Who Is Fishing?

That night.

A bright moon hung high in the southeastern sky.

In the meditation chamber of the eastern wing of the Jade Spring Artifact Pavilion, Chen Heng sat cross-legged. After circulating the Water Fire Defense Scripture through several cycles, he opened his eyes and let out a long breath.

The amount of spiritual energy an Energy Refinement cultivator could absorb and refine each day was, in truth, limited.

It was constrained both by the grade of their cultivation technique and by the strength of their physical body and meridians.

If they cultivated by force, they could easily injure themselves.

This was why most Energy Refinement cultivators did not enter prolonged seclusion like higher-level cultivators such as Foundation Establishment true cultivators and Violet Palace Venerables.

When Energy Refinement cultivators entered seclusion, it was usually to break through a bottleneck in their realm.

Chen Heng rose and left the meditation chamber, intending to return to bed for a good night's sleep.

Although Energy Refinement cultivators could replace sleep by meditating and entering trance, thereby restoring their energy,

Chen Heng would still sleep properly every so often. There was no particular reason for it—he simply wanted to relax his body and mind.

The path of cultivation was like drawing and releasing a bowstring; one could not remain taut at every moment.

Just then, he suddenly recalled that he had yet to deal with the beast-hide map in his storage bag.

So,

Chen Heng took it out and casually turned it over several times. Inwardly, he mocked the old talisman master—if his counterfeit techniques had been a little more convincing, he truly might have fooled quite a few cultivators.

Just as he was about to condense fire into a thread and burn it,

he suddenly noticed that the beast-hide map seemed to conceal another mystery. It appeared to have an interlayer.

Seeing this, Chen Heng slowly circulated his true essence and sent out a thread of spiritual power. Carefully lifting the surface layer, he saw the contents etched upon it undergo a heaven-and-earth overturning change.

The map etched by that old bastard had clearly carried a faint yet perceptible sense of separation from the ancient beast hide.

But the map now recorded upon it seemed to be fused seamlessly with the hide itself.

It compelled Chen Heng to investigate further.

After a while, he raised one hand to his forehead, his brows faintly furrowed, and mused, This map is actually real. It even records a cave abode left behind by a predecessor.

But something feels strange. If one did not focus and inspect it carefully, this surface interlayer truly would be difficult to notice.

But could it really be such a coincidence that I discovered it, or is someone using it to fish?

After calculating matters in his heart for a while, Chen Heng put the beast-hide map away. His gaze was dark and unreadable, and no one knew what he was thinking.

When the clamor of the South Foothill Gathering descended upon the market once more, Chen Heng did not personally head to the Rogue Cultivator stalls.

He sat in the highest room of the Jade Spring Artifact Pavilion's eastern wing, his divine sense quietly observing the movements at the outskirts of the market through a luminous screen formed by the Water Mirror Technique.

The old servant, Uncle Fu, had already disguised himself according to plan as a hunched Rogue Cultivator in gray robes.

His face was covered in wind-weathered wrinkles, his palms had deliberately been smeared with a layer of mineral ash, and the low-grade first-rank storage bag hanging from his waist was exceedingly old.

His stall was likewise crude beyond measure: several withered spirit herbs, a few dull ores, and most conspicuously, a copy of South Foothill Miscellany with curled corners.

That beast-hide map concealing its hidden mystery had been cleverly sealed into the interlayer at the spine of the old book.

As the sun slanted westward, Luo Yu Lei indeed came sauntering over with two lackeys.

The young master of the Luo Family swept his gaze across the shabby stall and was about to leave in disdain when Uncle Fu seemed to carelessly shake loose the old book.

From between its yellowed pages, a corner of ancient beast hide was abruptly revealed!

"What is that?" Luo Yu Lei stopped at once, a glint flashing through his eyes. At that moment, however, his greed had already overwhelmed his vigilance.

Uncle Fu coughed hoarsely and slowly tore open the book's seam. "Cough... Some junk I picked up while mining in my early years. If you want it, three spirit stones for the book and all."

Luo Yu Lei snorted with laughter, tossed out the spirit stones, seized the beast hide, and strode away.

One of the lackeys behind him hesitated. "Young Master, doesn't this look like the thing Old Talisman Master Wang used to swindle people with the other day..."

Before he could finish, Luo Yu Lei cut him off. "Idiot! Could that old fraud forge ancient beast hide like this? This method of sealing spiritual power is at least a hundred years old!"

Before the water mirror, the corner of Chen Heng's mouth lifted slightly.

Luo Yu Lei's greed and arrogance, his blind confidence in finding hidden bargains and treasures, and his shallow understanding of the market's scams—every step had been accounted for.

Once Luo Yu Lei cracked the secret of the beast hide's interlayer, he would surely treasure it as if he had obtained a priceless jewel.

And all Chen Heng needed to do was wait quietly for the ripples of the fish biting the hook to spread—

Outside the window, a sudden downpour hammered upon the eaves, like the thunder on the night he had studied the fragmented jade.

Chen Heng lightly tapped the table with his fingertips, cold light like daggers in his eyes. "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind... Luo Yu Lei, you had better catch this 'fortuitous opportunity' steadily."

The next morning, at dawn.

After explaining the situation to Chen Xing Shan, Chen Heng left the Jade Spring Artifact Pavilion through the back door early in the morning and headed for the Garrison Mansion in the central district of Southern Foothills Market.

Southern Foothills Market had been jointly established under the leadership of the three great Foundation Establishment Families of the Moon Gazing Mountain Range, so they naturally bore responsibility for maintaining order in the market.

The Chen, Wu, and Luo Families each had to provide one Foundation Establishment cultivator and several Energy Refinement cultivators to guard Southern Foothills Market on a long-term basis.

The Foundation Establishment cultivator currently responsible for guarding the market on behalf of the Chen Family was Ancestor Chen Tianrui.

Although Chen Heng had visited this Foundation Establishment Ancestor during the half year he had spent at Southern Foothills Market, he might need to leave the market this time. Naturally, he had to ask this ancestor for an item.

Not long after,

Chen Heng arrived before the gates of the Garrison Mansion. Looking at one of the guards, he said, "Please inform Ancestor Chen Tianrui that Chen Clan Disciple Ming Heng has come to pay him a visit."

After speaking, he stepped forward and handed over his identity token.

"Please wait a moment."

Seeing that he was a Chen Clan Disciple, the guard from the Wu Family did not dare neglect him and hurried inside to report.

A short while later.

"Ancestor Chen invites you in. Please enter, Fellow Daoist!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Heng made his way familiarly to the entrance of the courtyard where Ancestor Chen Tianrui was cultivating in seclusion.

At that moment, an elderly man with crimson hair, long brows, crimson robes, an ancient and unadorned face, and an extraordinary bearing happened to emerge.

The man was none other than Chen Tianrui, one of the Chen Family's four Foundation Establishment true cultivators!

Ancestor Chen Tianrui was not wearing the Chen Family's standard Jade Spring Water-Pattern Robe with its black base and white trim. Instead, he wore crimson, because he possessed a sixth-grade fire spiritual root and cultivated fire arts.

He was also currently the Chen Family's only second-rank artifact refiner. Since Chen Heng's attainments in artifact refinement were quite high, he would occasionally come to the Garrison Mansion to seek his guidance.

Chen Tianrui rather liked this Chen Family junior, despite his origins in a minor branch lineage.

And because Foundation Establishment cultivators possessed exceptional divine sense, the two of them happened to meet right at the gate.

Seeing this, Chen Heng hurried forward and saluted. "Ming Heng greets Fifth Uncle-Ancestor!"

Hearing this, Chen Tianrui reached out and patted Chen Heng on the shoulder, laughing heartily. "Youngster Heng, you came to find this old man so early in the morning. Did you encounter some difficult problem in artifact refinement?"

As he spoke, he led Chen Heng into the main hall within the courtyard.

After the two sat down as host and guest, Chen Tianrui said with a smile, "Youngster Heng, since you did not come to consult this old man about artifact refinement today, just say whatever it is. This old man dislikes beating around the bush most of all."

"Fifth Uncle-Ancestor, this junior may need to leave the market today, but I fear that I may fall into someone else's scheme. Thus, I ask you to grant me a transmission jade slip, so that at a critical moment it may lend this junior a hand."

After speaking respectfully, Chen Heng immediately looked at the ancestor with an earnest gaze.

Upon hearing this, Chen Tianrui did not think much of it. He nodded and said, "So that is the matter. It is but a small thing. However, do not leave the market too far behind, lest I be unable to rush to your aid in time."

With that, he took a jade slip from his second-rank storage artifact—the Universe Bag—and handed it to Chen Heng.