Chapter 50: This Young Master Is Small

“Lil Float.”

The sloth ignored him.

“Slakoth.”

It coughed.

“Karn.”

The sloth hacked and threw up.

“That name was pretty disgusting, sorry.”

Chen Haoran sighed as the sloth disregarded his attempts to name it and floated away once again. He was stuck facing a philosophical reality. What was a pet? How did an animal become a pet? He couldn’t just buy the sloth, nor could he just adopt it and claim it. Was a sloth, much less a cultivating one, even something he could domesticate? Did he have to domesticate it for it to become a pet?

Chen Haoran stewed over these questions as he once more submerged himself in a pool and cultivated. Or rather, gave the appearance that he was cultivating. His distraction hindered any real progress and he instead silently counted down. With warning from his sense he braced himself for the sloth dropping back down into the pool with a loud splash.

No matter how many times he annoyed it into floating off the sloth always dropped down into whatever pool he was occupying. It was an annoying habit but one that he’d tolerate in order to have more opportunities to win it over. Besides, it was at least polite enough to wait for him to finish cultivating before soaking him.

He ripped off a piece of moss and handed it over to the sloth. Its glowing blue tongue tickled his hand as it ate. It squealed at him, its previous annoyance long forgotten, then proceeded to paddle around the pool.

“I think I’ll call you Phelps,” Chen Haoran nodded to himself. It felt right. “Seeing that you like swimming so much.” Unless it was a girl. He frowned, how did one tell a sloth’s sex anyway?

“Come here Phelps,” he cooed.

Phelps snorted and floated away. Chen Haoran looked on enviously. It would be nice if he could learn how to float like that or, better yet, fly. Of course, it would be best if he could find a technique to do that and gift it to someone. He frowned. He couldn’t really gift a technique to a sloth now, could he? Was it even intelligent enough to accept gifts? Chen Haoran didn’t think his power would let him make a connection to something he couldn’t give gifts to. Or perhaps it would? It wasn’t like this was some kind of video game.

He sighed and rose out of the pool. Trying to make a pet his connection would limit what he could gift it. It’s not like a sloth had any use for weapons or scrolls after all. On the other hand, he didn’t have to worry about it not accepting gifts because of pride nor did he have to be circumspect around it lest he revealed something about his power. It also helped that Phelps was weaker than he was.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to try to connect with an animal.

Not every spiritual pool in the Space Cavern was the same. While the majority held fatigue-removing properties, they were all on a spectrum of effectiveness that Chen Haoran could only tell through feeling. He did discover that it was better to alternate his use of the pools between cultivation sessions, for whatever reason it kept up the efficiency of his practice. Perhaps it was a quirk from their creation?

Chen Haoran toed his way around a frothy, bubbling pool. Droplets of burning water sizzled on his skin. A cricket burst out of the thicket of steam and he casually slapped it into the water and watched it melt.

How this cavern came to be was a mystery. Water gathering underground like this was normal. What could be heating it though? He didn’t smell any sulfur and the Clearsprings Mountains weren’t volcanic. Walking away from the boiling hot pool he knelt at the edge of the one right next to it and dipped his hands in. It was warm. He scooped up the water with his hands and drank. It was hot but fresh, with no metallic taste. Not only was the distribution of heat so radically different between nearby pools there was also none of the minerals so common to the hot springs back on earth.

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Where did all the water even come from? All these independent pools but no source to feed them? Under all this heat?

He drank several handfuls till he had his fill, marked the stones nearby for future reference, then continued on. Using the Swiftwind sword as a walking stick to check for sudden drops. Although he wasn’t any closer to finding an exit he was slowly mapping out the area around his camp.

Chen Haoran sighed. It would be nice if he could find anything other than crickets, sloths, and moss. Idly he pinched some moss and rubbed it between his fingers. What would he get if he connected to Phelps and gave him this moss? Perhaps Phelps could float because of his diet? Chen Haoran sniffed the glowing moss but, through the incredible power of common sense, resisted the urge to eat it.

Deciding that this exploration was a lost cause he turned around and made his way back to camp. He pulled out a small biscuit from his storage bag and chewed it as he went. He had enough food for a month at least. He either had to find a way out before then or get a taste for cricket. Chen Haoran shuddered at the thought and wiped away the cold sweat that prickled on the back of his neck.

He froze. Cold?

Chen Haoran did not move and cycled his qi. He felt a small chill on the back of his neck. The chill grew till he could feel it with his back. He looked down at his steam-covered legs. It undulated around him as it always did but the pattern of it was clear.

It was flowing away from him.

Chen Haoran whirled around and the first blast of steam hit him in the face. It was rushing now, a wall of steam that was growing ever denser and hotter. The sheer heat burned his skin and overwhelmed the protection provided by his qi. He cursed and quickly jumped into a pool and dove deep. Above him, the water roiled and the blue light of the cavern shone brighter before the water unnaturally stilled and the light became filtered.

Chen Haoran waited till his lungs burned before swimming up. He flexed his qi and broke past the ice covering the pool and entered a new world.

“What the fuck?”

His first thought was that it was cold. It shocked the heat from him and gooseflesh pimpled across his arms. Every mouthful of air was followed by a misty cloud. The pools around him were frozen with only the hottest still bubbling away. Frost covered the rocks and the glowing moss looked practically crystallized, their light dull.

His second thought was that he could see. The steam was gone, it had risen to the roof of the cave in an endless sea of clouds. What it revealed was a dark landscape of rocks and frozen pools that stretched farther than the eye could see. With frozen moss below and covered moss above the cavern was terrifyingly dim. Ahead of him was an outcropping of rock that stood rose high above the ground. With teeth chattering Chen Haoran rushed for it, cycling his qi so that he could dig his fingers into the icy stone and climb up. At its highest point, he stared wide-eyed back from where he came then to the endless expanse ahead. Instead of pools he saw lakes, both boiling and frozen, stalactites the size of towers hung from the ceilings and equally large stalagmites rose from below to meet them. Skyscraper-sized columns of stone separated the roof and cavern floor.

Chen Haoran shivered, whether from cold or from fear he did not know. This place… was far bigger than he could have ever imagined. Blue lightning flashed from the clouds and shattered a stalagmite. The echoing thunder hammered in his chest. Chen Haoran slowly climbed down under flashing blue clouds, mindful of the target he made. The thunder that beat down on him threatened his grip far more than the ice did.

“I’m a cultivator, what the fuck am I doing?” He steeled his resolve and jumped down rather than continue making a fool of himself. He landed heavily on the ground, qi absorbing the shock. Chen Haoran shook out his knees more out of instinct than need. He didn’t need to fear a fall like that. He had power now.

The clouds rumbled and rain fell down in heavy sheets. It pounded on his head and shoulders and Chen Haoran bent under the force. Rain and thunder filled the cavern in one long, unceasing roar. Hunched over and cowed he slowly made his way back to his shelter.

What was a cultivator in the face of nature?

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