Chapter 302: Li Guanyi and the Fisherman

Since meeting this Fisherman at the Gongsun family affair last year, Li Guanyi had not seen him again, but the things this sworn brother had said about where Li Guanyi was headed still made him instinctively wary.

He immediately realized that his journey to the Western Regions was never a secret to begin with.

The grand tide of the world was such that anyone with even a passing understanding of the situation could see it clearly.

He shrugged and laughed openly: "Yes."

The Fisherman's forehead twitched with bulging veins.

'Still "yes"?!'

'How dare he be so unshakably confident!'

The Fisherman had intended to reveal a little of Li Guanyi's secrets to intimidate him, but he found such underworld tactics had little effect on men of the Marquis class; a surge of anger rose, and he watched as the boy sat down beside him without ceremony.

Li Guanyi smiled calmly: "Haha, it's been a long time since I last saw Brother."

"Speaking of it, your Thousand-Day Drunk is truly an excellent liquor—I've met many of my strategists thanks to that very wine, by sheer chance. But unfortunately, I've drunk it all on this journey."

"Do you still have any left?"

"Could you sell me some? Price is no issue."

Li Guanyi tried to break the ice with a shared topic.

To the Fisherman's ears, it sounded entirely different.

The Fisherman nearly choked on his breath, then another breath slammed straight into his chest.

Not only do you intend to lure my disobedient little brat to the Western Regions, but you also want my wine? Hearing this, the Fisherman—who was already in a foul mood—felt as if the boy in the crimson robe was grinning triumphantly and saying:

'Old bastard, I don't just intend to take your daughter to a dangerous place.'

'I also want your wine.'

'All of it. Do you understand?'

'All of it!'

'Not a single drop for you, old bastard!'

Veins bulged on the Fisherman's palm.

You son of a bitch—you're pushing it too far!

He had the sudden urge to leap up, swing his fishing rod, and smash this Qin Wu Hou's skull.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the resentment that had built up over this entire journey, and forced a faint smile: "The wine? Fine. But I have one piece of advice for you."

The Fisherman stared at Li Guanyi—the wild legend raised as a beggar—using every ounce of courtesy and restraint he'd ever mustered: "I'll give you the wine. however much you want, I'll give you. You may go to the Western Regions—I won't stop you."

"But that silver-haired girl beside you."

"Leave her with me."

The distant watching Master Siming: "…………"

The old Black Tortoise beside him, nibbling salt-roasted peanuts: "…………"

The man and the tortoise drew a synchronized sharp breath.

They exchanged glances.

Master Siming poured the tortoise a drink.

The tortoise shoved a salt-roasted peanut into Master Siming's mouth; both fixed their eyes on the scene, utterly absorbed, not blinking once.

Master Siming's lip twitched—he thought this beggar-born bastard ought to be locked in the Imperial Academy to learn how to phrase things properly.

No matter how you heard it, this sounded like a terrible misunderstanding.

Sure enough, Li Guanyi's expression slowly froze.

The Fisherman's words sounded suspiciously like an offer to trade wine for Yao Guang.

Li Guanyi's tone turned cold; he suppressed the instinctive irritation rising in his chest and said flatly: "I don't want your wine anymore."

"Brother, keep it and drink it slowly!"

Master Siming grinned crookedly.

Well, this one's temper doesn't seem so good either.

Or did the Fisherman's words just strike Li Guanyi's most sensitive nerve?

Two things: trading a person for an object, and Yao Guang.

This could have been easily explained—but as fate would have it, the man sitting there was the Fisherman, who was always defiant; upon hearing this, he burst into laughter: "You say no? I'll take her anyway!"

"Qin Wu Hou, your reputation is great—but here, you have no soldiers, no fifty thousand troops. What are you? Just a Fifth Layer beginner, half-baked Master Jiankuang technique, mediocre Immortal Body cultivation—what else do you have?!"

"Even those fifty thousand soldiers rely on Yuan Zhi's Eight Gates Golden Lock Array."

"All you can manage is a single-file Snake Formation—barely holding it together. Wu Gong? You're a mess. Battle arrays? You're disgracefully terrible!"

Master Siming's lip twitched.

As expected, given the Fisherman's nature, when confronted, he never explained—he only sneered and mocked. And yet, he spoke nothing but truth: Li Guanyi was seventeen, Fifth Layer—his martial skill was already astonishing.

But the Fisherman was a Martial Legend.

And the undisputed master of Battle Arrays.

His words were honest assessments.

Fifth Layer martial skill was not weak in the grand scheme of the world—but certainly not strong.

Commanding fifty thousand troops? Barely enough to rank in the top fifty of the Divine General List.

His array skills were not bad—quite impressive.

After all, it was the array taught to him by Hou Zhongyu at the cost of his life.

He had also received guidance from Zu Wenyuan and the Dao Sect—placing him between second and first tier. At seventeen, such mastery was extraordinarily rare.

But before the eyes of the world's supreme Martial and Array Master, it meant nothing.

Before the countless generals of the entire world, it was pitifully weak.

Li Guanyi's methods, for his age, were unmatched and beyond reproach, but among the world's heroes, they were merely ordinary.

After all, the world's fierce contenders do not divide opponents by age; Li Guanyi must face geniuses far older than him—the Regent Prince, the Divine General, the foremost defender Lu Youxian, Yuwen Lie, the Great Khan.

Master Siming was just wondering whether this fisherman was being too ruthless, when he saw the teenager show not the slightest emotional fluctuation.

Li Guanyi regarded this wild elder brother—the Fish Whaleman, risen from the streets—whose martial words, to Li Guanyi, who had endured the forums of another world, were like a gentle breeze brushing his face.

Facing the wild Fish Whaleman.

This disciple of the great Confucian, the top student of mathematical classics, Qin Wu Hou Li, merely smiled faintly and said softly:

"Flustered?"

Master Siming: "…………"

The old Master Siming drew a sharp breath.

Then he stepped back—thump, thump, thump.

So as not to get splattered with blood.

After thinking it over, he pulled out a small notebook and added the phrase 【Flustered】 to the Yin-Yang Sect's Ultimate Verbal Battle Victory Log.

Then he looked up and saw the wild Fish Whaleman frozen, his handsome face visibly reddening, then bursting into loud laughter—the sound shaking the surroundings, sending wave after wave crashing across the water; though the laughter was wild and unrestrained, it did not reach beyond.

The Fish Whaleman had grown too lazy to argue; he rose, kicked over his fishing rod, and sneered: "Good, good, good—youngster, your tongue's sharper than mine."

"Excellent, excellent—I'm growing fonder of you!"

"Come, come, fight me three hundred rounds! Don't worry—I'll hold back to your level, and use only one hand!"

"I'll throw you into the water as bait to lure fish, then reel you in like a catch!"

No, I can't outtalk him.

I've got to beat this kid up!

Before the words were out, Li Guanyi's body had already turned into a lingering shadow, appearing before the Fish Whaleman; in midair, his feet seemed to tread upon the Eight Trigrams—the ancient elder's stepping technique, subtly aligning with the flow of the Trigrams, faintly forming a formation.

He struck once—directly against the Fish Whaleman—but Li Guanyi felt the contact was wrong; the fisherman before him had dissolved into a lingering shadow, vanishing slowly with the wind. Li Guanyi's expression shifted slightly; he spun around.

His right hand drew his longsword—not the wooden sword Longtu—but an ordinary sidearm.

Though both Li Guanyi and the Fish Whaleman had been stirred to anger by each other, they both knew the limits.

The two began to fight.

The residual energy did not leak outward; the old Master Siming stared fixedly, grinning: "They're already fighting?"

Li Guanyi was at a disadvantage.

Even though the Fish Whaleman had suppressed his internal energy to the early stage of the Fifth Heaven, even though he held his right hand behind his back, Li Guanyi remained clearly at a disadvantage—but Master Siming could see Li Guanyi's techniques and Wu Gong gradually refining and integrating.

The Fish Whaleman also noticed this change.

He evaded Li Guanyi's move, reappearing beside him, raising his hand and pressing down; his fingertips formed a formation. He let out a soft "Hm," and said: "Interesting."

Li Guanyi parried with his sword, unleashing internal qi that faintly took shape as a Black Tortoise blocking before him.

Simultaneously, his left hand formed a formation.

Using Hou Zhongyu's experience, he activated Master Siwei's formation: 【Four Symbols Helian Fengling】!

Roars of dragon and tiger rang continuously.

Internal qi surged and churned, stirring chaotic fluctuations in the surrounding primordial energy; around Li Guanyi, spectral forms appeared—the Crimson Dragon roared, the Bai Hu growled, the Azure Phoenix danced, the Black Tortoise stood as shield, the Fire Qilin stepped calmly.

The Fish Whaleman blinked in slight surprise, chuckled, then flicked his wrist.

He shattered Li Guanyi's five-spectral formation.

The formation shattered with a crisp sound, its luminous light scattering.

Hou Zhongyu's experience had finally reached its limit.

It could no longer resolve the opponents Li Guanyi faced.

And Siwei, even more so, had been defeated by this Fish Whaleman; Li Guanyi's once-reliable formation shattered, and the Fish Whaleman's hand pressed down upon Li Guanyi, seemingly reassembling the 【Four Symbols Helian Fengling】 into a far vaster, more majestic formation.

He repurposed Li Guanyi's formation, turning it against him.

The fisherman wearing the conical hat said:

"This is a true formation!"

Li Guanyi's hand now held the Tiger Roar Heaven Battle Spear; he met the Fish Whaleman's formation with a long weapon, his mind stirring, memorizing every nuance of this new formation. The Fish Whaleman sensed that Li Guanyi was beginning to learn his formation.

The Fish Whaleman, by nature wild and unrestrained, sneered: "Want to learn?!"

"Fine! Learn all you want!"

He immediately unleashed a new formation derived from the 【Four Symbols Helian Fengling】; Li Guanyi shattered one layer with his battle spear, tried to decipher it with Hou Zhongyu's experience—but was immediately countered; the Fish Whaleman pressed forward, sneering:

"What idiot created this formation?!"

"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!"

Li Guanyi said: "Then what is right?"

The Fish Whaleman said: "Do you think I'll tell you?"

Li Guanyi's heart stirred; he smiled: "You won't tell me, because…" The formation shifted again; Li Guanyi gripped the battle spear with both hands, blocking the torrent of primordial energy flowing from the formation, and said: "You're afraid I'll surpass you."

The Fish Whaleman burst into laughter, glancing sideways at Li Guanyi: "A provocation tactic?"

"You think it'll work on me?"

"Still… interesting."

"Even if the Divine General himself used this tactic, I wouldn't fall for it—but you're the only one in heaven and earth, past and present, who's used it on me—and I walked right in. I'd lose to anyone before I'd lose to you!"

"I'll teach you right now what a peerless formation truly is!"

He openly revealed the changes of his formation, pressing Li Guanyi with only one hand, trading blows back and forth, unpredictable and fluid; Li Guanyi's battle spear strikes were brutal, yet faintly carried the mysterious subtleties of formation art.

The old Master Siming had watched for a long while, when suddenly he remembered something.

The old Master Siming slapped his forehead and cried: "Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!"

"Isn't this a gift from heaven?"

"If we don't deal with this old Bai Mao soon, things will only get worse."

"Old buddy, let's go, let's go!"

He grabbed the old black tortoise to leave, but the tortoise, still engrossed in the spectacle, was yanked away and instinctively refused to follow Master Siming: "You old trickster, if you're not watching this spectacle now, you're definitely up to something."

"Don't you dare stoke the fire!"

Master Siming laughed heartily: "How could I?"

"Old friend, you know me—I've always loved to break up fights, never to start them. Come on, come on! This is a golden opportunity. That old Bai Mao is slippery as an eel—he's been hiding for half a year. Miss this chance and you'll never get another."

He grabbed the tortoise and hoisted it onto his shoulder, hurrying away.

Li Guanyi did not reside in the Qin Wu Hou Mansion prepared by the clans—he lived with the Murong family, and Yao Guang lived with him too; the two shared a courtyard, where the silver-haired girl quietly organized her belongings.

A large cloth bundle was unfolded.

"First-Generation Yao Guang's Notes"—put it in.

"Xue Shen's Mystical Realm Secret Stone"—put it in.

Copper coins are useless in the Western Regions—put the silver fragments in.

Steamed buns—put them in!

The silver-haired girl turned her head left and right, spotted a straight, smooth branch, crouched down, picked it up, expressionless, raised it high—as if she had found something extraordinary.

Perfect stick for roasting steamed buns.

Put it in!

Add various books and notes from all schools of star-observation.

Quickly, the massive bundle was packed full—so tightly packed it resembled a small mountain, utterly impossible for the cloth to contain. The silver-haired girl grabbed one corner of the cloth and pulled with all her strength.

Finally, she tiptoed, straining to bring the lower-left and upper-right corners of the cloth together, pulling taut until the two corners met.

A faint, invisible shimmer passed through.

The cloth bundle had somehow contained five times its theoretical maximum capacity.

The silver-haired girl finished packing, stood still, raised her hand to wipe her forehead, and exhaled without expression.

Then she paused slightly, as if sensing something, and turned around.

An old man with white hair emerged from the corner of the wall.

Master Siming waved and smiled: "Little one, come here—there's something interesting, a continuation of what happened back in Zhongzhou." Yao Guang had already turned away, but at these words, she froze.

The silver-haired girl let out a faint sigh, turned back, her face utterly expressionless.

"Where?"

………………

"Hahahaha! Is this all the so-called Qin Wu Hou is capable of?"

"Too weak! Too weak!"

"With this Wu Gong, this array—you think you can take her to the Western Regions? Nonsense. Only the strong can protect her—and you're not strong. Leave her here, and I'll send you to the Western Regions and teach you an array!"

The laughter of the Silver-Haired Whale Fisher was wild and unrestrained.

Li Guanyi, hearing this, flew into a rage; his battle spear whirled like a dragon, his mastery of the array grew increasingly refined, his style shifting steadily.

The array experience from Hou Zhongyu, which had accompanied Li Guanyi for so long, was finally outdated.

It had been replaced by the 【Unknown Big Brother Version】.

As Li Guanyi's array shifted and transformed, the Whale Fisher, though still laughing arrogantly, felt a creeping unease—he realized Li Guanyi's evolution and improvement had surpassed his expectations. He struck again, breaking Li Guanyi's array, but the boy's wrist flicked.

The battle spear shrieked, thrusting forward like a long dragon.

He dodged just in time, then spun and struck with the Five Spirit Palm technique from the martial world.

It landed on Li Guanyi's shoulder—the Whale Fisher used only fifth-tier inner qi, yet could not pierce the boy's sinews and bones; layer upon layer of qi was weakened by Li Guanyi's physique, finally vanishing into nothing.

Due to his Immortal Unkillable Body, even this slight injury and depletion healed within a breath.

The Whale Fisher secretly approved.

His mindset was in a state of extreme reversal—

He wanted this boy beaten, yet seeing Li Guanyi deflect each of his attacks, he couldn't help but admire him; but then he immediately felt resentment at admiring the boy.

At this very moment, the Whale Fisher suddenly sensed a subtle shift in qi.

Master Siming had been far away, and with Master Siming's methods and the tortoise's interference, the Whale Fisher had not noticed him—but now that Master Siming drew near, the Whale Fisher instantly sensed his presence. If it were only Master Siming, he wouldn't care.

But another faint qi, carrying the boldness of a charging beast, sent ripples through the Whale Fisher's own qi. As he clashed with Li Guanyi, Li Guanyi had not sensed Master Siming's arrival—only the qi pattern shifted.

His battle spear spun and thrust forward.

Inner qi surged, coalescing into crimson light that gathered upon the spear.

He stepped forward, muscles and bones straining, driving the spear ahead, tearing through air, the inner qi's radiance forming the shape of a crimson dragon, roaring endlessly, piercing through the air—in an unimaginable instant, it shattered the Whale Fisher's fifth-tier array.

But as the spear's light neared, the Whale Fisher instinctively dodged.

The strike still missed.

Though it missed, the qi entangled with the spear exploded outward—unable to harm the Whale Fisher, yet the force of the divine weapon still churned the qi within dozens of zhang around them as if sliced by sword energy.

Leaves fell from trees, petals drifted down.

The Whale Fisher's conical hat shattered, and the silver hair beneath it cascaded like a waterfall.

Li Guanyi froze.

When he was with the Gongsun clan last year, he had suspected some connection between Yao Guang and the Whale Fisher—but now he realized his guess had been far too mild. He retracted his spear and said: "Elder…"

The Whale Fisher said: "Call me Big Brother."

Li Guanyi said: "Big…"

"Big Elder."

The Whale Fisher nearly laughed in anger, striding forward despite the cold, expressionless girl, sweat beading on his brow, yet still fixing his gaze on Li Guanyi and speaking coldly:

"You boy, are you still planning to take Yao Guang to Xiyumo? Shouldn't such matters wait until Yao Guang speaks for herself?"

Li Guanyi retracted his battle halberd and said: "In the past, that was true."

"But earlier, I made a new pact with Yao Guang."

"It's no longer one-sided."

Li Guanyi replied softly: "Before, it was merely where I went, she followed. Now it's different: where I go, she accompanies me; where she goes, I follow her."

"Going to Xiyumo is our mutual decision."

As Li Guanyi spoke these words, the silver-haired girl stood behind him.

The Whale Fisher had intended to lure Li Guanyi into saying something wrong, but instead had done the opposite—his expression tightened. Li Guanyi was about to speak when a cough came from behind.

Just as he turned, he felt a palm lightly strike his head.

The silver-haired girl rose on her toes and tapped his head gently.

A strand of her silver hair swayed, falling onto Li Guanyi's chest, tickling him.

Li Guanyi lowered his head slightly, so Yao Guang wouldn't have to strain.

Li Guanyi said, slightly embarrassed:

"When did you arrive?"

Yao Guang did not answer, only ruffled his hair more forcefully.

Messy and restless, like a kitten.

Then she turned toward the Whale Fisher. Yao Guang pressed her lips together, furrowed her brows—her exquisite, otherworldly face expressionless—as she stepped forward. Normally, she walked slowly, always lingering behind Li Guanyi.

Now her steps were shorter, her pace quicker.

Her wide sleeves fluttered up and settled.

Combined with her blank expression, she radiated a sudden, menacing aura.

The Whale Fisher did not move, standing firm, unmoving as Rushan.

He stared at Yao Guang, resolved that no matter what she said about his elder brother today, he would not retreat. After half a year's trials, his heart had hardened like iron, with no weakness left!

He now possessed the vast, majestic bearing of a Grandmaster!

The youngest martial legend in eight hundred years!

The supreme master of array arts!

A peerless genius!

The Whale Fisher stared at Yao Guang, seeing how she had grown slightly in these past months. A faint ripple stirred in his eyes, yet his voice remained steady: "Don't go..."

He had already decided: even if he had to break with the Sword Mad Old Man today and fight him three hundred more rounds, he would forcibly take Yao Guang away. He remembered the cruelty of Xiyumo Sect, remembered the woman who had used Yao Guang as the foundation of a grand ritual.

He remembered that day, blood flowing like rivers, Yao Guang seated atop a great array drawn in blood, staring at him without expression.

The Whale Fisher's sleeves flared, and around him, layers of shimmering light coalesced into countless arrays.

Their scale dwarfed even the battle against the Sword Mad Old Man—this was the Whale Fisher's preparation over the past half-year. He watched Yao Guang approach, unmoved, and said gravely: "You know the situation in Xiyumo."

"You are not going. Do you understand?"

The silver-haired girl gazed at the calm, unbreakable martial legend—the peerless master of the world, the supreme master of array arts—and the countless arrays around him, vast as stars.

The silver-haired girl spoke softly:

"Father."

As if all sound vanished.

The Whale Fisher's expression froze.

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