“Mm.” Kong Hou nodded, finishing arranging the remaining fish. Seeing that the distance between the fish was too close together, she moved them further apart.

“What do you want to find dragons for?” The salted fish uncle placed another basket of fish at Kong Hou’s feet, indicating she should continue. “To take dragon cores to refine demons, or to take dragon tendons to refine artifacts?”

Continuing to pick up and arrange fish, Kong Hou said: “If there really are dragons, they’d already be rare animals. Who would bear to take their cores and extract their tendons? I just want to take two drops of dragon blood and don’t want to harm it.”

The salted fish uncle turned to glance at Huan Zong walking this way, his expression blank: “Oh.”

Huan Zong saw that the salted fish uncle was deliberately making things difficult for Kong Hou. He bent down to help Kong Hou dry the smelly salted fish together. The pungent stench made his complexion look somewhat unwell. His usually elegant, wide-sleeved robes seemed somewhat restrictive when doing such tasks.

“Uncle, do you live in this town?” Kong Hou continued asking.

“In such a poor, broken place, who would come buy my salted fish? I just happened to dock my boat here, so I came ashore to look around. By the way, I’m seeing if there are any cheap fish to buy and resell to suckers at a higher price.” The salted fish uncle patted the dust off his body, very unrestrained and carefree.

Kong Hou: “…”

Those three words “suckers”—was he cursing at her?

Living conditions in the cultivation world were different from the mortal realm. Even in bitter, cold small fishing villages, there was no shortage of salt. To prevent fish from spoiling, village women would smear lots of salt on the fish bodies. Half-dried fish mixed with salt together was very sticky. Kong Hou knew Huan Zong always liked cleanliness. She nudged him with her elbow. “These dried fish are very dirty. The salted fish uncle and I can dry them.”

“It’s fine. Doing things together with you, nothing is dirty.” Huan Zong revealed a smile to Kong Hou.

Salted fish uncle: “…”

These two young people might not have very good brains. Since they were cultivators, why not use techniques to arrange the dried fish? However, seeing these two people’s deep affection for each other, the salted fish uncle’s eyes dimmed slightly. He didn’t deliberately make things difficult for them anymore.

“Uncle-Master Zhong Xi!” A Liuguang Sect disciple who had stayed in the city to handle affairs rushed out hastily. Seeing that Huan Zong and the others hadn’t left yet, he breathed a sigh of relief and flew down from his flying sword. When he saw clearly what Huan Zong was doing, his entire person became somewhat dazed: “Uncle, Uncle-Master?”

“What is it?” Huan Zong finished arranging the last few fish in the basket, his voice neither rushed nor slow. This elegant manner didn’t look like drying fish, but rather like drawing talisman patterns.

“When we were liquidating Golden Dragon Hall’s assets, we discovered this.” The Liuguang Sect disciple brought a thumb-sized porcelain bottle before Huan Zong.

The small porcelain bottle was very unremarkable, with stains accumulated over who knows how long on its surface. But what surprised Huan Zong and Kong Hou was that it actually had faint dragon energy on it.

“This is… dragon blood?” Kong Hou’s heartbeat quickened several beats. She stared at the porcelain bottle without blinking.

“It’s useless.” The salted fish uncle glanced at the porcelain bottle. “This kind of bottle can’t lock in spiritual energy at all. Left for so many years, the dragon blood has long dried up.”

Kong Hou took the porcelain bottle and carefully removed the lid. Immediately her heart felt like an ice cave. The salted fish selling uncle was right—this dragon blood had already dried up, a black layer like filthy mud.

But… what if it could still be used?

Kong Hou still put the bottle away.

Noticing this action of hers, the salted fish uncle asked: “Your Liuguang Sect disciples have been searching for dragon blood by the seaside for so long. Have they never come to this place?”

The Liuguang Sect disciple didn’t know who the salted fish uncle was. The other party dressed casually and looked like an ordinary fisherman. He bowed: “You make me laugh. We disciples all carry artifacts that can detect dragon energy and spend most of our time at sea. The fishermen we inquire with are all famous seafarers. This place is barren and doesn’t cover much area, so even when passing by, we come and go hurriedly without entering the city. This was indeed our oversight.”

The salted fish uncle patted the dust off his body: “Why do you great sect disciples speak and act so rigidly? Little girl, I can accompany you to sea, but my price for going to sea is very high. Can you afford it?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Kong Hou nodded repeatedly. According to story book rules, people whose actions differed from ordinary people always had some special abilities. So she had an inexplicable trust in the salted fish uncle.

“Alright then, let’s go.” The salted fish uncle wiped his hands stained with salt frost on his outer robe and lifted his feet to walk toward the seaside.

Lin Hu was somewhat hesitant. He looked toward Huan Zong: “Young Master…”

Huan Zong raised his hand to stop Lin Hu’s following words: “Go.”

Kong Hou took Huan Zong’s arm and said in a small voice: “Senior Lin doesn’t need to worry. The three of us are together. Even if the other party really has some bad intentions, we’d still have time to escape.”

Lin Hu laughed. These words weren’t wrong either. Two Divine Transformation Great Circle cultivators and him, a Nascent Soul Great Circle cultivator—with this cultivation, walking through almost the entire cultivation world, they didn’t need to worry about life-threatening danger. However, couldn’t Miss Kong Hou think with a bit more ambition? Being satisfied just with being able to escape?

Arriving at the seaside, Kong Hou looked at the somewhat old-looking fishing boat on the sea surface: “Uncle, I’ve heard the wind and waves are strong on the sea. Can your boat withstand it?”

“It can’t, but aren’t you all here?” The salted fish uncle untied the rope securing the boat, threw the anchor onto the boat, and jumped aboard. “Come on up, all of you. The ocean is boundless. Relying on you cultivators’ flying artifacts, you’ll miss many interesting things.”

The three boarded the boat. This boat was neither big nor small—much larger than fishing boats on rivers and lakes, and more sturdy. Kong Hou saw wind-dried preserved meat hanging in the boat, as well as rice, flour, and vegetables that could be stored for a long time. She took out several cushions from her storage ring and sat down on the deck. The sea breeze blew her hair flying everywhere. “Uncle, don’t you have a storage bag? Why put these things on the boat?”

“Life—you must slowly enjoy living to call it being alive.” The sail on the boat was lifted by the wind. The salted fish uncle didn’t turn his head back. “You’re accustomed to the cultivator way of life. How could you still experience the pleasures of ordinary common people?”

Kong Hou looked thoughtful. She rose and walked to the salted fish uncle’s side, giving him an ingratiating smile: “Uncle, do you know little secrets that others don’t know?”

The salted fish uncle rolled his eyes at her: “Little girl, do you usually read story books in private?”

Kong Hou’s eyes brightened: “That’s right! Uncle, you truly divine things like a god.”

The salted fish uncle turned his head expressionlessly: “It’s not that I divine like a god, but that normal people’s brains aren’t as strange as yours.”

Kong Hou: “…”

The fishing boat traveled with the wind, quickly getting farther and farther from the coast. Gradually, land could no longer be seen—only a piece of deep blue, boundless and endless.

The salted fish uncle found a pot, set it on a stove to stew preserved meat. Kong Hou saw him secretly take out a jar of water from his storage bag. She turned her head and pretended not to see. Just now this uncle had said something about not using storage bags and experiencing the life of ordinary common people. How could she expose him?

Just as the preserved meat had finished stewing and was about to come out of the pot, the boat’s hull suddenly began shaking. The surrounding seawater formed a powerful whirlpool that seemed about to suck this boat in.

Huan Zong used a technique to make the entire boat rise into the air, leaving this powerful suction force behind.

“What is this?!” Kong Hou looked at the enormously huge and ugly fish under the sea. This fish had three eyes, and the fish scales on its body were uneven, like rotting flesh. Kong Hou sucked in a breath of cold air. She had never seen such an ugly fish.

“This is a sea monster.” The salted fish uncle turned to look at Kong Hou. “Congratulations to you all. A sea monster rarely encountered once in a hundred years, and you’ve actually met one.”

His words had just fallen when the movement on the sea surface grew even greater. Two more enormous sea monsters appeared. These two sea monsters had different appearances—one looked like a two-headed sea eel, the other like a mutated octopus, because it had dozens of legs, soft and slimy legs densely packed together.

Kong Hou, who got goosebumps from being disgusted by their ugliness, couldn’t help but rub her arms.

“Congratulations to you all. This is a grand spectacle rarely encountered once in five hundred years.”

The huge two-headed monster that looked like a sea eel suddenly opened its mouth and roared loudly. Hearing this sharp cry, Kong Hou only felt the sky spinning and her ears buzzing. She instinctively summoned her flying sword and jumped onto it.

Under the two-headed monster’s sound attack, the salted fish uncle’s boat shattered into pieces. Falling on the sea surface, it was slapped by the multi-legged sea monster and sank into the seawater. Before these enormous sea monsters, humans appeared extremely small.

The salted fish uncle seemed to also have some cultivation. He stood crookedly on a flying artifact that looked like a bamboo hat. Before he had time to speak, he saw one leg of the multi-legged sea monster suddenly elongate and roll the salted fish uncle down.

Seeing the situation was bad, Huan Zong swung the Longyin Sword, severed this leg, and lifted the salted fish uncle onto his own flying sword.

The multi-legged monster whose leg had been severed was enraged. Its feet began frantically churning in the sea. Immediately a wild wind arose, seemingly wanting to blow Kong Hou and the others up to the sky.

Huan Zong’s clothes were blown flapping loudly. He raised his sword and flew up preparing to split open the multi-legged monster’s head when suddenly the two-headed monster screamed again. Huge sea waves struck, slapping the salted fish uncle who was standing on his flying sword down.

“Uncle!” Kong Hou lifted up the salted fish uncle and said to Huan Zong: “Huan Zong, let’s leave quickly.”

“We can’t leave.” The salted fish uncle’s expression was grave. “These sea monsters should have come to take revenge on me.”

“What did you do to them?” Kong Hou looked at Huan Zong who was fiercely battling the sea monsters, then looked at the salted fish uncle with a strange expression. “Could it be…”

“These years I’ve caught quite a few fish that the two-headed monster likes to eat. It remembered my scent, so it came to take revenge on me.” The salted fish uncle sighed. “I know your cultivation is profound, but in this vast deep sea, there are many creatures you’ve never seen before. You might not be their match. As long as you put me down, they won’t chase you anymore.”

“Uncle, you’re really formidable enough—even daring to snatch sea monsters’ food.” Kong Hou’s face showed an expression of admiration. “This junior is impressed.”

Salted fish uncle: “…”

This child really had a problem with their brain. Couldn’t they hear the main point?

Kong Hou waved toward Huan Zong: “Huan Zong, the wind is tight—pull out! Senior Lin, you take the lead. We need to run for our lives!”

“I said, as long as you leave me…”

“When young people do things, Uncle, you shouldn’t interrupt. That’s not polite.” Kong Hou lifted the salted fish uncle and jumped onto Lin Hu’s flying sword. “You went to sea for our sake. How could we leave you behind alone?”

“Today I’ll let you witness what kind of grace Senior Lin, this man like the wind, possesses.”

Salted fish uncle: “…”

This little girl interrupted an elder’s words—was that very polite?

—

**Author’s Note:** Lin Hu, swift as a gale, fast as lightning: My special talent finally has a place to be used. How gratifying.