adbindia Chapter 267 - 211: A Good Hand at Raising Fish
Chapter 267 - 211: A Good Hand at Raising Fish
"Why would people from the Nanchu Sect be there? Isn’t that a spatial rift?"
Lechuan couldn’t help but ask. Heiye had been accidentally swept into a spatial rift in the Death Swamp. To run into people from the Nanchu Sect under such circumstances... the odds had to be incredibly low.
That wasn’t all. Huo Cheng continued:
"Besides Nanchu, there were also people from the Qi Yun Chu Family. They were gathered together, and they had captured Heiye. I knew the situation was bad, so I concealed myself and followed them, overhearing some secrets."
The Qi Yun Chu Family was there too. The power of the Qi Yun Chu Family far surpassed that of the Beast Taming Sect’s Huo Family. They had three Nascent Soul Cultivators in their family, and their patriarch, Chu Zhen, was a veteran late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivator.
The Chu Family’s successor was Chu Shentong, while Chu Hongshang was a vassal enfeoffed by the Chu Family. Compared to Huo Gan and his single crane, the Chu Family was far more formidable.
Chu Zhen had even vied for the leadership positions of the other Miscellaneous Affairs Peaks in the past, a testament to his power and influence.
These thoughts flashed through Lechuan’s mind. He saw Fang Qingyuan’s confused expression and knew his disciple’s knowledge was limited. So, he used a voice transmission to quickly explain the Qi Yun Chu Family’s situation to him.
While Lechuan was explaining the Qi Yun Chu Family to Fang Qingyuan, Huo Cheng continued to recount the secrets he had heard.
It turned out that while many of the spatial rifts in the Death Swamp were naturally formed, a portion of them were actually man-made Arrays created by Cultivators.
Over three thousand years ago, the Qi Yun Sect had sent people to hunt a Divinity Transformation Ink Flood Dragon in the Death Swamp but could never find its true body.
They later discovered that the Death Swamp was riddled with many naturally occurring spatial rifts, which the Ink Flood Dragon used to repeatedly escape capture.
Then, a Divinity Transformation Great Cultivator from Qi Yun who was proficient in Spatial Magic came up with a plan. He forcibly created a spatial tunnel connecting the natural spatial rifts. He then set up an ambush there, waiting for the Ink Flood Dragon to be halfway through the passage—a point where it would be completely defenseless—before striking and killing it. In the end, it was this very method that succeeded in slaying the Ink Flood Dragon.
The spatial rift Heiye had accidentally fallen into was one of these very tunnels. And as it happened, he was discovered by the Chu Family, who had four or five Golden Core Cultivators with them on this trip.
The Cultivators from Nanchu recognized Heiye. Since the relationship between the Beast Taming Sect and Qi Yun was fairly good, they didn’t kill him, but simply imprisoned him instead.
And so, Heiye was with the Chu Family as they spent a long time probing an old Array left behind in one of the spatial rifts, right up until Huo Cheng arrived.
After hiding his presence and observing the Chu Family for a while, Huo Cheng realized they were likely there to explore a ruin. This ruin was one of the many outposts the Qi Yun Sect itself had set up back then to encircle and kill the Divinity Transformation Ink Flood Dragon.
These outposts, hidden within the spatial rifts, should have all been dismantled and recovered. For some reason, not only had this particular one not been recovered, but the Chu Family had also been fiddling with it for a long time without being able to get inside.
Next, Huo Cheng pretended to have just arrived and negotiated openly with the Chu Family, successfully rescuing Heiye.
The Chu Family didn’t give Huo Cheng a hard time. Firstly, their two families were on good terms. Secondly, with Huo Cheng and his Companion Beast, they represented two Golden Core-level combatants. The Chu Family didn’t dare to act rashly.
The Chu Family simply made Huo Cheng sign a contract forbidding him from revealing the matter to the outside world, then let him and Heiye leave while they continued to explore the ruin.
But they never expected that Huo Cheng raised an Oath-Keeping Insect, which could bear the consequences of breaking a promise on his behalf. As soon as he was out, he told everyone what had happened.
Of course, the Oath-Keeping Insect wasn’t omnipotent. Huo Cheng still suffered some backlash, which manifested as his appearance aging slightly.
Huo Cheng believed the matter of the ruin in the Death Swamp was of great importance and had to be revealed. The Southern Border Beast Taming Sect was just lucky enough to hear it first. Afterward, Huo Cheng planned to return to Zongshan, inform his own family, and then find a way to contact Huo Gan to let him make the final decision.
After hearing all this, Fang Qingyuan looked at the listless Heiye and thought, ’This Spirit Beast must feel terrible after being imprisoned for so long.’
’Cats are freedom-loving by nature. Imprisoning him would drive him crazier than giving him a beating.’
But compared to the unconscious Zhao Liangde, Heiye was much luckier.
After sharing this information, Huo Cheng left in a hurry the very next day, leaving only Huo Bai to remain stationed there.
As for Heiye, after seeing Zhao Liangde’s condition, he ignored the accusations and pleas of Zhao Liangde’s wife, Hou Ruoyun, and found a place to enter seclusion.
After this ordeal, Heiye felt his strength was too weak. He decided that after breaking through to the mid-stage Golden Core Realm, he would come out and find the enemies from that day to retrieve his master’s lost soul.
As for that woman, Hou Ruoyun, in Heiye’s eyes, she was nothing but a complete fool. He looked down on her.
’She actually wanted me to be her muscle and help her become the head of the Miscellaneous Affairs Peak. How naive.’
As a Spirit Beast who could cultivate to the Golden Core Realm and had lived in human society, Heiye’s intelligence was not much different from that of a human.
Compared to a Golden Core Demon Beast that grew up in the Wilderness Forest, their worldly knowledge and intelligence were on completely different levels.
But if he was outmatched, he was outmatched. That was that.
...
After Huo Cheng left, Lechuan was worried for a while, but then his spirits lifted. He led Fang Qingyuan to the base of a waterfall.
This waterfall was located in the back mountains of Celestial Gate Mountain. Celestial Gate Mountain was the tallest mountain range in the area; besides the main peak of Celestial Gate Mountain itself, there were many other smaller peaks.
In the back mountains of Celestial Gate Mountain, there were many Spiritual Lands for cultivation, though they were much inferior compared to Celestial Gate Mountain’s Tier Three Spirit Vein.
The waterfall before them was one such Spiritual Land. It seemed to only have a Tier Two Lower Grade Spirit Vein, and Fang Qingyuan had no idea why Lechuan had brought him here.
Lechuan gazed at the mist rising from the water and said to Fang Qingyuan:
"Those seven Spirit Fish, did you eat all of them?"
"Not a single one left, I ate them all. What’s wrong, Master? Do you want two of them back?"
The Fang Qingyuan of today dared to joke with Lechuan, unlike the overly polite version from before.
"There is no precedent for me, Lechuan, taking back something I’ve given away. I brought you here this time to ask you a question: would you like to eat these Purple Spirit Crystal Fish more often in the future?"
"Of course I would! But these Purple Spirit Crystal Fish are difficult to raise. Being able to eat a few was already good fortune. How could I eat them often? Unless... Master, you?"
Fang Qingyuan looked at the pool at the base of the waterfall, then recalled that among the Spirit Fish Huo Bai had given Lechuan that day, one of them seemed to have a particularly large belly.
"That’s right. For the past year, I have used my own core Qi to incubate those fish eggs. Not long ago, I finally hatched over a thousand Purple Spirit Crystal Fish fry. They are all in this waterfall pool now."
Lechuan stroked his beard and smiled smugly.
Upon hearing this, Fang Qingyuan’s face lit up with joy. If these Purple Spirit Crystal Fish could be successfully raised, the finances of the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect would improve significantly.
A single adult Purple Spirit Crystal Fish could sell for at least a dozen Top-grade Spirit Stones. If all one thousand of them matured, wouldn’t that be a business worth tens of thousands of Top-grade Spirit Stones?
Of course, Fang Qingyuan only briefly entertained this happy thought. After all, out of a thousand Purple Spirit Crystal Fish fry, how many would actually survive and grow to adulthood?
Fish could lay tens of thousands, or even millions of eggs at a time, but the number of fry that actually survived and grew to maturity was less than one in ten thousand.
By that ratio, the thousand Purple Spirit Crystal Fish fry before him were actually far too few.
"This matter cannot be known by others. After all, I didn’t give any of the Purple Spirit Crystal Fish to the other disciples. If they found out, they would accuse me of favoritism again."
"Then, Master, you mean?"
"From now on, this place is your responsibility. Because my *Insightful and Profound Qi Eating Technique*, combined with your ’Innate Qi’ Divine Technique, is the perfect combination for raising fish."
"Ah!"