160: Chapter 160 Backer

Inside the bamboo house, the flame of the oil lamp flickered gently.

Peak Master Su Hanyan did not leave immediately. She stood by the bamboo window, and the moonlight spilled in from outside, plating her purple robes with a faint silver edge. She gazed at the lake surface shrouded in moonlight outside the window, remained silent for a good while, and then turned around to look at Lin Tian.

"Theoretically, your cultivation is sufficient to be a captain." Her voice was a few degrees deeper than before, no longer the cold and distant tone of a Peak Master speaking to a Disciple, but rather like she was speaking of a reality she did not want to expose but had to. "However, in reality, you cannot be one."

Lin Tian frowned slightly, his fingers resting unconsciously on the hilt of his sword at his waist. He had just been calculating his ranking in the battle merit register and thinking about going to find Field Master Zhou to check the records first thing tomorrow morning, but this sentence from Peak Master Su Hanyan poured over him like a basin of cold water. He paused and asked, "Why?"

Peak Master Su Hanyan sat back down. She reached out to pick up the teapot next to the oil lamp on the table, poured herself half a cup of cold tea, and took a sip. She moistened her throat before speaking unhurriedly.

"The jobs at the Yunhai Fishery are all cushy gigs. You should have felt it too—a regular Disciple working as a guard here gets one Treasure Fish a month, a treatment that Disciples in the Sect would break their heads trying to snatch up. But do you think these guard positions are distributed based on merit? Do you really think it depends on talent, cultivation, or who writes the most sincere application?" She placed the teacup on the table, the bottom of the cup clicking lightly against the bamboo board. "Every guard here has a significant background. Some are Personal Disciples of Peak Masters, some are nephews or nieces of Elders, and some are direct descendants stuffed in by large outside Families for training. People without a background, no matter how beautifully they write their applications, cannot even pass the initial screening. You were recommended by me; otherwise, do you think a newcomer like you who just joined the Sect could be sitting in this bamboo house?"

Lin Tian did not speak. He stood by the window, the moonlight shining on half his face, while the other half was hidden in the shadow of the oil lamp, making his expression unreadable. But he listened to every word Peak Master Su Hanyan said—she was telling the truth. When he first arrived at the fishery, he found it strange that the guards here were all at least Fourth Rank; in any small Family outside, they could easily be guest Elders, yet here they were willing to pole bamboo rafts to patrol fish ponds and wake up in the middle of the night to fight Vicious Beasts. It wasn't because this job was leisurely, but because the temptation of the Treasure Fish was too great. And everyone who could secure such a temptation was not simple.

"If the guards are like this, the positions of the captains go without saying." Peak Master Su Hanyan's voice continued to echo in the bamboo house, her pace not fast, but every word carried weight. "Ten fish ponds, ten captains. Behind each person stands a big figure in the Sect. Captain Ma of Team 6 is someone who came out of my Zixia Peak. Captain Jiang He of Team 1 is a Personal Disciple of Peak Master Chen of Chixia Peak. The captain of Team 3 is surnamed Liu, and his father is an Elder of the Sect's Punishment Hall. Behind the captain of Team 5 is Jinxia Peak. The captain of Team 7 is the grandson-in-law of Elder Zhou of Bixia Peak. You count them—which captain's position fell out of thin air?"

She finished the cold tea in her cup, put it down, and lifted her eyelids to look at Lin Tian, her gaze containing both the dignity of a Peak Master and a faint trace of helplessness. "The position of captain will not be moved easily. Unless some accident occurs—a captain dies in action, retires due to serious injury, or is transferred back to the Sect for other duties—only when a position becomes vacant will the various Peaks begin to wrestle. They push their own people up, exchange benefits, and compromise. The last time a captain position was vacant was two years ago. For that position, several Peak Masters argued at the Elder Council for nearly half an hour, and it was only after Bixia Peak took a step back that the candidate was finally decided."

Hearing this, the eagerness that had just been stirred up in Lin Tian's heart by being in the "top three for battle merit" had completely subsided. It wasn't that he lacked confidence, but the rules didn't allow it. Battle merit was sufficient, cultivation was sufficient, but there were no positions—ten carrots and ten holes, deeply rooted and immovable. It wasn't that he didn't understand these social nuances; it was just that no one had pointed them out to him before. Now, Peak Master Su Hanyan had torn away the veil covering the fishery, letting him see the crisscrossing web of interests underneath. He thought for a moment and suddenly asked, "Then Peak Master, which one are you supporting?"

Peak Master Su Hanyan smiled. It wasn't the fleeting amusement from when she rolled her eyes earlier, but the satisfied and subtle smile of a Peak Master seeing her Disciple finally catch on. She pushed the empty teacup aside, her tone carrying a sense of natural frankness: "Of course it is the captain of Team 6. Otherwise, why would I have transferred you to Team 6?"

Lin Tian nodded and did not ask again. Everything connected—why he, a newcomer, could enter the Yunhai Fishery directly with Peak Master Su Hanyan's recommendation letter, why he happened to be assigned to Team 6, why Captain Ma took such good care of him as a newcomer, taught him the Divine Turtle Breathing Technique, helped him request merit from Field Master Zhou, and never ostracized or made things difficult for him. It wasn't that he was lucky, and it wasn't that he was likable; it was because he had been placed on Zixia Peak's territory from the very beginning. Team 6 was a field of Peak Master Su Hanyan's in the Yunhai Fishery, and he was a seedling she had planted with her own hands. Captain Ma was the one loosening the soil and watering him.

Seeing his expression of realization, Peak Master Su Hanyan knew there was no need to say more. She stood up, walked to Lin Tian, and raised her hand to pat his shoulder. The force of that pat was not heavy, but the weight of her palm landing was completely different from when she patted him on the Training Ground—back then, it was a Peak Master's routine formality toward a Disciple; now, it was a Master's earnest exhortation to her apprentice.

"Don't think about the captain position for now; it's useless to think about it. Cultivate with peace of mind. When you reach the Fifth Rank, I will see if there is an opportunity to get you the status of a deacon, or arrange for you to take up a post elsewhere. The Fifth Rank is a hurdle; once you cross that hurdle, many doors that are currently closed to you will open on their own."

After she finished speaking, she turned and walked toward the door. This time she did not pause, pulled open the bamboo door, and her purple-clad figure melted into the night. The sound of her footsteps gradually faded along the gravel path, swallowed by the lake breeze and the rustling of leaves. Lin Tian stood in the room, gazing at the bamboo door that had closed again, and went over everything Peak Master Su Hanyan had just said in his mind from beginning to end.

There was no hope for the captain position for now, but looking at it from another angle—it was less to worry about. Before, he was still thinking about his ranking in the battle merit register, worrying about whether to go find Field Master Zhou to recommend himself, but now he didn't need to do any of that. There was only one path: Cultivate and reach the Fifth Rank. The world after the Fifth Rank was much broader than that of a fish pond captain.

He dimmed the flame of the oil lamp, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and regulated his breathing. The Mind-Cultivation Technique of the Purple Qi Diagram began to circulate slowly, and the Internal Energy in his Dantian was as steady as a rock. Outside the bamboo house, the lake breeze blew from the surface of the water, causing the bamboo walls to emit a faint creaking sound, and occasionally, light sounds of fish leaping could be heard from the distant fish ponds.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. During this half month, Lin Tian spent almost all his time on Cultivation, and both the Dragon Roar Iron Shirt and the White Dragon in the Waves saw progress. Late at night on the fifteenth day, he was sitting cross-legged on a prayer mat circulating the Purple Qi Diagram when suddenly, a burst of dense drumbeats came from the direction of the bamboo building.

It was not the steady, rhythmic drumbeats used for roll call, but urgent drums—hasty, dense, like the sound of a rainstorm hitting roof tiles. Immediately afterward, roars rose one after another from the distance; it was not the roar of one type of Vicious Beast, but several mixed together: there were low, muffled roars, sharp hisses, and the sound of wind breaking as wings flapped.

"Vicious Beasts are attacking!" "Quick, quick, quick! Defend!" "Torches! Light the torches!"

Lin Tian leaped up from the prayer mat, grabbed the autumn water sword with his left hand and hung it at his waist, grabbed the cold moon bow and several quivers with his right hand, kicked open the bamboo door, and rushed out. He unleashed the Cloud Shadow Step with all his might in the night, his entire body stretching into a blurred afterimage as he dashed along the gravel path toward the direction of Team 6's fish pond. Guards swarmed out from the bamboo houses along the way; some were putting on armor while running, some still had half a piece of unfinished dry rations in their mouths, and some cursed in frustration when their scabbards got stuck on their belts while drawing their swords, only to yank them out with force.

By the time Lin Tian arrived at the bank of Team 6's fish pond, Captain Ma was already standing in his usual position. The scale and intensity of tonight's attack far exceeded any previous one—in the black mass of Vicious Beasts charging from across the lake shore, leading them were several massive Black-Armored Lizards, over a zhang in length, their entire bodies covered in dark, shiny scales, their thick limbs causing the gravel to jump with every step they took on the ground. Even more troublesome was the sky. Behind the Black-Armored Lizards, a flock of White Birds was diving down from above the mountain forest, their wingspans reaching five or six feet wide, their sharp, long beaks emitting an eerie, cold light under the moonlight. They flew extremely high and fast, tucking in their wings while diving, like white arrows shot down from the sky.

"Team 6, assemble!" Captain Ma drew his long saber, the blade glowing with a scorching red light in the firelight. "Defend Fish Pond No. 6! Don't let a single beast cross the defensive line!" The team members gripped their weapons and went to meet them, colliding fiercely with the Black-Armored Lizards charging at the front. Blades and swords slashed against the scales of the Black-Armored Lizards, clanging as they splashed sparks, leaving only shallow white marks. One team member was swept by a lizard's tail at the waist and flew sideways, hitting a rock on the bank with his back; he let out a muffled groan but gritted his teeth and stood back up.

The White Birds in the air arrived. They crossed the battle line in front, bypassed the group of guards on the bank, and swooped down from high up toward the surface of Fish Pond No. 6. Several archers drew their bows and fired simultaneously, but those White Birds were too fast, and they constantly changed their flight trajectories while diving. A dozen arrows flew past the tips of their wings, and not a single one hit. Seeing that several White Birds had already tucked their wings and plunged toward the water surface, Captain Ma's eyes turned red—the water was full of Treasure Fish, and one White Bird could snatch one away with a single dive. If this flock of feathered beasts got into the fish pond, most of the Treasure Fish that this pond had spent years working hard to raise would be ruined tonight. He stabbed his long saber into the ground and prepared to jump into the water, ready to fight those White Birds to the death underwater.

Chen Lang had already jumped in. He dove into the fish pond, holding a short blade in his hand, turned over in the water, and went to meet the nearest White Bird. But that White Bird was astonishingly agile in the water; with a fold and spread of its wings, it bypassed him, its long beak pecking fiercely at a silvery-white Treasure Fish in the net cage.

The bowstring sounded. It wasn't one sound, but three that merged into one. Three arrows flew out from the night on the shore, and before anyone could react, they had respectively pierced through the skulls of three White Birds. The arrowheads entered through the eye sockets of the birds' heads and exited from the back of the skulls, bringing out three fine mists of blood. The three White Birds didn't even struggle; their wings stiffened for an instant in the air, and then they plunged straight into the water like three shattered white stones. Splash, splash, splash, water sprayed up more than a person's height, drenching Chen Lang from head to toe.

The bank went quiet for an instant. Captain Ma turned his head sharply and saw Lin Tian standing under an old willow tree more than ten zhang away, the cold moon bow still held in a drawn position, the bowstring slightly vibrating, his right hand just pulling a new arrow from the quiver. His movements were unhurried, and the expression on his face was calm and plain, just like in countless battles in the past.

"Lin Tian! Well done!" Captain Ma roared out, his voice loud and bright, causing several team members who were fighting the lizards nearby to turn their heads to look. Lin Tian nocked the newly drawn arrow onto the bowstring, his voice passing through the night and steadily reaching Captain Ma's ears: "Captain, leave the air to me. I guarantee that I will not let any large bird get close to Fish Pond No. 6."

Captain Ma pulled out the long saber he had stabbed into the ground; the firelight on the blade illuminated a look of great satisfaction on his face. He pointed his saber toward the group of Black-Armored Lizards in front, his voice returning to the steadiness and Killing Intent a captain should have: "Good! The air is left to you! The rest of the brothers, follow me to stop these Black-Armored Lizards!" Having said that, he led his men forward, and the clash of blades and the earth-shaking shouts of battle erupted once again on the lake shore.