Clear River Carp

Wang Daoyuan returned to his cave residence at the Pill Talisman Pavilion and carefully examined the Profound Sun Sword. After dripping blood onto it to pledge allegiance, he practiced a set of sword techniques from the mundane martial world.

Qi Refining cultivators still had weak divine sense and spiritual power, insufficient to support controlling a sword to slay enemies. So, like figures of the mundane martial world, they still had to wield weapons and hack at one another.

Wang Daoyuan muttered, "Just as I guessed, there's something fishy about the Profound Sun Sword. This is a failed first-order high-grade magic tool that was reforged afterward. No wonder the refining technique was obsessed with playing it safe—so safe that it used materials for a high-grade magic tool to produce a mid-grade one, yet the price was still so generous. I truly wouldn't have discovered it without acknowledging it as my master."

"But I'm not losing out either. Even as a failed product, only the runes on the blade are prone to problems. It is still somewhat stronger than ordinary mid-grade magic tools.

"Besides, I've made the acquaintance of an artifact refiner. Not yet twenty, yet already capable of refining high-grade first-order Magic Tools—either a refining genius or someone with a great background, with ample refining materials to squander and a famous master's guidance.

"No matter which it is, getting to know an artifact refiner with enormous potential is a good thing. If I can use this to establish ties with the Divine Weapon Pavilion..."

Still, that was nothing more than wishful thinking. The Divine Weapon Pavilion was a major power, with shops in every large market city throughout the Northern Abyss Cultivation World. Renowned for artifact refining, its strength was beyond comparison with the Three Great Sects of Zhao Kingdom.

The Wang Clan also had business dealings with the Divine Weapon Pavilion. The Wang Clan sold it some low-grade artifact-refining materials and bought magic tools from it. But that was limited to business; the Divine Weapon Pavilion did not interfere with other powers, nor did it think much of the Wang Clan's meager strength.

After that, Wang Daoyuan lived a leisurely life. Every night, he meditated to improve his cultivation and practice the Soul Tempering Art, while during the day he practiced swordsmanship for one hour.

The bodies of Qi Refining cultivators were not yet powerful enough. Other than when they were on the verge of a breakthrough, cultivating for too long could instead easily damage their meridians. Thus, Wang Daoyuan had nothing to do for most of the day.

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

Crimson Blood Ginseng took at least ten years to harvest. Half-year Yellow Cloud Grass could be used to make low-grade First-order talismans, three-year Yellow Cloud Grass could make mid-grade First-order talismans, and ten-year Yellow Cloud Grass could make high-grade First-order talismans.

His talisman-making skill had already approached high-grade first-order. Low-grade and mid-grade First-order Talisman Paper no longer held much appeal for him, and the Yellow Cloud Grass in the space was being saved to make high-grade First-order Talisman Paper.

Even with the Spirit Pearl Space's tenfold flow of time, neither the Crimson Blood Ginseng nor the Yellow Cloud Grass was ready for harvest. The other spirit herbs needed to grow for even more years before becoming useful.

On the tenth day after completing his talisman-making assignment, Wang Daoyuan was bored out of his mind and could only find something to do. The back courtyard of his cave residence faced a clear stream; there was nothing more suitable than fishing.

He took out the fishing rod that had accompanied him for many years from his storage bag and began fishing in the clear stream behind his cave residence.

Wang Daoyuan had been a foodie in both his past and present lives. Ever since entering Jade Spring Peak, he had made himself a fishing rod and fished in Jade Dragon Stream to give himself something meaty to eat. Later, in order to break through to the Qi Refining Mid-stage, he had devoted much of his time to meditating and cultivating, so he had not fished in quite a long time.

The cultivators passing by on the water looked at him as though he were some rare beast. Cultivators spent their days rushing about, either risking their lives to earn resources or entering seclusion to cultivate.

Unless high-level cultivators had encountered a bottleneck and needed to temper their state of mind, who had the leisure to fish? And in such a busy stretch of river, no less—just how idle did one have to be?

Wang Daoyuan truly had nothing to do. In thirty years of his previous life and sixteen years of this one, he had never been this idle. On top of that, he had been eating spirit grain all this time without much variety, so catching a few fish would let him try something fresh.

The fish at the three-way river junction were rather foolish. A school of them fought over bait made from spirit grain. He scattered a handful of spirit grain into the water, and it actually drew in a huge school of fish.

He was truly a well-fed man who did not know the hunger of the starving. Most cultivators could not even eat one meal of spirit grain every few days. Even among lineage cultivators, few could afford to eat spirit grain as a staple every day like he did, much less the fish in the river.

Furthermore, the Spirit Pearl Space deserved some credit for this. Spiritual materials produced by the Spirit Pearl Space held great allure for spirit beasts.

Coupled with the fact that the fish in the river had truly never seen much of the world, he caught more than ten fish in just over an hour. Fortunately, his fish basket was large enough, or it would not have been able to hold them all.

These were all ordinary fish, but after living in a place rich in spiritual energy for a long time, they had acquired a trace of spirituality and could be called "Pseudo Spirit Fish," equivalent to humans at the Meridian Opening Realm.

Though they could not be considered spirit fish, when cultivators ate such Pseudo Spirit Fish, it would not cause impurities to accumulate in their bodies as eating ordinary mortals' food did, thereby harming cultivation.

More importantly, Pseudo Spirit Fish tasted quite good. For a foodie like Wang Daoyuan, that was what truly mattered.

Just as he was about to reel in his line and head back to stew fish soup, the float on the water suddenly shook violently. He hurriedly lifted the rod, only to find that he could not pull it up.

This fishing gear was an ordinary set he had made himself back when he was on the mountain, craving a bite of fish to tide him over. It was fine for catching small fish, but entirely unreliable for large ones.

The fish struggled madly underwater, throwing up great splashes. Its tail occasionally broke the surface and struck the water with tremendous force. With such a commotion, the fish was certainly not small. He did not dare forcefully reel it in for fear of snapping the rod, so he could only slowly tire the fish out.

The hooked fish was truly brimming with energy. Wang Daoyuan's hands and feet had begun to ache, yet the fish still swam with unabated vigor.

After more than half an hour of struggle, dozens of cultivators had gathered on boats and along the shore to watch. A few even jeered and mocked him. So gawking was not some specialty of his past life in Huaxia Nation after all; a crowd of cultivators behaved exactly the same way.

Then again, if no one had been watching, Wang Daoyuan would have given up long ago. After making such a grand spectacle, failing to land the fish would be utterly humiliating.

Another half hour passed. More than a hundred cultivators were now watching, and the fish finally tired, allowing Wang Daoyuan to pull it from the water.

The moment the fish emerged, the onlookers cried out in amazement.

The fish was rather beautiful. Its head closely resembled that of a carp, while its body was more slender. It was over two feet long and entirely blood-red. Its scales were large yet tightly arranged, layer upon layer like armor. Its two long barbels measured a full three inches, its fins flowed like ribbons, and its tail fin exceeded half a foot in length.

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

At that moment, an elderly cultivator with snowy white hair and beard pondered for a while before crying out in astonishment, "Could this be the Clear River Carp, which went extinct over two hundred years ago?"

Upon hearing this, a small number of cultivators revealed looks of surprise, while most wore blank expressions.

The old cultivator's words drew many nearby cultivators over, most of them elderly cultivators. Wang Zhide was among them.

Many young cultivators were asking those beside them what a Clear River Carp was, and Wang Daoyuan was equally bewildered.

From the conversations of the other cultivators, Wang Zhide understood what had happened. He turned and returned to the back courtyard of Jade Spring Grocery Store. Before long, he came back carrying a fishing rod and handed it to Wang Daoyuan. "That fishing rod of yours is useless. Use this one."

Wang Daoyuan put the Clear River Carp into his fish basket, accepted the fishing rod handed over by his Ninth Granduncle, baited it with spirit grain, and continued fishing.

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

The Clear River Carp was a specialty of Qingli River. It could only be found in the upper reaches of Qingli River's main channel and in a few tributaries such as the clear stream.

Qingli River had two great specialties: the Clear River Carp of its upper reaches, and Glass Sand from its middle and lower reaches. Qingli River had received its name because of these two specialties.

When Zhao Kingdom was still ruled by its imperial family, it strictly controlled the mining of Glass Sand and the catching of Clear River Carp, ensuring that the output of both specialties remained highly stable. After the Three Great Sects replaced the imperial family, there was no restraint whatsoever. This resulted in extremely little Glass Sand being produced, while the Clear River Carp had gone extinct more than two hundred years ago.