Chapter 374: All Things Are Fish!
Jiang Chen’s mind swam as he barely clawed his way back to consciousness. “Elder Zhu,” he rasped, “what just happened?”
Zhu Fuxian stared into the distance, his gaze heavy with unspoken implications. A long silence stretched before he finally answered, “From the looks of it, this traces back to the Canglan Sea.”
*Don’t do this to me,* Jiang Chen groaned inwardly. *I just secured a hundred-year fishing lease for the Spirit Gathering Abyss. If that goes up in smoke, I won’t even have a shoulder to cry on.*
Nearby, Huang Yue glared at Rong Long, his voice cracking like a whip. “What exactly did you do?”
Rong Long ignored him completely. A low, raspy chuckle escaped his lips. “Heh… hehehe…”
Su Wan’s delicate brows knitted together. “It seems we have no choice but to petition for the Soul Searching technique. He—or whoever is pulling his strings—definitely triggered something in the Canglan Sea!”
Huang Yue nodded in grim agreement. He turned to Zhu Fuxian, his tone brokering no argument. “Elder Zhu, I must ask you to leave immediately. The Punishment Hall is temporarily closed to all outsiders.”
Zhu Fuxian shot Rong Long one last, piercing look before waving his hand. “Little Jiang, let’s go.”
As he turned to leave, Jiang Chen cast a parting glance at the prisoner. To his shock, Rong Long’s eyelids fluttered open. Across the dim hall, their eyes locked—and within Rong Long’s gaze lurked an unfathomable, chilling intent.
……
The mournful, world-shaking wail echoed across the realm for seven days and seven nights. Finally, under the watchful eyes of countless cultivators, the massive bands of golden light fractured and dissolved into the atmosphere.
In its wake came a violent eruption of Water Spirit Qi. The sheer density of the ambient energy triggered a massive spike in cultivators awakening Water Spirit Roots, while those possessing Wood Spirit Roots found their cultivation speeds drastically accelerated.
“Old Jiang, what the hell is going on?”
“I’m telling you, the Azure Realm is getting dangerously unstable!”
“You rub shoulders with all those core disciples. You must have some inside intel, right?”
At the Inspiration Platform, Jiang Chen and his crew gossiped as they arranged their bustling vendor stall.
Sitting on a small stool nearby, Ruo Qunshuang paused mid-bite of her melon seeds, her ears perking up as she shamelessly eavesdropped.
Meeting the expectant gazes of Jin Fugui, Mo Yu, Lin An, and the rest, Jiang Chen could only shake his head. “All I know is that the epicenter was the Canglan Sea. As for the specifics? I’m as in the dark as you are.”
In truth, he was more desperate for concrete intel than any of them.
First, his hundred-year monopoly on the Spirit Gathering Abyss was on the line.
Second, his lucrative connection with the mermaid princess was still up in the air.
No matter how he ran the numbers, this situation smelled like a massive deficit.
Unfortunately, the immortal sect had clamped down hard on the flow of information. Not a single leak had slipped through the cracks, leaving the vast majority of the sect completely blind.
Jin Fugui rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “If worse comes to worst, we’ll just have to wait for Chen Tian, Long Ao, and the other core disciples to exit the Return to Ruins Secret Realm. We can squeeze them for answers then.”
Jiang Chen rolled his eyes. “They’re sealed inside an isolated dimension. They probably have no idea what’s happening out here. Asking them would be a complete waste of breath.”
Jin Fugui scratched his head. “I guess… you have a point?”
Suddenly, Ruo Qunshuang, who had been quietly munching on seeds, chimed in. “I’ve heard that mournful wail before!”
Jiang Chen whipped his head toward her, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “You’ve heard it?”
Ruo Qunshuang nodded emphatically. “Didn’t I mention it? When the disaster struck the Nine Curves Sect, the exact same sound echoed through the sky. It just wasn’t nearly this loud.”
Jiang Chen’s eyes narrowed to slits as his mind raced. *This is definitely not a localized incident. My cultivation speed for both my Water and Wood Spirit Roots has spiked recently. I’m already closing in on Foundation Establishment Perfection.*
An event capable of fundamentally altering ambient Spirit Qi and directly boosting Spirit Roots meant a paradigm shift for the entire cultivation world.
Sadly, as a bottom-rung disciple of the immortal sect, he lacked the clearance to access high-level intelligence. Furthermore, his strict risk-management protocols dictated that traveling to Mystic Heart City alone right now was a death wish. He had no choice but to sit tight and wait.
Soon, evening fell.
Having packed up their stall, the group reconvened in Jiang Chen’s stone house.
It had been exactly seven days since their first dividend payout.
Just as Jiang Chen had projected, their business had hit an explosive growth phase. Foot traffic had multiplied, and their profit margins were snowballing out of control.
More importantly, this venture had served as a premier networking hub, allowing them to rub shoulders with numerous inner and even core disciples.
The ledger was staggering. On their first day, net profit sat at 1,280 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Day two: 5,800 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Day three: 8,500 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Day four: 11,000 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
By today—their eighth day of operation—their daily net profit had peaked at a massive 22,000 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Excluding that initial first day, their cumulative net earnings over the past week totaled 98,300 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Yes. In just seven days, they had raked in nearly one hundred thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
The initial capital of nearly forty thousand invested by Jiang Chen, Jin Fugui, Mo Yu, and Bai Xiaotian hadn’t just been recouped; it had yielded an astronomical return.
Staring at the mountain of glowing Spirit Stones piled on the table, the only sound in the room was the heavy, ragged breathing of the shareholders.
Jin Fugui’s voice trembled with raw greed. “Old Jiang… we’ve really struck it rich this time!”
Mo Yu inhaled sharply. “I’m going to buy the most expensive fishing gear on the market!”
Jiang Chen glanced at the two drooling men and chuckled. “Then don’t just stand there. Let’s cut the pie!”
“Wait!” Jin Fugui suddenly shouted. “Shouldn’t we include Old Bai in this payout?”
Mo Yu slapped his forehead in realization. “Right! How could we forget Old Bai?”
Although Bai Xiaotian hadn’t injected direct liquid capital, he had supplied a massive inventory of one thousand Spirit Talismans. And whether sold à la carte or bundled into their value packages, those talismans were their hottest commodity, second only to Pills and Spirit Weapons.
Jiang Chen waved a hand dismissively. “The only reason I kept Old Bai off the ledger on day one was because you two were pathetically broke, and I couldn’t bear to watch you suffer.”
Jin Fugui and Mo Yu looked at him, genuinely touched.
They couldn’t deny it—living paycheck to paycheck in the cultivation world was pure misery. Jin Fugui had been slightly better off after securing a ten-thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stone loan from Jiang Chen to purchase spirit beasts. Mo Yu, however, had been utterly destitute, forced to watch with burning envy every time someone walked by with upgraded fishing gear.
Thankfully, their days of poverty were officially over.
It was time to distribute the week’s dividends among the four shareholders.
As the majority stakeholder, Jiang Chen claimed the lion’s share: 61,401 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Jin Fugui came in second, pocketing a hefty 20,690 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Mo Yu received a respectable 7,240 Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
The absent Bai Xiaotian was allocated 10,249 Mid-grade Spirit Stones, which Jiang Chen promptly swept into his own inventory for “safekeeping.”
Clutching a Storage Bag bulging with over twenty thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones, Jin Fugui practically vibrated with excitement. “I’m buying more land! More spirit beasts! I’m going to mass-produce so much premium manure!”
Mo Yu grinned from ear to ear. “I’m buying rods, hooks, lines, nets… I want a complete arsenal of the latest, top-of-the-line fishing gear!”
Jiang Chen couldn’t help but sigh. “With that kind of money, why don’t you just buy a private fishpond?”
Mo Yu curled his lip in absolute disdain. “A true angler only fishes in the wild!”
Jin Fugui snorted. “Right, right. Because you manage to hook literally everything in the wild *except* actual fish.”
Unfazed, Mo Yu held up his heavy Storage Bag, a profound, philosophical gleam in his eyes. “Is this not, in its own way, a form of fishing?”
“Huh?”
Jiang Chen and Jin Fugui exchanged a blank look. Suddenly, the Old Mo standing before them seemed to exude an aura of profound enlightenment.
Mo Yu smiled serenely. “You two are far too fixated on literal fish. But to me? All things in this world are fish. All things can be angled for, and all things can be hooked!”