Chapter 139: Antique

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Yuchi had already been in this world for over ten years.

During this time, he had fought many ancient creatures and monsters through fishing.

Although there had been many difficult battles, in the end, he had emerged victorious and survived until this day.

However, he had suddenly obtained a city-guarding saber through fishing?

Yuchi was dumbfounded.

Based on his current understanding of the ancient era, there should have been many races who had fought and eventually died in the water. The fishing rod was able to communicate with the ancient era and summon these ancient remnant souls.

In other words, these ancient creators and beings were all alive in the past!

This was a crucial point.

A soul would only exist in a living being. It was impossible for him to catch a stone while fishing.

Thus, if Yuchi’s judgment about this was correct, then the fact that he had managed to catch a city-guarding saber this time meant that this weapon had somehow gained consciousness back then.

The consciousness was probably not acquired through its own means, but was likely created when its wielder gradually integrated their will into the ot when they fought the enemy.

After the wielder died on the battlefield, this saber was left behind and inherited some of the wielder’s will.

This was an antique, but not in the traditional sense. It was not about the age of the item. After all, could an antique be compared to a stone on the roadside?

It could be argued that the stone had existed for far longer than this saber. A real antique had to be imbued with the person’s will, for example, the calligraphy and paintings of famous artists, the weapons used by famous generals, and so on.

These wills might be good or bad, gentle or rough, kind or cruel. The similarity between them was that the wills were strong.

These kinds of wills were instilled into these paintings and weapons, and gradually passed down to descendants and collectors. The people who obtained these antiques could use the will imbued within as inspiration to create their own achievements.

Antiques did not just have monetary value because of their age, but also intrinsic value because of what they represented.

Outside the pavilion, Yuchi stared blankly at the sky and muttered to himself, “According to the description of this weapon, this saber once experienced a bloody battle. I guess the wielder’s willpower was strong enough to imbue itself into this saber, which is why it ended up on the end of my fishing line.”

Of course, these were only speculations. He was not sure.

In addition, there were many problems with this line of thinking.

First off…

Why had he never encountered something similar before?

Could it be that no one in the Netherworld Sea or Vast Ocean possessed a strong enough will to imbue it into their weapons?

The answer was a definite no.

However, he did not need to worry about this question now. After all, today’s incident could have happened by chance.

If he encountered more of these weapons in the future, he might be able to discover more clues.

“Let’s figure this out later.”

“If this is not a coincidence, then I should be able to gain some understanding of the ancient era through these things.”

Yuchi sat down again when he thought of this.

…

The pavilion was only a meter away from the river. From the pavilion,he could see many fishes under the surface of the water. He did not know what species they were, but although they did not look very big, they splashed around like lively critters.

He closed his eyes and allowed the snow to fall on his body as he calmed his heart and entered a state of meditation.

Yuchi started to comprehend the Heavenly Dao.

At present, not only could he obtain Dao aura through the battles with these ancient existences, but he could create skills by comprehending the Heavenly Dao.

Once the skill was successfully created, it could be integrated into his sea of consciousness.

For example, when he had fought Fan Yuhe he gained insight into many of the latter’s skills.

These skills naturally transformed into the small light balls of Heavenly Dao. After these small balls were shattered, his Dao aura increased.

However, only different skills could increase his Dao aura. Deciphering and comprehending the same skill would not continuously increase his Dao aura.

This was something that could be easily acknowledged.

If a person only ate one type of food in their life, they would never know how delicious the other dishes were.

Only by eating different types of food could one gradually increase one’s palate and understanding of food.

Different dishes required different cooking techniques to create. Although Yuchi could already try to create new skills, it was still quite difficult. However, if he deciphered the skills of others, he would gain a basic understanding of how that element of the Heavenly Dao functioned.

This was a learning process.

The basics of learning started with borrowing the knowledge of others. This was also how civilization developed and advanced.

…

The next day, at about 12:00 noon, Yuchi opened his eyes and temporarily halted his comprehension of the Heavenly Dao.

His eyes were calm.

The river water flowed calmly, and the fish under the water looked at the man sitting in the pavilion with curiosity.

Soon after, a new fishing notification appeared in his mind.

[Fishing difficulty level: C-grade]

It was the same as yesterday. There was a 100% success rate. However, this time, Yuchi chose to jump into the river, causing a splash.

In the river, not only did the fish not show any fear, but they also surrounded Yuchi, swimming alongside him.

Then, the fish seemed to sense danger and swam upstream.

Yuchi noticed that the space around him was becoming clearer.

“This is different from what I saw many years ago.”

Yuchi was slightly confused.

When he was fishing in the Netherworld Sea, he had jumped into it as well.

The Netherworld Sea was like an abyss. He could barely see anything else inside the sea except for the monster he was fighting.

Then, when he went fishing in the Vast Sea, the surroundings became slightly clearer. He could see some hazy reflections of the space beyond.

He did not know whether these reflections were reflections of light or of some memories of that ancient era.

In the past few months, no noteworthy ancient creatures had appeared in the Vast Sea, so it had been a while since he had entered the sea to fight.

Even when he was fighting the Vast Sea Dragon King, it was on the surface of the water.

If he had not encountered the saber yesterday, he would not have dived in today.

Now…

The situation was very different.

He could hear some sounds around him. It was quite noisy, but it was not caused by the fish or water.

Other scenes also appeared around Yuchi. The scenes were hazy, like the reflection of the moon on a muddy puddle.

In one of these slightly blurry reflections, he could see a dead soul holding a horse-chopping saber.

When the dead soul saw Yuchi, it immediately launched a relentless attack on him.

Yuchi stood in place, allowing the dead soul to slash frantically at his body. His body would not be injured by such attacks.

He was trying his best to observe his surroundings, trying to gradually figure out the scene in the reflection through his understanding of the Heavenly Dao.

Then…

While being attacked by the dead soul, he suddenly succeeded…

The twisting reflection gradually stabilized, and the ripples in the water were gently smoothed out. Inside, he saw an unbelievable but very real scene.