Immortality Starts With Generosity

“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.”

“Well. 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 Jiang called after him. There was the sound of shifting bones, and when she came outside, she was holding a black bone dragon statue. Xie Jin and Bao Si both frowned when they saw it.

“I thought you said you wouldn’t give this to me?” Chen Haoran said.

Granny Jiang huffed. “I said I wouldn’t sell it to you. I said nothing about giving it.”

Chen Haoran was touched. The statue was honestly a minor thing, but receiving a gift was always nice. “Thank you,” he said as he reached to take it. “I appreciate it.”

Granny Jiang pulled the dragon statue away. “What are you doing?”

“I can ask you the same thing,” Chen Haoran said. “Weren’t you giving it to me?”

“I never said anything about giving it to you. I said I wouldn’t sell it. Now I am.” She held out her hand. “A hundred gold taels.”

Chen Haoran laughed in disbelief. “That’s extortion.”

Granny Jiang glared at him with blind eyes. “So it’s okay for you to extort a weak old woman like me but not the other way around, is it? Typical cultivator.”

Chen Haoran shook his head but forked over a golden banknote anyway. He’d learned long ago that arguing with Granny Jiang was pointless. Plus, he wanted the statue. He cast his sense across it, and despite his hopes, it was indeed just a normal bone statue.

“Don’t think I’m robbing you,” Granny Jiang said. “This statue is carved from a dragon skeleton. Its value is beyond compare.”

“This is a black bone.” Xie Jin said, staring at Granny Jiang. “There’s no dragon skeletons in the Basin.”

“Oh, is there not?” Granny Jiang sounded as if she hadn’t the faintest idea that was the case.

“Well, appreciate doing business with you anyway,” Chen Haoran said. He idly stretched his sense over Granny Jiang once last time. Doing it as a Liquid Meridian revealed just as much as when he was a Qi Realm. Mortal and nothing more than that. “Take care of yourself.”

Granny Jiang scoffed and shooed them away. “I don’t need you to tell me that.”

As they walked away, Bao Si leaned in and started whispering. “She’s strange.”

“How does a mortal get a black bone? We don’t sell them,” Xie Jin whispered back.

Chen Haoran held up the dragon statue and poked the Yellow Dragon.

What do you think? I’ve been meaning to get this for you. Well, the bigger you.

The Yellow Dragon paused in its dancing to peer at the statue. Evidently, it didn’t think much of what it saw because it growled and continued dancing.

Well, maybe the Machu River would like it.

“What do you think, Brother Chen?” Xie Jin asked.contemporary romance

“What?” He hadn’t been paying attention to their conversation. What were they talking about again? “Oh, Granny Jiang? She makes some pretty good pork broth.” Honestly, he didn’t even know why they were discussing it. It was obvious something was weird about her, just as it was obvious it wouldn’t be good for their health to find out exactly how weird she was. He didn’t lower his voice either. It wasn’t like whispering would really hide their discussion.

They both looked at him.

Chen Haoran stared back. “Is now a bad moment to ask for some alone time.”

The Ever Spring Pavilion had not changed much since the last time Chen Haoran visited it save that its shelves seemed fuller than they had been before. He had removed his Human-Skin Mask prior to entering so that when he entered, Chanchu immediately stopped what he was doing and walked over.

Before Chanchu even opened his mouth, he paused and solemnly clasped his hands. “Congratulations on your advancement, sir. It seems your time away has served you well.”

“Well. It’s alright.” Chen Haoran said. “Shall we?”

“Right this way, sir.”

Chanchu brought him directly to the private reception room and pulled out his fancy River King’s Conquest tea and qi-rich spirit fruits as snacks.

Chen Haoran sipped the tea and hummed in approval. “The tea is still good. I’ll have to buy some from you.”

“Please, sir, let me give you a few bricks to celebrate your advancement. I wouldn’t have been able to afford this tea without your invaluable support in any case.”

Chanchu was laying it on a bit thick. While Chen Haoran’s resources might have helped, it wasn’t to the extent that the Ever Spring Pavilion relied on him exclusively to be successful. It was obvious why Chanchu was doing it, though. A merchant through and through, he wouldn’t pass up the chance to have a close relationship with a Liquid Meridian Realm.

“I see business is doing well,” Chen Haoran said. “I was worried you got caught up in that unfortunate business a few months ago.”

Chanchu gently cradled his teacup. “Well, it was certainly scary, but Senior Gold-Eater, fortunately, didn’t target the city, and there was only incidental damage from the aftershocks of the battle. I did have to spend a pretty penny to replace my windows.”

“You know who that Crystal Transformation was?”

“Well, the Golden Lily Association is famously secretive. Senior Gold-Eater is one of their more famous executives. As the name might imply, he’s obsessed with wealth. He can never pass up an opportunity to make money. He’s more well-known in the Central Region, however. I myself only learned about him from my associates with partners in the Imperial Center.”

Chen Haoran furrowed his brows. “Do you know why he’d cause such a commotion in the city? I was told the Empire doesn’t appreciate that sort of behavior.”

Chanchu shrugged. “Apparently, the Garrison was breaking up a large-scale black market auction. With the Commanders themselves making a move, I imagine Senior Gold-Eater was desperate to get away.”

Chen Haoran thought back to Gold-Eater’s confident posture throughout the fight with the Garrison Commanders. Desperate wasn’t quite the word he’d use to describe the situation back then. Knowing that he was famous for making money helped ease Chen Haoran’s worries a tad. It was more likely now that Gold-Eater gave him the Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs because he had some future profit in mind. While Chen Haoran didn’t know what kind of profit the Crystal Transformation Realm was expecting or how he was meant to pay it, it shouldn’t be life-threatening.

He stopped and considered all that had happened since Gold-Eater gave him the Heaven-Rank technique. He sipped his tea and amended his thought. It shouldn’t be much more life-threatening, at least.

It was interesting to learn Gold-Eater was famous in the Central Region. If that was his normal area of operation, then it made his appearance in the South all the more curious. As well as his connection to Chen Haoran.

He sighed. “Why can’t those stronger cultivators leave little guys like us alone.”

Chanchu tiredly laughed. “It’s the price of doing business in the Empire. Little people like us just have to do our best to keep our heads down.” He set his cup down. “I don’t think you visited today just to gossip, sir. How can the Ever Spring Pavilion help you today?”

“On the contrary. That gossip is what I’m interested in the most.” He took out a jade box and lifted a lid, savoring Chanchu’s wide-eyed shock when he recognized the Earth-Rank Meridian Cleansing Pill within it.

“I wonder if you can tell me what the price of a human life is in the Empire?”

Everlasting Hundred Blessings Charitable Prosperity

It was quite the mouthful. Gifting Power was much easier to say. Despite his desires, however, the burning golden words did not rearrange themselves into his clearly superior name.

Without the Gifting Power, Chen Haoran would be nothing. It was the only thing that let him stand apart in this world and the only thing that let him stand as a part of this world. Saying he was nothing without it wasn’t perhaps accurate. Without the Gifting Power, he would be dead, plain and simple. It was his most important power and the one he knew the least about.

Who created it? What was its purpose? Where did it come from? When did he get it? Why did he have it? All were questions Chen Haoran didn’t have answers to and perhaps never would. He dearly wished he did, though. If, in exchange, he never learned a single thing about the identity of his predecessor and instead learned even the basic rules of the Gifting Power, he would take that trade every time.

After hearing what Chen Haoran was looking for, Chanchu took the Earth-Rank pill and exchanged all the loose silver he had in his store upon Chen Haoran’s request and made up the difference with banknotes. He and Chen Haoran then stole away from the Ever Spring Pavilion after a short discussion.

Lacking any sort of instruction manual meant Chen Haoran had to figure out the specifics of his power on his own. Unfortunately, the nature of the Gifting Power didn’t make studying it easy. He needed a Connection to Gift, and he needed an official relationship to Connect to. That wasn’t too much of an issue on its own. The biggest one was trust. Attempting to explore the details of the Gifting Power to the fullest would risk exposing it to the person he Connected to. That in itself was also something he wanted to try, but without the right person, it was an unnecessary risk.

When he first woke up in this world, he didn’t have much other choice when he Connected with Lan Fen. It had been the best of a bad situation. Phelps was admittedly a rush decision on his part, but it was one he didn’t regret, and it wasn’t like Spa Cavern offered him the opportunity to find a better Connection. Now that he had a spare Connection and comparatively less pressing circumstances, he could be much more selective. That had been the plan, at least. Time was pressing, and the future was unknown. Chen Haoran would rather have power in hand now. That meant he needed a Connection now. One where he could dump all his stuff for Rewards while also testing the Gifting Power without worry. Someone he could dispose of to free up the slot for a more worthy Connection in the future.

Chanchu led him to the Snake King’s Court of Scales. When the Empire had taken over the courthouse, they also took the prison attached to it. Chanchu had been frank in the face of Chen Haoran’s questions. Life was cheap in the Empire. Prisoners even more so. While it wasn’t anywhere near official, it was, in fact, possible to buy the lives of less important death row criminals so long as the price was right. Chen Haoran didn’t really want to think of the type of demand that drove sales like that. Considering what he had been thinking of doing, however, he didn’t really have the right to throw any stones.

They did not go to the Court or the prison. Chanchu ignored them entirely and brought Chen Haoran to a neighborhood where the weighty history of Daqing crushed rather than refined. The houses were the same, but the scene was of disrepair, not timelessness. Even the waters of the Skyspear failed to reflect the sky here, running sluggishly through channels and sluices choked with trash. Chanchu stopped in front of a blocky house small enough to fit in the courtyard of Chen Haoran’s rented home.

“Is this the house?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Yes, sir,” Chanchu said. “If he’s not to your liking, then you can go to any house in this neighborhood. They all have the same circumstances.”

“Alright. Thank you. I’ll stop by the Ever Spring Pavilion again if I ever have time.”

“I will look forward to it then. Would you like me to make an introduction?”

“No need. You can go back.”

Chanchu clasped his hands and bowed. “A pleasure doing business with you again then, sir.”

As he walked away, Chen Haoran whistled to get his attention and held a finger to his lips. “Mum’s the word, capiche?”

Chanchu tilted his head. “I wonder what that sound was? I should finish my walk and get back to work.”

“Good man.”

Once Chanchu was out of sight, Chen Haoran pulled on his Human-Skin Mask and knocked on the door of the hut. A Second-Layer Qi Realm opened the door and froze stiff upon seeing Chen Haoran.

“Hello.” Chen Haoran held up a contract he had Chanchu help write up. “Can I interest you in a job?”

done.co