Fishing

After seeing off this Nascent Soul expert from Heavenly Gate, Hu Mang did not return to the Azure Mysterious Realm. Instead, he decided to honestly serve as the head of the academy for a few days and finish up the tasks that needed to be done.

So early the next morning, Hu Mang took out his fishing rod, called out to his Old Third who appeared out of nowhere, and the two of them happily went out to sea for sea fishing.

When the two arrived at the dock, the sky was just beginning to lighten with a faint, pale glow, like a sheet of rice paper soaked in water, exuding a coolness as it lazily spread across the horizon.

The old fishermen, who had been arranged to work, bowed and scraped before Hu Mang. Hu Mang smiled and walked onto the deck.

Although the boat was small, it was a spirit boat with an acceleration array, fully equipped with everything: fish baskets, fishing lines, fishhooks, and even pots and pans for cooking.

The elderly fisherman who came to help is also a skilled fish cook and can speak a somewhat awkward Heavenly Gate dialect.

After preparing fishing hooks and baits for the bosses, he smiled innocently, sat on the stern of the boat and smoked an old pipe.

The Old Third, on the other hand, was in high spirits, fiddling with a sandworm, choosing a fishing hook, and checking the wind direction, keeping himself very busy.

Looking back, he discovered that Hu Mang had only cast the fishing hook into the sea, and then silently pulled out a stack of documents to read.

"Holy crap, second brother, are you here to fish or to work? You haven't even baited your hook yet."

"Jiang Taigong fishing, those who are willing will take the bait," Hu Mang said casually.

He wasn't really there to fish; it's just that he rarely shows his face, and many people, with noses like dogs, have caught wind of him, offering him all sorts of invitations. He found it too troublesome and decided to go fishing at sea to find some peace and quiet.

While I'm at it, I'll take a look at the fishing rods.

"Old Third, you've been pretty busy lately, haven't you?"

"Busy, that old woman, King Chujiang, is absolutely insane! She treats the living like the dead and the dead like ghosts. She's insane!"

The Old Third gets angry whenever this is mentioned.

Chen Xiaosan found two Mystery-Type for the Underworld Bureau, which is a great achievement, right? He should be a meritorious official who deserves preferential treatment.

As a result, he was constantly tormented by King Chujiang, who had also been sent overseas. He was either investigating this or researching this, and in just over a month, his legs almost became thin from running around.

I might as well go back to Dachang and deliver food; at least I could have a smoke between orders.

"So this generation's King Chujiang is a woman, not a monster?"

"Yeah, I heard he was transferred from the education department. Damn, he has this weird vibe of a head of student affairs."

"What exactly is she sending you all over Nanyang for?" Hu Mang asked.

"Catching the Jiangtou Imp, that's what I do, since I'm an expert in this area now," Chen Xiaosan said without any hesitation, revealing the secrets of the Underworld Bureau.

"It seems they've developed some kind of mysterious technology that can repair the Ghost Dragon Vein using eerie methods, so now they're catching little ghosts all over the world, and some are even going to the bottom of the sea to salvage sunken artifacts."

"Is that so?"

Hu Mang appeared to give a casual reply, but he was actually deep in thought.

It seems my guess was mostly true. If the end of that Ghost Dragon Vein wasn't the Grave Transformation Heavenly Dao, the Underworld Bureau wouldn't have gone to such great lengths.

"Those things on the seabed are very dangerous, so be careful."

"Don't worry, Second Brother, I'll just catch the little devils. The dangerous stuff is all handled by 'Hundred Mysteries Night Parade'."

"They're all here?!"

The Hundred Mysteries Night Parade —that's Ghost Lord's direct force.

"How strong are they?" Hu Mang asked curiously.

"I don't know, I've only heard that their Mysterious Transformation time is longer, and many of them supposedly have their own Ghost Haunt, each one incredibly powerful."

Chen Xiaosan stroked his chin.

"But I know two new guys who are pretty impressive, though they're a bit off their minds. They claim to be from ancient times, one from the Yu Dynasty and the other from the Liang Dynasty. Second Brother, do you think they're crazy? They're not ghosts, how could they possibly be alive now?"

Hu Mang blinked.

Could the two people Chen Xiaosan mentioned be the resurrected individuals that Eighth Master Hui spoke of, the same type of fighters as his mother?

So, does this mean that those big shots from ancient times have also stepped onto the historical stage—or rather, the modern stage?

He had originally planned to return this time to see what exactly was going on with the Old Heavenly Gate Sea Dragon Vein that suppressed the consciousness of the Demonic Cult Leader.

However, since there are so many activities in the Underworld Bureau, it's best to behave yourself.

He can get busy once these dead people are done with their work.

"Holy crap, second brother, they've taken the bait! They've taken the bait!"

The Hu Mang saw the fishing line under its rod swaying constantly. When Hu Mang pulled up the line, it found a small yellow fish hopping and jumping around, biting the hook.

Neither of them recognized the species of the fish, but they could recognize the concentration of Spiritual Qi on it—the concentration of Spiritual Qi at the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining.

A spirit fish, perhaps?

"Not bad luck, second brother."

"It's alright, it's alright."

Hu Mang casually handed the small yellow croaker to a local old fisherman to be processed, then cast his line again and continued looking at the information.

The Old Third stopped rambling and started focusing intently on fishing.

The data that Hu Mang was looking at was the experimental data of that group of experimental cultivators from this period of time.

This is not the first batch; in fact, the underground experimental monks have already conducted the third batch, with extremely excellent results.

The demonic Marrow Extraction Secret Technique, combined with the Core Formation Secret Method developed in the laboratory, increased the number of Golden Core cultivators in Zheng Family Garden by more than ten.

In particular, the two veteran Golden Core cultivators who cooperated in the experiment, Wei Kaishan and Feng Haixiao, both broke through to the Golden Core Late Stage.

Among them, Old Man Min and that Flesh and Blood Golden Core played a key role.

That Flesh and Blood Golden Core appears to be bait given by a Celestial Person Sinful Dragon.

"Once ingested, a Golden Core will automatically grow within it," and this Flesh and Blood Golden Core, as one's cultivation grows stronger, will eventually transform into bait for that flesh-and-blood Sinful Dragon.

However, that Sinful Dragon probably never expected that it would have the "shattered core reconstruction" technique.

He advanced to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage through demonic secret techniques, consumed a "pseudo-Core Formation" Flesh and Blood Golden Core pill, and then repeatedly shattered the pill to get rid of the interference of the Sinful Dragon's will within the Flesh and Blood Golden Core.

Then, the shattered remains of the Flesh and Blood Golden Core were expelled and re-evolved into a Flesh and Blood Golden Core.

A cultivator who has achieved "pseudo-Core Formation" obtains a new Golden Core through repeated core-breaking operations.

The monk who conducted the experiment was very satisfied, the team members in charge of the experiment were very satisfied, and Hu Mang was also very satisfied.

The Celestial Person who manipulated things behind the scenes is probably not very satisfied.

The only thing that can limit the number of Golden Core in Zheng Family Garden now is the number of "Flesh and Blood Golden Core".

If a few more "Flesh and Blood Golden Core" were added, the number of Golden Core in Zheng Family Garden would probably increase several times over.

The downside of doing this is that cultivators who advance to the Golden Core stage in this way are unlikely to break through to the Mid Golden Core, and will never be able to form a Nascent Soul in their lifetime.

This was the conclusion Doctor Sun reached with a grave expression.

However, Hu Mang pointed out that this is Nanyang, and in the past hundred years, has there been even one Nascent Soul in Nanyang?

For 99% of native cultivators, reaching the Core Formation stage is already a feat akin to their ancestors' graves emitting smoke—and a thick, billowing smoke at that.

Even without Hu Mang's orders, Zheng Family Garden's underground network is now operating at full capacity, attempting to acquire more Flesh and Blood Golden Core, as well as similar "cyber treasures."

After all, that's human nature. Those who haven't reached the Core Formation stage want to, and those who have, who doesn't have a few Foundation Establishment Realm brothers or subordinates?

In these people's minds, the quota for Golden Core cultivators is of paramount importance!

The Heavenly Blood Python, who gave them the fortuitous opportunity to form their core, had more influence than Boss Zheng.

This is why, even though Zheng Family Garden hasn't made any external moves recently, this group of militants has been quite well-behaved.

What are you fighting for! Are you trying to rebel? If you interfere with my Core Formation, I'll kill you!

As for those experimental cultivators who had already formed their core, they were directly sent to the Black Wave Charitable Inns by Secretary Jiacha.

You're looking for these "Flesh and Blood Golden Core," right? Go find them. If you find them, I'll give you a trial, oh no, a spot to form a core.

However, Secretary Jiacha gradually realized that it was Zheng Family Garden's power, a power that hadn't existed even when Boss Zheng was around.

The speed increased rapidly.

"Holy crap, second brother, you caught another fish?"

"Holy crap, what is that? An octopus?"

"Damn, what is it now, a seven-star perch?"

Wow, what a long ribbonfish!

"Crabs can even be caught?! This is unbelievable!"

The Old Third had stopped fishing and was staring in disbelief at the Hu Mang's fishing rod.

Even seasoned fishermen who had seen it all gathered around, looking on in astonishment.

There's no way around it; once the Hu Mang casts its line, regardless of whether there's bait or not, and no matter which direction the line is cast, it will always get a bite within a short time.

The Old Third has been fishing for so long, but hasn't caught a single sea fish.

"This doesn't make sense. Could it be the fishing gear?"

Unfortunately, Chen Xiaosan switched to Hu Mang's fishing rod and found that he also failed to catch anything, so he started blaming feng shui.

Only Hu Mang knew that this was due to Longbo Essence Blood, and possibly also the influence of the Turtle Dragon Bone.

The ancient Longbo was able to fish out a giant turtle carrying a mountain; that's the true bloodline of a master angler.

As for the Mountain-Bearing Giant Ao, it is a top-tier predator in the sea.

The combination of these two bloodlines results in exceptionally good sea fishing results.

As time passed, Chen Xiaosan finally took the bait. Although it was just a shrimp, it made him gloat for quite a while.

Meanwhile, Hu Mang kept communicating with this High Antiquity fishing rod through his mind. The reason he went to sea, besides seeking peace and quiet, was partly because of this fishing rod.

Even now, he still vividly remembers the move Zhao Longbo used to nearly blow his head off.

There was no fluctuation of Law Power; it could even destroy the main body through a clone.

If he hadn't used the Ghost Dragon Vein's consciousness to enter the Heavenly Secrets Evolution level, he probably would have been killed by this one move.

Theoretically speaking, having inherited two High Antiquity bloodlines, he should also be able to use this fishing rod.

However, after some research, Hu Mang gradually discovered that this thing had nothing to do with Law Power or true True Qi, but seemed to be related to fishing.

The more times he fishes, the more proficient he becomes at it.

They fished for most of the day, from morning until afternoon.

Then, Hu Mang's phone rang; not many people knew his number.

"Boss, you're still alive! If you hadn't called back, I would have sent people overseas to rescue you!" Sister Yu's tone was as excited as ever.