Chapter 39: This Young Master Gets A Kickback

When he had first met Lan Fen she wasn’t a valid connection for the Gifting power. It was only after they had gotten married that she became a valid target. It was clear that their marriage was the deciding factor, but it didn’t explain why Manager Lin was a valid connection as well. Chen Haoran was reasonably sure that he wasn’t married to the man. His current working theory was that his connection targets had to have some kind of official relationship with him. Lan Fen was his wife, Manager Lin was his right-hand man and his direct servant. The other servants in the manor, while they did serve him, were far enough removed relationship-wise that they didn’t count as a valid connection.

If his guess was right then if he and Lan Fen weren’t married anymore that would break their connection and open up his slot for a new one. Or it could break it permanently, he was 50/50 on that. Chen Haoran had to admit he was walking in blind when it came to the Gifting power. That didn’t mean he regretted his decision.

How it would play out, in the end, remained to be seen though. While he had given Lan Fen the annulment papers nothing came of it. He was still connected to her through the gifting power and if she had gone at all to get the marriage annulled then Song Yuelin would be the first to tell him about it. For whatever reason, Lan Fen was holding onto it and he didn’t quite know how to feel about that.

On the one hand, it would be better to break their connection as soon as possible so he could find someone who was easier to give things to. That was the most efficient use of his power currently. On the other hand, it felt… wrong. What would it look like if he showered Lan Fen with gifts and then immediately pivoted to a new person? It was honestly a bit scummy.

He supposed it didn’t matter in the end, scummy or not he would still do it when the time came. For now, he just had to focus on gifting Lan Fen whatever he could till the day she decided to leave.

Not that Lan Fen would make it easy for him.

“What is this?” Chen Haoran asked.

The ‘this’ in question being a large pile of elixirs, supplements, and herbs, that Lan Fen had stacked in front of him. He and Song Yuelin had been training together when she came and dropped ridiculous irony in his lap.

“The spoils of my hunt,” Lan Fen said. “I have taken what I needed, these are for you.”

“But I didn’t help you at all during your raids. I don’t deserve these.”

“This is simply what I owe you.”

Song Yuelin poked around the pile of materials and tapped a few large sacks. “Is this Golden Glass Rice?”

“What’s that?” Chen Haoran asked.

“It’s a spiritual plant that nourishes the body, long term consumption can aid a cultivator with absorbing elixirs and other supplements.”

“This helps you bypass bottlenecks?”

Lan Fen nodded. “It helps loosen those caused by supplement overconsumption, yes.”

“Sounds precious,” he said.

“In the Lan family, only the Liquid Meridian realms are allowed to regularly eat it.” She smiled. “At least before I destroyed their only supply of it.”

“Just don’t eat too much at once,” Song Yuelin interjected. “The energy of Golden Glass Rice is heavier compared to typical qi, which puts more pressure on your meridians.”

That put a plug on his plans to quickly break through then.

“Regardless,” Lan Fen said. “You will accept this. I will not accept any refusal.”

“Fine,” he sighed. He was due for a serious cultivation session anyway.

For the first time ever, Chen Haoran found himself using the isolated training room. He sat on a floor cushion before a small table in the otherwise barren room. The table was set with various pills and elixirs. Before him he had a porcelain bowl and to his side sat a bamboo container of steaming Golden Glass Rice.

He popped a pill into his mouth and cycled the Yellow Dragon River Refinement. The yellow dragon danced through his meridians and absorbed the medicinal energies. It had grown since the first day he started cultivating, stretching from the bottom of his foot to mid-thigh in length. Its appetite grew with it and it devoured all the qi that dared to flow before it. Chen Haoran downed more elixirs to feed the dragon and felt his qi grow with every complete loop it made around his body.

The yellow dragon abruptly slowed down. Its vigorous dancing changed into a laborious struggle forward as it seemed to swim through molasses. The energies of the various cultivation supplements had become too much for his low-grade spirit root to process and resulted in a clumpy qi that slowly flowed through his meridians. Even the dragon’s gluttonous maw struggled to chew through it.

Time for lunch then.

He lifted the lid off the bamboo containers and filled his bowl full of yellow, crystal-like rice grains. He carefully spooned some into his mouth where it immediately melted into golden energy and flowed down to his stomach before spreading in all directions throughout his body.

Chen Haoran hummed in appreciation. He didn’t even need to use sauce to eat this.

He devoured the rest of the bowl and watched the golden energy gently trace his meridians and merge with the clumpy qi. The yellow dragon's halted pace immediately picked up as the blockage became looser. Chen Haoran eyed the rest of the rice. Song Yuelin had said that it was to be consumed daily or else the meridians would be pressured. His meridians were stronger than average though thanks to the Ten Thousand-Year-Old Stygian Lotus.

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He pulled out the other bags of rice from his storage bag, along with a large pot and firestarters. He couldn’t wait forever to slowly raise his cultivation, not if he ever wanted to stand on his own two feet.

What followed was constant eating. Chen Haoran devoured the rest of the Golden Glass rice and the yellow dragon broke free of the qi blockage. While he had the next batch of rice cooking he wolfed down cultivation supplements and whenever the yellow dragon slowed he vigorously exercised his qi by practicing his Harmonization until the rice was ready. Eat, cultivate, eat, train, eat. In the silence of the isolation room, he lost himself in this process. When his full stomach churned, he ate anyway. When his bloated meridians strained, he practiced anyway. When his tired muscles screamed in protest, he trained anyway.

All the while, the yellow dragon feasted and grew. With the Golden Glass rice breaking up the bonds of blocked qi the dragon powered through where before it would be stuck and absorbed the once difficult energies. After he finished the last of the supplements it seemed to be enough. The dragon flashed and raced to his head followed by a deluge of yellow qi; reaching the top of his skull Chen Haoran thought it might soar out of his head entirely. Instead, it roared.

Chen Haoran awoke from his meditative food coma, the dragon’s roar ringing in his head. Where the dragon turned away his qi did not. As if spurred on by the roar it rose and shattered the invisible shackles that bound it.

The Seventh-Layer.

Chen Haoran traced the qi flowing through his meridians. At his silent command, the qi became a river and flowed down through his arm and into his sword. Here the river threatened to overflow the dam of control he had erected around it. Chen Haoran held firm over the violent water and swung his sword. He saw blue, for a brief moment he thought he had failed, instead of the blue light of the active Canyon Carving Sword though it was a great blue river. It stretched endlessly into the distance. On either side of him rose towering walls of stone so tall that the sky itself could only be seen along the path the river created.

Chen Haoran became a canyon-carving river.

His qi spilled the banks and rushed out of control. The illusion shattered and he became a man once again.

Chen Haoran ignored the force of the wild qi and turned to Lan Fen and Song Yuelin in wonder. “Did you see that? I did it!” It had only been for a brief moment but he had Harmonized with the Canyon Carving Sword.

Lan Fen and Song Yuelin politely clapped.

He frowned. “I’m not seeing much enthusiasm here, people.”

“Oh my apologies,” Song Yuelin said. He walked up and rifled his hand through Chen Haoran’s hair. “Did you learn how to Harmonize?” he cooed. “Good boy! Who’s a good boy? You are!”

“Motherfucker!” Chen Haoran slapped the offending limb away and struck Song Yuelin with the flat of his blade.

The bastard pirouetted around the blow and hid behind Lan Fen. “Would you like a treat?” he mockingly called out from his protective wall.

“I am happy for your success,” Lan Fen said, ignoring the bastard. “But I will withhold my congratulations for when you can properly use Harmonization in combat.”

“You’re not wrong,” Chen Haoran sighed.

“That being said,” Lan Fen continued. “Congratulations on advancing to the Seventh-Layer.”

“Thank you.” He smiled. “I couldn’t have done it without the cultivation resources you gave me.”

“I didn’t expect you to do it so quickly though.” Lan Fen raised an eyebrow. “Nor to eat all the Golden Glass Rice.”

Chen Haoran smiled and said nothing. It had been a bit touch and go, but the endurance the Stygian Lotus provided him proved its worth yet again.

Behind Lan Fen, Song Yuelin waved the bathhouse tickets in the air.

He would not fall prey to his temptations.

“Would you like something in return?” Chen Haoran asked her. Song Yuelin, that damnable bastard, looked at him with a beaming smile.

“I do,” she said.

“Oh?” Was another Gifting opportunity within reach?

Lan Fen smiled. “Would you care to join me on a walk around the city?”

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