Chapter 127 (Patreon)

Chen Haoran had some expectations for the Peachwine River. He’d expected something grand from what he’d been told of it. Something special even among the unique phenomena of Zumulu. A scenery worthy of a river whose poisonous waters cultivators supped for power. What he found instead was dry, cracked earth lined with the twisted corpses of grey trees. Clouds of dust were blown up by the wind and sent hurtling down the dead highway. Surrounded by all the water of Zumulu, the Peachwine was a long parched scar among the lush green jungle.

“Surprised?” Xie Jin asked. His gaze was somber.

“This… isn’t what I was expecting,” Chen Haoran admitted. “This is the Peachwine?”

The wind shifted and blew a dust cloud directly into his face, coating him entirely. Behind him, Phelps continuously sneezed.

“From the western mountains to Dawn Lake,” Xie Jin said. “That’s a quote, by the way. In its heyday, it described the breadth of civilization along the river. Now… well, you’ll see it soon enough.”

They followed the desiccated riverbed in the direction that would have once been called upriver had water still flowed through it. It wasn’t long before Chen Haoran discovered exactly what Xie Jin had been referring to—a city. Straddling both sides of the Peachwine, its organized stone foundations, and fine brickwork impressed on him a sense of timeless grandeur the same as Daqing. The city would have been a considerable metropolis at its height. Would have been, at least. Now it was as much of a husk as the Peachwine was. Two sets of grand walls were shattered to their bases. Homes from the grandest mansions to the humblest hovel were smashed and burned out. Out of the remaining walls and ruins that still stood, none were unmarred, gouged with blades, and black with scorch marks. As Chen Haoran’s sense touched the rubble, something contained within them reached back out, and his head was suddenly filled with blood.

Phelps squealed in surprise as Chen Haoran recoiled. His mind went red, and he struggled for air as his nose and mouth were filled with the taste of iron. No matter how much he coughed and spat, however, no blood left him. The Yellow Dragon roared, and the cloud of blood in his mind dissipated. Chen Haoran marshaled his qi to flush out the lingering blood sensation and looked at the city in horror.

“Are you alright?” Bao Si asked.

Chen Haoran wiped his mouth and stepped back. “What the hell happened here?”

“The Empire cleaning up loose ends,” Xie Jin grimly answered.

Chen Haoran grimaced. The answer was obvious. The Empire had conquered Zumulu. He knew that. The fact there would be places that never recovered was also something he knew. He’d seen the state of Snake’s End, after all. It was not as bad as here, however. What sort of massacre occurred in this city to make even the stones remember the carnage?

“The Peachwine was home to the first cities in Zumulu,” Xie Jin said. “At one point, it actually had the densest population of cultivators in the world. Even the Central Region paled in comparison.”

Bao Si sighed. “Here we go.”

Xie Jin shot her a dirty look but continued. “The Peachwine actually has another name—the Kingmaker. The Peachblood tribes have created many powerful Peach River Kingdoms and served as the backbone for many others. There wasn’t a city on the river that hadn’t been a royal capital at one point or another. Even the Snake King had another capital here. It’s not wrong to say that if a king wanted to rule Zumulu, he had to have the support of the Peachbloods.”

“He does this a lot, you see,” Bao Si explained. “Always going onto history tangents. It would be cute if he did it because he liked it, but he just does it to feel special.”

Xie Jin glared at her. “Do you mind? And I actually like history, thank you.”

“You only like the parts that make you feel good,” Bao Si said. She yawned. “Anyway, get to the point.”

“I am explaining the context to Brother Chen,” Xie Jin said through gritted teeth. “As I was saying. Rulers needed the Peachbloods, and the Empire was no exception. The Peachblood tribes were at the center of the resistance against the Empire’s invasion, and so they suffered the brunt of its retaliation. Their cities were all leveled, and their populations were forcibly relocated to Reservoir Town. And the Peachwine…” Xie Jin waved his hand across the dry riverbed. “You can guess what happened.”

“Yeah,” Chen Haoran said. “I can guess.”  Reservoir Town implied the existence of a reservoir, and where there was a reservoir, there was a dam.

Traveling up the ruined Peachwine was already a mood-killer. Running face-first into the remnant grievances of a 400-year-old mass murder pretty solidly put a block on any good feelings Chen Haoran had left. Their travel only revealed more devastation. Whole forests of peach trees that would have once filled the Peachwine with their petals now stood dead, killed by thirst for water that no longer flowed. Indeed whatever the Empire did to block the Peachwine blocked any water at all from touching it. Even when it rained, the riverbed remained dry and cracked while the water disappeared. Worse still were the skeletons of burned-out cities, some similar in size to the first one they discovered. Others were far larger than Daqing. One city was so big that it took them an entire day of running before they left its limits.

All of the ruins screamed with blood under Chen Haoran’s sense. Before the war, they would have been filled with more cultivators than non-cultivators. Regular imbibing of the Peachwine’s waters ensuring even the poorest had some form of cultivation. It meant that each city was built with thousands of hands far beyond mundane tools. Unfortunately, it also meant that when so many died in such a short time at once, their desperate qi sank into the earth and never quite left.

Traveling the Peachwine was, in all, a sobering experience, almost as sobering as his arrival to this world.

Somehow it still didn’t prepare him for Reservoir Town.

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They didn’t go directly to Reservoir Town. Under Bao Si’s direction, they took a detour and swung around it to a nearby town, where they washed away the dust from their travels and purchased a carriage. Bao Si and Xie Jin also took this time to remove their bones and swap them for plain white bone bracelets. Bao Si had been well-prepared for this, having forgone her black hair beads for a while now and slipped off her bracelets and bangles. Xie Jin had much more hesitation in removing his armbands but eventually did and, in a move that shocked him, actually handed them over to Chen Haoran to keep in his storage bag.

“It’s either you or Si. It’s not much of a choice,” Xie Jin joked. Despite that, Chen Haoran knew enough about how important the bones were to recognize how significant Xie Jin’s action was.

Connection: Negative

As per usual, the Gifting Power didn’t agree.

“Be prepared,” Bao Si warned. Xie Jin’s bone handover had led to a look of surprise from her that she quickly schooled. “Chen Haoran, you will be taking the lead. They don’t scrutinize foreigners here as heavily. You will be a well-off visitor coming to sample the shops here. Jin and I will be your servants.”

“You’re not going to be wearing Human-Skin Masks?” Chen Haoran asked. “Xie Jin is fine, but you’re pretty unforgettable.”

Xie Jin laughed. “Hear that, Si? Whose looks are causing problems now?” He laughed again before frowning as realization dawned. “Wait.”

Bao Si smiled and shook her head. “Thank you for the compliment, but it’s an unnecessary risk. We won’t be able to hide from a Liquid Meridian’s perception. Besides, I’m a beautiful woman accompanying a more powerful man. Who do you think people will remember?”

Chen Haoran conceded the point. “You are sure that a Liquid Meridian won’t see through my mask, right?”

“You’ll be fine,” Bao Si said. “We can’t because we’re in the Qi Realm. You, on the other hand, can hide from a Ninth-Layer Liquid Meridian.”

“What about a Crystal Transformation Realm?”

“The mask won’t help. It’s not really a problem, though. If a Crystal Transformation is studying you closely enough to discover that, then things have devolved enough that being discovered is irrelevant. Fortunately, a Crystal Transformation Realm has better things to do than monitor duty.” Bao Si donned a veil of black silk and entered the carriage. “Jin, you’ll drive.”

Chen Haoran and Xie Jin shared a look.

“You do know how to drive a carriage, right?”

“Shut up and get on.”

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Chen Haoran’s first thought seeing Reservoir Town was that someone must have had a lot of fun with the name. Reservoir Fortress would have been more appropriate. A city-sized fortress, in fact. He cycled qi to his eyes and could see two tall and thick walls circling the city. One short and another taller one behind it. Along the walls patrolled red armored soldiers with glinting weapons. More were arrayed below around the gates where a long line of people and carriages had formed.

Somehow though, Reservoir Town was the least interesting thing about itself. Just next to it and the line of people was a pyramid of silver skulls. Chen Haoran wasn’t close enough to use his sense to count just how many skulls made up the pyramid, but even if he was, he doubted he could. The pyramid was larger than the range of Chen Haoran’s sense at its base and taller than the tallest wall of Reservoir Town.

“The Sunset Emperor’s work,” Bao whispered, the disgust clear in her town. “He wanted to add his own skeleton to the boneyards of the South. At least a million skulls were gathered and dipped in molten silver to create that monstrosity. The Sunset Emperor personally erected it such that normal means can’t destroy it.”

Chen Haoran turned away from the macabre monument and got his first look at the Peachwine River or rather, Peachwine Reservoir. It was a soft pink color with a reddish undertone, as if the whole river was one ripe peach. He could smell the scent of peaches in the air as if he’d wandered directly into an orchard though there was nary a peach tree in sight. The Reservoir itself was better compared to a great lake, ringed on all sides by tall watch towers.  More watch towers could be seen in the distance up river, as if the Empire was guarding the entire Peachwine against thieves.

The dam was at once a dam and not. It certainly did its part in preventing the flow of the river and creating the reservoir but at the same time it was not at all what Chen Haoran knew a dam to look like. Where he had been expecting something like the Hoover or Three Gorges dam he instead found himself incomprehensibly staring at a massive stone hand. Rather than built it look as if some titanic statue had chopped the Peachwine River in half and cupped the reservoir. That in itself wouldn’t be so bad if Chen Haoran didn’t recognize the hand. It hadn’t been that long go since he’d been stunned by one just like it.

“The Mountain General,” Chen Haoran said.

“You saw his work at White Ridge yes?” Bao Si asked. “The Sunset Emperor had no general more loyal. All his most important tasks fell the Mountain General. The taming of Zumulu was just one of them.”

It was no wonder Xie Jin said the Mountain General was so hated in Zumulu for so long. With such a constant reminder staring people in the face, it was no surprise they’d still be nursing that grudge 400 years later.

Under the shadow of a million staring skulls they slowly advanced through the line until it was their turn to be inspected. Two Seventh-Layer Qi Realms approached the carriage and Chen Haoran could feel their senses inspect Xie Jin and the body of the carriage. Another more powerful sense descended as they did, and Chen Haoran forced himself not to tense. As a Qi Realm, he discovered Jiang Lei’s sensing based on a feeling. After his advancement to Liquid Meridian Realm, that feeling became a proper way to discern the senses of others. If he had to describe it, then it would be like how one could sometimes feel another person staring at them even when one wasn’t looking. If a cultivator sensing him was bad at it or lacked subtlety, then Chen Haoran could notice it. If they were actually good at watching without being spotted and looked away before he could sense them, then it would be much harder for Chen Haoran to find them.

The Liquid Meridian sensing the carriage, made no attempt to hide what he was doing or that he was focusing on Chen Haoran. Eventually, however, the guard’s sense fell away. Before Chen Haoran could breathe a sigh of relief, there was a knock at the carriage door.

Bao Si opened the window, and the Qi Realm guard peered through. Feeling Chen Haoran’s cultivation, he became more respectful and saluted. “Greetings, senior. May I ask what the purpose of your visit is and how long you plan to stay?”

“I’m here to purchase cultivation materials and attend some exchanges. I’ll be staying for the week,” Chen Haoran said.

“I see,” said the guard. Behind him, his partner was jotting down on the pad of paper in his hand. The guard cast a cursory glance at Phelps, then looked up at Bao Si and frowned. “Remove your veil.”

Bao Si glanced back at Chen Haoran. He nodded his assent. When she removed the veil, the guard whistled. “What a beauty.”

Chen Haoran frowned and leaked a little bit of qi. “Where do you think you’re looking?”

The guard paled and stepped back. “My apologies, senior.”

Chen Haoran snorted, and Bao Si put her veil back on. “Don’t think I’m bullying the weak.” He snapped his fingers.

Xie Jin took out a small pouch and tossed it to the guard. The guard weighed it, and after opening it up and finding it all gold taels, grinned. “Not a problem, sir. I’ll get you out of here quickly.”

True to his word, the guard had their entry pass stamped and brought over with the length of stay and their party number all filled in. They would need the pass if they wanted to smoothly leave Reservoir Town in the future. The inspection finished, they were waved through, and Chen Haoran sank heavily into the seat.

“Well done,” Bao Si quietly said.

“Thanks,” Chen Haoran said.

A pungent smell broke over the scent of peaches, and Chen Haoran looked out the window to see six swinging corpses hanging over the wall inside Reservoir Town.

He’d just been having all sorts of wonderful first impressions today.