Harmonization? Or some special power afforded by his high cultivation base? Both? Was he always here? Aware? But why did he look like Lan Fen? Before he could ponder it further, he was painfully flicked in the head, snapping his head back.

“Fuck!” Chen Haoran clutched his forehead and glared at the White Tyrant. “You ass. What was that for?”

“Stop dawdling on stupid questions,” The White Tyrant said.

“There are no stupid questions,” Chen Haoran automatically countered.

“It’s stupid because I feel it’s stupid, and what I feel is fact,” The White Tyrant casually said. “All you need to know right now is that I’m hijacking your enlightenment.”

So it was thanks to the Bodhi Pear— Chen Haoran flinched when the White Tyrant raised his hand again. Then he got angry. “The hell do you think you’re doing then? I need this enlightenment, you bastard. Don’t interrupt it.”

The White Tyrant snorted. “Oh, you need it all right. But not to waste it on that bullshit. I told you to never forget that Harmonization but what did you go and do? Consider this an intervention because the way you use my Harmonization makes me die of embarrassment.”

Chen Haoran rolled his eyes. “Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I’m plenty satisfied with it. Or are you just salty it’s not as useful to me as a Movement Technique right now?”

“I’m disappointed because I approved of you.” The White Tyrant folded his arms. “Now I’m disgusted I ever had the thought.”

That slapped Chen Haoran like a sack of bricks, and he couldn’t retort. It was just so unexpected to hear from the arrogant White Tyrant and, for some reason, hurt so much worse than anything he’d said thus far.

“Getting rings run around you by an ant pretending to be a lion and a godsdamned Body Refiner. Waving your sword like a stick and being weak as a chicken as soon as it’s taken away. Tell me moron. Since when did you need a sword to use my Harmonization? Is that how you stole the life of Lan Fen’s sworn enemy?”

Was it? He looked down at his hands. It felt like an age had passed since the fight with Lan Yao and Patriarch Lan in the Spa Caverns. He could barely remember how he killed Lan Yao. The whole thing had felt like a dream in the end. Yet the power of the Bodhi Pear made the answer to White Tyrant’s question frustratingly clear. If he clenched his hands now, he could even feel the coldness of the icicle he used to end Lan Yao’s life.

The White Tyrant’s tirade was not finished. “Do you think those fools would have survived what I did to Lan Fen’s worthless grandfather? Do you think some eye fetishist could have weakened it to save him?” He shook his head in disgust. “My expectations were as low as possible, and somehow you still failed. It makes me wonder if your first use of my Harmonization was a fluke.”

Chen Haoran hung his head. As much as the White Tyrant frustrated him, there was nothing he could say when the ghost was right. A fact that only made the point dig deeper.

A point the White Tyrant was all too willing to drive in further.

“That’s right. Wallow in self-hate,” he said. “That’s the least you can do for wasting my time.”

A low growl sounded in warning, and Chen Haoran felt the world rumble. From the depths of the yellow river breached a massive dragon head that made the mountainous Snake’s Mouth look small. Its eyes were like orange suns, and its sinuous body, crusted with topaz scales, extended far into the distance with no sign of its tail in sight. Despite its size, the water was not disturbed in the slightest by its passing. A fortunate thing given that the small island they were on would have been drowned in the waves that something of the dragon’s scale would otherwise make.

The Yellow Dragon looked down on the White Tyrant.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,” The White Tyrant drawled. “To think this is what you’ve been reduced to. The other four would laugh if they could see you now. I would, too, if I wasn’t stuck here with you.”

Chen Haoran looked upon the Yellow Dragon in awe. It was the same form he seen many times before, accurate down to the whiskers and scales, but the construct made of his liquid qi could never compare to the real thing in front of him. It’s true form. Even if it was just an image made in his soul, it still felt like it was made of flesh and blood. Majesty exuded from it the way heat did from the sun. Though they were in Chen Haoran’s soul, as soon as it appeared, it was as if the center had shifted. It was comforting rather than concerning, however. A pillar of stability that he could lean on. He stood up. Mortal eyes met divine. Chen Haoran slowly held out his hand. The Yellow Dragon leaned its massive bulk forward, and a whisker gently stretched down to touch his hand. Here and now, through the power of enlightenment, they were closer than they had ever been before. Closer than they would ever be for a long time, perhaps. So long as he could take away even a trace—

The White Tyrant yanked Chen Haoran by his collar and threw him to the ground before he could touch the whisker. The Yellow Dragon rumbled with dissatisfaction. The spell that overcame him was broken, and Chen Haoran mourned for it.

Then he got angry.

“The hell do you want from me?” he demanded. “Sure! I fucked up! I admit it! I’ll listen to whatever you have to say about it. Just stop screwing me over. If I can connect with the Yellow Dragon I might be able to copy what Lu Aotian is doing. Or is Harmonizing with my cultivation method beneath you too?”

“Enough yapping. A lesson from me is enough for kings to beggar their planets so shut up and listen.” The White Tyrant hooked a thumb toward the Yellow Dragon. “You could use up all the power of the fruit and not even understand a tenth of that thing, let alone Harmonize with it. That fake predator out there can only grasp the surface because his Technique and Cultivation Method connect and feedback into each other, and he has years of experience over you. Your time cultivating is just too short.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” Chen Haoran asked, frustrated.

The White Tyrant’s smirk was vicious. “Simple. We’re going to cheat like hell and make all the years and effort he spent cultivating worthless. And if there’s anything between your ears, you’ll learn something along the way.” He pushed past Chen Haoran and sat cross-legged at the base of the blossom tree. “But first, we’re doing a crash course in Harmonization. Clean your ears because I won’t be repeating myself.”

Chen Haoran sighed and adjusted himself to a more comfortable seating position. Even the Yellow Dragon curiously leaned in. It was a comical sight, given how much it dwarfed them.

“Harmonization, at its core, is about understanding things. If you understand something completely, then you can manipulate it, draw power from it, destroy it, etcetera, etcetera.” The White Tyrant waved his hand dismissively. “Problem is we have trouble understanding the assholes known as our fellow man, let alone the world around us. Not helping is the fact that unless you’re me, nothing exists independent of everything. The whole world is connected, which made Harmonizing so complex that if a cultivator wanted to understand an apple pie, he’d have to meditate on the universe first. In short, impossible.”

“Sounds ridiculous, yeah,” Chen Haoran agreed.

“Shut up.” The White Tyrant leaned back against the tree. “For ancient cultivators, the universe was like a giant social event with everyone mingling while they were the assholes watching from the corner. Everyone is yapping amongst themselves, and cultivators can’t even say hello, let alone join the conversation. If cultivators wanted to talk to someone, they needed to get some one-on-one time. So they figured out how to drag the people they wanted into private rooms to get to know them better. Thus, Earth and Heaven-Ranks were born.”

“What the hell is this analogy?”

“Shut up.” The White Tyrant snapped his fingers. “Earth and Heaven-Rank are separated by the scale and quality of what they’re derived from. One man could look at an apple and learn how it grows. Another could look at it and learn gravity or sin some other bullshit. Their origin is the same, however. A cultivator watched something for a long time and took its principles to make a Technique or Method, thus isolating it from everything else and integrating it within themselves. Letting them access powerful new abilities on top of making Harmonizing easier. That’s how all this bullshit—” The White Tyrant swept his arm out, motioning to yellow river, the Rainbow Phantom, and the Blossom Tree before pointing at himself “—and this bullshit is here. The essence of greater concepts manifested in the most intrinsic part of a human. Got all that?”

Chen Haoran couldn’t help raising a hand. “What about Mortal and Profound-Rank Techniques?”

The White Tyrant lifted an eyebrow. “What about them?”

“Well—“

“Stupid question.” The White Tyrant immediately declared. “All you need to know is that the better you understand these things the more power you can draw out of them. If you were me then you could ponder the secrets of the universe in an afternoon nap. You’re not me and never will be so you’re gonna have to do it the basic way and imitate these things. Do that enough and even an idiot can learn something about Harmonization eventually.”

“Is it really that easy?” Chen Haoran asked.

The White Tyrant snorted. “Hell no but if you screw this up I’m self-terminating. Now if there’s no more questions.”

“Wait wait wait,” Chen Haoran said. “Just one more.”

The White Tyrant clicked his tongue in annoyance. “What?”

“Why the hell are you only teaching me this now!” Chen Haoran exploded. “It’s not like I left you and Lan Fen immediately. This couldn’t have been brought up at all? You made a big deal of your Harmonization too.”

“Is your name Lan Fen?” The White Tyrant demanded. “Are you the chosen inheritor of my school’s glorious legacy? Is my ghost bound to your person? I told you to not forget that Harmonization because it’s the best damn thing you could have gotten your hands on. Do you think you’re special because you aped a scrap of my power? That you’re the only one in the universe who’s done that? My cultivation is so far above you that I could fart and turn the gas into a sects founding technique. The only thing notable about you is Lan Fen. You think you could ever enter my eyes otherwise?”

“Now that you bring up Lan Fen, you still haven’t explained why the hell you look like her.”

“Congratulations you’ve discovered the first thing in the universe I don’t know the answer to,” the White Tyrant said, sneering. “I told you to pay attention and this is what you imprint? Juniors these days. Letting a woman into your heart will only affect your sword-drawing speed and you’ve gone and let one into your damn soul. No wonder your Harmonization is so shit. Too bad for you the woman inside you is a man.”

Chen Haoran blanched. “Pause. Did you have to say it like that?”

The White Tyrant ignored Chen Haoran entirely and faced the Yellow Dragon. “And you, lizard. That we meet again like this, cursed Heaven surely likes its jokes. I was looking for you when I came back, you know.” The White Tyrants smirk was filled with mockery but something about his expression felt off to Chen Haoran. “I met the Metal one first. That snake was getting uppity, so I cut him in half. It’s a shame I couldn’t find whatever hole you were hiding in to show you. To think you’re just a river now, the irony is endless, isn’t it, Earth Dragon?”

Chen Haoran froze. Earth Dragon? Not water? He had glossed over it before in his fugue state but they knew each other?

The Yellow Dragon simply stared down the White Tyrant. No reaction forthcoming to words that were obviously meant to provoke one. Chen Haoran had worked enough with the spirit by now to realize it was genuine and not a facade of control. The White Tyrant soon realized it as well and a deep frown crossed his face. An expression that reminded Chen Haoran all too much of Lan Fen’s more pensive moods.

“Nothing?” The White Tyrant murmured. “Are you so far removed now? No…. you don’t remember? Just what happened…?” His face smoothed into flat indifference. “Such is time I suppose.”

Chen Haoran hesitated. “White Tyrant? You called it Earth Dragon?”

“Are you worthy of my explanation?” The White Tyrant retorted without any heat. “I grow tired of wasting my time. Clench your teeth ant. I’ll curse you forever if you mess this up.”

With that final warning, the White Tyrant lunged at Chen Haoran, and the world turned white.

———————

It had felt like a long time passed, but when Chen Haoran opened his eyes it was only an instant. The scenery of the outside world remained the same. His allies shock. Pan Gong’s coiled tension. Lu Aotian’s anger and his heaving chimera. The war cries of the Garrison as they pushed the Rattan Vine Soldiers up the terraces of the pyramid.

Chen Haoran was not the same.

And everyone else knew it.

Xie Jin and Bao Si visibly flinched at the same moment their Gu did and backpedaled away. Qiong Qi was later in reacting but even faster in leaving. Pan Gong did not even glance Chen Haoran’s way and shot after him though he did so in a way to never leave his back open.

Lu Aotian growled. “Let’s compare our findings then!”

With a downward wave of his hand the chimera lurched, liquid qi grinding against itself to create the most unearthly roar in hundreds of different tones.

White shadow surged along the length of his sword and spread across his entire body. Covering Chen Haoran not like a cloak but like a silhouette he had stepped into. It did not fit him perfectly. The shade a tad too tall. The arms not quite his length. But it mirrored him and he mirrored it. In sync despite their differences.

Is this what Lan Fen felt like?

A biting voice echoed in his mind, filling his head with white qi. “Of course not. I’m just a shadow of a shadow. That little monster learned my skills and was possessed by my spirit. If you could learn this from watching me use your shitty sword technique what you do think will happen to her when she recovers?”

Right. He should have expected no less.

The many headed face of the chimera loomed in front of him. It’s cavernous maw opening to an endless depth of teeth and beaks of all sizes.

“Pay attention,” said the White Tyrant. “If you’re going to pull out your blade then finish things with one sword. Anything more is embarrassing.”

The silhouette raised its white shadow sword and Chen Haoran’s own blade rose to match the motion. It was an unconscious action. Like a puppet following the pulls of the puppeteers hand. The White Tyrant tugged Chen Haoran along to use his Harmonization without any input from him. Chen Haoran once again had no control of his body.

“As above, so below.”

It was revolting.

The Yellow Dragon roared and his vision flashed yellow.

“You damn lizard. What do you think you’re doing?” The White Tyrant roared.

The Yellow Dragon roared again in response as white and yellow qi furiously battled.

Chen Haoran felt his mind, ever so disturbed since meeting the White Tyrant, clear again as the reins of enlightenment returned to his control. Finally he could think.

“As above, so below,” the White Tyrant declared and struck down Patriarch Lan with a blue-white sword.

“As above, so below,” Chen Haoran said as he ascended to the Liquid Meridian Realm. His sword flashed white and he split Shaman and Gu in half.

Yellow and White mixed and something new arose from the waters.

“As above and so below,” crowed the White Tyrant. He stood atop a single cloudy mountain peak amongst many. His white hair and golden eyes were full of life. His face proud and his smile so carefree and full of arrogance. Opposite him, stretched out over countless more peaks with no end in sight was a yellow dragon. It’s bared its teeth and loomed over the White Tyrant, blocking out the sun.

The White Tyrant raised his sword. “Do you know what that means you dumb lizard? It means you’re facing the universe right now!”

He swung his sword—

Chen Haoran swung his sword.

The world went white like a prism in reverse, all color collecting into white. The only thing left that stubbornly remained was the glow of enlightenment in Lu Aotian’s shocked eyes but even this was rapidly fading.

“No…” Lu Aotian whispered, then more loudly. “No! My enlightenment!”

The field of white shrank with the chimera as its center. Color surging in from the edges like it was rushing in from the outside to fill the absence of it. Red returned to the chimera but it remained frozen as the white field collapsed into a thin white line down its middle. A line that included Lu Aotian.

He stared at Chen Haoran with wide eyes. Five colored light emanated from his chest and surrounded him. “Impossible.”

“Welp,” the White Tyrant said.

The white line disappeared and the world exploded in reaction. Air and qi screamed as one as the chimera was spit in half and turned to liquid qi. The resulting flood then annihilated in the storm that followed as everything the white line had contained was simply gone and the environment rushed to correct. A large crash and deathly screams came from behind. Chen Haoran’s swing was not a short one and the earthen rampart the Garrison had constructed was at just the right height to be hit. It collapsed suddenly and unstoppably and those Garrison soldiers who remained on it suffered a miserable end.

Even the strange stones of the pyramid now had a fine line scored in them. Not deep, but considering how supernaturally resistant they had proved it was remarkable.

The only thing unharmed by his sword was Lu Aotian. A metal lily with five petals of five colors had flown out from his chest. It glowed with five color light and his attack broke against it to no avail. An immense power radiated from it. Far more than anything Chen Haoran had felt from a treasure before and he quickly pegged it as Lu Aotian’s Crystal Transformation Realm treasure. Lu Aotian paled terribly and coughed up blood. Then kept coughing. He fell to his knees and the aura around him disappeared, along with the majority of his qi.

Chen Haoran took a step forward to end it then collapsed as well. His legs unable to hold him anymore. His armor feelings hundreds of pounds heavier. He gasped, breathing in qi and air as he suddenly found himself severely lacking in both. The coursing rivers in his meridians all but dried up. Even the Yellow Dragon looked noticeably starved as it floundered in his core. He quickly summoned a Top Grade Spirit stone and set to work absorbing it while stuffing his mouth with the Paradise Pomegranate seeds at the same time.

“Not quite what I was expecting or intending, but I suppose it will work,” the White Tyrant said, though there was a note of exhaustion that he couldn’t completely hide. “I remain thoroughly irritated either way.”

“What was that memory?” Chen Haoran asked when he found his breath.

“Mine. The lizards. Both. I don’t know. I don’t care anymore. Still, your performance was acceptable this time. Originally there was a hard limit for this Harmonization. What you imprinted inside the Cavern was all it could or would ever be.”

“And now?”

“Who’s to say? There’s a seed now that much is for sure. How it develops depends on you. That’s not my problem though. My work here is done.”

Chen Haoran could feel the edge of the enlightenment begin to fade and sober reality set back in. His mind raced as he thought of what to say.

“You’re the essence of the White Tyrant of that moment,” he finally said.

“Did you need enlightenment to figure that out?”

Chen Haoran could hear his sneer.

“You’re the him that wanted to teach me a better sword. To show me a higher path.”

The quiet in his mind was deafening.

“Fuck you kid. Don’t think you can dare understand me or my reasons just because you got a hit of Heaven’s High.”

Chen Haoran quirked his lips. “Whatever you say, you giant prick.”

“This bastard—” The White Tyrant made a disgusted sound. “This is the last time I ever talk to you. Got it? Even if you die, this will never happen again.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Ungrateful little shit. I’ll kill you—”

The White Tyrant’s final curse faded along with his voice as the last embers of enlightenment burnt out. The return to his regular mind was a harsh one. His normal thoughts a wagon wheel compared to enlightenment’s turbo engine. There was no time to mourn over it, however.

Silver light settled over his shoulders.

“Brother Chen!” Xie Jin shouted as he raced over. “The teleport!”

Chronicle of a Rising Demon Chapter 1

Update on the next chapter of ISWG. It's about halfway done now and will be coming out soon. In the meantime, however, have this draft of a different project to tide you over. Inspired by various depictions of the Demonic factions across Xianxia and Wuxia fiction.

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The day started entertaining enough. A few thugs were beating up a beggar boy.

The Old Man, for he was old and ostensibly a man as the situation required, took his breakfast tea in the outdoor seating area of a rather severe tea shop. The kind frequented by merchants and travelers who stopped by briefly to have a cuppa, rest their feet, and grab some news before returning to the road and on to their business. The only thing separating the tables of the tea shop from the traffic of the road was a wall of planters blooming with flowers that did their part to fight the usual smells of urban drudgery. Fortunately, they were just short enough that the Old Man had a prime spot to watch the thugs kicking around a boy who had more in common with the trash on the streets than he did with the civilized gentlemen cleaning him up.

The boy was too old to be called a child but too young to truly be called a man. He cowered on the cobbles, his arms cradling his head for protection. Not that it stopped the thugs from stomping on it when they got tired of kicking his ribs and stomach. The boy howled in pain like an animal would, and when he dared to reveal his eyes, there was no higher reasoning or brightness behind them. Just wild fear, hurt, and ignorance. A dullard’s gaze.

The Old Man was quite pleased with this and watched with relish as he drank his tea. Occasionally, he licked his thumb and ran it across the surface of the silver hand mirror in his lap. Nodding to the reflection before turning back to his observation.

The patrons of the tea shop were curious for only a moment after the first painful shout before quickly losing interest. Given the itinerancy of their occupations, they were undoubtedly well experienced with the fact that kicking the poor was only as exciting as the first time you’d seen it happen and that everywhere under Heaven had its own version of the pastime. Ignoring the background of human suffering, they instead turned to the more pressing matters of money and gossip.

“The Silver Sword School cleared another mine,” spoke a fat merchant liberally robed in brocade. He sat at the head of a table of strangers, the Old Man included. His evident wealth buying him more respect than a sword would. “Perhaps we might see the price of Argentum finally drop.”

“I’m sure they’ll raise tariffs in the City of Five Silvers to compensate,” grumbled a stocky fellow who looked more like he guarded caravans than commanded them. “It makes you wonder if they even want business anymore. I’ll have to go to the next county to supply the forges in my contract soon enough.”

“We might yet see prices go higher,” spoke a whipcord-thin man. Though he was younger and dressed more poorly than everyone at the table, he was more dangerous than the rest of them combined by half. “My last trip to the Marquisate, I sold all my stock of weapons and pills and left with the next shipment pre-paid.”

The stocky caravaneer leaned forward. “You think there might be a war?” A question ordinarily spoken with worry turned into ugly eagerness.

“It’s the border. They’re always buying weapons and pills,” said the fat merchant, rolling his eyes. “If the Demonic Sects want to start a war they’d have to stop imploding first. I hear they still haven’t had a new leader since Marquis Lightsword decapitated the old one.”

“Your news is old,” said the thin man. “Rumors spread to the border that a new Primus Inter Pares has risen. Raids have picked up as well, though no one knows if its spillover from the civil war or a political statement.”

Another young merchant perked up, perhaps sensing his chance to feel included in the conversation of his betters. “Speaking of demons, another Demonic Cultivator popped up in Spring Grass City. Slaughtered the entire Chen Family before he was put down.”

“At least they caught that one. How many more managed to get away?” said the caravaneeer.

The young merchant preened upon getting a response and continued. “I know a man who used to work for them. The demon was an old servant of theirs that they always treated poorly. In a way it’s rather karmic—”

“Bah,” scoffed the fat merchant, interrupting. “A demon is a demon. Only fools make up excuses for monsters.”

The young merchant flushed as his future ideal took offense to him, and he flicked his eyes wildly across the table in search of a way out.

Finally, he settled on the Old Man.

“Elder, what do you think?”

The Old Man finished his tea as the table’s attention turned to him and smiled. “Demons aren’t anything special. You can throw a rock and hit one. They’re always closer than you think.”

“They’re cropping up like weeds,” nodded the fat merchant. “The Sects need to step up and properly deal with them.”

The Old Man smiled and said nothing.

The thin man sighed. “If the Silver Sword Saint was—”

A particularly loud screech cut across the road and interrupted the thin man’s sentence. He scowled and stood from his seat, looking angrily at the thugs. “Enough already!” His voice carried an unearthly pitch to it that made his words fall like weights upon their shoulders. The din of the patio faded, and the merchants at the table froze up as they realized the thin man seated with them was no mere human.

He was a cultivator. A being refined through the energy of the world.

Of course, he was just a trifling Qi Gathering cultivator of the First Layer, trash even by trash’s standard. To the unrefined, however, he was still a force to be treated warily.

The thugs certainly thought so. The three of them immediately ceased their beating and faced the cultivator as a united thought. The most cunning-looking one clasped his hands and bowed.

“My apologies, sir cultivator, but must do the bidding of our lord. The Young Master of the Rose Family.”

The thin man pursed his lips. Perhaps he knew who the Rose Family were, or perhaps he didn’t. Any fool, however, could see that if the Rose Family’s thugs were willing to talk back to a cultivator, then their own means were not lacking. If the thin man were obstinate, then perhaps this would become a bigger issue. Maybe even escalating into a duel.

Thankfully for the thin man, however, he never actually cared about helping the boy.

“Take that thing elsewhere, then,” the thin man said, sitting back down. “You’re disturbing the customers.”

The thug smiled and relaxed. “Of course, sir.”

He whispered to his fellow thugs, and they left. One peeled away down the road while the leader and the other dragged the beggar boy away into the alley. Their backing may have allowed them to ignore a cultivator, but they were wise enough not to antagonize one when their superiors weren’t present.

The Old Man palmed his mirror and stood, dropping a few coins on the table. “Gentlemen, I will be off.”

The thin man, nursing his hurt pride, sized him up. “Going after them?”

The Old Man smiled. “I just feel like I’ll be hit by a horse carriage and die if I stay here any longer.”

The Old Man left, whistling a tune he’d long forgotten the lyrics to. Behind him, the table immediately shifted to flattering the thin man and more joined from other tables. It was perhaps another reason the thin man decided to reveal his standing. He’d never get any respect from his fellow cultivators, so he indulged in worship from his lessers instead. As the Old man turned into the alley, there was a sound of rapidly clopping hooves and the loud neighs of horses. He timed the rise of the tune to the crashing of wood and shattering of ceramic, bringing it down to a low when the screaming and cries of pain began.

The thugs hadn’t dragged the beggar boy too far, and when they heard the crash and turned around, they spotted the Old Man. The boy laid at their feet, motionless.

“Hey, you, what’s happening over there?” Demanded a thug.

“If you don’t kill him, I’ll kill you,” the Old Man said.

“Hah?” The thug sneered and sauntered up to him. “Oi, old man, we work for the Young Master of the Rose Family.” He jerked his head at the beggar boy. “If you don’t want to end up like him, I’d advise you not to cross our lord.”

The Old Man slowly raised his hand faster than the thug could react and palmed his face. With unnatural ease, he pushed the thug’s head into the stones of the alley wall.

Then he kept pushing.

The other thug watched in horror as the Old Man pushed his hand straight through his screaming partner’s head and squashed it like a fruit. He pulled his hand away, completely clean of any blood, and the headless body slumped to the ground.

“I will not repeat myself,” the Old Man said.

“Y-yes, my lord,” the thug sputtered. “I’ll kill him right now.”

The Old Man looked at him with pity. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“What?”

The confusion in the thug’s eyes cleared when the beggar boy suddenly leaped up from the ground and slammed a rock into his temple. The thug collapsed like a stringless puppet, and the boy set upon him with wild abandon, repeatedly smashing the rock onto the thug’s head till it became a bloody mess. The boy placed a finger to the thug’s nose and, after confirming he wasn’t breathing, dropped the rock and leaned back.

His chest heaved as he painfully gasped for air, still feeling the effects of his earlier beating. The Old Man patiently waited for the boy to collect himself. When he finally regained control of his breathing, he rose, and what greeted the Old Man was a calm face and cool, indifferent eyes. A far cry from the fool’s act he’d been playing earlier.

The Old Man took a moment to observe the boy now that his mask had been pried off. He was gaunt from years of hard living, his face sunken, his short black hair dirty and matted. Still, his eyes were a nice color. A royal purple. They spoke of his breeding, that he had cultivators in his ancestry whose cultivation was strong enough that a mark was left on their descendants, though not enough to become a real power for their offspring. The Old Man could picture what he must have looked like before, some pampered son of a wealthy family.

It was a tale as old as time.

“Tell me, boy,” the Old Man said. “Would you like power?”

“Okay.”

The Old Man chuckled. “That was quite fast.”

“You made it clear from the beginning that there is no choice,” the boy said. “It’s either your way or death.”

“That’s still technically a choice,” the Old Man pointed out.

“Please refrain from saying that, as the person who’d kill me.”

“Fair enough,” the Old Man said, smiling.

They waited. Staring at each other in silence. Old Man and boy. Boy and Old Man. He found himself growing more and more amused.

“Go on,” he gently prodded. “Ask your question.”

The boy’s eyes fell to his hands. “What is that mirror?”

The Old Man burst into laughter. He doubled over, hands on his knees, laughing the world away. He’d met plenty of interesting seedlings thus far, but this one—oh, this one was amusing.

Eventually, the Old Man regained himself and straightened up, wiping away a tear from his eye. “You are the first person to make that their first question. I will answer, but before I do, will you tell me why you chose that? The normal thing would be to ask who I am. Or what I want with you.”

The boy’s composure did not slip during the Old Man’s hysterics, but he had a long, long time to go before he could fool the Old Man’s eyes. The wariness was clear as day. As was his resolve.

“You’re the one behind the rise of the new Demonic Cultivators,” the boy said.

“That’s a bold accusation,” the Old Man joyfully replied. “Any other cultivator would kill you for that.”

The boy was unmoved. “All the stories of demons recently, the famous ones at least, have all had one thing in common. A noble girl sold to a brothel, a crippled warrior, an abused servant, all of them were people who were poor, struggling, desperate.” The boy said each of the last three words with emphasis. “Now you appear before me, casually dealing death and offering power.”

So he was being beaten near the tea house for a reason. The Old Man thought.

“You could be wrong,” the Old Man said.

“I’m not,” said the boy.

The Old Man nodded. “You’re not. That only explains who I am, however.”

The boy bit his lip, finally slipping. Long repressed emotions surged now that golden opportunity finally revealed its door. “It doesn’t matter. What you are doing making demons. Why you're making them. Why you're picking people like me. None of it matters. What I’d learn would be meaningless.”

The Old Man raised an eyebrow. “And you think you’d learn something meaningful by asking about my mirror?” He lifted the mirror. “If I told you this was just an ordinary mirror, then what you’d learn would be even less than meaningless, wouldn’t it?”

The boy was firm. “Then I would have gambled and lost.”

The Old Man snorted. “Bold. Foolishly so. But I suppose it is the duty of the old to reward the boldness of youth.”

He turned the mirror around and showed the boy his reflection. “In the Netherworld, there is an Immortal Artifact called the Mirror of Past Existences. The souls of the dead who march into the First Court of Hell are made to stand before it and are forced to watch the entire accounting of their life and their deeds, good and evil, so that they may be judged.”

The Old Man watched with relish as the boy paled in realization of what he was implying.

“This is not that mirror,” he cheerfully continued. Enjoying even more the whiplash he left the boy with. “It’s merely a copy of a copy. Even so, it is still fairly useful in helping me find misbegotten souls like you, Cathal Zayd.”

The boy froze.

“Orphaned at eleven after your family lost its struggle for power, you destroyed your cultivation and pretended to be a fool for six years to survive as the living example of defying the Rose Family. You fooled mortals and cultivators alike, biding your time until you could exact your revenge.” The Old Man nodded in satisfaction. “It’s quite dramatic.”

The Old Man reached into the folds of his robes and pulled out a wrinkled, leather-bound book. “It’s nice to meet you, Cathal. I have come to make your dreams come true, and in time, you will do the same for mine.”

Cathal Zayd trembled, but it was not with fear or hesitation. He slowly reached out and placed his hand on the book. He looked at the Old Man.

“It took you long enough.”

The Old Man smiled.

Yes. Very amusing indeed.

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Book 1 of Immortality Starts With Generosity is on Amazon. 

Chapter 158

It's a New Years miracle. Happy New Year to everyone. This chapter is long overdue. I'll explain what's been going on at the bottom of this chapter. Until then please enjoy.

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The cheers of the Garrison forces rang loud, and the barrier shuddered as the main force built up ramps and began hammering at it with waves of fire qi. The elites that had engaged with the rebel forces began to fall back and fight defensively now that time had switched sides. The rebels attempted to push back with a counterattack, but it was clear their spirits were wavering, and they were beginning to retreat up the pyramid.

Chen Haoran jumped back to Bao Si’s side in the face of Captain Liu’s sudden arrival. The Garrison officer flared his qi threateningly, and it served as fuel to stoke his blue flames higher and send a superheated blast of blistering air outward in every direction. Chen Haoran stood in front of Bao Si and triggered the True Reflection Mysterious Mirror Armor’s barrier to reflect the heat.

“Are you alright, Captain Pan?” Captain Liu asked, his voice clear and normal despite him being entirely made of fire.

“I’ll live,” Pan Gong said. They were the absolute last words Chen Haoran wanted to hear right now. “Buy me some time, will you? I took a careless hit.”

Captain Liu slammed his fists together, creating a flurry of sparks. “Leave it to me.”

Right. He had until Pan Gong recovered to stop this situation from going bad to worse. He was pretty sure he could survive whatever these two could throw at him as long as he qi reserves held out but soon enough it wouldn’t be just two of them.

“If you have another Spirit Stone I can use the Depredation of Three Killers again,” Bao Si said.

Chen Haoran shook his head. “They won’t give you another opportunity use it. We can’t afford to stall for time anymore.”

“What’s your plan then?”

“Go get Xie Jin before the barrier falls and then find a rebel,” Chen Haoran said. “Qiong Qi wouldn’t have chased Lu Aotian into the altar if he didn’t think there was a real chance he could get the final reward, which means it won’t be long before the Trial ends and we get teleported out.”

Bao Si’s Gu brought its mandibles close to her ear and chittered softly as if a whisper. She paid it no mind, though. “And what will you be doing?”

Captain Liu rocketed toward them.

“Holding them off. I’ll meet up with you.” Chen Haoran flooded qi to his legs and launched himself into the living fireball. When the flames collided with silver metal, they were repulsed at triple speed. Captain Liu’s real body emerged from the flames, and he planted his feet on the ground to skid to a stop, leaving long black marks along the stones.

“How dare you!” Captain Liu roared and melted into flames again but instead of Chen Haoran he threw himself into two streams of liquid miasma that targeted Pan Gong. The miasma flash-boiled when it hit Captain Liu’s fiery form and turned into equally ineffective poisonous steam. Bao Si was unfazed by the interruption and, with a flick of her finger, had her Gu throwing up clouds of miasma to cover Captain Liu with.

“What are you doing?” Chen Haoran demanded.

“I’m not leaving you behind,” Bao Si retorted.

That… was not the well-reasoned counter-idea to his plan that he’d been expecting. In fact, that answer wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting. Certainly not from her, of all people. “What kind of bullshit is that?”

“I’ll fight with you or die,” Bao Si said, all too solemn. They locked eyes as Captain Liu vaporized the miasma.

Chen Haoran looked away. “Fine.”

Blue fire flooded from Captain Liu in an all-encompassing wave. The Yellow Dragon roared, and liquid qi flooded from Chen Haoran, only to evaporate into gas when it touched the flames. His qi suppressed in every way by the stronger cultivator despite the elemental advantage. He gave up on matching qi for qi, instead opening his arms wide and letting the flames wash over him and turn back on itself, creating a safe space for Bao Si behind him. The Yellow Dragon growled a warning and launched itself out his body as a hand emerged from the fires and grabbed at Bao Si. The Yellow Dragon evaporated as soon as it blocked the hand but it provided Bao Si’s Gu the time to spit out a bloody mass of miasma that soared above the hand and out of sight.

“Captain Pan!”

The hand and the flames collapsed, and Chen Haoran could see Captain Liu standing protectively in front of Pan Gong, clutching the bloody mass in his fist and burning it to ashes.

“How many times can you do that?” Chen Haoran asked.

“That was made using the blood I harvested earlier. It was about as effective as I could make it,” Bao Si said.

“Damn.”

Chen Haoran quickly ran through the calculus in his head. If he was being generous, then each side had a person who could counter the other. He blocked Captain Liu, Bao Si harrassed Pan Gong, Captain Liu targeted Bao Si, and Pan Gong frustrated him. In reality Captain Liu could much more easily protect Pan Gong from Bao Si than Chen Haoran could protect her from him. Captain Liu hadn’t even used any real technique yet. Just flooding the place with fire was enough for them to be overwhelmed. Without his sword, the math didn’t favor them making it out of this unscathed if they let this drag out.

Chen Haoran felt a twinge of pain in…. well, his entire body, really, but particularly his chest, and amended his previous thought. He already wasn’t getting out of this unscathed, but it would be nice to avoid getting hurt more. He hoped Bao Si would hurry up with whatever she was planning.

“Are you alright, Captain Pan?” Captain Liu asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Pan Gong replied. He held his shoulder and rolled his arm around, making a satisfied noise upon seeing he had a full range of motion. “It’s my first time facing a Black Bone Shaman. You truly do live up to the rumors.” He cast a critical eye on Bao Si’s Centipede Gu. “I wonder if that’s the power that convinced the Sunset Emperor to spare your people?”

Bao Si scoffed. “Careful now. It sounds like you’re implying your precious Emperor is anything less than infallible. Is one treason not enough for you?”

“What a vicious curse,” Pan Gong mused. “Is it not enough for you that I won’t be able to sleep easy knowing a Shaman took blood from me?”

“There’s no need to be concerned, Captain Pan.” Fire flared from Captain Liu. “She can’t cast any curses if I burn them to a crisp.”

“Or you and the walking Tren advertisement can just leave?” Chen Haoran suggested. One of Bao Si’s Gu threaded itself around his legs.

“Buddy, if you or the Human Lighter Fluid understood what I said, I’d be the one with more questions.”

Pan Gong shook his head in exasperation and stepped forward. Smashing one fist into the other palm. “At the very least, I won’t be forgetting this fight anytime soon. Captain Liu, after you.”

“With pleasure.”

Chen Haoran silently cursed and raised his fists. He was never going anywhere without a spare sword ever again.

“Brother Chen!”

“Took him long enough,” Bao Si muttered.

They all paused. Pan Gong and Captain Liu turned sharp, serious eyes to the sky. Chen Haoran craned his neck to see Xie Jin with Phelps on his back floating in the sky with a sword in hand.

His sword.

“Brother Chen!” Xie Jin called. Phelps whooped an accompanying squeal. Xie Jin raised his sword. “Missing something?”

A laugh escaped Chen Haoran, the most elated he’d ever been since entering this damned Secret Realm. He held out his palm toward the sky. “You beautiful bastards. I knew Bao Si was full of shit!”

Purple miasma spilled from Xie Jin’s sleeve and wrapped around the sword before he reared his arm back and pitched it to Chen Haoran.

“Who said you could interfere?” Captain Liu shouted. Blue fire jettisoned from his palms, and he rocketed into the air above their heads to intercept Xie Jin and Phelps. Phelps loosed a loud screech and abruptly cut his floating and dived to the ground. Captain Liu chased while a single burning palm was raised to blast his sword away. Chen Haoran and Bao Si did not move. The Centipede Gu around his leg placed its ugly head in his palm.

Pan Gong shifted. Serious eyes widened. He sprinted into a blur towards them. “Captain Liu! Stop!”

Fire flooded from Captain Liu’s hands, and when the flames cleared, the sword had gone….

Straight into Chen Haoran’s waiting hand.

The Centipede Gu recoiled from his palm as Chen Haoran and the Yellow Dragon greeted the arrogant metal. It’s duty to deliver the blade into his hands completed. Metal white light flashed as Chen Haoran whipped the sword back and sent a sharp scythe behind him. Forcing Pan Gong to halt his charge and scramble backward, raising his arms to cover his upper body. White light bit deep into his arms and drew blood. Pan Gong wasn’t his true target, however.

Chen Haoran tapped into the force reserves of his armor, gathering the stored energy along with his qi and shunting it directly into the sword till both flesh and metal groaned audibly. The Yellow Dragon roared, propelling the flood further into the blade with majestic command and inciting a reaction from the inborn pride that even a memory of the White Tyrant held. Chen Haoran’s muscles strained as if he was suddenly holding a blade several times heavier and, with a wordless shout, he swung his sword at Captain Liu.

Being able to maneuver in the air afforded Captain Liu the luxury of many different options to escape. Chen Haoran knew this, so he made sure to cut them all off. White light filled the sky and cast a new day over the gloomy, toxic green dusk of the pyramid. If Captain Liu wanted to find a way to dodge, then Chen Haoran wished him the best of luck because the day would not end till he successfully cut something. On this, he and the White Tyrant probably would have shared a like mind.

The light faded.

The first to fall were Phelps and Xie Jin. Not a hair was harmed on their heads, but both man and sloth were silent with white terror. Even if they were not the target, they were far too close for comfort.

The second to fall was fire.

To say it fell like a meteor would afford it dignity it didn’t have. Captain Liu’s fiery form fell like wet slime and likewise splattered across the stones of the pyramid in two pieces. A hand of fire suddenly extended from one of the burning piles and attempted to find purchase on the stones, and Captain Liu dragged himself out of his own flames.

“You bastard—” He attempted to rise fully, but before his legs could form, they suddenly collapsed, pitching him face-first into the ground and scattering back into loose flames. Another hand soon reached out, and Captain Liu lurched out, gasping for air like a starving fire. He searched for the other mass of flames and slid over to it, combining into one.

“What?” At least, he tried to. Once more, his body lost cohesion, and he scattered into flames. “No, no!” Captain Liu flailed within his flames as if he were a man drowning in water, useless splashing at edges he couldn’t pull himself over. “Impossible!”

With a scream of pain, Captain Liu stoked his blue flames into a bright inferno. Captain Liu rose with his flames, screaming and pushing all the way as if trapped within them before the wall that separated fire and flesh broke, and he tumbled out of his liquid flames as a man once more. The instant he did, all the blue bled away from the fire, and the flames withered to orange embers. It wasn’t the only thing that withered either. The Captain Liu Chen Haoran had met was a strong man in form and presence. Now, he looked weaker and smaller than ever, as if he’d been stripped of several pounds of mass and qi.

Bao Si and Xie Jin’s instincts were quick and their decision quicker. Three streams of liquid miasma shot at Captain Liu immediately. Chen Haoran’s sense warned him just in time to whirl around and swing another arc of white light at Pan Gong. In a movement too fast to track, Pan Gong crossed through the sword shadow, beat out the miasma, and carried Captain Liu to safety. They settled at the edge of the pyramid, Captain Liu as pale as the light that cut him and Pan Gong with a long gash freely bleeding across his chest.

“Pan Gong,” Captain Liu gasped. “I’m— I’m sorry. My- my Technique. I couldn’t reform. If I didn’t burn everything.”

“Do not lose heart, Captain Liu,” Pan Gong quietly said. “You survived a clash with a higher power.”

Chen Haoran twirled his sword in his grip and settled the blade on his shoulder. “Looks like my helpers were more reliable than yours, eh Pan Gong?”

Pan Gong touched the still unhealed cut over his chest and looked at his bloody fingers. “I knew I was right to neutralize that sword first. Even so, I underestimated how lethal that power is. I can’t imagine how much stronger you’ll be if we were to ever meet as foes again.”

Chen Haoran inwardly frowned but didn’t let it show on his face. “Now you decide to run?”

“You can’t run before I get back my pound of blood,” Xie Jin said, his voice filled blood thirst. “I at least need a finger.”

“Yes, the situation isn’t in my favor anymore. So I’m retreating.” Pan Gong honestly answered. “I just needed to make sure the Garrison could escape. This battle isn’t worth me wasting energy and risking injury to continue.” He grabbed Captain Liu. “Of course. You could follow me. But I don’t think you want to get far from your Lotus Flower friend, do you?”

Chen Haoran grimaced. Pan Gong had hit the nail right on the head. Chasing him and Captain Liu would only hurt them in the end if they couldn’t retreat with the rebels. It helped that he also wasn’t looking forward to fighting Pan Gong again, even if he had his sword now.

As Chen Haoran was wavering the barrier surrounding the pyramid shuddered before breaking into countless pieces. An exuberant roar came rose from below as the Garrison soldiers finally broke the barrier.

The decision was made for him in the end. Fighting Pan Gong was going to be unpleasant, but fighting Pan Gong after he regrouped with the Garrison would be even worse. Chen Haoran raised his sword and flooded qi to his legs, and Pan Gong bent his legs. Bao Si and Xie Jin readied their Gu, and Phelps bared his teeth in preparation.

Before anyone could move, however, a new light emerged from the altar-building and cast itself across the pyramid. This time a soft, ethereal gold instead of harsh metal white. It was an energy that hadn’t existed before until this moment. He knew because there was no way any of them would have missed its presence. It was light and airy, and yet, to his sense Chen Haoran felt like he was staring into an impenetrable fog. One that he couldn’t see the depths of yet still demanded his attention. And not only his.

All three Gu twisted around and immediately ignored Pan Gong. Even Phelps couldn’t help turning his head and stare salivatingly at the altar. Even the Yellow Dragon cast a covetous eye at the altar, and Chen Haoran could feel greed run thick through his qi and he felt compelled to turn as well. Turning his back to Pan Gong in this situation would have been a mistake if Pan Gong weren’t also transfixed by the light.

Xie Jin’s expression shifted to panic. “No! Stop!” He flung out his arm right as his Beetle Gu flung itself at the altar. It halted stock still in midair, but in the greatest display of emotion Chen Haoran had ever seen from a Gu, it beat its wings erratically, and an alien buzzing emerged with every flap. A vein bulged in Xie Jin’s head as he whispered something inaudible during his invisible tug-of-war with his Gu. It was a war he eventually won, with the Gu finally calming and returning to rest on his arm.

Bao Si was not so successful.

“Stop. Heel.” She bit out between grit teeth. Her face red from exertion. The Centipede Gu writhed and inched forward under unseen restraints. Two Gu evidently being more trouble than one alone. Eventually, one Gu was pulled back, but the other slipped its chains and raced forward. “Stop!”

Chen Haoran’s armored hand wrapped itself around the Gu’s head. “She said stop.” The Yellow Dragon lent a low growl to his words so that they were hammered in. The writhing Gu stilled under the warning from the superior king, and when he let go, it retreated to Bao Si’s side. Thankfully the Yellow Dragon and Phelps could keep their composure better than the Gu could.

“I’m sorry,” Bao Si said, breathless. “I can control them normally but… but….”

“This isn’t normal,” Xie Jin finished for her. “What kind of essence is this? Some kind of plant. Mine is saying 200? 300?”

“300,” Bao Si confirmed. “Both of mine are in agreement.”

Xie Jin looked at the altar with a mixture of awe and wariness. “What kind of plant could do this with just 300 years of essence?”

The golden light eventually evaporated and Qiong Qi came barreling out the entrance of the altar. Whatever had happened inside, he’d suffered the worst of it. A mass of grasping roots was all that was left of the red lotus on his left shoulder, and the arm connected to that shoulder had been ripped off at the elbow. In his other hand was a shining fruit in the shape of a fat little monk sitting in a meditative position. Chen Haoran only had the scarcest glimpse of it before Qiong Qi stashed it into his storage bag, but it did nothing to cover up the presence it left behind. He warily surveyed his surroundings and retreated a few paces further. Both from the altar-building and from the ravenous Gu.

“Qiong Qi, what happened in there?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Trouble,” Qiong Qi curtly said. His eyes flicked from him to the Gu, to Pan Gong, and back to the altar in succession.

“When’s our exit coming?” Chen Haoran demanded.

Vines extended from Qiong Qi’s armor from his stump of an arm and wrapped themselves into a new prosthetic vine hand. “Not quick enough.”

The altar was now glowing with a new light. This time, in all five colors of the five elements. Like a blot against a canvas, however, a vicious, bestial red qi was growing.

Lu Aotian emerged from the altar like a predator from his cave. One leg was charred entirely black, but from the way he walked—no, prowled, Chen Haoran would believe he wasn’t hurt at all. There was a look of wonder on his face as if he was seeing the world for the first time. Yet when their eyes met Chen Haoran felt he wasn’t so much looking at him as he was past him. Their was a sense of threat to it he hadn’t felt before from Lu Aotian’s usual predatory gaze. One that made him tighten his grip on his sword.

Pan Gong’s whisper broke the silence. “A Bodhi Pear.” Unmistakable envy filled his face, and endless regret colored his tone.

Xie Jin reacted with visceral shock, and even Bao Si’s cool composure morphed into disbelief.

Chen Haoran didn’t know what that was, but the name sounded oddly familiar to him nonetheless. Where had he heard it before?

“What’s a Bodhi Pear?” Chen Haoran asked. Struggling to remember where he’d heard the name.

“A treasure among treasures,” Bao Si answered, her voice hoarse. “The Enlightenment Fruit. One sniff will clear frustrations. One bite will clear doubts. One whole will reveal all answers. Here? Of all places?”

“A hundred years means nothing to its growth,” Xie Jin said. His eyes slid over to Qiong Qi. “Even a thousand years. If this place was able to grow them. If there’s a tree here. The Military Governor, no, the whole Empire would rip this place out of the ground.”

“Unfortunately, there is no tree,” Lu Aotian said. His voice rang clear and devoid of his usual disdain, and behind it, Chen Haoran couldn’t shake the image of a lion speaking human words. “Only an ambitious kingdom’s hodgepodge method to improve the quality of the fruits. I’ll give them their credit; however, their work really was sublime even if they would never enjoy the culmination of their labor.”

With every word, the impression Chen Haoran got was different. Lion, bear, eagle, panther. A new predator speaking in Lu Aotian’s voice. Or were they all just Lu Aotian himself?

Lu Aotian spread his arms wide and laughed, full of honest joy and mirth. “The sayings were true then. There really is a light at the end of the tunnel for those who wait.” His clear eyes fell on Pan Gong. “This is why I never bothered with your Palace School. Could they ever give you this? Would they? Go and play student your whole life, Pan Gong. I’ll be going on ahead of you.”

“I may not be able to see what you see right now, but I can recognize you’ve yet to Harmonize truly,” Pan Gong calmy replied.

Harmonize this was something Chen Haoran knew. Was that what was going on now? He’d felt Lu Aotian’s Harmonization with his Technique before. Was he trying to do the same now for his cultivation method? Was he becoming one of the monsters Song Yuelin had described before?

“Five minutes,” Qiong Qi suddenly spoke. “Survive for five minutes, and then we can all leave here.”

Lu Aotian turned to him. “Do you think you can?”

“Are you really going to risk wasting your epiphany, you crazy bastard?” Qiong Qi snarled.

Lu Aotian smiled. “Waste? No. This is enlightenment by combat.” A red aurora rose from his body. The Yellow Dragon roared defiantly at the new threat it felt. “Besides, you were crazy enough not to eat yours when you had the chance. I’ll thank your generosity in advance when I pick it from your corpse.”

Bodhi Pear. Generosity. Yellow Dragon.

Oh.

The air—no, the qi around Lu Aotian took on a red tint. Not because he flooded his own qi but because the surrounding qi suddenly became his own. The red air rose, and his Liquid Qi rose smoothly in tandem with it, growing larger even as it left his body, first tripling, then quadrupling in size until it shrouded the entire peak and cast a red shadow down the pyramid.

What emerged from the qi was the nightmare masterpiece of a mad taxidermist. Four massive legs made of countless legs, capped with claws formed of countless claws. They held up a patchwork body of fur, feathers, and scales and a rope of thousands of tails twisted into a facsimile of one. The head was the worst, however. From far away, it might look like a lion’s head at a casual glance, but standing beneath it revealed in detail every single one of the individual heads that formed it. An entire ecosystem of predators decapitated and mashed till every jaw, beak, maw, and snout formed a mocking mask of the King of Beasts.

Xie Jin and Bao Si paled under the oppressive weight of the qi and the King of Beasts tortured majesty. Qiong Qi’s face became grim. Pan Gong stood back with his arms crossed, though his eyes constantly tracked Qiong Qi. Chen Haoran sent a pulse of qi to his helmet and allowed the face plate to open up.

Bao Si bit her lip and stepped forward. “Stay behind me. I have a defensive tool from my master. I can at least hold him off—”

Chen Haoran placed his hand on her shoulder and stopped her. “If you could use that casually, you would have done it already. Whatever price isn’t worth it.”

“There’s no other way….” her voice trailed off as she stared with wide eyes at the fat little fruit that appeared in Chen Haoran’s hand. It looked more like a green statue of a monk than a pear. The details of the monk’s face and clothes were too fine in detail to ever be grown naturally, but it was impossible to mistake it for what it was. Golden light, stronger than before, gently pulsed from the fruit in waves, and the oppressive weight of Lu Aotian’s qi was washed away.

500-year-old Bodhi Pear

Chen Haoran stared at the Machu River’s gift with a complicated gaze. “I guess we’ll see how this goes.”

He took a bite.

-------------

I'll be straight. I don't really like talking about myself or my problems online. Especially when I feel like they're not just mine. Having people who deserve to get updates and news about me is a new experience to me that I clearly haven't adjusted to well. This is a personal failing on my part and one I will try to rectify. That being said. This is what happened. 

Irony of ironies: after my grand announcement that I was coming back, I got sick with a bad flu. I was laid up for a while because of it, and it took weeks to recover from the cough it left me. In the middle of my being sick, my mom and my aunt got involved in a car accident and were hospitalized. They're doing better now, but recovery will take months, and there are loads of doctor visits, tests, scans, cast adjustments, and surgeries for both in the future. To put it simply. It's the first time in my life I've ever seen someone take three minutes to lie down in a bed and be in pain the whole time doing it. 

I don't say any of this to excuse but to explain because you guys deserve an explanation. It's... well, I don't really have words for you guys, and how you make me feel even after the bullshit you guys have gone through. Thank you. All of you guys for still sticking around. It's perfectly fine at this point if you just got sick of me and didn't care for the story anymore. I'm grateful.

Now for the future. Now that my mom and aunt are out of the hospital, chapters will start coming again. Book 2 is almost done now. In addition, I'll be pinning a link to the discord at the top of the page. I'll always be reachable directly there.

Thank you, and Happy New Year all.

Chapter 157

On a scale of one to pain, Chen Haoran was feeling Yes.

He must’ve definitely looked cool, but damn did he not feel it. Regenrating his chest cavity and all the mushed up bones and viscera was perhaps the most intensely uncomfortable experience of his life. He could only like the sensation to filling up a meat balloon except he was the balloon. Suffice to say, the Banquet Peach really put in work and showed its value. He’d have to do something nice for Xi Wangmu next time he never saw her.

Good lord it had been felt strange breathing without lungs or a heart, or operating without a functional chest. While the Banquet Peach did a large part of the work it remained to be said that Liquid Meridians and liquid qi were ridiculous in terms of physicality and uses. He definitely would have died had he sustained similar injuries when he was a Qi Realm.

“Are you alright?” Bao Si asked.

No, he wasn’t. Without the Yellow Dragon coming back in time to assist it was a good question if he would have been still capable of fighting at all. In fact, he would probably be losing sleep after the absolute ass-whooping he’d been handed. This armor, on the other hand, felt amazing. He felt no weight at all, and while there was a constant drain on his qi to operate it, if he were to push more of his qi in—

“Haoran?”

“I’m fine,” Chen Haoran said, shaking his head. He threw up a middle finger at Pan Gong. “Get over here so I can kick your ass. I don’t have all day.”

“All day would be preferred, actually,” Qiong Qi muttered.

Pan Gong shared a look with Lu Aotian. He generously extended his hand out. “After you.”

Lu Aotian was unamused. “You’re joking.”

“You resist it better.”

“You can afford to lose more.”

“The right man for every job and the right job for every man. Lu Aotian, you—” Pan Gong pointed at him with a serious look. “Are the right man for this. Now get.”

Lu Aotian made a sound of frustration that was halfway between a growl and a sigh and stalked forward slowly. Red liquid qi spilled and formed a bipedal tiger complete with claws and head that covered him like armor.

“He’s measuring my range,” Bao Si mumbled.

Chen Haoran couldn’t blame him. Whatever spell Bao Si had cast was scary as hell. Even just sensing it felt like there was a yawning void that threated to peel him apart one vital essence at a time at any moment. That being said he got Bao Si’s meaning. It wouldn’t be good to let them have an accurate idea of its reach.

“Keep an eye on Pan Gong,” he ordered Qiong Qi and before the pretty boy could get a word in edgewise he flooded qi to his legs and shot off to meet Lu Aotian.

A wave of beasts rose to engulf him, predators of all stripes stacked over each other in layers. Chen Haoran raised no defense and crashed into the wave head on. The qi parted like a split sea. Claws and fangs found no purchase on his armor and had their power turned against them, bursting the liquid creatures like water balloons. Blue ripples pulsed across the reflective silver from the points of contact and Chen Haoran gathered them all to his fist to crush Lu Aotian’s skull. All he hit was an empty qi tiger however. Lu Aotian shed his liquid cover the just before Chen Haoran hit him and retreated back to Pan Gong’s side with a fire boosted movement. Chen Haoran fell back to stand with Bao Si rather than pursue.

“That was underwhelming,” Pan Gong said. “I thought you wanted to kill him?”

“My desire to kill him is less than my resistance to being made to fix your mistakes,” Lu Aotian coolly answered.

“Is it really that hard to say you can’t do it?” Chen Haoran taunted.

“I wouldn’t cast stones if I were you,” Pan Gong said.

“You can say that when you muster up the courage to fight me in full armor.”

“If you’re that confident why not come over here and see how it turns out? Or are you just going to rely on the shaman’s spell to even the odds?”

“I’m fighting with an eight Layer difference and still soloing. How about you get on my level first before you complain?”

“I notice you’re a lot mouthier now that there’s a woman around. Do you think you can impress them by talking a lot?”

Chen Haoran blanched behind his helmet. “Really man? I just regrew this heart, and you just go and kill it again?”

Pan Gong looked apologetic. “I was a bit out of line. Sorry.”

“They’re stalling,” Bao Si mumbled. “They shouldn’t be the ones stalling.”

“They’re waiting for you to run out of energy,” Chen Haoran said. He hooked a thumb to her centipede ouroboros. “I’m guessing you can’t move that thing, can you?”

Bao Si gave him a look. “Really? Right in front of the enemy?”

“They already know you can’t do it. That’s why they decided to stall.”

“It’s the principle of the matter.”

Chen Haoran snorted. “Principle? Don’t think I forgot about you using me as a human shield.”

“That was pragmatism.”

There was a game going on. Pan Gong and Lu Aotian were stalling and waiting for Bao Si to remove her spell. That was fine with Chen Haoran because he was also stalling. Even now, the Yellow Dragon was furiously drawing in and refining qi to replace the massive loss he suffered healing from his injuries as well as maintain the True Reflection Mysterious Mirror Armor. Bao Si knew this and was running out the time for as long as she could to buy time for him to recover. Qiong Qi, meanwhile, didn’t care about any of this as long as time was being wasted and more time was given to the Formation Controller.

It was a balance that would end as soon as Bao Si could no longer maintain her spell. As such, it was liable to break at any time. Until it did, however, Chen Haoran would be staying right where he was.

At least, that was his plan before Pan Gong started fiddling with his stolen storage bag.

“This storage bag is pretty high quality. I’m a bit jealous,” Pan Gong said as he tugged the fabric with his meaty sausage fingers that Chen Haoran was contemplating ripping off. “Is this how you almost got me with that tusk? It was a pretty interesting effect. I should switch over.”

Chen Haoran was grateful that the Earth-Rank storage bag came with the ability to be locked to his qi specifically. It meant he had some time, at least, before Pan Gong could force it open. He was also thankful for his helmet disguising his pinched expression. Pan Gong beat him up, ran his pockets, and now was making a show of rummaging through his stuff. Pan Gong’s intent was obvious, and it was a provocation Chen Haoran couldn’t ignore. There wasn’t much in the bag. Since his Connection to Lin Nine, most of his stuff was still in the Reward space, but what was left in the bag were some of the most important. The Paradise Pomegranate chief among them. Leaving it in Pan Gong’s hands was with epitome of a bad idea. Not to mention the manuals for the Blossom-Picking Palm and the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs among them.

While Pan Gong was fat-fingering his storage bag Lu Aotian started moving. This time however he kept his distance and walked toward the altar building instead. An arrow shattered into splinters at his feet.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Qiong Qi asked, stringing another arrow.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you trying to keep me away from the altar? Could you make your anxiety any more obvious?” Lu Aotian mocked. “Let me guess. The reason the Formation Eye is exposed out here instead of protected in there is because you’re afraid the final reward may get stolen. Do I have that right?”

Qiong Qi was stone-faced, and it was all the answer needed.

Lu Aotian sneered. “I said it before, you scavenger. You’re not here for the hunt. You’re here to steal a meal.” He pointed at the altar. “I am going there straight there as soon as that shaman’s spell fails. I tell you this because I already know exactly what you will do in response, and I’m already disappointed by it.” His lips twisted upward in a crooked, predatory grin. “But I have been surprised twice today. So I’m giving you the chance to impress me.”

This can’t go on any further. Chen Haoran checked his qi reserves and compared them to Bao Si’s. No matter what, he couldn’t allow her to drain herself to exhaustion. It would have to do.

Green light bloomed in his palms, and qi flooded his legs. “Bao Si, do it.”

“Okay,” was her only reply.

The Centipede Wheel stopped spinning, and the maw disappeared from his sense.

Pan Gong and Lu Aotian exploded into action. Qiong Qi’s armor exploded in a sea of vines, and he released arrow after arrow toward Lu Aotian. The Yellow Dragon roared, and Chen Haoran accelerated to intercept Pan Gong.

Blossom Picking Palm.

He closed the distance with Pan Gong and was about to release a flurry of palm strikes when Pan Gong suddenly held his storage bag between them. Chen Haoran damnably hesitated, and it was all the opening Pan Gong needed to spin into a crouch and throw him off his feet with a leg sweep. Right as Pan Gong attempted to spring past him, however, he slammed headfirst into a blue curtain that abruptly extended from Chen Haoran’s armor and was bounced backward. Chen Haoran fell on his back and quickly flipped into a crouch as Pan Gong backflipped into a standing position.

“Range limited to five feet,” Pan Gong clinically noted. “Barrier doesn’t feedback into armor.”

After instantly picking apart the shortcomings in the barrier Chen Haoran only just acquired, Pan Gong darted to the left to circle around him. Chen Haoran jumped to cut off his way forward, but Pan Gong immediately spun on his heels and went right instead. Chen Haoran lunged after him, flooding qi through his armor to extend the reflection barrier, but Pan Gong juked left then right again as Chen Haoran was caught flatfooted trying to correct his balance. The Yellow Dragon leaped out with a furious roar to entangle Pan Gong, but Pan Gong smashed it to gas with a single punch and peeled off sprinting.

Chen Haoran flooded qi to his legs and chased after him, willing the Yellow Dragon to send more qi to his legs till they felt like bursting.

Pan Gong was still faster than him.

Chen Haoran helplessly watched Pan Gong escape. His armor may have neutralized Pan Gong’s fists, but it didn’t make him any faster. “Qiong Qi! Restrain him!”

Qiong Qi heard his shout and glanced at Pan Gong. The moment he did, Lu Aotian ripped a path through his vines and disappeared into the altar building. Qiong Qi looked back and forth between Pan Gong and the altar, hesitating. He turned—

“Qiong Qi!”

—and followed Lu Aotian.

Chen Haoran swore. He wasn’t surprised, but he was still disappointed. Pan Gong blitzed past Bao Si before she could react and slammed his fist into the barrier protecting the Formation Controller. It rippled and the Executioner’s Blade trembled and fell slightly. Bao Si’s Gu shot two high-speed jets of liquid miasma at Pan Gong, who turned around with a blood-red fist. The punch he threw displaced the air and sent a shockwave that crushed the liquid miasma and sent Bao Si and her Gu flying over he edge of the pyramid. Pan Gong turned his red fist onto the barrier.

Chen Haoran’s forced himself to run until his muscles tore and regenerated but it wasn’t enough. Pan Gong would break through because he wasn’t fast enough. Because he couldn’t move.

Chen Haoran grabbed ahold of the boiling qi in his legs and forced it to follow a pattern he’d constantly practiced and failed to use. There was only one chance. He focused on the red of Pan Gong’s fist and uniform. He was so fast. What Chen Haoran wouldn’t give to be that fast right now. The pattern completed and became a cycle. The cycle completed and became red light. The red light emerged from his meridians to his legs. The Yellow Dragon roared.

One step beyond beasts. Four steps beyond men. Seven steps beyond the world.

Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs

Red Step of Good Fortune.

Chen Haoran moved.

Pan Gong grunted in surprise when Chen Haoran shoulder-checked him in the spine with an ever-so-satisfying crunch and crushed him against the barrier. Not content to waste his chance, Chen Haoran wrapped his arms around Pan Gong’s waist and, with a heave of qi and a dragon roar, suplexed him headfirst onto the stone ground. That didn’t come with a satisfying crack, so Chen Haoran let go and pounced on Pan Gong, letting the Yellow Dragon fill his fists to hammer brutal blows into Pan Gong’s face. Trying to straddle a man the size and strength of Pan Gong, however, was an exercise in futility, and Pan Gong soon caught his fists and threw him off in a single motion. The Yellow Dragon flooded out of Chen Haoran’s legs, and he landed on its body, using it as a platform to jump at Pan Gong once more with a flying kick.

Pan Gong gracefully leapt to his feet and caught Chen Haoran’s leg in a move that could only be described as water-like. Using his own force against him, Pan Gong avoided triggering the armor’s reflection, and Chen Haoran found himself flying into the barrier. Steam rose off of Pan Gong’s fist as it boiled red, and he threw it dead center to Chen Haoran’s chest. The blow was strong enough to forcefully push through the mirror armor’s reflection and slam Chen Haoran into the barrier. The resulting counterforce blew back Pan Gong and shattered the barrier.

Chen Haoran fell to his feet while Pan Gong tumbled head over heel. Admirably, through all of this, the Rattan Armor soldier in charge of the Formation didn’t flinch, and the Executioner’s Blade rose higher as more of Six-Eyes’s influence was cut off.

Pan Gong finally arrested his momentum and rolled onto his heels. The sleeve of his uniform had burst apart, and multiple thin red scratches marked his arm. Three fingers were bent out of place. Chen Haoran, meanwhile, was perfectly fine, and his armor thrummed with stored power.

“You regretting that?” Chen Haoran taunted.

Pan Gong bent his broken fingers back to their original positions and flexed his newly healed hand. “Not particularly. As long as I broke the barrier, I would have the advantage. It’s not like you can stop me.”

Chen Haoran grimaced. Much as he hated to admit it, Pan Gong had a point. Using the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs was luck born of desperation. It wasn’t something he could recklessly bet on succeeding every time, especially now that the barrier protecting the Formation Controller was gone and his margin of error was razor thin. Any mistake he made at this point would mean their biggest reliance to fend off the Garrison was gone.

At least right now, his armor was full of power that he could use as a quick speed boost if he timed it right. The issue was replenishing it. Pan Gong was infuriatingly avoiding direct combat now and had quickly picked up on how to work around the armor’s reflection ability. Using soft touches and indirect means to deny Chen Haoran the opportunity to use his strength against him.

An idle thought crossed his mind, and he slapped his hand against his thigh. Unfortunately, his spur-of-the-moment idea was for naught. The armor’s reflection power neutralized itself. Perhaps if he used a separate weapon?

Pan Gong didn’t give him time to consider it. He rushed forward at breakneck speed. Chen Haoran waited for him. Focusing all the qi he could into his eyes to not miss a single movement. Pan Gong was a blur even so, but it was fine. The moment Pan Gong crossed into range, Chen Haoran called on the stored force in his armor and hurtled toward Pan Gong like he’d been released from a slingshot. He sent what little of the force remained to his open palm, that he swung in a downward strike.

Pan Gong paused as he knew he would. The temptation to use Chen Haoran’s own momentum to throw him far away and proceed unimpeded to the Formation Controller was too great to ignore. Pan Gong raised Chen Haoran’s storage bag to his face in another attempt to make him hesitate. There would be no balking this time around, however. Killing Pan Gong was worth losing a storage bag.

The choice didn’t need to be made in the end, however, as the storage bag disappeared from Pan Gong’s grasp. Chen Haoran couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his face even as he brought his palm down. A thought pulled the Earth-Rank Earthsplitting Axe out from the inventory space, and Chen Haoran closed his hand around the hilt of Lin Nine’s reward and chopped down at Pan Gong’s head.

Whether through skill or sheer desperate instinct Pan Gong turned his head at the last moment to avoid having his skull split. Instead, the axe bit deeply into Pan Gong’s shoulder. Chen Haoran and the Yellow Dragon roared as one and dragged the axe further from Pan Gong’s shoulder down toward his chest.

Pan Gong roared in pain, true pain. It was louder than any noise Chen Haoran had heard before. It was as if someone took a rockslide and a falling glacier and let the sound ring out from a man’s mouth. The force of it was enough to rupture his eardrums and rattle his bones. Chen Haoran found that the axe would no longer move. He planted his feet on Pan Gong’s chest and tried to drag it out, but it was good and stuck. Pan Gong’s body turned bright red, and the air around him superheated. He grew two sizes larger and Chen Haoran was dragged into the air. A chunk of qi disappeared as a massive red fist hammered into Chen Haoran’s side and sent him skipping across the stones.

He rolled to his feet, practically bouncing from the force within the armor. The Yellow Dragon roared, and liquid qi surged to his legs, sending him leaping across the distance with an amplified fist. Pan Gong, giant he may now be, sidestepped the blow rather than take it. The Yellow Dragon soared out of his body and once again gave Chen Haoran a place to bounce off of in the air to land a heavy blow into Pan Gong’s chest that rang with the force of a cannon and cracked his bones with a sound akin to falling trees. Blood splattered, and Pan Gong took several steps back. Then he took several more steps back, this time of his own volition, getting smaller and smaller with each step till both his skin and height returned to normal.

He was a sorry sight. His uniform was a ruin. His broken ribs bulged against the skin of his chest, failing to pierce through it. The axe was still buried in his body. His arm and shoulder had almost completely been amputated and were barely still connected to the rest of him. Blood ran out of his open wound finally, but to Chen Haoran’s surprise, when it fell to the ground, the droplets turned into red pearls of blood instead.

Bao Si arrived at his side and handed over his storage bag.

“Thank you,” Chen Haoran said, gratefully taking it. He reached inside, pulled out a handful of pomegranate seeds, and immediately swallowed them.

“Don’t mention it,” Bao Si said. She stared at Pan Gong’s pearl blood with scrutinizing eyes. “Blood like mercury…” She looked at Pan Gong in surprise. “You’re a Body Refiner?”

“Please don’t say things that will get me in trouble,” Pan Gong said. “I use a body refining method. There’s a difference.”

Despite his terrifying injury, Pan Gong still had color in his cheeks. The only indication of pain on his face was the sweat beading across his brow. Not only that, despite the fact he was bleeding, there was no Liquid Qi escaping his body. It was further confirmation of what the Yellow Dragon had shown him before. This ‘body refining’ method altered the way Pan Gong used liquid qi. He took the axe in hand and wrenched it out his body, spilling more blood pearls.

Bao Si waved her hand and her Gu rushed forward to collect the blood. Pan Gong immediately took out a talisman from his storage bag and released a conflagration of white fire, forcing the Gu to retreat. He stamped his foot, and the blood pearls began rolling back toward him.

“There is a saying,” Pan Gong said. “A lion will use all its strength even when hunting a mouse.”

“Don’t care. Didn’t ask.” Chen Haoran flooded qi to his legs and rushed toward him.

“It’s a saying that fits Lu Aotian more than it does myself. I don’t really like playing all my cards, nor do I need to.”

“Good, keep them to your chest and die,” Chen Haoran said. Green light bloomed in his hand.

“After all. I am not a lion. I run with wolves.” Pan Gong grabbed his shoulder and held it back in place. The escaped blood pearls began rolling up his body and into the wound.

Chen Haoran wouldn’t let this opportunity pass. It was here or never.

Blossom Picking Palm.

“Above!”

Bao Si’s warning came too late. Chen Haoran only had enough time to dig in his heels and whirl around when blue fire fell from the heavens and incinerated the Formation Controller. The man didn’t even have time to scream before he was turned to ashes. The flames surged and scoured away the runes of the Formation Circle before reconstituting into Captain Liu’s burning body.

“What I’m trying to say is that my helpers are more reliable than yours,” Pan Gong finished.

The Executioner’s Blade groaned and fell from the sky, collapsing into metal white light.

Chapter 156

Would you believe it if I said I caught a cold right after I said we were resuming our regular schedule? Cause I sure as hell don't. I guess it's thematically more appropriate that the regular schedule starts back up on Monday. Anyway I'm feeling better now. This chapter has been brought to you by ibuprofen, vitamin gummies, and Pear Cinnamon Red Bull.

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As Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridians, Qiong Qi and Lu Aotian had reached the top of the pyramid and exchanged half a hundred rounds by the time Bao Si reached the summit.

Qiong Qi placed himself protectively in front of a meditating Rattan Armor soldier sitting within a glowing white circle while Lu Aotian prowled the edges at the center of his feral pack. Predators of all kingdoms sprung the red liquid qi pooling like blood at his feet and threw themselves into the deadly garden Qiong Qi conjured. A hundred thick vines unfurled from his armor and strangled the qi beasts as they tried to gnaw through them. An errant vine sprung from within the mess like a striking snake towards Lu Aotian, who impassively stared it down as it was devoured into nothingness before ever reaching him. His only reaction was to  lift a finger and send a snarling tiger pouncing through the air to be evaporated by a fireball that sprouted from the red lotus on Qiong Qi’s shoulder.

To the inexperienced eye, they were in a stalemate. To Bao Si, who had been surrounded by superior talents her whole life, they were merely in a lull in the fighting. What to weaker cultivators would be intense combat had long since become the minimum standard for the two Ninth-Layers.

Bao Si noted that the eye of the rebel’s Formation wasn’t placed inside the altar building where it would be better protected but outside. She wasn’t given any more time to ponder the reasons, however. As she arrived, Lu Aotian and Qiong Qi glanced at her. Lu Aotian twitched his finger and peeled off two Third-Layer Liquid Meridian wolves from his horde to leap at her. Her Gu bristled. A mental command saw it tailor its miasma into a virulent qi-dispersing toxin while simultaneously releasing it in a high-pressure stream of liquid miasma. The wolves were pierced, and veins of murky purple-black poison streaked through their red bodies, destabilizing their forms. Her Gu extended and caught the wolves in its enlarged mandibles, ripping them in half and devouring the mixture of red qi and miasma.

Bao Si frowned at the feedback she received from the Centipede Gu choking down Lu Aotian’s bestial qi. As she had feared while watching him fight Chen Haoran, it was an energy that devoured. It scoured whatever it touched like scavengers picking clean a corpse till not even the bones were left. Lu Aotian was unfortunately a hard counter to Gu. While her Gu could take in the qi after sterilizing it with miasma, it wasn’t an efficient process, and it would be easy for them to be overwhelmed if she was not careful. Such was the case with all the true counters for Gu, the list was small but each was devastatingly effective. It was part of the reason she decided to follow after Qiong Qi. So long as Lu Aotian was alive she wouldn’t be able to use her Gu to their maximum effectiveness.

Lu Aotian coldly snorted seeing his qi beasts were devoured. “I’m beginning to tire of your kind.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Qiong Qi retorted. He strung up his great bow and accurately placed an arrow through the gap of vines and snarling animals.

Lu Aotian ducked, fire flaring at his feet, and accelerated in a single red line of qi. Two massive bears reared up out his back and pinned the vines beneath their bulk while he darted around the side, keeping close to the altar building. Qiong Qi leaped to meet him, his bowstring detaching and turning into a thin silk whip that disappeared from sight when he cracked it.

What happened next was difficult for her to follow. She could hear three distinct whip cracks and saw Lu Aotian swipe the air three times with red claws and back off before she’d even finished blinking. It was a humbling reminder. Surmounting the difference in Layers and challenging a peak Ninth-Layer was theoretically more feasible than doing the same across Realms, but it was like discussing whether it would be easier to climb the tallest mountain or fly to Heaven. One might absolutely be more realistic than the other, but the difficulty of the task was still enormous. Bao Si was out of place in this fight.

Lu Aotian knew it as well. Disengaging from Qiong Qi, he swung right and made a play toward her. Qiong Qi snapped his whip back into a bow, and his lotuses sprouted two spikes of fire and ice that he pulled into arrows. A stampede of beasts surged in Lu Aotian’s wake and turned around to obstruct his shot. Bao Si bent her knees and with a flood of qi, sprinted to Qiong Qi’s side. A risky move that would leave her easily exposed.  Her Gu screeched and flew ahead to screen Lu Aotian’s approach with a cloud of miasma. The cloud dispersed in the next second as Lu Aotian covered himself in liquid qi and barreled toward her Gu. It gathered together a sphere of miasma within its mandibles. Bao Si could see the sneer form on his face. It wasn’t an uncommon emotion in those who thought they had nothing to fear from a shaman.

The arrogance.

Her second Gu peeled off her skin and released a jet of miasma that pierced Lu Aotian’s liquid qi cover. The sneer was wiped off his face as his reflexes kicked in and he narrowly avoided having a hole drilled through his head. Her second Centipede Gu dropped the sphere of gaseous miasma atop his head. At the same time, two arrows of twirling ice and fire arrived and merged into one, targeting the small of Lu Aotian’s back.

The explosion released was large, fire, poison, and freezing cold winds intertwining into a force that lifted Bao Si off her feet and into the air. A net of vines caught her fall and gently lowered her next to Qiong Qi. He nodded to her, but his gaze was rooted on the smoke. A second later, it billowed, and Lu Aotian escaped from it. His uniform was singed, and his shoulders dusted with frost, but otherwise, he was unharmed. He popped a pill into his mouth, an Earth-Rank judging by its surface, and spat out a black tar that fizzled as it hit the ground.

“Are any of your spells able to affect him?” Qiong Qi asked her.

A good question. She tuned herself to her Gu, both of them. Miasma and qi mixed together to create an energy that wasn’t quite either. Lu Aotian had a protective inner armor he revealed during his fight with Chen Haoran, it was this she targeted. The magic curled invisibly from her and through her Gu.

The spell broke.

“One, two, or three makes no difference to me,” Lu Aotian said. “Do not assume that more Gu makes you more of a threat.”

“I don’t need to assume,” Bao Si replied.

It wasn’t cheek. Perhaps Lu Aotian might not be threatened by one potential Death Curse, but even the Sunset Emperor tried his best to avoid two. Bao Si was the weakest one here, but that did not mean she was any less dangerous than they were. Even Lu Aotian’s qi wasn’t impossible for her to get around eventually after she had time to adjust to it. She cursed Xie Jin again for damn near crippling himself. It might have been necessary, but his Gu and experience with Lu Aotian’s qi would be useful right now.

Qiong Qi let out a chuckle when Lu Aotian didn’t respond. “I have heard of you before, Lu Aotian. Your reputation. Your rumors. I was looking forward to crossing blades with you. Now I’m not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.”

Lu Aotian scoffed. “Spare me your lies. I’ve met hens like you before. All plume and pure scavenger. You’re not here for me.” He flicked his head down toward the sound of the rebels fighting the Garrison officers. “I don’t even think you’re here for them.”

A screeching sound of metal on metal filled the air, loud enough to be felt within their bodies. The Formation Controller behind them groaned, and the Executioner Sword groaned with him, cutting off several black nerve tentacles and slightly rising into the air.

“Do I need to be here for dead men?” Qiong Qi triumphantly asked. “Perhaps if Pan Gong were the one up here right now, I would be in trouble. But you? Oh, I can stop you.”

Lu Aotian shook his head and sighed. “I can’t even muster the will to care about you.” He looked to the sky. “Make no mistake, I will kill you for that, but I’ve just so thoroughly embarrassed myself in this damned Secret Realm that it all feels so pointless. I have never been this frustrated and humiliated in my life. Even scavengers like you think they have a chance now.” He sighed again and looked at Qiong Qi with eyes so disdainful they became pity. “Let it be known, you damn scavenger. My humiliations today resulted from the surprising strength of my opponents. You are not those men. You are, in fact, the least interesting thing in this whole affair.”

Qiong Qi scowled, and Bao Si frowned. Not that she cared for the rebel being insulted, however. Something was wrong. It made sense for Qiong Qi to be talking so much. He was expressly trying to stall. Lu Aotian taking the time to insult him was exactly what he wanted. His anger was so fake it was political. What didn’t make sense was why Lu Aotian was going along with it. He was the one with no time to waste. The Formation Controller had already begun reasserting control. Had Qiong Qi truly gotten to him? Or was it arrogance?

“Do not forget his Crystal Transformation artifact,” Bao Si warned. She didn’t sense any large buildup of qi from him but she didn’t know what else he could be waiting for.

“It’s obviously a protection artifact,” Qiong Qi dismissed. “No one is going to give their heir something that takes time to aim and activate and risk them being instantly killed by a faster Crystal Transformation Realm. I’d welcome him to use it.”

That was true but Bao Si couldn’t shake off her worry.

“Do you really believe that?” Lu Aotian asked. “If I had a protection treasure, it would have activated when that lizard bastard was about to kill me, don’t you think? It would be strange if it didn’t.” Lu Aotian’s qi spiked, erupting into a climbing tower of frenzied animals.

Bao Si tensed. Light bloomed in Qiong Qi’s lotuses.

“In fact-” Lu Aotian suddenly stopped. His qi abruptly collapsed back into himself, leaving Bao Si and Lu Aotian floundering in the sudden calm.

“For the record, I was lying. I would have absolutely killed that lizard bastard were it not for that Six-Eyed freak interrupting for his plan,” Lu Aotian said. He looked over at the stairs.

Bao Si followed his gaze as her Gu chittered warnings. Pan Gong ascended the steps, and her blood ran cold. The meaning of Pan Gong being here would have been obvious enough, even without seeing the armored body he was carrying speared on a tusk like some macabre flag. She didn’t need to use her sense to know it was Chen Haoran, but she didn’t want to know it was him. He was so confident. So self-assured in fighting beyond his level with one of the most dangerous Garrison captains, and for some reason, she had believed him.

Pan Gong casually tossed Chen Haoran’s body, but with his strength, he was still sent soaring through the air. Bao Si stepped forward to catch him.

Qiong Qi’s reached out to grab her, anxiety filling his voice. “Don’t! It’s a distraction!”

Her Gu screeched warnings to her, wrapping around her protectively as Pan Gong and Lu Aotian became blurs to her sense. The distraction wasn’t meant for her, however. Pan Gong blitzed past her and buried his fist into Qiong Qi’s chest while Lu Aotian raked red claws across his back. A single cry of pain was all Qiong Qi allowed himself as he was rapidly spun by the opposing forces and thrown to the ground. Hundreds of vines exploded from his armor and surrounded them. The Bewitching Lotus of Ice and Fire spread their petals wide, and a hundred more bloomed on the vines. The three Ninth-Layers disappeared in a dual firestorm and blizzard.

Bao Si pulled Chen Haoran in front of her and braced herself with qi to block the aftershocks with his armor. Pressed close against him, she could hear a slight groan as his armor was buffeted with fire and rock-sized chunks of ice. He was still alive, good. Her position gave her a prime view of his sunken chest, and the tusk pierced into his heart. Not good. He wouldn’t be alive much longer if she didn’t remove the tusk, and he’d leak liquid qi like a ruptured waterskin if she did. She patted him down for his storage bag, but it was missing. No doubt Pan Gong had it. She didn’t bother to run a deeper check. It was pointless. She simply didn’t have enough qi to heal Chen Haoran and remain combat-ready. She carefully laid him down and brushed her fingers over his half-lidded eyes.

She would have to get the qi elsewhere.

The fire and frost cleared to reveal Qiong Qi back on his feet. His whipbow cracked like lightning and left shallow cuts in Pan Gong’s arms as he defended, trampling vines underfoot and shrugging off heat and cold. On the other side, Lu Aotian’s uniform had been burned down to his inner armor. A wall of vines loomed over him, covered in lotuses that mixed ice and fire into rains of flaming hail that Lu Aotian navigated through like a jungle cat.

Lu Aotian was out. His qi was too difficult to absorb. Pan Gong, on the other hand, shared the same root as Chen Haoran. Bao Si narrowed her eyes and bit her tongue, spitting concentrated blood essence onto her Gu, pouring greater strength into them. Qi and miasma swirled, and her Centipede Gu swirled with them, one head biting the end of the other and creating a circle. Bao Si raised her hand to the center of the circle and twisted it as if she were using a key to open a lock. She felt abruptly empty as a chunk of her energy suddenly disappeared.

The Centipede Wheel began to turn.

Pan Gong and Lu Aotian snapped their heads toward her. Pan Gong immediately disappeared from sight. Qiong Qi threw out a hand, and Pan Gong appeared briefly as vines wrapped around his ankles, then disappeared again as he tore through them. Bao Si had severely underestimated just how fast Pan Gong was. It was a mistake that would cost her life. The screaming of all her senses and intuition providing her just enough time for a final thought.

He really doesn’t look that fast.

Pan Gong appeared again, his outstretched hand in the air. There was surprise in his eyes. His hand was bounced away before it could touch her.

Armored hands clutched her shoulders. A beaten figure stood tall before her, blocking Pan Gong with his back. Bao Si stared into the reflective surface of Chen Haoran’s helmet and saw the fear and relief in her own face.

She really almost died with such a disgusting look.

Depredation of Three Killers

The Centipede Wheel spun, and Pan Gong bellowed in pain. Bubbles emerged in his skin and violently exploded. Two auras emerged from it. One was yellow qi. The other was rich blood essence. Pan Gong gave a great shout, and the auras condensed, trying to return to his body.

The Centipede Wheel spun.

The auras were forcefully ripped away from his skin and more. Mouth, nose, eyes, and ears saw liquid qi and blood essence escaping from them and the rest of his orifices. Both substances were dragged into the Centipede Wheel and collected into separate swirling masses in the center, slowly diffusing outward in circular patterns into the Gu. Bao Si lowered her hand and the Centipede Wheel dropped. Pan Gong sped away before he could be trapped within it. Bao Si fed more energy into the Wheel to keep up the theft but Pan Gong retreated all the way to the opposite edge of the pyramid and out of range.

She turned the Wheel onto Lu Aotian instead. He scowled and snarled and his qi and essence emerged from him doing much the same, as if his entire being was made of a menagerie of monsters. A horde of qi beasts flooded out and charged toward the Centipede Wheel attempting to overwhelm it.

Masses of vines appeared to obstruct them. Qiong Qi turned his whip on himself and cut off the vines growing from his armor. It triggered a mass wilting first in the lotus flowers and then the vines beneath. Their elemental energies however intensified in their radiance. A solid wall of fire followed by an equally sized wall of ice annihilated Lu Aotian’s horde and forced back the feral cultivator to Pan Gong’s side at the edge of the pyramid.

Chen Haoran buckled.

“Chen Haoran!” Bao Si grabbed him.

“The Three Worm Sutra,” came Qiong Qi’s strained voice. He had been hit hard in the exchange but still stared at Bao Si as if seeing her for the first time. “I suspected you were following Granny Three Worm’s path but to think the Black Bones had hidden so deeply. Gods above. Is that the real reason you were chosen?”

Bao Si ignored him because Chen Haoran was showing her new depths to his foolishness by pulling out the tusk in his chest.

She hastily covered the hole with her hands to stop as much liquid qi as she could from escaping. Her qi twirled in the pattern of a healing technique to try and repair his heart while the rest went into keeping the Depredations of Three Killers active in case the Garrison Captains tried to take advantage of the moment.

They didn’t. Pan Gong frowned and stared at Chen Haoran while Lu Aotian scowled beside him.

Lu Aotian finally snapped. “Pan Gong, you sloppy son of a bitch.”

“It was a fatal wound,” Pan Gong calmly replied.

Bao Si stopped her healing technique. It wasn’t necessary. Impossibly, she could feel a beating heart. She slowly took back her hands from smooth skin instead of a bloody hole.

“For a lesser cultivator, perhaps,” Chen Haoran said. He let go of her shoulders and took two steps away, standing on his own. “Isn’t that right, Pan Gong?”

“I underestimated how powerful your regenerative ability is,” Pan Gong said. “I’ve learned something today.”

“You should have gone for the head,” Chen Haoran said.

“You’re wearing a helmet.”

Chen Haoran paused and then patted his head as if he had indeed forgotten he was wearing a helmet. “So I am.”

A flash of yellow flew from the steps and snaked along the ground toward Chen Haoran before anyone could react. It soon revealed itself as a yellow dragon of liquid qi carrying a chest plate in its tail. The dragon roared, lunged into Chen Haoran’s chest, and merged with him. In the next breath he took, Bao Si could feel the air shift as a large amount of qi was drawn to a single point all at once. Chen Haoran’s sunken chest filled up with the sound of popping bones and a loud squelch of organs being regrown and pushed back into place.

When he exhaled, it was with the sound of a dragon’s roar that overrode the sound of combat and death and even made the Centipede Wheel stutter in its revolutions. To cap off his miraculous recovery, the missing chest plate of Chen Haoran’s armor clicked into place. Bao Si was forced to take a step back, repulsed, as blue ripples emerged from Chen Haoran’s head and feet and flowed across the Heaven-Rank armor, illuminating mysterious symbols hidden in the depths of the polished silver.

Chen Haoran slammed his armored fists together and nodded in satisfaction.“Right. Round Two. I’mma need my storage bag back. ”

He beckoned Pan Gong.

“Now come here and run these hands.”

State of Affairs

Hello. Long time no see. Or chat. Except for those on the discord I suppose. 

Regardless I'd like to start off this post by saying thank you. I'm aware that I certainly didn't make it easy on anyone in any way these past few months. The fact that so many of you stuck around is just incredible to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I don't have any excuses for the lack of uploads nor will I make any. As per usual I run head first into the fact that I'm not as mentally strong as I want to be or should be given the responsibilities I have.  What I can do is give you all a promise. No matter the circumstance Immortality Starts With Generosity will never be abandoned. I am a firm believer that an author should finish their books and since this is my first ever series it will have its ending. I'll also endeavor to communicate more on Patreon, the previous lack of communication will not repeat itself and as always I can be found on the Discord.

That being said. We will be resuming the original Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. It will be subject to change in the future but that's for future Plutus to talk about. 

For now, I hope you enjoy the chapters as we wrap up Book 2 of Immortality Starts With Generosity and soon start Book 3. 

Cheers,

Plutus

Chapter 155

Getting punched in the face was a truly universal experience, whether one was a mortal or a cultivator. The brief moment of clarity before one’s thoughts were rocked in every direction was the same. The weightlessness as one’s body gave out was the same. The way the eyes took in everything and nothing at all was the same. Clipping the unbreakable stairs of the pyramid and cracking open the skull was the sa— no actually that wasn’t very normal.

A snarled qi-filled roar from the Yellow Dragon shocked Chen Haoran’s nerves and painfully dragged him back to reality, and he woke up two whole tiers of the pyramid higher than where he’d been standing before. His head was a riot of sensations, at once cold from the blood escaping through the gash in his head and warm where it trickled down his face. From his jaw to his crown, there was throbbing pain that matched the beating of his heart, and yet his head felt numb overall like it had been replaced with one filled with cotton, and he was only just now realizing it. His vision swam, so he turned it inward instead, only to find the inside no clearer than the outside, his qi a golden mess of swirls and folds and slipping like sand through his grasp.

The Yellow Dragon slithered into his head, coiling like a snake prepared to strike and hissing much the same. The rioting qi was quickly put to order, and Chen Haoran could finally collect his thoughts enough to form a single coherent thought.

What the fuck?

“Huaa tha fuu?”

His attempt to string a single coherent sentence was less successful. Among the many benefits of being a cultivator was accurate self-diagnosis, and from what Chen Haoran could see, Pan Gong had punched him hard enough to break his jaw, knock out enough teeth to change his diet to baby food, fling him to the ground with enough force to fracture his skull, and somehow give his qi a concussion on top of that. All in a single punch.

Chen Haoran was only spared from a second one because Pan Gong found it more prudent to begin assaulting the archers. For all that no one seemed confident in the rebels, Chen Haoran could find no fault in their conduct. The archers closest to Pan Gong immediately dropped their bows and picked up spears while those further away focused their fire on him. Men bravely darted in, their Rattan Vine Armor unfolding and wrapping vines around Pan Gong’s limbs to yank them away and leave his chest exposed to their spears. The archers were impeccable in their accuracy, arrows falling on Pan Gong’s legs, heads, and shoulders. Their resolve was as commendable as their actions were pointless.

The spears broke, the arrows bounced off, vines groaned and tore apart as Pan Gong walked straight through them. The rebels who rushed him were alive one moment and exploded into floods of Liquid Qi the next. The vine armors expanded into grasping masses, but Pan Gong took them in hand and whipped them away like chaff.

Chen Haoran gripped his broken jaw and wrenched it back into place, running his tongue over newly grown teeth. A pulse of qi scoured the blood from his face, and he gently tested the new skin that grew over the wound to make sure the bone had filled in correctly. He blinked, and the Yellow Dragon connected their vision. Something had changed in the moment Pan Gong punched him, and through the Dragon’s eyes, Chen Haoran finally saw what.

A Liquid Meridian was a walking dam waiting to burst, their qi a reservoir that loomed larger than the cultivator containing it. Such as it was with Chen Haoran and every Liquid Meridian he’d experienced. Such as it was with Pan Gong. Was. When Chen Haoran turned his qi vision on him, Pan Gong glowed like a statue of solid gold. Gone were the rivers coursing in his meridians, and the rumbling pool collected in his core, the motion, the currents. What remained was solid and unnaturally still. His ocean of liquid qi seemingly drained away into his body as if it were a mold and cast his features into sharp relief that Chen Haoran could accurately make them out even through the Yellow Dragon’s eyes. His state was unlike any Liquid Meridian Realm Chen Haoran had ever seen. In fact, he shared more in common with the Crystal Transformation Realms outside.

Chen Haoran blinked and his vision returned to normal.

Can you still control his qi? He silently asked the Yellow Dragon. He received a low, unwilling growl in reply. That’s a no, then.

As if sensing his gaze, Pan Gong suddenly turned to look at Chen Haoran with a blank face.

Right. Armor time.

He reached a hand into his storage bag and summoned the True Reflection Mysterious Mirror Armor from his inventory space. Like all the armor he’d worn before, it came out in floating pieces. Each one caught the faint light of the secret realm and shone like stars as they swirled around and fitted themselves to his body. Pan Gong crouched low and lunged, crossing the two tiers separating them in an instant as the armor was still assembling. The Yellow Dragon loosed a furious roar and soared out of Chen Haoran’s head to catch Pan Gong in jaws of liquid qi. Pan Gong’s momentum did not falter. He backhanded the Yellow Dragon and burst it along the pyramid’s steps. The helmet had just closed around Chen Haoran’s wide eyes when Pan Gong leaped and grabbed the chest plate before it could connect.

The chest plate strained in Pan Gong’s grip, the attraction pulling it to the armor fighting with his sheer strength. Chen Haoran’s palms bloomed with green light and struck out at the same moment Pan Gong fully wrenched away the chest plate. Fifty near-simultaneous strikes hit Pan Gong’s ribs, wrist, elbow, and throat. Pan Gong ignored it all to rear back his arm and slam the armor piece onto Chen Haoran’s head. The helmet safely absorbed most of the force, but he was still thrown to the ground. It was sheer instinct that saved him from a punishing leg stomp that hit the stairs with enough force to feel the shockwave through the stones. It was followed by a lightning-fast kick to his sternum that cracked the bone and sent Chen Haoran skidding up to the next terrace.

He leapt to his feet and fed his qi into the True Reflection Mysterious Mirror Armor to familiarize himself with it. It was the first time he was using Heaven-Rank equipment and he didn’t have time to appreciate it slowly. The armor’s latent qi stirred to life and responded to the influx, and through the mixing energies, new thoughts bloomed within Chen Haoran’s mind. They weren’t quite stored memories or a user manual downloaded into his brain. It was more like an instinctual understanding of how to use the armor. Through the induction of his sense, Chen Haoran could feel that the Heaven-Rank armor not only improved on the concept of the original Earth-Rank version but could also absorb force and store it to unleash later. A very helpful feature he’d dearly like to make use of if not for the fact he needed a complete set of armor to use it fully, and Pan Gong was holding the last piece.

Before he could fully explore it, however, Pan Gong threw away the chest plate. Chen Haoran tracked where it was falling before he realized his mistake and hastily brought up his arms to block a heavy punch to his chest. Pan Gong’s fist bounced off his gauntlets, and he deftly avoided Chen Haoran’s counter with a grace unnatural for his size.

Pan Gong made a sound of surprise. “I was wondering what other trump cards you had. I didn’t expect it to be Heaven-Rank Armor. It’s a good thing that I’m the one dealing with you. The others wouldn’t be able to contain you.”

Chen Haoran grimaced behind his helmet as his own thoughts about Pan Gong were thrown back in his face.

Yellow Dragon. Yellow Liquid Qi flooded from Chen Haoran and engulfed an unmoving Pan Gong. Chen Haoran doubled the force of the river, and it spilled down the steps of the pyramid, but not only was Pan Gong not forced back, he began walking up the stairs as if it were nothing more than air.

“This is a rather amateurish use of Liquid Qi compared to what you’ve shown before,” Pan Gong said. “I suppose that wasn’t actually you. How long have you been offloading the work of your own qi to the River Spirit?”

Chen Haoran cut off the flow.

“I can’t blame you,” Pan Gong continued. “All the River Blessed get lazy like that eventually. It’s just easier. For you, in the now—”

Green light bloomed in Chen Haoran’s hands.

“—and for me, in the end.”

Pan Gong blitzed forward and leveled a quick punch into Chen Haoran’s unguarded ribs, interrupting his technique and causing him to stumble back. Pan Gong followed that up with a succession of three blows that cracked three ribs and took the wind out of him. Chen Haoran raised his arms in a block but Pan Gong palmed his helmet and pushed him backwards. It was gentle enough that the reflection of the armor was meaningless but strong enough to throw Chen Haoran off balance and open up his guard enough for Pan Gong to push past it with a powerful fist and fully break his sternum.

They were injuries that would debilitate a lesser man, but Chen Haoran left adjectives like lesser behind him a long time ago. The bones had healed right as Chen Haoran lashed out at Pan Gong’s chin. His fist fell short as Pan Gong shouldered it aside and punished Chen Haoran’s overreach with a punch he could barely see that broke off a rib and pushed it into his lung.

Chen Haoran jumped backward to try and make some distance, directing his liquid qi to powder the rib so his regeneration could do its work. He attempted to cycle qi for the Blossom-Picking Palm, but Pan Gong closed in quickly, allowing him no time to complete the technique. Chen Haoran sent a low kick into Pan Gong’s knee that he didn’t deign to avoid, instead dropping a knife-hand chop onto Chen Haoran’s collarbone and breaking it. Chen Haoran returned a quick jab into Pan Gong’s flank, only for Pan Gong to absorb the hit without breaking stride and bury his fist into Chen Haoran’s gut, doubling him over. That Chen Haoran couldn’t quite endure, coughing blood into his helmet as the shockwaves of Pan Gong’s punch caused more internal bleeding than was recommended if one wanted to live a healthy life. Or live period.

Still, it was an opportunity. Chen Haoran flooded qi to both arms until they hurt. With one, he gripped Pan Gong’s arm. With the other, he hammered heavy punches into Pan Gong’s stomach. Pan Gong grunted, and Chen Haoran found himself lifted into the air as Pan Gong easily picked him up with one hand and threw him to the next terrace. Chen Haoran landed on his feet and crouched low, prepared this time for Pan Gong’s fist, taking it on his helmet. He flexed the qi in his legs to push forward into Pan Gong’s guard but was halted in his tracks. Pan Gong’s fist had not moved from his helmet, and try as he might, Chen Haoran could not make it budge. Instead, Pan Gong’s boot was all he got for his efforts, sending him tumbling head over heels up the next two flights of stairs and leaving an inch-deep size 37 depression in his chest.

Chen Haoran barely stood up in time to avoid the next boot, and what followed was a constant retreat up the pyramid as Pan Gong continually pressured him. Far from being the best matchup for Chen Haoran among the Garrison, Pan Gong proved to be even worse than Lu Aotian. He was faster than Chen Haoran, stronger than him, tougher than him. His reach was greater. His fighting skills superior.

When Chen Haoran would try to attack him, he would either slap away his blows or power through them to land a devastating counter. When Chen Haoran tried to defend, Pan Gong would expertly pick away at his guard and deny him what little utility his armor provided. It pained him to say it but Pan Gong was like a better version of himself, with Lan Fen’s hand-to-hand combat abilities on top of it. Even if they were equal in cultivation, Chen Haoran wouldn’t be sure of winning, and Pan Gong had several Layers over him. Handle Pan Gong? What a lark. Now, Chen Haoran was hoping that Bao Si and Qiong Qi would quickly deal with Lu Aotian and come down to help him. Or maybe he would run to join them. He and Pan Gong were only three terraces away from the top of the pyramid now.

Chen Haoran somersaulted backward to avoid a blow he was sure would stop his heart if it connected and put more distance between him and Pan Gong. Two terraces now. The sound of Lu Aotian’s qi beasts grated his ears.

He breathed.

Do or die, Chen Haoran.

Green light bloomed in his hands. Pan Gong cleared the distance with infuriating ease and unleashed a pinpoint punch into his heart once more. Chen Haoran whirled around and exposed his back. The heartstopper landed uselessly on his back armor and bounced off, finally giving Chen Haoran the time he needed.

Blossom Picking Palm

Chen Haoran’s vision was suddenly covered by Pan Gong’s large hand grabbing his visor. Pan Gong yanked him off his feet and slammed him into the ground. Chen Haoran’s backpiece absorbed the force, and he triggered the amplification to rebound instantly to his feet and right into Pan Gong’s guard.

Chen Haoran bellowed in anger and flooded qi into his arms until his muscles screamed and his bones cracked. His palms were incandescent with green light. In one second, he struck 25 times. In two seconds, 50. In four seconds, 100. Pan Gong’s body was too strong, so he targeted the softer parts instead: eyes, nose, temples, chin, throat, liver. He fed more and more qi to his palms, running the Blossom Picking Palm to its fullest strength.

Pan Gong was not to be outdone. He matched Chen Haoran blow for blow, accurately deflecting each palm and, even more terrifyingly, doing it without any visible Technique. That was okay, though. Even if Chen Haoran didn’t land a single hit, so long as Pan Gong kept hitting his armored hands, an opportunity would come. Without the chest piece to complete the armor, the amount of power it could store and amplify was limited, but it could still do it. After the 125th palm strike, his right hand was slapped away and the Technique faded. The green light in his left hand, however shined even brighter. Chen Haoran let loose a wordless howl and channeled his qi and all the stored forced through the armor and into his left palm. His muscles tore, every bone in his hand broke, and Chen Haoran slammed his palm into Pan Gong’s cheek.

Pan Gong’s head snapped back with a loud crack. Chen Haoran didn’t let up. He stepped close to Pan Gong and threw haymaker after haymaker into his exposed center. Each punch sounded like a heavy drum being struck, and Chen Haoran would beat it for all it was worth, no matter how his arms and fists screamed at him.

A heavy hand fell onto his shoulder.

Chen Haoran’s fist stopped against Pan Gong’s stomach. Despite throwing everything he had into hitting him Pan Gong hadn’t stepped back once.

Chen Haoran looked up.

Pan Gong looked down at him, unflustered. “That was a good hit.”

He didn’t see the liver punch, but he certainly felt it pop his liver. Chen Haoran screamed in pain for the first time in this fight. Bent over from the pain, Pan Gong clenched his head and proceeded to knee him in the chest. The first one broke his rib cage. The second one pushed it back. The third one had Chen Haoran vomiting blood that dribbled through the neck of his helmet. Pan Gong released Chen Haoran, and he stumbled backward. Pan Gong followed him with a flurry of punches to the chest that sent Chen Haoran to the ground. Chen Haoran raised his arms ineffectually, but Pan Gong swatted them away and continued his relentless hail of blows, growing faster with every punch. His bones were shattered into pieces, his organs punctured and pulped, his chest cavity caved into itself.

What had happened? Why was he here getting beaten to death? Where did he go wrong? Was it when he got greedy and was convinced to come to this Trial? Was it getting involved with Bao Si and the Black Bone Tribe and running headfirst into a fomenting rebellion? Was it when he decided to accept Jiang Lei forcing himself into his space? Perhaps it was coming to Zumulu with Xie Jin in the first place. Would staying in the Central Province really have been so bad compared to what he had to deal with since coming here? Or maybe he’d sealed his fate when he decided to leave Lan Fen. What worth was his pride when his life was on the line?

He weakly raised a hand. Pan Gong ignored it. Chen Haoran could no longer muster the strength to force him off. Assuming he was capable of such a thing, to begin with. That suited Chen Haoran just fine. He wasn’t planning to hit him.

The Sacred Elephant Tusk wasn’t much to write home about size-wise, clocking in at just over two feet. Still, it was a Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridian material, improved a hundred times over. It glowed with a faint, almost holy radiance, and it easily punctured Pan Gong’s skin and pierced through his heart.

Pan Gong’s fists halted, and he looked down at his chest in surprise. He coughed, and a thin line of blood dribbled from his mouth.

“Second Rule of the Palace School,” he quietly recited. “Underestimating the enemy is a cost you pay with your life or your pride.” He sighed. “Today, I pay with my pride.”

Then, to Chen Haoran’s horror, Pan Gong proceeded to grab the tusk and pull it out from his chest. No blood or liquid qi spilled from the wound left behind.

“For a lesser cultivator, that would have been a fatal wound,” Pan Gong said, flipping over the tusk and pointing it to Chen Haoran’s chest. “You fought well.”

Pan Gong brought down the tusk and stabbed Chen Haoran’s heart.

Chapter 154

Chen Haoran and Bao Si followed Qiong Qi to the third terrace of the pyramid to look over the walls.  Phelps was left to guard the still recovering Xie Jin back at the hut. A hundred archers lined themselves across the third and fourth layers, bundles of arrows sitting by their feet. The rest of the Rattan Armor soldiers reinforced the fortifications. The vine walls expanded and contracted in tune with the steady breathing of the rebels’ chests, waiting with them in guarded anticipation.

First came the noise. Four hundred sounds of stamping feet and arms slamming across chests. Spears and halberds beating the dirt. Swords and clubs hammering shields. Knives shrieking across knives. Four hundred voices chanting in unison. The voice of Pan Gong clear above all the rest and leading them in their chorus. 

"Bloody sky?"

"Bloody day!"

"Bloody day?"

"Bloody battle!"

"Bloody battle?"

"Bloody Empire!"

Across the lake, the Garrison had engaged itself in machine-like construction of a land bridge. A row of soldiers stood at the edge of the water, and green Wood qi bloomed from their hands into thick wooden pillars that they inserted into the lake bed. Behind them, another row of soldiers shifted brown and yellow earth qi into the water and raised up tons of earth around the pillars to form a flat surface. As soon as the extension was completed, the Wood Spirit roots stepped forward and created the supports for the next section. The Garrison crew was methodical in its work, advancing neither fast nor slow, always adding the same amount of length to the bridge. After raising three sections, the crew stopped and swapped with another crew who continued the work. All the while the chanting continued.

Following closely behind the work crews were Pan Gong and the Garrison elites. They watched the island like hawks. Chen Haoran felt more than a few of those gazes land on him. Pan Gong didn’t so much as glance at him, but Captain Liu certainly did, as well as a vicious-looking man that took Chen Haoran a minute to recognize as Lu Aotian. His face was now healed of the terrible melting Xie Jin had inflicted on him, though his eyes were still bloodshot.

“Those Garrison healers do some damn good work,” Chen Haoran muttered.

Qiong Qi glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “They do. Seeing as how you’ve spent time among the Garrison, it would help us if you could target their healers.”

“Seeing as how you’ve got information on what seems like damn near every soldier in this trial, I think I’ll leave it to you.”

“Are you just going to let them build unhindered?” Bao Si asked.

“Give them a minute,” Qiong Qi replied.

They silently watched the Garrison’s construction continue deeper and deeper into the lake. Chen Haoran’s brow furrowed when he saw the flat bridge gradually rising in height with each section.

No. Not a bridge. “They’re building a ramp,” Chen Haoran said.

“Who wouldn’t want the high ground,” Qiong Qi said. He raised a hand in the air. “Drown them.”

Qi pitched his voice down to the rebels closest to the shore. Blue liquid qi flooded from them in a large wave and spilled into the lake. The wave of water qi seized the water of the lake and raised up a wave hundreds of times larger, matching half the size of the pyramid. The Rattan Armor Soldiers loosed a wordless roar together, and Chen Haoran could practically feel the moment they pushed as one and toppled the towering wall of water over atop the Garrison. From his position, Chen Haoran couldn’t see the Garrison’s reaction as the wave curled over in a tsunami of crushing force and churning white water and enveloped them.

He didn’t need to wait long to see it, however, as a needle-like point of yellow light shined through the wave for a brief second before the center exploded. The wave broke into three pieces. The left and right continued forward uselessly on either side of the earth ramp. The center meanwhile surged backward to crash uselessly against the island’s formation barrier. Qiong Qi immediately pulled out his bow and loosed an arrow at the figure in the air responsible for breaking the wave. Pan Gong retracted his fist and fell back down to the ramp while Captain Liu rocketed up to intercept the arrow between two flaming fists.

Qiong Qi clicked his tongue. “Keep up the pressure.”

The Rattan Soldiers immediately gathered another wave. This time, however, the Garrison’s Water Spirit Roots flooded their own liquid qi to move the waters and match wave with wave. The two sides fell into a back-and-forth struggle, and the originally peaceful waters of the lake became murky and dark under the pressure.

“This isn’t a very good look for you guys,” Chen Haoran said. “Don’t you have a Formation under the lake?”

“The Heavy Water Formation is a trap Formation meant to drown, not control,” Qiong Qi said. “The water is poisonous, so it’s more lethal than usual.”

“Doesn’t seem to be useful if you can’t, you know, drown them,” Chen Haoran said.

Qiong Qi gave Chen Haoran an unamused stare. “Are you like this with everyone?”

“Only when I can get away with it,” Chen Haoran breezily answered.

“I can still kill you. We aren’t exactly satisfied with the Southern Dragon King and his intentions either.”

Chen Haoran lazily shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat, man. For your sake, I hope you’re better at dealing with me than you are with the Garrison.”

Bao Si brushed her hand against Chen Haoran’s arm in warning. He heard the message clearly, but he wasn’t unduly worried. It wasn’t even that he was confident he could survive whatever Qiong Qi could do to him, though he certainly was. It’s just that for all that Qiong Qi postured, he still treated Bao Si as a princess. Affording her respect and weight towards her words and opinions. Had he really not cared about Xi Wangmu, then he would certainly not care for Bao Si, who was important to Xi Wangmu’s plans, and so long as Qiong Qi still cared about Xi Wangmu, then whatever he said about not liking Chen Qitao was moot.

Qiong Qi shook his head. “Just watch your words. It’s bad for morale.” He looked Chen Haoran up and down. “And perhaps your clothes as well. If you are to lord your status over us, then at least look the part.”

Chen Haoran looked down at his tattered red robes. Going from one thing to another, he hadn’t had the time to even think about changing them. He looked guiltily at Bao Si. “Sorry, I ruined the New Year’s robes you gave me.”

Bao Si raised an eyebrow. “Why are you apologizing to me? I didn’t give you those robes.”

“What? Yes, you did.”

“No, I didn’t.” She pinches the fabric of his sleeve between her fingers. “This is actually much nicer than the one I gave you. Where did you get this?”

Was it? Now that Chen Haoran took a second to study, she was right. It certainly felt nicer. He really hadn’t been thinking about it when he put it on, but he really did give everything in his storage bag to Lin Nine, didn’t he?

“Would you believe me if you said I got it from a gambler?” Chen Haoran said.

“No.”

Pity.

“If you’re both done?” Qiong Qi interrupted.

“What?  Do you need something from me?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Professionalism perhaps?” Qiong Qi drawled.

Chen Haoran motioned toward the slowed-down Garrison’s building efforts. “You guys clearly have a plan. Until it’s my turn to deal with Pan Gong, I don’t see why I have to worry about anything else. Besides figuring out where Six-Eyes is.”

Of all the things that really bothered Chen Haoran right now was the fact the eccentric formation specialist was nowhere to be seen. He still didn’t know what the man’s angle was, whether he was an ally, foe, or just some weirdo doing things at his own pace. Whatever the case, Chen Haoran was left feeling uneasy being ostensibly on the opposite side of him now.

“This Formation will be fine. Right?” Chen Haoran asked in concern. “Six-Eyes was studying it while we were walking around the lake.”

Qiong Qi snorted. “He can study it however long he wants. The barrier isn’t as important as the Executioner’s Blade Array. So long as the Garrison wants to test us, then we’ll make sure they feel its edge.”

Bao Si pulled at Chen Haoran’s sleeve. “That Six-Eyes, is that not him there on the ramp? The one with the goggles.”

Qiong Qi and Chen Haoran whirled around. Sure enough, standing at the forefront of the ramp now with Pan Gong, Lu Aotian, and the other elites was Six-Eyes. Chen Haoran frowned. While the progress of building the ramp had slowed down, it had risen to a respectable height now, still below them but not as drastically as before. They had reached the halfway point between the lake shore and the island now. If the Garrison were given time to keep building, then Chen Haoran could imagine the ramp towering over them once it finally reached the island. But why were Pan Gong and the others standing in front of the workers now? To intercept further interference from the rebels? Did they really need to stand in the front to react to that though? Unless they’d realized something, Chen Haoran had yet to.

Six-Eyes caught Chen Haoran’s gaze with fiery orange eyes. He waved.

Chen Haoran squinted. “What the fu—”

“Chen Haoran!” Bao Si’s fingers dug into his shoulder and ripped away the upper half of his robes.

Chen Haoran reflexively jumped back.“Bao Si, what—?” He stopped dead when she threw his robes to the ground, and he saw an eye growing out of the fabric on the shoulder of the garment.

It was a thing of flesh and blood, completely at odds with the cloth it was merged with, yet one flowed naturally into the other. Its iris was pitch black, and the pupil was darker, still to be completely visible against it. It blinked at Chen Haoran.

The red lotus on Qiong Qi’s pauldron bloomed and burnt the eye to cinders.

“What was that?” Qiong Qi furiously demanded.

Chen Haoran didn’t answer him. He grabbed his shoulder, the same one Six-Eyes had slapped before, and looked back toward the Garrison with a sinking stomach. He felt cold.

“How’s the observation going? Do you think you’ll be able to get us through?”

“Most assuredly,” Six-Eyes replied. “Although if I could get a look from the inside, that would be ideal.”

Blue flames licked Lu Aotian’s heels, and he suddenly shot from the ramp straight toward the barrier. Pan Gong, Captain Liu, and the other Garrison elites flexed their qi and Movement Techniques and cleared the distance between the ramp and the island. Six-Eyes’s fiery orange eyes glowed, and a burning orange beam shot from them and accelerated past the soaring elites to splash into the barrier. The beam disappeared upon contact and took with it a ten-foot hole in the barrier.

Qiong Qi’s lotuses bloomed as he swore. “Close that hole!”

Someone, somewhere, heeded his command as white energy converged to close the gap. In an instant, half the hole was filled, but that was as far as it got when Lu Aotian grabbed the edges of the gap with hands wreathed in snarling, gnawing red qi. His qi lit up the edges of the hole like fire following an oil trail, and with an animalistic snarl, Lu Aotian placed himself fully in the gap and wrenched it open.

“Kill him!” Qiong Qi loosed an arrow at Lu Aotian, and before he could finish his words, a hundred more arrows were following it like green stars.

Pan Gong and Captain Liu soared through the entrance over Lu Aotian’s head, and the arrows disappeared in floods of liquid fire and yellow qi. When Pan Gong and Captain Liu landed on the island, the other elites followed them, save for one unlucky man who misjudged his jump and crashed against the barrier and fell screaming into the lake.

Chen Haoran gripped his sword and felt immense Metal qi gather. It was not around him or from him; however, it was above. A white sword of pure Metal qi unsheathed itself from the void where Chen Haoran knew it to be and hung over their heads. Chen Haoran felt the violent Metal qi in the air still, the Executioner’s Blade preparing judgment. The blade rippled once, and the still metal qi gathered over the heads of the Garrison. The blade fell with no apparent direction, but all those under it knew whose necks it would inevitably land on.

Pan Gong pulled a red flag emblazoned with a stylized black eye from his storage bag, and Chen Haoran’s cold feeling gave way to a bloodcurdling scream.

“Stop the Formation!”

Pan Gong heaved the flag like a javelin into the Executioner’s Blade, where the sword met the hilt. Instead of being instantly shredded, the flag planted itself into the white energy, and the black eye blinked. Red light arced through the white energy, and the Executioner’s Blade trembled.

And fell.

Chen Haoran grabbed Bao Si, flooded qi to his legs, and leaped up the pyramid as the Executioner’s Blade fell on the Rattan Vine Armor soldiers and their fortifications. There was no dust kicked up, no explosion of debris, there weren’t even any screams. Of the Five Elements, Metal was sharpness incarnate. When gathered in such massive amounts, however, it stopped being cutting and became pure disintegration.

Chen Haoran landed on the fifth terrace of the pyramid and turned around to find a chunk of the vine walls on the first and second terraces gone, along with the hundreds of soldiers manning them. In their place was the Executioner’s Blade, its tip trying and failing to pierce the bricks of the pyramid. There was a lull in the air as everyone took a moment to adjust.

Then the screaming started.

Screaming orders, screaming curses, screaming battle cries, names, families, fear, and triumph. The Rattan Armor Soldiers lucky enough to have been near the Executioner’s Blade and miss the full of its edge screamed their pain of missing limbs. The rest of the Garrison out on the land bridge screamed their victory as they doubled the pace of their construction. Lu Aotian let out a guttural, feral scream as he shot toward the peak of the pyramid.

Chen Haoran put down Bao Si and pulled out his sword while her tattoos peeled off her skin into two Centipede Gu. His thoughts raced as furiously as the white sword shadows flying off his blade did as they sparked the Metal qi ridden air. If there was ever a doubt Six-Eyes was an enemy before, there were none now, and Chen Haoran was left all the more fearful for it. He had been turned into a trojan and noticed nothing. Not him, Bao Si, Phelps, or the Yellow Dragon had sensed something wrong. When did Six-Eyes even plan it? As soon as he pointed out Bao Si on the rebels’ side? No. Even before that. Had their entire circling of around the lake just been him figuring out how he would get Chen Haoran inside?

He shook off the useless thoughts as Qiong Qi raced past them toward the peak. “Where are you going?” he shouted.

Qiong Qi didn’t look back, but his words were carried through the wind. “The Formation eye is on the peak! If we lose control of it, we’re dead. Stop Pan Gong.”

“Son of a—” Chen Haoran cut his curse short and had the Yellow Dragon connect their vision. The Executioner’s Blade took on new detail. Where the flag was planted was now a pulsating eyeball formed out of black qi. Nerves spread out from the eye like the tentacles of an octopus and wrapped around the white sword like chains as it buckled beneath its grip as two orders continuously tried to override the other. The black energy to hold and the white energy to move.

Chen Haoran cleared his vision. “Six-Eyes doesn’t have complete control over the Executioner’s Blade. We can take it back if we have enough time.”

“Is Phelps enough to protect Xie Jin?” Bao Si suddenly asked.

Chen Haoran was thrown for a loop before he realized what she was asking. He bit his lip. It wasn’t safe, but considering the situation…

“Phelps is smart,” Chen Haoran finally said. “He can protect Xie Jin, especially if I make enough noise.”

Bao Si nodded. “I’m going up. If we lose the offensive array, we’ll have no way to live.”

“I heard Lu Aotian has something that can save him from a Crystal Transformation,” Chen Haoran said. “Be careful. Stay safe.”

Bao Si hesitated.

A column of white flames spiked down below and slammed into the side of the pyramid. Captain Liu covered head to toe—no, transformed into fire, gripped the flame column in incandescent hands, and ripped it open down the middle, forcing aside the Rattan Armor soldiers and opening up a path for Pan Gong to dart up the pyramid. They locked eyes.

“You too,” Bao Si said and darted up the pyramid.

Pan Gong raced toward Chen Haoran. “Song Yuelin,” he called. “Easy way or the hard way?”

“That’s my line,” Chen Haoran replied. His fingers twitched. Did he use the armor?

The Yellow Dragon roared its challenge toward Pan Gong.

No. Not for Pan Gong. Better to keep it in hand for Lu Aotian or Captain Liu. Chen Haoran flooded qi to his sword and swung out a scythe of white energy that split the air as it flashed down. Pan Gong paused on a dime and collected yellow liquid qi to his fist till it looked like he broke open a damn and grabbed up the rushing flood water. He let out a whoop and smashed his fist into the scythe. The Yellow Dragon connected their vision in the split second that white light flashed in order to guard his eyes. It was how he saw Pan Gong still standing, looking at the blood spilling from the line cut into his fist but otherwise unharmed.

“I was right. It does suck to be on the opposite side of that,” Pan Gong said, remarkably carefree.

“Take pride,” Chen Haoran said as he and the Yellow Dragon were preparing even more qi for the next strike. “You’re the first person I’ve met in the same realm who could take it head-on like that.”

“I’m flattered,” Pan Gong said, reaching into his storage bag. “But I don’t necessarily want to take too many of those.”

Chen Haoran swung a white scythe that covered the width of the pyramid stairs and Pan Gong simultaneously threw out a slip of paper that crumbled into a burning bull and charged headfirst into the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. Chen Haoran felt the hairs stand up on his neck as the bull and metal scythe annihilated each other, and he lost vision of Pan Gong for a moment. A blur suddenly flew far to the left, and Chen Haoran instantly sliced a sword shadow at it at the same time, Pan Gong suddenly charged toward him through the decaying energy. The thing he thought was a second talisman that glowed with golden lightning, far brighter than the bull talisman before it. Before Chen Haoran could react, he felt a powerful force wrap around his blade and rip it from his hands. He watched in disbelief as the talisman flew into the distance, dragging his sword with it.

Yellow liquid qi flooded from Chen Haoran bolstered by a furious dragon roar that forced Pan Gong to coat himself in his own liquid qi and allow a chunk of it to be bitten off while he leaped out of the way.

“Why do you have that?” Chen Haoran demanded. Why that golden lightning of all things?

“Seventh rule of Palace School,” Pan Gong recited. “Your weaknesses can and will be used against you. Compensate for them.” He made some distance from Chen Haoran and slowly paced to flank him. “The greediest Crystal Transformation Realm made me pay out the nose for the Golden Magnetic Pole Talisman, but since my body isn’t tough enough to block Earth-Rank weapons just yet, it’s pretty handy.”

Chen Haoran pulled his liquid qi back and closed the distance between them. His palms glowed green. Pan Gong accelerated the instant Chen Haoran tried using his Technique and entered his guard with deadly intent. Just as quickly as he arrived, however, he flooded his liquid qi wildly and threw himself backward as Chen Haoran’s own liquid qi surged out once more and almost enveloped him, barely missing by a graze. Pan Gong was quick enough to escape his qi on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as lucky.

The Yellow Dragon roared in triumph as Pan Gong’s Earth Rank Yellow River qi was wiped of Pan Gong’s ownership and swallowed by it in one gulp as Chen Haoran’s liquid qi receded back into his body.

“Thanks for the meal,” Chen Haoran said.

Pan Gong sighed. “I knew it would be like this. It’s always like this for a River Blessed.”

Chen Haoran’s palms glowed green, and he shot forward. The Yellow Dragon lurked under his skin like a shark underwater, waiting for the next opportunity to ambush.

“Seventh Rule of Palace School,” Pan Gong said. He breathed in and raised his fists in a boxing stance. “Your weaknesses can and will be used against you. Compensate for them.”

Blossom-Picking Palm

Chen Haoran’s palms lashed out like the wind. The Yellow Dragon controlled liquid qi to flood out.

Pan Gong breathed out.

The Yellow Dragon roared, and suddenly, the rushing liquid qi doubled back and wrapped around Chen Haoran protectively.

Pan Gong punched.

The Blossom-Picking Palm scattered. The liquid qi cover broke.

With a bone-breaking crunch, Pan Gong punched Chen Haoran in the face.

Chapter 153

Hello everyone! I am back from my break. Enjoy!

-------

Qiong Qi hadn’t sounded threatening as he spoke but his words triggered the surrounding Rattan Armor Soldiers to pull out their spears.

“Don’t test me right now, Qiong Qi,” Bao Si snapped, her hands still pressed to Xie Jin’s chest. “They’re my people.”

“And they killed my people,” Qiong Qi said.

“As if the situation created allowed for another solution,” Bao Si bit back.

“What about us, or this situation has given you the idea that we’re reasonable people?” Qiong Qi said.

Bao Si finally looked up. “Are you really doing this right now?”

Qiong Qi shrugged. “Do you expect me to overwhelm the opinions of my men? It would be the height of hypocrisy, considering why we’re here.”

Chen Haoran stood and interrupted the back and forth, leaving Phelps and Bao Si with Xie Jin. The Rattan Armor Soldiers shifted their spears like on-guard animals as he did. His sense traveled across the soldiers in a circle, and he noted the stiffening as they felt it fall on him. Qiong Qi spared him an amused glance as his attention fell on him. Chen Haoran moved on and finally settled on the soldier who originally spoke. Qi flooded into his legs, and he disappeared from his spot and appeared before the man. The soldier had enough time to bring his spear up in a reflexive stab before Chen Haoran punched through the spear point and the haft and buried his fist into his chest.

The Rattan Armor Soldiers around the man quickly gave way. They still kept their spears pointed toward him, but the fact they backed away rather than press forward and stab him said volumes about what they thought of him. It seems his reputation had spread.

The soldier he punched doubled over before he could manipulate his vine armor to entangle him. Chen Haoran let him fall to his hands and knees and proceeded to sit on the soldier’s back, crossing his legs and folding his hands. The soldier tensed as he realized what Chen Haoran was doing, and he could feel the man’s qi build up beneath his armor.

“If you move, I’ll kill you,” Chen Haoran lightly said.

The soldier froze.

“I wonder what you’re intentions are,” Qiong Qi mused. “Surely you don’t think this will end up well?”

“Intentions?” Chen Haoran asked as if he didn’t understand the question. “Do I need to have a reason to take a seat?”

“Normally, people would sit on a chair. Not another man’s back,” Qiong Qi said.

Chen Haoran leaned forward. “Is that so? Do you think you people are any different from chairs in my eyes?”

That got a reaction. The amused expression fell from Qiong Qi’s face, replaced with narrow, scrutinizing eyes. The Rattan Armor Soldiers bristled and found some of their lost courage in the aftermath of the insult, marching forward and holding their spears and hairsbreadth away from Chen Haoran’s body. Bao Si briefly looked up from Xie Jin in concern.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, stranger,” Qiong Qi said.

“Stranger?” Chen Haoran asked. “No, you and I are not strangers. What you should be saying is, master. My name is Chen Haoran.”

“Is that name supposed to mean something to me?” Qiong Qi sarcastically asked. 

"It should because you're right. I am playing with you. None of you deserve my respect anyway."

“Bold words for man surrounded,” Qiong Qi said.

Chen Haoran shook his finger. “Ah ah ah, let me tell you something. The guys I’m worried about are currently outside this barrier. Inside? You chumps? I’ll give you points for boldness, but if you think you can kill me, then go ahead. Let’s see who ends up worse off between us.”

For emphasis, Chen Haoran brushed his hand over the hilt of his sword. The Rattan Armor Soldiers collectively flinched. Qiong Qi did not move, but his two lotuses lit up with ice and fire. Chen Haoran pulled his hand away from his sword with a smile and waved at them.

“Why is everyone so serious?” He joked.

Qiong Qi disappeared from his spot in a burst of speed and appeared next to Chen Haoran, whirling into a kick that whipped toward his head. Chen Haoran brought up his arm to block at the same time. The sound they made when they collided was more like two massive drums being struck than actual flesh. In a match-up between leg and arm, the leg would win out in terms of power. Chen Haoran trying to block a Ninth-Layer’s kick with just one arm was pure arrogance. Arrogance, which he paid for as he felt his bones crack beneath the blow.

Still, he blocked it.

Earth-Rank qi. Wood Element. In their clash, Chen Haoran quickly got Qiong Qi’s measure and was measured in turn. Of all the Rattan Armor Soldiers he’d seen, Qiong Qi was the only one comparable to Pan Gong and Lu Aotian.

Qiong Qi was the first to break off, lowering his leg and standing over Chen Haoran. “Alright, who are you?”

Well. That was one way to introduce yourself. Chen Haoran didn’t really have a right to cast stones.

“Your ally, I suppose,” Chen Haoran said.

“You say that, but your first thought was to join the Garrison,” Qiong Qi retorted.

“You really don’t know who I am.” Chen Haoran pitched his words such that the question was more of a statement. One that was full of wonder. Not that it was hard to fake. It really was wonderful that someone didn’t know who he was.

“Enlighten me,” Qiong Qi drawled.

Chen Haoran huffed a laugh and placed his hand on Qiong Qi’s shoulder. “Southern Dragon King Chen Qitao.”

Qiong Qi stiffened.

“Right now, I’m the only person in Zumulu whom Xi Wangmu has to treat with respect,” Chen Haoran said. His smile turned dark. “So if you all want to make it out of here with a future, you should start sucking up to me.”

Qiong Qi stared at him with a searching look. Chen Haoran returned his gaze with far more confidence than he was feeling. A thousand-to-one odds were still a lot.

“What do you want,” Qiong Qi finally said.

Chen Haoran smiled. “First? Some privacy.”

——————-

A rough stone hut was erected using Earth Techniques. For the rebels and Chen Haoran’s peace of mind it was constructed near the barrier and outside the rebels fortifications. Chen Haoran pulled out fine blankets from his storage bag and they laid Xie Jin atop them. Phelps sat guard outside, the smell of blood too much for him in the cramped space. Chen Haoran stood over Bao Si with a grave look on his face as she pressed her hands to the fist-sized hole in Xie Jin’s chest and covered his bleeding, claw-marked heart. Xie Jin was pale as bone and stained the silk blankets with sweat and blood. His blood-soaked Beetle Gu sat groggily to the side under the watch of Bao Si’s Centipede Gu.

“What’s going on with him?” Chen Haoran asked.

“This fool fused with his Gu.” Sweat beaded on Bao Si’s face as she fed healing miasma into the wound. “It’s a dangerous technique even for Black Bone Shamans. Gu are just too greedy to be allowed so close to your blood and qi. It’s not just his heart, its his meridians and arteries. Damn fool.”

Chen Haoran pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from Bao Si’s brow. “Is this room secure?”

Bao Si spared him a glance. Her Centipede Gu chittered, and purple qi ran down its length like water. “Nothing will get out.”

Chen Haoran hid his hand in his storage bag and summoned the 40-thousand-year-old Paradise Pomegranate. As soon as he pulled it out, the room was filled with with a strange scented qi. Sweet and sour and heavy enough to seep through the walls and curtain door of the hut were it not for Bao Si’s Gu absorbing it. Chen Haoran roughly ripped the fruit in half, and the scent became even denser. A quick scan with his sense counted exactly 613 ruby seeds. He delicately pinched one between his fingers and swallowed it. As soon as it touched his tongue, the seed liquified, and its juice flew into his body in a warm current. Chen Haoran felt himself flush as the heat built up to an almost unbearable level in his chest, but under his inner eye, he could see the red liquid wash across his inner wounds and assist his regeneration.

He immediately pinched another seed and fed it to Xie Jin, gently pushing it past his lips. He focused his sense to a fine point and tracked the state of Xie Jin’s body and qi as he waited for the liquid to do its work. The waiting was always the worst part. Seconds passed by, but they felt like minutes. Chen Haoran debated whether to use another seed. Would it be dangerous? Could Xie Jin handle another while in his state? Was taking more than one even useful? As he fretted, however, there was a change. Color finally returned to Xie Jin’s cheeks.

“Another,” Bao Si ordered.

Chen Haoran fed Xie Jin another pomegranate seed, then, following Bao Si’s instructions, began feeding him in intervals while she focused on directing the healing. After five seeds, the wounds in Xie Jin’s heart closed, and the flesh began to knit back together as Bao Si created a bridge between bones, muscles, and skin using her Earth qi. A sixth seed saw the open hole in his chest fully close, and Bao Si then went on to work across the rest of his body, checking his meridians and veins. After making sure all else was in order, she finally pulled her hands away and fell back on the floor.

“He’ll live,” she said.

Chen Haoran handed her a bottle of Machu River water. “Good work.”

She near emptied the bottle in two swigs and then poured the remainder over her head. “The Garrison? Really?”

“I figured you would have rathered go alone than help the rebels after what Xi Wangmu put you through,” Chen Haoran said. “Sorry for being wrong.”

“Things happened,” Bao Si said. “There wasn’t much choice.”

“Funny,” Chen Haoran replied. “Things happened to me too. What’s the situation.”

“They’re all insane and are going to die.”

“Lovely.”

Xie Jin suddenly coughed. His eyes fluttered open and rapidly flickered to and fro as he took in his surroundings. When he saw Chen Haoran and Bao Si, he relaxed a margin. “Where are we?” he croaked.

“Inside the rebels’ little fort,” Chen Haoran said. He took out another water bottle and carefully raised Xie Jin’s head to let him drink it. “How are you feeling?”

“Like death,” Xie Jin said between sips.

“What happened out there?” Bao Si demanded. “You know how dangerous that technique is.”

“I was fighting for my life,” Xie Jin said. “Crazy fucking bastard. I would have died if I didn’t advance to the Liquid Meridian Realm.”

“If you stayed in that state for any longer, you would have actually died,” Bao Si said. “And as for your so-called ‘advancement’….”

Bao Si did not need to say anything more. Chen Haoran could feel with his sense just how weak Xie Jin was right now. Where there should have been coursing currents of Liquid Qi in his meridians, there were now barely droplets. It was hard to call Xie Jin a proper Liquid Meridian in this state.

“Just give me some time, and I’ll recover,” Xie Jin said, letting his head fall back into his pillow.

Bao Si snorted. “What time? With what power? You think you can control your Gu in that state?” Her Centipede Gu chittered menacingly over the slumbering Beetle Gu. “Know this, Xie Jin. If you can’t convince your Gu to spit out what it took, I will devour it.”

Xie Jin’s expression was ugly, but he didn’t refute her words.

“Let’s take it easy now,” Chen Haoran interrupted. “There’s no need to be so heavy when we’ve finally met back up. Xie Jin, what do you need to recover?”

“Some quiet and time to cultivate. My Gu isn’t that insubordinate that I won’t be able to control it with a bit of qi.”

“Give him two more of those pomegranate seeds,” Bao Si added.

“Right,” Chen Haoran said. He took two seeds then reached into his storage bag and summoned a high-grade spirit stone. The room fell silent as they looked at the dark blue crystal. Even Bao Si’s centipede Gu abandoned watching the Beetle Gu and stared at him. “Will this help?”

“Every time I leave you, it’s like you come up with better and better things,” Xie Jin said in wonder. He took the stone in hand. “I’ll owe you this favor later.”

“Just recover well, Chen Haoran said. “Gonna need you when we get out of here.”

A hiss emerged from outside. Chen Haoran and Bao Si turned toward the curtain entranceway as Phelps slowly backed through it, qi rising off his back.

There was a knock on the frame. “It’s Qiong Qi.”

“Enter,” Bao Si said.

Qiong Qi pushed aside the curtains and strode in. His gaze fell on Xie Jin, but it was brief, and he was soon ignored in favor of Bao Si and Chen Haoran. “I’ve come to discuss dealing with the Garrison.”

“I’d actually like to discuss leaving here,” Chen Haoran said. “I don’t care what else you do, but I’m no longer interested in wasting time in this place.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have any way of sending you out early, Chen Haoran.” Qiong Qi cupped his hands in mock respect. “Do forgive me.”

Chen Haoran frowned. “I was told the way out would be through this pyramid once its rewards were acquired.”

“You heard correctly. Unfortunately, doing so will teleport everyone outside, which is at odds with our goals.”

“Your goals stopped mattering the moment the Garrison broke out of your traps,” Chen Haoran derisively said.

“Perhaps,” Qiong Qi evenly replied. “You’re free to try and leave. It’s just that you’ll be teleported back to the original pyramid with the Garrison.”

Chen Haoran narrowed his eyes. “And where would you go?”

“Naturally, we’ll be teleported elsewhere,” Qiong Qi said. “I’m just not sure who we’ll be able to bring with us if we’re suddenly forced to leave.”

This fucker was threatening them.

“You really think it will end well if you leave us like that?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Leave you? Why would I ever do that?” Qiong Qi looked righteously affronted. “It seems you don’t trust me, which is fair. So why don’t we cooperate with each other as a way to build some mutual trust.”

Chen Haoran shared a look with Bao Si. Qiong Qi had worded it as them trusting him, but what he really wanted was an assurance that he could trust them.

“Fine,” Chen Haoran said.

Qiong Qi clapped his hands. “Don’t look so aggrieved. Despite what it may seem, we have no intention of being buried here. We just have to hold the Garrison here for as long as possible, preferably until their antidote supply runs out. Since we control the pyramid, we can choose to pluck its treasure anytime we want and leave.”

“Which is the real reason you’re here, no doubt,” Bao Si said.

Qiong Qi clicked his tongue. “Come now, Princess Bao. I told you my ideals already.”

“Of course, and the treasure accumulated after 2 thousand years is just icing on the cake,” Bao Si drawled.

“You wound me, Princess Bao.”

“Enough of that,” Chen Haoran said. “What do you want from us?”

“Well, from you, I hope that you could help tie down the Garrison’s Ninth-Layers,” Qiong Qi said.

Chen Haoran immediately shook his head. “Too much. I can hold back Pan Gong, and that’s it.”

While he had put up an impressive showing before, it didn’t change the fact that there was a Seven-Layer difference between him and the Garrison’s Captains. The Banquet Peach only put him within range of their playing field, not above them. Sure, he might have almost killed Lu Aotian, but that was when he was still hurting from what Xie Jin had done to him and because he underestimated what Chen Haoran was capable of. A fresh and wary Lu Aotian wasn’t someone he was one hundred percent sure he could defeat. Plus, there was no way in hell he was going to exhaust himself fighting the Garrison with the rebels at his back. At least with Pan Gong, he had an insurmountable advantage in the Yellow Dragon.

Qiong Qi thought about it for a moment and nodded. “That’s enough. It’s fortunate you appeared. With you as Pan Gong’s hard counter, the rest of us will face less pressure.”

“It isn’t only Pan Gong you should be worried about,” Chen Haoran said. “Their Formation Officer Six-Eyes is just as dangerous if not more so.”

“I’m aware,” Qiong Qi dryly said. “I was in the middle of hunting him when I met Princess Bao.”

That’s right. Six-Eyes had mentioned Qiong Qi before, hadn’t he? Perhaps he’d given the rebel Ninth-Layer less credit than he deserved. He couldn’t average if Six-Eyes specifically noted him. Chen Haoran internally sighed. Yet another person with more layers than met the eyes.

“I’ve been meeting so many onions lately,” Chen Haoran muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing,” Chen Haoran said. “Anyway, our companion needs his rest. The Garrison isn’t planning on attacking immediately, so we should have a few days. Come and find me once they start their attack.”

“Ah,” Qiong Qi said, and for some reason, Chen Haoran’s heart fell. “You must not know your Garrison friends as well as you thought because they’re preparing to attack as we speak.”

Chapter 152

“Just what is going on here!?” Pan Gong thundered.

“They’re traitors,” Lu Aotian snarled.

Chen Haoran pointed his sword at him. “You were trying to kill my friend!”

Lu Aotian ripped off the ragged remains of his uniform. “He’s a Black Bone Shaman. He worked together with the rebels to draw me into a trap.”

“You were the one hunting me for treasure!” Xie Jin accused. “It was a coincidence we ran into them!”

“The rebels were looking for the shaman Pan Gong. They knew who he was. The whole tribe are traitors.”

“Bastard!” Xie Jin yelled, the Beetle Gu pulsing to match his anger.

“Insolent!” A tiger of Liquid Qi rose from Lu Aotian.

“I can confirm Captain Lu’s suspicions,” Six-Eyes interrupted. “I spotted another Black Bone Shaman in the rebel’s fortress just now.”

Oh, hell no. If that was how Six-Eyes wanted to play it. “You can’t believe a word out of that guy’s mouth,” Chen Haoran said. “He helped cover up the array map being tampered with!”

“Enough!” Pan Gong bellowed. He breathed heavily out his nose and stared at Chen Haoran. Then past him. “Where are the other soldiers who were here?”

“They were killed while attempting to assist Captain Lu,” Six-Eyes reported.

“And what were you doing during all of this?” Pan Gong said with a heavy tone.

“I had to focus on defense,” Six-Eyes lied as naturally as he breathed. “There was a formidable archer on the pyramid targeting us.”

Pan Gong grunted. The look on his face showed how suspicious he was of Six-Eyes’s words. He brushed past him and Lu Aotian both and began taking large, slow steps toward Chen Haoran.

“Pan Gong,” Chen Haoran said warningly. “Out of respect for our cooperation, I don’t want to fight you or the Garrison.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not a choice you can make anymore, Song Yuelin,” Pan Gong said. “Even if you were my blood, I wouldn’t be able to save you today.”

Chen Haoran held his sword flat in a guarding pose. Not overly aggressive, but enough to make his intentions clear. “I should have already proven that I’m not on the rebel’s side, Pan Gong. Does that really mean nothing?”

“Where are my soldiers, Song Yuelin?” Pan Gong asked. “At the end of all this, you get to leave. I have to go back and explain what happened to my superiors and the families of the fallen. My career isn’t worth a person I’ve known for less than a week.”

“I’m sorry. This is my fault.” Xie Jin whispered. Poisonous liquid miasma welled up from his chest and dripped out his fingertips.

Phelps’s fur stood up like a cat’s as he hissed at Pan Gong. The Yellow Dragon rumbled and sank back into Chen Haoran’s body.

“I don’t like being left with no choice, Pan Gong,” Chen Haoran said, finally pointing his blade at him.

A giant red tiger soared overhead and fell upon their heads. “Go complain to the judges in Hell then!” Lu Aotian roared from within it.

Pan Gong silently accelerated with his next step. His fist glowing Machu River yellow. Chen Haoran switched his stance, his sword going back and his fist going forward to meet Pan Gong’s. When they collided, the air was visibly blown away. Chen Haoran could only liken the force to punching a speeding sixteen-wheeler. Even with the Banquet Peach, Chen Haoran would be hard-pressed to match Pan Gong’s strength. The sheer difference between Pan Gong and Lu Aotian in physical power was quickly imprinted on him. The position of strongest Liquid Meridian in the Garrison was a well-earned one.

The Yellow Dragon roared.

The roar traveled through Chen Haoran’s arm into Pan Gong’s. Through his sense, Chen Haoran could see Pan Gong’s qi violently fluctuate and whip into a frenzy. Pan Gong gave a great shout and was blown back as if there weren’t Seven Layers of difference between them. Chen Haoran made sure to angle his fist upward, and upward Pan Gong went, crashing into Lu Aotian’s Qi Tiger and bursting it.

Pan Gong was the strongest Liquid Meridian in the Secret Realm, and Chen Haoran wasn’t afraid of him in the least. Of all the reasons he decided to thread the dangerous line of cooperating with the Garrison, his complete confidence that he could deal with Pan Gong was the deciding factor. Pan Gong was strong. He no doubt had many techniques and vast experience as a student of the Palace School and from his time in the military. All the same, he cultivated a method derived from the Machu River, and compared to the real thing, he could only be inferior. As much as the Yellow Dragon acted nothing like its progenitor, it was a fragment of the Machu River. So long as that remained true, Chen Haoran would never fear a Yellow River cultivator in this lifetime.

Lu Aotian growled and pushed past Pan Gong rather than help him, regathering his liquid qi into dozens of falling claws and talons. Chen Haoran slashed his sword and filled the sky with white sword shadows. Blue liquid qi and purple miasma flooded past him. By the time Phelps and Xie Jin shouted wordless warnings, Chen Haoran was already jumping back. The combined qi evaporated instantly as Captain Liu burst through them, burning head to toe with blue fire. Even the vapors of Xie Jin’s miasma were ignored as he quickly crossed the distance and pressed his palm into Chen Haoran’s chest. Chen Haoran screamed in pain that he soon muted with qi. As he was sent flying back, he whipped his sword, and a long scythe of white energy cut off Captain Liu’s arm at the shoulder. The Yellow Dragon leapt out of Chen Haoran’s body as he rolled to the lake shore, grabbing Xie Jin and Phelps and carrying them to safety as Lu Aotian crashed and fed the earth to his endless horde.

Chen Haoran leapt to his feet with clenched teeth. He ripped off his burning robes and swallowed back a deep, visceral growl of pain as they brushed over the inch-deep palm branded into his chest. This, too, would heal, however. Even now, his qi was regrowing muscles and flesh to fill out the depression and seal off the bleeding between burnt and melted skin. He just wished it could do something about the pork smell.

The Yellow Dragon deposited Phelps and Xie Jin at Chen Haoran’s side and flew back into his body to assist his recovery. Lu Aotian rose from the crater at the head of his ravenous pack. The ever-burning Captain Liu crushed his still-flaming severed arm to embers, and a new one flared into place. Pan Gong fell from the sky in front of them.

“Are you alright?” Xie Jin asked concernedly.

“I’ll live,” Chen Haoran said, wincing as the palm print in his chest bulged and filled back in.

“What’s the plan then?” Xie Jin asked. “I can take at least one out with my Death Curse.”

“No sacrificing yourself,” Chen Haoran said. He pulled Phelps onto his back and flooded qi to his legs. “Give us some cover.”

“On it.” Xie Jin’s veins bulged and colored purple. A thin film of liquid miasma covered the Beetle Gu was all the indication there was before liquid miasma shot out from Xie Jin’s chest like a cannon. Captain Lu stood immediately and placed himself in the way of the poisonous geyser. His flames turned from blue to white. Just before it hit him, however, the miasma turned from a liquid into a gas that billowed into a large cloud that enveloped the three.

Chen Haoran picked up Xie Jin as soon as the cloud spread and released the qi in his legs, shooting into the air over the lake like an arrow loosed from a bent bow. Fire, Yellow qi, and Red beasts scattered the poisonous miasma cloud. Pan Gong took one look at them and leapt into the air after them, soon followed by Captain Lu. Lu Aotian looked as if he were about to leap as well but hesitated and ultimately remained where he was. In the air, they crested the peak of the jump, and just as they began to descend, Phelps squealed and wrapped them with his liquid qi, carrying them further into the air and out of reach of the Garrison officers. That was until Captain Lu suddenly divested himself of his flames, stripping his burning body like a suit and letting the fire collect and transform into flowers beneath his feet. Then the flowers bloomed, and Captain Liu shot forward with rocket-like propulsion. Pan Gong curled his legs and twisted in the air, and Captain Liu caught his soles on his fist and carried him straight toward the three of them.

Chen Haoran overflowed his arm with qi and threw all of it into his sword. The Yellow Dragon flew into his hand and bit down on the hilt. For a brief moment, Chen Haoran felt the light of the White Tyrant’s Harmonization turned to him in disbelief. As if the White Tyrant himself was looking at him and saying, ‘Really?’. Then came the rage. Another chunk of qi disappeared, the fine leveled by the Harmonization for his cheek. Chen Haoran’s sword glowed so bright it that it stabbed the eyes. Phelps and Xie Jin were forced to close theirs. Chen Haoran kept his open through virtue of his regeneration.

He swung down.

Thousands of sword shadows and energy blades interposed, flocked like deadly birds, and flew down to Pan Gong and Captain Lu. Before they could meet the wave and be forced to reveal their cards, however, they suddenly stopped unnaturally in the air and, like reeling fish, were pulled back down to the ground. On the lake shore, Six-Eyes stood with his hands raised in the air. Chen Haoran could barely make out that he’d swapped his goggle eyes for a new pair of purple ones filled with concentric circles. Once Pan Gong and Captain Liu landed, he clapped his hands, and chains of unknown runes whipped out from his robes and into the air, forming a barrier around them that blocked the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. The air was filled with the sound of shrieking metal and fizzling qi before the barrier suddenly disappeared into thin air and took the Harmonization with it.

Silence befell the lake in the wake of Chen Haoran’s final attack. Pan Gong, Lu Aotian, Six-Eyes, and Captain Liu stood at the lake shore silently watching Chen Haoran and Xie Jin. Chen Haoran meanwhile stared at Pan Gong before gradually shifting his gaze to Six-Eyes. Between the two, Einstein on crack was the more unnerving. Particularly as Chen Haoran didn’t know what the point of any of his actions were. If he had just involved himself more in this fight, then Chen Haoran would have fallen into a dangerous situation. Even more than what the three Ninth-Layers put him in. Yet he didn’t, despite ostensibly trying to capture him. Six-Eyes met his gaze and waved.

Under Phelps’s floating qi, they bobbed their way through the air over to the lake island. Just as they were about to bump into the barrier, the white qi parted and allowed them entrance. A weight fell from Chen Haoran’s heart. Bao Si had pulled through. Phelps brought them to the peak of the pyramid where Bao Si, the archer who attacked Six-Eyes, and a crowd of Rattan Armor Soldiers were waiting. They touched down in the middle of the group, and as Phelps’s lightened qi receded, the heaviness Chen Haoran felt around him grew.

When Phelps’s took back all his qi, Xie Jin collapsed. Chen Haoran caught him in his arms, and Bao Si was by their side in an instant, miasma twisting into healing energy in her hands.

“You fool,” she hissed at Xie Jin. “Did you not understand the risks.”

The expected backtalk never came. Xie Jin’s eyes rolled up into his head. Bao Si cursed, and Chen Haoran fumbled to be out of her way while still somehow helping. He scanned the surrounding Rattan Armor Soldiers. He needed privacy. His eyes fell on the archer and what he assumed was the leader. At least no one else had red and blue lotuses on their shoulders.

“Sir Qiong Qi!” A soldier suddenly broke out. “That’s him. He was the one who killed us in Barrier A and helped the Garrison escape.”

“Oh,” the newly named Qiong Qi said. The lotus flowers on his shoulders bloomed with fire and ice.

“That’s quite the predicament.”

Update

Chapter will be posted Wednesday as I'm currently juggling writing it and traveling. After that will be a chapter to bring us back up to 10. All things going to plan by the end of the week everything will be normal.

Also I'm considering letting Patrons offer suggestions to name the Royal Road Chapter. Will probably turn it into a poll or something but as a sort of trial run the next RR chapter will be Chapter 146 so feel free to offer your suggestions in the comments below. 

Cheers!

Chapter 151

A scythe of white-cutting energy extended from Chen Haoran’s sword and reaped the earth beneath him. Xie Jin’s attacker wisely leaped backward to avoid it but lost his footing as the White Tyrant’s Harmonization made the earth violently undulate like an ocean in a storm. Chen Haoran flashed his sword as he came down and a single white line bisected the roiling earth. The Liquid Meridian spiked his qi and narrowly dodged to the side as a trench opened up in the earth and extended far past him into the ruined jungle.

Chen Haoran adroitly landed in front of Xie Jin. With the Ninth-Layer in front of him he couldn’t do more than glance at Xie Jin but what he saw was startling. The upper half of his robes were little better than rags. The Beetle Gu that Chen Haoran had grown so accustomed to seeing was now buried in his chest and beating like a second heart. He was pale and sweating. There was a limp in his leg. His qi fell and rose with every beat of the Beetle Gu like a heart monitor threatening a flatline. His finger was missing.

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin rasped. His eyes widened. “Brother Chen!”

Phelps and the Yellow Dragon acted as one. Blue and yellow liquid qi flooded out and met prides of lions and packs of wolves. The three qi’s held parity for an instant. The Yellow Dragon roared, and the king’s command traveled through his qi and into the beast horde. For the second time, however, it was useless. A hundred different roars from a hundred different species roared back through the red qi, and the beasts surged, not pushing back his qi but eating through it.

A lion bared its fangs and jumped forward to crush Chen Haoran’s throat. He slammed his sword through its head and then slashed horizontally, drawing a streak of white light through the red horde and cutting them to pieces. Behind the red qi, the ruined form of the Liquid Meridian was revealed. He glared balefully at them through the sunken eyes of his ruined face. The red uniform of the Garrison was instantly recognizable, but he was not among any of the Ninth-Layer’s that Chen Haoran had seen. His qi alone would have been instantly recognizable. It was the first time he’d seen another cultivator manipulate liquid into something other than a flood. Not only that, it wasn’t any ordinary liquid qi. Without even mentioning the devouring property, it actually felt like he was facing a horde of beasts right now. It was a feeling he was all too familiar with from the shenanigans of Lan Fen and Song Yuelin. It was a feeling that ordinary liquid qi couldn’t create.

Harmonization.

Or was it? Song Yuelin had said someone who could Harmonize with their cultivation method was a monster, but the only thing monstrous about the guy in front of him was his face.

The Liquid Meridian stretched out his hand. Liquid qi bubbled from his palm and spilled out a multitude of predator’s heads. They snarled and snapped as they fell in a line before swirling and condensing into a growling red halberd.

Chen Haoran had seen that halberd before. Had experienced that qi. Chen Haoran finally put a name to the man. “You’re Lu Aotian.”

“Feel blessed that you know your killer’s name,” Lu Aotian snarled.

“Brother Chen, I’ll help you,” Xie Jin said, standing up.

“Stay where you are and rest,” Chen Haoran said, not taking his eyes off Lu Aotian. “Everything is fine now.”

“Captain Lu!” shouted the three Garrison soldiers that had been accompanying Chen Haoran. They rushed over all while Six-Eyes looked over them atop the pillar.

Chen Haoran shrugged Phelps off his back. “Deal with them,” he told Xie Jin.

Lu Aotian growled something indecipherable and charged. Chen Haoran met in in a single bound. His sword flashed. Lu Aotian’s halberd roared. As a Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridian, Lu Aotian’s liquid qi was stronger and larger than Chen Haoran’s own and was an Earth-rank qi on top of that. As such, the halberd condensed from it was terrifyingly powerful, as seen when wielded by Commander Lu. Lu Aotian was not his father, however. Under the Crystal Transformation Realm, his liquid qi could not compensate for real steel.

The halberd shattered. Chen Haoran thrusted his sword into Lu Aotian’s chest. Before the tip could pierce his skin, however, a bracelet wrapped around his wrist glowed brightly, and a yellow barrier suddenly appeared and blocked it. Lu Aotian wreathed his hand with qi that took the form of a tiger claw and lashed out. Chen Haoran jumped backward just as the claws tore three white scars through his robes and across his stomach. They were all but gone when Chen Haoran’s feet touched the ground.

He touched the tears in his robe. Assuming that wasn’t Lu Aotian’s full strength, then it was still within the realm of what his defense could tolerate. That didn’t count Lu Aotian’s Crystal Transformation Treasure. Before he decided to pull that thing out, it would be best to end the fight quickly, whether through peace or violence.

“If you walk away now, then we can ignore this ever happened,” Chen Haoran said. “This is the only warning I’ll give you.”

Lu Aotian stared at him before incredulously laughing. It was a laugh both mocking and filled with suppressed anger. “You? Warn me? Look at my face. If I don’t repay this humiliation in blood, then I’m not human.”

Chen Haoran blinked. “Xie Jin did that? And here I was thinking it was your mother.”

Who was he kidding? Peace was never an option.

Lu Aotian proved the adage that hate could make anyone even uglier than they already were with how his melted face twisted with so much of it. A stampede of beasts sprung out of his liquid qi. Lions, tigers, leopards, bears, gorillas, bulls, boars, elephants, wolves and more. Were they to be painted with colors other than red, then each creature would look like the real article. They certainly felt that way to all his senses.

Chen Haoran flooded qi to his legs and ran. His own liquid qi would only be overwhelmed if he were to recklessly flood it, so he gave up control of it entirely to the Yellow Dragon. His sword flashed and with every strike he decapitated a qi beast and forced his way through the horde. The Yellow Dragon was constantly roaring in anger, but its use of his liquid qi was cold and calculated. No longer floods but jets that spouted across his body to interrupt attacks and slow down beasts in Chen Haoran’s blindspots while he dealt with the ones in front. He carved his way through the liquid menagerie and struck at him with his sword.

Lu Aotian had wizened up this time and pulled an actual halberd from his storage bag. It was a one-to-tone copy of the one his father wielded in the Golden Lily Auction house in everything but strength. A fact Chen Haoran was most grateful for because if it were any stronger, his sword may have actually been thrown from his hands. As it stood, Chen Haoran’s arm shook as their weapons clashed with the sound of whistling metal and roaring beasts. Lu Aotian grunted in surprise when Chen Haoran matched him rather than be overwhelmed. It was a peculiar situation, a Ninth-Layer unable to gain ground over a Second-Layer. White sword shadows flew from Chen Haoran’s blade and uselessly fell on Lu Aotian’s protective artifact. They stood in that position. Muscles straining and qi flaring as they pressed their weapons against each other. Whoever could overpower the other in this time would create an invincible momentum that would see them tilt the battle in their favor.

So naturally, Chen Haoran let go of his sword.

Lu Aotian tipped forward, and Chen Haoran stepped in, grabbing the half of his halberd with both hands. A tendril of liquid qi snakes out and wrapped around his sword at the same time Chen Haoran flexed his qi and heaved, lifting Lu Aotian, who had refused to let go of the halberd, into the air and slamming him headfirst into the ground. Gripping the halberd with one hand, liquid qi slapped his sword into the other, and the White Tyrant’s Harmonization flared to life as Chen Haoran brought it down on Lu Aotian with a heavy overhead slash. The yellow barrier appeared again to block the blow so he slashed down again and again. White light flashed with each blow like he was a blacksmith hammering hot metal. It enveloped Lu Aotian entirely, but despite the constant blows, Chen Haoran felt no give in the barrier.

He brought down his sword again and his vision went white. As it did, the halberd lost its resistance, and Chen Haoran had scarcely let go of it when Lu Aotian rose with hands wreathed with that felt like a hundred different beast claws superimposed on one another. One hand struck to block his sword. The other sank into his stomach. A feeling as if he were being eaten alive from the inside out struck Chen Haoran, and he jumped backward at the same time Lu Aotian pulled and ripped a chunk of flesh away.

“Brother Chen! Are you alright?” Xie Jin called out in concern. Phelps shrieked at Lu Aotian. Behind them were the corpses of the Garrison soldiers.

“I’m fine,” Chen Haoran said. “‘Tis but a flesh wound.” Lu Aotian hadn’t even reached his organs.

Hurt like a motherfucker, though.

Chen Haoran winced in pain and flooded qi to the wound. His sense followed it and found red qi infesting the wound and trying to strip away his flesh. Back at the Golden Lily Auction, Chen Haoran had assumed Commander Lu’s red qi to be some kind of acid. Now, he saw the truth of it. It was a qi that dissolved. It was a qi that feasted—a feeding frenzy of a hundred beasts trying to strip a corpse bare. Yellow qi drowned the beast qi, but it just turned on it instead of his flesh. It wasn’t until the Yellow Dragon descended and scattered it with a roar that his qi could finally do its work. Blood stopped, and flesh knit back together before his very eyes until there was no sign he’d been injured at all.

“You’re not normal,” Lu Aotian said. Chen Haoran noted he had an oddly aristocratic tone, considering what his face looked like. “You’re much better than what a Second-Layer should be.”

“If it took you this long to notice, then you’re a much more average Ninth-Layer than I thought,” Chen Haoran replied.

Lu Aotian picked up his fallen halberd and twirled it. Red qi fell like rain and bloomed into hungry beasts. “I do not know who you are or what your purpose it. Know this, however, whatever skills you may have are not enough. I will kill you. Then I will kill that shaman. Then, I will kill every single person connected to the events that occurred here today.”

“His defense treasure is Earth-Rank,” Xie Jin said. “I’ve been hitting it for awhile but I haven’t found the limit yet.”

“You think you can hocus pocus some Shaman magic to steal it?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin’s expression was at once pinched and ashamed. “I’ve tried. He’s made sure to wrap it in his qi.” The beetle Gu twitched and Xie Jin clutched his chest. “He’s a hard counter to me. I’m sorry.”

“You’ve done well,” Chen Haoran assured him. “Now watch me break him in half.”

“By all means,” Lu Aotian taunted. He began walking toward them, fire licking his heels. “Your strange Sword Technique may allow the weak to fight the strong, but do you have the qi to keep using it? I’d like to find out.”

Chen Haoran couldn’t help it. He laughed. Of all the things Lu Aotian could have said about the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. Even if he only knew the ghost for a short time. Even if he still didn’t completely understand his Harmonization. He knew just how ridiculous that sentence was. Chen Haoran did not Harmonize with the underdog that day in the Spa Cavern.

He flooded qi to his arm until his meridians swelled and his muscles hurt. He pushed that mass of qi into his sword, and the White Tyrant’s Harmonization glowed an incandescent white. For once, there were no arcing off blade lights or sword shadows. He knew just how the White Tyrant would respond if he heard Lu Aotian’s foolishness.

He’d end it in one blow.

“You got something wrong,” Chen Haoran said. “This isn’t a Technique for the weak to fight the strong.”

The flames around Lu Aotian’s feet turned blue, and he shot forward like a rocket, several times faster than Chen Haoran could keep up with. He came to a stop directly in front of Chen Haoran, scorching the earth black. His halberd dripped liquid qi like a savage predator’s drooling mouth and Lu Aotian swung it with the intention of letting it feast. Chen Haoran planted his feet and swung his sword. Blue fire flashed at Lu Aotian’s feet.

Chen Haoran missed.

Lu Aotian used his jet-like movement technique to quickly maneuver to Chen Haoran’s blindspot mid-swing. Phelps and Xie Jin shouted and flooded their liquid qi, but it would be too late to help him. Lu Aotian released a guttural snarl and chopped down into Chen Haoran’s defenseless flank. Chen Haoran could do nothing to stop him.

So he let the Yellow Dragon do it instead.

The Yellow Dragon roared, and its eyes shined. It shot straight through his body to his head. Then it went higher. A dragon of liquid qi erupted from his head and clamped its powerful jaws around Lu Aotian’s weapon arm. Lu Aotian shouted in shock and pain as his crippling blow was interrupted. It was the briefest of seconds but they would be fatal. Chen Haoran followed through on his missed swing, spinning around until he could see Lu Aotian’s wide-eyed surprise.

“This is a Technique for the strong to fight the weak,” Chen Haoran declared. He drove his sword into Lu Aotian’s chest. The yellow protective barrier flared to life.

“Song Yuelin!” boomed a powerful voice. Pan Gong and Captain Liu burst out of the jungle. “Stop!”

The bracelet cracked. The barrier broke. The tip of the blade touched Lu Aotian’s chest.

A ray of fiery orange light lanced out of the air and struck the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. Then, the Harmonization was gone. Chen Haoran did not know how to describe it but the force he built up within the blade disappeared. The White Tyrant’s Harmonization instantly flared up again and struck Lu Aotian, but it was not the same power he broke the barrier with. White cutting light carved into Lu Aotian’s chest, and he flew backward in a spray of blood and cloth scraps.

Chen Haoran immediately leapt backward to Xie Jin and Phelps and stood in front of them protectively. The Yellow Dragon coiled around his shoulders like a massive snake and released a low and threatening grumble. Lu Aotian disgracefully rolled himself up to his feet, purpling with shame and anger. Beneath the rags of his Garrison uniform was a black inner armor that absorbed the majority of the attack. What bleeding cuts Lu Aotian had elsewhere were merely cosmetic. Pan Gong and Captain Liu came to his side and stared at Chen Haoran with stone faces. Overhead flew the shadow that had ruined his finishing blow. Chen Haoran tracked Six-Eyes’s descent as he dropped down next to Pan Gong and the others. Fiery orange eyes burned within his binocular goggles.

Chen Haoran raised his sword.

Chapter 150

To watch over the rebels required the observers to be aware enough to notice any movements immediately and fast enough to get the hell out of dodge if the Rattan Armor Soldiers decided to come out in force. Additionally, Six-Eyes needed to go around the whole circumference of the lake to observe the barrier. Naturally, he couldn’t do it alone. For some reason, however, Chen Haoran was conscripted into helping him. On top of it all, there was still no sign of Xie Jin and Bao Si. He could only hope they had yet to make their way to the Center Ring.

“I’m just saying. You won’t be using your eyes if you’re dead. Giving them to me at least means they’ll still be useful.”

“For the last time,” Chen Haoran tiredly said. “I’m not giving you my eyes.”

He, Phelps, Six-Eyes, and three other soldiers were wandering the edges of the lake. One of them had been turned into an impromptu scribe, writing down various technical jargon, symbolism, and terrain features that Six-Eyes would randomly spout out every so often as they passed from one side to the other. Chen Haoran had to give the crazy bastard his credit. Six-Eyes’s vision was way better than the sight the Yellow Dragon granted him. Chen Haoran couldn’t see half the things he was describing and in the time it took him to notice the other half Six-Eyes had listed off five more.

“How about an exchange?” Six-Eyes offered. “I have various Spirit Eyes that can be traded for yours.”

“I like my eyes, thank you,” Chen Haoran politely but firmly denied.

Six-Eyes released a despondent sigh. As if he couldn’t believe Chen Haoran would reject such an incredible deal. “Well, if you ever change your mind, my offer still stands.”

It was Chen Haoran’s turn to sigh now, mentally at least. He knew Six-Eyes’s type well…. no, that was an exaggeration. He’d never met anyone quite as interested in eyeballs as Six-Eyes was, but he was familiar with people who were unhealthily obsessed with niche hobbies and interests that, when mixed with lacking social skills, created….unique characters. It was fine that they were excited, but sometimes they just didn’t recognize it wasn’t always appreciated.

“I don’t have dragon eyes, but could I interest you in snake eyes?”

Chen Haoran actually sighed this time. “Officer Six-Eyes, I mean no offense, but not everyone is as…. enthusiastic about eyes as you are. It’s a very uncomfortable topic for people who don’t share your interest.”

“Oh, I know exactly how uncomfortable it makes people. It’s a strange topic,” Six-Eye’s said.

What.

Six-Eyes turned his goggle eyes toward him, and despite them not being his actual eyes, they were far too adept at conveying his amusement. “Did you really think I wouldn’t know? Past a certain point, making people uncomfortable is a choice.”

“Oh—um.”

“I would still like your eyes, by the way,” Six-Eyes continued. “I just don’t understand how else you expect me to ask for them. Should I convince you you’re donating them to a worthy cause? Will that perhaps make it more palatable?”

Hot tip for being on the awkward end of conversations: Change the topic. It was the social equivalent of a gecko dropping its tail. Obvious as hell but still distracting enough to run away from the original discussion.

“Why do you want my eyes anyway?” Chen Haoran complained. “You said it yourself. They’re not really mine.”

“Do you think a Spirit possessing your vision is as simple as that?” Six-Eyes asked. “The act alone makes your eyes different.”

“What do you mean possession? I’m not being possessed.”

“Is it your eyes or the Spirit’s eyes that you’re seeing through?”

“It doesn’t matter. It just connects its eyes to mine. It’s not using them.”

“Even with the physical effects?”

Physical effects?

A bad feeling overcame Chen Haoran, and he quickly looked into the reflective waters of the lake. Two shining golden eyes stared back at him. The pupils slit vertically like a snake. He immediately cut the connection between him and the Yellow Dragon, and the unnatural gold faded back into familiar peach. He hadn’t felt anything, hadn’t even noticed. It was disquieting. Did the Yellow Dragon mean him harm? With everything it’s done for him and how cooperative it has been? No. He didn’t think it wanted to hurt him. At the same time, however, he had received multiple warnings so far about it from much more experienced cultivators. It had been easy to put aside before, but now….

“You see why I’m so interested?” Six-Eyes said. “Especially given your Spirit’s relation to the Machu River. The Ministry of Rites kicked me out the last time I asked to study their River Blessed’s eyes.”

“Is a Spirit supposed to be dangerous?” Chen Haoran asked. He suddenly found himself desperately desiring answers, and Six-Eyes was the only one here who could possibly answer them.

Six-Eyes tapped his chin in thought. His goggle eyes took on a contemplative look. “Spirits are an interesting phenomenon, almost as interesting as eyes. They are living constructs of both Soul and Qi. Whereas Humans are Soul, Qi, and Body. They are merged where we are separate. Naturally, the soul is one of the most intimate parts of a cultivator’s being. I don’t suppose you know any Soul Techniques?”

“There are Soul Techniques?”

“I suppose that answers that question.” Six-Eyes clicked his goggles and switched eyes from Eagles to something disturbingly human-looking. Phelps shifted uneasily on his back, perhaps feeling just as naked as Chen Haoran did right now. “Unless you’re unlucky enough to run into a particularly malevolent Spirit, then most aren’t any more dangerous to you than the average cultivator is.”

That was in no way comforting.

Six-Eyes was oblivious to Chen Haoran’s thoughts and continued. “When one is inhabiting you, however, is when things start to become tricky. Even when the Spirit means no harm, it does not guarantee no harm will be done.” He reached down and cupped water from the lake in his hand and watched it drip through his fingers. “You can picture it as your body being a cup and your soul being the liquid filling it. A Spirit is a much heavier liquid by comparison, and as it grows, it will inevitably push out your lighter soul and fill the space left behind. In other words, possession.”

Chen Haoran felt cold. “So I’m going to die?”

“Probably. If you’d like to make it faster, then you can go take a dip in the Machu River. Because your Spirit is born of it, the Machu can connect with it directly, and, water, being what it is, will immediately expand the Spirit and push your soul out instantly.”

Chen Haoran clutched his chest, where he felt the Yellow Dragon passing over his heart, drawing in ambient qi unbothered. No wonder Xi Wangmu had sounded so sure he’d die….wait.

Why did this sound familiar?

“So what would happen to the pushed-out soul?” Chen Haoran asked. “Would the Spirit have any memories of the original owner?”

“The soul gets pushed out,” Six-Eyes said. “Why would the Spirit retain anything?”

Of course. Why would he?

Six-Eyes clapped his hands. “That being said, who knows if that will happen to you. I’ve never seen a Machu River Spirit take the shape of a dragon before. Perhaps it is special.” Two baby blue eyes cartoonishly blinked at Chen Haoran. “Or perhaps you are.”

“You were saying something about Soul Techniques before,” Chen Haoran said, uncomfortable. “Will I be able to keep my soul in my body if I learn one?”

“That is the usual way a cultivator manages Spirits, yes. So long as your soul is strong enough, then it can resist being pushed out. Or you can just advance to higher realms and naturally improve the strength of your soul that way.” Six-Eyes gave Chen Haoran a once over. “Although I imagine the latter method wouldn’t be as effective given your Spirit’s abilities.”

Chen Haoran felt the back of his neck prickle despite himself. Just how much did this man see?

Connection: Negative

For once, Chen Haoran would have felt better if that said Valid instead.

“It’s not all bad,” Six-Eyes said. “If there were no benefits, then no one would risk housing a Spirit within themselves.”

Chen Haoran waited for him to finish.

He didn’t.

“Yeah? What kind of benefits?” He’d certainly experienced a few from the Yellow Dragon, but there was no telling if those were standard or not. Their documenting journey soon came to an end as they circled the entire lake and arrived back where they started at the side facing the pyramid’s steps.

“I could tell you,” Six-Eyes drawled. “You just have to make one easy payment of—”

“For the last time. I’m not giving you my eyes.”

Six-Eyes huffed indignantly. “So be it.” He turned to the accompanying Liquid Meridians. “Raise us up.”

The Liquid Meridians respectfully clasped their hands, and brown liquid qi flooded out and sank into the ground. The Earth rumbled as a square was outlined beneath Chen Haoran, Phelps, and Six-Eyes, and a solid square column began lifting them high up into the air until they could look down on the fortifications the rebels had built. Chen Haoran was grateful that he knew for a fact he could survive a fall from multiple stories now; otherwise, he’d be very scared standing up here with no safeties in place.

Still didn’t mean he liked it, though.

“Do I have to be up here?” he asked.

“Someone else has to be,” Six-Eyes distractedly said, switching between different eyes as he analyzed the Formation.

“How’s the observation going? Do you think you’ll be able to get us through?”

“Most assuredly,” Six-Eyes replied. “Although if I could get a look from the inside, that would be ideal.”

“Good luck figuring out how to do that, then,” he silently thought. Chen Haoran drew a line at invading the island without the entire Garrison backing him.

Six-Eyes sighed. “This is quite annoying. I wanted to study the Formations comprising the Secret Realm more.”

And Chen Haoran wanted to not get involved in a life-threatening situation for once, but that didn’t happen either. He kept that to himself, though. “It is what it is,” he said. “Who could have expected this whole thing would be such an elaborate trap.”

“If only I knew this would happen beforehand. I would have said something when I noticed the array maps looked suspicious.”

Chen Haoran paused. Phelps felt the way his qi tightened and stilled with him. His hand crept toward his sword. “That’s crazy.”

“Isn’t it?” Six-Eyes wistfully said. “They thought they could hide the fluctuations of the barriers in the Outer Ring, and admittedly, they did a decent job. If I weren’t also checking, then perhaps no one would have noticed someone doctored the map.”

Chen Haoran’s grip on his hilt was tight. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Well, I can’t just tell Captain Pan or Captain Liu. I’ll get in trouble.”

“You didn’t answer the question,” Chen Haoran warned.

“I simply don’t like secrets,” Six-Eyes admitted. “Particularly those that belong to others. I find they weigh down my soul and produce negative energy I don’t need in my life. I would much rather fill that space with more important things, like eyeballs or Formations. Now that I’ve told you, I feel myself lightened and free.”

Oh. So he was delusional.

Chen Haoran didn’t relax his grip on his sword. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“Well, if I were going to make excuses, which I will, all I found were some alterations of minor fluctuations in the Outer Rings that could have been anything. Now, I will admit, part of it was hubris. I assumed that no matter what occurred in the Secret Realm, I, and by extension, the Garrison, would be able to handle it, which was true. I just didn’t expect it to be so much of a time-sink.” He turned his head to Chan Haoran, and one goggle eye winked at him. “The other part of it is the same reason you’re not going to tell Captain Pan any of this. Who wants to make things complicated?”

It was not a threat. Chen Haoran felt no killing intent or presence from Six-Eyes. He did not need to because Six-Eyes was not threatening him. He was simply stating the truth. Chen Haoran wasn’t about to get more involved in this by going to Pan Gong. It was disconcerting that Six-Eyes had so quickly grasped his personality enough to make accurate calls like that. In a way, he felt like he was dealing with Song Yuelin again, where any little action on his part revealed far more than he intended.

Six-Eyes glanced back at the barrier. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “I see the man who tried killing me. You….uh…. whatever your name was, you might want to get ready to act.”

“First of all,” Chen Haoran said. “You’re a higher Layer than I am. So I don’t know why I have to be the one to act. Second: What am I getting ready for?”

“First,” Six-Eyes replied without missing a beat. He slapped Chen Haoran’s shoulder. Phelps hissed at him. “I am a Formation Specialist. I do Formation things. Second: You need to be ready for this arrow he’s about to launch at us.”

A bright green light flared atop the pyramid and flew at them with the speed of a cruise missile. The arrow was on them in an instant, expanding rapidly from a projectile into a veritable flying forest of grasping branches and coiling roots that dwarfed them and sought to entangle and crush them. A white light flashed once, then multiple times across the flying forest and chopped it to pieces before it could reach them.

Six-Eyes covered his goggle eyes with one hand and, with the other, pulled out an ointment. “I must say, my eyes haven’t stung like this since I peeped on a Crystal Transformation Realm’s underwear drawer. That’s quite the Harmonization you’ve got.”

Chen Haoran calmly sheathed his sword and followed the trajectory of the arrow back to where it originated, feeding qi to his eyes to enhance his vision and see the faces of the two figures across from them.

Bao Si stared back at him in open-mouthed shock.

What the fuck? Why was she over there?

“I do believe that’s your friend, no?” Six-Eyes stated.

Chen Haoran had pulled out half his sword when a palm was in his face. Phelps lashed out with his claw at the same time and stabbed it.

“Stop,” Six-Eyes said, ignoring his pierced palm. “Do you think I only saw her just now? If I were going to attack you, I would have done so already.”

Chen Haoran hesitated. “How the hell do you know that?”

“You don’t seriously think I didn’t notice the tantrum you threw outside. Do you? Also your heart rate rose.”

Incomprehensible. He couldn’t understand this man. There was no understanding this man. Again, he thought of Song Yuelin.

“What are you trying to pull?” Chen Haoran demanded.

“Not my business, not my problem,” Six-Eyes declared.

Chen Haoran hesitated again but finally sheathed his sword. He could see Bao Si speaking to the Rattan Armor Soldier who shot at them. Their gazes met. Chen Haoran waved. Bao Si mouthed something.

“I can’t read lips,” Chen Haoran mouthed back.

“Ah, allow me,” Six-Eyes said. “She said, and I quote, ‘You idiot. Why are you with the Garrison?’”

Chen Haoran looked back at her. “I’m an idiot? Why are you with the rebels?”

“If I may,” Six-Eyes interjected. “Seeing as she’s a native, it makes far more sense for her to be over there than over here.”

Chen Haoran frowned. “Do you think you’re being helpful right now?”

“Yes, actually. Quite a lot.” Six-Eyes switched out for a pair of red eyes that burned like torches. “I’m curious. Is that your lover?”

Chen Haoran debated answering, but in the end. It didn’t make much of a difference whether he did or not now, did it? “She’s my situationship.”

“Ah. I assume this isn’t the first time either.”

Chen Haoran did not know what sort of expression he was wearing at the moment, but he assumed ugly shock comprised the majority of it. “What the fuck.”

“Typically, people who use words like that are repeat offenders,” Six-Eyes calmly pointed out.

“No—what in the fu—” He ruffled his air in aggravation. “How the hell do you know what that word means?”

Six-Eyes pointed back at the pyramid in lieu of answering. “I believe your friend is trying to tell you something.”

Chen Haoran swallowed down his frustration and confusion and focused on Bao Si.

“Is Xie Jin with you?” she asked.

He frowned and shook his head. “Have you not seen him?”

She shook her head. At this moment, even if he were blind, he’d be able to see the ugly look on her face. He knew because he had the same one.

“Xie Jin, where are you?”

Six-Eyes looked out into the jungle. “Oh dear.”

An explosion of red qi surged over the trees. Red beasts of all shapes and species sprung out from the qi as if they came to life and stampeded as one giant wave. Out of the jungle darted a shirtless Liquid Meridian Realm with a black beetle implanted in his chest. Chen Haoran had to look twice because he almost didn’t recognize Xie Jin. Since when did he advance?

The jungle behind him disintegrated in the ravenous maws of the qi beasts. A man stalked out of the horde, passing through the beasts as if they didn’t exist. He didn’t look out of place among them. His own face was monstrous to look at, more melted candlewax than skin. Two bloody red eyes glared murder so palpable that the falling knife leaves wilted and died around him.

“I’ll kill you!” The Liquid Meridian roared.

White light lit up the sky, and Chen Haoran fell on him like a meteor.

Chapter 149

Man. The flight has thrown my whole schedule into wack. This is the chapter that you guys should have gotten Friday. Of course, now Monday's chapter is delayed. Don't worry though, you guys will get all three chapters this week. It's just gonna be a bit weirder than usual. Thanks for your patience. You guys are amazing. Enjoy the chapter!

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The nature of the ambush was fully revealed to them as they moved out to link up with the other elements of the Garrison. A good half of the Garrison were trapped behind large, pre-prepared kill zones while the rest had been randomly scattered across the Outer Ring. They would concentrate their forces within the barrier to quickly deal with the trapped Garrison while other roaming groups of Rattan Armor Soldiers hunted down the free soldiers across the rest of the Trial. Not exactly a bad plan if they were able to control who was sorted into the barriers and who wasn’t. It soon became quite clear that they didn’t, in fact, control who went where. Strong and talented cultivators found themselves outside the barriers just as often as weak ones found themselves inside. A fact that only made it more difficult for the rebels to hunt them down, especially since their communication medallions weren’t disabled like those inside the barrier.

Another thing that was revealed was that the majority of the rebels’ efforts had been placed on the barriers and presumably whatever defenses they had around the exit of the secret realm. At least once they traveled into the Inner Ring, they ran into no traps of any sort. Presumably, whatever time and resources the rebels had to invest into this ambush weren’t enough for them to actually turn the entire Secret Realm into a Death Trap. At least, this was Chen Haoran’s guess. Who knew what the real reason was?

It was illuminating, really, to realize just how much the rebels relied on luck. That they caught high-ranking Captains like Pan Gong and Captain Liu at all was just pure random chance working out in their favor. That luck was now running out, however. Fast enough that Chen Haoran was glad in his decision to throw his lot in with the Garrison. The tragic casualties the soldiers in their barrier suffered were not mirrored in the barrier Six-Eyes disabled, as the messages from those soldiers revealed. As callous as it sounded, they were just sorted with the weaker ones. Jiang Aiguo hadn’t been exaggerating when he said the Garrison had sent its best.

It left Chen Haoran with a single question. If this was what the best of the Garrison looked like, what was the best of the Empire?

—————————

White Sword shadows flashed and diced through a hastily raised vine wall and cut into the Rattan Armor Soldiers behind it. In the chaos of the unstoppable metal energy, the survivors were given no respite as the Garrison exploited the weaknesses Chen Haoran opened up to quickly kill the soldiers lucky enough to have survived Chen Haoran’s attack.

As they progressed further into the Secret Realm, they attacked and were attacked by Rattan Armor Soldiers as they gathered the scattered Garrison soldiers. They had quickly devised a workable pattern of combat: Chen Haoran would split open the vine defenses of the Rattan Armor while the Garrison moved into the gaps and defeated them. It was shockingly effective, given that Chen Haoran knew next to nothing about the Garrsion r their tactics. The reason was two-fold: The White Tyrant’s Harmonization was just that strong, and the Garrison was concerningly adept at adapting themselves to it. Not only discussing amongst themselves how to place him in their formation for optimal effectiveness but even taking into account his obvious reluctance to use the White Tyrant’s Harmonization more than once per battle without pressing him on it.

The result was clear. None of the rebels stalling actions held up their group for long, and as more Garrison soldiers met up with them, the time only grew shorter. To say the Garrison operated like clockwork would be misleading. They did not operate with mechanical efficiency. Not to say they weren’t precise or they were unorganized, but clockwork was far too stiff a term. No, the Garrison flowed like water, taking on whatever shape the situation demanded of them. Each soldier was an individual droplet, freely combining to form a greater river and separating as needed depending on whatever obstacle was in the way of their flow.

Whatever could be said of the Empire, their military at least was not lacking. Unlike the authoritarian governments Chen Haoran had been familiar with back on Earth, the Garrison’s soldiers were not crippled by corruption or lax standards or whatever issue the superiors who sold them out were afflicted with. Granted, the soldiers around him now weren’t representative of the average Garrison soldiers at all. The majority were officers and talents slated for promotions. In a way, that was worse. With such a well-trained professional officer class, one could imagine how intimidating the army they directed would be.

Eventually, the Garrison’s Metal Spirit Roots showed up and Chen Haoran ended up becoming superfluous. As the Metal Roots smoothly took over, Chen Haoran completely gave up attacking. It was a risk. He had seen what they’d done to someone useless to them. On the flip side, he had seen what they’d done to someone useless to them. He was loathe to waste any more qi on them that he’d be better off preserving. It was admittedly nerve-wracking, though. So long as Pan Gong had the thought, then the hundred-plus soldiers would immediately turn on him. Chen Haoran wouldn’t fool himself into believing Pan Gong would hesitate, either. He was favored. Pan Gong was not his friend nor a good person.

Not that he was, either.

The Golden Compass felt like a lead weight at his side, even though a storage bag made things weightless. It was still in Patriarch Qi’s bag. He hadn’t dared to take it out while being stared at by Pan Gong and the rest of the Garrison. Chen Haoran didn’t exactly know what it was save that it was used by the Formation Specialist to analyze the barrier and that quite a few in the Garrison were very bummed to have lost it. Presumably, it had other uses related to Formations as well, but that wasn’t something Chen Haoran could figure out right now. It was a miracle Patriarch Qi got it in the first place. Presumably, one of the rebels picked it up, and Patriarch Qi luckily got it when he killed him…. or maybe it wasn’t so much luck as it was deliberate. Patriarch Qi did say it was his greed that got him killed. Did he perhaps know who among the Rattan Armor Soldier’s had the compass?

It was a question that would never have an answer.

———————

They marched unimpeded into the Center Ring. Their numbers swelled to 200 strong, including more than a few unaffiliated cultivators. The Yellow Dragon crooned when they crossed whatever invisible barrier separated the rings. It greedily swallowed up the thick ambient qi, quickly bringing Chen Haoran back up to full reserves.

With more qi came more dangers. The trees were bigger and deadlier, with homing leaves. The durians smellier and more lethal. The pyramids huge compared to those in the Outer and Inner Rings. They paid none of that any mind. The dangers were dealt with and the potential rewards were ignored. They marched through the depths of the Center Ring until scouts came back after discovering where the rebels had gone. Pan Gong brought the group to a stop and had them temporarily rest.

In the distance, two barriers flashed bright white, then fell one after another. More messages flooded the Communication Medallions as head counts and rally points were ordered. Several more Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridians had joined their group now. Despite this, Pan Gong remained firmly in command, not that anyone seemed to have a problem with it. Or if they did, they were good at hiding it. Pan Gong was a generous leader, deferring to the opinions of his peers and delegating many tasks to them, keeping himself to be only the final say on operational decisions and the vanguard tactics.

Of course, a good portion of his time was occupied trying to get in contact with Lu Aotian. For whatever reason, he wasn’t responding to Pan Gong’s demands for his whereabouts and status. The other captains all had different reactions, from disdain to uncomfortable embarrassment and neutrality. There were various theories bandied about regarding Lu Aotian going dark. Some were polite. Others were not so polite. Without having met the man, it was incredibly clear he was a divisive figure. Despite this, not a single person present suggested that Lu Aotian may have been killed or captured, which personally was Chen Haoran’s first thought. He wasn’t dumb enough to say it out loud, however. Pan Gong heard all of this with a frustrated look on his face as he kept trying to reach him before finally putting away his Communication Medallion in disgust. Personally, Chen Haoran would never try to call someone so many times who didn’t pick up but who told Lu Aotian to have a Crystal Transformation Realm Artifact.

Pan Gong pinched the bridge of his nose and turned to Chen Haoran. “Song Yuelin. Come with me. We need your eyes to check out the rebel’s defensive formations.”

Chen Haoran nodded in affirmation and followed Pan Gong and a few other captains to finally lay eyes on their way out of the Secret Realm. The first thing he noticed, without even having to share his vision with the Yellow Dragon, was the barrier surrounding the place. A square box of metal white energy like every other barrier had been, except smaller. Well…. by comparison, at least. It was still huge, particularly since it covered a lake, the island in the late, and the giant pyramid on the island. The pyramid itself was a one-to-one recreation of the pyramid they used to enter the Secret Realm. In fact, it looked more than a recreation, Chen Haoran could have sworn he saw similar plant growth and moss on the outside pyramid.

Then there were the rebels. At the base of the pyramid’s steps, they’d erected walls of earth, stone, and vines. Three long trenches separated the walls from the islands. Along the terraces of the pyramid were archers and Rattan Armor soldiers behind further walls and parapets. The whole pyramid had been turned into a fortress.

“Song Yuelin, what do you see,” Pan Gong urged.

Chen Haoran blinked and connected his vision to the Yellow Dragon’s. The barrier’s swirling energies immediately unfurled in front of him. They coursed from four pillars of white light at the corners of the cube. Unlike with the other barriers, however, he couldn’t tell which one was an Emission Node and which was a Receiving Node. All of them? None of them? Other than that, it looked like a standard barrier. Although there was a suspicious ball of metal qi that was forming in the middle of the barrier by drawing on its energies. That definitely wasn’t visible when he was looking with his regular eyes. Even the lake was trapped. Some were obvious traps. Others were less clear. Particularly the formation that the rebels had somehow strung across the entire lake.

“There’s a Formation in the water and some explosive traps,” Chen Haoran said. “There’s also something weird going on with the barrier.”

“That’s because it’s a combination of defense and attack formation.”

Chen Haoran whirled around to look at the speaker of a voice who was not there before and had to resist every reflexive instinct he had to commit unspeakable violence when a pair of googly-eyes was standing far too close to his face.

He was an eccentric site to look at. He wore the same red Garrison uniform as Pan Gong and the rest, but his was decorated with hundreds upon hundreds of eyes. Some sewn in, some patched, others embroidered, still more painted and all of them in a multitude of different colors and wakefulness positions. The owner of the robe looked the opposite of sleepy. He bounced on the balls of his feet, all 4.5 feet of him. His face was lined with wrinkles, his hands covered in liver spots, his white hair and mustache frayed in every direction as if it’d be shocked with static and never recovered. The ‘googly-eyes’ staring deeply into Chen Haoran’s own were actually oversized goggles, more binoculars really, that made the fake eyes look like they were about to pop out at any second. Altogether he reminded Chen Haoran of Albert Einstein if he took meth.

The eyes blinked.

Chen Haoran jumped backward.

“You have some interesting eyes,” Methstein said. The goggle eyes blinked again, and Chen Haoran abruptly felt naked in front of them. The Yellow Dragon evidently felt the same way because he growled and snapped in Methstein’s direction. “Ah. So they’re not really yours. Not yet, at least. Still interesting. Tell me. Have you been possessed yet?”

What the fuck?

Pan Gong immediately stepped between them. “Six-Eyes, enough.”

“Hello, Pan Gong,” Six-Eyes greeted in a jolly tone. “I see your eyes are still in your head.”

“Hello to you too,” Pan Gong replied with a note of long-endured suffering. “It’s good you’re here. I need you to appraise what we’re up against.”

“It’s just a Metal Element barrier synced with a manually controlled attack formation. It’s not too complicated, particularly given that it relies on drawing in ambient qi to power both. The lake is a bit interesting, though. They’ve covered the whole thing in a Weak Water Formation. Anyone who slips into the water won’t be able to swim back out.”

“Their numbers?” Pan Gong asked.

“More than ours.”

Pan Gong frowned. “A serious answer, please.”

Six-Eyed chuckled. “Please don’t mind this old man’s jokes. I’ve had a bit of a day. The Ice and Fire Lotus deserves its reputation.” He clicked something on his goggles, and the device became a blur of motion as it segmented, and two tiny arms reached out to detach the eye lens and replace it with a new eagle-eye lens. “700.”

“And we’ve 400,” Pan Gong said to himself.

“438,” Six-Eyes kindly corrected.

Captain Liu spat.  “Current estimates for enemy dead is 300. What a terrible ratio.”

Chen Haoran wasn’t sure he’d say the same considering the Garrison had been outnumbered, out planned, and caught unaware and still managed to kill more than they lost. Then again, they were still outnumbered. Any loss on the Garrison’s end would automatically be worse than the rebel’s end.

“The situation isn’t that severe yet,” Pan Gong said.

“They dug in now,” Captain Liu agreed with a nod. “Shows they’re not confident facing us in open battle.” He scoffed. “So much for the South’s legendary soldiers.”

“They must aim to stall until our antidote pills run out and let the air poison us to death,” Pan Gong said.

“Do we press the assault now?” Captain Liu asked.

Pan Gong shook his head. “No, we still have time—no need to rush and potentially be caught in the back by any roaming forces they might have. Let Six-Eyes study the Formation more while we scout out the area. We still have to find Lu Aotian as well.”

“Should we build counter fortifications to trap the rebels here then?” Captain Liu asked.

Pan Gong seriously considered the suggestion before shaking his head again. “The Rattan Vine Armor allows the wearer to walk on water. We’d have to encircle the entire lake. It’s just a waste of energy. We’ll post some observers here to keep an eye on their movements.”

While Chen Haoran listened in to Pan Gong and Captain Liu go further into preparations and countermeasures, Phelps quietly hissed a warning in his ear. Six-Eyes had crept away from Pan Gong and approached Chen Haoran.

“Excuse me,” Six-Eyes whispered. “Assuming something deeply unfortunate were to happen to you while we are locked within this Secret Realm, may I have permission to harvest your eyes?”

He…. didn’t know how to respond to that. Just who asks that sort of thing?

“You…. do know I’m a Liquid Meridian, right?” Chen Haoran said. “Like, if I die, I’m going to just explode.”

“Oh, I’m aware. Do not fear. I would harvest your eyes while you’re dying in order to preserve their quality. I’m quite experienced in that regard. I just don’t want you to think I’m attacking you.”

Chen Haoran stared.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Update

Hello everyone. I am alive. My flight was....not good but I made it to where I needed to go. That being said bad flights and re-adjusting really do exhaust you huh? Or maybe I'm just a weak traveler. Regardless. I promised a chapter on Sunday. I don't have it. At least not right now. It's mostly done but I'm about to collapse from exhaustion and am seeing double. So the chapter will be delayed until tomorrow.

 That sucks thought so instead I hope this revised chapter of a WIP of mine will tide you over. If your an older patron of mine you might have read it before, or if your obsessed and went through every post on this patreon you would have seen a doc titled Reborn Immortal. Well now it's tentatively called Dromomania which also sucks as a title but I like the meaning. Anyway, I'm rambling which should really say something about my current state. Here. Read and pick this apart to your hearts content while I take a power nap.

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Dromomania

Chapter 1: Leap

Basil was working a Saturday night shift when the fabric of reality ripped and left a hole of black nothingness where the dairy section used to be.

His manager, who had just warned him for pulling out his phone on the salesfloor, cursed and ducked behind the counters, dropping the cell phone she was talking into. The customers who had come in five minutes before closing for some ‘quick shopping’ screamed and scrambled out the automatic doors. The bisected coolers on either side of the hole teetered and spilled their contents of chocolate milk and orange juice with pulp into the thirsty void. The lights overhead flickered once before the store’s ancient wiring decided against plunging them into darkness today.

Basil stood stock still on the edge of reality. The hole stopped right before his feet, slicing off the tips of his sneakers. He had stepped back after stocking the whole milk, which most likely saved his life. Had he been any closer, he would have vanished along with his hard work.

He felt an empty pang at the thought of the lost milk. That was an hour of his life he wouldn’t get back.

He curled his now-exposed toes and carefully took a step back. The hole, or perhaps tear, was a better word? Basil didn’t really think something that reach eye height could be called a hole, but then again, if he were any good a geometry, he’d probably be working somewhere a little better than retail. Either way, it looked like someone had pinched two ends of the world and torn them open to reveal the fathomless abyss it had been covering up. At any moment, it felt like the portion of existence he stood on would collapse like cloth and pitch him into its depths. He took another step back.

He felt safer now. So it would be okay to gaze into the abyss, right? At the very least, he had to take a picture. Maybe even a selfie? The soft clicking of the phone camera broke the stillness that had settled over the store. He paused to consider a caption. “What in the Non-Euclidean?” Basil chuckled. That one was pretty good.

This was nice, Basil decided. It was too bad it didn’t happen eight hours earlier. The most amazing event in human history, and he still couldn’t get a day off from work. He stared into the deep. A sudden, inexplicable urge filled his chest, and he stepped forward.

His phone disappeared into the bottomless deep.

It was stupid, but he was satisfied. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed, though. As interesting as this was, it wasn’t really going to change his life. At the very least, something could crawl out of the hole. He could befriend it or fight it. He looked around for potential weapons and rated his odds of beating an eldritch abomination in a fistfight.

His manager crawled out from behind the counter. “What the fuck is that?”

“Dunno,” Basil shrugged. “What in the Non-Euclidean amirite?”

She stared at him like he had a second head. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, uh, nothing.”

His manager was about to stand next to him, saw how close he was to the hole, and stayed put. “Basil, step back.” She pulled out her phone with a flustered look. “We have to call someone. 911? Do they take calls like this? We have to tell the store manager too.”

“Do you think we’ll get a raise after this?” Basil asked. “I’d like my fifty cents back.”

His manager looked up from her phone. “I— I don’t think so? You should ask corporate.”

Well, the last time he asked corporate about why they didn’t keep his raise after the minimum wage was raised, they deflected with some argument about something something government. Sad as it was to say, this hole in reality was actually more statistically likely to occur than his job paying him what he was worth.

Something flashed in the corner of his eye. Something flashed in endless black. Shivers raced down his spine, and he leaned over to look at the light in the darkness.

A small blue dot.

It was so obvious now that he looked at it that he was surprised he didn’t see it before. It was impossible to tell what it was. An impossibly vast distance separated them. Yet just as impossibly, he knew what it was. He could feel it in his bones. A long-buried calling opened its eyes once more and screamed in a child’s voice.

A new world.

“Basil? Basil!”

Basil reached out to grab it and tipped over the edge. The abyss took him, and he embraced it, willing himself towards that far-off world.

Unfortunately, what lay beyond reality was more reality.

The fathomless void became the vacuum of space, and the vacuum of space became death. Basil desperately looked for his new world as the air was stolen from his lungs, and his saliva boiled in his mouth. His eyes dried out, and he couldn’t blink anymore.

On the verge of unconsciousness, he saw warring light instead.

One brilliant gold on his right and one silver-gray on his left. One bastion of unquestionable majesty that starlight paused and prostrated before. One so desolate and lifeless that the void of space looked habitable by comparison. Both lights were locked together in a swirl of endless killing and devouring, and Basil’s tumble through the void had dropped him right in the middle of their higher violence. Separated by hundreds of miles, the two living lights arrested his mind and pulled it in both directions. They saved him from blacking out. Now he would die awake. Suffocating in body and being torn apart in mind.

At the same moment, Basil noticed them. He was noticed in turn.

It had been but a few seconds since he was deposited into the vacuum of space and began to die of exposure. Another second since the lights noticed him. Then the golden light surged, spanning hundreds of miles in an instant, engulfing Basil and the sluggish silver light. Then the silence of space trembled with the horrible dying gasp of millions upon millions of insects.

“No!” The swarm roared in one voice of millions. “I am not reconciled! I will not fall like this. “Eastern Pole Emperor, this isn’t the end! And you.” A lance of silver light speared toward Basil with the momentum of inevitability. The golden light snuffed the lance out with unquestionable command. “Damn, you. Damn, all of you. I curse you. Let your finest moments turn to dust!”

The force of the silver light’s last words shattered space like it was so much glass and threatened to do worse to Basil if they reached him. They never did. The curse was turned away to a yellow star millions of miles away that dimmed and became cold and dead. The shattered space and the waiting horrors watching on the other side of the glass were put to order.  The world became gold, and Basil stopped dying, but not because he could breathe again or stopped boiling. He still suffered both, but a golden light burned through his body like fire and halted his lesser killers in their tracks. The light would not let him die, either from space or itself. He felt it now as it seared him even as it kept him alive. This was a power far beyond him.

Out of the formless light in front of him appeared a man—over seven feet in height, clothed in a robe of molten gold. A coiling dragon breached from the metal waters of the robe and defiantly roared before diving once more. Seven purple stars revolved around his head like a crown. Basil could not turn his eyes away. They burned in his skull, trying to contain the man’s image.

“How did you find your way here, We wonder?” The golden man mused. He did not speak any language Basil knew of, and yet his words echoed through his body and forced him to understand. “Did the aftershocks of Our fight extend into another reality?”

Basil did not answer him because he could not. Despite being spoken to, there was only room for one voice in this golden world.

“You seem to have fallen through a crack and found yourself here. Sheer happenstance, truly a twist of fate.” The golden man seemed amused. “Your sudden arrival distracted the Desolate Autumn Cicada Lord long enough for this emperor to land the decisive blow. That means you’ve helped slay an Immortal Emperor.” The golden man laughed, and the world of gold shook with his joy. “We dare say you’re the first mortal in the history of the Eight-Fold Universe to ever do so. Such an accomplishment deserves a reward. Do not fear. We shall return you to your home.”

Basil shook as the golden man’s promise reverberated within him. He would not go back. There was another place he had to go. Thus he committed sacrilege in a place that demanded obedience. With exhaustive effort, he somehow pulled his riveted eyes away from the golden man and gazed over his shoulder. This world of golden light blinded him to everything, but even so, he knew the place he had to go was there. The light searing him turned incandescent with rage at his impudence.

“Oh?” Just like that, Basil’s eyes were immediately fastened to the golden man once more. The golden light stilled under the command of its master. He casually looked over his shoulder as if the world Basil sought was just behind him instead of countless light years away. “You want to go there?”

Basil willed every ounce and feeling of his being into his burning eyes. Hoping against hope that he would understand.

The golden man smiled.

“Even an ant knows to reach for heaven. This is why We have yet to give up on humanity.” He pointed, and a drop of liquid gold flowed from his finger and shot into Basil’s forehead, and buried itself in his mind. “If you become a Golden Immortal, seek out the Court of Heavenly Triumph. If fate is kind, then we may meet again.”

With another swish of his finger, the golden man wrapped Basil in a cocoon of golden light and sent him hurtling off into space.

Within the golden cocoon, Basil watched the universe stretch and bend as it struggled to keep up with its speed. The longer his eyes stayed riveted on the sight of a lifetime, the better he could ignore the golden man’s power scouring his body. It reached into every cell and fiber of his being and destroyed them. That same destructive force then became a healing miracle and restored what it destroyed, saving him from itself before beginning the cycle anew. He could feel the power’s protectiveness and desire to carry him safely, but even an ant would be harmed by a giant’s gentleness, and he was less than an ant when compared to the golden man.

So he burned. He burned through the death of stars and the birth of planets. He burned through the horrors, incomprehensible in scale, that made their home in the dark of space. He burned through the cocoon slamming into a planet and burrowing through its core and out the other end. He burned through light and dark, gravity and time. He burned across a dawn horizon of 100 million suns.

He burned as his prize, that blue marble he had spotted an entire universe away, rose in orbit in front of him. So much like Earth with its blue waters and green continents but so utterly dwarfing his old home in scale. Basil burned as he passed its white crystal moon and the planet-sized tree that grew on its yellow sun. He laughed as he burned and entered its atmosphere and split apart its clouds. The divine power that carried him peeled away in layers and, like a dying meteor, grew thinner and thinner the closer it got to the surface. Eventually, only a film of golden light remained, and it gently set him on the surface with the force that cratered the ground beneath him and sparked an inferno that roared up and swallowed his view of the new world.

Basil blacked out with a smile in a bed of fire and dust.

Chapter Delay Due to Flight

Hello. I am going on an 11-hour flight tomorrow (Friday) and will be landing late Saturday. As such, for Crystal Transformation Realm Patrons, your chapter will have to be delayed till Sunday. Now, functionally this doesn't make much of a difference to you guys given the.... schedule in recent weeks, but this time warrants an official announcement. So yeah. Yay me.

Chapter 148

The Emission Node exploded, and Chen Haoran and the Garrison were thrown on their backs by the rebounding force. A few quick-thinking ones spread out covers of liquid qi in an attempt to shield them from the cascading energies, but thankfully it surged into the barrier instead. Above them, the White Tyrant’s Harmonization seized the spilling energies and, well….cut.

Stark-white cracks spread across the barrier’s surface, the river turning into glass and shattering into a million pieces. The Liquid qi shields rippled as shards fell on its surface like rain over a still lake. Chen Haoran counted every blessing he had that the majority of the higher-up shards dissipated in the air before ever reaching them. They waited out the shardfall with bated breaths and only released them once the worst of it had passed, and all that remained was a light dusting of white dust-like motes.

Chen Haoran lay there as the liquid qi shields receded. He ignored Phelps’s tongue, licking his cheek. Ignored the relief of the soldiers and their chatter. He ignored the  Yellow Dragon and the indignant growl of its royal authority not being recognized. His hand still tightly clutched his sword even as his arm shook. The blade was still whole, fortunately. No arcs of cutting light veered off from its edge. Instead, a white shadow emerged from the hilt and flowed down the blade to the tip before collapsing and recollecting at the hilt to begin anew. It was the calmest the White Tyrant’s Harmonization had ever been, and Chen Haoran knew in his bones that he was not responsible for it. He wasn’t fool enough to think it was expended or controllable in this state; instead, it seemed to be admiring its work like the warlord looking upon his conquests in satisfaction.

Chen Haoran slowly breathed in and out—content with not moving and having a calm sword for once. The moment was a short one however. A hand roughly grabbed his shoulder and lifted him up. Chen Haoran let his sword fall from his fingers as Pan Gong spun him around and slapped his back.

“Good work,” Pan Gong said. “Are you alright?”

Chen Haoran blinked away the mood that had overcome him. Pan Gong’s bone-cracking back slaps also helped. “I’m fine.” He bent down to pick up his sword. As soon as he grasped the hilt, white sword shadows flew out and split clean lines in the earth. Chen Haoran quickly sheathed the sword and sighed.

“Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy.”

“You just surprise me more and more,” Pan Gong said, one hand clutching an eagle medallion like what Li Mou had carried. Though he was speaking to Chen Haoran it as obvious where his feel attention was. He patted Chen Haoran’s back again and Chen Haoran swore he felt something in his spine pop. “Keep up the good work. I’ll make sure you’re well rewarded for this.”

The medallion flared with qi, and Pan Gong’s half-attention was now totally gone.  It flashed once, twice, three times, and…. kept flashing. Pan Gong’s medallion lit up like a flickering light bulb.  Flashing so many times in less than a minute that the metal medallion started turning red from the heat. His was not the only one. A full three-quarters of the soldiers reached for their medallions at the same time, every single one pulsing with qi. With the qi came messages:

“Captain? Captain?”

“Is anyone there?”

“This is Ten Man Leader—”

“Reinforcements needed we have wounded—”

“If anyone is trapped within the barriers, please respond.”

“Captain Pan, Captain Lu, please respond!”

Pan Gong’s expression became uglier and uglier as reports flooded in. He scattered the various qi’s flashing on his token and methodically began asking for updates and situation reports. Those didn’t make him any happier. Captain Liu quickly walked over, his own medallion a strobe light of incoming messages, with a face matching Pan Gong’s.

“Can you contact the other Captains?” Pan Gong asked him.

Captain Liu shook his head. “No. Have you tried Lu Aotian?”

“You haven’t?”

Captain Liu scowled. “You think that ass takes my calls.”

Pan Gong frowned and fed yellow qi into his medallion.

“Hello?” drawled a lazy voice.

“Lu Aotian, what’s your status?”

“Relaxed?”

“Fucker,” Captain Liu muttered.

Pan Gong turned and walked away from them to continue his questioning. It didn’t stop any of them from hearing the conversation but it wasn’t them hearing that was the issue, it seemed. Captain Liu certainly looked even worse after being right.

“This Lu Aotian seems like…. quite the character,” Chen Haoran said. “Is it legal for him to not accept messages?”

Captain Liu scoffed. “It’s completely against regulations, in fact.” He fiddled with his Communication Medallion before putting it away in disgust. “Not that it matters. His father is an important commander, and he’s one of the Garrison’s top talents. Leeway is a given.”

That…. was not good news for Chen Haoran. In fact, it was the opposite of good news, especially since out of all the people in the Secret Realm who could potentially recognize his face, Lu Aotian was the most likely. It didn’t help that Jiang Aiguo had said he had a treasure that could protect him from Crystal Transformation Realms. If he wanted to cause a problem…. well, it would be very not good, to say the least.

“We were lucky we found Captain Pan,” Captain Liu suddenly said. “We would have had a harder time if it were Lu Aotian.”

“That’s only natural,” Chen Haoran said. Captain Liu’s openness was unexpected. Chen Haoran didn’t know if it was because he wanted to vent or decided Chen Haoran was a swell guy or something, but he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.  “Captain Pan is powerful.”

Captain Liu shook his head. “Captain Pan may be the best Liquid Meridian in the entire Garrison, but Lu Aotian is the closest to becoming a Crystal Transformation. I would never trust my life to him, though. At least Captain Pan cares.”

Before Chen Haoran could question him further, Pan Gong’s shout distracted him.

“I will potentially beat the shit out of you. Focus on securing the situation and stop messing around.”

An audible tongue click came from Lu Aotian’s side. “I’m already in the Center Ring. Once I’ve finished up my business, I’ll go see if this ‘Rattan Armor Army’ is worth the name.”

As soon as his words finished, the glow of qi around the medallion vanished as the connection was cut. Pan Gong stared at it in frustration, breathing loudly through his nostrils like a bear ready to charge. Eventually, he calmed himself and walked back over to them.

“Lu Aotian was never trapped in a barrier,” Pan Gong simply said.

Captain Liu rubbed his chin in thought. “There’s no way the rebels wouldn’t know he’d be here, given their level of planning. It makes no sense they wouldn’t stuff him into his own cage.”

“He’s not the only one either, going by the reports we’re receiving,” Pan Gong said. “We might not have been placed in the barriers so much as caught within them. It seems the rebels don’t have as much control as we originally assumed.”

“If they can’t control the entrance, then they probably can’t control the exit either,” Chen Haoran idly thought aloud. “The Center is probably going to be heavily guarded to compensate.”

Pan Gong gravely nodded. “We’ll have to expect heavy resistance and defensive arrays.”

Captain Liu sighed. “Let’s hope our other Formation’s Specialists are still alive.”

Pan Gong’s medallion crackled to life.

“Hello? Hellooo? Is anyone important alive, or have I become the most senior leader?”

Relief flashed across Captain Liu’s and Pan Gong’s faces. Pan Gong answered his medallion with a laugh. “Officer Six-Eyes, it’s good to see you still kicking. What’s your situation?”

Chen Haoran checked his hearing. “Officer what?”

“Captain Pan, it’s good to know your eyes are safe. As for myself, after braving Death, spears, and spears of Death, I have successfully not died.”

“The best news I’ve heard all,” Pan Gong said. “Were you trapped in a barrier?”

“Hmm? What? Oh! The barrier. Yes, yes, I have successfully disabled it. Not quite the Formations I intended to crack but an interesting study nonetheless. In fact, I do believe I spy with my little six-eyes another over yonder. I shall endeavor to open that as well.”

“Be careful,” Pan Gong warned. “Your safety is paramount. How are your numbers over there?”

“Well, by my estimate, there were a hundred bloody sons within my barrier before their numbers were artificially decreased and— ooh, a fourth barrier splendid that seems like all of them.”

Pan Gong’s relief turned into a pensive frown. “Four barriers….1oo per….200 attackers. Potentially 800 enemy soldiers in the barriers alone. Maybe as many as double our number?”

“Not the best odds,” Captain Liu mused.

“We’ll manage,” Pan Gong declared. “Six-Eyes, take down the remaining barriers and bring the soldiers to the Center Ring.”

“As you say, Captain Pan. Keep your eyeballs safe.”

Well…. that was a totally normal conversation.

Pan Gong saw the sheer confusion on Chen Haoran’s face and chuckled. “Six-Eyes is a bit weird, but he’s one of our foremost Formation Experts. We’ll be in good hands with him around.” Pan Gong turned to the soldiers. “You heard it all. Forget the rest of the bodies and ready up in five. Anyone who falls behind is going to get my boot.”

A chorus of ‘Yes sir’ followed Pan Gong’s statement as the soldiers took pills to restore spent qi, and healers went around attending to the wounded. Chen Haoran took a qi restoring pill from his storage bag and tossed another to Phelps. It wasn’t much even though it was a reward pill. The original version wasn’t that good, even for Qi Realms. The improved version was even less effective on Liquid Meridians. It was something, at least, though it was the Yellow Dragon’s continuous cultivation that really brought Chen Haoran’s reserves back to full.

Pan Gong, Captain Liu, and a few other officers were participating in an on-the-spot briefing to determine their path and expectations. Chen Haoran was close enough to them to be included in the conversation, but unless he was directly asked something, he didn’t quite have the confidence to break into what was basically a military meeting and run his mouth. So while he stood with them, his attention was far less focused and occasionally wandered over to the other soldiers meditating, Jiang Aiguo and the Peachbloods on guard, the healers running green hands over bloody wounds, then back to the officers around him, and finally Phelps before repeating the cycle over again—Phelps, Soldiers, Peachbloods, Healers, Officers, back to Phelps. There was no wasted movement among them. Everyone was using every single second of the five minutes. Chen Haoran couldn’t blame them. He’d feel threatened by Pan Gong’s boot too. It would be even worse for the weaker cultivators like Patriarch Qi—

Chen Haoran stopped. He narrowed his eyes and carefully searched the crowd but the old cultivator was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Patriarch Qi?” His sudden words stopped the conversation of the officers. Chen Haoran didn’t pay them any mind, instead spreading out his sense to make sure he just hadn’t overlooked Patriarch Qi. Maybe he’d run away during the battle? Chen Haoran couldn’t blame him. He thought about doing the same—

His head snapped towards the thickets of vines left behind by the soldiers and the familiar qi within them. Enhanced sight brought the vines into clear definition and he could see Patriarch Qi entangled within them. Could see the soft rise and fall of his chest. Could see the spear lodged in his chest rise and fall with his breathing.

“Oi! Patriarch Qi! Are you alright?” Chen Haoran rushed over, but a healer treating a soldier with a gash along his arm rose and stopped him.

“It’s best not to get near him, sir,” the Healer said. “His Final Flood is imminent.”

“What the fu—What are you saying? He’s alive! How long have you just left him like that? Go and treat him!”

The Healer’s face was a mask of infuriating patience. The one all medical professionals seemed to wear when you were frustrated with them. “I have to attend to the more urgent injuries first, sir. It’s triage. Please understand.”

A quick expansion of his sense quickly put paid to that lie. Chen Haoran’s qi spiked. The Healer’s patient expression finally revealed the first hints of nervousness. The soldier he’d been treating was no better.

“He’s the most injured one here!” Chen Haoran shouted. “You’re over here treating a motherfucker with a cut on his arm while he’s got a whole spear through his chest!”

“The-the protocols,” stuttered the Healer. It was a bit ridiculous on the outside since he was Fifth-Layer Liquid Meridian to his Second-Layer, but Chen Haoran had already proven he’d chop through Wood Spirit Roots with ease. “Given the combat situation, we don’t know if our supplies will last. We have to prioritize conserving qi and supplies and give priority to maintaining combat effectiveness. Non-Garrison—”

A loud cough from Pan Gong interrupted the Healer before he could say something he would regret. He realized this, too, from the way he paled looking at Chen Haoran.

“Go help the man,” Pan Gong ordered.

The Healer bowed and sprinted to Patriarch Qi’s side. Chen Haoran nodded at Pan Gong, although he recognized it was only because he didn’t want Chen Haoran to get the wrong idea from the Healer’s words. It didn’t matter, though. Chen Haoran had heard him loud and clear. Non-Garrison cultivators aren’t a priority. For Chen Haoran, this was false. He was too important and useful to be alienated like that. For someone like Patriarch Qi?

Chen Haoran strode over to the Healer, placing green hands on Patriarch Qi’s chest. He frowned once he saw the vines covering him. They’d wrapped around his limbs and torso, completely immobilizing him. Chen Haoran thumbed the hilt of his sword and hesitated. Could he cut him free? Even if he’d discovered a new state of the White Tyrant’s Harmonization, he wasn’t confident enough in using it that he could free Patriarch Qi without killing him. Maybe Phelps’s claws were sharp enough? Although those were more for piercing than cutting.

The Healer sighed and retracted his hands.

“Well?” Chen Haoran demanded.

The Healer shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir, but he can’t be saved.”

“Why not? He’s a Liquid Meridian. I’ve seen them take worse damage than this before and recover.”

“For other forms of injury, perhaps,” The Healer said. “But for Liquid Meridians, gaping wounds and anything that opens a large hole in their body are particularly difficult to deal with given the nature of Liquid Qi. Especially chest wounds, given how many meridians run through the torso. The spear is currently stemming the flow for the most part, and his control covers the rest, but as soon as we remove the spear, he’s liable to Flood. Not to mention the poison the spear is covered with.”

“Poison? Why is he poisoned?”

“Yes, from the looks of it, it’s a Qi Loosening poison. It makes it easier for Liquid Qi to escape the body, combined with the thinness of Mortal-Rank Qi and how easy it is to flow out—”

The Healer shut up when Chen Haoran leveled his presence down on his shoulders. “You misunderstand. I asked why he’s poisoned. Give him an antidote already.”

“We-well, given the complexity of Zumulu’s poisons, we don’t necessarily know if the antidote will take so….”

Chen Haoran swung his arm and motioned to the surrounding soldiers. “Then what are they using? Or are you going to tell me that he just so happened to be stabbed with the only poisoned spear?”

“Gi-Given the nature of the wounds itself, using a pill is….”

“Leave,” Chen Haoran coldly ordered. “You’re pissing me off.”

The Healer bowed low and scurried off. Chen Haoran took out a healing pill and an antidote pill from his storage bag and fed them to Patriarch Qi. Whether they would make any difference was unknown. He didn’t think they would, though. Profound-Rank pills were too weak to truly help, given the serious nature of his injuries. He tested the vines but found they were wrapped around too tight to get his fingers under them.

Chen Haoran stood back up and watched Patriarch Qi’s weak breathing. It was a bit ridiculous, maybe, to get so angry for a guy who’d tried to rob him without hesitation not too long ago. They were less than strangers. They were targeter and targeted until Chen Haoran turned the tables on Patriarch Qi. Even so, for a time, they were on the same side. Perhaps that meant nothing, given the time and the reasons. Perhaps it was ridiculous to assign it any meaning at all.

He didn’t need to use his sense to know everyone was watching him for the spectacle he’d made. What were they thinking? What were they saying? Chen Haoran didn’t know, but he did know what they were doing.

Nothing.

Despite witnessing all of this, not a single person stepped up to render any form of aid despite Patriarch Qi being mortally wounded helping the Garrison fight their enemies. Protocols. Logistics. They were cold, logical reasons born from one truth. Patriarch Qi was too weak. Saving his life was not worth it when the materials could be used on more useful soldiers. How or why he’d been injured didn’t matter. The Garrison had the means to save Patriarch Qi is the really wanted to. Instead, they were content with watching him slowly die right in front of their eyes.

Including himself.

Chen Haoran sighed in frustration and rubbed his eyes. Phelps softly crooned. Right now, Chen Haoran was one hundred percent sure he could save Patriarch Qi. A single seed from his Paradise Pomegranate was equivalent to a high-level healing pill, and the poison would be a joke in front of the Stainless Purity Lotus. So long as he pulled them out, then Patriarch Qi would not die. He wouldn’t. There were many reasons. He didn’t want to bring out such valuable plants in front of the Garrison. He was leery of using up the precious effects even if he could use them multiple times. Patriarch Qi would almost assuredly not do the same thing for him were their positions reversed. He did not need to save Patriarch Qi.

The thought wasn’t as comforting as Chen Haoran hoped it’d be.

Patriarch Qi coughed, and his eyes fluttered open. “Young Hero,” he rasped.

“Rest Patriarch,” Chen Haoran said.

“My storage bag and my weapon,” Patriarch Qi slowly said. “Should you return to Reservoir Town, please bring them back to back to the Qi Family.”

Chen Haoran crouched down. “That’s a tall task to ask a stranger, Patriarch—especially me of all people. I did beat up your brother and son, and you, not long ago.”

“And yet, all three of us are still alive and not crippled despite offending you,” Patriarch Qi said.

“Is that really enough of a reason to place your faith in me?” Chen Haoran asked.

“No,” Patriarch Qi said. “But how could I not place my faith in you? You are so powerful. So talented.” He laughed. It was an effort of great pain for him to do so and saw blood trickle out his mouth, but he looked happy all the same. “So angry for someone like me. It’s such an honor.”

“Don’t misunderstand, old man,” Chen Haoran softly said. “I just think this is sad. I hate sad things.”

“What a hypocritical thing for a cultivator to say.”

“Yeah,” Chen Haoran acknowledged. It was the truth ever since he’d entered this world. “It is.”

Liquid qi bubbled up around the spear wound and began dripping onto the vines. Chen Haoran found he could no longer look Patriarch Qi in the eyes, not because he could not meet them but because they were looking far past him now.

“This isn’t so bad,” Patriarch Qi choked out through blood and labored breathing. “I killed a legendary Rattan Armor Soldier. Me. How glorious.”

“I will bring your storage bag and your story back to your family.” Chen Haoran promised.

Patriarch Qi’s lips twitched, and a small smile formed. “Thank you. There is a treasure in there you may use as compensation. My greed may have killed me, but perhaps it will be useful to you.”

Chen Haoran reached through the vines and took the storage bag. By some stroke of luck it hadn’t been tangled by the vines and was easy to remove. “Do you have any last words?”

Patriarch Qi did not reply. His breath grew weaker, and weaker, but Chen Haoran remained by his side and waited for an answer that might never come, but that deserved the opportunity to be heard nonetheless.

“My arm,” Patriarch Qi finally said. “Can you free it?”

Chen Haoran fell silent. He could do it. He had reasonable, common-sense options to cut away the vines.

His hand fell to his sword despite those reasonable options. White energy shined as released a sliver of the blade. A thin, white line suddenly appeared across the vines wrapped around Patriarch Qi’s arm. The vines fell apart, sliced cleanly in half, but the arm beneath it was unharmed, without a single cut on the sleeve.

“Thank you,” Patriarch Qi said. He raised his arm, and his sleeve fell away to reveal his bone bracelet. He pressed it to his mouth.

Patriarch Qi did not die a beautiful death. It was drawn out and painful. He undoubtedly suffered until the last moment when his breath finally failed. His liquid qi did not even have the dignity to rage in a Final Flood before it was pounced on by the vines and greedily absorbed.

A white flash saw the vines wiped away from existence. Chen Haoran pressed his hands together in a short, silent prayer before opening the storage bag Patriarch Qi entrusted to him. A gold light greeted him.

Chen Haoran stared at the thought-lost Gold Formation Compass.

Interlude: The Silkworm

Had a good vibe while writing this. Don't worry though. This will be the last interlude until the end of the arc.

----------

Separating the Ninth-Layer of the Qi Realm and the First-Layer of the Liquid Meridian Realm was a river as vast as the Machu. The worst of the Liquid Meridians was still better than the best of the Qi Realm. This was a paradigm that held true at every level of cultivation. Oh sure, there were stories and legends of heroes at the pinnacle of their Realm who could cross borders and prevail over a higher Realm. The majority of these stories never involved direct fights, however, and if they did, it would only be after some cunning plans or bad fortune had weakened their foe. However, not even the most outlandish tall tales would have their heroes directly challenge a higher Realm above the First-Layer.

Lu Aotian was a Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridian—a beast on the cusp of the Crystal Transformation Realm. He was not a foe to be overcome. He was the monster that killed heroes. Running from him was the greatest resistance Xie Jin could put up.

He cycled qi to his legs, pounding earth until the jungle around him started becoming a blur. The rest of his qi went to keep his heart and lungs from exploding from how much they were pumping. He would be feeling the effects of how hard he was pushing his body later, for sure. Of course, if he didn’t do at least this much, then he wouldn’t have a ‘later’ to speak of.

Xie Jin didn’t even bother to direct his sense behind him. If at any moment he actually noticed Lu Aotian then he would be dead anyway. Better to keep focused ahead and eke out a bit more speed. The only distraction he afforded himself was the emotional tether to his Gu. Not that a Gu had many emotions to share. They were cold existences. The only thing that could inflame any hot feeling within them was their endless greed. That being said, for how unnatural a Gu was compared to any actual animal, there were still instincts even it obeyed.

A sense of pressure weighed down on his mind. His Gu did not fear, none of them could, but it could recognize a stronger predator. It was fleeing now, chased by what felt like a horde of ravenous beasts. That it could escape at all was a testament to a Gu’s unique powers. What they lacked in direct power, they more than made up in other ways.  It was the only reason Xie Jin had a chance at all.

He ordered his Gu to flee in a direction perpendicular to Xie Jin’s own escape path. Once it had hopefully drawn away Lu Aotian away, it would swing back around to link up with him and—

The pressure was gone.

The shift was so drastic that Xie Jin nearly stumbled.

What happened? He pressed his Gu for a response and what he got back was a feeling of safety. The horde of beasts was still there, but the presence that gave weight to the qi was gone.

“That is so not good.”

The only thing that could make death scarier was not knowing where it was.

Xie Jin hastily ordered his Gu to backtrack. Should this be some kind of trap, it would be a risk, but at least he would know. An alien sense stretched out, observing the world in ways that a human simply could not. An equally alien mind translated those indecipherable colors and impressions in a way that Xie Jin’s mind would understand and not be driven mad by. It painted for him an ugly picture.  Lu Aotian’s tracks abruptly stopped before pivoting off into the jungle toward the center of the Secret Realm.

The same direction Xie Jin was running in.

Not good.

Xie Jin immediately recalled his Gu. It followed the path Lu Aotian took before diverging from it. That was good. It meant his and Lu Aotian’s paths wouldn’t cross. If the Ancestors were kind to him, then he’d be able to avoid notice. Xie Jin drifted right, away from where he assumed Lu Aotian was running. He debated whether to keep heading deeper into the Secret Realm. If he stuck to the outer edges, then he should theoretically be safe. On the other hand, if he actually wanted to find Brother Chen and Bao Si, then he would have to be in the place they definitely would be. Not to mention he hadn’t found anything of value in the outer edges. If he wanted better treasures, he would have to go deeper in.

He looked down at the Liquid Core Fruit. No matter how hard he pushed his body, he made sure to keep a light grip on it, afraid of even bruising its flesh. He felt a burst of desire from his Gu. Treasures, wealth, food, a Gu was greedy for many things. Above all others, however, was their desire for advancement. They were much like cultivators in that way.

Xie Jin crashed into an area of dense ambient qi. The sudden spike slammed into his chest as if he’d belly-flopped into water. He ground his heels into the earth and skidded to a stop, falling over into a roll to bleed off his momentum. His legs and chest burned, and he cycled more qi to take the edge off the pain. Then he cycled even more to leap away as a hails of leaves struck the spot he was at before in the thousands. More leaves curved through the air and followed after him. Purple miasma spilled from his sleeve and turned into a swarm of biting insects to block the onslaught. As the knife leaves fell rotting to the ground, he spied the tree that tried to kill him. One branch was bare. The other thirteen were filled with leaves. Same as the rest of the trees.

“Of course, the trees get more dangerous.” It was something he should have anticipated. Would have anticipated were it not for more life-threatening concerns. More qi meant more opportunity for crazier and more dangerous effects. He glanced at the Liquid Core Fruit. More qi was also a good thing for him. It would make his advancement all the smoother. He cast his sense around to quickly survey the area, then probed his Gu to judge its distance. It was closing in fast. It wasn’t ideal safety-wise, but he could take the fruit here— no he would take the fruit here. There was no telling what danger would befall him if he delayed it any longer.

He needed to advance.

His Gu came to life in his mind. It didn’t need to speak a language for Xie Jin to know it was furiously protesting his decision. Amorphous energy, qi but at the same time not quite, pulsed through their connection.

“Wretched spirit of my blood and soul.” Xie Jin sighed and covered the Liquid Core Fruit in amorphous qi.

The sky turned white, and a deafening crack sounded across the secret realm. Xie Jin whirled around, and even through the jungle canopy, he could see a large pillar of white energy reach from Earth to Heaven and cut a barrier to pieces. It was a familiar energy.

“Brother Chen?”

Was he behind him? Why? Had he gotten lost? Or was he looking for them? Why would Brother Chen attack the barrier? Was it supposed to be a signal? Was he waiting there for them, or would Xie Jin be better off waiting for him in the center? No, that was foolish thinking. There was no need to wait when he knew where Brother Chen was. Finding him would be easy now that he had a direction. Xie Jin would advance and then double back to meet him—

His senses warned him. Warned him but did not prepare him. When he turned his head, Lu Aotian was standing before him. He was not looking at him. Instead, his focus was on a medallion he was holding. Xie Jin’s qi screamed as he cycled it to its limits. He threw himself backward, his other hand grabbing a bag at his waist and throwing it at Lu Aotian. Purple qi twisted within him and resonated with the miasma-infused durians within the bag. They exploded in a plume of organ-dissolving chemical gas, covering Lu Aotian entirely. Xie Jin turned around and fled toward the outer edge.

It was futile. He knew it was futile. And yet—

Xie Jin didn’t see the hand that slapped it, but he certainly felt the palm and all five fingers that imprinted themselves into his face. His head twisted to the side with a crack, and he flew through the air and landed heavily on the ground. His mind went black. He laid there, fading in and out of consciousness. An alien mind pressed against his fading one, glowing with purple qi and dragging him back to awareness.

Pain greeted him. His head rang like a thousand bells had been struck at the same time.  He couldn’t see out of one eye or feel the half of his face that’d gotten slapped. Blood dribbled from his mouth, and he coughed out a few teeth. He couldn’t move. All of that registered at once and overwhelmed him so much that he could only form a single coherent thought.

Why was his head still attached to his body?

Out the corner of his working eye, he could see Lu Aotian standing over him. Wisps of miasma covered him but were blocked by a teal aura that slowly receded and disappeared with the miasma into a silver pendant around his neck.

“A poison protection treasure. Of course.”

“So what if it’s an ambush?” Lu Aotian spoke into the medallion.“If they don’t have the raw power to kill us, then their plans are pointless.”

“Get stuck in one of those barriers and say that again,” said a deep voice that Xie Jin recognized as belonging to Pan Gong.

“If we still lose with how much force we have concentrated here, then at that point, we deserve to die,” Lu Aotian said.

“Die then,” Pan Gong said. “Don’t drag the rest of us into it.”

“Stop worrying.” Lu Aotian sat on Xie Jin’s back, causing his breath to flee his lungs in a painful gasp. “The fact that I’ve been allowed to roam so freely means they don’t have as much control over the Secret Realm as you think. If they did, then they would have focused on me first. I didn’t even realize we were being ambushed.”

“You— Have you not contacted anyone this entire time?”

“Am I someone who has to contact people? They contact me if there’s a problem.” Lu Aotion said the ridiculous sentence with a straight face as if it were as natural as the sun rising in the morning.

“You arrogant ass. This isn’t a situation for you to fool around in.” Pan Gong’s frustration was palpable through the medallion.

Lu Aotian narrowed his eyes. “Watch your tone, Pan Gong. Others might be intimidated by you being in the Palace School, but I am not one of them. I chose not to go because my potential was greater than that.”

“I will potentially beat the shit out of you. Focus on securing the situation and stop messing around.”

Lu Aotian clicked his tongue. “I’m already in the Center Ring. Once I’ve finished up my business, I’ll go see if this ‘Rattan Armor Army’ is worth the name.” He put away the Communication Medallion without waiting for Pan Gong’s response. Then without pausing, reached down and ripped off Xie Jin’s middle finger.

Xie Jin stared at his hand in disbelief. The sheer shock of the sight momentarily prevented him from reacting. Only for a moment, however.

He screamed.

“If you didn’t want that to happen, then you should use your appendages responsibly,” Lu Aotian said. He toyed with Xie Jin’s finger for a moment before tossing it into the air. A stream of red liquid qi rose from him and transformed into a wolf’s head that devoured his finger in one bite. “Now then. Where’s the Liquid Core Fruit?”

His nine fingers curled with such strength they dug into the earth as he fought through the pain.“I dropped it while I was running.”

“No, you didn’t,” Lu Aotian said. “If you actually did that, then I would just kill you and go look for it. You want to live, so you’ll do anything you can to buy yourself time.”

He grabbed Xie Jin’s bag and opened it. With his sense, it would be child’s play to note everything within, but Lu Aotian still upturned it and dropped all its contents onto the ground. It was a casual, unnecessary cruelty. The same kind that saw him keep Xie Jin alive rather than kill him instantly.

“Well?” Lu Aotian asked. “Summon your Gu. I’m waiting.”

Xie Jin gritted his remaining teeth. “You think I won’t kill myself rather than give you the satisfaction.”

“You won’t,” Lu Aotian said, with such surety that Xie Jin was left speechless. “That’s the surprising thing I’ve discovered. You can take a man’s hand, his arm, his eyes, and his ears, but he will bear all of that so long as he keeps his legs. As long as you believe you have the chance to run away, then you have hope. So long as you have hope, you will not die. Of course, as soon as you take a man’s hope away, he becomes akin to a cornered animal. That’s when they become the most dangerous.” Lu Aotian patted his legs, and Xie Jin’s heart leapt to his throat.” Not that you’re at all a threat to me. I could cripple you right now, and nothing you could do would make a difference. I won’t though. No need to form a bad habit.”

“Sick bastard.” It was all Xie Jin could day.

Lu Aotian did not look pleased. “I was magnanimous enough to tolerate your crude words before. My patience is not limitless.”

He reached down and ripped off Xie Jin’s Human-Skin Mask. Xie Jin impotently glared up at him. He could feel his Gu waiting for orders. A volcano ready to erupt.

“Consider this a mercy,” Lu Aotian said. “The world will see you die with your true face rather than a false image.”

Xie Jin’s fingers twitched. His Gu expanded its sense to encompass them. The tree’s rustled. Lu Aotian looked in the direction of the noise, and an arrow shot from the opposite one. Red qi rose into a tiger’s head and caught the arrow between its teeth. From the jungle emerged ten vine-armored soldiers straight from out of Xie Jin’s fairy tales.

The soldiers linked their shields and pointed shining spears at Lu Aotian. Behind them, the archer was speaking into a Communication Jade. “Reporting. Lu Aotian has been discovered. Location Central—”

Xie Jin’s world became a blur of whiplash and vertigo before his back very painfully crashed into a hard surface, and what felt like a dozen pythons began constricting him. He had a brief moment to realize what happened. Lu Aotian grabbed him by the ankle and, using his body as a club, smashed him across three shields whose vines immediately wrapped around him. Lu Aotian spun on his heel, still holding Xie Jin’s ankle. He heard a loud pop as his leg was dislocated and Lu Aotian threw him and three Rattan Armor soldiers, still clutching their shields, away in a single motion.

They fell in a heap. The soldiers were quick to recover. Xie Jin was not. One was kind enough to check on Xie Jin. Before his hand even touched Xie Jin, he let out a startled sound as he ran his sense over him.

“Are you the Black Bone Shaman?”

Why did they know who he was?

There was a bloodcurdling scream. Lu Aotian had torn the archer in half with his bare hands and, ignoring the other soldiers, turned to face Xie Jin. “Why do they know who you are?”

The soldiers leaped at Lu Aotian. Nine floods of liquid qi erupted on all sides. Red liquid qi rolled off of Lu Aotian in waves. Shapes arose from it. Lions, tigers, leopards, bears, wolves, and more came to life in a flood of beasts and ripped through the Rattan Armor Soldier’s liquid qi with tooth and claw before pouncing on them. Xie Jin gathered amorphous qi in his hands.

“Hey, Lu Aotian!” The amorphous qi darkened and then disappeared. In his hands was a silver pendant. Lu Aotian’s hand rose to his now bare neck. “The Liquid Core Fruit got eaten.”

Xie Jin’s Liquid Meridian Gu appeared above their heads and dropped a river of miasma atop Lu Aotian’s head.