Chapter 90 (Patreon)

Chen Haoran made good on his promise.

Received Hundred-Fold: Qi Congregation Pill

Received Hundred-Fold: River King Grass

Received Hundred-Fold: Jade Maiden Bellflower

Received Hundred-Fold: Three Gorge Pill

When given the choice, Phelps’s preferences leaned toward resources with a water element to them. It made sense considering the nature of his home. It did leave Chen Haoran wondering about the nature of a beast’s cultivation. Did they have elemental affinities the same way humans did? Did they have spirit roots at all? From what he had been told, cultivation was something a beast did instinctively. They went through the same Layers as a human cultivator but without needing a cultivation method. What greater scenery did they try to emulate then?

Chen Haoran watched Phelps gorge himself among the materials the Ever Spring Pavilion delivered. It wasn’t as big of a pile as he imagined for 20 thousand taels, but it was enough.

He crouched over Phelps and stroked his fur. “Whenever I get beast materials as a reward, it changes the beast but never the realm. Is that it, then? Bloodlines? Is there some greater beast they try to become?” Phelps, feeling his hand on his back, looked up and squealed. “I wonder what kind of sloth you’ll grow into.”

Phelps stared into his eyes. Chen Haoran scratched his chin and stared back. Was that shine he saw in the sloth’s eye’s qi or something else?

Phelps hacked a cough and threw up in his hand.

“I knew you’d regret those willow leaves, you little shit!”

——————

As if to make up for its lack of nightlife, Daqing seemed to pack as much activity as it could into the evening. Not to say it wasn’t bustling the rest of the day, but when the sun flipped its arc from east to west and spared a few cool degrees on the city’s baking bricks, the crowds took on new life.

Chen Haoran wasn’t the only person walking along the riverfront without bones. Daqing was thankfully multicultural enough that he didn’t stick out like a sore thumb, although he was clearly not local. Phelps had been left back home to work through the results of his poor choices. Every so often however Chen Haoran would receive another notification of reward. It seemed even an upset stomach couldn’t completely halt Phelps’s gluttony. Although he couldn’t discount the possibility of Phelps going the way of the Romans and vomiting in order to eat more.

Received Hundred-Fold: Qi Congregation Pill

Chen Haoran shook his head in exasperation. He would have to bring back ginger ale or the equivalent before he returned.

Unlike the White Ridge City, whose docks were tucked between the Mountain General’s massive stone fingers, the docks of Daqing lined the river on both sides from wall to wall. Markets big and small were dotted in plazas and fountain squares close to the river. People, both cultivators and non, rubbed shoulders and hawked their wares. An elderly man cooked bowls of glass noodles next to a young cultivator of the Fifth-Layer displaying fur pelts. A troop of girls in pastel dresses with bells dangling from bone bangles elegantly danced and offered baskets of spirit flowers and creams. A Ninth-Layer surrounded by his compatriots stood tall upon a wooden box and accepted bids for the massive monitor lizard corpse behind him.

Chen Haoran pushed his way through and waded through the stalls. Selling off his rewards by the handful and purchasing whatever curio caught his eye. Nothing truly helpful for his cultivation, but it would serve to brighten the house. It was a passing distraction. The real money was to be made in the bigger, more established shops. He wanted to familiarize himself more with the city before he started getting down to business. Moments to relax had been coming few and far between for him as of late.

He stopped in front of a stall- no. Calling it a stall was too much. An elderly woman had laid out a faded carpet in a corner of the plaza and piled carved bone ornaments and figures onto it with seemingly little care. Bracelets, armbands, and rings were stacked atop each other, some were unadorned, and others were carved with intricate images of battle or beasts. Tigers lounged around herds of elephants. Dragonflies with near-transparent wings huddled together while a troop of praying mantises and spiders were arrayed around them as if hunting. Buttons shaped into fish were scattered between larger statuettes of fish in leap and snakes specially carved such that they seemed to sway like the real thing.

Chen Haoran wouldn’t say he had an eye for quality, but from the way the woman deftly wielded her knife to shear off slivers from the bone she was holding in her wrinkled hands, he didn’t think it was a stretch to say she made all these herself. What had really brought him over here was the single spot of black amid the white bones. A bone dragon coiled in front of the woman, its head raised to the sky in a defiant roar. He could practically see the arrogance contained within its glossy black eyes.

He pointed to the dragon. “How do you sell this?”

The old woman harrumphed and didn’t bother looking up. “We don’t sell to the likes of you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Must I repeat myself?”

Chen Haoran was left speechless. He cast out his sense. No cultivation. She was as normal as normal came.

The brave woman sliced off a particularly large piece from her bone. “Are you just going to stand there?”

Was this the shoe being on the other foot? He shook his head and turned to leave.

“Pah,” the elderly woman spat. “Leaving with your tail between your legs just because of some mean words. A Zumulu youth could never.”

Chen Haoran stopped. “Are you going to sell me something then?”

“Of course not.”

He snorted and walked away from the rude woman.

What was it with old people having no chill?

————

“We thank you for your business. Please feel free to come again, sir!” The attendant bowed and said to Chen Haoran as he left the shop.

Sitting in his storage bag now was a bundle of gold-colored paper. He’d made his 2o thousand taels back, and Phelps hadn’t even finished eating everything he bought from the Ever Spring Pavilion yet. A few more transactions like this, and he’d have something resembling real funds saved up before the Golden Lily Association auction. Any annoyance he had felt regarding the rude old woman was long gone. It was a shame he couldn’t get his hands on the dragon sculpture though, it would have made a nice gift for Xie Jin. Or maybe he could have given it to the Machu river? He wasn’t sure what the preferences of a sentient body of water were, but it seemed to be of the sort that was easily pleased.

Now all he had to do was pick up some stomach remedies for Phelps and—

“How many times do we gotta teach you this lesson, old woman?”

Chen Haoran frowned. When he searched for the abrasive voice, he found three men surrounding the rude old lady from before. A quick cast of his sense marked them as Third-Layer and below. Nothing particularly threatening to him but way beyond what a non-cultivator could handle.

“My ears aren’t what they used to be, you’ll have to speak up, boy.”

Of course, that didn’t seem to dissuade the crazy lady.

Chen Haoran considered for a moment whether he should intervene. It wasn’t any of his business, and there was no reason to go out of his way to help a rude person like her. His gaze inadvertently fell on the black dragon carving once more.

Maybe he could get a discount?

“You bitc—” the Third-Layer’s curse was cut short when Chen Haoran bumped past him and sent him sprawling to the ground.

“Were these the youths of Zumulu you were telling me about, mam?” Chen Haoran put himself between the old lady and the thugs.

“Bastard,” growled the Third-Layer as he picked himself up. “What the hell do you think your doing—”

Chen Haoran spiked his qi.

“Sir…” the Third-Layer weakly added. All three paled as they realized just how far out of their depth they were.

“What youth?” The old woman snorted. “All I see are washed-up has-beens.”

“Excuse us, sir,” the Third-Layer said, mustering up his courage. “We have some business with this woman.”

Chen Haoran lifted an eyebrow. “As do I.” He shooed them away. “Get in line.”

The men took the hint and scattered without looking back. The old woman scoffed as they fled.

“Can I buy that carving now?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Of course not.”

He frowned. Was she really going to be this obstinate?

The old woman waved her knife at him. In her other hand, the bone she’d been working on had an impressively detailed tree carved in relief on its surface. “Are you just going to keep standing there?”

“This again? Really?” He couldn’t believe this. At least a thank you would be nice.

“Look down, you fool.”

Confused Chen Haoran lowered his gaze and found he had stepped onto her carpet. Bone splinters surrounded his foot. He lifted his leg and winced when he heard a cracking sound. The shattered remains of what had once been a bone beetle stared up at him.

Oh…fuck.