Chapter 18: Qinglong Carp

"My teacher is an alchemist, but I don't have a certificate yet because I'm not old enough," said the girl in white. Not every cultivator is eligible to apply for certifications in the Hundred Arts of Cultivation. To manage the workload and screen applicants, the Immortal Sect has set restrictions regarding age, specialization, and other factors. For example, a high school student like Chen Mobai wouldn't meet the first requirement: age. The girl in white was in the same situation.

The only drawback of water alchemy is its time-consuming nature; it's difficult for a single alchemist to supervise and participate in the entire process from start to finish. Therefore, while the Immortal Sect stipulates that only alchemists may refine medicines, it's an unwritten rule within the industry for apprentices to assist with tasks like preparing simple auxiliary ingredients. Chen Mobai assumed the girl in white before him was likely a pharmacist in training.

He recalled the spirit water refining method described in the Blackwater Technique, a process he hadn't yet grasped. He wanted to ask for advice but felt awkward bringing it up without a specific reason. "Goodbye," Chen Mobai eventually said, then turned and left the pharmacy.

"What a strange person," Qing Nü thought. She sensed Chen Mobai had wanted to ask something but for some reason decided against it. Watching the boy disappear around the street corner, she shook her head and returned to the back room to extract herbs.

***

At the Water Mansion, Chen Mobai nervously pulled up a black formation flag. The massive, hemispherical light shield above his head began to subtly ripple. Following the energy channeling method described in the Chan Si courseware, he immediately channeled spiritual energy into the flag. With his other hand, he formed hand seals, performing two simple sets of movements. *Whoosh!* Soon after, the previously seamless and perfectly round light shield, guided by the black flag, formed a two-meter-diameter opening.

Suppressing his excitement, Chen Mobai reinserted the flag, then walked to the entrance he had opened in the formation. His hand trembling slightly, he extended it beyond the light shield, touching the water outside. It was cool and clear, like silk. After playing in the water for a bit and confirming there was no danger, Chen Mobai began to lean half his body out.

Since he hadn't cultivated any water-repelling spells, he could only rely on his prolonged breath to endure. Even so, he managed to catch a glimpse of the scenery outside the Water Mansion. It was a lake of unknown size; at least, he couldn't see its banks. On the lakebed, blue bioluminescent waterweeds grew, particularly conspicuous in the dim environment. Among the waterweeds, teal-colored carp swam back and forth, playing.

Chen Mobai confirmed they were the same type of fish he had eaten previously. He raised his needle box, activated his Five Elements Technique, and infused it with spiritual energy, sending a golden streak of light shooting out. Although his control over the artifact was still a bit stiff, with his unrestrained use of spiritual energy and the direct, unskillful trajectory, the flying needle pierced straight through a teal carp that couldn't escape in time.

Seeing his successful catch, Chen Mobai raised his other hand. Two glass beads, infused with his Five Elements Technique spiritual energy, flew out like two multicolored rainbows, seizing the teal carp as it slowly descended after death. After retrieving his food and the flying needle, Chen Mobai pulled up the black flag again, resealing the opening in the Azure Water Formation.

He first carefully examined the teal carp in his hand. He noticed a dark teal line along its spine, like a tendon, and two long barbels near its mouth. It felt icy cold to the touch, like holding a block of ice. "How is this carp so similar to the Azure Dragon Carp, a second-tier protected spiritual beast of the Immortal Sect?" Chen Mobai murmured to himself. The Azure Dragon Carp's lineage traced back to an Azure Flood Dragon in the deep sea, which the Immortal Sect had painstakingly captured when they first explored the ocean.

It was said that after being specially prepared, consuming the Azure Dragon Carp allowed cultivators to absorb a trace of the water-dragon essence contained within its flesh, which would randomly increase their Water Spirit Root attribute by 1 to 5 points. However, the only Azure Dragon Carps in the Immortal Sect were raised at the Kunpeng Daoist Academy, considered a private reserve by a Nascent Soul Venerable. Twenty years ago, this Venerable even added wild Azure Dragon Carps to the Immortal Sect's latest list of protected spiritual beasts, prohibiting cultivators from killing them for food.

Chen Mobai hesitated but ultimately couldn't resist the temptation, pulling out the short knife he had received from the old man. The Immortal Sect's regulations stated that wild Azure Dragon Carps were protected spiritual beasts, but farmed ones were edible. Although these teal carp were somewhat similar to Azure Dragon Carps, they were distinct, possessed no spiritual energy, and since they were kept outside the Water Mansion, they could be considered farmed.

Scaling, gutting, filleting – Chen Mobai's movements were fluid and practiced, all in one swift motion. The short knife wasn't a magical artifact, but it was incredibly sharp; he'd found cutting gold with it as easy as slicing tofu, so using it to fillet fish felt like overkill. This time, he planned to eat the fish chilled, having brought ice and seasonings from home. However, since the fish meat itself was already icy, he could skip the chilling process.

Chen Mobai even brought a can of soda; with a wine glass, the experience would have felt perfectly ceremonial. It was a slight pity he was eating alone. A hint of regret accompanied the cool, tender fish meat as it entered his mouth, paired with aged vinegar purchased online from Wangwu Grotto-Heaven. An indescribably pleasant sour and numbing sensation bloomed on his taste buds.

As the fish meat entered his stomach, a refreshing coolness spread throughout his body, making Chen Mobai shiver. This was followed by a profound sense of comfort and invigoration, like taking a cool shower on a hot day – pleasant and revitalizing. After finishing, Chen Mobai let out a burp. His first thought was: "It was a real waste to cook the previous one."

Of course, he hadn't forgotten his main task. After tidying up with a cleaning spell, he sat cross-legged on the meditation mat and completed a grand cycle of the Five Elements Technique. Before the self-adapting spiritual energy he had cultivated could return to his dantian, Chen Mobai intercepted a portion of it and injected it into the newly purchased spiritual energy test paper.

This was a simple tool for measuring spiritual roots, though its use was limited to cultivators of the Five Elements Technique. Since everyone in the Immortal Sect was a cultivator, and virtually every child began learning qi refining and cultivation arts during their enlightenment phase, the Imperial Medical Academy invented this spiritual energy test paper for easier and quicker spiritual root measurement.

As soon as Chen Mobai's spiritual energy was absorbed by the test paper, it instantly displayed five colors. A series of numbers then appeared on the paper, indicating the proportion of each elemental light: Gold 23, Wood 27, Water 25, Fire 17, Earth 10. Indeed, his Water Spirit Root had increased by 2 points.

Chen Mobai confirmed this point, and his next step was to conduct more experiments. Suppressing the eagerness in his heart, he rose again and activated the Azure Water Formation. *Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!* Streaks of golden light flashed outside the Water Mansion, and one by one, the teal carp feeding on waterweeds inexplicably became Chen Mobai's meal.