Plutusauthor

Chapter Update

Feeling a bit under the weather today. I'll try to get the chapter posted tonight but if not Chapter 69 will be posted tomorrow instead. 

Chapter 68

“Brother Chen!” Xie Jin emerged from the woods followed by a girl with steel-blue hair. The beetles that had been hovering in front of Chen Haoran flew over and landed on Xie Jin’s shoulder.

“What are you doing here?” Chen Haoran asked, bewildered. What were the odds that he’d meet Xie Jin of all people in this patch of the mountains?

“Looking for you,” Xie Jin said. “Why else would I trudge my way through these damn mountains.”

“Looking for me?” How? Why? He had so many questions.

The girl took this moment to step forward and curtsy. “Hello, Master Chen.”

He frowned. She looked familiar. Blue hair wasn’t common color either. “You’re Lan Fen’s maid?” It took him a moment to recall but he had seen her before once when he and Song Yuelin trained in front of Lan Fen. The day before that disastrous night raid. He had never spoken to her or seen her since though. The girl was as much a ghost as Song Yuelin was. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you’re name.”

“That’s good,” the girl said cheerily.

Chen Haoran lifted an eyebrow. Was he just insulted?

“Don’t mess around Two-Shadow,” Xie Jin snapped. He looked at Chen Haoran aggrieved. “Your wife sent us to track you down after you got lost.” He heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m glad I finally caught your scent today. This girl was driving me crazy.”

“You’ve been looking for me all this time?” It had to have been weeks at least. Xie Jin was only here to take part in the Palace Exams, he had no reason to stay that long once they were canceled.

“A man who feeds me is a brother for life,” Xie Jin said with a serious look.

“He was too poor to go back home,” Two-Shadow said. “My Lady decided to make him do something useful.”

“Hey!” Xie Jin pointed a finger at the maid. “I did this to help Brother Chen, not you and not her either.”

“How did you even find me?” Chen Haoran interrupted. He cast a curious glance at the giant beetle. It sat motionlessly on Xie Jin’s shoulders like a statue.

“Oh well-” Xie Jin’s eyes flickered from the beetle to Chen Haoran. He weakly shrugged. “You know what they say about Southern barbarians.”

“No,” Chen Haoran said. “I don’t.”

“Oh.” Xie Jin looked flustered and the boisterous cultivator for once seemed speechless.

“It’s his Southern magic,” Two-Shadow said. “Their shamans use it to track down their mortal foes.”

Chen Haoran blinked.

Xie Jin scowled. “It’s called a Gu and we use them for more than that.” He reached up and the beetle disappeared into the folds of his sleeve. Whatever trick he used it was impossible to see he had hidden a fist-sized bug in there. Had he been carrying it this whole time?

“Poisoning, cursing, sabotage, revenge.” Two-Shadow counted with her fingers as if she were seriously answering Xie Jin.

“Can you go now?” Xie Jin growled.

“My master ordered me to accompany Master Chen after finding him. He’s been sheltered for many years and ignorant of basics. Lady Fen was worried he’d be taken advantage of.”

“You think I’d take advantage of him?” Xie Jin sounded outraged.

Two-Shadow tilted her head. “Haven’t you?”

While they began to bicker Chen Haoran put together the picture of events. It seemed Lan Fen had predicted he wouldn’t be returning to Clearsprings after separating from Song Yuelin and sent these two to help him leave the province. Of course, she didn’t predict he’d been swept into the Spa Caverns, it seemed however Xie Jin tracked him the secret realm blocked it. Two-Shadow while weird was clearly trusted by Lan Fen to send her as his guide. With them here his immediate problems were solved-

“You think I won’t choke a woman?” Xie Jin shouted.

Two-Shadow looked at him like he was particularly dim. “I know you will. I watched you do it.”

At least they would be when he got them to stop arguing.

He loudly clapped his hands and got their attention. Xie Jin thankfully dropped the argument but for some reason didn’t look him in the eyes. Two-Shadow just looked at him curiously. “Whatever the reason I’m glad you guys are here. I have no idea where I’m going. I’ll be relying on you in the future.”

“I’m not going with you though?” Two-Shadow sounded genuinely confused.

That brought Chen Haoran up short.

“Didn’t Lan Fen want you to help me?” He didn’t think Lan Fen would tell her maid his secret but she had to know he needed someone knowledgeable by his side.

Two-Shadow nodded. “She did. I don’t want to though.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to look for Lady Fen. A servant must not stray far from her master.”

Well… he’d give her points for loyalty. “Do you even know where she is?”

Two-Shadow brightly smiled. “I’ll just wander the mountains until I find her.”

What was it with ostensible servants being the biggest weirdos? He was two for two now. Were Song Yuelin and Two-Shadow part of some kind of theme? Was there behavior just a piece of local culture he was unaware of?

“If you’re going to leave then hurry up and go,” Xie Jin snapped.

“Excuse me then.” Two-Shadow curtsied to him then to Xie Jin. “I enjoyed traveling with you.”

“I didn’t.” Despite that Xie Jin still cupped his hands and offered a bow in return.

Chen Haoran waved Two-Shadow over before she could go and leaned in to whisper in her ear. As he did so Phelps leaned over his shoulder and sniffed her hair. “Follow my path and you’ll find a pond. Follow the water and that’s where you can find Lan Fen.” He didn’t know the full extent of her relationship with Lan Fen but if she was serious about looking through the whole mountain for her then she would find her eventually with this hint.

Two-Shadow nodded, a serious expression firmly set on her face. “You shouldn’t whisper in girls ears like this Master Chen. You look okay enough that someone might misunderstand.”

Chen Haoran stared at Two-Shadow, flummoxed. Until she curtsied again and turned to leave. Phelps squealed at her and she stopped, turned around, and curtsied toward him as well before walking off into the forest.

“Okay enough?”

Xie Jin choked. He sputtered into full laughter when Chen Haoran leveled a glare his way. “Don’t mind her Brother Chen.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “She’s a strange one.”

“Yuck it up you bastard,” Chen Haoran said. “Are you gonna leave too or what? Give a guy some directions before you do.”

“That depends on where you want to go. I assume you don’t want to return to Clearsprings City?”

“A city far from here with the resources for me to breakthrough to Liquid Meridian.”

“In that case you can go to almost any city in the Central region.”

That said a lot about how wealthy the core of the Empire was. “What about the capital?” He recalled the name from the books in his manor. Last Light.

Xie Jin snorted in derision. “There are more snakes there than a king’s courthouse. You’ll find every treasure and pleasure in the world there but honor is in short supply.” He hesitated. “I don’t think going there would be safe for you.”

Right. Xie Jin was there when Song Yuelin got scared off by the prince. “I wasn’t planning on going there. I was just curious.”

“Does… your family have enmity with the Imperial clan?” he asked.

Chen Haoran sighed. “Your guess is as good as mine. Does the Chen family mean anything to you?”

“Should it? There’s a lot of Chens.”

Well at least his name wouldn’t cause him any issues if that were the case. It was probably best to avoid the Central region though. Song Yuelin assumed that Shen Jianyu didn’t come to Clearsprings City for them but who really knew. In any case he was better off avoiding even peripheral contact with people related to the Imperial family.

“Thanks for coming to find me,” he said. “I won’t ask you to guide me but if you could point me to the next city I would really appreciate it.” He paused. Xie Jin had spent weeks looking for him. He cupped his hands and bowed. “Brother Jin.”

“No no no.” Xie Jin rushed to stop him. “Brother Chen you’re my benefactor. I can’t think of anyone who’d so freely feed a Southerner like you did for me.” He clasped Chen Haoran’s arms. Phelps squealed at the sudden motion and his claws dug into his sides. “Where will you go though?”

“Somewhere far from the Imperial family at least. As long as I can cultivate there it doesn’t matter where I am.” The first thing he’d have to do was find a map. He couldn’t be so blind in the future.

Xie Jin bit his lip and looked down at his bone arm rings. He must’ve seen something in them because the uncertainty in his eyes disappeared.

“Do you want to come south with me?”

Sign-In: Emperor Chapter 1 (rough draft)

As many of you have probably seen and voted on I have a poll up to gauge interest in various story ideas I have. Of those I had some inspiration recently for Sign-In: Emperor and wrote out something quick. 

Please let me know what you think!

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He woke up in a cloud. Sweaty hands gripped silk covers and he felt like he was drowning in the soft padding of the mattress. An unfamiliar ceiling of mahogany carved with peonies and lotus flowers loomed down at him. He slowly sat up and found himself in an opulent bedroom. Plush carpets embroidered with golden floral designs stretched across the floor. Various jade ornaments were placed on solid tripods along with vases and other decorative items crafted out of precious materials.

This was not his bedroom. This was his bedroom. He did not know where he was. He had lived here his whole life.

He hissed and grabbed his head. This was not his world, he was from Earth, and yet he had the memories of another life living here. He had a name, but he couldn’t remember it. His past memories were clear in every regard except what he had been called. Instead, a new name rang in his head, one that he shared with others who could only be looked up at. A name whispered by prostrate citizens and respected by officials.

Sima Ang was his name. Seventh Prince of the Yin Kingdom. His father was king.

“Fuck.” His heart beat heavily in his chest and he staggered out of bed, grabbing a polished bronze hand mirror off the end table beside it. A youth stared back at him. Black hair and peach eyes. Eighteen years old his memories said, the birthday banquet to celebrate his coming of age had been a month ago.

Was this a dream? No, he had never had dreams this detailed. He pinched himself to be sure and hissed at the pain. “Crossed into another world to be royalty,” he whispered. “I’m so fucked.” He was realistic enough to know that his modern knowledge would mean jack shit to ancient power struggles.

Ancient?

He sat back down on the bed and closed his eyes. Social parties, banquets, and hunting trips flashed in his mind. He didn’t see anything like phones or modern technology. What he did see wasn’t much better though. Men and women erupting with terrifying force, lifting blocks of stone larger than their bodies in the air to cheering applause, a duel between two armored soldiers leaping through the air and swinging their blades faster than the eye could see. One sword crackled with lighting, the other fire. There was one jealous word that rang through his head.

Martial Arts.

Sima Ang looked at his skinny arms. He was doubly fucked. Whatever those mystical powers were this boy prince did not practice them. How could he? He wasn’t in the Yin Kingdom after all. When Sima Ang was seven he was sent to the Southern Xia Empire, this room he was in was within its palace, and had stayed here for eleven years. The Empire wasn’t interested in assisting the practice of a foreign prince and Sima Ang had received no assistance from home either. Under such conditions, the prince wasn’t talented enough to make any progress on his own.

“What a wonderful situation to be in.” Sima Ang helplessly looked up at the ceiling. What he had gathered so far from his memories did not paint a nice picture of his situation. He couldn’t completely rely on them and their bias, he would have to see for himself to make a final call but from the looks of it he was a hostage who no one particularly cared about. “Should I be anxious or relieved?”

He fell back onto the bed. His best bet would be to lay low and avoid rocking the boat. Not that he had much choice in that regard. He sighed. “It would be nice to have some power.” Comfortable as it might be he was still in a helpless position.

That was when a bright blue screen popped into existence.

He cursed and jumped from the bed. The screen floated in midair, translucent enough that he could see straight through it. Bright white words were written down the front of it.

Sign-In to World?

He calmed his breathing. This was new to this world, nothing in either set of his memories ever had something like this appear. Did it have something to do with his appearance in this world? He tried to touch the screen only for his hand to pass through it. He waved his arm around but the screen

What did it mean by sign-in? Was he logging into this world? Was this whole thing some giant video game he was stuck in? Did that mean there was a developer? There was no register button on the screen, how would he sign in? It wasn’t like he was given a password or anything.

Touching the words still didn’t change anything on the screen. Voice commands? He cleared his throat. “Yes.”

The words swirled into a white vortex and cycled while he waited. “They really gave me a loading screen?” Sima Ang couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief. “What kind of bullshit is this?”

He wasn’t forced to wait long however, the vortex shrunk and then exploded into fragments that assembled themselves into words once more.

First-Time Sign-In Bonus

Received: Mandate of Heaven

“Wha-” he felt something drop from the sky and fall straight through his head before settling in his chest. It burned with a golden light that filled his eyes and expanded till it filled his whole body and spill over. Indecipherable chanting chorused out from the golden light and he felt himself float into the air. He rose through the ceiling of his room and over the palace, around a building he instinctively knew was his throne room coiled an intangible dragon of mist that roared with his ascent.

He rose even higher until the palace was but a speck and the whole kingdom was within sight. From his view in the Heavens Sima Ang looked down and saw the Southern Xia Empire. A line of misty energy that resembled the dragon stretched out from him and went west. The land there was outlined in golden energy and the name of it came naturally to him.

Yin Kingdom.

More lines of misty energy emerged from the Yin Kingdom and connected to him. From far above another misty light fell from a distant star and did the same. The chanting stopped and only a single proclamation echoed.

Son of Heaven

Sima Ang woke back up in his bedroom gasping for air. He patted himself down and found all his limbs still attached. A quick look at the ceiling revealed it was unharmed. The Sign-In Screen was nowhere to be seen. It was like he had never left the room. He knew it wasn’t just a dream, he could feel the proof matching every beat of his heart and even know there was some higher sense in the back of his head that wasn’t there before.

He didn’t know what a Mandate of Heaven did or what being a Son of Heaven entailed but with grandiose titles like that they couldn’t be a bad thing. He tried to feel out the strange sense to no avail. He could clearly feel its presence but that was all. It was enough though, the fact it was there meant he hadn’t been hallucinating, he had really gotten something.

A smile bloomed on his face. It wouldn’t be the only thing he’d be getting either if his guess was correct. The Sign-In screen had called it a First Signing Bonus. Wouldn’t that mean there would be more in the future?

“Sign-In,” he said into the empty air. “Open screen, System, Status.” Sima Ang rattled off every command he could think of but there was no response. He would have to wait then and see if it came back.

He collapsed once again onto the bed and let out a long sigh. There was so much that happened in so short a time that his head was spinning. There was still his situation to consider as well. He wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he had the qualities to be a good leader. He would have gone into politics if he had that much foolish confidence in himself. He didn’t feel as afraid as he did before though. As sudden as his coming to this new world was it wasn’t all that bad. The sheer luck needed for him to be reincarnated in another world was already unimaginable. To be royalty on top of that? Could odds like those even be calculated? And a strange power on top of that.

He glanced at the bronze mirror still clutched tightly in his hand and looked at his reflection again. It was still the same face but there was something different about his features that he couldn’t quite put a finger to. Even if this wasn’t the face he was used to it didn’t look that bad. He touched smooth skin.

 “At least my acne is gone.”

Schedule Update

I refrained from talking about a new posting schedule on here because I wasn't entirely sure about it yet. Going forward expect a new chapter or access to a chapter every Monday-Wednesday-Friday for the Liquid and Crystal tiers. The Crystal tier will also be getting new chapters as soon as they're written outside of that schedule until I'm satisfied with how ahead they are of the RR release.

Cheers!

Start of Book 2: Chapter 67

Authors Note: I noted in an earlier chapter that Chen Haoran couldn't use the mourning pool and was still an Eighth-Layer. I decided I didn't like that and will be rewriting it. Chen Haoran will be Ninth-Layer from now on. 

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Chen Haoran left one world filled with water and entered another world filled with water. He opened his eyes and saw streaks of sunlight play across the water's surface. Phelps immediately released his grip and swam up. Chen Haoran closed his eyes and swam after him.

Man and sloth emerged and took in deep, greedy breaths. He could feel the warmth of the light on his face and slowly opened his eyes. They stung and colorful stars exploded across his vision. Cursing he cycled qi to his eyes, not to enhance but to soothe. After a few minutes, he could see properly again. Phelps was paddling around him too and fro and burbled. Chen Haoran grabbed the restless sloth and swam to the bank. After climbing out of the water he looked back. It was just an ordinary pond. No rushing water or anything that would imply it connected to a huge waterfall.

Phelps was constantly sniffing the air and ground. Chen Haoran refastened the blindfold tied around his eyes and dried it off with a quick flash of qi. “Don’t lose that for now bud.” Phelps had an advantage over other underground creatures in that the cavern wasn’t devoid of light. The glowing moss wasn’t the sun though, and Phelps's species had been down there for who knew how long. Better to take it safe and slowly let him adjust so as to not damage his eyes.

He picked Phelps up and placed him on his back. Phelps squealed and Chen Haoran felt his grip was tighter than usual. “It’s okay,” he cooed and rubbed Phelps's head.

The pond they had been deposited at was nestled in some forested valley in the Clearsprings Mountains. There was originally supposed to be a Lan family camp nearby as well but Chen Haoran couldn’t see any sign of it. Lan Fen had cleaned up well.

He looked back at the pond. Lan Fen would be fine in the secret realm even without her cultivation. The island was safely separated by the river and she had her Silver Ring space to fall back to should something dangerous arrive.

“It would be pretty funny if I said I was leaving and went back wouldn’t it?”

Phelps burrowed into his shoulder. He awkwardly laughed.

He couldn’t stay by Lan Fen forever. It wasn’t even about being his own person. Having someone else take care of your problems for you was the best. It was obvious from back in Clearsprings City though that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Lan Fen. Not in cultivation but in ambition. Chen Haoran wanted to be strong but Lan Fen wanted to be the strongest. He didn’t need to be a prophet to tell that her future path would be just as bloody as her revenge. He was almost swept away because of it once. He wasn’t going to do it again.

Chen Haoran sighed and walked off into the unfamiliar valley. He didn’t think their paths would cross again. Not if he had anything to say about it at least. He had the feeling she knew that too.

He turned his thoughts away from her and focused on the present.

“Where the hell do I go now?”

———-

He had packed a lot of things in his storage bag in case he had to bug out. Rations, water bottles, extra clothes, blankets, firestarters, he managed to fit quite of bit in there. It was too bad his experience came from packing for international travel and not for camping.

“I forgot the map.”

After fruitlessly searching through his storage bag for the third time Chen Haoran finally gave up hope that past him had been kind enough to pack it. It wasn’t all that bad though, Lan Fen had told him that Clearsprings City was East of the cavern entrance. So he at least had that as a frame of reference. Not that he was going to go anywhere near the city. While Lan Fen had said Song Yuelin and that prince Shen had left there was no reason to chance it, and who knew what the City Lord would do. There was no reason for him to go back now.

He looked to the sky. The sun rose in the East and set in the West so it would be easy to orient himself. He carefully judged the position of the sun and used his hand to measure out precisely where-

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Phelps squealed when the leaves of a low-hanging branch brushed his fur.

North? South? How did one tell those? He’d never been camping and the closest he ever came to a scout were the cookies. He faintly recalled something about observing which side of a tree moss grew on from a tv show but he couldn’t remember if that was to find direction or water. He looked at the trees. They were covered in moss.

“Not very helpful.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. Phelps squealed at a bee that buzzed near his head and accurately swatted it out of the air. Chen Haoran could feel a headache building up.

It wasn’t his lack of orienteering skills that was the problem, at least not his biggest one. He just… didn’t know where to go. He hadn’t thought that far. He only packed a bug-out bag just in case. If he was ever put into a position where he was forced to use it he figured he’d have more immediate, lethal, concerns.

He placed Phelps down and the sloth shuffled over to the dead bee. Chen Haoran sat down beside him and kept an idle eye while thinking. He had no direction and no goals currently. Survive? Something that obvious didn’t need to be said. Get stronger? For safety reasons, it was a smart decision but that didn’t really give him a goal or direction now did it?

He flexed his qi and felt it flow through his meridians in a steady cycle. Puffs of ambient qi entered his body with every breath and were swallowed into its flow. He wasn’t cultivating and the qi he naturally absorbed was so minuscule as to be irrelevant but it was calming. The yellow dragon was nowhere to be seen, figment of his mind that it was, but Chen Haoran could imagine it slumbering within the river of his qi. He hadn’t expected to reach the Ninth-Layer so soon.

Dipping in the Mourning Pool of Patriarch Lan was a far different experience compared to a monster's Mourning Pool. Both were vibrant, but where the monsters felt like a condensation of the worlds natural energies, Patriarch Lan’s was like someone had liquefied the essence of a forest. The wood-attribute liquid qi flooded his meridans and eagerly accepted the nourishment of his water-attribute qi, letting itself be dyed in his color and becoming his own. If anything it was easier to absorb the liquid qi of Patriarch Lan’s Mourning Pool than the ambient water energy of the cavern. It made sense too, it was qi that had been processed by a human before. Now that it was ownerless it wasn’t difficult for another human to claim it.

“A Liquid Meridian realm is a walking flood. Both in its destructive potential and the life-giving benefits left in its passing.” Song Yuelin’s words echoed in his head.

There was more buzzing. Phelps tried eating the bee and spat it out in disgust.

Liquid Meridian realm. He had just assumed he would reach it one day but now he was closer to it than ever before. He drummed his fingers along his leg. For now getting to the Liquid Meridian realm was a good enough goal. For that, he would need resources. He’d have to go to another city. Somewhere larger than Clearsprings and far away so that he wouldn’t have to worry about someone from the city recognizing him. He’d need to get a house, with servants and cooks. He’d tasted the good life and he wasn’t about to give it up so easily. He’d stuff Phelps with all the cultivation resources till he became a Liquid Meridian, he’d figure out what to do next afterward.

Plan in place he immediately looked back at the sky to determine his direction and-

Nothing. He still didn’t know what he was doing. No goals? Lacking a plan? Who was he kidding, it’s not like he was any closer to finding civilization if he had those.

Chen Haoran sighed. “This is the cavern all over again. Past me should have packed that damn map.”

He stood up. He could figure out where East was probably, he just had to find Clearsprings City and then follow the roads out of the territory. The buzzing got louder. Chen Haoran frowned and looked over to where Phelps was swatting at another bee. The buzzing was too loud for it to come from just one bee and the sound was getting closer. Did Phelps attract a swarm after he killed the first one? Did its hive sense that? He ran over to Phelps and threw him across his back.

“Phelps you better pray these aren’t cultivating bees.” He pulled his sword out and stretched his sense. The source of the buzzing immediately rushed into view. It was neither a swarm nor a bee.

A glossy black, fist-sized beetle flew in front of Chen Haoran. He warily held out his blade and cycled his qi. The beetle hovered, the buzzing coming from the beating of its wings. He could clearly sense the qi within it but he couldn’t pin down was level it was at. Just as he was about to make a move a voice in the distance called out.

“Brother Chen!”

Was that…

“Xie Jin?”

Interlude: Song Yuelin

Good luck was something Song Yuelin never put much stock in. It wasn’t good luck that saw him enter the service of the Southern Dragon King, nor was it good luck that his skills were appreciated by that man who raised him to higher heights and higher duties. Good luck did not have him stumble across lost treasures, he did not stumble. If he found something lost it was because he knew where it was. Good luck certainly never helped him accomplish his missions, or refine the lethality of his powers.

Nor did Song Yuelin place any blame on bad luck. There were faces for his failures. It was his enemies’ exceptional cunning or overwhelming force that defeated him. It was the incompetence of his planning and staffing that bungled his schemes in the dark. It was his own limits that threw him into qi deviation or forestalled his progress.

That wasn’t to say Song Yuelin did not acknowledge luck. For himself it had no bearing, but even he could see when others were affected by the best and worst of it. He had seen the pathetic rise and mighty fall by the merest of margins. He had seen genius bloom, wilt, then rise again as phoenixes. Heavenly phenomena that brought paradise and desolation through little but the movements of the stars. Every member of his lord’s family who was blessed to share his blood.

Indeed for all that he himself did without it, Song Yuelin had lived well-enough to see many examples of fortune and his opposite. Despite this detachment from Heavenly Chance there were still moments when even Song Yuelin himself could do not but say he was favored by fate.

The first instance was when he was born for that is when a man will spend most of the luck he will ever receive.

The second instance was when a certain rat-faced manager sent a letter detailing the strange behavior of Lord Chen’s Youngest. While he did have authority over such letters the fact it ever reach him to be read was such a twisting feat of bureaucratic mystery that he scarcely imagined it could ever be replicated. That it led to him discovering two individuals blessed by sheer astronomical fortune could perhaps be its own separate luck but Song Yuelin preferred not to quibble over details like that.

The third instance was quite embarrassing for Song Yuelin because it hadn’t happened yet. It was a little bit of fortune he was hoping would be pushed toward a later date in the future if fate would be so kind. He wouldn’t argue too much about when in the future though, Song Yuelin was nothing if not accommodating.

These three instances would all be considered good fortune in Song Yuelin’s own humble opinion. Had they been the end of it he would be a rather content man. The Heavens did like to play their tricks however and so Song Yuelin was sent a fourth instance of luck although this one he could confidently say was quite rude and perhaps not so good. Had he the means he would certainly file a formal complaint to the Heavens for this. As it stood he was charging this bit of bad luck to Young Master Chen’s and Lady Lan Fen’s accounts.

After ruminating on the nature of the luck in his life Song Yuelin pushed away the fiery skeleton of what had once been a barracks he had been buried under. The soldiers who once occupied it had long since vacated the burning building though many of those soldiers soon found themselves vacating their mortal coil with the help of the Empire’s elite Cloud Dragon Guard.

Each Guard is an expertly trained Liquid Meridian weapon, screened for their talent and loyalty, and taught the secret cultivation methods of the Imperial family. The Cloud Dragon Sutra they practice turns their qi into fluffy white clouds that allow them to fly under the own power without the use of a treasure and far before the Star Core realm. This cloud qi can also be easily combined together to create a variety of useful cloud formations. In the Imperial Capital for the birthdays of young princes and princesses, these cloud formations would take the form of a bunny or a particularly ugly dog.

Unfortunately for the Not-So-Secret-Anymore Secret Chen Family Port the Cloud Dragon Guard were in a less festive mood when visiting and instead flew in as a literal Cloud Dragon that dropped flaming meteors on their first pass around the port setting alight their defenses and most importantly, the ships they were meant to escape on. On the second pass the cloud dragon dropped the contingent of Guards within its belly who flew down with clouds beneath their feet and used their silver spears to skewer the twice-disadvantaged land-bound sailors of the Chen family. On the third pass the white dragon became a stormy grey and struck with blue lightning any defender getting uppity about not dying.

The skilled Liquid Meridians would die, and could hope they might bring an enemy down with them. The unskilled Liquid Meridians would be captured alive, bound in clouds, and carried into the cloud dragon so that they may donate their liquid qi for the prosperity of the Empire.

Song Yuelin naturally would not stand around and do nothing while all this occurred. This was the Empire after all, not the Lan family. Dealing with so many Cloud Dragon Guards would be a difficult task even for him so he instead set his sights on dismantling the cloud dragon. It wouldn’t be a permanent solution but while the Guard was reforming a new one it would give time for their men to flee, either to the mountains or sea depending on their preference.

Of course by the time he slit the throats of a half-dozen Cloud Dragon Guards who thought they lived for too long and reached the cloud dragon the bad luck that orchestrated the Chen family’s biggest accounting error in 40 years revealed himself by shooting out of the cloud dragon like some demented falcon and slamming Song Yuelin into the barracks he was now picking himself out of.

For once in Song Yuelin’s life, failure and misfortune shared the same face.

“Greetings Chen dog,” Prince Shen Jianyu said. A luxurious red feathered cape drifted behind him keeping the Imperial Scion afloat in the air. His hands casually in his pockets, he gave Song Yuelin a toothy smile. For all that he looked washed out, Shen Jianyu was handsome. Unfortunately, he had an ugly smile, which even being handsome could not awkwardly smooth over, and so he just looked weird.

“If I say goodbye will you politely leave?” Song Yuelin said, brushing the char off his head.

“I do believe the Imperial family has said goodbye to the Chen family multiple times now.” Shen Jianyu clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Well when you do it there’s more killing and fire involved, maybe if you were more agreeable about it there’d be better results.”

“I don’t think Chen Qitao and the word agreeable have ever co-existed.”

Song Yuelin conceded the point and flashed his daggers to his hands. Their cruel edges dripping with liquid shadow.

“Speaking of Chen Qitao was that really his spawn you were with?”

Song Yuelin furrowed his brows. “You were following us.”

“I was observing you ever since you left the city like a frightened squirrel yes.” Shen Jianyu nodded. “I saw you lose your little charge too it was the funniest thing I’ve seen all year.”

“It seems I’ve fallen prey to a simple flush and catch.” Song Yuelin sighed. Even if it were Shen Jianyu he wouldn’t be able to defend himself in front of Lord Chen when he returned. “Appearing to temporarily cancel the Exams was just your way to scare us out.”

Shen Jianyu cocked his head. “It’s permanent though? As soon as I was told to hunt you rats down in this place I was planning to cancel the Exams.”

“You would cause so much aggrievement amongst your subjects just to hunt us?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Shen Jianyu chuckled. “If I just did as I was told without causing trouble then other annoying people might start getting the idea I can be used.”

“I see,” Song Yuelin said. “To borrow a phrase from my Young Master-” His knives hummed and began to flitter. “You’re a dick.”

“You can post your complaint to a sword and send it to the neck that wears the crown, I couldn’t care less.” Shen Jianyu’s liquid qi dripped from his body like blood and formed hundreds of red spheres that fanned out behind him. “I have to thank you for being incompetent enough to lose your little master. If I captured a child of Chen Qitao then my Imperial Father would be happy.” The blood-red spheres shuddered and opened to reveal eyes containing ghostly white pupils. The hundreds of eyes blinked simultaneously at Song Yuelin. Shen Jianyu did not remove his hands from his pockets.

Song Yuelin set a small goal for himself to force his hands out first.

Liquid shadow spilled out and engulfed him.

“So much for my vacation,” he sighed.

Chapter 66

In the ruins of the island bathhouse the once-empty basin was now filled with a bright emerald pool. It filled the originally drab room with a vivid glow and a vigor that could be felt even standing feet away.

Lan Fen was sitting by the edge of the pool wearing a soft, peach-colored dress. A shawl was wrapped around her shoulders. Her originally vibrant white hair had dulled to the color of spider webs and her golden eyes had become a pale, sickly yellow. Every so often a cough would wrack her frame and she would cover herself with the shall till they subsided. Despite this she wore a small smile on her face. A pile of books was stacked next to her. She dipped her legs in the pool and swished them around in the emerald liquid.

“Why does it look like your playing more than you are recovering?” Chen Haoran asked. Unlike Lan Fen he looked unscathed compared to where he was a week ago.

“It should be a crime how quickly you recover,” she enviously said.

Considering he didn’t use himself as a vessel to channel what was essentially a god through his mortal body he got off comparatively light compared to Lan Fen. As it turned out the most touch-and-go part of her plan ended up being whether she would survive after allowing the White Tyrant to possess her. He ended up using the last Salamander Reconstitution pill as soon as he got to her. Thanks to the White Tyrant nabbing Patriarch Lan’s storage bag before killing him they had plenty of other medicines to use as well after they had been filtered through Phelps and turned into superior reward versions. Even with all that it had still been a tense week. Even the White Tyrant had been uncharacteristically serious until Lan Fen finally woke up. Unfortunately, the medicine was only helpful in getting over the worst of it. To recover from being possessed by someone as spiritually dense as the White Tyrant could only be done with time.

He reached out to Lan Fen with his sense. What greeted him was a dull ember of qi, far from the power she had commanded before. Once again Lan Fen was forced to start from zero with her body in an even worse state.

A ghostly finger flicked his forehead. “Are you looking down on her moron?” The White Tyrant demanded.

Now that he was incorporeal again the flick didn’t hurt but Chen Haoran still rubbed the spot. Ghosts felt weird after all.

“I’ll have you know I ended up condensing a drop of liquid qi while I was fighting that broke tree bastard. Once the brat is back to cultivating with her double foundation plus my experience you be a Liquid Meridian in no time while you’ll-”

“Yeah yeah,” Chen Haoran said, waving the White Tyrant off. After the possession he had gotten oddly defensive regarding Lan Fen. Not that it was his problem if the stubborn bastard acted a little kinder to her.

He looked down at the emerald waters of the Mourning Pool. If Lan Fen had any issue swimming in the energy of her dead grandfather she didn’t show it. Not that he would have any issue with it either. He flexed the power of his new Ninth-Layer cultivation. Not disrespecting a mourning pool was one thing, but Lan Fen’s grandfather was an asshole so he had it coming.

“What will you do now?” he asked.

“Once I have recovered my cultivation I will be joining the Palace School.”

“Still?”

Lan Fen nodded. “For cultivators without a strong backing, proving yourself in the Palace school is the easiest way to acquire resources.”

“That requires joining the Empire. I didn’t think you liked them.”

“It is not a matter of liking. Sometimes our interests clashed so I was wary. Now I intend to get benefits from them.”

“Typical pragmatic Lan Fen.” Chen Haoran shook his head.

“And you?” Lan Fen asked.

“Who knows?” He shrugged. “At the very least I’ll have to lay low from my family. No need to get involved with them ever again.”

Lan Fen frowned. “I must warn you, the Chen family may be more powerful than you or I  imagined.”

“What?”

“When I went to annul our marriage I asked the City Lord about the Chen family. Even with our previous relationship, he didn’t tell me much but he did tell me this: Bagmar Republic.”

“Another country?”

“Another superpower,” Lan Fen emphasized. “As powerful as our own Empire. Both polities heavily resist the influence of the other. If your family has connections to both then they could be very dangerous.”

“I see.” He bowed his head. “Thank you Lan Fen.”

Lan Fen gave him a knowing smile. “You are leaving.”

He awkwardly laughed. It wasn’t like he was hiding it but it was still embarrassing to be found out. “Yeah.”

“Why?” She sounded genuinely curious. “This cavern is very conducive to your growth. You should stay until you reach the Ninth-Layer at least.”

“And then I’ll stay until I reach Liquid Meridian, and then until you recover your cultivation, and then we’ll just leave together, and so on and so forth.” He waved his hands around for emphasis. “I’ll just keep coming up with more excuses to stay and at that point when will I actually leave? I can’t just keep riding your coattails forever.”

“I understand.”

“You do?”

“Yes”

“Then you don’t mind if I leave today right?”

Lan Fen shot up. “Chen Haoran!”

“Oh come on.” He laughed. “You said you understood! Plus it’s been forever since I’ve seen the sun, look how pale I’m getting.”

“What about Phelps?”

Chen Haoran motioned to the sloth silently sitting on his back. Phelps raised his head and revealed the black silk bandana he had tied around him in lieu of proper sunglasses.

She sighed. “You’re doing this on purpose.”

“Absolutely.”

Lan Fen held out her hand and two scrolls appeared in her arms.“Take these then before you go.”

Chen Haoran gingerly picked them up and read their titles. Scattering Petal Palm and the Great Rainforest Method. The signature of the Lan family and the Earth-rank cultivation technique the tried so hard to protect. “Thank you.” He placed them in the new storage bag taken from Patriarch Lan. “I’ll treasure them.” He bowed. Then he looked up and smirked. “I hope you don’t mind if I.” He waggled his eyebrows for effect.

Lan Fen rolled her eyes. “I expected you would.”

“Expect what?” demanded the White Tyrant. “What is he going to do?”

Chen Haoran was going to tease the old ghost when Lan Fen suddenly hugged him. He stood there, shocked. Then he hugged her right back. They held the hug and didn’t say anything. Even when the White Tyrant snorted in disgust and Phelps started to squeal.

When they finally separated Lan Fen smiled at him. “I owe you so many debts at this point I may as well become your real wife.”

Chen Haoran froze.

The White Tyrant burst into rage. “Absolutely not! I do not allow it!”

Only when Lan Fen started laughing did he realize he’d been played. Chen Haoran snorted. “The day someone as ambitious as you settles down is the day I run for the hills because the world is gonna end.”

“Safe travels, Chen Haoran.”

“Good riddance!” roared the White Tyrant.

Chen Haoran waves them away when the White Tyrant called out to him.

“You better not forget that Harmonization for the rest of your miserable life.”

“Be nice to Lan Fen Daddy Tyrant.”

“What in the nine hells did you just call you little shit!”

The White Tyrants cursing followed him all the way off the island. Chen Haoran could have sworn he still heard it when he approached the waterfall exit. The old Lan base camp had fallen into disarray thanks to the local wildlife. The ramp tree still stood sturdy alongside the waterfall.

Chen Haoran very consciously did not look at the wall that Elder Qianbei had dragged him up on. Instead he looked at the waterfall. He tapped his one scimitar. In the next moment, he slashed out with the blade. After sheathing the sword he started to climb the ramp tree. As he walked a deformity occurred. Starting from the base of the waterfall a line parted the water till he reached 50 feet up before finally returning to normal.

“Not even a quarter huh? Oh well.”

Finally at the top of the tree he patted Phelps on the head. “Look alive buddy and don’t look directly at the sun.” After warning Phelps he flexed his qi and jumped, falling into the top of the waterfall and disappearing.

Chapter 65

I help in the beginning and I help in the end. Chen Haoran couldn’t help but have these thoughts as he hurtled down to the boat below. Patriarch Lan, a rather kindly-looking old grandfather made his jump up look like an elegant walk compared Chen Haoran’s own undignified fall. The rising angel and falling and locked eyes for a single second before their trajectories took them away from each other. Phelps squealed in glee at the rush of wind before letting go of his back and free-floating in the air. He didn’t pay much more attention to Phelps, he knew how to take care of himself, instead, Chen Haoran cycled qi to his limbs and braced for impact.

He had easily jumped down from a height of a hundred feet. For Qi realms this was still a wall that would seriously injure if not kill them if they took it the wrong way. For Chen Haoran, he didn’t have too many wrong ways anymore.

He hit the boat like a cannonball and smashed through the top deck into the hold below. Lan Fen had said there were only four people, all Ninth-Layer Qi realms, with Lan Yao being the most dangerous.

No pressure.

He gripped both of his Swiftwind Scimitars and with a flex of his qi he burst out the whole he had made. The power within his blades activated but rather than cross them he spun around whirling his swords at anything near. Immediately he was rewarded with a cry of pain and a blood spray and then was it with the pressure of four different cultivators crashing on his shoulders. He rallied his own qi and turned to stare at Lan Yao whose own eyes were practically glowing with murder.

“Long time no see,” he said waving at her.

“You,” she growled. She clutched her spear in white-knuckle grip. With vicious shriek she leapt at him, swinging the spear with all her might. He caught the haft of the spear on his swords Lan Yao planted her feet with a roar and pushed the swing through sending Chen Haoran careening towards the railing of the ship and cracking it in half when his back slammed against it. The other Ninth-Layer’s rushed at him, weapons screeching with qi and chopped the rest of the railing to pieces as he rolled out of the way an slashed his scimitars at their feet. They hastily avoided it by leaping into the air. Phelps dropped on the head of an older Ninth-Layer and the man and sloth screamed and tumbled into the water together.

Lan Yao thrust her spear to run him through. His eyes widened with a warning from his qi sense and he dodged rather than block the blow. He could practically feel the wind rushing past him from the spear’s force. Lan Yao came equipped with a Profound-rank weapon.

Chen Haoran skipped backwards to give himself breathing room. His sword glowed blue. The other Ninth-Layers didn’t give him time and he was forced to duck and axe to his head. These two Lan’s seemed to be twins one used an axe, the other wielded a mace. Their teamwork was impeccable as they alternated attacking high and low. His back pressed against the cabin of the boat while the twins closed and his left and right and allowed Lan Yao to prowl down the center.

“You,” she said.

“We’ve established that already I think.”

“This is all your fault.”

Chen Haoran blinked. “Pardon.”

Lan Yao ground her teeth. “If it weren’t for you none of this would have happened. I had everything planned perfectly and because of you the Lan family has been pushed to this point!”

“Hey now that’s taking away a lot of agency and responsibility from Lan Fen,” he said. Still, despite his protests, Lan Yao wasn’t that wrong. Without him in the picture things things would probably be significantly different although… “Aren’t you overestimating the Lan family too much?”

Lan Yao and the twins attacked all at once and he narrowly avoided Lan Yao’s insane spear thrust by leaping to the roof of the cabin. Lan Yao was quick to follow and another thrust came down like a ballista bolt just barely missing his shoulder and burying into the cabin roof. Chen Haoran quickly dropped his sword and held the spear handle firmly. Lan Yao cycled her own qi to desperately rip the spear away but was forced to let go when he swung the other scimitar around. She backed away and glowered at Chen Haoran, her palms glowed emerald green.

“I remember the last time you slapped me with your palm,” he said.

“I should have killed you in that restaurant. This time I’ll carve it into your body!”

Lan Yao took a step forward when Chen Haoran was suddenly in front of her. Her footwork faltered and he pushed his palm against her face. With the burst of qi Lan Yao was sent flying off the ship, clipping a railing and skipping out into the water.

Chen Haoran wrung out his hand and let out the breath he had been holding. He had been wondering what to do with the last of his lightning-refined qi and this was a surprisingly cathartic use of it.

The twins shouted battle cries and leaped up to the roof. The Mace-wielding jackass kicked his scimitar into the river.

“You jackass I was just getting the hang of these fucking things too!” Chen Haoran cursed. He rushed for the Axe twin and caught the axe along the flat of his blade. Using his superior cultivation he forced the axe back with strength. Without his other blade the mace twin took advantage of his exposed right. Chen Haoran gritted his teeth and cycled qi to his right arm and block the mace. Rather than snapping in half, his arm held strong and Chen Haoran grabbed the mace head with his palm and wrenched the man’s guard open. The Axe twin shouted but Chen Haoran slashed his scimitar with the Mace twin’s neck, decapitating him.

The Axe twin roared with rage and swung wildly. Chen Haoran grasped the mace by the handle and cycled qi into it before swinging it full onto the axe and shattering it to pieces. The Axe twin pressed on but he sank his scimitar into the man’s chest and pushed him to the ground. The Axe twin tried grasping the blade but Chen Haoran twisted the sword until the light died in his eyes.

Chen Haoran yanked the scimitar out the corpse and flexed his right arm. There was a throbbing pain that was sure to leave a nasty bruise but he’d take it over a broken bone.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he murmured. He hadn’t noticed any differences after his limbs had healed but who knew if the Stygian Lotus’s enhancement would become stronger after the ordeal? He wasn’t insane enough to test that quite yet though. He scanned the river for any sign of Lan Yao or Phelps and the other Ninth-Layer. He stretched out his sense in search of Phelps qi before finding sensing him on the side of the boat. He rushed over and leaned over the edge only to curse when he found the glassy-eyed stare of the last Ninth-Layer staring at him. The man’s hands were buried in the hull of the ship as if he were trying to escape the water. Phelps sat on the man’s back, his claws piercing into his spine. He tiredly squealed in victory.

Chen Haoran shuddered but smiled. “Good job buddy just never do that to me.” He was about to go down to help Phelps up when the water below stirred and Lan Yao shot out of the river with emerald green palms. Chen Haoran stumbled back but Lan Yao was unerring and hammered his chest.

He had been hit with the Scattering-Petal Palm quite a few times before. So he had grown somewhat adjusted to hit.

Those were like kiddie slaps compared to Lan Yao’s.

Where other Scattering-Petal Palms relied on subterfuge and sleight of hand to create a dizzying and hard-to-predict palm art Lan Yao’s was far more direct. Every single green palm was real and hit with crushing force. Chen Haoran quickly covered his head and kicked out to push Lan Yao away. She let the kick fall uselessly on her leg and slammed two final green plans into his chest and sent him tumbling across the deck where he landed heavily on the opposite railing and snapped it in two.

Chen Haoran cycled qi to his chest and winced. Massive bruising, bleeding, and more broken ribs than he’d ever want to see. He swung a hand over the snapped railing and tried and failed to stand. Every breath was painful and he hacked a bloody cough.

Lan Yao looked like a drowned ghost. Her skin was pale and her eyes were bloodshot. Her left cheek was swollen and her nose was broken at an awkward angle and pouring blood. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.” She kept repeating it as if it were a mantra.

Chen Haoran was freezing cold and couldn’t tell if it was from fear or blood loss until he saw the steam blowing. Then he smiled. “Got your nose.”

Lan Yao screamed and rushed him, fingers arcing like knives directly for his throat. He grabbed her wrists and fell back onto the railing which fully gave way under both their way and sent them falling into the river.

The water made Chen Haoran feel alive again and he quickly sought out Lan Yao. She was of the same mind and her palms glowed a sickly green underwater. This time he was faster. Water attribute qi let him land a heavy punch on her broken nose. A blood cloud bloomed and blinded Lan Yao and he landed blow after blow on her unprotected body. Lan Yao responded with a brutal rib blow that landed on one of his cracked ribs forcing a roar of pain from him. He responded with a hammer blow to her eye and they exchanged blow after blow until they were forced to dive deeper as the cold snap rolled in and the river surface froze. With his superior mobility he swam around behind Lan Yao and wrapped his arms around her neck, forcing all the qi he could to snap her snap. Lan Yao thrashed and clawed at his arms but Chen Haoran only squeezed tighter. Lan Yao suddenly went limp and and he made one final attempt to choke the life out of Lan Yao. As if reading his thought Lan Yao burst into a final frenzy of motion and sank her finger deep into the skin of his thighs.

They both broke away from each other and scrambled for the surface, punching through the ice and pulling themselves up onto the frozen river. The lay there gasping for air until he looked at her and she looked at him. Slowly the picked themselves up. Lan breathing was unsteady and the color of her neck bloomed a myriad ugly purples. Chen Haoran meanwhile couldn’t lift his legs anymore. He clawed at the ice instead, water attribute qi flowing and bonding with the solid water until he pull out a wickedly pointed icicle.

Lan Yao slowly shuffled over, her palms blooming green light. Chen Haoran focused.

The ruins behind them exploded. A skyscraper-sized tree rose out of the island and into the air. A white light flew into the sky after him.

“You mongrel don’t tell me a storage bag is all you have you broke bastard!”

“White Tyrant?” Chen Haoran sputtered. He looked into sky. It was Lan Fen, except it wasn’t, because she was flying, and her hair and eyes became a glowing white.

“Come on you bottom-feeder,” The White Tyrant jeered with Lan Fen’s body. “The least you can do is entertain me while I’m still here.” He snorted in disgust. “To think I have to spend energy to fly what a disgrace.”

“Lan Fen,” growled Patriarch Lan. “Do you think letting yourself be possessed by a demon will be enough to defeat me!”

“Hey Junior pay your respects,” barked the White Tyrant. “I’ve eaten more salt than you’ve ever had rice.”

“You’re only in the Qi realm,” Patriarch Lan hysterically shouted. His the leaves on his tree glowed a bright emerald green and whipped around like a giant snake. His eyes suddenly widened. “Are you breaking through to the Liquid Meridian Realm!?”

“As above, so below,” the White Tyrant said. He glanced down and noticed Chen Haoran. “Hey moron.” Although he was hundreds of miles in the air it felt as if the White Tyrant were speaking right next to him. “I’m too skilled with my actual techniques so I can only use this garbage. Consider yourself lucky and burn it into your memory.”

“Die!” Roared Patriarch Lan.

The White Tyrants Sword glowed blue-white. The world flashed white in Chen Haoran’s eyes but he couldn’t look away. A white line rapidly split down the length of the tree and it began to dissolve into white light.

“No, no” moaned the Patriarch even as began to glow Emerald green around the white line that split him in half.

The White Tyrant lazily balanced his sword on his shoulder, staring up at the split in the clouds that had been formed.

“Canyon Carving Sword, what trash.” He spat and looked down at Chen Haoran. “What kind of cultivator settles for a canyon? Even if your trash you should at least aim to split a planet.”

The White Tyrant disappeared. Chen Haoran looked down at his icicle, he could see the white particles reflected in it like stars.

“No,” Lan Yao said as she watched Patriarch Lan become a rain of emerald liquid qi. “No. No. No.” No had become the only thing she could say in front of the horror she witnessed. Even so, she still walked toward Chen Haoran. The green light in her palms became brighter. When she stood in front of Chen Haoran she didn’t even look down at him even though she slapped down with her palms.

Even though Lan Yao stood in front of him he didn’t even look up at her and focused on the icicle in his hand.

He swung once.

The green light disappeared. Blood spattered and a long line opened up diagonally across Lan Yao’s body as she died. The icicle shattered into fragments and dissolved. The ice in front of Chen Haoran broke.

Interlude: Lan Fen 4

They came suddenly. The longship speared through the steam-covered river and set a reckless course to the island. There was no steering to avoid crashing nor any attempt to slow down. The Five figures on the boat stood utterly still as if they truly had no care in the world that they would destroy their boat and be buried under the river. Right as the prow of the ship was about to touch the rocky base the wizened old man standing at the head of the group made his move.

Bright, emerald green qi, flooded out in a ring and spilled over the edge of the boat into the water below. From the depths emerged large roots that broke the surface of the river and wrapped around the boat, completely halting its momentum and anchoring it in place. An ostentatious show of control. The meaning from her grandfather was clear. The riskiest outcomes with the thinnest of margins are all still well in his hand.

It was a message for her.

She tightened the grip on her sword. The reward she had received from the first of the White Tyrant’s trials. She could not unsheathe its edge, not yet.

Chen Haoran let out a low whistle next to her. He was different since near meeting with the kings of hell, relaxed and dark at the same time. He had become like those cemetery watchers who wandered between the tombs, singing tunes even when wandering around death and searching for the next cause. Whether it was because he was changed by the experience or it exposed something he had kept buried was unclear to her. It was frustrating because of her culpability in the matter. Had it been at the hands of the camp guards she would not feel this was. That was just the gamble of life, one that he had lost. Instead, it was because her foe had taken advantage of her complacency and Chen Haoran was forced to pay the price of it. She was both grateful and aggrieved when he killed Lan Qiangbei. Grateful because she had almost drawn her blade right then and there and almost ruined her plans. Aggrieved because it had once again stacked more debts toward him into her hands.

“I don’t remember Lan Yao being able to do that,” Chen Haoran said.

Lan Yao oh Lan Yao that peerless thorn. Down below, beside their grandfather she could see her cousin’s venomous glare. A snake would have suited her more than a flower. Had she been forced to expose her schemes to their grandfather? It was without doubt that the answer was yes. After she began doing real damage to the Lan family their grandfather would have forced Lan Yao to confess to all of it. While he might not always know what has been plotted it did not mean he did not know who was doing the plotting within his domain. Lan Yao always hated it when her plans were forced into their grandfather’s eyes. He never said anything which was the closest thing to mercy she’d received. Just her subterfuge being in his eyes was enough punishment itself.

Lan Yao. Lan Yao. The beginning did not start with her but the ending certainly would not have begun without her. Yet Lan Yao’s ending was not with her. No matter how much she wanted to pluck that thorn herself she could never. Not when the gardener himself would be watching behind the vicious flowers he raised.

“An effect caused by the condensation of the Earth-rank methods qi.” She said. “You should look forward to your own when you reach Liquid Meridian realm.”

“Fascinating,” he answered, but if he were still referring to her grandfathers power or his own future she could not tell.

“Chen Haoran.” He looked at her. Chen Haoran the new looked at her with the face of Chen Haoran the old. What a story for the ages! Never would she have imagined that her hated parasite would one day stand next to her on the eve of her most important battle. Though it shamed her to admit it even now she wondered if it would finally be time to peel away this mask he had put on and reveal himself to be the same scum that had so dogged her heels. That would be no more after today. “Please help me.”

He looked at her, surprise blooming on his face. She could see the strings connecting in his eyes. She knew what he was thinking. In the beginning she needed his help to start her battle. In the end, she needed his help to finish it. Another debt to him she would have to repay, but this one would be unfair to Chen Haoran because she would hate him in her heart after this. Not totally, not even viciously. It would be a quiet piece of her heart that she would lock so far away so that even she might forget about it in time. But it would be there, seething.

She should have killed Lan Yao before this but there was never an opportunity or she was faced with more pressing concerns. She couldn’t just kill her after killing their grandfather either. Killing Lan Jiang would be the end of this. If she killed Lan Yao afterwords it would only be hollow, and that was far more unacceptable than letting her die at someone else hand.

“Fen’er, will you not speak with your grandfather?” The diminutive pressed against her ears and tried to strangle her. No matter what victories she acquired, what titles she accrued, the level of her martial excellence. Her grandfather’s address to her would not change. It was his way of pruning. The Lan family was a garden of orchids and he was their gardener.

Her grandfather sighed. “Who taught you to be this rude?” He flexed his qi, Liquid Meridian realm Sixth-Layer. She gripped the hilt of her sword tighter. He had broken through. Manageable but just verging into her grandfather’s preferred realm thin margins.

Chen Haoran looked at her. She nodded back at him. He shrugged and hurtled himself off the island, falling parallel to her grandfather rising up. Lan Jiang arched an eyebrow at the person who was without a doubt the strangest participant in all this diving into a that was typically fatal for Qi realms.

Other Qi realms.

Her grandfather crested the top of the island and scarcely settled on the ground when a thunderous crash of wood sounded from below. Shouts and the accompanying noises of combat soon followed along with the groaning of the ship. Her grandfather did not look back. She turned around and entered the bathhouse, she did not need her sense to know her grandfather followed her. The sized of the exterior belied the fact that the inside of the building was just a single giant room. The empty basin sat as a shadowed crevice.

“I must say Fen’er while I knew we would one day face each other like this, the way you have arrived here as exceeded my expectations.” Lan Jiang speaks kindly as if he were a normal grandfather and not the gardener. It is both a farce and truth, the gardener only spoke kindly so that the flowers would grow. “Do you have anything to say to me?”

“I will slit your throat and drain your liquid qi into this pool.”

Her grandfather clicked his tongue. “Still so rude. You were much more precise with your words before.” He half-turned his head behind him, to where Chen Haoran and Lan Yaowere fighting. “Was it that boy?” The threat is clear but her grandfather will not go after Chen Haoran.

Not while she is standing.

She lets go of her sword. The motion isn’t hidden from her grandfather, it was hard for the petals to distract the man who planted the soil and nourished the roots. Every child of the Lan family would be taken from their families for two years to be trained by her grandfather. The good became great, the mediocre became useful. All became the gardener’s flowers.

Tyrant’s Progress

She rode lightning and appeared before her grandfather in a flash.

Heaven Splitting Claw

Her two most powerful combat arts, backed by a Heaven-ranked Ninth-Layer Qi realm cultivation. It is Lan Fen in her strongest state. Were the old her set in front of her the current her would be able to kill five. For her it is possible to attack that legendary stage. To defy the heavens and cross one realm to do battle in the next. This is the peak strength of the warrior Lan Fen.

The gardener flashes his emerald liquid qi. Her attack tears into a jungle that suddenly appeared and disappears into its depths, never to be seen again. The emerald qi disappears and her grandfather is standing in front of her with a smile on his face. The absolute strongest of one realm is little better than the weakest of the next. Her grandfather is not weak.

“Well done Fen’er.” Her grandfather applauded her. “I see now why your father was so obsessed with you.” Kind words that prune even the most stubborn stems. Her grandfather has never used a blade and yet he has always carried one in his mouth. “I have seen your growth and your efforts have exposed many weaknesses in the Lan family. We have much to go over when we return.”

She knew he would say this. Knew this and yet she let out a startled laugh all the same. “You would still take me back after the harm I have done to the family?”

“Every garden requires some care so that it may grow stronger than before.” He was still smiling kindly.

The wind shifted. The steam rumbled. Cold air blasted Lan Fen’s face and whipped her hair.

“Fascinating is it not?” Her grandfather mused. Unbothered by the change in weather. “When I led the last expedition to discover the source of these sudden Frost storms do you know what we found?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “A pool.” His voice grew thick with wonder. “A cold pool, the coldest place in the cavern, perhaps the coldest place in all the Clearsprings Mountains. Surrounding it is a snowstorm that only ever ceases once the pool releases all the cold qi it has built up. A very beautiful, very dangerous place.” He held out his hand to her. “I will take you there one day.” A myriad of promises twisted into a single bouquet of a sentence.

“I will go there myself.” The Frost storm was an accident in her favor. A trick of fate sending her favorable weather. Even her grandfather would not want to be caught in the Frost storm despite his new power. In the ruined bathhouse, the only shelter was down but the river was too far from them to dive deep enough. That only left the pool.

Except she didn’t need the Frost storm to lure her grandfather in.

She gripped her sword and fell back into the darkness of the basin. “You didn’t grow this flower,” she whispered.

It was too loud for her grandfather’s ears because he was gone and replaced with the gardener who reached out to her with a claw-like hand.

In the garden that is the Lan family all the flowers are raised by the gardener for two years. Those flowers who are green and just like him become his greats. Those red, blue, and yellow flowers become useful. One year there was a white flower. The gardener took one look at the thorns of this plant and deemed it a weed. He had no time for it because he had just welcomed the most beautiful green flower to his garden. After two years this white flower left the garden and under the care of a tall green tree bloomed. The tree had become a gardener too with his little white flower. There was only room for one gardener in the Lan family.

The day Lan Fen beautifully bloomed and defeated Lan Jiang’s prized Lan Yao was the day her father died.

Lan Jiang stepped into the basin and Lan Fen spat out several long dead words. The carvings lining the basin lit up red and began to bleed light.

“What have you done?” Lan Jiang cautiously asked.

“You have lived in the Bathhouse for so long now, have you not wondered about the origin of these pools?”

The bleeding red light dripped into the air and covered the top of the pool with a crimson film. Lan Jiang immediately tried to jump out but was rebounded by the crimson barrier. He slammed to the ground and bound up without a scratch but much warier.

“Right where we are standing old Liquid Meridian realms would fight to the death and become Mourning pools within this basin.” Lan Fen sneered. “I just so happened to meet an old ghost here who knows how to use it.”

Lan Jiang looked horrified. Lan Fen savored it. Then she pulled out her sword and the world turned white.

Chapter 64

Chen Haoran wandered the first Lan family camp he discovered in the cavern. He had decided against trying to attack it himself before. Lan Fen had no such compunction and had blitz’d through the place like a whirlwind of steel while he was busy recuperating. The Lan family only established three camps in the cavern so far both due to safety reasons and because they lacked the manpower. The forces stationed in the cavern mostly consisted of the elites in the Lan family both to safely exploit the resources within and defend against monsters and to further the training of said elites. Because the their development of the cavern was so secretive it was impossible to dedicate too much of their forces here at once. However important it was, it was only one piece of their business and such a large movement of fighters would be noticed no matter how careful they tried to hide it. Suffice to say if Lan Fen had only attacked the cavern and did nothing else then her actions here would be a grievous blow to the Lan family that would take years for them to recover from. Combined with her previous sabotage?

It was a death knell.

The ruins of the river island camp were an interesting affair. When Lan Fen had called the caverns a bathhouse he found it hard to wrap his head around it. There were heated pools in abundance yes but how it was clearly a cave through and through and lacked any other conveniences one would expect to come with a place of rest and relaxation. Amongst these ruins however he could almost see it.

What looked like a fort to him on the outside was in fact, an irony of ironies, a bathhouse. A bathhouse within the Bathhouse so to speak. It did pose the question. Why of all places would they build a bathhouse in the middle of a flowing river when there were so many other pools to choose from? Well first of all they didn’t. According to Lan Fen there was never a river here when the bathhouse was built, it came later and the rock the ruin was built on was tall enough to avoid the flooding. Unlike many other low lying buildings that they had discovered the remains beneath the water. It was an interesting study in the changes that occurred over time in the secret realm ever since it became abandoned. In the end however it still led to the same question. Why build a bathhouse in such a location?

There was something special about the water.

Emphasis on the was. In the entire ruin there was only one pool, the whole facility seemingly dedicated to it alone. A circular thing twice the size of an Olympic swimming pool and deep enough that if Chen Haoran stacked for of himself one atop the other his head would still fall short of clearing the edge. It was and there was no doubt bathing in its waters was a privilege. The pool was unfortunately long empty however, leaving only a basin and the indecipherable carvings around it. Lan Fen said that they were perhaps formation marks, a craft in which a person channeled the ambient energies of the world through what Chen Haoran charitably called a magical circuit otherwise known as a formation. What power the carving might have held were now long lost with its builders, for there were as many styles of formation as there was cultivation methods.

Well… it was almost long lost.

Still there was something about standing inside this ancient pool that made Chen Haoran feel sentimental. When he closed his eyes it was almost as if he could hear the laughter of the ancients playing within the sacred waters of this bathhouse, growing in might even as they frolic.

“Do you really?”

Chen Haoran opened his eyes and looked up at Lan Fen who had seated herself at the edge of the pool and dangled her legs in the open air.

“Of course I don’t.”

“So you were making it up.” She quirked an eyebrow. “And here I thought you had gotten yourself some new ancestors as your reward.”

“If I got new ancestors I would make sure they were the strongest in the universe, at the very least stronger than that crust old ghost you call teacher.”

“I hope you share some powerful ancestors with me if you ever receive some.” Lan Fen sighed. “I too wish to say ‘You dare!’ and have my grandfather’s grandfather come and slay my enemies.”

“Are you speaking from personal experience?” It sounded a bit too insane even by the new standards he’d been subjected to.

“No, the furthest I got was a great-aunt.”

Chen Haoran decided to not interact with that statement, instead cycling qi to his legs and leaping up next to Lan Fen.

“I didn’t know you liked ancient ruins so much,” Lan Fen said.

He puffed up his chest. “I’ll have you know I’m from a people who have a history full of old ruins.”

“Will you tell me about it then? About the place you came from?”

Chen Haoran deflated as if punctured by her words. He looked up to the cavern roof through the broken dome roof. “There’s nothing much to talk about. As much as I say my people I don’t really have much of a connection to them, just a name and a barely fluent language. My home doesn’t have cultivators either, the pursuit of power isn’t quite so literal.”

“Still, I am interested.”

He smiled. “Maybe I’ll tell you someday then.” He looked down from the ruined dome and back at the pool. “This place is special.”

“Did your bloodline connection tell you?” Lan Fen teased.

“There’s no water in the pool despite the massive hole in the ceiling.” He pointed out.  “There’s no drainage in to pool either to take water away, I was standing right in the middle of it but somehow I’m wetter up here than down there.”

Lan Fen frowned and cast a considering glance at the carvings that lined the basin.

“Plus the roof,” he continued. It’s broken but there are no pieces of debris inside the pool or the room. Either something moved them or-”

“It was broken from the inside,” Lan Fen finished. She looked at him. “As I have said before your awareness will become the greatest tool in your cultivation journey. Keep it honed and your path will only ever become wider.”

“I think I have a pretty wide start to begin with,” he joked.

Lan Fen shook her head. “No matter how valuable the resources, how divine the technique, or how powerful the weapon their worth all stems from from person. Never forget.” Her serious look morphed into a smug smile. “Or do you think that you o’ Master of Gift-Giving have surpassed me?”

Chen Haoran rolled his eyes. “What an unfair comparison.”

They settled into a companionable silence there was no turn to awkwardness. No desperate need for him to fill the void in the air.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“About?” Although he already knew.

“You’ve put up with it well but there are some things only cultivators can properly deal with alone.”

“Am I not a cultivator?”

“Almost.”

He sighed. “It made me remember somethings I’d rather forget. And it’s certainly given me knew things I’ll never forget.”

“You are more relaxed,” Lan Fen said, suddenly changing the topic.

“I am.” It wasn’t a question. “This is really what I wanted in the end. Not having to worry about what I say or who I say it around.” He paused. “Minus all the killing of course. I can still do without that.” He hesitated, mouthed the words he wanted to say several times. He felt like a cow chewing cud for how many times his words went up and down his throat. “I’m glad you’re here, Lan Fen.”

“I’m going to break Song Yuelin when I see him,” Lan Fen promised.

“Step aside, I’ve already called dibs.”

They shared a laugh before Lan Fen turned serious. Chen Haoran felt the emotion bleed out from his face.

“He is coming,” she said. A viciously amused look flashed. An eagle spotting prey. “Lan Yao and a squad is with him.”

“They’re coming together?”

“They brought a boat from the outside. There must have been one hidden there.”

“We weren’t expecting a boat.”

“We will still be faster,” Lan Fen assured. She pursed her lips. She looked… guilty? “I apologize once again for involving you when there is no more need to. I could have taken you outside-”

“Don’t apologize for things we both know you wouldn’t do,” Chen Haoran interrupted. “You wouldn’t have let anything take you away from hunting the other Lan cultivators and preparing. It’s not like I would have been safer out there than in your ring space while I was still recovering.”

“I still think you should hide.”

“And what?” Chen Haoran bitterly smiled. “If that old ghost could leave the space ring at will he would’ve never needed you to awaken him. I refuse to risk being trapped forever on the off chance you fail.”

“You could always become the White Tyrants successor after me. I’m sure he’d approve eventually with your power.”

“That stubborn bastard would sooner watch me rot away into dust than let me inherit.”

“Chen Haoran,” Lan Fen smiled. “Do you not have any confidence that I will win?”

“Not anymore.”

Lan Fen’s fake smile went away as quickly as she plastered it on. There was only grim approval now. “That is the mind of a cultivator.”

“Is that so?” Chen Haoran took one last look at the cavern roof. Phelps slowly floated down and wrapped himself around his back. He could feel the sloth’s Seventh-Layer cultivation humming through his clothes.

“How did you learn that?”

“When my father promised that I would lead the Lan family.”

“You’ll have to tell me about him sometime.”

“Someday.”

They stood there. Staring off in the direction of Patriarch Lan. The air biting with coming cold.

Chapter 63

The White Tyrant crossed his arms. “It sounds like some made-up bullshit.”

Chen Haoran looked at Lan Fen. “Is he…?” He waved at the White Tyrant.

“Yes,” said Lan Fen without a shred of hesitation.

“Right well whatever it is it’s the power I somehow found myself with. So long as I select a suitable being to connect to then whatever I give them as a gift I will receive back a hundred times better.”

There was a pregnant pause in the air. Chen Haoran couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. Lan Fen would have already guessed the broad strokes of it and by this point he trusted her enough to tell her but he was still laying bare his greatest trump card. It was hard not to feel a little nervous.

The White Tyrant folded his arms and drummed his fingers along his bicep. “That’s it?”

“What?”

“Is that all it does?” he demanded.

“Oh… well it also stores the rewards so that I can summon them whenever I want.”

“And this power was the reason you were acting like a moron,” the White Tyrant mused. He gave Chen Haoran a once-over. “Well… 25% of the reason I suppose.”

Chen Haoran look at Lan Fen. “Does he..?”

“Yes,” Lan Fen said, with an air of long-suffering. She sat down in a meditative pose.“It explains how you kept acquiring so many resources. I had assumed you found an old cultivator’s inheritance or a storage treasure that required some sort of exchange before you could take out the items within. Am I correct in saying I was your original connected?”

“Yes, ever since our wedding.”

Lan Fen hummed. “So our marriage created the bond and the divorce dissolved it.” She looked at Phelps. “So you married the sloth?”

Chen Haoran coughed

The White Tyrant gave Lan Fen a serious look. “No discrimination.”

Chen Haoran and Lan Fen stared at the White Tyrant in disbelief.

“The universe is big enough for everyone,” he said. He paused and cocked as if ruminating over what he just said. “Except for you people. Stay here and turn into dust for all I care.”

“Right… well,” Chen Haoran said. “I didn’t marry the sloth. He’s my pet, he’s got a collar and everything.”

“I see,” Lan Fen slowly responded. Her eyes practically drilling holes in the White Tyrant.

“Do you have a problem?” The White Tyrant asked, completely ignoring Lan Fen.

“Well no it’s just… I thought there would be more… I dunno shock?” He’d been expecting surprise, outrage, disbelief, not… this non-reaction. Lan Fen he could understand, she’d already guessed the basics of it long ago and was really only confirming her suspicions. Phelps was a sloth. It would be weirder if he did have a reaction. The White Tyrant… well he seemed genuinely curious and pushy about it. “It’s a pretty powerful ability after all isn’t it?”

“Do you realize how pathetic you sound?” The White Tyrant asked. “Look here moron I’m 30 thousand years old. When I had a body I was among the second highest realm of cultivation. I destroyed solar systems for a living. I’ve seen too many talents and special abilities in my lifetime. I’ll give your power points for uniqueness but compared to destroying planets or breaking the limits of cultivation you’re just…” He waved his hand. “An up-jumped merchant by comparison? A resource collector? You have a power that’s good at turning trash into decent trash and that really only shows its worth when you get your hands on the resources everyone else is already competing for. I’ll admit that being able to quantify the value of materials is a bit interesting though.”

Chen Haoran felt his head like his head was spinning. Was his power actually weak? It was impossible. There were plenty of people who’d kill to have it. What was wrong with having a lot of resources? And what about blowing up a planet? He could make a treasure that could only destroy one planet and destroy a hundred! As a matter of fact, who wanted to even destroy planets anyway, that was so wasteful. He felt unsteady on his feet. Lan Fen came to help him sit down.

“Can stronger cultivators cause mental damage just by talking?” He asked when he was sitting and feeling steady again. “Or is that just the near-death experience talking?”

“Do not mind him, you have a very envious power,” Lan Fen assured him. “The White Tyrant has always spoken like this ever since I awoke him the night the assassins attacked.”

Chen Haoran frowned. That was far too specific a reference to be made off-hand. It did fit though, that was the first day Lan Fen displayed her Inventory space. Now that he thought about it The White Tyrant was probably the one doing Lan Fen’s insane feats of sensing. What was she getting at though?

He turned to Lan Fen in shock. The White Tyrant was only talking about resources he didn’t know his power could improve techniques as well. He wasn’t awake when he gave Lan Fen the manuals the first time after all. Lan Fen winked at him and smiled mischievously. It was a look he’d never seen on her before. Just what had the White Tyrant put her through?

Should he say something?

He looked at the bragging White Tyrant.

He silently decided to keep it a secret. Till one day when he had something he could really slap the old bastard in the face with.

—————

Over the next few days he stayed in Lan Fen’s Silver Ring space, as he had taken to calling it after learning where it came from. Because of his injuries, it was too much of a risk for him to enter the cavern until he recovered completely. Unsurprisingly being traped in a pure white space with only a sloth and a crank old ghost man for company wasn’t really the most stimulating activities. Phelps was of course a joy, if a bit sad he had no water to swim around in but the White Tyrant certainly lived up to his name. After 30 millennia of living, he had certainly refined his sharp tongue into a lethal technique of its own.

Even after the rather terrible first impression Chen Haoran thought he could glean some more information about the cultivation world from the superior cultivator. The hints the White Tyrant had dropped about the wider universe were especially tantalizing. Unfortunately, he had underestimated the stubbornness of a 30 thousand-year-old man. Trying to get the White Tyrant to talk about anything useful was like trying to squeeze blood from a rock if that rock could also open its mouth and start yelling profanities about your mother.

Some jokes were truly multiversal.

It wasn’t like he was trying to have the man teach him or anything either, although admittedly he tried. Lan Fen had confided that even after shocking the White Tyrant with her talent on multiple occasions it still wasn’t enough for him to tell her the higher secrets she craved. She was left with raising her cultivation level and competing various trials hidden within the mists of the Silver Ring space that the White Tyrant had created before dying.

When Lan Fen wasn’t around she was wandering the cavern, destroying the Lan family camps and killing as many cultivators as she could before Patriarch Lan appeared in order to prepare her killing stage. For safety’s he didn’t want to be anywhere near Patriarch Lan when he entered the cavern. On the other hand he was truly curious to see what Lan Fen had prepared that gave her so much confidence in facing her grandfather. Now that he knew she was training under a super-ancient cultivator and equipped with various Heaven-rank techniques he had realized his estimation of her strength was way off.

Of course it was a shame that he couldn’t gift the methods to Phelps and it wasn’t just because Phelps wouldn’t see it as as gift.

In an effort to not alert the White Tyrant and so he could show him up with an improved version of his technique he had attempted to ask through elaborate hand gestures and sheer force of will if Lan Fen could share the technique. By some miracle Lan Fen had perfectly understood what he was asking for and merely shook her head.

“Do you think that man would let his techniques be so easily transmitted?” she said.

That night the White Tyrant flashed him a particularly disdainful sneer so Chen Haoran introduced him to his preferred sign language back on Earth. Thankfully by that point he had recovered enough to finally leave the Silver Ring space because he was sure the White Tyrant would do his best to burst his eardrums with his roaring. Now to avoid one dangerous old man he had to do his best to survive a different one.

Patriarch Lan had returned.

Chapter 62

The world was pure white and filled with mist.

In his delirium Chen Haoran thought he arrived in heaven.

“Shit, Chen Haoran!” Lan Fen’s face appeared and he realized it couldn’t be heaven. He was thankful. It was embarrassing to make a mistake like that. “Shit.” Her voice was odd, as if she were speaking to him from the other side of a fishbowl. He couldn’t tell who was the fish though.

“You brat, why did you bring the moron in here!” Another face appeared. Pure white and translucent, like a ghost. He was a sharp-looking man with severe eyes. A white crown sat on his head. “Are you a fool!” His voice didn’t have the same fishbowl sound as Lan Fen. Off to the side, Chen Haoran heard screaming. It was familiar though. Phelps was really showing off his lungs. “What could have compelled you to-”

“Shut the fuck up!” Lan Fen roared at the ghost man. Chen Haoran wanted to ask where Lan Fen learned that kind of language from but his lips wouldn’t move. Oh well, he would just have to try harder. Cool, electric fingers touched his head. Ten different stimulating points sent a pulsating wave of qi into his head. It bounced around before eventually settling as a low, constant background noise in his brain. “Stay awake. Do not close your eyes.”

It was different than Elder Qianbei’s brutal invasion that forced him awake. This one, while still foreign, assisted his own qi’s natural function rather than forcing its own way in his body. Clarity of vision and clear thought were restored to Chen Haoran. He opened his mouth, breathed deep, and screamed his lungs out.

“We could have avoided this if you didn’t expose your biggest trump card,” the ghost man said, covering his ears.

“He already knew about the uses of the ring if you didn’t want him to know about you then you should’ve hid yourself,” Lan Fen snapped.

“You should have never revealed it to begin with,” the ghost man snapped back. “And I am the White Tyrant. I do not hide. Especially not in my own domain!”

“If you’re not going to be useful then be silent!” Lan Fen brought a pill to Chen Haoran’s mouth. It was red and smelled like cinnamon and blood. “You have to eat this.”

The White Tyrant snorted. “As if a Profound-rank pill will do him any good now.”

“He just needs to be stabilized. I’ll take the trial and get better medicinal pills later.”

Even though he was screaming there was a part of Chen Haoran that was still thinking. It wanted some silence so he forcibly took what qi he could and blocked his lungs. He coughed and sputtered and flecks of blood sprayed out but he stopped screaming for the moment.

“Eat it,” Lan Fen urged him.

The White Tyrant said it wasn’t enough. Lan Fen said it would stabilize him. His arms and legs were broken. He couldn’t wait.

“Pu-Put it in my hand.”

“Chen-”

“Please,” he wheezed.

“Oh just let him do it,” the White Tyrant said. He reclined in the air as if laying on a couch. “I want to see what pathetic logic this is.”

Lan Fen frowned but moved the pill out of sight. He couldn’t fell his hand so he could only trust she put it there.

“Phelps.”

The screaming stopped. He heard shuffling and a wet nose brushed his cheek.

“Phelps you ne-need to eat what’s in my hand.”

“A bleeding heart to go with a bleeding body a truly unrivaled Heavenly Physique,” The White Tyrant said.

Chen Haoran ignored him. “You must have gotten hurt too when you attacked that guy. Please eat.”

Phelps squealed. It was low and cautious sounding.

“He said to eat it,” Lan Fen ordered.

“Stop.” Even as he spoke he felt his heart tighten. Lan Fen was intelligent. She had observed him enough that she’d be able to figure out the rest of his power with this. There was no other choice. “He has to do it himself.” Lan Fen said nothing and continued to cycle her qi to his head.  “Phelps please.”

Phelps seemed to have gotten it. Snuffling he retreated from Chen Haoran’s side. There was no sensation to be felt but eventually, the sound of Phelps chewing could be heard.

Please. Please.

Received Hundred-Fold: Earth-Rank Salamander Reconstitution Pill.

With a thought the pill appeared in his mouth and he swallowed it. He heard an intake of breath from Lan Fen and a shouted expletive from the White Tyrant. He couldn’t make out anything else however as the stress finally caught up and he fell into darkness.

——

When he woke up he was still in the world of white. His head was much clearer than before so he didn’t make the same mistake of thinking he went to a good afterlife. His body was still in pain but compared to before it was far less excruciating. A reflexive attempt to lift his body quickly dispelled the notion of actually going through with it. He lifted his head to see his arms and legs bandaged and set with splints. He set his head back down and felt something soft underneath him he craned his to and found… dresses? Had Lan Fen used her clothes to make a pillow for him?

He turned his head as far as he could to observe his surroundings. The white space seemed to stretch on endlessly, not helped by the mist that billowed all over and messed with any sense of distance. Not far away he could see Phelps floating in the air and doing somersaults around the ghost man, The White Tyrant?

“A floating sloth,” The White Tyrant mused. “I’ll give you a ten out of 1 million on a scale of interesting things I’ve seen. I never thought this planet would have something beyond a five.”

Phelps squealed at The White Tyant and twisted in the air, locking eyes his Chen Haoran as he revolved. Phelps squealed in joy and doggy-paddled through the air to him. Nuzzling his cheek and happily burbling.

“I’m glad to see you too buddy.” Chen Haoran smiled. “Thanks for your help.”

“You dare show gratitude to an animal before you thank this master? You must have a death wish.” The White Tyrant casually floated over to Chen Haoran and looked down at him. His eyes roamed across his body and narrowed into slits. “You will explain yourself and I might let you live.”

“Excuse me?”

“Whatever principle it was that you summoned that pill yesterday and that tusk now that I recall it. How was it possible for you to do that without any spatial fluctuations?”

“Excuse me but who are you and where is Lan Fen?”

The White Tyrant reared back as if he’d been slapped across the face. His arrogant look somehow became even colder. “Ignorant ant. I have conquered ten Solar Realms and forged their crown jewels into my royal regalia. My legion has decimated billions and the fortress I rule from is the despair of civilization. Countless seek my wisdom in the Way of Metal and countless more seek defeat in front of my power. Not even death was enough for the Heavens to take my spirit. I am the White Tyrant, the greatest cultivator born in the history of this miserable planet!”

So Lan Fen was carrying around the spirit of a powerful cultivator in her Inventory space. This… explained a lot. “Hello White Tyrant, I’m Chen Haoran.”

“Do I like I care what your name is moron?”

Is being a dick some sort of requirement for powerful cultivators.

“As much as he complains about it he is also the direct cause for why the world has become so miserable.” Lan Fen suddenly appeared out of thin air. Various crates and bags appeared with her. “He is both my boon and bane.” She approached Chen Haoran and knelt beside him, brushing her hands over his limbs. He could feel the lightning tingle of her qi. “Just try to ignore his nonsense.”

The White Tyrant coldly snorted. “Brat you have been dangerously testing my patience in this period.”

“How do you feel?” Lan Fen asked him.

“Alive,” Chen Haoran replied. A nervous shudder ran through him. Luckily, he silently amended.

Lan Fen searched his eyes before placing her hands on the ground and bowing her head. It wasn’t low enough to be called a dogeza, her head was still well above the ground, but it was the lowest bow he had ever seen her give.

“I deeply apologize. It was because of my negligence that this occurred. Had I been less arrogant and more respectful of my opponent you would not have been placed in such danger.”

Chen Haoran didn’t say anything and let Lan Fen sit there. He just stared up into the misty depths of the Inventory space. For all the risks to his life he had so far faced, none had ever come so tortuously close as this one. Had Elder Qianbei not wanted to use him as a hostage he would have died right then and there. If he hadn’t thought to use the Earth Mammoth Ivory then he still would have died. So long as Lan Fen got within the Elder’s range he had no more use, killing him would be a simple snap of the neck.

He sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if choosing you was really the best choice for me.”

Lan Fen accepted the criticism in silence. She didn’t ask for forgiveness and he didn’t offer any.

Still, she saved his life. “Thank you.”

Lan Fen lifted her head and nodded.

“How are my injuries?” he asked

“Much better after you took that Earth-Rank pill. While I am not a specialist you should be able to recover functionality in a month.”

Even after taking the pill, it would take him a month to recover. It hammered home just how serious his injuries had been. Without the pill how long would it have taken him to heal? Would he have been permanently crippled?

Lan Fen seemed to read the distress on his face and took out a small jade bottle. “I still have two Salamander Spirit Pills if you’d like to use them.”

He had to give Lan Fen credit for stepping around the elephant in the room. He nodded and she placed the pills in his hand. Phelps it seemed had learned from the first time and immediately ate both pills after permission from Chen Haoran. It could have been because it found the pills to be beneficial to it but given Phelp’s intelligence he’d like to think it was because the sloth recognized they helped him.

Received Hundred-Fold: Earth-Rank Salamander Reconstitution Pill.

A thought placed the pill in his mouth and he swallowed it. As soon as it entered his core he felt the qi in the pill turn into a powerful heat. Lan Fen immediately put her hands over his core.

“For medicinal pills like this it helps to deliberately distribute the effect,” she said, answering his silent question. Under her care of her qi the medicinal effect flowed to his limbs. He traced the path with his own qi and observed her control. When the fiery qi entered his limbs he watched it flow through his broken meridians and rather than spill out wastefully it sank into his flesh and began to knit together soft tissue, reconnect bones, and repair his meridians. He could feel his arms and legs heat up and itch but he ignored it and focused on Lan Fen’s technique. Soon he was using his qi to take over more and more until Lan Fen removed her hands and he directed the last of the pill’s energy by himself.

He slowly lift up one arm, then the other, and did the same for both legs. After that, he gingerly sat up. Lan Fen removed his splints and redid his bandages. With her assistance, he stood up to Phelps’s joyous squeals. He was still a bit shaky and lacked strength but it was otherwise a miraculous recovery. Once he took the third pill he’d be as good as new.

“Don’t even think about it,” The White Tyrant said, startling Chen Haoran.

“Excuse me?”

“I know that look.” He snorted in disdain. “You’ve already taken two pills back to back and built a resistance. Taking the third one now is just a waste. Just let your qi’s recovery ability do its work and you’ll be fine in the next few days.”

“I see.” He remembered Lan Fen mentioned being resistant to certain pills earlier. “Thank you.”

“Do I need such paltry gratitude? You know what I want.” Lan Fen frowned. The White Tyrant sneered at her. “You’re curious to brat, don’t deny it.”

“I will not standby and watch you force him however,” Lan Fen said.

Chen Haoran held up a hand before they could argue again. He looked at Lan Fen. “I know you’ve already grasped the gist of my secret just like I have yours. It’d be ridiculous to keep up the pretense at this point.”

Lan Fen hesitated but nodded in agreement in the end.

“Does the name Everlasting Hundred Blessings Charitable Prosperity mean anything to you?”

Chapter 61

“Besides Patriarch Lan, there is only one other Liquid Meridian realm stationed within the Bathhouse. Due to the delicate situation over there, the others will not be able to leave Clearsprings City. Thus once the Patriarch can extricate himself he will come here alone. If you want to leave the Bathhouse then the other Liquid Meridian realm Elder must die before he arrives.”

“So the Patriarch is already a Liquid Meridian realm again?”

“The Fifth-Layer.”

“So basically a Seventh-Layer with the Earth-rank method. You’re sure you can deal with that?”

“It’s barely within manageable range.”

Chen Haoran slapped his forehead. “Those aren’t really my favorite odds.”

“It is what it is,” Lan Fen said. “Blame Lan Yao. Had she betrayed me sooner I would have killed the Patriarch while he was in the Qi realm.”

“Had she betrayed you sooner then you’d have been dealing with the original Chen Haoran,” he pointed out.

“I would have overcome it with time.”

Given what he knew about his predecessor, Lan Fen’s answer had several different layers of horrible meaning woven into an otherwise innocuous sentence.

“Tell me this Elder is weaker than the Patriarch at least.”

“Elder Qianbei is a Second-Layer Liquid Meridian and the last Elder of any strength left in the family.”

Chen Haoran looked at Lan Fen in askance. “The Lan family has to have more Elders than that. What about the guy we met at the tournament?”

“Dead,” she said.

“You killed him?” Chen asked, eyes wide.

“Song Yuelin did it.”

He raised an eyebrow. That was unexpectedly helpful of him. Lan Fen saw his look and paused.

“I had to push it a little,” she admitted.

That made more sense.

“Moving on,” Lan Fen said. “Elder Qianbei is an arrogant, obnoxious man. Provoking him into leaving the camp will be easy. I have a trap prepared to deal with him.”

“So we lead him out and lure him in. Simple enough.”

“I will be the one doing it, you will stay here.”

“But-”

“You do not have a movement technique,” Lan Fen interrupted. “Once he is properly chasing us you will be the first one he catches, only I can keep ahead of him.”

“Not that I don’t mind just sitting on my ass and letting you do the work but this isn’t what I had in mind when I said I’d help.”

“Do nothing?” Lan Fen smirked. “You will be destroying the camp after I lead him away.”

Chen Haoran stared at her.

Lan Fen calmly looked back at him.

“There’s got to be a hundred guys in that camp,” he said.

“There are 30, the others have gone to the downriver camps to prepare for the Frost Storm.”

“I’m still 29 people short of being able to fight those guys.”

“I would not tell you to do it if I did not believe you were capable of it and when you succeed you can leave without having to wait for me.”

“So you… believe in me?”

“I do,” Lan Fen confidently said.

It was perhaps the most validating thing she had ever said to him in the time he had known her. There was a tingly feeling inside his chest. He looked at Lan Fen in a new light.

He opened his mouth.

“That means jack shit.”

Lan Fen glared at him, unamused. Chen Haoran matched her look before eventually rolling his eyes. “I’ll figure something out. You just expect me to do some damage and dip until you’re done with the Elder anyway.”

“I do think you have the ability to do it,” she huffed.

“And yet you haven’t denied my words.”

Lan Fen shook her head. “You’ve gotten ruder since I’ve last seen you.”

“That’s because I’ve replaced you,” he said, pointing to Phelps. The sloth was currently floating in the air and trying to scrape the glowing moss off the boulder.

“With a sloth?”

“With a genius sloth. Smartest sloth in the whole cave.”

Lan Fen sighed. “You have been down here too long.”

“Now that’s something we can both agree on,” Chen Haoran said, chuckling. “Have fun being bait.”

“I will be scoring your efforts when I return.” Len Fen flashed him a small smile. “Try not to get yourself caught.”

Easy peasy.

———

“Damn you Lan Fen!” Roared Elder Lan Qianbei. Chen Haoran didn’t know much about his and Lan Fen’s relationship but he could swear he heard something personal in the Elder’s tone. However, she ended up getting his attention it worked. The force of the Elder’s qi-enhanced shout disturbed the steam near him, as far away as he way. Another wordless roar followed as the Elder rocketed off after Lan Fen.

That was his cue.

The chittering around him got even louder as more crickets were attracted by the Elder’s thunderous shouts. Chen Haoran banged his swords together and whooped out a few screeching cries to focus their attention on himself as he imitated in real life the most noble skill of videogames.

The sacred act of kiting the enemy.

Whatever Lan Fen might have thought about him he was not her. Just ambushing five enemies had taxed him mentally let alone trying to solo 30 cultivators at once. So he wouldn’t. Even if he could it just wasn’t his style, when it came down to it he had always been a quantity-over-quality type of guy.

The crickets were the obvious pick, there was no other monster in the cavern as numerous and single-minded as they were. He still remembered when he had been chased by a hundred crickets before. Now he was amassing double that number. His sense was in full bloom and he was cycling all the qi his legs could bear. In a way he was thankful for Lan Fen and Song Yuelin throwing herds of wild monsters at him. At least he was experienced. He still took more than a few blows from the crickets just due to their sheer numbers. Nothing that truly hurt by getting slapped around by a giant bug would definitely be haunting his dreams after this. Phelps had been directed to float up to the cavern roof for safety. With all the jumping and tumbling he was doing the poor thing would have been ripped off his back and torn to shreds.

“Let’s go!” he shouted. Qi-pitching his voice and have every cricket’s bulbous eyes riveted on him. He quickly took off in the direction of the camp, the last bits of lightning-refined qi flowing through his legs and easily putting him ahead of the horde. He cleared the steam layer and entered the sight of the watchtowers. Almost immediately a horn sounded and the entire camp was alarmed to his presence. When the mass of crickets lunged out after him another much more panicky alarm was heard. An arrow whizzed by his head and skewered a cricket behind him. Another soon followed. There was an archer on the watch tower and more mustered on the walls.

After judging he was close enough to the walls he burst a wave of qi to his legs and flung himself backward over the horde. He had a moment before the crickets could reorient themselves. His sword glowed blue.

Canyon Carving Sword

Blue energy flowed like a river through the air above the crickets. He couldn’t let too many die, they were another tool for him to carve with after all. The Lan cultivators on the wall panicked and jumped off as the blue torrent touched the bricks and tore through them, knifing through the wall like it was so much air and scything through the base of the watchtower. The tower dropped then tipped over and ripped apart under the force transmitted through the attack.

Chen Haoran cycled qi to the Leaping Tiger Earring. An invisible wave of qi carried the king of beast’s roar to drive fear into its lessers. It didn’t get every cricket but enough were influenced that the rest were carried into their desperate flow to escape and with Chen Haoran behind them there was only one place to go. The gaping hole he created in the wall.

The crickets poured into the camp, overwhelming the guard’s hasty attempt to secure the breach. The crickets were a lower cultivation Layer on average compared to the Lan cultivators but with numbers and shock the high layers were immediately put on a desperate footing. Not everyone could be as durable as him after all.

Chen Haoran leapt into the camp and spread out his sense. His first target was found, a Ninth-Layer heading the defense of a squad formation in the mob of crickets. Another leap sent Chen Haoran soaring through the air and he came down on the Ninth-Layer like a stone, crossing the Swiftwind Scimitars as he did and immediately crushing the man’s attempt to block. After cutting the leader down he didn’t bother with the rest and took off looking for the next high-layer. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Phelps dropping down from the ceiling onto the watchtower across the river. The good boy was definitely earning his treats.

Chen Haoran barreled through crickets and through superior cultivation and his Profound-rank weapon cut down three more Ninth-Layers. With him targeting their leaders whatever formation the guards here had left quickly broke down as they were surrounded and buried under the mass of crickets. In the back of his head, from a rather dark place, he wondered what kind of score Lan Fen would give him.

He paused for only a brief moment when his qi sense was overwhelmed with a sudden nexus of energy. It was the only warning he had before he was picked up by the throat and lifted into the air with crushing force. His vision swam, turned black, and flashed with stars all at once as he gasped for air. He had lost his grip and dropped his scimitars during the sudden attack. Not that they would have done him any good against his assailant.

The man strangling him didn’t look a day over 40. His white was pulled back into a tight topknot and his golden eyes looked at Chen Haoran indifferently as he sneered. The threat from his qi-sense finally registered far, far too late.

Liquid Meridian Realm.

The Liquid Meridian Realm looked around at the horde of crickets and scowled. Liquid green qi flooded from his body in a wave and crushed the surrounding crickets into paste. The stragglers scattered in every direction while the few surviving guards picked themselves up.

“You and that bitch must think you’re so clever. As if I couldn’t be alerted in case the camp came under attack.” He sneered at Chen Haoran. “It was my personal development. It’s only natural that traitor wouldn’t know about it.”

Elder Qianbei. Had he turned around when he learned the camp was under attack?

“This is far too much damage however,” Elder Qianbei said, glaring at the ruined camp. “You’re just as poisonous as your wife.” He flicked his free hand four times and Chen Haoran’s vision exploded into searing white pain as the Elder effortlessly shattered all four of his limbs. His agonized scream was choked in his throat by Elder Qianbei who tightened his grip as he carried Chen Haoran over to the wall.

“Be grateful that you’ve been allowed to live for a few more minutes,” the Elder casually lifted Chen Haoran while he spoke as if he weighed no more than the air he was held up in. “I hope your wife loves you Chen Haoran. This farce will be over much faster if she does.”

Chen Haoran spasmed in the Elder’s grip. Deep pain pulsated like four drumming hearts in each broken limb. Fire and lightning raced up his spine and his vision alternated between white and color. He had to speak. Beg, threaten, cajole anything. Cultivators respected power didn’t they? He would tell him about the Chen family. About Song Yuelin who cuts through Liquid Meridians like grass. About his father Chen Qitao who even the City Lord fears. He would open his mouth and tell Elder Qianbei to let him go or face their revenge.

He couldn’t. Not because he didn’t want to. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his face flushed a violent before receding to a deathly pale. His lips moved but his tongue sat heavy in his mouth like a lead weight and his throat was strangled by fire and lightning.

Song Yuelin. Chen Qitao. He wanted to say.

Gargle. Gargle. Were all that came out.

The pain was too much. He couldn’t. He tried to call his qi and banish the time away. Instead of its normal water-like flow it came in awkward fits and spurts. Where his qi left his chest and entered his crippled appendages it snarled in the twisted and torn meridians, spilling out uselessly into his broken flesh and bones. Instead of relieving it only hurt him worse, as if his pain had become a cultivator and was absorbing his qi to become a greater pain than before. His world went dark. Foreign qi blasted into his skull and denied him even the relief of unconsciousness.

“She certainly has learned some interesting tricks,” Elder Qianbei mused. “That movement technique and whatever she used to detect my presence at such a distance.” He snorted. “She really looked down on me. I wonder what the look on her face was like when her own trick was turned against her.” The Elder shook Chen Haoran and he groaned. “Not that she can actually save you. I just need her to stand in one place so I can kill her.”

Death. He was going to die. It wasn’t to be a sweet relief either. He was going to die an agonizing death. A horrible, terrible death. He saw it now. It was in his eyes. Screaming and yelling and cursing. That was how he would die. Did die? Has he died before? It wasn’t like this. This was not his death.

“Oh there she is,” Elder Qianbei said in a pleasantly surprised tone. “She really is quite fast. It’s good that she never advanced to the Liquid Meridian realm.” The Elder turned Chen Haoran away from Lan Fen’s direction to face him. A final, casual cruelty.

Liquid Meridian. Liquid Meridian was powerful, far stronger than him. He needed Liquid Meridian to beat Liquid Meridian. He had done that before with a core. He didn’t have a core. He couldn’t use a core. It couldn’t blow up. He had no core. He had no Liquid Merid-

Golden words burned across his eyes: Everlasting Hundred Blessings Charitable Prosperity. Their unnatural stability gave him something to anchor his whirling vision on. With that anchor came absolute clarity through the pain for one brief, shining moment. He didn’t have a Liquid Meridian core.

Phelps fell from the ceiling. Not like a stone or meteor. He fell silently like an owl in flight and dropped atop Elder Qianbei’s head, slashing out at his eyes and neck with his claws.

“Impudent wretch!” It was in vain. Song Yuelin had once told him that even if he hit him directly with the Canyon Carving Sword he would survive. Phelps natural weapons and cultivation were too weak to allow him to do anything more than superficial damage to the Elder’s vital points.

What if were a superior natural weapon though?

Chen Haoran called his last hope to his mind. In the space between him and Elder Qianbei a mammoth’s tusk appeared all 45 feet of it and glowing like polished marble. Angled downward the flat end rose high into the air while the point speared through Elder Qianbei’s chest and into the stone beneath them.

The Elder’s eyes went red with shock and fear. “Impossible,” he choked. Blood gushing from his mouth. He steel grip slackened and Chen Haoran fell. Phelps leapt after him. Elder Qianbei’s eyes shone with light.

Lan Fen arrived riding lightning and caught them just as the world turned green.

Chapter 60

“Chen Haoran.”

“Lan Fen.”

“You’ve advanced.”

“As have you.”

She looked the same as when he last saw her. Vibrant white hair and golden eagle eyes. A face that looked better suited for staring down at someone from a glorious war memorial. She had changed from her dress to armor. The Wintersteel Scale Armor he gave her, from which he was rewarded the Profound-rank Wintersteel Plate. Chen Haoran found there wasn’t much a of difference in Lan Fen whether she wore cloth or metal. He reached out with his sense, Qi Realm Ninth-Layer. It wasn’t altogether too surprising that she reached the Ninth-Layer before he did, it was always going to be easier for her than for him. What did draw his attention was the unfamiliar sword strapped to her side. He felt nothing from it and yet almost unconsciously his sense lingered over it.

Phelps squealed.

He hooked a thumb at his back. “Lan Fen this is Phelps.” Lan Fen looked at the sloth, who stared back at her with large, dopey eyes. “Phelps this is Lan Fen.”

“When Song Yuelin told me he had lost you I never thought you would end up here of all places,” Lan Fen said. “Perhaps I should have expected it.”

“So you’ve known about the cavern for a while.” Given her strength she had almost certainly explored it before under the Lan family.

“Bathhouse.”

“Excuse me?”

“Bathhouse,” Lan Fen repeated. “That is how my family refers to it. That is what it is.”

Chen Haoran’s thoughts ground to a halt. A bathhouse? With all the heated pools it made some twisted sort of sense but… a bathhouse? The density of energy, the sheer size, the abundant treasures, and the monsters that guarded them. If this was some training ground or sacred space he would accept but to hear that it was nothing more than a bathhouse?

Madness.

“All of this?” He couldn’t hide the disbelief that colored his voice. There was no reason for Lan Fen to exaggerate but he couldn’t help but question her.

Lan Fen nodded. “The ruins of an ancient superpower. A relic from a much grander past. This secret realm was used by the disciples of the superpower to rest and maintain their condition.”

It made sense and yet none at all. All of this?

“You said secret realm, is that a specific term?”

Lan Fen hooked her finger and motioned him to follow. “This is not a safe place.” She disappeared into the steam and he followed after her. In a way it was much like the night he followed her to attack the Lan family’s spiritual garden. Surefooted Lan Fen, who possessed a clear view forward, and Chen Haoran who followed after her like a moth to light, all but blind save for his qi sense.

She led him to a hole in the ground covered by a large boulder, with the only opening barely being enough to squeeze through. Inside was lit blue with glowing moss that grew beneath the boulder and filled with lukewarm water. Other than the cold snaps, it was the coolest temperature he had experienced in this ‘bathhouse.’ They settled in the waist-high water and stared at each other.

Phelps squealed and splashed around, happily burbling at Lan Fen. She looked amused at least. Two people and a sloth sharing a pool. It wasn’t the kind of service available in Clearsprings City hot spring that was for certain.

Chen Haoran laughed. Seeing Lan Fen raise an eyebrow he elaborated. “Song Yuelin wanted us to go to a bathhouse together. I doubt this was what he had in mind though.”

“Meddlesome man,” Lan Fen muttered. She rested her back against the stone and propped her arm up on her knee. “To answer your previous question a secret realm is a pocket of expanded space separate from the world.”

“Like a storage bag?”

“Vastly more complex than that but they are related. Secret realms vary in their terrains and resources but are usually more spiritually dense than the surrounding area.”

It was somehow easier to accept he had accidentally a new dimension than the fact that said dimension was just a bathhouse. It did help explain how such a large open area underground could exist without affecting any of the land above.

“I don’t recall going through a portal or anything to get here though,” Chen Haoran said. “I was brought here by a river.”

“Did I not tell you before? The waters of the Clearsprings Mountains run deep.” She nonchalantly waved her hand. “They all pass through here eventually, you would not be the first carried with them.”

“So how does the water leave then?” Not through the waterfall that’s for sure. It would be ideal if he could use another exit besides the waterfall.

Lan Fen seemed to read his thoughts. “Not in a way survivable by you.”

He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Is that waterfall really the only way out then?”

“It is the only reliable doorway mastered by the Lan family,” she said. “If there are other ways to leave I do not know them.”

Of course. It would be too easy otherwise.

“What’s the plan then?” he asked.

Lan Fen blinked. “Pardon?”

“There probably a Liquid Meridian realm in that camp right?” The question was rhetorical, of course, there was he’d be too lucky otherwise. “There’s no way I can get out without dealing with them and that’s not happening without you.”

“Is that so?” Lan Fen frowned. “I recall it was not too long ago that you had an issue being involved with killing.”

Chen Haoran sighed. “There’s clearly some kind of disconnect between what you think I meant and what I actually said.”

“Enlighten me then.”

“What’s there to enlighten? The people in this cavern want to kill me and will inevitably try to, of course I’m going to kill them to live.”

“That is not what you said before.”

“They weren’t trying to kill me back then.”

“They were always trying to kill you. Do you think yourself nobler for letting them strike first? The result is the same in the end, just with more sophistry.”

“The sophistry is important to me.” He sighed and massaged his head. “I’m not out here to claim some moral high horse, at the end of the day I’ll do anything to live.”

“Clearly.”

Chen Haoran narrowed his eyes. “How long were you watching me?”

“You’ve been within my range since you ambushed the foraging party.” She paused for a few seconds. “I did not take you for the type.”

He grimaced. They both knew what she was talking about. “Neither did I.”

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. Even Phelps ceased his splashing and paddled over to Chen Haoran, softly crooning.

“Why didn’t you say anything about the cavern before?” he asked. It was a question with an obvious answer as soon as it was revealed that Lan Fen wasn’t ignorant of the cavern’s existence. He just needed something to fill the silence.

“It was not necessary.” Came Lan Fen’s curt and expected answer.

“Back when we separated you could have told us about this place,” he said. “We could have come to hide here. I would have never been at risk of being taken back to the Lan family.”

“You saw for yourself Song Yuelin’s behavior.” She frowned. “I am sorry.”

Good enough.

“Are you saying you didn’t want him to try and claim it?” He frowned. “Are you trying to monopolize the cavern?”

“I do not have the strength to do such a thing as of right now,” Lan Fen slowly said. “But I did not think letting the Chen family know the existence of the Bathhouse was in my best interests.”

Chen Haoran looked at her. “Lan Yao found the Earth-rank method from here,” he stated. “You found your storage space here too.”

Lan Fen looked startled before huffing a laugh. “Once again I am equal parts impressed and annoyed with your ability to string knowledge together.”

“That’s why she sent you to me, isn’t it? This is why she wanted to kill you.”

“Lan Yao has many reasons for wanting to kill me but yes.”

“Did you intend to settle the score here in the cavern from the start?”

“I was aiming to have the other families slay the Patriarch once I had drawn him out of his hole.” Lan Fen shrugged. “The plan has unfortunately changed as they are wont to do.”

“Is the Patriarch in the cavern now?”

Lan Fen viciously smiled. “For now he will be stuck in the city for a few more days. The City Lord and the other families will not let him leave so quickly.”

“You leaked information about the cavern.”

“Just its existence. The Patriarch will be bogged down navigating that situation for the time being.”

“Giving you time to set the stage eh?”

Lan Fen smiled. “You have fought a Liquid Meridian realm. How do you feel about killing one?”

Chapter 59

The Earth-rank method that had made the Lan family so threatening was Wood attribute. The Patriarch was practicing it. Why would he do it in Clearsprings City when the Spa Cavern was superior in every way? Especially when he had to shorten the time it took for him to return to his old cultivation level by any means possible.

Where was Lan Fen in all this then? What was she doing? Her previous schemes took on a new light now. Not just exposing the Patriarch’s cultivation. It was to expose that he wasn’t even there. Attacking the Lan family wasn’t just to weaken them in the eyes of the other families. It was to force the Patriarch to come out of seclusion and back to the city. Was that where she planned to deal him the killing blow? The Lan family having an Earth-rank method was one thing, the Lan family having an Earth-rank method and a cultivation paradise? That was something else entirely.

Chen Haoran shivered. If it weren’t for that prince giving the major families a reason to rally together Lan Fen’s plan could have spelled the end for the Lan family. It still might even. The Lan family didn’t seem keen on sharing the secret of the Spa Cavern after all.

Regardless, the danger of the cavern had rocketed up several levels. He was potentially in the same area code as the second strongest cultivator in Clearsprings City who would probably like nothing more than to skin him alive. Perhaps he’d run into one of the other Lan family Elders first before that happened though? Or if he was lucky he would become chow to some passing Liquid Meridian beast. Or maybe the powder keg that was Clearsprings politics would blow up and multiple factions would duke it out within the cavern.

“You know Phelps if surviving difficult situations was a school assignment my report would be marked up in red pen.” He’d get a passing grade for the sheer fact he was still alive despite it all but much like his old math teachers, he’d be getting points off for not showing how his equations actually lead him to that conclusion. Naturally, the solution to this was the same way he passed high school engineering.

Copy the smarter student.

Once again he would have to peek at Lan Fen’s cheat sheet to survive. So if he were Lan Fen, where would he be right now to maximize his chances for revenge?

“Here,” Chen Haoran sighed. “She would be right here.” He looked up towards the cavern roof. “Lan Fen if you’re in here then you better find me or I’m going to be so pissed.”

Actually calling to the sky wouldn’t work. Listening in on words from a far distance was impossible even for Lan Fen’s incredible sensing ability. If Lan Fen wanted to find him then it would be her choice in the end. It did make Chen Haoran feel a little better to say it out loud. If she found him then he was manifesting the future. If she didn’t then he was frontloading his outrage.

Win-win really. So long as he was still alive.

—————

He followed the river upstream to its waterfall source. Now that he knew Lan family boats regularly travels down it however he kept far away from the banks and hidden within the steam. Only venturing near the river to orient himself and make sure he hadn’t wandered off too far from its course. The camp by the waterfall entrance was most likely the main Lan family base for their cavern operation. Whether the Patriarch was there remained to be seen but it was guaranteed that at least one Liquid Meridian would be stationed there. Not that it really made much difference to him which flavor of Liquid Meridian was playing house. He was screwed either way as soon as they got their hands on him. Chen Haoran wasn’t fool enough to believe for a second that the repeated ass-kickings he experienced at the hands of Song Yuelin were enough to square up against a serious Liquid Meridian.

Not that he had much of a choice when it came to throwing himself into the Lion’s Den.

Every so often he would spot hunting groups. They would roam around the edges of the shoreline hunting monster for cores and gathering spiritual herbs as well as, surprisingly enough, the glowing moss. What use they had for it was unknown but the few times he was brave enough to spy he saw they carried it away by the barrel full . On bad days Chen Haoran feared that these hunting groups were personally scouring the cavern for him after his act of annihilating a hunting party. On his good days, he recognized them for what they were. Cogs in the machine to fuel the Lan family’s power and, more importantly, the Patriarch’s power. Whether the collected materials were all for Patriarch Lan was unknown but he was almost certainly taking a significant chunk.

If the Patriarch was anything like Chen Haoran then he’d be running into bottlenecks thanks to the overabundance of cultivation materials. If he was like Lan Fen in talent instead then Chen Haoran hoped she had a real killer move in reserve.

Assuming she was even here.

If he got out of this cavern alive he would have to find more Liquid Meridian cores. Surely not every Liquid Meridian realm would be as invincible as Song Yuelin when it came to being blown up?

It was mostly thanks to the cavern’s steam and rock formations that he was able to avoid being spotted by the Lan family hunting groups. His qi sense had revealed its true strength in this situation. It was perhaps the most mysterious benefit of his becoming a cultivator. How it worked was beyond him to explain and with how instinctual its use was he eventually took its magical effect for granted. Here though where only sound and the qi-sense were able to protect him he began to truly notice its properties.

To begin with, not every qi sense was equal. Lan Fen’s insane range was evidence enough of that but given how ridiculous she was in general he discounted anything about her being in the range of standard or explainable. Deep in the steam he received a more reliable example of this in action, from when he ambushed the first hunting group to the various foraging parties he was now avoiding he noticed them with his qi-sense before they did every time. It was clear that his range was greater than that of the Lan cultivators. Cultivation was the cause of it, with every Layer he grew so too did his sense. Layer alone wasn’t enough to explain everything. Barring any personal talent or genetic dispositions for sensing the biggest reason could only have been the quality of his qi. His Earth-rank cultivation method had helped him crush many cultivators who were otherwise his equal in level.

For now.

The journey upriver thus passed in a safe but much to tense manner for his liking. The only good thing was that the patrols confirmed he was getting closer to his goal of escape. He didn’t dare go near the river anymore for fear of discovery and could only hope he hadn’t veered too far off course in the steam. He didn’t dare wish for visibility however. A clear view would spell his death and he was dreading the next cold snap.

His efforts bore fruit in the end. The roar of water grew louder than ever, such that he could feel the vibrations through the stone beneath his feat. With the utmost caution, he slowly swung back around to the river. As if pushed away by the force or by some other method the steam thinned to the point he could see a waterfall two hundred feet in height bursting out of the sheer wall of the cavern like a spout. Rising equal in height alongside it was a tree, bent and sloped like an organic ramp, its branches woven into railings. One end was buried in the ground, the other end speared into the stone next to the top of the waterfall.

Thick boxes suddenly appeared out of the waterfall and fell into waiting nets at the base where workers quickly scrambled like spiders on the web to remove them. On top of the tree, men picked up barrels and crates and slung them at the top of the waterfall where they disappeared without a trace.

The Lan family camp was enclosed within a semi-circular stone wall that enveloped the base of the ramp tree and the waterfall and met with the river in the center where a chain net rose out of the water. Two tall watchtowers sat on either shore. If Chen Haoran wanted a better view he needed to reach a higher elevation. Unfortunately, there were no pillars or hills near enough for him to to climb. He’d probably be spotted had he attempted such a thing anyway.

He would have to ask someone else.

He turned to look at the presence that deliberately revealed itself behind him. “I have some questions for you.”

Out of the steam, like the ghost of a dead general, appeared Lan Fen.

Chapter 58

Chen Haoran didn’t hesitate.

He cycled all the qi he could spare to his Crouching Tiger Earrings and an invisible wave of qi burst out with a Tiger’s roar. All the Lan cultivators stiffened in fear. That was all the time needed for a river of blue energy to sweep away the Ninth-Layer before they could recover. The rest of the group watched in stunned disbelief as their leader and the ground they stood on was erased. The salamander had no such issues, quickly recovering from its fear-induced paralysis and locking its jaw around a Seventh-Layer’s leg, crushing it with an audible snap.

“Save him,” snapped the Eighth-Layer, before rushing toward Chen Haoran.

The two remaining Seventh-Layers looked between themselves. Through silent agreement they split up, one going to save their fellow Lan from the salamander’s death roll while the other raised his sword to assist the Eighth-Layer in fighting Chen Haoran.

It was their last mistake.

Chen Haoran leaped above the heads of the two rushing combatants and came down like a stone on the left alone Lan in the rear. Dropping one of his swords he grabbed the back of the man’s neck and threw him to the ground. The Seventh-Layer’s breath left his lungs and Chen Haoran grimaced before slamming his foot down onto the cultivator’s elbow, snapping it with a sickening crunch. He screamed and bucked as Chen Haoran sank his sword into his other arm, pinning him to the earth.

Chen Haoran picked up his dropped sword in a hasty block as the Eighth-Layer slashed his sword at him with a furious roar. The Lan looked back at the last Seventh-Layer. “Go!” he roared. “Inform Elder Xiaobei!”

Chen Haoran leveraged his superior cultivation and forced the Eighth-Layer back with strength. It was too late however as the Seventh-Layer disappeared into the steam in a dead run.

The last standing Lan snarled at him, swinging his sword in a wide arc. “You will die this day.”

Chen Haoran battered it aside and bared his teeth as he cast his sense into the mist. “Someone’s going before either of us.”

Confusion flashed across the Eighth-Layer’s face before transforming into horror after his sense informed him. Chen Haoran took this moment, for a brief moment his scimitar became a river. The Eighth-Layer faltered and a thin red line split across his neck before his head fell over. Chen Haoran breathed out. His first use of Harmonization in combat, while only a split second, had succeeded.

Phelps came tumbling in a floating roll from where the Seventh-Layer had run into the steam. One of his claws dripping red. With the front secured Chen Haoran looked toward the salamander only to find it wringing a dead Lan cultivator by the neck. The salamander eyed him with a single, marble black eye before moving closer to the pinned Seventh-Layer. Chen Haoran snorted and cycled qi to his earrings for another pulse of tiger qi. This was less effective than the first use but his message had been conveyed. The salamander backed away into its pool, dragging the corpse in its mouth with it beneath the water.

Chen Haoran turned to the groaning Lan cultivator beneath him. This was the part that would suck. He pinned the man’s legs with his knees and checked his eyes, glassy and unfocused. He slapped the man across the face, making sure to infuse every hit with stinging qi. Clarity soon returned to his eyes and he glared at Chen Haoran with anger and wild fear.

“What is your name?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Fuck you!”

“Wrong answer.” He wished it wasn’t. Chen Haoran stabbed his second scimitar into the same arm as the first. “What is your name!” he roared at the man.

“La-Lan Aoki,” he stuttered.

Chen Haoran removed one sword. “How do I get out of this cavern, Lan Aoki?”

“Dispense with this pretense and kill me,” he said, growling in pain. “May you rot in these depths.”

Chen Haoran gripped Lan Aoki’s jaw and stared into his eyes. “If I was going to kill you I would have crippled your legs first.” He dug his knee into the man’s leg for emphasis. “I need you to walk.”

Lan Aoki stubbornly remained silent. Chen Haoran reached out and squeezed the man’s snapped elbow, shuddering in revulsion at the feel of its saggy skin and sharp bone. Lan Aoki hissed in pain and he hissed with him. “I take no pleasure in the pain I’m causing you, Lan Aoki.” He let go on the man’s elbow and scrubbed his palm against his leg. “Tell me how to get out of here and lead me through the dangers in this cavern and you might see sunlight again.”

Lan Aoki rasped out several long, painful breaths. Chen Haoran kept his gaze till his vision blurred with tears.

Finally, Lan Aoki exhaled. “Follow the river upstream.” Chen Haoran nodded and removed the grip on his jaw. “There is a waterfall, cross it and you will be able to leave.”

“There is another camp at that waterfall?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lan Aoki said. “They are responsible for transporting supplies in and out of the cavern.”

“Okay.” Chen Haoran leaned back. He cycled his qi, the warm vitality soothing his nerves. “Thank you. I mean it.”

His qi-enhanced fist snapped the man’s neck.

“I’m sorry,” he said to the man’s forever-frozen eyes. Chen Haoran closed the Lan cultivator’s eyes before rolling off his body and collapsing to the ground. “Fuck.” He looked at his bloody fingers. They curled and he clutched his chest with them. “Fuck.”

Phelps slowly floated over and settled at his side, softly crooning. Chen Haoran vigorously rubbed his non-bloody hand into the sloth’s fur. Fur was good, better than skin and broken bones.

He pressed his face into Phelp’s fur. “The things I do to live,” he mumbled. “The things I do to fucking live.”

Eventually, he picked himself up. A pulse of qi ran down his hand and wicked the blood off his fingers. He breathed deeply and centered himself before going to pat down the bodies. He’d destroyed everything the Ninth-Layer was carrying so the real harvest came from the Eighth-Layer though to call it a harvest was a stretch. Beyond some medicinal pills and monster cores the only thing of note were two strips of paper painted with a red fire burst shaped pattern. The Seventh-Layers had much the same as the Eighth-Layer, just less quantity, and he collected two more painted papers. From his sense he could feel some type of dormant qi within the paint. He wasn’t in the mood to try testing them out however.

He fed some of the cores to Phelps and patted his head. “Good thing you were there huh, my little ninja sloth. We woulda had a rough time if he’d called for help.” Phelps squealed at him. “Here I was thinking you were the cavern version of Lan Fen, maybe you’re the cavern version of Song Yuelin instead?”

Slowly the small smile he’d managed to form faded. “The Lan family huh?” Of all the people he would have thought he’d meet down here, they were the last ones on his list. “I thought I’d see Song fucking Yuelin before even dreaming of meeting the Lan family.”

In fairness, he thought he’d left them all back in Clearsprings City. Who would have thought they’d make like moorlocks and spread underground too? It was obvious why though. The abundant Water energy was far above anything that could be found in Clearsprings City and since Water nourished Wood, as a primarily Wood-element focused clan the only ones who’d benefit more than them from the caverns were Water spirit roots like Chen Haoran.

And Metal.

Like Lan Fen.

The Lan family was here. Was Lan Fen unaware of this? She had never mentioned it in her plans before. There was no way she wouldn’t try to destroy it if she knew about it. Had her plan been successful and the Lan family was chased out of Clearsprings City the Spa Caverns would be the perfect place for them to retreat to.

He tried to imagine for a moment that Lan Fen did not, in fact, know that her family had access to such a large and precious territory that stood to ruin all her plans.

Chen Haoran found that he could not, in fact, imagine such a thing being possible.

That still didn’t explain why she never made any attempt to come here. At the very least seeing as how he entered the cavern with none the wiser it didn’t seem that difficult for Lan Fen to sneak in, especially since with her Metal Spirit root she’d benefit from the Water Attribute energies as well. Why then had she not come here after reacquiring some of her cultivation?

Chen Haoran frowned. “Confidence,” he spoke into the empty air.

He ran over and slung Phelps over his back who squealed at Chen Haoran for interrupting his meal but acquiesced to the sudden motion. Ignoring his irate sloth, Chen Haoran gathered the bodies and quickly tossed them into the salamander’s pool before rushing off into the steam.

Lan Fen never did anything she was not completely confident in. If she was not confident in coming to the Spa Cavern then what would stop her? A Liquid Meridian realm obviously. The Lan family didn’t have that many to begin with though, and with her sensing it would be trivial to avoid them given the size of the cavern and with the chaos Lan Fen had been causing the majority would be in Clearsprings City holding down the fort with the Patriarch-

Chen Haoran felt a thunderbolt race down his spine. He felt less shocked when he grabbed lightning with his hands.

“Patriarch Lan is in this cavern.”

Chapter 57:

Chen Haoran dove and hid behind the rocks along the river as soon as he spotted the boat, shushing Phelps as he did so. A boat. An actual boat. People. There were other people down in the cavern.

Why was he hiding then? He paused when the thought occurred to him. He should go and get their attention, have them take him out of this place.

He thought of Lan Fen.

This wasn’t a world where he could blindly hope for rescue without consequences. He peeked around the rock and watched the boat float downstream. It was built long and narrow like an ancient trireme. Nine oars on each side rose and dipped into the water in unison, propelling it upstream against the river’s flow. Chen Haoran could barely make out a few standing figures pacing the deck but the distance was too far even with his qi-enhanced vision.

He watched the boat leave and followed behind it, clinging to rocks and staying low to avoid notice. Just seeing the boat was enough to provide a wealth of information. There was no wood down here in the cavern. Even with the weird ecology Chen Haoran had seen, having trees good for shipbuilding would be a stretch. That meant whoever was on that boat had access to the outside. Which meant they weren’t equally trapped natives.

The boat sailed out of sight into the thick steam of the cavern. It didn’t matter. Now that he had a direction he would find it again when it docked. If he was lucky then the river would directly lead outside. If he wasn’t then he was going to have to confront his fellow spelunkers.

The Spa Cavern was a wondrous place, and the benefits it brought to cultivation were apparent. It was impossible for a large group of people to be down here exploring it without word being spread. If it was at all common knowledge then Lan Fen would have told him about it with how much of a benefit to his cultivation it was.

Phelps squealed and Chen Haoran fed him a piece of moss to calm him.

No, he corrected himself. Not his benefit, hers. That was perhaps his biggest issue when it came to Lan Fen, he projected himself in places where he didn't belong. If Lan Fen had known about the Spa Caverns there was no way she would have wasted her time in Clearsprings City when there was a much better option available.

Leaving aside Lan Fen’s reliable practicality the fact of the matter was there was an organized and well-supplied force within the Spa Caverns without anyone the wiser. If there was even a hint of the cavern’s existence it would no doubt cause a frenzy among the local cultivators. Even back on Earth, Chen Haoran could imagine people killing to keep less valuable secrets let alone this new world.

“Be a good boy Phelps,” he warned. “Because I don’t think the place we’re going to has any.”

—————

It didn’t take long for Chen Haoran to catch back up with the ship, though his tailing had been slowed upon finding what the river washed up on its banks. Scraps of metal and cloth, rusted swords, broken armor, unidentifiable bones. Cluttered trash along the waterway reminded him of home oddly enough. However they got here, the river would be the way he got out.

As he had been expecting when he followed it, the boat docked at what looked to be a base camp. What caught him by surprise was the form it took. A rocky island that rose above the waters and sat center in the river, wreathed in steam. Built atop it was a circular stone building ringed by pillars in the same style as those that held up the cavern roof, capped with a half-collapsed dome. The obvious ruins were contrasted with newer wooden scaffolding that stretched down to a floating dock that just peaked out the white fog where two other ships were moored and perched precariously on the intact portions of the dome sat a crows nest, a solitary watchman barely visible through the steam. A simple wooden bridge spanned the river to the shore Chen Haoran was on and he could spy the shadowy silhouette of another bridge mirroring it on the other side. There was the sound of barked commands and the dull thumps of what Chen Haoran assumed was crew moving cargo. The steam and distance made any attempt to scout by sight pointless.

Chen Haoran sighed and retreated from the river till the island was completely out of sight. He hunkered down in a low-lying pool shielded from sight by an overhang of rock with just enough space for him to sit cross-legged under. After casually snapping the neck of the salamander that lived within the pool he fed its core to Phelps and took out the last of his dry tack to crunch on while he considered his options.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have many. In front of him was an organized, well-supplied, fortified, and most definitely armed group of unknown number and strength. In video games, those were his favorite odds. In reality, he was screwed. Sneaking into the camp was a no-go. A wasteful effort that would only end the same way waltzing in through the front would, fighting for his life. If there was any sort of Liquid Meridian in the camp he would be even more screwed. Even if they were only one-tenth of Song Yuelin’s skill it would be one hundred percent fatal for him.

He could ignore the fortress and follow the river upstream. Take a chance that the river itself was the connection to the outside world, or that he would find an exit near it. Doubtless, he’d find another outpost guarding the entrance but being so close to the exit would at least mean he had a chance of escape. Chen Haoran drummed his fingers as he thought. Ignoring and moving on was his best option but he wasn’t satisfied with just blindly going forward based on assumptions. If this giant river was anything like the one he arrived through then he’d be looking at another dead end. There was also the chance that the way out was downstream based on the direction the ship was headed from. Hell, they could have lowered the boats from a hole in the ceiling for all he knew.

Chen Haoran sighed again. With Lan Fen’s sensing, she would have probably figured out the layout of the whole cavern by now. Now he had to go with Plan C.

Setting an ambush.

—————

It was an estimated few days later by his count when the opportunity to put his plan into action arrived. If the camp had bridges to the shore it meant that there was a need for them. Otherwise there was no point when boats would suffice. Chen Haoran’s theory was vindicated when a group crossed the bridge and traveled into the cavern. From the sound of it they were only a small group. Unfortunately, sound was all he had to go and track by. If there was one thing he was confident in it was the fact he was no ninja. His only saving grace in stealth was his habit of light steps to minimize noise, he was totally relying on the steam to obscure him otherwise. To eliminate any chance of being discovered he stayed far enough away that even his qi sense couldn’t reach on the off chance that he fell into someone else’s sensing range.

Chen Haoran strained his ears to the limit with qi so as to not lose what he assumed was a hunting group. He was beginning to regret not having Song Yuelin teach him his cultivator assassin stealth skills. Phelps, perhaps sensing the severity of the matter, was quiet and pressed flush against his back. It had been a risk to bring him along but if Chen Haoran left him somewhere and something went wrong he wasn’t confident he’d have the time to collect him.

He followed the group and listened to them hunt crickets, salamanders, and the stray sloth that dropped down from the cavern roof. After every fight they would stop and collect the cores before moving on. Chen Haoran could hear mumbled conversation and stifled laughs at some unheard joke. When he had judged that they were far enough away from the camp that he wouldn’t immediately have a Liquid Meridian breathing down his neck the hunting group picked a fight with three strong salamanders.

Chen Haoran set Phelps on the ground and crept forward, unsheathing his scimitars. Slowly, carefully, he inched his sense forward till he had he whole party of five within his range and stopped. All of them Qi realms, one Ninth-layer, one Eighth, and three Seventh-Layers. A strong group all things considered. The higher Layers fought a salamander each while the Seventh-Layers surrounded the remaining one. The salamanders were no match in the end. The moment the higher Layers finished off their opponents Chen Haoran struck.

Canyon Carving Sword

He burst through the steam, his sword a torrent of blue energy.

Five heads of white hair and five pairs of golden eyes whipped around to face him.

The Lan family cultivators looked just as shocked as he felt.

---------

No funny Young Master title right now. Currently running on no hours of sleep, two energy drinks and a dream. Enjoy the chapter!

Status Update

Hey all. It's been quite awhile since my last post. Sorry for that. I really didn't have anything to say or post and I didn't want to just post clutter or nonsense. Or maybe I should have? Who knows.

In any case chapter 56 is now posted. We won't be returning to a regular schedule just yet. Over the past month I've been editing the book and realized I didn't like where I 'ended' it so to speak so I've decided to combine all the chapters I wrote for Volume 2 into Volume 1 and make a new, proper ending. This is gonna take more writing, some 10-20 thousand words. Over the next two weeks I'll be posting as much as I can everyday while I hammer out the last half of Immortality Starts With Generosity. A sort of 12 days of Christmas type of thing I guess.

A big thank you to everyone who's still remained a patron despite the lack of communication on my end after all this time, you guys are awesome.

Cheers!

Chapter 56: This Young Master Doesn't Know

The columns were actual columns. The largest features of the Spa Cavern were artificial. What did that mean for the cavern itself? Was the whole place built by someone else as well?

It was a question that plagued Chen Haoran as he journeyed further. He had assumed the cavern was natural and explained away its bizarreness as this new world’s magical fuckery. What did he really know though? Besides the columns, the cavern didn’t look like it had been built, it lacked that artificiality that came when people tried to mimic nature. Could he really tell though? Perhaps the whole cavern was engineered to look natural with qi techniques he had yet to understand. Or maybe the man-made portions were like the columns, worn down and obscured by the passage of time. Just the thought that there was a guiding hand behind the design of the subterranean world filled him with dread. What would he find when he reached the source of the cold snaps? Would something be waiting for him there?

A second cold snap hit during his subterranean progress. Chen Haoran took Phelps and dived into another pool to avoid it. Luck hadn’t been on his side however and the pool he sheltered in had a Qi realm salamander of the Eighth-Layer lurking at the bottom. He was forced to wrestle with it underwater while the pool froze over before finally using the Canyon Carving Sword and slicing both the salamander and pool in half.

It had been a waste of his precious lightning-refined qi, especially since he couldn’t find another conductive stalagmite like before. It didn’t effect his cultivation given how the deeper reaches of the cavern proved to be a wealth of resources. Phelps, the little glutton, ate everything he could get his hands on besides the {Monk Flower} vines. It had been a bit of a disappointment but seeing as how he had no idea when he would be in a position to actually grow the plants himself it wasn’t too much of a loss.

With more resources came more danger. Mostly in the form of the sloths and salamanders. He’d seen huge examples of both species that sat squarely in the Liquid Meridian realm. It was a blessing that the sloths weren’t predatory and the salamanders were loath to go too far from their pools. He could probably outrun them if they really gave chase but the odds weren’t anything he was willing to bet his life on. The real luck was that he had yet to see a cricket higher than the Qi Realm Ninth-Layer. He’d be well and truly screwed the day he met one stronger than that.

Not that strength mattered in the face of the cold snaps. The third cold snap hit and every living thing in the caverns from the meanest cricket to the strongest Liquid Meridian salamander did their best to avoid it in their own ways. The crickets scrambled for their burrows and the sloths fell from the ceiling to submerge themselves in the pools where they became vulnerable to lurking salamanders. The creatures that lived here were clearly long used to the caverns strange weather. It was an understanding that could only come from time. It left Chen Haoran once again questioning the scale of this Spa Caverns. How long ago had it been created? How long have the beasts been living and dying underground. Was their ecosystem something natural or was it as artificial as the pillars around them?

Question upon questions upon questions. Every step he took since entering this new world only revealed more things he didn’t know and didn’t understand. So much he couldn’t admit to not knowing because he was constantly unsure how much his predecessor was meant to know. Except now he didn’t have anyone to answer him even if he wanted to ask.

“Do you think you can learn how to speak if your level gets high enough?” he asked Phelps.

Phelps squealed at him and went back to devouring a pile of {Monk Flowers}, he could sense Phelps’s {}-Layer cultivation fluctuate before settling at a higher level than before.

“You would only know about eating anyway.”

Chen Haoran summoned the newly rewarded {Monk flowers } and ate them by the handful. Sat as he was inside a hotspring, snacking and meditating, he could almost imagine himself relaxing at a resort. Behind him the gutted corpse of the salamander that previously occupied the pool, as well as the corpses of the dozen crickets that were attracted by their fight, dispelled that fanciful notion.

He traced the cool qi of the {Improved Monk Flower} all the way down to his core where it then dispersed out through his meridians, mixing with the pool’s energies and submerging into his lightning-refined qi. With every breath, his reserves grew larger and the difference in size between his regular Earth-rank qi and his improved qi grew smaller. It was quite the catch-22. The Lightning-refined qi increased the speed he gathered qi but the more qi he accumulated the weaker the effects of the refined qi became.

At least that’s what he orignally thought.

He switched from the {Improved Monk Flowers} to the ambient water qi. Too much of one type of energy all at once would only lessen its efficiency so it was best to alternate the type of qi one took in. The rich fog of the cavern was drawn into his body with each breath and transformed into flowing energy. He took several deep breaths this way before going back to the {Monk flowers} and repeating. Qi filled and stretched his meridians and yet he kept absorbing energy, as quickly as it was coming in it was being converted into his own. The biggest he was faced in his cultivation seemed to disappear. The yellow dragon danced through his meridians, endlessly consuming qi long past where it would have gotten full and stopped. It raced around his body in a constant cycle, growing larger and larger, before finally having its fill and roaring once it reached his head.

His qi spiked. The roar echoed. The pool water rumbled and spilled it’s banks, soaking an indignant Phelps. For one brief moment there wasn’t a drop of water touching his body. The moment passed. The water crashed against his back and chest but he was unmoved.

Qi Realm Eighth-Layer.

Chen Haoran stood up from the water and stretched. Something was different about him. He wasn’t cultivating slower at all. Instead, he was going faster.

Just another question to add to his list.

——

While advancing another Layer in cultivation was calming for his state of mind but practically speaking it didn’t serve much use in his current situation. The beasts he could kill had already been a non-threat to him while the ones that were truly dangerous were still far out of reach. He still couldn’t resist the Liquid Meridians, still couldn’t weather the cold snaps directly, and still couldn’t navigate the cavern any faster. His life after advancing was just more of the same but slightly stronger.

The day he reached Liquid Meridian Realm couldn’t come fast enough.

The one thing his advancement did for him was remind him of just how small compared to the cavern’s scope. All the physical enhancements that came with superior cultivation and he still felt as if he were treading water rather than getting anywhere. The further he ventured into the cavern the bigger it became. As it stood even when the steam cleared during the cold snaps he could no longer see anything resembling a wall or an end in any direction. There were even times when he looked up toward the cavern’s roof and only saw impenetrable darkness ringed by glowing blue moss. What lurked within he didn’t know but chills ran down his spine nevertheless when he stared directly at the recesses.

Sometimes he wondered if he hadn’t accidentally fallen into yet another world. There were supposed to be mountains above him after all. Was this place really far enough down into the earth that such a massive hollow wouldn’t cause any collapse in the land above? Had the river really swept him down that far? It couldn’t have, he would have drowned even with qi.

Phelps yawned over his shoulder. He had been curious at first of all the new sights but had quickly grown bored of them it seemed. Now the only thing that could rouse his interest was the next meal and which of Chen Haoran’s shoulders felt the most comfortable today. The left, currently.

Chen Haoran scratched the sloth’s chin and received an annoyed huff in return.

“How do you get tired when I’m the one carrying you?”

Phelps yawned again and his eyes drooped. Chen Haoran chuckled and shook his head. “You should carry me too…”

He frowned and turned to face the distance. It had been some time since the last cold snap so a curtain of steam blocked his view. He cycled qi to his ears and concentrated. There was quite a bit of ambient noise in the cavern at any given time, bubbling pools, the harsh chirping of the crickets, the high-up squeals of sloth snuggles. Chen Haoran took in all of it and proceeded to tune out the extraneous noise. He had heard something, just a wisp of it, but now that he was looking he could hear it. A faint, constant roaring beneath all other sounds.

He cycled qi to his legs and took off. Phelps squealed in anger at the sudden acceleration but Chen Haoran ignored him and rushed as quickly as he could through the pools and steam. The roar became louder as he approached, never stopping. The closer Chen Haoran came the more he was sure of what the source of it was. A familiar rumbling and churning that never ceased. The roaring became no less loud than the thunder that dominated the cavern after every cold snap and the sound of it beat in his chest just the same. Chen Haoran broke through the wall of steam and stopped cold.

Before him was a river. A single, massive snake of water that ceaselessly flowed across the cavern as far as the eye could see, splitting it in half.

And on that river…

A boat.

Story Ideas

Hello! I bring to you a few ideas I'm toying around with currently. The titles and names are currently a work in progress but I'm interested in seeing what you guys think.

Jack the Keeper: A Necromancy Progression Fantasy

Jack Keeper, the most talented son of a lineage cursed to die at 18 years old. It is a quiet sudden death. One moment alive, the next not. For mysterious reasons, a noble family has supported the cursed Keepers in order to prevent the family from dying out. Thus Jack Keeper, 16 years old, lives with his cousins in a church secluded on the noble family’s estate. An opportunity comes in the form of a new researcher seeking to understand their family’s curse. This man has his own objectives however and through him, Jack finds a possible way to survive by becoming a necromancer.

Necromancy, Talented Protagonist, Magic, System, Classes, Horror

Great Refining System

A man is reincarnated into a xianxia world with a system that lets him refine anything and either Absorb it, Improve it, or use it to Create something. Joining a sect he begins his rise to the highest levels of cultivation.

Xianxia, Overpowered Protagonist, Crafting, Alchemy

Sign-In: Emperor

A man finds himself in the body of a young emperor in a cultivation world. Beset on the outside by enemy nations and on the inside by power-hungry vassals his only weapon is a strange system that gives him rewards when he signs in at different locations.

Politics, Empire, Kingdom Building, Cultivation, Army Building

Plate Taming

In a world dominated by beasts, humans contract and tame monsters for power. A poor boy finds his first partner wrestling in river mud and discovers within himself a power that enhances a beasts elemental affinities to a godlike level.

Beast Taming, Special Talents, Overpowered Pets, Cultivation

Simulating My Martial Path

In a cultivation world, a boy awakens a power to simulate his future in exchange for money and receives benefits from his simulated life. Trouble strikes when the first future he simulates is his hometown being destroyed in a rain of fire. To save his family and his own life he must use the simulator to increase his power and find the secrets behind the disaster.

I Rolled Godly Support Skills

A young man finds himself transmigrating to a martial arts murim world and inhabiting the body of one Murong Hyun-Ki, the third and least talented son of the Murong clan. By a quirk of fate he enters the world with the ability to roll a gacha for skills and immediately gets seven god-level talents. The only issue is that they’re all support skills and he has no talent for fighting in a world where strength is paramount.

Murim, Wuxia, Politics, Smart MC, Organization Building, Alchemy, Crafting, Scheming, 

Remade Immortal

What type of person willingly chooses to go to a xianxia world? Basil is working the nightshift of his dead-end job when the choice arrives for him. Attracting the attention of a powerful being he is sent off to a new world of supernatural powers and impossible environments to explore to his heart's content.

 Cultivation, Exploration, Powerful Cultivation Method, Daring Protagonist

God of Gobs

A man wakes up in another world and finds that he’s become the god of a goblin tribe. His new godly powers are too much for his fleshy human body to bear however and they instead take the form of a video game system. In a dangerous new fantasy world, he has to keep his tribe alive and expand their power lest his believers get massacred by a passing adventurer.

Comedy, Isekai, Fantasy, Kingdom Building

Remade Immortal Chapter 1

This is a rough draft for one of the ideas I've been working on. A story that asks the question of what kind of person would deliberately choose to go to a Xianxia world. I've got a couple of ideas I'm currently outlining and drafting so I'll be sharing some here as I work on them.

Let me know what you think!

--------

Basil was working a Saturday night shift when the fabric of reality ripped and left a hole of black nothingness where the dairy section used to be.

His manager cursed and ducked behind the counters, dropping the cell phone she was talking into. The customers who had come in five minutes before closing screamed and scrambled out the automatic doors. Basil was stock still on the edge of reality. The hole stopped right before his feet, slicing off the tips of his sneakers. He had stepped back after stocking the whole milk which most likely saved his life, had he been any closer he would have vanished with his hard work.

He felt an empty pang at the thought of the lost milk. That was an hour of his life he wouldn’t get back.

He curled his now-exposed toes and carefully took a step back. The hole was both tall and down, and extended into a fathomless abyss. At any moment it felt like the portion of existence he stood on would collapse like cloth and pitch him into its depths. He took another step back.

He felt safer now. So it would be okay to gaze into the abyss, right? At the very least he had to take a picture, maybe even a selfie. The soft clicking of the phone camera broke the stillness that had settled over this store.

This was nice, Basil decided. It was too bad it didn’t happen eight hours earlier. The most amazing event in human history and he still couldn’t get a day off from work. He stared into the deep. A sudden, inexplicable urge filled his chest and he stepped forward.

His phone disappeared into the bottomless deep.

It was stupid but he was satisfied. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed though, as interesting as this was, it wasn't really going to change his life. At the very least something could crawl out of the hole. He could befriend it, or fight it. He looked around for potential weapons and rated his odds of beating an eldritch abomination in a fistfight. Something flashed in the corner of his eye. Something flashed in endless black. Shivers raced down his spine and leaned over to spot the light in the darkness.

A small blue dot.

It was so obvious now that he looked at it that he was surprised he didn’t see it before. It was impossible to tell what it was, an impossibly vast distance separated them. Yet just as impossibly he knew what it was. He could feel it in his bones, a long-buried calling opened its eyes once more and screamed in a child’s voice.

A new world.

Basil reached out to grab it and tipped over the edge. The abyss took him and he embraced it, willing himself towards that far-off world.

Unfortunately what lay beyond reality was more reality.

The void in reality became the vacuum of space and the vacuum of space became death. Basil desperately looked for his new world as the air was stolen from his lungs and his saliva boiled in his mouth.

On the verge of unconsciousness, he saw light instead.

One brilliant gold and one silver-gray light locked in mortal combat. Separated by hundreds of miles the two living lights captured his mind and would not let go. They saved him from blacking out, now he would die awake.

At the same moment Basil noticed them, he was noticed in turn.

It had been but a few seconds since he was deposited into the vacuum of space and began to die of exposure. Another second since he noticed the lights. In the second after that the golden light snuffed out the silver light and then swallowed Basil whole.

The world became gold and Basil stopped dying, not because he could breathe again or stopped boiling. The light would not let him die, either from space or itself. He felt it now as it seared him even as it kept him alive. This was a power far beyond him.

In front of him appeared a man. Over seven feet in height and clothed in a yellow robe that shifted like molten gold. A coiling dragon breached from metal waters and defiantly roared before diving once more. Basil could not turn his eyes away, they burned.

“How did you find your way here I wonder?” The golden man mused. He did not speak any language Basil knew of and yet his words echoed through his body and forced him to understand. “Did the aftershocks of our fight extend into another universe?”

Basil did not answer him because he could not. Despite being spoken too there was only room for one voice in this golden world.

“You seem to have fallen through a crack then and found yourself here. Sheer happenstance, truly a twist of fate.” The golden man seemed amused. “Your sudden arrival distracted the Desolate Cicada Lord long enough for this king to land the decisive blow. That means you’ve helped slay an Immortal Emperor.” The golden man laughed and the world of gold shook with his joy. “I dare say you’re the first mortal in history to ever do so. Such an accomplishment deserves a reward. Do not fear I shall return you to your home.”

Basil shook as the golden man’s promise reverberated within him. He would not go back, there was another place he had to go. With exhaustive effort, he pulled his riveted eyes away from the golden man and gazed over his shoulder. Even in this world of golden light, he could feel that far-away blue spot.

“Oh?” Just like that, Basil’s eyes were immediately fastened to the golden man once more. He casually looked over his shoulder as if the world Basil sought was just behind him instead of countless light years away. “You want to go there?”

Basil tried to put all his being into his eyes.

The golden man smiled.

“Even an ant knows to reach for heaven. This is why I have yet to give up on humanity.” He pointed and a drop of liquid gold flowed from his finger and shot into Basil’s forehead and buried itself in his mind. “If you become a Golden Immortal then seek out the Court of Heavenly Triumph, if fortune is kind then we may meet again.”

With another swish of his finger, the golden man wrapped Basil in a cocoon of golden light and sent him hurtling off into space.

Within the golden cocoon, Basil watched the universe stretch and bend as it struggled to keep up with its speed. The longer his eyes stayed riveted on the sight of a lifetime the better he could ignore the golden man’s power scouring his body. It reached into every cell and fiber of his being and destroyed them. That same destructive force then saved him from itself before beginning the cycle anew. He could feel the power’s protectiveness and desire to carry him safely but even an ant would be harmed by a giant’s gentleness, and he was less than an ant when compared to the golden man.

So he burned. He burned through the death of stars and the birth of planets. He burned through the horrors, incomprehensible in scale, that made their home in the dark of space. He burned through the cocoon slamming into a planet and burrowing through its core and out the other end. He burned through light and dark, gravity and time. He burned across a dawn horizon of 100 million suns.

He burned as his prize, that blue marble he had spotted an entire universe away, rose in orbit in front of him. So much like Earth with its blue waters and green continents but so utterly dwarfing his old home in scale. Basil burned as he passed its white crystal moon and the planet-sized tree that grew on its yellow sun. He laughed as he burned and entered its atmosphere and split apart its clouds. The divine power that carried him peeled away in layers and like a dying meteor grew thinner and thinner the closer it got to the surface. Eventually, only a film of golden light remained and it gently set him on the surface with the force that cratered the ground beneath him and sparked an inferno that roared up and swallowed his view of the new world.

Basil blacked out with a smile in a bed of fire and dust.

Hiatus

I'd like to start this off with an apology. I promised Chapter 56 would be coming out today and it still isn't nor will it be in the near future. As the the title implies this story will be going on a Hiatus for an undetermined period of time. 

My skills and productivity as a writer are lacking for the Patreon type model currently. Every chapter has been getting increasingly more difficult for me to write as time went on. I believe this can be seen through the writing quality as of late and through the story as a whole. I'd like to take time to focus on editing and shoring up the weaknesses in Book 1 of Immortality Starts With Generosity and work on other novel ideas I've been brainstorming. Not to mention my job search. 

I sincerely apologize for the disappointment this decision will cause. I do it because I think its the best choice for both myself and the story. Naturally the billing for the Patreon will be paused. If anyone would like a refund please feel free to request it. If anyone has any questions or would like to reach out then I can be found on the Discord. 

I'd like to give a big thank you to each and every one of you. It absolutely floors me that people would like my novel enough to actively join my Patreon. You guys are awesome and I will be working hard on creating stories that I hope you will enjoy just has much as you have ISWG.

Thank you,

Plutus

Delay

Due to circumstances, the new chapter has to be delayed till tomorrow. I apologize for announcing this so late. Thank you for your understanding.

This Young Master Discovers

Chen Haoran noticed the monster too late, it was too close, and though beneath him in cultivation he wasn’t so far beyond it that he could stop it from striking.

So he didn’t.

When the crocodile-sized salamander breached the water and opened its maw to swallow Phelps whole Chen Haoran placed himself in front of the monster and let it clamp down on his arm. Phelps rolled into a floating backflip and shrieked from the air. The salamander flailed and tried to drag Chen Haoran into the water. He flexed his qi and swung his arm down, crushing the salamander’s head into a gooey mess between his forearm and the earth.

“So this is what lives in the water.” He shook off salamander brain goop and washed his arm in the pool. Phelps dropped back down and squealed at the corpse. “Real scary Phelps.”

Chen Haoran ripped the rest of the vines out of the ground then split open the salamander with his scimitar and pulled out a rough, cyan core. “I don’t suppose you eat these too,” he said, waving the core in front of the sloth.

He was only half serious but Phelps took it as permission and snapped the core out of his hand. Chen Haoran had a brief moment of wide-eyed shock. “Fuck, don’t eat that.” He rushed over and tried to wrench Phelps’s mouth open but the gluttonous sloth swallowed the core whole. “Damnit Phelps, spit that out.”

Phelps shuddered and his body expanded, Chen Haoran braced himself for the inevitable shattered glass feeling of a broken connection. Phelps burped and deflated. He stared. Phelps happily squealed. He stretched out his sense, Phelps’s qi had grown.

He sighed and rubbed his fist on Phelps’s head. “Greedy little shit, you damn near gave me a heart attack.”

Phelps’s gluttony aside it was good to know that he could feed him cores, he hadn’t thought the things were edible like that. Not that he would try to eat them himself. Monsters hunted each other, it made sense that they could process cores as well. It was a shame that he didn’t intend to give the core to Phelps, he missed out on getting a reward.

He brought over the monk flower vine and showed it to Phelps who, perhaps finally being full or just plain disinterested, merely sniffed it and turned away. Chen Haoran stowed away the vine in his storage bag to try again later and looked at the dead salamander. He had been expecting to find an aquatic monster since he entered the cavern but it wasn’t as strong as he assumed. He looked out across the lake, the waters were still. He took the corpse in hand and tossed it into the water. He watched it float for a few minutes, channeling qi to his senses to catch any movement. There was none to be had however and so he packed up Phelps onto his back and turned to leave. He would have to hunt elsewhere for more salamanders it seemed.

There was movement on the water. A giant salamander leapt out of the water like a breaching whale and snapped up the crocodile-sized corpse in one bite. Chen Haoran watched the titan slam back down into the lake and felt the water it kicked up mist his face.

He turned around and left. He would have to hunt elsewhere.

————————

As he had both feared and expected the steam returned quickly and he was forced to slow his pace to a veritable crawl lest he tripped into a boiling pool or a hidden monster. Much like the landscape, the monsters grew grander in both size and cultivation the further he traveled into the cavern. Hulking sloths shambled across the roof and floated with dense pressure. The crickets grew more vicious their spiny forelimbs became razor-sharp blades that, combined with their higher cultivation, forced Chen Haoran to fight them cautiously compared to how casually he treated them before. The salamanders were even more ridiculous.

Received Hundred-Fold: 100-year-old Qi Realm Giant Salamander Core

He killed another salamander much like the one that tried to eat Phelps only to discover that they were basically juveniles. He had been expecting any water-based monsters in the Spa Cavern to be particularly strong given the environment but it was an ugly surprise nonetheless. The salamanders were just as vicious as the crickets, leaping out of their pools to bite at anything passing nearby. Their sneakiness combined with the steam meant more often than not Chen Haoran was scrambling to avoid a sudden ambush. A task that he failed more often than he succeeded. Without the Stygian Lotus Flower’s enhancement, he would have been injured numerous times when he failed to react quickly enough. It was to the point that he was forced to detour around several large pools to avoid another titan salamander.

He was lucky enough to avoid meeting any Liquid Meridian Realm monsters so far. It was not a luck he expected to last. The caverns were too rich in energy and resources to not have a few higher realms wandering around. If things kept getting stronger the deeper he went then it wouldn’t be long before he’d have to meet one. He hoped it would be a sloth. Anything else and he would be facing a fatal threat to his life.

It wasn’t like there were no benefits to all this danger, however. Chen Haoran found more monk flower vines growing along the edges of the pools. Phelps had no taste for the vines unfortunately but he devoured the flowers without issue along with monster cores. Chen Haoran made sure that he was eating plenty of moss as well. A task made easier by the fact that even the moss improved as they traveled, becoming brighter and thicker than before.

The ambient qi of the cavern as a whole seemed to increase in fact. The air was thick with it, the pools boiled with vitality, and the steam of course was the best of both worlds. Chen Haoran’s cultivation speed had taken off like a rocket compared to before and it became quicker the farther he traveled.

Environment, spirit pools, refined qi, supplements, everything had finally aligned to bring him to the Eighth-Layer faster than he could have ever imagined. For all the danger this place had been constant blessing after blessing for him. Forget the Eighth-Layer, he had already set his gaze on the Ninth.

If only the other side of his practice was so smooth.

————————

In the shadow of another giant column, Chen Haoran practiced the Canyon Carving Sword while Phelps curiously watched on. He cycled his qi in the long-familiar pattern and flowed into a few basic sword movements. As he swung his scimitar the steam around him ebbed and flowed as it avoided the blade. As it was cut by the blade rather. The steam split just before it touched the scimitar’s edge and flowed over and under it. Chen Haoran counted thirty seconds before his steam-cutting dance came to an end and he lost control of his qi.

Thirty seconds of Harmonization. It was a definite improvement from when he started but Chen Haoran couldn’t find it within himself to be satisfied. Lan Fen and Song Yuelin wielded Harmonization as if it was another part of their bodies. No, not as if. It really was just another part of their bodies, the natural expression of a technique they were deeply in tune with. There was something he was missing, something about Harmonization that diligent practice alone wouldn’t solve. Something that Lan Fen and Song Yuelin didn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, say.

Chen Haoran sighed and sat against the column, idly counting the cracks in the ringing overhang of stone above him. This column was much like the last one he had camped under, just a bit taller and with brighter moss. It said something about how crazy the rest of the Spa Cavern was that this strange geology was the least noteworthy.

He pressed his back flat against the mossy rock and crossed his legs in a meditative pose and closed his eyes. Phelps’s squeals broke through his nascent concentration. He opened one eye and glared at the sloth. Phelps innocently stared back. Chen Haoran snorted and closed his eyes and again Phelps squealed before he could fully concentrate.

“Alright already.” He stood up and cut a square outline in the moss behind him. “I’ve seen bodybuilders eat less than you.” He pinched a corner of the square and ran his scimitar underneath it, channeling qi to the blade he brought it up under the moss while pulling on the corner. He had to jimmy his impromptu razor around the center of the blanket of moss he was carving out as it kept getting stuck. Soon enough though he had peeled enough off that he could rip off the rest in one piece. Underneath the moss was the smooth rock of the column and he quickly found what his sword got stuck on, a long jutting line of rock that curved and twisted like a pattern.

He frowned.

Exactly like a pattern.

Chen Haoran chopped and ripped more moss off the column, a sinking feeling growing in his stomach as he exposed more curving lines and etchings of leaves and fruit carved into the rock. There were limits to how strange geology could be, even in a place as crazy as this. He ran out from under the too-uniform overhang of stone and leapt atop it. He ripped off more moss and exposed a deep groove that he was sure ran all the way up to the top. He cycled qi to his legs and ran a loop around the column, stabbing and ripping and finding more grooves evenly spaced around it.

This wasn’t natural.

These columns weren’t formed, they were built.

Chapter 54: This Young Master Finds Some Steroids

When the rain finally stopped and the clouds dissipated he wasted no time packing up Phelps and rushing off into the now clear horizon. The cavern was dyed a sapphire blue under the light of the newly exposed glowing moss. With no obstructive weather and qi enhancing his vision Chen Haoran tore across the flooded cavern floor, Phelps squealing all the while on his back.

As if by some cue the cavern came to life with the ceasing of the rain. Across in the distance, he could see packs of sloths floating from the water back to the ceiling; their distant squeals echoing out to him. Phelps did his best to answer those calls with his own. Naturally, they attracted predators. The monster crickets crawled out of their hiding places in force with tens quickly becoming hundreds in short order. Their chalk-like chirping destroyed the brief harmony of the cavern and they quickly made a menace of themselves.

Chen Haoran whipped out the Swiftwind Scimitars and cut to pieces any cricket that got near. He kept moving all while he did so, every second of clear vision was precious and he could ill afford to waste his time on fighting. Unfortunately, the crickets had other ideas and it wasn’t long before he was pursued by thirty jumping freaks of nature. Every so often one would have a strong enough jump to catch up to him and he would kill it and leave the corpse to be devoured by its brethren, giving him time to increase the gap.

After Chen Haoran killed yet another cricket and watched five more stop to fight over it he had to wonder who they were really hunting, him or themselves. Not that he was complaining. If the crickets had any sense of teamwork he would be having a much rougher time. That they were so individualistic and prone to hunting each other just as much as they did anything else meant he wasn’t in too much danger despite being heavily outnumbered.

He twisted and slashed another cricket in half.

That didn’t mean they weren’t annoying. In one breath he cycled his qi in the Canyon Carving Swords pattern and in the same breath he released it. It was tantalizing to see what sort of power he could bring to bear now with the Canyon Carving Sword but it would be an incredible waste to use it on the crickets. The effects of his enhanced qi were far too valuable to carelessly spend it, especially when he didn’t know if he’d have another opportunity to replenish it. As it stood he was already losing the lightning-refined qi through the augmentation of his body and his cultivation practice. It was a minor but steady trickle that he would scarcely notice before with his regular qi but was now painfully aware of.

More crickets closed in ahead of him in an attempt to cut him off. He channeled qi to the Crouching Tiger Earrings and the ambushing crickets scattered at the sound of a tiger’s roar. It wasn’t just the crickets, off to the side a mass of water rose out of a large pool. Chen Haoran did a double take at the tank-sized sloth that floated out. He stretched out his sense, Ninth-Layer. He split in the opposite direction while the majority of the crickets jumped after the sloth instead. He didn’t look back when he heard the giant sloth and crickets fighting but he could feel Phelps twist on his back.

“You better not grow that big,” he said.

—————————

He had left the last pursuing crickets and moved on to bigger problems. Literally bigger. The further he went into the cavern the grander everything became, from the stalactites to the pools to the height of the cavern itself. It did not bode well for how long it would take him to find the source of the cold snap and even now he was forced to go around when a lake or hill-sized stalagmite sat in his way.

The temperature sat at a comfortable warmth, as if he had returned to a heated house after stepping out into the middle of winter. The air was getting more and more humid with each breath he took and some of the hotter pools were billowing steam. Soon he would lose his vision and his traveling speed would be cut drastically in a place that even at his full speed would take a long time to clear.

“How does something this big exist under all these fucking mountains?”

Phelps looked up from the pile of moss he was working through and squealed at him.

They sat on the shore of a warm lake. Chen Haoran stripped out of his excess layers and was tending a roaring blue fire. He picked up a piece of glowing moss and channeled his qi into it, where his qi went water was wrung out of the moss like a squeezed sponge. He shook the now dry and dim moss and tossed it into the flames before picking up a cricket leg. Using his scimitar as a skewer he roasted the leg over the fire and then cautiously took a bite.

“Tastes like chicken,” he mumbled. It was a comforting lie, although he had to admit it didn’t taste as bad as he thought. The leg had a nutty, slightly smoky bitterness to it. Not his favorite by any means but it was palatable. He pulled out a small pouch of salt from his storage bag and sprinkled it on the leg. While he had prepared rations on the off chance he got stuck in Lan Fen’s pocket space he had a feeling he’d run out before he got anywhere near an exit.

He tore another strip from the cricket leg when he saw Phelps bouncing away out of the corner of his eye. Chen Haoran sighed and trudged after him. The sloths of this cave were always a curiosity to him. How they lived, how they acted, what part qi played in their lives. Normal sloths were slow because they were burdened by a low metabolic rate. How would a sloth with access to far more energy move then? As it turned out, not so much different at all. Unless he had a reason to be quick Phelps was content to move as little as possible. When he did decide to move on the ground he used his floating power to bounce across the ground much like an astronaut would do.

“Maybe I should have named you Neil,” Chen Haoran said.

That being said it wasn’t often that Phelps decided to move of his own volition like this. Chen Haoran followed him along the shore and saw him stop and paw at something at the edge of the water. He knelt next to Phelps and gently thumbed the soft petals of the flowery vine that grew across the ground and into the water. Naturally, it was also blue. The blue light given off by the moss had camouflaged it enough that he overlooked it when they set up camp.

Gently he ripped a fat-petaled flower off the vine and held it towards Phelps who happily ate it. Chen Haoran held up a hand to his snout to stop him from eating the rest and read the words that burned in his vision.

Received Hundred-Fold: Pure Water Monk Flower

Chen Haoran frowned in thought. He reached over and cupped some water in his hands and held it out to Phelps. The sloth cocked his head but lapped at the pool water.

Received Hundred-Fold: Pure Spirit Spring Water

Pure. When he first discovered his gifting power after giving Lan Fen a drink the reward at the time was called Pure Spirit Water as well. He picked another flower off the vine and ate it. The flower melted in his mouth and he felt its energy drip down into his core before moving through his meridians. He immediately summoned the rewarded monk flower and the rush of energy was much greater than before. He felt his qi rise.

He found his cultivation supplement.

“You better be hungry Phelps.” Chen Haoran ripped off the rest of the flowers from the vine and dropped them in front of Phelps then he dug around looking for the vine’s roots. If Phelps could eat the whole vine then that would be so much better. He could finally have his own cultivation supplements without having to rely so much on merchants. Would they even sell something as good as these monk flowers? The cultivation supplements he had used before certainly didn’t compare to them. Across his eyes burned golden words as Phelps devoured the flowers.

He found the roots.

There was a burst of qi next to him. Phelps’s fur bristled then flattened in one smooth flowing motion, he spat out a pure white breath. Chen Haoran reached out with his sense, Fifth-Layer.

He smiled. “Congrats on advancing bud.”

Then the other Fifth-Layer he sensed in the water attacked.

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Sorry for posting so late again. I had some good news come my way today and unfortunately that took my time. Hopefully I might have good news to share one day here as well. 

Enjoy the chapter!

Delay

Apologies but Chapter 54 is delayed and will be posted tomorrow. Thank you for your understanding. 

Interlude: The Silkworm

Bones and bugs. That was all the Southern region had if one were to listen to the snide gossip of the poser nobles from the Central provinces. It was an unfair assumption that trickled down from those too privileged to respect anything not their own to the masses who were too poor to learn the truth.

That was not to say that the Southern region didn’t have bones and bugs. They did, and plenty of both. Enormous skeletons filled with the majesty of long-dead behemoths, in such numbers that some figured the entire region to be a giant graveyard. Colorful insects were in abundance, great butterflies as large as birds, ants that built golden palaces and marched like drilled legions, spiders with eyes that shined brighter than any gemstone. Insects were respected in the South for their beauty, and for their danger. Poison and venom were the great killers there, more than any blade or claw.

Southern barbarians, it was said, drank venom by the cup and hid poisonous insects in the beds of whoever offended them. Travelers to the South were told to drop silver taels in their drinks at every tavern they stayed at. It was lies of course. Nowhere in this world was truly safe, but the Southern region was more dangerous than most so those who were born outside it considered themselves fortunate and those born in it deserving.

The Southern region was more than that though. They had mountains that stretched like fingers to grasp the clouds above. Lush jungles teeming with life and filled with medicinal flowers and herbs. They had cities some new, many old. They lined the many great rivers that cut through the jungles and were home to skilled artisans and bone carvers.

They had history. Long before being incorporated into the Empire they had seen many powers prosper among the river cities. Mighty chiefs proclaimed themselves rulers of the rivers and lakes and drew in warriors with their cunning and feats of courage. The Snake King dispensed justice through his sacred serpents. Granny Three Worm wandered wherever she pleased, feeding her grubs Old Age, Disease, and Death. Princess Cicada crooned music so mournful it toppled kingdoms.

They had honor. They were the last to be conquered by the Empire. Their warriors had held it at bay with their bravery and strength. Making use of the jungles that they had long called home to stymie any incursion. It was a mark of honor that the Sunset Emperor himself had to personally lead the battle that slew the last free kings on the continent. They had been marked then, the Southern regions they were called for that’s all they were in the greater Empire.

They had a name. Zumulu. It was home.

Xie Jin was beginning to question why he left.

“Another,” he called, picking off the last bit of meat from his skewer. The stall owner motioned his understanding and flipped over fresh skewers of pork and wild greens roasting over red coals. Behind him was the noise and bustle of the main thoroughfare of Clearsprings City. A long road that stretched from the main gates to the City Lord’s mansion.

Xie Jin snorted and downed the cup of cheap rice wine the stall owner’s wife poured him. He hadn’t heard of Shen Jianyu before today but he would not forget him anytime soon. The exams were canceled, Brother Chen and Lan Fen had been missing ever since that Liquid Meridian realm pulled them away and he was stuck in this city.

“That bastard.” He slammed the cup down onto the counter. “I’m going to find every nasty rumor about him and then spread them to every city under Heaven!”

“Two more skewers, piping hot.” The stall owner thrust the skewers at him.

Xie Jin rummaged through his pockets and dropped two coppers before grabbing the steaming skewers and leaving. The meat was tough and stringy and lacked any sort of seasoning, but it was cheap and that was all he could ask for.

“Damn Liquid Meridian,” he said between chewing. “At least leave Brother Chen.”

He continued his grumbling and cursing the higher powers as he made his way into the tournament district, devolving into sullen eating. A hop and a skip put him ahead of a body crashing into him.

The man responsible for said flying body roared from the arena, a square of dirt sectioned off with rope. “Who’s next?”

Tempers had run high since Shen Jianyu canceled the exams. For those who came from means and were valued enough, they would be sent to another city for exams so missing this one was an annoyance at best. For the rest, the poor, the cast aside, the working, the lonesome, this exam had been a major chance ripped from their grasp. They were either too poor to travel to another exam or tied down with obligations and work. These lesser were well aware of reality and their lack of ability to change it so they instead took their frustrations to the arenas.

He could empathize with their anger. He couldn’t afford the journey to return home either. His once grand plans had gone up into so much smoke. He sighed. There were more than a few of his countrymen who traveled to Clearsprings City. Should he just try to return with them? That would invite its own set of unpleasant questions, not that going back home was any better in his current state.

The challenge seeker, by some hawk-eyed grace, zeroed in on Xie Jin. “Come and fight, skeleton.” He beckoned his hands in a taunting fashion.

Xie Jin narrowed his eyes and slowly chewed the last stubborn piece of meat. “I don’t fight for free.”

“Fifty silvers if I don’t shatter you.”

Xie Jin casually walked over, twirling the skewers in his hand. He stopped just as crossed over the rope and sighed, he spotted a familiar shock of white hair. “I guess I’m not getting paid.”

“Getting scared already?” The man grinned. “You Southern barbarians have no meat, just bones and poison.”

“Just for that, I’m going to enjoy what’s about to happen to you.”

The man looked at him in confusion leaving him unprepared for the hammer fist from behind. It caught him on his temple and he was sent flying out the arena much like his opponent before him.

Lan Jia did not spare the man she had so brutally struck a second glance. Her qi flared about her. “You’ve finally scurried out of your hole you rat.”

“I wasn’t even hiding, don’t pretend you were looking for me,” he said.

“Where are Chen Haoran and Lan Fen?”

Xie Jin shrugged. “How would I know?”

Lan Jia cracked her knuckles. “I’ll beat the answer out of you then.”

“Just say you’re here for round two, it’s embarrassing.”

Lan Jia growled and darted forward. Xie Jin flicked his skewers at her face which she twisted her head to avoid. He darted in low, aiming for her legs. Lan Jia brought her knee up to break his chin and he rolled to the side. He lashed out to sweep her legs but she jumped over it and he was forced to roll again to avoid her stomping his chest in.

“Is crawling all you can do?” Lan Jia’s palms glowed green. He had seen the move before, a difficult-to-predict strong palm strike.

Xie Jin channeled qi to his legs and closed the distance between them. Lan Jia lashed out and before her palm could scatter in its myriad patterns he caught the blow on his bone armband. He felt a burst of pride seeing Lan Jia’s eyes widen as the force of her strike dissipated. Then her second palm slapped him in the chest.

He felt weightless as he hurtled through the air and landed heavily at the arena’s edge. He could feel the rope sitting uncomfortably under his neck. He took a sharp breath and hissed at the stinging pain that ran through his chest. Before he could move Lan Jia straddled him and pinned his arms with her legs.

She slapped him across the face. “Do you think your poison will work now?” She slapped him again. “Did you think you could be my match without such an underhanded trick?”

He cycled his qi in an attempt to launch her off. Lan Jia matched him with her own qi and punched him. Although he stood above her in cultivation, one was nothing to someone with her skill.

“You were right,” she said while punching him. “I don’t expect you to know where Chen Haoran and that bitch are.” Her palms glowed green. “I just wanted to beat you.”

Xie Jin wheezed out something unintelligible. He could already feel his face starting to swell.

“Trying to beg now?” she asked.

He licked his teeth, he hadn’t lost any. “Nice thighs.”

Lan Jia made a sound of disgust and brought her palms down… only for Xie Jin to spit a stringy, nearly unchewable meat in her face. It splattered across her eyes and she instinctively closed them. He felt her balance shift and he flipped them both over till he was on top and she had her neck on the rope. He drove his knee into her gut and wrapped the rope around her neck.

He pulled.

Lan Jia bucked and thrashed under him like a wild bull. Xie Jin’s sloppy pin failed and Lan Jia sat up. He wrapped more rope around her neck and spun behind her, sitting on her back and squeezing her arms with his legs. It was ugly and disgraceful. He pulled the rope taut and Lan Jia flushed red.

Whatever commotion going on in the crowd he couldn’t hear it focused as he was on choking Lan Jia. Hopefully, no one would intervene, he would really have to run if that happened.

“Xie Jin?”

A voice called out to him and he ignored it, Lan Jia was beginning to gasp whoever was trying to stop him would have to throw him off.

“Xie Jin.”

It was strange that someone was calling his name. If it was someone who knew him well enough like that then they shouldn’t be trying to stop him.

“Xie Jin.” Someone was tapping his shoulder.

“What!” He whipped his head around and found a girl with steel-grey hair calmy watching him.

“A moment of your time please,” she said.

He stared. Lan Jia sputtered. “I’m a little busy right now.”

“I can wait.”

“It’s not a matter of waiting…” He turned back to Lan Jia while racking his brain for just who this girl was. He gave the ropes one final pulls and Lan Jia’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. He felt her grip slacken and he held on for two more seconds before releasing her. She slumped over and he pushed himself off her and patted his dusty clothes.

“Do I know you?” he asked his next problem.

“My master is Lady Lan Fen, I assume you are acquainted?”

He frowned. “I am, is there any news from them?”

“My Master asks if you’d like to leave the city.”

Looking at the strange servant of Brother Chen’s scary wife, Xie Jin wondered once more if he should have ever left home.

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Today's chapter marks my first ever late chapter. Naturally it is all XKARNATIONS fault. Please blame him. 

Chapter 53: This Young Master Gets A Boost

Chen Haoran picked up the pace after his Benjamin Franklin impersonation. Lightning-refined qi bubbled within him and filled his legs with vigorous power. If he had to describe it, it was like being supercharged on an already full battery. Was this what Heaven-rank qi felt like? He didn’t know, he lacked an example to compare it to. He bounded across the flooded cavern with loud splashes. He could go even faster if he weren’t worried about accidentally slipping into a pool.

Phelps squealed at him as he bounced on his back. Chen Haoran had to sacrifice his comfort for speed but he didn’t seem too bothered. If anything the sloth seemed to enjoy it.

“Shall we go a little faster then?” he asked.

Phelps squealed in response.

Chen Haoran grinned. “Hold on tight then.” He cycled more bright qi to his legs and shot forward…

Only to immediately lose his footing and fall face-first into a pool.

He felt the brief weightless terror that came part and parcel with any moment where one mentally said ‘oh shit’ before disaster struck. After his plunge Chen Haoran flopped out of the water, coughing and sputtering. Phelps burbled and slapped his shoulders in joy.

“At least one of us is happy,” he said. He secured Phelps to his back and continued on to the column at a respectably cautious speed.

———————

When they finally reached the column Chen Haoran had to take a moment and stare at it. He had known that it was huge when he first saw it from a distance, seeing it up close he could properly appreciate just how small it made him feel. Glowing blue moss and melting ice covered the skyscraper-sized rock formation all the way up to the clouds. It was a tower of light in this underground world.

They sought shelter under an overhang of rock that circled around the column just above the base. It did nothing for the water on the ground but it at least kept the worst of the rain from beating down on them. Chen Haoran moved a loose boulder in the area under the overhang and settled Phelps on it before stripping out of his wet clothes. The chill in the air was not yet gone but with his improved qi he could barely feel it. He ripped moss off the column where it grew in heavy chunks and piled it next to Phelps.

Received Hundred-Fold: Waterlight Spirit Moss

A casual thought summoned a handful of the reward moss. Chen Haoran was blinded when blue light bloomed in his hand with the force of a headlight.

“Fuck.” He blinked technicolor spots out of his eyes. It was certainly a hundred times brighter.

The Waterlight Spirit Moss weighed like air and had a soft, sponge-like texture. He fiddled with it, trying to learn what use it had. Channeling qi into it caused no reaction, nor did ripping it in half. Phelps on the other hand was intently staring at the moss, saliva dripping from his mouth.

Chen Haoran smiled and handed it over, watching Phelps devour it with gusto. “You better eat well if you want more of that in the future.” Not that he needed to tell Phelps that. As soon as he was done with the Waterlight Spirit Moss he turned his attention to the regular glowing moss.

Chen Haoran left him to his meal and wandered off in search of a suitable spirit pool. He picked a shallow one nearby and settled in to let the refreshing energy soak his worn body. He was healed but the lightning had done a number on him. He had fortunately come out of it without any major injury thanks to his toughness but it was still a near thing. Perhaps that was the issue? The 10 thousand-year-old Stygian Lotus was by far the most valuable reward he received from the Gifting Power, the enhancement in durability it provided him had proven invaluable many times over. He trusted his body to endure whatever he put it through, a faith that only grew with each success. What would he do if it couldn’t though? Recklessness was a loan of luck. What would he do if one day the bill was more than he could pay?

Chen Haoran sighed. “Control yourself.”

He sank into the water and cycled the Yellow Dragon River Refinement. He felt strong now but it was a temporary thing, he needed to advance. Chen Haoran meditated in the pool. The rain pattered its surface with a hypnotic rhythm. The yellow dragon danced like lightning through the refined qi and greedily devoured the water element qi entering his body in a deluge.

He frowned and the spell was broken, the yellow dragon roared in frustration. He carefully checked his body with his sense before cultivating again. The water element qi poured in, Chen Haoran opened his eyes before the yellow dragon could feast. “It’s faster?”

A person was limited in various ways when it came to cultivation. Chief among them was the spirit root. How fast one could absorb qi and make it their own depended on the quality of the root. With her high-grade spirit root Lan Fen could make the same progress as Chen Haoran in a quarter of the time he took. It was something that endlessly frustrated him both in the time he had to invest and in the time wasted because of bottlenecks.

Which was why he was surprised to find he was absorbing ambient qi faster than before. As the yellow dragon completed its revolutions around his body he found the speed at which qi was converted was still the same, but even without that being improved he was still saving so much time. The reason why the speed increased was obvious, something about the lightning-refined qi was causing it. Had it taken on a Metal attribute? It was a feasible but easily disproven idea, each element accorded a different property to qi. His refined qi flowed no different from his normally cultivated qi and lacked the characteristic sharpness of the Metal element. It couldn’t have been a change to his spirit root either, his processing speed would have been affected as well.

The quality perhaps, or the quantity? The lightning condensed his qi in a way similar to when he first switched his Profound-rank cultivation method to an Earth-rank one. Did qi reserves also affect how much ambient qi could be drawn in?

The thought struck him like a bell. Why wouldn’t it? He had to cycle his qi to draw in ambient qi after all, like a vortex. Since he was using his qi to create the vortex then of course improving it would have an effect. Chen Haoran frowned and thought back to when he started cultivating. Did he absorb more qi in the Seventh-Layer than he did in the Fifth-Layer? His reserves grew larger with each successive layer so that should be the case. If it didn’t then he would have noticed a steeper drop in efficiency as he advanced. It was probably an increase so gradual that he never noticed it until now when his qi took a qualitative leap forward.

The yellow dragon danced through his meridians. Each cycle around his body came with a noticeable increase in qi. Ever since he came to this cavern his cultivation had been getting quicker. Spiritual pools to increase his already long endurance, water-element qi that perfectly complemented his spirit root, an increase in his ability to absorb. Chen Haoran regretted that he only stumbled in here after using up all his cultivation supplements. How fast would he progress if he had some?

Maybe he did.

Thinking quickly he summoned another handful of Waterlight Spirit Moss and took a large bite…

Only to spit it out immediately. Chen Haoran heaved and washed out his mouth. “Okay.” He coughed. “Not a supplement.” On a whim, he stuck out his tongue and found it glowing blue.

Chen Haoran wasn’t discouraged, putting his latest horrible idea aside. There had to be more growing in this cave than moss and crickets, things that he could feed to Phelps and use to improve his cultivation. He felt a giddiness bubble up in him, the kind that came from knowing a good future on the horizon. What level would he be at when he left the cavern? Ninth-Layer? Liquid Meridian Realm?

He laughed. He would become stronger and then… well… he would figure it out. His good mood subsided and he looked up. He had been so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the rain turning into a drizzle. A ray of blue light broke through the thinning clouds and Chen Haoran basked in it. While it lacked the warmth of sunlight he would take whatever he could get.

In this moment of peace, Phelps squealed. Chen Haoran looked around in confusion before looking back up with a horrified expression. Phelps divebombed into the pool with a loud crash.

“Phelps!”

Announcement

After this Friday I will be taking a break from posting chapters on Royal Road for a short period of time. I will still be posting chapters to Patreon during this period of time. 

I'd also like to shill the discord again for anyone interested. If there's ever any questions you have about the story you can ask them there. 

Other than that I'd just like to extend a big thank you to everyone. It means a lot to me that you chose to become a patron. I will endeavor to meet your expectations. 

Cheers!

Chapter 52: This Young Master Lacks Science

From lost soul to Young Master. From Young Master to lost soul. Chen Haoran wondered why his life in particular seemed so strangely cyclical. Perhaps he would become the master of the Spa Cavern next? He already found a genius to form a connection with, all he needed was an overbearing jackass to complete the trio.

Phelps yawned from behind and he felt the breath tickle his ear. The sloth was well-behaved, content with sleeping on his back and begging for moss. Neither rain nor the constant moving bothered him, for which Chen Haoran was thankful. This would have been a much harder journey if he was uncooperative.

Not like it was currently easy. Rain still fell in heavy sheets and while it wasn’t as bad as the steam it still hindered his vision. Under the torrential downpour, the pools overflowed and he was left sloshing through water. He wasn’t confident in running just yet with Phelps on his back so he could only cycle his qi and steadily hike on. The rain soaked his clothes and the chill in the air invaded his bones. His qi pulsed and flowed like warm water to take off the worst of the cold’s bite. The real issue was that it was getting warmer again. He could feel the temperature gradually rise, and misty vapor rose from the water. The clouds above were noticeably thinning as well, soon they would stop entirely. He would only have a short window of visibility between the rain stopping and the steam rising.

“I wish a had a minimap.” Chen Haoran squinted through the rain. He had long passed the outcropping he had been humbled on before. The cavern expanded immensely from this point forward and he could barely make out the outlines of the towering columns through the rain. They were his destination. He would hunker down and wait out the rest of the storm once he got there.

Lightning flashed and the sound of thunder and shattered stone rumbled through the cavern. He spied a familiar broken silhouette.

———————

The best thing about being ridiculously tough was no more stubbed toes. A fact that Chen Haoran was grateful for when he kicked a large stone hidden beneath the water. Before him rose the lightning-struck stalagmite he had first seen when the storm started. Its shattered remains were strewed around the water, their sizes ranging from stones small enough to fit in his hand to minivan-sized boulders. The stalagmite had been whittled down to half its height by the lightning. Even reduced as it was Chen Haoran had to crane his neck to see the jagged edges above him like an enormous spear had been snapped in half.

“You really live in a crazy place don’t you?” he asked the sloth.

Phelps blinked and opened his mouth.

“Freaking glutton.” Chen Haoran reached down to rip out more glowing moss and his hand brushed against the stone he previously kicked. There was a sudden needle-like pain that snapped across his skin. He cursed and jumped back, warily observing the water for any movement, a quick glance at his hand revealed it was unharmed.

“I got shocked?” He frowned and grabbed the stone, he immediately felt a dying vibration that tingled his palm. The stone was heavier than it looked and a glossy blue-gray vein ran through it. “It kept the charge?” He cycled his qi and squeezed it. It was tough.

If it was some kind of metal then that explained why it kept getting struck by lightning. He dropped the stone in his storage bag and grabbed another fist-sized piece. The electricity arced into his hand and left him feeling pins and needles up to his wrist. He directed his qi in a wave to clear the sensation, instead the wave broke as soon as it encountered the residual lightning.

Chen Haoran felt for his scattered qi and found it bunching up and overwhelming the lightning. He shook off the numbness in his hand and walked over to a larger fragment that came up to his chest. He cycled his qi and focused his sense as he laid his hand flat on the rock. The lightning sparked and this time he could clearly see his qi being drawn to it like a magnet. Yellow qi bunched together around the lightning and swallowed it, what remained was qi a brighter color than before. He flexed his fingers and gathered the bright qi to his fist before punching the rock. The surface cracked and he could see the indentation of his knuckles in the tough ore.

The lightning improved his qi. It made sense that it wasn’t normal, the clouds were made from qi-infused water. Why would the lightning they generated be any different? This qi lightning wasn’t water-aligned however. It had a sharpness to it that he was intimately familiar with.

“Metal gathers Water huh?” Lan Fen did say that Metal had a positive interaction with Water among the Five Elements.

He slipped Phelps off his back and settled him on the rock. Phelps squealed at him for the disturbance.

“Sorry boy.” Chen Haoran fed him a patch of glowing moss. “I’m planning to do something stupid.”

He trudged around the stalagmite, touching as many fragments as he could. Not all of the fragments held a charge so he was left with little more than a quarter of his qi improved. He cycled the Yellow Dragon River Refinement as he did so but despite having an example he couldn’t create the improved lightning-refined qi. Rather than an upgrade, it was more of a temporary buff. In the face of unknown potential dangers, however, he would take whatever boost he could get.

He walked over to the stalagmite. As he got closer he could feel the hairs on his arms stand up and there was a low hum like he was stepping toward a giant beehive. He took a deep breath and firmly planted his feet. Inside his meridians, the yellow dragon danced. He reached out his hands. Phelps squealed at him. He stopped short of the thrumming rock.

“Don’t be stupid.” He backed off from the giant lightning rod and threw over a smaller stone. There was a spark as it hit the rock and when Chen Haoran picked it up it was filled with lightning. He looked at it and frowned. It would be too slow to absorb the lightning like this. He still wanted to make the most of his time before the rain stopped but touching the stalagmite directly was just a bad idea. He looked at the large fragments scattered around.

Maybe he wouldn’t have to. If he could channel it then it might be more reasonable. He was already coming in with improved qi on top of his enhanced toughness. He could handle it.

He walked over to a large bathtub-sized fragment and heaved the rock over his shoulder. He carried it to the stalagmite and stood it up before tipping it over so that it leaned against the lightning-charged pillar. He had a brief moment of cold panic when he realized that he just connected a giant source of electricity to the water he was standing in. Despite his fears he remained un-electrocuted. Maybe qi water didn’t conduct electricity the same way regular water did?

He clapped his hands and patted his sides and grabbed the edges of the connecting rock.

His vision went white.

His limbs locked into place. Steam rolled off his clothes. Lightning outlined his meridians in blue. The yellow dragon furiously roared at the lightning and they coiled around each other like two fighting snakes. In the world of white he could only see, through his sense, his own lightbulb yellow qi and the tower of blue-white lightning that he plugged himself into. Thinking he could manage the power of the lightning by channeling it through another rock was foolish. If there was pain he could not feel it, if this was a mistake he could not regret it.

It was working though. His qi crushed around the lightning and glowed ever brighter for it. The yellow dragon clamped its jaws around the blue light and he could see the definition in its scales being thrown in stark relief. His reserves grew smaller as the qi condensed and new qi dripped in from the spiritual rain to feed the process till his meridians filled to bursting.

The yellow dragon roared. His vision returned. Chen Haoran looked up horrified. Lightning flashed and broke upon the jagged crown of the stalagmite. Thunder boomed.

Chen Haoran stared up at the clouds. He heard Phelps squealing. A burnt smell stung his nose. Slowly he lifted himself up from the water. If he hadn’t let go before the lightning struck then he would have died. He staggered over to Phelps, clutching his heart. With shaking hands he pulled out a medicinal pill and fed it to him. The sloth sniffed it and greedily chewed it.

Received Hundred-fold: Profound-rank Spring Vigor Pill

He summoned the improved medicine and downed it in one go. A rejuvenating energy spread from his core. He breathed. His qi coursed like liquid gold through his meridians. Whatever damage the lightning had done to him had been resisted by it and what was left was dealt with by the healing pill.

He flexed his qi. The water at his feet surged away clearing a circle three feet across. Phelps squealed in distress as he was flattened by the pressure.

“Sorry.” Chen Haoran released his qi and fed Phelps more moss while gently murmuring half-hearted assurances. His mind was elsewhere.

The dangers of this cavern were unknown. The benefits got clearer by the day.

More lightning fell and struck the stalagmite.

“No more playing with lightning though.”