Chapter 73 (Patreon)

“Brother Chen,” Xie Jin said, his voice filled with controlled panic. “Please tell me you know what you’re doing.”

Chen Haoran lowered his hand and watched the water tendril stop moving. “I won’t tell you then.”

“Wonderful.”

Chen Haoran silently apologized to Xie Jin in his heart. He really had no idea what was going on. He had to thank his lucky stars that the tendril only waved and didn’t try to drag him into the river.

As if to mock his thoughts the tendril suddenly lunged, knocking away Xie Jin and the Gu in a fluid motion and wrapping around his body. Chen Haoran barely had time to curse before he was lifted into the air. There were screams from the deck below. He cycled his qi and brought his fist down hard on the tendril. He intended to disturb the water and escape from its grip. Instead, his fist bounced off the water…

And the water flinched?

The tendril let go of him and he fell back onto the boat. The water tendril swayed but didn’t try to grab him again. They stared at each other. The tendril inched forward only to rear back when he flexed his qi in response. Chen Haoran’s mind raced. The technique, the river, the dragon roaring. It couldn’t be.

He pointed at the tendril and tried to picture the yellow dragon. “Bad.”

For all that it was a faceless mass of water the tendril seemed shocked before it suddenly dissipated. When he rushed to look over the side all he could see was the clear yellow water of the Machu river.

“What the hell.”

“Brother Chen!” Xie Jin rushed over, the Gu still buzzing over his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. Please tell me you know what that was.”

“The river.” The captain pushed his way through the gawking crowd of passengers and sailors and came up to them though he made sure to stand a distance away. He clasped his hands. “Honored lord will you please sit and meditate on the prow from now on? I’ll return your ticket fee- no I’ll even pay you!”

“Explain what’s going on here,” Xie Jin demanded.

“What did you mean by the river?” Chen Haoran asked.

“It’s what it sounds like. The river was greeting you. I’ve only ever seen the Ministry of Rites communicate with it like that.”

“When you say the river,” he waved his arm, “you mean this whole thing?”

The captain nodded.

He looked across the endless horizon of water. If all of it was one being…

Had he just screwed himself?

——————

The captain had invited them to his quarters where he poured them cups of his best wine. Chen Haoran drank like it was his last while he frantically envisioned various scenarios. Escaping was impossible, the boat was too far from shore for him to make it without swimming, and getting into the water was an even bigger death sentence than sailing atop it.

He slammed the cup down and looked at the captain. “Is the Machu river alive? Does it think?” What did it think of him then if it did?

The captain shrugged. “The river does as it wills. It doesn’t normally show itself like it did today, it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that happen in years.”

“To think the Empire had a crazier river,” Xie Jin mumbled, deep in his own cup.

“Will we be fine?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Your cultivation method has something to do with the river correct?” the captain asked instead.

“It does.”

“You don’t need to fear then. While the Machu river has caused just as much destruction for all the benefits it offers it still favors its children. You won’t come to harm atop it.”

“Did the river make the cultivation method?”

Xie Jin snorted while the captain chuckled.

“If the river could make one then it would be a truly unrivaled technique,” the captain said. “People along the Machu’s banks were inspired to develop a cultivation method from it and were lucky enough to have the river consider them one of its own for it.”

What did that make him then? A fellow body of water? A beloved pet? Whatever he was he hoped the river wouldn’t keep him here. Almost getting dragged into the water wasn’t a pleasant experience even if it didn’t mean him harm. Still, despite that, he felt some of his tension leave him. The old sailor’s experience was comforting to rely on even if he wouldn’t be completely relaxed till he was back on dry land.

“Does the name Machu mean something?”

“River of the Peacock,” replied the captain.

“Peacock?” Did peacocks here have gold feathers? Nothing he had seen so far of the river reminded him of the birds he knew back on Earth.

“It was named by old Imperials,” the captain said. “Not that the river acknowledges the name. Any riverfolk can tell you that this water is no bird.”

“The Empire just wants to put its name everywhere,” Xie Jin interjected.

The captain side-eyed Xie Jin, his eyes flicked to the sleeve the Gu disappeared into.

“By the way, I never got your name,” Chen Haoran said, taking his attention.

The captain smiled and a single gold tooth flashed. “Jiang, young lord. Although the wisecrackers call me Old Jiang.”

Chen Haoran clasped his hands. “Thank you for sharing your knowledge. It’s much appreciated.”

“Could I trouble the young lord about my previous offer then? It might not mean much to one such as yourself but for us sailors it’s a good omen to have a River Child on board. The river might even bless our trip and send us to our destination faster if we’re lucky.”

Chen Haoran and Xie Jin shared a look.

“I can force him to bring the ship to shore and we can get off here,” Xie Jin said.

Old Jiang’s casual demeanor immediately turned into unease. Chen Haoran appreciated how Xie Jin seemed to understand his worries. Although whether that was because he was clever or because he too was worried after getting slapped around by a literal river he wasn’t sure.

“Let’s stay on the boat for now,” Chen Haoran said.

Old Jiang looked relieved and poured out more wine and later after drinking a few rounds saw them off to their cabin with an exuberant smile. When they entered the room Phelps floated over with a particularly annoyed squeal and threw himself into Chen Haoran’s arms.

“Sorry bud,” he said. He carried the sloth back to bed and pulled out a piece of glowing moss to feed him. “I’ll take you out tomorrow.”

Xie Jin slunk over to his bed and sank heavily into the sheets with a groan.

“How do you feel?” Chen Haoran asked. “I have some healing pills if you’re hurt.”

“I’m fine,” Xie Jin said. “If it wanted to hurt me I doubt I’d have been able to walk it off.”

“Nevertheless I appreciate you for defending me.”

“I haven’t even shown you my home yet. There’s no way I’m going to let some crazy Central region river take you.” He flipped over onto his back and massaged his chest. Chen Haoran reached into his storage bag and summoned one of his weaker healing medicines from his Reward space and handed it to him. Xie Jin accepted it with an appreciative hum and sighed in relief as the medicine did its work. “I’ll tell you this the rivers in Zumulu are nowhere near as weird as this one.”

“Doesn’t that mean there still a little weird though?” Chen Haoran asked, laughing.

“No, most of them are just normal rivers.”

He stopped laughing and looked at Xie Jin who didn’t change his expression at all.

“I… was joking,” Chen Haoran stiffly said.

“At least our rivers won’t try to drag you under, it’s mostly the things inside them that do that.”

“Xie Jin.”

“Actually one of our major rivers is poisonous.”

“Xie Jin.”

“Did I mention we have a river that is completely filled with snakes?”

“Xie Jin!”

Chen Haoran glared while Xie Jin laughed his head off.

“Are you done?” he asked with an arched brow.

“Yes,” Xie Jin said, his voice still filled with mirth.

“I’m beginning to question if I want to go south now.”

“Are you scared?” Xie Jin looked at him with a taunting smirk.

“Of course not,” Chen Haoran scoffed. “I just wonder how much more of your annoying ass I can deal with.”

“Well, that already puts you above 90 percent of the people living in the Central Region. You can be proud of that, young cultivator.”

Chen Haoran rolled his eyes and put out the lamp so he wouldn’t have to look at Xie Jin’s annoying mug anymore. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Brother Chen.”

He arranged himself on the bed, tossing and turning to settle himself in the most comfortable spot and wrapping an arm around Phelps so he wouldn’t float around while he tried to sleep. He couldn’t help asking Xie Jin one last important question, however.

“You don’t have any giant spiders down south do you?”

“No,” Xie Jin said. He could hear the drowsiness in his voice.

“Good.”

“We killed them all centuries ago.”

“What the fuck.”