The Su Household Fisherman

Chen State.

Cuiwei Lake was the home of the Su Household, a cultivation clan. Rows of two-story houses stood along the edge of one of its small islands, which covered several thousand mu.

Zhou Ning opened his eyes after meditating and sensed the faint Spiritual Qi in his Dantian. He sighed.

"Three whole years, and I've only just reached the Qi Refining Second Layer."

"I'm twenty this year. With the aptitude of my mid-grade Spirit Root, I'm afraid I won't have any hope of reaching Foundation Establishment, even if I cultivate until I die of old age!"

He rose and stepped onto the veranda. The rising sun was dispersing the morning mist. As far as he could see, the vast lake shimmered, waterbirds soared overhead, and islands lay scattered here and there.

Funny to think that he'd never been able to afford a lake-view home in his previous life, yet in this one he'd gotten to live in one so easily.

Yes, Zhou Ning had lived on Earth in his previous life. One night, he'd taken a rideshare car back to his hometown, only for a large truck overtaking in their lane to send the car flying on a stretch of national highway. When he woke again, he had arrived in this ancient land called Chen State.

Back then, Zhou Ning had been an orphaned infant. A farming family had taken him in, only to sell him to the Greedy Wolf Gang later, where he'd been subjected to all manner of training and brainwashing. Luckily, he'd had the mind of an adult, or he would have long since become the gang's loyal dog.

Perhaps thanks to the wisdom he'd retained from his previous life, Zhou Ning had progressed swiftly in martial arts. By sixteen, he'd become a second-rate expert in the martial world, with a chance of becoming a martial arts grandmaster.

Unfortunately, during a great battle between gangs, the opposing gang had disregarded martial virtue and brought in a frail old man who killed all the Greedy Wolf Gang's leaders in the snap of a finger.

Only then did Zhou Ning learn that immortal cultivators actually existed in this world!

Zhou Ning came to an understanding: martial arts had no future; immortal cultivation was the true path!

Dreaming of roaming heaven and earth and living forever, Zhou Ning had searched far and wide until he chanced upon Mr. Wen, who guided him onto the immortal path.

Afterward, he joined a group of prospective disciples in the Azure Mystic Sect's entrance selection.

Unfortunately, he was too old and his aptitude was ordinary, so he was ultimately rejected.

Luckily, just when mountains and rivers seemed to leave him no way forward, a cultivation clan happened to be recruiting, so Zhou Ning joined the Su Household as a retainer.

Three years had passed since then.

Zhou Ning looked toward the little boat by the shore, the corners of his mouth twitching. The Su Household didn't support idlers. In exchange for a place to cultivate on this first-tier Spirit Vein, he patrolled the waters for the Su Household every day from eight in the morning to six at night.

"Sigh, time for work again!" Without even using a Law Technique, Zhou Ning used his lightness skill to glide down from the terrace and land in the little boat.

He took up both oars, and the little boat slowly made its way out. Green trees and red walls were reflected on the lake, and the wind left him a little chilly.

On the shore not far away, the other retainers likewise took up their oars and set out.

The Su Household was a prominent cultivation clan, renowned for a thousand li around. A Foundation Establishment Late Stage patriarch held the fort, and there was more than one great Foundation Establishment cultivator in the clan. They were figures Zhou Ning could only look up to.

"Foundation Establishment is wonderful. You get to live for two hundred and forty years!"

A Qi Refining cultivator, on the other hand, could live no more than a hundred and twenty years.

Only after the boat had traveled some distance did Zhou Ning use the Spirit Eye Technique. Light immediately appeared in his eyes, and he could dimly make out the scene beneath the water.

He gripped a fish spear, ready to strike at any moment.

The Su Household had quite a few sources of income. Among them, it raised many kinds of fish in this lake, such as spirit carp and Jade Wave Grass Carp...

In recent years, the Su Household had grown stronger by the day, encroaching on the interests of quite a few factions. No one knew when a ferocious fish called the Fuluo Eel had appeared in Cuiwei Lake. It fed exclusively on spirit fish and had no natural predators.

The Su Household had suffered considerable losses, but the lake was vast and the clan didn't have enough cultivators, so it recruited retainers like Zhou Ning, who were good value for the price.

The Su Household provided a place to cultivate on a first-tier Spirit Vein, along with a guaranteed minimum of two jin of spirit rice and one jin of spirit fish each month. In addition, anyone who killed a Fuluo Eel could exchange it for spirit rice.

Last month, Zhou Ning had been lucky enough to catch a Fuluo Eel over half a meter long and exchange it for four jin of spirit rice.

But that little bit of spiritual resources was a drop in the bucket for cultivation. If he wanted to earn more spiritual materials, he would have to spend more time spearing fish.

Zhou Ning's teeth ached. Damn it, after wandering in circles for decades, he was working for someone else again.

There was no future in it!

Luckily, he still had one last hope.

Zhou Ning couldn't help taking out a square piece of black jade. He had picked it up at a bird-and-flower market while traveling in his previous life.

He had come to this world alone, with nothing but the jade accompanying him.

Convinced the jade was extraordinary, Zhou Ning had tried methods such as Blood-Drip Recognition, but it hadn't reacted at all.

Later, after he began practicing martial arts, he started pouring internal force into the jade. It had originally been white, but after all these years of him infusing it with internal force and Spiritual Qi, it had almost turned completely black, with only one corner at the lower right still white.

Zhou Ning had a feeling: "When the jade turns completely black, something may happen, perhaps involving how I came to transmigrate to this world!"

He slacked off in the boat while continuing to infuse the jade with spiritual power, just as he used to slack off at work in his previous life.

By the time work ended, Zhou Ning hadn't caught a single Fuluo Eel. He took up the oars and returned to his faithful little courtyard.

Shut the door, enter the room, get on the bed, and start charging!

From sunset until the moon rose, Zhou Ning kept charging it without stopping.

Yet the jade's last corner still hadn't turned completely black. It looked as though it would need another day. Instead, all that charging had left Zhou Ning weak all over, his spiritual power exhausted.

He gritted his teeth, got out of bed, and opened a chest, revealing a few odds and ends.

Three jin of spirit rice, a purple beaded bracelet, and an identity token at his waist-that was everything he owned.

Oh, right. There were also two jin of spirit fish deposited with the Su Household under his token. That was his savings.

He scooped out half a bowl of spirit rice and put it in a pot to cook, taking the opportunity to meditate and restore his spiritual power.

Spirit rice worked wonders for immortal cultivators: it replenished spiritual power, sped up cultivation, and could also be exchanged for spiritual materials. He received only two jin a month from the Su Household.

Before long, he lifted the lid. A milky, sweet fragrance drifted out, and the distinct grains of rice seemed to glisten with crystalline light.

After Zhou Ning ate the spirit rice, a faint warmth appeared in his previously empty Dantian. He hurriedly circulated his Cultivation Method to refine it.

It was much faster than simply absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

"If only I could eat spirit rice every day!"

He'd heard that the Su Household's direct descendants didn't think much of spirit rice at all. They consumed better spiritual items for cultivation.

"Sigh, the rich and powerful have endless glory and wealth to enjoy, while ordinary people like us can only toil like oxen and horses!"

Then Zhou Ning grasped the jade, summoned all his spiritual power, and thought, Full speed ahead!

The jade's last white corner finally turned completely black. The next moment, Zhou Ning's consciousness went black with it.

The jade slipped from his hand and vanished into his sea of consciousness!

At the center of an endless expanse of mist, the square piece of black jade stood suspended in the void, countless black, tadpole-shaped seal characters flowing across its surface.

"Strange, why can I see my sea of consciousness? Isn't Divine Sense supposed to emerge only at the Qi Refining Middle Stage?"

He tried to look inward at his Dantian, but saw nothing.

He could still look inward only at his sea of consciousness.

Zhou Ning studied it for a long while, then suddenly picked up the identity token beside him. The next moment, the token vanished.

With another thought, the token reappeared in his hand.

"A storage function!"

Zhou Ning put a pile of odds and ends inside and discovered that the jade contained a space of roughly two cubic meters.

Zhou Ning had heard of something called a Storage Bag. Only cultivators in the middle and late stages of Qi Refining could afford such a rare item.

"But if that's all the jade can do, that's a bit underwhelming." Zhou Ning couldn't help feeling disappointed.

He studied it for a while longer, then suddenly had a thought and sent his Divine Sense straight into the black jade.

The next moment, a dizzying sensation swept over him, as though heaven and earth were spinning.