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Chapter 74
🕑 Added 2023-02-15 01:23:47 +0000 UTCThanks for your patience. Sorry it was late
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Xie Jin hadn’t been lying when he’d said the ambient qi would rise the further into the Central region they got. What he had neglected to mention was just how drastically it would rise. When Chen Haoran emerged on the deck the next day he was practically blasted in the face by the difference. From near nothing to higher than anything Clearsprings City could offer. It was almost like he had fallen asleep and woken up in another world which, admittedly, was a concept he was quite familiar with. It still wasn’t near the Spa Cavern’s level but just the fact he was comparing them was example enough.
And they were still only on the fringes of the region.
The scale was humbling in its own way. He hadn’t noticed it before when he first arrived in this new world but it wasn’t exactly his fault. Cities and mountains were always big to him. The Spa Caverns and their endless depth were stupefying but could be explained due to the clearly unnatural nature of the extradimensional space. The size of the Machu river was not something he could explain, supernatural or not. It was less of a river and more of an inland sea that flowed in one direction, complete with its own weather system. A few times he looked into its crystal yellow waters and saw fish the size of rowboats and what he could swear was the diving tail of a whale though he never saw one breach.
Just thinking about it was enough to leave him so dizzy he could barely think let alone meditate at his newfound position at the front of the ship. Old Jiang had posted sailors to make sure no one came near him but somehow the passengers were even more distant than before. Chen Haoran wasn’t sure if it was some fear of him or fear they’d be dragged into the river if they got to close to him. Or it might have been Xie Jin. His friend certainly seemed menacing today with how he paced around like some wary predator and impudently glared at the river below them.
He stifled a laughed and assumed a meditative pose. He could sense Xie Jin’s qi tense in preparation. He wasn’t wrong for being nervous but at the same time, Chen Haoran doubted he could fight an entire body of water. Still, his presence was comforting enough for him to center his thoughts and focus on his qi. It spun into motion at his prompting and the yellow dragon emerged from the depths of his core to feast on the fresh qi his meridians absorbed. The dragon roared. Xie Jin’s qi spiked. Chen Haoran opened his eyes.
Another tendril of yellow water rose out of the river’s surface in front of him. He looked down at the still-moving boat and then back at the tendril that was perfectly maintaining a constant distance from it. He stood perfectly still. It seemed the river remembered their last interaction as it didn’t try to grab him this time. Chen Haoran was grateful for that but it didn’t really change the fact that he had no idea how to interact with a sentient river. No amount of scripting in his head could prepare him for the real deal.
“When in Rome,” he muttered, and reached into his storage bag to pull out two fistfuls of glowing moss and a salamander core. He flexed his qi and dropped them into the river then clapped his hands together. Not a bow but more as a prayer. “Friends?”
The tendril sank into the water.
He could hear the people behind him letting go of the breathes they’d been holding. Xie Jin stalked over and watched the spot the river disappeared. Most likely sensing for any sign of the will of the river. Chen Haoran knew this because he was doing the same thing but from the moment the tendril appeared to when it disappeared he couldn’t feel any great power or difference in qi. In a way, he was thankful, had there been something to sense it would have been a worse headache than any Liquid Meridian gave him.
Chen Haoran weakly smiled at Xie Jin. “Here’s to hoping it gives us a boost.”
A splash suddenly sounded from the water. Xie Jin cursed and ducked as a blue shadow flew over his head and landed in Chen Haoran’s arms. Luckily he’d still been cycling his qi and wasn’t barreled over by the weight of what he now realized was a football-sized mussel shell.
“Imperial piss stream,” Xie Jin spat.
“No name-calling gift-givers,” Chen Haoran chided.
“In my land, we don’t throw gifts at people’s heads.”
“Well it wasn’t for you now was it?”
Chen Haoran weighed the mussel shell in his hands. At least the negotiation took a successful if unexpected turn. They’d be eating well tonight at least. “Thank you,” he called to the river. There was no response. He flexed his qi to unleash another dragon roar when the mussel shell opened up and released a bright light. Half-blinded he couldn’t see the reason for Xie Jin’s hiss of shock until the light faded and his eyes settled on a green-black pearl within the shell.
“A Luminous Pearl,” Xie Jin said with barely concealed awe.
Perhaps the negotiations were too successful.
—————
The days passed along gently. Unlike what the captain had said their boat hadn’t been suddenly blessed with speed but the river did not hinder the boat as it made its various stops at towns and ports along its banks. For all of those days, Chen Haoran sat at the forefront of the ship and cultivated. Sometimes he had progress.
Received Hundred-Fold: Ninth-Layer Painted Turtle Core
Received Hundred-Fold: Hundred-Year-Old Pure Water Grass
Sometimes he received rewards.
Phelps squealed at the tendril of water that came bearing gifts, notably without a blindfold covering his eyes. Chen Haoran had judged Phelps ready to take it off and besides some initial discomfort, the sloth had no issues with the sunlight as far as he could tell. The tendril placed a fat yellow fruit in his hand as Phelps watched with drool dripping out his mouth.
“Eat up,” Chen Haoran said, relishing his own treat as soon as Phelps bit into the fruit.
Received Hundred-Fold: 5 Hundred-Year-Old Bodhi Pear.
“Not again damnit,” Xie Jin cursed as he reeled in an empty fishing hook. He watched Phelps eat the fruit with envious eyes. “Can’t you ask the river to send some fish my way?”
“The river does as the river wills,” Old Jiang said. Ever since asking Chen Haoran to sit at the front of the ship he always made time to come and chat. “Whether to flood its banks or keep its levels low is all up to its whims. I wouldn’t count on it showing you favor with young lord Chen here.”
“You make the river sound capricious,” Chen Haoran said.
“What else can you call shifting its course hundreds of miles away or completely reversing its flow?” Old Jiang helplessly looked at the river with a mixture of reverence and wariness. “It’s hard to say what feeds the river more, the tributaries or the people’s tears.”
“Would so many people really live so close then if it were so dangerous?” Chen Haoran asked.
“It doesn’t happen often.” Old Jiang said. “Our grandchildren’s grandchildren probably won’t live to see such a disaster, and even with that danger there is gain. The soil deposited into the river is refined into essence by the water which becomes extraordinarily useful for fertilizing farmland. Just the food it helps grow is enough for the Empire to try to tame the Machu, not to mention the treasures hidden within its depths.”
“And that’s what the Ministry of Rites does?” Chen Haoran asked.
Old Jiang laughed. “That’s what the Ministry of Rites wishes they could do.” He gave Chen Haoran a considering look. “I can’t say they’re friends but I know some guys who work there. If you’re interested in a job I can introduce you. Most cultivators with a river method go to them to find work.”
“I’m still young, I’d like to travel a bit more before settling down,” Chen Haoran said.
“Ah, the ambition of youth.” Old Jiang wistfully sighed. “I remember being a fiery lad when I was younger.”
“I heard the Empire used the Machu as a weapon,” Xie Jin said, he speared a scrap of meat on his fishing hook and cast the line out. “I don’t see how that’s possible if the river is as willful as you say.”
Old Jiang shrugged. “Those stories are far before my time, I only know what I know. If the Machu worked with the Empire like that then I expect they paid a hefty price for it.”
Chen Haoran shuddered at the image that conjured. How scary would it be if back on Earth the Amazon river became sentient and decided to rush over land to fight the United States? What if it were multiplied a hundred times over?
He was suddenly very glad he was on the river’s good side. At least he knew he would survive what he was about to do next.
“I’ll be sad to see you two go,” Old Jiang said. “This has been the second most memorable voyage of my life.”
“Second!?” Xie Jin whirled around with his fishing rod, the line flying up onto the deck and revealing another empty hook. “I knew you were holding out on us you old codger.”
“Don’t they teach you to respect your elders in the south?”
Xie Jin gave Old Jiang a toothy grin. “Only if they can out-drink us. I still have a whole day to get that story out of you.”
Old Jiang snorted. “A frog in a well.”
“Will you join us, Brother Chen?” Xie Jin asked.
“No,” Chen Haoran said.
“I’m going to jump into the river.”
Comments
Octaeon
Heh. I wonder if he could form a link with the river. Probably not, since the relationship seems rather transactional, and, well, it's a river. Anyhow, tftc!
Ivan Elyshev
Interesting could he deepen his understanding of cultivation in the river
