Chapter 24 - 117-122

Chapter 117: This Young Master Passes Time

The passing of time was strange in Zumulu. No matter how much action and change was actually occurring at any given moment in the region, the trees and dense flora remained the same. The days blended together, stretching out so that even day and night seemed like one continuous whole, like a long video left unpaused. It didn't help that there weren't seasons as he knew them in the south: no yellow autumn, no white winter, fresh spring, or sunny summer. No, when it came to seasons, Zumulu only had two. Wet and less wet.

Chen Haoran had arrived at the end of the 'dry' season where it 'only' rained every other day. Now during the wet season, the sky could be a clear blue as far as the eye could see before clouds would suddenly spontaneously form, drop a deluge on your head, then vanish. Those were the more mundane of Zumulu's weather phenomena. Some clouds rained hot water. Others rained in reverse, drawing up water from the ground before falling and popping like giant water balloons. There were clouds that caught the light of the sun quite literally, somehow absorbing the rays of the rising or setting sun and becoming so agitated that they raced across the sky, leaving behind streaks of orange, red, and gold. Some days the clouds blotted out the sky and churned with waves like an ocean in storm had been flipped upside down. On other, more dangerous ones, the clouds grew fat and green with poisonous water and punished the jungle below with it.

On those days of poisonous rain, he saw for the first time shamans acting in their official capacity. The insects of the Basin were spurred to ferocious life, ignoring the pressure of the Gu, invigorated under what others called the Green Hells Punishment. All the hidden hunters and silent killers that normally acted so cautiously screeched with voices insects should not have and burst out with a noxious aura no less harmful than the rain. They rose in a cloud of their own and drowned the Basin with their numbers.

The shamans rose to meet them. The Onyx Arm tribe had three other shamans besides Xie Jin, his grandfather, and Bao Si. Two Liquid Meridians and a Qi Realm. They all followed Bao Si's direction, however. One end of her Centipede Gu extended like a living whip, and 177 pairs of knife-like legs diced apart countless bodies, splitting apart swarms for the other shamans to annihilate piecemeal. The other end morphed into another head and hunted the stronger beasts using the weaker ones as cover. Every time it found one, it struck like lightning, instantly killing anything at the Ninth-Layer and marking the Liquid Meridian Realms for a Liquid Meridian Gu to slay.

Xie Jin acted separately. A swarm of wasps made of purple miasma flew from his sleeves and created a living shield that protected him from the smaller insects of the swarm. His Beetle Gu flew overhead, spitting out miasma that turned all it infected into living bombs that exploded with more purple miasma that went on to infect even more in an endless cycle. Entire swarms erupted into masses of purple miasma that his Gu then manipulated to cover an even large area. Chen Haoran was there with him, liquid qi covering him in a dome of uncrossable arrogance. While the insects may have been able to ignore the Gu's coercion, they dared not ignore a dragon's, and so Chen Haoran walked untouched amongst the venomous vermin and ruinous rain and became the anvil to Xie Jin's hammer. His liquid qi flared out to the side like great horns and swept mass after mass into the path of Xie Jin's miasma.

The other Liquid Meridians of the tribe covered the ring homes in shields of liquid qi to protect the weaker cultivators inside. The insects that made it past Chen Haoran and the shamans were easily within their means to deal with now that the pressure had been lessened. The only one who had yet to make an appearance was Xie Ling. It wasn't a long wait, however. As the stronger presences within the Basin stirred from their holes, a single black snake flew from the village's temple. It quickly expanded in size, doubling upon doubling until it was long enough to wrap around the village entirely and large enough to swallow elephants whole.

It was not the only one. The Onyx Arms were not the only Black Bone tribe to reside in the Basin. From the other cardinal directions centered around the Screaming Giant's Lake rose three other massive Gu. A grim black dog from the Shadow Legs in the west. A pig more muscle than fat from the Seven Black Ribs in the east. A towering worm that looked better suited for a desert than the middle of a jungle from the Sable Skulls in the north.

As one, they released their presence, and the riotous swarm abruptly silenced. The strongest quickly sobered and fled. The weak and the slow died. Corpses rained, carpeting the jungle floor and building up in mounds. While the poisonous rain gave the insects the courage to rebel, it didn't change the fact the Gu were their kings. In the face of unruly rebellion, they crushed it like they did so many others.

Chen Haoran watched all this from the safety of his cover of liquid qi. He turned to Xie Jin next to him. "Forget owing you a drink. You're buying me one."

Xie Jin awkwardly laughed. "Welcome to Zumulu?"

And that was how the first week of the wet season ended.

Crazy weather aside, life in the Basin was… enjoyable. Which was a word Chen Haoran didn't expect he'd use to describe a place that was by all accounts a death hole. That was what it was, though. Everyone knew everyone else. It was common for families and friends to share meals and come together to pass around bowls of wine. Chen Haoran, despite being the only outsider within the village, was no exception, thanks to his prior performance and relationship with two of the village's shamans. Granted, their cuisine was…. unique. He'd already had an issue with the spices so common in the South's recipes. Now he had to deal with the abundant amount of bugs they included. In hindsight, it should have been obvious. In practice, Chen Haoran got very acquainted with spiced crickets, roasted tarantulas, and candied scorpions.

Xie Jin made fun of him for his weak tongue. Chen Haoran had no pity for him after that when Bao Si stayed true to her word and saddled him with so much work he didn't see Xie Jin for weeks despite living in the same house as him. Of course, he wasn't spared from Bao Si's jokes either. Particularly when she set him and Xie Jin up for some 'alone time,' clearly taking his last question for her the wrong way. Of course, she made sure to spend ample time with Chen Haoran herself when she wasn't busy with her own duties. He'd underestimated just how important she was. At least in the village, if Xie Ling was number 1, no one seemed to argue with Bao Si being number 2.

Still, overall Chen Haoran was living well in the Basin. Even the threat of being hunted by the Crystal Transformation Realm Garrison Commanders seemed so far away now. Not everything was perfect, though. Life in the village was a bit meaner than in Stonebridge, what with all the poisonous insects. His resource collection also slowed down considerably. Not that there were no treasures in the Basin, but there weren't many he was willing to feed to Phelps. It was just one of the limitations that came when his main method of gifting was Phelps's ability to eat it. He couldn't just give the sloth poison after all. There was also his new armor, the Scattering Petal Palm, the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs, and more just sitting around and impossible to gift.

He didn't regret making Phelps a Connection. His reasoning still stood. It was good to have someone he could constantly give gifts to without rousing too many questions. Phelps ate every day, and thus Chen Haoran could get a constant stream of Rewards from him no matter what. The fact that he wasn't getting as many Rewards right now was a failure in his ability to provide, not Phelps. Even if he never opened a second connection slot, Chen Haoran wouldn't have changed his mind.

That being said, his new slot represented an opportunity to bring his Gifting to another level. He could give Phelps all the consumables and give whatever Phelps couldn't eat to the second Connection. Just the thought of improving the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs was intoxicating, not to mention potentially getting his hands on Heaven-Rank armor. He was in no rush to choose, however. Right now, under the protection of Xie Ling and his own advancement to the Liquid Meridian Realm, Chen Haoran felt more safe and secure than he'd ever been. He could afford to hold off on his second Connection right now and focus on picking the right one.

Ideally, it would be someone weak, and willing to accept whatever he gave them. He'd learned his lesson with Lan Fen. She was talented enough to outgrow what he could give her and prideful enough to reject gifts that would be useful to her. Thankfully now that he was a Liquid Meridian, there were a lot of people weaker than him now. The real issue, though, was what sort of connection to make. The Gifting Power required an official relationship for it to consider a potential Connectee valid. Marriage and Pets, he knew for a fact, worked. Personal servants directly under him ala his old Manager Lin were also possible. Using those as standards, he could guess that things like adoption, family members, and maybe students worked as well. Bao Si had also told him of something called sworn brotherhood, a sort of formal best friend, the swearing of which often came with some small ceremony. Assuming that worked, then Xie Jin would be an obvious choice.

Chen Haoran had no doubt that if, a little while later, he floated the idea of sworn brotherhood with Xie Jin that the latter would accept it. In a way, Xie Jin was the perfect candidate. He was a Realm lower and was someone he could trust, and with Phelps around to eat the bulk of the gifts, Chen Haoran could space out any gifts he gave Xie Jin to lower any suspicion or reluctance. It was just…. if he went through with making a Connection with Xie Jin, he would be adding a transactional element to their friendship, and Chen Haoran didn't know if he was ready to turn his friend into a vending machine.

That was the crux of the issue. Sworn brotherhood was apparently a big deal and only done between close friends who chose to share life and death. Except Chen Haoran would be doing it for Rewards, not brotherhood, and he couldn't, and wouldn't, lie to himself and say it was for both. It would be the same with the others. If he married, it would be for Rewards, his wife irrelevant beyond that. If he adopted, notwithstanding the fact he wasn't ready or willing to raise a kid, he would be doing it specifically to milk them for Rewards. The irony of his Gifting Power was more apparent now than ever. Encourage him to be charitable and generous but only for the chosen few and only for the benefits.

With Lan Fen, it was one thing. Their relationship had been transactional from the start despite his later misconceptions. But Xie Jin wasn't like that. He stood up to the Lan Family when he barely knew Chen Haoran. He bowed his head to let Chen Haoran stay in his home even though it might lead to conflict with the Empire. Hell, he was ready to square up with a sentient river for his sake. Chen Haoran would repay all that by doing what? Turning him into a treasure printing machine? Giving him gifts only because he had an incentive to do so?

Not to mention, becoming sworn brothers would be something permanent. As cynical as it was to say it, there was no telling what might happen in the future. If something were to go wrong, he couldn't just break off his brotherhood with Xie Jin or get rid of the child he adopted, and while he could divorce his wife, marrying someone and then divorcing them when they weren't useful anymore was so scummy that just the thought alone revolted him. So sworn brothers were out, as was marriage and adoption. The last thing he wanted to do was meet any family, and getting another pet would be superfluous. The best Connection he could make right now was some kind of servant or employee. Someone with a contract he could easily dissolve should things not work out.

Unfortunately, the Basin wasn't the right place to find a servant right now. It would be too eye-catching to hire one and give them gifts. Not to mention he was a guest. It would be a bad look for Xie Jin if Chen Haoran went around hiring and firing tribesmen while he ironed out a contract that met the conditions of the Gifting Power. He could only put it on hold until he could go to a city again.

Until then, Chen Haoran peacefully, barring the odd insect invasion, whittled away his days in the Basin until the New Year was upon them.

And, of course, as with everything else in this new world. The New Year came with a fight.

Chapter 118: This Young Master's New Years

The New Year was a cause for great celebration in the Basin. The whole village came to life with renewed energy as homes were cleaned from top to bottom in preparation for the week of festivities. Tapestries of red silk were hung out over the walls of homes and embroidered with images and sentences depicting the happenings of the family over the year: births, marriages, progress in cultivation, successful hunts, and proud achievements. All those and more rolled down the tapestry, each family's telling a different story, but all ending with the same words: Be at peace. We are living well.

Red paper lanterns and long strips of red silk were draped over the low-hanging branches of the trees and wrapped around their trunks. Poles were erected all around the village, painted red, and hung with cages of singing crickets. Children ran from home to home waving small flags emblazoned with cicadas. Cultivators carried enough tables, chairs, and logs to seat a small army down to the central lake to prepare for the joint celebration with the other tribes.

Soon enough, however, the time had come. The villagers donned their finest clothes, washed and scolded their children into behaving, carefully took down and folded the banners, and made their way to the village temple where the Chief Shaman Xie Ling resided. From what Xie Jin had told him, they would burn the tapestries so that their ancestors would be able to learn of what had happened to their families and soothe their worries. Notably, Xie Jin was the only one who did not put out a tapestry. It wasn't a shaman thing, either. He'd seen the others putting out their own, although he didn't see Bao Si's either for the sole reason that he didn't actually know where she lived.

Chen Haoran couldn't contain his curiosity and asked about it. Xie Jin graced him with a small smile and shook his head. "I have no one to tell."

Despite not having a tapestry, Xie Jin was still required to be present at the temple as a shaman. As such, Chen Haoran found himself a bit out of place. Guest that he was, it would be a bit awkward to shoehorn himself in while the village was honoring their ancestors. So it was that while the entire village was converging in the temple, Chen Haoran wandered off with Phelps to the training ground to practice.

He had to start the new year off strong, after all.

The Screaming Giant's Lake was fed by numerous hidden rivers that themselves were fed by the waterfalls dropping into the Basin. It was, in fact, quite the miracle to Chen Haoran that the Basin wasn't more flooded than it was. According to Xie Jin, despite so much water entering the Basin, just as much left it through various underground rivers connected to the lake.

After sending off their well wishes to their ancestors and fallen, the tribe carried large baskets full of food and drink and met their cousins from across the Basin at the shore closest to the skeleton's drowning skull. Large bonfires roared and lit up the shore under the day's waning light. Round tables were scattered around the fires, each one belonging to a different family. Relatives from different tribes all came together to feast at the same table. Chen Haoran couldn't see much of a difference between the four tribes of the Basin, especially now that they were all garbed in red and accented with black bone ornaments. The tribes freely mixed as they met with friends and acquaintances and exchanged gifts of apples, oranges, and small gold cicadas.

Chen Haoran himself was dressed similarly in a red and gold robe. Two horned snakes worked in gold thread coiled around his sleeves, their tails starting at his shoulders before ending at his cuffs, poised to strike. Another golden snake patterned his belt, cleverly designed such that it looked like it was eating its own tail while the belt was clasped. Bao Si had come through on those silk robes she promised, and among the many outfits she prepared, she had the foresight to include one for the new year.

He was seated together with Xie Jin, Ren, and Xie Ling, Phelps and a large pile of food, taels, fine silverware, and precious gems. It wasn't for them; however, and Phelps was sorely disappointed by that fact, Xie Jin's Beetle Gu and Xie Ling's Snake Gu were still as statues as more food and treasures were stacked before them until, at the silent command of their shamans, they ravenously pounced on the piles and devoured them.

"This is the price of raising Gu," Xie Jin explained when he saw Chen Haoran's curiosity. "In exchange for their obedience, the shaman must ensure they're well rewarded or else… well, nothing good will happen. The tribe collectively supports the price of all Gu in return for the shaman's work."

Their Gu weren't the only one feasting. It seemed like every shaman in the Basin turned out today. Chen Haoran counted 32 different Gu chowing down on offerings.

"And what would you know about that, you brat?" Xie Ling downed his saucer of wine in one go. "I should beat you silly for all the work you've skipped over the years."

Xie Jin sneered. "Just wait until I'm a Crystal Transformation Realm, old man."

Xie Ling helplessly looked up to the sky. "Youth today. What is wrong with them? Threatening their own grandfathers. If it weren't for the other tribes being here, I would toss you into the lake for that cheek."

Ren ignored the quibbling between Xie Jin and Xie Ling. In fact he didn't seem interested in any of his surroundings. The man was frightfully reserved. Chen Haoran couldn't get a read on him at all. That being said, he did notice how Ren was on his sixth cup compared to everyone else's three. It seemed even stoics had their vices.

Familiar laughter drew his attention to the bonfires. Bao Si was there surrounded by other youth from the various tribes. A net of black bone beads was woven into her hair. Her short red top exposed her midriff and revealed another portion of her centipede tattoo running up her side. The hem was embroidered with a golden snake like on his own robes wrapping around it, chasing its own tail. Her long red skirt was plain by comparison but not in effect. Standing by the firelight and watching how it played across every flutter of her dress made her look like a phoenix in bloom. Chen Haoran was not blind to the fact her dress and his robes looked like a matching pair.

"See something you like?"

Startled, Chen Haoran turned and looked at an amused Xie Jin. A streak of awkward guilt at being caught staring flashed through him."Xie Jin, about Bao Si—"

"Let me be clear, Brother Chen," Xie Jin interrupted. "I do not care what you do with Bao Si. Tie her up and run off with her. I'll pay for her dowry, and thank you."

Xie Ling slammed his saucer into the table. "Brat, what do you think you're saying right in front of me?"

Chen Haoran flinched. Xie Ling hadn't flared his aura at all, but that was no reason not to be worried when a higher realm got annoyed. He'd been careless. Why would he have this conversation about Xie Jin's fiancee right in front of the man who most likely arranged it?

Xie Jin meanwhile calmly sipped his wine. "Don't get so worked up about things that are long dead. It's bad for your heart."

Xie Ling sighed and covered his face with his palm. "I've raised something useless. How is it that you always put down the jade I give you and pick up bricks instead?" He stood up and ruffled Xie Jin's hair, messing up what Chen Haoran knew to be an hour's worth of work. Xie Jin cursed and ducked. Futilely trying to slap away his grandfather's hand but only hitting air as he'd already moved on. "I'm going to meet the other old bastards now. Don't let Ren drink too much."

"Too late for that," Xie Jin muttered.

Chen Haoran turned and found that in the time he hadn't been looking, Ren had emptied two more bottles all by himself. The only indicator that Ren was affected by it at all was a faint red tinge to his cheeks. Phelps squealed and curiously sniffed at the bottles. Chen Haoran and Xie Jin automatically placed the bottles out of his reach. They weren't repeating that mistake anytime soon.

"I see Ren has already started having fun." Bao Si walked over as soon as Xie Ling had left. Rather than sit at the chair Xie Ling vacated or take Phelps's, she instead walked around and dropped herself on Chen Haoran's lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned over to Xie Jin. "What were you talking about?"

"How you're a pain in my ass," Xie Jin said, downing the rest of his wine.

"Come now, Jin," Bao Si chided. "As fellow shamans, we should at least get along today if no other."

Xie Jin dug into his pocket and flicked out a red card that Bao Si deftly caught between her fingers. A cicada was stamped on it, and the other side had the word 'Greeting' printed on it and nothing else. "There. Happy new year."

Bao Si sighed and pulled out a red card exactly the same as the one Xie Jin had given her and threw it to him. "Women would like you more if you learned from Chen Haoran. He won't just give a card like you."

"I'm plenty popular with women. You know that."

Bao Si's smile turned ugly as Xie Jin apparently hit a sore point for her. Chen Haoran just wished he hadn't done it while she was sitting on his lap. His last experience with an angry woman with her arms around his neck didn't end so well for him.

Bao Si looked at Xie Jin with disdain and immediately pivoted to Chen Haoran with a charming smile. "I gave you your gift in advance, so don't hate me for not giving you another now."

Chen Haoran froze. "The robes? I paid for them, though."

"You paid for some of them." She dragged a finger down his chest. "Not this one."

He put up an admirable front of calm despite swearing internally. He should have gotten a clue from everyone exchanging gifts and prepared one. Now he was caught out with no idea what to give her. Thankfully Xie Jin came to the rescue.

"He's married, you know," Xie Jin snidely said. He poured out the last of his bottle. "She's pretty scary too. Personally, I wouldn't get on her bad side."

Atop him that she was, Chen Haoran could feel Bao Si pausing. "When has that ever stopped you," she retorted. Even so, she pushed herself off his lap and stood up.

Chen Haoran caught her wrist. "I'm not married anymore."

Xie Jin choked and spilled his wine while Ren looked on mournfully. "What? You divorced her? That scary woman? And you're still alive?"

"We didn't get divorced," Chen Haoran corrected. "It was annulled. We both wanted it."

Bao Si fell back into his lap with a smile. "It sounds like quite the story."

Chen Haoran shrugged. "We were only together until she finished destroying her family. There was no point in being married after that."

"Wait, that was you!?" Xie Jin reared back, shocked.

Bao Si's smile, if anything, became deeper. "Now that sounds like quite the story."

"No, before that—"

Xie Jin's question was interrupted by the beat of drums. The laughter and talking died down as four powerful presences filled the air. Xie Ling stood ankle-deep in the lake facing the giant skeleton with three others, two women and one man, the Chief Shamans of the other tribes presumably. Each one held a bottle of alcohol, and together they poured the contents into the water. Lesser shamans rushed up to collect the empty bottles, and another handed a sack stuffed with choice meats, sweets, and more alcohol over to Xie Ling.

Xie Jin's grandfather raised the sack above his head. "To you who has come before and seen much, we hope that you continue to watch those who come after us and see more. We offer these refreshments and ask you to watch our descendants for a thousand years." Finished, Xie Ling stepped back and threw the sack across the lake and directly into the drowning skeleton's half-submerged mouth. Once the sack disappeared beneath the water, Xie Ling turned around and addressed the crowd. "Our ancestors have been informed, and our descendants have been arranged. Drink and make merry now. You have all worked hard this year."

A large cheer rose up from the tribes, and soon enough, a band of musicians gathered together and began to play a tune.

Bao Si's eyes lit up, and she jumped up, pulling Chen Haoran as she did. "Let's dance."

"I don't know how."

"I'll teach you. If you think I've earned your arms, that is."

What else could Chen Haoran say to that? He let Bao Si pull him up and drag him away, calling over his shoulder to Xie Jin. "Watch Phelps, please."

He didn't hear Xie Jin's reply as Bao Si brought him over to the bonfires where hundreds of couples had already begun dancing. She took his hands in her own, and soon enough, they were whirling amongst the dancers. Bao Si took the lead and Chen Haoran quickly discovered how useful a Liquid Meridian cultivation was for mirroring her movements and catching himself before he blundered. Matching clothes as they were, and with him not stumbling all over himself, he even dared to think they looked good.

So why was he feeling so many unkind stares?

He cast his sense out and found the culprits, various young men and a few women, most of whom had been surrounding Bao Si before. "I getting quite a few evil eyes right now."

Bao Si laughed. "It's because you're dancing with their dream girl. How does it feel?"

In lieu of a response, Chen Haoran placed a hand on her side, right over her centipede tattoo, and felt the jealous stares spike. "So it's really a full-body tattoo. That's pretty cool."

"Would you like to see more of it?"

Chen Haoran leveled her an unimpressed look. "You're not trying to use me to get out of some kind of forced marriage, are you?"

"There's no one in this world, alive or dead, who can force me to do something I do not want to do," Bao Si declared. "Don't worry, though. I'm not trying to marry you, either. If you were from Zumulu, it might be a different story."

"Why would I be worried about a beautiful woman trying to marry me?" Chen Haoran asked. "I should feel disappointed that you won't"

"But you're not."

"How do you know that?"

"Consider it a woman's intuition."

Well, it would be a lie to say he didn't feel a little disappointed, but this feeling came from a dumber, instinctual part of his mind. The rational side was feeling quite relieved, as Bao Si had said. He wasn't looking to get married again anytime soon.

"Can I ask if you got that intuition from your investigation?"

It was Bao Si's turn to look impressed. "So you found out after all."

"I didn't, actually, which I commend you for. I didn't notice anything at all."

"So you guessed?"

"I like to call it a reasonable prediction."

Bao Si rolled her eyes. "So you guessed."

"Moon moth silk isn't enough to make someone like you all touchy-feely like that."

"Maybe a talented Liquid Meridian Realm is."

This time Chen Haoran rolled his eyes. There really wasn't a need to compare talents with a Qi Realm who studied a Liquid Meridian Realm with them none the wiser.

He stopped and spun Bao Si. Her skirt fluttered in a circle of red, high enough that Chen Haoran caught a flash of her leg. A leg that was soon pressed up against his side as Bao Si spun into his embrace. "Will you tell me what you found?" he asked.

Bao Si hummed and then fell back. Chen Haoran followed her, one hand grabbing her leg, the other holding the small of her back and her fall was turned into a low dip. He pulled her back up and spun her in the opposite direction.

"You're not what you seem," she said. "Mid-grade spirit root and you have a strong mother. Jin said you had a Liquid Meridian servant so everything points to you coming from a powerful clan. I can't imagine that Xie Jin just so happened to meet someone like you in a weak place like Clearsprings."

Oh, he was a Mid-grade? That was good to know. It cleared up some questions he had about his improving qi absorption. Turns out his predecessor really was a waste. What the hell did Bao Si sense to say he had a strong mother, though? He would have to ask Xie Jin about it.

"That's quite specific," Chen Haoran said.

"Healing is just another of a shaman's duties, although Jin has never paid attention to the art. You have a body similar to other clan cultivators I've treated before. Yours is better, though."

Interesting. In both senses of the word. Given that anything good about his body would have come from the Chen Family, it meant the better he was, the better they were. "So now that you've investigated, what's the verdict?"

Bao Si made a sound of disgust and pushed Chen Haoran away. There was no qi behind it, and even if there were, it wouldn't have actually moved him. Instead, she pushed herself away. "Why ask when you know the answer? If there were anything wrong with you, you wouldn't be here pawing me."

Chen Haoran chuckled. "So, as soon as you get my arms, they become paws? How cruel."

"When did I say that was a bad thing?"

"So it's a good—"

"Brother Chen!" Xie Jin's anxious voice carried over to the dance floor.

Chen Haoran whirled around, his heart beating a mile a minute in his chest. Ren was slumped over the table, surrounded by bottles and two kegs. Xie Jin was standing atop the table with horrified eyes turned heavenward. Phelps was nowhere to be seen. Chen Haoran looked up and found his worst fears made reality. Phelps was soaring toward the moon with a bottle in claw.

"Goddamnit, not again. Phelps!"

Chapter 119: This Young Master's Hangover Study Session

The New Year began with all the villagers of the four tribes watching a Liquid Meridian Realm trying to fly. Unfortunately for Chen Haoran, Phelps seemed to float even faster after drinking and, with no ceiling to obstruct him combined with his head start, quickly outpaced the distance Chen Haoran could reach even with his fully powered jump. So it was that Chen Haoran pitched headfirst into the brackish waters of the Screaming Giant's Lake while Phelps ignored him on his way to the moon. A laughing Xie Ling had taken to the skies then and easily took Phelps in hand, bringing his drunk sloth back to the ground.

After thoroughly embarrassing himself, Chen Haoran drowned himself in a different type of water and competed with Xie Jin, Ren, and even Xie Ling in various drinking contests until he woke up the next day with a Liquid Meridian Hangover.

Chen Haoran groaned and rubbed his eyes. His head and chest felt heavy, though one was because of the hangover, and the other was his little shit of a wannabe astronaut sleeping on his chest. He gently placed Phelps to the side before sitting up and swinging his feet over the side of the bed, throwing Xie Jin, who had been sleeping on his legs, to the floor. He woke up sputtering a thousand different curses to just as many hells and gods. Chen Haoran ignored him in favor of the growing headache building in his head.

Yellow Dragon?

He received a roar in answer. His nascent headache was dispersed with a rush of qi, and the roar carried to the rest of his body, re-energizing his tired cells and waking him up completely.

Thank you.

The Yellow Dragon roared in acknowledgment and continued on its cycle through his meridians.

Chen Haoran sighed in relief and stretched his back as he looked around his room. He didn't remember exactly how he got back last night. Did he carry Xie Jin, or did Xie Jin carry him? A soft snore revealed the real answer. Ren was slumped against the door, dead asleep. Evidently, he'd brought the both of them back but failed to get back home on his own.

"Bastard, you could've just woken me up," Xie Jin grouched, nursing his head as he rose.

"Get over it," Chen Haoran told him. He paused, scattered memories coming together and forming a hazy picture. "You deserved it, I think? Did we get into a fight last night?"

"Get your head checked. Would I still be alive if we fought?"

It was a rhetorical question. The answer was no. Chen Haoran pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to recall the events of last night. His memory from the heavy drinking was fine for the most part. No amount of normal alcohol was enough to drastically affect him now. The place where his memories blurred was when Xie Ling brought out a Profound-Rank wine that tasted like an orchard of green apples.

"Who the hell did I fight then?" He remembered getting into some kind of duel, even if he couldn't remember the face of his opponent. He beat him pretty handily too. It was hard to win a fistfight when your opponent had skin comparable to steel.

Xie Jin's face pinched as if the mere act of trying to remember was painful. "He was a Liquid Meridian Realm from one of the other tribes. Sable Skull, I think?"

"You're right," Chen Haoran said, the image in his mind becoming clearer. "I think he was watching Bao Si and me dance? Dunno what I did to piss him off, though."

"Not what you did, who you did. Idiots like those are why I'm glad I'm rid of Si."

Chen Haoran frowned. His memory of Bao Si from last night was a blur of red and a phantom sensation of his hand on her tattoo. "I didn't do anything to Bao Si. I would remember that."

Instead of answering, Xie Jin reached over and ran his thumb on the side of Chen Haoran's mouth. When he pulled it back, it was covered in red. He gave Chen Haoran a singularly unimpressed look.

What the fuck? Chen Haoran rubbed his mouth and looked at the bright red smudge on his hand. Xie Jin passed him a hand mirror, and in the polished copper, Chen Haoran found that not only were his lips smeared red but that his cheeks and neck were covered in lipstick marks.

"I don't remember her wearing lipstick," Chen Haoran faintly said.

"You kissed her first, and that started the fight," Xie Jin said. "The rest came after you won when the other girls started coming up to you. I only remember because of how disgusted I was."

Did he really mack on the tribe's princess in front of all the Basin and Elders? What the hell had been in Xie Ling's wine? Even at his drunkest, he'd never been that uninhibited before.

"I'm not going to be run out of the village by your grandfather for this, am I?" Chen Haoran nervously asked. The classic scenario of the outsider being run off for being too close to the local's golden girl rang through his mind.

Xie Jin shrugged."If any of the other shamans really cared, they would have stopped it last night. Even if they did, they'd have to ask Si for permission."

Chen Haoran stared. He'd known Bao Si was respected by the Onyx Arms but those were Crystal Transformation Realms they were talking about. For them to give her that much consideration… "Xie Jin, just how important is Bao Si?"

"Do you want to start from her being the last heir of the Black Bone's only royal dynasty or the fact she's the sole apprentice of our only Star Core Shaman?"

Chen Haoran fell back onto the bed. Perhaps he could just sleep in for the rest of his life.

Xie Jin had no such mercy for him and kicked him off. "Let's go. I need breakfast."

As he walked through the village with Xie Jin, Chen Haoran was subject to the strange eyes of the villagers. The respect was still there, of course, and they still spoke politely to him, but it couldn't disguise that each and every one was looking at him differently than before. Even the kids ran past laughing while making puckering noises. Xie Jin endlessly ribbed him for it while they ate, and Chen Haoran could only half-heartedly defend himself. For the sake of his sanity, he bid a hasty retreat to the training grounds and resolved to spend the next month practicing before he showed his face again.

Step. Pause. Step. Pause. Wait. The motions of the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs were a welcome distraction from the embarrassment that would be his constant companion in the near future.

"I still don't understand why they're here, Brother Chen."

Too bad it couldn't distract him from his other companions.

Xie Jin, Bao Si, Ren, and Phelps were all seated around a rock with the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs laid open between them. While Chen Haoran practiced, they would call out some new piece of advice from their reading, at least when they weren't bickering about said advice.

Bao Si smiled at Xie Jin. Her lips were bright red, and she had a green silk handkerchief covering her throat. "We're here to help Chen Haoran learn, of course. Don't be annoyed just because you're the least useful."

Unfortunately, even after he brought Xie Jin on board, they hadn't been able to puzzle out the trick of the First Step. Two heads were not that much better than one in this case, much to Xie Jin's embarrassment. So they brought in three heads instead. Bao Si had been just as shocked as Xie Jin, if not more so, that Chen Haoran would so readily share a Heaven-Rank technique. With her inclusion, they actually started making appreciable progress.

The thing about these techniques was that they were as much poems as they were medical textbooks. Not only did they have to interpret the visualization of the First Step they had to simultaneously flow their qi through the specific meridians detailed by the book in the exact pattern required before the qi could interact with the visualization conjured up by the cultivator. Suffice it to say there was a lot of arguing over what exactly kind of rainbow to visualize, the effects of channeling red light into movement, and what a rainbow even was in this context.

It reminded Chen Haoran so much of the literary analysis he'd done in his literature classes back on Earth. An experience he was thankful to have now, even though he was never good at them. Bao Si had been a font of insight in that regard, and they eventually pulled in Xie Jin's cousin Ren to help as well.

Xie Jin scowled but conceded the point. He cast a fierce look at Ren. "That doesn't explain why he's here."

Ren stared at the technique without acknowledging the accusation, and Chen Haoran answered in his stead.

"He's another Liquid Meridian Realm. His judgment is invaluable."

"His judgment is the exact thing in question here," Xie Jin bit out and pointed an accusatory finger at his cousin. "He's the one who gave Phelps the bottle!"

Phelps squealed.

Ren looked up. A hint of embarrassment showed through on his otherwise stoic face. "He asked. I was only being polite."

Xie Jin held out a hand toward Ren and gave Chen Haoran a look that practically screamed, 'See?'. Chen Haoran agreed with him on that issue. Who in their right mind would give alcohol to an animal? Still, Ren offered a grounded view of the intricacies of the Heaven-Rank technique in a way the others couldn't as Qi Realms and helped temper Xie Jin's and Bao Si's more outlandish theories.

Step. Pause. Step. Pause. Wait.

Nothing.

"Like I said, Brother Chen. You have to rainbow, or else it'll be pointless."

Step. Pause. Step. Pause. Wait.

"Brother Chen, remember rainbow."

Step. Pause. Step. Pause.

"Rainb—"

Chen Haoran's patience snapped. "And just how the hell am I supposed to rainbow?"

Xie Jin shook his head. "Not how to rainbow. When to rainbow."

Bao Si clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "You mean what to rainbow."

Ren placed a finger on a passage in the book. "I believe it is proper to consider where to rainbow."

Phelps squealed, begging for treats.

Chen Haoran cursed. Whatever tangent they were on this time must've been cultural because he couldn't follow them at all.

Step. Pause. Step. Pause. Red—

Red?

Red light flared at Chen Haoran's feet and all the arguments stopped as he suddenly accelerated….

….face first into a tree. Bark broke beneath his hands as Chen Haoran pushed himself out, spitting splinters and leaving behind a two-inch deep impression of his face in the wood. He ignored the sawdust and woodchips in his eyes and quickly assumed the stance of the First Step once more.

Step. Pause. Step. Pause. Wait.

Nothing. Chen Haoran wryly smiled. Of course, it wouldn't be that easy. It was okay, though, now that he had a reaction, proficiency would come in time.

"You alright there, Brother Chen?" Xie Jin asked.

Chen Haoran grinned. "Don't worry. It'll take more than a tree to put me down."

"If you'd like, I can kiss it better," Bao Si teasingly said.

Chen Haoran's eyes involuntarily went to her red lips. "I'll pass. I want to show my face in the village."

Bao Si rolled her eyes. "At least mine can be washed off." She pulled down her handkerchief, exposing the hickeys on her neck. "You left quite a few hard-to-remove 'presents' of your own."

Chen Haoran snorted. "As if you can't heal those. I know you kept them just to mess with me."

"I'm just a little Qi Realm girl. How could I possibly heal the place a Liquid Meridian brute marked me?"

"Keep being cheeky, and I'll put them in other places." The sentence came out so naturally that Chen Haoran didn't realize he said it till he saw Bao Si's cheeks tinge with faint color. He froze as he processed the sentence that his brain somehow thought was a good idea to leave his mouth.

Xie Jin gagged and stood up. "I'm going to be sick. Move aside. It's my turn to run into trees."

"Hold that thought," Chen Haoran said as he rubbed his head. Was that Profound-Rank alcohol still lingering? "I want to get another opinion about the technique."

"Like I said, you have to rainbow. I'll show you right—"

"Not you," Chen Haoran interrupted.

"Your grandfather."

Xie Ling's eyebrows rose higher than Chen Haoran had ever seen on a person before. He wondered if it was a Crystal Transformation thing. Xie Jin's grandfather carefully flipped through the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs, his face alternating between shock and consideration. He closed the book and looked up at the five of them.

"You're letting them learn this?"

Chen Haoran nodded. "You can too if you'd like, sir. I'd appreciate whatever pointers you can offer."

Since they already included four heads, why not five? He'd passed it around so much already. He might as well add Xie Ling while he was at it. The perspective of a higher realm couldn't hurt.

Xie Ling looked at Chen Haoran as if he'd grown another head before suddenly laughing. "Never before have I felt so ashamed in front of a junior. I suppose it's true that the younger generation will surpass the old in time."

"Cut the crap, old man." Xie Jin said, ignoring how Bao Si elbowed him. "Just say you want to learn it."

Xie Ling glared at his impudent grandson but ignored his provocation and turned to Chen Haoran. "I won't put on any airs. I'm very interested in learning this technique. I'm not shameless enough to learn it for free, however." He stroked his beard in thought before pulling out a white lotus flower.

At first glance, it looked like the Stygian Lotus that Chen Haoran had eaten back what felt like so long ago now. Upon closer inspection, however, the differences were revealed. Its color was white, like metal instead of bone. Its leaves were a vibrant green, full of life instead of poison like what he'd been seeing recently. A faint white glow surrounded the plant and gave off an almost holy feeling compared to the White Tyrant's overbearing one.

"This is a 300-year-old Stainless Purity Lotus. Do not look down on its age. This is a plant that survives in the worst toxic sludge that collects in the Basin, yet it remains free of any poison. Even the most complex toxins and venoms can be cured by consuming the plant or its seeds, and just holding it lessens the dangers of any airborne poisons."

Chen Haoran wasn't about to refuse something that'd soon become a 30 thousand-year-old plant. He accepted it gratefully. "Thank you."

"As to your prior question. While I will have to properly read through the text, seeing as how the First Step is referred to as the Red Step of Good Fortune, it might be useful if you were to practice while wearing your New Year's suit."

Chen Haoran clasped his hands. "Thank you for the advice. I'll go back and try that immediately."

Xie Ling waved off his thanks. "Don't be in a hurry to go yet. I still have something I'd like to say. It is shameless of me to ask this, considering you've allowed my younger generation to learn it, but I still must ask. May I create a copy of this technique for the tribe's archives? I will make sure you—"

"Yeah, sure," Chen Haoran said.

Xie Ling stopped and stared at him.

"Oh, uh, I didn't mean to interrupt you. Sorry."

Xie Jin started coughing behind him.

"I can't give you Bao Si," Xie Ling abruptly said.

"I… don't want her?" Chen Haoran slowly said.

Xie Jin wheezed only to yelp in pain.

"I mean for marriage," Chen Haoran quickly clarified.

"I'm aware," Xie Ling said dryly. "You made quite the show of the other ways you want her."

Chen Haoran couldn't help the heat from rising to his face. No matter the world, it was still embarrassing when someone older than you started talking about your love life.

Xie Ling laughed after seeing the look on his face and stood up. "For such an important heritage, I will not let you suffer." He looked at Bao Si and Xie Jin, who paused their childish tiff.

"Prepare the Mourning Pool."

Chapter 120: This Young Master Enjoys Baths

The temple Xie Ling resided in was both the spiritual and material heart of the village. It was where their major ceremonies were observed and where the collected archives of the village were housed. It was the seat of the shamans and was where they distributed tasks and provided healing to the sick and injured. It was also where the foodstuffs and products the village produced were stored for times of need. Chen Haoran only knew all that from being told. Despite his friendship with the tribe's shamans, the temple was the one place he never spent much time in. Today was only his second time entering it.

Now he was going beneath it.

Walking behind Xie Ling's seat and into a doorway of beaded curtains that Chen Haoran could swear wasn't there before, there was an abyss. Or maybe it wasn't? Chen Haoran couldn't tell. Whatever was behind the door was so dark that even as a Liquid Meridian, he was left blind. Not even the light from the temple behind him seemed to want to enter the space, as if whatever was there said 'Do Not Enter,' and the light took the hint and didn't. Chen Haoran cast his sense out, and it was swallowed up as soon as it entered. Right. He'd seen horror movies and came away wiser from them. Being the first one to walk into a scarily dark place was never a good place to be.

Fortunately, Xie Ling was here to lead the way, casually stepping into the void and finding purchase rather than falling down. Purple qi sparked where his feet landed and spread to outline the first step of a long stair down. By the time he descended to the second step, Chen Haoran calculated who between Xie Jin and Bao Si he was going to force to go next, decided he couldn't choose, then entered the stairway himself following the purple qi Xie Ling left behind as he walked. He reached out a hand to the wall to balance himself and was both relieved and not when his hand actually met a cool, oily surface. It was a good thing he wasn't claustrophobic. He still hated every second of this, though.

Xie Jin's hand clasped his shoulder and steadied him. "This thing's a pain in the ass, isn't it? Always hated coming down here."

"Is it supposed to be accommodating?" Xie Ling's voice sounded ahead of them, sarcasm lacing every word. He hadn't gone that far ahead, but even with the light the purple qi provided, he was barely more than a silhouette. "Perhaps I should hang some candles? Lay out a carpet? Put in a banister? Let's make it more inviting, why don't we? It's not like it leads anywhere important."

"A banister would be nice," Xie Jin mused.

Chen Haoran descended, purple qi licking his heels. "Is this the same stone the houses are made of? It feels similar."

"Similar," Xie Ling said. "The stones are all quarried from Stake Mountain, the one impaling the Screaming Giant. The ordinary stones are used to build our homes. The ones you see here are richer in qi and have a more exaggerated effect on light and a cultivator's sense."

Exaggerated was putting it lightly. Chen Haoran tried reaching out with his sense again and had to pull it back when it told him he was floating in a void even as he was walking on the stairs. He didn't even know how long they'd been walking until he almost ran straight into Xie Ling's back. Unfortunately, Xie Jin didn't give him the same courtesy and barreled into his back. Chen Haoran instinctively flexed his qi to steady himself. It was probably unnecessary with his enhanced strength, but he wouldn't take any chances. That meant that when Xie Jin's chin slammed onto his shoulder, he was hitting the equivalent of a steel statute.

Xie Jin hissed in pain, and his arms wrapped around Chen Haoran for support. "Fuck! Bao Si!"

A far too innocent giggle followed in reply.

"Stop playing around you brats," Xie Ling said.

"She pushed me down the fucking stairs!"

"Push?" Bao Si said. "I only gave you a little nudge."

"Oh, I'll give you a little nudge when I break my foot off in your ass."

"Watch your language in front of our fucking guest," Xie Ling barked. "You two used to have such a good relationship. Where did that go?"

The sudden groaning of stone sliding across stone filled the stairway, and the space in front of Xie Ling bloomed with green light. They spilled out into a large cavern. The rough stone walls were covered in glowing green script. The real source of the cavern's light came from the massive Mourning Pool of green liquid qi dominating the center. More green script circled its edge. Chen Haoran released his freed sense toward the pool and…

Could this be called a Mourning Pool? The pool he saw was shallow but with his sense, he could feel the hole in the middle of it, feel how dramatically the space expanded underneath them, how it was completely filled with liquid qi. It was far bigger than either of the Mourning Pools he'd used before. Far bigger than him. How many of himself would he need to create a Mourning Pool this size? A hundred? A thousand?

"This is a Mourning Pool, right?" he hesitatingly said. "Not a lake?"

Xie Ling chuckled. "Impressive isn't it? What you see before you is the accumulation of centuries of our tribe's Liquid Meridians. For those lucky enough to be in the village for their final moments, they come here and leave their qi behind for the future generations"

"I thought Mourning Pools could only be formed by chance?"

"Natural Mourning Pools, yes, their creation is a miracle." Xie Ling pointed toward the glowing green script. "With the power of formations, however, natural miracles become a commonplace man-made craft."

Xie Jin and Bao Si, still bickering, walked over to a storeroom and pulled out baskets of plants and animal parts that they began emptying into the pool. Phelps, curious as ever, wanted to get nearer to explore the pool only for Chen Haoran to quickly pull him back.

"Have you ever used a Mourning Pool before?" Xie Ling asked.

"Yes, twice."

Xie Ling paused. He coughed into his hand. "Well, there won't be many impurities to expel then. That's not the real benefit of our Mourning Pool, however. By mixing in various poisons and venoms, those who bathe in our pool can gain immunity to a hundred poisons."

Chen Haoran watched Xie Jin drop a bright blue frog into the pool. It bobbed up once, flailing for its life, then sank and disappeared. "This… is safe, right?"

"Of course," Xie Ling said. "I will be presiding over it myself."

Bao Si brought over a set of clean white robes. Chen Haoran hesitated before taking them. "Is it okay for me to be using this? This is a grave, after all, and I'm not from the tribe."

Xie Ling looked surprised before kindly smiling. "Do not worry. The Heaven-Rank technique you've given us will be a treasure of our tribe for generations to come. You're more than worthy of using this pool. I'm sure the ancestors will take no issue with it."

Well, if the head honcho was telling him it was okay, then how could Chen Haoran refuse? He handed Phelps over to Bao Si and took the robes. A quick glance revealed nowhere in the cavern to change. He looked at Bao Si, who made no move to look away.

He raised an eyebrow. Not going to turn around?

Bao Si's small smile spoke volumes. Do you want me to?

Whatever. Chen Haoran shrugged off his robes, and Bao Si's wandering eyes, and put on the prepared ones. Still silk. The tribe really used it everywhere. He stepped to the edge of the pool, where Xie Jin gave him a dull green pill and a reassuring clap on the arm.

"For processing the poison, otherwise you'd just die," Xie Jin explained. "It would be excruciating too."

His grandfather slapped his head. "The only thing in Zumulu more poisonous than Gu is your mouth."

"Yeah yeah," Xie Jin said, rubbing his head. "I was just trying to help him relax."

"Slap him again, please?" Chen Haoran politely asked.

Xie Ling slapped him without hesitation and shooed his grandson away. Xie Jin shot Chen Haoran a betrayed look as he went to stand beside a giggling Bao Si.

"This will be a long process, and there will be some discomfort," Xie Ling said. "Are you prepared?"

Chen Haoran exhaled. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Let's begin then." Xie Ling placed a hand on his shoulder, and a ray of purple and green qi covered him with a thin film and entered his body.

The Yellow Dragon was none too pleased and made its displeasure vocal.

Curiosity flashed across Xie Ling's face. "Oh?"

Chen Haoran calmed the Yellow Dragon with a pulse of qi and, under Xie Ling's guidance, swallowed the pill and entered the pool. Xie Ling made him sit down, letting the liquid qi cover him up to his waist. The entire lower half of his body was immediately enveloped with a feeling of pins and needles, as if everything below his waist had fallen asleep. This was with a Crystal Transformation Realm protecting him, Chen Haoran couldn't imagine what would happen if he tried relying on his own power to protect him.

"Breathe," Xie Ling ordered.

Chen Haoran did, and the stinging sensation immediately began spreading through his entire body as he began absorbing the liquid qi. If someone took the moment a doctor administered a shot, multiplied it a thousand times, distilled it into a drink, and downed it in one go, then that would be approximately what Chen Haoran was feeling seep through his arteries and meridians. If that was all, then Chen Haoran could bear with it. Syringes came with injections, however, and with the liquid qi came a war crime worth of poison. He couldn't even begin to count the amount of promised death and contained within the pool's liquid qi. All the various ways to kill a man acted all at once such that they blended into one feeling of impending doom.

The Yellow Dragon roared, and the antidote pill he swallowed shattered. Medicinal energy flooded out and was carried through his meridians by the roar. When the energy met the poisonous liquid qi, it mixed into it, and the feeling of sudden death immediately subsided. Xie Ling took that moment to seize control of the liquid qi and directed its flow out of his meridians and into his body. Chen Haoran's directed his own qi to follow Xie Ling's and help the best he could. Under both of their urging, Chen Haoran's muscles and organs were washed with the poisonous qi. It was a process that painfully reminded him of the Stygian Lotus's enhancement. In fact, he could even feel his cells being tempered a bit, due to the poison. It was minuscule, barely worth mentioning even, thanks to the prior tempering his body had gone through. If Chen Haoran had to guess, it would normally be much more effective if it were anyone else.

The Yellow Dragon roared. While he and Xie Ling were guiding the liquid qi, it sped up its revolutions around his body and drew in more liquid qi to devour. This qi proved tougher than its usual fare, however. Every chunk it bit into saw the Yellow Dragon chew the qi like it was stringy meat, forcefully swallowing it down before it was completely refined. Xie Ling made a noise of interest and brought his qi over to the Yellow Dragon. The Yellow Dragon eyed the foreign qi with disdain and accelerated again. Xie Ling's qi raced after it, and Chen Haoran was left with the uncomfortable sensation of falling behind in his own body among the other uncomfortable sensations he was dealing with at the moment.

"Come on now. Work with me," Xie Ling coaxed.

Work with him, please? Chen Haoran begged.

The Yellow Dragon bared its teeth and shook off the purple qi a few more times but eventually relented. Xie Ling's qi quickly wrapped around its body like armor. The next time the Yellow Dragon plunged into the poisonous liquid qi, all resistance it faced before vanished, and it devoured the qi like water. Chen Haoran quickly merged with the Yellow Dragon and brought their cycling in tune.

The Mourning Pool stirred.

Chen Haoran's rate of absorbing qi doubled. Xie Jin's and Bao Si's quiet exclamations of shock rang loud in his ears as the liquid qi in the Mourning Pool began to swirl in a vortex with him as the center. Within his body, another vortex was being formed. In one cycle, the Yellow Dragon danced, and Xie Ling pulled a wave of poisonous qi to crash through his body. In the next cycle, that same qi was dispersed with a roar, refined, then replaced with another wave. This happened for five cycles, ten, twenty, and on the thirtieth cycle, a change finally occurred. Chen Haoran hit the ceiling.

Xie Ling exuberantly laughed, and his other hand slapped Chen Haoran's back. "Boy, what do you say? Do you dare advance?"

What sort of question was that?

The Yellow Dragon roared. It fell down to his core and coiled upon itself nine times as it condensed qi.

Go.

The Yellow Dragon soared from his core to his head. Then it soared even higher. Yellow liquid qi flooded from Chen Haoran and shot into the air. It doubled over on itself and thinned into a snake-like body. Golden scales were pressed out of liquid qi. Two thin tendrils grew and became three-clawed arms. The head of the raging liquid qi split open and revealed rows of sharp teeth. Two antler-like horns burst from a newly defined skull, and just below them, two golden eyes blinked open and looked down upon the world with pride. Xie Jin, Bao Si, and Xie Ling all watched as a Yellow Dragon of liquid qi roared dominance above their heads, shaking the green formation script with its force.

Chen Haoran advanced to the Second-Layer under a dragon's roar.

Chapter 121: This Young Master Would Have Liked To Keep Drinking Poison

The Blue Shadow Viper was a common serpent in Zumulu. Apparently, they had been a favorite of the Snake King, and his favor and the species' propensity to lay large clutches meant they soon spread all across the South. Of course, the reason the Snake King preferred them was thanks to their venom. On its own, Blue Shadow Viper Venom only killed the cells in the lungs and forced a person's whole respiratory system to shut down. That was when it was only used by itself. Apparently, the venom was easily mixed with other toxins. So easy, in fact, that it was used in damn near every recipe that called for more than one poison because why not? Take whatever poison you wanted, add Blue Shadow Viper venom, and you had baby's first complex poison.

Chen Haoran eyed the small finger-sized vial of smoky blue venom in front of him. It was the first time he'd ever held snake venom before in either life. It was a bit strange knowing he could right now take the vial in his hand and go an make a toxic cocktail that could kill a man. It just seemed too simple.

He uncorked the vial and drank it in one gulp.

"Well, how is it?" Xie Jin asked.

Chen Haoran smacked his lips. "Tastes like blue Gatorade."

"I mean how you feel, not how it tastes. What the hell is Gatorade anyway?"

He looked inward and followed the venom's circulation within his body. It entered his lungs and settled, but he didn't feel any discomfort. Instead, he watched the venom be slowly broken apart and absorbed.

"Looks good." He burped. "Not even a tingle."

After his dip in the Mourning Pool, Chen Haoran had taken a few days to consolidate his cultivation and let the effects of the pool settle in. He and Xie Jin then went over to the training ground so that Chen Haoran could work his way through a liquor cabinet's worth of poisons and venoms in order to test his new immunity.

The verdict: He was pretty immune.

"Just so we're clear when your grandfather said I'd get Immunity to a Hundred Poisons, he wasn't being literal, right?" Chen Haoran asked.

"No, that's just a shorthand," Xie Jin said. "It's a lot more than a hundred. Most of the simple stuff won't affect you anymore. If someone wants to harm you with just one poison, it'd have to be something pretty special or from a much higher realm."

"Does that mean someone can still hurt me with more than one poison?"

Xie Jin waggled his hand. "Sort of. The shoddily mixed stuff won't do much, but poisoning is a refined craft in Zumulu. We've had a long time to figure out how to get around Hundred-Poison Immunity, and it's only effective against animal and plant-based poisons. If it's a metallic poison, you'll be out of luck."

"What about a Gu's miasma?"

Xie Jin looked at Chen Haoran as if he had asked something particularly dim. "Gu poison is one of the best to come out of Zumulu. Even Thousand-Poison Immunity would only give you a little resistance. Don't let the word Immunity go to your head. You wouldn't be the first to die because of it."

Chen Haoran accepted the warning for what it was. "So, just how good is the Stainless Purity Lotus in this situation?"

"Well, whatever the Hundred-Poisons Immunity can't resist, the Stainless Purity Lotus will solve it." Xie Ling rubbed his chin in thought. "You've basically got the most complete protection against poison as there can be in Zumulu. The types of poisons that can overcome a Stainless Purity Lotus, especially one as old as you have, are rare even here. Of course, if someone is really using something on the level of the Green Hell's Three Killers on you, then you've got other problems."

"You're not just gonna drop that and not explain it are you?"

"Maybe." Xie Jin rubbed his fingers together. "For a price."

Chen Haoran pretend to reach into his storage bag, summoned a blue pill from his reward space, and threw it to a surprised Xie Jin.

"I was joking—" Xie Jin began before widening his eyes. "An Earth-Rank Pill?"

"Oh, you could tell?"

He pointed to the faint mist wrapping around the pill. "Does this look normal to you? Why do you have—no forget why, take this back."

Well, nothing really looked normal to Chen Haoran in this world, just different degrees of weirdness. Whether it was Earth-Rank Fathomless Pond Pill or the Profound-Rank Deep Well Pill it was improved from, they were both weird to him.

"Keep it," Chen Haoran said. "I still have nine more from the auction."

Well, right now, he only had six left. But he did have nine at one point, so it wasn't completely a lie. He used three for himself in the days following his advancement to the Second-Layer.

"I was planning on giving it to you anyway," Chen Haoran continued. "Hurry up and advance, I need a punching bag."

Xie Jin's face went through a plethora of interesting expressions before settling on determination. He clasped his hands and bowed. "I won't let you down, Brother Chen."

Chen Haoran scratched his head. Xie Jin was beginning to sound a lot like Lan Fen now. The gratefulness wasn't a bad thing, but the mentality of being in his debt would make it that much harder to Gift things if he chose to connect with Xie Jin. "Don't worry too much about it. Who else was I going to give the pill to? Phelps?"

"With what I've seen you feed him, yes," Xie Jin said. "In fact, it kind of bothers me that I'm so happy to be treated the same way your pet is. Where is he, by the way?"

"Oh, he's…."

Received Hundred-Fold: 30-thousand-year-old Stainless Purity Lotus

"….sleeping. So about that three Green Hell Poison."

Xie Jin laughed. "It's Green Hell's Three Killers. Not many come back from the Green Hell, but those that do always bring back treasure. The Three Killers are powerful poisons only found in the Green Hell: Prince Killer, Nature's Exile, and Trial of the Heart. Not many samples have been brought back, but every time they've been used has caused a storm in Zumulu."

"So if they're too strong for a 300-year-old Stainless Purity Lotus, what about something older? Say… a 30-thousand-year-old lotus?"

Xie Jin shook his head. "You'd have to find one that old first. You can't just grow plants like the Stainless Purity Lotus with time. Every single lotus needs to grow in a toxic place. If the environment isn't poisonous enough, it just stops growing. Even in Zumulu, it's not easy to find places like that. At least the Basin doesn't have any." He opened his hand and stared at it as if there was an actual flower sitting on his palm. "But if you actually had a lotus like that, then I can't imagine ever being afraid of any poison ever again."

Right. So don't show the one he just got until absolutely necessary. Chen Haoran did find it a little funny how he'd assembled a pretty complete means of self-preservation. Toughness with the Stygian Lotus, healing with the Paradise Pomegranate, and now a complete means of protection against being poisoned. He was turning into quite the cockroach now.

"Brother Chen, if that's the sort of face you make when you're happy, then please do the world a favor and stay miserable."

"Motherfu—"

A black snake poked its head out of the ground between them and spoke to them with Xie Ling's voice.

"Boys, I would like a word."

Xie Ling was waiting for them in the temple sitting in his usual seat. Behind him was a blank wall where the doorway leading to the Mourning Pool had once been. With him was an unassuming, brown-haired girl that Chen Haoran had never seen before. She stood respectfully to the side of Xie Ling and, as they entered, nodded and smiled toward Chen Haoran. He nodded back and racked his brain to find if he had met her somewhere before, but came up empty.

Xie Ling gestured to the cushions in front of him. "Sit." His eyes roamed over Chen Haoran. "I see you're adjusting well."

Chen Haoran bowed. "It's all thanks to the tribe's Mourning Pool. I'm incredibly grateful."

Xie Ling waved him off. "It was an equal exchange. There's no need to feel indebted."

"Are you going to tell us why you called for us or not?" Xie Jin impatiently said.

"Perhaps I should ask Ren to come here instead." Xie Ling stroked his beard and looked up as he talked to himself. "It's not like my ungrateful grandson would be interested in taking a long trip outside the Basin."

Xie Jin scowled. "I get it. I get it. Sorry."

"Better." Xie Ling's small smile faded. "I trust you remember the visit those two little Peach River Swordsmen paid us."

Chen Haoran immediately became uneasy, and his worries were quickly proven valid with Xie Ling's next words.

"They left a question for the Black Bone tribes that requires an answer. I've already conferred with the other elders. Bao Si will be taking our response to Reservoir Town and meeting with their representatives. I would like the two of you to join her."

Xie Jin frowned. "I understand why I'm going, but why Brother Chen? Why not Ren?."

Chen Haoran was glad Xie Jin asked because he wanted to know too.

"For safety's sake, I would prefer a Liquid Meridian to accompany you. I would send Ren, but he still has his duties here, and I don't believe Friend Chen here is worse than him in terms of protection." Xie Ling locked eyes with him. "You have also spent the most time with the Swordsmen and can be said to have a relationship."

"No offense, sir," Chen Haoran said. "But it wasn't that much of a relationship, and we didn't exactly part on good terms."

"No matter how incidental it was, you still know more about them than anyone else I could send. There is still much we don't know about the resurgence of the Peach River Sword School. An old man like me has to look for any assurance he can in a situation full of unknowns such as this."

Chen Haoran hesitated. "It's not that I don't want to, sir, but I'm still a wanted man. Things would just be unnecessarily difficult if I go."

"I would not be too worried in that regard," Xie Ling said. "I've had the tribesmen outside keep an eye out. There's been no bounty announced and no pictures of your likeness circulating. I believe for the sake of not creating more competitors for themselves. The Garrison has kept your information to themselves and their subordinates. If you believe the conditions are right, then after meeting the Peach River Sword Sect, you can leave Zumulu through the official road."

Well, wasn't that just perfect? He only had the occupying military force pursuing him instead of the entire region, and if he were lucky, he'd be able to leave on the road no doubt full of checkpoints that would know what he looked like. He wasn't fool enough to voice those thoughts to Xie Ling, however.

Old retail instincts kicked in, and he put on a polite but professional smile. "I'm sorry, sir, but the risk of my face getting recognized is still too high, especially since I've been told Reservoir Town is the center of the Empire's operations in Zumulu. Xie Jin and Bao Si would be put at too much risk if I went."

Xie Ling snorted. "Despite what my fool grandson may tell you, I'm not senile. I wouldn't have mentioned it if there weren't a way to deal with that issue." He stood up and walked toward the wall behind him. "Bao Si will explain and fill you in on the rest of the details."

Xie Ling walked straight through the wall and disappeared, leaving Xie Jin and Chen Haoran alone with the brown-haired girl.

Chen Haoran frowned and cast his sense out. There was no one else in the room. He settled on the brown-haired girl. Qi Realm Ninth-Layer. "Excuse me," he asked. "Do I know you?"

The girl giggled. "You may not remember, Young Master Chen, but I have not forgotten." Her voice was low and mellow, and Chen Haoran knew it was the first time he ever heard it.

Xie Jin loudly sighed. "Hurry up and take that off."

The girl pouted, and her voice changed into one much more familiar to him. "You're no fun, Jin." She grabbed her face and peeled it off.

"Surprise," Bao Si said.

Chapter 122: This Young Master Has An Inkling

When Xie Ling said Bao Si would explain how he'd avoid the Garrison's detection, Chen Haoran didn't expect it would involve him sitting in a chair with her on his lap facing him.

"The Human-Skin Mask is a premier method of disguise. To create one requires immense technical skill," Bao Si said. She held Chen Haoran's face between her hands and softly rubbed his cheeks. "Each one has to be custom fitted to the wearer in order to seamlessly blend in with the rest of their body. Any defect in the creation process would make the false face obvious to a cultivator's sense. When made properly, however, the Human-Skin Mask is imperceptible even to those in the same realm of cultivation."

"Just so we're clear. It's not actually made of human-skin, right?" Chen Haoran asked.

Bao Si's hands drew up and caressed his temples. "They were in the beginning. Back then, a Human-Skin Mask was synonymous with murder. The face had to be freshly peeled off the corpse. However, there were some methods that called for taking the face off a still-living person."

"Lovely," Chen Haoran dryly said.

"Don't worry. The art has advanced considerably since then." Bao Si threaded her fingers through his hair and massaged his scalp. "The Refining Technique we use only needs to mix various herbs and pig skin. It's more expensive, but we can customize the face however we like and don't need to worry about it being recognized. There was a famous story about a Crystal Transformation Realm's son being killed. His killer harvested his face to make a mask and sold it for a quick profit. Needless to say, the unfortunate customer didn't have a good time when he openly wore the mask in a cultivator gathering the father was attending."

That story was all well and interesting, but it was what she said earlier that really caught his interest. "I don't know much about Refining Techniques. Will you tell me about them?"

Bao Si tugged his head back so their eyes met and looked at him with disbelief. "Really? You've never heard of them? You?"

Chen Haoran shrugged. "Do I look like someone who's ever made something for himself?"

Bao Si hummed. "A fair point." Her hands brushed through his hair and down to the back of his neck. "Well, on the face of it, Refining Techniques are no different than any other techniques. They're divided into the same ranks, need qi to be cast, and require practice before being mastered. Of course, you can't just use a Refining Technique as you might the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs. Whether it's a pill, artifact, talisman, or formation, you need materials to actually make them and, barring a high level of mastery, the proper tools."

"So everything has its own Refinement Technique?"

"Yes."

"Sounds like a pain in the ass."

"Only if being a craftsman is your life goal."

"And yet you learned one on top of everything else you're doing. You're pretty amazing."

Bao Si huffed. "Flatterer." Her fingers trailed across his neck, and he shivered in… excitement? Perhaps. Remembrance was more like it. It wasn't the rough hand that choked his life away that he remembered, however, but delicate fingers that had settled on his neck like knives.

Bao Si yanked him forward, leaning down as she did. Her hair tickled his face. She smelled like azaleas. "You compliment me when you're thinking about a different woman." She smiled, but it was not a smile. "I don't like men who do that."

Chen Haoran didn't bother with excuses or backtracking. Instead, he looked at Bao Si with honest curiosity. "How did you know?"

"You have the same look as Jin when he did it." She sighed. "You two really are brothers."

"That's pretty impressive," Chen Haoran praised. "I don't think I could read people like that."

Bao Si scoffed, but her smile stopped being scary and turned exasperated instead. "You know, Chen Haoran, you ask so many questions of me but do so little explaining yourself. It's enough to make a girl feel put out."

Chen Haoran smiled back. "What's wrong with asking questions? I like hearing your voice."

"You flirt." Bao Si traced her thumbs across his lips.

"I really will die if I have to watch any more of this," a grumpy voice sounded.

Chen Haoran and Bao Si looked over to where an unamused Xie Jin was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Be quiet," Bao Si said. "I'm working."

Xie Jin sneered. "If that's what they're calling molestation now, then yes, you're working very hard."

"I'm taking his measurements," Bao Si said. "It's very important that I don't mess this up. I know you were born allergic to patience, but please suffer in silence for all our sakes."

"You can touch Brother Chen all you want later," Xie Jin said. "We still need the details on the mission."

"Oh, that," Bao Si said, sounding entirely too dismissive for what seemed to be an important mission. "As soon as I'm done with the Human-Skin Mask we'll go to Daqing and take a boat up the Skyspear to Bendwater. Then go to Reservoir Town from there. There's really nothing complicated about it."

Xie Jin snorted. "Brother Chen, pay attention to this. Whenever Si doesn't want to talk about something, she dismisses it."

Bao Si frowned. "If you know I don't want to talk about it, then why do you insist?"

"Because it's always the important things you don't want to talk about. What's this message were delivering?"

"You don't need to know right now."

Xie Jin raised an eyebrow. "There's no way you're meeting the Peach River Sword School without us. We'll find out then, anyway."

"Let me remind you that you are accompanying me as a guard, not a representative, Jin." Bao Si's voice was icy cold. "The message is need-to-know information, and you do not need to know."

"That's why I'm saying we'll find out anyway—"

"No," Bao Si shut him down. "End of discussion."

Xie Jin looked sullenly at her but did not ask again. Bao Si nodded in satisfaction and turned back to Chen Haoran. "And what are you so deep in thought about?"

"How I'm going to be sad when you finally get up," Chen Haoran blithely replied. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the complete truth either. His mind was on Stonebridge.

Bao Si easily saw through his half-hearted lie and tweaked his nose but didn't press further. "I've got your measurements now. I'll get started on the Human-Skin Mask right away. Is there any specific look you'd like? Hair? Eyes?"

Chen Haoran fell into thought. If the mask could really be customized to that extent, then he had a face in mind. The only face in mind.

"Yeah. I do."

Despite Bao Si's allusions to Xie Jin's impatience, he admirably held his grievances back long enough for Chen Haoran to relay his instructions to Bao Si, return home to collect Phelps and change into his New Year's suit, and go to the training grounds before blowing up.

"Fucking Si," Xie Jin bitterly cursed. "I'm a shaman too, you know."

"Easy there, Brother Jin," Chen Haoran soothed him while he practiced the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs. "It's just information security. There's no need to be so torn up about it. Like you said, we'll find out when we get there."

"But don't you want to know now, Brother Chen? We're going to the seat of the Empire's power in Zumulu to meet what should have been an extinguished foe right under their nose. Don't you want to know how that's possible? Gramps and Si clearly know more about the Peach River Sword School, but they're not telling us."

"Why are you so interested?" Chen Haoran asked. "You were calling them a remnant not too long ago."

"Because everyone else is taking them seriously," Xie Jin said. "They at least have a Star Core Realm leading them. No matter what, they're not weak."

Chen Haoran stopped his practice. "How do you know they have a Star Core?"

"Because Bao Si is being sent as a messenger," Xie Jin rushed to explain. He looked eager to share his thoughts. "She's the apprentice of a Star Core Realm. With the Grand Elder not around, Bao Si is her representative. The Peach River Sword School has to send someone of equal standing to meet with her. It might even be Xi Wangmu."

Bao Si's teacher wasn't in the Basin? That did help explain why he hadn't seen hide or hair of them after…. getting somewhat close to their student. "What do you mean the Grand Elder isn't around? Are they on a trip or something?"

Xie Jin's eager expression collapsed so quickly that Chen Haoran almost regretted asking. Xie Jin realized the bad look he was sporting and waved his hand to reassure Chen Haoran. "Sorry, Brother Chen. It's not your fault. It's just… bad history. The Grand Elder left Zumulu for the Splintered Lands after the war as part of the settlement. All of Zumulu's surviving Star Core Realms did, those that didn't sell out to the Empire at least. Even the ones that ascended after the war left Zumulu to do it."

Phelps floated over to Chen Haoran and buried himself in his arms. Chen Haoran patted the sloth while in thought. If the Peach River Sword School just had a Star Core's apprentice meet Bao Si, then it would make sense for the Black Bone tribes to take them seriously. That would be all, though. If an actual Star Core cultivator met with her, however, when there shouldn't have been any in Zumulu, then that would change things entirely. Chen Haoran frowned. Did Xie Ling think the Peach River Sword School had a Star Core hidden? He couldn't help but think of the reasons Xie Ling wanted him to travel with Bao Si. A situation full of unknowns, he had called it. Did he have a reason to suspect something?

"That person you just mentioned. Xi Wangmu. Your grandfather mentioned them as well after he met Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao. Who is she?" Chen Haoran asked.

"A living legend," Xie Jin said. "Xi Wangmu was the Queen Mother of the Peach River Sword School—the Master of Peach Blossom Island. She was the oldest Star Core Realm in Zumulu, one of the oldest in the world, in fact. It was said if you got her blessing, then she would make a pot of Longevity Elixir for you. There were countless experts vying for her favor and joining the Peach River Sword School."

"Was?"

Xie Jin nodded. "The Empire would never let her go. She and the Sunset Emperor fought a huge battle, and she was never seen again. Most people think she died. Some others say the Sunset Emperor captured her to be his concubine or enslaved to refine medicine for him. There are still the die-hards that think she escaped somehow and went into hiding. No one knows for sure, though."

"What makes you think she'll show up to meet Bao Si after being missing for so long? It could just be another Star Core Realm."

"You're not wrong," Xie Jin said. "Honestly, I don't have any proof. It's just…" He shrugged. "For as much as I give the old geezer shit, he's still the strongest Crystal Transformation Realm in the Basin. If his first instinct is Xi Wangmu, then there's probably a reason for it."

Chen Haoran couldn't really refute his logic. Xie Ling had made it sound like he personally knew the head of the Peach River Sword School, too. If anyone would know her fate, wouldn't it be him? The whole thing started making sense, and the more it did, the uglier Chen Haoran's expression became. This… didn't seem like it was going to be so simple.

"I'm beginning to think we're a bit understaffed for this mission. Aren't there some Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridians in the Basin who can help? Or even Crystal Transformations? If something goes wrong, I might not be able to handle it."

"This is meant to be a secret, after all. Sending people who are too strong will inevitably draw eyes." Xie Jin bitterly smiled. "Plus, if something goes wrong, then if the other party has a Star Core Realm, it doesn't matter how many people we send. It shouldn't come to that point, though. If the Elders weren't confident, then they would never risk us." He paused. "They wouldn't risk Bao Si, at least."

"Was that correction really necessary?"

"What can I say? I fancy myself a realist."

"Let's hope everything you just said turns out to be a fantasy then."

Privately though, Chen Haoran still couldn't help but be worried. He felt for his second connection slot.

He would have to prepare some things in Stonebridge.