I'm Done Pretending

"Fortunately, treasure fish and exotic beasts are spiritual creatures too. They can shorten the process."

"But I'll have to be twice as careful in the meantime."

Xu Fan took a deep breath.

He wouldn't really die in the Land of Wu, but he would here.

Now that he couldn't enter the Land of Wu whenever he wanted, he had one less trump card to save his life.

"I need to guard against arrogance and impatience. I'll lie low at Peach Blossom Spring Lake for a few months first."

He had originally planned to wait until the fuss at the fish market died down, then change his registration and household record to shed his lowborn status.

Now it seemed he would have to put it off for a while.

Half a month had passed, and he didn't know whether Lin Chu was still there or whether anyone was still running an entrapment operation.

"Fortunately, I've already mastered two Techniques. My strength has improved considerably."

He cast aside his displeasure.

Shopkeeper Xu was at least a great Qi Refining cultivator. He wasn't someone Xu Fan could take on now.

But cultivators lived long enough that he needn't fear missing a chance for revenge.

"You'd better stay alive. If you're dead by the time I come looking for revenge, don't blame Grandpa Xu for making your descendants pay."

He had known the Land of Wu was full of pitfalls, but he hadn't expected so many.

The slightest disagreement had gotten him killed by a curse.

He had rather liked the identity of Xu Xian. In the immortal cultivation world, if he ran into a snake demon that had taken human form, he might even have gotten to be a madman of the grass and wilds.

Now that Xu Xian was dead, he could switch to someone like Ning Caichen or Liu Yanchang.

Autumn passed, and winter came.

Peach Blossom Spring Lake did not freeze in winter, but the weather was still cold. The distant Yin Mountains across the lake had already donned a thin coat of snow.

In this season, the fishermen did not do much fishing either.

Whether ordinary fish or treasure fish and exotic beasts, they ate little and scarcely moved.

There was only one exception.

"In winter, those fish don't like moving around. They just huddle in one place, which makes things easier for me."

Law Power flowed through Xu Dao's eyes, bringing all the treasure fish hiding around the reed beds into view.

"Is that... a Blood Dragon Sturgeon?"

Beneath the tangled reed beds, Xu Fan suddenly spotted a flash of blood-red. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a big one.

Golden light gathered at his fingertip, and he flicked it.

The water below instantly turned murky.

Xu Fan crouched slightly and reached into the water with his right hand. The Golden Light Technique became a thread, dragging out the Blood Dragon Sturgeon, which had already turned belly-up.

The Blood Dragon Sturgeon was a good 1.2 or 1.3 meters long, nearly filling the bow of the boat.

"The silver in the wooden box can't be brought into the open. Selling this Blood Dragon Sturgeon will be just the thing."

"It's time to lay my cards on the table. With my current cultivation, I shouldn't have many opponents as long as I don't run into one of those legendary grandmasters."

Over three months, he had caught three or four treasure fish every day and had even killed the exotic fish outside the reed beds.

Not only had he condensed the Azure Origin Wheel, but he had also charged the Taiji Dao Evolution Diagram halfway.

"Come to think of it, it's been seven months since my memories awakened."

Xu Fan reflected as he poled his boat toward the fish market dock.

"If I hadn't run out of salt, I could actually have lain low for a few more months."

Without salt these past few days, even treasure fish had tasted bland, so he had fed most of them to the Taiji Dao Evolution Diagram. He had no choice but to make a trip to the fish market.

"It's been almost four months. This should have blown over by now, right?"

"Don't get in the way of my conquest of the newbie village and my kicking my way through the North Sea kindergarten."

Compared with the Land of Wu, where pitfalls lurked everywhere and the slightest disagreement could get someone killed,

the fish market was positively full of simple, honest folk. Even the martial masters seemed amiable.

Sure enough, good and bad were all a matter of comparison.

"A Blood Dragon Sturgeon?!"

As soon as Xu Fan came ashore, the voice of the petty official who came to collect his fee shot up.

The official recognized Xu Fan as one of the fishermen.

He simply hadn't seen him for more than three months and had thought an exotic beast in the lake had eaten him. He hadn't expected him to be alive.

Not only was he alive, but he had also brought back a Blood Dragon Sturgeon over a meter long.

This was a dragon-blooded creature!

They lived mostly in deep water, so ordinary fishermen could hardly ever catch one.

Last time, the fisherman Liang Chi had caught one, but even that had been a size smaller than this one.

Liang Chi was an important figure whom even the fish market's current overseer had to treat with respect. It was said he had already completed four blood exchanges!

What gave Xu Fan the ability to do this?

Could he be another lucky fellow who had cultivated Qi and Blood?

The petty official hesitated. He had just been thinking of demanding more money, but now he didn't dare.

"Little brother, your luck is truly excellent."

He accepted the three large copper coins Xu Fan handed him and nodded with a friendly smile.

"My luck has always been good."

Xu Fan smiled and carried the Blood Dragon Sturgeon into the fish market.

"Old Kong? What are you doing here?"

On the way, he spotted an acquaintance huddled on the ground, shivering and clutching his ragged clothes tightly around him.

"X-Xu?"

Old Man Kong raised his head slightly and saw Xu Fan, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

"Xu, you're still alive?"

Xu Fan hadn't appeared for three or four months, and both he and Old Man Xu had thought an exotic beast in the lake had eaten him.

After all, such things happened to fishermen from time to time, even if Xu Fan might have had a few tricks up his sleeve back then.

But even martial masters didn't dare hunt the lake's exotic beasts alone, much less Xu Fan.

"Of course I'm alive."

Xu Fan rolled his eyes and said irritably:

"You're the one who's about to die."

Old Man Kong was in his forties or fifties and suffered from quite a few minor ailments. Staying out in the freezing cold on a day like this, he was really asking to die.

Xu Fan was about to leave when he suddenly thought of something.

"Old Man Kong, I remember your farmland was seized, and you were forced to sell your house and fish on the lake, right?"

His parents in this life had told him about the few long-lived fishermen at the fish market, and Old Man Kong was the most unusual of them.

He had fallen from a farming household to lowborn status and had never married. In this small place where having no descendants was considered the greatest failing, he was clearly an oddity.

"You knew about that, Xu?"

Old Man Kong got shakily to his feet, his gaze fixed on the Blood Dragon Sturgeon. This was a rare dragon-blooded creature.

"Everyone at the fish market knows about your miserable business."

Xu Fan made no attempt to be polite. He glanced at the others gathering around and left him with a few words:

"Come with me first."

The place that bought treasure fish had changed overseers again. The new one was only at the Qi and Blood realm.

At the sight of the rare dragon-blooded creature, he immediately stood and hurried over.

"A Blood Dragon Sturgeon?!"

The new overseer examined it closely in surprise. It was his first time seeing one.

Even a juvenile Blood Dragon Sturgeon over a meter long was extremely difficult to catch underwater. How could a fisherman have such ability?

"Send for the manager."

Without looking at the new overseer, Xu Fan set the Blood Dragon Sturgeon on the scales and sat down as if it were only natural.

"You..."

The new overseer's eyelid twitched, and he nearly flew into a rage.

But when he saw the Blood Dragon Sturgeon and considered how confident this man was, he suppressed his anger, turned, and hurried away.

Seeing him act this way, Old Man Kong, who had followed Xu Fan in, went through a series of expressions on his pale face.

"You're the one looking for me?"

The newcomer walked with steady steps. He wore a close-fitting black outfit and looked to be a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties. His eyes were cold and sinister as they fixed on Xu Fan.

"A martial master?"

Xu Fan could tell that the man's Qi and Blood were strong, much stronger than an ordinary martial master's. He might have already undergone two blood exchanges.

But there was something different about him, an indescribable strangeness. Even so, he hadn't exceeded the range of three blood exchanges.

He might have cultivated some martial art that concealed his presence.

"You're very perceptive, Manager."

The fish market's new manager didn't have strong Qi and Blood. He wasn't even a match for Li Tieyi, whom Xu Fan had killed.

Had the Canal Gang been frightened by all the killings?

Why had they sent someone so weak?

"My name is Chen Hai, the fish market's new manager. Tell me what you want."