Chapter 73

Now you can speak, don't look at me with that look; not being able to speak is your problem, not mine.

"Pfft."

The little carp couldn't bear the torment, opened its mouth, and spat out a stream of water that shot straight at Chen Chuyang's face.

A layer of true vigor appeared on Chen Chuyang's face, the true vigor condensed from true qi, blocking this stream of water and rendering the little carp's attack ineffective.

This stream of water was weak and insubstantial, like spitting saliva—indeed, it was just spitting saliva.

"Little guy, haven't your parents told you not to spit saliva randomly? This behavior is very impolite. To punish you, I've decided to let you fully feel my affection for you."

"Squeak squeak squeak."

No matter how the little carp shouted and fussed, Chen Chuyang started a fire, then tied it to a stick and began to grill it over the flames; the scorching flames grilled its body, the little carp was dumbfounded, having never experienced such treatment—those flames were hot, making it feel like it was about to be cooked through, its big eyes blinking, pleading.

It confessed, confessed everything—this man is a devil, a outright devil, too good at tormenting fish.

But Chen Chuyang couldn't see its pleading gaze or its surrender; he kept turning its body, really grilling it, he wasn't joking—at this moment, the little carp became uneasy, this man actually intended to eat it.

The little carp didn't want to die; it had finally awakened its spiritual intellect, not to become human food, nor to be eaten by him.

Although its flesh was fresh and tastier than before its Advancement, it never imagined such an ending, nor that it would end up like this; its body's moisture was rapidly evaporating, and if this continued, it would truly die within a quarter hour.

It transmitted a soul fluctuation, pleading.

Chen Chuyang heard that consciousness fluctuation; its meaning was roughly that it had been wrong, begging him to spare it, promising it would never dare again.

Only then did Chen Chuyang lift it up, sparing it from the flames' scorching.

"Tell me, how exactly did you Advance? What good stuff did you eat of mine?"

"Don't try to deceive me; you know you can't fool me, you only have one chance."

Opportunity—Chen Chuyang gives only one; miss it, and there's none.

Little fish, you also want to test his patience, but Chen Chuyang's patience is limited.

"Little carp: 'I don't know what happened either; I just kept swimming along the current, then… I ended up in another cave, where there was a very comfortable aura; I swam there for a long time, and then I Advanced.'"

These words, the little carp transmitted its consciousness in a bubbly, lively manner.

Chen Chuyang waited for it to finish; this little carp's spiritual intellect was far higher than he'd imagined, evidently it had gained quite a fortune.

Being able to change its bloodline, Advance, and awaken its spiritual intellect, that cave must certainly contain treasure.

Just.

Cave? Water flow? The water flow inside Yu Tang comes from the mountain's spiritual spring flowing down.

That spiritual spring, Chen Chuyang didn't examine it closely; at most it just flows out from the bottom of Longshe Shan and eventually returns to Longshe Shan.

Inside, there was no good treasure that could let the little carp's bloodline Advance.

Chen Chuyang has inspected the whole of Longshe Shan many times, but he doesn't recall any passage leading elsewhere.

"Where did you enter the cave from?"

The little carp looked toward the mountaintop, inside that spiritual spring.

Chen Chuyang couldn't help but wonder: 'With your tiny frame, how did you swim up?'

The little carp actually could swim upstream along the water flow—that's incredibly awesome.

However, this is Longshe Shan, a world of cultivation; we can't judge by common sense—anything could happen.

Chen Chuyang didn't find this strange either; this little carp is just a particularly stubborn little carp, insisting on swimming up to attempt a carp leaping the Dragon Gate, and it actually succeeded—this is quite outrageous.

The little carp kept transmitting consciousness; after the first experience, the subsequent ones became a bit clearer.

"Eh?"

Chen Chuyang was shocked; relying on sheer willpower to swim up, many carp went up with it, they failed, and then became the fish Chen Chuyang sold, their fate naturally becoming others' food.

And it was the only carp that succeeded.

After swimming for a long time, it finally managed to go up, avoiding a deadly disaster.

"You're really too outrageous? Come, give me another demonstration."

Chen Chuyang infused a soul seal into the little carp's body; the little carp's soul was etched with the seal, Chen Chuyang could control its life and death—once this seal was implanted, the little carp could not resist, nor could it resist.

Afterward, it completely became Chen Chuyang's pet.

With a single thought, he holds life and death; if it dares to run around, Chen Chuyang can make it ascend to heaven right where it stands.

The little carp also knew its fate, helpless, it could only bring Chen Chuyang upward as it swam; needless to say, this carp's ability is quite good—after Advancement, swimming against the current does not affect its ascent speed at all.

It didn't stop either; after half an hour, it reached the mountaintop, the little carp… becoming the most beautiful offspring on Longshe Shan.

Chen Chuyang followed the whole way, entering the spiritual spring; the little carp greedily sucked in the spring's spiritual qi, replenishing its consumption, the evaporated moisture was replenished again, its body became fuller, its spiritual qi saturated.

A second-grade spiritual fish truly lives up to its rank—nothing like the fish in Yu Tang can compare.

"Follow me."

The little carp transmitted a thought to its master Chen Chuyang, then dove downward into the spiritual spring.

Chen Chuyang also wanted to drill into the cave mouth, but the opening was too small for him to enter; he could only emit his soul, attaching it to the little carp and following it deep into the mountain.

Not knowing how deep they'd gone, it seemed they passed through layer after layer of obstacles and entered a cave.

That was an underground cavern, and below lay… the spiritual vein of Longshe Shan.

The spiritual vein emitted spiritual qi, constantly nurturing Longshe Shan.

The little carp followed the river in the cavern, continuing deeper, swimming inward.

Chen Chuyang's soul gradually grew weak; the distance was great, exceeding his soul's maximum range. Chen Chuyang didn't worry about that much; he glanced at the spiritual spring— the spring cannot be damaged, damaging it is easy, but repairing it is nearly impossible; with his current ability, he cannot repair it.

He could only blaze a new trail, take another route; fortunately he knew a place that led to the spiritual vein—a cave he had left behind before, entering directly from the cave and heading straight down.

Arriving at the base of the peak, he saw the spiritual vein; Chen Chuyang glanced at it—still the same, no change.

Further down the spiritual vein, at some point an underground river appeared.

It seemed to have appeared suddenly; when Chen Chuyang had entered before, there was no such river.

"Primordial Chaos Bell."

Just in case, Chen Chuyang took out the Primordial Bell, enveloping himself, and walked forward.

The soul scattered, Spiritual Sense observed everything around.

The underground river formed a small lake here, and those currents altered Longshe Shan.

The Spiritual Qi was thick, certainly not an ordinary underground river.

"Such a concentration of water flow, all are spiritual spring water, richer than the spiritual springs of Longshe Shan."

"Where do these spiritual spring waters flow from?"

"If it weren't for the little carp, I estimate it would take me a long time to discover these spiritual spring waters."

He kept walking forward.