Spirit Fish Return Incident

Ten days later, in the talisman room, Zhao Sheng was fully focused, wielding his talisman brush across the talisman paper like a dragon soaring and a snake winding, gradually outlining the sigil pattern of an Invisibility Talisman.

As the final stroke fell, the surface of the talisman paper suddenly blazed with spiritual light, threads of radiance weaving restlessly through the spiritual patterns.

The light soon faded away, leaving only a dull gray First-Order Talisman on the table.

At the sight, Zhao Sheng could not help smiling. "It's finally done."

In ten days, he had ruined nearly two hundred sheets of Talisman Paper before barely managing to draw an Invisibility Talisman.

And that was only possible with the aid of Bullet Time.

Zhao Sheng felt that Invisibility Talismans were difficult, but little did he know that if outsiders learned he had succeeded in merely ten days, every last one of them would have their jaws drop.

There were countless varieties of First-Order Talismans in the Cultivation World, yet the Invisibility Talisman was publicly acknowledged by cultivators as one of the nineteen most difficult First-Order Talismans to draw.

However, he soon came to understand this.

Two quarters of an hour later, inside the Merit Hall, Zhao Keqin, who oversaw exchanges, stared at Zhao Sheng across from him in disbelief and cried out, "What did you say? You really drew an Invisibility Talisman?"

"Uncle Qin, how could that be false? You'll know with one look."

As he spoke, Zhao Sheng took the Invisibility Talisman from his Storage Bag and slapped it onto the table.

Zhao Keqin snatched up the talisman and held it before his eyes, examining it closely.

The lines, talismanic imagery, and spiritual light all matched. It was indeed an Invisibility Talisman.

After looking it over, Zhao Keqin said with extraordinary excitement, "My heavens, our Zhao Family has produced another talisman arts prodigy! Our ancestors must truly be watching over us!"

Zhao Sheng was taken aback. Of course they are! The ancestor is standing alive and well right in front of you.

As for the other talisman arts prodigy Zhao Keqin had mentioned, Zhao Sheng knew he meant Zhao Chongwei.

Zhao Chongwei possessed exceptional talent in the art of talismans. Though only at Qi Refining Level Two, she could already draw more than ten kinds of First-Order Talismans, each with a success rate exceeding fifty percent.

Among the Zhao Family's thirty-one cultivators, no more than five could earn sufficient cultivation resources solely through their own craft without relying on the family. Zhao Chongwei was one of them.

The Zhao Family attached immense importance to Zhao Chongwei and regarded her as a Foundation Establishment seedling. No matter how difficult things became for the family, they would still squeeze out resources for her cultivation.

Whether he was a talisman arts prodigy or not did not concern Zhao Sheng. What concerned him was how many Spirit Stones an Invisibility Talisman was worth.

So he immediately asked, "Uncle Qin, how many Spirit Stones can this Invisibility Talisman be exchanged for?"

Zhao Keqin held up two fingers, delight written across his face. "At least two Spirit Stones."

Hiss! Good heavens! The price was nearly ten times that of a Spring Breeze Rain Talisman, yet their costs were practically the same.

Zhao Sheng's eyes shone brightly upon hearing that. All he could think of was hurrying back and drawing a hundred or so in one go. Wouldn't that make him a fortune?

As it happened, Zhao Keqin was thinking the same thing.

The family was in the midst of hard times, and there were limited ways to earn Spirit Stones. Now that a new source of income had suddenly appeared, how could he possibly let it go?

Thus, Zhao Keqin repeatedly urged Zhao Sheng to return and draw more Invisibility Talismans as soon as possible. He guaranteed that Zhao Sheng would not be shortchanged on the price.

Just as Zhao Sheng was about to leave, a flustered figure suddenly burst into the Merit Hall.

The newcomer looked deeply unsettled and shouted the moment he entered, "Second Brother, something's happened!"

Zhao Keqin ranked second among the Ke generation, so his peers all called him Second Brother.

Zhao Keqin stepped forward to support the man and urgently asked, "Kezhang, speak quickly. What happened?"

Zhao Kezhang was from the Second Branch. Born with Five Spiritual Root Waste, he had only barely reached Qi Refining Level Two after passing fifty.

Making full use of every available hand, the Zhao Family assigned him various minor duties, such as sending and receiving talisman messages, running errands, gathering intelligence, and so on.

Zhao Kezhang said in panic, "I don't know what went wrong, but Jade Pill Pavilion, Hundred Refinements Workshop, the Yellow Peak Lan Family, and the Li Mountain Wei Family have all returned the spirit fish. They all said they won't be buying goods from us anymore."

At those words, not only did Zhao Keqin's expression change sharply, but Zhao Sheng's heart also clenched.

What a ruthless move! The Zhao Family's greatest source of income was the various spirit fish and spirit shrimp produced by Dragon Carp Lake, especially the famed Red Carp and Azure Carp. The flesh of these two spirit fish was delicious and rich in spiritual qi. Not only could it nourish a cultivator's body, it could also drive out the "fire qi" within them.

In the Cultivation World, Weapon Refiners and alchemists, due to the nature of their professions, spent year after year in contact with all kinds of spiritual flames.

Over time, their bodies would inevitably be eroded by the "fire qi" dispersed by those spiritual flames.

At such times, spirit fish rich in water-aspect spiritual qi became an excellent remedy for dispelling fire qi.

For this reason, the Zhao Family's spirit fish meat was highly sought after. Over the past three hundred years, it had made a name for itself across a thousand li and secured a group of stable major customers.

Yet today, all of those major customers had, without prior agreement, refused the spirit fish altogether.

For the storm-tossed Zhao Family, this was nothing short of a disaster.

There had to be a hidden hand behind this! No, perhaps it was merely an unspoken understanding.

Some forces wanted to slowly "force the Zhao Family to death"—such as their "dear in-laws," the Li Mountain Wei Family, and their "good neighbors," the Yellow Peak Lan Family.

Without question, the Zhao Family had encountered another crisis.

If they failed to handle it properly, it could trigger a string of domino-like disasters.

Zhao Keqin quickly calmed down and immediately pressed, "Kezhang, have you notified the others?"

"Not yet. After it happened, you were the first person I thought of, Second Brother." Zhao Kezhang shook his head.

Zhao Keqin was also from the Second Branch. After Zhao Jingang entered seclusion, he had become the person in charge of the Second Branch. That was why Zhao Kezhang had come to him first.

"Notify all clan members of the Jin and Ke generations who are at home. In one shichen, gather at United Hearts Hall to discuss matters."

After giving Zhao Kezhang his instructions, Zhao Keqin turned to Zhao Sheng and said, "Chong He, you should come as well."

Zhao Sheng nodded. Even as the Zhao Clan's nominal patriarch, he had the right to take part in clan affairs.

One shichen later, Lakeheart Hall on Crescent Moon Island.

In the rear hall's council chamber, Zhao Sheng and nine Zhao Clan members of the Jin and Ke generations sat around an enormous black round table over twenty square meters in size.

Zhao Sheng had specially commissioned this round table in his previous life. It symbolized equality and unity.

Before arriving, everyone had already learned that the spirit fish had been returned.

As a result, the atmosphere in United Hearts Hall was extraordinarily oppressive.

No one was a fool. The incident was deeply strange; clearly, someone was pulling strings in the shadows.

Yet this move by the mastermind behind it was truly vicious—it had struck right at the Zhao Family's vital point.

Seeing that no one spoke, Zhao Jinge, the eldest among them, opened his mouth and asked, "Say something! How should this matter be resolved?"

The instant he finished speaking, Zhao Jinpeng suddenly said with an angry face, "Someone must be making trouble behind the scenes. I say that old bastard from the Wei Family is the one behind it."

As soon as he said this, a Ke-generation clansman from the Second Branch rebutted him. "Sixth Uncle, don't speak nonsense without evidence. The Wei Family and our Zhao Family have been joined in a Marriage Alliance for nearly two hundred years, and the two families have always been like branches sharing the same breath. You actually dare suspect Patriarch Wei—what exactly are your intentions?"

"Heh heh, branches sharing the same breath? Only your Second Branch believes his lies." Zhao Jinpeng said in a strange, Yin-Yang tone.