Chapter 1: Fighting for Fish by the Abyss, Paper Maid Da Zhou, Jiangcheng Prefecture, Linyuan County. The sky is as clear as jade, and the clouds are as big as dark dogs. Under the blue sky and white clouds, some fishing boats and sampans were either docked at the Xuemen River Wharf in Linyuan City to sell their catches, or shuttling back and forth to fish. Many people in Linyuan City are fishermen who make a living from the Xuemen River. The Xuemen River has a long history and there are occasionally some magical fish in the river, so it often attracts anglers from outside the city to come here. An elegantly decorated carriage passed along the river bank. Unlike the lively scene of hundreds of boats competing in the river, inside the carriage, a handsome and dignified young man was reading a book carefully with a leisurely look. "Three hundred years after the Great Yun Kingdom, the Emperor Yun passed away, and the Crown Prince Yun Qi succeeded to the throne and changed the era name to Jianxin. Only three years after the Xin Dynasty, an evil spirit appeared in the foreign land, devouring thousands of people and causing great suffering to all.” "In the 24th year of the Dayun New Dynasty, the king, Yun Qi, was unjust and colluded with foreign demons to oppress the people and harm the common people. The noble families could not bear it and established their own kingdoms. Three years later, the aristocratic Zhou Dynasty destroyed Dayun, and King Wu of Zhou ascended the throne as the new emperor and established the Great Zhou Dynasty. He promulgated various methods of cultivating supernatural powers, established the Evil Suppression Department, and widely recruited people with spiritual qualifications to join. "Ten years after the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Shenyi Building suddenly appeared, using massive resources to recruit talented people with both excellent martial arts and spiritual talents. Unexpectedly, many of these talented people were tragically sacrificed to the magic weapons, staining the martial arts world with blood.
The Great Zhou Dynasty's evil suppression department dispatched experts to suppress it, and the Shenyi Building disappeared from the Jianghu. In the following fifty years, the Jianghu geniuses were all intimidated by the fierce power of the Shenyi Building and kept their talents to themselves. It was not until the past ten years that those with excellent spiritual qualifications dared to emerge one after another. "Spirituality, what is spirituality? It is said that the four realms of martial arts are nothing but wallowing in the mire. Only those who possess spirituality can enter the extraordinary realm. It has been three years since I traveled through time. I have practiced diligently and have made some progress in martial arts, but I still don’t know if I have spiritual qualifications.” The handsome young man was named Chu Ge. He was looking at the columns of information descriptions in the book in his hand. His long eyebrows slanted into his temples and raised their brows, and he was lost in thought. He is a soul that traveled through time and space and took possession of the body of Chu Ge, a rich kid from this world. In fact, the two have the same name and appearance, but different personalities, as if they are from different parallel time and space. According to the fused memories of the predecessor, the predecessor had never liked martial arts since childhood. His elder sister Chu Feixue once wanted to let him learn martial arts, but it ended up in nothing, so he did not lay a good foundation in martial arts. After he traveled through time, in order to prevent his elder sister from feeling strange, he did not immediately ask his elder sister who was in a martial arts sect for martial arts books. And even if he had the secret manual, unless his eldest sister returned from the sect, it would be easy to make mistakes without anyone to guide him, so he went to a martial arts school in the city to learn martial arts on his own. Then, in normal correspondence, he slowly expressed his change in interest in martial arts, which also paved the way for their future meetings. Suddenly, a commotion came from the fishing pen, and many people rushed over. Someone was vaguely heard shouting "spiritual fish". "Ok?" Hearing the noise in the distance, Chu Ge was cheered up and put down the book. "A spiritual fish appeared today? Let's go take a look." No one responded. The girl in blue driving the car was pretty and delicate, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with double buns on her hair and lively eyes. She wore a light green silk long collar and a dark green satin vest with a front opening. However, she seemed to be mute. The carriage suddenly turned around and drove onto the dock. Perhaps seeing the biting winter wind, it drove straight to the fishing railing. When the fishermen who were watching the fun saw the carriage, they immediately made way and started talking with laughter. "It's the Chu family's young master's car! It looks like this spirit fish is his." "The young master of the Chu family has inherited a huge fortune from the Chu family, and the eldest sister of the Chu family has long been accepted as a disciple by the Hidden Water Sect. No one can compete with him for what he likes!"
"This young master Chu has many hobbies. He likes to collect strange and bizarre things the most, and he doesn't hesitate to spend a lot of money on them! I heard that he is still learning martial arts from Master Hu in the east of the city. I wonder if he has learned anything famous!" "Hey! If I were so rich, I would also try everything and spend more than him." The maid in blue got off the carriage first, opened the curtain, and helped Chu Ge get off the carriage. He was tall and sturdy, wearing a silver crown on his head, white python sleeves, and a jade red belt around his waist. He looked like a rich young man, full of style. The fishermen on both sides, who were smelling a strong fishy smell, involuntarily made way for him, and some of them smiled and complimented him. "Master Chu, this time the fish is a red-scaled claw fish, caught by the city servant Xiao Qin. You must catch it!" "Oh? Xiao Qin, you caught another spirit fish? Not bad." Chu Ge walked through the crowd, looked in surprise at the young man in the crowd who was wearing a sword on his waist, barefoot and holding a spirit fish, and smiled. "With your fishing skills, you can make a living even if you don't work in the government office." Xiao Qin was a young man with a sallow complexion. When he saw Chu Ge coming, his eyes lit up slightly. Everyone knew that the young master of the Chu family was a financial sponsor, so he immediately smiled and raised the spirit fish in his hand. "Master Chu, thank you for the compliment. The people of Linyuan City can wade at the age of seven and float at the age of ten. Most of them can fish. I am just lucky. Are you interested in this spiritual fish?" Chu Ge smiled and nodded, took a look at the condition of the spirit fish, praised it, and said, "Yes, this is the red-clawed fish, I have also heard of it but never seen it, I will give you twenty taels! I want this spirit fish." When the people around heard that the price had doubled, there was a slight uproar, and several people who wanted to bid were also dumbfounded. Their inner limit was fifteen or twenty taels. If it was a dispute of pride during the bidding, they would have gone for it. But now, feeling the calm and composed aura of the young master of the Chu family, who would dare to compete again? "Xiao Qing!" Chu Ge glanced at the maid beside him. Xiaoqing just smiled and went forward to pay the bill without saying a word. "Xiao Qin, next time you catch a spirit fish, you can send it directly to my house!" Chu Ge smiled faintly, said something, got on the carriage and left. The surrounding fishermen were all used to seeing this, but some people from outside the city who didn't get the spiritual fish were secretly annoyed. However, after asking around, he found out that there were actually people in the Chu family who were disciples of a big sect like the Yinshui Sect, so he could only give up in embarrassment. Only after getting on the carriage did Xiaoqing put down the lively spirit fish in her hand. As Chu Ge raised his hand slightly, Xiaoqing's delicate body seemed to lose its strength and slid down. The cloud belt tightly tied around her slender waist slipped off, and her eyes quickly dimmed. Her whole body seemed to be weak and boneless, with only a layer of skin supported by bamboo sticks. As the bamboo sticks collapsed one by one, her whole body fell to the ground like a pile of clothes. Her shiny black hair drooped on the clothes and skin. Her fair face became even paler and bloodless, like a piece of paper. "It's only been half a day since I maintained this puppet, but I've already lost a ray of my special power. It's not worth it, it's not worth it. It's better to spend some money to hire a few maids, which is cheaper!" Inside the carriage, Chu Ge looked at his masterpiece lying on the ground, sighed and shook his head, stretched out his hand and picked up a piece of paper-painted beauty's face, but her face was like jade, her eyebrows were like distant black, her nose was like jade, her lips were like cherry blossoms, and although she looked charming, she did not have the air of seduction or evil. Chu Ge was very satisfied with his painting skills. If he could not get married in the future, he would draw a few more paper wives to accompany him, which would be a consolation, although it would be a waste of paper. He put away his face, and flicked his fingers hidden in his sleeves slightly. Almost invisible silk threads were instantly retracted from the leather bag and clothes on the ground. Saying that it’s not cost-effective is just a joke. Although this paper shadow puppet may seem useless, it can be a great help if used correctly, especially in actual combat, it can often be indistinguishable from the real thing.
However, he has only traveled to this world for three years, and has not yet mastered this skill to a very high level. It can only be used as an auxiliary technique in martial arts practice, and it can have a miraculous effect on people who do not understand this art. After pulling the carriage to the side, Chu Ge's eyes fell on the spirit fish in the carriage. This fish has red scales and claws, and can still jump around when out of water for a long time. It is indeed a unique and spiritual fish among fish. If people who practice martial arts eat this fish regularly, their martial arts skills will surely improve rapidly. However, Chu Ge did not buy this spiritual fish to eat it directly, but to use it for sacrifice to maximize its value. He suddenly reached for the spirit fish, and the next moment, a tattoo of a bronze bell with a dragon pattern on his wrist under his clothes seemed to come alive, vivid and lifelike. The spirit fish disappeared in an instant, but on the bronze bell with a dragon pattern on its right wrist, which looked like a tattoo, there was a groove that faintly revealed a glow. Only he himself can see this glory. But then he saw a spirit fish appeared in the groove. The spirit fish quickly fell into a circle of golden light in the center of the groove. The golden light was like a golden sphere. After the spirit fish fell in, a line of information quickly appeared on the surface of the sphere. "Red Scale Claw Fish (Species of Fish): Introduction: (A strange fish that has been transformed by a strange force. Ordinary people can strengthen their bodies and increase their strength by eating it. Martial arts masters of the fourth realm can improve their blood and strength by eating it. Condensation martial artists can extract the strange force from it and refine it.) Current status: Refining optimal capabilities" Chu Ge didn't think it was strange to see the message appearing on Long Zhong's tattoo. Before traveling through time, he took a photo of a double-button dragon-patterned clock in the National Museum. As soon as the flash went on, he inexplicably traveled through time. After traveling through time, he got a dragon bell tattoo on his wrist. Anything of value can be swallowed up by the heart of the clock within the groove. Then, Zhong Xin will extract the most valuable part of the thing within a certain period of time. In the past two years, Chu Ge has offered gold, silver, jewelry, food, wine, bark, stones and even corpses to this bell, spending a lot of money. Like the spirit fish, he once sacrificed a spirit fish with wings and gained a talent called 'fish fins'. However, that ability is too useless. After mastering it, it will form a pair of shark fins one foot long behind him. The shark fin cannot help him fly, it can only help him swim faster in the water. This kind of talent is mostly funny, after all, he doesn't need to be a fisherman to catch fish. After he gives up that ability, it will turn into a ball of pure strange power for him to absorb. It should be understood that the supernatural power is a power that can only be accessed by warriors who have reached the fourth level of martial arts and the state of concentration. It is a mysterious power that floats between heaven and earth. Warriors at the fourth level of martial arts cannot touch him at all. However, Chu Ge was able to rely on Long Zhong to come into contact with the absorption of special forces in advance, which naturally made him like a fish in water after learning martial arts. Now he is a martial artist at the third level of the four realms of martial arts, the Bone Training Realm. It's just that I've just arrived and am intimidated by the rumors about the Shenyi Building. On the surface, he preferred to hide his strength and never revealed his true power, so even the owner of the Hu Hall in the east of the city, who taught him martial arts, only thought that he was a second-level physical martial artist. At this time, seeing that the red-scaled claw fish is still in the process of refining, it may take four or five days to complete the refining.
Chu Ge didn't pay any attention to it and turned to look at other messages in the dragon bell. "Five Maoshan Miraculous Achievements" (incomplete): Level: [Miracles above supernatural power] Explanation: (One is leather, two is paper, three is embroidery, four is casting, five is poison, and six is pottery. The five Maoshan miracles are regarded as unorthodox ways, but unorthodox ways also have their essence, among which the six are profound and extensive. Unfortunately, this strange book only records four of them, leather, paper, embroidery, and five poisons.) Current status: Has mastered the inherited skills of shadow play, paper cutting, embroidery, and the five poisons." This fragment of "Five Miraculous Achievements of Maoshan" was taught to him by a Taoist priest from the world before he crossed over, and later became the skill he relied on for a living. However, he had always thought that the skills he mastered were just some folk skills, but unexpectedly, when he traveled through time, the music score passed down by the Taoist priest was also absorbed into the dragon bell, and was identified as a magical skill above the level of supernatural powers. You must know that in this world, most of the magical arts above the level of supernatural powers, except for those secret arts that reduce one's potential, need to be strong people who have mastered the supernatural power and are in the state of condensation before they can be studied. In the past two years, when Chu Ge tried to use this craft to make some small objects, many objects would often undergo strange changes after being infused with special powers, resulting in bizarre changes such as shadow puppets and paper figures. However, he had never mastered the supernatural power, and could only rely on the Dragon Bell to extract the supernatural power from some spiritual things before he could use the Dragon Bell to practice, so his practice speed could never be fast. "Alien power. Alien power, the four realms of martial arts: skin, flesh, bone, and blood. It is said that after the blood transfusion, the three flowers will gather at the top of the head. If there is spirituality, one can sense the strange power in the world. If there is no spirituality, one will completely stop at the fourth realm of martial arts." Chu Ge stood up and walked out of the carriage. He looked at the river flowing eastward not far away, and pondered, "Do I have spirituality? If not, how can I stand firm in this secular torrent?" He has already felt the magic of the supernatural power, which can be combined with magic to turn decay into magic, making the shadow puppets and paper figures come alive, lifelike, and indistinguishable from the real ones. It can also be transformed into abundant energy and blood, strengthening the body and prolonging life. Because he knew this, he longed for that power even more... "Uncle, please be kind!" At this time, a little beggar passed by in the cold wind. Chu Ge suddenly snapped his fingers, and a copper coin flew out and hit the horse's butt. Then it bounced back and fell into the beggar's broken bowl, making a "ding-dong" sound. The horse felt pain, Xiluolu neighed, and immediately spread out all four hooves, running out with a "dead sound" and heading straight to the East City Martial Arts Hall. (End of this chapter)