Immortality Starts With Generosity

“To thrive in this world requires blood. Rely on your own, and spill that of others. Remember this, my daughter.”

Her father’s blood spilled nonstop as he told her that. She had sworn by that same blood that she understood.

As it turned out, her father had only been half-right in the end.

The so-called isolation room of Chen Haoran’s estate only deserved the name because it was an isolated room. In all other aspects, it paled compared to where she had trained for years. With it lacking even the most superficial Qi Gathering formation or spirit vein, Lan Fen was forced to rely on the natural ambient qi and the cultivation supplements she had both retrieved from her hidden cache and received from Chen Haoran.

It would suffice.

Lan Fen breathed in qi and felt it water the desert her body had become. A storm grew in her meridians. In her vision, qi boiled and writhed until lightning flashed and struck the foreign energy. In the lightning’s wake, metal white qi sprung like new life. Under the lightning’s ceaseless strikes a new world was hammered out of the raw materials she provided. A world both familiar and unknown to her.

First-Layer.

The hurdle that stalled so many would-be cultivators was easily cleared. Lan Fen was not content and swallowed a pill to feed the process. Being so completely drained of qi had inspired a weakness in her that she had never felt before. That she would never feel again. There had been benefits to doing it, however, even beyond the obvious rewards. Nine Layers of cultivation had left their mark on her body, and that starving echo of greatness was further refined as it greedily accepted a superior qi. Mind and Body worked in accord to guide qi down a well-worn path. The wall of the Second-Layer loomed.

“So you’ve become a speck of dust with some qi. I hope you’re not feeling proud or something.”

The vision ended. Lan Fen didn’t let her frustration show. It would only embolden him. She opened her eyes to face the consequences of her decision. He lazily lounged in the air, floating just high enough that she was forced to look up at him and see his arrogant expression. The man could be considered conventionally attractive if it weren’t for being ghostly white and see-through.

“Do you have something you want to say, ant?”

And an asshole.

He called himself the White Tyrant. The far-gone conqueror of a by-gone era

Lan Fen ignored his taunting. “Are you bored, White Tyrant?”

“‘Am I bored’, she asks?” he mocked. “I spent 2 thousand years trapped in that stupid ring and what do I get when I finally get out? An ant who’s barely stubbed Heaven’s toe let alone defied it. Do you think I’m entertained?”

“I will endeavor to meet your expectations.”

“You aren’t worthy of my expectations.” The White Tyrant sneered.

Lan Fen gently brushed her hand against the plain silver ring hanging on her neck. She had known when she obtained it that it once belonged to a powerful cultivator. She hadn’t expected that the ghost of its former owner still resided within it. She had considered herself fortuitous especially as both the ring and the White Tyrant proved useful in defeating the thugs sent after her. That good mood only lasted until the ghost opened his mouth.

“They just don’t make cultivators like they used to. Back in my day children were born in the First-Layer you know. If they weren’t Ninth-Layer by the time they turned 16 then they were trash.”

She had been sixteen when she entered the Ninth-Layer. Though she knew if she mentioned it he’d find something else to nitpick. Lan Fen thought back to the stories of immortals she was raised on, the tales of wisdom, cunning, and miraculous acts. Much like her family, it seemed the White Tyrant existed to spoil such fantasies.

A casual thought saw a bone white flower appear in her hand. She didn’t have time to waste.

Lan Fen was six years old and had just entered the First-Layer when her father scoured her senses with the grandness of his Liquid Meridian realm cultivation.

“My daughter,” he hushed her, wiping her tears of pain away. “You will adapt in time.”

Second-Layer.

As easily passed as the First, though it exhausted the bulk of her cultivation supplements. The White Tyrant interrupted her meditation once again.

“There’s a Liquid Meridian realm in the manor,” he said, yawning. “Eighth-Layer. Earth Rank cultivation.”

“Are they a threat?” Lan Fen sat up, alert. Even as a remnant of his former self, the White Tyrant’s sensory ability was, for lack of a better word, tyrannical.

“About as annoying as trash that gets stuck in your throat.” The White Tyrant picked at his spectral teeth. “Looks like the moron’s speaking to him.”

Lan Fen calmed. Ridiculous evaluation aside, if Chen Haoran knew about it then it was most likely fine. Perhaps the cultivator was from the Chen family? If so Lan Fen would have to reevaluate what she knew of them. There wasn’t a Liquid Meridian realm in Clearsprings City that had an Earth rank cultivation.

Yet, a steel-cold part of her mind reminded.

Or perhaps Chen Haoran had pulled the Liquid Meridian realm from the same place he kept the rest of his inexplicable wealth. Lan Fen put aside her own ridiculous evaluation and took out the Golden Refinement pills.

Still not fast enough.

The Lan family’s only Profound-Rank techniques were Wood element. The lion’s share of the resources were thus claimed by Wood spirit roots. Any member of the family unlucky enough to have been blessed by the other elements had to fight that much harder for resources.

So Lan Fen fought. Like her father did for her.

Third-Layer

Ten Golden Refinement pills. The entire stock was used up just to bring her to the Third-Layer. Had this been before that many Profound-rank pills would have seen her go from the Second-Layer to the Fourth, almost reaching the cusp of the Fifth. Lan Fen marveled at the metal white qi coursing through her meridians.

“You better appreciate me, you ant,” the White Tyrant demanded. “The First Spark of the Primordial World isn’t something trash like you could ever get their hands on.”

Lan Fen had to agree with him. A Heaven-rank cultivation method was something destined to be out of her reach no matter how much she fought. Just the chance of obtaining one had been enough for her to gamble and let the silver ring drain her cultivation.

“Why are you still not gratefully worshiping me, ant?”

At what cost though?

“Absolutely ungrateful. Just like everyone else on this miserable world. I wasted my precious time to return to my shithole of a home planet to do some good deeds and I never even got any thanks for it.”

It wasn’t the first time the White Tyrant complained about coming back to this world. In an effort to learn more about him she tried finding records left from the time he had returned. In an almost unanimous consensus by historians, that century was widely regarded as an unprecedented age of chaos going by what little evidence survived.

She took out a jade bottle and dropped a solid gold pearl of a pill into her hand. Lan Fen had thought she had grown used to the shocking value of the items Chen Haoran so casually pressed into her hands. Ten Earth-rank Golden Transmutation pills disabused her of that notion. He clearly had his own fortuitous encounter, though the nature of it was still a mystery to her. Some kind of treasure space perhaps? Whatever the case, for his sake she hoped it was less annoying than her own.

Lan Fen was 12 and stood at the Sixth-Layer when her father returned a dead man. He had used his authority to organize an expedition using the family’s power. Had it succeeded he would return with a proper cultivation method for her.

The expedition failed and her father returned the only survivor. Out of respect for his previous achievements and for siring a genius, the Lan family Patriarch allowed her father to bleed to death instead of dying by his hand.

Fourth-Layer

Even with the large energy demands of practicing a Heaven-rank method she only required four Golden Transmutation pills to ascend. A bottleneck stymied any further progress however, even her high-grade spirit root couldn’t process so many cultivation resources in so little time. Fortunately, this type of bottleneck was also the simplest to alleviate.

“I can’t believe it. You got stopped by a resource bottleneck. In my era, if any master had a student that stupid they’d give them a hundred lashes.”

Lan Fen stood and, with a thought, entered the silver ring’s pocket space. As a spatial treasure, her old Storage Bag couldn’t compare to the silver ring at all. In size alone, the ring offered a space the size of Chen Haoran’s manor, and that was only the portion available to her. Much of the ring’s interior was shrouded in a defensive fog that she still couldn’t pass through. A project for when she entered the Liquid Meridian realm.

Lan Fen stretched out a hand and a plain iron sword flew into her waiting palm. She felt the faint trace of water element qi lingering on it. In the generative relationship of the Five Elements Metal was born by Earth and collected Water. White qi raced like lightning through a diligently memorized pattern; the iron sword glowed blue-white.

Canyon Carving Sword

The river-like sword energy rushed out in a sharp flash and disappeared into the fog.

If the bottleneck wouldn’t move then she would just have to make it.

Canyon Carving Sword

“This is terrible. You were supposed to be strong enough to pass the fog! I had trials set up and everything! You’re so weak though I had to pass them along early.”

Canyon Carving Sword

“Not like I was supposed to be here to pass them on to you. I meant to pass on my legacy, I wasn’t supposed to be passed down with it!”

Canyon Carving Sword

“‘Leave an inheritance,' they said. ‘Sow some good karma’, they said. Look at how I ended up!”

Canyon Carving Sword

“Oi ant. I didn’t wait two thousand years for an inheritor just to watch them practice a shitty sword technique.”

“Is there an issue, White Tyrant?” Lan Fen paused and wiped the sweat from her brow. In the days since she started practicing the Canyon Carving Sword, she could feel the bottleneck loosen under the constant exertion of qi.

“The issue is that you’re wasting your time practicing that moron’s crappy sword technique instead of learning the Heaven-Splitting Claw. "

“I am simply focusing my energy where it would be more appropriate.”

“Listen ant. Right now you’re not even worth one of my fingernails. It’s already going to take you a year to-”

The White Tyrant’s voice trailed off as Lan Fen held up five fingers of vicious metal qi. She slashed the air and they watched the rending claws of energy scream into the distance. The white fog became turbulent with their passing before settling down.

“When did you learn that?”

“Three weeks ago.” Lan Fen sat down, exhausted. It wasn’t easy to use a Heaven-rank technique after using the Canyon Carving sword so many times.

“You’ve only had cultivation back for two weeks.”

“As I said. If you would like me to focus on your techniques then give me something worth my focus.”

“Okay, maybe you can match the tip of my finger. That still doesn’t explain why you’re practicing Earth-rank trash.” The White Tyrant narrowed his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re doing it for that moron.”

“He has aided me. I only seek to return the favor.”

“You’re joking. Morons like him exist to be exploited. And you already know his ‘help’ isn’t out of any goodwill. He’s using you.”

That was true. He had been using her since they first met. She knew this ever since she heard his ridiculous story. Even now she didn’t know what to make of the man. Was he Chen Haoran with missing memories? Or was he some new man altogether? He had been so frustratingly vague on the point and his actions only served to confuse her further. He was so natural at playing his role and yet so ignorant of everything surrounding it. He was so blessed with valuables and so free with handing them away. She was not blind that there was some higher purpose to his actions, that she held more meaning to him than just an ally. And yet…

“You were the one who reminded me to honor him for staying to help me fight.”

The White Tyrant clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Do what you want.”

Lan Fen stood on shaky legs. Her qi flowed in the Canyon Carving Sword’s pattern but the sword remained silent. She raised the blade and swung. Unbidden, a memory from the past came to mind. Her father had taken her on a trip to the edge of Clearsprings’ territory, to the mouth of a great river where it met the ocean. She remembered feeling the force of the rushing water in her bones as it spilled into the sea. Her father had taken her atop his shoulders when the sun began to dip over the horizon, it was the first and last time she had ever seen him look so peaceful.

She felt her qi rush into the sword. The sword did not glow but it did not need to. It had become a river. It had become that river. Lan Fen spun and flowed and rushed in an impromptu sword dance. Every swing was punctuated by a harsh crash as the river met an imaginary sea. As her father met the Lan family.

Canyon Carving Sword

Her last slash carved through that ocean, carved through her bottleneck, and soon enough would carve through the Lan family.

She promised.

Fifth-Layer.

Lan Fen left isolation training.