Big Fat Fish

Only after hearing such resolute words, leaving himself not the slightest way back, did Lin Tongjiang realize that he seemed never to have truly understood Jiang Tongxuan.

He was a true seeker of the Dao, one who would gladly die in the evening if he heard the Dao in the morning. Jiang Wangxuan should not have been at Luyu University; he should have received better instruction in a grotto-heaven.

But he was only twenty, after all. In his six years at the university, he had done nothing but cultivate and had hardly socialized. Apart from practicing swordsmanship with Xue Renya for three years, he had never had much contact with anyone else.

Did Jiang Wangxuan really understand the Dao? Lin Tongjiang did not know. He only felt it was a pity.

According to the experience of their predecessors in Foundation Establishment, Lüyu would select promising seeds over six years, then choose a steady, dependable teacher as each one's mentor and slowly guide them to the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement. By then, the outstanding seeds would be in their early thirties.

Back in the near-ancient era, even the True Disciples of the great immortal sects would only have been around the Middle Qi Refining at thirty.

After that, they would follow the elders of the grotto-heaven on travels, broadening their horizons, deepening their understanding of the Dao, and thoroughly tempering their foundations. After as little as five or six years or as many as ten, they would reach Qi Refinement Perfection and fully integrate their cultivation and understanding of the Dao. Only then would they forge their immortal foundation.

In the near-ancient era, anyone who reached Foundation Establishment at forty was a great talent with hope of reaching the Purple Mansion. With the wealth of resources available to modern cultivators, those who reached Foundation Establishment at forty were hardly uncommon in the grotto-heavens.

And now, Jiang Wangxuan wanted to reach Foundation Establishment at twenty?

"Wangxuan, has your twentieth birthday passed yet?" Lin Tongjiang suddenly asked.

"No, my birthday's around the Spring Festival."

"All right! I understand." Lin Tongjiang was at a loss for words for a moment. Only after a long while did he speak again. "Have you thought about what will happen to your sister and your family if you fail at Foundation Establishment?"

"You have to remember, Jinyi hasn't even reached Qi Refinement yet!"

Jiang Wangxuan pursed his lips and lowered his head slightly. Struggling, he said, "Cultivation is a personal matter. Jinyi, she... for her to have the circumstances she does now, and to have received a portion of Dui White Pure Metal Sha from you, sir, is already a tremendous fortuitous opportunity."

"If I die attempting Foundation Establishment, I still have some resources on hand to leave Jinyi for her future use. In the end, she'll have to rely on herself to seek the Dao. As for the family, I'll make arrangements when I go back this time."

By this point, Lin Tongjiang had nothing left with which to persuade him. He thought of how close Jiang Wangxuan and Jiang Jinyi had been that afternoon and could not tell whether the boy cared too deeply or cared so much that he seemed heartless.

"Your leave is approved. Tomorrow, I'll apply to the grotto-heaven for a White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill. Once that application is submitted, there'll be no way back for you. Have you thought it through?"

"Once the piece is placed, there are no regrets."

Jiang Wangxuan gave the senior a deep bow. This time, Lin Tongjiang did not step aside. He accepted the bow from this cultivator who had reached Qi Refinement Perfection in Grand Yin, and with it, formed a bond of karma.

"In that case, go on!"

Jiang Wangxuan straightened and watched Teaching Assistant Lin's retreating figure, his heart filled with countless feelings of gratitude and respect. He was lucky to have met such a good teacher, but in the end, he had gone against the teaching assistant's wishes.

The bright moon shone high over the world, and Luyu Port was only just awakening. The city of night suspended in the sky was just raising its curtain. Among the visitors here, none who came and went were common folk; all who talked and laughed were Qi Refinement cultivators.

After stopping to admire the port's night scenery for a while, Jiang Wangxuan returned to his residence at the university. Unlike the new Lüyu students below, he had been settled in the Central Palace as soon as he arrived at Luyu University.

Lin Tongjiang had deliberately chosen a cave abode with a view of the "Heavenly River" at night. Originally a place where a great clan of the grotto-heaven had once entered seclusion, it had now been converted into a villa complex fit for distinguished guests, with the elegant name "Wave-Gazing Residence."

This move had also drawn fierce attacks on Lin Tongjiang from the university's old guard, who accused him of wiping out every last remnant of the Central Palace and reaching for the final patch of private ground left to its former masters.

True Person Chonghuan made no comment on the matter, and in the end, the dispute went no further.

In truth, not many people had actually moved into the villas here. The owners of many residences had already been driven out of the grotto-heaven and retained their properties here in name only. This was the old guard's final act of stubborn defiance.

After returning home and quickly washing up, Jiang Wangxuan sat down in the residence's meditation room and called out to his golden finger in his sea of consciousness: a Big Fat Fish who lived off him for free.

"You're the one who lives off me for free!"

A blue-and-white whale girl, half a person's height, suddenly popped up in his sea of consciousness. One hand on her slender waist, she hurled a small cushion at Jiang Wangxuan's spiritual sense.

"If I hadn't worked so hard, purifying Spiritual Qi for you day and night, would you have the cultivation you do now?" The whale girl was furious. She pointed a finger at him and began cursing.

Jiang Wangxuan wore a look of disdain. "As if you weren't using my true essence to play single-player games in my Rising Yang Mansion. Don't think I didn't hear Erlang say, 'You monkey, you truly delight me,' when I came in, you freeloading Big Fat Fish."

"What's wrong with taking a little of your true essence to play a game? You just want me to spend twenty-five hours a day calculating cultivation methods and purifying true essence for you. You capitalist who deserves to be hanged from a streetlamp."

The little Big Fat Fish in a maid outfit flew into a rage. Right in front of Jiang Wangxuan's spiritual sense, she hauled out a computer from their previous life and started it up.

"The heavens move, all things are made manifest!"

Jiang Wangxuan helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead. Out of options, he could only block out the noise from the Rising Yang Mansion for the time being. He had worked Big Fat Fish awfully hard these past two weeks. Go on, play. Once you're done, you'd better get back to work.

For some reason, Jiang Wangxuan could not calm his mind tonight. Perhaps it was because his cultivation had reached its peak and he could progress no further, or perhaps it was because he was worried about Foundation Establishment. Jiang Wangxuan began to watch his life flash before his eyes.

In his previous life, he had still been a twenty-year-old kid without doubts. To keep up with the times, he had spent a fortune preparing to assemble a small local AI, grateful to Sage Liang for making it open source.

After great difficulty, he had obtained the goods from outside. Everything was in place, ready for a trial run. Then sparks flew and lightning flashed, and he cheerfully received a one-way plane ticket to another world.

In this life, both his parents were alive, and he had a sister and a home. It was nothing like some orphanage. His family had been harmonious since he was young, and he had both a younger brother and sister. They were modestly well-off, too.

The one flaw in the ointment was that this was a modern world of Attainment-Status Immortal Cultivation. What else was there to say? Which great senior fished me over here?

Fortunately, Big Fat Fish, whom he had failed to assemble in his previous life, had followed him into this perilous cultivation world. Not only was her life linked to his, she also had an "intelligent" calculation function.

But during the Embryonic Breathing Stage, Big Fat Fish could only be called artificial stupidity. Her output efficiency was comparable to that of a twentieth-century vacuum-tube computer from his previous life.

Throughout the Fetal Breathing Realm, it could be said that Jiang Wangxuan had been charging ahead with a deadweight in tow. Embryonic Breathing required absorbing Spiritual Qi and condensing Spirit Wheels in the lower, middle, and upper Dantians in turn. Once a Spirit Wheel was formed, Law Power would naturally accompany the cultivator.

Two wheels were condensed in each, from bottom to top. The lower Dantian was the repository of essence, the middle Dantian the repository of Qi, and the upper Dantian the repository of spirit. The upper Dantian was also called the Rising Yang Mansion. Once Spirit Wheels were condensed there, spiritual sense would manifest.

Only after Jiang Wangxuan manifested his spiritual sense did Big Fat Fish finally start up, slowly iterating her own "code" in the Rising Yang Mansion.

When Jiang Wangxuan consumed a portion of Moon Osmanthus Cold Breath, entered the Qi Refining Stage, and cultivated Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence, Big Fat Fish successfully evolved. Not only did she gain intelligence and begin the process of evolving cultivation methods, she also gained the ability to purify true essence.

But this purification of true essence was not so simple. It was a necessary resource for Big Fat Fish's intelligence to evolve. True essence went in, Big Fat Fish paddled forward a little, her "brain" became sharper, and the spiritual essence she put out grew denser.

For Jiang Wangxuan and Big Fat Fish, it was a genuine win-win, a huge victory all around.

As the Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence grew purer and purer, the quality of the spiritual essence fed to Big Fat Fish also rose. By the later stages, it was a rare substance of 99 percent purity, and Big Fat Fish had also achieved self-iteration by stepping on her left foot with her right.

In Uncle Liang's words from his previous life, users could go play somewhere else and stop holding them up from evolving AGI.

Not only did Big Fat Fish grow smarter and smarter, but after "eating" every cultivation method Jiang Wangxuan could get his hands on, she could even take the initiative to improve Qi Refining Stage cultivation methods and Method Formulas herself.

Jiang Wangxuan's Qi Refinement cultivation method was different from his Embryonic Breathing method. For Embryonic Breathing, he had used the Essentials of Moon Essence Breathing; for Qi Refinement, it was the sixth-grade Autumn Moon Frost Osmanthus Qi Condensation Method.

Every Qinghuan person whose Spirit Aperture was detected could go to their local [Huaqi] and receive a cultivation method suited to them.

When Jiang Wangxuan began trying the version of the Autumn Moon Frost Osmanthus Qi Condensation Method modified by Big Fat Fish, the frost osmanthus chill contained in the true essence he had originally cultivated slowly faded, replaced by a pure, gentle essence of moonlight.

At that moment, tears streamed down Jiang Wangxuan's face. Thankfully, he had not given up on Big Fat Fish.

The newly cultivated true essence was fed back into Big Fat Fish, who continued purifying the Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence imbued with the essence of moonlight. By the time he reached Qi Refinement Perfection, the true essence in Jiang Wangxuan's sea of Qi had actually condensed into a stream of Luminous White Moonlight, crystal clear, its radiant light revolving on its own.

Such a change was never mentioned in the Autumn Moon Frost Osmanthus Qi Condensation Method. Jiang Wangxuan chose to believe, to believe in the power of believing.

I was right to trust Big Fat Fish. She's a late-game hero. Once she's fully developed, she'll be able to carry me to immortality.

This is the supreme Dao wisdom on my Dao Path to immortality!

Even if it currently only worked on the Qi Refinement version, that was enough for him to use. So, Big Fat Fish, start up.

"The heavens move, all things are made manifest!"

Big Fat Fish started up. Big Fat Fish slipped. Big Fat Fish began slacking off. Big Fat Fish began playing games. Big Fat Fish was not well-behaved at all.

My supreme Dao wisdom has started developing Dao wisdom of her own. What am I supposed to do?

"Big Fat Fish, stop playing. Did you get that thing I asked you to do sorted out?"

"All done!"

The adorable Big Fat Fish changed into an elementary schooler's suit in the Rising Yang Mansion. To the accompaniment of deathly dun-dun-dun music, she put on black-framed glasses. "Shinjitsu wa~! There is always only one truth."

"That is, the Spiritual Qi rampage you experienced half a month ago, that black tide that flashed through your Rising Yang Mansion, has one and only one possible explanation: your True Lord bloodline has awakened."

"Oh, my foolish master, I've repeated this conclusion to you over a hundred times. Not a single calculation has ever changed it. Why won't you believe me?"

Irritated, Big Fat Fish ran over and stamped hard twice on the head of Jiang Wangxuan's spiritual sense. Jiang Wangxuan shook his spiritual sense, "reached out," grabbed Big Fat Fish by her little ankle, and deftly tossed her aside.

"You freeloading Big Fat Fish, does our Jiang Household look like it has a True Lord bloodline?"

"You foolish, illiterate idiot. You and your sister were both found to have Spirit Apertures. Did none of your ancestors really amount to anything?"

Jiang Wangxuan was speechless. Big Fat Fish made so much sense that he could not refute her. But both siblings having Spirit Apertures did not prove that they really had an important ancestor, much less a Golden Core True Lord.

Maybe it was just a bloodline mutation. Didn't poor people have to rely on mutations?

Jiang Wangxuan could have accepted a Purple Mansion True Person a little more easily, but a Golden Core True Lord was simply too shocking.

Jiang Wangxuan sighed. He had to go back to the family's old home in Luzhou as soon as possible and look for clues. Otherwise, with a time bomb like this hanging over him, how could he dare break through to Foundation Establishment?

Uneasy, desu.