Plutusauthor

Chapter 92

A wooden ladle slammed onto Wang Xiao’s head. “Not in my house, you won’t,” the old woman said.

Wang Xiao clicked his tongue but reined in his anger after a warning look from his senior brother.

The old woman placed bowls of steaming pork broth in front of them. In the center of the table she laid out a massive platter of noodles, small cuts of meat, leafy greens, and thin-sliced mushrooms.

“Thank you for the meal,” Chen Haoran said.

Jiang Lei clasped his hands and gave his own thanks. Wang Xiao remained stubbornly silent.

The old woman waved them off and seated herself. “Eat.”

Jiang Lei caught Chen Haoran’s eye and graciously nodded his head toward the platter. Left with no other choice Chen Haoran awkwardly used his chopsticks to fill his bowl and eat.

His first bite was one of surprise. His second was one of need. Such were the laws of unexpectedly good food. The pork broth was full of flavor, and the noodles absorbed every bit of that flavor in a combination that punched him in the mouth like the wild pigs of the Clearsprings Mountains. It was by far the best meal he’d had since entering Zumulu.

“It’s delicious,” he said.

“Agreed.” Jiang Lei echoed the sentiment. “You used a milder flavor this time, Elder.”

The old woman paid their compliments no mind and deftly picked out a mushroom from the platter. “The foreigner can’t handle real heat.”

Chen Haoran frowned. “How did you know I don’t like spicy food? I never mentioned that.”

He flinched when the woman unerringly locked a blind eye on him. “I can see the weakness in your soul,” she intoned.

Chen Haoran likened his current feeling to that of a deer caught in headlights. “You’re… talking about spice,” he hesitantly said. “…right?”

She pointed her chopsticks at his bowl, and part of his mind went wild trying to figure out how she did. “Eat.”

Chen Haoaran didn’t. He placed his chopsticks down. “I don’t believe I ever learned your name, ma’am.”

“You can’t learn what you were never taught,” the old woman said. She grabbed more noodles from the platter and dumped them in Wang Xiao’s bowl. “You can call me Granny Jiang.”

Jiang. His eyes involuntarily shifted right to Jiang Lei. Had this been a setup? Had the Liquid Meridian tracked him down and laid out a bait that he waltzed into? Or was this Granny Jiang the one really pulling the strings? None of it made sense, though. He gripped the table.

“I met a man named Jiang, actually,” he said with far more calm than he felt. “Old Jiang, a ferry captain.”

The old woman snorted. “No wonder then.”

What? No wonder what?

“Jiang is a common surname,” Jiang Lei patiently explained. “It’s a coincidence that this elder and I share it in common.”

“Names are the least of the things people have taken from the rivers,” Granny Jiang added.

Chen Haoran hummed a noise of understanding and turned back to his food to disguise the relief he felt. Despite this, he was sure Jiang Lei picked up on what he was feeling. He still wouldn’t say he felt safe, but there were too many inconsistencies for them to be out to get him.

“How did you end up meeting Granny Jiang?” he asked.

Jiang Lei laughed. “I dare say it probably was not much different from how you did. When we arrived in the city, we were looking for accommodation when her wares struck my eye. I believe she took pity on us and invited us as guests.” Something flashed in his eyes as he looked between Granny Jiang and Chen Haoran. “Meeting you like this was quite the surprise.”

Chen Haoran watched Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao with wary eyes. Xie Jin had been endlessly suspicious of the duo when they first met. It was perhaps a good thing that his fiance dragged him out of the city because Chen Haoran couldn’t imagine him taking meeting them again any better than he did. He couldn’t help but mirror Xie Jin’s suspicion. While he had yet to look at a map of Zumulu, he at least knew Daqing was even further away from Reservoir Town than Snake’s End was. Why reason did they have to travel out so far when they could have remained home to cultivate by the Peachwine?

He thought back to their first meeting. Wang Xiao had said their purpose was to do good and protect order. To that end, they were hunting criminals and capturing them alive. That in itself was a clue. Jiang Lei could have killed those poachers but didn’t. He reprimanded Wang Xiao for his behavior at the inn. Being seen doing good and maintaining a good reputation was important to them.

Chen Haoran finished off the rest of his broth and sighed in contentment. He put aside his theorizing. What they wanted to do was none of his business, and he had no interest in pursuing the matter. In any case, he didn’t know enough about Zumulu to make a call one way or the other. So long as Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao didn’t bother him any further- Chen Haoran paused. He glanced at Wang Xiao, who was stiffly eating the noodles Granny Jiang had dropped into his bowl. When he saw Chen Haoran looking at him, he glared, the fire clear in his eyes. Chen Haoran amended his thought: So long as Jiang Lei didn’t bother him any further, he had no reason to go out of his way and investigate them.

He pushed away from the table and stood up. “Thank you for the meal, Granny Jiang.” Despite the fact she was blind, he still clasped his hands and bowed. “Unfortunately, I really must go now. My friends-” he emphasized “-are still waiting for me.”

Granny Jiang casually waved him off. “Begone with you then.” Wang Xiao stood up after him, but Granny Jiang pulled at his sleeve. “Where do you think you’re going? You need to eat. You make every rumor about Zumulus being skeletons look true.”

“I have business-” Wang Xiao began, only for his other sleeve to be grabbed by Jiang Lei.

“Come now, Junior Brother,” he said as he stuffed Wang Xiao’s mouth with another slice of meat. “I have to agree with Elder Jiang.” He looked over his shoulder at Chen Haoran and winked.

Taking the help for what it was Chen Haoran quickly fled out the door and escaped. Leaving Jiang Lei’s laughter, Granny Jiang’s scolding, and Wang Xiao’s muffled shouting far behind him.

The next time he met any of them would be too soon.

—————

As he raced back home, Chen Haoran only had one thought in his mind.

He had to start getting his banknotes in smaller denominations.

While it was not quite yet curfew, it was close enough that Chen Haoran ran into more than one infuriating patrolling team of guards who decided to be an asshole about it. Thankfully his cultivation was high enough that he wasn’t so easy to bully. Even luckier was that money seemed to be a universal weakness among the guards who felt his cultivation and still came to press their luck.

Unfortunately, he seemed to run into a Catch-22. He’d get stopped and waste his time speaking with and paying off the guards before he could continue on his way, only to then get stopped by another team of guards much later into curfew and repeat the process. It was clearly a racket, but he couldn’t be sure if it were deliberately arranged by the security forces of the city to extort as much money as they could or if he was just unlucky.

There was only so much he could do to avoid them without looking like he was deliberately hiding from the guards. Being accused of being a thief or a sneak would open up an entirely different can of worms that he’d rather not deal with. He was thus left with relying on his sense and sight and hoping he got lucky enough to turn onto a different path before running into a guard team. He was met with varying levels of success. If he could see the guards, then they were just as likely to spot him as well. His sense wasn’t yet powerful enough to outdistance sight.

It was a time like this when he missed Lan Fen’s, more accurately, the White Tyrant’s, sensing ability. How convenient she had it to have all the goings-on of an area basically at her fingertips. Having to deal with the White Tyrant’s personality would have been worth it for that alone.

He sighed. “I should’ve had Song Yuelin teach me a stealth technique.” Having something that’d let him hide and avoid a cultivator’s sense would be incredibly convenient right about now.

Chen Haoran’s skin prickled, and he laid his hand on the hilt of his scimitar for reassurance.

How many times had Song Yuelin observed him with him none the wiser? How many times did the White Tyrant? They were both so far above him, not just in realm but in skill. How could an ant realize it was being stared at by something far larger than it in scope?

When it was being obvious.

Chen Haoran drew his scimitar and slashed behind him. White light flashed and cut away the night. Long marks were scored into the stone bricks beneath him. His sword was stopped, but the image of a split sky continued on.

Peach-colored liquid qi covered the street and buildings and shielded them from the effects of the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. Jiang Lei, having failed in sneaking up on Chen Haoran, caught his scimitar with his hands. Liquid qi battled with the white cutting energy, and blood leaked freely from Jiang Lei’s hands.

“Well,” Jiang Lei said with no small shock. “That’s twice today I’ve been surprised.”

Chapter 91

“Next time you try to play hero, try to avoid damaging anything, will you?”

“I said I was sorry.”

Chen Haoran and the old woman wandered down various streets and alleys of Daqing. Chen Haoran had the woman’s carpet thrown over his shoulder like a sack. From within came the clicking and clacking of her bone wares. He thought it was the end of it when the old woman extorted him out of a gold tael for a sculpture he was positive wasn’t worth that much. The old woman still didn’t wasn’t satisfied and had him help pack up her goods and carry them home for her.

“Bah, will your apology cut it if what you stepped on started bleeding instead of breaking?”

He felt his eye twitch. “You know I can just drop your stuff and leave, right?”

The old woman scoffed. “Go ahead. Prove me right that you foreigners aren’t worth a damn.”

“I don’t actually care about upholding anyone’s image.” He really didn’t. It’s not like he was actually from this world, let alone any of the nations here. “How do you even know I’m not from here anyway? You haven’t looked at me once.” It took him a bit to notice, but it was true. She hadn’t lifted her gaze at all when he met her or when the thugs were bothering her. Even now, when he was walking her home, he still didn’t know what her face looked like.

The old woman sniffed. “I can smell the Peacock’s water on you, boy.”

Chen Haoran frowned and sensed her again. Still mortal. But was that true? Lan Fen could hide her cultivation level after all, or rather, the White Tyrant helped her hide it. Xie Jin could seemingly smell the Peachwine river on the Reservoir Town cultivators as well. With how connected his cultivation method was to the Machu river, it wouldn’t be strange if someone could recognize it on him the same way. “Really?” he asked, just to be sure.

“Of course not.” The old woman said. The disdain in her voice was clear. “Do you really think I can do something like that? It’s your accent, you fool. Do you think you sound like my home?”

Chen Haoran was glad the woman wasn’t looking at him. Otherwise, she would see him flush red. Right, why twist himself in knots of doubt when the obvious answer was there?

The sun began dipping beneath the horizon, and the last rays of purple sunset reflected off the time-polished stones of Daqing. Around them, people closed up shops and made their way home ahead of the curfew. They were heading away from the river and deep into the city. Father Time had lovingly worn smooth the bricks of the houses surrounding them and draped them with curtains of crawling moss. The canals thinned out into twisting gulleys that wrapped around the roads and homes like snakes. The water of the Skyspear they carried stole the darkening sky’s reflection and burbled black, purple, and gold.

“It’s a beautiful city no matter what the time is,” Chen Haoran said.

The old woman hummed. “At least you can appreciate art.” She ran a liver-spotted hand along a smooth wall as they walked. “Oldest city continuously inhabited city on the continent. Even when the Snake King poured the coffers of an empire into the city, its age still showed through no matter how new the material.”

The old woman led him to an unlit street. A chorus of crickets chirped in tune from one house to the next. Rising and falling like a conducted orchestra. It was far more pleasant music compared to the monstrous hunting screeches of the Spa Cavern crickets.

The old woman sighed. “If you’re going to steal the dragon, now is the time to do it.”

Chen Haoran was brought up short. “Excuse me?”

“I recommend not to try killing me here, however. I still have some louts I’m playing host for. Heaven forbid I let them try to use my kitchen.”

“Ma’am, I’m not sure what you’re saying.”

“You’re a cultivator, a decent one, I imagine. Why else would you let an old mortal coot take advantage of you like this? That piece of crap wasn’t worth this much.”

Oh. Well, he could imagine it looked quite bad from her point of view. Still, he couldn’t help but ask. “If you knew all that, why go out of your way to be so rude? Cultivators aren’t above killing for a slight from what I’ve seen.”

The old woman scoffed. “I’m old, boy. What do I have to fear that isn’t already coming for me?”

“Crazy lady.” Chen Haoran shook his head, laughing. “I’m going to have to disappoint you. I’m not here to rob you or kill you.”

“Then why?” He could hear the stern confusion in her tone.

“Asking for hundreds of gold taels would be taking advantage of me. Asking me to fight someone for you would be taking advantage of me. A single gold tael and helping you carry your things home are pretty insignificant for me compared to what I can actually do. Why not lend a hand then?” He cocked his head in thought. “Well, you were pretty rude. That’s enough reason not to help. Let’s just say I’m a nice guy.”

The old woman was silent all the way up till they stopped in front of a small house with a vivid red door. A trio of worms were patterned all along the door frame.

“You want me to carry this inside or just leave it here?” he asked.

“Come inside,” she finally said. “I’ll make you a bowl.”

“Oh no I’m fine-”

The old woman whipped out her hand and slapped his arm. “None of that,” she scolded. “No one leaves my home without eating anything. This granny will spit blood and die before that happens.” She still didn’t look at him.

Oho? Was she coming around to him, perhaps? Chen Haoran smirked. “If you insist. How about that dragon statue while we’re at it?”

“Business is closed,” came her blunt reply. She placed her hand on the brass door handle. “I swear. Young men these days are just the strangest sort.”

The door swung open and revealed a single-room. It reminded him of a smaller version of Sister Jia’s home. A roaring fire sent up smoke up through a hole in the ceiling. The light illuminated a table where dinner was already underway.

Chen Haoran stopped.

The two, unfortunately, familiar faces at the table froze.

Wang Xiao let his noodles slip from his mouth. Jiang Lei paused midway through a sip from his teacup.

Wang Xiao and Chen Haoran spoke at the same time. “Fuck.”

He dropped his bowl and pointed an accusing finger at Chen Haoran. “You!”

The old woman kicked him in the shin.

Wang Xiao bit back his curse and glared at the woman.

“Has no one ever taught you pointing is rude? And what kind of language is that? And where did you get this food? Are you trying to say my cooking isn't good enough? What-”

On and on her tirade went. Wang Xiao’s glare didn’t go away but he visibly shrunk under the verbal barrage. Having once also been on the receiving end of an elder’s disapproval, Chen Haoran almost felt sympathy for him.

Almost.

It was his senior brother who came to his rescue. “Our apologies, elder. We did not mean to insult your food. We simply didn’t wish to continue taking advantage of your cooking.”

The old woman coldly snorted, and she imperiously motioned to the table. “Clear away that garbage. I’ll have some real food ready in a few minutes.” She looked back at Chen Haoran for the first time. Cloudy white eyes locked gaze with his own. “Shut the door and come sit.”

She was blind? And she led him to her home without him noticing that? He shook the extraneous thoughts out of his head. There were more immediate issues. He looked at the smiling Jiang Lei and the angry Wang Xiao. “Actually, I have a sloth waiting for me at home, so I’m just gonna go now-.”

“In,” came her clipped command.

“We would be honored to have you join us, Master Chen,” Jiang Lei unhelpfully added.

He didn’t have much choice, it seemed. Joy.

Chen Haoran set down the old woman’s goods with a sigh and considered his options. Does he sit next to the Liquid Meridian Realm or the guy who hates him?

“Please feel free,” Jiang Lei said, patting the cushion beside him.

With another sigh, he sat next to the last person he expected to see again. Xie Jin lied to him. Zumulu wasn’t a big place at all.

“I cannot say I expected to meet again this soon.” Jiang Lei was relentlessly positive.

Neither did he.

“Likewise,” he weakly said. “How’s it hanging, guys?”

Wang Xiao slapped the table. “I demand a duel!”

Right. What did he expect?

Chapter 90

Chen Haoran made good on his promise.

Received Hundred-Fold: Qi Congregation Pill

Received Hundred-Fold: River King Grass

Received Hundred-Fold: Jade Maiden Bellflower

Received Hundred-Fold: Three Gorge Pill

When given the choice, Phelps’s preferences leaned toward resources with a water element to them. It made sense considering the nature of his home. It did leave Chen Haoran wondering about the nature of a beast’s cultivation. Did they have elemental affinities the same way humans did? Did they have spirit roots at all? From what he had been told, cultivation was something a beast did instinctively. They went through the same Layers as a human cultivator but without needing a cultivation method. What greater scenery did they try to emulate then?

Chen Haoran watched Phelps gorge himself among the materials the Ever Spring Pavilion delivered. It wasn’t as big of a pile as he imagined for 20 thousand taels, but it was enough.

He crouched over Phelps and stroked his fur. “Whenever I get beast materials as a reward, it changes the beast but never the realm. Is that it, then? Bloodlines? Is there some greater beast they try to become?” Phelps, feeling his hand on his back, looked up and squealed. “I wonder what kind of sloth you’ll grow into.”

Phelps stared into his eyes. Chen Haoran scratched his chin and stared back. Was that shine he saw in the sloth’s eye’s qi or something else?

Phelps hacked a cough and threw up in his hand.

“I knew you’d regret those willow leaves, you little shit!”

——————

As if to make up for its lack of nightlife, Daqing seemed to pack as much activity as it could into the evening. Not to say it wasn’t bustling the rest of the day, but when the sun flipped its arc from east to west and spared a few cool degrees on the city’s baking bricks, the crowds took on new life.

Chen Haoran wasn’t the only person walking along the riverfront without bones. Daqing was thankfully multicultural enough that he didn’t stick out like a sore thumb, although he was clearly not local. Phelps had been left back home to work through the results of his poor choices. Every so often however Chen Haoran would receive another notification of reward. It seemed even an upset stomach couldn’t completely halt Phelps’s gluttony. Although he couldn’t discount the possibility of Phelps going the way of the Romans and vomiting in order to eat more.

Received Hundred-Fold: Qi Congregation Pill

Chen Haoran shook his head in exasperation. He would have to bring back ginger ale or the equivalent before he returned.

Unlike the White Ridge City, whose docks were tucked between the Mountain General’s massive stone fingers, the docks of Daqing lined the river on both sides from wall to wall. Markets big and small were dotted in plazas and fountain squares close to the river. People, both cultivators and non, rubbed shoulders and hawked their wares. An elderly man cooked bowls of glass noodles next to a young cultivator of the Fifth-Layer displaying fur pelts. A troop of girls in pastel dresses with bells dangling from bone bangles elegantly danced and offered baskets of spirit flowers and creams. A Ninth-Layer surrounded by his compatriots stood tall upon a wooden box and accepted bids for the massive monitor lizard corpse behind him.

Chen Haoran pushed his way through and waded through the stalls. Selling off his rewards by the handful and purchasing whatever curio caught his eye. Nothing truly helpful for his cultivation, but it would serve to brighten the house. It was a passing distraction. The real money was to be made in the bigger, more established shops. He wanted to familiarize himself more with the city before he started getting down to business. Moments to relax had been coming few and far between for him as of late.

He stopped in front of a stall- no. Calling it a stall was too much. An elderly woman had laid out a faded carpet in a corner of the plaza and piled carved bone ornaments and figures onto it with seemingly little care. Bracelets, armbands, and rings were stacked atop each other, some were unadorned, and others were carved with intricate images of battle or beasts. Tigers lounged around herds of elephants. Dragonflies with near-transparent wings huddled together while a troop of praying mantises and spiders were arrayed around them as if hunting. Buttons shaped into fish were scattered between larger statuettes of fish in leap and snakes specially carved such that they seemed to sway like the real thing.

Chen Haoran wouldn’t say he had an eye for quality, but from the way the woman deftly wielded her knife to shear off slivers from the bone she was holding in her wrinkled hands, he didn’t think it was a stretch to say she made all these herself. What had really brought him over here was the single spot of black amid the white bones. A bone dragon coiled in front of the woman, its head raised to the sky in a defiant roar. He could practically see the arrogance contained within its glossy black eyes.

He pointed to the dragon. “How do you sell this?”

The old woman harrumphed and didn’t bother looking up. “We don’t sell to the likes of you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Must I repeat myself?”

Chen Haoran was left speechless. He cast out his sense. No cultivation. She was as normal as normal came.

The brave woman sliced off a particularly large piece from her bone. “Are you just going to stand there?”

Was this the shoe being on the other foot? He shook his head and turned to leave.

“Pah,” the elderly woman spat. “Leaving with your tail between your legs just because of some mean words. A Zumulu youth could never.”

Chen Haoran stopped. “Are you going to sell me something then?”

“Of course not.”

He snorted and walked away from the rude woman.

What was it with old people having no chill?

————

“We thank you for your business. Please feel free to come again, sir!” The attendant bowed and said to Chen Haoran as he left the shop.

Sitting in his storage bag now was a bundle of gold-colored paper. He’d made his 2o thousand taels back, and Phelps hadn’t even finished eating everything he bought from the Ever Spring Pavilion yet. A few more transactions like this, and he’d have something resembling real funds saved up before the Golden Lily Association auction. Any annoyance he had felt regarding the rude old woman was long gone. It was a shame he couldn’t get his hands on the dragon sculpture though, it would have made a nice gift for Xie Jin. Or maybe he could have given it to the Machu river? He wasn’t sure what the preferences of a sentient body of water were, but it seemed to be of the sort that was easily pleased.

Now all he had to do was pick up some stomach remedies for Phelps and—

“How many times do we gotta teach you this lesson, old woman?”

Chen Haoran frowned. When he searched for the abrasive voice, he found three men surrounding the rude old lady from before. A quick cast of his sense marked them as Third-Layer and below. Nothing particularly threatening to him but way beyond what a non-cultivator could handle.

“My ears aren’t what they used to be, you’ll have to speak up, boy.”

Of course, that didn’t seem to dissuade the crazy lady.

Chen Haoran considered for a moment whether he should intervene. It wasn’t any of his business, and there was no reason to go out of his way to help a rude person like her. His gaze inadvertently fell on the black dragon carving once more.

Maybe he could get a discount?

“You bitc—” the Third-Layer’s curse was cut short when Chen Haoran bumped past him and sent him sprawling to the ground.

“Were these the youths of Zumulu you were telling me about, mam?” Chen Haoran put himself between the old lady and the thugs.

“Bastard,” growled the Third-Layer as he picked himself up. “What the hell do you think your doing—”

Chen Haoran spiked his qi.

“Sir…” the Third-Layer weakly added. All three paled as they realized just how far out of their depth they were.

“What youth?” The old woman snorted. “All I see are washed-up has-beens.”

“Excuse us, sir,” the Third-Layer said, mustering up his courage. “We have some business with this woman.”

Chen Haoran lifted an eyebrow. “As do I.” He shooed them away. “Get in line.”

The men took the hint and scattered without looking back. The old woman scoffed as they fled.

“Can I buy that carving now?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Of course not.”

He frowned. Was she really going to be this obstinate?

The old woman waved her knife at him. In her other hand, the bone she’d been working on had an impressively detailed tree carved in relief on its surface. “Are you just going to keep standing there?”

“This again? Really?” He couldn’t believe this. At least a thank you would be nice.

“Look down, you fool.”

Confused Chen Haoran lowered his gaze and found he had stepped onto her carpet. Bone splinters surrounded his foot. He lifted his leg and winced when he heard a cracking sound. The shattered remains of what had once been a bone beetle stared up at him.

Oh…fuck.

Chapter 89

Chen Haoran left the Ever Spring Pavilion with a whistle and a spring in his step. An easy one hundred thousand taels would do that to a man.

“Have a nice day, honored customer,” Chanchu called out from behind him. “I’ll have your purchases delivered to your address as soon as possible. We look forward to you purchasing with us in the future. ”

Chen Haoran would have almost believed the merchant was saying it out of the kindness in his heart if it weren’t for the beaming smile on his face that he couldn’t seem to control. Chen Haoran and Phelps waved at Chanchu simultaneously. He looked at the sloth, the sloth looked at him and squealed. Chen Haoran couldn’t help the burst of laughter that followed.

“Pardon me if I’m being presumptuous, sir,” Chanchu said, his smile replaced with a mask of professionalism. He leaned in to whisper. “It’s not uncommon for a cultivator to spend 20 thousand taels in one transaction here in Daqing. There aren’t nearly as many who would do so for their animal companions, however.”

Chen Haoran blinked. He looked at Chanchu with new eyes. The man was more perceptive than he thought. “I appreciate you telling me that. I look forward to doing business with you again.”

He meant it too.

——————

He returned home after purchasing some groceries and other essentials. Despite the detour, he still arrived far quicker than he had originally anticipated. The Ever Spring Pavilion really saved him quite a bit of time.

Phelps squealed.

Chen Haoran scratched the sloth’s chin. “Don’t worry. You’ll be eating as much as you want later.” He grabbed Phelps by the scruff of his neck and felt him loosen his grip. “Fly.”

He threw Phelps off his back and into the air. Phelps canceled the force with his floating power and rolled his way through the air to the willow tree in the corner of the yard. He grasped a branch and flipped until he was hanging underneath it.

“For a cave boy, you sure adjusted to trees quickly, huh?” Chen Haoran asked.

Phelps squealed before pulling another branch close to him to snack on its leaves.

“Don’t eat too much now.” Chen Haoran called behind him as he placed today’s purchases inside. “I’m going to feel bad if you give yourself a stomachache later.”

Phelps seemed content to ignore his warning. Oh well. He would learn.

Chen Haoran stepped to the center of the courtyard and pulled off his robes. He paused before he cast the white silk to the ground and observed it in his hand. It was clean; he could give it that much credit, at least. He ran his hand down one sleeve and felt its texture, rougher than he remembered, and pulled at a loose thread hanging from the end of the cuff. In the stitching around the armpit, there was a small hole. It had seen better days, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was the last one to survive the worst days. Between surviving in the Spa Caverns and journeying to Zumulu, he was lucky to have this much left.

Chen Haoran sighed and rubbed his eyes. How foolish of him. He was about to settle for less. “I came for a mansion. Not a hut.” A wardrobe. Not a change of clothes.

He neatly folded the robes and placed them to the side, then retrieved from his storage bag an inconspicuous scroll. Faded green words were painted along its length.

Scattering Petal Palm

Chen Haoran rolled open the scroll and began to learn.

—————

Water. Among the five elements, it was collected by Metal and nourished Wood. It extinguished Fire and was obstructed by Earth. As a Water Attribute Spirit Root, Chen Haoran could wield the energies of Metal and Wood through the elements’ beneficial relationship.

That did not mean it was easy to do, however.

Under the hot sun of Zumulu, Chen Haoran attempted to cycle his qi in the way demanded by the scroll while moving his body in accordance with the martial forms depicted within it. Practicing the Scattering Petal Palm required visualizing one’s hands becoming countless petals drifting along the wind. Everything he did now was an attempt to feel that visualization with his entire body. It was so much like his attempts at practicing the Canyon Carving Sword and so unlike it at the same time.

For starters, his predecessor’s body had experience with practicing the Stone Carving Sword for all that he didn’t remember it. Despite what he thought, he hadn’t been starting from zero like he was now. Sharing the same element as the technique was just icing on the cake at that point.

He ceased his useless motions and staggered over to the willow tree. Phelps squealed at him from the branches. He rested his palm against the tree’s trunk and cast his sense out, hoping to glean some secret of Wood energy through the bark.

He felt a smidgen of qi. That was it. Chen Haoran sighed and slumped against the trunk.

He was tempted to pull out his scimitar to try and feel Metal energy through the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. It was only a temptation, however. The obvious collateral damage that would occur killed the idea as soon as he had it. It most likely wouldn’t have been that helpful anyway. Metal chopped Wood, he’d be going even further away from the feeling he was trying to emulate if he did that.

Feeling.

It was interesting to think about now that he had experience trying to achieve Harmonization. Every technique and method he’d used so far required him to visualize something as part of the learning process. When he tried to Harmonize with the Canyon Carving Sword, it essentially was the same, just… harder? With more feeling? Something in that vein. It had some interesting implications that cultivation involved training to emulate things, as Xie Jin had put it, greater than themselves. Scattering petals was Profound-rank. A river dragon and a canyon river were Earth-rank. From where he stood, it looked like the greater the visualization, the greater the rank. The difficulty of comprehension obviously rose with the increase in rank.

So why was it that he, a man with a dragon racing through his veins and a god’s image in his sword, couldn’t mimic flower petals?

Chen Haoran shot up with renewed energy and assumed the form of the Scattering Petal Palm. He would master at least the barest trace of it today, or he would collapse. He would accept nothing less. The image of scattering petals in his mind was a vague one. What kind of petals? A strong wind blowing off a daisy’s petals? A rain of rose petals in the wake of a marriage? How did they fall? In what way? What pattern? Who would even remember something like that even if they did observe it? Not him. Perhaps that was why he was struggling. The visual was the foundation, and his was as weak as it came. He needed a stronger one, something he could feel with his whole body.

A more personal image, then.

Imaginary petals became palms glowing green. Instead of wind, they flew with the relentless force of qi. Behind the storm, he saw the flower they fell from. Lan Yao stared at him with death in her eyes. A long bloody line was carved across her chest.

A figment of his imagination that she was, her palms still left his body echoing with phantom pain where they struck. It was the single most vicious beating he had received in his life and one he would not soon forget. His own palms rose in turn as he tried to mirror her strikes, hitting one palm for every five blows she landed on him.

Chen Haoran wasn’t sure if he was faithfully remembering Lan Yao or selling himself short.

“Merely a reflection of reality,” the phantom Lan Yao said. “Even conjured as I am by your thoughts, I am superior. Accept it.”

“This is the most fucked up game of patty cake I’ve ever played.” He was even making up dialogue now.

Lan Yao sent a flurry of palms into his chest, and despite himself, he stepped back. “No less ridiculous than trying to steal my family’s legacy by trying to mimic me.”

“It’s working.” He could feel it in his qi. The water was churning.

Lan Yao scoffed. “You are not my equal.” As if to prove her point, she deftly twisted her palms and left him hitting air. The feeling weakened.

“You’re right,” he replied. He turned his palm into a hook to Lan Yao’s temple. “I won, after all.”

She guided the strike away in a motion he wasn’t able to track. “I stood. You knelt. No amount of lucky epiphanies will ever change that fact.”

“I’m alive. You’re dead.”

“That can always change.”

Lan Yao’s voice suddenly became deeper. Her delicate palm reached out to grasp his neck and as it did, it grew larger and rougher. The qi behind it ballooned to a Liquid Meridan’s overwhelming force. A man’s hand clutched Chen Haoran’s throat and he watched in horror as Lan Yao’s proud beauty wilted into Elder Lan Qianbei’s pitiless gold eyes.

Before Lan Qianbei could speak, a single leaf fell. The sudden intrusion of reality broke the spell over Chen Haoran. What he did next was part instinctual and all cathartic.

He swung out his hand toward the leaf, catching it in his palm, and slapped Lan Qianbei in the face.

The elder looked at him in shock. As if the very idea that Chen Haoran would do such a thing was unbelievable. More leaves fell down, and Chen Haoran didn’t stop. His palms followed each falling leaf and inevitably struck Lan Qianbei. The specter raised glowing green hands to protect himself. When Chen Haoran slapped those palms away, it was Lan Yao standing before him once more.

“No,” she growled. “No!”

Her palms became a whirlwind, and Chen Haoran matched her blow for blow. There was a pressure building in his hands. His qi twisted and churned with every palm strike, the force of the blows crushing it further and further until, finally, the pressure gave way. In each hand, a seed of green qi was formed. His water qi immediately rushed into the green qi, and the seed sprouted. The green qi grew and spread throughout his hands like branching roots, stretching across his palms and up through his fingers.

His palms glowed blue-green.

“Damn you!” Lan Yao roared.

Chen Haoran smiled. “Go whine in hell.”

He lashed out like a rain of falling leaves, and Lan Yao’s phantom body broke apart in a scattering of orchid petals. The light in his palms went out as soon as she disappeared, and Chen Haoran snapped back to reality. His body was soaked in sweat, and his lungs burned with every breath he took.

He looked up.

Phelps was still hanging in the willow tree, gorging himself on leaves. He pulled the branch closer, knocking loose more leaves that fell and landed in Chen Haoran’s hair.

Chen Haoran wanted to laugh, but his lungs wouldn’t let him. He fell to the ground instead.

“Never lose that appetite, Phelps,” he said in a raspy voice.

Because he was going to make sure the sloth could eat anything he ever wanted and then some.

ISWG Q&A

Are there only humans there? Or other races too? How big is the world and empire?

When it comes to races that are sapient, then it's just humans. There are plenty of beasts and monsters in the world, but they’re not going around creating civilizations or speaking human languages.

The size of the world is classically xianxia in that it's way bigger than Earth is. Qi is the force that makes the inhospitable livable, and so the usual issues you’d see arise from that kind of size are mitigated. The Empire itself occupies an entire continent, similar to the other two superpowers, the Bagmar Republic and one as of yet unnamed.

Will Chen Haoran and Lan Fen reunite at some point? It feels somewhat lame to have so much invested in a character, and she just disappears with, "I don't think we'll ever meet again."

Chen Haoran and Lan Fen reuniting is planned, yes. We’ll be hearing about her again once she’s out of the cavern. As a Xianxia MC she’ll always be getting up to something. Once she and Chen meet again is when the shenanigans happen.

I only want to know if the ranks (mortal-heaven) are all the ranks or if they are what are the ones usually constrained by being on a planet, like if heavens are entry-level ascendant in quality or something like that.

Mortal to Heaven are all the ranks. There is in fact one more rank after Heaven, but its a bit special and requires the meaning of the ranks themselves to be explained before I can talk about it. I’ll be going in and explaining what exactly Mortal, Profound, Earth, and Heaven mean in the story. Maybe in Book 2, maybe not.

Here’s a list of the ranks and attributes of some character's cultivation methods:

White Tyrant- Heaven-rank, Metal-Attribute

Chen Qitao- Heaven-rank, Water-Attribute

Shen Jianyu- Heaven-rank, Five-Elements-Attribute

Song Yuelin- Earth-rank, Water-Attribute

Xie Jin- Profound-rank, Wood-Attribute

Manager Lin- Profound-rank, Earth-Attribute

I forgot about this sword. Where did he get it?

It’s called the Swiftwind Scimitar, a Profound-rank weapon. He bought it as a paired set in the Golden Lily Association Auction way back near the beginning of the novel. It had the special effect of increasing its slashing speed whenever he crossed the blades together. He first used them in the Spa Caverns and later lost one of the swords in his fight against Lan Yao and so lost access to its special effect. It’s still a Profound-rank weapon, he keeps it because he doesn’t have anything better. He doesn’t really like single-edged swords.

How big is Phelps going to get?

Phelps is going to stay backpack-size. Much to Chen Haoran’s relief. If he got any bigger, he would still demand to be carried, and Chen Haoran would unfortunately oblige his sedan-sized sloth.

Are you planning to do a harem, poly, monogamy, or no romance?

Definitely no harem or poly. I don’t plan to do harem under this pen name. The latter questions are a bit harder to answer. I never envisioned Immortality Starts With Generosity as having romance, hence why I never included a romance tag on Royal Road. And perhaps surprisingly, I never considered Lan Fen to be his romantic partner. But obviously, the way I ended up writing it, there were some clear elements there. I’m going to have to put a big IF on romance at this point in time. If it’s there, it’s going to be with one girl, though.

What would have happened originally?

So Immortality Starts With Generosity could be viewed as being Lan Fen’s story, and Chen Haoran got dropped into it. Except he doesn’t know that, or anything about Xianxia, for that matter. Needless to say, his presence, let alone his power changed a lot.

If our MC didn’t transmigrate and replace the original Young Master Chen Haoran, then Lan Fen would have killed him the night they got married. She would be in a far rougher position and on the run, hiding within the city and relying on her allies and associates to build her power back up. Something we saw her doing off-screen in the main story by bringing her servants into the Chen Manor. Lan Fen would claw and scrape her way into opening the White Tyrant’s ring and re-cultivating back to Ninth-Layer. This would take her much longer than she did in the main story, however, and in that time, Patriarch Lan would have cultivated back to his peak. Lan Fen’s revenge would have to wait until she entered the Liquid Meridian realm.

Song Yuelin would still be dispatched to Clearsprings City. Except this time, it would be to investigate and render punishment onto the killers of Chen Qitao’s son. While the boy was a waste, he was still of the Dragon. Some things are not allowed. The alliance of the City Lord will still continue, with the poor man being even more strong-armed given that he let Chen Qitao’s son die and thus lacks a hostage. The Lan Family will also meet their doom because of this. It was Lan Yao’s plan to send Lan Fen to Chen Haoran, they were just as culpable.

Lan Fen flees from Clearsprings City into the mountains—her revenge taken from her, drowning in shadows, and pursued by Song Yuelin. Eventually, she can run no more and calls upon the White Tyrant to possess her. She and Song Yuelin duel across a steep valley, and while she cannot overcome him without sacrificing her life, she does manage to wound him and escape by jumping into the river below.

Song Yuelin watches her flee with his single working eye. A single trace of Lan Fen’s qi clutched tight in his hand. The Dragon’s Face cannot be lightly crossed.  It is not the last time Lan Fen and the Chen family will cross blades.

Chapter 88

The token flashed gold a few more times before the message disappeared, and the metal surface became blank once more.

The Golden Lily Association.

He hadn’t given much thought the night they’d given him the token. He didn’t expect he’d ever go to another of their auctions. Where would he have even gone to find out about them? Lan Fen received her token and knowledge of the auction through her connections, something he severely lacked. He held the token up to the light and observed it with his sense. It seemed his massive spending that night had done him a favor. He was sure the token Lan Fen had nearly gotten him killed for wasn’t as advanced as this one.

It didn’t tell him exactly where the auction was going to be held but he was sure that information would come later. This message was more like the Golden Lily Association telling its customers to get their wallets ready. Chen Haoran wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t interested either. The last Golden Lily auction he attended with Lan Fen could be considered foundational to his current success. Hell, he’d probably be dead without it. His armor, his weapon, the Stygian Lotus to improve his durability, the mammoth tusk he used to kill a Liquid Meridian. All of those the auction provided.

“Too bad I’m broke now.”

Tens of thousands of Gold taels could be considered a fortune to other cultivators, but for Chen Haoran it was chump change compared to what he carried before. He reached into his storage bag and pulled out a gold tael that he had exchanged for from a moneylender, passing it to Phelps, who by now had finished eating. Phelps looked curiously at the tael, sniffing it and passing it around between his claws before eventually losing interest and dropping it to the floor.

Chen Haoran sighed. There’d be no buying out the whole auction like he did last time. He wanted to attend this auction. Even if he couldn’t have the same insane gains he did before the treasures offered, there would be a cut above what he’d find normally. Especially considering Daqing was a much more powerful and wealthy place than Clearsprings City.

He picked up the dropped tael and patted Phelps’s head. “If only you were as greedy as you were gluttonous.”

Phelps squealed, and he could feel the sloth’s qi thrumming beneath his hand. He’d be due for another advance soon.

“What did the White Tyrant say my power made me? An up-jumped merchant, was it?

If he couldn’t give Phelps the money directly, then he’d just have to add a few more steps to the process.

——————

The Ever Spring Pavilion was a shop dealing in pills and herbs. The interior reminded Chen Haoran of a spice market. A myriad different scents filled the air and spiced it with a unique flavor of subtle spiciness and minty freshness. Sacks overflowing with spirit grasses and fruits were stacked on top of each other next to tables displaying potted flowers and other delicate herbs. Bushels of drying plants and moss hung from the ceiling.

“Welcome to the Ever Spring Pavilion, sir.” The attendant bowed as Chen Haoran entered. She smiled brightly, with the picture-perfect customer service shine. She didn’t even blink twice at Phelps hanging off his back. “How may I help you today.”

He mentally praised her performance. He always respected seeing a fellow professional in action. “I was told I had a discount here. ”

With his current means he wouldn’t pass up any chance at a deal. He was lucky the Ever Spring Pavilion was exactly the store he was looking for.

“Excuse me?” The attendant looked rightfully confused; fortunately, the passerby who had offered him a discount for complimenting the business was in the store today and noticed them.

“Greetings!” The man was a bit on the rounder side, with a thick black mustache that wormed across his face like a hairy caterpillar. He waved off the attendant. “I’ll handle it from here.”

“Am I still getting that discount?” Chen Haoran asked. He stretched out his sense toward the man, Ninth-Layer.

“How could you not?” The man bowed with a flourish. “My name is Chanchu, the humble owner of this establishment. My word is as good as the gold I trade. How can we assist you today?”

“I’m looking for cultivation supplements.”

“Of course! Right this way, sir.”

Chanchu cheerfully led him across the sales floor and up some stairs to the second floor. It was much quieter up here, with only two other cultivators, one of whom worked for the store. There were no sacks or clutter up here. Every table and display were evenly spaced, each plant had a little sign with its name written in neat letters placed in front of them. Unlike the bottom floor, there were also a few pills laid out as well.

Chen Haoran casually walked between the displays with his hands behind him. He picked up a small pot with a tiny purple flower growing in it and held it up to Phelps. “What do you think?”

Phelps sniffed it once and gagged.

“That’s a no, then.”

Chanchu followed behind with visible confusion as Chen Haoran held up every flower and herb for Phelps to judge, he was professional enough not to say anything, however.  There were a few interesting specimens on sale. A tall vine that sprouted what looked like golden strawberries. A Sunken Glory vine buried under soil in a glass case. Its flowers far paler than the one he gave to Sister Jia. There were fruits that rattled like maracas when shaken and vicious plants with metal leaves. Looking inside a smoking pot revealed a patch of moss that belched up smoke and embers like a tiny volcano. There was even a six-foot-tall pitcher plant in the corner that apparently created a qi-rich nutrient solution from the insects it devoured.

The pills were far less visually interesting by comparison but Chen Haoran wouldn’t let that fool him. They were the more valuable by far. Some of them he recognized and had used before himself back in Clearsprings City others, he only had their names to go on to varying usefulness. There was only so much he could glean from names like Unyielding Dragon and 1 Thousand and One Nights.

“What are the effects of these pills?” Chen Haoran asked, pointing at the purple and pink pills with the opaque names.

Chanchu huffed a laugh. It sounded a bit awkward to his ears. “Those are… aids for nightly stamina.”

Chen Haoran retracted his finger. “Quite the interesting selection you have here,” he commented.

“Thank you for the kind words, sir.”

“Is this all you have in stock?”

“These are for display. Just let us know how much you’d like to purchase, and I’ll have it brought right away.”

“Perfect. Let’s start small, then.” Chen Haoran pointed at a few supplements that Phelps had drooled over. “This, that, and those. I want 20 thousand gold taels worth.”

Chanchu paused. The other two cultivators who’d been in the middle of a deal also glanced over. An arched brow and a flex of qi from Chen Haoran had them quickly back to minding their own business.

“Perhaps we should continue this in a private room, sir.”

——————

Chen Haoran was stewing over a cup of steaming tea. Had he made a mistake? 20 thousand taels would be a lot in Clearsprings, but this was Daqing. With the level of wealth and cultivators in the city, such a purchase shouldn’t be too out there. Or maybe it was because the store was smaller. He didn’t see too many people shopping here.

Chen Haoran sighed.

“Is there an issue, honored customer?” Chanchu’s term of address had quickly changed as he led him into a well-furnished and comfortable room and had attendants gather his order.

“Just wondering if there was a problem with my order.”

Chanchu bolted from his seat. “None at all, sir!” He halted himself and nervously rubbed his hands together. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough materials on hand to fill out your order completely today.”

Chen Haoran waved him off. “Just add a few antidote and cultivation pills to make up the difference.”

“Right away, sir!”

Phelps had been given his own chair and a plate of snacks to chew on. Chen Haoran’s evaluation of Chanchu went up a few notches. The merchant was quick to identify what was important for his customers.

“I have a question for you,” Chen Haoran said.

“By all means, honored customer.”

“What are the uses of Blue Shadow Fruits and Blood Nut Seeds?” He’d thought to ask when he saw the Sunken Glory vine. Xie Jin hadn’t explained what they were to him when they found them… granted that might have something to do with him instantly feeding them to Phelps.

Chanchu blinked. “Well… Blue Shadow Fruits are mostly used mixtures to hide one’s presence or erase tracks. Blood Nut Seeds are used in body training or physique-enhancing pills.”

“Oh? They sound valuable.”

“If you have any to sell, then I’d be glad to purchase them.”

Chen Haoran propped up his head on his hand and silently regarded the merchant. Chanchu wasn’t fazed at all and respectfully lowered his gaze.

“What’s the oldest plant in your store?” Chen Haoran finally asked.

Chanchu puffed up with pride. Eager to brag and, perhaps, sell. “We have a 300-year-old Moonflower. It’s the Ever Spring Pavilion’s pride and joy. I normally only take it out during full moons and celebrations.”

Well, he did need the money.

“How much will you give me for this, then?” He reached into his storage bag, and six spheres were summoned to his hand. When the pulled the 400-year-old Blood Nut Seeds out, the perfumed scent of the private room was drowned out with a heavy, almost metallic smell.

Chanchu’s eyes bugged out.

Chen Haoran placed the Blood Nut Seeds on the table and laced his fingers together.

“I still want that discount, by the way.”

Chapter 87

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chen Haoran shivered.

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

“Safe travels, Brother Jin.”

Phelps squealed at Xie Jin. A goodbye perhaps.

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

He had work to do.

——————

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

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

It would do.

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

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

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

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

Yellow River Dragon Refinement

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

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

He had to advance.

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

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

The dragon shrunk and began to glow brighter.

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

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

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

Nothing.

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

He closed his eyes and meditated.

The dragon roared once.

He failed.

The dragon roared twice.

He failed.

The dragon roared three times.

He failed.

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

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

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

Phelps gave him a look.

“What?”

Phelps squealed and slapped his claws on the table.

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

Phelps squealed.

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

Phelps happily squealed and dug in.

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

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

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

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

He needed to advance.

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

One month. Daqing.

Friday Q&A Announcement

It is what it sounds like. We'll be having a little Q&A session. If there's any questions you wanted to ask or anything about the story you wanted clarified then feel free to ask. Heck maybe you even have some questions about me lol. 

Rules are simple, post whatever questions you want to ask either in the comments of this post or in Discord and I'll answer them on Friday so long as it's not too spoilery.

Looking forward to it. 

Cheers!

Chapter 86

“You know her?” Chen Haoran asked. The centipede head snapped at him, and he leaned back as far as he could. It’s qi an amorphous blur to his sense.

“Jin, who is this?” Bao Si lifted a brow as she properly looked over him. “He’s handsome.”

Xie Jin flexed his qi and tried to throw the centipede off him. When that failed, he turned to him in desperation. “Brother Chen, get her ass!”

Chen Haoran sent a silent prayer to his self-control because that wasn’t the image he wanted at the moment. Plus, he wasn’t pulling out his sword anytime soon. The centipede tightened around his hand as soon as the thought crossed his mind. “What about your Sister Jia’s house?”

“I’ll pay for it!” The centipede whipped and threw Xie Jin to the floor.

Bao Si padded over to his side with serpentine grace. When she passed him, Chen Haoran saw part of a black centipede tattoo sticking out the neckline of her dress and running up the side of her neck. “Your friend is considerate. Powerful too, if you’re relying on him.” The second centipede head by Chen Haoran chittered. Bao Si cocked her head as if it spoke to her. “And rich too? Quite the package you’ve snagged, Jin. Are you cheating on me? You don’t have to. We could work something out if it's him.”

What. The. Fuck.

“Sister Jia you sold me out!” Xie Jin roared.

“I didn’t!” Sister Jia denied. “I didn’t even know you were in the city! Plus…” She seemed to wilt and looked at Xie Jin with a mix of pity and exasperation. “You had this coming.”

Xie Jin turned his betrayed gaze to Chen Haoran. “This is what happens when you don’t choose inns!”

Chen Haoran conceded that this would never had happened if it weren’t for him. At the same time while this was definitely a precarious situation it didn’t feel dangerous… or at least not lethally dangerous… for himself perhaps.

“Xie Jin,” Chen Haoran said. He shivered at feeling the centipede's legs moving on his neck while he spoke. Even so, he tried to keep his tone even. “Are you in danger? Tell me, and I’ll get us out of here right now.” The centipede tried to dig its legs into his flesh as he said that, but beyond a pinprick sensation, he barely felt it. He still had some means with his Rewards; if needed, he could just destroy his scabbard. He had a feeling it wouldn’t come to that, however.

He was right. Xie Jin sighed and ceased his struggling. “There’s no need for that.” He glared up at Bao Si. “You can release us now, you crazy bitch.”

Bao Si hummed and snapped her fingers. The centipede released them all, and its second head transformed back into a tail end. It shrunk back to its original size before crawling up Bao Si’s leg to her arm and disappearing in her sleeve.

Xie Jin cursed as he sat up and clutched his sleeve. The frantic Gu calmed at its master's touch and settled down. “Was that really necessary?”

Bao Si sat down next to him and buffed her nails. “I’ve found that action is the only way to make you understand how I feel. If you have a problem, then perhaps you should try listening more when I speak.”

Chen Haoran plucked his agitated sloth out of the air to calm him down. Now that he didn’t have a super centipede threatening to open up his neck, he could properly observe Bao Si. Long black hair threaded with black bone beads. A tightly fitted dress of black and green, embroidered with gold thread in a way to evoke scales. Cold black eyes. She was, in a word, eye-catching. Beautiful in the same way a snake was. Chen Haoran wasn’t wrong for struggling to pull his gaze away before. Her presence demanded that much attention, at least.

She was much like Lan Fen in that regard.

He shook that last thought out of his head and went to support Xie Jin. Sister Jia came over and poured out more hot water for them all.

“You didn’t answer my question before, Jin,” Bao Si said.

“He’s my friend,” Xie Jin snapped.

“Chen Haoran,” he said, nodding to Bao Si.

Her eyes curved into crescents. She had a pleasant smile. “A pleasure.”

Xie Jin reached out for the hot water and downed it in one go. “What are you even doing here?”

“I was in the city for business.” She flexed her qi, reminding them of her Ninth-Layer status. Xie Jin grimaced, recognizing whatever it was she meant to say through the action. “I’ve found something more important now, however.”

“Leave me be. I’m helping Brother Chen get settled in the city.”

Bao Si lifted a thin eyebrow. “And you’ll quietly return home once your down with that?”

Xie Jin said nothing, and Bao Si scoffed.

Chen Haoran awkwardly sat to the side and patted Phelps in lieu of anything else to do. It seems he accidentally stumbled onto some personal drama of Xie Jin’s, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do now. He was in the midst of thinking when Phelps snapped at his fingers, something he did when he was begging for food.

Right. Gifts.

“Thank you for hosting us, Sister Jia,” he said. He stood up and reached into his storage bag. “Where I’m from, it's poor manners for guests to arrive without bearing gifts. Please take this as a token of my appreciation.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t-” Sister Jia began, at least until Chen Haoran pulled out a flowering vine of bright pink Sunken Glory flowers. The house was immediately filled with a soft, cherry-like scent. “This-”

“Please accept it.”

He now had the undivided attention of the room and quickly found himself at a loss of what to do next. He tried to hint at Xie Jin to do something with the opportunity through his eyes, but Xie Jin was looking at the Sunken Glory flowers in open confusion.

Right. Might as well continue then.

“I have something for you too, Brother Jin.” He was so glad he had his storage bag. He’d have no other way to explain where his Reward items were coming from otherwise. “My appreciation for all the help you’ve given me so far.”

Xie Jin looked down at the red metal ingot Chen Haoran placed in his hands. “This is…?”

“Scarlet Iron Essence.” Or at least it was. It had been so long since he bought it at the Golden Lily Association Auction that he didn’t even remember what it had turned into after gifting it to Lan Fen compared to everything else he’d gotten when he cleared the place out.

Bao Si watched Chen Haoran’s gift-giving with an amused smile, which only grew wider when he didn’t present a gift to her. “I feel like you’re trying to tell me something, Chen Haoran.”

“I’m not. I just…” He cast a look at Xie Jin. “I still don’t really know who you are.”

“I am Xie Jin’s dear fiance. You may call me Sister Bao.”

Xie Jin snorted. “You wish we were engaged.”

“I do. Our masters do. Our tribes do. You’re the only one who seems to resist.”

“Gee, I wonder why.”

Bao Si dramatically sighed. “I do as well.” She began ticking off her fingers. “I’m talented, powerful, beautiful, and choosing you despite having all that. I’m really left at a loss.”

“That right there,” he bit out. “Is exactly why.”

“Come now Jin, we both know you’re not that small a man.”

“I’m not your easy way out.”

Bao Si narrowed her eyes to slits. “It’s only a little loyalty I ask for. Compared to what you get, is that really too much to ask?”

“A man can only sip from one pond for so long till the water makes his stomach sick.”

“You-”

“Have you known each other for a while?” Chen Haoran interrupted.

Bao Si stared at Xie Jin. “Since childhood.”

“Too long,” Xie Jin said at the same time.

Boy, did he really not sign up for this. He reached into his storage bag one last time and considered what to give Bao Si. Something from the auction perhaps, like Xie Jin, but what? His eyes roamed over her silk dress and settled on her centipede tattoo.

He felt a light, airy sensation on his hand as the item he had in mind appeared. The bolt of silk he pulled out was light blue and nearly translucent. The way it shimmered in the firelight made it look as if he had ripped the fabric off a ghost’s dress.

“Moon Moth silk,” Chen Haoran said. When he bought it, he hadn’t paid too much attention to the original article, which was a shame. The improved version in Bao Si’s hands looked like she was holding liquid moonlight.

“Oh,” Bao Si said, breathless. She looked up at him and smiled. “I like you.”

“Watch out, Brother Chen,” Xie Jin whispered in warning. He let out a yelp when Bao Si pinched his ear and yanked him back.

“You could stand to learn something from him. I have no idea how a brute like you could become friends with such a gentleman.”

“Good karma for my trials, perhaps,” Xie Jin muttered.

“Save the lip for when you return home. You still have explaining to do.”

“Who said I’m going back with you?” Xie Jin growled. “I promised Brother Chen to help him get settled. I’m not leaving.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Bao Si said with a grave look. “Your grandfather is ill.”

Chapter 85

Whether it was Earth or this new superpowered world it remained a fact that when you needed to sell your valuables for quick cash someone would undercut the price on you.

“Oh no. You are not telling me a Mortal-rank artifact necklace is only worth 1000 Gold taels.”

“We also have to make a profit here sir.”  The owner of the pawnshop Xie Jin led him to was very skilled. Being able to say so much bullshit with a straight face was impressive.

“That’s what marking things up is for isn’t it? I’m asking you to give me retail price, how much you want to charge isn’t my problem.”

“At the end of the day it’s only a Mortal-rank necklace, people will only pay so much for them.”

Chen Haoran placed his hands on the counter and leaned in. The shop owner didn’t move but he could feel a slight spike in his qi. Seventh-Layer. Respectable. Chen Haoran waved his hand over the ruby necklace. “How many pieces of artifact jewelry have you seen before?”

“I’ve seen them before.”

“Really? I can’t suppose it was too many. Jewelry is already a vanity item, artifact jewelry even more so. You’ll already be selling these for a premium.” He held up four fingers. “This isn’t the only piece I have either. If you think 1000 is the price you need to pay to make a profit that’s fine. I’ll just take these and go find someone who can sell them better.”

The shopkeeper didn’t say anything and Chen Haoran swept the necklace of the table and began walking to the door without another word, making sure the ruby caught every light on his way out.

“Show me the other pieces. If they’re the same level as the necklace I’ll give you 1200 for each.”

Chen Haoran smiled. “Make that 15 and you can have them all.”

——————

“You’re better at that than I thought,”  Xie Jin said as they walked out the store 7.5 thousand taels richer.

“What? Haggling?”

Xie Jin shrugged. “You struck me more as someone who has money than someone who makes it.”

“It’s all about who can bullshit better.” Chen Haoran thumbed the golden banknotes he’d received, paper redeemable at any Imperial-approved moneylender or bank. It was apparently the norm to use them in transactions that moved large amounts of money so as to not be stuck trying to carry thousands of taels, even storage bags had their limits after all. It was a problem Chen Haoran never had to deal with considering he carried all his money in the reward space or else had other people deal with it for him.  “And I’m pretty good at bullshitting if I do say so myself.”

He didn’t even know how rare artifact jewelry was. He threw that line out on a limb given how little he’d seen of it in Clearsprings City and got lucky, though it was more likely the amount that convinced the merchant in the end.

Xie Jin yawned and looked at the descending sun. “Now that you’re the rich friend again you can pay for the inn.”

“What do you mean? We’re not turning in yet. There’s money to be made.”

“But you’ve already sold all the jewelry.”

“No, I only sold five pieces.”

Xie Jin slowly blinked while processing the statement. “What?”

——————

“How big is that storage bag?” Xie Jin demanded as they walked out the fourth store.

All togther Chen Haoran had made near 30 thousand taels. He would have gone to more places but night had truly settled over Daqing now. In the daylight the city history of the city was a delight to the eyes and mind. At night, illuminated only by the stars and moon, the ancient constructions had a quiet austerity to them that hung heavy over their heads.

“We should find a place to stay now,” Chen Haoran said in lieu of answering him.

Xie Jin sighed, accepting he wouldn’t be getting an answer and pointed down the road. “I know a decent inn down that way.”

“Hell no.”

“What’s the issue now?”

“Every single time I’ve been to an inn I’ve gotten into a fight. I actually want to sleep tonight.”

“You can’t just make decisions based on coincidences like that!” Xie Jin threw his arms in the air, exasperated.

“Yes I can. There has to be somewhere else we can sleep.”

Xie Jin palmed his face with a long sigh and drummed his fingers across his forehead in thought. “I know some people. We can see if they have a spare room. We have to be quick if we want to avoid the curfew.”

“Lead the way.”

Daqing as a city was one that spread out organically, its roads, especially in the outer districts were winding, curving snakes of smooth cobblestone that tangled with the various canals to create a web of broken up housing districts in every shape but square. Suffice to say it made for confusing walking, particularly at night, they were the kind of streets only a local could understand. Unfortunately for as much as he seemed to know the city Xie Jin was no local and they got turned around more than once, though Xie Jin swore they were going the right way the whole time. Phelps was more than happy with getting lost, having lost himself in staring at the night sky.

Eventually they came to a row of houses that sat just in front of a canal. The air was filled with the soft burbling of water and a chorus of chirping crickets. Xie Jin squinted as he tried to figure out which of the squat, square houses was the one they needed before settling on one in the middle and knocking.

And knocking.

And knocking.

Xie Jin frowned. “What the fu-”

The door opened and a light spilled forth. Chen Haoran closed his eyes and clicked his tongue in irritation. He heard Xie Jin and Phelps hiss in pain.

“Xie Jin? Is that you?”

When he opened his eyes there was a woman standing in the entrance of the doorway holding a lamp. A shiny black bone hairpin held her hair bun in place.

“Yes it’s me,” Xie Jin said, rubbing his eyes. “Where’s Brother Ang?”

The woman’s eyes darted to Chen Haoran and back to Xie Jin. “He’s out. He won’t be back for a few days.”

“Ah damn. I wanted to introduce Brother Chen to him.” He looked at the woman with a pleading expression. “You mind sparing a bed for us tonight?”

The woman hesitated, her eyes locked onto Xie Jin. “…If your fine with one more guest.”

Xie Jin brightened. “Thank you Sister Jia.”

Sister Jia stood out of the way and let them into the house. Casting a curious glance at Phelps. The inside of the house decorated to the brim. Colorful carpets stitched with fluid lines and dragonflies covered the floors save for the center where a cooking fire crackled. Along the walls ran lattice frames crawling with vines that bloomed with yellow, red, and turquoise flowers. Their sweet scent filled the room. Hanging from the ceiling were three delicately carved wooden cages holding singing crickets. A single doorway covered with hanging beads led further into the house.

Sister Jia pulled out some cushions and they sat on the floor in front of a low table. She pulled off a pot of boiling water from the cooking fire and poured cups for them, using a ladle to scoop out flower petals and orange peels and dropping them in the cups.

Chen Haoran accepted it with a bow. “Thank you.”

Xie Jin patted him on the back. “Sister Jia this is my good friend Chen Haoran. We met while I was up north.”

Sister Jia nodded her head. “There’s no need to be so formal. Any friend of Little Jin is a friend in this house.”

“Little Jin?”

Xie Jin clicked his tongue. “I was hoping that with Brother Ang out that wouldn’t have been brought up.” He took a sip of scalding water without flinching. “Where is he anyway?”

Chen Haoran tested the water with his tongue only to immediately pull it back. Out the corner of his eye he saw Xie Jin hiding a smirk. Ass. He cycled his qi and took a large swig.

“He’s had some business to take care of outside the city.” Sister Jia said. “He’ll be sorry he wasn’t here to greet you. You didn’t tell us you were going North though?”

Xie Jin grimaced. “Things happened and I ended up there.”

Oh? Did Xie Jin not tell anybody he went to take the Palace Exams?

There was a sudden knocking at the door. Chen Haoran instinctively cast his sense out. Ninth-Layer?

“Is that your other guest?” Xie Jin asked.

“Yes,” Sister Jia said, she did not look Xie Jin in the eyes and rushed over to open the door.

Chen Haoran placed his hand on his scimitar. From where he sat he saw a bare ankle with a black bone bangle wrapped around it. Xie Jin sat up with a curse and leapt back. Chen Haoran shot up at the same time. A centipede slid through the door between Sister Jia’s the leg faster than they could react. In an instant it unnaturally lengthened, one end looping around Xie Jin’s body and wrapping up his arm, the other coiled around Chen Haoran’s hand and hilt and left it pinned. He flexed his qi to pull back but the centipede extended again and wrapped around his neck. The tail end of the centipede twisted and turned into another head, it’s knife-like mandibles snapped near his jugular. Phelps screeched and flew towards the centipede but his claws bounced off its carapace and he quickly found himself wrapped up and hanging near Chen Haoran.

Everyone froze.

Their assailant stepped into the house, taking a moment to take off her shoes before walking onto the carpets. Chen Haoran’s eyes were once again drawn to the bangle around her ankle. He dragged his eyes up to another black bangle around her wrist. Up further still, past her silks and black bones, Chen Haoran found his breathe taken. Two black eyes filled with a predators mirth at seeing trapped prey stared at them.

“Bao Si,” Xie Jin bit out. His sleeve bulged and struggled, the Gu within trying to break out.

“Xie Jin, my love,” Bao Si said. “Have you come back to propose?”

Friday Delay Announcement

I'm going to be flying out on Friday and so the chapter release will be moved to Monday. So there'll be two chapters on Monday instead. Sorry for the delay. Thanks for understanding.

Chapter 84

The journey was smooth, for Zumulu’s standards at least, from there on out. They cut their way through thick walls of vines, traveled down roads fighting against the jungles encroachment and rowed down two blessfully normal rivers. All that while fighting heat, humidity, and the odd spider that decided to crawl down Chen Haoran’s back although he was pretty sure Xie Jin was responsible for that last one.

“I can see why this place was so difficult to invade,” Chen Haoran said as they traveled down a road so overgrown they were stepping on more roots than solid ground. “Pain in the ass for us though.”

“The jungles of Zumulu are always growing,” Xie Jin said. “The roads are hard fought to carve out and easily lost if not maintained. It’s why we rely on the rivers instead for the bulk of transportation. We’re headed to Daqing from an awkward direction so we weren’t able to take advantage of them.”

“Some guide you are.”

“Don’t make me drop another spider down your robes.”

“I knew that was you!”

Phelps at least enjoyed the jungle. Being born in the Spa Cavern with its endless steam meant he tolerated the humidity better than either of them. He also got carried everywhere, nobody could get mad at not having to walk when they didn’t want to.

With Xie Jin’s help Chen Haoran found various delicacies of the forest to stuff Phelps with as well. Light blue fruits hidden under large leafy bushes, gourds growing in tall trees that when opened revealed maroon colored nuts, bright pink flowers that had to be pulled out from underground by the vine.

Received Hundred-Fold: 200-Year-Old Blue Shadow Fruits

Received Hundred-Fold: 400-Year-Old Blood Nut Seeds

Received Hundred-Fold: 100-Year Old Sunken Glory Flowers

Some things Phelps responded well to and Chen Haoran made a mental note to seek out more of then in the future even if the rewards weren’t fantastic. Not all of them were good for Phelps however, some things though Xie Jin swore they were safe left the sloth feeling sick. Nothing debilitating, it would take more than an upset stomach to lay Phelps low with his cultivation, but Chen Haoran had to throw away more than a few robes because of it. Suffice to say when they finally arrived in Daqing, Chen Haoran was thouroughly miserable and filthy compared to Xie Jin and Phelps who both looked fresh as daisies.

“Finally,” Chen Haoran groaned as they lined up to enter the gates of the city.

Daqing was an ancient city whose history pressed on you with almost tangible prescence. It’s thick weathered walls were built out of large blocks of rough hewn stone and covered with moss. An imposing gate opened through the wall like someone had cracked open a hole rather than carefully construct it. On the other side sprawled squat stone homes that gradually gave way to larger mansions and complexes topped with rising terraced roofs complete with prowling statues of jaguars, monkeys, as well as disturbingly accurate centipedes, beetles, and more.

Everything within Daqing bore the marks of time. Chen Haoran and Xie Jin wandered down a cobblestone street worn smooth and slightly sunken by the countless steps taken on it. Statues loomed with blank, worn down faces. Faded mural carvings told forgotten stories, their lines so thin that trying to decipher their meaning was more an act of impression than reasoning. One shop looked so old and stately that Chen Haoran thought it belonged to some major family of merchants or an old corporation. When he had voiced his thoughts to Xie Jin a passerby who happened to hear it happily informed them the building was only built five years ago and that he was more than welcome to come shop with a discount for the compliment.

Cutting through Daqing was a river that Xie Jin oh so helpfully informed him was called The Skyspear beacause it’s water was so blue and reflective it was like a slice of the sky opened up on the land of Zumulu. As a river its very nature was change and so it didn’t share the same time fermented flavor of the rest of the city. Aqueducts and channels were carved around the city, funneling its blue water to fill fountains, water gardens, pumps,

The people living in the city were fortunately not so old or weatherbeaten. The majority were familiar southerners to him, though their bones were more finely made, and their clothes were of better quality as befitting an urban center. Hakwers energetically marketed their wares, a good majority being bones elaborately carved into earrings, bangles, bracelets, rings, and more. The cultivation was even more refined. Chen Haoran saw more qi realms here than he did in Clearsprings, a place specifically known to be a retreat for cultivators. It didn’t end at qi realm however, the number of Liquid Meridians he just so happened to sense while walking the streets was more than one. Which was a flabbergasting number compared to the absolute rarity of them in Clearsprings City.

“What do you think?” Xie Jin asked. He had drawn more than a few cursory glances for his black bone arm bands but he hadn’t been the only one in the city sporting them. Chen Haoran had noticed another girl with them though he only caught a glimpse of a bangle around her ankle as she disappeared around a corner.

Chen Haoran arched an eyebrow. “Do I need to state the obvious? I love it.”

It wasn’t just the fact that it was better than the jungle. Which it was. Grand history instilled in him an almost intoxicating feeling. The same kind that comes after smelling the pages of an old book. If Chen Haoran were to get lost in this city he would not worry because the act of discovering new nooks and crannies from ancient times would more than make up for not being able to find where he started.

“Of course.” It was hard to mistake the pride in Xie Jin’s voice even though Chen Haoran was pretty sure he wasn’t from the city. “It’s served as the capital for numerous dynasties and warlords throughout Zumulu’s history.”

They walked past a large circular building that strangely lacked the terraced roofs of its neighbors. Snake werre detailed into the stonework around near its top, each one chasing another snake and attempting to eat its tail in an endless circle. Two snake statues flanked the steps leading into the building, leaning as if to strike. By each of them was a red cloaked guard holding a spear and with a cultivation high in the qi realm.

“What’s that place?” Chen Haoran asked.

“A Court of Scales.” Xie Jin’s expression coiled into disgust. “From there the Snake King’s sacred serpents once oversaw justice and dispensed wisdom. Now it’s the Empire’s snakes who hold court in its halls.”

“Who’s the Snake King?”

“A Star Core realm, he was one of the greatest cultivators in Zumulu’s history and the only true King of the Rivers and Lakes.” Xie Jin’s tone took on a note of worship and his eyes shined, his previous disgust forgotten. “With his special technique he could take on the powers of snakes and their senses and give them his wisdom in return. He conquered his rivals with overwhelming ability and practically ruled the empire he created by himself. A person just had to go to one of his serpents and state their case to recieve the kings justice.”

That… was impressive. He was no political science student but he recognized the kind of power a ruler could wield if they were able to effectively project with will without error. He could see why the Empire would want to co-opt some of that reputation by taking over the Snake King’s old courthouses.

“You sound like you admire him,” he said.

Xie Jin sighed. “I do, as do many youths.”

Chen Haoran hesitated. “When you say last king…”

“He disappeared long before the Empire decided to turn their ambitions south. None of the petty kings and warlords who came after him could claim his throne.”

“Why rivers and lakes though? It seems like a strange thing for a king to associate with his authority when theres the jungle and Gu.”

“He who masters the Jungle is a Warrior. He who masters the Rivers and Lakes is King.” Xie Jin smiled as he recited what seemed like a fond memory. “The jungles are home but its the water where real power is born.”

“I’m feeling a bit lucky to be a Water Spirit root now. Seems like its the element to be.”

Xie Jin rolled his eyes and snorted. “Reach Liquid Meridian realm before you start comparing yourself to bodies of water.”

“That’s the plan.”

“Then what, pray tell, is the next step of this plan supposed to be? I’ll help as I can but there’s only so much I can do now to help you get settled. I don’t have that much gold after all-”

Xie Jin stopped short when Chen Haoran pulled out a shining gold necklace inlaid with a ruby so red it burned like fire.

“The next step is to get rich.”

Chapter 83

With Phelps settled on his back Chen Haoran sought an answer. “Is your Gu really dangerous enough to threaten a Liquid Meridian?” It wasn’t quite a question that came out of nowhere on Chen Haoran’s part. Xie Jin had implicitly revealed it when he threatened Jiang Lei who confirmed it by acceding to his demands. Granted Jiang Lei seemed to be an easy going type of character but being a ‘Black Bone Shaman’ clearly wasn’t something easily trifled with.

It was just hard for him to square away what he had seen of the Gu versus the threat it apparently posed. It was certainly an effective tracker and its ability to remain unseen and inflict poison made it an extraordinarily effective assassin. Was that enough to make a Liquid Meridian clearly aware of its presence be wary of engaging it? Somehow, he didn’t think so.

Xie Jin at least hadn’t seemed bothered by his question. “We would be dead if he decided to kill us. It would have been a painful decision for him though.”

Vague enough to be useless but implying enough to be a subtle flex. Chen Haoran couldn’t help but laugh. It was such a common act in both worlds that he could practically copy-paste old acquaintances over Xie Jin’s face.

“I’ll need to start hiding behind your back then,” he jokingly said.

“Can I ask you something as well?” Xie Jin looked hesitant, his eyes roamed over Chen Haoran’s scabbard.

“Of course.”

“Your sword. Is it some kind of powerful artifact or something.”

Chen Haoran hummed as he considered the unsurprising question. “It’s Profound-rank,” he finally said. “It used to be a part of a pair, but I lost the other blade so I can’t use it’s full power now.” Something that he would forever be annoyed about. He didn’t even like curved swords or dual wielding. The fact he had to do both with the Swiftwind Scimitars was frustrating and only done out of desperate need. It’s special effect was all it had going for it. He only still kept the other because he had yet to find another Profound-Rank weapon to replace it. “Other than that there isn’t anything particularly special about it.”

Xie Jin frowned. “Then what was that back at the inn? And at the poacher’s camp. Even that Liquid Meridian noticed it I think. He was talking to me but he was looking at you.”

Joy. Just what he needed. Yet another Liquid Meridian Realm becoming unnecessarily interested in him. Jiang Lei had stated he’d been observing Wang Xiao at the inn. With his superior senses he would have understood the threat posed by Chen Haoran’s Harmonization.

How to answer Xie Jin though? He absently trailed his fingers across the leather of his scabbard. Should he say he killed Lan Yao and had a moment of realization? A breakthrough in training? A fortuitous encounter, or learning from a powerful senior. The White Tyrant fit all of those descriptions and more so it wouldn’t even be a lie. He too could be vague.

“I can’t really describe it,” Chen Haoran said, shrugging.

“What a weak excuse,” Xie Jin groaned.

It wasn’t.

It was the truth in fact. If he were to try to explain to himself just what the Harmonization the White Tyrant left to him was he would fail.

It was… weird, and far beyond anything he knew or was familiar with. Admittedly, something like that seemed par for the course with a cultivator as strong as the White Tyrant. Just how strong was he in his prime that his shade was powerful enough to to such impossible things?

Regardless there was only one real way to give Xie Jin an answer. “Would you like me to demonstrate it?”

“You’d do that?” Xie Jin sounded surprised which in turn surprised Chen Haoran. Had he just accidentally stepped over another cultural norm?

He pressed forward. No use in trying to fix his fumble. “Why not?”

Xie Jin looked at him strangely. “If you say so. "

“Perfect.” Chen Haoran reached down to grab the hilt of his scimitar when he paused. “Hey… how much do you care about the trees around us.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking if its okay for this patch of woods to become a clearing.”

Xie Jin stared. “You’re not serious.” His words trailed off into the air but never received an answer. He tried again. “Right?”

“Why do you think I’ve been so reluctant to draw my blade?”

Xie Jin looked at the jungle around him. Perhaps estimating how much damage Chen Haoran would do to it. Chen Haoran’s self-esteem said it wouldn’t be as bad as he thought. His logical side however said that the White Tyrant, much less his Harmonization, wouldn’t settle for anything less than maximum destruction. Regardless of his thoughts, Xie Jin had come to an answer.

“Maybe another time.”

——————

The jungles of Zumulu were beautiful and colorful the same way a poisonous frog was. It’s thick growth made traveling through them difficult even for the people who lived here. Hidden within that dense coverage were the things that would have given nightmares to any invader. Hidden behind a vine could be a fruit or a poisonous lizard. Centipedes stalked between the roots and under layers of fallen leaves. High up in the air were silvery spider webs strung between branches, only visible when the light struck them just right. Chen Haoran watched a colorful bird get caught in one web only to have three different spiders descend to cocoon it then fight over the body.

The only thing worse then the smaller insects were the larger ones. Xie Jin, damn him, said Zumulu had no more giant spiders. What he neglected to mention were the giant dragonflies that flitted through the trees searching for prey like living VTOLs. They were harmless to humans apparently. When one drew near in curiosity Xie Jin held out his finger in front of the dragonfly’s bulbous eyes and waved it in a circle, hypnotizing the bug until it settled onto his outstretched arm like he was some kind of falconer.

Chen Haoran marveled at the dragonfly’s amethyst purple form and it’s silk-thin wings. He was sad to see it go when it finally got a hold of its bearings and flew off. He most certainly did not scream when two large scythes shot out of a nearby tree and speared it. A man-sized praying mantis appeared above them and payed them no mind as it devoured the dragonfly.

“You really screamed,” Xie Jin said, laughing. He wasn’t laughing for long when Chen Haoran punched him in the arm.

“I did not scream. I was just startled.”

“Whatever you say, Brother Chen.”

Chen Haoran cast wary eyes up at the feasting mantis. “Are those things harmless to humans too?”

“No. If it was hungry it would drop down on us.”

Well wasn’t that a comforting thought. He recited a silent prayer of thanks to the fallen dragonfly.

“It wouldn’t be that bad even if attacked.” Xie Jin proudly patted his chest. “You have me here after all.”

“Let me guess, you have yet another random skill that will carry us through safely.”

“Almost correct.” Xie Jin waved his hand and let loose his Gu. On the surface it looked like nothing happened but Chen Haoran felt its amorphous qi slightly pulse through his sense. As if by some cue the praying mantis immediately dropped its meal and leapt away.

It was not the only thing that fled.

The dragon flies scattered in all directions. From the trees flew out beetles and spiders and cicadas. Ants marched out from trunks carrying their queens in royal procession. Centipedes flashed away among dead leaves and worms burrowed out of the earth. What had to be every insect in the vicinity escaped in a single simultaneous motion that floored Chen Haoran with its intensity. There… were a lot more bugs surrounding him then he thought. He looked at his arm and found every single hair raised.

“Among the insects the Gu is king,” Xie Jin said as if reciting it. He flashed Chen Haoran a superior smile. “It’s not enough to walk let us walk sideways through Zumulu but with me around there’s nothing to fear.”

There was a rustling in the trees. A tree cracked in half and fell over. The horn responsible for cutting it down loomed menacingly over them.

Chen Haoran looked at the massive rhinoceros beetle first, then Xie Jin.

“Hey so-”

“I fucked up I get it.”

Chen Haoran stretched out his sense and found that like the Gu he couldn’t measure it’s cultivation level.

He didn’t hesitate.

He threw Phelps to Xie Jin, cycled qi to his legs and shot forward, drawing his scimitar out in the same motion. The world flared white. The vegetation around his feet was chopped to pieces.

When Song Yuelin had first taught him about Harmonization he had called it a method to become in tune with ones technique and channel it through one’s regular actions.

Chen Haoran did not Harmonize with the Canyon Carving Sword.

He swung. Pure white energy flashed instead of blue. What was a coursing stream of energy now became a single cutting line. Instead of a river carving through a canyon all he could see in his mind was a single white ghost splitting open the clouds.

The horn was sliced off. The rhinoceros beetle moaned a final dying cry as a large gash opened up on its shell and nearly slashed it in two. Around it trees fell down one after another and threw up splinters and sawdust.

Chen Haoran sheathed his shaking scimitar before any more damage could be done and looked behind him to see Xie Jin watching him with wide eyes. He sheepishly shrugged. “I did ask you about the trees.”

Chapter 82

“Junior Brother,” the Liquid Meridian said. Though Wang Xiao called him Senior he didn’t seem much older than any of them. He looked similar to Wang Xiao, in the way people raised in the same circumstances do. Their demeanors couldn’t have been more different however. Where Wang Xiao had drawn eyes like a proud bird showing off his feathers his Senior Brother had no need for such displays. It was like comparing a parrot to a falcon.

He nodded to Chen Haoran and Xie Jin. “Hello. I didn’t mean to intervene like this but I require these men alive.”

Chen Haoran gripped his sword tightly. Xie Jin hid his hands within his sleeves while a thing purple film spread over his Gu. A subtle peach scent wafted through the air.

“No worries.” Chen Haoran said. “We’ll be leaving now. "

The entrance of a Liquid Meridian Realm made their already bad situation worse. He kept his qi cycling in a raging torrent. Unlike before he had no more cores or mammoth tusks to harm a Liquid Meridian with. He didn’t know if drawing his scimitar would do anything to him. They had to get out.

The Liquid Meridian did give them a chance. “Please hold if you will. I’d like a moment of your time.” He waved his hand and the peach-colored liquid qi covering the poachers dissipated. “Junior Brother Wang, please secure the prisoners.”

Wang Xiao clasped his hands and bowed. “Senior Brother, these are the people who interfered with my hunt for the criminals. Please allow me to settle this grievance now.”

An ugly scowl crossed Xie Jin’s face and Chen Haoran didn’t think his own was any better. Now that this bastard had backing he was getting bold again.

“Interfered you say?” The Liquid Meridian chuckled. It was not a pleasant sound.  “Wang Xiao, do you really think I haven’t kept you in my sight?”

“Senior Brother Jiang-”

“Destruction of property, losing the target, disrupting the public, picking pointless fights.” Senior Brother Jiang ticked off his fingers with each offense.

Chen Haoran and Xie Jin shared a look. They might not be in so much trouble after all?

“You would have lost the target completely and wasted our time had one of the men you involved not been a shaman.”

“I still found it,” Wang Xiao retorted. It was a weak defense. It was clear he was grasping for straws.

“You were lucky.”

“Luck is a talent.”

The air shifted, and Chen Haoran felt a weight on his chest. Xie Jin grimaced. Wang Xiao, who bore the brunt of it, paled.

Senior Brother Jiang spoke quietly. “Are you worthy of that luck?” He held his hands behind his back and walked over, yet for all that Chen Haoran never took his eyes off him he still didn’t see when exactly the Liquid Meridian realm stood in front of Wang Xiao. “What are our goals here, Junior Brother?”

Wang Xiao did not meet his senior’s eyes. “To do good and protect order.”

“And you have failed,” Jiang mercilessly said. “You will be rectifying these mistakes after dealing with the prisoners.” He regarded his Junior with cool eyes. “You have disappointed me already with your actions. For your sake do not add to it.”

Wang Xiao hung his head. “Yes, Senior Brother.” He bowed and like a beaten dog scurried away to deal with the captured poachers.

The breath Chen Haoran had been holding flew back into his lungs when the Liquid Meridian realm then turned to them and walked over.

“Do not come any closer,” Xie Jin warned.

Jiang stopped before stepping back with his hands raised and helplessly smiling. “I just wish to convey my thanks. I’ve no intention of being on the bad side of a Black Bone Shaman.”

Even a Liquid Meridian Realm considered his Gu threatening. Chen Haoran had the feeling Xie Jin had left some parts out when he’d been describing his home. He could only hope it would be enough.

“My name is Jiang Lei. My junior and I have been tracking this particular group for quite some time. Their familiarity with the area gave us a difficult time cornering them.” He clasped his hands and bowed. “For that I would like to thank you, as well as apologize for the actions of my junior.”

“It’s water under the bridge now. There was no real harm caused,” Chen Haoran said.

“Still you’ve done us a great favor.” Jiang Lei reached into the storage back at his waste and pulled out two palm-sized blue crystals. He tossed them to Xie Jin who merely glanced over them and stowed them away.

“Excuse us then,” Xie Jin said, backing away.

“May I know your names?” At Xie Jin’s suspicious look Jiang Fei smiled. “I enjoy learning the names of the young heroes of the South.”

“I’m not from the South,” Chen Haoran blurted out and instantly regretting it. Where his nerves got the better of his his mouth decided to do the thinking.

“You’re here now,” Jiang Lei said, still smiling.

They shared a look.

“Xie Jin.”

“Chen Haoran.”

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Jiang Lei bowed once more. His eyes flickered over Chen Haoran. “You have a bright future ahead of you when you enter the Liquid Meridian Realm.”

Chen Haoran shivered. What did he see? “Thank you.”

After waiting for Jiang Lei to say anything else they nodded their heads and slowly backed out of the camp. When the reached the tree line the cycled their qi to the fullest and broke into a run.

He really needed to advance.

——————

Chen Haoran didn’t know and didn’t care what direction Xie Jin had taken them. Just that they were far away from Wang Xiao and his powerful Senior Brother. He let out a long, anxiety-breath and a weight be lifted off his shoulders. That situation could have gone so, so very wrong if Jiang Lei had been hostile.

“You weren’t kidding about the resources in the south huh? I didn’t think they were common enough we’d meet one so soon.”

Xie Jin’s face was pinched with confusion. “We shouldn’t have met them. They had no business being this far out.”

“What?”

“Those cultivators we met are from the Peachwine. The fact their operating in Snake’s End is suspicious.”

Chen Haoran was about to ask what Xie Jin was going on about when Phelps shifted in his arms and yawned. They skidded to a stop and watched Phelps blearily open his eyes. For a brief moment their was nothing but drowsiness in them but they suddenly sharpened and he let loose an aggressive scream and swung his claws.

“Easy Phelps! Easy!” Chen Haoran flared his qi and Phelps stopped, finally registering where he was. He dove into Chen Haorans’s with a squeal. “Can we take a break?” He asked Xie Jin.

“We should be fine here.”

Chen Haoran sank to the ground and cradled Phelps. He stroked the sloths fur and finally felt exhaustion take him as his adrenaline died down. Xie Jin waved his Gu to patrol the jungle and sat down next to him.

“What were you talking about before? Peachwine? Are they related to those Reservoir Town cultivators we met before.”

“Yes,” Xie Jin said before frowning and shaking his head. “But maybe no.”

Perhaps his dissatisfaction was showing because Xie Jin hurriedly clarified.

“Remember when I told you Zumulu has its own special rivers? The Peachwine is one of them. It’s waters are poisonous to drink.”

He hadn’t been joking about that?

“I’m guessing people still live near it despite that?”

Xie Jin nodded. “For others it’s poisonous. To the tribes who live along the river’s banks, the water is an important cultivation resource.”

“Is this… a big river?”

“It’s smaller than the Machu but it’s bigger than the tributary we sailed down.”

Chen Haoran’s mind wandered at the implications. For him cultivating in the Machu was beneficial only because the river deliberately helped him, otherwise it wasn’t anymore special than the other places he’d trained. Even drinking it’s water hadn’t noticeably benefited him. What if it did though? If he could just reach down and drink his fill of cultivation supplements?

“It can’t be that easy.”

“Jealous much?” Xie Jin had damnably seen through his thoughts. “It’s not that easy thankfully. Even if the Peachwine is safe for them to drink it’s still poison, their bodies are so adapted to it that most other cultivation supplements are near useless.”

“And cultivators being cultivators they don’t want anything to interfere with their progress so they don’t easily leave the river.”

Xie Jin sighed. “Exactly. Which is why those two are so suspicious. It doesn’t seem like they work for the Pacification Committee and yet they’re this far from the Peachwine hunting criminals.” Xie Jin pulled out one of the blue crystals Jiang Lei gave him and handed it to Chen Haoran.

“What’s this?”

“A Spirit Stone.” Xie Jin shook his head. “Whoever those guys were they belong to a group and one with big coffers if they just hand out low-grade Spirit Stones like that.”

Chen Haoran turned the crystal around in his palm. Through his sense he could feel the qi trapped within it. That didn’t exactly tell him what he could do with it, however. He showed the Spirit Stone to Phelps, who took one sniff and then started licking it. Seeing this, Chen Haoran let Phelps have it and held him while the sloth grasped the Spirit Stone in his claws and continuously licked and bit it.

“There are cultivators who’d fight to have your pet’s treatment,” Xie Jin said, shaking his head ruefully.

He was joking but if Chen Haoran had his way then soon enough that might become reality.

Received Hundred-Fold: Middle-Grade Spirit Stone

He just had to do it one reward at a time.

Chapter 81

The earth beneath Chen Haoran’s feet cracked. The dragon screamed with terrible fury. “Xie Jin.”

“I’ll find him,” came the quick reply. Xie Jin waved his sleeve and out it unnaturally crawled his Gu. It took to the air with buzzing wings and hovered above the spot on the street Phelps and the Eighth-Layer last stood.

“You’re a shaman?” They ignored Wang Xiao’s shocked question.

The Gu shot off down the street.

“This way,” Xie Jin said, running after it.

Chen Haoran was a step ahead of him and followed hot on the tail of the Gu. His sense hyper-focused on every wingbeat. His eyes glued to it’s shiny black carapace.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Xie Jin suddenly said.

Chen Haoran didn’t turn around. He could feel Wang Xiao following them.

“That man is a criminal I’m after.” Wang Xiao said. He snorted with derision. “If you hadn’t interfered this wouldn’t have happened.”

“This bastard-”

“Who is that guy your chasing?” Chen Haoran asked. There was a brief lull, his question hung in the air. He hopped it wouldn’t stay there for much longer. If Wang Xiao made him stop and turn around to get his answer then he’d make sure the next thing the pretty boy chased was rehabilitation.

Fortunately. He spoke.“A common thief and a poacher.”

Poacher. It answered Chen Haoran’s next most immediate question after ‘Where were they?’ and ‘What would he do to the bastard when he found him?’. It was obvious now why the thief idiotically kidnapped Phelps when he knew it’d offend another Ninth-Layer cultivator on top of the one already hunting him. Xie Jin’s amazement at Phelps floating ability showed that it wasn’t common. What would someone who hunted beasts for a living think then?

He shivered, but whether it was from anger or fear he could not tell.

“Brother Chen, you can’t be thinking of letting this fucker follow us,” Xie Jin said.

“I don’t care what he does.” He really didn’t. Any problem with Wang Xiao was irrelevant as long as Phelps was in danger. “Focus.”

Xie Jin put thankfully put aside his complaints, though he did make sure to stay next to Wang Xiao and not expose his back, and the trio followed the Gu in a winding run through the streets and backalleys of Snake’s End. Into crowded inns and through old ruins of better days. It was a confusing track that twisted and turned and doubled-back in an obvious attempt to throw off any pursuers. It was futile in the face of whatever means Xie Jin’s used to track. Chen Haoran didn’t fully appreciate it back when Xie Jin first found him, but it took him being sent to a separate dimension for the Gu to be unable to locate him only to immediately lead Xie Jin to him once he left. It’s skill was a soothing balm for the panic bubbling within his heart. His composure built on the security of knowing that finding Phelps was a matter of when and not if.

The trail led them out of Snake’s End and into the jungle. Here Chen Haoran was forced to make way for Xie Jin. He didn’t have a choice. While the Gu led them on the exact path the thief took it didn’t mean Chen Haoran could cross it as easily as he did. It was better to let the experienced take the lead and keep pace than delay them all. When they swapped places Wang Xiao slowed his pace and put himself behind Chen Haoran. He could feel the Ninth-Layer’s eyes burning into his back. It was perhaps foolish to show his back to a stranger he had just been fighting.

Chen Haoran didn’t care.

Under Xie Jin’s lead the jungle didn’t prove much of an obstacle to their speed. The obstructions were overcome, the poisonous were detoured around, and the dangerous were scared off. The Gu disappeared.,

Xie Jin abruptly stopped and held up his hand. “Found him.” He pointed through the thicket of trees. Chen Haoran cycled qi to his eyes and with his sharpened gaze saw a simple wooden fence camouflaged with branches and vines. Smoke from cooking fires wafted in the air. “He’s not alone.”

“Their base of operations,” Wang Xiao whispered. It was more to himself than to them however. He began to walk forward only for Chen Haoran to hold his arm out and block him. “What do you think your doing?”

“Where do you think your going?” Chen Haoran asked, meeting question with question.

“We’ve been searching for this camp for awhile now,” Wang Xiao haughtily replied. “I will not brook anymore interference.”

“Are you law enforcement? Do you work for the Imperial Government?”

“Are you trying to insult me?” Wang Xiao looked affronted.

It seemed like he and Xie Jin had something in common. Was it a universal thing to dislike the Empire in the south?

“He doesn’t wear a law enforcers uniform or a badge,” Xie Jin said.

Chen Haoran frowned. “So you’re not an official. You’re just some random asshole that picked a fight.”

Wang Xiao’s expression darkened immediately. Apparently insulting his vigilantism had been a step too far. “Watch your tongue.”

Chen Haoran pushed Wang Xiao back. “Watch yourself. If you do something and my pet gets hurt because of it then I will kill you.”

He grabbed the hilt of his sword. “You will try.”

Chen Haoran placed a single finger on his scimitar. Wang Xiao’s eyes tracked his finger and he tensed. Xie Jin’s qi quietly rose behind him. Chen Haoran pulled his finger away. Wang Xiao looked at him, the confusion and uneasiness clear on his face.

“I haven’t tried,” Chen Haoran said. “It’s the only reason you’re still alive.”

The stare down continued in silence. Any moment violence could erupt and alert the thieves camp. If Wang Xiao decided to draw his sword they would have to fight to the death.

Wang Xiao scoffed and let go of his sword. Chen Haoran heard Xie Jin quietly let out a sigh of relief.

“Has your Gu located Phelps?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Yes. It’s already snuck in. I can lead us directly to him.”

He turned to Wang Xiao. “Does this group have any Liquid Meridian realms?”

“No,” came his sullen answer. “They would not be scurrying like rats if they had any backing.”

“What are their numbers?”

“We estimate no more than thirty. There should be other Ninth-Layers among them.”

Chen Haoran looked back at the camp. He tapped his fingers against his side.

“What are you waiting for,” Wang Xiao demanded.

“You think you can take this whole camp on by yourself don’t you,” Chen Haoran said.

Wang Xiao looked startled but quickly composed himself. “Of course.”

“Xie Jin, can your Gu protect Phelps?”

“No one will come near him,” Xie Jin promised.

“We’re going through the front then.” Without waiting for a response Chen Haoran crashed through the thicket and shot toward the fence. He was spotted immediately, a high pitched birds cry screeching as he approached and broke through the flimsy defense.

In the brief second he took to reorient himself he was attacked. A long spear stabbing into his shoulder and stopping on his skin. The Seventh-Layer wielding the spear looked perplexed before Chen Haoran shattered his spear with a burst of qi and buried his fist in his gut, sending the man flying. He quickly cast his sense out and immediately honed in on Phelps familiar qi, unconscious in a cage in the center of the camp. Xie Jin’s Gu appeared there and emitted a noxious purple gas that split and struck the cultivators near the cage like snakes, causing them to spasm and collapse with purple faces.

Chen Haoran charged forward. Xie Jin and Wang Xiao flanking him from behind. He barreled past every man that stood in his way, slapping them with his superior cultivation or letting their blows fall uselessly on him. When he reached the cage he grabbed the bars and pulled.
“That cage is made of Iron Essence,” Wang Xiao said. “Even I would take-”

Chen Haoran cycled his qi and pulled. The bars bent. Wang Xiao gaped.

He picked up Phelps. He held his hand to the sloth’s nose and relaxed when he felt him breathing. A quick look didn’t reveal any outward injury. He carefully cradled Phelps in one arm and turned around to find Xie Jin and Wang Xiao facing off against the poachers. In the time it took Chen Haoran to free Phelps they’d been surrounded by the entire camp. Two Ninth-Layers surrounded by a coterie of Eighth-Layers, including the bastard who had run off with Phelps, stood in front of them.

“It looks like Phelps is okay,” he said to Xie Jin.

“I’ll have to pull my weight then,” Xie Jin said. His Gu flew in front of him defensively and more than one man among the poachers flinched when they saw it. Even the Ninth-Layers became solemn.

“I’ll give you one chance,” Chen Haoran said to the apparent leaders. “You stole my pet and I came to get him back. I don’t care about whoever you are beyond that.” He hooked a thumb to Wang Xiao. “This guy is your real problem. My friend and I are going to leave now.”

“With our merchandise?” asked one of the leaders.

Chen Haoran kept his hand.

The other leader cast the three of them an measuring look and turned to the Eighth-Layer who started this.

The bastard had the gall to shrug. “It’s a valuable beast.”

Whatever price they assigned Phelps in their minds was apparently enough. The leader waved his hand. “Attack.”

Chen Haoran grabbed the hilt of his scimitar and the leaders and their minions were crushed.

Chen Haoran’s knuckles turned white as he held his still sheathed sword and watched a wave of peach pink liquid qi flatten the entire camp  surrounding them to the ground.  In the midst of it, suddenly appearing with a burst of speed, was another cultivator decked in pure white.

Wang Xiao clasped his hands and bowed.

“Senior Brother.”

Chapter 80

“Phelps!” Chen Haoran’s qi spun to life, and he sprinted to the newly made hole in the wall.

“You dare!” Xie Jin roared behind him.

Chen Haoran grabbed the splintered wood of the wall and crushed it with a white knuckle grip as he looked at the fallen form of the Eighth-Layer. “Phelps!”

A squeal came from the man’s body. He slowly floated up and Phelps slipped out from underneath and floated in the air looking dazed but none worse for wear. Chen Haoran heaved a sigh of relief. Phelps must have instinctively used his power to lessen both their weights when he got it. He was always quick on the ball.

Xie Jin’s grunt of pain came from behind and Chen Haoran turned around to find him skidding across the floor holding his gut. The Ninth-Layer stood wielded his sword, still in its scabbard, and stood unruffled.

Right. He had this asshole to deal with.

“Phelps come here,” he called before turning and facing the cause of this mess. His qi spiked with every step and he could feel it coursing through his meridians like blood. The Ninth-Layer walked toward him as well-no. Rather he was walking to the hole in the wall behind him. “Hey asshole. This is the part where your supposed to apologize.”

“Don’t interfere,” came the cool reply.

The Ninth-Layer made no move to stop and was about to walk past him when Chen Haoran swung out his hand like a whip. The bastard quickly tilted his chin back and swung his scabbard into his chest only for Chen Haoran to block it with his arm.

“I’m not normally a violent guy,” Chen Haoran said in a clipped, even tone. “But back in my hometown I would never let this slide.” He raised his hand. A dragon’s furious roar echo in his chest. He was really quite angry. “Let me slap out of few of your teeth and call it even.”

The Ninth-Layer coldly snorted. “Get out of the way.” He rushed in with light steps swung his scabbard again. Chen Haoran stepped into the blow and raised his arm to block it.

The first indication something was wrong was when his arm was flung back. As he registered what happened he felt something heavy hit his head and send him sprawling. He was still thinking when the wooden floor splintered under his cheek. The Ninth-Layer’s white shoes were about to step over him when he grabbed his ankle and pulled him off balance. Chen Haoran rose up and struck at his groin, eliciting a hiss of pain from the white-clothed youth. It was a weak hit from an awkward angle however and so rather than be debilitated the Ninth-Layer brought his other knee up and slammed Chen Haoran’s head. This time he was ready, his qi cycling like a river, he caught the knee on his forehead and absorbed the force. At the same time he harshly yanked his hand to the left and threw the white-robed youth to the floor. He tried to leap on him then and grapple but was forced to roll away from a scabbard stab to his throat.

They separated. Chen Haoran tried to stand when his legs suddenly buckled. He cycled his qi to steady himself and held a hand to his head. The Ninth-Layer rose on unsteady feet of his own, his hand instinctively reaching for his groin before he stopped himself.

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin called, having caught his breath. “He’s-”

“I know.” Chen Haoran said. “Stay back.” A person couldn’t sense the quality of another's cultivation. Such a thing had to be felt, and in the moment his arm was blasted away he realized his opponent also practiced an Earth-rank cultivation method. He cast a wary gaze on the sheathed sword. He’d blocked maces on his arms without issue and yet he was forced back. That meant the weapon could channel qi very well, even through its scabbard. It had to be Profound-rank at least.

His first day in the south and he was already picking a fight with someone on Lan Yao’s level. Joy.

“You bastard,” growled the Ninth-Layer through clenched teeth.

“You got some dust on your clothes,” Chen Haoran pointed out.

It was more than a bit of dust however. In the time he spent on the floor the Ninth-Layer’s once pristine white robes had picked up dirt and food stains. His clothes and posture now were a far cry from how he arrogantly entered the inn and it seemed his opponent knew it with how he flushed red in anger.

Chen Haoran shook the last of the dizziness from his head and pulled his sheathed scimitar off his hip. The Ninth-Layer glared at him but he could see his eyes flicker to the hole in the wall.

“I don’t have time for you, I must apprehend that man. Stay right here and I, Wang Xiao, will return to settle this account.”

Chen Haoran leaped forward with a burst of qi and swung his blade down. “How about no?” Wang Xiao leapt to the side and his sword smashed the floorboards to pieces. “You hurt my pet. You don’t apologize. And you beat the shit out of me. The only settlement I’ll take is you kneeling to Phelps and saying your sorry.”

Wang Xiao clicked his tongue in annoyance. Chen Haoran’s senses suddenly twinged as he felt a change in qi. Wang Xiao rushed him faster than before, every step he took sending water-like ripples through the air. Chen Haoran swung but Wang Xiao deftly slid around the blow and hammered his side with his scabbard. The air was knocked out of Chen Haoran’s lungs and he tried to ward him off with a reflexive stab that Wang Xiao easily parried.

Chen Haoran was quickly forced onto the back foot as Wang Xiao practically slid around his blows and accurately targeted his weak points. It reminded Chen Haoran of his last duel with Lan Junjie and the stars he summoned with his treasure slippers. Wang Xiao’s technique, however, proved far more practical than merely distracting, it seemed the whole floor had become a surface of water for him to glide on. It took Chen Haoran cycling his qi to his fullest to keep up with him barely. It didn’t help that Wang Xiao was the better swordsman between the two of them, Chen Haoran wanted to use his own sword to make up for the difference in reach but it was proving to be pointless. His only saving grace was his durability, a fact that seemed to frustrate Wang Xiao the longer they fought going by the scowl on his face.

“Move!” He roared.

Chen Haoran grit his teeth and shoved his hand inside his storage bag. Wang Xiao’s eyes gleamed at the opening and was about to heavily punish Chen Haoran for it when a chair flew over and smashed on his back. Xie Jin had moved into Wang Xiao’s blind spot and intervened at just the right time.

“Close your eyes!” Chen Haoran shouted as he pulled out a slip of paper. He thrust the paper forward as he shut his eyes and channeled qi into it. When he had stolen the from the corpses of the Lan family back in the Spa Cavern, he hadn’t known what the papers were beyond that they had qi trapped inside of them. As it turned out they were talismans, a sort of technique on demand. The one the Lan family had was a flare.

He felt heat bloom in his hand and the light burned red through his eyelids. There were various cries of pain from those brave enough to remain spectators in the inn. The loudest being in front of him. Chen Haoran locked his sense onto Wang Xiao and cycled qi to his fist. He felt his fist meet flesh and he roared as he followed through, punching Wang Xiao in the face and sending him flying.

He opened his eyes to find various people bent over with tears in their eyes. Xie Jin had fortunately heeded his warning in time and was fine. Wang Xiao was sprawled out onto the floor, hopefully knocked out but Chen Haoran wouldn’t take any chances and sprinted over.

His sense still being locked onto Wang Xiao is what saved him.

Wang Xiao burst into a flurry of motion, water rippling from his body as he spun up from the floor and flashed over to Chen Haoran. He stopped on a dime and threw himself backward as silver flashed before his eyes and a thin line of pain spread across his chest. Blood spilled and stained his silk robes, all the anger that he’d built cooled in an instant as his mind kicked into overdrive. Wang Xiao held his vermilion scabbard in one hand, in the other was a beautiful silver sword tipped with blood.

His blood.

He’d been cut. What originally had been a nonlethal spat had escalated. No matter how angry he was it wasn’t something worth putting his life on the line for. Should he de-escalate? Would Wang Xiao let him at this point now that he brandished his sword? He thought of Lan Fen. She wouldn’t. If Wang Xiao was anything like her then just words wouldn’t be enough at this point.

He grasped the hilt of his scimitar and pulled out a sliver. Long cuts appeared on the floor beneath him and Wang Xiao’s face morphed into shock. Just as he was about to pull more of the blade out Xie Jin’s anxious shout reached him.

“Brother Chen, there’s a problem!”

Chen Haoran twisted to see Xie Jin standing by the hole in the wall looking furious. There was a dull moment of incomprehension. Xie Jin was alone. What was the problem he was talking about?

His blood curdled. Xie Jin was alone.

Where was Phelps?

Wang Xiao cursed, and they both rushed over to Xie Jin. Chen Haoran spiked his qi and shot out of the inn and into the street.

The empty street.

Phelps and the Eighth-Layer were gone.

Chapter 79

What if someone were to rip out your spine, but it took them days to pull the last vertebrae from your body?

Chen Haoran didn’t bother counting how many days they spent walking within the snake skeleton. Any number would be ridiculous and he couldn’t find it within himself to care about measuring it after crossing through the Snake’s Mouth. The Machu River, while similarly absurd in size for what it was, at least wasn’t larger than the oceans back on Earth. The Snake’s Mouth had no such comparison. What could? The giant skeleton could swallow the largest blue whale of Earth in a single bite and have room for more.

Instead he took the time to acclimate himself to Zumulu. Stepping into the Snake’s Mouth had been like entering a new world of heat and humid air that he almost assumed Zumulu was a secret realm like the Spa Cavern. The jungles around them were a veritable chorus of noise from birds, insects, apes, and some sounds so strange that he couldn’t imagine what creature could make them.

Chen Haoran was thankful he was wearing silk even as he sweated through them. While qi could help regulate temperature it didn’t let him completely ignore it. Even supernatural powers couldn’t overcome the ridiculous heat multiplier that was humidity it seemed. Thankfully under the immense shade of the skeleton they didn’t have the sun beating down on them. A fact he was most thankful while he marveled at its size.

“I know that beasts tend to get bigger the higher cultivation they have,” Chen Haoran said. “But what kind of realm reaches this size?”

“Who knows,” Xie Jin said. “It was a mystery even before the Age of Chaos. What realm it reached. What killed it. Why here. The debate is as old as civilization in the south.”

“I’m surprised they’re still here honestly. Even if they’re just bones they still belonged to a higher realm. There’s no way they didn’t have value.” Lan Fen had introduced the concept to him and the White Tyrant had provided the clearest example of it back in the Spa Caverns when he killed Patriarch Lan. Even if the owner of the skeleton didn’t reach as high as the White Tyrant it’s bone would have remembered its power. He didn’t think cultivators were they type to let cultural value get in the way of their pursuit of power.

“The Empire thought the same.” Xie Jin shrugged. “Even though if that was true my people would have picked the skeletons clean long ago. Maybe they once held echos of their power but time has robbed them of even that now. They’re durable enough to weather the passing of the ages but if you try to introduce qi to them or use them in any refining they crumble. Beyond the decorative they’re useless. Not that the Empire believed our bone-carvers when they said that.”

Chen Haoran hesitated but considering they were finally in Zumulu he felt it right to ask. “I don’t mean to pry if it’s personal but I’m curious. You don’t seem to like the Empire very much but you were trying to join the Palace School. I just don’t understand.”

“I am a cultivator. My dislike of the Empire doesn’t change the fact that they’re the best way for someone like me to advance. At least I tried to become an official with my own skills than use my Gu.”

“People do that?”

“The Empire recruits shamans to serve in various departments. They can’t raise Gu they way we can so they try to employ us instead. It’s just another thing the Empire failed to exploit in Zumulu.”

“They invaded for the Gu and bones?”

“They attacked for plenty of things.” Xie Jin puffed out his chest with pride. “Zumulu doesn’t offer its treasures easily to those it didn’t raise. That’s why they don’t like us. They can’t exploit the south the same way they do everywhere else.”

Chen Haoran raised an eyebrow. “How am I supposed to get those treasures then? You gonna make me an honorary Zumulian or something?”

“I’ll ignore that absolute butchering of a name.” Xie Jin pressed his thumb into his chest. “As for the treasures don’t fear, your Brother Jin is here.” He pointed forward where the snake skeleton finally narrowed into a tail. Houses and buildings of dark red jungle wood formed around the tail that bustled with people.

“We’ll start in Snake’s End.”

——————

Snake’s Mouth and Snake’s End. Two very inspired names. Chen Haoran couldn’t fault them too much however. Clearsprings City and White Ridge weren’t that much better in that regard. It was just easier to name places after their environment although this world definitely had more fantastical locations willing to lend their names. It made him wonder if the Imperial Capital of Last Light was also named for some bizzare geographical feature.

In any case Snake’s End was far less inspiring than the Snake’s Mouth. Formed long ago as a place where merchants rested before continuing their journey to the larger urban centers, it was much like the town where he and Xie Jin chartered Old Jiang’s ferry. Snake’s End had seen far better days however. It’s buildings were aged and it wasn’t hard to find abandoned homes and ruins. According to Xie Jin it had been the first place the Empire burned down after they marched their army through the skeleton and after conquering the region and constructing a new road there was no hope for the town to return to its former glory.

What they saw no was a place to take care of the needs of the small amount of trade that passed into the western half of Zumulu.

Needless to say, Chen Haoran wasn’t impressed. He made sure Xie Jin knew it too as they checked in to a particularly run down inn.

At least he’d finally been able to take a bath.

“We’ll start here huh?” He asked, casting Xie Jin an unamused look while they ate. Their table was laden with cheap alcohol and local delicacies, particularly a dish of glass noodles and ground pork tastefully named ‘Ants Climbing A Tree.’ Chen Haoran steeled himself and took a bite. It seemed southern cuisine favored spiciness. It was too bad that even changing to a new body didn’t help him handle spicy food any better.

The boastful bonehead at least looked abashed. “Well… maybe not here.”

“I’ll remind you I’m in need of a city. Particularly one larger than Clearsprings.”

“No worries Brother Chen, I’ll bring you to the biggest and bestest. We’ll rest here for a day and be on our way to Daqing.”

Phelps once again had his own chair to their side and ate with surprising manners for an animal which Chen Haoran measured by how he didn’t spill anything off his plate. He made sure to include plenty of Waterlight Spirit Moss to make up for the terror poor Phelps had to endure while they traveled through the Snake’s Mouth. Phelps hadn’t let go of him until they exited the skeleton.

“Believe me Brother Chen, you’ll love the south.”

He could hear the earnestness in Xie Jin’s voice. Could see the confidence in his face that Chen Haoran would love his home just as much as he did.

“I don’t like spicy food.”

The confidence died. The voice full of earnestness wavered. Xie Jin looked at him with a mixture of horror and worry. “Maybe this was a mistake.”

Chen Haoran was about to answer when a man entered the inn and drew his attention. He and Xie Jin had been the strongest cultivators in the inn so when another Eighth-Layer entered he couldn’t help but look over. Bone ornaments marked him as a native and he was dressed in a simple cotton robe dyed a colorful green with a rough jaguars pelt wrapped around his shoulders. An interesting visual sight to Chen Haoran but typical in the south and he quickly ignored the man as he sat down to eat…

At least until a Ninth-Layer cultivator followed in after him. This one caught both his and Xie Jin’s attention. Spotless white silk robe, shiny well-groomed hair, confident posture, a single vermillion scabbard at his waste. The man that entered was much younger than the Eighth-Layer. Around his and Xie Jin’s age if he had to guess.

The young man scanned the inn, his eyes briefly looking over them before settling on the pelt-wearing Eighth-Layer. Watching the man beeline to his table Chen Haoran sighed and turned back to eating. Xie Jin refilled his cup and shook his head. There was a spike of qi and the sound of a shattering table as the two cultivators began to fight. For what he didn’t know, nor did he care. There was no reason for him to get involved or drag Xie Jin with him.

“We gotta stop eating in inns-” Chen Haoran’s words died in his mouth when the body of the Eighth-Layer crashed through their table like a bullet, slamming into Phelps and shooting through the wall.

“Phelps!”

Chapter 78

Power has been restored to me. Turns out a transformer caught on fire. Sorry for the delay I'll cook up something fun in return. Enjoy the chapter!

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The cattle drivers gathered up their beastly bulls and left in the morning. Xie Jin didn’t pay the man he insulted any mind as he led Chen Haoran down the road under a grey sky overcast with clouds.

Chen Haoran was once again filled with questions he wanted to ask Xie Jin. What did he mean by smelling peach blossoms? What was this Reservoir Town he disliked, and why? What was that ‘difference of opinion’ he had with the Seventh-Layer? Once again he held his tongue. They weren’t so urgent that he’d force Xie Jin to discuss things he disliked, at least not now.

“That guy said you were from the Basin. Can you tell me about it?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin brightened. He always did when he got the chance to extoll his home. “It’s a place where the rivers drain. It’s much lower than other areas in Zumulu so that’s why people call it the Basin.” He pointed to his black bone armbands. “We’re more famous for these though. The rainforest is full of bones but you’ll only find black bones in the Basin.”

“It’s all beast bones right?”

“Yes, but they’re so old we don’t know anything about them. Even the legends we tell are younger than the skeletons they speak of.”

That… certainly sounded old. Chen Haoran tried to compare it to his own world and found his examples coming up short. An elephant graveyard of epic proportions? It was the timescale that really threw him for a loop. How old was this world? How large was it?

A drop of water fell on his head and dispelled his thoughts. He looked up to see more fat drops of rain fall down from the heavy clouds above them.

“Should we take shelter?” he asked.

Xie Jin judged the sky then looked off somewhere in the distance off the road. He turned to Chen Haoran and grinned. “If you don’t mind getting dirty we can be there today.” His qi flared. “If you can keep up?”

Well there was only one answer to that.

Phelps squealed and instinctively tightened his grip when Chen Haoran flared his own qi.

“Lead the way.”

Xie Jin whooped and shot off the road into the woods. Chen Haoran cycled qi to his legs and sprinted after him. Phelps squealed in joy on his back. The rain turned from a few droplets into a downpour as they raced. As a Ninth-Layer to his Eighth, and practicing a superior cultivation method on top of that, Chen Haoran was faster than Xie Jin even carrying Phelps. He simply had more qi to use that performed better in every way.

Despite this he could not catch up.

Xie Jin flitted through the trees and foliage with a bird’s grace. Only touching down on the ground for the briefest moments before leaping back into the trees and propelling himself forward. It was an elegant parkour compared to Chen Haoran’s straightforward running. Even if he was strong enough to barrel through most of the shrubbery and vines it still took precious seconds from him that Xie Jin used to pull ahead.

“Hold tight Phelps!” Chen Haoran bent his knees and leapt high into the air. Clearing the tree tops in a long arc before crashing back down like a stone. He did it again, and once more, each jump followed by the sound of snapping branches and crushing leaves. Xie Jin pulled ahead even more with Chen Haoran’s fruitless efforts.

When he cycled his qi for one last jump Phelps squealed and he felt the sloth emit a strange energy. His next jump saw him flying into the air but rather than fall he floated. Phelps squealed again and the energy was cut off, Chen Haoran fell.

He was laughing as he did. “Do that again Phelps!”

Phelps obliged. With he successive jump he flew higher and higher into the sky as Phelps better adapted to carrying him with his power. Xie Jin was so far ahead now that he deliberately slowed down before he ran out of sight but the race didn’t matter anymore. Chen Haoran cycled qi to his eyes to see Xie Jin looking in astonishment at him and Phelps. He whooped out a jeering curse before looking across the trees at the large white mountain Xie Jin was leading them toward.

He touched down onto the ground next to Xie Jin.

“Since when could he do that?” Xie Jin demanded, pure jealousy writ large across his face.

“My little genius can do anything he puts his mind to,” Chen Haoran crowed.

“Lucky bastard.”

They shot off again down an open stretch of woods. The rain poured down in sheets making the dirt into mud. Thanks to qi they weren’t at all slowed down but every enhanced step covered Chen Haoran’s expensive silks with a muddy coat. He didn’t pay it any mind and took note of their surroundings.

“Is this a path?” He asked. Although the rain made a mess of things there was still far too much exposed dirt and the path they followed was suspiciously clear of vegetation beyond the odd root.

“It’s a road,” Xie Jin said.

“Not very well maintained is it.” It was by far the worst road he’d traveled on this entire journey.

Xie Jin scoffed. “The Empire only cares about the roads that lead to the capital.”

“Is this the real way to get into Zumulu then?”

Xie Jin smiled. “You’ll see.”

His smile only grew wider as they approached the white mountain and his excitement was so palpable Chen Haoran could practically feel it through his qi. He was lucky he was paying attention when Xie Jin suddenly halted or else he would have sent himself flying over the steep drop of elevation in the road.

“What the hell,” Chen Haoran whispered.

“Behold,” Xie Jin proudly said. “The Snake’s Mouth.”

Below them stretched an ocean of green jungle trees that grew so thickly that Chen Haoran felt he was looking a green wall. The white mountain he had spied from a distance was there, except it wasn’t because what he had seen then was only the top portion of it and what he looked at now was no mountain.

A titanic snake skeleton rose above that endless jungle as if it had been dropped on top of it. What he had thought was a mountain was instead the very top of a massive skull that now stared at them with it’s empty, cavernous eyes. Its maw was wide open, the lower jaw buried beneath the earth while the top half stretched higher than even the giant stone fingers that towered over White Ridge. Two fangs, javelins of immense proportion, hung menacingly.

Phelps screamed in horror and his grip on Chen Haoran became chokingly tight. He raised a hand to soothe the terrified sloth but he had no true comfort to give him when he himself was dazed by the sight. Xie Jin grabbed his arm and led him toward the skull with nary a care.

“For centuries the Snake’s Mouth was the only reliable entrance into Zumulu.” Xie Jin excitedly said. “Any who were foolish enough to invade the jungle would have to cross under its fangs. Many of those invaders never returned.” He smirked. “It was said that those who passed into the Snake’s Mouth would be swallowed whole.”

Chen Haoran could commiserate. He felt he was about to be eaten as well as they walked through the skull’s mouth. Rivulets of rainwater slid down the massive fangs and he could imagine them being venom instead. When Xie Jin led them under the fangs Chen Haoran’s body and qi shivered as one. He was suddenly reminded of an old tale from Earth, of the Sword of Damocles that hung over the head that wore the crown. In that instance he grew a great sympathy for that poor fellow who had to sit under that terrifying sword. Phelps’s claws tore through the silk of this robes and pressed into his skin.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Xie Jin wistfully sighed.

Now inside the skull they dried themselves off with a quick application of qi. A simple dirt road, pressed flat by countless steps, ran through the snake’s skull and down the rest of it’s skeleton. It was shielded from the rain by the snake’s spine, wide enough to fit an eight lane highway atop it, held up by ribs that speared into the ground like pillars. The seemingly endless jungle found no home within the skeleton, the trees pressed against the ribs and grew thick in the spaces between them but the path laid out under the skeleton was completely clear.

“How big is this thing?” Chen Haoran asked, his mouth dry.

“Big enough that we’ll be walking for days before we reach the end of the tail”.

“Days!?”

Xie Jin laughed. “Do you see why I wanted to bring you here now?” He opened his arms wide

“Welcome to Zumulu Brother Chen.”

Chapter Delay

Currently posting this from my phone. There's been a blackout in my home and so the chapter will be delayed to tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Chapter 77

Here's a Happy Birthday Shout Out to Sebas Tian! In a cultivation world, your birthday party is an event where MCs go to slap faces and get Jade Beauties.

------------

Xie Jin made good on his word of staying long in the city. They detoured only for a moment to purchase supplies, a terse affair with price-gouging vultures where they leaned more on their superior cultivation to get a good deal than any real haggling skill. Chen Haoran noted how quickly the price rose when it was Xie Jin doing the purchasing versus when he did. Xie Jin handled it with aplomb but it was an exhausting effort all the same and they hadn’t even hit the road yet.

It did allow him to get a better look at the city and its people however. They kept their business to the lowest tier where most of the public markets were pressed up against the docks. It was the city's largest area by far in terms of size and population, hosting the majority of the working-class citizens. It was also the only area of the city to not be directly carved into the mesa and it’s buildings reflected that with their patchwork materials. Wood and grey stone lines bluestone slab streets that rose in quality and switched over to white brick the closer they were to the walls of the second tier.

Higher up in the city were the people of means and valued professions. Each ascending height having stricter requirements on cultivation and wealth than the last before one could be allowed to live there. Those were where the cultivators of White Ridge lived and was where the choicest resources percolated up. Had they the time Chen Haoran would have liked to go see for himself the resources of the second-best city in the Empire had to offer.

Unfortunately wisdom, and Xie Jin’s impatience, prevailed and they sped out White Ridge’s singular land-facing gate and onto another of the Empire’s meticulously maintained flagstone roads.

Xie Jin looked visibly relieved once they were out from the shadows of the giant stone fingers that loomed over White Ridge, and Chen Haoran finally had the heart to ask him his most burning question.

“Who is the Mountain General?”

Xie Jin looked like he just chewed a lemon. Fortunately he still answered. “The Grand Marshal of the Empire. Well… former marshal. He was the highest military commander and the second strongest after the Sunset Emperor himself.”

That answered the first. Now for his second most burning question.

“Are those his actual fingers?”

Xie Jin stumbled on the smooth stones of the road and looked at Chen Haoran with a mixture of stunned disbelief and exasperation. “No…,” he slowly said. “They’re not his actual fingers. Why would you even think that?”

Chen Haoran threw up his hands. “You’re the one who said it was his hand. How was I supposed to know you weren’t serious? It’s not like I’ve ever seen a Star Core realm before.”

“Just because they’re a higher realm doesn’t mean they’re not human.”

Chen Haoran would beg to differ on that by virtue of the giant hand they just walked through. Not to mention his own experience seeing the White Tyrant split clouds for miles with a single sword. For a brief second, he felt his sword tremble, but when he touched the scabbard, there was no change in it.

“Is there a problem?” Xie Jin asked, sweeping his eyes across the open fields surrounding them.

“Just thinking.” Chen Haoran put the phantom sensations out of his mind. “Could you tell me why you were so bothered in White Ridge? Was it because of the Mountain General?”

“Who could be calm when standing under the shadow of the conqueror of your people?”

That made sense. Chen Haoran couldn’t imagine the feeling, his homeland was the one that tended to do the conquering, but with such an overwhelming reminder, it was no wonder Xie Jin was uncomfortable.

“How long ago did this happen? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“Four hundred years ago.”

It was Chen Haoran’s turn to trip over nothing.

“Are you alright?” Xie Jin asked.

“Yes, I am; I just- That was unexpected.”

Xie Jin looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He settled for amused disbelief instead. “Two-Shadow wasn’t joking when she said you were ignorant.”

“What gave it away?” Chen Haoran sarcastically asked. His thoughts were still on the timescale, however. “Four hundred years is quite a long time to hold a grudge.”

“Don’t be so surprised.” There was something dark in Xie Jin’s tone. “There’s no way we would ever forget.”

—————

Chen Haoran didn’t ask about the Mountain General in the days after that. Some questions had a time and a place and he felt he’d get more answers once they were in Zumulu proper. Xie Jin noticeably brightened once the Fingers were far out of sight and spent the time regaling Chen Haoran with various myths of his people or stories from his childhood.

Phelps, as usual, took in the new sights and smells with endless excitement. Chen Haoran was more than happy to feed both the sloth’s curiosity and his stomach. Various flowers and leaves found their way into the empty void that Phelps stored food in. While Chen Haoran happily accepted the improved rewards that followed, nothing particularly moved him. It wasn’t quite multiplying zero but it wasn’t much better, the random things he plucked by the side of the road could have been improved a thousand times and still be too low level for him to care about.

It reminded him of the White Tyrant’s dismissive assessment of his power. While the ancient cultivator was undoubtedly full of himself and missing context, he wasn’t completely wrong. Phelps would always eat so he didn’t have to worry about him rejecting gifts due to pride or any complicated feelings a person might have. If Chen Haoran wanted to make the best use of the Gifting power however, especially as he advanced in cultivation, he would have to get his hands on better resources.

Just another problem to consider once he got settled.

He absentmindedly scratched Phelps’s head as he pondered various get-resources-quick schemes in front of the fire. They had camped in a well-worn clearing along the side of the road. The air was crisp but not as cold as the Clearsprings Mountains. Xie Jin had hunted down a rabbit and a fat pheasant and had shown Chen Haoran how to properly skin and de-feather them, respectively and prepare them for roasting over the fire. They lacked any other seasoning but salt but anything would beat travel rations, so Chen Haoran couldn’t complain.

They looked up at the same time when a group driving a small herd of cattle came from further up the road and set up camp in the clearing. Chen Haoran sharpened his eyes with qi and saw an assortment of bone ornaments on the twenty or so men and women of the caravan. He cast his sense over and narrowed his eyes.

Cultivators. Every single one of them.

The majority were First or Second-Layer, the strongest was only Seventh-Layer, nothing threatening about them. It was just a strange sight to see so many cultivators seemingly employed to move cows. He did have to admit they were giant beasts, each one the size of a car.

The Seventh-Layer, presumably the leader of the group, walked over to them and clasped his hands in a bow. “Apologies for the disturbance. I hope you don’t mind.”

“There’s more than enough room,” Xie Jin said.

The leader pulled out a bottle from his sack and held it forward. “May I join you?”

Xie Jin looked at Chen Haoran. He shrugged.

“Sit.”

“Thank you,” the leader said. He sat down and uncorked the bottle, taking a single long swill and passing it to Xie Jin, who did the same before passing it to Chen Haoran.

He debated whether he should drink from the bottle, but from the way the Seventh-Layer was prepared to offer the bottle, it may have been some type of custom. He didn’t want to accidentally be rude by not drinking. In the end, he compromised by pouring the wine straight into his mouth. When he finished and passed the bottle back, the Seventh-Layer quirked his eyebrows but said nothing.

“Any news from White Ridge?” the leader asked.

Xie Jin shook his head. “The generals grip is still the same. We didn’t stay long enough to  learn anything.” He took one of the legs of pheasant and offered it to the leader. “How goes things in Reservoir Town?”

“The Pacification Commissioner released new bounties for bandits but business hasn’t been affect much.” The leader took the drumstick with a smile. “How did you know we were from Reservoir Town? You’re from the Basin aren’t you?”

Xie Jin snorted. “I can smell the peach blossoms.”

Chen Haoran looked on in confusion. He didn’t smell any peach blossoms, the Seventh-Layer seemed to understand what Xie Jin meant however. He turned to Chen Haoran.

“Are you two traveling together, young master?”

“My brother here has praised Zumulu so much that I had to come see it myself,” Chen Haoran said.

The Seventh-Layer did a double take before laughing loudly. “Then by all means please accept another drink from me as a welcome to our home!”

Xie Jin laughed with him and under their pressure, Chen Haoran found himself finishing half the leader's bottle. It wasn’t anything that could get him drunk, but the sudden cheer caught him off guard.

“Zumulu is beautiful,” the leader said. “Our women, even more so, when you get to Reservoir Tow-”

“Reservoir Town is no place to introduce my brother to Zumulu,” Xie Jin forcefully interrupted, his good cheer gone.

There was an awkward silence.

The Seventh-Layer was taken aback and looked at Xie Jin unkindly. “My apologies.” He stood up and clasped his hands. “I’ll take my leave now. Safe journeys.” Then he turned and walked back to his group, leaving the wine bottle behind.

“Xie Jin, what was that?” Chen Haoran demanded.

“A difference of opinion.”

“Are you serious?”

Xie Jin sighed. “I want to show you my homeland properly. You won’t be able to see it going along the Empire’s damned road.”

“Doesn’t this road lead directly south?”

“That’s the Empire’s way, not my people's way.” Xie Jin reached over and picked up the bottle the man left behind, downing the rest of it in one go.

“I’ll die before I let brother Chen enter any way but the Snakes Mouth.”

Chapter 76

It was night time when the river brought Chen Haoran and Phelps back to the boat and gently placed them on its deck. A sharp look from Chen Haoran had the few sailors on night duty scatter away to hidden places, leaving him alone for the time being. A quick application of qi wicked away the water on him and Phelps and he marveled the new feeling of fullness throughout his meridians.

Each Layer of the Qi realm required qi to be accumulated to a certain extent before one could break through the ceiling to the next Layer. Each successive advancement made the one before it feel small and always provided a cultivator with the feeling that they could keep improving. This feeling was perhaps the foundational motivation behind this world’s obsession with advancement next to the powers and authority a high cultivation provided.

When Chen Haoran broke through to the Ninth-Layer he felt for himself just how much more room he had within himself to fill with qi before he could challenge the Liquid Meridian Realm. Now he felt full to bursting. He had guessed cultivating in the Machu would provide him a benefit to his cultivation, just not so drastic. It was clear the river had deliberately assisted him. The yellow qi had just come on too suddenly for it to have been drawn by his efforts.

“Thank you,” he said, letting his gratefulness be carried to the tendril of water through a dragon’s roar. He had saved potentially months of time with its help.

Phelps squealed at the tendril and floated to tap it with his claws when it drew closer. The sloth had enjoyed every minute of their wild ride.

He summoned a bushel of Pure Water Monk Flowers to his hand and after thinking about it reached into his storage bag for a vine of the plant he’d taken from the Spa Cavern. Tying the flowers into an ugly bouquet he presented it to the river. The tendril swayed forward and tenderly wrapped around the delicate stalks of the luminescent flowers. It waved the bouquet around in the air before as the flowers absorbed the yellow water and began to glow gold.

Chen Haoran smiled. For a destructive force of nature, it was surprisingly cute.

He spurred the yellow dragon to roar. ‘Leaving.’

The tendril froze. A visible shudder of water rose from its base all the way to the tip like the fur of a startled cat.

He tensed when the tendril dropped the bouquet and wrapped itself around him. He tapped his sword even as he spurred the yellow dragon to roar again. ‘Going away.’

The tendril gently squeezed him and he could practically hear the river’s question through the water. ‘Why?’

It was a good question. Cultivating in the river was an incredible opportunity, not just for reaching Liquid Meridian but for Harmonizing with the Yellow River Dragon technique as well. There wasn’t that much danger to fear from the river either, at the very least it could be reasoned with and even though it was infinitely stronger than him it didn’t immediately try to force him to stay. The Machu river bringing him treasures, summoning its waters to wash away anyone who tried to hurt him. It was an intoxicating thought… but was it enough.

‘Enemies,’ he said.

Shen Jianyu simply appearing in Clearsprings City frightened Song Yuelin enough to vacate the province entirely and he was only the Thirteenth Prince. That meant there were at least 12 others and the Emperor above them. What were they like? The masters of the Empire that Lan Fen and Song Yuelin feared. That even the mysterious Chen family had to be wary of. Here he was in the center of their power. Was it really wise to risk attracting their attention? Especially once word got around about his connection to the Machu. From what Old Jiang said the Empire’s entire department of people dedicated to communing with the Machu river didn’t get as much positive communication as he did. If he stayed near here word would spread. Could the river protect him from the Imperial family? It wasn’t like he could live in the river.

The tendril shuddered… was the river sighing? It unwound itself like some massive snake and swayed in the air.

“I’ll come again,” Chen Haoran promised. “I’ll bring better gifts.”

The river shined with golden light, banishing away the night. The glow swept up the tendril in waves and concentrated at its tip. A flick saw a golden droplet detach itself from the tendril and accurately strike Chen Haoran’s forehead before he could react. The tendril immediately collapsed back into the river.

Chen Haoran felt the droplet touch his head and be absorbed by his body. He cycled his qi to isolate it but as soon as the golden droplet entered his meridians it merged with his qi and disappeared. He fruitlessly scanned every inch of his meridians for any sign of it, standing so still that Phelps came over to nudge his leg with a whimper. He finally gave up after seeing no change but he was left with a sinking feeling in his gut. The river should look fondly on him and wouldn’t deliberately hurt him, but that didn’t mean he could go and have complete faith in everything it did.

He looked down at the now calm river, unresponsive to every dragon roar he released.

It was a good thing he told Xie Jin to keep his cup ready.

————————

The river didn’t show itself again no matter how many times he tried to communicate with it after that and Chen Haoran finally gave it up as a bad deal once they arrived at the bustling port of White Ridge. Old Jiang informed in that the river never showed itself near populated areas. Indeed, any such appearances were considered to be ill-omens and the Ministry of Rites always made sure to conduct their major ceremonies to the river far away from any human settlement.

The city of White Ridge made for a spectacular sight easily five times the size of Clearsprings City. Carved into the side of a glittering mesa of white stone and divided into several rings of walls that started at the riverfront and rose to end at a single fortress that sat atop the mesa looking down upon the Machu it would inspire awe in any if it weren’t for the shadows cast over it. Set in front of the city and towering above even the mesa were five rounded columns of stone that curled inward as if they were massive fingers about to close over the entire city.

“Wait…” Chen Haoran cycled qi to his eyes to better observe the columns. “Are those actually fingers?”

“Yes,” Xie Jin grimly answered. He spat over the side of the ship. “The hand of the Mountain General. A Star Core realm.”

Phelps squealed loudly but whether it was from excitement or fear he couldn’t tell.

Chen Haoran shuddered as their ferry joined the long line of ships that waited to dock at the harbors that stretched like webbing between the colossal fingers. After an hour of waiting and customs inspection, they finally pulled into a wharf directly next to the middle finger.

“Welcome to White Ridge young lords,” Old Jiang said with a gold-toothed smile. “Second biggest city in the Empire and its biggest shipping center. Only the Imperial Capital dwarfs it in size.”

“Because they wouldn’t accept anything else,” Xie Jin muttered.

Chen Haoran clasped his hands and bowed. “Thank you for your company Old Jiang, I’ve learned a lot from you.”

“Please don’t bow to this old water dog young lord Chen.” Old Jiang pulled Chen Haoran back up and placed a sack that chimed with the sound of taels into his hand. “This is your payment.”

Chen Haoran didn’t make a fuss and accepted it. There was no need to be stubborn about certain things.

Old Jiang looked over at the passengers readying to disembark and leaned in to whisper. “If you’re trying to avoid attention I recommend leaving soon. This group will start running their mouths about this trip as soon as there are ears to listen.”

“We weren’t planning on staying here long anyway,” Xie Jin cut in. He looked at Chen Haoran. “If it’s alright with you I want to leave as soon as possible.”

“Let me just make sure Phelps drinks something and then we’ll go.” Chen Haoran left Xie Jin with Old Jiang and brought Phelps with him to the side of the ship where he grabbed the bucket and rope he’d requisitioned from the crew and lowered it into the river. He wouldn’t be returning to the Machu any time soon and wouldn’t get another chance like this. He hoisted up the bucket of crystal yellow water and placed it in front of Phelps who greedily lapped it up.

Received Hundred-Fold: Pure Yellow Dragon Water

He had been a bit wary at first of letting Phelps drink sentient water but if it was apparently normal to do he wouldn’t, and didn’t over the journey, avoid taking advantage of it.

After Phelps had been suitably satiated he pulled the sloth up onto his back and bid Old Jiang farewell with an impatient Xie Jin.

“Until we meet again young lord Chen, a friend of the river can always ride my boat for free,” Old Jiang said, bowing to him.

“Take care then,” Chen Haoran said, before turning and taking his first step on dry land in over a week.

He cast one last look at the river and had his yellow dragon let out one final roar.

‘Goodbye.’

The water did not move. Disappointed Chen Haoran turned to leave when he heard a splash. He whirled around to find a small tendril of water rising out of the river and wave.

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin called. “Are you coming?”

“I am,” he replied.

When he turned around again the tendril disappeared. Shaking his head with a smile Chen Haoran followed Xie Jin into White Ridge City.

Chapter 75

“You’re joking,” Xie Jin said.

“I’m very serious,” Chen Haoran replied.

“What would you even be hoping to do by doing that?”

“I don’t know but I’d like to do it at least once before we reach Whiteridge.”

Xie Jin looked at Old Jiang and pointed to Chen Haoran. “Tell him its a bad idea.”

Old Jiang shrugged and stepped back. “It’s just swimming.”

“In a living river?” Xie Jin asked in disbelief.

“Were sailing on it,” Old Jiang pointed out. “And he wouldn’t be the first or the only thing to swim in the Machu. Of all the things that could anger the river, being treated as regular water isn’t one of them.”

“It could be good for my cultivation,” Chen Haoran said. “It will be a while before I come this way again.”

Xie Jin’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. “How can I get in the way of a cultivator’s advancement?”

“Don’t worry.” Chen Haoran patted Phelps’s head. The sloth licked his hand with a sticky tongue. “I’ve got the best swimmer with me.”

“Lucky him,” Xie Jin dryly said. “When are you going to go then?”

“Will we see more ships the closer we get to Whiteridge?” Chen Haoran asked Old Jiang.

“Aye. It’s the busiest river port in the Empire.”

“I’ll go know then. No reason to let an anchor fall on my head.”

Phelps floated out of his lap and Chen Haoran stood up and cast off his robe to a disgruntled Xie Jin who without hesitation slapped it onto the deck.

“Really?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Come back if you have a problem,” Xie Jin said.

Chen Haoran laughed and flipped off a confused Xie Jin which, to his credit, did not stop him from guessing the hand sign was an insult and responding in kind.

“Keep my cup ready, I’ll be back.”

With that Chen Haoran leaped off the boat with a flex of qi, followed by a squealing Phelps in his signature cannonball.

Man and sloth splashed into crystal yellow water.

——————

The first thing that struck him was not the clarity of the water. Although it was indeed clear. Even the qi-filled waters of the Spa Caverns pools, continually refined in an isolated water cycle, were foggy compared to the Machu. Nor was it the brightness. However, the way the sunlight streamed from the river’s surface in dappled rays and lit up the yellow waters gold was so beautiful it almost made him think his fall down had been a jump up to heaven. It wasn’t the way the speed of his qi’s flow had changed from a racing torrent in his meridians to a slower, almost meandering flow that ebbed and rose with the Machu.

None of those arrested his attention the way the warmth did, however.

It wasn’t a matter of temperature. The water was cold and he could feel the chill race along his nerves like spidery fingers. Despite that he was enveloped in a warm sensation that wrapped him like a blanket all the way down to his qi.

On the ship he could not sense anything supernatural about the water even when it was twisting itself into all sorts of unnatural forms before his very eyes. He could feel it now though. Within the river what he sensed was not just qi but the presence of a mind that was as endless to his sense as the waters of the Machu were to his eyes.

A claw brushed against his calf and he was broken out of his shock. Phelps swam into view far more gracefully than how he moved on land. Chen Haoran cycled his qi and followed him. On Earth, he would have never gone near water so deep let alone dive in it. He had preferred beaches and shallows, water you couldn’t see the bottom of was far too suspicious.

In this world those concerns were removed by qi. Not just his cultivation letting him swim farther, dive deeper, and hold his breath longer but his affinity. A Water Spirit Root had certain advantages in water. It wasn’t any sort of power boost or drawing power from the qi of the sea but rather a greater ease of mobility. Truthfully not the biggest of increases, Chen Haoran wouldn’t be racing any fish, but compared to other cultivators it was like he was kitted out in full swim gear. On his own, he wouldn’t fear swimming in any depth.

He was not alone.

Phelps and Chen Haoran dove deeper, down to where the golden light became inky darkness that even light could not reach through the crystal water. Streams of bubbles whirled around them like snakes as he felt the river move its currents to push them back. He took one last look at the abyss. If the river’s depth was at all comparable to its width…

He let the current take him away and spurred the yellow dragon within him to let loose a roar filled with as much meaning as he could pack into it.

‘Explore.’

He paused. The yellow dragon whimpered.

‘Not too far please?’

The river obliged.

Chen Haoran immediately felt the presence cocoon him and Phelps and the golden world became a tunnel of swirling light as the river suddenly accelerated them far and away. He couldn’t feel how fast they were going, protected as he was, but in the back of his mind, he knew that they were going very, very fast.

Old Jiang had perhaps undersold him on just how fast the river could have sped up their journey.

The light tunnel broke into calm gold and the river let go of them right in the middle of a school of fish. The boat-sized fish did not appreciate that, immediately scattering in every direction. Chen Haoran caught a glimpse of silver-blue scales with a darker blue trident pattern pressed on them before the fish fled out of sight and the river whisked them away again.

What followed was a guided tour unlike any he had ever experienced. They scared more schools of trident-patterned fish by appearing in their midst. In between breaks to the surface for air, they raced fish with dog heads that jumped out of the water to bark and beg for a fisherman’s catch. The river sat them atop a green turtle bigger than an elephant and let them ride it through a literal forest. Trees complete with leaves and flowers in full bloom grew underwater as if it was dry land. Small yellow fish claimed the branches in lieu of birds to build nests of twigs and grass and fluttered with silky pennant flag fins.

When the turtle grew irritated the river flew them away from the forest and to a much more believable bed of seaweed that it pushed aside to reveal crab clans and shrimp sects locked in battle. They were dragged off before the mortal foes could unite to fight the invasive man and sloth.

Not all of the rivers choices were so fantastical, it’s definition of exploring seemed a bit different from Chen Haoran’s. This meant they were brought around to witness rocks of all different shapes and sizes, a patch of empty sand, a piece of driftwood, someone’s lost underwear, and a boat with a single snail on the bottom of its hull.

Then there was a sight that was far more sobering. The river brought them to some distant shore where they broke for air and when they dove an entire sunken village was revealed. It was remarkably preserved for a ruin, the stone walls and foundations still standing after who knows how long. Shingles exchanged for roofs of algae and crawling plants, wooden doors rotted away to better allow fish to enter and exit. Chen Haoran remembered Old Jiang’s words. The Machu did as it pleased. If he didn’t have the Yellow River Dragon Refinement he had no doubt the river would view him the same as it did the residents of these homes.

As if sensing his sorry mood the river quickly took them away from the village and released them into open water above its unseeable depths. Chen Haoran spun around for anything of note when the currents surged and the overgrown wreckage of a sunken ship rose out from the deep. Chen Haoran almost choked. It was built of wood, that much was clear, but the ship was the size of an aircraft carrier. A large palace in the sloped roof style of Clearsprings City sat on one end of the massive boat, notable not just for its scale but also for how the top half was sliced clean off. The river wrapped them in a gentle tunnel of water and carried them around the forbidding vessel, across the expanse of its deck, over the sliced palace where they peered into the exposed rooms, and around the gaping hole in the side of the ship which presumably sunk it.

‘Here,’ he decided. ‘He would do it here.’

He hadn’t just decided to come into the river because wanted to take a dip. In the Spa Caverns cultivating in the spiritual pools helped accelerate his progress far ahead of his speed in Clearsprings City because of their compatibility with his Water Spirit Root.

What would happen if he cultivated in the place that inspired his cultivation technique?

He focused his qi and sent his intention to the river through the yellow dragon’s roar before beginning to cultivate. For a brief second, he could have sworn he felt… curiosity?

Yellow qi flooded into him.

It was a shade deeper than his own and far purer but it was unmistakably the same type of qi as his own. The yellow dragon roared in pure joy as the Machu river’s qi merged with his own. The yellow qi seemed to echo that roar and his meridians rang like bells. Chen Haoran’s sense stretched to its limit taking it all in and he couldn’t tell where the water ended and his body began. The yellow dragon revolved and rushed toward his head as his qi swelled.

Chen Haoran touched the limit.

Chapter 74

Thanks for your patience. Sorry it was late

---------

Xie Jin hadn’t been lying when he’d said the ambient qi would rise the further into the Central region they got. What he had neglected to mention was just how drastically it would rise. When Chen Haoran emerged on the deck the next day he was practically blasted in the face by the difference. From near nothing to higher than anything Clearsprings City could offer. It was almost like he had fallen asleep and woken up in another world which, admittedly, was a concept he was quite familiar with. It still wasn’t near the Spa Cavern’s level but just the fact he was comparing them was example enough.

And they were still only on the fringes of the region.

The scale was humbling in its own way. He hadn’t noticed it before when he first arrived in this new world but it wasn’t exactly his fault. Cities and mountains were always big to him. The Spa Caverns and their endless depth were stupefying but could be explained due to the clearly unnatural nature of the extradimensional space. The size of the Machu river was not something he could explain, supernatural or not. It was less of a river and more of an inland sea that flowed in one direction, complete with its own weather system. A few times he looked into its crystal yellow waters and saw fish the size of rowboats and what he could swear was the diving tail of a whale though he never saw one breach.

Just thinking about it was enough to leave him so dizzy he could barely think let alone meditate at his newfound position at the front of the ship. Old Jiang had posted sailors to make sure no one came near him but somehow the passengers were even more distant than before. Chen Haoran wasn’t sure if it was some fear of him or fear they’d be dragged into the river if they got to close to him. Or it might have been Xie Jin. His friend certainly seemed menacing today with how he paced around like some wary predator and impudently glared at the river below them.

He stifled a laughed and assumed a meditative pose. He could sense Xie Jin’s qi tense in preparation. He wasn’t wrong for being nervous but at the same time, Chen Haoran doubted he could fight an entire body of water. Still, his presence was comforting enough for him to center his thoughts and focus on his qi. It spun into motion at his prompting and the yellow dragon emerged from the depths of his core to feast on the fresh qi his meridians absorbed. The dragon roared. Xie Jin’s qi spiked. Chen Haoran opened his eyes.

Another tendril of yellow water rose out of the river’s surface in front of him. He looked down at the still-moving boat and then back at the tendril that was perfectly maintaining a constant distance from it. He stood perfectly still. It seemed the river remembered their last interaction as it didn’t try to grab him this time. Chen Haoran was grateful for that but it didn’t really change the fact that he had no idea how to interact with a sentient river. No amount of scripting in his head could prepare him for the real deal.

“When in Rome,” he muttered, and reached into his storage bag to pull out two fistfuls of glowing moss and a salamander core. He flexed his qi and dropped them into the river then clapped his hands together. Not a bow but more as a prayer. “Friends?”

The tendril sank into the water.

He could hear the people behind him letting go of the breathes they’d been holding. Xie Jin stalked over and watched the spot the river disappeared. Most likely sensing for any sign of the will of the river. Chen Haoran knew this because he was doing the same thing but from the moment the tendril appeared to when it disappeared he couldn’t feel any great power or difference in qi. In a way, he was thankful, had there been something to sense it would have been a worse headache than any Liquid Meridian gave him.

Chen Haoran weakly smiled at Xie Jin. “Here’s to hoping it gives us a boost.”

A splash suddenly sounded from the water. Xie Jin cursed and ducked as a blue shadow flew over his head and landed in Chen Haoran’s arms. Luckily he’d still been cycling his qi and wasn’t barreled over by the weight of what he now realized was a football-sized mussel shell.

“Imperial piss stream,” Xie Jin spat.

“No name-calling gift-givers,” Chen Haoran chided.

“In my land, we don’t throw gifts at people’s heads.”

“Well it wasn’t for you now was it?”

Chen Haoran weighed the mussel shell in his hands. At least the negotiation took a successful if unexpected turn. They’d be eating well tonight at least. “Thank you,” he called to the river. There was no response. He flexed his qi to unleash another dragon roar when the mussel shell opened up and released a bright light. Half-blinded he couldn’t see the reason for Xie Jin’s hiss of shock until the light faded and his eyes settled on a green-black pearl within the shell.

“A Luminous Pearl,” Xie Jin said with barely concealed awe.

Perhaps the negotiations were too successful.

—————

The days passed along gently. Unlike what the captain had said their boat hadn’t been suddenly blessed with speed but the river did not hinder the boat as it made its various stops at towns and ports along its banks. For all of those days, Chen Haoran sat at the forefront of the ship and cultivated. Sometimes he had progress.

Received Hundred-Fold: Ninth-Layer Painted Turtle Core

Received Hundred-Fold: Hundred-Year-Old Pure Water Grass

Sometimes he received rewards.

Phelps squealed at the tendril of water that came bearing gifts, notably without a blindfold covering his eyes. Chen Haoran had judged Phelps ready to take it off and besides some initial discomfort, the sloth had no issues with the sunlight as far as he could tell. The tendril placed a fat yellow fruit in his hand as Phelps watched with drool dripping out his mouth.

“Eat up,” Chen Haoran said, relishing his own treat as soon as Phelps bit into the fruit.

Received Hundred-Fold: 5 Hundred-Year-Old Bodhi Pear.

“Not again damnit,” Xie Jin cursed as he reeled in an empty fishing hook. He watched Phelps eat the fruit with envious eyes. “Can’t you ask the river to send some fish my way?”

“The river does as the river wills,” Old Jiang said. Ever since asking Chen Haoran to sit at the front of the ship he always made time to come and chat. “Whether to flood its banks or keep its levels low is all up to its whims. I wouldn’t count on it showing you favor with young lord Chen here.”

“You make the river sound capricious,” Chen Haoran said.

“What else can you call shifting its course hundreds of miles away or completely reversing its flow?” Old Jiang helplessly looked at the river with a mixture of reverence and wariness. “It’s hard to say what feeds the river more, the tributaries or the people’s tears.”

“Would so many people really live so close then if it were so dangerous?” Chen Haoran asked.

“It doesn’t happen often.” Old Jiang said. “Our grandchildren’s grandchildren probably won’t live to see such a disaster, and even with that danger there is gain. The soil deposited into the river is refined into essence by the water which becomes extraordinarily useful for fertilizing farmland. Just the food it helps grow is enough for the Empire to try to tame the Machu, not to mention the treasures hidden within its depths.”

“And that’s what the Ministry of Rites does?” Chen Haoran asked.

Old Jiang laughed. “That’s what the Ministry of Rites wishes they could do.” He gave Chen Haoran a considering look. “I can’t say they’re friends but I know some guys who work there. If you’re interested in a job I can introduce you. Most cultivators with a river method go to them to find work.”

“I’m still young, I’d like to travel a bit more before settling down,” Chen Haoran said.

“Ah, the ambition of youth.” Old Jiang wistfully sighed. “I remember being a fiery lad when I was younger.”

“I heard the Empire used the Machu as a weapon,” Xie Jin said, he speared a scrap of meat on his fishing hook and cast the line out. “I don’t see how that’s possible if the river is as willful as you say.”

Old Jiang shrugged. “Those stories are far before my time, I only know what I know. If the Machu worked with the Empire like that then I expect they paid a hefty price for it.”

Chen Haoran shuddered at the image that conjured. How scary would it be if back on Earth the Amazon river became sentient and decided to rush over land to fight the United States? What if it were multiplied a hundred times over?

He was suddenly very glad he was on the river’s good side. At least he knew he would survive what he was about to do next.

“I’ll be sad to see you two go,” Old Jiang said. “This has been the second most memorable voyage of my life.”

“Second!?” Xie Jin whirled around with his fishing rod, the line flying up onto the deck and revealing another empty hook. “I knew you were holding out on us you old codger.”

“Don’t they teach you to respect your elders in the south?”

Xie Jin gave Old Jiang a toothy grin. “Only if they can out-drink us. I still have a whole day to get that story out of you.”

Old Jiang snorted. “A frog in a well.”

“Will you join us, Brother Chen?” Xie Jin asked.

“No,” Chen Haoran said.

“I’m going to jump into the river.”

Sick Leave

I caught a bad cold over the weekend which I'm currently recovering from. I'll be trying to get the chapter out today but realistically it will come out tomorrow.

Thank you for your understanding.

Chapter 73

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin said, his voice filled with controlled panic. “Please tell me you know what you’re doing.”

Chen Haoran lowered his hand and watched the water tendril stop moving. “I won’t tell you then.”

“Wonderful.”

Chen Haoran silently apologized to Xie Jin in his heart. He really had no idea what was going on. He had to thank his lucky stars that the tendril only waved and didn’t try to drag him into the river.

As if to mock his thoughts the tendril suddenly lunged, knocking away Xie Jin and the Gu in a fluid motion and wrapping around his body. Chen Haoran barely had time to curse before he was lifted into the air. There were screams from the deck below. He cycled his qi and brought his fist down hard on the tendril. He intended to disturb the water and escape from its grip. Instead, his fist bounced off the water…

And the water flinched?

The tendril let go of him and he fell back onto the boat. The water tendril swayed but didn’t try to grab him again. They stared at each other. The tendril inched forward only to rear back when he flexed his qi in response. Chen Haoran’s mind raced. The technique, the river, the dragon roaring. It couldn’t be.

He pointed at the tendril and tried to picture the yellow dragon. “Bad.”

For all that it was a faceless mass of water the tendril seemed shocked before it suddenly dissipated. When he rushed to look over the side all he could see was the clear yellow water of the Machu river.

“What the hell.”

“Brother Chen!” Xie Jin rushed over, the Gu still buzzing over his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. Please tell me you know what that was.”

“The river.” The captain pushed his way through the gawking crowd of passengers and sailors and came up to them though he made sure to stand a distance away. He clasped his hands. “Honored lord will you please sit and meditate on the prow from now on? I’ll return your ticket fee- no I’ll even pay you!”

“Explain what’s going on here,” Xie Jin demanded.

“What did you mean by the river?” Chen Haoran asked.

“It’s what it sounds like. The river was greeting you. I’ve only ever seen the Ministry of Rites communicate with it like that.”

“When you say the river,” he waved his arm, “you mean this whole thing?”

The captain nodded.

He looked across the endless horizon of water. If all of it was one being…

Had he just screwed himself?

——————

The captain had invited them to his quarters where he poured them cups of his best wine. Chen Haoran drank like it was his last while he frantically envisioned various scenarios. Escaping was impossible, the boat was too far from shore for him to make it without swimming, and getting into the water was an even bigger death sentence than sailing atop it.

He slammed the cup down and looked at the captain. “Is the Machu river alive? Does it think?” What did it think of him then if it did?

The captain shrugged. “The river does as it wills. It doesn’t normally show itself like it did today, it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that happen in years.”

“To think the Empire had a crazier river,” Xie Jin mumbled, deep in his own cup.

“Will we be fine?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Your cultivation method has something to do with the river correct?” the captain asked instead.

“It does.”

“You don’t need to fear then. While the Machu river has caused just as much destruction for all the benefits it offers it still favors its children. You won’t come to harm atop it.”

“Did the river make the cultivation method?”

Xie Jin snorted while the captain chuckled.

“If the river could make one then it would be a truly unrivaled technique,” the captain said. “People along the Machu’s banks were inspired to develop a cultivation method from it and were lucky enough to have the river consider them one of its own for it.”

What did that make him then? A fellow body of water? A beloved pet? Whatever he was he hoped the river wouldn’t keep him here. Almost getting dragged into the water wasn’t a pleasant experience even if it didn’t mean him harm. Still, despite that, he felt some of his tension leave him. The old sailor’s experience was comforting to rely on even if he wouldn’t be completely relaxed till he was back on dry land.

“Does the name Machu mean something?”

“River of the Peacock,” replied the captain.

“Peacock?” Did peacocks here have gold feathers? Nothing he had seen so far of the river reminded him of the birds he knew back on Earth.

“It was named by old Imperials,” the captain said. “Not that the river acknowledges the name. Any riverfolk can tell you that this water is no bird.”

“The Empire just wants to put its name everywhere,” Xie Jin interjected.

The captain side-eyed Xie Jin, his eyes flicked to the sleeve the Gu disappeared into.

“By the way, I never got your name,” Chen Haoran said, taking his attention.

The captain smiled and a single gold tooth flashed. “Jiang, young lord. Although the wisecrackers call me Old Jiang.”

Chen Haoran clasped his hands. “Thank you for sharing your knowledge. It’s much appreciated.”

“Could I trouble the young lord about my previous offer then? It might not mean much to one such as yourself but for us sailors it’s a good omen to have a River Child on board. The river might even bless our trip and send us to our destination faster if we’re lucky.”

Chen Haoran and Xie Jin shared a look.

“I can force him to bring the ship to shore and we can get off here,” Xie Jin said.

Old Jiang’s casual demeanor immediately turned into unease. Chen Haoran appreciated how Xie Jin seemed to understand his worries. Although whether that was because he was clever or because he too was worried after getting slapped around by a literal river he wasn’t sure.

“Let’s stay on the boat for now,” Chen Haoran said.

Old Jiang looked relieved and poured out more wine and later after drinking a few rounds saw them off to their cabin with an exuberant smile. When they entered the room Phelps floated over with a particularly annoyed squeal and threw himself into Chen Haoran’s arms.

“Sorry bud,” he said. He carried the sloth back to bed and pulled out a piece of glowing moss to feed him. “I’ll take you out tomorrow.”

Xie Jin slunk over to his bed and sank heavily into the sheets with a groan.

“How do you feel?” Chen Haoran asked. “I have some healing pills if you’re hurt.”

“I’m fine,” Xie Jin said. “If it wanted to hurt me I doubt I’d have been able to walk it off.”

“Nevertheless I appreciate you for defending me.”

“I haven’t even shown you my home yet. There’s no way I’m going to let some crazy Central region river take you.” He flipped over onto his back and massaged his chest. Chen Haoran reached into his storage bag and summoned one of his weaker healing medicines from his Reward space and handed it to him. Xie Jin accepted it with an appreciative hum and sighed in relief as the medicine did its work. “I’ll tell you this the rivers in Zumulu are nowhere near as weird as this one.”

“Doesn’t that mean there still a little weird though?” Chen Haoran asked, laughing.

“No, most of them are just normal rivers.”

He stopped laughing and looked at Xie Jin who didn’t change his expression at all.

“I… was joking,” Chen Haoran stiffly said.

“At least our rivers won’t try to drag you under, it’s mostly the things inside them that do that.”

“Xie Jin.”

“Actually one of our major rivers is poisonous.”

“Xie Jin.”

“Did I mention we have a river that is completely filled with snakes?”

“Xie Jin!”

Chen Haoran glared while Xie Jin laughed his head off.

“Are you done?” he asked with an arched brow.

“Yes,” Xie Jin said, his voice still filled with mirth.

“I’m beginning to question if I want to go south now.”

“Are you scared?” Xie Jin looked at him with a taunting smirk.

“Of course not,” Chen Haoran scoffed. “I just wonder how much more of your annoying ass I can deal with.”

“Well, that already puts you above 90 percent of the people living in the Central Region. You can be proud of that, young cultivator.”

Chen Haoran rolled his eyes and put out the lamp so he wouldn’t have to look at Xie Jin’s annoying mug anymore. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Brother Chen.”

He arranged himself on the bed, tossing and turning to settle himself in the most comfortable spot and wrapping an arm around Phelps so he wouldn’t float around while he tried to sleep. He couldn’t help asking Xie Jin one last important question, however.

“You don’t have any giant spiders down south do you?”

“No,” Xie Jin said. He could hear the drowsiness in his voice.

“Good.”

“We killed them all centuries ago.”

“What the fuck.”

Chapter 72

All of Chen Haoran’s hard work avoiding damaging the inn was for naught when a drunk Phelps broke a hole through its roof and Chen broke a bigger one going after him. After finishing off the bottle of wine Phelps proved to be the worst case of curious drunk as he decided to make one small leap for sloths, one giant leap for sloth-kind and fly to the moon. It had taken Chen Haoran throwing Xie Jin into the air, the use of his Gu, and a stolen fishing net, to stop Phelps from changing his name to Armstrong.

Suffice to say it they stepped onto the boat the next day very tired and with dark rings around their eyes. Xie Jin had a long red scratch mark going up one arm. A happy Phelps squealed at the new scents he was exposed to on the boat. Chen Haoran had an iron grip on the silk cord he had attached to the sloth’s collar.

The captain took one look at their bedraggled forms and shook his head. “That ruckus last night you boys?”

“Is there a problem?” Xie Jin demanded.

The captain shrugged. “Not the worst omen to have before setting sail.”

He escorted them to a small cabin with two simple beds and left to oversee the crew. Other passengers sorted themselves in nearby cabins and they got more than a few strange looks as they stumbled into their own.

Xie Jin slumped over onto the bed and groaned. Chen Haoran dropped Phelps onto his own bed and had to slap his claws away from tearing up the mattress. After warning Phelps to not break anything Chen Haoran collapsed.

“Where in the world did you find that little monster?” Xie Jin asked, slurring his words.

“The depths of hell apparently.”

Chen Haoran felt the heavy hands of sleep pull him. A single thought ringing out before he lost consciousness.

He was never letting Phelps near alcohol again.

—————

When he awoke he was sore all over. The bed wasn’t the most comfortable thing he’d ever slept on. They hadn’t wanted to stay in the town too long so Xie Jin booked the boat that was sailing the soonest, quality hadn’t been the biggest concern. Chen Haoran was regretting being so hasty as he massaged the cricks in his neck. He missed his mansion. His bed had been the most pleasant sleep he had in both worlds. He had to pawn off the jewelry he’d been rewarded as soon as possible. He wouldn’t accept living anywhere but the best.

Phelps had curled up into a ball at the corner of the bed and was sound asleep. Xie Jin was still messily sprawled over his own bed and loudly snored. His Gu beetle sat on top of his bag like an onyx statue. It didn’t so much as twitch while Chen Haoran rose and changed his clothes and yet he could swear he felt it staring at him. It was still an amorphous blob of qi to his sense. Proximity to it hadn’t helped him figure out its nature either. Unless he had a use for it Xie Jin never exposed the bug in front of other people. He and other people treated it with significance but that just begged the question. What about this bug made people who could casually split rocks and throw fire give it the side-eye?

Chen Haoran quietly crept out of the room and closed the door shut behind him. He stood at the door. The feeling of being watched didn’t leave. As he walked away from the cabin the feeling finally receded and he let out of breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

Right. He was beginning to understand.

He stepped out onto the deck and shielded his eyes from the light of the evening sun. While he’d been knocked out the boat had taken off and the town was now far behind them. Sailors walked about the deck, checking rigging and mending sailcloth. Other passengers, fellow travelers and merchants, conversed in groups or stood and idly observed the scenery. He stretched out his sense. There were other cultivators but none of them came near Xie Jin’s Eighth-Layer cultivation let alone his.

Every cultivator on the deck looked over when Chen Haoran appeared. Some were open about it and made their attention obvious, others were subtler and peeked at him with furtive glances. None of them ignored him and when he looked around they all averted their eyes. There was some indescribable feeling in his chest. To these people, he was one of the strong, someone to be wary of. They didn’t know anything about his techniques or his experience, just his cultivation was enough to know he was beyond them. He turned away from them and walked over to the side of the ship.

He did not feel proud. He was a small fish running from his pond. Just because he looked larger to them didn’t mean he should treat that as a true reflection of himself. Would it have helped him stand up to Song Yuelin? Would it help him mask his ignorance? No. He couldn’t afford to let himself be arrogant. He needed to reach the Liquid Meridian realm. Only then could he start having a bit of peace of mind.

He peered over the edge of the ship into the yellow river. There was no hitch in his qi like before, no sudden enlightenment or change now that he was on the water proper. He almost thought he had hallucinated the feeling but too many things had lined up for him to doubt himself like that. A yellow river. Dragon veins. The connection with his cultivation method was there. It had been a long time since he had thought about the Yellow River Refinement, it was just a Profound-rank technique his predecessor had practiced. Picked because it was the best he could use if he still wanted to quickly advance with his Low-Grade Spirit Root. What did the connection mean though? Was the reaction something inherent to the original technique or was it new to his improved one?

It begged the question of just how his Gifting power created new techniques. Yellow River Refinement improved a hundred times became the Yellow Dragon River Refinement. How was a new name made? On what basis? The river he was on was called a Dragon’s Vein. Did the power take the name from that or did it give him an already existing technique? At the very least Song Yuelin had never heard of his improved techniques when he had shown them to him but that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t.

Chen Haoran sighed. Whatever the means he wouldn’t find the answer by staring into the water. He sat down cross-legged and cycled his qi.

Over the next several days Chen Haoran would come to the deck and cultivate. Sometimes he would bring Phelps who would sit in his lap and enjoy the air and fresh scents of the river. Xie Jin would occasionally come out of the cabin and lounge around as well. He was the only Southerner on the ship and but that didn’t stop him from inserting himself into the crew’s circle, joining them for drinking and gambling with dice. Sometimes he sat by Chen Haoran while he meditated, silent and gazing at the sky or throwing a fishing line over the side.

“I’m amazed you can cultivate here at all,” he said. His eyes were glued on the water surface where his lure bobbed.

“Can’t really call it cultivating,” Chen Haoran replied. The ambient was too thin for him to have any real gains. It wasn’t because he was spoiled by the Spa Cavern either. Even Clearsprings City had higher qi levels.

“I mean around so many other people. Once we’re in the Central Regions proper you’ll notice the qi level rise.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re being bothered so why let others get in the way?” Whether it was because of their strength or Xie Jin’s origins the other passengers had kept their distance.

“I guess someone like you can be fearless,” Xie Jin said.

Before Chen Haoran could ask him what he meant there was a call from the top of the ship. “Machu ahead!”

The crew burst into activity, quickly securing any loose item and dragging out bottles of wine and rice. The captain brought a pig out onto the deck and slaughtered it with a clean swipe of his knife.

“What are they doing?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Sacrifices to the river,” a nearby merchant answered. “The Ministry of Rites does its best to appease it but it’s good luck for a ship to offer its own.”

The merchant then went on to follow the other passengers to crowd near the prow of the ship. He and Xie Jin joined them and they all watched as the boat approach a larger river.

A much, much larger river.

Chen Haoran stared in stupefied shock as the captain guided the ship onto the Machu river. He cycled qi to his eyes and stretched his senses to their limit in search of the opposite shore of the river but all that was visible was golden water stretching on endlessly.   The muddy yellow water of the tributary disappeared into the Machu, which flowed with yellow water as clear as his own qi. Right as they crossed onto the river proper the crew opened up the wine and rice sacks and tossed it and the dead pig into the water.

Chen Haoran felt a familiar dragon roar rise from within him.

His qi flared out and the crowd around him stepped back in shock. He could hear Xie Jin whisper a concerned question. He ignored all of that though and sat down to focus on his qi. Almost without prompting his yellow qi began to flow through his meridians like the Machu in miniature. The yellow dragon did not dance while racing around his body like usual. Instead, it hung in his head and twisted and coiled while roaring in triumph as if it were returning home. Chen Haoran could practically feel the roars echo out from him and into the river below. It felt so close it felt like he could reach his hand out to grab it.

“Brother Chen!” Xie Jin roared.

He opened his eyes.

A tendril of gold water hovered in front of the boat. Xie Jin stood in front of him facing the tendril, the Gu beetle hovering above his shoulder and glowing a poisonous purple.

Chen Haoran felt the dragon roar.

He waved.

The tendril waved back.

Chapter 71

Chen Haoran looked at Xie Jin. “Am I not a Ninth-Layer or something?”

“No you’re definitely a Ninth-Layer,” Xie Jin said.

“Then what’s this guy’s deal?”

“Clearly he thinks he can take you.”

“Do I really look that weak?”

“Like a stiff wind would blow you over,” Xie Jin replied. “You have to be more intimidating like me. They would have never come over here then.”

“Isn’t that just a roundabout way to say your low cultivation makes you a non-threat?”

“You fuc-”

“Do you bastards think I’m a patient man?” the lead thug interrupted.

“Clearly we’re not taking you seriously,” Chen Haoran said. “Take a hint and back off. You’re not that guy.”

To his credit the thug really seemed to consider it. His eyes flickered from Chen Haoran to Xie Jin as he measured them before settling on the bag full of gold taels Xie Jin had placed under the table. Chen Haoran sighed. He could see the dollar signs in the thug’s eyes the exact second he made his decision.

“Let’s be honest, we’re all gentlemen here so let’s compromise. Share some of what you got and we don’t have to cause a scene here. I’m sure you’d prefer it that way. No need to let everyone know about ill-gotten gains am I right?”

“Ill-gotten gains?” Chen Haoran asked, bewildered. Did he think they stole the gold? Xie Jin scoffed with disdain, an ugly look settling across his features.

The thug smiled in a relaxed way that invited one to punch his face in. His wavering confidence had returned after he seemingly had Chen Haoran and Xie Jin pegged. He leaned in to whisper. “I’m sure whatever unfortunate soul you got that money from is now six feet under and poor so let’s deal. You take enough for you to live on and we take enough for us.”

For a moment neither said anything. There was a brief lull in the noisy bar. Chen Haoran could feel peoples attention on them. Phelps licked the last of the moss from his plate. This wasn’t going to be resolved peacefully.

Xie Jin slapped the table and leaned back. “The things you say make me look like a scary guy.” He shook his head in disappointment, as if he were some elder facing unruly children. “And yet you came over here despite that. Why don’t you get out of my sight before this barbarian breaks your legs?”

The men scowled and reached for knives and clubs. The leaders qi flared as he narrowed his eyes. “You’re making a mistake skeleton.”

Chen Haoran stood from his seat before Xie Jin did anything else. He debated flaring his own qi. Even if he was a greedy idiot the thug should realize he was outclassed if he did that. He held himself back though. He wouldn’t be satisfied with just scaring them off. Not after he realized why these men considered them targets.

“We’d break too many things if we started fighting here,” he said to Xie Jin. “We still need a place to sleep after all.” He turned to the lead thug and motioned him over with a finger. “Let’s settle this quickly. I’ll even let you take the first shot.” He folded his hands behind his arms.

The man visibly hesitated but under the gaze of his fellows he stood up and faced Chen Haoran. Another glance at the money bag replaced his hesitation with a vicious determination. “So you’ll give us the money if I take you down you say?”

Xie Jin snorted. “Even if you knock his arrogant ass out you’ll be prying these taels out of my cold, dead hands.”

The man frowned and a quick look to his group had them surround Xie Jin. The bar was silent. The patrons barely lifting their voices above a whisper as they noticed a fight was about to break out.

Chen Haoran cycled his qi and raised an eyebrow. “Well?”

The lead thug flushed red and gritted his teeth. He went to scratch his head but before he did his hand was suddenly surrounded in swirling air and shot out like a bullet. What Chen Haoran was doing right now was the height of foolishness. While this man was clearly uninformed he had to have some confidence in himself to challenge a Ninth-Layer. He could now feel it as the man’s fist slammed into his jaw. A technique to quickly land a powerful but accurate strike before one could react, backed by a Profound-quality cultivation. He was about the same level as some of the stronger Lan family cultivators he’d fought. He was probably a strong cultivator in this area.

The thug’s fist stopped. Chen Haoran was unmoved and looked the man in the eye.

Xie Jin said he was being arrogant. He really was. Had he tried to pull something like this in front of Lan Fen or Lan Yao they would have killed him six times over. This thug wasn’t like those geniuses. Chen Haoran knew nothing about him and yet and he could see how he lacked compared to them all the same.

The thug widened his eyes in surprise and immediately launched another wind-coated   fist into Chen Haoran’s face. Then another. Then to his chest. Then a kick. The thug threw out a flurry of attacks all while Chen Haoran stood still and continued to stare him down. The thug stepped back after his wild flailing and found Chen Haoran to be unmoved and unharmed. His hand reached down to the knife handle at his waist.

A slow, mocking smirk, wormed its way across Chen Haoran’s face.

The thug let go of the knife and dropped to his knees, lifting his arms in surrender.

Xie Jin whistled. The other men watched with pale-faced shock.

“Well,” Chen Haoran said to them. “Line up.”

—————

Chen Haoran and Xie Jin toasted saucers of warm rice wine in a subdued bar. Between them were a plate of cooled pork cutlets. Phelps had his blindfold removed and looked around the bar with curious eyes. To their side were six kneeling men with red, swollen faces, who had their arms raised in the air.

“To my mighty Brother Chen!” Xie Jin cheered. “Now that I’ve seen it again you really are impressive.” He let out a bellyful laugh. “If you did that in my homeland you’d be swarming with women right now.”

“I’m glad you were able to vent your frustration,” Chen Haoran said.

Xie Jin flexed his hand and looked toward the erstwhile muggers. He swung forward as if to slap them again and all six flinched. “Yeah. I’m very relived. How did you scum know about the money though?”

“Probably when you talked about it at the docks,” Chen Haoran said.

“I know there was no one around us when I did that.” Xie Jin frowned and looked at the silent thugs. When no one spoke up he raised his fist and they all flinched.

The leader painfully confessed through swollen lips. “I have a technique that lets me hear a bit further out.”

Xie Jin rolled his eyes. “Of course.” He waved his hand. “You can leave now you big-eared fuck. I don’t want to see any of you for the rest of the time I’m here.”

The thugs all stood. Bowed. Then immediately turned tailed and scrambled out the bar.

“Is something like that common?” Chen Haoran asked.

Xie Jin laughed and refilled their saucers. “Men will die for money just as birds will die for food. You’ll find greedy fools like them everywhere.”

“That’s not what I was asking.”

Xie Jin grimaced and downed his wine without waiting. He watched on while Chen Haoran refilled his saucer and quirked his lips when Chen had to pull the bottle out of Phelps’s reach. When he finished off his wine again however it was his turn to have the bottle pulled away. He frowned at Chen Haoran who blandly returned his look and shook the bottle in front of him.

Xie Jin sighed. “You don’t need to defend me. I’m more than capable of protecting myself. It’ll only be more common in the Central region anyway. We can’t afford to make a big deal out of every problem.”

“If I don’t say anything then people will go on thinking those are acceptable things to say,” Chen Haoran countered.

Xie Jin huffed a laugh and smiled. Compared to his usual bravado it was a sincere emotion. “Thank you, Brother Chen.”

“You bought me food and drink.” Chen Haoran lifted his saucer in a toast. “He who feeds me is a brother for life no?”

“Something like that is done with better alcohol.” Xie Jin raised his own and they clinked the rims together. “I’ll show you what a real man drinks in Zumulu.”

“I don’t actually like drinking that much,” Chen Haoran admitted.

“What?!”

“I prefer doing it with friends, however.”

“I was about to say.” Xie Jin rested a hand on his heart as if he’d been stabbed. “What kind of cultivator doesn’t drink?”

There was a clatter at the edge of the table. Chen Haoran and Xie Jin whipped their heads around only to find Phelps cradling the open wine bottle between his claws and lapping up the spilling alcohol.”

“Phelps no!”

Chapter 70

From then on Chen Haoran took off Phelps’s blindfold every night after the sun fell and made sure he was awake to watch the first light of the sunset before putting the blindfold back on. He would gradually let the sloth watch the mornings until he was sure his eyes were adjusted. Until then Phelps contented himself watching the shifting phases of the moon. It was to the extent that he wondered if Phelps would have been a wolf had he not been a sloth.

On the eve of the full moon, they finally broke out of the forests and found the road leading to Clearsprings City. Although it was popular for its hot springs the city was otherwise alone amongst the mountains. Here they finally met other travelers, merchants, tourists, and caravans. For those coming from the city all they spoke of was the Lan family. It seemed that rather than offer any explanation to his erstwhile allies Patriarch Lan slipped out of the city instead. After not appearing in the following weeks the City Lord seemed to realize something and came down on the remaining Lan family with thunderous force following some kind of trumped-up charge. Without Patriarch Lan being in contact and looking more like he had run off every day the Lan family’s erstwhile allies didn’t intervene at all and indeed joined in on scavenging what remained of the Lan family’s business.

“Crazy how quickly things changed isn’t it?” Xie Jin had said after hearing the story from someone who claimed to deliver spirit herbs to the Lan family. “You’d think they’d have more caution.”

“How so? The Lan family was defenseless. I was lead to believe this is pretty in character for them.”

“Who can guarantee the Patriarch won’t return and exact revenge? These people really must be fearless to go and destroy his family.”

Chen Haoran could only awkwardly smile. “I don’t think they’re too worried about him.”

Lan Fen had probably dropped the City Lord a hint before she left and he probably informed the other families of the Patriarch’s likely fate.

“Is something like that a common concern?” Chen Haoran asked Xie Jin later that night around their fire. Phelps, following some ancestral instinct perhaps, had hung himself on the branch of a nearby tree and gazed at the full moon in a trance.

Xie Jin shrugged. “It depends? There are plenty of stories of some minor relative growing into a powerful cultivator and avenging their families but that’s really all they are. Stories. If people were really scared of some unknown weakling becoming strong and coming for revenge then it wouldn’t be long before everyone killed each other.”

“Isn’t that possible though? Say someone finds a treasure trove or the inheritance of a powerful cultivator?”

“That’s just luck at that point,” Xie Jin said. He poked a stick around the smoldering coals of the flame. “The strong are only concerned with the strong. A Liquid Meridian elder like the Lan Patriarch is far more deserving of caution than Qi realms like us.”

Chen Haoran flexed his fingers on the hand he used to spear a Liquid Meridian to death. Would he not be one of the only Qi realms to kill a Liquid Meridian? It was a pointless thought. Xie Jin’s point still stood and Chen Haoran could justify it with every futile effort he put up against Liquid Meridians prior.

“I really have to advance,” he said, sighing.

Xie Jin snorted. “You and every other cultivator.”

——————

Outside of the Clearsprings province they traveled across blessedly flatter ground and started coming across villages along the road. Xie Jin proved to be a worldly traveler and they could at least get a roof over their heads every night till they reached a large town. It was a much humbler affair than Clearsprings City. Smaller buildings, smaller walls, more dirt roads. The place was more pitstop than anything else accentuated by the fact that it seemed like almost every other building was an inn or bar of some sort. The one notable feature was the coursing yellow river the town bordered. Riverboats arrived and departed from the wooden quays built into the water while fishermen pulled in the last of the day’s catch in their nets.

Chen Haoran felt a hitch in his qi when they approached the river looking for a boat. While Xie Jin was haggling for a ride with a tanned captain dressed in simple leathers; he stood at the end of a pier and stared into the muddy water. Phelps looked sniffed the air curiously from his shoulders and squealed at the new scents.

Chen Haoran stretched out his sense, the river wasn’t any more spiritual than the air around him. Nothing about it particularly riveted his attention or unconsciously drew his eye. It was just a river, the whole of it couldn’t compare to even a single pool in the Spa Cavern.

Even so, his qi had a reaction here it did not there.

He cycled his qi but both it and the river flowed as normal. Just as he was about to sit down and meditate a hand slapped his back.

“Water roots will really swim anywhere huh?” Xie Jin asked.

Chen Haoran was grateful for the interruption. This was no place to cultivate. “What is this river called?”

Xie Jin rubbed his chin in thought. “Does it have a name?”

“It’s a tributary young lord,” said the captain Xie Jin had spoken with. He stepped away from directing the crew of a nearby boat and approached them. “Folks around here call it the Goldwater, it feeds directly into the Machu river. Us river men call them the Dragon’s Veins though.”

“Dragon Veins?”

“You’ll see it properly once we ship out,” Xie Jin said after the captain returned to work. “The Machu river is the biggest in the Empire. We’ll stay the night here and set off tomorrow morning.”

Ah right. The boat.

“Is there a place to sell jewelry here?” Chen Haoran asked. “I don’t have any money on me right now.”

Xie Jin scoffed and waved him off. “Brother Chen don’t think me a poor man, I had my own fortuitous encounter.” He pulled off the thick satchel on his back and opened it to reveal that it was filled with gold taels. “When I was searching for you I found this mountain of gold just lying in the mountains. We won’t have to worry about money with me here.”

Chen Haoran slowly shifted his gaze from the taels to Xie Jin’s proud face. Briefly, he considered telling him the truth but decided against it. No need to spoil his good mood. Instead, he cupped his hands. “I’ll be in your care then Brother Jin.”

“That’s the spirit!” Xie Jin cheered. “Let’s go drink!”

——————

They didn’t go far. Xie Jin, out of consideration for him, was initially going to go to the nicest inn in town. Chen Haoran hadn’t wanted to go far from the river however and so Xie Jin settled on the place that had the best drinks in town instead. They toasted saucers of warm milky rice wine surrounded by rowdy sailors and fishermen. A plate stacked with steaming pork cutlets sat between them. Phelps had his own chair and chowed on a plate of greens and glowing blue moss. Chen Haoran traced the wine’s warmth with his qi as he drank and felt the heat spread through his core. It was a relaxing drink after a long day’s travel.

“It won’t be long now,” Xie Jin said. “We’ll be traveling by boat through the Central region till we reach Whiteridge City from there it’s a straight shot down the official road into the south.”

“Looking forward to it,” Chen Haoran said. He cupped his saucer between both hands and traced the rim with his finger.

“Did you sense something when we were at the river?” Xie Jin asked.

Startled, Chen Haoran nearly dropped his saucer. Had he been that obvious? Xie Jin looked at him with concern and he forced a smile to his face.“I’m fine. Just thinking.” He grabbed the bottle and poured more wine for them both.  “Is there something special about the Machu river?”

“So I was told,” Xie Jin said, bringing the saucer to his lips. “I heard it was unlike any river in Zumulu and not just for its scale although I don’t know much more than that. I thought that you might have felt something because of your affinity.”

Chen Haoran swirled the wine around before raising the saucer and downing it in one go. “Do you know how cultivation techniques are made?”

“Are you trying to be a sage or something?” Xie Jin joked and reached for the bottle. “They’re made the same way anything is. Based on something greater than ourselves.” He was just about to refill Chen Haoran’s saucer when he suddenly stopped.

Chen Haoran sighed and looked down at his plate. Things seemed to always go wrong when he ordered pork.

Six men rose from where they had been watching the two drink and surrounded their table. The lowest among them was a Sixth-Layer. The strongest, an Eighth, pulled out a chair and rudely sat himself down. He leaned back and leered at Xie Jin. “Lo traveler. Could you kindly spare some poor brothers a few taels?”

Chapter Delay Till Saturday

Apologies but due to a scheduling error I made the next chapter will have to be posted tommorow. I apologize for the delays this week.

Thank you for your understanding.

Chapter 69: This Young Master Is Nice

“South?” Chen Haoran looked at Xie Jin in surprise.

“I’m going back home anyway,” Xie Jin said. “Why not come with me? There hasn’t been a royal in the jungles since the Sunset Emperor.”

Chen Haoran could come up with several reasons why he wouldn’t want to go with himself anywhere. For all that Xie Jin seemed like a straightforward personality, there was no way he didn’t recognize that.

“I don’t know…” Xie Jin might have done him a favor by searching for him but the fact of the matter was he still didn’t know him all that well. “Why invite me?”

“I’m returning home with nothing right now. No success in the exam and no position in the Palace school.” Xie Jin had a longing look on his face. “At the very least I could return with a friend. My trip here wouldn’t be completely worthless. Attitudes aren’t very kind toward the Empire down south anyway, and there are plenty of wood and water treasures and-” Xie Jin’s words spilled out in a rush and Chen Haoran couldn’t tell if the boy was trying to convince him or himself.

He held up a hand and interrupted the word vomit. Xie Jin shut his mouth and looked at him with hopeful eyes. He hesitated. It wasn’t like he had any better options, and it would be nice to have company.

“If you’ll have me,” he slowly said.

“It’ll be an adventure,” Xie Jin promised.

————

They didn’t waste any more time after Chen Haoran agreed. With Xie Jin leading the way they quickly made their way out of the valley and in the direction of the single road that connected Clearsprings City to the rest of the Empire. Xie Jin regaled Chen Haoran with all that had occurred in the city after he left and spent plenty of time complaining about Two-Shadow and the fruitless searching he’d done while looking for Chen Haoran.

When night fell they laid out their bedrolls and made camp in the open air. Phelps crept down from Chen Haoran’s back and poked his snout around the leaf litter scattered around the forest floor. Xie Jin waved his sleeve and his Gu beetle swept out from the much too small space. It hovered in complete silence, a stark contrast from its loud wingbeats before, before flying out into the waning light at some silent command.

“For the night watch,” Xie Jin said after seeing his look. “Its senses are much better than hours so we won’t have to worry.”

“The more I hear about your beetle the more convenient it seems.” It almost made him want one of his own. He brought a hand down and patted Phelps’s head. His pet was still more useful though.

“What even is that anyway?” Xie Jin asked.

“This is Phelps.”

“What’s a Phelps? I’ve never heard of a beast that goes by that name.”

“No.” Chen Haoran laughed. “Phelps is his name. He’s a sloth, have you really not seen one before?”

“I’ve seen monkeys,” Xie Jin mused. “There’s nothing in the jungles that look like that though.”

“I can say the same. I’ve no idea what a Gu is, what’s its name?”

Xie Jin did a double take. “Name?”

“Does it not have one?”

“Gu aren’t really-” he paused and considered his words. “They’re not something we just name.”

“Are they special or something? Two-Shadow said something about shamans.” Chen Haoran squinted and looked Xie Jin over with doubt.

“What’s that look supposed to be?”

“No it’s just-” He waved his hand at Xie Jin. “When I hear the word shaman I picture someone a bit more serious looking than you?”

“Are you saying I’m frivolous?”

“Not frivolous, just not serious.”

“Bastard. I should leave you in this forest.” Xie Jin flicked two fingers as if they were claws in Chen Haoran’s direction. Whatever the hand gesture meant he was sure it was one of respect and acknowledgment.

He laughed while Xie Jin grumbled. The boy stared into the direction his Gu left in and absentmindedly touch his bone arm ring. “Gu are special.” Xie Jin said. “They have a long history in the traditions and folklore of my people. Naming them isn’t something lightly done.”

“Are they dangerous or something?”

Xie Jin smiled. “You really don’t know anything about the South huh?”

“I know those bone ornaments you wear are some kind of rite of passage but that’s about it.”

“You interested in them.” Xie Jin flexed his arms and preened. After Chen Haoran had been disgusted enough he turned to show off the two black bone rings wrapped around his arms. Carved all around into the bone were some scripts of unknown meaning. “The south is filled with boneyards. Great skeletons of long-dead beasts scattered across the jungle, some big enough that you could walk for days from the head and still not see the tail.” Xie Jin’s voice was warm with remembrance as he spoke. “For the youth of Zumulu, these bones represent their first glory. Receiving your bones is to be recognized by your elders as a worthy addition to the clan.”

“Are those markings decorative or do they mean something?” Chen Haoran asked.

“A motto,” Xie Jin said. There was some mysterious emotion in his voice. “An expectation.”

“They’re pretty cool.”

Xie Jin blinked at him, then smiled. “They’re super cool.” He started wildly waving his hands around. “That’s not the only cool thing about my homeland though, the jungle and waters are absolutely teeming with life! There have been so many powerful water cultivators who were raised by the rivers and lakes. Resources and rivals abound and-”

Chen Haoran listened while Xie Jin excitedly extolled the virtues of his home. Phelps had settled himself into his lap and rested his head along his leg. He brought out a piece of glowing moss and fed it to him. The sun dipped below the horizon but there was no moon to light up the night after it. Without his qi-enhanced vision he wouldn’t be able to make out Xie Jin’s form at all.

“Ah damn,” Xie Jin said when he realized he couldn’t see. “Sorry, Brother Chen I got too absorbed. I’ll start the fire now.”

“Hold that thought,” Chen Haoran said. He looked up into the starry night sky. A practical ocean of stars twinkled down at him. Clearsprings City couldn’t be compared to the light pollution of a modern Earth city but it was still no place for observing stars. Here in the depths of the mountains however he was blessed with a sight he could never see back on Earth.

There were more than just stars in the sky, however.

“Do you know anything about the higher realms of cultivation, Brother Jin?”

“You mean the Star Core realm?”

The White Tyrant wasn’t just Star Core that much he knew in his soul. He had said he was at the second highest realm of cultivation. Just how far above him was that? How many others out there in this new universe were at his level? The White Tyrant had hinted at it. Somewhere far above him there was life, cultivating life, at a far higher level than this world. His fingers twitched towards his scimitar. He fought the urge to pull it out and snorted. Just the planet was already more than enough for him. He’d leave dreaming about space to Lan Fen.

“Every cultivator wants to reach the Star Core realm,” Xie Jin said. Blithely unaware of his thoughts. “With that level of power, even the Empire has to show you respect. You live for hundreds of years. Heaven and Earth open up to you and you can travel wherever you want. They boil seas and rupture land just as an aftershock of their power.”

Chen Haoran could hear the yearning in Xie Jin’s voice. He had to admit he was a bit enthralled himself. The picture he was painting was an envious one. What would he be like if he ascended to that level? The longevity alone was tempting enough. He half wanted to stop what he was doing and start cultivating right now.

“Are there Star Cores in the south?” He asked.

“There were,” Xie Jin said, frustrated. “We might still have some. I don’t know though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Zumulu-no.” He shook his head. “The world isn’t so bright anymore.” He cast a longing look to the sky above. “And no matter how strong the Star Core they never stay.”

It didn’t sound like he was just talking about death.

“Where do they go?”

Xie Jin pointed to the sky. “Up.”

Phelps squealed.

Chen Haoran flinched. “Sorry, bud. I haven’t forgotten about you.” That was a lie. He almost did forget. He pinched that know of Phelps’s blindfold and loosened it. The strip of silk fell and Phelps slowly opened his eyes. He blinked them rapidly but that didn’t stop him from swinging his head back and forth. Finally, he cast wide eyes to the stars. Phelps squealed, he hooted and bounced and rolled.

“Excitable fellow huh?” Xie Jin’s laugh became strangled and he watched with shocked eyes when Phelps started floating in the air. “He can fly?”

Phelps rose higher and cleared the treeline. His gaze was riveted on the stars and a nervous part of Chen Haoran thought that Phelps would keep rising till he could grab them. He smothered that worry and watched when Phelps finally stopped and floated in the air. The sloth seemed uncertain and rather than keep going floated back down to the earth and settled on Chen Haoran’s shoulders where he loudly squealed in his ears.

“Welcome to the world Phelps.”