Immortality Starts With Generosity

“What do you mean a worthy opponent!” Chen Haoran yelled. The shaking was getting stronger as the unknown enemy approached. Whatever it was, it was big.

“It must have sensed the liquid qi evaporating. I imagine it will be very angry once it gets here and sees it missed out.” Song Yuelin began to stretch.

“What should I do then?”

“Cheering for me would be nice,” Song Yuelin mused. “If I can’t hold on then you’ve got no chance of surviving.”

“Song Yuelin!” Chen Haoran could feel the tremors in the ground travel up his legs and beat in his chest. His heart pumped with the cadence of the massive steps. It was almost here.

The bastard chuckled. “I’m only joking, Young Master Chen.” Two curved obsidian knives appeared in Song Yuelin’s hands with a flash of liquid shadow. “I’m very good at what I do after all.”

The trees in front of them exploded into splinters. A great bellow forced Chen Haoran to step back. A bear stepped into view, far larger than the one that had chased him earlier. He’d seen semi-trucks smaller than the monster in front of them. Chen Haoran cautiously stretched out his sense, but immediately pulled it back as soon as he felt the enormity of the monster’s energy sting him. Liquid Meridian realm.

The monster bear sniffed at the air and cast bestial eyes towards the empty pool. It huffed and swung its massive head towards them. It reared back and roared, the vegetation between them was immediately flattened and Chen Haoran was sent flying. Liquid Shadow wrapped around him and cushioned the worst of it but he still cracked the tree he’d flown into. Chen Haoran could feel something hot run down his face and he wiped it off, his hand came away bloody. His nose was bleeding.

Song Yuelin hadn’t been moved at all. Even his robes were unruffled. The monster bear seemed to take that as a challenge and charged toward him. Liquid shadow spilled from Song Yuelin and obscured his form. A paw slashed out with claws the size of his sword; the shadows scattered and dissipated but Song Yuelin was nowhere to be seen.

The bear abruptly roared in pain. Song Yuelin appeared behind it and carved a line into its heel. The bear lashed out backward with the same leg, apparently the cut hadn't been deep enough. Song Yuelin deftly avoided the blow and left the bear another cut along its paw for the attempt. The bear reared up on its hind legs and raised its paws to the air.

Chen Haoran immediately turned and ran. The bear slammed down and the earth shattered. Dust and stone blew out and covered Chen Haoran. The little paradise nurtured by the qi pool was now an impact crater with the monster bear triumphantly roaring in the center. Its roar was cut short when a flood of liquid shadow rose from beneath and swallowed it whole.

Chen Haoran couldn’t see inside nor hear anything. He’d had his suspicions that Song Yuelin’s shadows could block noise. He sighed, frustrated. The satisfaction he had from reaching the Sixth-Layer was long gone in the face of a fight where he could die just by getting close.

The shadows were blown off. Whatever had happened inside, the bear had gotten the worst of it. Its brown fur had been dyed dark with blood from the numerous wounds across its body. Song Yuelin by contrast stood before the monster with nary a scratch. Chen Haoran watched them begin their deadly game of back and forth again. The bear clearly couldn’t keep up with Song Yuelin’s speed but that same bulk prevented him from landing a lethal blow. It was a fight of attrition at this point.

“Are you impressed yet, Young Master Chen?”Chen Haoran reflexively swung his fist. It connected solidly with Song Yuelin’s cheek.

Song Yuelin was unphased and merely raised an eyebrow. “Are you always like this, or is it just me in particular?”

Chen Haoran withdrew his fist and flexed his fingers. Landing that punch had hurt him more than it did Song Yuelin. He looked back to where the monster bear was futilely trying to crush another Song Yuelin who danced around its claws. “A clone?” He stared with wide eyes. “Since when?”

“Just now,” Song Yuelin said. “So, what do you think of a Liquid Meridian realm fight?”

Impressive. Humbling. Infuriating. He felt many things about the fight. He was also confused. “The bear isn’t flooding it’s qi. Can a monster not do that?”

“Although beasts share the same cultivation realms with humans they do not deliberately cultivate the way we do. For a beast, cultivation is an instinctual process passed down through their bloodlines. Beasts in the Liquid Meridian realm control their liquid qi through those same instincts, thus they have to learn to deliberately release it.” Song Yuelin smiled when the bear screamed in rage after missing another blow. “Evidently, this beast has not.”

“Can you hurry it up then? I want to go to bed already.” While he was physically refreshed with the qi bath he took he wasn’t any better mentally than before.

“We haven’t even reached the best part yet! I was going to engage the bear in intense hand-to-paw combat soon.”

“You promised to show me a Liquid Meridian realm’s power not a Liquid Meridian realm fucking around.”

Song Yuelin sighed. “I suppose I did.”

The monster bear had finally speared Song Yuelin’s clone on its claws only for the false body to explode into liquid shadow and blind it. Song Yuelin disappeared in a burst of speed that left Chen Haoran’s robes fluttering. As if sensing the danger the bear blindly lashed out.

Chen Haoran blinked once and saw the bear’s paws fly into the air. He blinked twice and saw its head follow. He blinked three times and the bear’s chest exploded in a shower of blood. He blinked four times and he was suddenly picked up and accelerated far away.

Amber-colored qi spilled out of the open wounds of the bear’s corpse. Like a dam bursting the corpse suddenly swelled and disintegrated. Liquid qi flooded out in a wave several times larger than the bear itself. Chen Haoran saw the air distort before he was blinded by a shock wave of qi. In his blindness, he heard the world groan under the destruction of the qi flood.

He felt Song Yuelin place him down. Chen Haoran held onto him for support as he opened his eyes. If before the bear had created an impact crater with its power now, it looked like a bomb proper had gone off and scoured the area of life. In the distance, he could hear the wailing of panicked wildlife.

“Young Master Chen,” Song Yuelin said. In his hands was a bloody brown core the size of a volleyball. He cleaned the blood off with an application of qi and presented it to Chen Haoran. “For your Lady Wife.”

Chen Haoran looked at the core and then back at Song Yuelin. Gingerly, he took it and placed it in his Storage Bag. “You’re a scary bastard, Song Yuelin.” He finally said.

“Thank you for the compliment Young Master Chen.”

He looked at the devastation. “There’s no Mourning Pool.”

“Indeed. What a shame,” Song Yuelin replied. Chen Haoran had the feeling he said that more for the bear than he did for them.

“Let’s go home.”

“I would like to, Young Master Chen.” Song Yuelin looked into the sky. “We seem to have company, however.”

Chen Haoran followed his gaze and saw a giant dragonfly hovering above them. Or rather, a dragonfly that took its name literally. It had the familiar wings and abdomen of the insect he knew on Earth; its head however was quite literally dragon-shaped and possessed two compound insect eyes that dispassionately gazed down at them. An older man was standing on the dragonfly’s back. He was clothed in a bright yellow robe with a white dragon winding across it. As he stared down at them Chen Haoran felt a pressure weigh down his shoulders.

“Long time no see City Lord,” Song Yuelin clasped his hands and bowed.

“I was wondering who was causing such a ruckus so close to my city.” The City Lord spoke gravely. “I see now that a dog of the Chen family was responsible.”

“Apologies for the disturbance.” Song Yuelin smiled at him. “Just a simple wilderness excursion.”

“Do you think I will just accept such an explanation?”

“I do not recall the Chen family’s business being something we had to explain.”

“For the rest of the Chen family perhaps.”

Chen Haoran felt a stone sink into his stomach when the City Lord nodded toward him.

“But what you do with that one is my business as well.”