Chapter 92

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Chapter 92: Cousin, Times Have Changed!

"Wait! I want to speak with my cousin for a moment," Wuzhen said, waving his hand.

"So this is Wuzhen’s elder cousin!"

"Junior brother pays respects!"

Watching the two disciples at the Ninth Level of Qi Refinement finally turn to him, Wu Yun forced a smile and said,

"Nice to meet you both."

Even though he was at the Seventh Level of Qi Refinement now, he had been at the Ninth Level before. Yet, even if he reached the Tenth Level, it was unlikely that disciples at the Ninth Level would follow him! This hardly seemed like a sign of poor talent.

What on earth was going on?

At that moment, Wuzhen slowly approached, looking apologetic.

"Cousin, there’s an urgent matter in the sect I need to handle. Why don’t you head back first, and when my little cousin is free, we can talk in detail?"

"Alright."

Wu Yun stood in a daze for a moment before nodding.

Watching Wuzhen board the flying boat, surrounded by the admirers, Wu Yun could no longer hold back his curiosity and called out,

"Little cousin…"

Sighing lightly after he boarded, Wuzhen replied,

"Cousin, times have changed!"

As he watched the flying boat depart, Wu Yun fell into confusion.

The changes were so great that he couldn’t tell if he was about to enter the Tenth Level of Qi Refinement or if Wuzhen was about to reach it.

He had only been away from the sect for a month; could there really be so many changes?

…

"Where are the fish?"

At Tianxing Lake, Ji Yang looked at the calm, flat lake surface, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

Where were his fish?

Did the top-quality spiritual grains purple rice not attract them?

At that moment, Ji Yang turned to look at the bait of the other anglers; it was the natural bait of Tianxing Lake, which didn’t look appealing to fish. Moreover, the spiritual energy was all mixed up, clearly incomparable to his top-quality spiritual grains.

Most importantly, Ji Yang didn’t see anyone catching anything.

If they couldn’t catch any fish, there was no reason he shouldn’t be able to!

After sitting for half an hour with the fishing hook not budging at all, Ji Yang couldn’t help but feel a bit doubtful.

"Wait, I’ve got something!"

"Could it be a spiritual fish?!"

At that moment, a disciple nearby gasped in surprise, and everyone instantly turned to look at the disciple who had caught something.

Seeing the fishing float on the lake surface bob violently, the disciple smiled, then suddenly pulled up the fishing rod.

As the fishing rod lifted, the shape of what was caught came into view.

Upon seeing what was hooked, everyone shook their heads, disappointment showing on their faces.

It was not a spiritual fish; it wasn’t even a fish at all, but an old, rusty iron pot.

Looking at the iron pot in his hands, the disciple hoped for a moment that it might be a piece of a magical artifact.

After a thorough inspection, the disciple couldn’t help but toss the iron pot aside.

Well, that was just a regular iron pot!

After a brief commotion, the fishing platform returned to calm once again.

In the following time, more disciples began to catch things.

Some pulled up broken planks, others caught various pieces of clothing, and some even snagged fragments of magical artifacts.

However, these items were of little use.

A few lucky disciples did manage to catch regular fish, but those were common types and, despite weighing dozens of pounds, they did not count as spiritual fish and wouldn’t contribute toward the daily task.

Among them, Ji Yang also saw someone catch a spiritual fish that weighed around seven or eight pounds, but that was still far from meeting the daily task requirements.

Was it really so difficult?

Ji Yang looked at the still, calm surface of the lake and felt it indeed seemed tough!

After a long time with no catches, Ji Yang couldn’t help but raise his rod. He looked at the empty hook and exclaimed,

"Where’s my bait?"

He had such a large piece of Purple Rice on there; how could it be gone?

A young man beside the fishing platform laughed and said,

"Is this your first time at Tianxing Lake, junior brother?"

Hearing this, Ji Yang nodded and replied,

"Yes, please guide me, senior brother?"

Seeing Ji Yang speak respectfully, the young man began to explain:

"Tianxing Lake has existed since the establishment of our sect. It is home to a variety of spiritual fish and other strange aquatic beasts. According to elders in our sect, in the early days, spiritual fish would readily bite, and there were even times when various aquatic spiritual beasts could be caught. But later, those spiritual fish became smarter, and some would eat the bait and swim away!"

"Some spiritual fish go even further; they actually drag some trash over from elsewhere and drop it on your hook!"

"Of course, there have been some good catches too. For instance, forty years ago, a senior brother caught a fragment of a magical treasure! It contained some starry materials, but those occurrences are rare; you might not see it even once in decades."

Ji Yang asked in confusion,

"If it’s this difficult, isn’t it hard to complete the goal of ten stones daily?"

The young man looked at Ji Yang with a strange expression:

"Ten stones? Wouldn’t that mean being punished here for a lifetime? Did you mishear? The daily task is one stone. And even that is hard to achieve! Only around mid-month does the spiritual energy surge in the lake, giving us a chance to complete the task."

"But even so, a regular disciple can expect their punishment to last at least half a year or more!”

Ji Yang was taken aback upon hearing this.

One stone? Why did he have ten stones?

Recalling the message he had sensed earlier, Ji Yang said nothing more; it was likely that he had received special treatment from Ye Wuchen.

He would finish writing the hidden stone tablet once he returned.

This also filled Ji Yang with a bit of worry; would Ye Wuchen come to get him when the three-month punishment was over?

“Hey, junior brother, your fishing rod is quite special!”

“Junior brother, where’s your float?”

“Junior brother, your fishing skills are really poor; you cast too close.”

“Junior brother, you’re not calm; you won’t catch any fish like this.”

After their conversation, the young man beside him seemed to open up and wouldn’t stop talking, his energy level appearing quite off.

Watching the calm surface of the lake and listening to the constant chatter in his ears, Ji Yang finally couldn’t help but stand up and leave.

With him around, it was hard to find peace!

“Junior brother, junior brother, where are you going?”

“This fishing spot is really good!”

“Junior brother, don’t go!”

After leaving the original fishing platform, Ji Yang looked around the lakeside, observing the situations of other disciples.

Clearly, the circumstances were as expected; many disciples had their fishing rods submerged in the water and hadn’t brought them up again, unable to catch even ordinary fish.

Some disciples couldn’t help but doze off.

Others looked equally lethargic.

There were also disciples who pulled their hooks out of the water just after dropping them in, repeating this cycle while mumbling to themselves,

“Good thing the bait is still there.”

After saying that, they wore a look of relief on their faces.

Watching this bewildering behavior, Ji Yang’s expression turned slightly grim.

Fishing really wasn’t a human activity; at this moment, Ji Yang found himself missing mining even more.

Farming would be fine too!

Master, I was wrong!