Chapter 602 - 413: Great Lake and Big Fish

’Fifth-Layer Golden Core already?’ Fang Qingyuan hadn’t expected his Cultivation Realm to reach this level so quickly. He’d originally thought that even after switching to the *Liu Yu Celestial Demon Transformation*, it would still take him another ten years.

It seemed that as long as he had enough spiritual materials, the Immortal Mansion was the best tool for advancing his cultivation. Cultivation Method Manuals and the like were all secondary.

Back when he first formed his Golden Core, the Immortal Mansion had devoured the Spiritual Qi for a thousand li around, instantly raising his cultivation to the Golden Core Third-Layer Perfection realm. A feat like that was more miraculous than any Miracle Elixir.

Now, Fang Qingyuan was repeating this process. He had the Immortal Mansion devour large quantities of the Spiritual Qi-infused black soil, causing it to expand. This, in turn, passively raised his cultivation level.

Inside the Immortal Mansion, the area had grown from its original sixty li in diameter to its current massive size of nearly seventy li in diameter.

Because the space was circular, every li the diameter grew resulted in a massive increase in the total area. Though the diameter had grown by less than ten li, the actual added area was more than a third of the original size.

The special properties of the black soil were the main factor here. Fang Qingyuan discovered that absorbing physical materials infused with Spiritual Qi allowed the Immortal Mansion to expand far more than simply absorbing raw Spiritual Qi.

In the Immortal Mansion’s Purple Bamboo Forest, the Bee Queen was hibernating, leaving Nanli and Jinbao in charge. These two, once bitter rivals, had matured a great deal after everything they had been through.

"Can you feel it? The Spiritual Qi concentration here is ten percent higher than before."

Nanli offered her calm analysis. Jinbao, on the other hand, just looked lazy. Having spent so much time together, they could understand each other even without the Bee Queen’s Mind Divine Techniques.

"Let’s go find Yinbao and catch some Silverfish in the river."

Jinbao suggested suddenly. The Immortal Mansion was only so big, and there wasn’t much to do for fun. The only real entertainment was in the few large lakes and the great river, where various fish had been stocked. Among them were some high-quality specimens rich with Spiritual Qi, but they were meant as food for Yinbao. Whenever Jinbao got a craving, he would use the excuse of "playing with Yinbao" to go down to the river and catch a few for himself.

Given Yinbao’s current size, its food consumption had to be measured in tons. Fang Qingyuan had no choice but to create several more large lakes within the Immortal Mansion. He even carved out a great river, hundreds of meters wide, that snaked through the million-mu Spirit Field. This was all done to raise fish and shrimp as a food source for Yinbao, and to serve as a massive water reservoir.

"Go by yourself if you want. I need to cultivate. I have a feeling I’m about to break through, so don’t bother me."

Nanli strode away on her slender legs, disappearing deep into the Purple Bamboo Forest. She left Jinbao to stand there, fantasizing about the delicious taste of big fish. His mouth began to water, and he quickly wiped his chin with a paw.

"Hmph. Fine, don’t go. I’ll find Yinbao myself. ’Now, what tasty treat should I get from him this time?’"

After Jinbao departed, deep within the Purple Bamboo Forest, Nanli stood atop a particularly thick, crimson-red bamboo stalk.

As Nanli cultivated, an illusory flame flowed from her body onto the Fire Bamboo beneath her. It coursed down the stalk and into the rhizomes, staining the entire vast root system—buried dozens of zhang deep—a vibrant red.

At the same time, the Primordial Qi Sun in the sky above the Immortal Mansion cast down more flames of primordial qi toward Nanli’s location. This energy landed on her body, causing the crimson flames enveloping her to burn even more intensely.

.....

"Yinbao! I came to see you! Are you up yet?"

Jinbao stood on a small island in the center of a ten-thousand-mu lake. He squatted down and patted the loose soil.

A moment later, the island in the middle of the lake suddenly began to rise. Then, two enormous eyes opened upon its surface.

"Jinbao, is it time to eat fish again?"

Yinbao sensed Jinbao on his back. His bat-like wings twitched slightly, stirring huge waves in the great lake. The large fish that had been swimming nearby scattered in fright.

"Yup, yup! It’s fish-eating time! Let’s go catch some together."

Jinbao’s furry bear face was beaming with joy. Life in the Immortal Mansion was simple and unadorned. For Jinbao, catching big fish with Yinbao was all the satisfaction he needed.

"Hold on tight, then. I’m diving."

Yinbao’s immense body displaced the waves, carrying Jinbao as he began to descend—ten zhang, a hundred zhang, all the way down to a depth of a thousand zhang.

The water pressure at this depth was terrifyingly high. Only because of his Innate Divine Techniques could Yinbao ignore it as if it were nothing.

It should have been pitch-black this deep, but near the lakebed, the darkness was broken by patches of glowing giant clams that shimmered with multicolored light.

As the giant clams opened and closed, the soft flesh within gnawed on the silt, filtering it for nutrients.

"Does it feel deeper than last time, Yinbao? Can you feel it?"

"The Seven-Colored Giant Clams our master put here have multiplied again. They just eat, eat, eat, and they dig while they eat. That’s why it keeps getting deeper. We should probably tell Master about this."

"Yeah, but let’s fill our stomachs first. Say, the number of Saw-toothed Tiger Fish has been dwindling lately. You don’t think we’ve been coming here too often, do you?"

Jinbao and Yinbao fell into deep thought. However, even with their heads put together, the two weren’t exactly brilliant. The Saw-toothed Tiger Fish fed on the Seven-Colored Giant Clams. With these two constantly preying on the Tiger Fish, how could the clam population *not* explode?