The Most Extreme Debt Collector in History

If Jiang Mian had known the saying "It's easier to invite a god than to send one away," he would have taken Ao Juan's arrival as the "seafood enhanced version" of that proverb playing out in reality.

Ao Juan simply moved in as if it were his right.

He didn't have much luggage—only a storage artifact that looked ordinary enough, but nearly froze Jiang Mian's fingers off when he touched it. Then, this Dragon Prince began applying his "extremely driven" behavioral code to ruthlessly "upgrade and overhaul" Jiang Mian's salted-fish lifestyle.

On the first day, before dawn, while Jiang Mian was still drooling in his beloved seaweed hammock, he was rudely awakened by a sharp jet of water.

Bleary-eyed, he opened his eyes to see Ao Juan hovering before him in fitted attire, full of vigor, his golden eyes devoid of any drowsiness—only brimming with "ambition."

"What hour is it, and you're still sleeping?" Ao Juan's voice was even colder than the millennium-old freezing water current at the door. "Rise at cockcrow and practice to seize the day! It's already the Hour of the Rabbit—get up and cultivate!"

It took Jiang Mian a full minute to figure out what time "the Hour of the Rabbit" actually was, and then he let out a protest from the depths of his soul: "Brother, there are no roosters down here on the seabed!!"

The protest was无效.

He was yanked out of his warm hammock and forced into the first "morning exercise" of his life as a member of the Jiaoren Clan.

Ao Juan had drawn up an absolutely demonic training plan for him.

At the Hour of the Dragon, practice controlling water currents. Goal: Within the time it takes to burn one incense stick, use the smallest amount of force to lift three thousand tiny pearls buried in the sand and gravel of the seabed.

Jiang Mian's best result: Using all his strength, he managed to lift a starfish that was dozing off.

At the Hour of the Snake, refine Spiritual Energy. Requirement: Compress Spiritual Energy into a needle and pierce a piece of drifting kelp ten meters away.

After half a day of effort, Jiang Mian successfully pushed the kelp even farther away.

At the Hour of the Horse, physical training. Content: Swim one hundred laps around the Salted Fish Retirement Sanctuary Trench while carrying a load.

Jiang Mian swam less than half a lap before pretending to be swept away by an undercurrent, found a coral cave, and fell asleep.

...

After a few days, Jiang Mian had lost weight all over, and beneath his sea-blue eyes hung dark circles that perfectly matched his salted-fish disposition.

He felt this was no longer simple "encouragement"—it was torture, an inhumane double assault on both mind and body!

"I protest!" That evening, Jiang Mian finally couldn't take it anymore. He slammed a plate of fluorescent sea prawns—grilled to crispy perfection and fragrant—onto the stone table in front of Ao Juan, and said indignantly, "This is my home! You can't treat me like this! I demand the restoration of my fish rights—to sleep until I naturally wake up, to have irregular meals, and to daydream whenever I'm free!"

Ao Juan picked up a grilled prawn with elegance, used a small cleansing spell to remove the shell, and then took a slow, deliberate bite.

He had to admit, the taste was really quite good.

He glanced at the fuming Jiang Mian and said flatly, "I'm doing this for your own good."

"For my own good?" Jiang Mian's voice went up an octave in anger. "Have you ever seen anyone do someone good by nearly working them to death? I was originally going to live a thousand years, but at the rate you're training me, I'll be seeing the ancestors of our Jiaoren Clan by next week!"

"Your talent isn't bad at all." Ao Juan set down the half-eaten prawn and looked at him sternly. "In fact, I'd say you're the most gifted member of the Jiaoren Clan I've ever met. But you're far too lazy, wasting all that talent for nothing."

"I like it that way! My life goal is to waste my talent!" Jiang Mian retorted, utterly unashamed.

"No." Ao Juan's stance was even firmer. "The Calming Sea Pearl is inside you. Every breath you take consumes its Spiritual Energy. If you refuse to improve, taking out without putting in, one day you'll be drained dry. By then, not only will you die, but the Calming Sea Pearl will also be damaged from Spiritual Energy depletion. I'm helping you, and I'm helping it too."

Jiang Mian was stunned speechless by his words.

Really? Was it that serious?

He lowered his head and looked at a faint ring-like halo that had appeared around his wrist at some point, like a tattoo. The halo was resonating with the Calming Sea Pearl he'd placed on the corner of the table as a nightlight.

He did feel like his energy hadn't been as good lately, but he'd thought it was just because he hadn't slept well.

"Then... we can't train like this!" Jiang Mian's momentum weakened, and he started bargaining. "Can we... take it step by step? Like, change the wake-up time from the Hour of the Rabbit to the Hour of the Snake?"

"No." Ao Juan refused without mercy. "The path of cultivation is like sailing against the current—if you don't advance, you retreat."

He picked up another grilled prawn and continued eating with elegance, all while issuing a new command in an unquestionable tone:

"After this meal, copy Fundamentals of Spiritual Energy in the Four Seas one hundred times. I'll check tomorrow morning."

With that, he flicked his finger, and a thick blue-covered tome—heavy enough to crush a lantern fish—landed with a "thwack" right in front of Jiang Mian.

Jiang Mian stared blankly at the book, then at Ao Juan, feeling that his fish life had already turned completely black and white.

He couldn't understand why people like Ao Juan even existed.

Someone who only needed to sleep one hour a day and was still full of energy, trained like a madman, never forgot anything he read, was insanely strict with himself... and just as insanely strict with others.

Jiang Mian felt that if he didn't escape soon, he'd really "die young."

Late at night, when Ao Juan finally sat cross-legged in meditation and began his unshakable one hour of "sleep," Jiang Mian quietly slipped out of his hammock.

He glanced at the book on the table—Fundamentals of Spiritual Energy in the Four Seas, not even half-copied yet—and then at Ao Juan, who was still exuding an "ultra-driven" aura even in the darkness. A glint of determination flashed in Jiang Mian's eyes.

The time had come!

For the dignity of the salted fish! For the ideal of lying flat!

Tiptoeing, he floated to the doorway, carefully avoided the tiny water-current vortexes Ao Juan had set up to monitor him, and then retrieved from a crevice in a coral a "prison break" tool he'd prepared long ago—

A giant tooth, fallen from some unknown sea beast.

Jiang Mian raised the tooth, which was taller than he was, aimed it at the weakest wall of the conch shell, and took a deep breath.

If he could just dig a hole here, he'd escape to freedom!

But at that very moment, a voice as cold as a curse from the deepest abyss of the sea rang out behind him:

"You're going to... dig through my wall... with my tooth?"

Jiang Mian's movements froze on the spot.