Immortality Starts With Generosity

The Stygian Lotus was a spirit plant that improved a cultivator’s overall durability in every aspect. While Chen Haoran wouldn’t make the mistake of calling himself invulnerable to harm, he had relied on his body to resist all sorts of sharp edges and blunt force.

No amount of durability would protect him from fire, however.

Chen Haoran scarcely had the time to react when the fire lances set him alight. Just as quickly as the flames seared his skin, he was drowned in a rush of peach-scented liquid qi that put out the flames. It was not the respite he was hoping for. The liquid qi’s caustic nature scrubbed over his burns and only magnified the fiery pain he felt from them. Chen Haoran screamed. His qi cycled in a furious torrent, and the Yellow Dragon roared as if to overpower his pain. He focused on the dragon’s roar and let it fill his head. His qi shuddered like a struck bell and passed the sound of the roar throughout his whole body. He couldn’t afford to lose his mind here.

Chen Haoran covered his face with his hand. With a thought, a gush of golden water fell from his palm and soaked him. The Dragon Water of the Machu River was full of vitality and seemed to wash away the pain where it passed. The Yellow Dragon roared in relief within him, and the Dragon Water clung to him and was absorbed into his skin rather than wastefully falling to the ground. The pain did not completely go away, the Dragon Water was no healing pill, but rather than unbearable agony, he felt a dull heat like smoldering embers.

Chen Haoran rolled out of the way of the soldier’s follow-up attacks. The heat of the fire lances seared his back, and he raised his scimitar to cut away a net of fire that sought to tangle him. Above him, the Gu dropped his Clear Heart Mirror Armor. Chen Haoran quickly glanced at Jiang Lei’s fight but found the liquid qi still crashing like a sea in storm. Was the Shaman so confident in holding off Jiang Lei to send his Gu here?

Chen Haoran banished the thought and whipped his scimitar at the insect. It gracefully dodged the sharp energy blades and spewed a toxic green miasma down on him. Chen Haoran quickly backpedaled and scattered the gas with the White Tyrant’s Harmonization. His face pinched into something ugly. It had stripped him of his Earth-Rank armor, and he couldn’t resist it at all. His grip on his scimitar tightened. Whatever strange power it used to steal his armor left his blade alone, but who was to it wouldn’t come for that too? If he lost the White Tyrant’s Harmonization now, he’d be a dead man.

The soldiers quickly rallied under the Gu’s support and closed in on Chen Haoran once more. His situation was even more desperate compared to when he was fighting six. The Gu’s miasma was potent enough that even when he scattered it, he had to move to avoid the remnants. The soldiers, after being so close to death, were even more relentless in their attacks. Exhaustion crept into Chen Haoran’s limbs. Powerful enough that even his keep couldn’t keep it at bay anymore. Qi that was beginning to run dangerously low. After so many heavy attacks and so much damage taken, even his powerful reserves were starting to struggle.

He couldn’t allow them to keep the initiative.

With a wordless shout Chen Haoran darted toward the soldiers. The Gu immediately went to intercept him with a burst of miasma. Chen Haoran whipped up a storm of white blades and forced the Gu to fly higher into the air to avoid them. Phelps dove down from the sky with an unearthly scream at that moment and slammed into the Gu. They tumbled through the air and Chen Haoran closed the distance with the fire-throwing soldiers in a burst of speed.

Flames licked their calves as their movement techniques carried them away from Chen Haoran. In their haste, however, they fled in the same direction and didn’t separate.

Chen Haoran slammed his heels to a stop, and a heavy green core appeared in his hands. The Ninth-Layer Qi Realm Painted Turtle Core that he’d received from the Machu River appeared in his hand, and he twisted and pitched it toward the two soldiers.

Their eyes widened when a blade of metal white energy sliced through the core a moment later, and they were engulfed in an explosion of qi. Two bodies rolled out of the smoke. Whether they were dead or not, Chen Haoran didn’t know. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance, however, and with a wave of his scimitar, the bodies were chopped into chunks.

A high-pitched squeal from Phelps was his only warning before his scimitar was suddenly enveloped in amorphous qi. His blade flashed white, and the qi burst apart. The Dragonfly Gu suddenly appeared beside him, reeling away from his scimitar. Chen Haoran whirled and sliced at it. A cloud of miasma had him clumsily throw himself back at top speed.

“Bastard!” roared the Shaman.

When the green smog cleared, the reason for the Shaman’s anger was known. The Dragonfly Gu was missing one of its crystal wings. Despite that, it still floated in the air with seemingly little issue.

The clashing tides of liquid qi suddenly boiled as a noxious green liquid qi suddenly pulled away from the battle. Bereft of its ally, the other burning red liquid qi was forced back by Jiang Lei’s liquid qi. Suddenly, the liquid qi’s collapsed and revealed the Liquid Meridian Cultivators. The Shaman’s face was twisted in incandescent rage, but he looked none worse for wear. There was a shallow cut on the shoulder of the other Liquid Meridian. Jiang Lei was unharmed but breathing heavily.

The Shaman glared at Chen Haoran with murder in his eyes. “You dare!? Die for me!”

The Shaman leapt at Chen Haoran, his fingers stretched out into vicious claws. Jiang Lei lunged to block him but was intercepted by the other Liquid Meridian. Chen Haoran raised his hand up, the Liquid Meridian Tusk only a thought away from summoning.

The world turned pink.

Jiang Lei’s liquid qi flooded from his body. Chen Haoran stumbled as his feet were suddenly submerged in peach-colored water. Peach blossoms spilled from Jiang Lei’s body by the thousands. In an instant, the jungle was gone and was replaced with a peach river and a rain of pink petals. Jiang Lei’s sword glowed with peach light, and he disappeared in the peach blossoms. Chen Haoran blinked, and when he opened his eyes, the Shaman was desperately fleeing. Blood ran down his arm, and his Dragonfly Gu somehow appeared next to him with a long crack running down its body. The other Liquid Meridian fell into the peach water with blood spurting from his neck. Behind him were two thumps. Chen Haoran didn’t need to look to know it was the soldiers he had been fighting. The liquid qi receded, and the peach blossoms dissipated. The pink world became dark jungle once more.

The Shaman looked at Jiang Lei in horror. “A Peach River Swordsman? Impossible. Your sect was destroyed!”

Jiang Lei’s face was stone. “Die.”

The body of the fallen Liquid Meridian Realm officer exploded in a rush of liquid qi. Jiang Lei directed his own liquid qi and guided the officer's Final Flood in the path of least resistance toward the Shaman. Their combined force barreled down on him and threatened to consume him whole. The Shaman gritted his teeth and then slammed a fist into his own chest. He coughed out a spurt of bright blood onto his Dragonfly Gu. A horrible cacophony rose from the jungle.

Jiang Lei immediately beat a hasty retreat. “To me!” he called.

“Phelps!” Chen Haoran shouted even as he shot to Jiang Lei’s side.contemporary romance

Wang Xiao was there first. A nasty cut across his chest and a smaller one crossing the bridge of his nose. Phelps reached them next from the air. A few patches of hair missing but otherwise unharmed. When Chen Haoran got near enough, Jiang Lei slammed a dome of Liquid Qi over their heads.

Then every insect in the jungle slammed down on the dome like a hammer of god.

The dome bulged, and Jiang Lei flooded out with more liquid qi. Any insect that touched his liquid qi died and were replaced by countless more. The Gu’s noxious green miasma spread over the insects like poisonous armor, and they buried into the liquid qi. Jiang Lei grunted, and the dome condensed around them and became thicker. Insects died by the hundreds of thousands, but what use was that when they were surrounded by millions?

“I don’t know how a remnant of the Peach River Sword Sect survived, but today will be your end,” said the Shaman, his voice clear even through the thunderous racket of buzzing and wing beats.

“Must you go this far?” Jiang Lei asked. “Are we not of the same home?”

The Shaman’s shrill laughter seemed to echo through the swarm. “What meaning does home have in the face of benefits? A cultivator is an island in the end. Do you think such a trifling thing will make me spare you?" The insect swarm doubled in force. "You will not die easily. At the very least, your blood will appease my Gu!”

Chen Haoran sheathed his scimitar before his Harmonization could disturb Jiang Lei’s barrier and kill them all. “Jiang Lei, what’s the plan.”

“Senior Brother,” Wang Xiao said through harsh breaths. “You’ve already revealed the Peach Blossom Sword.”

Jiang Lei remained silent. Sweat beaded on his brow as he condensed the dome once again and made the walls even thicker. The insects chewed through the layers of liquid qi as fast as Jiang Lei could replace them.

“Jiang Lei.”

Jiang Lei still did not speak. He reached into his storage bag and ate a pill. A spike of qi emerged as he replenished his stores.

Chen Haoran cursed and summoned the Middle-Grade spirit stone. He could feel the dense qi within it seep through the palm of his hand and enter his meridians. If he were to cultivate with it in hand, he was sure he could perfectly absorb the qi within the crystal. Too bad he didn’t have that time.

Wang Xiao’s eyes lit up. “If you give that to Senior Brother—”

Wang Xiao’s words were strangled when Chen Haoran put the spirit stone in his mouth.

“What are you doing!”

Chen Haoran breathed, and an immensely pure qi escaped from the spirit stone and entered his body. Each breath successively drew in more qi and refilled his expended reserves. Right here, right now, he couldn’t care about anything else but survival. He reached into his storage bag and tightly clutched a jade box. The Shaman was beyond anything a mere Qi Realm could deal with. He had no options. Maybe Jiang Lei could still win. Or maybe he couldn't, and they'd all die. So what if Jiang Lei could though? Could he still stay weak next to him? In the end the only thing Chen Haoran believed in right now was himself.

The light of the spirit stone dimmed. Chen Haoran shattered it between his teeth and swallowed the shards. A deluge of pure qi rushed into his core. The Yellow Dragon roared and followed it.

The lid of the jade box fell off, and a dense woody smell escaped.

Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao jolted.

“Chen Haoran, don’t!”

He had to advance.

With that thought, Chen Haoran swallowed the Heavy Core Pill.

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