Immortality Starts With Generosity

The spoils of the auction were put to good use. Lan Fen secluded herself in isolated cultivation training again. Before she went Chen Haoran handed over the Earth Rank Golden Transmutation pill to her. It wasn’t a hard decision, the Golden Refinement pill the reward was based on was only useful for a metal element spirit root to use. They weren’t anything too special, just qi training pills that a metal affinity could use more efficiently. The only thing notable about them was that they were made from different materials than those used in the same type of pills produced in the empire which meant Lan Fen didn’t have as much resistance to their effects and thus could benefit more.

The Golden Transmutation Pill served the same purpose, just at a higher level. When he had given it to her Lan Fen had solemnly sworn that she would return with a cultivation of the Fourth-Layer.

No pressure.

Chen Haoran couldn’t waste time. Lan Fen not needing any more gifts was a secondary concern compared to the type of shit she’d be able to get up to once her cultivation was recovered. He also needed to advance.

That was how he found himself in his secluded little training field looking at his little bone white Stygian Lotus. There weren’t any major physical differences between the lotus he saw at the auction and the lotus in front of him. It looked a little larger at least. Its presence though was on another level. A dense bitter scent emanated from the otherwise innocuous plant, heavy enough that he had to cycle his qi so that breathing would be less uncomfortable.

That flower was a bit of a mystery to Chen Haoran as to why the Gifting power affected it the way it did. Other items when upgraded a hundredfold became similar higher ranked treasures. Mortal to Profound, Profound to Earth, etc. The Tree Sitting Python’s core and the Stone Elephant’s Ivory not increasing in realm at all could be explained by the cultivation levels being greater than what the boost could upgrade. Even then they still became a different type of monster. The Stygian Lotus meanwhile only seemed to upgrade in age it was stronger for sure but otherwise wasn’t any different.

Was the 10 thousand-year-old lotus really that different compared to the 100-year-old one? Or was whatever plant on a higher level too far for a mere hundredfold boost to reach? It was something he had to pay attention to once he got his hands on higher-level items to gift in the future.

Right now he had a lotus to eat.

Chen Haoran had uprooted and carefully cleaned the flower. Upgraded it may have been but dirt was still dirt. He hesitated before putting the plant in his mouth. Lan Fen had said natural treasures like this were best eaten straight but it wasn’t like it was just one or two mouthfuls. Chen Haoran turned the flower to and fro, looking for a good place to start, before settling on the roots.

The Stygian Lotus was just as heavy to eat as it was to smell. Its fragrance clogged his throat and made his eyes water. Chen Haoran had to cycle his qi to finally force the flower down. He could practically feel the lump make its way down to his stomach and quickly sat down and began circulating his qi.

The plant mass met his qi and transformed into black, water-like energy that flooded throughout his whole body. The torrent filled every meridian, every vein and artery, every hidden nook and cranny that his body possessed. Chen Haoran cried out in pain as everywhere the water passed felt like it was being scraped away by a metal knife. It cut into his bones, it carved under his skin, it was in his eyes. His eyes! He was bathed from the inside out with water made of razor blades and even as he was cursing every god and metaphysical force he could name relief came quickly.

In the vacuum left by the black water’s scouring his qi returned in force filling his limbs and organs and all those unnoticeable spaces opened by the Stygian Lotus. He had felt, faintly, that there was qi in his body outside of his meridians before but now he could see it. It settled in like a steel wall and supported every cell of his being. With the new strength, he focused on circulating his qi and directed what was left of the Stygian Lotus’s energy to spread evenly throughout his body. The sun hung high in the sky when the black water was finally exhausted and Chen Haoran fell onto his back.

The sky was beautiful.

Catching his breath he sat up again and removed his sweat-stained shirt to check his body. Thanks to his qi he was already pretty fit before but the Stygian Lotus’s surgical knife cut out clearly defined lines and muscles. The muscle definition was a little off-putting honestly, forget skipping leg day, he looked like he skipped everything. He didn’t notice any other physical changes though so he chalked that up as a win. There was just one more test.

Chen Haoran picked up the Mysterious Watersteel Sword and cautiously pricked his finger.

Nothing.

Thus emboldened he began putting more pressure on it, even using his cultivation-enhanced strength, until the skin finally broke and blood beaded up. He’d have to fight to see how strong his defense really was but he was already happy with the current result.

He wrinkled his nose as the slight sting of pain brought him back to reality and reminded him that, yes, he had other senses and yes this training ground stunk to high heaven.

He was going to need another bath.

———————

A week had passed and the stench that sunk into his favorite training ground had yet to disappear so Chen Haoran relocated to the newly repaired inner courtyard training field to practice the Yellow Dragon River Refinement.

He breathed in deeply and saw flashes of the Yellow Dragon swimming through his meridians. He popped another Qi Congregation pill into his mouth to feed it. It was the third one he had eaten in the 2 hours he had been cultivating. 2 hours of straight cultivation. When he first started practicing it was in sprints, there was only so much qi he could absorb from the environment and supplements before his meridians started feeling sore and he was forced to stop. A large chunk of the time he devoted to cultivating was wasted on waiting in this way.

With the new durability the Stygian Lotus had given him, his meridians could accept far more qi before he started feeling the pressure. Lan Fen was right when she said the benefits to the meridians were more valuable than the general defensive boost. However far away he currently was from the Sixth-Layer with his marathon-like practice he was sure to reach it sooner rather than later. Of course, Chen Haoran’s Stygian Lotus was on a whole other level compared to the one at the auction. He couldn’t even begin to imagine the astronomical price tag it would have.

This was only the cultivation method. He hadn’t even tried practicing the Canyon Carving Sword yet but he could already imagine the possibilities. He could probably boost the technique’s power even further by cycling the qi through his meridians faster. Or maybe he could concentrate his qi into a single point before exploding it outward. Chen Haoran was adrift in the possibilities when he was rudely interrupted.

“Please forgive me for the intrusion Young Master but there is a matter that requires your attention,” Manager Lin said.

He looked healthier and better rested than before. The dark circles under his eyes weren’t nearly so visible and his goatee was groomed and waxed into shape. He looked presentable. Chen Haoran should find more work to bury him with.

“You’re not forgiven. What is it?”

“The stipend from the main family is here.”

“So late? Weren’t we expecting it at the beginning of the month?” Not that he cared about whatever paltry sum the Chen family saw fit to give him but it was still something he could’ve given to Lan Fen.

“They were delayed for some reason,” Manger Lin said. He looked uneasy and grabbed at his goatee. “A manager from the family came with it and would like to speak to you.”

“Is he important?”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Tell him to fuck off then.” He didn’t want to deal with the Chen family and he certainly wasn’t going to deal with their direct employees. If he was lucky his attitude would piss off the Chen family enough that they’d cut his stipend and decrease the chance of him meeting them even further. Maybe he could get double exiled?

“You wound me with your harsh words, Young Master Chen,” said the Liquid Meridian realm cultivator behind him.