Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Chen Jianghe
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Cold Dew. Early morning.
A youth, treading through the thin mist, glided toward the heart of the lake as he greeted the dawn. A light touch of his bamboo pole sent pale golden ripples spreading across the water. Magical power condensed into a silver thread that coiled around his wrist. Suddenly, a green shadow streaked through the ink-wash sky, its tail churning the reflection of the rosy clouds.
‘Minor Water Control Art.’
He flicked his wrist, and a silver gleam shot toward the green fish, binding it. No matter how fiercely the fish struggled, it could not escape the silver thread's restraint.
As he reeled his hand back in, a large green fish, over a foot long, was pulled onto the fishing boat.
Chen Jianghe held the large green fish, weighing it in his hand, before tossing it back into the lake with a satisfied smile.
“Over three and a half catties. It’s another bountiful year.”
Gurgle gurgle~
A stream of bubbles rose to the lake's surface, shimmering with an amber glow under the morning sun. It was a signal from the pet Chen Jianghe kept at the bottom of the lake.
“Xiao Hei, well done. Once I sell the fish, I’ll reward you with a Spirit Awakening Pill.”
Gurgle~ Two more iridescent bubbles surfaced—Xiao Hei’s satisfied response.
Chen Jianghe smiled with delight.
He was a transmigrator and had been in this world for three years.
Before transmigrating, he had been a university student in the painting department. He’d had a stroke of great luck on his way home to pay respects to his ancestors, and when he woke up, he had become a Fishery Farmer for the Mirror Moon Lake Yun Clan.
This was a world of cultivation.
There were immortals who could fly through the sky and burrow into the earth, move mountains and fill seas, as well as great demons who could grasp the sun and moon, shrink a thousand mountains, and whose true forms could blot out the sky.
His predecessor was also named Chen but had no given name. He was an orphan. Because he had spiritual roots, he was brought back to Mirror Moon Lake by an elder of the Yun Clan and became a Fishery Farmer.
After arriving at the Yun Clan, he was given a water-element Qi Refining technique, ten grains of spirit sand, and one Spirit Nurturing Pill, and thus began his journey on the path of cultivation.
The Yun Clan stipulated that a Fishery Farmer's entire earnings from the first year of fish farming would be returned to the clan as a fee for their guidance on the immortal path.
The Mirror Moon Lake Yun Clan was the largest cultivation family within a radius of eight hundred li, and it was rumored that they had a Foundation Establishment Ancestor in their ranks.
All the cultivation clans within the territory of Mirror Moon Lake had to pay land rent to the Yun Clan.
Besides collecting land rent from the various cultivation clans, the Yun Clan's foundation was the sale of green fish to the surrounding market cities.
These fish were a specialty of Mirror Moon Lake.
Because there was a second-rank, low-grade spirit vein at the bottom of Mirror Moon Lake, the green fish were not only delicious, but their flesh also contained spirit qi.
The green fish were divided into large green fish and small green fish.
The large green fish were slightly bigger, usually weighing around three catties when fully grown. However, they were raised at the edges of Mirror Moon Lake, so their flesh contained little spirit qi and they sold for a low price. The remuneration for the Fishery Farmers was also limited.
Chen Jianghe raised this type of large green fish.
As for the small green fish, he had heard from the old Fishery Farmer next door that one needed to be at the late stage of Qi Refining or become a high-level Fishery Farmer to qualify to raise them.
Mirror Moon Lake was a circular lake, a hundred li in diameter. Viewed from the sky, it resembled a full moon.
Extending twenty li from the shore toward the center was the outer region, the waters where junior Fishery Farmers raised large green fish.
Another twenty li inward was the inner region, the waters where high-level Fishery Farmers raised small green fish.
The Yun Clan's rules were strict. Junior Fishery Farmers were forbidden from entering the inner waters. Violators would have their cultivation crippled, their legs broken, and be expelled from the Yun Clan.
Surrounding the inner waters was the Yun Clan's ancestral land, Lake Heart Island, which was also the place with the densest spirit qi in Mirror Moon Lake.
As a Fishery Farmer, Chen Jianghe's fishing boat was his home. Aside from going ashore to empty the night soil and purchase daily necessities, he spent most of his time on the boat.
His cultivation was at the first layer of Qi Refining, and his designated water territory was in the outermost area, spanning five mu.
In the water were wall-like nets formed from aquatic plants, used to demarcate the farming territory of each Yun Clan Fishery Farmer.
Chen Jianghe returned to his cabin and mentally calculated this year's income.
In his first year, the large green fish he raised averaged three catties each, with a total yield of twelve hundred catties.
This was unpaid farming.
In his second year, he had gained experience in fish farming. He produced eighteen hundred catties of large green fish, with an average weight of three catties and four taels each.
For junior Fishery Farmers, the base annual yield of large green fish was one thousand catties, with a salary of ten grains of spirit sand. For every additional hundred catties produced, the salary increased by one grain of spirit sand.
The base weight for each large green fish was three catties. For every tael of increase, the reward was ten grains of spirit sand.
Chen Jianghe had heard that the rewards for raising small green fish were the inverse of those for large green fish; the smaller the size, the higher the reward.
Eighteen hundred catties of large green fish earned him eighteen grains of spirit sand.
Adding the forty grains of spirit sand for the average weight bonus, his total income last year was fifty-eight grains of spirit sand.
One spirit stone could be exchanged for one hundred grains of spirit sand.
“This year, the average weight of the large green fish should reach three and a half catties, and the total yield won't be less than two thousand catties. My salary should be around seventy grains of spirit sand. With what I've saved up, it'll be enough to buy a Spirit Awakening Pill for Xiao Hei.”
Xiao Hei was a deep, ink-black turtle. By a stroke of fate, it had become Chen Jianghe's spirit pet. The most incredible part was that he shared Xiao Hei's lifespan.
A turtle-shaped mark had appeared on the spirit platform in his sea of consciousness. Whenever his spiritual sense touched the mark, he could see his own lifespan.
[Two hundred and forty years]
In this world of cultivation, the maximum lifespan of a normal mortal was eighty years. A Qi Refining cultivator's lifespan was one hundred and twenty years, while even a Foundation Establishment Ancestor's was only two hundred and twenty.
Only by taking some Life Extension Pills could one reach two hundred and forty years.
As was customary, this had to be his golden finger.
Before he had his golden finger, Chen Jianghe's heart was restless. He thought that having transmigrated to a cultivation world, he had to make a name for himself, become an immortal and an ancestor, and not bring shame to the transmigrator community.
After obtaining this golden finger, his restless heart calmed down. He thought about the dangers of the cultivation world and the hardships of the immortal path.
Striving for dominance was out of the question.
Seeking wealth through danger was not an option.
One must avoid conflict and strife; steady and stable progress was the true path.
Right now, Xiao Hei had not yet awakened its intelligence or spirit; it was still an ordinary turtle. Once it did, it would be able to absorb spirit qi for cultivation and become a spirit beast.
At that time, Chen Jianghe guessed that Xiao Hei's lifespan would increase even further.
By sharing its lifespan, his own would once again break its upper limit.
He had inquired about the price of a Spirit Awakening Pill. The Yun Clan sold them at the market fair by the lake for one spirit stone.
To Chen Jianghe, one spirit stone wasn't of much use.
He had miscellaneous five-element spiritual roots, so his natural affinity for spirit qi was low. Even if he used spirit stones for cultivation, it would take him three years to break through to the second layer of Qi Refining.
The number of spirit stones required would be at least five.
Without using spirit stones, just absorbing the sparse spirit qi on the lake, it would only take five or six years to break through to the second layer of Qi Refining.
He was only sixteen this year and had more than two hundred and twenty years to live. He could take his time.
Furthermore.
One spirit stone couldn't buy a magical tool, nor could it buy pills to enhance his cultivation, let alone a high-level cultivation art.
But one spirit stone could buy a Spirit Awakening Pill, which could help Xiao Hei embark on the immortal path. For Chen Jianghe at this moment, this was the way to maximize his benefits.
The reason his large green fish were so fat and had such a high survival rate was precisely because of Xiao Hei's tireless, round-the-clock care.
Large green fish were very aggressive. It was considered good if half of a thousand fry survived.
But with Xiao Hei looking after them at the bottom of the lake, the aggression of the large green fish fry was greatly suppressed, which kept the survival rate in check.
Xiao Hei could already suppress the fry without its intelligence awakened. What if it became a spirit beast?
It would surely be able to easily suppress the grown large green fish. In that case, their survival rate could definitely be raised to over seventy percent.
With a thousand fry and a survival rate of over seventy percent, the total yield could reach at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight hundred catties.
That would be an extra seven grains of spirit sand in income each year. He would make back his investment in fourteen years.
And crucially, he would gain a first-rank spirit beast and increase his lifespan's upper limit.
The fishing boat was still on the water. Chen Jianghe cast aside his distracting thoughts, focused his mind, and began to circulate the basic water-element technique given to him by the Yun Clan, the Guiyuan True Water Art.
He absorbed the scattered spirit qi from the surface of Mirror Moon Lake, circulating it through the eight extraordinary meridians and the two bridges of Heaven and Earth, finally gathering it in his dantian's sea of qi, which was the size of a soybean.
Before breaking through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, Chen Jianghe had no cultivation bottlenecks. He only needed to refine spirit qi to expand his dantian's sea of qi, and he could cultivate all the way to the third layer of Qi Refining.
His water territory was in the outermost part of Mirror Moon Lake, where the spirit qi was incredibly thin. After three days of cultivation, the refined spirit qi that flowed into his dantian was like a mere thread, a drop in the ocean, with no visible effect.
He ceased his cultivation and stood up, washed his face simply, and looked at his reflection in the basin. His handsome face had long lost its childish immaturity, replaced by a firm resolve and steadiness for the immortal path.
Walking out of the cabin, he poled his fishing boat toward the shore. The accumulated household waste from the past half-month had a pungent and eye-watering smell.
Qi Refining cultivators could not yet achieve Bigu, the state of abstaining from grains, so they were not considered true immortals. Only after achieving Foundation Establishment and completing Bigu could one be considered an immortal.
Of course, Qi Refining cultivators could also solve the problem of night soil by taking Bigu Pills, but these pills were expensive, far beyond what a small fry at the first layer of Qi Refining like Chen Jianghe could afford.
The fishing boat cut through the morning mist, which grew thicker by the day. The harbor ahead was faintly visible, with many fishing boats of various sizes moored there.
The Yun Clan claimed to have eight hundred Fishery Farmers, with over seven hundred of them being junior Fishery Farmers. Yet, there were only three harbors on the lake shore, and each one was a mortal market and a cultivator market.
Chen Jianghe was at the first layer of Qi Refining, and his fishing boat was thirty feet long. Once he broke through to the second layer, he could apply to the Yun Clan for a fifty-foot fishing boat, and his living conditions would improve significantly.
After mooring his boat in the harbor, he first went to the refuse pit to dispose of the night soil and household waste, then headed straight for the market.
He didn't greet anyone among the bustling crowd in the harbor, which included both mortals and cultivators.
Most of them were strangers to one another.
Their only connection was that they were all Fishery Farmers or farmhands for the Yun Clan, working for the clan.
Everyone came to the harbor with their own business to attend to; who had the time for idle chat?
Within an hour, Chen Jianghe had purchased all the daily necessities he needed for the next half-month at the market, spending forty taels of silver.
One grain of spirit sand could be exchanged for one hundred taels of silver.
But one hundred taels of silver could not buy a single grain of spirit sand.
Elsewhere, one tael of silver could support an ordinary mortal family of three for a month, but at Mirror Moon Lake, forty taels could only buy half a month's worth of supplies.
There was nothing to be done about it; the prices at the Yun Clan's harbor were just that high.
Chen Jianghe glanced at a small archway on the east side of the mortal market. That was the cultivator market, a place for Yun Clan Fishery Farmers and rogue cultivators to trade.
With the Foundation Establishment Yun Clan as a backer, the cultivator market in the harbor rarely sold fake goods, and incidents of robbery and murder were almost unheard of.
Chen Jianghe had never been to the cultivator market before, but thinking of the mere fifty grains of spirit sand in his purse, he knew he could only stare blankly if he went.
So, he poled his boat back to his own water territory. He would wait until after this year's large green fish were harvested before coming to this market to broaden his horizons.
The Cold Dew had just passed. There were still four months until it was time to sell the fish and celebrate the new year.
Just as he returned to his water territory, he saw a white egret standing on a lotus leaf, watching his approaching boat as if it were waiting for him.
“Caw~ Caw~ Caw~”
The egret flapped its wings lightly and landed on the bow of the boat, calling out to Chen Jianghe a few times. Its cry was not pleasant, sounding like a duck's quack, but its appearance was full of ethereal grace.
Chen Jianghe walked over, removed the message tube from the egret's leg, and then, after searching his waters for a while, caught a large green fish weighing over two catties and tossed it to the egret.
In Mirror Moon Lake, everyone's farming territory was clearly defined. Junior Fishery Farmers were not allowed to visit one another. Even if they were in adjacent territories, they could not cross the boundary.
Egrets possessed a spiritual nature but were not ranked beasts, so they became the messengers for communication among the Fishery Farmers of Mirror Moon Lake.
As payment, both the sender and the receiver had to give the egret a large green fish.
Chen Jianghe returned to his cabin and took out the message tube. Looking at the wax seal, he knew he didn't have many familiar friends in Mirror Moon Lake.
Only two neighbors could barely be considered friends.
One was Old Gao to the east. He only knew his surname was Gao, not his given name. He was an old Fishery Farmer of the Yun Clan. According to him, he had come to the Yun Clan at fifteen and hadn't left Mirror Moon Lake in seventy or eighty years.
His cultivation was at the fourth layer of Qi Refining.
Whenever Chen Jianghe wanted to find out anything, he would usually ask Old Gao, who was something of an encyclopedia for Mirror Moon Lake.
The other was Yu Daniu to the west. He was about the same age as Chen Jianghe and had also been brought by the Yun Clan to be a Fishery Farmer because he had spiritual roots.
However, Yu Daniu was not an orphan; he had parents and younger siblings. His family lived in a village adjacent to Mirror Moon Lake.
His spiritual roots were the same as Chen Jianghe's, miscellaneous five-element spiritual roots, and he also cultivated the Guiyuan True Water Art.
His cultivation was at the first layer of Qi Refining.
Chen Jianghe scraped off the wax seal, opened the tube, and took out the letter inside. He looked at it closely; it was from Old Gao.
‘Little Chen, the fish's dormant period in the ninth month is coming up. People will definitely try to recruit you to mine for spirit stones. You must not go.’
‘Also, after you sell your fish, if someone asks to borrow spirit sand from you, you must not lend it to them.’
After reading the letter's contents, Chen Jianghe channeled magical power into his palm, turning the paper to shreds, and tossed them into the refuse bucket.
From the ninth to the eleventh month each year was the dormant period for the large green fish. No feeding was required during this time, so some Fishery Farmers would go to the harbor to find short-term work for two months.
Among these jobs, mining was the most common.
They would dig for spirit ore for the Yun Clan. For every spirit stone they found, they were rewarded with one grain of spirit sand. In two months, one could generally earn five grains of spirit sand, and with good luck, it was possible to earn ten.
Last year, he had been invited to go mining at the harbor, but Old Gao happened to see and stopped him.
He later learned that mining was not safe, and there was a high chance of accidents.
If a person didn't return, their entire year's worth of large green fish would be confiscated by the Yun Clan without compensation.
“The outer waters see new faces every year, and every year Fishery Farmers die in mining accidents. Why do these people still want to go mining?”
Chen Jianghe's current lifespan was twice that of a Qi Refining cultivator, comparable to a Foundation Establishment Ancestor. He wouldn't take such a risk for a few grains of spirit sand.
As long as he cultivated steadily, he was certain he could reach the late stage of Qi Refining and become a high-level Fishery Farmer.