Clear River Carp

Wang Daoyuan returned to his cave dwelling in the Pill Talisman Pavilion and carefully examined the Profound Sun Sword. He dripped blood onto it to acknowledge him as his master and then practiced a set of secular martial arts sword techniques.

Cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage had weak spiritual sense and spiritual power, insufficient to support sword control for combat. Therefore, like secular martial artists, they still resorted to clashing with weapons.

Wang Daoyuan murmured, "As I suspected, there's something peculiar about the Profound Sun Sword. It's a failed First-grade High-grade magical artifact that was re-forged after its failure. No wonder the artifact refining technique was so focused on stability, to the point of using top-grade materials to refine a mid-grade artifact. And the price was so reasonable. I wouldn't have discovered this if it hadn't recognized me as its master.

However, I'm not at a disadvantage. Even as a failed product, only the runes on the sword are prone to issues. It's still stronger than an ordinary mid-grade magical artifact.

What's more, I've befriended an artifact refiner who can refine First-grade High-grade magical artifacts before the age of twenty. They're either an artifact refining genius or have a powerful background, abundant artifact refining materials to spare, and guidance from a master.

Regardless of which scenario it is, befriending a potential artifact refiner is a good thing. If I can use this to establish a connection with the Divine Weapon Pavilion..."

However, this was just wishful thinking. The Divine Weapon Pavilion was a major power with shops in all the large market towns in the Northern Abyss cultivation world. They were renowned for their artifact refining, and their strength was not comparable to the three major sects of Zhao Kingdom.

The Wang family also had business dealings with the Divine Weapon Pavilion. The Wang family sold some low-grade artifact refining materials to the Divine Weapon Pavilion and also purchased some magical artifacts from them. However, this was limited to business. The Divine Weapon Pavilion did not interfere with other forces and did not think highly of the Wang family's meager strength.

Afterward, Wang Daoyuan lived a leisurely life. He meditated every night to improve his cultivation and practice the Soul Tempering Art, and he practiced swordplay for an hour during the day.

Qi Refining cultivators' bodies were not yet strong enough. Except for when they were about to break through, cultivating for too long could easily damage their meridians. Therefore, Wang Daoyuan had a lot of free time during the day.

The various spirit herbs in the Spirit Pearl Space, apart from the Spirit Grain harvested once every nine days, required no other care.

Crimson Blood Ginseng needed at least ten years to be harvested. Half-year-old Yellow Cloud Grass could be used to make First-grade Low-grade talismans, three-year-old Yellow Cloud Grass could be used to make First-grade Mid-grade talismans, and ten-year-old Yellow Cloud Grass could be used to make First-grade High-grade talismans.

His talisman crafting skill was already close to First-grade High-grade. First-grade Low-grade and Mid-grade talisman paper no longer held much interest for him. The Yellow Cloud Grass in his space was being saved for making First-grade High-grade talisman paper.

Even with the ten-times time acceleration in the Spirit Pearl Space, the Crimson Blood Ginseng and Yellow Cloud Grass were not yet ready for harvest, and other spirit herbs required higher ages to be useful.

Ten days after completing his talisman crafting task, Wang Daoyuan, bored, had to find something to do. The backyard of his cave dwelling was a clear stream, perfect for fishing.

He took out the fishing rod that had been with him for many years from his storage bag and fished in the clear stream behind his cave dwelling.

Wang Daoyuan had been a foodie in both his past and present lives. Ever since he entered Jade Spring Peak, he had made a fishing rod and fished in the Jade Dragon Stream to treat himself. Later, in order to break through to the middle stage of Qi Refining, he spent a lot of time meditating and cultivating, and he hadn't fished for a long time.

The cultivators passing by on the water looked at him as if he were a rare exotic beast. Cultivators were busy all day, either desperately striving for resources or in seclusion cultivating.

Except for high-level cultivators encountering bottlenecks and needing to temper their state of mind, who would be idle and fishing, especially in a busy section of the river? How could they be this idle?

Wang Daoyuan was indeed idle. He had never been this idle in his thirty years in his past life and sixteen years in this life. Moreover, he had been eating Spirit Grain all along, and there was no variety. It was a good opportunity to catch a few fish and try something new.

The fish at the Three Forks River intersection were quite foolish. They eagerly snatched up the Spirit Grain bait. He scattered a handful of Spirit Grain into the water, and it attracted a large school of fish.

This was purely a case of the well-fed not understanding the hungry. Most cultivators couldn't even eat a meal of Spirit Grain for several days. There weren't many family cultivators like him who ate Spirit Grain every day, let alone the fish in the river.

In addition, the Spirit Pearl Space also contributed to this. The spiritual items produced by the Spirit Pearl Space had a great attraction for spirit beasts.

Coupled with the fact that the fish in the river were truly unsophisticated, in just over an hour, he had caught more than ten fish. Fortunately, the fish basket was large enough, otherwise, it would have been overflowing.

These were all ordinary fish. Having lived in places with abundant spiritual energy for a long time, they had developed some spirituality and could be called "pseudo-spirit fish," equivalent to the cultivation of the Meridian Opening Realm for humans.

Although they were not considered true spirit fish, when cultivators ate these pseudo-spirit fish, it was unlike eating ordinary human food, which would lead to the accumulation of impurities in the body and be detrimental to cultivation.

Secondly, pseudo-spirit fish tasted quite good. For Wang Daoyuan, the foodie, this was the most important aspect.

Just as he was about to reel in his line to go back and make fish soup, the float on the water suddenly shook violently. He quickly reeled in the line, but he couldn't lift it.

This fishing gear was ordinary stuff he had made himself when he was on the mountain and craving a bite to eat. It was fine for catching small fish, but unreliable for catching large fish.

The fish struggled wildly in the water, creating large splashes. Its tail occasionally emerged, slapping the water surface violently. Such a commotion meant the fish was definitely not small. He didn't dare to reel it in forcefully, for fear of breaking the fishing rod, so he could only slowly play the fish.

The fish on the hook was incredibly energetic. Wang Daoyuan's hands and feet were already sore, but the fish was still swimming vigorously.

After more than half an hour of struggling, dozens of cultivators on boats and on the shore were watching, with some even cheering and jeering. It turned out that crowds gathering to watch wasn't a specialty of Huaxia Nation in his past life; even cultivators behaved this way.

Speaking of which, if it weren't for the onlookers, Wang Daoyuan would have given up long ago. With such a commotion, it would be a huge embarrassment if he couldn't catch it.

Another half hour passed, and the number of onlookers exceeded a hundred. The fish finally tired, and Wang Daoyuan pulled it out of the water.

As the fish emerged from the water, the crowd gasped in amazement.

The fish was quite beautiful: its head resembled a carp, but its body was more slender than a carp's. It was over two feet long, entirely blood-red, with large scales that were tightly arranged, overlapping like armor. It had two long barbels, each about three inches long, fins like flowing ribbons, and a tail fin exceeding half a foot in length.

Wang Daoyuan pondered for a long time, but he had no impression of this fish. On Jade Spring Peak, he had read the family's collection of books and knew about common spirit herbs and spirit beasts, but he had never seen this fish in any book.

At this moment, an elderly cultivator with a white beard and hair pondered for a moment and exclaimed in surprise, "Could this be the Clear River Carp, which has been extinct for over two hundred years?"

Upon hearing this, a few cultivators showed surprise, while most looked bewildered.

The elderly cultivator's words attracted many nearby cultivators, mostly elderly ones, including Wang Zhide.

Many young cultivators asked those around them what a Clear River Carp was, and Wang Daoyuan was also clueless.

Through the conversation of other cultivators, Wang Zhide understood what had happened. He turned and returned to the backyard of the Jade Spring General Store. Before long, he came back with another fishing rod and handed it to Wang Daoyuan, saying, "Your fishing rod is no good. Use this one."

Wang Daoyuan placed the Clear River Carp into the fish basket, took the fishing rod handed to him by Ninth Uncle, baited it with Spirit Grain, and continued fishing.

From the conversations of some of the older cultivators, he gained some understanding of the Clear River Carp.

The Clear River Carp was a specialty of the Qingli River, found only in the upper reaches of the main current of the Qingli River and a few tributaries like the Clear Stream.

The Qingli River had two major specialties: the Clear River Carp from the upper reaches and the Glazed Sand from the middle and lower reaches. The Qingli River was named after these two specialties.

When the Zhao Kingdom was still ruled by the royal family, the mining of Glazed Sand and the fishing of Clear River Carp were strictly controlled, ensuring stable production of both specialties. After the three major sects took over, their unrestrained exploitation led to a drastic reduction in the output of Glazed Sand, and the Clear River Carp had become extinct over two hundred years ago.