216: Chapter 216 The Second Treasure Fish

Less than half an hour after Lin Tian returned to the Yunhai Fishery, the assembly drum in the main hall of the bamboo building began to beat.

The sound of the drum was deep and urgent, sending ripples across the lake. The Elders of each fish pond put down their work and hurried to the bamboo building from all directions.

When Lin Tian stepped into the main hall, Field Master Zhou was already standing behind a long table. An urgent military map was spread out before him, and his expression was more solemn than ever.

"Everyone is here." Field Master Zhou did not engage in any small talk and went straight to the point, "You have all heard about the Martial King treasure vault—it was a trap set by the Demonic Sect.

Hundreds of Martial Artists were buried within it, the Mu Family of Qingshan City suffered heavy losses, and the Black Snake Chen Family has already defected to the Demonic Sect.

The Sect Master sent a message last night. The Qixia Sect has formed a coalition with the Iron Sword Sect, the Zhao Family, the Li Family, and the Wanbao Chamber of Commerce, and is about to launch a head-on battle against the Demonic Sect along the Qingshan City line."

He paused, a glint of sharpness flashing in his eyes, which had been weathered by the lake winds for decades,

"With the great war imminent, Treasure Fish are the lives of the soldiers on the front lines.

The wounded rely on Treasure Fish to sustain their lives, and those exhausted rely on Treasure Fish to restore their Internal Energy.

From today on, all production tasks at the Yunhai Fishery will be reallocated for wartime—each pond Elder must Cultivate as many Treasure Fish as possible in the shortest amount of time to ensure supply to the front lines. There must be no mistakes."

The Elders acknowledged the order in unison and dispersed with hurried steps. Lin Tian returned to his courtyard, sat under an oil lamp, and opened the 《Wartime Treasure Fish Allocation Manual》 that Field Master Zhou had distributed to every Elder.

Upon flipping through it, he gained a more complete understanding of the world of Treasure Fish.

This manual had never been seen before when he was learning Breeding Technique from Elder Wang. It classified Treasure Fish into several major categories based on their use:

Cultivate-type Treasure Fish are rich in spiritual power and suitable for daily assistance in cultivation Breakthroughs; the Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish belongs to this category.

Recovery-type Treasure Fish are pale green all over, and their scales contain natural wood-element healing factors, which can accelerate wound healing and replenish the loss of Qi and blood after blood loss.

They are the most precious mobile supplies on the battlefield.

In addition, there are auxiliary-type Treasure Fish that can enhance a Martial Artist's specific abilities for a short period.

At the very end of the manual, there was a line of small text: There are also rare Treasure Fish that can assist in tempering Mental Energy, but the yield is extremely low, and it is not permitted to be viewed without Elder-level authorization.

Lin Tian's gaze lingered for a long time on the entry for "Recovery-type Treasure Fish — Green Fish."

He had previously only known that Treasure Fish could improve cultivation, but he did not know there were such varieties specifically used for healing and saving lives.

No wonder that young man in the black market was willing to trade the Breeding Technique method for thirty Treasure Fish; he was likely in a hurry to save someone.

Thinking about it now, the value of Treasure Fish is far from just assisting in cultivation; its true strategic significance is only fully exposed in war.

The actions of the Yunhai Fishery were faster than Lin Tian had expected.

The next morning, Field Master Zhou personally led people to mark out three new dedicated fish ponds to the east of the lake, drawing the most experienced breeding Disciples from each pond to specialize in cultivating Green Fish.

Lin Tian was assigned to be responsible for the largest pond among them, with five skilled Disciples assigned to him.

Elder Wang personally delivered the first batch of Green Fish fry—these fry were only the length of a small finger, pale green throughout, with scales so thin they were almost transparent, flicking their tails uneasily in the wooden basin.

Their cultivation method was completely different from that of the Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish; they did not need to be raised for years, and could be used as medicine directly at the fry stage.

The great war, as expected, entered a white-hot stage from the very beginning.

The coalition and the Demonic Sect broke out in the first large-scale encounter at Duanlong Gorge, eighty miles outside Qingshan City, and the fighting lasted for an entire day and night.

Frontline battle reports flew back to the Qixia Sect like snowflakes and were then forwarded by the Sect to the Yunhai Fishery—every day, dozens of coalition wounded were sent back from the front.

After the first batch of Green Fish was sent to the Qingshan City military camp by designated personnel day and night, the feedback came back quickly:

The Green Fish fluid had a remarkable effect on injuries below the Hua Jin level, the recovery speed of the wounded was greatly improved, and the morale of the coalition was boosted.

Sect Master Dugu Yun personally approved an order to commend the Yunhai Fishery. Field Master Zhou posted the order on the bulletin board of the bamboo building and immediately increased the task quota for each pond by twenty percent.

A month passed in a blink of an eye amidst tense cultivation and allocation. After the bloody battle at Duanlong Gorge, the Demonic Sect retreated to several strongholds west of Qingshan City.

Forces such as the Iron Sword Sect and the Li Family successively invested more troops, and the coalition formed an encirclement of the Demonic Sect. The pressure on the Qixia Sect side was much less, and the Green Fish production capacity of the Yunhai Fishery gradually kept up with the consumption rate. Lin Tian and the other Elders finally had a chance to breathe.

Today was the day for distributing the Elder's stipend.

Lin Tian came to the warehouse. The deacon in charge of distribution brought the wooden basin of four Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish to him as usual, but he raised his hand to stop him: "Exchange this month's stipend for Green Fish."

The deacon was stunned for a moment, thinking he had misheard—the Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish is a cultivation resource, and its value is far higher than that of the Green Fish. No Elder had ever voluntarily exchanged Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish for Green Fish.

He specifically explained, saying that although Elder Lin said that Green Fish are now being vigorously cultivated, the Treasure Fish distributed to Elders are still the ones used for cultivation previously.

Lin Tian nodded and said, "I understand, but I still want four Green Fish, just in case."

Lin Tian's expression was normal, and the deacon did not find it appropriate to question the Elder's decision, so he exchanged the four Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish for four Green Fish.

Lin Tian carried the wooden basin back to his courtyard, but did not stew the fish for soup as usual.

He had a use for these four Green Fish; he planned to Cultivate Green Fish next and get more Green Fish fry.

He put the four Green Fish into prepared glass fish tanks, adjusted the water quality with Breeding Technique, and hurried to his private fish pond under the cover of night.

The water origin tree at the bottom of the lake was still emitting a pale green fluorescence, and more than a dozen Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish were swimming under the canopy.

He placed the four Green Fish into a small, separate body of water that had already been partitioned off with reefs, then extended his index finger. Four spiritual threads probed out simultaneously, piercing into the bodies of the four Green Fish, giving the simplest instruction: Stay in this water area and reproduce.

After doing all this, he squatted on the reef, took out the Green Fish cultivation points he had copied from Field Master Zhou from his sleeve, and read it again by the light of the water origin tree.

Although the war on the Qixia Sect's side was temporarily deadlocked, the situation in other directions was not optimistic.

Battle reports from the front line said that the Demonic Sect did not know what means they used to awaken an extremely terrifying Demonic Beast from the depths of the ancient ruins, and several teams of the coalition suffered heavy losses under the claws of the Demonic Beast.

The number of wounded from various Families and Schools had been increasing, and the gap in the demand for Green Fish was huge.

Wanbao Pavilion had previously been willing to spend a lot of money to acquire Treasure Fish, and now in wartime, the demand for Green Fish would only be more urgent.

Once this batch of Green Fish was bred, it could just be sold to those forces in urgent need of healing resources, which would not only recover funds but also allow him to purchase another batch of Materials for breeding fish bait.