When Yu Ci stepped into old Yu Zhou's study once again, the first thing that caught his eye was a fish-dragon. Moreover, he could be certain that this was the very same one he had brought back from the Sky Rending Ridge.
At this moment, the fish-dragon's slender body was coiled like a snake, shrinking inside a birdcage two feet high and four inches round, which sat right upon the old man's desk.
The scene looked rather bizarre, because the gaps between the birdcage bars were about the width of a finger—wide enough for two or three fish-dragons to slide in and out abreast. Yet the fish-dragon showed no intention of escaping whatsoever, maintaining a rather lazy posture. It merely shifted its body when Yu Ci entered the room, seeming to sense the presence of its "nemesis." But it quickly grew still again.
Seeing Yu Ci stare at the fish-dragon, the old man chuckled. "Stop looking. This little fellow needs to be hauled by you to Juebi City and handed over to Senior Brother Xie."
"Oh?"
"Recently, Suixin Pavilion had a caravan purchase goods from the Western Buddhist Kingdom, and they're holding a 'treasure-exchange banquet' in Juebi City. Word has it there are many rare and wondrous items. Senior Brother Xie took a fancy to one of them, so he requested the fish-dragon from the sect to use in trade. Since you're heading to Juebi City anyway, you can take it along on the way."
Yu Ci acknowledged the instruction. It had to be said that buying and selling within the cultivation world was truly rather inconvenient. Unlike within the sect, where Good Deeds could be used as a central currency for conversion, most transactions relied on a barter system. Rumors said that many of the major southern merchants had