My Disciples Reach Foundation Establishment and I Instantly Ascend With Ten Thousandfold Return - Chapter 11:

Chapter 11: Casting a Net in the Bitter Sea—Is He Even Human?

The black sea Su Wenjiu was in now wasn’t some so-called illusion. It was a real space.

Illusions were inherently limited. Although the stronger the caster, the more realistic it could be, illusions were still illusions and could never compare to the real world.

Everything she experienced and saw just now didn’t seem like anything an illusion could conjure.

At that thought, Su Wenjiu’s breathing quickened, and despair slowly crept across her face.

If that was the case, then her chances of getting out were slim.

But what she truly couldn’t understand was—how could such an existence be hidden within this small mountain?

Looking up, snow began to fall from the sky, making her heart grow even colder.

“No, I can’t die here. I must get out.”

Su Wenjiu gritted her teeth and flew toward the only visible reference—the white lotus.

In such an environment, without a point of reference, even a highly skilled cultivator would lose direction.

…

“It’s snowing again?”

In the courtyard.

Zhong Qing, lying on a recliner reading, put down the book in his hand and slowly looked up at the snowflakes drifting past the door.

Zhong Qing actually liked snowy days. Since ancient times, there had been a saying: ‘A timely snow promises a good harvest.’

He once dreamed of being a swordsman riding through a snowstorm.

He remembered it clearly—it was at his grandmother’s house in the countryside in his previous life, during the season when pear blossoms bloomed across the mountains. As a child, he’d taken a white plastic sheet from a bag of urea fertilizer, cut it into a rectangle, and draped it over his back like a cape.

Then he chopped down a piece of bamboo from behind the mountain, tied a red string around it, and fastened it to his waist.

Snowstorm raging, the swordsman rode out. Within 300 meters, no blade of wild grass remained unbent.

Even after transmigrating here, he kept that xianxia dream for quite some time.

But that dream had long been worn down by the dog system that refused to give him any cultivation.

Even now, with the waste tie system finally activated, it was still hard to recapture the hot-blooded passion of his teenage years.

After all, he didn’t need to cultivate. His cultivation increased even while lying down.

So, if that’s the case, why bother working hard?

Let things flow naturally.

Though he wasn’t yet invincible in the world, with the boost from the waste tie, he’d eventually become so.

Of course, he still needed to find a second waste disciple.

Once he had one, the cultivation feedback would increase to ten thousandfold—and that was with both disciples stacked together.

But since the dog system hadn’t given him any hints, Zhong Qing had no choice but to go with the flow for now.

Still, being idle all the time made him unbearably bored.

So he got up, picked up his homemade bamboo fishing rod from the corner, put on his white robe and bamboo hat, and walked out the door toward the small pond behind the mountain.

This pond also came from a sign-in reward.

Zhong Qing knew the system never gave ordinary things. Although he still didn’t know the pond’s exact function, he knew the system named it Bitter Sea, which didn’t stop him from fishing in it.

In all the years he’d lived alone on the mountain, especially when he had no cultivation and couldn’t survive on spiritual energy, this pond had been one of his main food sources.

However—

Just as he reached the pond, he couldn’t help but stare blankly.

Because inside the pond, a woman of extraordinary beauty was thrashing wildly.

At times she looked desperate, sometimes she broke down in pain, and sometimes she tried to cheer herself up before continuing to thrash about.

This scene looked ridiculous to Zhong Qing, who stood on the shore.

But he was long used to this.

He had obtained the Bitter Sea through sign-in four years ago and had placed it here ever since. Over the years, it wasn’t rare for living creatures to mistakenly fall in.

There had been ordinary birds and beasts, as well as spirit beasts with decent cultivation.

Once they entered the Bitter Sea, apart from a few that drowned, all of them would panic and run around within its boundaries, unable to escape for a long time.

When he first discovered this strange phenomenon, Zhong Qing had also been puzzled.

Curiosity eventually overwhelmed him, and he’d gone down there many times.

But the strange effect never happened to him.

The water only reached his chest. Diving through or kicking a little harder could get him from one end to the other.

Of course, Zhong Qing figured it made sense. He was, after all, the master of this Bitter Sea. The strange phenomenon not affecting him was understandable.

Still, this was the first time a person had fallen in—and it was a woman.

But he had experience.

He had long prepared a fishing net at the shore.

The net’s purpose was to pull out dead animal bodies to reduce contamination. Sometimes when he came across spirit beasts that looked tasty, he’d improve his meals. If they weren’t dead or appetizing, he’d release them—because watching them thrash about during fishing was annoying.

So, facing this woman, he didn’t hesitate. He aimed and cast the net.

…

Inside the Bitter Sea, Su Wenjiu was on the verge of collapse.

Her proud cultivation felt utterly powerless here.

No matter how hard she tried to fly or bombard the sea with force, it was all futile.

Just as she hovered at the edge of breakdown, she suddenly noticed a massive net appear in the sky above her.

Waves of shock surged through her.

This boundless black sea… and now a net from the sky?

She instinctively tried to dodge it, but quickly realized—the net covered everything she could see. She had no chance to resist and was instantly caught.

The next moment—

She felt a tremendous force pulling her in one direction.

In that moment, it was as if her body passed through space, crossed galaxies. Her head spun, and her mind went blank.

But just as her mind blanked out, a warm voice rang beside her.

“Miss.”

Su Wenjiu shivered, opened her eyes, and saw a young man in white robes wearing a bamboo hat standing next to her.

The young man looked gentle and refined. He held a bamboo fishing rod, with snow accumulated on his shoulders, and was calmly looking at her.

In that instant, Su Wenjiu was startled. She instinctively backed away.

After two steps, she found herself at the edge of the Bitter Sea.

Turning around, she saw the black water pond—about 6 meters long and wide—and finally realized she had escaped from that vast, endless black sea.

“I… I actually got out!!!”

Su Wenjiu was shocked and overjoyed, almost bursting into tears.

In her excitement, she looked back at the young man again.