Chapter 1740: Fishing

The pool was not very deep, only about ten meters, and below it was the seal. If nothing unexpected happened, entering from here would lead to the next world.

Zhang Xuan did not advance but swam around instead.

After a full circle, he found nothing—no life, not even ores. The water was as clean as purified water.

"Could I have guessed wrong? Is there no formation core here? Or... has someone else beaten me to it?"

He frowned.

"No, if the formation core had been taken, the poison gas wouldn't be so evenly distributed; it would have long been chaotic..."

In the desert world, after the tree root was removed, the desert vanished. In the jungle world, after the five kings left, though the outcome was unknown, without their control, the many sacred beasts would no longer follow the rules as before...

The same applied here. The poison gas was evenly distributed, and the pool had a strong detoxifying ability, indicating that the formation core had not been damaged.

"Eye of Insight!"

Patterns swirled in his eyes as he scanned the pool, and sure enough, he sensed something amiss.

The detoxifying substance in the water seemed to be gradually decreasing.

He flew out of the pool, waited for a moment, and looked again. The detoxifying ability had already recovered.

"Teacher, have you found it?"

Zhao Ya approached.

"No, but I should have guessed what the formation core is. Go break off a bamboo pole for me!" Zhang Xuan smiled and instructed.

Zhao Ya turned and left. Before long, she returned with a bamboo pole.

Taking the pole, he gently shook it, and all the branches fell off cleanly. His true energy turned into a fine thread, extending from the front of the pole. He flicked it forward, and the true energy gathered at the tip, resembling a delicious bait.

"This is... a fishing rod? Teacher wants to fish?"

Zhao Ya was stunned.

The teacher had actually made a fishing rod from a bamboo pole and true energy, intending to fish.

"Yes. 'The Master fished with a line but not with a net; he shot but not at birds at rest.' If I'm not mistaken, the formation core can only be caught by fishing; other methods are useless!"

Zhang Xuan smiled.

He had read many books about Confucius before. One of them mentioned, 'The Master fished with a line but not with a net; he shot but not at birds at rest.' It meant that Confucius used a fishing rod to fish, not a net, and hunted with a bow but never shot at resting birds or beasts.

He had thought it was a display of Confucius's benevolence, but now he understood that 'fished with a line but not with a net' meant that the formation core inside could not be caught with a net or by hand. The only way to obtain it was... angling!

Placing the poison insect in the water, Zhang Xuan sat down quietly.

Fishing could temper the mind, making one abandon arrogance and impatience, and better attune to nature.

Even ordinary people, when fishing, could merge with heaven and earth, becoming as still as a painting, let alone someone of his cultivation level.

The fine thread formed by true energy drifted with the water waves. Zhang Xuan suddenly felt that this poison gas world was not as terrifying as imagined; instead, it gave a sense of reality and naturalness.

In ancient times, with abundant spiritual energy and untrodden old forests, poisonous insects and miasma were everywhere, much like this world.

In other words, this was not a poison gas world but an ancient deep mountain forest that had persisted for countless years.

Here, one could find the true essence of nature.

When breaking through to Great Sage, the cultivation technique he practiced slowly rotated within him, and his entire being became like a rock, a tree, a grain of sand... perfectly merging with nature.

His state of mind slowly grew in the stillness.

29.91!

29.92!

...

Splash!

Just as Zhang Xuan was immersed, the water before him suddenly rippled, and then a voice sounded.

"Teacher, a fish is on the hook!"

Zhang Xuan looked down and saw a bright red koi hanging on the true energy thread, thrashing wildly, splashing water everywhere.

"What a pity!"

The fish taking the hook had pulled him out of that special state.

Otherwise, he might have directly charged toward the 30.0 of the Ancient Sage, first reaching the state of mind of an Ancient Sage!

Whoosh!

Lowering his wrist, he gently flicked, and the koi was lifted out of the water.

Whoosh!

Once out of the water, the fish flopped on the ground a couple of times, its mouth opening and closing rapidly as if gasping for air, unable to bear it. Then it rolled over twice, its eyes wide open, and stopped breathing.

"Teacher, the fish is dead..." Zhao Ya said with some urgency.

Wasn't this the formation core?

Why did it die as soon as it was caught?

Could it be that he had caught the wrong thing?

"Alright!"

Zhang Xuan found it both funny and annoying. He kicked the fish, making it roll a few times, and at the same time flicked his finger, a ball of pitch-black flame mixed with lightning swirling at his fingertip: "Just go through the motions. What, do you want to be braised?"

"Ahem, ahem!" The koi on the ground flipped over, standing on its tail: "Sorry, old habit, old habit! Haven't been on land for so long, and as soon as I came ashore, I felt like I couldn't breathe, thought I was dead..."

"..."

Zhao Ya's face twitched.

A fish jumping up and talking...

And how come this fish seemed so unreliable?

"This guy is at the Immortal Realm Great Perfection. Even if thrown into a pot, it wouldn't be cooked to death!" Zhang Xuan explained.

Startled, Zhao Ya looked over with confusion: "Since it has such strength, how was it caught?"

With strength like hers, it already had extremely advanced intelligence. Being caught with an ordinary fishing rod... how could this be so unbelievable?

"Well... no help for it, it's a habit. Back then, Confucius came to fish for me. Every time he caught me, he would release me, and then I would come back to be caught again, repeating over and over... Normally, I'd be caught dozens of times a day. Habit, habit!"

The koi's mouth opened and closed as it continued.

"..." Zhao Ya's face twitched.

With such strength, being caught every day... and enjoying it endlessly, aren't you tired...

And more importantly, Confucius fishing for the same fish every day... he really had too much free time.

"Don't listen to its nonsense. If I'm not mistaken, Confucius, like me, used true energy as the line... What you wanted to devour was not just the bait, but also the line!" Seeing his student couldn't understand, Zhang Xuan smiled and looked at the koi.

"Well... all are fleeting clouds!" Wriggling its body, the koi looked a bit embarrassed.

"So that's it!"

Zhao Ya suddenly understood.

No wonder an ordinary fish could cultivate to the Immortal Realm Great Perfection—it had been constantly devouring Confucius's true energy.

Such a good thing naturally couldn't be given to other fish.

"I was hiding so well just now. How did you discover me?"

The koi looked at Zhang Xuan with doubt.

Its concealment method was hard to see through even with the Eye of Insight. Several groups of people had come before and hadn't found it, but this person used angling to make it 'itch unbearably,' forcing it to bite the line and be caught.

"The detoxifying aura you left underwater was similar to my true energy, so I guessed it," Zhang Xuan nodded. "This aura should be unique to Confucius, right?"