Ebony Treasure Ship

Wang Lie glanced at the youth, who had flipped up like a leopard, and was astonished by how dramatically this kid had changed.

Confidence!

That was Wang Lie's first instinct. Chen Fusheng radiated a kind of conviction from head to toe, and it was no different from being reborn.

The silver net that had been flung out formed the shape of a full moon, covering a ten-zhang radius of the distant river before swiftly sinking into the water.

But the fishing net suddenly transmitted a terrifying, bizarre force. With a thunderous boom, it yanked Chen Fusheng back into the river.

"Not good!"

Liu Bai and the others were horrified. Wang Lie had just been about to leap in when a vast expanse of spray suddenly churned up from the river!

Rumble!

In the Black River, Chen Fusheng's body erupted with blazing light. His limbs spun violently as he wrapped the thick rope layer upon layer around his waist!

The scene looked like a spirit snake erupting into a death roll. The commotion was immense, and waves splashed over a wide area.

"Buzz!"

Nine layers of blue light burst from Mu Zhen's palms, forming countless threads that drilled into the river and wrapped around Chen Fusheng's body.

As the energy in Mu Zhen's qi sea erupted and was released through her palms, she forcibly hauled Chen Fusheng out of the river.

"Pull me up, quick!" Chen Fusheng roared, gripping the rope tightly with both hands as his wet hair whipped wildly.

"Quick!"

Energy burst from the qi seas of Liu Bai and Wang Lie in succession. Working together, the three of them pulled him onto the ship.

"You've gone mad!" Wang Lie bellowed like rolling thunder, furious. He had actually bound the rope around his waist? If the fish dragged him away, he would surely die!

Even Liu Bai had been frightened by Chen Fusheng's audacity. This kid was a typical case of valuing money over his life.

Yet Chen Fusheng sat on the ship and continued hauling desperately on the thick rope, straining until his face flushed crimson. His waist had already been abraded until it bled, and the energy in his qi sea was on the verge of erupting!

But his instincts told him that even if he erupted with all his strength, he still would not be able to pull up the fishing net. It was as though he were in a tug-of-war with ten thousand people.

"Up you come!"

After the four of them worked together to drag up the tattered fishing net, at least a dozen fish had escaped in the process.

Instead, the silver spirit fish caught in the torn net thrashed violently, their moonlight-like radiance flickering amid the black mist.

The treasure ship radiated a halo that suppressed the silver fish. When they finally saw the fish clearly, all of them stood frozen in place.

The largest Silver Moon Spirit Fish weighed nine jin, while the smallest weighed roughly two or three jin. There were nine fish in total!

"Th-this is a Silver Moon Spirit Fish Shoal!"

Liu Bai was numb with shock. Nine whole spirit fish! Most outrageous of all was that nine-jin Silver Moon Fish, which could be called a treasure of the Black River. If word got out, it would cause a sensation.

Spirit fish were classified by weight, with ten jin as the dividing line. Those above ten jin were mid-grade spirit fish, while those above twenty jin were top-grade spirit fish!

The difference between each grade was at least several times in effectiveness, and the prices were even more outrageous. Of course, forget about top-grade spirit fish—even catching a mid-grade one was enough to brag about for the rest of one's life.

This nine-jin spirit fish alone was worth more than two thousand star stones, and it was of vital importance even to Other Shore Realm cultivators!

"We struck it rich! We struck it rich! Liu Bai, you dog's son, if this had been a Golden Silk Net instead of a Silver Silk Net, how could it have torn? We would have pulled up at least thirty fish just now!"

Wang Lie growled repeatedly. A Silver Moon Fish Shoal was rarely encountered even once in a century within the five-hundred-li stretch of the Black River, yet they had actually run into one!

What infuriated him was that more than a dozen fish had escaped!

Liu Bai grinned foolishly with delight. Chen Fusheng would take sixty percent, and the rest of them could each split off one fish.

Mu Zhen glanced at the rope marks around Chen Fusheng's waist and his mangled hands, estimating that the quality of Chen Fusheng's special physique was fairly high.

When she saw the joy erupting from the youth's clear eyes, she paused slightly.

A jade-green bottle flew out from within Mu Zhen's sleeve.

Drops of silver liquid flowed from the bottle's mouth and scattered evenly over Chen Fusheng's wounds. Before their eyes, the bleeding stopped and scabs formed.

"This is Star Essence Liquid. Thank you, Senior Sister."

Chen Fusheng stood and offered his thanks. Star Essence Liquid was an essence refined by powerful star masters from stellar matter. It could effectively aid cultivation and recovery, and was also known as spirit pill liquid.

"You reacted quickly. But your method was a little too crazy. Be more careful in the future."

Though she said that, Mu Zhen's eyes still glimmered faintly as she looked at him. It was exceedingly rare for a beginner to possess such courage.

"I knew you were on the ship. Otherwise, how would I have dared?" Chen Fusheng chuckled. If he had not been completely certain he could escape, how would he have dared to do that?

By binding the rope around his waist, he could use the flexibility of the Spirit Snake Diagram's physical form to quickly undo it.

Us? Mu Zhen's gaze turned strange. They had only known each other for a few days, yet he had actually dared to entrust his life to them? Wasn't he being far too innocent?

"Don't do that again in the future. What if someone kicked you off, sailed away, and left you to find the Flood Dragon Lord to plead your case?" Wang Lie still felt shaken as he lowered his head and berated him.

Liu Bai nodded along, though he felt that something about those words was off.

"I definitely won't do that when teaming up with other people in the future!"

Those words made Mu Zhen and the others feel exceptionally pleased. But from the distant river, an incomparably heavy pressure suddenly spread toward them.

"Roar!"

A deafening beast roar followed. Layer after layer of the river's surface exploded, and boundless raging waves slammed toward the treasure ship.

"Something major has happened. Leave, quick!"

Liu Bai saw a huge silhouette flickering in and out of view across the distant river, along with dozens of demonic beasts stirring up wind and waves.

"What's that? The Inner Courtyard's Ebony Treasure Ship? The demonic beasts are fighting the Ebony Treasure Ship!"

Mu Zhen's pupils gleamed as she watched. The Ebony Treasure Ship was a top-grade treasure ship belonging to the Inner Courtyard, powerful enough to venture a thousand li into the Black River and dominate an entire region!

The Ebony Treasure Ship had an even more distinctive feature. The enormous vessel swallowed and exhaled black clouds that obscured half the sky, resembling an ancient savage beast rampaging across the Black River.

Strangely, in Mu Zhen's mental assessment, the various demonic beasts attacking the Ebony Treasure Ship with such madness were not particularly strong!

"Not particularly strong, yet they're attacking the Ebony Treasure Ship?"

Wang Lie did not care about the details and said, "The Ebony Treasure Ship has helped lure the demonic beasts away. Now is the perfect time to retreat. Hurry up and go!"

On the way back, Chen Fusheng looked over his shoulder into the distance and saw the spectacular sight of Silver Moon Fish leaping into the air across the vast black mist. Against the scenery of the black mist, it looked especially eerie.

"My mother, how enormous must that fish shoal be? They definitely came from the depths of the Black River. What Fusheng caught just now was merely a small squad from the shoal!"

Liu Bai exclaimed in shock, "How about we go back and take advantage of the opportunity to make a big haul?"

"Do you have a fishing net? Do you? You don't even have a single hair." Wang Lie's retort made Liu Bai tremble all over.

"No! The Ebony Treasure Ship never stopped to cast a net. It seems to be heading toward some objective. And those demonic beasts didn't devour the Silver Moon Fish either. This is highly unusual!" Mu Zhen was still analyzing the situation.

"Could it be?"

Mu Zhen and the others exchanged glances in unison. "An evolving fish king?"

"What fish king?"

Chen Fusheng lay down and submerged his palm in the water. Through the Spirit Snake Diagram, he sensed the fluctuations of more than thirty demonic beasts, and even farther away, an incomparably powerful demonic beast was approaching.

Moreover, he sensed the fluctuations of countless Silver Moon Fish!

It was simply inconceivable—a super-large Silver Moon Fish Shoal. Could it be that the Ebony Treasure Ship had driven them toward the outer river region?

"A fish king? That thing is practically a legend."

Liu Bai said, "I remember last year, when the Flood Dragon Ship set out from the river, it encountered a fish king three thousand li into the Black River. In the end, they failed to capture it!"

"A fish king can contend with the Flood Dragon Ship?" Chen Fusheng was stunned. He had never seen the Flood Dragon Ship, but he knew it had been constructed from a flood dragon skeleton, and only Inner Courtyard disciples could take it out onto the river.

"To be precise, the fish king could be called part of the Black River itself. It's not only immensely powerful—it can even mobilize the Black River's fish shoals to protect it. It is truly the king among fish!"

Wang Lie had just reached this point when Mu Zhen added, "Since it's a super-large Silver Moon Fish Shoal, that means a Silver Moon Fish King is about to be born. The commotion during the fish king's evolution is too great, so it needs to be carried out in a safe area."

"That's not all."

Liu Bai said, "For a top-grade Silver Moon Fish to evolve, it must swallow the mysteries of the great sun at dawn. Only then can it leap over the Dragon Gate and transform into a fish king!"

"Yin and yang aiding each other, water and fire blending."

Liu Bai exclaimed in amazement, "Legend has it that the Silver Moon Fish King can even cure Cold Abyss Poison."

"You know about Cold Abyss Poison?"

Mu Zhen looked at Liu Bai in surprise. Ever since Ancient Era, the Cold Abyss had fallen to become the First Forbidden Ground of the Abyss Realm. It was said to be capable of freezing even Other Shore Realm star masters to death.

Given Mu Zhen's status, she did not even know what had happened during Ancient Era. It was a mysterious period of history, one that was also deeply connected to the Ancient Zhou Dynasty that had once ruled the Abyss Realm.

But the Zhou Dynasty had long since become dust in the river of history.

Liu Bai was too embarrassed to say that he had heard it from his girlfriend, so he said, "Isn't it the Abyss Realm's number-one strange poison? I only heard about it."

"The Abyss Realm's number-one strange poison?" Chen Fusheng hurriedly asked, "The Cold Abyss? Could it be the Cold Poison?"

Seeing Mu Zhen nod, the fist hidden within Chen Fusheng's sleeve clenched instantly.

Even the number-one strange poison could be cured. Wouldn't Grandpa's Cold Poison be easily resolved?

"These vile beasts actually dare to compete with me for the Silver Moon Fish King!"

Far away, on the three-story Ebony Treasure Ship, more than a dozen Other Shore Realm star masters stood proudly. The silver-robed young man leading them had a face as sharply carved as a knife. He said coldly, "Kill all these demonic beasts before dawn!"

"Senior Brother, dawn is about an hour away. Judging from the situation we're facing, no truly powerful demonic beasts have come to compete with us."

A tall, graceful young woman chuckled. She wore a yellow short skirt that revealed her shoulders, and a black-and-gold pearl necklace around her slender neck set off her fair, delicate skin.

"Of course. Junior Sister, you really are lucky. If you hadn't come to the Black River to carry out a mission, and if I hadn't happened to come along to help, and if we hadn't happened to encounter the Silver Moon Fish Shoal along the way, and if we hadn't happened to run into the spirit fish's evolution—hahaha, we chased this vile beast for five hundred li! It must have long since been exhausted!"

The silver-robed young man laughed loudly. "Once we successfully capture the fish king, I'll ask my grandfather to send you to the Star Palace for three months of secluded cultivation."

"I will never forget Senior Brother's kindness." Huang Li was as moving as a delicate flower. Ling Yao's grandfather was a High-Ranking Star Official in the Star Palace, a person of immense power and authority who held life and death in his hands and possessed terrifying strength.

"Senior Brother Ling Yao, we've located the top-grade spirit fish!"

"Excellent. Follow it with all your might. Don't capture it yet. Strike when it evolves at dawn!"

Ling Yao threw his head back and laughed, inwardly marveling that although Huang Li came from a lowly background, her luck was truly extraordinary.