"Hu... hu..."
The old man lying crookedly in the little boat showed no sign of waking. A faint snore came from his nose,he was fast asleep.
From his appearance, he seemed to be around seventy or eighty years old.
His sparse, graying hair was tied haphazardly, his scalp mottled with age spots. He wore the coarse short jacket and knee-length trousers typical of a fisherman. His withered frame was so thin that it was nearly skeletal.
His two bare, dark arms looked like strips of dried meat, the tendons and veins twisted together beneath his skin.
Inside the small cabin hung a rain cloak, a hatchet, and some dried fish. Beside them were a small stove and a few chipped bowls and cups scattered around.
No matter how one looked at it, this was just an ordinary old fisherman making his living from the lake.
Seeing that the man didn't respond, Gu Fangchen was in no hurry. He rolled up the curtain, sat casually at the bow of the boat, and, as if entirely at home, reached for a freshly dried fish hanging on the line, tore off a strip, and started chewing it like a snack.
Crunch, crunch.
Old Man Ding's brow twitched, the faint sound of teeth grinding pricking at his ears.
Gu Fangchen chewed with relish.
Old Ding's dried fish was a masterpiece,in the game, it was a purple-quality delicacy, something that could be used to bribe quite a few NPCs.
In the game, item quality was divided into nine tiers: gray, white, green, blue, purple, gold, orange, red, and rainbow.
Food items, at best, usually topped out at gold quality.
He had always wondered just how delicious this dried fish must be to be rated purple.
Today, he finally got to taste it for himself.
Even to Gu Fangchen, who had grown up with modern flavor enhancers and artificial seasonings, it deserved high praise.
He smacked his lips thoughtfully,it was a bit salty, though.
With the dried fish dangling from his mouth, he set up the small stove, gathered some twigs from outside, and used a cracked bowl to scoop up lake water.
Then, rummaging expertly through the boat's clutter, he found a fire striker.
And just like that, he began boiling water as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Gudu, gudu...
Veins bulged on Old Ding's forehead; his eyelids twitched uncontrollably.
Whose boat was this again?
Why did this brat seem more familiar with it than he was?
He often misplaced his fire striker and would have to search for it half the day.
And yet this inexplicable boy had found it in an instant!
A sliver of suspicion arose in Old Ding's heart,could someone have been spying on him, unnoticed?
No, impossible.
Even putting aside whether someone stronger than him would bother watching, the youth before him clearly had no cultivation whatsoever.
After a while, Gu Fangchen hurriedly extinguished the fire, poured the boiling water into a bowl, and waited for the mountain breeze to cool it.
During the wait, he idly picked up a stone, tossed it a few times in his hand, then flicked it toward the lake, playing at skipping stones.
Pa, pa, pa, pa...
Listening to the rhythmic plops of the stones across the water, Old Ding's chest rose and fell. His breathing grew heavy. Finally, his fists clenched tight.
In the darkness, his eyes snapped open,cold and sharp as blades, brimming with killing intent.
He was old, but not dead.
And now even some yellow-haired brat dared to sit on his head and defecate at will!
So what if he was the Northern Garrison Prince's Heir?
Even if the Northern Garrison Prince himself came here, he would still have to show Old Ding proper respect!
Gu Fangchen seemed utterly unaware, still tossing stones one by one.
Pa, pa, pa, pa...
Old Ding sat up, his bony frame like a skeleton barely draped in skin, his gaze frigid as he stared into the night at Gu Fangchen.
Gu Fangchen suddenly turned his head.
"Killing me would be very easy," he said.
"I not only have no cultivation, but I also carry three kinds of rare incurable poison. You wouldn't even need to lift a hand,I probably wouldn't live past the next twenty-four hours."
Old Ding weighed the hatchet in his hand, chuckled coldly.
"And that's your reason for coming here to die?"
Gu Fangchen shook his head.
"I didn't come to die. On the contrary,I came to survive."
Old Ding's gaze flicked over the half-eaten dried fish, the blackened stove, and the rippling lake. His expression remained unreadable.
"This is your way of surviving?"
Gu Fangchen spread his hands.
"Don't you think it's quite the coincidence?"
He met the old man's eyes directly.
"The three things that the Martial Saint Ding Xingfeng hates most in his life,"
"Taking without asking. Wasting what's precious. And dragging others into trouble."
Old Ding was silent for a long moment before replying slowly,
"It seems your people know me very well,perhaps even better than I know myself."
Gu Fangchen did not correct the man's assumption of "your people."
In fact, he had let it stand intentionally.
If he wanted to make his actions reasonable, the best way was to borrow the name of the reclusive immortal sect to which the game's protagonist belonged.
When he heard Ding Xingfeng's words, he knew he had succeeded.
This old man was a high-level hidden NPC of White Horse Temple,one of the top neutral NPCs in the entire game, with terrifying background and power.
He was none other than one of Great Wei's seven second-rank grandmasters, the Undefeated Martial Saint, Ding Xingfeng!
Of course, improving this stubborn old man's favorability enough to unlock his quests and rewards was extremely difficult.
Almost every player got stuck at the first step,how to trigger dialogue.
Everyone knew that there was a hidden NPC near White Horse Temple, but no matter what you said to him, he would only reply with "..."
If not for some genius who had once discovered the key hint, who the hell could have guessed that the only way to trigger the dialogue was to deliberately commit the three things Ding Xingfeng hated most?
You had to push his favorability below zero before he'd even acknowledge your existence.
Utterly counterintuitive.
And after committing those three things, there was still an 80% chance he would immediately kill the player, with only a 20% chance of initiating dialogue.
So generally, anyone wanting to attempt the dialogue had to first make sure they could survive at least one strike from the Martial Saint.
Gu Fangchen now carried the fortune of the nation itself,only because of that did he dare to take such a gamble.
As long as Ding Xingfeng was willing to speak, everything else would be fine.
Gu Fangchen looked up at the sky, pretending to be mysterious, his tone solemn.
"There are always some people in this world who can grasp the fate beneath this sky with ease."
The withered old man opposite him sneered.
"Ha. You? Is it that heap of ruined mud you call a dantian that commands fate, or that poisoned body of yours that counts as fortune?"
Gu Fangchen: "..."
Still so vicious with the tongue, this old man.
He pretended not to hear, rolling a pebble between his fingers.
"Then let's make a bet."
Ding Xingfeng grinned, a hint of grim amusement crossing his face as he toyed with the hatchet.
"Since you know who I am, tell me,what qualifications do you have to bet with me? I don't care for your talk of so-called fortune. But killing you for sport,that I do find interesting."
Gu Fangchen smiled as well.
"Actually, I've already given a message stone to the Heaven Inspectorate, sealed with the three things the Martial Saint hates most."
"If I die, the restriction on that stone will automatically lift."
Ding Xingfeng: "..."
"Oh, wait,I think I wrote it wrong. I might've written 'the Martial Saint's disciple recruitment conditions' instead. With an address attached..."
"What are we betting?"
"Let's bet on the number of skips in the next stone throw."
Ding Xingfeng's interest deflated.
"That's your wager?"
Gu Fangchen calmly handed the stone to him.
"You throw."
Ding Xingfeng froze, then turned his head toward Gu Fangchen, his gaze suddenly changing.
Incredulous.
As though he were looking at an utter fool of cosmic proportions.
Gu Fangchen continued,
"I'll name a number, and you'll throw."
"If the number of skips matches what I say, you win."
He smiled brightly.
"If not, then I win."