Friendly Advice

Chen Liwei shook his head, tossing the thought away. He had to kill both of them, or at the very least, he had to kill that first brat who had pushed him this far in the first place!

Pushing his senses to the limit, Chen Liwei exchanged blows with Ryker, using the weight of his mace to his advantage as he struck at Ryker's sword.

Although he had the disadvantage in range, his mace was much heavier and able to break through any of his opponent's swings. He just had to find the opportunity to blow Ryker away and chase after Luo Shuchang.

Ryker sensed the change in Chen Liwei's fighting style and jumped back, switching weapons again and pulling out the Sturdy Iron Cudgel. All he had to do was buy time, so of course he'd just switch things up if his opponent didn't go all out.

He kept his distance and started to use a thrust-centric attack pattern, fully utilizing the range of his staff while retreating and denying Chen Liwei any opportunity to push forward.

"Argh, you annoying piece of shit!" Chen Liwei growled as he grew more and more frustrated, "Why won't you just die?!"

"You first!" Ryker said, grinning. Their exchange continued for a while, Chen Liwei's frustration rising as Ryker stayed infuriatingly out of his range, until finally, he could no longer take it.

"That's it! If you want to take his place, then I'll settle for taking your life!"

Chen Liwei suddenly roared, qi exploding around him wildly as he raised his mace high above his head.

Ryker felt the back of his neck grow cold, and he turned to try and put some distance between them. However, before he could make a move, Chen Liwei's gaze snapped to him, and he swung down his mace, a gigantic mace-image materializing above him and following his movement.

"Ryker, watch out!" Luo Shuchang, who had been keeping within distance to support Ryker, shouted.

However, the gigantic qi mace descended upon Ryker before he could do anything, threatening to squash him flat. Ryker raised his staff above him to block the descending attack, metal screeching as the weapons collided, and the ground cracked beneath him as he struggled to withstand the force of the attack.

"Kh-- Shit!"

Ryker let out a strained grunt, mana and qi running wild. Veins all over his body started popping, some even spurting blood from his exertion, and his meridians felt like they were on fire from the attack.

Luo Shuchang grimaced, popping another pill into his mouth. Constantly consuming these qi-boosting pills might hurt his foundation, but letting Ryker die when he'd already saved his life once wasn't something he could do.

Rushing forward while pulling another sword out of his storage ring, he appeared beside Ryker and thrust it upwards at the mace-image, using the last dregs of qi he had to break the attack.

The tip of his sword shone brilliantly, clashing against Chen Liwei's last resort with a blinding flash.

"Hah!"

With one final cry of exertion, he pierced Chen Liwei's attack with his sword qi, causing the giant mace to dissipate in a shower of multi-colored lights. Luo Shuchang fell to the ground soon after, lying face-down and unable to move.

"You... Damn brats..."

Chen Liwei snarled fiercely, before finally falling, himself, his vitality slowly fading. Before he died... he cursed his colleague that had tipped him off to the area.

"Phew."

Ryker fell on his back, as well, panting heavily. He'd expended more qi than he'd ever used, at once, and the mental strain from moving that much mana was giving him a headache.

"Damn, you do stuff like this all the time?" he asked Luo Shuchang beside him, panting as the adrenaline slowly left his body.

"Do you think I'd still be alive right now if that were the case?" Luo Shuchang's muffled voice came back in response, unable to even turn his head.

The two of them just lay there for a moment, panting and catching their breath, before they slowly began to laugh; weakly, at first, then louder and louder, until their laughter was ringing throughout the entire forest.

--

"Here it is..."

After they had recovered enough to stand and move about, Luo Shuchang approached Chen Liwei's body and took his storage ring. He rummaged around until he found what he was looking for: a small, jade-colored cauldron engraved with cryptic symbols of all kinds, although much of it was weathered and faded with time.

"Is that really what you wanted from this guy?" Ryker asked, giving the cauldron a scrutinizing look. Honestly, he thought it looked like some kind of cheap souvenir you would buy at a tourist gift shop.

"Yes. This Sun and Moon Jade Furnace may not look like much, right now, but once the alchemy spirit residing within it awakens, it'll be a peerless treasure."

Luo Shuchang stopped momentarily, wondering why he was explaining this to him. He would usually be more tight-lipped, in case others started to get any ideas...

He shook his head, however, when he remembered who he was speaking to. Knowing Ryker, he probably didn't even know what it was used for.

"Cool. So what do you do with it?" Ryker asked, right on cue.

"Well, it's used for alchemy. Any further explanation would take too long, so let's leave it at that," Luo Shuchang said with a smile, reaching into his storage space to grab something.

"Here, something that will help you in the near future."

He handed Ryker a shiny, round pill, a bit bigger than most.

"This is a Foundation Coalescing Pill, which will help during your breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment realm," Shuchang explained.

"Take it just as you are about to breakthrough, and it will help solidify your foundation."

"Hm. Well, I don't know what 'solidifying your foundation' means, but thanks!" Ryker said with a big smile.

What he didn't know was that this pill was something highly sought after by everyone on the continent, especially those large families wanting to pour all their resources into one young genius.

How solid a cultivator's foundation was determined how far they could go along the path of cultivation. A pill like the Foundation Coalescing Pill would have them all fighting tooth and nail over it.

It would easily go for hundreds of thousands of spirit stones at the auction house. For reference, that could buy Ryker twenty Roasted Fire Bird skewers everyday for several centuries.

"No worries. I didn't need it, anyways," Luo Shuchang said, waving it off. Putting away the Sun and Moon Jade Furnace, he turned to leave.

"Well, I'll take my leave here, then," he said cheerfully, waving a hand over his shoulder.

"Keep up with your cultivation, enemies of this caliber will only continue to appear, in the future."

"Ah, wait!" Ryker called out as he was walking away, making him pause and look back.

"Yes?"

"Uh, I was gonna ask... You know, Meiling's got this whole thing with a forced engagement, and all that..." Ryker started, unsure of how he really wanted to ask the question.

"I, uh, was just wondering if you knew of any way to... You know, stop that from happening?"

He scratched his head in embarrassment, still thinking about if this was even what he wanted to do.

True, he would consider her to be a friend after their time together, but he also wondered if he wasn't overstepping his boundaries. Although her attitude towards the engagement was clear, he hadn't even talked to her about it, after all.

Though, he supposed It never hurt to have a plan prepared.

"Worried about Miss Meiling, are we?" Luo Shuchang said with his usual calm smile.

"I mean, you just seem like you know a lot of stuff about what's going on, so I was just wondering if you had some advice," Ryker said, looking away awkwardly and scratching his cheek.

"Hm..."

Luo Shuchang looked down in thought, wondering what advice to give. He actually did have an idea on what would happen with Long Meiling's engagement, from here on out, but if Ryker wanted to get involved...

"The biggest issue here is that Long Meiling wouldn't let her family fall into ruin," Luo Shuchang started to explain.

"If she finds out that her engagement is actually necessary for the Long family to stay prominent, she would likely go through with it, regardless of how she feels."

"Uh, and *is* it actually necessary?" Ryker asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

"Yes, a fact she'll find out at the Young Geniuses exhibition in two days," Luo Shuchang answered.

"You'll probably want to talk to her and see how she wants to handle the issue, first. If you can persuade her to leave her family, then of course she won't have to worry about the engagement."

"Hm, I see..." Ryker muttered, nodding to himself, "I guess that makes sense."

"Of course, if everything goes to plan regarding the Great Void Sect, you won't have to worry about that engagement, at all," Luo Shuchang added.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Luo Shuchang looked off into the distance, before nodding to himself, seemingly coming to a decision.

"I believe you're a trustworthy sort of person, Ryker, which is why I'll ask you one more thing: are you willing to risk your life for Long Meiling?"

Ryker was taken aback by the sudden question, knitting his eyebrows together and taking a long moment to think about it. Eventually, he hesitantly asked.

"...How much of a risk are we talking, here?"