Gu An sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, blue spiritual light swirling around him. Morning light crept in through the window, illuminating his face.
“Huff-“
He exhaled and opened his bright eyes, frustration showing in them.
After cultivating for an entire night, he had only increased his spiritual power by a trace. The path of cultivation was truly difficult!
Fortunately, with Spirit Source Feedback as an aid, he could at least pursue the path of immortality.
Gu An slowly walked out of the room. By then, Bai Zhi and Qingliu had already prepared breakfast-just a bowl of porridge and a dish of pickled vegetables.
After eating, he was about to go check on the Black Spirit Fish when a piercing goose cry rang through the sky. Gu An abruptly stood up, his expression solemn.
The goose’s cry was so loud, and the gale it stirred up as it flew swept toward him. The spiritual pressure it emitted made Gu An feel immense pressure. Most unsettling of all, the wild goose seemed to be flying straight toward him.
“Is it after me? Or did it sense the lake’s spiritual qi and come looking for food? Damn it, why did a demon beast have to turn up now?”
Feeling the spiritual pressure drawing closer, Gu An estimated it was a demon beast at the late Qi Condensation stage, far beyond his ability to match. He gathered spiritual power at his feet, fully activated the Light Body Spell, and shot out like an arrow from a bow.
He could raise more fish. Losing his assignment would mean punishment, but he only had one life. If he didn’t run now, when would he?
But when the wild goose saw Gu An fleeing swiftly, it flapped its wings once and increased its speed by a full twenty percent.
Gu An felt the wind and spiritual pressure growing ever closer behind him and couldn’t help but feel a trace of despair. Turning around, he saw the goose was covered in purple cloud patterns, its wings spanning a full three zhang when spread.
Gu An recognized the goose as a Purple Cloud Goose, one of the fastest-flying demon beasts at the late Qi Condensation stage.
“I can’t keep running-I’ll be even worse off if it catches me. Better to save my spiritual power and fight to the death.” Facing danger, Gu An was not without the resolve to risk everything.
He spun around abruptly, summoning the Qingyuan Sword from his storage bag, concealing the Emerald Shadow Needle in his sleeve, and pinching a spirit stone in his right hand. Spiritual power surged as a water spear rapidly took shape in the air.
He hurled the water spear, but the Purple Cloud Goose blocked it by folding its wings together, only knocking off a few feathers.
“Honk~”
The Purple Cloud Goose cried out, and a letter flew out from the downy feathers on its belly, slapping onto Gu An’s face with a smack.
Wait.. something seemed off.
Gu An froze for a moment, realizing he might have misunderstood the situation. He looked up at the Purple Cloud Goose again. The fury in its eyes seemed to blaze, and it slammed its wings down at his head, sending Gu An scrambling in panic. You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
“Honk~ Honk~” The Purple Cloud Goose angrily vented as it struck.
It was just a messenger! It had arrived to find the recipient running away at full speed. After chasing him down, it got drenched by a mass of water, which knocked off its beautiful feathers.
Gu An sensed that the Purple Cloud Goose wasn’t using any spiritual power, and knowing he was in the wrong, he didn’t fight back, letting it vent.
Whose beast was this? If the goose was already at late-stage Qi Condensation, how powerful must its owner be? He dared not even dodge.
Offending an owner who held grudges would only make things worse.
After venting for a while, Gu An’s hair was twisted into a messy tangle. The Purple Cloud Goose seemed to lose interest and stopped, though it still glared angrily at Gu An.
Seeing that the Purple Cloud Goose’s mood seemed to have improved, Gu An repeatedly apologized.
“I’m sorry, truly. Your spiritual pressure frightened me, and I panicked. Let me make it up to you with some spirit fish. Would that do?”
Though his heart ached as if bleeding, Gu An offered Black Spirit Fish as compensation to calm the Purple Cloud Goose’s anger.
Hearing there would be spirit fish as recompense, the Purple Cloud Goose finally stopped being so angry.
“Honk honk.”
It had agreed. Gu An pushed aside his regret over the cost. Surely it wouldn’t tell on him after accepting his fish?
Gu An brought the goose back to White Mirror Lake. He reassured Bai Zhi and Qingliu and asked them to tidy the courtyard after the gale. Then he went onto the lake and used the Entangling Spell to lift two Black Spirit Fish from the water.
“Honk!”
The Purple Cloud Goose beside him let out a dissatisfied cry, and with a sweep of wind, scooped up two more.
Looks like he’d have to spend money to avoid disaster today. Gu An shook his head with a bitter smile and tossed the two Black Spirit Fish in his hands to the Purple Cloud Goose. With a flash of spiritual light, the two fish were wrapped in a gust of wind in midair.
Opening its large beak wide, the Purple Cloud Goose swallowed one Black Spirit Fish whole.
[One of your Black Spirit Fish has died of natural causes, returning a Spiritual Qi Cluster to you!]
The familiar voice sounded, and a mass of spiritual power fell into his Dantian. The increase in spiritual qi lifted Gu An’s mood somewhat, finally rousing him from the pain of losing spirit stones.
Seeing the Purple Cloud Goose eating happily with no time for him, Gu An walked to a stone bench under a willow tree, sat down, and opened the letter to read.
To Junior Brother Gu An:
A year has passed since you took up your post in Blackrock Commandery. As the seventh month approaches, all stationed disciples must come to Cloud City to report on their work and collect their pay. Please come promptly.
You must collect the sect’s spirit tax: thirty percent of both the Golden Cloud Rice and the red maple sap produced by the Lin Clan of Red Maple Mountain. Check the amounts carefully, and submit any Black-Pattern Iron produced in the commandery as well.
Please complete the above before the fifteenth of the seventh month. This story is hosted at g.com.
Additionally, I intend to hold a small trading gathering in Yun Kingdom after the fifteenth. You may prepare in advance.
Wishing you favorable winds!
The letter was signed Yun Xiuyan. Zhang Song had told Gu An about her: a member of Yun Kingdom’s royal family with Metal and Water Spirit Roots, she studied swordsmanship under True Person Qingxiao. One of the sect’s most promising candidates for Foundation Establishment, she was the only woman among the Four Talents of Qingyuan.
Why had she taken this post? Overseeing every stationed disciple in Yun Kingdom sounded prestigious, but a promising cultivator like her had no shortage of spirit stones. Unlike him, she could afford to stay in the sect and focus on reaching Foundation Establishment. Why spend her time and energy on administrative work instead?
Gu An couldn’t figure it out no matter how he thought, so he decided not to dwell on it. Instead, he focused on the letter’s contents. It was now the end of the sixth month. Going to Cloud City would only take a day and a half, and he still had half a month to get things done-plenty of time.
The Lin Clan of Red Maple Mountain had visited once before, bringing thirty jin of Golden Cloud Rice, but it had long since been eaten. This time, collecting the Spirit Tax might yield some gains.
As for Black-Pattern Iron, he’d have to ask City Lord Zhang to bring it tomorrow.
..
“Honk!”
A goose cry interrupted Gu An’s thoughts. The Purple Cloud Goose had finished eating all four spirit fish. Gu An looked inward at his Dantian and saw four Spiritual Qi Clusters merging into his own spiritual power.
These Black Spirit Fish were really something-polite and grateful.
The goose honked, flew over, and patted Gu An’s shoulder with a wing, regarding him with a comically elderly air. Light flashed at its feet, and a purple-patterned egg emerged.
Gu An then noticed that the Purple Cloud Goose also had a storage bag tied to its foot. Seeing the dense cloud patterns on it, he knew it was far better than his standard-issue storage bag.
Gu An stared at the Purple Cloud Goose egg. “A gift in return?” he murmured.
An egg from a late-stage Qi Condensation Purple Cloud Goose was worth four or five spirit stones. The four fish had been worth four, so the gifts were about equal in value.
Gu An accepted the egg, relieved to have recovered the value of the fish he had lost.
“Honk~”
The Purple Cloud Goose nodded in satisfaction, cried out once, flapped its wings, and flew off into the distance.
“Return gift or not, you can’t go tattling on me!” Gu An watched the Purple Cloud Goose recede into the distance and suddenly shouted out loud.