Chapter 94: Fish Leaping Over the Dragon Gate

Amidst the mountains and rivers, Li Xiang silently hurried toward a direction.

As he walked, he kept muttering to himself.

"System, can't you just open a portal and let me teleport directly over..."

"Traveling is so tiring."

Looking at the coordinates on the map that were still hundreds of miles away, Li Xiang's expression was miserable.

Before a Martial Dao practitioner reaches the Heavenly Phenomenon realm, their abilities are actually not that exaggerated, let alone any divine abilities.

It really is just relying on a pair of feet to traverse mountains, rivers, marshes, and a thousand miles of territory.

The system did not reply.

It was just that the distance marked on the map trembled once more.

【You are still 745 miles from your destination, please keep up the effort!】

"……"

"When I go back, I must find someone to forge a sword."

"Unable to ride a sword, unable to ride the clouds, how regrettable life is!"

The muttering finished.

Li Xiang continued to hurry forward.

Traveling a thousand miles a day—that is only because his Martial Dao cultivation is formidable; if it were anyone else, it would take half a month just to walk it.

On the map, a pale golden icon was situated in the southwest direction of the map, somewhat close to the Great Wilderness, yet still on the edge.

It was a full thousand miles away from Chiyang County.

That icon was quite unique, looking like a swimming fish, gently circling in place, full of spirit.

Beside it was a note from the system.

【Encounter: Fish Leaping Over the Dragon Gate】

However, more specific mission requirements and introductions were not displayed.

It seemed it would only trigger after Li Xiang arrived in person.

It was actually somewhat interesting.

But since it was a perfect-level encounter, I imagine there shouldn't be any trouble.

————

Crossing mountains and wading through water, regardless of the time taken.

When the sun had just reached its zenith, Li Xiang finally arrived at his destination.

He raised his eyes to look.

This was a mountain range, revealing the familiar style of the Southern Wilderness within.

Savage, wild, and overflowing with murderous intent.

It was almost identical to Heifeng Mountain, only because of the Beast Tide, the nearby villages were much fewer, and all had migrated into the large cities.

Walking all the way here, the few villages encountered on the road had also become ruins.

Following the system's prompt, Li Xiang leaned toward a direction of the mountain range.

Not long after walking, he felt a pale golden icon appear in his field of vision, landing on a river beneath the mountains, seemingly guiding him to reach the encounter location.

Li Xiang had seen this special effect before.

That was when he went to do the 【Yaomo Chanyuan】 encounter previously and saw the guidance.

Sure enough, compared to mission events, the difficulty of encounter events was much lower, even to the point where such detailed system prompts appeared.

Not dawdling, he stepped forward.

Li Xiang's form at this moment had switched to that of an adult, his figure lean, and he had changed into a clean set of green robes; they were not luxurious, but very clean.

Coupled with his refined features, he possessed a certain temperament, like a wandering cultivator of the mortal world, having a unique appeal.

Having crossed a thousand mountains and walked a thousand miles, his body remained clean, without a trace of filth to be seen.

He walked forward along the stream at the foot of the mountain.

As soon as he approached, Li Xiang felt extremely comfortable.

Within this stream, it seemed to be saturated with Spirit Rhyme.

In the water, Li Xiang could even see some swimming fish, heading against the current toward the mountain.

"Hmm?"

"Swimming against the current?"

Raising his head to look toward the mountain, Li Xiang's expression revealed a bit of oddity.

Looking up along the stream, he saw the stream split out of thin air into dozens of tributaries, extending crookedly in different directions; for a moment, he could not find where the main vein was.

This stream was strange.

Usually, it is the path ahead that branches out; this was the first time he had seen the path behind become tributaries.

It was truly a bit baffling.

He channeled his divine ability to search carefully, but only felt the clouds and mist swirling before him, dreamlike and illusory, unable to see clearly.

A layer of mysterious Forbidden Restriction was limiting the prying of those who came.

"A bit interesting."

It seemed this encounter required Li Xiang to make a choice among these dozen or so tributaries, then follow the flowing water up the mountain to complete the mission.

It was a bit of a test of Luck.

Anyone without strong Luck and deep blessings would likely not be able to find the main vein of this stream.

While pondering, Li Xiang heard a strange sound arise beside him.

Glug, glug~

Looking down, in the stream beneath his feet, a dark green carp was hovering by his feet.

On its body, there was a faint Golden Scale, which looked extremely out of place with its main body, shining brilliantly in the sunlight, looking very beautiful.

It was gently blowing bubbles, wagging its tail and spinning beneath his feet.

It seemed to want to express something to him.

The carp flicked its tail, shook its body, and then swam upstream against the current.

But then it immediately turned back.

Seeing that Li Xiang did not move, it flicked its tail and blew bubbles again, seemingly signaling him to follow the carp forward.

Immediately, Li Xiang revealed a smile, understanding the reason for this.

This was a perfect-level encounter quest.

Where was there any need to test his Luck?

In the dark, everything had long been arranged.

This koi was here to lead the way for him to find the object of the main vein.

With this thought in mind, Li Xiang glanced at the swimming fish beneath his feet, smiled, and said softly:

"Good!"

He then followed the swimming fish, along the flowing water, and climbed toward the mountain.

The mountain path was not rugged; after walking not far along one of the veins, Li Xiang felt that the surrounding scenery and objects were blurring bit by bit.

He seemed to have walked into some special small world.

He felt that the surrounding Spirit Rhyme was also becoming increasingly dense.

At the same time.

He also saw the guidance icon in his eyes slowly dissipate.

Looking up at the sky, the distant mountain range had disappeared, as if the world had changed.

Looking back at the distance, the path he came from had also changed; the small stream had turned into a clear river at some point, with rolling waves flowing behind him.

In the water, the koi with a Golden Scale attached to its body suddenly flicked its tail, jumped out of the water, and landed on the bank.

A flash of Immortal Light passed over its body, and it immediately transformed into a young boy.

He was wearing a green robe with a pale golden scale embroidered on the front; his expression was alert, and he looked like a very delicate child.

He stepped forward, waved his hands, and performed a salute to Li Xiang.

"Greetings, Immortal. Please, Immortal, come inside."

"The Master has already prepared food in the pavilion and has been waiting for you for a long time."

His voice was crisp, like the sound of ringing jade.

Having seen many encounters, Li Xiang did not find it strange, only feeling that it should be so.

He nodded slightly, acknowledging his salute.

He signaled for him to continue leading the way.

They walked along the river.

Before long, he saw a strange scene appear before him.

The river water broke its flow on the flat ground and rose into the air.

In the sky, nine huge Spirit Pools hung in the air, arranged in an orderly fashion.

The Spirit Pools were arranged in sequence; the more noble ones were further from the ground, hanging in the sky, with very dense Spirit Rhyme.

Below them, the Spirit Pools were scattered, one by one, heading toward the ground.

Looking from the bottom up, one only felt that the hierarchy was distinct and difficult to surpass; each Spirit Pool was separated by a great distance, making it fundamentally difficult to climb.

The flowing water poured down from the Spirit Pools, first crossing the first Spirit Pool, then falling and splashing onto the second Spirit Pool, layer by layer, with the Spirit Rhyme decreasing, until finally, it landed on the ground, turned into a great river, and flowed into the distance, the Spirit Rhyme almost too weak to be heard.

Looking up at the firmament, above the highest Purple-Gold Spirit Pool, there was a Heavenly Pass, resembling a gateway.

It looked like a Dragon Head, and the rolling Spirit Spring was flowing down from it.

In the water, there were many swimming fish, currently swimming against the current along the flowing water, seemingly wanting to climb to a higher Spirit Pool.

It was truly as the encounter name said, Fish Leaping Over the Dragon Gate.

Li Xiang smiled slightly and looked at the boy beside him.

He asked with some curiosity.

"Little one, what is your master's name, and is this pool something he created?"

The boy shook his head.

"In reply to the Immortal, this Dragon Gate is naturally formed and cannot be achieved by human effort."

"My master likes to come here to fish on weekdays; when he came today, he felt that an honored guest was arriving."

"So he told me to wait at the foot of the mountain and bring you here."

The boy looked into the distance; beside the Spirit Pool, there was also a suspended pavilion that was very ingenious.

Inside, there seemed to be a person holding a fishing rod, fishing in the Spirit Pool.

The boy looked there with a very respectful expression.

"My status is low, and I do not know the Master's name."

"The Master said, if you ask,"

"You may simply address him by the character Ze, and call him Master Ze."

(End of this chapter)