Chapter 110 (Patreon)

What followed was cleaning up the scene, gathering up the strewn pieces of his Clear Heart Mirror Armor, and taking count of their spoils. Unfortunately, Chen Haoran’s hopes that he’d find a treasure or a technique were dashed. Some rations. A few silvers and gold in tael and banknote form. Other sundries and camping gear. As it turned out, soldiers didn’t carry any extraneous supplies when out on a mission. Neither did they have any storage bags. Even for the Empire, equipping all its soldiers, even its skilled ones, with their own storage bags was too much of an expense, apparently. Luckily the Liquid Meridian Jiang Lei had killed did have a storage bag. What was in it, he didn’t know. Jiang Lei merely peeked inside it and dumped the contents of the storage bag into his own before shredding it to pieces.

Chen Haoran looked on mournfully. He wasn’t shameless enough for a portion. Even if Jiang Lei didn’t kill the Liquid Meridian without him holding them off, Chen Haoran would have died several times over. Even so, it hurt seeing him destroy the storage bag.

Jiang Lei noticed him watching and smiled helplessly. “You can never be too careful with storage bags. It’s not uncommon for them to have some means of tracking. Better to minimize any risk since we’re dealing with shamans.”

Chen Haoran was beginning to realize just how paranoia-inducing it was when one was on the wrong side of a Gu. “Does that mean we can’t take anything?”

“It should be fine. The storage bag is one thing but for the others, time and distance will take care of any trace. Take whatever you want.”

“Not like there’s much to take. Damn, Gu.” When the Gu devoured the shaman’s corpse, it also took his storage bag and left behind nothing for Chen Haoran to loot.

Jiang Lei laughed. “That’s just the nature of the Gu. Seeking treasure is second nature to them, and taking it is an instinct.”

“Like how it stole my armor?” Chen Haoran shuddered. It had been a long time since he had been so caught off guard. Thankfully Jiang Lei had been quick to put out the flames. He’d rather have all his limbs broken again instead of burning to death.

“Just one of their many abilities, I’m afraid. If the Shaman weren’t so focused on killing us, then there would have been little we could do to stop him from taking your storage bag.”

Chen Haoran picked up a soldiers sword and tested the edge.“I knew they were powerful, but I didn’t expect Gu to be so ridiculous.”

“There’s a reason shamans are as respected as they are feared. A single Gu has a variety of difficult-to-counter abilities available to them.” Jiang Lei hefted the axe of the dead Liquid Meridian and tossed it to Chen Haoran. “Use this. It’s at least better than those Mortal-Rank swords.”

Chen Haoran easily caught the axe by the handle and casually swiped it through the air. Channeling qi through the weapon had its edge glow metal white. A Profound-Rank weapon. “I won’t be able to use my Harmonization through this.”

Jiang Lei raised an eyebrow. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. Take one of the swords as well, just in case. You’ll want to upgrade to something better soon, though. Your Harmonization seems to have only gotten fiercer with your advancement.”

“Fair enough,” Chen Haoran said as he hung the axe at his waist.

The sound of sizzling filled the air, and he wrinkled his nose as the smell of burning meat assaulted him. He looked over to find Wang Xiao sprinkling a white powder over the corpses. As soon as the powder touched the skin, it began to bubble, and Chen Haoran watched with horrified awe as the body was reduced to an unrecognizable black sludge in a matter of moments.

“Bone Dissolving Solution,” Jiang Lei said. “It’s a southern specialty. Apparently, its creator intended for it to be an ingested poison, but it was too obvious for that. Some creative souls then realized how useful it was for disposing corpses and repurposed it.”

“You guys are pretty professional,” Chen Haoran faintly said.

Jiang Lei gave him a toothy grin.

“In Zumulu, this is the bare minimum.”

———————

They didn’t stay long after disposing of the corpses and quickly set off into the jungle, only stopping briefly at a stream to wash off their blood and sweat. The entirety of the next day, they didn’t stop to rest at all until well into the night. It was a punishing pace, but for Chen Haoran it may have well been a slightly longer run. Compared to a visibly exhausted Wang Xiao, Chen Haoran was barely winded. He felt like he could run for days, and in fact, he could.

Jiang Lei pushed them to run without stopping over the next few days and Chen Haoran began to come to terms with the new physical realities of the Liquid Meridian Realm. Lan Fen had been right to call the gap between realms a chasm. While knew from prior experience just how overwhelming a Liquid Meridian Realm was, becoming one revealed the full extent of the depths he only ever saw the surface of.

He was faster, stronger, tougher, more perceptive, more everything. To lift a phrase from back home, he floated better than butterflies, and as for his sting… well, when he placed his hand to lean on a tree after running for four days straight, he accidentally pushed the whole thing over, roots and all.

Suffice it to say he was extra careful with how he moved until he fully adjusted.

All this stemmed from the liquid qi now coursing through his meridians. Over the days, the Yellow Dragon had ceaselessly absorbed and refined qi for him till the trickle he’d begun with became a river. The Yellow Dragon. He still wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Machu’s gift. Was it the Machu River itself? Or a separate entity? It certainly acted more like the Yellow Dragon he’d visualized all this time than the Machu River. It was a bit uncomfortable to know there was an intelligent mind living within his body now. On the other hand, the benefits the Yellow Dragon provided were too good to give up.

Automatic cultivation while he focused on other tasks and double the efficiency when he cultivated himself. These alone were enough to make him forever satisfied, and he was sure they weren’t the only things the Yellow Dragon was capable of. Any other uses would have to be explored in the future, however. The company he was keeping, and the environment they were in weren’t really conducive to training with the sentient water living in his meridians.

After running for five consecutive days straight, Jiang Lei was finally satisfied with their distance from the battle site. Their journey, while still hurried, wasn’t nearly so frantic now. It was a welcome relief to Wang Xiao, who now found himself the weakest link. He’d not said another word, untoward or otherwise, to Chen Haoran ever since the fight. Every so often, however, Chen Haoran found him staring at him with complicated eyes. It seemed his advancement did more of a number on Wang Xiao than their duel did.

Jiang Lei, for what it was worth, didn’t treat Chen Haoran any differently than before. They still reviewed the Seven Steps of the Rainbow Stairs together, and between struggling to get the technique started Jiang Lei would regale him with some anecdote from his own training or a local legend he’d grown up on. He wasn’t sure how to feel about it, in all honesty. Was it good? Bad? He didn’t know. What Chen Haoran did know was that now that they were on the same level, he could finally face Jiang Lei with confidence. Even the skill Jiang Lei had shown in the fight wasn’t enough to press Chen Haoran the way being a Qi Realm to his Liquid Meridian did. Becoming stronger was quite the balm for the mind. Who knew?

Chen Haoran didn’t dwell on those sorts of thoughts too much. Most of his attention was split between learning the First Step of the Rainbow Stairs and experiencing the jungles of Zumulu. One was far more stimulating and immediately rewarding than the other. Chen Haoran had thought he’d gotten his taste of the jungle when traveling with Xie Jin. As he quickly learned, the sea of trees that comprised the jungle of Zumulu were only superficially similar to each other depending on where one was.

Here in the ‘deep jungle’ as Jiang Lei called it, Zumulu, as the natives knew it, was in full bloom. The jungle trees lost whatever restraint they had in the periphery of Zumulu and rose to over 200 feet in height. The foliage grew so thick between them that Chen Haoran did not have to worry about the hot southern sun burning him because the leafage blocked any few of the sky period. That did not mean they traveled in darkness, no. Rather than block the sun’s rays, the leaves of the giant trees had a gem-like luster and filtered the harsh sunlight into a softer, gentler form. The type of light that might shine through a window on a lazy day. It lent an ethereal quality to the world underneath the jungle. Particularly in the way the light mixed with the ever-present water vapor and wrapped around branches and trunks like a heavenly drape.

Too bad the wildlife didn’t seem to get the memo.

Slavering monitor lizards the size of sharks with none of the reservations. Giant rolling nuts that popped open to reveal wooden scorpions hiding within them. Dog-sized dragonflies and the man-sized mantises that fed on them. Other insects big and small. All blurred to Chen Haoran’s qi sense in a way similar but not quite exactly like Gu. They detoured a small but hilariously lethal tree that released a zone of fine hairs that burned the lungs if breathed in. They did battle with a troop of snake-tailed monkeys that wielded their serpent appendages like lassos. Chen Haoran woke up one night and found Jiang Lei having a staring contest with what he swore was King fucking Kong.

Chen Haoran had to wonder if looking beautiful was the environment’s way of apologizing for what lived in it. It was an act of sheer will that he walked with his own two feet back into the jungle after their brief forays into towns for supplies. When Jiang Lei finally, blessedly, said they were near the Basin Chen Haoran felt relieved.

He really should have known better.