Chapter 66 (Patreon)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What will you do now?” he asked.

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

“Still?”

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

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

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

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

“And you?” Lan Fen asked.

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

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

“What?”

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

“Another country?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I understand.”

“You do?”

“Yes”

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

Lan Fen shot up. “Chen Haoran!”

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

“What about Phelps?”

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

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

“Absolutely.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chen Haoran froze.

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

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

“Safe travels, Chen Haoran.”

“Good riddance!” roared the White Tyrant.

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

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

“Be nice to Lan Fen Daddy Tyrant.”

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

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

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

“Not even a quarter huh? Oh well.”

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