Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: The Yun Clan's Flying Ship
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The alliance's small gathering came to an end.
Zhou Miaoyun took Yu Daniu to the market to purchase the materials needed for drawing talismans.
Gao Peiyao must have guessed that Yu Daniu had no spare spirit sand, which is why she took the initiative to lend him two spirit stones to buy talisman-making materials.
Chen Jianghe did not refuse the spirit stones Gao Peiyao offered; he accepted them gladly.
They were no longer just ordinary friends, but allies bound by an oath, sharing common interests.
Besides, the spirit stones Gao Peiyao gave them were a loan that needed to be repaid.
Even if he didn't accept the loan now, in the future, when Gao Peiyao reached the sixth level of Qi Refining and they pooled their funds to buy a Calamity Dispelling Pill, he would have to lend her spirit stones anyway.
Arriving at the harbor, Chen Jianghe and Gao Peiyao parted ways, each boarding their own fishing boat.
"Four spirit stones. What boldness."
Back in his cabin, Chen Jianghe gained a new understanding of Gao Peiyao from the day's events.
Four spirit stones were no small sum.
It was equivalent to seven or eight years of income for an ordinary fishery farmer.
It could buy two Spirit Nurturing Pills.
Gao Peiyao actually dared to invest it all in him and Yu Daniu. Wasn't she afraid the investment would fail?
He was a safe bet, backed by his 'breeding talent,' which guaranteed Gao Peiyao a profitable return.
But Yu Daniu was full of uncertainty.
If he failed to learn talisman drawing from Zhou Miaoyun, a fishery farmer with no breeding talent would find it difficult to repay those two spirit stones within the next twenty years.
Let alone helping Gao Peiyao buy a Calamity Dispelling Pill.
"If Daniu truly has no talent for drawing talismans, he'll surely be isolated and eventually leave the alliance. By lending him two spirit stones, Gao Peiyao has done more than enough. Daniu won't hold it against her."
"And with Daniu's honest and simple nature, he'll eventually scrape together the spirit stones to pay her back."
He had thought Gao Peiyao had good spiritual root talent, ambition, and a strategic mind, but he hadn't expected her emotional intelligence to be so exceptional as well.
"Is she really the girl Old Gao brought from that mountain village?"
If it was as Old Gao said, then before coming to Mirror Moon Lake, Gao Peiyao's exposure would have been limited to a single village.
How could she possess such ambition and strategic thinking, and develop such high emotional intelligence?
Chen Jianghe felt that Gao Peiyao had her secrets, but he couldn't ask directly. After all, everyone had secrets of their own.
He himself had even more.
Pushing aside these distracting thoughts, he took out all his spirit sand.
His salary from raising great bluefish over the past two years totaled one hundred and ninety-four grains of spirit sand. Adding the sixty-nine grains he had saved before, and subtracting his expenses for the last two years, he now had a total of two hundred and forty-three grains of spirit sand.
With the two spirit stones Gao Peiyao had lent him, he now had over four spirit stones in total.
He already had a plan for how to spend these spirit stones.
He would buy Spirit Nurturing Pills with all of it.
That meant two Spirit Nurturing Pills, one for him and one for Xiao Hei.
Although he could buy a Spirit Awakening Pill to help Xiao Hei directly open his sea of qi, the Yun Clan's situation was currently unstable.
He also needed to raise his own cultivation level as quickly as possible.
Reaching the third level of Qi Refining sooner and mastering the Water Escape Art would give him another means of self-preservation.
If he weren't worried about hurting Xiao Hei's work ethic, Chen Jianghe would have used both Spirit Nurturing Pills himself.
That way, he would definitely be able to break through to the third level of Qi Refining in two years.
His five-element miscellaneous spiritual roots made his cultivation progress slow. If not for taking a Spirit Nurturing Pill, it would have taken him seven years to reach the second level of Qi Refining.
To break through to the third level, he would need another eight years.
One Spirit Nurturing Pill was equivalent to nearly two years of hard cultivation, but the pill toxins it contained would take a year to expel from the body.
Calculating the time, taking two Spirit Nurturing Pills over two years would be just enough to reach the third level of Qi Refining.
"I'll buy Spirit Nurturing Pills for now. Once I have enough strength to protect myself, I'll focus on nurturing Xiao Hei."
With his mind made up, he began to cultivate on the fishing boat.
There was no rush to buy the Spirit Nurturing Pills in the next couple of days.
The Fishery Farmer Assembly had not yet been held, so he still needed to wait at the harbor for another seven or eight days.
—
The day before the Fishery Farmer Assembly.
Chen Jianghe went ashore and walked into the market, only to see that everyone wore a worried expression. The imminent death of the Yun Clan's Foundation Establishment Ancestor was like the sky falling for them.
Without the Yun Clan's protection, these low-level fishery farmers would be nothing more than bottom-tier rogue cultivators, ripe for the slaughter.
Mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators would be fine; they had the strength to protect themselves and could join other Qi Refining families as external elders in the future.
But early-stage Qi Refining cultivators would only be preyed upon.
"Did you hear? The Yun Clan's eldest master was killed at the Linyun Mine. They say the White Clan of Qiyun Mountain did it."
"How is that possible? The eldest master was at the eighth level of Qi Refining and had a high-grade magical tool. Who could kill him!"
"Exactly. You can't just say things like that. If a deacon hears you, you'll work for three years for nothing."
"You guys don't know? Not only was the eldest master killed by the White Clan, but rumor has it their ancestor was also ambushed by them, and his Foundation Establishment Pill was stolen."
"Is that true?!"
Walking through the crowd, he overheard snippets of whispered conversations.
Chen Jianghe's expression changed slightly. He knew of the White Clan of Qiyun Mountain. They were also a Foundation Establishment immortal clan and had established a sizable rogue cultivator market on Qiyun Mountain.
However, it didn't have much traffic because the security around Qiyun Market was poor, with many robber cultivators lurking about.
It was far less safe than Qinghe Market City.
And this White Clan was the sworn enemy of the Yun Clan, a feud that had lasted for a century.
The cause was the Linyun Mine, a first-tier, high-grade spirit mine with a total reserve of over ten thousand spirit stones.
But this mine was located on the border between Mirror Moon Lake and Qiyun Mountain, which led to conflict between the two Foundation Establishment immortal clans.
It was said that the battle a hundred years ago ended with the death of the White Clan's patriarch. If they had continued fighting, both clans would have suffered heavy losses, only benefiting outsiders.
As for the mining rights, they were split in half. The mine within Mirror Moon Lake's territory was called the Linyun Mine.
The mine within Qiyun Mountain's territory was called the Qiyun Mine.
But this was how the generational feud between the two Foundation Establishment immortal clans began.
The pay for miners at the Linyun Mine was very high—a commission of five grains of spirit sand for every spirit stone unearthed—but it was extremely dangerous.
Not only did you have to watch out for those around you, but you also had to be wary of the robber cultivators at the border between the two territories.
Even when fishery farmers took on short-term work during the fish dormancy period, they would never choose to go to the Linyun Mine, because nine out of ten who went never returned.
Wooo~ Wooo~ Wooo~
A loud, prolonged blast echoed through the sky.
A hundred-zhang-long flying ship tore through the clouds, soaring over the market from the direction of Lakeheart Island. The flagpole, emblazoned with the character for 'Yun,' glowed with a green light refined over a century. The array patterns on its hull shimmered in the sunlight. As it carved a path across the firmament, the clouds churned and scattered like boiling water.
It was heading in the direction of the Linyun Mine.
"It's true! The Yun Clan's flying ship has been deployed. The eldest master really died at the Linyun Mine!"
"Was it really the White Clan's doing?"
"I'm afraid the two Foundation Establishment immortal clans are going to war again."
"The Yun Clan's ancestor is severely injured and nearing his end. Can they stand against the White Clan of Qiyun Mountain?"
"We fishery farmers need to make preparations early."