Fish Fry

For any faction, raising spirit bees was a matter of killing several birds with one stone: spirit bees required no resources at all, yet produced highly valuable Spirit Honey; their nectar-gathering pollinated spirit herbs and medicines, increasing yields; and spirit bees were venomous, making them exceptionally formidable helpers in battle.

Ever since discovering the Spirit Pearl Space, Wang Daoyuan had wanted to raise spirit bees, chiefly for the Spirit Honey. Unfortunately, spirit bees were far too scarce. There were only two ways to obtain them:

One was to acquire them from a faction that possessed spirit bees. However, no faction had ever sold spirit bees, since that would be raising a competitor for itself. The only option was to seize them by force.

The other was to search for wild bees. Wild bees usually lived deep within the mountains and forests, making them difficult to find, and the swarms themselves possessed considerable combat strength.

Neither route was something the Wang Clan could manage, much less Wang Daoyuan alone.

These spirit bees could be called a piece of good fortune delivered right to his doorstep, but unfortunately, the queen bee was dead. A swarm without a queen could not reproduce and would only slowly perish. If there were Bee Eggs within that hive, though, it might still be possible to cultivate a new queen.

Unfortunately, the hive blocked spiritual-sense detection. He could not determine whether there were Bee Eggs inside, nor could he take the hive apart to inspect it. If he did, even any eggs within would be finished. He could only let the swarm fend for itself.

Still, he had truly never seen this kind of spirit bee before. The Lineage's collection of books described several common types of spirit bees, but none resembled these. Their bodies and wings were longer and slimmer, and they flew faster as well.

Since he did not know what breed of spirit bee they were, he would call them "Long-tailed Bees" for now.

If he could cultivate a new queen, then with the space's tenfold time flow, Wang Daoyuan would truly strike it rich.

After taking stock of the spoils, his spiritual sense withdrew from the space.

Inspired by his earlier Spirit Grain Fishing, Wang Daoyuan thought of a way to solve the problem of surplus spirit grain—raising spirit beasts.

However, he could not raise creatures such as cattle, sheep, or rabbits that loved eating spirit herbs. Otherwise, if he put them into the Spirit Pearl Space, would they not ravage all the medicinal herbs in the Spirit Fields?

The most reliable choice was still raising spirit fish. After all, ordinary spirit fish could only stay in water. They would not go into the Spirit Fields at all, much less harm the medicinal herbs.

As for the source of spirit fish fry, with Qing Creek and the Qingli River at his back, could he possibly lack fish fry?

After recuperating for more than a month, Wang Daoyuan finally recovered. He took out his fishing rod again and headed toward Qing Creek behind his cave dwelling.

When he arrived behind the cave dwelling, Wang Daoyuan was startled. The banks at the three-way river junction were packed with cultivators squatting there to fish. Several were even members of his own Lineage. When they saw Wang Daoyuan carrying his rod over, they greeted him.

Wang Daoyuan walked over to a young man who was fishing. After casting his hook, he asked, "Third Brother, what's going on? Why are so many people fishing today?"

The young man was called Wang Daochang. He ranked third among the Dao generation and was at the Sixth Layer of Qi Condensation. He was steady in his work, neither arrogant nor rash, and flawless in the way he conducted himself. He held great prestige among his peers and had been designated as the Patriarch Successor after Wang Shouye.

Moreover, he had the best aptitude among his generation, making him one of the Lineage's key Foundation Establishment Seeds. Foundation Establishment Seeds were generally assigned to Jade Spring Peak once they came of age, where they handled tasks that did not consume much time and focused their energy on cultivation.

This time, the Wang Clan had acquired another shop, leaving them severely short-handed. All adult Lineage members had been sent out, and even Wang Daochang, a seed candidate, had not escaped.

Wang Daochang shot Wang Daoyuan a look. "Don't you know perfectly well what's going on?"

Wang Daoyuan chuckled. "That was purely a coincidence. Are all these people here for the Clear River Carp? Only two have appeared in several hundred years. How could they be so lucky as to catch one?"

Wang Daochang said, "Wealth moves the hearts of men. You caught two, so naturally others are thinking that perhaps they might catch one too. They may not catch any now, but who can say about the future?"

Wang Daoyuan asked in confusion, "What do you mean? What does catching them in the future mean?"

"Isn't it because of those two Clear River Carp you caught? After Great-Granduncle examined them, he found that the female Clear River Carp had just laid eggs four or five days before you caught her. In a few years, they can be caught." Wang Daochang answered.

Wang Daoyuan's heart jolted. On the morning he caught the Clear River Carp, he had placed them in the Spirit Pearl Space, only taking them out at dawn the next day.

With the Spirit Pearl Space's tenfold time flow, the Clear River Carp had spent seven or eight days inside. Did that not mean the Clear River Carp had laid their eggs in the Spirit Pearl Space?

He suppressed the excitement in his heart and put on a regretful expression. "What a pity. If I had been four or five days earlier, wouldn't I have gotten a whole nest of fish fry?"

Seeing his expression as though he had suffered a tremendous loss, Wang Daochang consoled him, "How can everything in the world be perfect? Catching Clear River Carp was already a stroke of tremendous luck for you, so don't ask for more. Our Wang Clan also made a huge profit this time. We gained another shop, and the clan has decided to open a restaurant.

"By the way, I also brought your reward from the patriarch."

Hearing this, Wang Daoyuan became interested. "What reward?"

"Two thousand Family Contribution Points." Wang Daochang gave a mysterious smile. "And some special concern from the patriarch and the elders."

Wang Daoyuan said in surprise, "Special concern too? Third Brother, stop keeping me in suspense. What exactly is it?"

Wang Daochang cleared his throat. "In view of Daoyuan's great merit this time, but also the fact that he has indirectly offended quite a few people, in order to protect Daoyuan, he is not to leave until his cultivation breaks through to the Late Stage of Qi Condensation.

"Those are the patriarch's exact words. Of course, you have another choice."

Wang Daoyuan had originally fallen into utter despair, but upon hearing that there was another choice, he hurriedly asked, "What choice?"

"Return to Jade Spring Peak," Wang Daochang answered.

Wang Daoyuan's face darkened. That was worse than confinement. At least escaping confinement would be relatively easy, and he could secretly sell spirit grain to buy some pills. But returning to Jade Spring Peak? Trying to escape under the patriarch's very nose—how could that be possible?

"Pretend I never asked." With a dark face, he turned and returned to his cave dwelling.

Seeing his seventh brother, who had been constantly leaping about since childhood, finally suffer a setback, Wang Daochang burst into hearty laughter.

After returning to the cave dwelling, Wang Daoyuan immediately sent his spiritual sense into the Spirit Pearl Space and carefully searched the fish pond. More than a month had passed since he caught the Clear River Carp—over a year within the space. Even if spirit fish eggs had a long incubation period, they should have hatched into fry by now.

After searching for a while, he discovered ten fish fry about as long as embroidery needles, struggling to gnaw at a few grains of spirit grain. Clear River Carp worth one hundred thousand Spirit Stones each had been starved into such a pitiful state.

If anyone learned that Wang Daoyuan had ten Clear River Carp, they would surely bury him alive. If they learned that he had nearly starved the Clear River Carp to death, they would surely dig him back up and give him a vicious beating.

He did not know what Clear River Carp liked to eat. Since they were gnawing on spirit grain, he would feed them spirit grain.

Wang Daoyuan ground the spirit grain into powder and scattered it into the water pit. The fish fry swam from the bottom to the surface, took a bite of spirit grain powder, flicked their tails, and swiftly returned to the bottom. The ten tiny fry had no small appetite. Only after eating one or two taels of spirit grain powder did they stop feeding.

He dug another large pit, one zhang square, in the spirit grain field, tossed in several Rain Transformation Talismans, filled the pit with water, and transferred the well-fed fish fry into it.

First, he worried that the Pseudo Spirit Fish in the fish pond would compete with the fry for food. Second, he feared those fish would eat the fry.

Those dozen-odd fish were merely ordinary fish tainted with a trace of spiritual energy; they did not even count as spirit fish. He could not possibly let them affect the healthy growth of the Clear River Carp fry.