"Hiss~ hiss hiss~"
Flecks of light like crushed gold settled on the lakebed. Green water plants stretched their waists in the undercurrent, while an old tortoise the size of a millstone rumbled like muffled thunder in his throat.
Whoosh~
Xiao Hei tried to leave to feed the fish, only for the old tortoise to plant a claw on his shell.
"Hiss hiss hiss~"
The old tortoise was furious and seemed to be lecturing Xiao Hei, his enormous head turning toward the school of Big Blue Fish one moment, then in the opposite direction the next.
A petite Black Crystal Mystic Tortoise silently watched the two members of her kind, one large and one small.
Xiao Hei glanced at the petite Black Crystal Mystic Tortoise. She was the locally renowned Black Rose, the breeding partner his father had found for him.
"Woo~ woo~"
Xiao Hei withdrew his gaze, suppressing the restlessness brought on by male hormones during breeding season, and earnestly explained to the old tortoise how important the Big Blue Fish over there were.
"Hiss~" (You unfilial son!)
The old tortoise struck Xiao Hei hard with his claw again.
He did not know what was so important about the Big Blue Fish, nor did he want to know. All he knew was that his son had been born defective and needed to find a breeding partner as soon as possible.
The Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises' mating period lasted an extremely long time, almost as long as an ordinary human's entire life.
Moreover, Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises did not conceive easily. They entered their mating period at six years old, and over the next fifty or sixty years, they would conceive only two or three times at most.
"Hiss hiss~" (Be good, child.)
"Woo woo woo..." (Don't force me. My heart is set on the Immortal Dao. I no longer have any desire to linger over worldly love.)
Xiao Hei backed away, unwilling to defy his father.
"Hiss..." (The Immortal Dao? What do you know about the Immortal Dao! We Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises cannot enter the Immortal Dao at all. Even the immortal fish at the center of the lake cannot enter the Dao. What delusions are you harboring?)
(You were born defective. Your shell has only eight sections formed by two horizontal and two vertical lines, which means you can only live eighty years. Do you know how difficult it is for us Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises to reproduce? Yet you still want to cultivate immortality. Even two hundred and forty years are not enough to attain the Immortal Dao. Will your eighty years be enough?)
The old tortoise swam closer to Xiao Hei with his millstone-sized body, but he did not use his claws again, instead offering earnest, heartfelt counsel.
"Woo woo woo~~~"
(Yes, I was born defective. My lifespan is only a third of the others', so I want to live. I want a lifespan of two hundred and forty years too. Cultivating immortality is my only option. No matter how difficult it is, I must cultivate immortality, because only then will I have any hope of living!)
Xiao Hei puffed out his cheeks with all his might, producing a deep, tearing sound.
The old tortoise froze in place. Looking at his son, whose tone was so resolute, he did not know how to instruct him.
Not far away, the petite Black Crystal Mystic Tortoise got a clear look at the markings on Xiao Hei's shell, blew a string of bubbles, then turned and swam away.
"Hiss~" (Have it your way.)
Dejected, the old tortoise burrowed into the mud on the lakebed to hibernate.
Xiao Hei did not care in the slightest about Black Rose's departure. With the old tortoise no longer blocking him, he hurried over to the school of Big Blue Fish and urged them to eat.
To stop them from fighting and devouring one another.
The Immortal Dao? Soon! As long as I work hard feeding the fish, he'll help me. Xiao Hei could not help thinking of the mark of the two-legged creature faintly visible on the Spiritual Platform in his mind.
Several more days passed, and the Yun Household came to collect the fish.
Chen Jianghe tucked the hundred and eighteen grains of spirit sand he had earned close to his body.
The Big Blue Fish had yielded a total of two thousand eight hundred jin, with an average weight of three jin and nine liang, much to his surprise.
The hundred and eighteen grains of spirit sand, plus the six left over after purchasing daily supplies, made a hundred and twenty-four grains of spirit sand.
He also had one spirit stone, enough to buy a Qi-Nourishing Pill.
"Looks like Xiao Hei has been working even harder since taking the Qi-Nourishing Pill."
He had expected a good Big Blue Fish harvest this year, but he had not dared imagine their average weight would reach three jin and nine liang.
That was approaching the figures achieved by a Senior Fisher-Farmer.
"Xiao Hei is close to entering a tier and becoming a Spirit Beast, so his suppression of the Big Blue Fish has grown stronger, raising their average weight."
Chen Jianghe jumped off the fishing boat and dove to the lakebed. He saw that Xiao Hei's spiritual energy had grown even more abundant. All he needed was the right opportunity to draw that energy inward and open his Qi Sea.
"Woo woo woo~"
Xiao Hei circled Chen Jianghe, blowing bubbles from his mouth.
"What's wrong?" Chen Jianghe sensed that Xiao Hei was feeling a little down, but he had no way of knowing why.
If they still could not communicate mind to mind after Xiao Hei became a Spirit Beast, he would have to find a way to buy a Spirit Beast Ring.
Xiao Hei's low spirits lasted only a brief moment before he began playing with Chen Jianghe on the lakebed.
Chen Jianghe encouraged him. "Xiao Hei, besides working diligently, you need to cultivate hard too. Try to enter a tier and become a Spirit Beast next year."
"Woo~ woo~ woo~" Xiao Hei puffed out his cheeks excitedly.
Just then, several Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises swam past. They showed no fear of Chen Jianghe, swaggering past right under his nose.
"What's going on? Why do I feel like these Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises are looking at Xiao Hei with contempt?"
Chen Jianghe had experienced White Egret's contemptuous gaze, so he was particularly sensitive to that sort of look.
He found it rather puzzling.
Logically speaking, with such abundant spiritual energy, Xiao Hei should have been a highly distinguished presence among the Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises, one they all looked up to.
A moment later, Chen Jianghe noticed some differences between those Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises and Xiao Hei.
Xiao Hei's shell had two horizontal and two vertical lines, intersecting to form eight sections of different shapes.
But those Black Crystal Mystic Tortoises all had five horizontal and three vertical lines on their shells, crossing at right angles to form twenty-four sections.
"Could it be because of the markings on their shells?"
"That's probably it."
Feeling he had guessed the reason for Xiao Hei's low spirits, Chen Jianghe comforted him. "Xiao Hei, you're different from them. You're about to enter a tier and become a Spirit Beast, while they'll remain ordinary tortoises their entire lives.
"You must remember, being different from your own kind doesn't mean you're lacking. It means you have extraordinary gifts."
"Woo woo woo~~" Xiao Hei froze, then began squeaking frantically, seemingly eager to tell Chen Jianghe what the sections on his shell meant.
"Work hard and forge a future of your own."
Chen Jianghe was accustomed to Xiao Hei's excitement. Just a few words were enough to stir him up.
Xiao Hei's intelligence was far inferior to his own.
Leaving Xiao Hei circling by himself, he dug up the oilcloth buried deep in the lakebed, then tied it beneath the boat.
The end of the year had arrived. It was time to head to Port No. 1.
Buy a Qi-Nourishing Pill and break through to the qi refining third layer.
The year-end gathering.
The Fisher-Farmer Conference.
And the night soil needed clearing out too.
Chen Jianghe looked forward most to buying a Qi-Nourishing Pill and attending the Fisher-Farmer Conference.
Once he broke through to the qi refining third layer, he could practice the Water Escape Technique, giving him a life-saving spell.
As long as he did not encounter a cultivator who also practiced a water-element cultivation method, cultivators below the mid qi refining stage would pose no threat to him at all.
Then there was the Fisher-Farmer Conference.
Yu Daniu had said in his letter that this Fisher-Farmer Conference might no longer be the same old talk, full of useless nonsense.
Instead, there would be some changes, ones highly beneficial to Junior Fisher-Farmers.
When he reached the port, there were still quite a few fishing boats, but less than half as many as the year before last.
Some Fisher-Farmers had been fish caught in the spreading calamity, reduced to dry bones in the lake.
Others had fled, leaving the waters of Mirror Moon Lake.
(End of chapter)
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