The Yun Household Flying Boat

The alliance's small gathering ended.

Zhou Miaoyun took Yu Daniu to the cultivator market to buy the materials needed for Spirit Talisman Drawing.

Gao Peiyao had probably figured that Yu Daniu had no spirit sand to spare, which was why she had offered to lend him two spirit stones to buy talisman-making materials.

Chen Jianghe had not refused the spirit stones Gao Peiyao offered to lend him, either, and had gladly accepted them.

They were no longer ordinary friends, but allies who had sworn an oath together and shared common interests.

Besides, the spirit stones Gao Peiyao gave them were a loan and had to be repaid.

Even if he refused Gao Peiyao's loan now, when she reached the sixth level of Qi Refining and raised funds to buy a Calamity-Breaking Pill, he would still have to lend her spirit stones.

At the harbor, Chen Jianghe parted ways with Gao Peiyao, and each boarded their own fishing boat.

"Four spirit stones. What boldness."

Back in his cabin, Chen Jianghe gained a new understanding of Gao Peiyao through today's alliance.

Four spirit stones were no small sum.

That was seven or eight years of income for an ordinary fisher-farmer.

It could buy two Qi-Nourishing Pills.

Yet Gao Peiyao had dared to invest it outright in him and Yu Daniu. Was she not afraid her investment would fail?

He was one thing-with his "talent for fish farming" to back him up, he could guarantee Gao Peiyao a profit without any loss.

But Yu Daniu was full of uncertainties.

If he failed to learn Spirit Talisman Drawing from Zhou Miaoyun, a fisher-farmer without any talent for fish farming would struggle to repay those two spirit stones over the next twenty years.

Let alone help Gao Peiyao buy a Calamity-Breaking Pill.

"If Daniu really has no talent for Spirit Talisman Drawing, he'll surely be isolated and then leave the alliance. By lending him two spirit stones, Gao Peiyao has done all that kindness and duty could ask of her. Daniu won't blame her."

"And with Daniu's honest, simple nature, he'll gather enough spirit stones to repay Gao Peiyao someday."

He had thought Gao Peiyao had decent spiritual root talent, ambition, and a head for planning, but he had never expected her emotional intelligence to be so outstanding as well.

"Is she really a girl Old Gao brought out of a mountain village?"

If things were truly as Old Gao had said, everything Gao Peiyao could have encountered before coming to Mirror Moon Lake had been confined to a single village.

How could she have developed such ambition and foresight, and such high emotional intelligence?

Chen Jianghe felt that Gao Peiyao had secrets, but he could not ask her outright. After all, everyone had secrets of their own.

He had even more secrets himself.

Dismissing these stray thoughts, he took out all his spirit sand.

His wages from raising Big Blue Fish over the past two years totaled 194 grains of spirit sand. Adding the sixty-nine grains he had saved before and subtracting his expenses over these two years, he now had 243 grains of spirit sand in all.

With the two spirit stones Gao Peiyao had lent him as support, he now had more than four spirit stones.

He had already decided how to spend the Spirit Stones.

He would spend it all on Qi-Nourishing Pills.

That meant two Qi-Nourishing Pills, one each for him and Xiao Hei.

Although he could buy a Spirit-Nurturing Pill to help Xiao Hei open his qi sea directly, the Yun Household's situation was unstable at present.

He, too, needed to improve his cultivation as soon as possible.

The sooner he reached the Qi Refining third layer and mastered the Water Escape Technique, the sooner he would have another means of protecting himself.

If he had not been worried about dampening Xiao Hei's enthusiasm for work, Chen Jianghe would have wanted to use both Qi-Nourishing Pills himself.

That way, he would definitely break through to the Qi Refining third layer in two years.

With his five-element mixed spiritual root, his cultivation progressed slowly. If he had not taken a Qi-Nourishing Pill, he would have needed seven years to reach Qi Refining, second layer.

Breaking through to the Qi Refining third layer would require eight years.

One Qi-Nourishing Pill could equal nearly two years of arduous cultivation, while the pill toxins it contained took a year to expel from his body.

Calculating the timing, taking two Qi-Nourishing Pills over two years would let him reach the Qi Refining third layer just in time.

"I'll spend it all on Qi-Nourishing Pills first. Once I'm strong enough to protect myself, I'll put everything into nurturing Xiao Hei." With his thoughts settled, he began cultivating aboard his fishing boat.

There was no hurry to buy the Qi-Nourishing Pills within the next day or two.

The Fisher-Farmer Conference had yet to begin, and he still had to remain at the harbor for another seven or eight days.

The day before the Fisher-Farmer Conference.

Chen Jianghe went ashore and entered the cultivator market, only to find everyone wearing worried expressions. The Yun Household's Foundation Establishment Ancestor was nearing the end of his lifespan. To them, it was as though the sky were falling.

Without the Yun Household's protection, Junior Fisher-Farmers like them would be rogue cultivators at the very bottom, at anyone's mercy.

Cultivators at the mid Qi Refining stage would fare better. They could protect themselves and could later become elders of a different surname in Qi Refining aristocratic clans.

Those at the early Qi Refining stage would have no choice but to be robbed.

"Have you heard? The Yun Household's eldest master was killed at Linyun Mine. They say the Bai Household of Qiyun Mountain did it."

"How is that possible? The Yun Household's eldest master was at the Eighth Level of Qi Refining, and he even had a superior-grade magical artifact. Who could kill him?"

"Exactly. You can't spread that sort of talk carelessly. If a steward hears you, you'll be working three years for nothing."

"You still don't know? Not only did the Bai Household kill the Yun Household's eldest master, rumor has it that even the Yun Household's ancestor was ambushed by the Bai Household, and they stole his Foundation Establishment Pill."

"Is that true?!"

As he walked through the crowd, whispers reached his ears.

Chen Jianghe's expression shifted slightly. He knew of the Bai Household of Qiyun Mountain. They were another Foundation Establishment Immortal Clan and had established a sizable Market Ward for rogue cultivators on Qiyun Mountain.

However, it did not attract much traffic, because security around Qiyun Cultivator Market was poor, with many bandit cultivators entrenched nearby.

It was nowhere near as safe as Qinghe Market.

And this Bai Household was the Yun Household's sworn enemy. Their feud went back a hundred years.

It was all because of Linyun Mine, a first-tier superior-grade spirit mine with more than ten thousand spirit stones available to be extracted.

But Linyun Mine lay on the border between Mirror Moon Lake and Qiyun Mountain, sparking a conflict between the two Foundation Establishment Immortal Clans.

It was said that the conflict a hundred years ago had ended with the death of the Bai Household's head. If they had kept fighting, both Foundation Establishment Immortal Clans would have suffered grievous losses, and outsiders would only have reaped the benefits.

As for the mining rights, each held half. The part within Mirror Moon Lake's territory was called Linyun Mine.

The part within Qiyun Mountain's territory was called Qiyun Mine.

But this had also sown a hereditary feud between the two Foundation Establishment Immortal Clans.

The miners at Linyun Mine earned high wages, receiving a commission of five grains of spirit sand for every spirit stone they dug up. It was simply too dangerous.

They not only had to guard against the people around them, but also against the bandit cultivators along the border between the two powers.

Even when taking temporary work during the fish dormancy period, fisher-farmers would not choose Linyun Mine. Of every ten who went, nine might never return.

Wooo-wooo-wooo-

A loud, sustained horn call rang across the sky.

A thousand-foot flying boat tore through the clouds, sweeping from Heart of the Lake Island over the cultivator market. The flagpole bearing a flag emblazoned with the character "Yun" gleamed with an azure light tempered over a hundred years. Formation patterns along the hull shimmered in the sunlight, and as it crushed its way across the heavens, clouds churned like boiling water and scattered.

It was heading toward Linyun Mine.

"It's actually true! Even the Yun Household Flying Boat has been dispatched. The Yun Household's eldest master really did die at Linyun Mine!"

"Was it really the Bai Household's doing?"

"I'm afraid the two Foundation Establishment Immortal Clans are going to war again."

"The Yun Household's ancestor is gravely wounded and nearing the end of his lifespan. Can he stand against the Bai Household of Qiyun Mountain?"

"We fisher-farmers had better prepare early."

(End of chapter)