Chapter 59

“Interesting. Hardly anyone would have resolved the situation like that.”

The pig spoke, turned, and continued trotting along the fields.

As the two of them sped on, the dirt road slowly became paved roads, and there were even more people now.

This was the main road that led to the capital of Floral Celestial Nation.

Once they hit this road, they couldn’t fly anymore and had to walk.

The two of them hurried on for a few minutes until they reached a fork in the road.

There was a huge rock at the fork, and a white goose stood on the rock.

The white goose spread its wings and directed the crowd impatiently. “Those headed for the city go to the right, while those who want to pick something from the Floral List can come forward to write a poem. Don’t try to squeeze your way through. Squeezing won’t help you fly over the rest.”

The two of them looked at the situation in front of them. There were plenty of people and carriages headed for the right, but there were even more people stuck at the fork. There were Foundation Building cultivators, Golden Core cultivators, and even Nascent Soul cultivators.

“What? Today we have to write a poem?” Many people’s faces fell.

Some of them sighed and took a few steps back. Some folded their arms and wanted to see what other people came up with.

The topic each day was different, and the guide was different too. You needed a bit of luck to be able to pass the guide’s test and enter the road on the left.

This goose actually wanted them to write a poem, but cultivators generally only thought about becoming stronger and more powerful every day. There was no time or energy to think about poetry.

“Write a poem? I’m quite decent at that, but it depends on how hard the topic given is,” mumbled Leng Tianxing with some hesitation.

“Come with me.” Gu Qingshan pulled Leng Tianxing along and squeezed their way to the front of the goose.

“Give me some Spirit Stones,” he whispered.

“Spirit Stones? How many?” asked Leng Tianxing.

“Twenty pieces,” replied Gu Qingshan.

Leng Tianxing took twenty pieces out and passed them to him.

Gu Qingshan placed the Spirit Stones on the large rock, clasped his hands, and said, “My dear goose brother, I would like to request a shortcut.”

“You don’t want to write a poem? Why are you putting such things here?” yelled the goose in disdain.

Gu Qingshan sincerely replied, “I really have something urgent to ask of Her Supremacy, so I hope you can help.”

The white goose stared hard at Gu Qingshan, then there was suddenly a grim look in its eyes.

It stretched a wing out, swept it over the rock, and the Spirit Stones vanished.

“Hurry up and go. Don’t just stand in front of me like an idiot,” replied the white goose impatiently.

“Thank you so much!”

Gu Qingshan looked at Leng Tianxing, and they ran off to the left side of the fork.

Everyone opened the mouths in shock. They couldn’t believe it. That guy had not just escaped punishment for bribery, but had even been allowed to pass through!

Someone else immediately pulled a large handful of Spirit Stones and placed it on the rock as he smiled. “Oh, great goose. Please let me use a shortcut.”

“Oh?” The white goose raised its head. “And what is your reason?”

That man bowed and tried to imitate Gu Qingshan’s manner of speaking. “I really have something urgent to ask of Her Supremacy, so I hope you can help.”

The white goose spat then spread its wings and swept all the Spirit Stones to the ground. It yelled, “Get lost!”

That man got a shock and pointed at Gu Qingshan, who wasn’t too far off, as he asked indignantly, “Then why does he get to go?”

The white goose replied, “He has an urgent matter on hand.”

The man responded, “I have an urgent matter too.”

The white goose looked down at the man and laughed coldly. “Urgent matter my foot.”

That man started shouting. “You’re being unfair! I’m going to raise a complaint against you!”

The white goose just quietly remarked, “So how was your night at Yihong Brothel last night? And then someone also ate eight plates of spirit food this morning, right? Not enough? So you’re in a hurry to go back and eat more?”

That man froze, and his face turned red as he quickly walked away from the crowd.

The white goose proudly preened its feathers and yelled loudly, “None of you can hide anything from me. If you want to get past me, then you’d better come forward and write a poem properly.”

Everyone looked at Gu Qingshan and was curious about what he had gone through such that the white goose had allowed him to pass.

Gu Qingshan and Leng Tianxing hurried on their way.

Leng Tianxing couldn’t help but remark, “That goose was easy to handle.”

Gu Qingshan replied, “Don’t look down on it.”

Leng Tianxing asked curiously, “Why?”

Gu Qingshan smiled but didn’t say anything.

After a while, the two of them suddenly reached a pier.

There was only an old boat docked at the pier. An elderly boatman sat on one end of the boat and was smoking.

“Can we leave immediately? We’ll book the entire boat,” said Leng Tianxing.

The boatman took great effort to stand up and looked at both of them seriously.

“Sure, let’s go.”

Two of them got into the boat, and the boat left the shore.

“Ahem. Since you want to go to the Imperial City to get to the Floral List, then you have to pass through me first.”

The boatman said this as he rowed along.

“Please show us the way,” replied Gu Qingshan with clasped hands.

Leng Tianxing clasped his hands together too.

The boatman said, “There’s a fish in this river that’s extremely large. It’s completely black and I call it the Big Black Fish. Catch it for me.”

“Sure.”

Gu Qingshan looked into the river. The rapid currents went for several kilometers beneath the calm surface of the water.

He wasn’t bad at swimming, but he needed to think of a surer way to catch the fish in this sort of place.

Dong!

There was a noise behind him.

Gu Qingshan turned around to see that Leng Tianxing had removed his armor and was removing his boots.

“You’re going to dive in?” asked Gu Qingshan.

“Yup. The Alkaid Faction lives on the sea, and I’ve been fishing in deep waters since I was a child. This river is nothing to me, so leave this task to me,” replied Leng Tianxing with great confidence.

Leng Tianxing leaped up and dived elegantly into the river water, then swam out of sight.

The river was all calm for about seven or eight minutes.

Suddenly, a flurry of bubbles rose to the surface.

In the next moment, Leng Tianxing appeared on the surface of the water while hugging a large, black fish that was about the same length as himself.

Both man and fish were frozen together in ice, and you could feel the bone-chilling, cold air from afar.

If you looked carefully, you would notice that the demonic strength of the black fish was slowly overcoming Leng Tianxing’s Spirit Power.

The fish had vertical eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth. It used all its strength to move its stiffened body, and the frost around it started to come off in layers.

Leng Tianxing’s face was all pale; he had clearly reached his limit.

He had given the last of his Red Crane Qi Replenishment Pills to Gu Qingshan, so he was on the verge of collapsing and nearly hadn’t managed to catch the fish.

Suddenly, the big, black fish turned its head and opened its large mouth to bite Leng Tianxing.

Swoosh!

A flash of light flew toward it, went through one of the black fish’s eyes, and came out from the other eye.

Gu Qingshan noticed that things didn’t look good, so he quickly pulled Night Rain and an arrow with a Demonic Python’s fang to shoot the fish in time.

The Big Black Fish flailed violently for a long time before it finally turned belly-up and floated on the surface of the water.

“You two have done a good job.” The boatman rowed the boat over and pulled the fish onto the boat.

“The rest is my job. You two wait for a while.”

The boatman then held the fish down on the boat, pulled a shiny dagger out, and started to slice the fish meat at a high speed.

Leng Tianxing took a deep breath and hopped back into the boat. He looked at Gu Qingshan and shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

Gu Qingshan replied, “It’s not your fault. Nobody would have imagined a fish would be at the Peak of Foundation Building.”

The two of them sat down in the boat and waited for the boatman to finish cutting the fish.

“I’m begging you, can’t you be a bit gentler with me?” said the fish all of a sudden.

Half its flesh had already been sliced off, and it was left with a fishy and bloodied skeleton.

Gu Qingshan and Leng Tianxing exchanged glances. They were both shocked.

This fish was obviously dead, and half its meat was gone. How could it still speak?

But the boatman didn’t stop. He shook his head and said, “No I can’t. That’s the rule.”