If he stayed with the shoal, he might obtain one or even two Superior Literary Heart Fish, but the fish might also scatter, leaving him scooping water with a bamboo basket-all his efforts for nothing.
If he followed the Purple Giant Whale, he might catch the whale, or his boat might sink and he would fail.
Follow the whale! Fang Yun made his decision.
The Dragon Boat accelerated slightly and continued along the whale's wake, keeping roughly a hundred zhang behind him.
Fang Yun looked back at the shoal, regret filling his heart. He truly hated to leave them behind.
The fish seemed unwilling to give up. They swam hard, chasing after the Purple Giant Whale, and not a single Literary Heart Fish left.
Gradually, the Dragon Boat grew larger and larger, soon reaching a hundred zhang in length. Even the Purple Giant Whale glanced back at it.
Before long, Fang Yun noticed that the Dragon Boat seemed to have acquired a strange aura. The entire boat felt like a living creature.
Fang Yun could clearly sense that the Dragon Boat had undergone a qualitative transformation, advancing from an ordinary Sea of Learning Dragon Boat into a wondrous divine object.
Not only that, the golden coiled dragon above his Literary Palace had awakened, and it had also produced a power that resonated with the Dragon Boat from afar.
After Fang Yun gained his Dragon Peerage, the interior of his Literary Palace had changed little, but the coiled dragon above it had changed enormously. It now possessed the breath of life, rather than being an illusory projection.
When the coiled dragon awakened, Fang Yun realized that the Dragon Boat had most likely undergone a qualitative transformation through the mingling of various powers.
His first Poem on Exhorting Learning was, in essence,