A cool breeze brushed past the corner of Li Chu's robe, as though a crow had flown over Virtuous Cloud Temple.
The air fell silent.
After a while, Yu Qi'an was still the one to break the silence. "Little girl, think carefully. Did your grandfather give you any hint about how to save them? Did you not know, or did you simply forget for the moment?"
Yue'er widened her innocent, beautiful big eyes and stared blankly for quite a while, desperately searching through her memories. But she quickly discovered that the more she searched her mind, the less she found...
"I only remember that, back then... back then, I snuck out to play, and then grandfather suddenly contacted me with Spirit Art. He told me so many things, said they'd been captured, and told me to find some Little Daoist Priest... When I went back, I found that my clansmen really were all gone... As for the rest, the rest, I can't remember."
She stammered as she spoke.
"No matter." Yu Qi'an said with a genial smile, "Since that's the case, you can stay here for now. Once we have clues about your clansmen, we'll go save them—er, save the fish. Is that alright?"
Yue'er's gaze wandered between master and disciple for a while. She seemed conflicted, but ultimately nodded.
"Mm. Anyway, grandfather told me to acknowledge him as my master."
"Miss Yue'er..."
Li Chu wanted to say something, but Yu Qi'an tugged at his sleeve and gave him a look, telling him to turn around.
"A koi acknowledging a master is an enormous stroke of fortune, with countless benefits. You should just accept it," Yu Qi'an reminded him.
"But..." Li Chu frowned slightly, still feeling that it was inappropriate.
He had always believed all living beings were equal. He had never considered something like a Demon Slave before.
"A koi's so-called acknowledgment of a master doesn't mean she has to become your servant. It means your fortunes are bound together," Yu Qi'an explained. "After acknowledging you as her master, she can help your luck grow. The more prosperous your luck becomes, the more her cultivation benefits as well. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. Her grandfather probably told her to find you because he had seen your luck before and felt that you were a promising host."
So that was it. Li Chu finally nodded in understanding.
Turning back, he said, "Then, Miss Yue'er, stay here for the time being. You don't have to call me Master from now on. Just call me Li Chu. As long as we receive any news related to your clansmen, I will immediately go rescue them."
Yue'er blinked. "Alright, Master."
For the first time, Li Chu felt that language was so pale and powerless.
"Hehe, you can't blame the little girl," Yu Qi'an chuckled softly. "She hasn't completely taken human form yet. Although she looks human now, she probably still can't adapt to human methods of memory. Once her cultivation improves, she'll gradually get better."
Among the generally foolish aquatic races, koi possessed exceptionally rare intelligence. Not only were they blessed by heaven with the ability to turn misfortune into fortune, they could also grasp the mysteries of taking human form earlier than other demons.
However, when their cultivation was still shallow, even if they could assume human form, they merely possessed an empty shell. They still had a long road ahead.
Someone like Miss Yue'er could be regarded as a person with a fish brain.
Or a fish with a human body.
A new member had suddenly joined the temple, and that was no small matter. Master and disciple were just about to discuss how to arrange things for her when they suddenly heard a burst of commotion from the workers nearby.
Before long, the foreman came over carrying a small box.
"Daoist Yu, Little Daoist Priest Li, we dug this up beneath the foundation of the old wall. It was probably buried by one of your temple's predecessors, right?"
The workers hired by the Wang Family were all sturdy laborers from nearby villages and were fairly familiar with Virtuous Cloud Temple, so none of them had any intention of pocketing it. Besides, under the watchful eyes of the Three Pure Ones, they had even less room for such petty thoughts.
Li Chu glanced at the box he had brought over. It looked quite old, its cover damaged and caked in mud. Who knew how long it had been buried underground.
He took it and opened it. Inside was actually a chest full of silver, packed to the brim. There had to be nearly a hundred taels.
"Whoa."
Master and disciple were ecstatic.
Virtuous Cloud Temple had stood for many years, and they had excavated the ground plenty of times before. This was the first time they had dug up money.
Yu Qi'an looked at Little Yue'er with kindly eyes. "Looks like our Virtuous Cloud Temple is truly about to have its luck turned around."
"You like this stuff?"
Little Yue'er had been watching them with her innocent, beautiful big eyes.
"Ahem." Yu Qi'an coughed lightly. "Cultivators naturally do not place much importance on wealth."
Li Chu also said solemnly, "Money is but a worldly possession."
"But... well, finding money should always make one happy," Yu Qi'an added.
"Right," Li Chu said.
"Really? Then you can have all of this."
Yue'er reached into her utterly unremarkable little chest, pulled out a small pouch, and poured out a clattering heap of loose silver, copper coins, and even a tiny golden fish as thick as a finger.
"You're an aquatic creature. How do you have so much money?"
"I picked it up." Yue'er replied in an unconcerned tone, "I don't know why, but every time I go ashore to play, I find things like this. I thought they looked quite pretty and sparkly, so I saved them all."
Li Chu gave her a long, deep look.
Then he said solemnly, "Please stay at Virtuous Cloud Temple no matter what."
Evening.
Before Li Chu went to the Liu Family Ghost Building, he made a point of checking on Little Yue'er.
She was temporarily staying in a large water tank in the kitchen. Its bottom was covered in soft, fine sand. Her more than four-foot-long slender body was covered in brilliantly seven-colored scales, breathtakingly beautiful.
When she saw Li Chu's face appear above the water surface, she blew out a string of bubbles with a gurgle.
Although she could maintain human form for quite a long time, there was one problem during that time: she could not sleep.
Li Chu observed her carefully and discovered that the reason was that she did not know how to sleep with her eyes closed...
The problem did not sound complicated, but making a fish accustomed to sleeping with her eyes open sleep with her eyes closed was like making someone accustomed to sleeping with their eyes closed sleep with their eyes open. It was still rather difficult.
So at night, she could only return to her Original Form and go back into the water.
The water tank was still somewhat cramped. Li Chu thought that the next goal in renovating the Daoist Temple should be building her a dedicated pond.
It did not matter how much it cost.
A koi was worth it.
Who knew how many wealthy families had specifically dug ponds to raise koi? Yet what they raised were merely ordinary Feng Shui Fish without intelligence. A spiritually aware koi like Little Yue'er—and an exceedingly rare Seven-Colored Koi at that—was something one could encounter only by chance, never seek out.
Going one step further, she might become a Luck Beast capable of influencing a nation's fortune.
Besides that, the top priority was to cultivate her habit of taking walks. Yu Qi'an would be responsible for this, taking the little girl out for a stroll every day.
Walking a fish, after all.
Old People loved doing that.
Especially when they could find money to pick up the moment they stepped outside.
And a koi's luck-turning abilities did not merely help people pick up money. When Li Chu arrived at the Liu Family Ghost Building, he discovered that the ghosts he purified tonight gave especially high Experience Points!
He had only broken through to level seventy-two last night. By the end of tonight, he was already approaching level seventy-three.
He could not help sighing inwardly.
Having a koi really was wonderful.
White Bone Mountain, Corpse Hiding Cave.
Two long Sima faces.
Two Deep Voices.
"Tonight, I organized a group of elites to resist him. The outcome was no different—they were all killed by One Sword Instant Kill. I suspect that the Little Daoist Priest might not even have noticed that their strength differed from before..."
"If this continues, in less than two months, all of Our King's people will be slaughtered by him."
"Could we... lie low for a while and have the ghosts in the Spirit World stop coming out?"
"After the Spirit World lost Our King's power to sustain it, the ghosts inside would likewise die if they went too long without Yin Qi replenishment."
"Then what do we do?"
"We can only speed up the breaking of the seal. As long as Our King returns to the mortal world, every enemy will pay their blood debt in blood!"
Thanks to Unlucky Star of Calamity for the six hundred reward and two thousand five hundred points Recommendation Ticket Red Packet.
(Last night, I noticed that my Recommendation Tickets had risen by a lot in a single minute. I was worried that someone had manipulated votes for me—was I no longer clean...? Later, I learned there was such a thing as Recommendation Ticket Red Packets.)
Thanks as well to everyone who collected and recommended the book.
Thank you for your support.
Before you continue