Chapter 55: This Young Master Discovers

Chapter 55: This Young Master Discovers

Chen Haoran noticed the monster too late, it was too close, and though beneath him in cultivation he wasnt so far beyond it that he could stop it from striking.

So he didnt.

When the crocodile-sized salamander breached the water and opened its maw to swallow Phelps whole Chen Haoran placed himself in front of the monster and let it clamp down on his arm. Phelps rolled into a floating backflip and shrieked from the air. The salamander flailed and tried to drag Chen Haoran into the water. He flexed his qi and swung his arm down, crushing the salamanders head into a gooey mess between his forearm and the earth.Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

So this is what lives in the water. He shook off salamander brain goop and washed his arm in the pool. Phelps dropped back down and squealed at the corpse. Real scary Phelps.

Chen Haoran ripped the rest of the vines out of the ground then split open the salamander with his scimitar and pulled out a rough, cyan core. I dont suppose you eat these too, he said, waving the core in front of the sloth.

He was only half serious but Phelps took it as permission and snapped the core out of his hand. Chen Haoran had a brief moment of wide-eyed shock. Fuck, dont eat that. He rushed over and tried to wrench Phelpss mouth open but the gluttonous sloth swallowed the core whole. Damnit Phelps, spit that out.

Phelps shuddered and his body expanded, Chen Haoran braced himself for the inevitable shattered glass feeling of a broken connection. Phelps burped and deflated. He stared. Phelps happily squealed. He stretched out his sense, Phelpss qi had grown.

He sighed and rubbed his fist on Phelpss head. Greedy little shit, you damn near gave me a heart attack.

Phelpss gluttony aside it was good to know that he could feed him cores, he hadnt thought the things were edible like that. Not that he would try to eat them himself. Monsters hunted each other, it made sense that they could process cores as well. It was a shame that he didnt intend to give the core to Phelps, he missed out on getting a reward.

He brought over the monk flower vine and showed it to Phelps who, perhaps finally being full or just plain disinterested, merely sniffed it and turned away. Chen Haoran stowed away the vine in his storage bag to try again later and looked at the dead salamander. He had been expecting to find an aquatic monster since he entered the cavern but it wasnt as strong as he assumed. He looked out across the lake, the waters were still. He took the corpse in hand and tossed it into the water. He watched it float for a few minutes, channeling qi to his senses to catch any movement. There was none to be had however and so he packed up Phelps onto his back and turned to leave. He would have to hunt elsewhere for more salamanders it seemed.

In the shadow of another giant column, Chen Haoran practiced the Canyon Carving Sword while Phelps curiously watched on. He cycled his qi in the long-familiar pattern and flowed into a few basic sword movements. As he swung his scimitar the steam around him ebbed and flowed as it avoided the blade. As it was cut by the blade rather. The steam split just before it touched the scimitars edge and flowed over and under it. Chen Haoran counted thirty seconds before his steam-cutting dance came to an end and he lost control of his qi.

Thirty seconds of Harmonization. It was a definite improvement from when he started but Chen Haoran couldnt find it within himself to be satisfied. Lan Fen and Song Yuelin wielded Harmonization as if it was another part of their bodies. No, not as if. It really was just another part of their bodies, the natural expression of a technique they were deeply in tune with. There was something he was missing, something about Harmonization that diligent practice alone wouldnt solve. Something that Lan Fen and Song Yuelin didnt, or perhaps couldnt, say.

Chen Haoran sighed and sat against the column, idly counting the cracks in the ringing overhang of stone above him. This column was much like the last one he had camped under, just a bit taller and with brighter moss. It said something about how crazy the rest of the Spa Cavern was that this strange geology was the least noteworthy.

He pressed his back flat against the mossy rock and crossed his legs in a meditative pose and closed his eyes. Phelpss squeals broke through his nascent concentration. He opened one eye and glared at the sloth. Phelps innocently stared back. Chen Haoran snorted and closed his eyes and again Phelps squealed before he could fully concentrate.

Alright already. He stood up and cut a square outline in the moss behind him. Ive seen bodybuilders eat less than you. He pinched a corner of the square and ran his scimitar underneath it, channeling qi to the blade he brought it up under the moss while pulling on the corner. He had to jimmy his impromptu razor around the center of the blanket of moss he was carving out as it kept getting stuck. Soon enough though he had peeled enough off that he could rip off the rest in one piece. Underneath the moss was the smooth rock of the column and he quickly found what his sword got stuck on, a long jutting line of rock that curved and twisted like a pattern.

He frowned.

Exactly like a pattern.

Chen Haoran chopped and ripped more moss off the column, a sinking feeling growing in his stomach as he exposed more curving lines and etchings of leaves and fruit carved into the rock. There were limits to how strange geology could be, even in a place as crazy as this. He ran out from under the too-uniform overhang of stone and leapt atop it. He ripped off more moss and exposed a deep groove that he was sure ran all the way up to the top. He cycled qi to his legs and ran a loop around the column, stabbing and ripping and finding more grooves evenly spaced around it.

This wasnt natural.

These columns werent formed, they were built.