Uncle Ji, Night Talk

Yun Shou woke in the afternoon.

He set up a small pot, gutted the few little fish left at home, tossed out the innards, then threw the fish into the pot to boil.

Once he lit the fire, bubbles soon began to gurgle up from the pot, and waves of fresh fragrance spread through the air.

The fish he had put into the pot were also called Three-Fresh Fish. When boiled, their bubbling broth gave off one kind of fresh fragrance; one sip of the soup brought another burst of deliciousness; but most exquisite of all was the smooth, fresh taste of the flesh upon entering the mouth. Hence the name Three-Fresh Fish.

Even when sold through those crooked merchants, they could fetch more copper coins.

But ever since Yun Shou had activated the Simulator, he had kept a few Three-Fresh Fish from each of his two fishing hauls for himself.

Before he had the Simulator, it was understandable to hand over the good fish from his catch and earn a little more money to make a living.

But now that he had the Simulator, if he still did not enjoy life, wouldn't he have gotten it for nothing?

"Full and satisfied. Time to work hard."

Yun Shou practiced a set of the Flowing River Technique, sending Force Qi deep into his body to nourish his internal organs.

Half an hour later, he completed the full cycle of cultivation and opened his eyes.

Helplessly, he said, "This progress... is practically zero."

"It has to be day after day, year after year. Only measured in years can changes in the strengthening of my internal organs be seen."

Yun Shou gave up cultivating, went outside, picked up a branch, and after making sure no one was around, began displaying the Combat Techniques that had likewise been branded into his body.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

His azure Force Qi lashed out from the branch's tip like spiritual snakes, carving trench after trench into the ground. Each trench was deep and wide enough to fit a baby's forearm.

Dust flew everywhere. Yun Shou hurled the branch at a greenwood tree more than a dozen paces away. Empowered by his force, the branch shot straight through the tree, leaving behind a hole the size of a longan.

"A Second-rate Martial Artist is merely a Bone-Crushing Maniac, capable of shattering an ordinary person's bones with one slap. But a First-rate Martial Artist, with Force Qi, can truly kill with flying flowers and plucked leaves."

Yun Shou tried to strike out a burst of Force Qi from thin air without relying on any object.

The Force Qi was pale blue. Just after leaving his body, it was solid as iron, but after merely five paces, it rapidly dispersed. Beyond ten paces, it completely broke apart, leaving only a faint breeze that stirred the grass and trees.

"My range is barely one zhang—just over three meters."

"As expected of a martial world. A First-rate Martial Artist already counts as one above others. Perhaps they are nothing remarkable in a great city like Qingcheng, but in some smaller city, they would already be enough to make a City Lord welcome them with shoes on the wrong feet."

"But in a cultivation world, that level of combat power would probably only be around the middle stage of Qi Refinement..."

"Then here comes the question." Yun Shou could not help pondering.

"What level of martial expert is Zhu Baowen? Could there be Martial Kings and Martial Emperors above Grandmasters?"

"Can a Grandmaster shatter the void and ascend?"

"That can't be right... No matter how I think about it, even someone who can slap a city wall to death is still far, far too weak to shatter the void..."

Or perhaps...

Yun Shou looked around. The Green Lake before his eyes had no visible boundary; the mountains layered upon mountains; the blue sky was filled with clouds unfurling and gathering.

"This is only some tiny broken island. The world is boundless, so perhaps beyond the seas lie gigantic continents millions, even hundreds of millions, of li in length and breadth..."

By evening, most of Yun Shou's neighbors had returned from their boats.

Old Man Wang, who had saved him after he fell into the lake, was actually only fifty. He could not be called truly old, but excessive toil had weathered his face until he looked sixty or seventy.

"Xiao Shou, didn't see you today," Old Man Wang greeted him.

"Haha." Yun Shou smiled and replied, "I met a strange man today. He insisted I was a martial arts genius and wanted to take me as his disciple. Maybe I'll soon become one of those legendary martial artists too."

Old Man Wang gave an amused cry, clearly unconvinced. "Don't tell me some old beggar from who-knows-where fooled you." He shook his head, and a trace of bitterness surfaced on his face. "In this world, who doesn't want to become a martial artist? But people like us, born with the fate of catching fish, can't cultivate it."

Yun Shou said nothing further. Time would prove everything.

With another one or two simulations, even Xu Ruohai, the Qing He Gang's leader, would have to be crushed beneath his feet. That would be the day he burst into fame with a single cry.

Or he could stay steady for another few days, perhaps a dozen days, then—bam!—display the power of a Supreme Grandmaster and directly sweep... Forget it. As for sweeping through Qingcheng, he should wait until he knew what level Zhu Baowen was first.

"But I can go make waves elsewhere. Mm, after I repay the people of this fishing village for their help."

That night, Uncle Ji invited Yun Shou to eat at his home.

Uncle Ji's real name was Ji Kangnian. He was thirty-one, and his wife was Song Hongyan.

The two were still fishermen.

Yun Shou had an extremely favorable impression of Uncle Ji. In fact, throughout Qing He Village, this little fishing village, there were only four or five people he thought well of. Old Man Wang was one; Uncle Ji and his wife made three. All of them had helped him after he lost his parents.

The others had not kicked him while he was down, but they had merely fulfilled the most basic duty of being human. Likewise, when Yun Shou soared high in the future, he would not bring those people along with him.

"Yun Shou, in the coming years, I may not be able to take such good care of you in matters of fishing." As the food entered his mouth, Ji Kangnian sighed. He had originally told Yun Shou from time to time where schools of fish gathered.

He was the classic kindhearted man, one who even felt that being unable to help others was somehow a debt owed to them.

Yun Shou repeatedly shook his head. "Please don't say that, Uncle Ji. You've already helped me far too much these past two years. But... did something happen?"

He asked in confusion.

Ji Kangnian gave a bitter smile. "The Qing He Gang says they want to bring in a group of steady boatmen and do business with the Water Grass Gang, over a hundred li away on the other side of Green Lake.

"The two gangs say they are jointly establishing a shipping organization. They selected some people, and the two of us are among them. We'll be responsible for ferrying traffic between the two shores."

Yun Shou froze, then suddenly understood. He now knew why Uncle Ji had worked part-time as a boatman in the previous two simulations. There had clearly been no sign of it before; it turned out he had been forcibly transferred by the gang.

And in the third simulation, he had probably used his status as an official member of the Qing He Gang to transfer Ji Kangnian back—or rather, to take good care of him, so that his wife Song Hongyan would not have to work part-time as a "boatwoman." The simulation had simply omitted descriptions of such experiences.

So the fact that Ji Xiaoyu, their "daughter," had never been mentioned throughout the simulations probably had not been an omission. Yun Shou had some confidence in himself; he was not some ungrateful white-eyed wolf.

As for helping this couple and causing Ji Xiaoyu—a person who had liked him greatly in the simulations—to disappear...

Yun Shou felt nothing.

He had never chosen to inherit the memories of those experiences. Ji Xiaoyu was merely a brief name that had appeared fewer than ten times in the Simulator. Someone who had never existed—why should he care about their passing?

"Good thing I didn't inherit those memories, or I'd be making a fool of myself," Yun Shou secretly thought. "Ji Xiaoyu isn't even worth a trace of wind and frost."

"Besides, this couple isn't infertile. They can give birth to their own Ji Xiaoyu. If souls truly exist in this world, then she would simply be the very same person anyway."