Longzang

Chapter 836 Fish Can Also Be Fished
In a newly built hall in the Azure Nether Immortal City, Wei Yuan and True Monarch Xuan Yue sat facing each other, listening to the Great Dao.

"The path to immortality may be many, but in the end, they all lead to the same destination, which is called 'unity.' The so-called 'one' is heaven and earth, which is the Great Dao. Ascending to immortality means aligning oneself with heaven and earth and the Great Dao, aligning one's mental world with the real heaven and earth, thereby entering the Dao with one's body, taking control of the power of heaven and earth, and stepping into the gate of immortality."

Wei Yuan listened carefully, not daring to miss a single word.

At this moment, the voice of True Lord Xuan Yue gradually became ethereal, with each sentence containing multiple layers of profound meaning, revealing the subtle and profound implications of the words from various angles.

Wei Yuan's cultivation level is still far from achieving the Unity of Heaven and Earth, so Xuan Yue didn't go into detail about how the Mind World should be integrated with Heaven and Earth. Instead, she focused on the relationship between the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth and immortals.

The first step to ascending to immortality is to grasp a Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, obtain partial authority within it, and then use this authority to modify one's mental world, ultimately achieving the goal of merging oneself with the Dao of Heaven.

Therefore, after ascending to immortality, immortals are not free and unrestrained, but must act on behalf of the Great Dao. Each immortal chooses a different Great Dao when they attain enlightenment, and their duties also differ; some are quite carefree, while others are extremely busy.

The specific powers and authority of each immortal are their most fundamental secrets. Once these secrets are known to other immortals, it is tantamount to having one's life force grasped, leaving them passive in every situation.

However, there are countless paths to immortality. For example, the Great Path of Fire alone can be subdivided into dozens or even hundreds of paths. This is where the benefits of inheritance become apparent. The more paths to immortality a sect or family masters, the stronger the sect becomes, and the more choices future generations have for ascending to immortality, making it easier for them to achieve it.

Although the Taichu Palace was established the shortest among the four major immortal sects, it actually possesses the most paths to immortality. Currently, it has sixteen major paths to immortality and controls more than sixty immortal positions.

Xuan Yue explained all this to Wei Yuan to illustrate that the Heavenly Witches of the Witch Clan were in the same boat; their immortal power was limited, and they couldn't personally deal with Wei Yuan at all times. Moreover, the Shattered Domain was still quite a distance from being intact, and trying to bypass the gaze of the extraterrestrial monsters would come at a great cost.

Yan Shi assigned Wei Yuan the task of observing the activities of the Heavenly Witches of the Witch Clan during the great battle, constantly collecting data, and analyzing the true immortal positions of the Heavenly Witches.

Xuan Yue's sermon lasted three days. Wei Yuan originally wanted Zhang Sheng to attend as well, but Xuan Yue Zhenjun said that Zhang Sheng's path was extremely righteous and pure, completely different from Wei Yuan's path of encompassing heaven and earth. Telling her too much about the immortal realm now would only affect her Dao heart.

This is unlike Wei Yuan, who can cram any kind of knowledge into his work.

After the instruction was completed, True Lord Xuan Yue departed on his own. As a powerful cultivator, staying in the Shattered Realm was nothing short of torture. Although the power of the realm protected him in the Azure Netherworld, making things somewhat more comfortable, Wei Yuan's own cultivation was insufficient, so True Lord Xuan Yue still couldn't avoid feeling uncomfortable.

Having clarified his current task, Wei Yuan began to take the luck fishing seriously.

Fishing was originally a skill reserved for those in the later stages of the Imperial Realm or even immortals. Wei Yuan, with his special fortune, could barely manage to use it. Fishing mainly consists of three parts: the fishing spot, the equipment, and the bait.

For immortals fishing, the fishing spot is relatively unimportant; as long as their foundation is solid and their luck is abundant, they will suffice. With a cast of their line, immortals can reach far beyond the clouds.

In this respect, Qingming was originally a realm of immortal stones, and now its area is vast, far exceeding that of ordinary realm stones. Qingming itself has a large number of mortals, possessing immense fortune, so in terms of fishing grounds, Wei Yuan is in no way inferior to some immortals.

However, Wei Yuan still plans to continue investing in the fishing grounds, intending to clear out most of the main peak and develop it into a fishing ground, building a Qi Luck Fishing Array to maximize the advantages of the fishing grounds through the array.

As for fishing gear, Wei Yuan was completely clueless. He had to craft all the fishing gear himself, so that he could create a causal relationship between the gear and the fish, and bring it back to him.

Therefore, once the fishing grounds are completed, Wei Yuan will need to cram in more weapon crafting skills.

Finally, there's the bait. Ideally, it should be something that easily creates a karmic connection and possesses auspicious energy. Stronger bait isn't necessarily better; overly strong bait can scare away valuable fish.

When Wei Yuan first tried fishing, he used a rooster feather. This was to create a causal relationship between the fish that bit the hook and both himself and the rooster, as if the rooster was helping him catch the fish, thus preventing him from being dragged into the water by a big fish.

Now that everything is ready, we can no longer use the fairy chicken feathers, otherwise it will be easy to waste them.

Fishing for luck is a game where what you catch depends entirely on fate. It could be a person, an opportunity, a magical artifact, or a clue to a great opportunity. You might even catch something from outer space, but the probability of that is extremely low, and even if you do catch it, you probably won't be able to pull it up.

After thoroughly studying all the knowledge of the Luck Fishing Technique, Wei Yuan realized that the Three-Eyed Bird Head's casual reeling in of a world fragment was truly a heaven-defying feat. The Primordial Palace possessed ready-made templates for the Luck Fishing Technique Array, with various specifications and levels, eliminating the need for Wei Yuan to study it from scratch. Wei Yuan now possessed an inexhaustible amount of Heavenly Power, having already used it to offset the debt he owed to the Primordial Palace.

However, a considerable portion of the money was borrowed by Xuan Yue Zhenjun, who dragged Wei Yuan from house to house. This money was basically poured into the new Tianqing Main Hall. Xuan Yue Zhenjun was not in a hurry to repay it, and the borrowers were not in a hurry to ask for it back.

Wei Yuan, now flush with cash, exchanged for five or six templates at once for reference. Of course, he wasn't spending money recklessly; the template selection was all done under Ji Liuli's guidance.

Before exchanging the template, Ji Liuli specifically asked Wei Yuan whether they should submit the completed fishing formation design to the Taichu Palace. If they did, it would offset a large portion of the cost of exchanging the template.

Wei Yuan initially thought this expense was insignificant, but after Ji Liuli's reminder, he realized that this was also part of the Taichu Palace's efforts to enrich its array repertoire and accumulate resources for future generations. The dozens of array templates he saw, designed for different situations, were all created in this way.

All the templates actually originated from a formation that the founding ancestor casually designed back then. They were passed down from generation to generation, with each Immortal Lord contributing at least one new template. Through continuous updates and improvements, the fishing formation of Taichu Palace has evolved from the initial crude formation into a superb formation that is among the best in the entire cultivation world.

At this point, Ji Liuli couldn't resist taking a jab at the aristocratic families. Many families still uphold the ancient master-disciple tradition, where the master always keeps a secret, while the disciple tries every means to steal the master's skills. As a result, many of them die without passing on their secret techniques, leading to the decline of the family generation after generation. This is how many small sects have perished.

The aristocratic families, being connected by blood, were slightly better off, but only to a limited extent. They also had a bunch of stinking rules, such as passing the throne to the legitimate son but not to the illegitimate son, and passing it to the son but not to the daughter. In the end, after a thousand years, the aristocratic families remained the same, stagnating in place. The Taichu Palace, on the other hand, made rapid progress. Generation after generation of like-minded people gathered here, opening up more and more paths to immortality, and gradually becoming the most powerful in the world to hold the immortal position.

Hearing this, Wei Yuan agreed to submit the Qingming Fishing Array to the Taichu Palace and make his contribution once it was perfected and could operate stably. A newly developed fishing array like the Qingming, used in a crucial location, could be subject to special restrictions, accessible only to the True Lords of the various palaces. The lifting of these restrictions would depend on the specific circumstances, potentially lasting thirty, fifty, or even one hundred years.

After receiving the template, Ji Liuli immediately immersed herself in the mundane world, beginning to design a fishing formation specifically for Qingming. Wei Yuan, on the other hand, gathered materials from all over to prepare for setting up the formation.

According to Ji Liuli, there are over four hundred types of materials used in the array, including five types of immortal-grade materials. Wei Yuan found substitutes for four of them, including a wingtip feather from a rooster and branches and leaves from three types of immortal plants. The last one can only be obtained from the Taichu Palace, costing Wei Yuan a total of 57,000 Heavenly Merit Points.

This was Wei Yuan's first time exchanging for Immortal-grade materials, and he only then realized that many materials had not been available to him before. A single genuine Immortal-grade artifact material averaged 50,000 Heavenly Merit Points. Wei Yuan had initially thought he had more Heavenly Merit Points than he could ever use, but once he entered the Immortal-grade formation, he immediately discovered that he couldn't actually exchange for many materials.

Fishing grounds are graded according to their potential catch, divided into four levels: barren, ordinary, excellent, and abundant. Originally, Qingming was only barren, but Ji Liuli used multiple celestial artifacts to create an array, raising the fishing ground's level by two grades, directly reaching the excellent level. At this level, it's possible to find celestial artifacts.

If Wei Yuan were to invest more of his luck, he could achieve a "rich" level in a single fishing trip. However, this isn't necessarily a good thing. A "rich" catch doesn't mean there are more fish in that small area of ​​water, but rather that the area has expanded. Luck-based fishing doesn't rely heavily on distance; a higher fishing ground level means becoming more conspicuous throughout the entire world, attracting the attention of larger fish.

People want to fish, and fish also want to fish.

The fishing grounds are too high-level, and Wei Yuan's cultivation level is insufficient. It's like a young child fishing in a pond full of sharks; he might very well be pulled into the water and eaten.

The fishing grounds are a fixed investment, and in the long run, it's best to do them as well as possible. Ji Liuli's solution is to focus on the fishing gear, not making it too good, just good enough. This way, if an uncontrollable danger occurs, the fishing gear will break first, severing the cause and effect.

This is actually a rather expensive option; even the worst fishing gear is equivalent to a precious treasure, meaning it will be destroyed every time danger strikes.

However, Wei Yuan, being wealthy and powerful at the moment, approved the plan.

Wei Yuan and Ji Liuli worked day and night to set up the formation, with the help of other cultivators. After a month, they finally completed the formation. The fishing grounds, after being tested by True Monarch Xuan Yue, had reached an excellent level.

Afterwards, Wei Yuan went to find Yu Zhizhuo to forge fishing tackle. There was only one method for forging fishing tackle: the Qi-based refining technique. The necessary materials were thrown into the furnace, and once a chaotic state was reached, Wei Yuan would then infuse a small amount of his own blood essence, and that was it. As for what kind of fishing tackle was forged, and whether it was good or not, it all depended on fate.

This was a fairly easy task for Yu Zhizhuo. He refined it to the critical chaotic state in less than two days, waiting only for Wei Yuan to invest his own blood essence.

Before releasing his blood essence, Wei Yuan couldn't help but think about what kind of fishing gear he needed: a lightning rod that could unleash powerful lightning, a fishing net that could extend along the bottom of the water, or a medicine bottle that could poison a pond full of big fish.

(End of this chapter)