Chapter 172: The Water Vein
On the riverbank.
Yuan Kong held a wooden stick, pointing it fiercely at a tightly trussed-up bighead fish, and angrily shouted:
"Where is the old monk you attacked a few days ago?!"
The bighead fish did not answer, only twisting its body frantically.
Chu Xingchen glanced at the bighead fish Yuan Kong was pointing at with his stick. To be honest, this fish demon... didn't look very demonic.
Unlike the land-based demons who could stand and walk and speak fluently at the Qi Refining Stage.
The demons in the water seemed much simpler, perhaps because they were less influenced by human cultivators.
This bighead fish was probably also a fish demon around the Qi Refining Stage, but compared to an ordinary fish, it only seemed a bit larger.
The tail was still a tail, the fish head was still a fish head, and right now, the bighead fish was still blowing bubbles.
It looked a bit foolish.
Looking at this fish's condition...
Chu Xingchen felt that it was questionable whether this fish could even understand human speech.
Li Xingtian had acted very quickly. Before Chu Xingchen even arrived, he had dragged this bighead fish ashore from the water's surface.
Yuan Kong naturally understood the reason and went up to interrogate it with his wooden stick.
Li Xingtian, on the other hand, reported to Chu Xingchen:
"The situation with these aquatic creatures underwater is not right. Those few fish and a turtle ignored me completely as if I weren't there, and they were all heading in one direction, as if with a clear purpose."
"Furthermore, these fish and the turtle have some unknown means of self-destruction. When they realized I was trying to stop them, they directly rushed at me and detonated. I only managed to scoop up this bighead fish."
"Aquatic creatures are inherently stupid, and not many of them can speak human language. Looking at this fish's appearance, it's probably exceptionally stupid even among fish. Even under normal circumstances, we wouldn't be able to get anything out of it. I just brought it up to see the situation."
Li Xingtian did not lower his voice, which caused Yuan Kong, who was originally interrogating the fish, to subconsciously look at Li Xingtian upon hearing this, and then glance at the large-headed fish blowing bubbles.
Yuan Kong silently threw the wooden stick in his hand into the water.
So it was a foolish fish from which nothing could be asked.
"Which direction were they going?" Chu Xingchen asked.
Li Xingtian pointed in a direction and said, "East."
Chu Xingchen nodded gently and chose to first take a look at the bighead fish that had been brought ashore.
His divine sense swept over it, and indeed, he discovered a faint, wisp of strange spiritual power that was about to dissipate on the left and right sides of the bighead fish's head.
Without the system's prompt, this seemingly nonsensical search for a person would indeed be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
But, if combined with the system's prompt, the context was very clear.
Currently, it seemed the system's hidden mission was triggered only after getting involved in this matter. Chu Xingchen had merely asked Li Xingtian to take a look, and the hidden mission was triggered.
So it was obvious that finding Yuan Jing was equivalent to participating in this matter. It seemed that Yuan Jing must have discovered something, and the story about the attack was probably different.
Chu Xingchen looked at Yuan Kong, whose expression was somewhat awkward, and said in a teasing tone:
"Are you still planning to continue the interrogation?"
"No..."
"Then should I smash this fish's head and make soup to nourish your brain?"
"I am a monk... I do not eat meat or fish."
"Then I'll buy you some walnuts to eat later."
He did not tease Yuan Kong any further.
Chu Xingchen and the other two headed east and soon understood what lay in that direction—a dam.
A dam that looked somewhat precarious, as if it would completely collapse with every impact of the floodwaters.
Chu Xingchen extended his divine sense to investigate and quickly discovered that there were demon creatures underwater, working hard to dismantle the dam.
So, the target of these demon creatures was this dam?
Chu Xingchen gave an order: "Xingtian, leave this place to me. Take Yuan Kong to check the other dams to see if the Abbot is there, especially the dams that still have people who haven't been evacuated."
"On the way, I remember there is a Yunze City nearby that hasn't been flooded yet. We'll meet at an inn there when the time comes."
Li Xingtian nodded in agreement without hesitation, grabbed Yuan Kong, who still hadn't grasped the situation, and transformed into a streak of rainbow light to leave.
Chu Xingchen looked at the few lesser demons before him, his gaze thoughtful.
Yunze City, Yue Lai Inn.
Chu Xingchen sat at a window-side seat on the second floor, flipping through a rather simple and ancient book before him.
Yunze City was also somewhat panicked at the moment. The floodwaters had not actually arrived yet, but the mood brought by the people fleeing the disaster had already spread throughout this not-so-large small city.
The government did not let the starving refugees into the city and had set up congee distribution sheds outside the city walls.
At this moment, inside and outside the city walls felt like different worlds, yet it was hard to say who was right or wrong.
The city was still operating normally, only there were more people discussing whether the great flood would also submerge Yunze City.
After all, the rain was still falling.
The dam that the lesser demons were dismantling had actually long lost its function; the floodwaters had already completely submerged the area behind the dam.
They couldn't be dismantling it just because they found it an eyesight, could they?
The control method of the mastermind controlling the lesser demons to dismantle the dam was very strange. Besides being able to intercept this particular segment of somewhat special spiritual power, there was no other way to tamper with the spiritual power.
It exploded upon contact.
Although its power was average, it was truly quite annoying.
However, with the system's prompt, Chu Xingchen understood the significance of dismantling this dam—the water vein.
Water veins and spirit veins were different.
Spirit veins were logical and well-founded. Their spiritual energy density, geographical trends, and flows could all be summarized and categorized, leaving little room for error.
Water veins, on the other hand, were a bit more mysterious.
They couldn't be easily summarized, and they would also change with the direction and volume of the water flow, unlike pure spirit veins.
Moreover, whether it was a water vein was not determined by the size of the water flow.
Perhaps an unremarkable stream could have a water vein flowing through it, while a surging tributary of a great river might not.
However, although they couldn't be easily categorized, some people had studied this out of boredom and found a method for locating water veins.
The book Chu Xingchen was flipping through now was about the methods of water veins.
It was clear that the Fortune Stealer mentioned by the system needed to complete a certain ritual to achieve their goal, and these water veins were the key points of the ritual.
Rather than searching for a needle in a haystack, it was better to prepare a net and take action to solve the problem at its root.
However... the preparations for casting the net were a bit troublesome—Chu Xingchen had no idea what a water vein was.
So now, he could only hold this book and start cramming.
Dammit! Cultivation also required reading to supplement one's knowledge!
Moreover, this stuff was written a bit too mysteriously, like advanced mathematics, with the main principle being that it wasn't meant to be understood.
After a long while, Chu Xingchen closed the book and looked out into the curtain of rain.
Li Xingtian had finally arrived.
Calculating the time, Li Xingtian had already been gone with Yuan Kong for three days. There weren't actually that many nearby dams if you counted them.
For a Golden Core expert like Li Xingtian, it wouldn't take long to inspect them all. So, the fact that he hadn't returned after three days probably meant he had found Yuan Jing.
And had likely been kept behind by Yuan Jing to lend a hand. However, Li Xingtian's character wasn't one to be swayed by Yuan Jing's words.
I didn't expect Yuan Jing to be so tough. This must be a case of good people being rewarded, right?
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