Chapter 148 (Patreon)

The Emission Node exploded, and Chen Haoran and the Garrison were thrown on their backs by the rebounding force. A few quick-thinking ones spread out covers of liquid qi in an attempt to shield them from the cascading energies, but thankfully it surged into the barrier instead. Above them, the White Tyrant’s Harmonization seized the spilling energies and, well….cut.

Stark-white cracks spread across the barrier’s surface, the river turning into glass and shattering into a million pieces. The Liquid qi shields rippled as shards fell on its surface like rain over a still lake. Chen Haoran counted every blessing he had that the majority of the higher-up shards dissipated in the air before ever reaching them. They waited out the shardfall with bated breaths and only released them once the worst of it had passed, and all that remained was a light dusting of white dust-like motes.

Chen Haoran lay there as the liquid qi shields receded. He ignored Phelps’s tongue, licking his cheek. Ignored the relief of the soldiers and their chatter. He ignored the  Yellow Dragon and the indignant growl of its royal authority not being recognized. His hand still tightly clutched his sword even as his arm shook. The blade was still whole, fortunately. No arcs of cutting light veered off from its edge. Instead, a white shadow emerged from the hilt and flowed down the blade to the tip before collapsing and recollecting at the hilt to begin anew. It was the calmest the White Tyrant’s Harmonization had ever been, and Chen Haoran knew in his bones that he was not responsible for it. He wasn’t fool enough to think it was expended or controllable in this state; instead, it seemed to be admiring its work like the warlord looking upon his conquests in satisfaction.

Chen Haoran slowly breathed in and out—content with not moving and having a calm sword for once. The moment was a short one however. A hand roughly grabbed his shoulder and lifted him up. Chen Haoran let his sword fall from his fingers as Pan Gong spun him around and slapped his back.

“Good work,” Pan Gong said. “Are you alright?”

Chen Haoran blinked away the mood that had overcome him. Pan Gong’s bone-cracking back slaps also helped. “I’m fine.” He bent down to pick up his sword. As soon as he grasped the hilt, white sword shadows flew out and split clean lines in the earth. Chen Haoran quickly sheathed the sword and sighed.

“Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy.”

“You just surprise me more and more,” Pan Gong said, one hand clutching an eagle medallion like what Li Mou had carried. Though he was speaking to Chen Haoran it as obvious where his feel attention was. He patted Chen Haoran’s back again and Chen Haoran swore he felt something in his spine pop. “Keep up the good work. I’ll make sure you’re well rewarded for this.”

The medallion flared with qi, and Pan Gong’s half-attention was now totally gone.  It flashed once, twice, three times, and…. kept flashing. Pan Gong’s medallion lit up like a flickering light bulb.  Flashing so many times in less than a minute that the metal medallion started turning red from the heat. His was not the only one. A full three-quarters of the soldiers reached for their medallions at the same time, every single one pulsing with qi. With the qi came messages:

“Captain? Captain?”

“Is anyone there?”

“This is Ten Man Leader—”

“Reinforcements needed we have wounded—”

“If anyone is trapped within the barriers, please respond.”

“Captain Pan, Captain Lu, please respond!”

Pan Gong’s expression became uglier and uglier as reports flooded in. He scattered the various qi’s flashing on his token and methodically began asking for updates and situation reports. Those didn’t make him any happier. Captain Liu quickly walked over, his own medallion a strobe light of incoming messages, with a face matching Pan Gong’s.

“Can you contact the other Captains?” Pan Gong asked him.

Captain Liu shook his head. “No. Have you tried Lu Aotian?”

“You haven’t?”

Captain Liu scowled. “You think that ass takes my calls.”

Pan Gong frowned and fed yellow qi into his medallion.

“Hello?” drawled a lazy voice.

“Lu Aotian, what’s your status?”

“Relaxed?”

“Fucker,” Captain Liu muttered.

Pan Gong turned and walked away from them to continue his questioning. It didn’t stop any of them from hearing the conversation but it wasn’t them hearing that was the issue, it seemed. Captain Liu certainly looked even worse after being right.

“This Lu Aotian seems like…. quite the character,” Chen Haoran said. “Is it legal for him to not accept messages?”

Captain Liu scoffed. “It’s completely against regulations, in fact.” He fiddled with his Communication Medallion before putting it away in disgust. “Not that it matters. His father is an important commander, and he’s one of the Garrison’s top talents. Leeway is a given.”

That…. was not good news for Chen Haoran. In fact, it was the opposite of good news, especially since out of all the people in the Secret Realm who could potentially recognize his face, Lu Aotian was the most likely. It didn’t help that Jiang Aiguo had said he had a treasure that could protect him from Crystal Transformation Realms. If he wanted to cause a problem…. well, it would be very not good, to say the least.

“We were lucky we found Captain Pan,” Captain Liu suddenly said. “We would have had a harder time if it were Lu Aotian.”

“That’s only natural,” Chen Haoran said. Captain Liu’s openness was unexpected. Chen Haoran didn’t know if it was because he wanted to vent or decided Chen Haoran was a swell guy or something, but he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.  “Captain Pan is powerful.”

Captain Liu shook his head. “Captain Pan may be the best Liquid Meridian in the entire Garrison, but Lu Aotian is the closest to becoming a Crystal Transformation. I would never trust my life to him, though. At least Captain Pan cares.”

Before Chen Haoran could question him further, Pan Gong’s shout distracted him.

“I will potentially beat the shit out of you. Focus on securing the situation and stop messing around.”

An audible tongue click came from Lu Aotian’s side. “I’m already in the Center Ring. Once I’ve finished up my business, I’ll go see if this ‘Rattan Armor Army’ is worth the name.”

As soon as his words finished, the glow of qi around the medallion vanished as the connection was cut. Pan Gong stared at it in frustration, breathing loudly through his nostrils like a bear ready to charge. Eventually, he calmed himself and walked back over to them.

“Lu Aotian was never trapped in a barrier,” Pan Gong simply said.

Captain Liu rubbed his chin in thought. “There’s no way the rebels wouldn’t know he’d be here, given their level of planning. It makes no sense they wouldn’t stuff him into his own cage.”

“He’s not the only one either, going by the reports we’re receiving,” Pan Gong said. “We might not have been placed in the barriers so much as caught within them. It seems the rebels don’t have as much control as we originally assumed.”

“If they can’t control the entrance, then they probably can’t control the exit either,” Chen Haoran idly thought aloud. “The Center is probably going to be heavily guarded to compensate.”

Pan Gong gravely nodded. “We’ll have to expect heavy resistance and defensive arrays.”

Captain Liu sighed. “Let’s hope our other Formation’s Specialists are still alive.”

Pan Gong’s medallion crackled to life.

“Hello? Hellooo? Is anyone important alive, or have I become the most senior leader?”

Relief flashed across Captain Liu’s and Pan Gong’s faces. Pan Gong answered his medallion with a laugh. “Officer Six-Eyes, it’s good to see you still kicking. What’s your situation?”

Chen Haoran checked his hearing. “Officer what?”

“Captain Pan, it’s good to know your eyes are safe. As for myself, after braving Death, spears, and spears of Death, I have successfully not died.”

“The best news I’ve heard all,” Pan Gong said. “Were you trapped in a barrier?”

“Hmm? What? Oh! The barrier. Yes, yes, I have successfully disabled it. Not quite the Formations I intended to crack but an interesting study nonetheless. In fact, I do believe I spy with my little six-eyes another over yonder. I shall endeavor to open that as well.”

“Be careful,” Pan Gong warned. “Your safety is paramount. How are your numbers over there?”

“Well, by my estimate, there were a hundred bloody sons within my barrier before their numbers were artificially decreased and— ooh, a fourth barrier splendid that seems like all of them.”

Pan Gong’s relief turned into a pensive frown. “Four barriers….1oo per….200 attackers. Potentially 800 enemy soldiers in the barriers alone. Maybe as many as double our number?”

“Not the best odds,” Captain Liu mused.

“We’ll manage,” Pan Gong declared. “Six-Eyes, take down the remaining barriers and bring the soldiers to the Center Ring.”

“As you say, Captain Pan. Keep your eyeballs safe.”

Well…. that was a totally normal conversation.

Pan Gong saw the sheer confusion on Chen Haoran’s face and chuckled. “Six-Eyes is a bit weird, but he’s one of our foremost Formation Experts. We’ll be in good hands with him around.” Pan Gong turned to the soldiers. “You heard it all. Forget the rest of the bodies and ready up in five. Anyone who falls behind is going to get my boot.”

A chorus of ‘Yes sir’ followed Pan Gong’s statement as the soldiers took pills to restore spent qi, and healers went around attending to the wounded. Chen Haoran took a qi restoring pill from his storage bag and tossed another to Phelps. It wasn’t much even though it was a reward pill. The original version wasn’t that good, even for Qi Realms. The improved version was even less effective on Liquid Meridians. It was something, at least, though it was the Yellow Dragon’s continuous cultivation that really brought Chen Haoran’s reserves back to full.

Pan Gong, Captain Liu, and a few other officers were participating in an on-the-spot briefing to determine their path and expectations. Chen Haoran was close enough to them to be included in the conversation, but unless he was directly asked something, he didn’t quite have the confidence to break into what was basically a military meeting and run his mouth. So while he stood with them, his attention was far less focused and occasionally wandered over to the other soldiers meditating, Jiang Aiguo and the Peachbloods on guard, the healers running green hands over bloody wounds, then back to the officers around him, and finally Phelps before repeating the cycle over again—Phelps, Soldiers, Peachbloods, Healers, Officers, back to Phelps. There was no wasted movement among them. Everyone was using every single second of the five minutes. Chen Haoran couldn’t blame them. He’d feel threatened by Pan Gong’s boot too. It would be even worse for the weaker cultivators like Patriarch Qi—

Chen Haoran stopped. He narrowed his eyes and carefully searched the crowd but the old cultivator was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Patriarch Qi?” His sudden words stopped the conversation of the officers. Chen Haoran didn’t pay them any mind, instead spreading out his sense to make sure he just hadn’t overlooked Patriarch Qi. Maybe he’d run away during the battle? Chen Haoran couldn’t blame him. He thought about doing the same—

His head snapped towards the thickets of vines left behind by the soldiers and the familiar qi within them. Enhanced sight brought the vines into clear definition and he could see Patriarch Qi entangled within them. Could see the soft rise and fall of his chest. Could see the spear lodged in his chest rise and fall with his breathing.

“Oi! Patriarch Qi! Are you alright?” Chen Haoran rushed over, but a healer treating a soldier with a gash along his arm rose and stopped him.

“It’s best not to get near him, sir,” the Healer said. “His Final Flood is imminent.”

“What the fu—What are you saying? He’s alive! How long have you just left him like that? Go and treat him!”

The Healer’s face was a mask of infuriating patience. The one all medical professionals seemed to wear when you were frustrated with them. “I have to attend to the more urgent injuries first, sir. It’s triage. Please understand.”

A quick expansion of his sense quickly put paid to that lie. Chen Haoran’s qi spiked. The Healer’s patient expression finally revealed the first hints of nervousness. The soldier he’d been treating was no better.

“He’s the most injured one here!” Chen Haoran shouted. “You’re over here treating a motherfucker with a cut on his arm while he’s got a whole spear through his chest!”

“The-the protocols,” stuttered the Healer. It was a bit ridiculous on the outside since he was Fifth-Layer Liquid Meridian to his Second-Layer, but Chen Haoran had already proven he’d chop through Wood Spirit Roots with ease. “Given the combat situation, we don’t know if our supplies will last. We have to prioritize conserving qi and supplies and give priority to maintaining combat effectiveness. Non-Garrison—”

A loud cough from Pan Gong interrupted the Healer before he could say something he would regret. He realized this, too, from the way he paled looking at Chen Haoran.

“Go help the man,” Pan Gong ordered.

The Healer bowed and sprinted to Patriarch Qi’s side. Chen Haoran nodded at Pan Gong, although he recognized it was only because he didn’t want Chen Haoran to get the wrong idea from the Healer’s words. It didn’t matter, though. Chen Haoran had heard him loud and clear. Non-Garrison cultivators aren’t a priority. For Chen Haoran, this was false. He was too important and useful to be alienated like that. For someone like Patriarch Qi?

Chen Haoran strode over to the Healer, placing green hands on Patriarch Qi’s chest. He frowned once he saw the vines covering him. They’d wrapped around his limbs and torso, completely immobilizing him. Chen Haoran thumbed the hilt of his sword and hesitated. Could he cut him free? Even if he’d discovered a new state of the White Tyrant’s Harmonization, he wasn’t confident enough in using it that he could free Patriarch Qi without killing him. Maybe Phelps’s claws were sharp enough? Although those were more for piercing than cutting.

The Healer sighed and retracted his hands.

“Well?” Chen Haoran demanded.

The Healer shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir, but he can’t be saved.”

“Why not? He’s a Liquid Meridian. I’ve seen them take worse damage than this before and recover.”

“For other forms of injury, perhaps,” The Healer said. “But for Liquid Meridians, gaping wounds and anything that opens a large hole in their body are particularly difficult to deal with given the nature of Liquid Qi. Especially chest wounds, given how many meridians run through the torso. The spear is currently stemming the flow for the most part, and his control covers the rest, but as soon as we remove the spear, he’s liable to Flood. Not to mention the poison the spear is covered with.”

“Poison? Why is he poisoned?”

“Yes, from the looks of it, it’s a Qi Loosening poison. It makes it easier for Liquid Qi to escape the body, combined with the thinness of Mortal-Rank Qi and how easy it is to flow out—”

The Healer shut up when Chen Haoran leveled his presence down on his shoulders. “You misunderstand. I asked why he’s poisoned. Give him an antidote already.”

“We-well, given the complexity of Zumulu’s poisons, we don’t necessarily know if the antidote will take so….”

Chen Haoran swung his arm and motioned to the surrounding soldiers. “Then what are they using? Or are you going to tell me that he just so happened to be stabbed with the only poisoned spear?”

“Gi-Given the nature of the wounds itself, using a pill is….”

“Leave,” Chen Haoran coldly ordered. “You’re pissing me off.”

The Healer bowed low and scurried off. Chen Haoran took out a healing pill and an antidote pill from his storage bag and fed them to Patriarch Qi. Whether they would make any difference was unknown. He didn’t think they would, though. Profound-Rank pills were too weak to truly help, given the serious nature of his injuries. He tested the vines but found they were wrapped around too tight to get his fingers under them.

Chen Haoran stood back up and watched Patriarch Qi’s weak breathing. It was a bit ridiculous, maybe, to get so angry for a guy who’d tried to rob him without hesitation not too long ago. They were less than strangers. They were targeter and targeted until Chen Haoran turned the tables on Patriarch Qi. Even so, for a time, they were on the same side. Perhaps that meant nothing, given the time and the reasons. Perhaps it was ridiculous to assign it any meaning at all.

He didn’t need to use his sense to know everyone was watching him for the spectacle he’d made. What were they thinking? What were they saying? Chen Haoran didn’t know, but he did know what they were doing.

Nothing.

Despite witnessing all of this, not a single person stepped up to render any form of aid despite Patriarch Qi being mortally wounded helping the Garrison fight their enemies. Protocols. Logistics. They were cold, logical reasons born from one truth. Patriarch Qi was too weak. Saving his life was not worth it when the materials could be used on more useful soldiers. How or why he’d been injured didn’t matter. The Garrison had the means to save Patriarch Qi is the really wanted to. Instead, they were content with watching him slowly die right in front of their eyes.

Including himself.

Chen Haoran sighed in frustration and rubbed his eyes. Phelps softly crooned. Right now, Chen Haoran was one hundred percent sure he could save Patriarch Qi. A single seed from his Paradise Pomegranate was equivalent to a high-level healing pill, and the poison would be a joke in front of the Stainless Purity Lotus. So long as he pulled them out, then Patriarch Qi would not die. He wouldn’t. There were many reasons. He didn’t want to bring out such valuable plants in front of the Garrison. He was leery of using up the precious effects even if he could use them multiple times. Patriarch Qi would almost assuredly not do the same thing for him were their positions reversed. He did not need to save Patriarch Qi.

The thought wasn’t as comforting as Chen Haoran hoped it’d be.

Patriarch Qi coughed, and his eyes fluttered open. “Young Hero,” he rasped.

“Rest Patriarch,” Chen Haoran said.

“My storage bag and my weapon,” Patriarch Qi slowly said. “Should you return to Reservoir Town, please bring them back to back to the Qi Family.”

Chen Haoran crouched down. “That’s a tall task to ask a stranger, Patriarch—especially me of all people. I did beat up your brother and son, and you, not long ago.”

“And yet, all three of us are still alive and not crippled despite offending you,” Patriarch Qi said.

“Is that really enough of a reason to place your faith in me?” Chen Haoran asked.

“No,” Patriarch Qi said. “But how could I not place my faith in you? You are so powerful. So talented.” He laughed. It was an effort of great pain for him to do so and saw blood trickle out his mouth, but he looked happy all the same. “So angry for someone like me. It’s such an honor.”

“Don’t misunderstand, old man,” Chen Haoran softly said. “I just think this is sad. I hate sad things.”

“What a hypocritical thing for a cultivator to say.”

“Yeah,” Chen Haoran acknowledged. It was the truth ever since he’d entered this world. “It is.”

Liquid qi bubbled up around the spear wound and began dripping onto the vines. Chen Haoran found he could no longer look Patriarch Qi in the eyes, not because he could not meet them but because they were looking far past him now.

“This isn’t so bad,” Patriarch Qi choked out through blood and labored breathing. “I killed a legendary Rattan Armor Soldier. Me. How glorious.”

“I will bring your storage bag and your story back to your family.” Chen Haoran promised.

Patriarch Qi’s lips twitched, and a small smile formed. “Thank you. There is a treasure in there you may use as compensation. My greed may have killed me, but perhaps it will be useful to you.”

Chen Haoran reached through the vines and took the storage bag. By some stroke of luck it hadn’t been tangled by the vines and was easy to remove. “Do you have any last words?”

Patriarch Qi did not reply. His breath grew weaker, and weaker, but Chen Haoran remained by his side and waited for an answer that might never come, but that deserved the opportunity to be heard nonetheless.

“My arm,” Patriarch Qi finally said. “Can you free it?”

Chen Haoran fell silent. He could do it. He had reasonable, common-sense options to cut away the vines.

His hand fell to his sword despite those reasonable options. White energy shined as released a sliver of the blade. A thin, white line suddenly appeared across the vines wrapped around Patriarch Qi’s arm. The vines fell apart, sliced cleanly in half, but the arm beneath it was unharmed, without a single cut on the sleeve.

“Thank you,” Patriarch Qi said. He raised his arm, and his sleeve fell away to reveal his bone bracelet. He pressed it to his mouth.

Patriarch Qi did not die a beautiful death. It was drawn out and painful. He undoubtedly suffered until the last moment when his breath finally failed. His liquid qi did not even have the dignity to rage in a Final Flood before it was pounced on by the vines and greedily absorbed.

A white flash saw the vines wiped away from existence. Chen Haoran pressed his hands together in a short, silent prayer before opening the storage bag Patriarch Qi entrusted to him. A gold light greeted him.

Chen Haoran stared at the thought-lost Gold Formation Compass.