Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 71: Unintentional Timing

Ji Yuan finished a joke and looked at the two children who had come over. Yes, he had seen them clearly in his vision.

The two of them were dressed in clean, light blue robes without any speck of dust. Even their exposed boots were spotless, and their faces were clean.

They had come from the mountain road, and it was already dark. Would two ordinary kids dare to run into the mountains at this time? Not to mention coming to this kind of deep pool that was terrifying just to look at?

After looking behind him, he confirmed that there were no adults around. The probability that these two children were ordinary people was greatly reduced, but there was no demonic nor yin energy in their bodies…

‘The Mountain God? Or maybe this is the first time I am meeting real immortal cultivators after having been in this world for so long? ’

Ji Yuan’s heart was slightly moved, but he didn’t seem to be as excited as he imagined he would be before. He pretended to turn back and continue reading, but he was very curious about the specific backgrounds of the visitors.

Although Ji Yuan was calm and composed, the two children couldn’t bear it any longer. The boy said:

“Hey, fisherman, when are you going to leave? You won’t catch any fish anyway.”

The girl immediately added a sentence:

“It’s getting dark, aren’t you afraid of wild animals in the mountains?”

From the perspective of ordinary people, it was actually quite interesting for the two children to ask this question.

Ji Yuan turned to look at them again.

“It’s getting dark, you two children are still wandering deep in the mountains. Aren’t you afraid that your family will worry about you, or that wild beasts will eat you?”

“We are not afraid!”

“Yes! We are not afraid!”

As if to make her statement more convincing, the girl added another sentence.

“Don’t look down on us because we’re small. We have high martial arts skills!”

Ji Yuan smiled and nodded in agreement.

“I see. My apologies. But I am not afraid. I also have high martial arts skills!”

After saying this, Ji Yuan turned his head back to his book. Either way, he had no intention of moving.

Judging from their brief exchange, it seemed that these two children were really the same age that they appeared. They were not people who looked like children while in reality being eighty to one hundred years old.

“Hmph, you won’t catch any fish even if you fish all night long!”

As soon as the boy finished saying this, Ji Yuan’s expression suddenly changed. Although the fishing rod didn’t move, the hook in the pool seemed to have been touched.

The next moment, the fishing line trembled slightly, Ji Yuan narrowed his eyes and swung his wrist. Although there was no big movement, the fishing rod bent like magic and swung upwards.

“Crash!”

The originally calm turquoise water was broken by a string of splashes. A small silver-white translucent fish about the length of an index finger was hooked on the fishhook and thrown into the air along the direction of the fishing line and rod.

“The Silver Essence!”¹

The boy and girl exclaimed in unison.

With a shout, the boy almost subconsciously pulled out a circular blue jade pendant from his sleeve. In an instant, the blue jade grew to a large size, leaving a faint blue trail of light as it flew towards the silver fish that was still hanging in the air. The light formed a vague outline of a bag behind the jade pendant.

“Huh!?”

Ji Yuan swung the bamboo pole, and with the skills of a top martial arts master, the fishing line that held the silver fish moved as flexibly as a flying bird. The blue jade did not fly slowly, but it could not catch the silver fish.

After the jade pendant brushed past the silver fish twice, Ji Yuan simply swung the rod downwards, and the silver fish attached to the hook at the end of the fishing line suddenly dove down towards Ji Yuan.

A line of water rose from the pool and condensed into a sphere of water the size of a rubber ball in front of Ji Yuan.

“Sploosh!”

The silver fish dropped into the water sphere extremely accurately the moment it was formed, and the iron hook on it was shaken loose from its mouth with Ji Yuan’s skillful strength.

The boy frowned, retracted the jade ring flying in the air, and stared at Ji Yuan alongside the girl, watching the little silver fish swim in the water sphere, unable to escape.

“Who are you? How dare you come to the Green Jade Pool to steal the silver fish!”

Ji Yuan temporarily put away the fishing rod, set it aside, and then turned halfway to look at the two angry children.

“Could it be that this clear water pond is exclusively owned by your Yuhuai Mountain?”

As soon as Ji Yuan had seen the blue jade ring pendant, Ji Yuan knew where these people were from.

“You know that we are from Yuhuai Mountain but you still haven’t given us the silver fish?”

The boy spoke very childishly, as if he were no different from the children of ordinary people.

Ji Yuan also laughed.

“I’ve been fishing here for most of the day and only caught one fish. Even if you are from Yuhuai Mountain, and you are a famous immortal sect in Ji Province, you can’t just rob people, right?”

“You! This Green Jade Pool belongs to our Yuhuai Mountain! So the silver fish also belongs to us!”

“We come here every year to wait for the silver fish to appear, and it’s been several years!”

If it were the same Ji Yuan as in the past, perhaps he would have been truly stunned by these two kids, but he had now learned quite a few things.

“Haha, this Green Jade Pool is under no one’s jurisdiction, and is nearly 700 or 800 li² away from Yuhuai Mountain. So now it has become your mountain sect’s property?”

After Ji Yuan finished speaking, he felt a slight movement in his heart, and shouted something behind the two children, half-joking and half-serious.

“Are there truly no elders here with you? Or are they just letting these two kids act unreasonably!”

Originally, this had just been a tentative remark from Ji Yuan with a hint of sarcasm, but unexpectedly, as soon as his words fell, a sound truly came floating through the air.

“I am sorry to have embarrassed your distinguished self, sir, it is indeed the fault of our Yuhuai Mountain!”

The voice was not as calm, deep, or powerful as Ji Yuan’s, but it could be described as gentle and elegant. As the voice rang out, a middle-aged man dressed in a cloud-patterned blue flowing robe and a jade hairpin in a bun on his head floated over, as if he had walked out of thin air.

Before this, Ji Yuan had not noticed any trace of this person’s existence at all. He could neither see nor hear him, which really scared him. However, after his experiences, Ji Yuan’s surface appearance did not change, and his eyes never wavered.

In fact, the person on the other side was also taken aback by Ji Yuan. He couldn’t see through who this fisherman was. He had no visible aura or divine light. He seemed to be just an ordinary mortal, blending in with the surrounding nature.

In particular, that move he made when he had been teasing the boy just now, when he twirled the fishing rod and the fishing line, was so effortless that it didn’t even give off the sense of being martial arts, and there was no trace of magical power. His water-control skill was also extremely delicate and smooth, without any awkwardness. He only used the simplest water-control technique, and nothing more.

And although the blue-robed man came out on his own, as he looked at Ji Yuan’s special eyes, he always felt that the other party could see through him even after he used the Invisibility Jade Talisman.

“Haha, I just shouted casually, but I didn’t expect that there would really be an elder following you. Sir, you are really patient!”

As he spoke, Ji Yuan also sat down and turned half of his body towards them, so that he didn’t have to keep turning his head to face the back. This also exposed the copy of “Bright Strategies” on his knees, which made the eyes of the man in blue narrow slightly.

‘Bright Strategies? It’s a book in Heavenly Script! ’

The newcomer didn’t take Ji Yuan’s words seriously at all. It was impossible for the other party to concentrate on reading a book while fishing.

“You must be joking, sir. It was these two young children who were making trouble. They are anxious because it takes a year for this Green Jade Pool to produce a Silver Essence, which would benefit the cultivation of my two juniors.”

After saying this, the man in blue waved his hand, and the two children were dragged directly to his side as if pulled by invisible threads. It seemed that he was disciplining the two children for their rudeness, but in fact, he had been quietly positioning himself to guard them.

The fisherman in front of him was of unfathomable skill. His gentle temper might not necessarily be genuine, so it was best to proceed carefully.

‘It’s just a Silver Essence, it would be better to find a reason to retreat! ’

“My name is Qiu Feng from Yuhuai Mountain. May I ask for your name, noble sir? Were you waiting here for us?”

Qiu Feng deliberately softened his tone, and changed his address to a more respectful one, and bowed with cupped hands towards Ji Yuan.

Of course, Ji Yuan didn’t dare to be arrogant. He slowly stood up and bowed in return. After hesitating for half a second, he decided to give his real name.

“My my name is Ji Yuan, there is no need to call me noble. I came here just because I read a A Historical Account from Outside the Tao in my spare time and learned that this place is where water spirits are born, so I was interested in looking around.”

‘It’s good that you were not waiting for us specifically! ’

Regardless of whether his words were true, Qiu Feng breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile appeared on his face.

“Since the gentleman has already caught the silver fish, we won’t stay any longer to disturb you. Let’s go! He’er, Yiyi, let’s go.”

As he spoke, Qiu Feng bowed once again to Ji Yuan, then turned around led the two children away.

Ji Yuan could see that Qiu Feng was cautious and wary towards him, but apart from bowing in return as he stayed by the pool, he didn’t know what to say. His first contact with a fellow immortal cultivator ended just like this?

The two children were still reluctant to leave, kicking rocks and weeds as they walked. After they had traveled a short distance away from the pond, the girl couldn’t but mutter a complaint in a low voice.

“What was that? You’re trying to steal our silver fish, and picking on kids…”

Qiu Feng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This child really thought that the Green Jade Pool belonged to her.

But he didn’t expect the boy to add another sentence:

“Oh, that stinky shameless…”

Originally, the first few words meant nothing, but as soon as the words “stinky shameless-” came out, Qiu Feng’s face changed drastically and he immediately interrupted him.

“He’er!”

These two juniors of his senior brother were too ignorant of the ways of the world.³ There were many people with profound cultivation in this world whose six senses were extremely sharp. Everything else was easy to let slide, but it was forbidden to directly insult someone to their face.

“Hahahaha… That does make sense. It’s truly shameless to grab something from a child!”

Ji Yuan’s frank voice came. Although he was laughing, it made Qiu Feng’s heart suddenly lurch. In his nervousness, he had already mobilized his spiritual energy, and the jade hairpin on his head turned from blue to red. He, an immortal in the Primordial Realm⁴ from a heavenly sect, actually felt helpless.

1. 银 (yín): silver, 窍 (qiào): hole/orifice/key, 子 (zi): noun suffix ↩︎
2. 350-400 km, ~220-250 miles ↩︎
3. Lit: “immensity of heaven and earth” ↩︎
4. Generally, it goes: Foundation Establishment –> Core Formation –> Primordial –> Nascent Soul (and some people add stuff before, or split these into stages, etc.) So he’s pretty advanced in terms of cultivation. ↩︎