Chapter 125 (Patreon)

The inside of the Qi Realm’s house was sparse, filled with worn down and simple furniture. It was far lacking compared to the warm and colorful homes he’d been in before. The only inkling of nature was a single drooping flower in a dirty glass vase.

After being ‘invited’ inside, Chen Haoran claimed the only chair in the single-room home and watched the trembling Qi Realm before him. It was a fair reaction on his part. A strange Liquid Meridian Realm knocked on your door and barged into your home. Chen Haoran personally would have been terrified if that happened to him. Was, in fact, terrified when it happened to him more than once. Now the shoe was on the other foot for once and Chen Haoran was the higher realm instilling the fear of god into someone weaker than him through his presence.

The Qi Realm steeled his nerves just long enough to finally speak. “Can I help you with something, sir?”

Chen Haoran observed him. Red eyes from lack of sleep. Thin and bony arms. Even his hair was thinning and falling out. Even for a Qi Realm of the Second Layer, to be worked into such a state required severe amounts of stress to overcome Qi’s nourishing effects. He was only 32, according to Chanchu. Not that much older than Chen Haoran, and yet the difference between them was stark.

“Lin, right?” Chen Haoran said. And wasn’t that a surprise? He felt an odd sense of irony that the Qi Realm shared a surname with his treacherous old manager. “Like I said. I was wondering if you were interested in a job?” He pushed the contract forward. “You can read it yourself.”

Lin took the paper in hand and quickly ran down the terms, fearfully flicking his eyes to Chen Haoran after reading a paragraph until Chen Haoran finally told him to focus and read it slowly. After taking a deep breath and carefully reading through the entire contract, the Qi Realm put the paper down and looked at him with confusion and apprehension. It made sense. The contract was a standard employment agreement adapted from Chanchu’s own hiring contrast with just a little change to fit Chen Haoran’s specific requirements. It wasn’t anything more than that—however, no outrageous terms or slave-like conditions. The compensation was actually rather hefty.

“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t quite understand. Why did you ask me?”

“Why do you think?”

Lin seriously considered his answer. “Because… you saw a hidden talent within me? Or recognized my efforts.”

“No, I didn’t know who you were before today,” Chen Haoran bluntly said. “I’m in the market for a new servant. My last one had some personality issues. I’m looking for someone desperate and down on their luck who needs a big break. Is that you, I wonder?”

Unfortunately, despite the fact that it was possible to buy prisoners outright, it wasn’t something that could be done immediately, even with Chen Haoran’s wealth and Chanchu’s connections, not if he wanted to make it on the boat tomorrow. Chen Haoran was honestly a bit thankful for that. He was a little disgusted with himself for seriously considering the option, to begin with, as well as the question he wanted to answer doing so. Even if he got someone who deserved it, it toed the line of human experimentation just a bit too much for him. He didn’t want to bloody his hands so pointlessly. So instead, he searched for the closest thing to a prisoner—a poor person.

“I’ve had a bad experience with my previous employees, and I need someone I can trust. Someone who owes everything to me. I’ve been told you’re someone who could use such a thing, Lin… sorry, I never got your full name.”

“Lin Nine, sir.”

“Nine? That’s an interesting name.”

Lin Nine awkwardly smiled. “I’m the last of nine brothers.”

Lin Nine was a cultivator too weak to really make a living in a city where the average level of cultivation was the Fifth and Sixth-Layer. He was too poor to leave for greener pastures and too deluded to realize he didn’t have a future here. Chen Haoran’s request to Chanchu had been simple. Someone weak. Someone greedy. And desperate. Who had a Wood Spirit root. Chanchu had brought him to Lin, who’d done work for him before in various capacities as a contract worker. Chanchu’s reluctance to hire him full-time was for multiple reasons, his lack of people skills, his inflexibility when it came to picking up new skills, and most importantly, Lin Nine’s incessant gambling. Apparently, little Lin Nine thought he could change his life in the casino and instead accrued a rather heavy debt instead.

Chen Haoran could at least commiserate with him on that front. He, too, once tried to strike it big in a large gambling game. It was a little-known racket that went by the more official-sounding name of Stock Market. Still, Lin Nine’s terrible personal situation and reactions to said situation were perfect for Chen Haoran’s needs.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to. I’m only looking for willing people.”

Lin Nine looked down. “Could I know the specifics of what I would be doing, sir?”

“You’ve read the contract, haven’t you?”

“With all due respect, sir, paper is paper, and power is power.”

Chen Haoran raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected the actually had the courage to voice those words. “Paper is paper, and power is power. Those are good words. They remind me of a similar situation I was in before.”

He would have been better off hearing those words when he thought a deal with Song Yuelin was enough to actually have the man on his side. Or that he would honor the annulment papers he signed with Lan Fen.

Chen Haoran crossed his legs and settled his hands in his lap. “Essentially, you’ll be my direct servant. A butler, if you will. You’ll be responsible for various miscellaneous tasks and will be the only one responsible for them. I don’t expect you to fight or anything. Just handle  day-to-day affairs.”

Despite explaining it more, Lin Nine didn’t look reassured at all. Chen Haoran shrugged and stood to leave. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine. Have a nice day.”

“Wait!”

Chen Haoran deliberately kept his face blank when he turned back around. The fear of missing out was the oldest trick in the book for a reason. “Have you come to a decision?”

Lin Nine gritted his teeth and fell to his knees. “Yes. Please let me sign it, sir! ”

Chen Haoran produced the ink and brush from his storage bag and handed them over. While Lin Nine was hunched over, he also took out a clothbound book.

Connection: Negative

Lin Nine signed the contract with the neatest strokes possible and, when finished, looked up at Chen Haoran with desperate eyes. Chen Haoran took the contract in hand and pretended to look it over. His eyes were reading much brighter letters, however.

Connection: Valid

With a thought, his empty second slot was filled.

Everlasting Hundred Blessings Charitable Prosperity

Pet Phelps

Servant Lin Nine

Chen Haoran smiled. “Welcome aboard, Lin.”

Lin hesitantly smiled back. “It’s an honor to serve you, sir.”

“Well, you haven’t gotten to that point yet.” Chen Haoran pointedly looked Lin Nine up and down. “You’re a bit lacking in several respects.”

Lin Nine’s relief quickly turned into horror, and he threw himself at Chen Haoran’s feet. “Sir! I may not be much, but I can work! Please drive me like an ox and horse. I won’t complain!”

Chen Haoran’s smile faded, slain by a rather unpleasant feeling building up in his chest that was stoked by Lin Nine’s earnestness. For Chen Haoran, Lin Nine was just a quick power-up. For Lin Nine, Chen Haoran was a life-altering change. He wasn’t used to being the one who could casually change the trajectory of a person’s life on a whim. He shook the extraneous thoughts away.

“Don’t worry about it,” Chen Haoran said. “No person of mine will suffer from a stagnant cultivation. That being said, it would be better for you to improve sooner rather than later.” He stroked his chin as if deep in thought before snapping his fingers and handing over his storage bag. “Consider this a welcoming gift.”

Lin Nine took the storage bag with trembling fingers. The bag alone was probably worth more than all his possessions combined. At Chen Haoran’s urging, he opened the storage bag and gaped like a dying fish.

“S-sir,” Line Nine stuttered. “I think there’s been a mistake.”

Chen Haoran didn’t bother looking at Lin Nine, instead casually buffing his nails. “There’s been no mistake.”

“B-but, this is too much!”

Chen Haoran leveled Lin Nine an unamused look, and the man paled in terror. “Too much? Lin, do you know who I am?”

Nervous sweat beaded along Lin’s brow. “Y-you haven’t told me your name, sir.”

Chen Haoran blinked. “Did you not see it in the contract?”

“Oh! I, uh, wasn’t paying attention to that part.”

Chen Haoran rubbed his temple. “My name is Song Yuelin. Have you heard of the Song Family before?”

“No, sir.”

“I would be surprised if you did. They’re so far above you that the average person isn’t even worthy of hearing their name.” Chen Haoran pointed to the storage bag. “To you, that may be a lot. You should disabuse yourself of thinking like that right now. Around me, things like that storage bag are chump change. I have things a hundred times better than that garbage.”

“Bu-But—”

“No buts. It’s a gift. A small one, in fact. That will be the least of what you can get by following me.”

Lin Nine looked between Chen Haoran and the storage bag. With each passing glance, the desire in his eyes grew stronger until he finally bowed toward Chen Haoran. “Thank you, sir!”

No, Chen Haoran thought. Thank you.

Burning golden words filled Chen Haoran’s eyes, and with every notification that burned itself out and faded away, another appeared to replace it.

Received Hundred-Fold: Earth-Rank Space-Expansion Storage Bag

Received Hundred-Fold: 10 million Gold Taels

Did that include the paper money? The number was a bit smaller than he was expecting.

Received Hundred-Fold: Spirit Paper

Chen Haoran really hoped that wasn’t the paper money.

Received Hundred-Fold: Pure Gold Essence

From the numerous copies of that sentence, he could guess the Essence Gold came from the Gold Taels. That was a bit interesting. It only highlighted the Gifting Power’s interaction with money. One silver tael became a hundred gold. One gold became gold essence. It didn’t seem like there was any higher currency than gold.

Received Hundred-Fold: Numinous Pearl

Received Hundred-Fold: Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridian Sacred Elephant Tusk

Received Hundred-Fold: Earth-Rank Blossom-Picking Palm

Received Hundred-Fold: Heaven-Rank Depths of the Cloud Jungle Sutra

Received Hundred-Fold: Heaven-Rank True Reflection Mysterious Mirror Armor

Heaven-Rank. Chen Haoran tampered down his desire to immediately pull out the armor. By contrast, he was less interested in the improvement of the Lan Family’s Great Rainforest Method. For him, something he could actually use, like the Earth-Rank version of the Scattering Petal Palm, was far more valuable to him.

Received Hundred-Fold: Earth-Rank Earthsplitting Axe

Received Hundred-Fold: Earth-Rank 100-thousand-refined Iron Essence Sword

The weapons he looted from the Empire soldiers who ambushed him were even more welcome than the armor. The axe, not so much. Despite his efforts, he just couldn’t get the hang of it. It just felt awkward in his hands. The sword, though. How long had it been since he had a good one-handed sword? How powerful would the White Tyrant’s Harmonization be when he combined such a good sword with his improved cultivation?

More Rewards messages flashed by, and he could feel his Reward Space become filled with improved cultivation resources, food, camping gear, and all the little knick-knacks he’d acquired and stuffed into his storage bag prior to this moment.

Received Hundred-Fold: Heaven-Rank Seven Luck Strides of Rainbow Heaven

Received Hundred-Fold: Heaven-Rank Seven Luck Strides of Rainbow Heaven

Received Hundred-Fold: Heaven-Rank Seven Luck Strides of Rainbow Heaven

Chen Haoran frowned. Fortunately, Lin Nine was too absorbed in his newfound wealth. The skittish man would have probably fainted had he been paying attention. Chen Haoran couldn’t help it. A Heaven-Rank improved a hundred times still remained a Heaven-Rank? Did this mean that he’d reached the limit for the quality of techniques? Or was it a situation like with cultivation realms, where the next level was so far above that a mere hundred times improvement couldn’t reach it?

Received Hundred-Fold: Ninth-Layer Star Core Cinnabar Dragon King Keel

Well… Granny Jiang hadn’t been lying when she said her statue was carved from a dragon bone after all.

“Thank you so much, sir,” Lin Nine said, bowing once more.

“Don’t mention it,” Chen Haoran airily replied. He reached into the storage bag and pulled out the original Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs and an extra he’d copied down. “I just remembered—I need these two books. You can keep the last one.”

“Of course, sir.” Despite his words, the reluctance was clear on Lin Nine’s face as he took the techniques back.

“Don’t look too sad. I’ve got something else for you.” He handed over the clothbound book. The words Canyon Carving Sword scrawled along the front. It had been a bit of a hassle to rewrite it from memory, but having practiced the technique for so long the words seemed to spill onto the paper on their own.

As soon as the book exchanged hands, Chen Haoran’s awareness of two of the Seven Luck Strides of Rainbow Heaven in his Reward space disappeared. As it did, a golden light flashed behind his eyes that he instinctively knew belonged to his second slot. The light shined like a sunbeam before shrinking and visibly dimming. That was new. Now he knew he couldn’t just take back the Gifts he gave. However, that golden light that surrounded his second slot was a bit concerning. There was no notification for an improved version of the Canyon Carving Sword either. As he’d expected, the information was the important part, not the method by which it was passed on.

“What will we do now, sir?” Lin Nine asked.

“Now?” Chen Haoran put the book to the side and picked up the contract. He read it over a final time before meeting Lin Nine’s eyes.

He ripped the contract in two.

“You’re fired.”