Chapter 647: Willing Parties

As they reeled in their line, 3 figures eventually appeared from the Cloud Sea and giant fishes that differed in color were pulled up.

“These… These are Talisman Fishes!” Shang Xia gestured at the fishes and they turned into pieces of talismans. It contained instructions on how the trade fair would take place.

After those holding the talismans read through them, they passed them on to the others. Eventually, all 3 pieces returned to whoever held them first.

Glancing at each other, they sent a trace of extermination qi into the talisman in their hands and turned them back into talisman fishes that splashed about on the platform. No matter how hard they tried, they failed to toss their talisman fishes back into the Cloud Sea.

Soon after, they took out some treasures. With a giant leap, those fishes ate the treasures before jumping off the platform back into the Cloud Sea.

Shang Xia, Liu Qinglan, and Yun Yichen turned around to exchange a few words with Chu Jia and the others before handing the fishing poles to them.

Each of them sent a trace of their extermination origins into the Cloud Sea through the poles and 3 other talisman fishes were fished up.

With the same method, they brought out some treasures for the fish to swallow before tossing them back into the Cloud Sea.

At the same time, cultivators from the other platforms did the same.

When Shang Xia took back his fishing pole, his divine perception entered the Cloud Sea through the jade coin at the bottom. A hazy light surrounded the coin and extended 10 feet away.

It was also that time when a row of words appeared on the jade coin along with a loud chime. “Requesting for fate dipper essence!”

After the words appeared, Shang Xia closed his eyes and no longer bothered himself with the surroundings of the jade coin. His consciousness entered the talisman fish that contained his extermination origin earlier.

A flash of light filled the eyes of a fish in the Cloud Sea and it started to swim rapidly onwards.

The moment his consciousness descended, Shang Xia discovered that he was unable to control its movement. He was like a spectator who could see what the fish experienced as it swam through the sea of clouds.

It was then when undulations swept through the Cloud Sea. The fish Shang Xia’s consciousness flew out the surface and he noticed dozens of other fishes leaping out of the middle segment as they were brought to the core of the Cloud Sea.

That was where the fishing poles of the various holy lands of both worlds were gathered, and the 3 super factions were also present.

When Shang Xia’s fish entered the Cloud Sea again, it quickly started to swim towards a ball of red light that seemed to possess the ability to attract talisman fish.

By the time it closed in on the red light, Shang Xia discovered that there were 3 other fishes waiting close by.

A jade coin glowing a bright scarlet could be seen in the middle of the ball of light and from time to time, a talisman fish would approach it from different directions to tap the jade coin. They looked like sly fishes who were testing to see if the jade coin was bait.

Looking at the jade coin, Shang Xia knew that the words on it were related to the items the user wished to obtain. Those fishes who were dragged over probably had what they were looking for.

The red ball of light prevented the rest of the fish from approaching the jade coin. Only a single fish could enter the confines of the light at any point in time.

Shang Xia understood that the fisherman was probably interacting with the consciousness in the fish. When they reached an agreement, the fish would swallow the jade coin and be fished up by the other party.

On the platform, the fish would spit out the items from its belly and swallow the items provided by the fisherman for the deal to happen.

Next, the fish would return to the Cloud Sea and return to the owner of the extermination origin in its body. When it was brought back to its original owner, it would spit out the items it obtained and the deal would be considered complete.

The 3 super factions used such a complicated method to carry out the trade fair due to several reasons. One was to prevent several factions from intentionally raising the prices of items after reaching some sort of agreement, and the second was to protect the identities of both parties. They wanted to prevent any hatred or grudges from forming in case different parties managed to see what others obtained.

Of course, the larger the area covered by the light emitted by the jade coin, the stronger its ability to attract talisman fishes. That was the difference between the fishing poles used by cultivators from the 3 rings.

Not only were those in the higher rings closer to the core of the Cloud Sea, they could also draw over talisman fishes across a larger area.

From how he entered the core region and noticed crimson lights that extended 10 feet away from the jade coins, he knew that by extension, the light that came from his jade coin would only extend 5 feet away. Those from the lower ring would only be able to cover 3 feet. As such, those in the lowest ring wouldn’t have the least ability to attract other fishes.

Even though the 3 super factions promised that nothing fishy would take place in the trade fair, the status and strength of the various factions were naturally different. At the end of the day, the treatment they received was also different.

The next moment, the talisman fish that was tapping the jade coin within the ball of red light stopped. It seemed like they didn’t manage to reach an agreement as the talisman fish turned around to leave.

Shang Xia quickly tried to urge his fish to enter the area covered in the light, but it was useless. As he experienced earlier, he couldn’t control the fish his consciousness was trapped in.

One of the other fishes entered the region covered by the red light, and it started to tap against the jade coin…

As he was unable to control the movement of the fish, Shang Xia could only wait patiently outside the ball of light.

It didn’t take long before Shang Xia noticed an interesting phenomenon. After 5 fishes gathered around the ball of light, no other fishes were drawn over.

Of course, that could only mean that only 5 talisman fishes had treasures that the fisherman desired, but Shang Xia felt that the possibility of that happening was low.

Eventually, the second fish within the ball of light turned to leave, and the third fish that arrived entered.

If they still failed to reach a deal, Shang Xia would be the next in line.

Noticing the other talisman fishes around him, Shang Xia saw that there were only 3 others left. Soon, another fish swam over. Now that there were 5 of them gathered around the ball of light, Shang Xia felt that his guess was correct.

As he patiently awaited his turn, he felt a slight jolt in his consciousness.

He realized it didn’t come from the talisman fish he had placed his consciousness in. Instead, it was from his jade coin connected to his fishing pole back on the Tongyou Institution’s stone platform.