Plutusauthor

Interlude: The Centipede Princess

The Liquid Meridian Realm. In days of yore, before a great power shifted their hand and tied the tongues of the world together, there were many names for the Second Realm. Each of them a unique expression shaped by a cultivator’s experiences on the dark and endless road they traveled and the world around them. According to oral tales passed down in Zumulu through ages golden and cataclysmic and regaled onto a young Bao Si sitting at the knee of Grandpa Xie, their people’s name for it was ...

Chapter 147

When gambling, no matter how well you stacked the odds in your favor, the old adage always rang true. The House always wins. Unfortunately for Zumulu and the rebels, the Empire had been the House in the south for the last 400 years. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Xi Wangmu didn’t have a long and carefully prepared plan to fight the Empire. He just put more weight on Lan Fen’s and Song Yuelin’s opinions than he did her planning. They had impressed the simple rule upon him about attra...

Chapter 146

Notification Of Change: Because I decided it would be funnier. Chen Haoran's fake name he gave to the Garrison will now be Song Yuelin from hereon instead of Lan Junjie.

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Chen Haoran pumped as much qi as his legs could bear and put as much distance between himself and the Garrison as he could. He crashed through trees and deadly leaf rain, the damn archer groaning as Chen Haoran had no hesitation in using his body to do the breaking. He was a...

Interlude: The Silkworm/The Centipede Princess/The Damned Archer

Hello. It's me. Plutus. He who cultivates the Dao of Delays. I'm sorry for this week and this chapter in particular given how long its taken. This arcs chapters have taken longer to write as I have a vision I'm trying to make sure fits together. Added to that, this chapter is longer than usual, adds Bao Si's POV for the first time, and is also the first Multi-PoV that I've ever done so it took longer. Went back and forth a bunch. Please let me know what you think in the comments. Also if anyo...

Chapter 145

Sorry for the delay yet again. Big action scenes aren't really my strong suit and this chapter was my attempt at such. It is also coincidentally the longest chapter I've written for the story so far. Thank you once again for your patience. Cheers!

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Among the injuries any military force could suffer, a strike against morale was a most lethal blow. Learning that you were sold out by some high-ranking official and led into a trap for the express purpose of killing you all wo...

Chapter 144

Hey all. Sorry this chapter is so late. Just took a long time to write for whatever reason. Thank you for your patience.

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“Damn you!” Pan Gong roared. Admirably or foolishly, depending on how you looked at it he didn’t halt his charge when one warrior became a hundred.

The Vine warrior flicked his spear and sent the body of the formation specialist soaring toward Pan Gong. The specialist’s body exploded with a wave of liquid qi. Rather than dodge, Pan Gong ...

Chapter 143

Sorry for taking so long. A bit of a longer chapter today.

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Foot. Insert mouth. At times like these, Chen Haoran was grateful at how consistent he was at saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. At least he had enough experience to fall back on rather than flail around in panic. Phelps stopped his chewing and clutched the metal bamboo tighter in his grip.

Ignoring his pounding heart, Chen Haoran waved to Pan Gong. “Fancy meeting you here, Officer Pan. You’re ju...

Chapter 142

Chen Haoran picked a random direction and hoped for the best. He didn’t really have the means to orient himself in the secret realm. The Trial Pyramid didn’t have any useful information in that regard. Where was he? How big was the secret realm? Was it a circle? Was he going toward the center? These were all very important questions that he had very few answers to, which was quickly becoming a running theme in his life. At the very least, he could guess the secret realm shouldn’t be too...

Chapter 141

Chen Haoran thought he was being funny, imagining what Xie Wangmu’s face would be if she knew the level of Banquet Peach he was eating. Now he had a good idea of what that face might look like. He’d returned to the top of the pyramid and left Phelps on guard outside while he prepared himself to take the peach. Only after he took the first bite did he realize the thing he should’ve watched out for wasn’t the fruit’s energy but its taste. What felt like 80 thousand years worth of sour...

Chapter 140

Li Mou didn’t have time to react before Chen Haoran crushed his skull. It was the only mercy he was given. Following his final breath came a flood of burning orange qi. Li Mou’s body was vaporized to ashes as his liquid qi became out of control. For a Liquid Meridian, death was their most dangerous moment. Chen Haoran had plenty of experience in that regard both from observation and personally killing a Liquid Meridian himself. As a Qi Realm, Chen Haoran had to rely on others’ help to e...

Chapter 139

Hello everyone. Thank you for your patience. I am doing well and luckily managed to avoid any real damage from the fire. With any luck we won't have another chapter be delayed like this from a fire.

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First came silver light. Then came a mouth full of sickly sweet, bitter death. Chen Haoran unconsciously inhaled, and his lungs were filled with stinging air. As soon as he started to feel the burn, his qi adjusted, and the feeling vanished. The burning did not go away; however...

Chapter 138

Standing next to Pan Gong made Chen Haoran feel small, and it wasn’t just because of his superior cultivation. If there were ever a case to be made about cultivators being greater than normal men, then Pan Gong would be the visual proof of it. Eight feet tall in height with muscles fit for a Greek statue and a voice that boomed like his words echoed in his chest before leaving his mouth. That his poor uniform wasn’t torn to shreds from the obvious strain it was under was surely a miraculo...

Chapter 137

Chen Haoran slowly rose. A single step carried him out of a hole taller than three men. He followed the Yellow Dragon’s glare into the sky and cycled qi to his eyes. Of the two Crystal Transformations in the air, only one had butterfly wings. He was clothed in purple like ancient royalty might wear and over that laid the red official uniform of the empire like an overcoat. A purple-gold circlet of interlinked scorpions sat on his brow. Rows of small bone butterflies hung from thin threads a...

Chapter 136

I apologize for how long it took for this chapter to come out. I caught a fever over the weekend and gave me a headache as a parting present which interrupted my workflow something fierce, which is a problem because I'm already a slow writer as it is. I'm mostly recovered now, thankfully, Monday was just a bad day. Wednesday's chapter will remain on schedule. My apologies again for the delay.

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They had ascended atop a wooded hill and, from ...

Chapter 135

The only thing worse than someone who doesn’t make plans for traveling is someone who makes plans to travel at the very last minute. Thanks to the bomb that was Xie Jin’s last-minute announcement, they were forced to scramble to the carriage and rush out of the city. Naturally, Chen Haoran and Bao Si weren’t too pleased with being suddenly placed on a tight schedule. Fortunately, the checks to leave the city weren’t nearly so stringent. In fact, they were nonexistent. The guards didn�...

Chapter 134

Thanks to the buzz of activity that enveloped the entirety of Reservoir Town and the Garrison, they were forced to postpone their leaving out of caution. They didn’t stay in their original inn. However, instead moving to another out-of-the-way inn favored by merchants and far away from where they met Xi Wangmu. It wasn’t a complete guarantee that they were hidden from the Peach River Sword School’s prying eyes. It was unknown just how much they’d penetrated the ranks of Reservoir Town...

Chapter 133

Drinks. Drunk. Moment. Had. Tip. Twenty Percent. Chen Haoran and Xie Jin walked down the stairs to the bottom floor, followed by the incessant praise of their server.

“You almost made my heart stop, you little shit,” Chen Haoran said.

“Thank you. I did it intentionally.”

“You ruined the mood is what you did.”

“Ruined the mood? Let me tell you what would ruin the mood. If one day, a hundred years from now, I think back fondly on the memory of our meeting, ...

Chapter 132

Bao Si naturally chose the emotional support sloth, so Chen Haoran was forced to go searching for Xie Jin bereft of his furry backpack. He was being dramatic in truth. He was going to leave Phelps in the room anyway. Walking around Reservoir Town with the sloth on his back was just tempting fate. His search for Xie Jin was exaggerated as well because when Chen Haoran walked down to the dining floor of the inn Xie Jin was standing by the door waiting for him.

They said nothing and left t...

Chapter 131

Sorry for the chapter delay. My family got a new puppy recently and watching it while writing is an inefficient combo. Plus, this is a longer chapter.

Note: For those who aren't aware Chapter 125 was changed to reflect Chen Haoran holding copies of the Heaven-Rank technique.

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Chen Haoran let Xie Jin and Bao Si go as soon as they reached the underground tunnel. No one said anything as Jiang Lei opened the way for them to go back to their own inn. Xie Jin and Bao Si...

Chapter 130

The room fell into silence. Xie Jin, Bao Si, even Jiang Lie quailed and froze like deer in the headlight. The meeting having taken a turn none of them could anticipate. Chen Haoran’s mind furiously raced. Xi Wangmu was a valid connection. Why? The obvious answer immediately presented itself—the Chen Family. What kind of connection was it, though? She had seen his face before. She knew him by name. Had they met before? Had they spoken? How well did she know his predecessor? He had a connec...

Chapter 129

Awkward. That would describe how the day had been thus far. Meeting Jiang Lei was awkward. Chen Haoran’s attempt at small talk had gone nowhere in the end. He’d thought at least they could start a conversation seeing as they found themselves once again walking through a dark tunnel to avoid attention. He’d thought too much, apparently. Maybe he should have brought Phelps along. Pets could always get a conversation going.

Things hadn’t gone much better when they met Xi Wangmu. At...

Interlude: The Silkworm III

Xie Jin scowled. Of all the people the Peach River Sword School had to send, it had to be him. It didn’t matter that his grandfather received him in the end. His attempt to enter the Basin by using Brother Chen’s relationship with him was an insult. Did they mean to insult them? The bastard even had the audacity to ignore Brother Chen’s greetings.

“Princess Bao,” Jiang Lei said with a slight bow. “I am here to escort you. Do you need time to prepare?”

Si’s face was...

Chapter 128

Reservoir Town was in many ways even busier than Daqing. The streets were packed with carriages and people from local laborers to merchants from far afield. Warehouses, depots, and markets were hives of activities. Trains of carts strained under heavy loads of cereals, fruits, and exotic goods native to Zumulu. Cattle drivers herded ten-foot-tall cows into pens to be allotted and prepared for shipping up the Peachwine. Patrols of red-clothed soldiers stood at what seemed like every other corn...

Chapter 127

Chen Haoran had some expectations for the Peachwine River. He’d expected something grand from what he’d been told of it. Something special even among the unique phenomena of Zumulu. A scenery worthy of a river whose poisonous waters cultivators supped for power. What he found instead was dry, cracked earth lined with the twisted corpses of grey trees. Clouds of dust were blown up by the wind and sent hurtling down the dead highway. Surrounded by all the water of Zumulu, the Peachwine was ...

Chapter 126

Lin Nine’s reaction was a delayed one. He looked between Chen Haoran and the torn contract. He was still processing what had happened when liquid qi spilled from Chen Haoran’s hands and eviscerated the rest of the contract.

Lin Nine flinched and held the storage bag in a white-knuckled grip. “Sir? I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Chen Haoran shook away the paper scraps and let them drift to the floor. “What’s there to understand? I said you’re fired.”

Chapter 125

The inside of the Qi Realm’s house was sparse, filled with worn down and simple furniture. It was far lacking compared to the warm and colorful homes he’d been in before. The only inkling of nature was a single drooping flower in a dirty glass vase.

After being ‘invited’ inside, Chen Haoran claimed the only chair in the single-room home and watched the trembling Qi Realm before him. It was a fair reaction on his part. A strange Liquid Meridian Realm knocked on your door and barg...

Chapter 124

“Thank you for your time, Granny Jiang,” Chen Haoran said as he and Bao Si got up to leave. They hadn’t learned much from her about Jiang Lei and Wang Xiao but it was better than nothing.

“Begone with you then,” Granny Jiang said. “I’ve no interest in guests who don’t stay for dinner.”

“We’ll. I’ll visit again if I’m ever in the area.” Chen Haoran was out the door and shook his head in the negative when Xie Jin looked over.

“Wait,” Granny Jian...

Chapter 123

A plain round face stared back at Chen Haoran in a mirror of polished copper. He brushed his hand through short, dark brown hair and squinted brown eyes. It was a face he never thought he’d see again. Or rather, it could have been. No matter how well he explained what he wanted to Bao Si, it was impossible for her to completely recreate the details as he remembered. No matter how well he remembered, how could he possibly get the details right himself? He could certainly recognize h...

Chapter 122

When Xie Ling said Bao Si would explain how he’d avoid the Garrison’s detection, Chen Haoran didn’t expect it would involve him sitting in a chair with her on his lap facing him.

“The Human-Skin Mask is a premier method of disguise. To create one requires immense technical skill,” Bao Si said. She held Chen Haoran’s face between her hands and softly rubbed his cheeks. “Each one has to be custom fitted to the wearer in order to seamlessly blend in with the rest of their bod...

Chapter 121

The Blue Shadow Viper was a common serpent in Zumulu. Apparently, they had been a favorite of the Snake King, and his favor and the species’ propensity to lay large clutches meant they soon spread all across the South. Of course, the reason the Snake King preferred them was thanks to their venom. On its own, Blue Shadow Viper Venom only killed the cells in the lungs and forced a person’s whole respiratory system to shut down. That was when it was only used by itself. Apparently, ...