Chapter 422: Fishing

His new gun had just gained a spark of spirituality. His next task was to nurture it slowly, steadily consolidating and expanding that spark before gradually absorbing it into his sea of consciousness.

In the blink of an eye, several more days had passed. One day, Wei Yuan suddenly awoke from his meditation at the same time his spirit treasure, Brutality, had fully entered his sea of consciousness. Fully activated, its hidden miracle also unveiled itself: at the cost of permanently depleting its spirituality, it could unleash a single strike with exponentially greater power!

Now that his spirit treasure had fully taken form, Wei Yuan opened his eyes. Suddenly, something stirred within him. Before his eyes were two pills, each the size of an egg and as translucent as rubies.

The two pills were simply floating there, appearing merely beautiful at first glance. But the moment Wei Yuan touched them, it was as if he heard the roar of a True Dragon in his ears, and the blood in his veins immediately began to boil!

These were precious elixirs refined from two droplets of dragon liver blood. The refining had left few traces, and the focus was primarily on refining the medicinal properties so that the essence within the dragon liver blood would be released bit by bit, with minimal interference with the essence itself. True Lord Dan Ming had always believed that pill-making was similar to cooking a small, freshly caught fish: the higher the quality of the ingredients, the more one must preserve their original flavor.

Wei yuan suppressed the boiling blood inside his veins, tucked the two pills away, and went to find Zhang Sheng.

Zhang Sheng was still reading the Daozang, calm and composed. Even though finding a new path within the Daozang was as difficult as scaling the heavens, she showed neither panic nor impatience, reading the text as casually as one might peruse a novel after a meal.

Wei Yuan tiptoed up behind her and leaned forward slightly. He was going to catch a whiff of her hair, but suddenly, he thought of the all-knowing True Lords and had no choice but to suppress the unnecessary gesture. He then stepped in front of Zhang Sheng and placed the two pills in front of her.

Zhang Sheng looked up, a smile flickering in her eyes—a natural delight at seeing Wei Yuan.

Only then did she look down at the pills and ask, “What are these?”

“Medicine to nourish your body.”

Zhang Sheng chided him, “I’m not... I hardly need nourishment, do I?”

Wei Yuan instinctively wanted to say, “You need nourishment everywhere, but immediately recalled the assembly of True Lords and hurriedly swallowed the words. In fact, he had already carefully sensed his surroundings and detected nothing.

But the fact that he hadn’t detected anything was suspicious in itself.

Noticing Wei Yuan’s expression, Zhang Sheng immediately understood what he was thinking and said, “If the wilderness is silent, then a tiger must be near. If you cannot sense a single wisp of perception in your surroundings, then it must mean that they are all present.”

Wei Yuan understood this logic as well. Though he felt reluctant, there was nothing he could do about this. After all, they were literally being watched right now, not to mention that there was nothing he could’ve done in the first place because Zhang Sheng needed to take her medicine immediately. Her body was in shambles at the moment. She might not even have the stamina to withstand the potency of the medicine.

Zhang Sheng smiled faintly, set down the Daoist text in her hands, and rose to her full height. Then, she gently pecked Wei Yuan on the lips.

Wei Yuan’s mind went blank in an instant. Across the Great Realm, thunder roared and struck down dozens of people. Some had harbored ill intent, but most of them were simply unlucky.

At that moment, only one thought occupied his mind: So many True Lords are watching! What are we supposed to do now?

Zhang Sheng sat back down as if nothing had happened, preparing to continue reading her book. However, Wei Yuan had a faint sensation that somewhere in the Beyond, something had briefly boiled before falling silent.

Wei Yuan barely composed himself before explaining, “These... These two pills were refined by Senior Dan Ming using dragon liver blood. They can regenerate one’s Dao Foundation. Please take them immediately.”

Zhang Sheng gave him a little nudge and replied, “Very well, I’ll take them now. You may go back.”

Wei Yuan instinctively reached out to take her hand, but the impulse only lasted an instant before he restrained himself. He really didn’t know how to gauge the balance in a situation like this; it would be better to just let Zhang Sheng take the lead.

And so Wei Yuan left the small courtyard in a daze, and remained so even after he had returned to his quarters.

Under a large tree at the northern mountain gate, a woman in red gazed at the familiar line on the page—“510 words are omitted here.”—closed the novel in her hand, and sighed. “Today’s chapter was truly disappointing.”

Wei Yuan returned to his room, flopped down on his bed, and stared blankly at the ceiling. He had handed the dragon blood pills over to Zhang Sheng, and they would help restore her damaged body. Only now did Wei Yuan belatedly begin to feel a sense of joy. This joy was so immense that it filled the heavens and the earth and permeated every corner between his heart and his spirit. It was omnipresent, irresistible, and would endure until the end of time itself.

Before this, Wei Yuan could only watch helplessly as Zhang Sheng slowly but surely slipped into the abyss. Who would have thought that such a surprise would emerge from Dragonhawk’s treasure? Had he not appeared in the far north and just happened to slay Dragonhawk, how could this fateful moment have come to pass today?

To pull her from the abyss of death with his own two hands—this joy was so immense that Wei Yuan momentarily thought that he was dreaming. Even now, he could scarcely believe it.

Wei Yuan sprang to his feet, took out the historical texts, and pored over them at his desk.

In such a time of joy, not reading a few more chapters of human wisdom would truly be a waste of this heavenly good fortune[1].

The shadows of the trees outside the window fluttered in sync with the turning pages, and the history of the human race spanning over hundreds of thousands of years unfolded bit by bit before Wei Yuan’s eyes. But suddenly, he furrowed his brow, stopped turning the pages, and stared intently at a single sentence:

“If a state is the body, then the noble clans are the bones, and the cultivators are the flesh and blood. Such is the way of the world.”

This was an essay on the principles of state governance. It was a renowned classic Wei Yuan had read since he was a child. Back then, he had only grasped the surface of its meaning, but now, with his cultivation, experiences, and perspective having changed, he sensed that something was amiss.

He read the essay once more and finally realized one thing: Not once had a single instance of the word “human” appeared throughout the text.

Wei Yuan set the essay aside, his mood no longer as jubilant as it had been moments before.

Just as he was pondering his current situation, Wei Yuan suddenly heard a voice calling him. The scene before him shifted, and he found himself by the shore of a small lake. A young Daoist sat on the lakeshore, fishing.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan arrive, the young Daoist said nothing. He simply handed him a fishing rod.

Wei Yuan had never fished before, so he simply mimicked the young Daoist’s movements, casting the line and waiting quietly for a bite. However, there was no bait on the fishing rod, and the hook was straight.

The young Daoist said slowly, You are now qualified to fish. Although your fishing grounds are currently limited to this small lake, sooner or later, you will cast your line into the sea of clouds and fish for the world.”

Wei Yuan didn’t know how to respond mainly because he really didn’t understand fishing and so did not know the relevant terminology. No matter what kind of reply he came up inside his head, it always fell short to his expectations.

The young Daoist said casually, “People fish for fish, but fish also fish for people. Although our hooks are straight, there are many fish in this world who would willingly take the bait. You’ll soon see that no matter how cunning a fish is, there’s always a way to reel it in.”

Wei Yuan clutched his fishing rod, yet felt not a shred of confidence.

Looking relaxed, the young Daoist gazed at the calm lake and said, “Under the influence of the Great Karmic Curse, you broke through the void and appeared far north. Despite harrowing circumstances, you ultimately narrowly escaped death and returned. Not only that, your cultivation has advanced significantly. Don’t you think that your good fortune lined up just a little too perfectly?”

“This disciple thinks so as well.”

“The destinies of all True Dragon bloodline descendants are pre-arranged. The fisher had not even bothered to hide this fact. But despite knowing that everything is pre-arranged, True Dragon descendants will still fight each other to the death whether they want to or not. Hehe. In that sense, the one who set up this scheme is truly a master fisher.”

This was precisely what Wei Yuan had been worrying about, so he seized the opportunity to ask, “How should this disciple break free from this scheme?”

The young Daoist merely smiled and replied, “Keep fishing for now. When the fish takes the bait, I’ll tell you then. When you see the fish, even if I don’t say anything, you’ll naturally understand seven or eight parts of it.”

So the two continued fishing.

A teatime passed....

An incense stick passed....

A gentle breeze blew by, and there seemed to be birdsong in the wind.

Two hours passed, yet neither of their fishing rods showed the slightest movement.

The young Daoist’s smile remained, and he looked completely confident. However, Wei Yuan instinctively sensed that the atmosphere in the air had quietly shifted. If he were to strike up a conversation at this moment, something unpredictable might easily happen.

The lake’s surface was as smooth as a mirror, without the slightest ripple, but Wei Yuan sensed that beneath the water, countless pairs of eyes were staring at their fishing hooks. The problem was, not a single one of them was making a move.

Suddenly, an absurd thought crossed Wei Yuan’s mind: Had all these fish simply eaten their fill? But upon realizing that they were using straight hooks, Wei Yuan concluded that the only ones who had eaten their fill here were the fishers.

The young Daoist remained motionless as a wisp of fortune quietly drifted from his wide sleeve and imperceptibly settled on the hook.

For some unknown reason, the fish in the lake felt their minds were unusually clear today. The years of befuddlement had suddenly lifted, and they saw through the treacherous immortal’s scheme as clear as day.

A big fish tapped a small fish beside it. The small fish, ready to face death, charged forward, bit down on the wisp of fortune, then spat out the hook and swam back to present it to the big fish.

The big fish swallowed the wisp of fortune with satisfaction, and a scale on its head turned golden. It tapped the small fish again, and the small fish swam joyfully behind the big fish, joining the ranks of the other small fish.

Another two hours passed....

The young Daoist said calmly, “Just now, a fish took the bait but swam away. This clearly illustrates how elusive the world’s fortune can be. As the saying goes, ‘Form is precisely emptiness, and emptiness is precisely form. Whether there are fish or not, they are all a part of the Dao....”

1. I feel like many people’s lives would be better if they practiced just this one habit of Wei Yuan, namely doing something productive after getting a lucky break instead of just going crazy about it. ☜