Immortality Starts With Generosity

When Chen Haoran first saw the Heavy Core Pill, he had been intimidated by its size. So his first reaction when he easily downed it was surprise. The Heavy Core Pill sank like a stone to his core, leaving a spicy grass taste on the back of his tongue. Chen Haoran exhaled and smelled spring in the air. He could feel the aroma of the Heavy Core Pill spread thickly throughout his whole body as he waited for it to take effect.

He did not wait long.

As if it had caught the scent of something delicious, his qi began to scramble madly toward his core. Chen Haoran quickly sat on the ground to focus, or rather, he was forced to. When Jiang Lei had told him the Heavy Core Pill was an aid in attracting qi, he underestimated just how effective it was. It wasn’t just the qi freely flowing in his meridians that rushed to his core; it pulled out the qi that had seeped into his body. It pulled qi from places he didn’t even know had qi, and from where it took Chen Haoran felt empty. Not low. Not sluggish. Empty. Even in his worst qi exhaustion, there was still qi flowing evenly through his meridians. Now there was nothing.

His limbs sagged as he was assaulted with a profound sense of weakness, and it became a struggle to even sit up straight. Without the passive enhancement of qi, he was forced to use the strength of his muscles instead. The difference was stark. It surprised Chen Haoran that he was surprised at what being normal felt like. He had unconsciously grown so used to being a cultivator that he forgot he was once a man.

He let out a shuddering, spring-filled breath and put those thoughts to the side. The Heavy Core Pill did the majority of the work condensing his qi but not all of it. He had to focus.

The Yellow Dragon roared as it danced through the deluge of qi. It sank to his core and coiled around the shining green Heavy Core Pill at the storm’s center. Surrounded by the swirling mass of qi, it possessively roared as if it were claiming a treasure hoard. Qi pressed down on it and covered the pill until not a speck of green light could be seen. Chen Haoran tried to grab ahold of his qi and create some sense of order but found it ripped away by the irresistible attraction of the pill’s dense wood energy.

Fine then. There was no need to be delicate.

The Yellow Dragon roared and squeezed the pill. The qi within his core immediately contracted simultaneously as if it were being squeezed by a giant hand. The Dragon roared again and tightened further. His qi condensed. Under Chen Haoran’s direction, his qi slowly and steadily condensed into a smooth sphere with the Yellow Dragon as its center. At the same time, the Yellow Dragon’s form drew together tighter and tighter as it crushed the Heavy Core Pill into an even smaller mass. Empty space gradually grew within his core as his qi contracted until, eventually, only the Yellow Dragon remained.

It sat alone within his core, glowing golden bright. Its proud head was pressed flat against its coiled-over body. Its roars were long silent. Chen Haoran would not make the mistake of thinking they stopped, however. Its arrogance was still there, just turned inward and pressed like his qi. The Yellow Dragon was on the verge of transformation now, but it still wasn’t enough.

Chen Haoran weakly raised his hands and pressed them together. Between them, he imagined the Yellow Dragon. He squeezed, and the Yellow Dragon grew smaller. Chen Haoran wordlessly shouted and pressed his hands harder. The Yellow Dragon shrunk and grew even brighter. Chen Haoran squeezed until he felt pain in his hands. Squeezed until he felt something crack. The Yellow Dragon shrunk to a pinprick and glowed so bright he could barely see the outline of his form. He roared and pressed one last time. The Yellow Dragon blurred.

A drop of golden water appeared.

In his head. Not his core.

From where it appeared, he did not know. How it appeared when every scrap of qi had been dragged from his cells was obvious. It was not his. He had forgotten about the water drop the Machu River made him absorb after deeming it harmless. Now Chen Haoran was forced to watch in disbelief as the Yellow Dragon raised its head and roared. The golden water drop fell straight from his head to his core. Water met Dragon.

Chen Haoran lost control.

An explosion of qi knocked him out of his visualization. The dense sphere of qi he had so painstakingly formed broke like a breached dam. His qi ran wild as it sought to fill in every empty space within a body unprepared to handle the force. Like a stampede of beasts, his qi trampled over every organ, bone, and vein in his body. Chen Haoran tasted metal in the back of his throat, and he suddenly coughed up blood. His arrow wound burst open with a spurt of blood. Yet more pressure built up in his skull, and blood freely ran from his nose and eyes. His qi ran out just as freely through his wounds, and every breath he took was followed by a heavy exhalation of qi.

“Chen Haoran!” Jiang Lei shouted. “Junior Brother, the healing pill!”

Wang Xiao was by his side in a flash and placed a hand on his back to hold him upright. Wang Xiao pulled a pink pill from his storage bag and forced it into Chen Haoran’s mouth. It tasted like peaches. Healing energy quickly flowed, but most of its power was wasted fighting against his wild qi before it could heal him. Phelps screeched in distress and placed himself at Chen Haoran’s feet. Alternately pawing at him and clawing at Wang Xiao defensively.

The Shaman’s wild laughter sounded above them. Carried through the swarm such that the raucous buzzing rose and ebbed as if it were laughing as well. “You’ve given me a good show. In all my years, I’ve never met a fool like you. You may not be a Heaven’s Chosen, but in boldness, you have no equal!” As if to punctuate his point, the swarm suddenly reared back and slammed into the dome. Toxic green energy drilled into Jiang Lei’s liquid qi like veins.

“Damn fool,” Wang Xiao cursed, pushing his qi into Chen Haoran to guide the healing pill. “If you want to die, at least die fighting.”

“Chen Haoran, stay down. I’ll get us out of here,” Jiang Lei promised. His sword flashed with a peach glow.

Chen Haoran ignored them all. Within his meridians right now, a drop of golden water was dancing. Where it passed through his rampaging qi, it left a calm current in its wake. It did not devour, it did not hunt, and yet his qi was pulled to the droplet regardless. It danced in an all too familiar cycle around his body as it made orderly his out-of-control qi.

It was a gift from the Machu River. Of course, it wasn’t meant to harm him. He was just the fool who got distracted at the critical moment.

Chen Haoran pushed away Wang Xiao and, with an effort only made possible through qi, stood up.

“You dumb bastard,” Wang Xiao said. “You’re in no condition to stand.” He went to force Chen Haoran back down, but then the truth of his words hit him. He pulled back and regarded Chen Haoran with wary eyes.

“Chen Haoran?” Jiang Lei worriedly called.

“I’m not done yet.” Chen Haoran wanted to say. Instead, he coughed more blood onto Wang Xiao. Whatever, it didn’t matter. He was bruised, cracked, and bleeding. Not broken.

The Yellow Dragon roared. It emerged from the depths of his core with a vengeance. Chen Haoran cycled his qi, and the Yellow Dragon took off chasing after the Machu water drop. Qi entered his body and was devoured by the Dragon, increasing its speed until it caught up with the dancing droplet and swam straight into it.

Despite what it seemed at times, the Yellow Dragon was no more real than the phantom Lan Yao he sparred with to learn the Scattering Petal Palm. It was a figment of his mind, a useful mnemonic to help him use the Yellow River Dragon Refinement. When the Yellow Dragon met the Machu water drop, it should have passed right through it.

Instead, they merged.

The Yellow Dragon did not devour the water drop, and yet it absorbed it better than it ever did any qi. Spectral scales gained solidity; imaginary eyes glowed with sharp light, an invisible roar gained real force. Before Chen Haoran’s eyes, the dragon he had only ever pictured in his mind came to life. It opened its jaws and roared, and he felt the vibrations drum through his meridians and match the beat of his heart. When Chen Haoran’s thoughts descended to the Yellow Dragon, another mind rose to meet him.

The Yellow Dragon waved hello.

Chen Haoran's response was brief.

He needed to advance.

The Yellow Dragon roared in approval and shot off. With the merging of the droplet, the qi the Dragon once had to chase now willingly threw itself into its maw. With the merging of the Dragon, the qi did not pass through like with the droplet but stayed. The Yellow Dragon danced and devoured, and as it did, it glowed with golden light as all the qi in Chen Haoran’s body was absorbed within its form. After completing an entire revolution through his body, he was again left empty. Strangely enough, he didn’t feel weak this time. Not when the Yellow Dragon was still dancing through his meridians.

Chen Haoran breathed.

The Yellow Dragon breathed with him.

Yellow River Dragon Refinement.

Qi surged into his body and was devoured by the Yellow Dragon. After refining it all, he breathed again and took in even more qi than before. Devour, refine, breathe. In this way, each successive breath was larger than before until even the air around him was disturbed by the intake of qi. The golden glow around the Yellow Dragon intensified until it became a liquid and trailed from its body as it danced through his meridians.

Liquid Qi, the mark of the Liquid Meridian Realm.

Chen Haoran ascended with a dragon's roar. contemporary romance

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