Chapter 103 (Patreon)

Move

Chen Haoran willed his qi to cycle. After one revolution, he felt his head clear. After another revolution, he could move his fingers. After the third revolution, a dragon’s roar sounded out from his chest, and he picked himself up—

—Only to fall to his knees when two terrifying presences took notice of him. Chen Haoran paled, and his breath came up short. The talisman. He had dropped the talisman. They could see him.

The rubble of the stage exploded, and Chen Haoran was spared from the attention of the Empire’s Crystal Transformation Realms. The Auctioneer rose out of the wreckage. The sneak attack he suffered had blown his cloak to pieces to reveal a surprisingly normal-looking old man. He was small, with a bald head and a bushy white beard. To Chen Haoran’s horror, his arm was missing up to the elbow, but instead of blood, the stump leaked yellow light. The Auctioneer noticed his lack of arm when he tried to brush the sawdust out of his beard. He snorted, and in the next moment, hundreds of yellow crystals flew from around the auction hall as if drawn by magnets and reassembled into a crystal arm. He flexed his new arm as easily as a real arm, and as he did, the yellow crystal faded away into normal skin. In the span of a few moments, it looked as if he had never lost an arm at all.

“Commander Han,” the Auctioneer greeted the new Crystal Transformation Realm. “The Garrison Authority must really not want to give my Golden Lily Association a way out if they deployed the both of you.”

Commander Han chuckled and balanced his sword on his shoulder. “How do you say it? This is just the cost of doing business.”

The Auctioneer sighed. “So it seems. You’re really making me work for my profit today.”

The Auctioneer waved his hand, and Commander Lu was suddenly surrounded by golden lightning. With a startled shout, the Garrison Commander flew to the ceiling and was nailed to the golden barrier stretched across it. In the same motion, the Auctioneer pulled out a silver sack and opened it. Countless gold taels spilled from its depths and assembled themselves into a sword that shot toward Commander Han. The old soldier easily shattered the tael sword, only for the pieces to reform and strike him again.

Chen Haoran rushed qi to his legs and stood up with the encouragement of a dragon’s roar. “Phelps!” he shouted. “Phelps!”

His words were drowned out by an angelic chorus. Commander Han whirled his sword, each swing a different direction for some unseen orchestra, and the tael sword broke into fine gold dust. The Auctioneer upended his silver sack and flung out another larger tael sword.

Chen Haoran desperately cast his eyes across the ruined stage, looking for Phelps. They were running out of time. Despite the Auctioneer’s prior good showing, it wasn’t a guarantee he could really defeat the two military officials. If, at any moment, the Auctioneer decided to cut his losses and leave, then Chen Haoran would be left at the mercy of the Crystal Transformation Realms.

“Phelps!”

There was an answering squeal. The rubble moved, and Phelps floated out unharmed. Chen Haoran’s flooded his legs with qi and was at Phelps’s side in a moment and bundled the sloth into his arms.

“Chen!”

Chen Haoran turned and found Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao at the back of the stage, beckoning him. He sprinted over and was halfway to them when he remembered Dreamwater. He looked behind him and scanned the stage, quickly spotting her slumped form 15 feet behind the Auctioneer.

“Fuck.” It was too dangerous. Chen Haoran spun on his heel and shot toward her, his qi pumped furiously through his meridians, and his legs became a blur, and he pushed his body to its limits. He fell to his knees and skidded in front of Dreamwater. Her head was freely bleeding. She had taken the impact the worst out of all of them. There was no time to be gentle however, he scooped her up onto his shoulder and—

Froze.

Gooseflesh prickled down his neck and arms. Phelps became extraordinarily still. Chen Haoran turned his head. The Auctioneer was watching him. Their eyes locked.

The Auctioneer blinked first.

“Why are you here?” The Auctioneer asked. He shook his head and suddenly laughed. To Chen Haoran’s ears, however, it sounded helpless. “Dragon King, you scary bastard. Is this fate?”

Chen Haoran’s brief confusion became pale terror when he realized he couldn’t feel his mask. His heart fell, and he didn’t even have the time to wonder what those words meant when the Auctioneer pointed his hand at him. He desperately grabbed his scimitar, but when the realms were this different, even the microseconds it took to think of the action slowed him enough to damn him.

“Young one, this is the second interest-free loan of my life.” A golden light shot out of the Auctioneer’s sleeve and hammered into Chen Haoran’s chest.

His precious breath left him once again as the light picked him up off his feet and sent them all hurtling across the stage. Phelps squealed and tried to cover them with his energy, but every attempt broke when it touched the golden light. Chen Haoran rallied his qi to brace for the impact. His back hit something hard, and Chen Haoran heard a grunt as arms filled his vision. Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao caught them, and he felt their qi rise. There was a sound of breaking wood as they all skidded back for a few seconds before Jiang Lei planted his feet and halted their momentum.

They had scarcely caught their breaths when an overwhelming presence washed over them. Commander Han fell on them like a diving raptor. He reached out his hand to grab them, and though it was a regular-sized hand at that moment, it felt like he would scoop them all up in his palm.

That moment never came to pass. The Auctioneer came in between them and forced Commander Han back with a storm of golden energy. “Now, now, Commander Han. I heard you treated your juniors with kindness. Why bother them when this old man is in front of you?”

“That’s why it was my hand and not my sword,” Commander Han said. He sliced apart the golden storm, but when the lightning sought to wrap itself around him like it did Commander Lu, it was mysteriously chopped to pieces. “What about you Gold-Eater? Since when did you give things away for free?”

The Auctioneer waved his hands dismissively. “Who said it was free? It’s been properly paid for.” He snapped his fingers, and a golden barrier shimmered into place in front of Chen Haoran and the others.

Jiang Lei pulled Chen Haoran back and held out his hand. He had somehow found the talisman after Chen Haoran lost it in the commotion. The blue light washed over them and hid them from view.

“We have to leave,” Jiang Lei urged.

There was a roar from above. Commander Lu erupted with scarlet light and shattered a hole in the golden barrier covering the ceiling. The scarlet cloud rushed through the newly made opening, and Commander Lu dragged down with him as he hurtled like a meteor atop the Auctioneer’s head. Commander Han struck simultaneously, whipping his sword and stirring up a killing elegy.

The Auctioneer laughed and faced them head-on. He pointed a single finger to the ground, and a large golden toad statue rose beneath his feet. Standing on the head of the toad, he slammed his foot down, and the statue opened its mouth to reveal a gullet crackling with endless golden lightning. The two commanders expressions shifted, and they flung themselves back. The toad breathed in, and a storm was born. The scarlet cloud, the killing music, the debris, the building, anything, and everything was drawn into the golden toad’s mouth and disappeared into its stomach. Even the ambient qi visibly rippled and was sucked in. Commander Han and Commander Lu flew back to the edges of the auction hall and resisted with their qi but still couldn’t completely avoid the pull of the vortex.

Even though they were behind the storm and protected by the Auctioneer’s barrier, Chen Haoran felt his feet slip toward the toad. He cycled his qi and firmly planted his feet. Even so, he could feel slips of his qi being dragged out of his body and absorbed by the toad. Spikes of ice-cold fear ran down his spine. This was the technique of a Crystal Transformation Realm?

Jiang Lei pushed Chen Haoran and Wang Xiao and dragged them away from the toad, into the back of the stage, and out of sight of the battle. They didn’t stop for even a moment, rushing through the halls until the talisman flashed blue.

“This way,” Jiang Lei said, and under the direction of the talisman, a bright blue rectangle was opened up in an otherwise blank wall. They dove in without hesitation and entered a square tunnel lit with gold light and green light.

Chen Haoran sighed in relief. “Safe.”

“Chen Haoran,” Jiang Lei gravely said.

“I know, I know, not safe till we’re out of the city,” he replied. He shifted Dreamwater into a more comfortable position on his back. “But it’s safer here than the auction hall, that’s for sure.”

“No,” Jiang Lei said. He pointed at his chest. “Chen Haoran, what is that?”

What? Chen Haoran looked down, and his heart stopped.

The tunnel wasn’t lit with gold light. He was. There on his chest, stuck to it with golden lightning, was a book. Even looking down from above, he could see the title printed with colorful ink.

Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs.