Chapter 36 | The Sea Swallows the Heavens

An Youyu thought of the Fish Roe Shedding Recall inside his new aperture.

The fish recipe for the Nirvana of First-Transformation had been pieced together from those instinctual marks.

If there was a next Transformation, he would have to wait until this Transformation's Salamander Force accumulated enough to Form a Current before having the chance to sense subsequent shedding recalls and decipher a new fish recipe.

By the time An Youyu withdrew his mind, daylight had already broken outside.

...

Ever since the night they returned from drawing lots, the door to the commune hall had not been closed once.

During the day, people constantly came in and out to pass along messages.

After nightfall, Lu Guizhou and several elders would guard the oil lamp, waiting for news.

Now, it was already the third day after the drawing.

Someone suddenly called out another ship's name.

Lu Guizhou picked up his brush to note it down, but an elder beside him waved his hand.

...

"Don't write it down. That guy yesterday was a fraud."

"What happened?"

"Hearing that we had a seven-day deadline to deliver the medicine, that fellow brought a soil-cultivation box. The gills under the cap and the thin roots in the dirt were crafted to look identical to the Tiger-Head Mushroom in the Illustrated Compendium of a Hundred Medicines..."

"Luckily, Old Knobby used a needle to pry open the bottom of the cap and found half a section of a lung pipe inside that hadn't been cleaned out properly."

"Using a trash fish lung soaked, swollen, and dyed, and daring to sell it as a Tiger-Head Mushroom! What a black-hearted bastard!"

"It looks like the craftsmanship from Millstone Float-Commune."

Millstone Float-Commune was also one of the twenty-eight communes of Seven-Masts, always skilled in making counterfeits.

The replica precious materials displayed in medicine shops and the fake bait used by fishing boats were often made by craftsmen from over there.

Some also took shady jobs, turning cheap, miscellaneous ingredients into rare fish materials and Land Medicine, which peddlers then sold off as the real thing.

"Did you give him any money?" Lu Guizhou asked.

"No. When we went back to look for him, he had already slipped away."

Lu Guizhou held his brush tip over the paper, unable to bring it down for a long moment.

Luo Dadou, who had been checking the ledger by the table, finished his calculations, flipped to the last page, and pushed the book toward Lu Guizhou's hand.

"The cash on the public ledger is running dangerously low."

"Courier fees for messages from outside ships, gifts to secure introductions, payment for news about medicine... In just these past two days, a huge chunk was spent on those alone."

Lu Guizhou glanced over those entries, his brows tightening.

The news that Clown was desperate for medicine had long spread across the Seven-Masts Waters. Whoever held even a trace of news about the medicine could lead them by the nose.

He closed the ledger and handed it back.

Luo Dadou still had to oversee the public warehouse, so he left after reporting the accounts.

No one else at the table called out any new leads.

Lu Guizhou lowered his head and flipped through the medicine request list. Back and forth, it was still those same few ship names.

Footsteps approached outside the door.

The hand flipping through paper paused, and he looked up.

Seeing that it was An Youyu who walked in, the weariness on his face finally dissipated a bit.

These past few days, An Youyu had done nothing but eat fish and cultivate.

Basket after basket of fish from the public warehouse was sent to his cabin, something everyone in the commune witnessed.

Refining force as a fish-transformed consumed the most nutrients. Everyone was willing to surrender these rations, all waiting for him to build a few more units of force.

Lu Guizhou had also kept it on his mind.

"Youyu, how has your practice been these past few days?"

"I've made some progress."

"Come, let me test you."

An Youyu originally intended to ask about leads for buying a fish register, but seeing the elders waiting around the table, he could only swallow his words for now.

"...Alright."

Lu Guizhou pushed back his chair and stood up, impatiently stepping up to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Floating Spring Breath sank down along his forearm, and the force in his palm gradually increased.

An Youyu let his hands hang, and the Salamander Force between his shoulders and back surged up in response.

One Hundred Pressure.

Lu Guizhou's hand paused slightly.

Last time they tested to this point, An Youyu's legs had begun to sink. This time, his shoulders did not even quiver.

Lu Guizhou continued to add force.

One Hundred Fifty Pressure.

Deep folds were pressed into the fabric on An Youyu's shoulders, but his spine remained straight as an arrow.

Two Hundred Pressure.

Lu Guizhou snapped his eyes up.

In three days, he gained One Hundred Pressure?

Some people slaved away for three years and might not gain this much.

An Youyu looked up, but Lu Guizhou did not withdraw his hand.

He had to test further.

Two Hundred Fifty Pressure.

There was still force supporting his palm from below.

An Youyu's breathing remained steady, and the Salamander Force beneath his shoulders was still dispersed, not yet Formed a Current, showing not the slightest hint of faltering.

How had he not hit the bottom yet?

To test force with force, one's own Fish Aspect foundation had to be thicker than the opponent's to gauge their depth properly.

Lu Guizhou followed the Sky Ray Path, stagnating at Five Hundred Pressure.

Speaking solely of Current Base foundations, his could roughly only serve as a reference point for a Salamander Swim practitioner around Two Hundred Fifty Pressure.

Any higher, and the nature of the forces between the two King Paths differed far too greatly.

Once past the threshold where their foundations matched, if he continued to press down, what he measured would no longer just be how much force An Youyu possessed, but would also incorporate the elements of their two force types countering and dispersing each other.

Now that An Youyu had reached this level, pressing further would yield an inaccurate measure.

"Chief?" Seeing him motionless for so long, An Youyu called out softly.

Only then did Lu Guizhou pull back his hand. The grayish-blue hue on the back of his hand gradually faded, but the shock on his face did not dissipate.

Old Chaotou and Tie Liangzi both stared at him, waiting for him to speak.

Lu Guizhou took a breath, doing his best to keep his voice steady.

"Youyu's force is above Two Hundred Fifty Pressure."

"Two Hundred Fifty?"

Old Chaotou abruptly straightened up.

"When we verified it at the anchorage, wasn't it still One Hundred Pressure?"

The few elders around the table were all stunned into silence for a long while.

Lu Guizhou's days of weariness vanished instantly, his eyes locked firmly onto An Youyu.

"Youyu, it's only been a few days, how did you gain so much?"

An Youyu met his gaze and pondered briefly.

He couldn't very well say he was merely regaining his past force.

"With that wild method from before, there was a point I could never figure out," he said. "After groping in the dark for two or three years, I finally sorted it out these past few days. The foundation I built up in the past is only now coming into play."

Lu Guizhou recalled their conversation on the day of residency registration and nodded.

An Youyu had mentioned early on that what he practiced was a wild method cobbled together by himself.

Proper fish registers contained postures, breath routes, and fixed stances left behind by predecessors, allowing one to simply step along the path step by step, whereas a wild method had none of these.

Stuck on a hurdle for a few years was hardly unusual.

Once understood in a sudden flash of insight, past accumulation would suddenly bear fruit—while the probability was tiny, it was still plausible.

However...

A wild method was a wild method after all.

Clearing a path ahead did not mean the path further on would work.

A single stray breath could damage an aperture and ruin an aspect, resulting in total loss and wasted effort.

Lu Guizhou understood the dangers, but the hand hanging at his side slowly clenched into a tight fist anyway.

Over the past two days, there had been no sign of the Tiger-Head Mushroom, yet the public account's funds were running dry. He guarded the commune hall, unwilling to miss even a piece of news of uncertain truth, hoping only to cling to a silver lining for Clown.

And right at this moment!!

An Youyu had risen!!

That One Hundred Pressure boy, laughed off by others as a mere warm-up act, now possessed the capital to hold out longer on the mast platform and fight for one more step forward!

The more Lu Guizhou looked, the less he could tear his eyes away, the corners of his mouth curling upward uncontrollably.

How could he be so dashing? How could he be so beloved?

How handsome he was!

"Good, good..."

He said it twice in succession, then looked closely at the youth before him once more.

"It seems I underestimated you before."

"For an ordinary Salamander Swim, Forming a Current at Two Hundred Pressure is already considered solid."

"You've crossed Two Hundred Fifty Pressure now, and your force is still dispersed, which means this Current Base still has room to grow."

"Practicing on your own, how much more do you feel you can grow?" Lu Guizhou asked.

"I can't say for sure. For now, it seems to have stopped here," An Youyu said. "Practicing with the original method hasn't added any more."

He did not report Three Hundred Pressure.

Before dispersed force Formed a Current, a practitioner could sense whether force was growing, but it was hard to estimate the exact pressure rating; usually, it required someone else to test and judge it.

In the past, he had practiced until he Formed a Current at Three Hundred Pressure, and the feeling from back then remained, allowing him to recognize which step he had recovered to. It was just that there was no need to speak of this number for now.

Lu Guizhou nodded.

"Stabilize this force first. If you can Form a Current at Three Hundred Fifty Pressure in the future, you will be a Rare Salamander."

Old Chaotou leaned closer to the table in an instant.

"Then that 'lay low' strategy we discussed before..."

"...will be even more useful," Lu Guizhou said. "Let them fight first, let them scramble for the platform, let them form alliances, let them wear each other down through a first round."

"Youyu, you still stick to the original play style: stay on the edges, avoid the strong, keep your true cards hidden, and wait until those who should fall have fallen and those who should tire have tired before going to claim the platform."

"In the past, we merely hoped you could endure until then."

"Now..."

Lu Guizhou looked at him.

"If you really endure until then, you'll actually have the qualifications to reach out and fight for it."

Old Chaotou had already grabbed the old Tide Battle records from the corner of the table.

"Just as I said!"

"Who's the warm-up act isn't decided yet!"

The few elders around the table all burst out laughing.

Lu Guizhou chuckled along with them.

However, the smile lingered on his face for only a brief moment.

Glancing outside the door, he suddenly braced himself against the table edge and leaned closer to the several white-haired heads.

"Joy is joy, but not a single word about this must leak out."

The laughter among them gradually faded.

"The strength of Salamander Swim lies in endurance, not frontal combat."

"And being above Two Hundred Fifty Pressure is still far from the point where you can withstand everyone ganging up on you."

"Right now, everyone outside thinks Youyu has only One Hundred Pressure, which is actually a blessing."

"If a few factions find out beforehand that he's grown stronger, they'll join hands to team up and drive him out the moment they enter the ring. No matter how resilient he is, he won't make it to the end."

Lu Guizhou paused.

"Back then, I revealed my cards far too early."

"Five factions set their eyes on me together, kicking me out in the very first round."

"We can't let Youyu suffer that same loss again."

Silence completely settled over the room.

The elder closest to the door stood up, walked over, and pulled the commune hall door shut tight.

"That 'lay low' strategy must be maintained starting right now."

"Whoever wants to laugh, let them laugh. Once out this door, Youyu remains the One Hundred Pressure tested at the anchorage."

Old Chaotou snapped the newly opened record book shut again.

"It's just enduring a few idle rumors."

"If we're willing to give up these old lives of ours, what's a little face?"

"As long as Clown Float-Commune doesn't disband, that's better than anything."