Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon
Salted Fish hurriedly said, “Don’t worry. Unless I want it to, nothing will be tainted by this salty smell of mine! I heard from Buddha that my salty smell is very unique. All my powers are in the salt, so wouldn’t I be out of work if I could give and take it at random?”
Only then did Fangzheng turn relieved. He waved his hand and said, “You can live in the Heavenly Dragon Pond, but you are not to turn its water salty. Jingzhen, you are in charge of teaching him the rules. If he doesn’t abide by the rules, feel free to snitch! Although our monastery is poor, we do have a few pickled vegetable vats.”
Salted Fish immediately turned exhilarated when he heard that as he thanked profusely.
When Fangzheng was gone, Salted Fish came to a realization. That’s not right! His entry into the Heavenly Dragon Pond would bring prosperity to the monastery! If the pond’s water turned into Buddhistic Glow Holy Water, it would bring about tremendous benefits! Furthermore, he was a fish. Wasn’t it only right that he lived in water? Why was he thanking him? F**k… This wasn’t going according to the script he had imagined.
Regardless of Salted Fish’s thoughts, Monkey came over and carried him away. They found a place without anyone as they began chatting.
In fact, One Finger Monastery did not have many rules. The main thing was to be obedient and not infuriate Master. They had to be civil and polite and were not to do anything immoral. Basically all the Buddhist precepts had to be maintained. Everything else was fine.
Upon hearing the rules, Salted Fish was delighted. It was much more relaxed than Mount Numinous!
However, Salted Fish immediately noticed something amiss. He asked Monkey, “Why are all of you disciples of the monastery, but as for me, I didn’t get any name or title?”
“To become Master’s disciple isn’t that simple. It’s best you cultivate well.” Now it was Monkey’s turn to posture. He raised his head and flicked his sleeve before walking off.
Salted Fish stroked his whiskers and smacked his lips. Looking at the monk and then the Heavenly Dragon Pond, he chuckled. “Not being a disciple is good too. I’m already a nine-trillion-year-old fish. To become a young monk’s disciple would be a disgrace!”
With this in mind, Salted Fish plunged into the Heavenly Dragon Pond and happily swam around.
However, his joy didn’t last long. Soon he realized the difference between a disciple and an outsider.
The sky gradually darkened, and the winds grew stronger. Although it wasn’t snowing at the moment, the wind blew the snowflakes on the ground into the air, making the scene no different from a snowy night scene.
However, this did little to affect Salted Fish. He floated on the surface of the Heavenly Dragon Pond and leisurely blew bubbles, mumbling to himself. “This sucky weather, this sucky place, this sucky Spirit Qi, this sucky monastery, this sucky pond…”
As he cursed, Salted Fish felt his stomach groaning. He was instantly taken aback as he touched his stomach, wondering to himself. “What is this feeling?”
Having lived for nine trillion years, Salted Fish naturally didn’t need to eat on Mount Numinous. All he needed to do was absorb Spirit Qi daily. Here on Earth, however, the Spirit Qi was not even a trillionth of that on Mount Numinous! It also meant that a single breath on Mount Numinous was enough to fill the stomach, and ten minutes of meditation were enough to completely satiate anyone. The fact was that on Mount Numinous, unless one had some personal food cravings, Spirit Qi would course through one’s body according to one’s breathing and cultivation technique. There would never be a lack of nutrients or the feeling of hunger. However, it wasn’t the same on Earth. There was just too little Spirit Qi around, and it was not enough to make up for the expenditure of energy. Therefore Salted Fish, who had not felt hunger in years, finally felt hungry! Furthermore, it was the kind of hunger that was enough to leave him dumbfounded!
As he rubbed his belly, his eyes stared straight ahead. After some time, he suddenly jumped up and laughed. “Ah! This is hunger! Hehe, it’s been years since I felt it. Tsk. It’s quite a novel feeling.”
As Salted Fish chuckled foolishly, his stomach groaned again a few minutes later.
Salted Fish shook his head and said, “Forget it. I’ll fill you up first.” Therefore Salted Fish opened his mouth wide and sucked in air.
Meanwhile, a gust of wind blew from the northwest. With that suck of air, it filled his mouth with cold wind! Salted Fish felt the cold wind enter his mouth, chilling his stomach. Even his intestines shivered. As for Spirit Qi? There was nothing at all! He could not help but shiver all over. Only then did he recall that he was in a different world. Furthermore, his divine powers had been sealed!
Salted Fish was instantly thrown into a panic. Without divine powers and Spirit Qi, what was he to do with his empty stomach? Eat? Salted Fish swept through his surroundings, but there was nothing to eat. To dive into the water and search for tiny fish or shrimp? Apart from some mud, there was nothing in the Heavenly Dragon Pond. And even if there was something, it wasn’t anything he could eat. Salted Fish was dumbfounded. His stomach was groaning, but he couldn’t find anything to eat. He was momentarily at a loss.
At that moment, a gust of wind blew. It wasn’t the same as the previous one but came from the direction of the monastery. Salted Fish subconsciously took a whiff as his eyes narrowed. He mumbled. “That’s the smell of Crystal Rice! Cooked from Unrooted Clean Aqua! Hmm. There’s also the smell of Frost Bamboo! And wait a minute, there’s other good things too! How fragrant…”
Upon catching a whiff of the fragrance, Salted Fish climbed out of the water, and he held his fins to his back like they were hands as he walked into the monastery. Without realizing it, he was already at the door to the backyard.
At that moment, in One Finger Monastery’s backyard, Fangzheng, Lone Wolf, Squirrel, Monkey, and Red Boy were seated around the table. There was a huge rice pot on the table, and two bowls of dishes by the side. One bowl had fried bamboo shoots, and the other was filled with fried vegetables. Although there wasn’t much of a variety, the food looked tantalizing.
It was even harder to just watch when the few of them started eating.
On the ground, Lone Wolf burrowed his head into the basin of rice, wolfing down his food without raising his head.
On the table, Squirrel’s two cheeks were completely rounded. He was having the time of his life eating.
Although Monkey ate slowly, there was plenty of rice in his bowl. As he ate, he mumbled. “Delicious.”
Red Boy ate rather quickly. As he chewed, he said, “Master, now that the weather has turned cold, it’s really imperative we eat more! Only by eating more will we feel warm.”
The moment that was said, Salted Fish felt like the air he breathed in had icicles in it. It left him truly cold…
Fangzheng had noticed Salted Fish’s arrival, but he didn’t say a word and ignored him.
Red Boy and company had seen him as well. With Fangzheng not saying a word, they naturally didn’t say anything either. They pretended to not see him and sped up their eating…
Salted Fish tiptoed and looked up the table. Seeing that the pot of rice was almost finished, he panicked, thinking, “Do they still not see me? Impossible, right?”
“Ahem.” Salted Fish coughed, hoping to attract everyone’s attention. From his point of view, with a guest around, there was no way they would be so thick-skinned as to not invite a guest like him to a meal, right? Otherwise, it would really be a social taboo they were breaking. At the very least, Salted Fish had used this method to successfully scrounge a meal several times.
However, the fellows in front of him didn’t react at all! Other than speeding up their eating, it was as though he was invisible!
Salted Fish had an ominous premonition as he thought, “Could it be that the shameless me has met people who are even more shameless?”
