Chapter 73: Flawless Plan
Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Flawless Plan
The Raincoat Fisherman was now in grave danger, yet the depths of his eyes remained as calm as an abyss.
BANG!!!
The Black Tiger was easily repelled. Its body flew back, tumbling through the air and snapping a line of large trees.
The tables had turned. The Raincoat Fisherman, who had just been fleeing for his life, now casually dusted off his sleeves.
Seeing the Raincoat Fisherman’s relaxed posture, many of the aberrations halted.
"Is this all you’ve got?"
All traces of his earlier anger and shock vanished from the Raincoat Fisherman’s face, replaced by a slight smirk.
He looked toward Zhu Ge, his expression dripping with contempt. "And here I thought you had some skill... Zhu Ge, you are a great disappointment to me."
’What an actor,’ Zhu Ge thought. He had never believed the Raincoat Fisherman’s feigned anger for a second.
Throughout their journey, he had slowly come to understand the cunning and sinister nature at the Raincoat Fisherman’s core.
Now was the time to spring the trap. Of course he wouldn’t fall for such a display of impotent rage.
Zhu Ge wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear the Raincoat Fisherman’s taunts.
"Allow me to show you the true meaning of my Fishing Dao... the Dongting Fisherman’s Song!"
The Raincoat Fisherman suddenly threw his head back and roared. Powerful waves of energy erupted from within him.
This energy was even more terrifying than that of the Great Ape and the Black Tiger.
At the same time, the phantom of a figure poling a boat across a lake appeared above his head.
A resonant fisherman’s song issued from the phantom’s mouth, its powerful melody sweeping across the sky.
"This is bad! He hasn’t just condensed his Divine Sense—he has grasped a True Meaning!"
"We must work together to kill him!"
"If we don’t eliminate this human, he will become a grave threat to the Plague God Sparrow!"
"This is a Human Race genius! We must kill him!"
The Black Tiger and the Great Ape looked horrified. They exchanged a glance, and plumes of purple and black Demon Qi erupted from their bodies.
THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!
The hearts of the Black Tiger and the Great Ape began to pound, and the pressure they exuded grew heavier.
A Demon Heart!
Zhu Ge didn’t know what a "True Meaning" was.
But seeing the terrifying phantom in the sky and the fact that the Black Tiger and the Great Ape had already activated their Demon Hearts, he could guess just how formidable this "True Meaning" must be.
The Dongting Fisherman’s Song was the Raincoat Fisherman’s inherited technique.
Zhu Ge had heard the Raincoat Fisherman mention before that the Dongting Fisherman’s Song was a technique from Chujiang Dongting Prefecture. Apparently, many cultivators there practiced the Fishing Dao.
That phantom in the sky, hundreds of meters tall, was probably the "True Meaning."
According to what the Raincoat Fisherman had said, the First Realm was about condensing qi, the Second Realm was about condensing the heart, and the Third Realm was about condensing intent.
At first, Zhu Ge had thought "condensing intent" meant forming one’s Divine Sense.
Now it seemed that in addition to Divine Sense, one could also condense a "True Meaning."
And it seemed to be something only a so-called genius could achieve.
"You’ve been a persistent nuisance, Black Tiger. I’ll kill you first."
The Raincoat Fisherman’s voice was cold as he flicked his hand in the Black Tiger’s direction.
The phantom in the sky, holding a fishing rod, mimicked the Raincoat Fisherman’s movement and swung its own rod toward the Black Tiger.
Instantly, the phantom rod blazed with light. The previously insubstantial fishhook solidified and plummeted toward the Black Tiger like a meteor.
It descended with the force of a thunderbolt, carrying an unstoppable weight.
The agile Black Tiger, which had been so nimble just a moment before, turned tail and fled without the slightest hesitation, vanishing from sight in an instant.
The phantom fishhook in the air instantly changed its trajectory, plummeting toward the Great Ape instead.
But to everyone’s surprise, the Great Ape let out a roar, raised its hands, and actually blocked the fishhook as it fell from the sky.
"Hmph." The Raincoat Fisherman grunted, swiping his right hand through the air.
The fishhook shot directly toward the other aberrations.
"Oh no! Run!"
"He’s a Human Race genius! We can’t win!"
"Dammit! Someone go report to the Plague God Sparrow!"
The aberrations scattered in every direction.
Not far away, Zhu Ge watched without a hint of surprise, neither at the Great Ape’s ability to block the attack nor at the other aberrations’ panicked retreat.
He remembered how, back when they had traveled together, the Raincoat Fisherman had been fearless against most aberrations but had shown a distinct fear of exceptionally large ones.
Or more accurately, those with immense physical strength.
Like the massive bear they had run into, or a certain white rhinoceros, or that giant python.
That was precisely why he had used Xigui’s power to lure the Great Ape here.
That’s right. He was the one who lured the Great Ape and the Black Tiger here.
It had nothing to do with the Plague God Sparrow. He had instructed Xigui to pose as a Ghost emissary of the Plague God Sparrow and spread false information.
’Two more to go...’
Zhu Ge gazed into the distance, where he could faintly make out the figures he had been waiting for.
’So, the Raincoat Fisherman was holding back?’
’It doesn’t matter.’
’He has the [Spider].’
’A mere Raincoat Fisherman could never escape the web he had woven.’
"Raincoat Fisherman, drop the act."
Zhu Ge’s voice boomed, echoing for miles around. "You’re surrounded by two Third Realm cultivators and countless from the First and Second Realms. You’re just bluffing, barely holding on."
"You want to scare the aberrations into running, but the truth is, you’re already running on empty."
He was using his Blood Qi to amplify his voice.
Upon hearing Zhu Ge’s voice, the fleeing aberrations all hesitated for a moment and stopped in their tracks.
"You little bastard," the Raincoat Fisherman growled, a cold glint in his eyes.
The next instant, he opened his mouth to sing.
"Oh, the heavy rain won’t fall, hey-ho, the drizzle is so sparse, yo..."
As he sang, the phantom fisherman in the sky grew more solid.
The fishhook Spiritual Artifact, which Yu the Scholar was struggling to contain, began to tremble violently, as if it would break free from the ink seal at any second.
Just then, the hearts of two Second Realm members of the Human Race began to pound with power.
Yu the Scholar and the Mechanism Master.
"A feud of ten lifetimes can be avenged, even if it takes a hundred!"
White light erupted from Yu the Scholar’s eyes. His robes billowed as the character for "Scholar," inscribed over his heart by his master, began to throb violently.
"I will shatter like jade, only to die alongside you."
Yu the Scholar’s expression was serene, almost relaxed. "My lifespan? Take it! This is my path—the path of a martyr. ’To learn the Way in the morning and die in the evening is to have lived.’"
FWOOSH!!!
In that instant, a boundless power surged from Yu the Scholar’s body and into the fishhook.
WHOOSH...
A soft wind blew past. The ink seal on the fishhook grew even blacker, and the trembling hook fell completely still.
It was suppressed!
But as the fishhook was subdued, Yu the Scholar’s thick black hair began to turn white, each strand transforming into a thread of snow.
In a single move, Yu the Scholar had nearly exhausted his lifespan, leaving him with a full head of white hair.
At that same moment, two more figures appeared in the distance.
One was Sui Niang, and the other was an old crone leaning on a walking stick.
Sui Niang was dressed in a vibrant, multi-colored outfit: a long, right-fastening robe over trousers, covered by a vest, and her head was adorned with a dazzling array of ornaments.
The hues were rich and startlingly vivid.
The only things marring the sight were the shocking, bloody scratches that crisscrossed her face.
The old crone, in contrast, was dressed all in black, and the top of her walking stick blazed with fire.
Sui Niang nodded to Zhu Ge, then glanced at Yu the Scholar before leaning over to whisper something in the old crone’s ear.
A moment later, the crone nodded and slammed her stick hard against the ground.
The flame at its tip immediately surged.
BOOM!!!
The fire shot upward, spreading across the heavens like a canopy, cutting off the phantom fisherman in the sky.
At the same time, Sui Niang opened her mouth. A clear, soaring, and melodious song instantly poured from her throat.
"Heeey—"
As Sui Niang sang, her voice momentarily overpowered the fisherman’s song that filled the sky.
"Raincoat Fisherman, I naturally have a way to deal with your Dongting Fisherman’s Song—your so-called ’Raincoat Song’."
Zhu Ge’s expression was one of complete confidence. "You raped Sui Niang and her daughter, but how could you have known? Sui Niang is originally from one of the Yi villages near Shiping City."
"Though she married into our Jianshan Village, she still carries the traditions of the Yi people. Her *Haicaiqiang* singing, even if it can’t break your fisherman’s song, is more than enough to disrupt it."
"We are all of the Human Race. No one can tolerate a beast like you roaming free and unpunished!"
Zhu Ge knew that the core of the Raincoat Fisherman’s Cultivation lay in four things: his small boat, his fishhook, his fish basket, and his fisherman’s song.
The boat had been unintentionally destroyed by the Plague God Sparrow, the fishhook was sealed by Yu the Scholar’s ink, and his song was being disrupted by the *Haicaiqiang*.
Now, all the Raincoat Fisherman had left was a single Spiritual Artifact: his fish basket.
Zhu Ge’s voice rang out:
"Tiger God, now is the time to seize his spirit!"
"Little Sister, mesmerize him!"