Chapter 105: This Young Master Gets Ambushed
Naturally, they ran even further after seeing a pillar of light pierce the sky.
"What was that?" Chen Haoran breathlessly wondered. It was a rhetorical question. The fact that the Auctioneer was most likely the one responsible for the pillar of light was obvious.
Jiang Lei answered him regardless. "It looks like the Golden Lily Association Supervisor stopped holding back."
Chen Haoran couldn't contain his shock. "That whole fight in the Auction Hall wasn't even them being serious?"
"It's wrong to say they weren't being serious," Jiang Lei said. "But they weren't going at it with their full force either. The city would be put at risk if they used too much power. It's a bit shocking that the Supervisor would go this far. The Empire doesn't take that sort of behavior lightly." He looked at Chen Haoran with curious eyes. "Though I can guess why he may have done so. The Garrison Commanders will have no time to look for us while they're chasing him."
Chen Haoran felt uncomfortable. Another favor from the Auctioneer to help him escape. On top of giving him a Heaven-rank technique. Chen Haoran wasn't foolish enough to believe he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart. There was a price for these actions, and he could only wait in fear for the day the Auctioneer came to collect. He touched the technique book and felt the golden lightning arc between his fingers. It was only a visual effect. Not a smidgen of the qi made it into his body. Was there less lightning than before? Or was it a figment of his desperately wishful imagination?
Even if he covered up the book, he wouldn't feel safe until he could finally take it off and hide it. He had something worth a mountain of gold stuck to his chest, and he could practically feel that weight now. It was something even Crystal Transformations competed for. For the cultivation realms below that, there was no doubt they'd swarm him like sharks if they caught a whiff of it. He couldn't trust anyone he met so long as the book stayed stuck to him. He glanced between Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao.
Especially not the ones around him now.
Jiang Lei's goals were more valuable to him than a 30-thousand-year-old Moonflower, but were they more valuable than a Heaven-Rank technique?
It was a question Chen Haoran didn't want to be answered anytime soon. He had until the Auctioneer's qi dissipated to come up with a plan. There was only one.
He had to advance.
Chen Haoran felt the book slipping beneath his hand, so he readjusted his grip to hold it firmly. Even with the danger that came with it, he would be lying if he said he wasn't excited at the chance to learn the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs. There was also the chance he could gift it—
Chen Haoran abruptly frowned.
The book… slipped?
He slowly lowered his gaze to the book and his hand holding it by the spine. He pulled his hand away from the chest, and the book came free. Not a single spark of golden lightning was to be seen. He tripped over a root and stumbled.
Wang Xiao looked over and sneered. "Watch your step." His superiority satisfied, he turned and ignored Chen Haoran… only to whip his head back in the next second and stare with wide eyes. "What—?"
Jiang Lei looked back at them upon hearing the commotion, and when he saw Chen Haoran holding the book, he stopped dead. His feet skidded through the dirt and smashed clean through a tree root.
Everyone stopped.
Phelps leaned over Chen Haoran's shoulder and sniffed the book.
"Looks like the Auctioneer isn't a complete asshole," Chen Haoran weakly laughed. He was so full of shit he didn't even believe his own words. He held the book toward Jiang Lei. "Wanna learn it?"
Jiang Lei did a double-take. "What?"
Chen Haoran shook the book. "I mean, it looks like the restriction is gone." He opened the book and thumbed through a few pages. Both Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao flinched. Wang Xiao looked like he was about to rush over and rip the book out of his hands. "Yep, looks free to read now."
"You…" Jiang Lei's voice was filled with confusion. "You do know what that is? Correct? That's a Heaven-Rank technique you were given, and you're just letting me read it?"
Chen Haoran shrugged. "It's knowledge. It's not like the words will disappear after you read them." At least, he hoped that wasn't the case. Then again, would it have really been that valuable if only one person could use it? Whatever the case, he wouldn't regret it even if it were a one-time use. "I don't see the harm in sharing it."
He saw a lot of harm if he didn't, though.
Jiang Lei seemed to struggle for words. "Are… are you sure?"
"Yes," Chen Haoran said. "I'm sure." He paused, then looked at Wang Xiao. "Not you, though."
"What!" Wang Xiao said, outraged.
"You still haven't apologized to Phelps," Chen Haoran said. "Plus, you're a dick. I only share with my friends."
He emphasized the word as he looked at Wang Xiao, but it wasn't him he was speaking to. Wang Xiao had an ugly look on his face, and he looked toward Jiang Lei. Chen Haoran looked over as well. His hand hung relaxed next to the hilt of his scimitar.
"Friends." Jiang Lei seemed to test the word. He smiled. "Yes. Thank you, my friend. But we'll have to table this discussion until we make camp for the night."
Wang Xiao scowled and ignored them. Chen Haoran very carefully did not sigh in relief. He was safe.
For now.
Chen Haoran didn't know how far they ended up traveling, but with a Liquid Meridian clearing the way, they had few obstacles. He did notice, though, that compared to Xie Jin's navigation skills, Jiang Lei was lacking and relied more on his cultivation to lead them through the jungle.
They eventually stopped and took shelter in the hollow of a large tree. Though, calling it a hollow was a bit misleading, seeing as how it was big enough for all of them to stand in and have their own corner. Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao pulled out their bed rolls as well as netting and poles that they set up over their rolls. Chen Haoran stared for a minute before a mosquito flew by his ear, and he realized their purpose. He cursed himself for not getting something to deal with bugs. When he traveled with Xie Jin, it hadn't been an issue, his Gu kept any and all pests away while they rested. Hopefully, Jiang Lei had a spare, or he'd be pestered for the whole trip.
The mosquito landed on his wrist and tried to bite him. Its proboscis bent in half when it met his skin. Chen Haoran stared in wonder, then ended the bug's misery.
"Do you need a net as well, Chen Haoran?" Jiang Lei asked.
"I think I'm fine," Chen Haoran faintly said. "I'll take one for Phelps, though."
"How caring," Jiang Lei said with a smile as he brought the net over. He helped set it up, and Chen Haoran had to bat away Phelps's curious claws before he could tear the netting. Jiang Lei laughed before his eyes drifted to Chen Haoran's storage bag. "About before…"
Chen Haoran pulled out the book before he could finish. "Do you mind looking at it together first?"
Jiang Lei laughed. "How could I?" He flopped to the ground, a move quite at odds with his otherwise elegant looks, and motioned Chen Haoran to sit next to him.
Phelps crawled up and rested his head on Chen Haoran's thigh as he cracked open the book, and they reviewed its contents. While Wang Xiao didn't come near them and seemed content to count the grooves in the tree bark, Chen Haoran could feel him peeking over every so often.
The Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs manual was a dense affair. It was part philosophy book, part medical textbook, and a large portion of it seemed dedicated to an epic story recounting the origin of the technique. All of it was essential reading to comprehend the necessary qi movements and visualization required to practice the technique. For the first look through, however, the most valuable paragraph to Chen Haoran was right in the beginning.
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Violet. Seven colors. Seven steps. One step beyond beasts. Four steps beyond men. Seven steps beyond the world. Master the Seven Meanings, and while men may see your first step, only Heaven will know your last.
Chen Haoran couldn't help but shiver as his imagination spun him away to a future where he mastered the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs in full. Even if it was just ostentatious boasting and the technique fell short of what the book promised, who was to say it wouldn't become true if it became a hundred times better?
Jiang Lei sighed in awe. "Learning this is a complete transformation."
"It won't be easy, though," Chen Haoran said. He struggled to try to learn the Scattering Petal Palm from scratch, and that was only Profound-Rank. A Heaven-Rank would be a whole other beast.
"It's a good thing we can compare notes then," Jiang Lei said, smiling.
Despite himself, Chen Haoran couldn't help but like the sound of that.
Phelps hissed and slapped the ground with his claws.
Chen Haoran leaped to his feet in an instant. His hand went to his scimitar. He'd never heard that type of reaction before. His sense stretched out in all directions while Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao warily reached for their own weapons.
"Chen Haoran?" Jiang Lei cautiously even as he cast his eyes around.
Chen Haoran didn't answer. He couldn't sense anything. Phelps was still hissing at the entrance of the hollow. He focused entirely there and found nothing. Still, he didn't relax. Something was bothering his sense. Like something small had gotten into his eye and irritated it.
There.
An amorphous blob of qi focused into sharp relief to his sense. He'd seen its like before.
"Gu!" Chen Haoran shouted. He pulled out his scimitar, and the hollow filled with cutting light. Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao shot toward the opening.
The tree above them twisted into life and fell atop their heads.
Chapter 106: This Young Master Meets The Empire
The hollow collapsed as the tree uprooted itself and dropped its entire weight on top of their heads. Three different lights of peach pink and metal white flashed and split the tree from the bottom to the top in a rain of kindling.
Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao stood together with their swords drawn. A scent of peaches filled the air. Chen Haoran stood a ways away from them to the side. Phelps clung to his back and continually hissed. White energy scoured the ground around them.
The Gu hovered in front of them. A hawk-sized dragonfly. Amorphous qi emitted from its body in intermittent waves. Two topaz-like eyes seemed to stare at him from every direction within their hundreds of facets.
A slow clapping filled the air. From the darkness of the jungle emerged a man clad in the scarlet uniform of the empire. A large bone snake curled into a spiraling pattern hung from his neck. Chen Haoran reached out with his sense, and his heart fell. Liquid Meridian. The man did not emerge alone from the jungle. A dozen other scarlet-clad soldiers followed him and surrounded them, the lowest being Qi Realm Eighth-Layer.
The man whistled, and the Gu fell to perch on his arm. "Your senses are better than I expected. I was hoping to end this in one fell swoop."
Jiang Lei pointed his sword at the Shaman. "Simply put. You suck."
Chen Haoran chuckled despite himself. Did Jiang Lei really have to steal his lines like that?
The Shaman's smile thinned. "Rude bastards, aren't you." He exaggeratedly sniffed the air. "Peachbloods, eh? How about I cut you a deal?" He motioned to Chen Haoran. "Step aside while we apprehend him."
"I will have to refuse," Jiang Lei said.
The Shaman raised an eyebrow. "You, of all people, should know the price of defiance. You've stepped into the Liquid Meridian Realm at such a young age. It'd be a shame if you never advanced again."
"I believe I will be fine."
Chen Haoran frowned as he looked between the shaman and the other soldiers. They were talking too much. He took a step closer to Jiang Lei. At that moment, his senses screamed at him. He dropped to the ground even as the clash of metal sounded behind him. Jiang Lei blocked the axe of the second Liquid Meridian that tried ambushing them while they were distracted. With his other hand, he cast a wave of peach-colored liquid qi over Chen Haoran's head and toward the Shaman. The Dragonfly Gu interposed itself between its master and the wave and dispersed the liquid qi with a beat of its wings.
Chen Haoran cycled his qi and rolled away from Jiang Lei and the Liquid Meridian. Phelps squealed, and Chen Haoran looked up in shock as the Shaman was suddenly there and reaching for him. Jiang Lei's sword carved a wall of liquid qi between him and the Shaman. Another burst of liquid qi pushed Chen Haoran away from the battle. The Shaman and his fellow shared a look, and they attacked Jiang Lei simultaneously. Chen Haoran didn't have the time to pay attention to their battle as he was assailed by the other soldiers.
A sword filled his vision, and he slashed his scimitar wildly. White cutting light flew out, and the soldier hastily retreated with a burst of flames to avoid the edge. Chen Haoran sensed five other qi circling him, and he whirled his blade in a circle of white light. The soldiers all backed away, and Chen Haoran cursed when he realized they all had some form of movement technique.
With the temporary breathing room he created, he glanced over at the others. Jiang Lei and the Liquid Meridians forms were obscured by the waves of liquid qi crashing against each other. On the other side of that, he could see Wang Xiao skating around the other six soldiers and fighting them all at once. With the Liquid Meridians' in the way, they wouldn't be able to link up unless they could go around.
Phelps squealed, and Chen Haoran spun and smashed a lance of fire into sparks with a flash of white light. The soldiers' weapons and hands glowed with qi as they switched up their mode of attack. Another lance of fire came from behind him. A net of fire fell from the front. Beneath his feet rose a snake of quicksand. Two vines studded with thorns whipped from his left and right.
His scimitar flashed white, and he buried it into the earth, annihilating the quicksand snake. A storm of white blades erupted with him as the center and diced the techniques to pieces. His control of the White Tyrant's Harmonization hadn't necessarily improved in his short time training with Jiang Lei, but he at least learned something.
When in doubt. Feed it more qi.
He cycled more qi into the scimitar, and a wall of cutting light swept toward the soldier who summoned the quicksand. The woman released a shout, and the earth beneath her feet sank. She took a step to the right, and the earth rose back up again and propelled her to safety. Chen Haoran tried to follow her, but a lance of fire shot toward his side, and he was forced to defend himself.
The battle fell into a stalemate. The soldiers struck at him from one direction with techniques. Chen Haoran destroyed those techniques and counter-attacked. The soldiers then attacked him from the other direction while their comrades dodged. The soldiers couldn't get near Chen Haoran thanks to the White Tyrant's Harmonization, but they were too nimble for him to actually hit. It was a battle of attrition now, and while he was still confident in winning even six qi reserves to one, he couldn't shake the feeling the soldiers were like wolves circling prey. Being the ostensible bigger animal in this situation didn't comfort him much. It would only take one opening.
And the soldiers just found it.
A lance of fire flew toward his back, and as he turned to block it, a vine whipped at his back from the other side. He chopped both attacks apart with a large swing of his scimitar, but even as he did, another attack fell upon his back, and he was forced to turn again. They were targeting Phelps. The sloth had done well to keep his head down during the fight, but even so, his position on Chen Haoran's back was too obvious a weakness. Chen Haoran reached back to pull Phelps to his chest. As soon as he did, the soldiers simultaneously attacked him from six directions.
"Fuck." Chen Haoran cycled qi to his legs and leapt into the air. As if waiting for that exact moment, an arrow shot out of the jungle and buried into his shoulder. Chen Haoran cried out in pain. Phelps squealed in distress, gripped Chen Haoran tightly, and flung them further into the air under the power of his floating ability.
From the jungle came another arrow. Chen Haoran raised his scimitar, but Phelps jerked them out of the way. The avoided arrow twisted in the air like a fish and fell back down on them. Chen Haoran properly broke it with a wave of his scimitar, then tracked its trajectory back to the source. A chunk of qi disappeared into his blade, and when he swung it, a single beam of white light turned the jungle to powder. He couldn't tell if the archer was a part of the powder before Phelps squealed and pulled him to avoid two burning lances from below. Chen Haoran rained down blades of cutting light like rain, and the soldiers scattered to avoid it.
This wouldn't do. It was just more of the same from up high. He grabbed the arrow shaft, cycled qi to his shoulder, and pulled out the arrow with a drawn-out hiss of pain. The wound bled freely before his qi set to work and forced his blood to clot and halt the worst of it. Casting away the arrow, he reached into his storage bag and brushed his fingers over smooth metal. A pulse of qi brought the metal alive as it began wrapping around his hand.
"Let go, Phelps. Go up."
Phelps squealed and floated further up, but he didn't let go of him. Chen Haoran flexed his qi and shrugged out of Phelps's grip, ignoring the sloth's squeals as he fell through the air and pulled the rest of the Clear Heart Mirror Armor out of the storage bag. The Earth-Rank artifact looked like someone had taken a glass mirror and shaped it into plate armor. It was far from being as fragile as it looked. When the helmet finally slipped itself on over Chen Haoran's face, he crashed feet-first onto the ground and barely felt a jolt.
The soldiers were on him in an instant with an onslaught of techniques. In that same instant, they were forced to dodge as their techniques touched the mirror armor and were immediately reflected back. Chen Haoran cycled qi to his legs and shot forward in a dead sprint toward the nearest soldier. Even when he chased them, their movement techniques would keep them ahead. He didn't need to reach them, however.
He just needed to get closer.
The soldier summoning vines fell down with a cry of pain as he couldn't dodge fast enough and was clipped in the side by a blade of metal energy. The glancing blow was enough to nearly cut clean through his leg, and he couldn't avoid the next blade that cut him clean down the middle.
Curses and attacks rained down on Chen Haoran, but fell uselessly on his armor. He lunged for the next soldier whipping up a constant barrage of white blades when the soil beneath him became quicksand. He sank up to his chest and quickly located the woman responsible. Her hands were glowing with yellow qi, and when she clapped them together, the quicksand around him rose and became a giant jaw. Chen Haoran plunged his scimitar into the ground, and the quicksand jaw split apart as white blades of light parted the earth like water. The earth sank beneath the woman, but rather than rise back and propel her to safety like before, it opened up entirely, and she fell through. White light flashed and tore up the ground until it was a mess of blood and loose soil.
Chen Haoran lifted himself out of the pit with a burst of qi and faced the remaining soldiers. They quickly backed away with solemn expressions, and he trailed after them, dragging his scimitar against the ground.
"That's two," Chen Haoran said.
The soldier's qi soared as they charged their techniques. Chen Haoran walked forward and cycled his qi as he considered his next target. The techniques flew. Chen Haoran charged.
Amorphous qi appeared above his head and covered Chen Haoran before just as abruptly vanishing, leaving him feeling exposed. He halted and looked upward at the Dragonfly Gu that suddenly appeared. The night breeze was cold across his neck.
Why was it holding his armor?
It was Chen Haoran's last thought before he burst into flames.
Chapter 107: This Young Master Must Advance
The Stygian Lotus was a spirit plant that improved a cultivator's overall durability in every aspect. While Chen Haoran wouldn't make the mistake of calling himself invulnerable to harm, he had relied on his body to resist all sorts of sharp edges and blunt force.
No amount of durability would protect him from fire, however.
Chen Haoran scarcely had the time to react when the fire lances set him alight. Just as quickly as the flames seared his skin, he was drowned in a rush of peach-scented liquid qi that put out the flames. It was not the respite he was hoping for. The liquid qi's caustic nature scrubbed over his burns and only magnified the fiery pain he felt from them. Chen Haoran screamed. His qi cycled in a furious torrent, and the Yellow Dragon roared as if to overpower his pain. He focused on the dragon's roar and let it fill his head. His qi shuddered like a struck bell and passed the sound of the roar throughout his whole body. He couldn't afford to lose his mind here.
Chen Haoran covered his face with his hand. With a thought, a gush of golden water fell from his palm and soaked him. The Dragon Water of the Machu River was full of vitality and seemed to wash away the pain where it passed. The Yellow Dragon roared in relief within him, and the Dragon Water clung to him and was absorbed into his skin rather than wastefully falling to the ground. The pain did not completely go away, the Dragon Water was no healing pill, but rather than unbearable agony, he felt a dull heat like smoldering embers.
Chen Haoran rolled out of the way of the soldier's follow-up attacks. The heat of the fire lances seared his back, and he raised his scimitar to cut away a net of fire that sought to tangle him. Above him, the Gu dropped his Clear Heart Mirror Armor. Chen Haoran quickly glanced at Jiang Lei's fight but found the liquid qi still crashing like a sea in storm. Was the Shaman so confident in holding off Jiang Lei to send his Gu here?
Chen Haoran banished the thought and whipped his scimitar at the insect. It gracefully dodged the sharp energy blades and spewed a toxic green miasma down on him. Chen Haoran quickly backpedaled and scattered the gas with the White Tyrant's Harmonization. His face pinched into something ugly. It had stripped him of his Earth-Rank armor, and he couldn't resist it at all. His grip on his scimitar tightened. Whatever strange power it used to steal his armor left his blade alone, but who was to say it wouldn't come for that too? If he lost the White Tyrant's Harmonization now, he'd be a dead man.
The soldiers quickly rallied under the Gu's support and closed in on Chen Haoran once more. His situation was even more desperate compared to when he was fighting six. The Gu's miasma was potent enough that even when he scattered it, he had to move to avoid the remnants. The soldiers, after being so close to death, were even more relentless in their attacks. Exhaustion crept into Chen Haoran's limbs. Powerful enough that even his qi couldn't keep it at bay anymore. Qi that was beginning to run dangerously low. After so many heavy attacks and so much damage taken, even his powerful reserves were starting to struggle.
He couldn't allow them to keep the initiative.
With a wordless shout, Chen Haoran darted toward the soldiers. The Gu immediately went to intercept him with a burst of miasma. Chen Haoran whipped up a storm of white blades and forced the Gu to fly higher into the air to avoid them. Phelps dove down from the sky with an unearthly scream at that moment and slammed into the Gu. They tumbled through the air, and Chen Haoran closed the distance with the fire-throwing soldiers in a burst of speed.
Flames licked their calves as their movement techniques carried them away from Chen Haoran. In their haste, however, they fled in the same direction and didn't separate.
Chen Haoran slammed his heels to a stop, and a heavy green core appeared in his hands. The Ninth-Layer Qi Realm Painted Turtle Core that he'd received from the Machu River appeared in his hand, and he twisted and pitched it toward the two soldiers.
Their eyes widened when a blade of metal white energy sliced through the core a moment later, and they were engulfed in an explosion of qi. Two bodies rolled out of the smoke. Whether they were dead or not, Chen Haoran didn't know. He wasn't leaving anything to chance, however, and with a wave of his scimitar, the bodies were chopped into chunks.
A high-pitched squeal from Phelps was his only warning before his scimitar was suddenly enveloped in amorphous qi. His blade flashed white, and the qi burst apart. The Dragonfly Gu suddenly appeared beside him, reeling away from his scimitar. Chen Haoran whirled and sliced at it. A cloud of miasma had him clumsily throw himself back at top speed.
"Bastard!" roared the Shaman.
When the green smog cleared, the reason for the Shaman's anger was known. The Dragonfly Gu was missing one of its crystal wings. Despite that, it still floated in the air with seemingly little issue.
The clashing tides of liquid qi suddenly boiled as a noxious green liquid qi suddenly pulled away from the battle. Bereft of its ally, the other burning red liquid qi was forced back by Jiang Lei's liquid qi. Suddenly, the liquid qi's collapsed and revealed the Liquid Meridian Cultivators. The Shaman's face was twisted in incandescent rage, but he looked none the worse for wear. There was a shallow cut on the shoulder of the other Liquid Meridian. Jiang Lei was unharmed but breathing heavily.
The Shaman glared at Chen Haoran with murder in his eyes. "You dare!? Die for me!"
The Shaman leapt at Chen Haoran, and his fingers stretched out into vicious claws. Jiang Lei lunged to block him but was intercepted by the other Liquid Meridian. Chen Haoran raised his hand up, the Liquid Meridian Tusk only a thought away from summoning.
The world turned pink.
Jiang Lei's liquid qi flooded from his body. Chen Haoran stumbled as his feet were suddenly submerged in peach-colored water. Peach blossoms spilled from Jiang Lei's body by the thousands. In an instant, the jungle was gone and was replaced with a peach river and a rain of pink petals. Jiang Lei's sword glowed with peach light, and he disappeared in the peach blossoms. Chen Haoran blinked, and when he opened his eyes, the Shaman was desperately retreating. Blood ran down his arm, and his Dragonfly Gu somehow appeared next to him with a long crack running down its body. The other Liquid Meridian fell into the peach water with blood spurting from his neck. Behind him were two thumps. Chen Haoran didn't need to look to know it was the soldiers he had been fighting. The liquid qi receded, and the peach blossoms dissipated. The pink world became dark jungle once more.
The Shaman looked at Jiang Lei in horror. "A Peach River Swordsman? Impossible. Your sect was destroyed!"
Jiang Lei's face was stone. "Die."
The body of the fallen Liquid Meridian Realm officer exploded in a rush of liquid qi. Jiang Lei directed his own liquid qi and guided the officer's Final Flood in the path of least resistance toward the Shaman. Their combined force barreled down on him and threatened to consume him whole. The Shaman gritted his teeth and then slammed a fist into his own chest. He coughed out a spurt of bright blood onto his Dragonfly Gu. A horrible cacophony rose from the jungle.
Jiang Lei immediately beat a hasty retreat. "To me!" he called.
"Phelps!" Chen Haoran shouted even as he shot to Jiang Lei's side.
Wang Xiao was there first. A nasty cut across his chest and a smaller one crossing the bridge of his nose. Phelps reached them next from the air. A few patches of hair missing but otherwise unharmed. When Chen Haoran got near enough, Jiang Lei slammed a dome of Liquid Qi over their heads.
Then every insect in the jungle slammed down on the dome like a hammer of god.
The dome bulged, and Jiang Lei flooded out with more liquid qi. Any insect that touched his liquid qi died and were replaced by countless more. The Gu's noxious green miasma spread over the insects like poisonous armor, and they burrowed into the liquid qi. Jiang Lei grunted, and the dome condensed around them and became thicker. Insects died by the hundreds of thousands, but what use was that when they were surrounded by millions?
"I don't know how a remnant of the Peach River Sword Sect survived, but today will be your end," said the Shaman, his voice clear even through the thunderous racket of buzzing and wing beats.
"Must you go this far?" Jiang Lei asked. "Are we not of the same home?"
The Shaman's shrill laughter seemed to echo through the swarm. "What meaning does home have in the face of benefits? A cultivator is an island in the end. Do you think such a trifling thing will make me spare you?" The insect swarm doubled in force. "You will not die easily. At the very least, your blood will appease my Gu!"
Chen Haoran sheathed his scimitar before his Harmonization could disturb Jiang Lei's barrier and kill them all. "Jiang Lei, what's the plan."
"Senior Brother," Wang Xiao said through harsh breaths. "You've already revealed the Peach Blossom Sword."
Jiang Lei remained silent. Sweat beaded on his brow as he condensed the dome once again and made the walls even thicker. The insects chewed through the layers of liquid qi as fast as Jiang Lei could replace them.
"Jiang Lei."
Jiang Lei still did not speak. He reached into his storage bag and ate a pill. A spike of qi emerged as he replenished his stores.
Chen Haoran cursed and summoned the Middle-Grade spirit stone. He could feel the dense qi within it seep through the palm of his hand and enter his meridians. If he were to cultivate with it in hand, he was sure he could perfectly absorb the qi within the crystal. Too bad he didn't have that time.
Wang Xiao's eyes lit up. "If you give that to Senior Brother—"
Wang Xiao's words were strangled when Chen Haoran put the spirit stone in his mouth.
"What are you doing!"
Chen Haoran breathed, and an immensely pure qi escaped from the spirit stone and entered his body. Each breath successively drew in more qi and refilled his expended reserves. Right here, right now, he couldn't care about anything else but survival. He reached into his storage bag and tightly clutched a jade box. The Shaman was beyond anything a mere Qi Realm could deal with. He had no options. Maybe Jiang Lei could still win. Or maybe he couldn't, and they'd all die. So what if Jiang Lei could though? Could he still stay weak next to him? In the end the only thing Chen Haoran believed in right now was himself.
The light of the spirit stone dimmed. Chen Haoran shattered it between his teeth and swallowed the shards. A deluge of pure qi rushed into his core. The Yellow Dragon roared and followed it.
The lid of the jade box fell off, and a dense woody smell escaped.
Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao jolted.
"Chen Haoran, don't!"
He had to advance.
With that thought, Chen Haoran swallowed the Heavy Core Pill.
Chapter 108: This Young Master Advances
When Chen Haoran first saw the Heavy Core Pill, he had been intimidated by its size. So his first reaction when he easily downed it was surprise. The Heavy Core Pill sank like a stone to his core, leaving a spicy grass taste on the back of his tongue. Chen Haoran exhaled and smelled spring in the air. He could feel the aroma of the Heavy Core Pill spread thickly throughout his whole body as he waited for it to take effect.
He did not wait long.
As if it had caught the scent of something delicious, his qi began to scramble madly toward his core. Chen Haoran quickly sat on the ground to focus, or rather, he was forced to. When Jiang Lei had told him the Heavy Core Pill was an aid in attracting qi, he underestimated just how effective it was. It wasn't just the qi freely flowing in his meridians that rushed to his core; it pulled out the qi that had seeped into his body. It pulled qi from places he didn't even know had qi, and from where it took Chen Haoran felt empty. Not low. Not sluggish. Empty. Even in his worst qi exhaustion, there was still qi flowing evenly through his meridians. Now there was nothing.
His limbs sagged as he was assaulted with a profound sense of weakness, and it became a struggle to even sit up straight. Without the passive enhancement of qi, he was forced to use the strength of his muscles instead. The difference was stark. It surprised Chen Haoran that he was surprised at what being normal felt like. He had unconsciously grown so used to being a cultivator that he forgot he was once a man.
He let out a shuddering, spring-filled breath and put those thoughts to the side. The Heavy Core Pill did the majority of the work condensing his qi but not all of it. He had to focus.
The Yellow Dragon roared as it danced through the deluge of qi. It sank to his core and coiled around the shining green Heavy Core Pill at the storm's center. Surrounded by the swirling mass of qi, it possessively roared as if it were claiming a treasure hoard. Qi pressed down on it and covered the pill until not a speck of green light could be seen. Chen Haoran tried to grab ahold of his qi and create some sense of order but found it ripped away by the irresistible attraction of the pill's dense wood energy.
Fine then. There was no need to be delicate.
The Yellow Dragon roared and squeezed the pill. The qi within his core immediately contracted simultaneously as if it were being squeezed by a giant hand. The Dragon roared again and tightened further. His qi condensed. Under Chen Haoran's direction, his qi slowly and steadily condensed into a smooth sphere with the Yellow Dragon as its center. At the same time, the Yellow Dragon's form drew together tighter and tighter as it crushed the Heavy Core Pill into an even smaller mass. Empty space gradually grew within his core as his qi contracted until, eventually, only the Yellow Dragon remained.
It sat alone within his core, glowing golden bright. Its proud head was pressed flat against its coiled-over body. Its roars were long silent. Chen Haoran would not make the mistake of thinking they stopped, however. Its arrogance was still there, just turned inward and pressed like his qi. The Yellow Dragon was on the verge of transformation now, but it still wasn't enough.
Chen Haoran weakly raised his hands and pressed them together. Between them, he imagined the Yellow Dragon. He squeezed, and the Yellow Dragon grew smaller. Chen Haoran wordlessly shouted and pressed his hands harder. The Yellow Dragon shrunk and grew even brighter. Chen Haoran squeezed until he felt pain in his hands. Squeezed until he felt something crack. The Yellow Dragon shrunk to a pinprick and glowed so bright he could barely see the outline of his form. He roared and pressed one last time. The Yellow Dragon blurred.
A drop of golden water appeared.
In his head. Not his core.
From where it appeared, he did not know. How it appeared when every scrap of qi had been dragged from his cells was obvious. It was not his. He had forgotten about the water drop the Machu River made him absorb after deeming it harmless. Now Chen Haoran was forced to watch in disbelief as the Yellow Dragon raised its head and roared. The golden water drop fell straight from his head to his core. Water met Dragon.
Chen Haoran lost control.
An explosion of qi knocked him out of his visualization. The dense sphere of qi he had so painstakingly formed broke like a breached dam. His qi ran wild as it sought to fill in every empty space within a body unprepared to handle the force. Like a stampede of beasts, his qi trampled over every organ, bone, and vein in his body. Chen Haoran tasted metal in the back of his throat, and he suddenly coughed up blood. His arrow wound burst open with a spurt of blood. Yet more pressure built up in his skull, and blood freely ran from his nose and eyes. His qi ran out just as freely through his wounds, and every breath he took was followed by a heavy exhalation of qi.
"Chen Haoran!" Jiang Lei shouted. "Junior Brother, the healing pill!"
Wang Xiao was by his side in a flash and placed a hand on his back to hold him upright. Wang Xiao pulled a pink pill from his storage bag and forced it into Chen Haoran's mouth. It tasted like peaches. Healing energy quickly flowed, but most of its power was wasted fighting against his wild qi before it could heal him. Phelps screeched in distress and placed himself at Chen Haoran's feet. Alternately pawing at him and clawing at Wang Xiao defensively.
The Shaman's wild laughter sounded above them. Carried through the swarm such that the raucous buzzing rose and ebbed as if it were laughing as well. "You've given me a good show. In all my years, I've never met a fool like you. You may not be a Heaven's Chosen, but in boldness, you have no equal!" As if to punctuate his point, the swarm suddenly reared back and slammed into the dome. Toxic green energy drilled into Jiang Lei's liquid qi like veins.
"Damn fool," Wang Xiao cursed, pushing his qi into Chen Haoran to guide the healing pill. "If you want to die, at least die fighting."
"Chen Haoran, stay down. I'll get us out of here," Jiang Lei promised. His sword flashed with a peach glow.
Chen Haoran ignored them all. Within his meridians right now, a drop of golden water was dancing. Where it passed through his rampaging qi, it left a calm current in its wake. It did not devour, it did not hunt, and yet his qi was pulled to the droplet regardless. It danced in an all too familiar cycle around his body as it made orderly his out-of-control qi.
It was a gift from the Machu River. Of course, it wasn't meant to harm him. He was just the fool who got distracted at the critical moment.
Chen Haoran pushed away Wang Xiao and, with an effort only made possible through qi, stood up.
"You dumb bastard," Wang Xiao said. "You're in no condition to stand." He went to force Chen Haoran back down, but then the truth of his words hit him. He pulled back and regarded Chen Haoran with wary eyes.
"Chen Haoran?" Jiang Lei worriedly called.
"I'm not done yet." Chen Haoran wanted to say. Instead, he coughed more blood onto Wang Xiao. Whatever, it didn't matter. He was bruised, cracked, and bleeding. Not broken.
The Yellow Dragon roared. It emerged from the depths of his core with a vengeance. Chen Haoran cycled his qi, and the Yellow Dragon took off chasing after the Machu water drop. Qi entered his body and was devoured by the Dragon, increasing its speed until it caught up with the dancing droplet and swam straight into it.
Despite what it seemed at times, the Yellow Dragon was no more real than the phantom Lan Yao he sparred with to learn the Scattering Petal Palm. It was a figment of his mind, a useful mnemonic to help him use the Yellow River Dragon Refinement. When the Yellow Dragon met the Machu water drop, it should have passed right through it.
Instead, they merged.
The Yellow Dragon did not devour the water drop, and yet it absorbed it better than it ever did any qi. Spectral scales gained solidity; imaginary eyes glowed with sharp light, an invisible roar gained real force. Before Chen Haoran's eyes, the dragon he had only ever pictured in his mind came to life. It opened its jaws and roared, and he felt the vibrations drum through his meridians and match the beat of his heart. When Chen Haoran's thoughts descended to the Yellow Dragon, another mind rose to meet him.
The Yellow Dragon waved hello.
Chen Haoran's response was brief.
He needed to advance.
The Yellow Dragon roared in approval and shot off. With the merging of the droplet, the qi the Dragon once had to chase now willingly threw itself into its maw. With the merging of the Dragon, the qi did not pass through like with the droplet but stayed. The Yellow Dragon danced and devoured, and as it did, it glowed with golden light as all the qi in Chen Haoran's body was absorbed within its form. After completing an entire revolution through his body, he was again left empty. Strangely enough, he didn't feel weak this time. Not when the Yellow Dragon was still dancing through his meridians.
Chen Haoran breathed.
The Yellow Dragon breathed with him.
Yellow River Dragon Refinement.
Qi surged into his body and was devoured by the Yellow Dragon. After refining it all, he breathed again and took in even more qi than before. Devour, refine, breathe. In this way, each successive breath was larger than before until even the air around him was disturbed by the intake of qi. The golden glow around the Yellow Dragon intensified until it became a liquid and trailed from its body as it danced through his meridians.
Liquid Qi, the mark of the Liquid Meridian Realm.
Chen Haoran ascended with a dragon's roar.
Chapter 109: This Young Master Recreates
Chen Haoran opened his eyes and looked at the swarm that surrounded them. Large patches of green miasma ate away at Jiang Lei's liquid qi dome. Jiang Lei swung his sword. A glowing blade of qi crossed through the barrier and annihilated a hole in the swarm to the outside. It was only exposed for a moment, however, before the swarm shifted and more insects closed the gap.
Chen Haoran blinked once, and the world took on new colors as Liquid Qi enhanced his vision. He watched a green beetle with a subtle purple gloss on its shell land on the peach qi dome. He picked out the scars Jiang Lei's corrosive qi left on its carapace before it burned away completely. He immediately began tracking the next insect with such clarity he could individually identify their species, even surrounded by a million others. Was this how eagles looked at the world?
Under the enhancement of his growing Liquid Qi, his other senses rose to match the level of his vision, and he marshaled his qi to dampen the nausea it caused. He still needed to grasp the situation. His qi sense flooded out with him as the center stretching ten meters, twenty, thirty, before finally stopping. Within the zone, he could see the swarm rising upward in a single massive column. The insects, all 5,972,451 of them, rotated as they pressed down on the dome like a living drill. Beyond the column, he could sense the connected energies of the Shaman and his Gu. The amorphous energy of the Gu was as normal, but to Chen Haoran's sense, the Shaman's green qi blurred and took on several points of similarity to his Gu's qi.
As he was inspecting, he was observed in turn. What felt like three pairs of ghostly eyes scanned him and were startled by what they saw.
"He succeeded?" Wang Xiao whispered in disbelief. His emotions whipped his gaseous Peach-colored qi into a swarm.
Jiang Lei laughed and shook his head."Chen Haoran, you crazy bastard." His lake of pink qi surged as he pushed back the dome.
"Impossible!" The Shaman shouted. The blur over his qi fell as the reality of Chen Haoran's successful advancement caused a ripple across his own lake of noxious green qi. The Dragonfly Gu's energy spiked, and the swarm flashed with miasma and doubled its efforts.
Chen Haoran wiped the blood from his face. "Jiang Lei, cover them."
Startled, Jiang Lei immediately grabbed Phelps and Wang Xiao. Within his body, the Yellow Dragon threaded a line of liquid qi throughout his meridians and then accelerated toward his head. Chen Haoran took a single step and bounded through the dome and into the swarm. A million crawling bodies tried to bury themselves in his skin. The Yellow Dragon roared. Liquid Qi flooded out of Chen Haoran.
The swarm broke.
Xie Jin had said that among insects, the Gu was king. The Dragonfly Gu had more than lived up to those words with the immense swarm it commanded. Even now, as the swarm threatened to break completely under Chen Haoran's flood, it reasserted its dominance and directed the swarm to crush him. It was an admirable, if futile, attempt.
After all, what was a Dragonfly to a Dragon?
Liquid qi surged and carried the Yellow Dragon's roar. Where before, the insects didn't hesitate to sacrifice themselves to Jiang Lei's corrosive qi, they now reeled back as soon as they touched the dragon's arrogance. Chen Haoran raised a hand, and his liquid qi followed the motion, flooding up to the air like a spear and breaking the swarm from within. The liquid qi stopped before it could go more than halfway up. He had just broken through, and he didn't have enough qi to let it flood as he wished. Even as the thought occurred, the Yellow Dragon breathed in more qi and devoured it, feeding the flood while Chen Haoran directed it.
The Shaman cursed, and a silent command to his Gu had the swarm drawn into the air away from Chen Haoran. He glared murder at Chen Haoran and slapped his storage bag, a green beast core flew out of it. "I'll refine your bones into a puppet! I'll torture your soul and make your ghost a slave for a thousand years!"
The Shaman tossed the beast core to the Gu. The Dragonfly Gu covered it with miasma and tore into it with a savageness Chen Haoran had never seen before from the otherwise robotic Gu. Before his eyes, the core shrunk and scattered to dust as the Gu devoured its essence. The Shaman waved his hands, and the Dragonfly Gu's eyes shined with green light. Above them, insects and miasma converged into a sphere. Miasma leaked from within the insect planet like toxic vents. Behind him, Jiang Lei's qi spiked in preparation.
Chen Haoran calmly watched the formation of the poisonous planet. His hand drifted to his scimitar, and before he drew the blade, he was struck with a sudden sense of nostalgia. A strong Liquid Meridian. A final giant attack. The green qi.
"You mongrel," Chen Haoran echoed with a laugh."Don't tell me a storage bag is all you have, you broke bastard."
The Shaman was not amused. "Die," he coldly said.
The toxic planet fell.
"As above, so below," Chen Haoran murmured. He had to give the White Tyrant credit; the scenery of that day was burned into his mind alright.
Chen Haoran pulled out his scimitar and slashed. The jungle lit up with white light. The earth ruptured and parted open. Towering trees fell and became sawdust before even touching the ground. The toxic ball of insects and miasma was split down the middle, and then those halves were themselves split down the middle. White blades of light cut away insects and miasma into fine dust. White lines of metal energy cracked across the Swiftwind Scimitar, and it shattered into pieces.
"Damn," Chen Haoran sighed. His legs buckled, and he dropped to a knee. The liquid qi within his body dimmed, and the Yellow Dragon hastily drew in more qi to restore it. He'd overdone it with that last attack. He gazed at the broken hilt of his blade. "I wonder what you felt back then."
The Shaman stared at Chen Haoran with frozen, terrified eyes. A thin red line trailed from his head down vertically on his body, and he split into two. The Dragonfly Gu followed its master's fate and split in half down the middle but remained floating in the air. Chen Haoran frowned as the halves of the Dragonfly Gu awkwardly reattached themselves. They didn't heal like how the Auctioneer reattached his arm, however. They just stuck together, and when the Dragonfly Gu flew to its master's corpse, the halves slid apart and readjusted themselves. Unexpectedly, the Dragonfly Gu spewed miasma over the Shaman's corpse. After a moment, the miasma turned blood red, and when the Gu swallowed it back, all that was left was the Shaman's scarlet uniform and bone necklace. Before Chen Haoran could do anything, it turned and disappeared into the jungle.
"So fucking weird," Chen Haoran muttered.
"On that, we can agree," Jiang Lei said, slapping Chen Haoran on the back. "Although in my eyes, you're not much better. I've met berserkers less crazy in battle than you are." He shook his head in disbelief. "Are you alright?"
"Tired and in pain. I'll live, though." Even after getting it in what felt like every cell in his body, the fact that he could stand and talk right now was a testament to the exaggerated physique of the Liquid Meridian Realm. His injuries were still there, but under the enhancement of Liquid Qi, they were far less serious an issue than when he was a Qi Realm. This wasn't even the end of it. Even as they spoke, he could feel his liquid qi settling into the corners of his body. Given time to accumulate qi and adjust, his body would no doubt be even more ridiculous. Chen Haoran couldn't even imagine what effect Liquid Qi would have on the Stygian Lotus's durability.
Jiang Lei clicked his tongue. "I'm sure the Heavens are just as surprised as I am about that. What were you thinking?" He offered a hand.
Chen Haoran grasped it and let Jiang Lei pull him to his feet. "Like I had to advance. Someone had to save the day after all."
"I was working on it. I was in the middle of considering the options when you pulled that stunt."
"It worked. That's all that matters."
Phelps floated over from behind Jiang Lei with a squeal and buried himself in Chen Haoran's chest. Wang Xiao followed after the sloth with an expression Chen Haoran could only describe as complicated.
"Will that Gu be a problem? It won't warn another shaman or something, will it?" Chen Haoran asked.
Jiang Lei shook his head. "The death of the shaman is the end of the contract between them. It'll wander around for a bit as a free spirit before making its way to the Tenth Green Hell."
Chen Haoran put a lid on his desire for Jiang Lei to expand on that last sentence. "So we just have to worry about the next shaman that comes after us instead."
"We should be fine. The Empire deploys the majority of the Gu Department outside of Zumulu. That shaman should have been the only one in the area. It will take time for another to get here. So long as we clean up well, there won't be any traces left for them to track." Jiang Lei turned his gaze to the ruined battlefield. "Not that there's much cleaning up to do. You seem to have understood something about your Harmonization."
"Maybe," Chen Haoran said. "Or else it's more of the same, but stronger." He would have to get a new sword, one that wouldn't break under his new power, to really see.
"On that note, congratulations on your advancement to the Liquid Meridian Realm." Jiang Lei clasped his hands in respect. Wang Xiao looked like he was sucking a lemon, but he also clasped his hands. "How does it feel?"
Chen Haoran considered the question. He felt strong. Stronger than ever. He felt safe. Safer than ever. He felt empty. Empty like he hadn't felt since the Spa Caverns. Like a space had opened up that just waited to be filled.
Everlasting Hundred Blessings Charitable Prosperity
Pet Phelps
He looked at Jiang Lei.
Connection: Negative
Chen Haoran smiled. "A hundred times better."
Chapter 110: This Young Master In The Jungle
What followed was cleaning up the scene, making sure Phelps hadn't gotten poisoned or injured by the Gu, gathering up the strewn pieces of his Clear Heart Mirror Armor, and taking count of their spoils. Unfortunately, Chen Haoran's hopes that he'd find a treasure or a technique were dashed. Some rations. A few silvers and gold in tael and banknote form. Other sundries and camping gear. As it turned out, soldiers didn't carry any extraneous supplies when out on a mission. Neither did they have any storage bags. Even for the Empire, equipping all its soldiers, even its skilled ones, with their own storage bags was too much of an expense, apparently. Luckily the Liquid Meridian Jiang Lei had killed did have a storage bag. What was in it, he didn't know. Jiang Lei merely peeked inside it and dumped the contents of the storage bag into his own before shredding it to pieces.
Chen Haoran looked on mournfully. He wasn't shameless enough for a portion. Even if Jiang Lei didn't kill the Liquid Meridian without him holding them off, Chen Haoran would have died several times over. Even so, it hurt seeing him destroy the storage bag.
Jiang Lei noticed him watching and smiled helplessly. "You can never be too careful with storage bags. It's not uncommon for them to have some means of tracking. Better to minimize any risk since we're dealing with shamans."
Chen Haoran was beginning to realize just how paranoia-inducing it was when one was on the wrong side of a Gu. "Does that mean we can't take anything?"
"It should be fine. The storage bag is one thing, but for the others, time and distance will take care of any trace. Take whatever you want."
"Not like there's much to take. Damn Gu." When the Gu devoured the shaman's corpse, it also took his storage bag and left behind nothing for Chen Haoran to loot.
Jiang Lei laughed. "That's just the nature of the Gu. Seeking treasure is second nature to them, and taking it is an instinct."
"Like how it stole my armor?" Chen Haoran shuddered. It had been a long time since he had been so caught off guard. Thankfully Jiang Lei had been quick to put out the flames. He'd rather have all his limbs broken again instead of burning to death.
"Just one of their many abilities, I'm afraid. If the Shaman weren't so focused on killing us, then there would have been little we could do to stop him from taking your storage bag."
Chen Haoran picked up a soldiers sword and tested the edge."I knew they were powerful, but I didn't expect Gu to be so ridiculous."
"There's a reason shamans are as respected as they are feared. A single Gu has a variety of difficult-to-counter abilities available to them." Jiang Lei hefted the axe of the dead Liquid Meridian and tossed it to Chen Haoran. "Use this. It's at least better than those Mortal-Rank swords."
Chen Haoran easily caught the axe by the handle and casually swiped it through the air. Channeling qi through the weapon had its edge glow metal white. A Profound-Rank weapon. "I won't be able to use my Harmonization through this."
Jiang Lei raised an eyebrow. "You say that like it's a bad thing. Take one of the swords as well, just in case. You'll want to upgrade to something better soon, though. Your Harmonization seems to have only gotten fiercer with your advancement."
"Fair enough," Chen Haoran said as he hung the axe at his waist.
The sound of sizzling filled the air, and he wrinkled his nose as the smell of burning meat assaulted him. He looked over to find Wang Xiao sprinkling a white powder over the corpses. As soon as the powder touched the skin, it began to bubble, and Chen Haoran watched with horrified awe as the body was reduced to an unrecognizable black sludge in a matter of moments.
"Bone Dissolving Solution," Jiang Lei said. "It's a southern specialty. Apparently, its creator intended for it to be an ingested poison, but it was too obvious for that. Some creative souls then realized how useful it was for disposing corpses and repurposed it."
"You guys are pretty professional," Chen Haoran faintly said.
Jiang Lei gave him a toothy grin.
"In Zumulu, this is the bare minimum."
They didn't stay long after disposing of the corpses and quickly set off into the jungle, only stopping briefly at a stream to wash off their blood and sweat. The entirety of the next day, they didn't stop to rest at all until well into the night. It was a punishing pace, but for Chen Haoran, it may have well been a slightly longer run. Compared to a visibly exhausted Wang Xiao, Chen Haoran was barely winded. He felt like he could run for days, and in fact, he could.
Jiang Lei pushed them to run without stopping over the next few days, and Chen Haoran began to come to terms with the new physical realities of the Liquid Meridian Realm. Lan Fen had been right to call the gap between realms a chasm. While he knew from prior experience just how overwhelming a Liquid Meridian Realm was, becoming one revealed the full extent of the depths he only ever saw the surface of.
He was faster, stronger, tougher, more perceptive, more everything. To lift a phrase from back home, he floated better than butterflies, and as for his sting… well, when he placed his hand to lean on a tree after running for four days straight, he accidentally pushed the whole thing over, roots and all.
Suffice it to say he was extra careful with how he moved until he fully adjusted.
All this stemmed from the liquid qi now coursing through his meridians. Over the days, the Yellow Dragon had ceaselessly absorbed and refined qi for him till the trickle he'd begun with became a river. The Yellow Dragon. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of the Machu's gift. Was it the Machu River itself? Or a separate entity? It certainly acted more like the Yellow Dragon he'd visualized all this time than the Machu River. It was a bit uncomfortable to know there was an intelligent mind living within his body now. On the other hand, the benefits the Yellow Dragon provided were too good to give up.
Automatic cultivation while he focused on other tasks and double the efficiency when he cultivated himself. These alone were enough to make him forever satisfied, and he was sure they weren't the only things the Yellow Dragon was capable of. Any other uses would have to be explored in the future, however. The company he was keeping, and the environment they were in weren't really conducive to training with the sentient water living in his meridians.
After running for five consecutive days straight, Jiang Lei was finally satisfied with their distance from the battle site. Their journey, while still hurried, wasn't nearly so frantic now. It was a welcome relief to Wang Xiao, who now found himself the weakest link. He'd not said another word, untoward or otherwise, to Chen Haoran ever since the fight. Every so often, however, Chen Haoran found him staring at him with complicated eyes. It seemed his advancement did more of a number on Wang Xiao than their duel did.
Jiang Lei, for what it was worth, didn't treat Chen Haoran any differently than before. They still reviewed the Seven Steps of the Rainbow Stairs together, and between struggling to get the technique started, Jiang Lei would regale him with some anecdote from his own training or a local legend he'd grown up on. He wasn't sure how to feel about it, in all honesty. Was it good? Bad? He didn't know. What Chen Haoran did know was that now that they were on the same level, he could finally face Jiang Lei with confidence. Even the skill Jiang Lei had shown in the fight wasn't enough to press Chen Haoran the way being a Qi Realm to his Liquid Meridian did. Becoming stronger was quite the balm for the mind. Who knew?
Chen Haoran didn't dwell on those sorts of thoughts too much. Most of his attention was split between learning the First Step of the Rainbow Stairs and experiencing the jungles of Zumulu. One was far more stimulating and immediately rewarding than the other. Chen Haoran had thought he'd gotten his taste of the jungle when traveling with Xie Jin. As he quickly learned, the sea of trees that comprised the jungle of Zumulu were only superficially similar to each other depending on where one was.
Here in the 'deep jungle' as Jiang Lei called it, Zumulu, as the natives knew it, was in full bloom. The jungle trees lost whatever restraint they had in the periphery of Zumulu and rose to over 200 feet in height. The foliage grew so thick between them that Chen Haoran did not have to worry about the hot southern sun burning him because the leafage blocked any view of the sky period. That did not mean they traveled in darkness, no. Rather than block the sun's rays, the leaves of the giant trees had a gem-like luster and filtered the harsh sunlight into a softer, gentler form. The type of light that might shine through a window on a lazy day. It lent an ethereal quality to the world underneath the jungle. Particularly in the way the light mixed with the ever-present water vapor and wrapped around branches and trunks like a heavenly drape.
Too bad the wildlife didn't seem to get the memo.
Slavering monitor lizards the size of sharks with none of the reservations. Giant rolling nuts that popped open to reveal wooden scorpions hiding within them. Dog-sized dragonflies and the man-sized mantises that fed on them. Other insects, big and small. All blurred to Chen Haoran's qi sense in a way similar but not quite exactly like Gu. They detoured a small but hilariously lethal tree that released a zone of fine hairs that burned the lungs if breathed in. They did battle with a troop of snake-tailed monkeys that wielded their serpent appendages like lassos. Chen Haoran woke up one night and found Jiang Lei and Phelps having a staring contest with what he swore was King Kong.
Chen Haoran had to wonder if looking beautiful was the environment's way of apologizing for what lived in it. It was an act of sheer will that he walked with his own two feet back into the jungle after their brief forays into towns for supplies. When Jiang Lei finally, blessedly, said they were near the Basin, Chen Haoran felt relieved.
He really should have known better.
Chapter 111: This Young Master Introduces His 'Friends'
When Xie Jin had said his home was much lower than other places in Zumulu, Chen Haoran should have perhaps expected the understatement. The Basin was an apt name; from above, it looked like someone had buried a bowl into the earth and dropped a jungle into it. Waterfalls spilled over the sheer cliffs surrounding the Basin and were swallowed into the dark jungle below. The dense, dark green treetops obscured their direction from further view but from the cliffs it was obvious where the water ended up going.
Like a bowl, the contours of the Basin sloped downward, and at its lowest point was a lake that glinted like black onyx under the sun's light. A mountain protruded from the lake, or perhaps it was the lake that formed around the mountain? Whatever the case, it struck up into the sky like a thorn. It was not the only giant feature in the Basin. Black bones struck up like skyscrapers all across the jungle. The remains of rib cages towered over trees like black spiders. Spines, femurs, skulls, all black as night and titanic in scale and strewn like a careless undertaker tossed them from the coffin. It was the black skeleton on the mountain that truly pulled Chen Haoran's attention, however.
Well… it was wrong to say it was on the mountain. Over it, perhaps? Through it? In the simplest terms, it was impaled. The mountain speared straight through the skeleton's chest and made its ribcage a mess of splintered bone. Its four limbs were splayed outward in an immortal dying gasp. Its half-submerged skull faced the sky, drowning even in death. There was some all too human ancient tragedy behind this skeleton, which alone would have been enough to enthrall him. Instead, Chen Haoran observed it in closed-mouth horror. It was all too human, from its skull to its thumbs, as if a regular skeleton were blown up to immense proportions.
"Unsettling, isn't it?" Jiang Lei spoke beside him. "Even for us born in Zumulu, the Basin bones are unnerving. For all that we don't know anything about the regular skeletons, we know even less about the Black Bones."
"Hyperbole much?" Chen Haoran asked.
Jiang Lei shrugged. "Not really. We have a thousand more questions about the Black Bones, and so lack a thousand more answers."
Chen Haoran refrained from pointing out that was still hyperbole. He peered over the edge of the cliff and judged the precipitous drop. While he had a little experience with falling from high places now, this fall would have killed him were he still a Qi Realm. Now though?
"I could probably make that."
Phelps nipped at his ear.
"We could make that," he corrected.
"No making anything," Jiang Lei said. "There's a way down."
"Where?"
Jiang Lei raised his hand toward the sun in lieu of an answer. He squinted as he used his hand as a measure. Chen Haoran had a thought watching him and looked directly at the sun and— Nope. Chen Haoran blinked the colors out of his eyes. Looking at the sun was still a bad idea, even for a Liquid Meridian.
Jiang Lei finished his analysis and looked left and right. He turned to Wang Xiao with a serious look. Wang Xiao shrugged and shook his head.
"Right," Jiang Lei said. "It's somewhere."
Chen Haoran sighed.
They eventually found a way down after a bit of back and forth. A giant slanted leg bone, its top half buried into the cliffs, served as a natural ramp down into the Basin. Walking down it was a halting mixture of walking and sliding. Despite however many millennia it had been since its owner fell, the bone was smooth, with a polished slickness. Deep, bell-like echoes thrummed within the bone's hollow with every step. Once they got far enough down, they leapt from the bone straight to the ground. Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao landed with practiced elegance. Phelps squealed in his ear and took ahold of them with his power, and Chen Haoran gracefully floated down.
The jungle in the Basin was yet again another change in what were otherwise the same trees. It was a dark jungle, but not for lack of light. This was a wet dark. The kind that only water could make when it was spilled and left alone. The trees looked like they'd been soaked and never had the chance to dry. Water dripped from their dark green leaves. The smell of wet earth was ever-present.
"It's quiet," Wang Xiao said.
It was. There were no bird calls, no chittering of insects, no howls of monkeys or roars of far-off predators. It was such a stark difference compared to the jungle above that Chen Haoran seriously considered if there was a Silencing Formation set up around them.
"The ecology in the Basin is rather unique as far as I know," Jiang Lei said.
"Master told me all the poison in Zumulu collects here," Wang Xiao said.
"That's an exaggeration," Jiang Lei denied. "Although there's a higher density of poisonous creatures here than anywhere else. Do be careful."
"And you said this place is safer?" Chen Haoran asked in disbelief.
"When you're friends with a Black Bone Shaman, there's nowhere safer." Jiang Lei paused. "You wouldn't happen to know which tribe your friend is from, would you?"
"I don't." He didn't even know there were multiple tribes here. "Would you even know what to do with that information?"
"I wouldn't, but it'd be nice to have a name so we can be pointed in the right direction."
"Who would we be asking? The trees?"
"I'm sure the Black Bones will find us eventually." Jiang Lei took the lead and entered the jungle. "We can only stomp around in their home for so long until we're discovered."
The jungle was eerily silent. The only sound accompanying them were the crunching of the leaf litter beneath their feet and the wind swaying through the branches. The canopy above them still had that translucent quality that allowed sunlight to pass through, but the brightness had been sapped from it. The Basin was a waning day compared to the morning quality of the jungle above. What the leaves took in brightness, however, they added in color. Each wet leaf became a prism, and with the millions of leaves refracting light, the whole jungle was carpeted in rainbows.
Xie Jin had told him about this. About how colorful the Basin became during the day. Compared to seeing it in person, however, his stories fell far short.
Phelps hummed and relaxed on his back. Chen Haoran wondered if he was reminded of home. The wetness of the Basin was similar to the Spa Cavern in that regard. The sloth rested his head on Chen Haoran's shoulder and silently stared at each shifting rainbow as they played across tree bark and branches.
Chen Haoran stretched out his sense as they walked and frowned when he saw the area was remarkably empty. No animal, big or small, no birds, what insects he did find were the simplest kind. It would have been fine if it weren't for the strange flashes of qi he felt. They were quick, and whenever he tried to focus on them immediately vanished as if they were never there. His hand slowly crept to his looted sword.
Jiang Lei gave Chen Haoran an amused look. "Sensing something?"
"What are they?"
"Gu, insects beasts, some combination thereof. Who knows."
"They don't feel like Gu."
"Don't take the shaman from before as an example. Gu are excellent at hiding. We were lucky that he, to borrow your words, sucked at stealth."
"Is that your new favorite phrase or something?"
They bickered as they walked. Chen Haoran still kept his hilt firm in hand. Nothing came of the hidden qi, however. Soon enough, their conversation dwindled away as the rainbows drifted and the sun set, casting the jungle a dark orange. They had yet to find even a hint of another person.
Jiang Lei looked solemn.
"Should we make some noise?" Wang Xiao asked. "Surely, they'll have to answer us."
"I don't believe that will leave the best impression," Jiang Lei said. "We may have to turn back—"
Chen Haoran's qi flared.
Even his presence took on a new layer of weight with his advancement to the Liquid Meridian Realm, and it stirred up a storm of leaves and rustling branches.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Lei demanded.
Chen Haoran pushed his flaring qi for a minute, then cut it. He waited. The jungle was unnaturally still. "Huh, when Song Yuelin did this—"
The jungle struck. A wave of creatures simultaneously attacked from every direction, from places that were very much empty to his sense right before they moved. Colorful frogs lashed out with arrow-tipped tongues, a silent cat-sized mosquito fell on them from above, a scorpion rose from beneath his feet with three dripping stingers.
Chen Haoran's qi surged through his meridians and spilled their banks. The Yellow Dragon roared. Liquid qi flooded out and swept away their ambushers. The dragon pride inherent in his qi crushed all thoughts of defiance, and the jungle came alive with yellow light and the rush of movement as every hidden creature in the vicinity fled. Directing Liquid Qi was much like using a third hand. While it was instinctual and felt natural to use, there was still a sense of awkwardness as he got used to it. The best he could do was avoid releasing qi from his back and hitting Phelps. Jiang Lei, on the other hand, was forced to cover himself and Wang Xiao with his own liquid qi.
Chen Haoran pulled back his liquid qi and scratched Phelps's chin when the sloth angrily squealed at him. Jiang Lei dispersed his own and, for once, looked quite annoyed with Chen Haoran.
"May I ask what it is you think you're doing?"
"I liked Wang Xiao's suggestion," Chen Haoran replied. "I don't want to wait the whole night either."
And they wouldn't be.
Qi flashed, and from the shadows appeared several armored forms. Whatever technique they used to hide from his sense was impeccable. Even now, when they were standing in front of him, he could barely sense their qi. Their armor was as black as the bones that decorated it, looking less like metal and more like they had ripped the carapace off a massive bug and fashioned it into armor. Or perhaps that was exactly what they did.
One man took the lead. His qi was faint enough that Chen Haoran couldn't guess at his Layer, yet it held a weight all too familiar to him now. Liquid Meridian Realm. He was not the only one, either. There were at least three others.
"You've made your presence known, foreigner," the man said. His eyes drifted over to Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao, and his face flashed with disgust. "Peachbloods. State your business."
"My name is Chen Haoran. I'm here to find my friend Xie Jin."
The man's black eyes narrowed before they turned away. "He will confirm that."
Chen Haoran stretched his sense to follow the man's gaze and lit up in joy when he sense familiar qi. A familiar voice soon followed it.
"Hold. Hold damn it!"
A black beetle, Gu burst into the scene, and hot on its tail was Xie Jin. "Let me check the situa—" He ground to a halt when he saw Chen Haoran. Confusion writ large across his face. "Brother Chen? It really was you?"
"Brother Jin!" Chen Haoran crossed over to him, ignoring how the qi in the air tensed, and how the black-eyed warrior defensively loomed behind Xie Jin. Chen Haoran clasped Xie Jin's arm. "It's good to see you."
"You advanced?" Xie Jin asked in disbelief. "No, before that. Why are you here?" He suddenly looked over Chen Haoran's shoulder and scowled in recognition at Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao. "You. Why are you here?"
Jiang Lei raised his hands placatingly. "We coincidentally met with Chen Haoran and, due to certain circumstances, escorted him here. This would perhaps be a discussion best done indoors, however. May we have the honor of lodging with your tribe?"
Xie Jin visibly hesitated. The black-eyed warrior calmly watched him and made no move. The other warrior stood so still that they seemed to blend back into the shadows. The struggle was clear on Xie Jin's face when he looked back at Chen Haoran.
"Even if it's because of you, Brother Chen. I can't just allow them in."
"That makes things easier then," Chen Haoran calmly said. "Because they're not here for me."
He grabbed the hilt of his sword.
"They're here for you."