Chapter 687 — Fishing the Sun on a Hook, and Binding It Again

Quickly he fished up a dozen or more suns, tethered them all beside the well, and reeled in his line. The two little red fish leaped out of the well as well and jumped into his basket.

The Old Angler picked up his rod, folded his little stool, and said, "I still have to go to the Soul Spring to fish up a few moons. Boy of the Shen family, will you come too?"

Shen Mu nodded again and again. "I smashed the Soul Boat, and the moon aboard it as well. I want to see whether there are any other Soul Boats; if there aren't, then I'll have to go look in the Red Sea Oasis of the Western Lands — there may be Soul Boats there."

The Old Angler nodded. "Then let's be off."

He walked out of the Dawn Spring, and Shen Mu said hesitantly, "Martial Uncle, shouldn't we go from the Dawn Spring to the Soul Spring? By land the road is long, and the Soul Spring is blocked off to the west of the Desolate Ruins by Luofu Heaven and Taihuang Heaven."

The Old Angler said, "No need. I want to take a look at Taihuang Heaven."

Shen Mu had no choice but to summon the Dragon Qilin. "The road is long," he said. "Better to ride Fatty Dragon."

The Dragon Qilin had been left in the Dawn Spring taking a bath; hearing this, it could only say, "Sect Master, I can't carry a deity on my back."

The Old Angler's eyes lit up. "What a magnificent Dragon Qilin! Why do you call him Fatty Dragon?"

Shen Mu hesitated, and did not tell him just how fat the Dragon Qilin had once been. The Old Angler laughed. "You needn't carry me. Just keep up with my fish." With that, one of the little red fish leaped from the basket.

The little red fish swelled in the wind, and quickly became a great red kun several hundred zhang long, floating in the air.

The Old Angler leaped onto its back. Its broad fins glided and quivered like wings, its tail beat up and down, and it swam through the air with extraordinary speed.

Shen Mu was startled, and taking Yan Jingjing by the hand he leaped onto the Dragon Qilin's back. The Dragon Qilin gave a mighty roar, like a dragon's cry and a qilin's bellow mingled together; its body swelled, it tossed its head and swung its tail, and became a colossal beast some sixty zhang long, treading fire-clouds, and gave chase to the great red kun.

Once it set off it was like wind and lightning; because it had the Azure Dragon bloodline, when it ran at full stretch there were flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, so that from afar it looked like a half-dragon, half-qilin beast wrapped in thunder-light and treading flame, racing onward!

This was the first time Shen Mu had seen the Dragon Qilin run at full speed, and he was both startled and delighted. "The tempering in the Five Thunders Pot really did work! What a pity that it took gathering so many dragon experts to cultivate for barely a month. If he could cultivate all the time, Fatty Dragon would probably be a great master of the Spirit Bridge realm by now!"

The Dragon Qilin's cultivation had already reached the peak of the Life-Death realm. The elixirs and wonder-drugs it had eaten had all turned to fat stored in its body, until it was round as a ball; but after being tempered in the Five Thunders Pot at Li City, that medicinal power had been dissolved and condensed into a Dark Water Dragon Pearl and a Qilin Pearl, and its cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds!

Its speed had advanced by leaps and bounds as well. Had it not tried to overtake the great red kun this time, the Dragon Qilin itself would not have known just how fast it could run.

On the Dragon Qilin's back, Shen Mu and Yan Jingjing saw that they were surrounded by thunder-light; even the wind could not penetrate the shield the thunder-light formed, and they clicked their tongues in wonder.

But swift as it was, the Dragon Qilin could not catch the great red kun. After all, that was a divine fish that had cultivated at the Old Angler's side for who knew how many years, while the Dragon Qilin was not yet grown, a beast still in its juvenile form; that it could not match the great red kun's speed was only natural.

The Dragon Qilin sprinted at full stretch for half a day, its endurance frightening; even so it was so worn out that white foam flecked its mouth, and still it could not catch the great red kun.

Even so, Shen Mu was startled and delighted. To run at full stretch for half a day was something even he would find hard to do; he could travel day and night for tens of thousands of li, even hundreds of thousands, but to sprint tens of thousands of li at full stretch in a short time would leave him utterly spent.

Clearly, now that the Dragon Qilin had slimmed down, its endurance had grown much greater too.

Ahead, the great red kun stopped and flew slowly along. The Dragon Qilin hurried to catch up, and the Old Angler turned his great head and laughed. "Not bad at all. Come aboard."

The Dragon Qilin shrank its body and leaped onto the great red kun's back, and Shen Mu and Yan Jingjing jumped down.

The Old Angler looked the Dragon Qilin up and down and praised it: "Truly splendid. A beast like this, not yet grown, can carry a deity and run so fast — what will it be like when it's grown?"

"Carry a deity?"

Shen Mu and the Dragon Qilin were both bewildered. Yan Jingjing said sheepishly, "Half a year ago I finished my Spirit Bridge, and my primordial spirit leaped to the gates of the Heavenly Palace."

The Dragon Qilin was startled and blurted out, "I carried a deity on my back all this way? I'm so strong! Sect Master, I'm so strong — I want extra rations!"

Shen Mu was startled too. He automatically filtered out the request for extra rations and said, "Little Sister Jing, have you been cultivating by means of the Dawn Boat? Your cultivation has advanced so quickly — might there be a problem?"

The Old Angler said, "There is certainly a problem. Solitary yin cannot generate, lone yang cannot grow. Her cultivation has advanced so fast that the harm is great; her foundation must be thoroughly reinforced."

Shen Mu said hastily, "How is it to be reinforced?"

The Old Angler looked at the space between his brows and smiled. "There is something in your body that can suppress the erupting pure-yang qi within her and steady her foundation. Only, we must see whether you can bear to part with it."

"What is there in my body?" Shen Mu asked doubtfully.

Yan Jingjing's cheeks flushed scarlet, and she said bashfully, "Is it dual cultivation? The Clan Chief said that dual cultivation can balance the qi of yin and yang..."

"Where has your mind wandered to? That Clan Chief of yours, of the Sun-Herding Clan, is another ignorant fellow — a bucket not full, half a bucket sloshing."

The Old Angler shook his head. He laid two fingers on the space between Shen Mu's brows, rubbed them there, and gave a light pull, drawing a thread of pure-yin qi out of the spirit treasury of Shen Mu's primordial fetus. "This thread of pure-yin qi — it must have been a gift to you from a god or demon, no? Just give this thread of pure-yin qi to the little girl, and it will do. Can you bear to part with it?"

Shen Mu smiled. "I met a dead god of the Shanghuang era, and he gave it to me. So long as Little Sister Jing can be well, what would I not part with?"