Chapter 15 - 51-57

Chapter 51: This Young Master Will Explore Nature

The roar of nature filled his head and drowned out whatever other sounds there were to be heard on his way back to camp.

That was why he saw the hunt before he heard it.

The band of sloths he had first found when he entered the cavern had come to the ground for some reason. The crickets had of course wasted no time in punishing them for that decision. Eight sloths were fighting three times that number in crickets. It was a vicious fight. Though the sloths were enhanced with the power of qi that did not change the fact they were sloths and were thus much slower than the insects.

Chen Haoran couldn't hear the horrible chirping or angry squealing over the sound of the rain but he could imagine it seeing the bloody scene before him. Each sloth was beset upon by multiple crickets and though their sharp claws left lethal wounds whenever they connected they received twice as many in return from their more nimble foes. The frost-covered stones ran slick with blood. A particularly angry sloth, fighting above a frozen pool, shattered the ice beneath it and dragged three crickets down with it, looking more like sharks as they thrashed in the water.

Some sloths floated into the air to escape. The limitations of their ability were revealed however when the crickets jumped into the air after them with their powerful legs. The sloths had no mobility in the air and were easy targets for the crickets who snatched them with their forelimbs. They tussled for a brief moment before, inevitably, the sloths were dragged screaming down to the ground.

He found Phelps. Chen Haoran flexed his qi and broke into a run.

Phelps had placed himself at the edge of the violence right in front of the boulder Chen Haoran used to block his camp. A cricket leaped forward and disemboweled itself on Phelps's claws. Another cricket lunged while he was distracted but Phelps had moved before it did. His claws swiped across the cricket's bulbous eyes and blinded it. Phelps floated into the air rather than finish it off, avoiding a third cricket that barreled in and slammed against the boulder. He cut short his floating before he rose too high and fell like a stone on both crickets, skewering them with his claws.

Then the fourth cricket landed on him and sunk its mandibles into his back leg. Phelps squealed in pain and rolled to throw off the insect, his desperate move only opened him up for a fifth and sixth cricket to close in for the kill. Phelps had fought well but in the end, he was simply not fast enough in the face of more numerous, quicker crickets. He would die fighting alone.

It was good that he wasn't.

Chen Haoran cleaved through the two crickets that thought to take advantage of Phelps's predicament and then beheaded the cricket atop him. Phelps weakly squealed at him.

"You're lucky that I'm a sucker for the Sunk Cost fallacy," Chen Haoran said.

He turned to the other crickets. Sixteen left. The rest of the sloths had already been slaughtered. One scimitar glowed blue.

Canyon Carving Sword

There was a stutter in the uniform sound of rain. Where his sword light flowed no water fell and the rain could only wait for it to pass. The stones split as the energy river annihilated every cricket in its way before ending at a frozen pool and bursting it in a shower of ice and water.

Eight crickets left.

The Crouching Tiger earrings blinked and the crickets froze. Chen Haoran crossed the Swiftwind scimitars together and slew four more before the rest had the presence of mind to flee.

He let them go. He had a patient to tend to.

Chen Haoran watched the rain from the shelter of his camp. A fire crackled, glowing blue from using moss as fuel, and provided blessed warmth. Phelps napped next to him on the bedding, his injured leg cleansed and bandaged up. How it would heal was up to luck at this point. Chen Haoran had done his best but he was no veterinarian, nor did he have any kind of medical training, so he couldn't properly diagnose the injuries of a super sloth in another world. He could only hope the medicine and Phelps's qi were enough.

Connection: Negative

"No dice huh."

Outside a few crickets rifled among the corpses though they were wise enough to steer clear from him. Chen Haoran watched two crickets squabble over the corpse of a sloth. They wrestled around it before the victor kicked away his opponent and dragged the body away. It was easy enough to guess why the sloths were on the ground. He doubted they could stay on the roof with how dense the cloud cover was, which made them easy pickings for the predators below. An entire ecosystem adapted to the insane environment they lived in.

Which meant that the sudden cold snap wasn't a fluke but a regular occurrence in this place.

Chen Haoran grabbed another clump of moss and threw it onto the fire. Some of his questions were answered and more mysteries that needed answers revealed themselves in turn. It was a depressingly familiar cycle. One thing was clear, whatever the cause was, the cold snap came from one direction. That meant it had a source. Whether or not finding that source would lead to a way out was a matter of luck but it was the only option he had right now.

Phelps blinked open his eyes and yawned. He slowly turned his head to and fro and squealed when he saw Chen Haoran.

"Morning." Not that he actually knew what time it was. He passed Phelps some moss and watched him eat. Slowly he stretched out his hand and placed a finger on the sloth's head. Phelps stilled and for a moment Chen Haoran thought he would pull away. Instead, Phelps scarfed down the rest of the moss and pushed his head into Chen Haoran's palm.

Chen Haoran smiled and scratched behind his ears. "You're quite the genius aren't you?" Out of all the sloths, Phelps had killed the most crickets. He closed off their avenues of attack and predicted their moves before they made them so that his claws were already in motion before the crickets even jumped. Even if Chen Haoran couldn't connect with him, what he had seen today was more than enough to convince him to bring the sloth along.

Would Phelps want to come with him? It was an easy enough answer. The sloth would die if he left him here while injured. He couldn't afford to wait for his leg to heal either. Chen Haoran had returned to camp to collect his thoughts but right now was the perfect opportunity to explore the cavern before steam filled it again. The real question then was whether or not he could trust Phelps to not attack him. At the end of the day, he was still a wild animal and Chen Haoran would have to carry him. While his defense was tough he didn't want to risk those claws trying to rip open his neck.

Neck. The word stirred something within him. His eyes drifted down to Phelps's neck.

"I did say I wanted you to be my pet didn't I?"

Chen Haoran closed his eyes in thought. After a moment he opened them and a silver necklace appeared in his hand. Deeming it unsuitable he tossed it into his storage bag and summoned more jewelry. Eventually, he found a satisfactory one. A simple gold necklace with a flat, circular pendant on which a sun was carved. He flipped it over to its smooth back and pressed the tip of the Swiftwind Scimitar against it. With great concentration and supernatural steadiness that only qi could give him he carved the letter P into the pendant.

He blew out the breath he'd been holding once finished and admired his work. A bit rough but seeing as how he carved gold with a sword he considered it a good attempt. Carefully he brought the necklace to Phelps who curiously sniffed it. Chen Haoran wrapped the chain around his neck and held it there unclasped. Besides some snuffling, there wasn't any distress one would expect an animal to have from something wrapped around its neck. He clasped the necklace and leaned back. Phelps squealed.

"A pet has to have a pet collar."

Connection: Valid

The rain fell in heavy sheets. The air was biting cold. Chen Haoran bundled up in as many layers as he could, expensive silk and dyed cotton just waiting to be ruined in weather it was never meant for. It would have to suffice. He stepped to the entrance and stopped an inch away from the curtain of falling water. His breath hitched, and a shiver ran feather-light down his spine.

It was intimidating. He didn't know what waited for him out there in the vast unknown. At the same time, however, he felt his heart beat in his chest. This was an adventure into a mysterious land. He didn't know what awaited him.

He drew a sword and turned to the wall. Qi flowed through the Profound-rank weapon and it easily cut through the stone in curving slashes. Chen Haoran blinked away dust and stone chips and brushed clean the carved message.

'Chen Haoran was here.'

There was no telling what would happen in the future after all.

Two strong furry arms tipped with long, black claws reached from behind him and wrapped around his chest.

"You comfortable?"

Phelps squealed in his ear, snugly bundled onto Chen Haoran's back and secured with a repurposed robe. He handed the sloth a piece of glowing blue moss, Phelps's happy chewing a welcome relief from the overwhelming din of rain and thunder.

Received Hundred-fold: Waterlight Spirit Moss

"Let's go then."

Interlude: The Laughing Monk I

It is said that every step a young cultivator takes is a step made in defiance of Heaven just as it is said that every step an old cultivator takes is in tune with Heaven. Such is the nature of cultivation, to rage against the laws of Heaven till one becomes it.

Song Yuelin had become Heaven. By that standard, it was only natural that the cultivators he looked down on would defy him.

Young Master Chen's ploy had been clever and his decisiveness surprising. Few would think to use such a valuable beast core simply to escape. Judging from the strength of its detonation it had to belong to one of the higher bloodlines. Just one of the many treasures Young Master Chen seemed to keep in reserve. Song Yuelin had been forced to activate his Dead Night Armor while simultaneously striking out with his full force to avoid taking a fatal injury. A reaction that was only possible through the accumulation of experience.

Song Yuelin knew other Liquid Meridian realms who would have died in the same situation. He had underestimated Young Master Chen far too much.

The explosion had forced him out of the valley and back into the frankly ludicrous mountain of gold taels Young Master Chen summoned. In the next instant, Song Yuelin was diving down into the river once again. He immediately stretched out his senses and shadows as soon as he hit the water and shot down the river like a loosed arrow. A sky-blue pearl shined from its hidden place within his robe and a translucent film covered him, letting him breathe beneath the water and removing what little resistance it placed on him.

He followed the course of the river through its underground path till it opened up into another waterfall on the other side of the mountain that fell into an even deeper valley. Over the next three days, he plumbed the depths of that valley and swept the river in both directions multiple times. It was on the fourth day that Song Yuelin gave up the search. It was impossible that Young Master Chen had been killed in the fall and even more impossible that he wouldn't have found a body had that been the case. It was equally impossible that he could have avoided Song Yuelin's search. On his own at least. There was the possibility that Young Master Chen possessed a treasure that helped him escape from the river. Given the treasures he'd already displayed it wasn't so outlandish a theory.

The question then was where did he go? Trying to track him now was an exercise in futility, there were no traces to even hint at a direction.

Song Yuelin was left with only one option.

"Manager Song," said the startled servant. "You've returned." The morning staff had woken up to find Song Yuelin pacing the entrance hall of the manor, having snuck back into Clearsprings City in the middle of the night. It was an unfortunate truth that he did not understand the Young Master enough to guess where he would go. Thus he could only return to the city and hope for news.

"Where is Lady Fen?" Song Yuelin said. Lan Fen had been the first person he sought out as soon as he returned. Predictably however she was nowhere to be seen.

"She left with her people the day after you and Young Master Chen did," the servant stammered. "She has yet to return."

Nor did he expect her to. Without him here there was nothing to ward off her family's Liquid Meridian realms, going into hiding was the safest option. He would have to wait for her to reveal herself when she made her move against the Lan family. Not that there was any guarantee that Young Master Chen would return to her side. He simply didn't know enough about the boy to make any hard calls on what he might do next.

He stopped. No, not a boy. Boys did not successfully escape from Liquid Meridian realms. That unconscious disrespect is what had seen Young Master Chen slip through his fingers in the first place.

Song Yuelin sighed and massaged his temples. How had things spiraled so out of control? When he had first received the report from Manager Lin about the Young Master's strange behavior and sudden influx of wealth he didn't put it in his eyes at all. Such a small matter hadn't been worth reporting to Lord Chen and seeing as how he'd been given a period of rest Song Yuelin decided to make a short trip to Clearsprings City, resolve whatever the issue was, then return to the Chen family for merit. It was supposed to be a relaxing change of pace compared to his typical business.

Not this mess.

He should have left after meeting Young Master Chen. He should have left after discovering the Mourning Pool. He should have left after their talk in the wake of Lan Fen's assault on the Lan Family. He should have left before he mixed his personal feelings with his duty once again.

Song Yuelin had been curious, he told himself. He'd long managed the reports of Young Master Chen's behavior so seeing that he was so different in person was fascinating. He was bored, he argued. Even killing grew banal after so many decades, this was refreshing in comparison. He had to get to the bottom of these mysterious resources, he reasoned. He had to do his duty to the Chen family and help them develop.

All lies. Chen Qitao's son had shown him empathy. Song Yuelin was trapped in chains of his own making.

At his waist, his Thunder Messenger Jade shook. Song Yuelin twitched and gently thumbed the fiery word carved into its flat surface.

Report

Speak of Chen and he shall appear. Song Yuelin channeled his qi into the jade and carved out his own brusque reply.

I have lost the Second Young Master.

It was not the report he was supposed to give. There was an uncomfortably long pause. He could imagine the look he'd receive had he said such a thing in person.

Empire?

On his own.

It was a humiliating admission. Song Yuelin had many peers, both enemy and colleague, who would laugh themselves to death hearing that one so far beneath him in cultivation managed to escape right before his eyes. Only fools and dead men paraded their pride in front of Chen Qitao however.

There was another pause. Song Yuelin went over the scene in his mind. The calm deliberation. The idle tapping of his fingers against his desk. The eventual answer.

Leave him be.

"You really were worried for nothing, Young Master Chen," he murmured.

It would take more than just treasure to make Chen Qitao blink.

Shen Jianyu?

Gone

The only stroke of good fortune to be had in this situation was that the peacock prince left not long after they did. Whatever his reasons for coming here, it hadn't been for them or the port. Miracle of miracles the City Lord hadn't given anything away, although for safety's sake they would have to restrict ships from docking in the region for the next few months.

Return

Song Yuelin exhaled a shaky breath. It was not an unexpected order but he still felt torn. He had much he wanted to say to Young Master Chen.

Acknowledged

It would not stop him from doing his duty, however.

He put away the jade and turned toward the entrance doors. It was time to deal with his other problem.

The doors shattered into a shower of splinters and Lan Xishen strode into the manor surrounded by armed guards. "Lan Fen," he bellowed. "Chen Haoran. Present yourselves!" Qi pitched his demand and carried it across the estate.

Song Yuelin heard shattering porcelain and the panicked shouts of the servants coming from within the manor. He frowned.

Lan Xishen stopped short after seeing Song Yuelin, his eyes widening. "It's a trap!" Green energy gathered around his palms and a misty green qi flowed from his body like a spring breeze and swept toward Song Yuelin.

Liquid shadow spilled from his sleeves and blocked the opposing qi. The other Lan family warriors assumed a defensive formation. Song Yuelin hummed. More liquid shadow flooded towards the warriors, forcing Lan Xishen to defend them.

What were the odds that the Lan family would come to cause trouble the same day he returned? Why would they think Young Master Chen and Lan Fen were here and not him? The answer was obvious. They were fooled.

"It seems I've underestimated Lady Fen as well," Song Yuelin said. She knew he returned to the manor. Perhaps she had left behind spies in the staff? He was more disturbed from losing Young Master Chen than he thought to not notice such a thing. "That's twice now." He really had looked down on the two of them far too much. With a twist of liquid shadow, two curved obsidian daggers fell into his hands.

He would not make that mistake again.

"You are trespassing on Chen family property." His smile was grim. "Die."

Interlude: The Valkyrie III

It had been 9 days since Song Yuelin and Chen Haoran had left Clearsprings City. After they did, Lan Fen immediately returned to the manor to disperse her people. She had the reliance to avoid the hunt of a superior cultivator, they did not. In any case, their use was coming to an end. She could feel the wind change the moment Shen Jianyu canceled the Palace Exams.

Despite Song Yuelin's fears, the prince took no other action after canceling the exams. There was no announcement declaring them criminals nor any search done at the estate. Shen Jianyu stayed for three days and left without a word, the city seeming to breathe a sigh of relief when he did.

The damage had been done though. While the City Lord still kept his position the major families were no longer content with the status quo. Her previous sabotage became pointless as they rallied around the Lan family and sought to raise up its Patriarch to become a counterbalancing force. It was not all well for the Lan family, she was sure they had to give up much in the end in order for the deal to be struck. It would all be worth it in the end, a Crystal Transformation realm was that valuable.

It also meant the Lan family could now devote their time to hunting down Lan Fen. She had been holed up in the Silver Ring space ever since leaving the manor. She only left to gather news and otherwise devoted herself to Harmonizing with the Heaven-Splitting Claw.

"You must be annoyed," the White Tyrant said. Floating in the white space of the Silver ring. "All your planning and preparations ruined by the whims of a higher power."

Lan Fen stopped her cycling of the Heaven-Splitting Claw and glared at him.

"Such is the nature of the strong." He hung upside down and poked her head with a ghostly finger. "They're stones in a calm pond, no matter how softly they're dropped in the water they still disturb the peace with their ripples."

"It would be better if we knew why he came here," Lan Fen said.

The White Tyrant shrugged. "Who cares. I'm more interested in what you're going to do now."

"Finish off the Lan family of course."

"Why?" he asked. "With your talent you're guaranteed to become a Crystal Transformation realm in the future. Why not leave and come back when you're stronger?"

"If I can deal with them now why bother with it later?"

The White Tyrant laughed and righted himself. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"If you like me so much then tell me how the situation is at the Chen Estate."

"They started fighting," the White Tyrant said.

It had been a shock to discover Song Yuelin returning to the City by himself after the panic he showed. It was a cold feeling to discover Chen Haoran wasn't with him. Pitting the Lan family against him was both to test him and potentially remove a precious Liquid Meridian elder.

"And there is no sign of Chen Haoran?"

"Do you really think I wouldn't notice him?"

Lan Fen was surprised the White Tyrant noticed anyone beneath him. He had never had the highest opinion of Chen Haoran to begin with, she wouldn't put it past him to not register his existence. "Of course not," she said. "I am simply worried."

The White Tyrant snorted. "If your pet leaving worried you so much you should have taken him instead."

"He knows his own situation best. I would not rob him of his choice."

"For all the good that did him. Do you think the shadow bastard buried him in the mountains?"

"There is no reason for him to do so." Song Yuelin was frustratingly inscrutable about even the most minor details of himself much less his motivations. She believed in Chen Haoran's judgment of his character, however. "If murder was his goal he would have done so sooner."

"And yet the shadow bastard returned alone and the moron is missing." The White Tyrant leaned in the air as if draped over a couch and looked down on her. "Who's to say he's not here to clean up loose ends?"

Lan Fen hummed. "The fight should be over now yes?"

The White Tyrant huffed. "He killed them all."

"There is our answer then." She stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles in her robes. "If he was seriously hunting me he would have worked with the Lan family."

"You're going to meet him?"

"Of course," Lan Fen said. "I have to find out what happened to Chen Haoran after all."

He was alive, she knew that, but if he wasn't she would make sure he was not lonely on the final road.

The Chen estate had not been treated with respect by her Great-Uncle. The wrought iron gates had been wrenched open and he had seen fit to barrel through the shrubbery and ornaments in a straight path to the manor entrance. Song Yuelin stepped out through the broken doors to meet her. Lan Fen peered behind him into the manor. Not a body to be seen.

"You are as bold as ever, Lady Fen," Song Yuelin said. "Or perhaps foolish? We never did finish our last discussion."

"I still have the annulment papers." Stored within the sleeves of her robes in fact. "Do you dare strike your Young Master's legal wife?"

"Do you think that will stop me?" He walked toward her. The pressure of his qi loomed over them like an invisible weight. "When I am well aware of your actual intentions?"

"Yes."

Song Yuelin held her gaze with stone-faced indifference. Then he smiled. "You are talented." The pressure receded. "I look forward to seeing how you grow in the future."

"What kind of shitty intimidation was that?" The White Tyrant said.

Lan Fen ignored him. "Where is Chen Haoran?"

Song Yuelin shrugged. "Who knows? He dropped a mountain of gold on my head and leapt into a river, I was hoping he would return here."

"He will not," Lan Fen said. There was nothing for him to return to. Chen Haoran would not waste an opportunity to slip his chains for such things

"I see that now." Song Yuelin sighed. "In any case, I can't dally here. I'll send the bill to the Lan family for the damages, make sure you collect it."

"Will the Chen family be taking action against Chen Haoran?"

He smiled. "You and Young Master Chen seem to have stumbled onto something amazing."

Lan Fen carefully schooled her expression. Song Yuelin knew nothing, any reaction on her part would only harm her.

He chuckled and brushed past her. "I hope we don't meet again soon Lady Fen, for your sake." He casually waved a hand without turning around. "The world is large after all."

With those parting words, Song Yuelin disappeared with the wind.

The White Tyrant snorted. "Said the frog in the well." He rubbed his chin. "A mountain of gold huh? That's not a bad idea. To think that moron could run away."

"You underestimated him." She did as well. That was good.

"That would require I have expectations."

"Whatever you say." Lan Fen left the manor. She pulled the annulment letter from her sleeve. Just one last task to complete before she could move on to the next stage. "Has the Patriarch reached the Sixth-Layer of Liquid Meridian yet?"

"He's hit a bottleneck. Fucking trash." The White Tyrant scoffed. "You really are related."

"He is still within range then." That would make it easier. She stowed away the letter. "I will send Xie Jin to look for Chen Haoran."

"The bug? Is there something special about it?"

"He will find him." She doubted Chen Haoran would have any idea of where to go. It would be better to have a friendly face guide the way. Xie Jin was morose anyway after the cancellation of the exams, at least in this way he could make use of his talents.

"Are you having second thoughts about the moron?" The White Tyrant smirked. "Do you pity him for-"

"Do not."

The White Tyrant frowned. "You've been getting uppity."

"You and I are also bound by a deal. In that regard, you're no better than Chen Haoran."

"You dare!"

Lan Fen ignored the White Tyrants' outraged roaring and set a brisk pace toward the City Lord's mansion.

"You try to make use of my power then insult me. Do you think I won't let you die?"

"You will not."

"I could throw a stone and hit talent like yours. Don't think yourself special just because I've praised you a little."

"As you say," Lan Fen replied. "Just don't forget to do your part when we meet the Patriarch."

"Go find him then. Why bother with the City Lord?"

"I have to annul my marriage."

Then she would get arrested.

She had stayed in this city for far too long. It was time to end things.

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 I 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."

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 Third-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!"

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 calmly 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 pull 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.

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.

Chapter 55: 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 56: This Young Master Finds Water

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 affect 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 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 cavern's strange weather. It was an understanding that could only come from time. It left Chen Haoran once again questioning the scale of the 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?

Questions 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 Water Monk Flowers, he could sense Phelps's Sixth-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 hot spring, 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 Pure Water Monk 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 originally thought.

He switched from the Pure Water 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 obstacle he 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 its 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 was remind him of just how small he was 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 ceaselessly flowed across the cavern as far as the eye could see, splitting it in half.

And on that river…

A boat.

Chapter 57: This Young Master Meets the Natives

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 a few days later by his estimated 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.