Deep in the lush, green mountains, there is a depression that has been artificially constructed and surrounded by white jade, forming a pool that is several tens of feet wide and bottomless. The water in the pool is exceptionally clear, as if countless points of light are shimmering within it.
At the edge of the pool, intricate patterns of light could be faintly seen, constantly absorbing the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi and merging into the pool.
Clearly, this mountain pool was a "small blessed land" created by the Great Divine Ability Li and Yan families of Qingyuan Market in conjunction with five other families of slightly weaker strength.
Spirit Fish Pond.
Such "small blessed lands" are the foundation of many top forces. Some higher-level Divine Ability Hall will also create similar "small blessed lands" to attract more and more disciples to join them.
However, the highest level of the Divine Ability Hall in Qingyuan Market is only level three, so it does not yet possess such a foundation.
It is said that those Fifth-Tier Divine Ability Hall or the top divine ability families in the Great Luo Domain possess true "blessed lands".
When Lu Ming arrived here with the others, the stone seats carved out of the cliffs around the Spirit Fish Pond were already filled with the heads and elders of the Great Divine Ability families in Qingyuan Market.
Li Yan and Yan Jing, the head of the Yan Clan family, sat at the very front.
"Now that everyone is here, let's begin this year's ' Spirit Fish Banquet.' The rules remain the same: everyone fishes according to their own abilities." Li Yan glanced around, her gaze lingering on Lu Ming for a moment, before her voice echoed around the Spirit Fish Pond.
His speech was concise and to the point, without any unnecessary embellishment.
As she finished speaking, the anglers from each family stepped forward. They all looked quite young, presumably promising talents from these families of supernatural powers. Judging from the surging Primordial Qi around them, they were all Great Divine Ability Practitioner.
"Come with me, I'll protect you." Zhou Fuling patted Lu Ming on the shoulder and said with a smile.
Just as Lu Ming was about to speak, Li Shuang suddenly said, " Lu Ming, you're using a spot from the Li Clan. According to the rules, you should go to the Li Clan's fishing platform."
Lu Ming thought that made sense, so he greeted Zhou Fuling and stood next to Li Shuang.
Zhou Fuling simply shrugged indifferently.
Li Shuang glanced at Lu Ming, then picked up a long, golden stick from the edge of the Spirit Fish Pond and handed it over. "This is a specially made fishing rod. When fishing, you need to activate your own Primordial Qi to form a fishing line, lower it into the Spirit Fish Pond, and at the same time, condense your Primordial Qi into a ball at the end of the line to form bait."
" The Golden Pupil Spirit Fish prefers to eat Primordial Qi, so it can only be caught using Primordial Qi as bait. However, this consumes a lot of your own Primordial Qi. If you can't hold on any longer, you can just quit."
"Furthermore, the deeper the fishing line formed by Primordial Qi penetrates into the Spirit Fish Pond, the greater the probability of catching Golden Pupil Spirit Fish."
"One more thing, the higher the purity of the Primordial Qi, the greater its allure to the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish."
"Some supernatural techniques that have special effects on fish can also bewitch the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish. In the past, families with supernatural powers have hired such people and reaped considerable rewards."
Despite her icy demeanor, she surprisingly spoke a string of words.
"The purity of Primordial Qi?"
Lu Ming's heart stirred slightly, then he thanked him, saying, "Thank you."
Li Shuang nodded slightly, then hesitated for a moment before saying, "Be careful of Yan Qing; watch out for any underhanded tactics he might use against you."
"You can do that?" Lu Ming asked in surprise.
" The Spirit Fish Banquet was originally intended as a training ground for the direct descendants of the major families, so competition among them is naturally allowed. However, in the past, no one has gone too far. But you are an outsider, and Yan Qing doesn't like you. They have plenty of ways to make you leave empty-handed. This has happened before," Li Shuang said calmly.
"He doesn't like me? What did I do to him?" Lu Ming frowned.
Li Shuang pursed her red lips slightly. Let's not talk about Jingyi's matter. Now Yan Qing has taken a liking to Zhou Fuling. But no matter how close he has been to her recently, he has gained very little. And Zhou Fuling's attitude towards Lu Ming is obviously different.
Li Shuang felt that if she were in Yan Qing's shoes, she would probably be furious too.
You're just targeting the things I like to mess around with, aren't you?
"Let's go." Li Shuang said no more. She reminded Lu Ming so much only because of Jingyi. Otherwise, given her usually indifferent personality, even if Lu Ming was replacing their Li Clan's quota, she wouldn't bother with it.
Lu Ming followed Li Shuang toward the Spirit Fish Pond, where some stone pillars were visible on the wide surface of the water. At this moment, the figures of other disciples from families with supernatural powers darted out and landed on the stone pillars.
Clearly, these stone pillars are fishing platforms.
Li Shuang's exquisite figure landed on a stone pillar, while Lu Ming landed not far beside her.
Lu Ming sat cross-legged on the stone pillar, holding a golden staff. His Divine Ability Bone emitted a deep rumble, and the Divine Ability Dharma Mark on them flowed with mysterious light. In the next moment, a powerful surge of Primordial Qi emerged, rapidly extending along the golden staff, and finally transforming into Primordial Qi rainbow about the thickness of a fist at the top.
Low chuckles emanated from the Spirit Fish Pond.
Li Shuang's helpless voice came through. "Yours is too thick!"
Do you use fishing line as thick as your fist when you go fishing?
Lu Ming was a little embarrassed. It was his first time playing this game, and he wasn't very skilled yet. So, with a thought, he controlled the flow of Primordial Qi. The Primordial Qi rainbow extending from the top of the golden staff began to rapidly become thinner, eventually transforming into Primordial Qi fishing line about ten zhang long.
Pfft! Pfft!
Meanwhile, the other anglers had already cast their Primordial Qi fishing lines into the water. At the top of those lines, Primordial Qi condensed into clusters, like bait, and quickly sank to the bottom of the pool. The Primordial Qi shimmered, like stars falling into the pool.
Lu Ming also condensed his Primordial Qi at the top of the fishing line, forming Primordial Qi ball, and threw it into the water. He watched with great interest as the Primordial Qi fishing line sank continuously, eventually reaching a depth of ten zhang.
Lu Ming's ten-zhang-long Primordial Qi fishing line wasn't particularly outstanding; the other anglers present all had lines of around ten zhang. However, this was only the Primordial Qi strength Lu Ming was displaying at the moment, at the level of just two Divine Ability Dharma Mark. If he activated the other two Divine Ability Dharma Mark as well, his Primordial Qi fishing line should be around fourteen zhang long.
The one with the longest Primordial Qi fishing line in the arena was Zhou Fuling, whose Primordial Qi fishing line reached a staggering twenty-eight zhang.
Secondly, there was Yan Qing, whose fishing line was twenty-four zhang long.
Li Shuang was twenty zhang tall.
Lu Ming made a rough estimate and realized that Zhou Fuling, Yan Qing, and Li Shuang had probably condensed more than ten Divine Ability Dharma Mark.
He couldn't help but sigh inwardly. These direct descendants of families with supernatural powers were indeed quite accomplished. In the past, Lu Ming only thought they had the advantage of having pills, but now he realized that he was too superficial. The Golden Pupil Spirit Fish in this "small blessed land" was their unique cultivation resource.
And they were merely powerful families in Qingyuan Market; it's unimaginable what unimaginable top-tier cultivation resources the leading forces in Fengyang Prefecture and even the entire Great Luo Domain possessed.
As everyone began fishing, the Spirit Fish Pond fell silent, and all eyes turned to the depths of the water.
There, a silvery light began to appear and disappear.
After a moment, the silvery light gradually became clearer.
They were fish about the size of a palm, their bodies covered in silver scales, but what was most special about them were their eyes, which shone like molten gold and shimmered with an otherworldly light.
Clearly, this was the target that Lu Ming and his group were fishing for: the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish.
These Golden Pupil Spirit Fish swam out from the deepest part of the Spirit Fish Pond. Their Golden Pupil reflected the Primordial Qi orbs hanging on the fishing lines. As they swayed their tails, they swam around the Primordial Qi orbs.
However, these Golden Pupil Spirit Fish clearly possessed some basic intelligence. They cautiously probed, using their mouths to carefully suck up and separate the Primordial Qi.
As the Primordial Qi on the fishing line gradually faded, some anglers couldn't contain themselves and suddenly unleashed a burst of Primordial Qi, attempting to transform it into beams of Primordial Qi to forcibly capture the approaching Golden Pupil Spirit Fish.
However, the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish, with its silver scales flowing with silver light, suddenly increased in speed, instantly cutting through the pond water at an unimaginable speed and disappearing into the depths, leaving the angler extremely frustrated.
Clearly, it's impossible to capture the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish by force.
These fish are incredibly fast in the water.
Only by patiently waiting for the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish to gradually lower its guard by absorbing the Primordial Qi can the Primordial Qi hook be inserted into the fish's mouth, leaving it with no way to escape.
As time passed, a sudden sound of water breaking rang out.
Many eyes turned to the scene, where a fishing line of Primordial Qi was cast into the air. At the end of the line, a Golden Pupil Spirit Fish struggled desperately, trying to break free, but ultimately to no avail.
Someone successfully caught a Golden Pupil Spirit Fish.
Lu Ming also glanced at it and discovered that the person who caught the first Golden Pupil Spirit Fish was Yan Qing from the Yan Clan. It was clear that he was quite experienced in this field, and given his abundant Primordial Qi, his performance was not surprising.
With a smile, Yan Qing put the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish into the fish basket beside him. Then he looked at Zhou Fuling and chuckled as he spoke, "Miss Fuling, catching Golden Pupil Spirit Fish requires some skill. Would you like me to teach you?"
However, no sooner had she finished speaking than Zhou Fuling flicked her wrist, raising the fishing rod. On the Primordial Qi hook, a Golden Pupil Spirit Fish, its silver scales reflecting a bright, dazzling luster under the sunlight.
"Miss Fuling is truly exceptionally talented," Yan Qing praised softly.
Zhou Fuling simply smiled in response and continued fishing.
Over the next few days, more and more people successfully caught the first Golden Pupil Spirit Fish, creating quite a lively scene.
However, Lu Ming hasn't made any progress yet.
After all, his Primordial Qi fishing line was only about ten zhang long, which was not outstanding among the current group of anglers, so he could only wait quietly for some fish that had slipped through the net to swim out from the depths.
Fortunately, he was lucky.
Soon after, a Golden Pupil Spirit Fish swam from the depths and gradually approached Lu Ming's fishing hook.
Lu Ming's eyes lit up. He remained patient and waited for the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish to slowly absorb and separate the Primordial Qi.
Just as Lu Ming seemed about to reap his first Golden Pupil Spirit Fish, Yan Qing on the other stone pillar sneered and then subtly winked at the other anglers on the other stone pillars.
The next moment, the hands of the other anglers from the families with supernatural powers trembled, and their Primordial Qi fishing lines began to vibrate violently, instantly creating surging waves in the pond.
The water ripples quickly spread to Lu Ming, and the surging waves startled the Golden Pupil Spirit Fish that was about to take the bait. It immediately flicked its tail, broke through the waves, and disappeared instantly.
These commotions were naturally noticed by Li Shuang. She frowned slightly but had nothing to say. After all, it wasn't against the rules, and although Lu Ming was using a quota from the Li Clan, he was not a member of the Li Clan. Therefore, she couldn't instruct other members of the Li Clan to help Lu Ming out of this predicament.
Lu Ming's gaze darkened at this moment, and he looked at Yan Qing and the others with a slightly cold expression.
However, Yan Qing didn't even lift an eyelid, seemingly unconcerned about Lu Ming's anger. He calmly cast out his Primordial Qi fishing line and continued fishing, while inwardly sneering, "You peasant, do you think you're qualified to lay your hands on this Golden Pupil Spirit Fish?"
Lu Ming withdrew his gaze and took a deep breath.
I originally wanted to compete with you all as an ordinary person, but since you started acting cheap, don't blame me for turning into the king of cheating.
With this thought in mind, Lu Ming no longer hesitated. With a thought, the powerful Primordial Qi within his Divine Ability Bone surged out and poured entirely into the Fire Lotus Mark.
The next moment, the Fire Lotus Yuan Qi was activated.