Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 125: Where Did the Boat Go?

The four steamed buns were most likely handmade by Old Man Chen’s family. There was quite a substantial amount of filling, though the vegetable dumplings were a bit salty.

After he had finished eating, Ji Yuan rolled the dried lotus leaves into a ball and tossed them into the grass on the shore, leaving them to decompose in nature. He left the twine in the boat to return to Old Man Chen next time he saw him.

He took a sip of wine and looked at the green fishing rod beside him. It seemed that the conditions today were not suitable for fishing.

A while after he had finished eating the dumplings, several large fish swam across the bottom of the river. Although their dark silhouettes did not look as distinctive as that of the flood dragon, they were still notably bigger than the awning boat beneath him.

Ji Yuan looked towards the south. So many aquatic creatures were heading in that direction; something big must have happened somewhere down the Tongtian River. However, the passing creatures did not seem to be in a hurry, so it was most likely not an emergency nor too big of an event.

In any case, this matter likely wouldn’t affect the mortals around the Tongtian River, let alone affect Ji Yuan. It would be related to a gathering place of water monsters; no matter how curious he was, it was better not to delve too deeply into it.

Before he realized, the weather had grown colder.

A couple days later, Ji Yuan reluctantly lifted his fishing rod and helplessly looked at the intact fishing bait. The fish basket next to him was still empty.

“Alas… There’s no way to catch these fish!”

It had been a few days, and he still couldn’t catch any fish in this period of time. Presumably, the other fishermen along the Tongtian River had also been having a hard time these days. However, in the end, it wasn’t fishing season at the moment, so it wasn’t likely for many fishermen to be out on their boats.

It was just that Mr. Ji really wanted to eat fish soup; he had recently asked Old Man Chen to buy him some fresh fish, but he wasn’t able to find any.

Every once in a while, an aquatic monster would swim by his boat. Ji Yuan counted and found that dozens of them had passed by ever since it had been brought to his attention.

There were not that many monsters in the whole of Dazhen, let alone monsters with high cultivation, so Ji Yuan suspected that many of these underwater monsters had come from outside of the country.

‘It’s not yet the New Year, and it’s not like this kind of gathering is popular among underwater denizens, right?’

Just as he was having these thoughts, the sound of carriage wheels and horse hooves came from a distance along the shore. Ji Yuan looked back towards the riverbank, following the sound, and found a fleet of horse-drawn carriages coming towards him from the other end of the road.

Ji Yuan watched as the carriages approached. He could feel a scholarly aura from several of the carriages. They were most likely the candidates coming to the capital to take the imperial examinations. Their qualifications were most likely not low. Judging from the current situation, it was likely that they came from wealthy families, too.

At this moment, snowflakes began to fall from the sky, and Ji Yuan’s attention was drawn to the beauty of the sight that seemed to descended from the heavens.

After all, this was the first snow of the year, and the first snow that Ji Yuan had truly experienced in this lifetime.

He stretched out a hand to catch a snowflake, and it immediately melted in the warmth of his palm. He picked up the wine jug beside him and pulled out the stopper. With a childish, innocent joy, Ji Yuan used the mouth of the wine bottle to catch the snowflakes falling all around him.

The carriages passed by along the roadside. One scholar lifted the curtain of the carriage window and looked towards the river. He saw the vast river surface with snow falling from the sky, and a single fisherman in a straw raincoat and bamboo hat in his solitary boat.

“In the end, this is indeed the land that lies right beneath the Emperor’s feet; the scenery is beautiful, and the atmosphere is even more profound!”

“Haha… Brother Shi seems to be in good spirits. Meanwhile, I’m almost freezing to death!”

Another scholar next to him wrapped a blanket tighter around himself, holding a charcoal-fire brazier¹ in his hands.

In the midst of the people in carriages and riding horses, a large man in a plush coat rode out from the group and approached the shore, shouting at Ji Yuan.

“Boatman, do you know how much further to the Zhuangyuan Ferry?”

Hearing the other party calling out to him, Ji Yuan put down the wine jug and turned to face them, shouting an answer back.

“Go south along the river, it’s only another ten li or so!”

The man astride the horse bowed in the direction of the awning boat and led his horse back to the group

As he saw how comfortable this traveling group was with one another, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but wonder about his good friend Master Yin.

The Yin family was not wealthy, but they were not particularly poor, either. They probably had enough money to charter a carriage in this freezing cold weather. Besides, Ning’an County was blessed with good fortune recently, so they county would surely provide assistance.

Ji Yuan watched the convoy leave and took another sip of his freshly-brewed snowy wine. Subconsciously, he couldn’t help but feel that the wine tasted even better.

At the same time, in his inner world, Ji Yuan used his mind to draw wisps of energy from the alchemy furnace and channel them into the chess pieces. He did this once every three days.

Currently, the most solid chess piece was still Lu Shan Jun’s black piece, but Ji Yuan estimated that Lu Shan Jun would have to make significant progress in his cultivation and successfully achieve a transformation for the black piece it to fully solidify.

However, attaining a human form was one of the biggest challenges for a cultivating monster, and could not be accomplished overnight. Even with Ji Yuan “feeding” his chess pieces from time to time, it was still unclear how long it would take.

On the other side, compared to Ji Yuan’s current state of relaxed calm, the two heads of the Tongtian River’s underwater palace were not in a good state of mind.

The River Goddess Ying Ruoli sat in the main hall, watching the aquatic creatures begin to decorate for the banquet. Some had brought corals from the seafloor as decoration. The River Goddess, though she seemed indifferent on the surface, was actually extremely anxious.

After some time, the figure of a dragon entered the grounds River God Palace and transformed into a man in intricate brocade clothes in front of the door. It was her brother, Ying Feng.

Seeing Ying Feng walk in, Ying Ruoli hurriedly stood up.

“How did it go?”

Ying Feng shook his head.

“I still can’t find him…”

Having spoken, Ying Feng walked closer, glanced around, and whispered in a sneaky voice:

“That suggestion you made last time…maybe we really need to think about using it…”

After he had finished speaking, the brother and sister looked at each other helplessly. It was rare for the dignified River Goddess of the Tongtian River and the dignified Dragon’s Son to be forced into this state.

Suddenly, the brother and sister, who had been frowning just moments before, froze in shock. They immediately looked towards the north with joy on their faces.

​​…

On the bank of the Tongtian River, a strong man in a cloak added charcoal to the brazier of the young man in the carriage that had just passed by Ji Yuan not too long ago. He then quickly mounted his horse and returned to his position in the procession once more.

However, he inadvertently turned his head and looked behind him, and found to find a man in gorgeous clothes standing on the riverbank next to the small boat, just a couple dozen chi away.

“Strange, was this person there before?”

His companion heard his doubts and also turned to look.

“We just passed by there, maybe we just didn’t see him before now…”

However, the two of them didn’t think too much about it. Perhaps they simply hadn’t noticed him arriving from some other direction.

On the other side, Ji Yuan was still drinking, but suddenly he froze. When he put down the wine jug, he found that there was a person standing by the river.

It was still that same round-collared long gown beneath an open-front outer robe. It was the Old Dragon Ying Hong.

“Hahaha…Mr. Ji still has the same preferences. You still wear a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, traveling on an awning boat, drinking alone while watching the snow fall on the river!”

Ji Yuan hurriedly stood up and bowed to the old man.

“Mr. Ying turned out to be here. No wonder I wasn’t able to visit you at your home!”²

The Old Dragon also bowed to Ji Yuan in return with a hearty laugh.

“Hahahaha… If you had known that I wasn’t home, you wouldn’t even have come to visit. I thought you would be absent from this event, but you’ve been waiting for me here. What gifts did you prepare? “

Gifts? What gifts?

Ji Yuan was a little confused, but before he could ask awkwardly, the Old Dragon waved it away with a smile.

“It’s just a joke. Mr. Ji has come all this way to celebrate the birthday of a small water monster like me, it’s already a great honor. Come on, follow me to the Tongtian River’s Palace!”

His birthday?

Ji Yuan’s first reaction was that it was no wonder that so many aquatic monsters were passing through, if it turned out that it was a true dragon’s birthday banquet. If that was the case, then the numbers of underwater creatures passing through was in fact relatively small. To participate in a true dragon’s birthday banquet, they would be given some leeway and pass through unhindered even if they crossed through the jurisdiction of various gods.

But… did Mr. Ying invite him to attend his birthday banquet?

‘Oh dear. Is he trying to lead me straight into a monster den? ’

He imagined that scene in his mind The picture painted by his imagination was a little too vivid.

“Uh, Mr. Ying, why don’t we have a drink on this boat? I would like to congratulate you on your birthday in advance. As for going underwater… Is it inconvenient for a cultivator like me? Besides, this awning boat was rented, so it wouldn’t be good to leave it here…”

Ying Hong had been looking for Ji Yuan for more than three years, and had become a little depressed by the end. He would not give Ji Yuan any chance to make excuses.

“Hahaha… you’re worrying too much, sir. They are all wine lovers and good people. You simply must go and taste the fine wine collected by our four underwater tribes. As for this small boat, there’s no need to worry!”

Upon finishing his sentence, the Old Dragon jumped directly into the boat. He waved his hand and the boat shook, then sank directly into the surface of the water.

“Splash…” The sound of waves crashing rose.

Ji Yuan almost fell down, but by the time he reacted, the black awning boat had already sunk into the water and was heading southwards, floating along the riverbed.

​​…

In the carriage procession a little further ahead, the man felt that something was strange. Having walked some distance away from their original spot by the river, he looked back.

However, when he turned around, he was stunned and hurriedly rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, the section of the river where he had stopped to ask for directions was empty. He couldn’t see anything more in any other direction on the river either.

‘Where did the boat go? ’

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T/n:

JY: Ahahaha, that’s nice, happy birthday, I don’t wanna be in the middle of a bunch of monsters so I’m gonna just dip-

Yin Hong: Nope. Nu-uh. No way. I didn’t stalk you for 3 years just for this. *yeets him into river*

JY: ah the consequences of pretending to be a god

1. 炭 (tàn): wood charcoal, 火 (huǒ): fire, 暖炉 (nuǎnlú): space heater/radiator. I highly doubt Ancient China had space heaters, so I translated it to “brazier” or something similar to the portable fire starting sticks.
2. The meaning is unclear, but I think it’s referring to the fact that he visited the River God Temple (despite Ying Hong not being the Tongtian River God, it’s still his daughter)