Start of Book 2: Chapter 67 (Patreon)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phelps burrowed into his shoulder. He awkwardly laughed.

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

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

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

“Where the hell do I go now?”

———-

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

“I forgot the map.”

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

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

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Brother Chen!”

Was that…

“Xie Jin?”