217: Chapter 217 Ten Thousand Gold

Lin Tian scooped ten Green Fish from his private fishpond. Each one had flawless scales, with a pale cyan fluorescence rippling through the water, their quality even slightly better than those mass-produced at the Yunhai Fishery.

As usual, he changed into that gray robe, donned a bamboo hat to conceal his face, and entered Yunzhou Prefecture under the cover of night.

When the waiter at Wanbao Pavilion saw Lin Tian arrive, he asked, "This customer, what would you like to buy?"

Lin Tian replied, "I am not here to buy anything. I want to sell some items."

The waiter asked again, "Then what are you selling?"

Lin Tian did not say, but instead replied, "Call your Elder here."

Seeing that the other party was mysterious and confident, the waiter dared not be careless and hurriedly went to call the Elder.

Before long, the Elder arrived. A white-haired old man smiled and said, "I am an Elder of Wanbao Pavilion, Elder Wan. May I ask how to address Your Excellency?"

"My name is Old Yu."

"So it is Brother Yu. I wonder what Brother Yu wishes to sell that is so mysterious?"

Lin Tian said, "The item is very important. I need a quiet place."

Elder Wan said, "Then please, come this way."

He brought Lin Tian to the second floor and entered a private room.

After closing the door, Elder Wan sat down, poured a pot of tea for Lin Tian, and then said, "Alright, now you can tell me."

Lin Tian said, "What I am selling is Treasure Fish, specifically Green Fish among the Treasure Fish."

Upon hearing this, Elder Wan exclaimed in surprise, stood up abruptly, and said, "Green Fish? Are you certain?"

"You must know that many Families and Schools are currently at war with the Demonic Cult and have suffered heavy losses. What they need most right now is Green Fish."

"It can be said that Green Fish are absolutely in short supply right now; they are extremely precious!"

"It is just that some large Schools keep their Green Fish for themselves and do not supply the outside. Therefore, people from smaller Families and Schools are searching for Green Fish like the wind."

Their Wanbao Pavilion also had some Green Fish, but the quantity was not large. He had not expected the other party to bring out Green Fish now. This was a good thing, so he hurriedly asked, "How many? Let me see."

"There are ten."

Lin Tian took out a fish tank and placed it on the table. Inside, there were indeed ten Green Fish. The ten Green Fish were not large, but they were very lively.

Elder Wan examined them and became extremely excited. "That's right, it is indeed Green Fish."

"Are you selling all ten of these?"

Lin Tian nodded and said, "That's right."

"You name a price."

Elder Wan said, "These Green Fish of yours are still a bit small. How about this: I will offer 30,000 for the ten Green Fish. How does that sound?"

Lin Tian calculated in his heart and found it was about what he expected, so he nodded and said, "Deal."

Afterward, Lin Tian took the 30,000 and left. He went to other places to buy some Materials, then returned to continue cultivating Treasure Fish.

Just like that, from then on, he would come to sell ten Green Fish every once in a while.

This time, Lin Tian came again. It was another ten Green Fish, and their quality was still impeccable. After inspecting the goods, Elder Wan decisively slapped down 30,000 taels in silver notes.

Lin Tian took the silver notes, counted them once, turned around, and left, as clean and crisp as the previous three times.

After leaving Wanbao Pavilion, he did not return directly to the fishery. Instead, following his old routine, he purchased Materials from several different shops in the market of Yunzhou Prefecture.

Bone powder, dried meat scraps, spirit grain powder, several herbs specially needed for cultivating Green Fish, and raw Materials for Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish feed—he stuffed them into a large bag, filling it to the brim.

Returning to his private fishpond, he divided the newly bought Materials into two piles—one for making recovery-type fish bait according to the Green Fish recipe, and the other for making cultivation-type fish bait according to the Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish recipe. He fed the two fishponds separately, each minding its own business.

Two months slipped by quietly in the day-to-day routine of cultivation and breeding.

He visited Wanbao Pavilion two more times, bringing ten Green Fish each time and exchanging them for over 30,000 taels of silver notes each time.

This sum of money would be considered a windfall for any Fifth-Grade Martial Artist. But Lin Tian immediately poured all the silver into Materials.

He bought bone powder, medicinal herbs, spirit grain powder, and everything that could make the Treasure Fish grow faster and better.

As for the Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish, he was no longer as reluctant to eat them as before. Once the small fry grew to the size of a palm, he would scoop them up to make soup, eating one every few days.

Over the course of two months, with dozens of Silver-Scaled Treasure Fish consumed, the Transformation Energy in his Dantian became increasingly thick and powerful under the nourishment of this endless stream of spiritual power.

Finally, one morning, while he was sitting cross-legged in the bamboo house circulating the Purple Qi Diagram, a muffled "hum" sounded in his Dantian.

The Transformation Energy expanded another circle outward from the center of his Qi Sea, and the Transformation Energy in his Meridians was nearly twice as thick as before.

Fifth-Grade Middle Stage.

He opened his eyes and called up the proficiency panel to take a glance. His cultivation had firmly stabilized at the Fifth-Grade Middle Stage.

Through day-after-day of tempering, the Wanling Seal had advanced from Proficiency to the Major Achievement Realm, and his Mental Energy was significantly stronger than before.

He extended his index finger; the speck of pale cyan Transformation Energy on his fingertip was slightly more solidified than before.

Closing the panel, he took the Breeding Technique booklet from under the bed and turned to the chapter on Green Fish.

The Breeding Technique at the Minor Achievement Realm still needed to be improved further to raise the quality of the Green Fish by another level.

On another trip to Wanbao Pavilion, Lin Tian brought over a dozen of the best-quality Green Fish.

Just as he stepped into the main entrance of Wanbao Pavilion, the Wanling Seal in his Sea of Consciousness vibrated slightly.

A gaze rested on him for a moment and then quickly moved away.

It was not the casual scrutiny of an ordinary customer, but a trained, deliberately feigned inadvertent observation.

He swept his gaze calmly across the room; a waiter in the corner of the lobby, who was organizing shelves, lowered his head.

At the entrance to the second-floor staircase, another middle-aged man who looked like an accountant happened to turn away.

He withdrew his gaze, remained calm, entered the VIP room as usual, and completed the transaction with Elder Wan as usual.

Elder Wan still politely escorted him to the staircase, his smile exactly the same as the previous three times.

But after Lin Tian walked out of Wanbao Pavilion, the feeling of being watched not only did not disappear, but instead became clearer and clearer.

While passing through the market, two gazes remained glued to his back. When he turned into an alley, a vendor selling roasted chestnuts appeared at the alley entrance—he had never seen one there before when he came.

When exiting the city gate, a man wearing a gray cloth jacket just happened to be walking out as well, heading in the exact same direction as him. Lin Tian lowered his bamboo hat and quickened his pace after exiting the gate of Yunzhou Prefecture.

He did not take the main road but turned directly into the dense forest on the outskirts of the Taixuan Mountain Range.

After entering the forest, he did not head in the direction of the Yunhai Fishery, but instead followed the ridgeline westward, specifically choosing the most difficult paths to traverse.

Beneath his feet, the Cloud Shadow Step silently swept over tree roots and gravel, his figure appearing and disappearing amidst the shadows of the trees.

The three auras behind him were no longer concealed.

A flurry of dense footsteps chased from behind, making the fallen leaves rustle.

Three figures simultaneously lunged out from the treetops, from behind the bushes, and from the mountain path behind him, blocking him in a triangular formation in front of a cliff.

The three men were all dressed in plain clothes, but the weapons hanging at their waists were of a uniform style, and their auras were all uniformly at the Fifth-Grade Transformation Realm. The leader was a middle-aged man with a square face and short beard, his arms extremely long and his knuckles thick—evidently an expert in fist and palm techniques.

On the left was a Tall Thin Man with two short blades tucked at his waist; on the right was a short, stout man carrying a refined iron long staff on his shoulder.

The square-faced middle-aged man looked at Lin Tian's stopped back and spoke slowly, his tone firm and cold: "My friend, you have been selling so many Treasure Fish to Wanbao Pavilion several times in a row. I'm afraid you are an inside thief from some fishery, right?"

"We won't make things difficult for you—come back with us, explain the source of the Treasure Fish clearly, and perhaps the Pavilion Master will give you a way to live."

"If you are unappreciative, there is no one passing by here anyway, so burying you right here on the spot is just the same."