Old Fisherman

Biodata

History

Recruiting Chen Xia

The Old Fisherman first meets Chen Xia beside a broad pool in Great All-Heavens, claiming to have fished him out of the river of time. He identifies Chen Xia as the sole protagonist of his minor grotto-heaven and selects him as a disciple for his Great Emperor-level talent, potential to transcend, and connection to a true dragon descendant. When Chen Xia asks to return home, the Old Fisherman refuses and reveals that the Azure Heaven Sword Sea lies beneath their feet 40.

A century later, he returns to find Chen Xia still lingering in the shallows. Frustrated by his unwillingness to compete, he orders him to attend the entrance selection within five hundred years or face exile to the Sword Sea’s deep waters. He also admits that Chen Xia’s ranking will affect his own ability to ask the sect master for benefits 41.

Descent into a Tiny Realm

The Old Fisherman recommends cultivating through descent into other worlds, explaining that smaller realms can experience time a hundred times faster than Great All-Heavens. He advises choosing a medium-sized realm because tiny realms offer limited opportunities, suppress outsiders’ strength, and expose them to potentially lethal local opposition. Chen Xia nevertheless chooses a tiny realm 41.

Using a Daoist meditation cushion, the Old Fisherman instructs Chen Xia to separate one percent of his Divine Sense and send it into a suitable world. His explanation draws on theories attributed to the Mecha Great Saint and the Nuclear-Powered Immortal 42.

The Hidden Sacrifice

After returning, Chen Xia falsely reports that his projected Divine Sense died. The Old Fisherman supplies a soul-restoring lotus and encourages him to try other forms of cultivation. His apparent failure to recognize Chen Xia’s manipulation of time leads Chen Xia to question both the river-of-time rescue story and his supposed benevolence 48.

Privately, the Old Fisherman reveals his actual intention: once Chen Xia reaches Quasi-Saint, he will qualify as an ingredient for medicine intended to prolong the Azure Heaven Sword Sea’s existence. He expresses regret but justifies sacrificing one talented disciple for the sect 48.

Believing Chen Xia’s performance of a damaged Dao heart, he offers time to recuperate and possible assistance from the sect master. He rejects Chen Xia’s request for ten thousand years, allowing only a few hundred, and directs him to the Heavenly Pavilion to select a Sea-Overturning Realm Divine Ability or Secret Method 48 49.

Lifespan Technique Incident

When informed that Chen Xia selected the unfinished Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method, the Old Fisherman orders the choice concealed. He interprets it as evidence of severe psychological damage and decides to bring rare treasures to comfort him. His concern is tied to the need for Chen Xia—a rare pure-human Great Emperor seedling—to reach at least Quasi-Saint 50.

Meanwhile, Chen Xia secretly uses that very method against him, cutting twenty years from his lifespan without his awareness 50.

Appearance

• Aged face: Frequently wears a smile when speaking to Chen Xia 40 48.
• Thick eyebrows: Described as resembling two long worms 40.
• Characteristic posture: Often clasps his hands behind his back while advising or questioning his disciple 41 48 50.

Personality

The Old Fisherman mixes casual humor with forceful authority. He trades jokes with Chen Xia and offers blunt survival advice, but refuses to return him home and uses the threat of deep-water exile to compel participation in the entrance selection 40 41.

He regards competition as essential to cultivation, arguing that Great Emperors and supreme beings reached their positions through struggle rather than simply outliving others. Chen Xia’s refusal to follow that logic repeatedly leaves him exasperated 41.

His loyalty to the Azure Heaven Sword Sea outweighs his disciple’s life. Although he sighs over the planned sacrifice and attempts to justify it to himself, he continues preparing Chen Xia for eventual use as medicine 48 50.

Abilities & Skills

Spatial Movement

The Old Fisherman uses Shrinking the Earth to an Inch to vanish from Chen Xia’s presence 48.

• Can rapidly appear and disappear during visits 48 49.
• Transports Chen Xia from the shallows onto the enormous sword overhead with a pulling gesture 41.

Divine Sense Descent

He knows how to facilitate cultivation through a projected portion of Divine Sense entering another world 42.

• Supplies the meditation cushion and teaches Chen Xia to separate one percent of his Divine Sense 42.
• Understands inter-realm time differences and the risks of outsider suppression 41.

Claimed Time-Related Feats

He claims to have retrieved Chen Xia from the river of time and previously beaten the Time Ancestor 40.

• Neither claim is independently confirmed in the supplied account.
• Chen Xia considers both deception and deliberate concealment possible after the Old Fisherman seemingly fails to detect his time techniques 48.

Equipment & Items

• Bronze fishing rod — Held during his first meeting with Chen Xia and later tucked at his waist 40.
• Daoist meditation cushion — Provided to facilitate Chen Xia’s Divine Sense descent 42.
• Ten-thousand-year-old Purified Altar Soul Lotus — Given to Chen Xia to restore his supposedly damaged soul, with instructions to take one petal every half month. Chen Xia refuses to consume it out of distrust 48.

Relationships

• Chen Xia — Disciple and intended sacrificial ingredient. Their outward master–disciple relationship conceals the Old Fisherman’s scheme and Chen Xia’s growing resistance 48 50.
• Azure Heaven Sword Sea’s sect master — The authority from whom he hopes to request benefits based on Chen Xia’s performance; he also offers to report Chen Xia’s recovery needs 41 48.
• Black-robed guardian — Reports Chen Xia’s technique selection and obeys the Old Fisherman’s order to conceal it 50.
• Time Ancestor — A figure the Old Fisherman claims to have beaten; Chen Xia later questions that claim 40 48.

Notable Quotes

“I never come back empty-handed.” 40

“Wait until he becomes a Quasi-Saint. Then he'll qualify as an ingredient for medicine.” 48

“This is the tide of events. Don't blame me.” 48