58: Chapter 58 Where Did the Fish Come From? A Blind Guess About the Cracks

Above the lake's surface, that dark brown Long-whiskered Monster Fish appeared exceptionally irritable. Its body was twice the size of those "trash fish" from before, with heavy scales and two fleshy whiskers by its mouth that lashed about like whips. When it slammed into the invisible barrier of the Bewitching Soul Array, it produced dull "thudding" sounds, causing ripples to spread across the Formation's light curtain.

"Whoa! It’s quite big, and its temper is even bigger!" Lin Cangchen stood by the shore, rubbing his chin as he observed it closely. "This aura... it definitely exceeds a normal First Grade, Low Rank. I reckon it's just one step away from the first-rank middle-grade."

He didn't dare to be careless. For those First Grade, Low Rank trash fish from before, he could resolve them with a casual Geng Metal Finger, but the one before him was clearly much thicker-skinned and tougher.

"Let's test the waters first!"

Lin Cangchen held his fingers together like a sword, and a condensed blast of golden finger wind shot out, aimed straight at the monster fish's relatively vulnerable eyes.

"Ssh!"

The monster fish reacted extremely quickly, jerking its head. The Geng Metal Finger struck its heavy side-face scales, leaving only a white mark and splashing a few sparks.

"Such strong defense?" Lin Cangchen raised an eyebrow, more delighted than surprised. "Good, good, good. This is getting interesting. Those ones before were too fragile!"

Having taken this hit, the monster fish became even more frenzied. It opened its large mouth, filled with fine, sharp teeth, and a stream of turbid water shot out like a cannonball. Even through the Formation's light curtain, one could feel the force of that impact.

"It can do ranged attacks too?" Lin Cangchen shifted his steps, performing the Wind Chasing Steps to easily dodge the direct impact of the water cannon. The water cannon hit the mud on the shore, instantly blasting a small pit.

"I can't face it head-on; I have to use my wits." Lin Cangchen's gaze sharpened. This monster fish had the advantage in strength and defense, but within the Bewitching Soul Array, its perception and movements were hindered. This was his chance.

He was no longer in a hurry to attack. Instead, he moved around the edge of the Bewitching Soul Array, occasionally casting the Green Vine Art. Several emerald-green vines emerged from beneath the water near the shore, attempting to entangle the monster fish. The monster fish possessed immense strength and snapped the vines in a few moves, but its actions became more sluggish as a result.

Meanwhile, Lin Cangchen's Geng Metal Finger was like a hidden arrow, specifically targeting relatively soft areas like the belly and gills exposed when the monster fish writhed. Although the damage from a single hit wasn't high, the frequency was fast and the angles were tricky.

For a time, water splashed, golden light flashed, and vines danced within the Formation. The monster fish roared repeatedly (if a fish could roar) from this "kiting" playstyle, yet it could never truly threaten Lin Cangchen outside the Formation.

"That's about enough!"

After fighting for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the monster fish was covered in wounds, and its movements had slowed down. Lin Cangchen saw an opportunity. The Spiritual Qi within his body surged, and a blast of golden finger wind, several times more solid than before, shot out like a venomous snake leaving its hole. It precisely pierced through the water curtain and instantly bored through the monster fish's relatively vulnerable gill area!

"Puchi!"

The monster fish's massive body suddenly stiffened. After a few violent struggles, it slowly sank, and dark red blood began to spread.

"Done!" Lin Cangchen breathed a long sigh of relief and wiped the thin sweat from his forehead. This battle had consumed quite a bit of energy, but it also made him more proficient in coordinating the use of several Spells.

He quickly hauled the monster fish's carcass onto the shore. The fish meat looked coarse and likely wouldn't taste good, but the scales and those two fleshy whiskers seemed like decent Artifact Refining Materials, so he put them away first.

Next was the exciting card-drawing phase!

"Great System, give me something good!" Lin Cangchen locked his intent onto the carcass and muttered in his heart.

A flash of light appeared, and a card with a white border landed in his hand. In the center of the card was not a physical pattern or an attribute rune, but a mass of constantly twisting and changing Chaos light and shadow.

[[Disordered Memory Fragment Card]]: Upon use, one can randomly obtain a small amount of disordered and illogical memory fragments from the target's life. The information value is extremely low, with a high probability of being useless.

"Memory fragments?" Lin Cangchen curled his lip. "This thing again." He had drawn it a few times before, and it was basically just boring scenes of Yao Beasts eating grass, fighting, or sleeping—completely useless.

However, thinking about how the Family's Secret Realm was discovered because a blurred image of Daoist Xuan Chen's Immortal Cave was seen in a Digging Rat's memory fragment, he still chose to use it with a "just in case" mindset.

In an instant, a large amount of chaotic, broken, and illogical images and information streams flooded into his mind.

Bone-chillingly cold, dark waters... a massive shadow emitting a terrifying aura passing overhead... the instinct to flee frantically... the suffocation of being entangled in water weeds... and finally, a strange sensation as if passing through a layer of viscous water membrane, followed by this unfamiliar shallow water that made it even more irritable...

The images were fragmented, mixed with strong primitive emotions like fear and hunger, making Lin Cangchen feel dizzy.

"Hiss... what on earth is all this..." He rubbed his temples, trying to extract useful information from this junk data.

"Wait!" He suddenly caught a key point. "Cold, dark waters? It's definitely not Emerald Chirp Lake! The water in Emerald Chirp Lake is warm and not that deep."

"That massive shadow... was it hunting it? Its aura was so strong. Although the memory is very blurred, I feel it's much stronger than this monster fish, but... it shouldn't be as ridiculous as the Foundation Establishment Stage. I'd guess it's around a first-tier high-grade Yao Beast?"

"That feeling of passing through a viscous water membrane at the end..." Lin Cangchen's eyes suddenly lit up. "Teleportation? Spatial fluctuations?"

Combining this with the countless web novels he had read in his previous life, a bold (and extremely unreliable) guess surged into his heart.

"Could it be... that beneath this Emerald Chirp Lake, there's a connection to a tiny, unstable spatial crack? And on the other side of the crack is some larger water body with abundant water-attribute Spiritual Qi? These Yao Beasts were all being hunted or accidentally passed through the crack and dropped over here?"

This thought made him excited.

"No wonder the Clan Chief couldn't find the reason! How could someone in the Qi Refining Stage possibly sense something like a spatial crack!"

"Moreover, only First Grade, Low Rank ones appeared before. This time, even this one, which is close to the first-rank middle-grade, had such a hard time coming through and was hunted half to death... Does this mean the crack is very unstable, or the passage is extremely narrow, and anything exceeding a certain limit—like the first-rank middle-grade peak or first-tier high-grade—can't pass through? That's why the big fellow hunting it didn't follow?"

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible (mainly because that's how it's written in novels).

"If it really is a spatial crack... does that mean there might be good things over there? Spiritual Plants? Ores? Or... more spiritual fish?" Lin Cangchen's mind became active, as if he saw the entrance to an undeveloped Treasure Trove dungeon.

Of course, he also knew that with spatial cracks, opportunities and dangers coexisted. Heaven knows if some "Big Boss" might drop through one day besides these "mobs."

"Well, for now, this 'dungeon entrance' is low-level, with a stable drop rate—referring to the grinding mobs and occasional spiritual fish—so it's safe for the time being." Lin Cangchen rubbed his chin and concluded his "wild guess." "I'll keep observing. Once my strength is a bit greater and my Formation skills are higher, maybe I can find a way to study this crack..."

He buried this bold (and unverified) guess deep in his heart, deciding not to report it to the Clan Chief for now. Firstly, there was insufficient evidence, as it was all based on guesswork; secondly, explaining it would be too troublesome. Was he supposed to say, "Clan Chief, I guessed there's a spatial crack at the bottom of our lake based on a fish's memory"?

The Clan Chief would probably think he had damaged his brain through Cultivation.

"Anyway, with the Bewitching Soul Array here, any Yao Beasts that come through will be trapped inside and won't threaten the Silver Thread Carp or me." Lin Cangchen glanced at the lake surface, which had returned to calm, and the thirteen Silver Thread Carp that were still leisurely and oblivious to everything, and his mood became relaxed again.

"I'll just treat it as a stable source of experience points and Materials! Yeah, from now on, please call this place—the Emerald Chirp Lake Random Teleportation (low-tier Yao Beast Only) Receiving Point!"

He gave the area he was responsible for a new name, then patted his rear and turned toward the spiritual fields to continue his daily Spirit Rain Art practice and Formation research.

As for whether there really was a crack at the bottom of the lake, or whether the other side held fortune or woe, that was something for the future Great Lin to worry about. The current Little Cangchen just wanted to farm well, Cultivate steadily, and collect some "tolls" along the way.