Chen Jianghe

Cold Dew, early morning.

The youth glided toward the heart of the lake through thin mist, facing the dawn. A light touch of his bamboo pole sent pale golden ripples spreading, while magical power condensed into silver threads around his wrist. Suddenly, a blue shadow sliced through the ink-wash sky, its tail shattering the reflected clouds.

Minor Water-Control Technique.

He flicked his wrist sharply. A silver gleam shot toward the blue fish and bound it tight. However fiercely it struggled, it could not escape the silver threads.

As he drew back his wrist, a Big Blue Fish over a foot long was hauled aboard the fishing boat.

Chen Jianghe hefted the Big Blue Fish in his hand, then tossed it back into the lake with a satisfied smile.

"Over three and a half jin. Another good year for the harvest."

Bubble, bubble~

A mass of bubbles rose to the lake's surface, glowing amber beneath the morning sun. This was a signal from the pet Chen Jianghe kept at the bottom of the lake.

"Xiao Hei, well done. Once I sell the fish, I'll reward you with a Spirit-Opening Pill."

Bubble~ Two more iridescent bubbles rose to the surface, Xiao Hei's satisfied reply.

Chen Jianghe smiled happily.

He was a transmigrator who had arrived in this world three years ago.

Before transmigrating, he had been a university student studying painting. On his way home to pay respects to his ancestors, he had hit the jackpot; when he woke, he had become a Fisher-Farmer of the Yun Household at Mirror Moon Lake.

This was a world of immortal cultivation.

There were immortals who could soar through the heavens and burrow through the earth, move mountains and fill seas, as well as great demons who could grasp the sun and moon and shrink a thousand mountains, their true forms blotting out the sky.

His predecessor had also been surnamed Chen, but had no given name. He had been an orphan, brought back to Mirror Moon Lake by an elder of the Yun Household because he possessed a Spiritual Root, and made a Fisher-Farmer.

After arriving at the Yun Household, he had been granted a water-element Qi Refining cultivation art, ten grains of Spirit Sand, and a Spirit-Nurturing Pill, thus setting foot on the path of immortal cultivation.

The Yun Household stipulated that all earnings from a Fisher-Farmer's first year of raising fish would be returned to the household as payment for guiding them onto the immortal path.

The Yun Household of Mirror Moon Lake was the largest cultivation lineage within eight hundred li. Rumor had it that a Foundation Establishment Ancestor resided within the lineage.

Every cultivation aristocratic clan in the territory of Mirror Moon Lake had to pay rent to the Yun Household.

Besides collecting rent from the various cultivation aristocratic clans, the Yun Household's mainstay was selling blue fish to the surrounding Market Wards.

These fish were a specialty of Mirror Moon Lake.

Because a second-tier, low-grade Spiritual Vein lay at the bottom of Mirror Moon Lake, the blue fish were not only delicious but also contained spiritual energy in their flesh.

Blue fish were divided into Big Blue Fish and Small Blue Fish.

Big Blue Fish were somewhat larger, generally weighing three jin when fully grown. However, they were raised along the edges of Mirror Moon Lake, and their flesh contained little spiritual energy. Their selling price was low, and the Fisher-Farmers' pay was limited as well.

These Big Blue Fish were what Chen Jianghe raised.

As for Small Blue Fish, he had heard from the old Fisher-Farmer next door that only those with Late Qi Refining Stage cultivation or the status of a Senior Fisher-Farmer qualified to raise them.

Mirror Moon Lake was a circular lake a hundred li across. Viewed from above, it resembled a full moon.

The twenty-li stretch extending from the shore toward the lake's center was the outer zone, where Junior Fisher-Farmers raised Big Blue Fish.

The next twenty-li stretch inward was the inner zone, where Senior Fisher-Farmers raised Small Blue Fish.

The Yun Household's rules were strict. Junior Fisher-Farmers were forbidden from entering the inner waters without permission. Those who violated this rule would have their cultivation crippled and both legs broken before being expelled from the household.

Encircled by the inner waters was the Yun Household's ancestral home, Heart of the Lake Island, which also had the densest spiritual energy in Mirror Moon Lake.

As a Fisher-Farmer, Chen Jianghe made this fishing boat his home. Apart from going ashore to empty his night soil and buy necessities, he spent virtually all his time aboard.

His cultivation was at the First Layer of Qi Refinement, and his five-mu fishery lay at the outermost edge.

Walls of aquatic plants formed nets in the lake, marking out the Aquaculture Waters allotted to each of the Yun Household's Fisher-Farmers.

Chen Jianghe returned to the cabin and calculated this year's earnings.

In his first year, the Big Blue Fish he raised had averaged three jin each, yielding a total of twelve hundred jin.

That had been unpaid work.

In his second year, with some fish-farming experience under his belt, he had produced eighteen hundred jin of Big Blue Fish, averaging three jin and four liang apiece.

For Junior Fisher-Farmers, the annual baseline yield of Big Blue Fish was one thousand jin, with a wage of ten grains of Spirit Sand. Every additional hundred jin earned another grain of Spirit Sand.

The baseline average weight for each Big Blue Fish was three jin. Every additional liang earned a reward of ten grains of Spirit Sand.

Chen Jianghe had heard that the rewards for raising Small Blue Fish were exactly the reverse of those for Big Blue Fish: the smaller the fish, the higher the reward.

Eighteen hundred jin of Big Blue Fish meant eighteen grains of Spirit Sand.

Adding the forty grains of Spirit Sand awarded for average weight, his total earnings for the previous year had been fifty-eight grains.

One Spirit Stone could be exchanged for a hundred grains of Spirit Sand.

"This year, the Big Blue Fish should average three and a half jin, with a total yield of at least two thousand jin. My pay should be around seventy grains of Spirit Sand. Together with my savings, that'll be enough to buy Xiao Hei a Spirit-Opening Pill."

Xiao Hei was a deep, inky-black turtle who had become Chen Jianghe's Spirit Pet through a chance encounter. The most outlandish part was that Chen Jianghe shared Xiao Hei's lifespan.

A turtle mark had appeared on the spiritual platform in his sea of consciousness. Whenever his Divine Sense touched it, he could see his own lifespan.

[240 years]

In this cultivation world, an ordinary mortal's maximum lifespan was eighty years, a Qi Refining cultivator's was a hundred and twenty, and even a Foundation Establishment Ancestor's was only two hundred and twenty.

Only by taking life-extending pills could they reach two hundred and forty.

By the usual conventions, this had to be his Golden Finger.

Before he had a Golden Finger, Chen Jianghe had been restless. Having transmigrated into a cultivation world, he had wanted to carve out a place for himself, become an immortal patriarch, and avoid disgracing his fellow transmigrators.

After gaining this Golden Finger, Chen Jianghe's restless heart had settled. He had thought of the dangers of the cultivation world and the hardships of the immortal path.

Striving for dominance and fighting fiercely would not do.

Seeking riches amid danger was out of the question.

He had to shun conflict and strife. Steady management was the right path.

Xiao Hei had yet to awaken intelligence and spiritual awareness, and was still an ordinary turtle. Once awakened, Xiao Hei would be able to absorb spiritual energy and cultivate, becoming a Spirit Beast.

Chen Jianghe guessed that Xiao Hei's lifespan would increase then.

With their shared lifespan, his own lifespan would break through its upper limit again.

He had asked about the price of Spirit-Opening Pills. They were sold at the Yun Household's lakeside Cultivator Market for one Spirit Stone each.

One Spirit Stone was not particularly useful to Chen Jianghe.

He had a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root, with an innately low affinity for spiritual energy. Even if he cultivated with Spirit Stones, it would take three years to reach Qi Refining, Second Layer.

He would consume at least five Spirit Stones.

Without Spirit Stones, absorbing the sparse spiritual energy over the lake would let him reach Qi Refining, Second Layer in just five or six years.

He was only sixteen this year, with more than two hundred and twenty years left to live. He could afford to take his time.

Besides, one Spirit Stone could not buy a magical artifact, pills to raise his cultivation, or a high-level cultivation art.

Yet spending one Spirit Stone on a Spirit-Opening Pill could help Xiao Hei embark on the immortal path. For Chen Jianghe at present, this offered the greatest return.

The reason his Big Blue Fish were so plump and large, with such a high survival rate, was precisely Xiao Hei's tireless care, day and night.

Big Blue Fish were extremely aggressive. Having half of a thousand fry survive was already a good result.

But with Xiao Hei watching over them at the bottom of the lake, the fry's aggression was greatly suppressed, keeping their survival rate under control.

Xiao Hei could already suppress the Big Blue Fish fry without awakened intelligence or spiritual awareness. What about after becoming a Spirit Beast?

Xiao Hei would surely be able to suppress fully grown Big Blue Fish with ease. That would definitely raise their survival rate above seventy percent.

With over seventy percent of a thousand fry surviving, the total yield would reach at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight hundred jin.

An extra seven grains of Spirit Sand each year would recoup the cost in fourteen years.

More importantly, he would gain a first-tier Spirit Beast and raise the upper limit of his lifespan.

With the fishing boat resting on the water, Chen Jianghe cast aside distracting thoughts, focused his mind, and circulated the Origin Returning True Water Art, the basic water-element cultivation art given to him by the Yun Household.

He absorbed the scattered spiritual energy over Mirror Moon Lake, guiding it through the eight extraordinary meridians and the bridges of heaven and earth before gathering it in his soybean-sized Dantian Qi Sea.

Before breaking through to the Mid Qi Refining Stage, Chen Jianghe faced no cultivation bottlenecks. He only needed to refine spiritual energy and expand his Dantian Qi Sea to cultivate all the way to the Qi Refining Third Layer.

His waters lay at the outermost edge of Mirror Moon Lake, where spiritual energy was incredibly thin. After three days of cultivation, the spiritual energy he refined trickled into his Dantian like gossamer threads-a single grain in a vast ocean, with no visible effect.

Ending his cultivation, he rose and washed briefly. In the basin's reflection, his delicate face had long since shed its childish innocence, leaving only resolve and steadiness toward the immortal path.

Leaving the cabin, he took up the bamboo pole and steered the fishing boat toward shore. Half a month's accumulated household waste gave off a stench that stung his nose and eyes.

Cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage could not abstain from food and were not immortals in the true sense. Only upon establishing their foundation, attaining the Dao, and freeing themselves from the need for food could they be considered immortals.

Of course, cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage could also solve the problem of night soil by taking Fasting Pills. However, those pills were expensive, beyond the means of a small fry at the First Layer of Qi Refinement like Chen Jianghe.

The fishing boat pierced the thickening morning mist. Ahead, the harbor came dimly into view, crowded with fishing boats of all sizes.

The Yun Household claimed to have eight hundred Fisher-Farmers, over seven hundred of them Junior Fisher-Farmers, yet there were only three lakeside harbors. Each harbor housed both a mortal marketplace and a cultivator market.

At the First Layer of Qi Refinement, Chen Jianghe had a boat three zhang long. Once he reached Qi Refining, Second Layer, he could apply to the Yun Household for a five-zhang fishing boat, and his living conditions would improve considerably.

After mooring his boat in the harbor, he first emptied his night soil and household waste into the waste pit, then headed straight for the market.

Among the people coming and going through the harbor were mortals and cultivators alike. He greeted none of them.

Most were strangers to one another.

Their only connection was that they were all Fisher-Farmers or field farmers working for the Yun Household.

Everyone came to the harbor with their own business. Who had time to chat?

In half an hour, Chen Jianghe bought all the daily necessities he needed for half a month, spending forty taels of silver.

One grain of Spirit Sand could be exchanged for a hundred taels of silver.

But a hundred taels of silver could not buy one grain of Spirit Sand.

Elsewhere, one tael of silver could support an ordinary mortal family of three for a month. At Mirror Moon Lake, however, forty taels bought only half a month's necessities.

There was nothing to be done. Prices at the Yun Household's harbors were simply that high.

Chen Jianghe glanced at a small ceremonial gateway east of the mortal marketplace. That was the Cultivator Market, where the Yun Household's Fisher-Farmers and rogue cultivators traded.

With the Foundation Establishment Yun Household backing it, the harbor's Cultivator Market rarely sold counterfeit goods, and incidents of killing and robbery were virtually unheard of.

Chen Jianghe had never visited the Cultivator Market, but with only fifty grains of Spirit Sand left in his purse, he could do nothing but stare even if he went.

So he poled his boat back to his own waters. After harvesting this year's Big Blue Fish, he would return to broaden his horizons at the Cultivator Market.

Cold Dew had just passed. In another four months, it would be time to sell the fish and celebrate the New Year.

As soon as he returned to his waters, he saw a White Egret standing on a lotus leaf, watching the approaching fishing boat as though waiting for him.

"Quack~ Quack~ Quack~"

The White Egret lightly beat its wings and landed on the bow, calling several times at Chen Jianghe. Its cries were not pleasant, sounding much like a duck's, but its appearance was full of immortal grace.

Chen Jianghe went forward and removed the Letter Tube from the White Egret's leg. Then he spent quite a while choosing among the fish in his waters before catching a Big Blue Fish weighing over two jin and tossing it to the egret.

Everyone's Aquaculture Waters in Mirror Moon Lake had clearly defined boundaries. Junior Fisher-Farmers were forbidden to visit one another; even those in neighboring waters could not cross the boundary between them.

White Egrets possessed spiritual awareness but were unranked, so they had become messengers among Mirror Moon Lake's Fisher-Farmers.

As payment, both sender and recipient had to give the White Egret a Big Blue Fish.

Chen Jianghe returned to the cabin and took out the Letter Tube, studying its wax seal. He had few familiar friends at Mirror Moon Lake.

Only two neighbors could barely be counted as friends.

One was Old Gao to the east. Chen Jianghe knew only his surname, not his given name. He was a veteran Fisher-Farmer of the Yun Household. By his own account, he had arrived at fifteen and had not left Mirror Moon Lake for seventy or eighty years.

His cultivation was at the fourth level of Qi Refining.

Whenever Chen Jianghe wanted information, he generally asked Old Gao, who could be considered Mirror Moon Lake's know-it-all.

The other was Yu Daniu to the west, who was around Chen Jianghe's age and had likewise been brought by the Yun Household to work as a Fisher-Farmer because he possessed a Spiritual Root.

Unlike him, however, Yu Daniu was not an orphan. He had parents, a younger brother, and a younger sister, and his family lived in a village bordering Mirror Moon Lake.

Like Chen Jianghe, he had a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root and cultivated the Origin Returning True Water Art.

His cultivation was at the First Layer of Qi Refinement.

Chen Jianghe wiped away the wax seal, opened the Letter Tube, and took out the letter inside. Looking closely, he found it was from Old Gao.

Little Chen, the fish dormancy period in the ninth month is nearly here. Someone will surely ask you to go mining for Spirit Stones then. You must not go.

Also, after you sell your fish, if anyone asks to borrow Spirit Sand, you must not lend it.

After reading the letter, Chen Jianghe surged magical power through his palm, shredding the paper and tossing it into the night-soil bucket.

Every year, the Big Blue Fish entered the Fish Dormancy Period from the ninth through the eleventh month. They needed no feeding during this period, so some Fisher-Farmers went to the harbor to find two months of temporary work.

Mining was the most common choice.

Mining spiritual ore for the Yun Household earned one grain of Spirit Sand for each Spirit Stone excavated. In two months, a worker could generally earn five grains of Spirit Sand, or even ten with good luck.

Last year, someone at the harbor had invited him to go mining, but Old Gao had happened upon them and stopped him.

Only later had he learned that mining was unsafe, with a high chance of encountering a mining disaster.

If someone failed to return, the Yun Household would take over the Big Blue Fish they had raised for a year without compensation.

"The outer waters get newcomers every year, and Fisher-Farmers die in mining disasters every year. Why do these people still want to go mining?"

Chen Jianghe's current lifespan was twice that of a Qi Refining Stage cultivator, comparable to a Foundation Establishment Ancestor's. He would not take such a risk for a few grains of Spirit Sand.

As long as he cultivated steadily, he would definitely reach the Late Qi Refining Stage and become a Senior Fisher-Farmer.

(End of chapter)