Blue Scale Carp

The Long Beach had frozen into a white ribbon, leaving only the lower reaches of the Cold Pool with flowing water. It was undoubtedly the best time to catch Blue Scale Carp.

"One Blue Scale Carp is worth a thousand taels of gold."

A thousand taels of gold could buy six hundred mu of paddy fields or two thousand mu of dry fields in Pingding Prefecture—enough to turn a poor boy into a middling landowner and amass three generations' worth of family wealth overnight.

That was enough to change an ordinary person's fate. Yet the things that changed one's fate were often fatal as well.

In past years, the best swimmer among Pingding Prefecture's fishermen would come every winter to seek this heaven-defying chance to change his destiny.

Only after paying a horribly heavy price did they remember that the folk song had two more lines: "The fish sinks into Hanyuan; a hundred lives cannot buy it."

A bonfire had been built by the shore.

Steam billowed from the great cauldron, and the fragrance of wine filled the air.

There were a full twenty pounds of Drunken Immortal Tower's "Fire Burn Throat" in the two jars.

After entering the mouth, this high-proof liquor felt like a raging fire burning through the body.

Only the most hopeless alcoholics dared drink two taels of it, savoring it slowly and enjoying the pleasure woven together with pain.

Zhang Yu took off his outer garment and gulped down five or six mouthfuls of "Fire Burn Throat."

Blackwood Cliff had issued a new decree from the Cult Leader. Saint Aunt had left headquarters and gone to Luoyang to take charge, while all authority within the Cult had fallen into Yang Lianting's hands.

Immediately afterward, Wu Lianjiang was branded with "negligence and blindness, muddled handling of affairs, resulting in a disastrous defeat." Although he was no longer considered a traitor, his property was still confiscated, and his family was sentenced to three years of hard labor.

Next, another group of old officials and former members who had been acquainted with the previous leader, Ren Woxing, were eliminated.

Prison carts traveled back and forth along the official road every day, one after another.

These days, Zhang Yu did not stay at Taiping Inn. Instead, he lived in a thatched hut at Gorilla Beach, worried that if anything changed, he might be caught in a trap.

The orders issued by Blackwood Cliff had a self-contradictory air about them.

Because of the "Mourning Order," the united spirit of the Cult members, who had finally rallied against their common enemy, once again dissipated amid ridiculous infighting.

"That mad dog Yang Lianting bites anyone he catches now. Tong Baixiong has such deep roots that Yang can't bite through them for the time being, but he might come after me someday."

Zhang Yu became increasingly determined to be assigned away from headquarters and develop himself gradually elsewhere.

That was why he needed a present worthy of Jiazi's birthday celebration, so that afterward he could ask Tong Baixiong for a favor.

It was rather amusing when he thought about it.

"In high school, you had to give gifts to change seats. In college, you had to give gifts to be selected for honors. When going on a blind date, you stuffed a red envelope into the matchmaker's hand. Even when ordering takeout, you bought two packs of Lotus cigarettes for the residential compound's security guard. After transmigrating and joining the Sun Moon Divine Cult, I still have to keep giving gifts."

"Wherever there are people, there is jianghu. And wherever there is jianghu, you generally have to give gifts."

Zhang Yu circulated his Internal Energy to draw out the liquor's potency, then plunged headfirst into the Cold Pool.

With the Green Jade Thumb Ring, holding his breath underwater was no problem. The main issue was resisting the cold. Even with the liquor's support, his current inner cultivation allowed him to last only eight minutes in the icy water.

The cold water pierced to the bone, as if he had fallen into a ten-thousand-year-old ice cavern. The water below was dark and murky; he could see only a few feet ahead. Black shadows occasionally swam past, but whenever he tried to approach and identify them, they darted away underwater as swiftly as galloping horses.

The first time, he picked up a hibernating turtle. Failure.

Recover his Internal Energy, drink wine, get back in the water...

The second time, he returned empty-handed. Failure.

Recover his Internal Energy, drink wine, get back in the water again...

The third time, he caught a water snake. Still a failure. This time, he had nearly failed to make it back to shore.

Recover his Internal Energy, drink lots of wine, get back in the water again.

It was nearly dark when Zhang Yu shot out of the water. Ice crystals had formed on his eyebrows and hair. He was holding a fish, his entire body trembling uncontrollably, yet his face was filled with irrepressible delight.

"I finally did it!"

The carp weighed seven or eight pounds. Its body was slender, and blue scales covered it from head to tail without a trace of any other color. It emitted a lustrous blue glow. Its teeth were sharp, and even after leaving the water, it continued to struggle, trying to bite apart the demonic hand clamped around its gills.

This was the Blue Scale Carp worth "a thousand taels of gold, impossible to buy even with a hundred lives."

Zhang Yu walked over to the bonfire and immediately froze.

The half-cauldron of strong liquor he desperately needed to warm himself was gone. Only a few taels of leftover wine remained at the bottom.

He tossed the Blue Carp into a wooden bucket, drew his long sword with trembling hands, and shouted curses at the reeds. "Wine thief! If you've got the guts, come out here and face your grandpa!"

As soon as his voice fell,

"I'm coming out. What can you do about it?"

The man slowly walked out of the reed bed. He wore blue robes and had an exquisitely handsome face. In his hand was a white jade wine gourd, and his bearing was almost immortal. His thick brows were as if painted, and his phoenix eyes were sharp. Even as a wine thief, he still possessed an overbearing aura that looked down upon all under heaven.

Zhang Yu was stunned. In both his previous and present lives, he had never seen such a beautiful man. For a moment, his presence weakened by a third.

"Did you drink my wine?"

The man in blue robes smiled. "Steal? Then I'll return it to you."

He casually flung out the white jade wine gourd. It spun rapidly through the air, wrapped in wind and snow, and crashed toward him.

When he saw the gourd nearing him, Zhang Yu was shocked. That tremendous force was like a mountain being shifted, incomparably powerful—absolutely beyond what he could withstand.

He immediately executed Flowing Clouds and Water, leaping two steps sideways before the white jade wine gourd struck his chest.

The wine gourd actually curved around and continued flying toward him. Zhang Yu did not dare pause for even an instant, pushing Flowing Clouds and Water to its limit.

A figure kept leaping and wheeling across the rocky beach.

It looked extremely dangerous and utterly disheveled, yet he always managed to dodge at the precise instant the white jade gourd drew near. His grasp of timing was astonishingly accurate.

With every successful evasion, the momentum of the white jade wine gourd gradually diminished.

The man in blue robes' eyes flickered, and he chuckled. "Interesting. For Flying Cloud Divine Skill to have an inheritor like this, Wu Lianjiang must have exhausted the luck of his next life."

After dodging more than a dozen times, Zhang Yu finally caught the wine gourd. Its remaining force still shoved him down onto his backside in the water.

He opened it and saw a golden liquid inside, like divine nectar. It was not Drunken Immortal Tower's "Fire Burn Throat."

At first sniff, its fragrance was even deeper and richer, extraordinarily enticing. Especially now, with the weather freezing cold, he desperately needed strong liquor to warm his body.

Zhang Yu lifted the gourd and took a sip.

Then a second.

Then a third.

Zhang Yu stopped.

He felt the wine turn into a surge of vigorous Internal Energy the moment it entered his mouth. It blasted open his meridians and poured into his Dantian, instantly transforming the water mist that had yet to liquefy into a pool, gradually filling it to the brim.

Yet only half of that Internal Energy had dissipated; the rest still rampaged through his meridians.

The man in blue robes smiled. "Keep drinking. This is the Hundred Year Golden Monkey Wine that martial artists throughout the jianghu can only dream of obtaining. At your level, even with a Golden Pool Dantian, another sip should be enough to make your body explode."

Zhang Yu was shocked and suspicious. He had no idea how the man had seen through his secrets. However, this person's cultivation should be far above his own, yet he did not seem to harbor any malice.

He quickly circulated his energy and regulated his breathing, continuing to sort through and digest the power.

The man in blue robes came over, took the white jade wine gourd, wiped its mouth, and looked at him. "Idiot! If you keep this up, your Dantian will burst. Stop putting water into it. Just lock that Internal Energy in the Lesser Yin Heart Meridian, won't you?"

Hearing this, Zhang Yu immediately understood. The Dantian was equivalent to the Cold Pool in the lower reaches, while the meridians were this Gor­illa Creek.

The opened left Lesser Yin Heart Meridian connected to the Dantian and could originally store Internal Energy. However, the Internal Energy would constantly circulate between the meridians and Dantian, forcing him to endure the pain of his meridians rapidly expanding.

The man in blue robes smiled. "It's only a little pain. Bear with it, and it'll be fine."

Night had fallen. The stars and moon hung overhead, and tomorrow would likely be clear.

Zhang Yu opened his eyes. His body was covered in hot sweat, and the chill had somewhat receded.

After drinking three mouthfuls of Monkey Wine, he had successfully opened his right Lesser Yin Heart Meridian and entered the late stage of Dan Energy.

He divided that surge of Internal Energy into two portions, circulating them through the left and right Lesser Yin Heart Meridians and his Dantian. The resulting sensation of swollen, aching meridians was greatly reduced.

Zhang Yu secretly glanced at the man. He looked only a little over twenty years old. It was impossible to tell how he had cultivated such vigorous Internal Energy, proving that there were countless strange and extraordinary people in the jianghu.

The man was sitting beside the bonfire, slowly drinking the wine one mouthful at a time.

"Thank you for your... Hundred Year Golden Monkey Wine."

"No need to thank me. I drank your 'Fire Burn Throat,' so it was only right."

"Wine depends on the time, the place, the person, and even the mood."

"The only thing it doesn't depend on is whether it's expensive or cheap, nor does it care about the price."

Zhang Yu found his words deeply convincing. It seemed that this man was not only blessed with a handsome appearance but also possessed a clear and lofty heart, free and natural. A figure like him could never be unknown in the jianghu.

"I am Zhang Yu. May I ask your name, brother?"

"Lan Hao!"