Chapter 56: This Young Master Finds Water

The columns were actual columns. The largest features of the Spa Cavern were artificial. What did that mean for the cavern itself? Was the whole place built by someone else as well?

It was a question that plagued Chen Haoran as he journeyed further. He had assumed the cavern was natural and explained away its bizarreness as this new world’s magical fuckery. What did he really know though? Besides the columns, the cavern didn’t look like it had been built, it lacked that artificiality that came when people tried to mimic nature. Could he really tell though? Perhaps the whole cavern was engineered to look natural with qi techniques he had yet to understand. Or maybe the man-made portions were like the columns, worn down and obscured by the passage of time. Just the thought that there was a guiding hand behind the design of the subterranean world filled him with dread. What would he find when he reached the source of the cold snaps? Would something be waiting for him there?

A second cold snap hit during his subterranean progress. Chen Haoran took Phelps and dived into another pool to avoid it. Luck hadn’t been on his side however and the pool he sheltered in had a Qi realm salamander of the Eighth-Layer lurking at the bottom. He was forced to wrestle with it underwater while the pool froze over before finally using the Canyon Carving Sword and slicing both the salamander and pool in half.

It had been a waste of his precious lightning-refined qi, especially since he couldn’t find another conductive stalagmite like before. It didn’t affect his cultivation given how the deeper reaches of the cavern proved to be a wealth of resources. Phelps, the little glutton, ate everything he could get his hands on besides the Monk Flower vines. It had been a bit of a disappointment but seeing as how he had no idea when he would be in a position to actually grow the plants himself it wasn’t too much of a loss.

With more resources came more danger. Mostly in the form of sloths and salamanders. He’d seen huge examples of both species that sat squarely in the Liquid Meridian realm. It was a blessing that the sloths weren’t predatory and the salamanders were loath to go too far from their pools. He could probably outrun them if they really gave chase but the odds weren’t anything he was willing to bet his life on. The real luck was that he had yet to see a cricket higher than the Qi Realm Ninth-Layer. He’d be well and truly screwed the day he met one stronger than that.

Not that strength mattered in the face of the cold snaps. The third cold snap hit and every living thing in the caverns from the meanest cricket to the strongest Liquid Meridian salamander did their best to avoid it in their own ways. The crickets scrambled for their burrows and the sloths fell from the ceiling to submerge themselves in the pools where they became vulnerable to lurking salamanders. The creatures that lived here were clearly long used to the cavern's strange weather. It was an understanding that could only come from time. It left Chen Haoran once again questioning the scale of the Spa Caverns. How long ago had it been created? How long have the beasts been living and dying underground? Was their ecosystem something natural or was it as artificial as the pillars around them?

Questions upon questions upon questions. Every step he took since entering this new world only revealed more things he didn’t know and didn’t understand. So much he couldn’t admit to not knowing because he was constantly unsure how much his predecessor was meant to know. Except now he didn’t have anyone to answer him even if he wanted to ask.

“Do you think you can learn how to speak if your level gets high enough?” he asked Phelps.

Phelps squealed at him and went back to devouring a pile of Water Monk Flowers, he could sense Phelps’s Sixth-Layer cultivation fluctuate before settling at a higher level than before.

“You would only know about eating anyway.”

Chen Haoran summoned the newly rewarded Monk flowers and ate them by the handful. Sat as he was inside a hot spring, snacking and meditating, he could almost imagine himself relaxing at a resort. Behind him, the gutted corpse of the salamander that previously occupied the pool, as well as the corpses of the dozen crickets that were attracted by their fight, dispelled that fanciful notion.

He traced the cool qi of the Pure Water Monk all the way down to his core where it then dispersed out through his meridians, mixing with the pool’s energies and submerging into his lightning-refined qi. With every breath, his reserves grew larger and the difference in size between his regular Earth-rank qi and his improved qi grew smaller. It was quite the catch-22. The Lightning-refined qi increased the speed he gathered qi but the more qi he accumulated the weaker the effects of the refined qi became.

At least that’s what he originally thought.

He switched from the Pure Water Monk Flowers to the ambient water qi. Too much of one type of energy all at once would only lessen its efficiency so it was best to alternate the type of qi one took in. The rich fog of the cavern was drawn into his body with each breath and transformed into flowing energy. He took several deep breaths this way before going back to the Monk flowers and repeating. Qi filled and stretched his meridians and yet he kept absorbing energy, as quickly as it was coming in it was being converted into his own. The biggest obstacle he faced in his cultivation seemed to disappear. The yellow dragon danced through his meridians, endlessly consuming qi long past where it would have gotten full and stopped. It raced around his body in a constant cycle, growing larger and larger, before finally having its fill and roaring once it reached his head.

His qi spiked. The roar echoed. The pool water rumbled and spilled its banks, soaking an indignant Phelps. For one brief moment there wasn’t a drop of water touching his body. The moment passed. The water crashed against his back and chest but he was unmoved.

Qi Realm Eighth-Layer.

Chen Haoran stood up from the water and stretched. Something was different about him. He wasn’t cultivating slower at all. Instead, he was going faster.

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Just another question to add to his list.

While advancing another Layer in cultivation was calming for his state of mind but practically speaking it didn’t serve much use in his current situation. The beasts he could kill had already been a non-threat to him while the ones that were truly dangerous were still far out of reach. He still couldn’t resist the Liquid Meridians, still couldn’t weather the cold snaps directly, and still couldn’t navigate the cavern any faster. His life after advancing was just more of the same but slightly stronger.

The day he reached Liquid Meridian Realm couldn’t come fast enough.

The one thing his advancement did was remind him of just how small he was compared to the cavern’s scope. All the physical enhancements that came with superior cultivation and he still felt as if he were treading water rather than getting anywhere. The further he ventured into the cavern the bigger it became. As it stood even when the steam cleared during the cold snaps he could no longer see anything resembling a wall or an end in any direction. There were even times when he looked up toward the cavern’s roof and only saw impenetrable darkness ringed by glowing blue moss. What lurked within he didn’t know but chills ran down his spine nevertheless when he stared directly at the recesses.

Sometimes he wondered if he hadn’t accidentally fallen into yet another world. There were supposed to be mountains above him after all. Was this place really far enough down into the earth that such a massive hollow wouldn’t cause any collapse in the land above? Had the river really swept him down that far? It couldn’t have, he would have drowned even with qi.

Phelps yawned over his shoulder. He had been curious at first of all the new sights but had quickly grown bored of them it seemed. Now the only thing that could rouse his interest was the next meal and which of Chen Haoran’s shoulders felt the most comfortable today. The left, currently.

Chen Haoran scratched the sloth’s chin and received an annoyed huff in return.

“How do you get tired when I’m the one carrying you?”

Phelps yawned again and his eyes drooped. Chen Haoran chuckled and shook his head. “You should carry me too…”

He frowned and turned to face the distance. It had been some time since the last cold snap so a curtain of steam blocked his view. He cycled qi to his ears and concentrated. There was quite a bit of ambient noise in the cavern at any given time, bubbling pools, the harsh chirping of the crickets, the high-up squeals of sloth snuggles. Chen Haoran took in all of it and proceeded to tune out the extraneous noise. He had heard something, just a wisp of it, but now that he was looking he could hear it. A faint, constant roaring beneath all other sounds.

He cycled qi to his legs and took off. Phelps squealed in anger at the sudden acceleration but Chen Haoran ignored him and rushed as quickly as he could through the pools and steam. The roar became louder as he approached, never stopping. The closer Chen Haoran came the more he was sure of what the source of it was. A familiar rumbling and churning that never ceased. The roaring became no less loud than the thunder that dominated the cavern after every cold snap and the sound of it beat in his chest just the same. Chen Haoran broke through the wall of steam and stopped cold.

Before him was a river. A single, massive snake of water ceaselessly flowed across the cavern as far as the eye could see, splitting it in half.

And on that river…

A boat.

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