Once the plum rain season passed, the summer heat grew heavier. Almost unnoticed, the Beginning of Summer drew near. Other parts of Jiuzhen Commandery were steadily warming, yet Jiuzhen Lake remained as cool and refreshing as ever.
In the thin morning mist, a small black-awning boat drifted with the current. Qian Chen leaned against the gunwale, a ten-foot silk line tied to the bamboo rod beside his hand trailing into the water...
Yet the tip of that ten-foot line merely floated upon the surface, clearly bearing no silver hook of any kind.
Leaning back above the water, Qian Chen flipped through the secret map of the Great Marsh in his hands. Not long after he had shot and slain the Three Corpse Spirits within Daoist Zhen beneath the great plum tree that day, City God Wei had dispatched nether couriers to deliver this secret map. One could only wonder what instructions City God Wei had given the two ghost messengers, for when Qian Chen saw them, they were trembling and walking on eggshells, treating him as though he were some terrifying monster that devoured ghosts.
The secret map of the Great Marsh in his hands was not exceedingly detailed, but the Wei clan surely lacked the courage to trick him any further. Moreover, Qian Chen had another secret map sent by Cui Dan to serve as a reference. As a scion of the Cui clan and the local county magistrate, Cui Dan possessed far too many ways to pry innermost maps from the local gangs.
Even with the two maps combined, they recorded barely one or two percent of the Great Marsh's depths.
Over the past several days, Qian Chen had followed the map's markings and ventured deep into the marsh numerous times. It was far safer than his first venture. Having explored much of the marsh's interior, he had gradually filled in the blanks on his map, making it more than three times as detailed as the one the Wei clan had originally delivered. The quality of the baleful energy he discovered on this trip had improved somewhat; he had already found several Earth Baleful Yin Veins suitable for refining into the Seven Baleful Banner.
Even so, they still fell far short of his Ice Soul Cold Light Gang.
In truth, the baleful qi corresponding to the Ice Soul Gangqi was most abundant in the extreme cold of the northern pole. Yet the vast Northern Darkness Sea lay between the Divine Continent of Chixian, where the Great Jin was located, and the polar ice plains. Even riding a roc capable of traveling ninety thousand li a day, reaching the northern pole would take three months. Relying on Qian Chen's leisurely Flying Cloud Pouch, a round trip would be out of the question even if the Reincarnation Lands had granted him ten times the one-year mission interval.
Qian Chen made several marks on the map, designating perilous locations that either lacked sufficient earth baleful energy, possessed qi too motley and impure, or held no Earth Baleful Yin Vein at all, instead being natural pitfalls or domains of poisonous marsh creatures. He also noted several places yielding fine spirit medicines and natural treasures...
When it came to spirit medicines, very few could endure long storage.
Cultivators often processed them into semi-finished forms. For instance, the nine spiritual insect molts Daoist Zhen had used in pill refinement were all prepared powders blended in advance. Aside from herbal spirit medicines that could be dried, such as ginseng and ganoderma, or mineral medicines that never decayed, like mica and quartz, countless other spirit medicines were so bizarre that they simply could not be preserved.
One common example used in pill refinement was rootless water—rainwater imbued with pure spiritual qi.
Such an ingredient had to be gathered fresh. No matter how high its quality, any rootless water would degenerate into ordinary water if kept for more than three days.
Even rootless water had grades. For instance, the Midnight Pure Yin Four Hou Water required the few drops of rain that fell in a place of utmost yin during the Zi hour of the Zi day in the Zi month of a Zi year. Similarly, the Midday Pure Yang Four Hou Water required rain falling in a place of pure yang during the Wu hour of the Wu day in the Wu month of a Wu year. Such an alignment came only once every twelve years, an interval a cultivator's lifespan could well accommodate.
Yet if the heavens proved uncooperative and failed to rain on that day, those twelve years of waiting would be entirely in vain.
The art of calling wind and summoning rain operated by mobilizing water vapor in the sky. Ordinary rootless water contained weak spiritual qi, so conjuring some by spellcraft caused no harm. However, the spiritual qi required for Four Hou Water demanded that pure yin and pure spiritual qi blend naturally to achieve that single spark of miraculous potency. If a cultivator waited bitterly for twelve years only for that night to pass without a single drop of rain, the gloom of that night was easy to imagine.
If luck was truly atrocious, waiting through ten cycles—a hundred and twenty years—without catching a single shower of Pure Yin Four Hou Water was by no means unheard of.
An alchemist awaiting such water to refine pills would surely be possessed by the urge to slaughter the Dragon King.
If one's fate were harsher still, a slip of the hand during refinement might ruin the entire furnace. Once the sun rose, the Pure Yin Four Hou Water would become unusable. Watching the precious medicine one had waited so long for turn into ordinary rootless water the instant dawn broke... one could only imagine what ran through an alchemist's mind.
Qian Chen had read in Geng Yuanzi's Daoist texts that the Taishang Dao's celebrated ancestral alchemists—Ge Hong, Su Fei, Li Shang, Zuo Wu, Tian You, Xu Jian, Chu Ze, and others—had all kicked over their cauldrons in fury at one point or another, swearing never to refine external dan again.
The most famous incident was Ge Hong's failure to refine the elixir of immortality on Mount Baicao. In his fury, he kicked the furnace over, sending the half-finished elixir spilling as liquid across the mountain. In a single day, Mount Baicao bloomed with countless spirit medicines, turning it into a wondrous realm of creation. Legend had it that the Immortal Elder Ge Hong had pointed at the sky and roared, "Whoever advises another to study alchemy deserves to be struck by lightning!"
For that reason, many alchemists opened herb gardens within their magical implements to harvest fresh spirit medicines at will. Others did as Qian Chen did, keeping meticulous records of their locations so they could return to harvest them right before lighting the furnace...
"This Jiuzhen Great Marsh is truly dangerous. Today I actually came across traces of a Nine-Winged Heavenly Centipede. Fortunately, that ferocious creature is still immature. If it had grown all twelve pairs of wings... I wouldn't even care about the baleful qi! I'd turn right around and flee..."
Qian Chen knew that Twelve-Winged Heavenly Centipedes had a lengthy incubation period and took ten thousand years to reach adulthood. Who knew how many millennia ago this one had hatched. Its parents were likely from the Middle Ancient Era and had not stayed behind to raise it. Otherwise, he would never have dared linger in the Jiuzhen Great Marsh, for a fully grown specimen was a terror comparable to a Primal Spirit.
As he sat, a streak of flying light approached from afar, dipping slightly over his head.
After circling once, it turned and descended toward Jiaobu Town in the distance.
"With the Dragon Boat Festival drawing near, traveling cultivators seem to have increased. It appears the Dragon Boat gathering of Jiuzhen Commandery is indeed renowned, just as Cui Dan said. Even in the cultivation world, it can be called a grand occasion!"
Driving the beam of light were a pair of martial sisters. The slightly older senior sister had unleashed a ribbon-like flying implement to carry her junior sister toward Jiaobu Town. Catching sight of the black-awning boat beneath them, she let out a soft exclamation. Her charming, lovely junior sister asked curiously, "Look, Senior Sister! So close to the Great Marsh, is that actually a mortal fishing?"
"This place is close to the marsh, where crocodiles and flood dragons often roam. They can overturn ships dozens of zhang long. For a small boat to drift here is far too dangerous!" The somewhat colder senior sister lowered her light and said, "I'll go urge him to leave!"
"Can one fish without a hook?"
Drawing closer, the sharp-eyed junior sister noticed that the silk line dangling from Qian Chen's rod was tied loosely, bearing no hook at all.
The senior sister also saw Qian Chen raise his head to look toward their light, even taking the leisure to nod at them.
"So he's a fellow cultivator..." Realizing he was not a mortal who had strayed into danger, the senior sister pulled her flight upward, passing Qian Chen by. Her junior sister chattered from atop the flying ribbon, "Senior Sister, he must be a fellow Daoist coming for the Dragon Boat gathering, right? But I know all the sects around Jiuzhen, and his face looks unfamiliar. I wonder which sect he's from?"
"Let's find lodging in town first. Since he came for the Dragon Boat gathering as well, we'll run into him sooner or later." Without brooking argument, the senior sister carried her junior sister down toward Jiaobu Town.
At the same time, she muttered inwardly, *Where did this cultivator come from, sitting there with a hookless fishing rod? Putting on such airs of profundity—does he think he can fool naive young girls?*
With that, she resolved to keep an even closer eye on her little junior sister.
Qian Chen stretched his arms, lifting the bamboo rod in his hand. The silk line seemed to be tethered to something, pulled taut at its seemingly empty end. He called out, "Off we go! Back to Jiaobu Town..."
"The Dragon Boat Festival isn't far now, and everything that needs preparing is ready. More cultivators are coming and going. Time to scout around again and see if there are any leads on Earth Baleful Yin Veins."
At that moment, the small boat carrying Qian Chen lifted abruptly, drawing a wake across the water as it traveled toward Jiaobu Town of its own accord.
Beneath the tethered line, a dark, armored back broke the surface. Only then did it become clear that beneath the black-awning boat swam an enormous crocodile bearing its weight. From head to tail, the beast was several times larger than the vessel itself. Wherever it passed, schools of aquatic creatures fled in panic, and even the giant serpents and crocodiles capable of capsizing small boats prudently steered clear of its path.
Chapter 67