Ideals were plump, but reality was emaciated—and reality without the blessing of karmic luck was outright skeletal.
Wei Yuan stared at the slender yellow-bamboo fishing rod before him, gaining an entirely new appreciation for life's cruel hardships. If he had to make a living by fishing, the rod in his hand would have kept him struggling at the subsistence line day and night.
With his tackle forged, the final step was choosing bait. Here lay immense variety and profound mystery. At times, an utterly unremarkable trifle could reel in an immortal treasure simply due to some obscure, hidden karma.
And in the history of cultivation, someone had once used the secret blood descendant of a peerless contemporary immortal as bait, luring that immortal into a fatal trap and achieving the monumental feat of slaying an immortal.
Carrying a fish box and his fishing rod, Wei Yuan changed into a wide-sleeved robe and arrived before the sheer precipice of the main peak. Immortal blooms and spirit herbs had already been planted here, and an ancient tree had been transplanted nearby. Beside it stood a stone table and chairs carved from ten-thousand-year green-veined stone, bearing a nineteen-by-nineteen Go board to remind all under heaven of the master's status as a grandmaster.
With everything prepared, Wei Yuan set down an armchair woven from nine-thousand-year wisteria by the edge of the cliff. Flicking his robe, he sat down at leisure, raised the yellow-bamboo rod—which bore neither line nor bait, only an attached strand of deep azure qi of human fortune—and with a flick of his wrist, cast out to fish the sea of clouds.
To fish above a sea of clouds, Wei Yuan had specifically mobilized the domain's power to form a perpetual cloud sea encircling the main peak. While this sea of clouds served no practical purpose for karmic destiny angling, it played a vital role in elevating Wei Yuan's mood.
Hook cast, Wei Yuan sat leaning over the precipice, angling above the abyss as winds shifted the clouds and floral fragrance whispered through the trees—what a picture of an earthly paradise!
Back when Wei Yuan had met Tinghai and Yanshi, the two had fished off cliffs at the drop of a hat, leaving him utterly green with envy. Now, at long last, it was his turn.
Wei Yuan split off multiple threads of divine sense, observing and recording his current posture from various angles. He painstakingly adjusted any detail that wasn't sufficiently ethereal and immortal-like, then meticulously polished the composition and lighting, thoroughly enjoying himself.
This was no trivial matter. Once Wei Yuan achieved greatness and ascended to an immortal seat, his image at this moment would be revered by posterity. Otherwise, where would karmic luck come from? Thus, Wei Yuan took extraordinary care.
Just as Wei Yuan was busily engrossed, the rod in his hand suddenly dipped! Subtle though the tug was, Wei Yuan's perception was extraordinarily sharp. He instantly knew that something had brushed against the bait, though from the feel of it, the creature had yet to bite the hook.
Wei Yuan had only used a strand of karmic luck obtained from a certain dharma idol cultivator as bait, intending to practice his technique and incidentally confound the Shamans' line of sight without expecting any real catch. Yet his very first cast had elicited a response—an unexpected delight.
Hesitating briefly, Wei Yuan tossed in several hundred strands of human fortune azure qi. Sure enough, as the karmic luck poured in, the rod dipped once more. This time, Wei Yuan could clearly see several threads of karma manifesting on the rod, though they flickered faintly, liable to snap at any second. There was no telling what karma was tied to which thread.
That there were so many potential catches came as a great surprise to Wei Yuan. After a moment's contemplation, he cast several hundred more strands of karmic luck into each line.
In response, some karmic connections visibly strengthened, while others seemed spooked and abruptly severed their karmic ties with Wei Yuan. In the end, only three threads of karma remained hooked to the rod.
Now came time to place his bets. The saying "natural selection, survival of the fittest" flashed through Wei Yuan's mind, so he wagered ten thousand strands of azure qi on each of the three threads of karma, then waited for the outcome.
This time, it took a while for the karmic luck to fully dissipate. Two of the threads snapped abruptly; beneath the sea of clouds, massive silhouettes faintly swam past, letting out muffled roars. These two had not been men fishing for catches, but catches fishing for men. Exposed beneath the deluge of karmic luck, the man-fishing beasts had no choice but to reel back their lines.
The final thread of karma had not only endured, but visibly strengthened. However, the catch on the other end also sensed danger and began attempting to break free.
Having come this far, how could Wei Yuan let it escape? Furthermore, from the feedback in his hands, he sensed that whatever hung on the line stood somewhere between a dharma idol and Scenery Command—most likely not yet having reached Scenery Command.
Not even at Scenery Command! Wei Yuan felt entirely confident he could handle it, so he poured in fifty thousand strands of azure qi in a single breath. Sensing mortal danger, the entity began thrashing violently, bending the rod into a taut bow!
Wei Yuan remained seated without moving an inch. His maiden battle was on the verge of victory; bearing and composure were paramount right now. With a wave of his wide sleeve, a swirl of iridescent light settled over the rod as he injected another fifty thousand strands of azure qi. The perilous bend of the rod eased slightly at once.
Azure qi was originally formless and intangible, visible to almost no one besides Wei Yuan. But if it could not be seen, how would anyone know that Wei Yuan was tossing around fortunes of fifty thousand strands with a casual flick of his wrist? Thus, Wei Yuan had layered iridescent light over the azure qi. It wasn't true immortal light, just enough to make a proper show of things.
Yet the unexpected occurred at that very moment. The fifty thousand strands of azure qi vanished like a clay ox plunging into the sea, failing to stir the slightest ripple. Beneath the clouds, the entity continued to thrash fiercely, yet did not flee.
Wei Yuan's expression instantly turned solemn; he knew he had hooked a big fish. He had already staked a hundred thousand strands of azure qi, yet this fish still had strength to spare, possessing unfathomable depth. Its earlier struggles had clearly been an act, whereas its present thrashing leaned far more toward provocation.
Wei Yuan was in no hurry to make his next move. Instead, he meticulously inventoried his reserve of human fortune azure qi and the rate at which it accumulated, weighing whether to cut his losses here or smash down a massive wager to sweep all the chips off the table.
Meanwhile, within a secret realm, moonlight flowed over the earth like water. Though no full moon hung in the sky, moonlight was omnipresent. In a dense forest of towering ancient trees and craggy boulders, a stream wound through shifting shadows like a ribbon of silver, murmuring in a clear, ceaseless babble. Deeper in, forest mist drifted in wisps and ribbons around the treetops and rocky crevices. Amidst the haze, a figure was faintly visible.
Upon a flat stone sat a silver-haired youth with multiple tails. His features were pristine and handsome, yet a blood-red pendant dangling from his earlobe reflected a glint of crimson in the silver-white moonlight, lending him an alluring, demonic air. He held an entirely silver fishing rod, decorated near the grip with several snow-white fox tails, which was now bent in a pronounced curve.
A smile touched the corners of the youth's lips as he muttered to himself, "You've invested this much karmic luck already? Let me weigh it... mm, about a hundred thousand strands. Quite a stake you've laid down! Ah, Wei Yuan, Wei Yuan, you must think yourself the angler, never dreaming that all this time you've been tugging on my line!
"What a pity. No matter how large a wager you place, running into me means it's doomed to come to naught. How much more karmic luck can you possibly throw down? A hundred thousand? A hundred and fifty thousand? Haha! Depriving you of so much karmic luck will surely delight Lord Huiye, who will reward me handsomely!"
By now, Wei Yuan understood the gravity of the situation. Having long held high office, however, he was more than capable of decisive action. With a casual flick of his fingers, five hundred thousand strands of azure qi descended in an instant, while he kept another five hundred thousand in reserve.
As this torrential sea of karmic luck crashed down, the world itself seemed to subtly shift.
An immense, crushing weight abruptly surged up through the rod, yet the slender bamboo withstood the strain, hauling up the catch—which felt as heavy as hundreds of thousands of jin—in a single sweep!
Overjoyed, Wei Yuan skimmed backward like a dragonfly skimming water, retreating several tens of feet from the cloud sea before looking down at the rod in his hand. But the slender yellow-bamboo rod was completely bare—there was nothing there at all!
Although Wei Yuan had tied no fishing line, he had unmistakably reeled in a massive catch just now. Sinking five hundred thousand strands of azure qi into it had shaken heaven and earth; it was certainly no joke.
Yet staring at the bare rod, Wei Yuan was filled with bewilderment: What on earth had he caught? Where was the prize?
Meanwhile, back in the secret realm, the multi-tailed youth suddenly felt a terrifying force erupt through his fishing rod, dragging him forward into a plunge headfirst into the stream. Horrified, he scrambled flusteredly onto the bank. Having smashed face-first into the stones at the stream bed, his skin was sliced open in several places, bleeding profusely.
Ignoring his facial wounds, he anxiously checked the rod in his hands, only to find the stone fragment tied to the end of his line was still there, untaken.
The youth breathed an immediate sigh of relief. The stone fragment was extraordinarily valuable in its own right and bore deep ties to the Palace of Grand Beginning, making it the supreme bait; losing it was out of the question. If he lost this stone, dying a dozen times would not compensate for it.
So long as the stone remained, all was well. A look of relief appeared on his face as he began recalling what had just transpired—and then his expression abruptly warped. In that final instant, the force from the opposite end had reached a terrifying magnitude, and it had unmistakably hooked something away!
Just what had Wei Yuan reeled away? At the thought of that horrific hauling force in the final instant and what might have been dragged off beneath such power, the youth's face paled to ash, and he began to tremble uncontrollably.
Pondering back and forth, and recalling Huiye's terrifying methods, the youth dared not conceal a single thing. Leaving the secret realm, he flew hurriedly toward the City of the Moon.
Chapter 833