A Gathering of Three

The port Chen Jianghe usually landed at was Port No. 2, while the fisher-farmers' year-end assembly was held at Port No. 1.

Along the lake route to Port No. 1, boats stretched for a thousand miles, with neither end in sight.

Chen Jianghe rowed along the lake route for eight hours, only reaching Port No. 1 near dusk.

Masts and sails crowded the port like clouds, packed as tightly as fish scales and the teeth of a comb.

The market was even more crowded, its traffic flowing like water and people rubbing shoulders. Vendors had set up their stalls all the way to the port. Clearly, they too knew the fisher-farmers had been paid.

Chen Jianghe headed toward the market, stopped before a restaurant called the Welcoming Inn, then went inside.

This was the restaurant where the three of them had agreed to meet.

Upon entering the private room on the second floor that they had reserved in advance, he found Old Gao already there, sitting by the window, sipping tea and watching the passing crowds outside.

"Old Gao."

"You're here, young Chen."

Old Gao turned around, revealing his aged face. Deep wrinkles crisscrossed it like a dried-up riverbed, and his increasingly clouded eyes were filled with the vicissitudes of life.

After a year apart, Old Gao had aged considerably again.

Even Old Gao himself could no longer remember his actual age. All he knew was that he had spent his whole life working as a fisher-farmer for the Yun Household-seventy or eighty years at the very least.

By a rough reckoning, he was already in his nineties.

"I can pour it myself."

Seeing Old Gao about to pour him tea, Chen Jianghe hurried forward and picked up the teapot, refilling Old Gao's cup before pouring one for himself.

"I'm old. No use anymore." Old Gao lowered his eyes, looking at the scenery outside the window, and unconsciously drifted into a daze.

Chen Jianghe said nothing, likewise watching the people passing outside.

There were fisher-farmers like himself, rogue cultivators from elsewhere, ordinary mortals, and vendors hawking their wares at the tops of their voices.

Old Gao was downcast because he was approaching the end of his lifespan. This was common among cultivators.

Mortals wanted to live.

Cultivators feared death even more.

But cultivators needed no comforting.

Qi refining stage cultivators had a maximum lifespan of a hundred and twenty years. Even putting Old Gao's age on the high side, at a hundred this year, he still had twenty years left to live.

In reality, however, lifespan was not calculated that way.

For instance, mortals had a maximum lifespan of eighty years, but how many actually lived to eighty?

Most died in their sixties or seventies, perhaps from overwork or from prolonged, excessive mental strain.

Cultivators were much the same. Wounds left by fighting to prove themselves in their youth, or injuries sustained for other reasons, could all shorten their maximum lifespan.

Thus, Chen Jianghe kept one thing firmly in mind: make no enemies, shun rivalry and fighting, and undertake no risky activities.

Judging by Old Gao's appearance, he estimated that the end of his lifespan would come within the next few years.

"Old Gao, Brother Jianghe, you're here so early."

Before they had finished a cup of tea, the sturdy, dark-skinned Yu Daniu walked in, his voice rough and booming.

True to his name, he had already grown to over a hundred and ninety centimeters tall at sixteen.

With everyone present, Chen Jianghe asked the restaurant attendant to serve the food. This was their second gathering at the Welcoming Inn.

As agreed, each of them would cover one year's drinks. Old Gao had paid the first year, and, going in order of age, this year was Chen Jianghe's turn.

Their annual budget for drinks was also fixed: one grain of spirit sand, equivalent to a hundred taels of silver.

Spending a hundred taels of silver on a single meal seemed extravagant, but it was actually quite frugal at the port market. They ordered only four plates of dishes containing no spiritual energy and a pot of the most ordinary Immortal Spirit Wine.

They did not even dare order Mirror Moon Lake's specialty, red-braised black carp.

Old Gao had splurged once in his youth, ordering a red-braised black carp weighing two jin and nine liang. It had cost two grains of spirit sand-an exorbitant price.

They sampled the dishes and drank three rounds of wine.

The three exchanged accounts of what they had encountered over the year, along with some insights into cultivation.

Their exchange of cultivation insights was really just Old Gao advising Chen Jianghe and Yu Daniu. After all, he was at the fourth level of qi refining, a mid qi refining stage cultivator.

As for the year's events, Chen Jianghe was very much a homebody, traveling only between his boat and the port all year round. He had no unusual experiences to speak of.

Because of his age, Old Gao had suddenly grown much older this year. Looking careworn, he too had spent most of his time holed up on his fishing boat.

Like Chen Jianghe, he had chosen not to take temporary work during the fish dormancy period.

Yu Daniu, on the other hand, had had quite an eventful year. Perhaps wanting to supplement his family's income, he had thought of taking temporary work.

Just as he had written in his letter to Chen Jianghe, he had gone to work for the Lan Household as a temporary spirit farmer, then returned home midway through to visit his family, escaping the Lan Household's murderous attack on the fisher-farmers.

"If over two hundred fisher-farmers had fought back together with all their might, the Lan Household might not necessarily have had the upper hand, right?"

Curious about the details, Chen Jianghe asked.

"It happened suddenly. Besides, most fisher-farmers are only at the early qi refining stage. Terrified, they thought only of fleeing. How could they have thought of joining forces to resist?"

Although Old Gao knew little about the incident, the information Yu Daniu had given him was enough for him to picture the scene.

"The Lan Household is one of the foremost qi refining aristocratic clans on Mirror Moon Lake. They must have more than one late qi refining stage cultivator. With advance planning, slaughtering over a hundred fisher-farmers would have been quite easy."

Listening to Old Gao's analysis, Yu Daniu cast him a surprised look and nodded repeatedly at his words.

"Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly it! The Lan Household had three late qi refining stage cultivators, one of them a mighty cultivator at the ninth level of qi refining. That was how over half the fisher-farmers at the Lan Household ended up dead or wounded."

"After I came back, I also heard that the Lan Household had profited by at least eight hundred spirit stones from this attack on the fisher-farmers."

As Yu Daniu spoke, even he was once again stunned by that enormous figure.

A gleam flashed through Old Gao's eyes, and envy appeared on his face. If he had eight hundred spirit stones, he could certainly live to the full limit of his lifespan, and might even break through to the sixth level of qi refining before he died.

Chen Jianghe was also startled by the eight hundred spirit stones, but he soon calmed his restless heart.

Eight hundred spirit stones was a great deal, but one had to stay alive to enjoy them.

Would the Yun Household simply stand by and let the Lan Household steal eight hundred spirit stones and escape?

He only needed to cultivate steadily, step by step. Once he became a senior fisher-farmer, he would receive higher pay.

Then he could find a way to learn a craft. With a lifespan three times that of other cultivators at his level, he should at least be able to secure another source of income.

Of course, Chen Jianghe also understood that once he had learned a craft, it would be time to leave the Yun Household.

Staying with the Yun Household for thirty to fifty years would be no problem.

But if he stayed any longer while his appearance remained unchanged, it would inevitably arouse suspicion. After all, a Youth-Preserving Pill was beyond the means of a mere fisher-farmer.

Once Yu Daniu finished recounting the Lan Household incident, their year-end gathering came to an end.

Only, as they parted, Old Gao offered them a remark.

"You two are both old enough to lose your virginity now. If you want to have some fun, you can go to Misty Rain Pavilion."

Chen Jianghe had no interest in that. After leaving the Welcoming Inn, he returned straight to his fishing boat to rest and await the fisher-farmers' year-end assembly.

As for whether Yu Daniu went to the Misty Rain Pavilion Old Gao had mentioned, he did not know.

(End of chapter)