Chapter 117 (Patreon)

The passing of time was strange in Zumulu. No matter how much action and change was actually occurring at any given moment in the region, the trees and dense flora remained the same. The days blended together, stretching out so that even day and night seemed like one continuous whole, like a long video left unpaused. It didn’t help that there weren’t seasons as he knew them in the south: no yellow autumn, no white winter, fresh spring, or sunny summer. No, when it came to seasons, Zumulu only had two. Wet and less wet.

Chen Haoran had arrived at the end of the ‘dry’ season where it ‘only’ rained every other day. Now during the wet season, the sky could be a clear blue as far as the eye could see before clouds would suddenly spontaneously form, drop a deluge on your head, then vanish. Those were the more mundane of Zumulu’s weather phenomena. Some clouds rained hot water. Others rained in reverse, drawing up water from the ground before falling and popping like giant water balloons. There were clouds that caught the light of the sun quite literally, somehow absorbing the rays of the rising or setting sun and becoming so agitated that they raced across the sky, leaving behind streaks of orange, red, and gold. Some days the clouds blotted out the sky and churned with waves like an ocean in storm had been flipped upside down. On other, more dangerous ones, the clouds grew fat and green with poisonous water and punished the jungle below with it.

On those days of poisonous rain, he saw for the first time shamans acting in their official capacity. The insects of the Basin were spurred to ferocious life, ignoring the pressure of the Gu, invigorated under what others called the Green Hells Punishment. All the hidden hunters and silent killers that normally acted so cautiously screeched with voices insects should not have and burst out with a noxious aura no less harmful than the rain. They rose in a cloud of their own and drowned the Basin with their numbers.

The shamans rose to meet them. The Onyx Arm tribe had three other shamans besides Xie Jin, his grandfather, and Bao Si. Two Liquid Meridians and a Qi Realm. They all followed Bao Si’s direction, however. One end of her Centipede Gu extended like a living whip, and 177 pairs of knife-like legs diced apart countless bodies, splitting apart swarms for the other shamans to annihilate piecemeal. The other end morphed into another head and hunted the stronger beasts using the weaker ones as cover. Every time it found one it struck like lightning, instantly killing anything at the Ninth-Layer and marking the Liquid Meridian Realms for a Liquid Meridian Gu to slay.

Xie Jin acted separately. A swarm of wasps made of purple miasma flew from his sleeves and created a living shield that protected him from the smaller insects of the swarm. His Beetle Gu flew overhead, spitting out miasma that turned all it infected into living bombs that exploded with more purple miasma that went on to infect even more in an endless cycle. Entire swarms erupted into masses of purple miasma that his Gu then manipulated to cover an even large area. Chen Haoran was there with him, liquid qi covering him in a dome of uncrossable arrogance. While the insects may have been able to ignore the Gu’s coercion, they dared not ignore a dragon’s, and so Chen Haoran walked untouched amongst the venomous vermin and ruinous rain and became the anvil to Xie Jin’s hammer. His liquid qi flared out to the side like great horns and swept mass after mass into the path of Xie Jin’s miasma.

The other Liquid Meridians of the tribe covered the ring homes in shields of liquid qi to protect the weaker cultivators inside. The insects that made it past Chen Haoran and the shamans were easily within their means to deal with now that the pressure had been lessened. The only one who had yet to make an appearance was Xie Ling. It wasn’t a long wait, however. As the stronger presences within the Basin stirred from their holes, a single black snake flew from the village’s temple. It quickly expanded in size, doubling upon doubling until it was long enough to wrap around the village entirely and large enough to swallow elephants whole.

It was not the only one. The Onyx Arms were not the only Black Bone tribe to reside in the Basin. From the other cardinal directions centered around the Screaming Giant’s Lake rose three other massive Gu. A grim black dog from the Shadow Legs in the west. A pig more muscle than fat from the Seven Black Ribs in the east. A towering worm that looked better suited for a desert than the middle of a jungle from the Sable Skulls in the north.

As one, they released their presence, and the riotous swarm abruptly silenced. The strongest quickly sobered and fled. The weak and the slow died. Corpses rained, carpeting the jungle floor and building up in mounds. While the poisonous rain gave the insects the courage to rebel, it didn't change the fact the Gu were their kings. In the face of unruly rebellion, they crushed it like they did so many others.

Chen Haoran watched all this from the safety of his cover of liquid qi. He turned to Xie Jin next to him. “Forget owing you a drink. You’re buying me one.”

Xie Jin awkwardly laughed. “Welcome to Zumulu?”

And that was how the first week of the wet season ended.

———————

Crazy weather aside, life in the Basin was… enjoyable. Which was a word Chen Haoran didn’t expect he’d use to describe a place that was by all accounts a death hole. That was what it was, though. Everyone knew everyone else. It was common for families and friends to share meals and come together to pass around bowls of wine. Chen Haoran, despite being the only outsider within the village, was no exception, thanks to his prior performance and relationship with two of the village’s shamans. Granted, their cuisine was…. unique. He’d already had an issue with the spices so common in the South’s recipes. Now he had to deal with the abundant amount of bugs they included. In hindsight, it should have been obvious. In practice, Chen Haoran got very acquainted with spiced crickets, roasted tarantulas, and candied scorpions.

Xie Jin made fun of him for his weak tongue. Chen Haoran had no pity for him after that when Bao Si stayed true to her word and saddled him with so much work he didn’t see Xie Jin for weeks despite living in the same house as him. Of course, he wasn’t spared from Bao Si’s jokes either. Particularly when she set him and Xie Jin up for some ‘alone time,’ clearly taking his last question for her the wrong way. Of course, she made sure to spend ample time with Chen Haoran herself when she wasn’t busy with her own duties. He’d underestimated just how important she was. At least in the village, if Xie Ling was number 1, no one seemed to argue with Bao Si being number 2.

Still, overall Chen Haoran was living well in the Basin. Even the threat of being hunted by the Crystal Transformation Realm Garrison Commanders seemed so far away now. Not everything was perfect, though. Life in the village was a bit meaner than in Stonebridge, what with all the poisonous insects. His resource collection also slowed down considerably. Not that there were no treasures in the Basin, but there weren’t many he was willing to feed to Phelps. It was just one of the limitations that came when his main method of gifting was Phelps’s ability to eat it. He couldn’t just give the sloth poison after all. There was also his new armor, the Scattering Petal Palm, the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs, and more just sitting around and impossible to gift.

He didn’t regret making Phelps a Connection. His reasoning still stood. It was good to have someone he could constantly give gifts to without rousing too many questions. Phelps ate every day, and thus Chen Haoran could get a constant stream of Rewards from him no matter what. The fact that he wasn’t getting as many Rewards right now was a failure in his ability to provide, not Phelps. Even if he never opened a second connection slot, Chen Haoran wouldn’t have changed his mind.

That being said, his new slot represented an opportunity to bring his Gifting to another level. He could give Phelps all the consumables and give whatever Phelps couldn’t eat to the second Connection. Just the thought of improving the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs was intoxicating, not to mention potentially getting his hands on Heaven-Rank armor. He was in no rush to choose, however. Right now, under the protection of Xie Ling and his own advancement to the Liquid Meridian Realm, Chen Haoran felt more safe and secure than he’d ever been. He could afford to hold off on his second Connection right now and focus on picking the right one.

Ideally, it would be someone weak, and willing to accept whatever he gave them. He’d learned his lesson with Lan Fen. She was talented enough to outgrow what he could give her and prideful enough to reject gifts that would be useful to her. Thankfully now that he was a Liquid Meridian, there were a lot of people weaker than him now. The real issue, though, was what sort of connection to make. The Gifting Power required an official relationship for it to consider a potential Connectee valid. Marriage and Pets, he knew for a fact, worked. Personal servants directly under him ala his old Manager Lin were also possible. Using those as standards, he could guess that things like adoption, family members, and maybe students worked as well. Bao Si had also told him of something called sworn brotherhood, a sort of formal best friend, the swearing of which often came with some small ceremony. Assuming that worked, then Xie Jin would be an obvious choice.

Chen Haoran had no doubt that if, a little while later, he floated the idea of sworn brotherhood with Xie Jin that the latter would accept it. In a way, Xie Jin was the perfect candidate. He was a Realm lower and was someone he could trust, and with Phelps around to eat the bulk of the gifts, Chen Haoran could space out any gifts he gave Xie Jin to lower any suspicion or reluctance. It was just…. if he went through with making a Connection with Xie Jin, he would be adding a transactional element to their friendship, and Chen Haoran didn’t know if he was ready to turn his friend into a vending machine.

That was the crux of the issue. Sworn brotherhood was apparently a big deal and only done between close friends who chose to share life and death. Except Chen Haoran would be doing it for Rewards, not brotherhood, and he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, lie to himself and say it was for both. It would be the same with the others. If he married, it would be for Rewards, his wife irrelevant beyond that. If he adopted, notwithstanding the fact he wasn’t ready or willing to raise a kid, he would be doing it specifically to milk them for Rewards. The irony of his Gifting Power was more apparent now than ever. Encourage him to be charitable and generous but only for the chosen few and only for the benefits.

With Lan Fen, it was one thing. Their relationship had been transactional from the start despite his later misconceptions. But Xie Jin wasn’t like that. He stood up to the Lan Family when he barely knew Chen Haoran. He bowed his head to let Chen Haoran stay in his home even though it might lead to conflict with the Empire. Hell, he was ready to square up with a sentient river for his sake. Chen Haoran would repay all that by doing what? Turning him into a treasure printing machine? Giving him gifts only because he had an incentive to do so?

Not to mention, becoming sworn brothers would be something permanent. As cynical as it was to say it, there was no telling what might happen in the future. If something were to go wrong, he couldn’t just break off his brotherhood with Xie Jin or get rid of the child he adopted, and while he could divorce his wife, marrying someone and then divorcing them when they weren’t useful anymore was so scummy that just the thought alone revolted him. So sworn brothers was out, as was marriage and adoption. The last thing he wanted to do was meet any family, and getting another pet would be superfluous. The best Connection he could make right now was some kind of servant or employee. Someone with a contract he could easily dissolve should things not work out.

Unfortunately, the Basin wasn’t the right place to find a servant right now. It would be too eye-catching to hire one and give them gifts. Not to mention he was a guest. It would be a bad look for Xie Jin if Chen Haoran went around hiring and firing tribesmen while he ironed out a contract that met the conditions of the Gifting Power. He could only put it on hold until he could go to a city again.

Until then, Chen Haoran peacefully, barring the odd insect invasion, whittled away his days in the Basin until the New Year was upon them.

And, of course, as with everything else in this new world. The New Year came with a fight.