Chapter 1305

"Damn it, year after year coming to Cloud Heaven Palace, year after year paying homage, the grand banquet only happens once every five or ten years, the fish head of the Penglai Pilgrimage, the fish tail of the Heavenly Bone Sea Bream, two famous precious fish, all served to him alone, I only got a tiny piece of fish back, a pile of small bones, utterly tasteless, might as well let him eat it all. That's not the end of it, ten Small Root Sea Pills, ten of them, and then another fifteen top-grade Long Qi sent after!" the Sea Tooth King slammed the table in fury.

"The famous precious fish and Small Root Sea Pills, both are indeed extremely precious, but Long Qi? Great King, not to mention our demon clan has no use for Long Qi, even for the human race, Long Qi is only of great use when entering the Fifth Realm from the Fourth Realm, it's not worth much to a Flood Dragon at all."

"Ordinary Long Qi is of course not worth money, but that's Long Qi personally modified by the Whale Emperor! Heavenly Mother Cloud, a Venerable Artifact! How could it be the same. I've never seen what a Venerable Artifact looks like in my life, supposedly it's especially beneficial to that kid, aimed at the Self-Cultivating Position Fruit, self-cultivating self-cultivating, turning the sea of clouds into fertile soil, wouldn't the sprout of that Position Fruit shoot up rapidly? Don't dare think about becoming an immortal, becoming a Flood Dragon with a Position Fruit, isn't that a huge opportunity?"

The Sea Tooth King fired off words like a string of pearls.

The subordinates looked at each other in blank dismay; they didn't understand why the boss had become so irritable after returning.

Offering a suggestion for the Grand Hunt Conference, the rewards given were indeed lavish enough to inspire jealousy, but the Whale Emperor has always been generous in his actions, particular about rewarding merit, it's a common occurrence to give a bit more in high spirits during a rare Grand Hunt Conference, especially since the idea all came from Liang Qu, it's not incomprehensible.

Arching the sea with a golden beam, propping the sky with a jade pillar.

In the East Sea, the Whale Emperor is a tolerant elder.

Furthermore, among demon kings there are many skilled at scheming; our own Great King has never been good at this, without Liang Qu offering strategies, the rewards would only have gone to the Shark King, the Ray King———

Count however you like, it would never come around to us, what's the rush?

Seeing his Sea Wolf subordinates remain silent, the Sea Tooth King let out a long sigh: "You don't understand."

Lang Yu flicked his tail and stepped forward, saying respectfully: "Our wisdom falls short of the Great King's, the Great King might as well speak a bit, then we'll understand, right? Or if we can't share your worries, laying it out can also relieve the vexation in your heart, after all, our Sea Wolf Fish clan relies on collective strength to win, don't we?"

The Sea Wolf Fish, a major clan in the East Sea, gather in groups.

Once they hunt, they converge into a stream, like a storm, especially their teeth, revealing a ferocious aspect, easily able to tear prey in two, hence the name Sea Wolf.

The Sea Tooth King touched a sharp tooth: "You say, when will the Flood Long Wang leave? Does it ultimately have a chance or not?"

The topic jumped to the Flood Long Wang, and the Sea Wolves grew even more puzzled.

Only Lang Yu reacted first, suddenly enlightened.

"Great King, this is fear of being caught in the crossfire?"

"Aye————"

Lang Yu patted his forehead.

Understood, he understood it all.

Turns out not eating his fill at the banquet was just the surface; the root of the problem still lay with the Flood Long Wang next door.

The Flood Dragon left the Jianghuai, plunged straight into the East Sea, leading the Snake clan to re-establish their base precisely in the southeast direction neighboring the Sea Wolf territory.

The two clans border each other, impossible to have no friction; even the Sea Wolf clan's territory has a history — hundreds of years ago, it was originally the Snake clan's home ground before they moved to the Jianghuai.

The East Sea is vast, but choice locations are numbered.

Yet the Flood Long Wang is remarkably restrained; two years have passed, and the intensity of conflict between the two clans has been extremely limited.

What does this indicate?

It indicates the Flood Long Wang returned to the East Sea never intending to find a place to settle down and develop steadily from scratch!

And on the other side, the Bai Yuan isn't a simple lamp either; a dignified water beast, obeying human orders, look at Liang Qu at today's banquet, a mere human, moving among the water clans like a fish in water, even leveraging the East Sea Grand Hunt to board the Whale Emperor's ship, one cannot help but be wary.

If the true Water Lord appeared it would be easier to explain; whales don't care about passing jellyfish, it's precisely because he hasn't appeared—————

If the Bai Yuan becomes an immortal, geographically speaking the two clans have no relation, it's comparatively hard to disassociate, after all this was originally the Snake clan's old ground, not acting is the strongest statement.

Or perhaps the Great King also has ambitions? The Flood Long Wang did send a large snake, only the Great King didn't see it at the time, and later investigation uncovered more inside details of the great battle—————

What demon in the world doesn't want to advance further?

Once setting foot on the cultivation path, there is only stopping helplessly when the road ahead holds no hope, no pausing to admire the scenery.

Lang Yu didn't dare rashly open his mouth to offer suggestions, afraid a wrong decision would make him the scapegoat fish.

"No good, looks like the Great King is restless, too dangerous, I have to leave a way out for myself—————"

Not only the Sea Tooth King is worried; with the Crucible about to emerge, which demon king can truly stay out of it?

Liang Qu's meteoric progress made all demon beasts once again aware of the urgency of time.

The snake demons acting as the Flood Long Wang's representatives were equally worried, hurriedly returning to report everything seen and heard at the banquet to the Flood Long Wang and the Iron Head Fish King.

"Aiya, aiya, there was actually famous precious fish to eat? Should have gone, should have gone, what a loss!"

The Iron Head Fish King regretted it.

Five clay pots sat quietly on the ground, each containing a wisp of greenish-yellow Long Qi circulating, a cluster of Heavenly Mother Cloud floating in the air.

The old toad sang and jumped, left foot kicking right, right foot kicking left, hopping sideways left and right, feet meeting in midair, the fire bird feathers on its head trembling back and forth. Finally it extended a clawed web and pinched, as if grasping something formless, the turtle shell scooped up the white cloud and hurled it forcefully to the ground.

Clatter-clatter.

Copper coins stuck to the brick and stone, spinning all over the ground, reflecting golden light.

——

Six upright, no reversal.

"Frog Duke, how is it?" Liang Qu straightened his body.

"Great fortune! Good treasure!" The old toad's claws were quick, scooping up the copper plates from the ground.

Ta Ta Kai frowned tightly.

Liang Qu stared at the turtle shell.

"Frog Duke, want to divine once more?"

"Sure, sure."

Upon hearing this, Ta Ta Kai's brows furrowed even more severely; it stepped forward, gesturing with two claws, sincerely admonishing the Heavenly God. This was already the third divination; besides losing its copper coins, there had been no second outcome.

The old toad flew into a rage, pointing at Ta Ta Kai's round nose: "Yellow-haired brat, cultivation matters require caution, caution, and more caution, and you dare interject!"

Ta Ta Kai opened its mouth to bite, the old toad retracted its clawed web, heard the sharp teeth clash, then reached out and flicked Ta Ta Kai flying with a forehead flick.

"Hmph, a mere river otter, daring to disrespect the National Preceptor? Laughable, laughable."

"Enough, Frog Duke, Ta Ta Kai's words are not without reason, it's me who became obsessed, things don't go beyond three, three divinations like this, no more results either." Liang Qu caught the lunging Ta Ta Kai, pinching his brow.

"Then fine, if you want to continue divining, remember to find this Duke." The old toad patted its belly, "Unwilling to part with copper coins, can't divine results."

"Naturally, the hour is late, Frog Duke return to your pond and rest early, there are still arrangements tomorrow."

"Fine, fine."

The old toad tugged at his belt, pulling up the sinking Qiankun bag.

The Qiankun bag can hold items but cannot change the weight of the contents inside; the more it holds, the heavier the bag becomes. Liang Qu faintly recalled that before the old toad went to the banquet, he hadn't been pulling his belt so frequently—

"Squeak."

The door hinge turned, the door closed.

The lamplight was dim yellow, disturbed by the wind, flickering and jumping.

The shadow of the slender candlestick stretched out, pointing toward the corner of the table, overlapping with the human shadow behind the futon.

The banquet ended, already dark outside, all sounds ceased.

Long Eying was in seclusion cultivating; the others had all gained something; inside the room, only Liang Qu remained alone.

The heartbeat and the candle's flicker remained in sync; the long breath and the flowing cloud swayed silently.

The wax melted and dripped, the wick gradually bent, the candlestick's shadow gradually shifted, moving from the table's corner to the center, from overlapping with the human shadow to becoming parallel to it—

"Whoosh."

A gentle breeze stirred.

The five long breaths inside the clay jar vanished without a trace, leaving only the floating and sinking Mother of Heaven cloud.

【Cauldron Master: Liang Qu】

【Refining Refined Refined Ze Ling: Water Ape Great Sage (Deep Orange)】

【Refined Refined Ze Ling Favor: Martial Dao Penetrates Divine Seventeenth Layer (River Lord Emperor): Azure Dragon Pattern: Ten Layers: Heaven Wu Yu Pattern: Two Layers】

【Innate Talent Skills————】

【Innate Divine Ability: Water Travels a Thousand Miles, Abyssal Sea Prison, Vortex Palace, Holding Up Heaven Pillar, Water Dragon Pierces Clouds, Vortex Escape Path, Tread Turbidity】

【Command Water Beasts————】

【Water Marsh Essence: 33,310,000】

【Heaven Earth Long Breath: 14】

【Dew Seed: 6】

【Dragon Seed Breath: 9】

Just from the information changes.

Over thirty million essence, two dragon seed breaths, an extra five long breaths, plus more later—all Yellow Mud Mother, truly a bountiful harvest.

Yet these gains differed from before; before the old toad took over, Liang Qu even dared not directly store the Whale Emperor's long breath into the Ze Ding, fearing the methods left by a great divine ability user might be reversed to expose the Ze Ding's existence.

To cope with this change, there was a slight adjustment in the number of long breaths.

After giving the dragon people three sweet dew long breaths, nine remained originally—seven sweet dew, one returning fire reversing wind, one seeing gaps. On the Bing Fire day, one more red breath was added, returning to ten. Later, governing the yellow sands, two Yellow Mud Mothers were added, making twelve. Adding the three given by the Whale Emperor today should make fifteen, not fourteen.

The reason is very simple.

Heaven Earth Long Breath decreased by one strand; yet in divine abilities, one more divine ability【Tread Turbidity】appeared.

【Tread Turbidity: Wherever one passes, dark currents arise, surging like earth veins, traces vanish, hiding form and shadow in the turbid and misty, mingling yin and yang in the rippling.】

When the Water Ape Great Sage reached fifty percent fusion, Liang Qu comprehended an innate talent named【Dark Tide】.

【Dark Tide: Wherever one goes, the tide surges tracelessly】

Similar to the fat fish's innate talent【Mist Flow】.

The fat fish can turn the place it has long inhabited into a dark current that never disperses.

Liang Qu is the same, except that wherever he goes—

When this innate talent elevates to a divine ability, it becomes【Tread Turbidity】!

Wherever one passes, dark currents surge, erasing all traces, to a considerable extent shielding heavenly secrets, quite resembling the opposing effect of the long breath used by the senior brother Yang Xu, which can capture all traces, but this divine ability conceals all traces.

Since knowing he was constantly spied upon by the Old Dragon Lord, and similarly, the flood dragon suspected of being tampered with by the Whale Lord could not observe it, Liang Qu had always wanted to learn by example and activate this divine ability.

But debts many do not worry, lice many do not itch—anyway, the Old Dragon Lord has seen everything, no new tricks need hiding, and deliberately activating it would carry too strong a targeting meaning; once targeting creates suspicion, prevention becomes easy, and many opportunities would be lost.

Frankly declaring his belief, perhaps at a critical moment he could still manipulate it.

Coincidentally, this trip to the Eastern Sea provided a perfect excuse.

On the way to the Eastern Sea, Liang Qu used one long breath to activate this divine ability.

Staring fixedly at the Ze Ding's radiance.

For a while.

Peacefully quiet.

"The Ze Ding showed no reaction, the old toad showed no reaction, the long breath should be fine—"

Rubbing his chin, Liang Qu gazed above the blue tide at the drifting, rotating Yellow Mud Mother long breath.

Logically, the Whale Lord had a great opportunity to redeem his reputation, under everyone's eyes setting an example, making it unlikely he would resort to tricks; behaviorally, as a great demon, the Many Treasure Toad had not caused trouble after taking over.

Combined, the risk had already dropped to a very low level.

However—

The gaze shifted.

The Mother of Heaven cloud floated in midair.

According to inference, this bestowal, or the Whale Lord's great opportunity to redeem his reputation, would likely not involve secret tricks at this time, but not doing secret tricks does not mean there are no tricks.

【Dew Seed】has the effect of prolonging life; if Liang Qu later gives it to the Xu clan, could it be to use【Divine Might】on them?

Impossible, but the Xu clan who took the Dew Seed are indeed the recipients of【Divine Might】; Liang Qu used no extra "means," and no one could detect it.

The Mother of Heaven cloud is the Whale Lord's honored vessel; it is highly possible the principle is the same—no extra means, but the object itself is the means.

Fortunately—

"I don't need to use it."

Liang Qu grabbed Mother of Heaven Cloud and stuffed it into his Qiankun Bag.

According to the Whale King, using Yellow Mud Mother presents two difficulties.

The difficulty of long breath has been solved; the difficulty of fusion — he actually has an alternative.

Time Bug Card Glue!

He pondered through the night.

The next day.

Yun Bo wanted to take two strands of Yellow Mud Mother's essence, hand them over to the Whale King for assimilation, and retrieve fourteen pottery pieces in the afternoon.

Adding yesterday's three strands.

A total of seventeen strands of Yellow Mud Mother!

According to the Whale King, twelve strands would suffice, fifteen would be more than enough — belonging to technical redundancy; saving a bit might even leave five strands of Yellow Mud Mother.

Liang Qu clenched the pottery with his five fingers, his voice choked: "From the start of my cultivation to now, those who have shown me such grace are only Chen Uncle, my master, the Ming King, the Holy Emperor, the Whale King — these five alone — "

"The Huai King speaks too seriously," Yun Bo said, moved, not expecting Liang Qu to be of such temperament. "His Majesty rewards merit without ever forcing others. The Huai King offers advice and strategy, and gains such returns — this is only fitting. Moreover, the Huai King has been in the Eastern Sea for nearly ten days; time is drawing near. If you feel your merit does not match your reward, why not spend the last two days thinking deeply, helping us perfect a reasonable exchange rate for Merfolk Tears?"

"Good! It should be so!" Liang Qu wiped his tears.

The Third Prince flicked his tail, studying earnestly.

—

Study, must study, cannot not study.

Only in the past two days did it realize why it lagged behind the fat one: it studied the elder's teachings too little, while the fat one studied them much.

Master the elder's skill of speaking to people as a person, to fish as a fish, to ghosts as a ghost — to seventy percent proficiency, and you can walk unrivaled under heaven, marry the little mother dragon, restore the Mirage Clan's glory, and reach the pinnacle of dragon life.

Hehehe.

Over the remaining two days, "to repay the Whale King's kindness," Liang Qu devoted himself entirely to "offering advice and strategy," even sleeping in the side hall, solely to help devise a more suitable exchange mechanism, from elixirs, expanding to ores, rare treasures, precious fish, precious plants — 【141】 After a round of calculations, due to more treasures diluting the cost, the total expenditure was even less than before.

After calculating everything, because there were more treasures diluting the cost, the total expense was actually even lower than before.

"We can conduct a survey."

"A survey?"

"That is, find an opportunity to ask the demon kings and martial sages what they most desire, appropriately add it to the exchange ledger — coincidentally, the demon kings have gathered these past two days, so after obtaining a rough idea of materials and ratios, we can arrange it in."

"Good idea, I'll go right away — "

"Here — "

The final day.

Liang Qu still held his brush, busy.

Tomorrow we depart for the Great Shun; good news — the Southern Jiang temporarily has no movement; the Whale King is not taking the opportunity to transfer him under his watch to disturb the Great Shun.

The side hall is spacious; the cloud giant leans over the desk organizing, treasure chests filling the table.

Seeing the Cloud Whale pay no attention to him, Liang Qu put down the scroll, grabbed a handful of Merfolk Tears with bubbles, turned them in his palm — these Merfolk Tears are special edition; in scoring, one counts as ten.

He narrowed his eyes.

Timing unfavorable, elegance not lost.

Opportunity rare, passing village no such shop.

As he was about to leave, he still wanted to leave something more behind, to create future "activity space."

The Whale King may indeed have done nothing, but he very much wanted to add a bit more to the affairs of the Great Hunt — 【157】 After much thought,

Thinking it over and over.

Liang Qu glanced at the dew seeds in the Ze Ding.

Six.

Could the dew seeds be scattered into ten thousand Merfolk Tears?

Now there are six dew seeds; with winter passing soon, they could grow to seven, and he would stuff them all into the Merfolk Tears — 【162】 Six in ten thousand — sounds like an extremely small probability.

Six in ten thousand, which sounds like an extremely small probability.

But if the dew seeds are accepted and carried on one's person, they take effect 【Divine Might】; if, in the end, masters each have hundreds or even thousands, the sample's expansion equals probability amplification, becoming one-tenth, or even higher!

At the Great Hunt, he would wait until "eating chicken" ends, when most Merfolk Tears have concentrated in individual hands, then come to harvest — masters who thought victory was theirs would suddenly go limp and weak, able only to submit to his will — hehehe — 【165】 No, no.

No, no.

Too dangerous, affects fairness, ruins the Whale King's and his own reputation.

Tampering within these ten thousand is courting death.

After a while.

"Yun Bo, shall we make some real and fake Merfolk Tears?"

Yun Bo looked up: "Real and fake Merfolk Tears — what does that mean?"

"I was thinking — " Liang Qu flicked the scroll — "Merfolk Tears are actually numerous; each participant in the Great Hunt prepares differently — some bring ritual implements, some weapons, or as the Merfolk King said, our Great Shun has Qiankun Bags, others do not. Rather than banning this, banning that, hard to ensure fairness, we might as well not prohibit anyone from bringing any items. We'll mark these ten thousand Merfolk Tears with an invisible mark others cannot see; afterward, eight thousand can fly, two thousand cannot, and the non-flying ones will be hidden."

"Hidden? Why?"

"So outsiders can bring them in to fake! If someone mixes in fakes among the hidden ones — say, a person brings twenty Merfolk Tears into the venue, deliberately spreads rumors to let others snatch them, wouldn't that be more interesting, producing some splendid designs?

For example, benefiting the fisherman, or again, after snatching ten Merfolk Tears, one hides them wholeheartedly, only to find they cannot be exchanged — they are enemy-state Merfolk Tears brought in, wasted hiding. Of course, I'm just speaking casually — it's the last day, I say what I think."