Chapter 139 (Patreon)

Hello everyone. Thank you for your patience. I am doing well and luckily managed to avoid any real damage from the fire. With any luck we won't have another chapter be delayed like this from a fire.

-------

First came silver light. Then came a mouth full of sickly sweet, bitter death. Chen Haoran unconsciously inhaled, and his lungs were filled with stinging air. As soon as he started to feel the burn, his qi adjusted, and the feeling vanished. The burning did not go away; however, instead of poison, it was adrenaline that now set his lungs aflame. Chen Haoran’s hands flew to his empty back, and he whirled around to find Phelps fallen on the ground behind him. A single panicked thought called an antidote pill to his hand, and Chen Haoran fell to his knees, trying to feed the pill to Phelps.

It was in vain.

Phelps was perfectly fine.

Through his sense, he could feel the shifting of poisonous air as Phelps breathed. Just before it entered his body, the air met a film of his qi serving as a filter; the heavy poisonous elements were lightened and separated from the air before he breathed it in. It was an intricate working of Phelps floating power that required a deft and deeply ingrained control of qi to have it constantly operate.

Phelps blinked hazy eyes at Chen Haoran and haphazardly swung a claw. Chen Haoran allowed the blow to hit him to no effect and stuffed the antidote pill into Phelps’s mouth. He saw the problem in an instant, as instinctual Phelps reaction to filter out the poisonous air was he still breathed in some of the poison. Honestly, that made his feat all the more impressive. Chen Haoran knew he was talented, but this was a bit ridiculous. Had he always been like this? Were it not that he was so focused on Phelps with his sense, he might not have even noticed what he was doing.

Clarity returned to Phelps’s eyes as the antidote did its work, and with it came recognition. An aborted squeal became a raspy cough, black gunk being spat out with every heave, the remains of the poison after being neutralized. Chen Haoran flipped him over and patted his back, softly encouraging Phelps and, at the same time, finally observing their surroundings.

They were surrounded by trees, of the same kind as the jungle outside but more wretched in appearance. Their bark was dark, and their trunks twisted, their branches grasping claws festooned with sickly green leaves with dropping pointed ends like a canopy of knives hung overhead. There was no underbrush or plant life growing beneath these trees. Theirs was a choking shade, not a shield, and the ground was rough and broken through with large roots that seemed to want to strangle each other to death with how inter wrapped they were. The air was thick and unpleasant with a subtle green tinge. It was heavy to breathe and opaque enough at a distance to make even his Liquid Meridian vision little better than a normal man’s. For a place that presumably drew energy from the Green Hell, however, the poisonous air was remarkably less deadly than he’d thought.

Chen Haoran had scoured the area for danger with his sense and found none, which was why he was able to focus on attending to Phelps. Actually, setting eyes on the place, however, instilled a creeping sense of dread in his heart. No matter how much his sense told him there was nothing threatening around them, the jungle did not inspire any sort of safety.

His observing the area also made another thing clear.

Xie Jin and Bao Si were gone.

Despite being right next to him when the silver light bloomed, they were now nowhere to be seen. Was Phelps here then because he was clinging to Chen Haoran? Would Xie Jin and Bao Si be here with him if he had been faster? If he had been at a higher Layer? There were other possible answers. Perhaps Phelps didn’t count towards whatever criteria the silver light used to teleport them. Despite other potential answers, however, there was always an inexorable attraction to the one that made everything your own fault.

Phelps hacked up one final wad of black gunk and squeaked at him with a scratchy voice. Chen Haoran picked Phelps up and wiped his mouth of black residue. “Not gonna lie, buddy, this place reminds me of the Spa Cavern in all the worst ways.”

Unexpected entrance into a mysterious secret realm? Check.

Hostile environment? Check.

Visibility shot to hell? Check.

Being used to mysterious ends by local power? Well, that remained to be seen.

Pan Gong had confidently told him the trial entrance would be a gate they’d take turns walking into, not a teleport. He didn’t think it was a lie. At least, there was no reason for Pan Gong to lie to him. He didn’t think this was some plan by the Garrison to exploit them either. Or rather, the Garrison was definitely planning to exploit them. They just didn’t need to be sneaky about it. The Crystal Transformation Shaman certainly wasn’t when he press-ganged Chen Haoran into service.

Chen Haoran slapped his cheeks. “Save the reasoning for later. Find Xie Jin and Bao Si first.” He pulled Phelps onto his back. The sloth wrapped his arms around his neck and finally found his voice again, squealing loudly directly into Chen Haoran’s ear. Fortunately, qi was the best protection against tinnitus. Chen Haoran scratched Phelps’s chin. “Let’s hope we can find them soon, buddy.”

——————————

Chen Haoran took a moment to amend his previous statement. To find someone ‘soon’ would necessarily require one to know an approximation of time with which they could compare the word ‘soon’ against to judge whether or not someone was, in fact, found ‘soon.’ To have such an approximation of time, however, required one to have a means of telling the time. Means that Chen Haoran was sorely lacking when the secret realm had no sun, moon, or stars in its sky and instead was just naturally bright from light that emitted from who knew where.

Lacking the ability to tell the passing of time wasn’t the only thing that hampered his search. The environment proved itself to be in no way helpful at best and downright lethal at worst. It wasn’t even the air. His creeping sense of danger was proven valid when he accidentally stepped on a tree root and snapped it, causing the suspiciously knife-like leaves to fall atop his head like actual knives. Their serrated edges were proven to not be for show when they acted more like a living poisonous trap than an actual place of rest. As if to add a final topping to his crummy cake, his compass didn’t work either.

Granted, his ‘search’ for Xie Jin and Bao Si was more reliant on them finding him than any potential success on his part. If only one of their Gu caught a whiff of his scent, then they’d be able to track him or send a signal for him to find and would make finding the other much easier. It was something far more likely to occur than him randomly finding them by wandering aimlessly through the endless sea of trees. Such aimless wandering was the best he could do when presented with an area of unknown size. There was a complete lack of any and all significant landmarks that he could use to orient himself. He couldn’t even leave marks on the trees, given how sensitive they were and how readily they would drop their thousands of leaves atop his head at the slightest disturbance.

They honestly made him miss the Spa Cavern’s monster crickets. The only saving grace was that his Liquid Qi served as an effective shield against the leaves. He was always left with a constant feeling, however, that he’d yet to find the proper danger of the secret realm. It was intended to be a trial, after all, and besides some ornery trees, he hadn’t found a speck of other life or sign of testing.  Or treasure, for that matter. For a place that had been untouched and left to accumulate energy and resources for at least two thousand years, it was bare of both. Chen Haoran was just waiting now to learn that the damn trees had sucked the life out of everything else in the trial, which would be both relieving and disappointing. It would suck to experience so much suck in so short a period of time and have nothing to show for it in the end, but at least he knew the trees couldn’t hurt Xie Jin and Bao Si.

The other thousand Liquid Meridians, on the other hand….

Chen Haoran redoubled his pace.

Depending on where they were teleported and who they might be near, things could go so very wrong for his friends, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. He cast his in every direction in search of a sign, any sign, of anyone at all—anything he could use to learn where he was. Phelps, seemingly feeling his urgency, stretched his nose in the air and sniffed like a dog. It was an admirable effort, one that Chen Haoran appreciated, even if an actual dog would be more useful for tracking than Phelps was.

Phelps squealed and leaned over his shoulder in a direction his fancy hundred times improved compass said was every cardinal direction at once.

A pillar of silver light shot out into the sky where Phelps was looking.

Chen Haoran’s reaction was instant, qi flooding his legs and pushing him forward and through the gnarled trees. Liquid qi flooded out and surrounded both him and Phelps in a protective shield that battered down the trees in their way and insulated them from the deadly leaf storm Chen Haoran’s sudden acceleration created. The silver light pillar swayed and shifted as if being pushed by some invisible wind, its height reaching into the pseudo-sky of the secret realm and beyond, disappearing from view. In a matter of moments, Chen Haoran discovered the source of the light—a pyramid, like the one outside but in miniature. Miniature in that rather than rivaling skyscrapers, it was much more reasonable two hundred feet in height. Like the outside pyramid there was a room at the peak, of which from the roof rose the pillar of light. Chen Haoran skidded to a stop at the base of the pyramid right as the person who activated the light show exited the room at the top.

Logically, despite knowing it would be nigh on miraculous for it to be one of his friends, he was still disappointed when he saw a red uniform instead. Less disappointing, however, was that he recognized the owner of the uniform.

Li Mou stopped and did a double-take when he saw Chen Haoran. A slow, ugly smile filled his face, halfway between a smirk and a grimace. “Well, well, what do we have here.”

Chen Haoran scowled. Li Mou was nowhere near him when they teleported. That face he was here meant the silver light had truly flung everyone in random directions. Xie Jin and Bao Si could be anywhere.

Li Mou continued speaking. “Heaven must have decided to be kind to me today after being humiliated. To think it would present you to me after I’ve fully recovered.”

Chen Haoran started walking up the stairs. Phelps detached himself and floated away to a safe distance. “I have questions. If you answer them honestly, I won’t bother you anymore.”

Li Mou chuckled. It was a grating, nasally sound. He walked down the stairs. “Oh, after I’m done with you, you’ll never bother me again. Pan Gong isn’t here to save you anymore.”

“I’m thankful to you,” Chen Haoran suddenly said.

Li Mou paused. Arrogance briefly replaced by confusion. “Begging for mercy already?”

“I’m glad that out of all your infinite possibilities, you chose to be a piece of shit. I was looking for an acceptable target.”

“You dare—!?”

Chen Haoran surged up the steps in a torrent of liquid qi. Orange qi like liquid fire flooded out from Li Mou in the same instant, and the forces collided. A feeling of weight pressed on Chen Haoran’s chest as the two qi’s crashed and enveloped the other. In the clash, he sized up Li Mou in an instant. Profound-Rank.

Li Mou sneered as he simultaneously studied Chen Haoran. “Do you think I am a fool? As if I could not recognize from your confidence that you had some means. You’re mistaken to think I can’t deal with an Earth-Rank.”

Li Mou flexed his qi, and it surged out in every direction and threatened to surround Chen Haoran. Yellow liquid qi flooded out from him in every direction and scattered the orange qi out of Li Mou’s control, where it fell like a rain of fire on the pyramid’s stones. In terms of quantity of qi Li Mou just barely edged him out. It was a minute difference made irrelevant thanks to the advantage of Chen Haoran’s water element to Li Mou’s fire. Li Mou frowned and gathered his qi into a solid orange wall that he held firm. His qi flared like real flames and obscured him from view.

“Yellow Dragon.”

Chen Haoran’s silent call received an answering roar, and he surrendered control of his liquid qi. Divorced from his guiding his hand, the liquid qi condensed and narrowed into a wedge. The Yellow Dragon roared, and the wall of orange qi was wrenched open. Li Mou was revealed with a look of triumph, his sword glowing bright with flames.

“Die!” he roared. As he swung his sword, he slammed his qi into Chen Haoran’s own with brutal force. Li Mou’s burning sword cut through his yellow qi like butter and swung toward his neck.

Blossom-Picking Palm

The reversal was instant. Yellow qi fell back onto itself, absorbing the force of Li Mou’s sword and diverting it ever so slightly that the flames barely grazed Chen Haoran. In the same instant, Chen Haoran stepped forward with green palms. Twenty-five hits. One to break the wrist of Li Mou’s sword arm, the other twenty-four to break every single rib.

Li Mou’s sword flew off into the distance, and he was flung into a wall with a ghastly expelling of the air in his lungs. To his credit, he immediately rose to stand, but Chen Haoran was there in the next moment, grasping his head in his hand and smashing the back of his skull into the pyramid’s stone bricks until they were red with blood. Li Mou still strained against his grip despite that, orange qi bubbling along his skin. Liquid qi spilled from Chen Haoran’s palm and rippled with a dragon’s roar. Li Mou’s qi scattered. He groaned as blood rushed from his eyes, nose, and ears. His broken chest bulged up and down in unnatural waves, and he coughed out a river of blood and bits of flesh.

“Don’t,” Li Mou croaked. His bloodshot eyes were wild with fear. “I am a son of the Li Family. If you kill me, you’ll be hunted down by the Garrison forever.”

“Did the Garrison know everyone would be teleported?” Chen Haoran coldly demanded. His voice boomed, backed by the echo of a dragon’s roar that trailed after every word.

Li Mou shivered—even the echo wracking him with pain. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Chen Haoran squeezed, and his fingers dug into Li Mou’s head.

“Stop, stop!” Li Mou begged. “We didn’t expect this to happen. This wasn’t in our briefing.”

“Where are we now?”

“A Trial Pyramid.” Li Mou practically breathed out every word in short, panicked spurts. “As long as you defeat another trialist or wait long enough, then the prohibitions inside will open, and you can receive a reward.”

Chen Haoran remained stone-faced. “What else do you know?”

“I don’t know anything else. I swear. I haven’t been able to contact any of my co-officers.”

Chen Haoran stared at the hand holding Li Mou’s head. “The Crystal Transformation Realm Shaman outside. What’s his name?”

Even in the situation he was in, the question was enough to give Li Mou pause. “Are you talking about Lord Zhang Yong?”

Chen Haoran growled. “Is that his name?”

“Yes, yes, he’s a shaman with the Gu Department. I don’t know why he’s here. He just suddenly showed up.”

“I see,” Chen Haoran said. His voice was abruptly empty of emotion and dragon echo. “Remember that name.”

He crushed Li Mou’s skull.