Chapter 6: Lightning Strike
The moonlight tonight was far from beautiful, hiding like a coy maiden behind thick layers of clouds.
Ji Yuan had never learned any night vision techniques, so he could only rely on the faint night vision ability that came with being at the early stage of Qi Refinement, carefully observing the fish pond.
He had originally bought five Semi-Spiritual Fish. After raising them for almost ten days, they had already grown noticeably larger.
Even if they had not evolved into Spiritual Fish, selling them as Semi-Spiritual Fish could still net him a small profit of one or two Spirit Stones.
With just the "+20% Growth Speed" effect of this Fish Pond, it was enough to cover Ji Yuan's Immortal Residence Fee.
And now... after observing for quite a while, he finally identified which Semi-Spiritual Fish had evolved.
It was the Scale-Stone Perch.
A Semi-Spiritual Fish, the Scale-Stone Perch.
Now, it had evolved into a Spiritual Fish—the Stone-Armored Perch!
The layer of stone armor on the body of the Stone-Armored Perch was considered natural material for making defensive magical artifacts.
The more intact the armor was, the higher its selling price would be at the Fish Section.
If he could manage to keep every piece of stone armor intact and sell it, it might fetch as much as eighteen Spirit Stones!
The thought of those shining Spirit Stones... Ji Yuan felt his sleepiness vanish completely. He simply decided to cultivate by the fish pond for half the night.
Until the sky just barely began to brighten the next morning, Ji Yuan looked at the Stone-Armored Perch in the pond, its whole body looking like it was covered in stones, and raised his hand to summon a Water Arrow.
The only way to kill this Spiritual Fish without damaging its armor was to pierce its eye with a Water Arrow, destroying its brain and thus killing it.
In the vast Yunyu Marshlands, to pull off such a move required at least a Qi Refinement cultivator at the fifth or sixth layer, someone proficient in Object Manipulation Technique and capable of wielding magical artifacts.
But unfortunately for the fish, Ji Yuan was not in Yunyu Marshlands.
In this tiny fish pond, the Stone-Armored Perch had nowhere to escape.
Moreover, Ji Yuan was casting the technique from the shore, so there was no trace of spiritual energy disturbance in the water.
With a flick of his hand, the Water Arrow shot out with a soft "chi" sound.
The Stone-Armored Perch gave a violent twitch, splashing water everywhere, then sank to the bottom.
The remaining four Semi-Spiritual Fish were visibly frightened by the scene.
Ji Yuan dragged the Spiritual Fish ashore. The other four Semi-Spiritual Fish had grown quite large as well.
He planned to raise them for another three or four days. If they still failed to evolve, he would have to sell them off.
Otherwise, once their meat became tough with age, they would lose market value.
But no matter what, today he was definitely going to sell this Stone-Armored Perch first.
Taking advantage of the early hour, he stepped outside and saw no one around.
Even the Lin family had not gotten up yet.
He quickly went back and placed the corpse of the Stone-Armored Perch into the water compartment of the Black-Roofed Boat.
Afterward, he fetched the three Spiritual Eggs laid today, planning to find a small island in Yunyu Marshlands to refine and absorb them.
But when he came out again, he saw that Lin Youwei and his wife were already up, preparing to set sail.
Unlike Ji Yuan’s humble Black-Roofed Boat, they had a Magical Artifact Fishing Boat.
Though it was just a basic magical artifact, it was extremely convenient.
Not only was it fast, but it also saved them from having to row manually.
A mid-grade Fishing Boat could even dive underwater and move freely like a fish.
In places like Zengtou Market, most mid-stage Qi Refinement fishermen owned such magical boats.
Ji Yuan’s family used to own one too.
"Ji Yuan, why are you up so early too?"
Lin Youwei glanced at Ji Yuan setting out so early and thought of his own son, Lin Hu, who was still lazing in bed.
A flicker of irritation crossed his mind.
Zhou Ling even went straight back to the house to wake their son.
"Uncle Lin, aren’t you up pretty early yourself?"
Ji Yuan didn’t say anything to offend them.
Smiling lightly, he started rowing his boat. But he hadn’t even gone half a mile when Lin Youwei and his wife caught up to him.
They zipped past him in their magical boat, causing waves that made Ji Yuan’s Black-Roofed Boat rock slightly.
Watching their retreating figures, Ji Yuan felt no envy at all.
Once upon a time, he had to work just as hard to scrape by. But now… he found a nearby patch of reeds, tied up his boat, crawled inside, and began his usual egg-eating routine.
After several days of eating eggs, Ji Yuan had discovered a small trick.
For example, adding a pinch of salt into the egg improved the taste considerably.
Perhaps when his living conditions improved in the future, he could even fry or scramble the eggs, sparing himself from eating those awful eggshells… Ji Yuan let his imagination run wild.
Around eleven o’clock in the morning, he set sail toward the Fish Market.
He had already been out long enough; there was no need to wait until the afternoon.
When he finally arrived at the Fish Section in Zengtou Market, there were hardly any people around.
Carrying the enormous Stone-Armored Perch ashore, he placed it into the fish basket.
Just as he did, a familiar voice sounded from behind.
"Ji boy, is that… another Spiritual Fish?! And a Stone-Armored Perch at that?"
Damn it, why is this old man here… Ji Yuan cursed inwardly.
Turning around, sure enough, he saw the bald, toothless Old Huang.
He was holding a Semi-Spiritual Fish, preserved using the Fish Preservation Technique.
"Not just any Stone-Armored Perch, but one with not a single piece of armor damaged."
A Water Dragon Sect on-duty cultivator unexpectedly spoke up.
As soon as he opened his mouth, all the fishermen nearby turned to look, staring in shock at the Spiritual Fish.
Stone-Armored Perch weren’t rare, but one with completely intact armor—now that was rare.
Seeing this, Ji Yuan secretly cursed himself for getting greedy and lacking experience. Had he known, he would have broken a few pieces of armor. Losing a few Spirit Stones would have been worth avoiding all this attention.
Now he had put himself on public display.
"Not bad, young man."
"Isn’t that the Ji family boy? Early-stage Qi Refinement, right? No way he could manage this. Bet someone else caught it for him."
"..."
The setup was too obvious… Ji Yuan quickly laughed and said, "Indeed, it wasn’t me. My master caught this Spiritual Fish. But since he’s busy breaking through, he sent me, his disciple, to deliver it."
At this point, Ji Yuan had no choice but to slap a tiger skin on himself.
"You’ve got a master now, huh? No wonder you’ve been coming and going so mysteriously lately. Come on, tell us which senior it is…"
Old Huang immediately asked.
Anyone capable of killing a Spiritual Fish without damaging its armor had to be at least a sixth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator, possibly even someone in the later stages.
"My master forbade me from mentioning his name."
Ji Yuan smiled apologetically and accepted… twenty Spirit Stones???
That was the highest price for an early-stage Spiritual Fish.
Any higher would have required it to be a mid-stage Spiritual Fish.
"Many thanks, senior!"
Ji Yuan quickly pocketed the Spirit Stones, clasped his hands in thanks to the on-duty cultivator, and hurriedly left this troublesome place.
Though he had left, Old Huang’s eyes never left him, filled with… a hint of regret, or perhaps contemplation.
Ji Yuan had no idea.
After rushing to Zengtou Market, he immediately sought out a talisman shop.
Spending twelve lower-grade Spirit Stones, he bought a mid-grade Lightning Strike Talisman.
Once activated, this talisman unleashed an attack comparable to the full power of a sixth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator, making it the best life-saving card Ji Yuan could afford right now.
Anything more expensive was beyond his means, and anything cheaper would be ineffective.
With this in hand, even if some Cultivation Robber targeted him, he would at least have a chance to fight back.
This purchase had long been part of Ji Yuan’s plan.
Cultivation was important, but life was even more so. He knew which mattered more.
With the remaining eight Spirit Stones, he spent five to buy three Green-Yellow Chickens.
The seller was the same Chicken Cultivator from last time.
Recognizing Ji Yuan, he chuckled and asked:
"Fellow Daoist, how are my chickens? Did they lay eggs after you brought them home?"
Ji Yuan paused for a moment and replied with just one sentence.
"The meat was pretty tasty."
The Chicken Cultivator: "..."
With the last three Spirit Stones, Ji Yuan once again bought three Semi-Spiritual Fish.