Two Years

One spirit stone was no small sum, but neither was it a great fortune.

Old Gao wanted to use one spirit stone to persuade Chen Jianghe to look after Gao Peiyao more in the future, or perhaps he genuinely wanted to give him some help in the early stages of his cultivation.

Whatever his reason, Chen Jianghe could not accept this spirit stone.

Gao Peiyao possessed four-element false spiritual roots. With Old Gao guiding her onto the immortal path, it might not take long for her cultivation to surpass Chen Jianghe's and Yu Daniu's.

The waters of Mirror Moon Lake held little danger, and Chen Jianghe trusted that Old Gao would tell Gao Peiyao everything she needed to watch out for as a Fisher-Farmer for the Yun Household.

As for looking after her, Old Gao wanted Gao Peiyao to join the agreement among the three of them, so she would have someone to turn to in the future.

Old Gao has treated me well. How could I take advantage of his predicament? I'll find an opportunity to return this spirit stone to Gao Peiyao later.

Gao Peiyao was more talented. Having her join their agreement was a good thing.

There was no need to muddy it with such flyspeck profits.

Chen Jianghe stayed at Port No. 1 for another ten days and attended the Fisher-Farmer Conference. As always, there were long-winded speeches and promises of pies in the sky.

The only news worth noting was that Yun Bufan would no longer serve as steward of the outer waters. Apparently, he was returning to Heart of the Lake Island to cultivate in seclusion, preparing to break through to the late Qi Refining stage.

Yun Bufan was three years older than Chen Jianghe. In other words, he was about to break through to the late Qi Refining stage at twenty-three.

No wonder even the Yun Household's Foundation Establishment Ancestor had called him a Qilin Child sent by heaven.

Chen Jianghe felt envious, but not jealous. He, too, had a hidden trump card that would shock others.

Yu Daniu, however, had actually reached Qi Refining, Second Layer as well.

Yu Daniu and Chen Jianghe had become Fisher-Farmers for the Yun Household in the same year, and both had received Spirit-Nurturing Pills from the household.

By all rights, Yu Daniu should have needed another year to break through to Qi Refining, Second Layer.

As for buying a Qi-Nourishing Pill...

Yu Daniu's talent for raising Big Blue Fish was mediocre, and his annual pay was only around fifty grains of spirit sand.

After deducting ten grains of spirit sand for his yearly expenses, he pocketed only about forty grains over the course of a year.

The first year's work was unpaid. The combined wages of the following five years would barely cover one Qi-Nourishing Pill.

But there was still the uncollectible debt of fifty grains of spirit sand that Wang Kui owed Yu Daniu.

Old Gao probably approached Daniu too and gave him a spirit stone as well. Daniu must have used that spirit stone and his savings to buy a Qi-Nourishing Pill, which let him break through to Qi Refining, Second Layer.

It seemed Old Gao truly was nearing the end of his lifespan and had already begun putting his affairs in order.

Chen Jianghe would not question whether Yu Daniu used the spirit stone Old Gao had given him, but he certainly would not use his own.

His lifespan was long. He only needed to cultivate steadily, and he would have plenty of spirit stones in the future.

If he spent this spirit stone, and Gao Peiyao really ran into trouble someday, should he help her or not?

If it was a small matter he could handle in passing, without any further karmic entanglements, he would lend a hand on the strength of the friendship he had built with Gao Peiyao.

But what if it was troublesome business that entangled him in karma?

Owing someone a favor for a single spirit stone was not worth it.

After the Fisher-Farmer Conference ended, Chen Jianghe returned to his aquaculture waters and began his monotonous life of traveling between his waters and the port.

Cultivating immortality was also cultivating truth, and what one cultivated was one's true self. The first things to overcome were the tedium and loneliness along the immortal path.

He had it relatively well. When he was truly bored, he could dive into the lake to spend time with Xiao Hei and nurture the bond between master and pet.

His days were fairly full.

Then, half a year later, a White Egret brought a letter from Gao Peiyao. Old Gao's allotted time had come, and he had ridden a crane westward.

Gao Peiyao had also written to Yu Daniu.

As friends of several years, Chen Jianghe and Yu Daniu arranged to meet Gao Peiyao at Port No. 2.

They gave Old Gao a water burial, seeing him off on his final journey.

Afterward, Chen Jianghe offered Gao Peiyao a few words of comfort and told her she could send him a letter if anything came up.

Old Gao had brought Gao Peiyao here and introduced her to everyone as his granddaughter. She had also achieved Qi Induction into the Body, opened the Dantian Qi Sea, and become a cultivator at the First Layer of Qi Refinement.

Thus, after Old Gao's death, Gao Peiyao inherited the 511 Aquaculture Waters and became a Junior Fisher-Farmer for the Yun Household. Another two months or so passed. As the Fish Dormancy Period approached, Gao Peiyao sent Chen Jianghe another letter.

In it, she said that Old Gao had left five spirit stones behind when he died. She wanted to give Chen Jianghe and Yu Daniu one each to thank them for helping with his funeral arrangements.

Chen Jianghe wrote back to decline.

Junior Fisher-Farmers like them did not need grand funerals when they died. All it took was a few dozen taels of silver to buy a fine silkworm-silk mat to wrap the body in, then tie it to heavy stones and sink it into the lake.

What was there to thank them for?

Besides, if Gao Peiyao truly wanted to share the spirit stones, why had she not brought it up in person when they buried Old Gao?

Instead, she had waited two months to mention it.

This was clearly a test to see how Chen Jianghe and Yu Daniu would treat her after Old Gao's death.

Chen Jianghe was not angry about it. On the contrary, he admired Gao Peiyao's approach. He would have done the same.

If their replies expressed a desire for a share of the spirit stones, then their hearts were crooked, coveting the wealth a friend had left to his orphaned child. Such people were not worth befriending closely, and there would be no need for further contact.

He simply did not know whether Gao Peiyao had thought of this herself or Old Gao had suggested it before his death.

If it was Gao Peiyao's idea, then with such cunning and her talent, she might someday make her way beyond Mirror Moon Lake.

In his reply, Chen Jianghe also warned Gao Peiyao not to go out to take temporary jobs during the Fish Dormancy Period, or believe any claims in the marketplace about earning spirit stones quickly.

Old Gao had once mentioned that some female Fisher-Farmers in the outer waters, unable to resist the lure of spirit stones, had taken part-time work at the marketplace's Misty Rain Pavilion.

Not only had they damaged their foundations, they had also ruined their bodies, though they had earned seven or eight spirit stones, or even a dozen or more, in a short time.

In the end, however, the depletion of their primal yin and the various lingering ailments brought on by that work had left them unable to break through to the late Qi Refining stage for the rest of their lives.

These were all Old Gao's words, now passed on by Chen Jianghe as a warning to Gao Peiyao.

It was also possible that Old Gao had told Gao Peiyao about these things already.

Time turned, and several more months passed.

There were still three people at the small gathering in the Welcoming Inn, only Gao Peiyao had replaced Old Gao. They discussed problems they had encountered in cultivation, along with what they had seen and heard over the past year.

From the conversation between Gao Peiyao and Yu Daniu, Chen Jianghe deduced that Yu Daniu had also declined her offer to share the spirit stones.

From the looks of it now, Yu Daniu had used the spirit stone Old Gao gave him because he regarded it as sincere help from Old Gao.

He had harbored no other thoughts.

After all their years together, Chen Jianghe had gained a clear understanding of Yu Daniu's character.

He was honest and guileless. His usual carefree manner concealed the sense of inferiority that belonged to a cultivator at the bottom.

Time flowed on, like a white steed flashing past a crack.

Another year passed.

Inside the cabin, Chen Jianghe circulated his cultivation art, absorbing the sparse spiritual energy around him and drawing it into his body. He circulated it through his meridians, and his spiritual roots converted it into magical power, which finally flowed into his Dantian.

After completing three greater celestial circuits of the Origin Returning True Water Art, he returned his qi to his Dantian and slowly brought his cultivation to a close.

I still need Qi-Nourishing Pills. Relying on the sparse spiritual energy in the outer waters alone, I'll need at least another five years to reach Qi Refining Third Layer.

Mirror Moon Lake did indeed have a low-grade second-tier Spiritual Vein, but it lay on Heart of the Lake Island, the Yun Household's ancestral grounds.

Moreover, the Yun Household had an island-protecting formation, which allowed very little spiritual energy to escape. Even the inner waters barely reached the spiritual energy density of a First-Tier Middle-Grade Spiritual Vein.

The outer waters were only a little better than places without a Spiritual Vein. Their spiritual energy density did not even match that of a low-grade first-tier Spiritual Vein. He stood up and walked to the bow. The night faded, and light began to brighten the eastern sky, tinting the myriad white clouds red. On the misty lake, large ships could be faintly seen sailing along the waterways.

He rose and walked to the bow. The night was fading, and light gradually emerged in the east, staining ten thousand white clouds red.

Through the mist shrouding the lake, large boats could be faintly seen sailing along its channels.

It was fish collection day again.

(End of chapter)