Chương 15: The First Time Fishing and the First Catch

Approaching the shore, An took the stick he had brought from the Scripture Pavilion and pulled the fishing line and hooks from his pouch. Fiddling around for a few minutes, he managed to fashion himself a functional fishing rod. After checking that everything was secure, he carefully laid it on the ground so the line wouldn't tangle and went back to where the bird had been pecking. Arriving there, he saw that the rooster was already unconscious.

The bird was lying on its back, snoring loudly with a huge, distended belly. Digging into the ground with his bare hands, An managed to find more than ten fat worms. He wrapped them in a leaf like a small envelope and returned to the shore. Taking up his fishing rod and baiting the hook, he began to fish. An hour passed.

"Is there really no fish by the shore? I cast the line almost thirty meters out, and still no bites..." He hadn't caught a single fish, there wasn't even a nibble.' Maybe I should surround the hook and bait with my Qi? Since it's the Wood element, it should make for very good bait according to the book Know Whose Tracks These Are.' Pulling the hook out of the water, An took it in his hand and began enveloping it with his green energy. Having done that, he cast the hook with the worm back into the lake.

As soon as he sat down on the shore, the float, made from a hollow piece of wood, began to twitch violently.

"Something bit!" Jumping to his feet, An gripped the fishing rod tightly and, with a sudden jerk, ran away from the shore. He didn't have a more sophisticated way to retrieve the line yet. As soon as he started running, he felt a heavy resistance in the water.

"Come on, Kavana fruits! Work! I've already eaten over a hundred of you for a reason!" With a shout, An put all his strength into pulling his catch from the depths. After several minutes of struggle, he finally managed to pull the fish out, dragging it deep onto his plot. He threw down the rod and ran toward the catch. Picking up a large log from the ground, he swung with all his might and smacked the fish on the head. One hit was enough to send the fish's head flying apart in all directions.

An stood rooted to the spot, his eyes wide with surprise. He first looked around, then stared at his own hands.

"So the high vitality and the fruits have made my body much stronger. Even in just two days, the fruits alone have increased my physical strength by 20%..." Putting the rod aside, An decided to find out exactly what kind of catch he had landed. Walking around the fish in circles, he realized he had caught a Black-Bellied Vurdya. This fish looked more like a snake, with a body about a meter long and thirty centimeters thick. Its head was like a sole, serving as armor, and it had very large, almost human-like lips.

Its coloring was completely black. It was named for its feeding method, it opens its mouth and scrapes the bottom of lakes and rivers, eating dirt along with the earth, hence the strange name. Examining the fish again, An used Qi threads to gut it as best he could. Even though he had never done this in his first life, he managed to lay out the pieces of fish on leaves he had gathered nearby. Returning to the shore and his stove, An began to light the fire.

Once the coals were ready, he placed the pieces of fish on top of the stove. Sitting next to the fire, An expected the delicious aroma of fried fish. But to his surprise, the smell emanating from the cooking meat was more like a mix of rotting dirt and swamp. Holding his nose, he moved further away. He checked on its progress from time to time, quickly running up and then darting away from the stench. Before his next check, he created a membrane made from his Qi to block his nose.

Realizing this worked, he tried to replicate the protective membrane Senior Brother Zen had used in the arena, but without a talisman. After a few failed attempts, he finally succeeded, but he immediately ran into a problem, his Qi reserves in his dantian were insufficient to maintain a full-body membrane for long. He decided to only envelop himself when he approached the fish. After several checks, An realized the fish was finally ready.

Taking it off the fire, he wrapped the pieces in leaf envelopes and sat by the shore, far from the stove. Unwrapping one and looking at the fish, he didn't notice anything wrong with the Qi flows around the fried meat. Blowing on it to cool it down, An took a piece with his fingers and put it in his mouth." Ugh, disgusting..." He grimaced and was about to spit it out when he suddenly felt the meat releasing its spirituality into him.

After quickly swallowing the piece, he checked his body and realized the fish had provided a tiny, pure particle of Qi that settled into his dantian. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Wow! So this fish really did reach the first rank?" The bestiary mentioned that visual differences between zero-rank and first-rank beasts aren't always obvious. Even from the flows, An couldn't accurately determine its rank, as it was on the borderline. Only when a beast releases its Qi into the environment can its exact level be known. Eating all the pieces, An felt that the Qi in his dantian had increased by about 0. 02% of its total volume. He wondered if that was too much energy from just one fish.

After thinking, he realized it was likely because of the fish's dominant element. If it had been fire, for example, he probably wouldn't have been able to catch it, the fish simply wouldn't have bitten his Wood-saturated bait. After eating, he gathered all the waste from the fish and threw it into the water, right in the spot he intended to use for fishing in the future. Once he finished, it was time for cultivation. Sitting comfortably, he began his practice.

This time, he managed to complete two cycles, spending the entire night on them. In between, he simply lay on his back and looked at the sky.' When I started cultivating, the sun was just setting, and after only two cycles, it's already getting light.' An sighed, watching the stars. He noticed how the bird was sitting next to him, sleeping. After watching the sleeping bird for a while, he took out two fruits and placed them next to the chicken. The next morning, An decided to continue fishing.

Preparing everything, he sat on the shore opposite the place where he had scattered the remains of the Black-Bellied Vurdya the day before. This time, he immediately began using his Qi. As soon as he cast his hook, the float started twitching. Feeling the force on the other end of the line, An managed to pull a small green fish out of the water with a few sharp movements. Checking his memory, he found a similarity to the description of a Flat Eel.

It was round and flat in appearance, like a frisbee disc, with a small head. An immediately killed it with a Qi thread and began preparing it. The smell from this fish was even worse than the previous one, but after cooking and eating it, he felt that this fish also gave up its spirituality to him. Gathering all the waste, An stood up and went to the fishing spot, scattering it on the water's surface. Turning around, he saw the rooster standing next to him, looking at the horizon.

"Since you've decided to hang around here, you need a name… Oh! How about Baldi?" An clicked his tongue and patted the rooster's head, specifically, the spot where its feathers had been plucked." Cluck!" Realizing he was being patted on the head, Baldi ran to the bushes a bit further away and hid in them. An looked at him with a raised eyebrow, shrugged, and went back to cultivating. For a whole week, An did nothing but fish, cultivate, and practice Alchemy.

By the end of that week, he felt that the volume of his dantian had almost reached 10%, meaning he would soon be able to attempt a breakthrough to the second layer of Qi Condensation. With Alchemy, however, things weren't so rosy. Throughout the week, An studied the characteristics of the spirit plants he had received from Elder Shoa and bought at the trading sections. Fishing was going much better, every day, he managed to catch a first-rank fish, which greatly helped with the Qi in his dantian.

Baldi became bolder and tried a couple of times to steal the catch, but each time, with his head hanging low, he returned to his new home, a burrow dug into the grass right next to the shore. Since An almost never went into the old shack on his property and was constantly on the lakeshore by his stone stove, Baldi had decided to dig his burrow right next to him. During this week, An didn't experiment with alchemy.

He decided that in order not to waste his few spirit plants, he first needed to study and understand everything. Today, early in the morning after waking from another cultivation cycle, An got ready to go to the Alchemy Hall. Today's lecture was being given by Elder Es Tsu, the youngest disciple to reach the rank of Grandmaster in the sect. Preparing sheets of paper, pens, and ink he had found in a table in his dilapidated house, An left his plot and closed the gate.

Arriving at the Alchemy Hall, he went up to the third floor. Finding a room where voices were coming from, he entered and found a free seat. He laid out his supplies and waited for the lecture to begin. Ten to fifteen minutes later, a woman who looked about twenty-five to twenty-seven entered. She had green hair and eyes, a perfect face, and a cold gaze that could stop a heartbeat. The entire room immediately fell silent, unable to take their eyes off her. The boys looked with desire, the girls with envy.

"Well then, let's begin! But first, which of you here is not a member of any clan or family?" Es Tsu asked, looking around with a slight smile. A few disciples raised their hands. Out of more than two hundred people, only six raised their hands, including An.

"Good!" Es Tsu nodded, but the next moment, all six felt a wave of danger emanating from her.

"Now I recommend that you leave my lecture and not think about attending any in the future. My knowledge is too valuable and advanced to be absorbed by the likes of you..." Elder Es Tsu pointed toward the door, undisguised hostility and contempt in her eyes. None of the six resisted. Everyone gathered their things and left with their heads down. As An was leaving, he heard whispering and laughing, while Es Tsu either ignored it or encouraged such behavior.' This is starting to get annoying...'

An exhaled in helplessness. In this world, whoever is stronger is right. The only thing left was to endure and cultivate as fast as possible to be the one who is right. Looking at the other five, he noticed they had decided to leave together. Walking behind them, he heard them grumbling and insulting everyone inside, swearing revenge for this humiliation against Elder Es Tsu and the disciples who had laughed. Listening to them, An shook his head and went down to the hall.

Exiting the Alchemy Hall, he decided that until Elder Shoa's next lecture, he would cultivate his spirit and body with the Evergreen technique, fruits, and fish, while continuing to delve into alchemy. After stopping for more fruit to replenish his supplies, he went straight home.