The rank three mahi-mahi took them in a different direction, and before long, it made another sharp turn.
“What is going on? Why are there so many demon cultivators today? They’re all gathered in this area.”
Just as the words left its mouth, a faint vibration suddenly echoed from the seabed.
At the same time, an inexplicable force swept over them, instantly sucking Gu Ningyun and her four companions toward the source of the vibration. They vanished in the blink of an eye.
The rank three mahi-mahi instinctively tried to chase after them, but it only saw the silhouettes of five demon cultivators—four in the Qi Refining stage and one in the Foundation Establishment stage—disappearing into the vibration. Judging by their bone ages, none of these five were over thirty years old.
The remaining demon cultivators surrounded the spot where the passage had vanished and studied it for a long time. Like the rank three mahi-mahi, they were all barred from entry.
The rank three mahi-mahi was now in a complete panic.
It paced back and forth, staring at the spot where the five had vanished. “This part of the seabed has always been nothing but a field of rubble, completely ordinary.
“Since when was a passage hidden here? And it only allows cultivators with a bone age under thirty to enter.
“A Foundation Establishment demon cultivator followed them in.
“If those five little Buddhist cultivators run into him, how will they ever escape with their lives?”
The vibrations had long since subsided, and the rubble field was as calm as if nothing had ever happened.
If it hadn't seen the five vanish with its own eyes, the rank three mahi-mahi would never have imagined it.
Underneath a plain-looking boulder, in a place that was clearly just ordinary sand and stone, a passage could appear out of thin air.
The passage was inaccessible, and the area where it had vanished was surrounded by a group of Golden Core and Foundation Establishment demon cultivators.
Recalling the Nascent Soul stage demon cultivators that had appeared on the seabed of the East Sea before, the rank three mahi-mahi turned and fled. It headed straight for the Penglai Archipelago.
I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble. I've really done it this time.
If the little Buddhist cultivators die because of it, those big bald donkeys from Penglai will search every corner of the four seas to catch it and suppress it right under the Lecture Hall.
Recalling the experience of being plagued by sutras day and night, the rank three mahi-mahi instinctively shuddered.
Three hundred years ago, it was still just an ignorant little rank one mahi-mahi in the East Sea.
Once, it had stumbled into a strange place and eaten something.
A sensation it had never felt before flowed from its stomach to every part of its body, through its throat, and straight into its head, clearing the mists from its mind.
It suddenly gained intelligence, and its transverse bone dissolved.
Its cultivation also surged, breaking through from rank one to rank two.
It realized belatedly that it had found something good, but when it tried to return to that place to search again, it could never find it.
When it failed to find it, it didn't force the issue.
The sudden surge in cultivation and its newfound clarity of mind left it so excited it didn't know which way was up.
In an area with no rank three sea beasts, it quickly beat all the other small mahi-mahis and low-grade sea beasts into submission, beginning its path as a local tyrant.
Even if a rank three sea beast noticed something unusual and came to investigate, it could rely on its superior intelligence to lead the other fish and avoid them.
Until one day, on a sudden whim, it caught a little Buddhist cultivator, wanting to taste the flavor of a human cultivator.
Before it could even take a bite, the little Buddhist cultivator’s elder—a big bald donkey—suddenly appeared and saved the boy with a wave of his hand.
The pressure of a Soul Emergence stage cultivator pressed lightly on its back, making its fish bones creak and pop.
Its heart trembled. “My life is over!”
The pressure was suddenly withdrawn.
“Oh? A little fish that has gained intelligence and dissolved its transverse bone?”
A sandalwood alms bowl was flipped over, scooping up both the water and the fish.
Just like that, it was carried away in a bowl and placed on a stone table in the middle of the courtyard outside the Lecture Hall, becoming a piece of fish-based scenery.
The big bald donkey was named Wu Nian, and he was an elder of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect’s Lecture Hall.
He gave it a name: Jue Sheng.
Although the bowl was only the size of two palms, it had the effect of 'one bowl, one world.' The space inside the bowl was a tenth the size of its previous territory.
Jue Sheng settled down in front of the Lecture Hall.
Every day, it either listened to the baldies taking turns to chant sutras or listened to the big bald donkey lecturing it individually.
Whether it opened its eyes or closed them, whether it swam to the surface or sank to the bottom of the bowl...
What surrounded its ears were always sutras, sutras, sutras, and more sutras.
It was a fish, not a Buddhist cultivator! Why did it have to listen to sutras!
Jue Sheng was on the verge of a breakdown.
It deeply hated its past self for that one moment of greed when it caught that little Buddhist cultivator.
Three hundred years passed like this. It even broke through to become a rank three sea beast, and it felt like it was turning into a sutra-fish.
Finally, the big bald donkey moved, taking the sandalwood alms bowl with him as he traveled.
It took the opportunity when the big bald donkey wasn't looking to escape from the bowl.
The distance from the air to the surface of the East Sea was only six thousand meters, but it felt longer than ten thousand.
When it finally returned to the East Sea and dived thousands of miles into the depths, far away from the big bald donkey, it finally panted and calmed its racing heart.
Its former lackeys had already broken through to become rank two mahi-mahis, and a new generation of rank one mahi-mahis had grown up from fry.
It spent several months finding its old lackeys and then led them to find a brilliant underwater garden.
The three hundred years of austere life in the Buddhist sect had almost driven it mad. It immediately decided to seize this sea area and build its home here.
As for the rank three pearl oyster that had lunged out of the garden trying to eat it...
It lacked foresight and could only end up in its stomach, leaving its shell and pearls behind to decorate the new cave.
Having found a satisfactory residence, Jue Sheng was overjoyed.
The feeling of freedom was intoxicating. It immediately took its lackeys and patrolled around this brilliant sea area.
It was during this patrol that it keenly discovered five little bald heads in the neighboring Ten Thousand Crab Sea, a thousand miles away.
Bald heads?
Buddhist cultivators!
Qi Refining stage little Buddhist cultivators!
Jue Sheng’s rebellious streak flared up instantly.
It couldn't do anything to the big bald donkey, but it couldn't handle a few little Buddhist cultivators?
The big bald donkey forced a fish to listen to sutras, so it would force the little Buddhist cultivators to eat fish meat.
It was going to take all the suffering it had endured and vent it back on them.
Then, something happened that overturned its understanding as a fish.
These five little Buddhist cultivators had only been scared a little before they broke their practice and touched meat!
No, looking at their smooth and practiced movements, they were clearly experts at eating fish.
Jue Sheng didn't know why, but a sense of resentment that they didn't live up to expectations welled up in its heart.
It, a fish, had managed to persevere for three hundred years in the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect without touching meat.
How were these little Buddhist cultivators practicing their faith? They had turned into alcohol-and-meat monks.
Jue Sheng was furious, though it didn't know why.
It should have felt the satisfaction of revenge.
With a flick of its tail, it brought them to its newly established abode.
Since these little Buddhist cultivators weren't practicing properly, they could all get to work.
Didn't Buddhist cultivators value peace, tranquility, and returning to simplicity?
It was going to make them decorate its new abode as luxuriously as possible.
It had had enough of the monotonous and boring Lecture Hall; it liked things flashy and colorful.
Jue Sheng didn't want to say a single word to these little Buddhist cultivators, only signaling with its tail.
These little Buddhist cultivators had better have some sense and understand its meaning.
Otherwise, even if it meant being caught by the big bald donkey again, it would send these little Buddhist cultivators back to Penglai to let the big bald donkey and his fellow monks educate them properly.
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