At a bend in the river, Lu Qing finally discovered another new fishing spot.
Primary Fishing Spot: A place rich in nutrients and lush with aquatic plants, favored by schools of fish searching for food.
Exotic fruit grew nearby, something certain rare fish loved to eat. Fishing here might bring an unexpected delight.
The white light it gave off was actually far denser than that of the Primary Fishing Spot he had found before.
"Exotic fruit growing nearby?"
Lu Qing raised his head and searched along the bank beside the fishing spot.
Very soon, several strangely shaped plants caught his attention.
Under the probing of his Supernatural Ability, these plants also emitted white light.
Blood Apricot Tree: Bears Blood Apricots. Nontoxic and medicinal.
Rumor had it that Blood Apricots contained a special substance much loved by certain rare fish.
"Blood Apricots?"
Lu Qing looked at the tiny red fruits hanging from the tree, each no bigger than his little finger.
So these were the exotic fruits that rare fish loved to eat?
His heart stirred, and he walked over.
Fortunately, the Blood Apricot Trees were not very tall, and he easily picked a handful.
"Brother, these fruits look so yummy."
Seeing the bright-red Blood Apricots in Lu Qing's hand, Xiao Yan could not help swallowing.
"These aren't for eating."
Although the information revealed by his Supernatural Ability said that Blood Apricots were nontoxic.
It also said they could be used as medicine. Since they were medicinal, Lu Qing did not dare let Xiao Yan eat them carelessly.
"If they're not for eating, why did you pick them, Brother?"
"For fishing. Some fish really love these fruits. Brother wants to see if he can use them to catch a big fish." Lu Qing explained.
"Big fish like fruit too?" Xiao Yan's eyes immediately widened.
"Yeah. Fish eat all sorts of things—earthworms, fruit, corn, grass. They like them all."
"They even like corn and grass?!" The little girl's eyes grew even wider.
It was her first time learning such things, and she immediately found them incredibly magical.
"So Xiao Yan can't eat these fruits. We're using them to catch big fish."
"Mhm, mhm! Xiao Yan understands!" The little girl nodded again and again.
Compared to fruit, she was much more interested in big fish.
"Xiao Yan, wait here for now. Brother will tidy up this area."
After warning Xiao Yan not to run around, Lu Qing tightly tied the short-handled machete he had brought onto a wooden stick and began clearing the weeds and brush along the bank.
Lu Qing had no idea how many times he had done this sort of fishing-spot cleanup in his previous life. Doing it again now, he was naturally as familiar with it as a horse finding the road.
Before long, he had cleared away the weeds and brush by the bank, shaping it into a fine fishing spot.
He left the few Blood Apricot Trees untouched, though. They were white light-grade plants, after all, and quite valuable.
Once the fishing spot was ready, Lu Qing prepared to begin fishing.
He still did not bait the spot. His family did not have enough food for him to squander it like that.
Besides, the rivers of this Otherworld were rich in resources, and he had a natural fishing spot chosen by his Supernatural Ability. Even without baiting the waters, he was confident he could still catch fish.
Sitting on the bank, Lu Qing decided to start with earthworms, ensuring food for the next two days first.
He threaded an earthworm onto the hook and cast it into the water. The float landed on the surface.
It truly deserved to be the spot with the densest white light among the several fishing spots selected by his Supernatural Ability.
Lu Qing had barely lowered the hook into the water. Before he could even set down the rod, he saw the float moving.
It trembled a few times, then abruptly plunged beneath the surface.
With a flick of his wrist, a sharp whistle rang out as he hauled the fish up.
It was not large, merely a White Fish two fingers wide.
Lu Qing raised his brows. It seemed White Fish were among the most common fish in this river. They could be found everywhere.
"It's a White Fish!"
Xiao Yan also saw what the hooked fish looked like and immediately cried out.
"Yeah, a White Fish. Looks like we'll have a big haul today."
Lu Qing removed the fish from the hook and put it into the bucket.
A fish had bitten so quickly. The smooth opening gave him a feeling that he might truly catch a big one today.
At that thought, Lu Qing's spirits immediately rose.
Yet what happened next was somewhat beyond Lu Qing's expectations.
After catching several more small fish and casting his hook again, a long time passed without any sign of another bite.
"If the small fish aren't biting, either there are no fish left, or there's a big fellow below driving away the smaller school."
With his abundant experience, Lu Qing immediately made his judgment.
He decisively reeled in the hook, removed the earthworm, then took out a small cloth bag.
"It's the secret weapon!"
Xiao Yan recognized it at once. It was what her brother had put away before they left home.
Lu Qing opened the cloth bag and took out several golden-yellow kernels.
They were several fresh kernels of corn.
Lu Qing had asked Aunt Wang next door for this corn that morning, naturally intending to use it as fishing bait.
When Lu Qing went wild fishing in his previous life, he had basically always used corn when he wanted to catch big fish.
Carp and grass carp, for instance, especially loved corn. It never failed him.
He was not sure whether the big fish in this world were the same, but he had to try.
If it still did not work, he planned to try the Blood Apricots he had just picked.
After hooking a plump, fresh kernel of corn, Lu Qing began fishing again.
What he did not expect was that this time would again surpass his expectations.
The hook had just entered the water, and the float had not even settled. He was half-squatting, about to sit down.
Then, without any warning, the float suddenly sank beneath the water and vanished. The fishing line went taut, and a massive force surged through the rod, pulling Lu Qing into a stagger.
Fortunately, Lu Qing reacted quickly enough. He stepped forward and steadied himself.
"Good fellow, trying to ambush me, are you?"
Gripping the rod tightly with both hands, Lu Qing felt the pulling force traveling through it, excitement filling his face.
A big fish—this was absolutely a big fish! No fish under five pounds could possibly exert such strength.
Whoosh!
Unable to break free, the fish below began exerting force again, pulling the fishing line until it whistled through the air.
"Trying to slip away from my hands? No chance!"
Seeing the fish below exert itself once more, Lu Qing was not flustered at all. With a slight loosening of his hands, he shed most of the pulling force.
Then he tightened his grip again and continued wrestling with the fish below.
This fishing rod he had just made had been verified by his Supernatural Ability. It could withstand a hundred pounds of force. He refused to believe this fish could break it.
"Go, Brother!"
Xiao Yan, standing nearby, was extremely nervous too.
But she did not dare shout too loudly, afraid of frightening away the big fish. She could only clench her tiny fists and quietly cheer her brother on.
The time that followed became a battle of wits and strength between Lu Qing and the fish.
They tugged back and forth for a full half hour before Lu Qing finally felt the fish beginning to weaken.
"Finally wore you out." Lu Qing let out a breath.
That round of pulling had drained quite a bit of his strength as well.
If Old Doctor Chen had not given him acupuncture two days earlier, restoring much of his body's vital energy, he truly might not have been able to outlast this fellow.
Once the fish reached its limit, it became even less likely to escape Lu Qing's grasp.
After a while longer, with another burst of strength from Lu Qing, the big fish that had wrestled with him for so long finally surfaced.
The brother and sister finally caught a glimpse of the fish's true appearance.
"What a huge fish!"
When she saw the fish's head and back, Xiao Yan could no longer hold back her cry.
Even Lu Qing could not help becoming a little excited.
Good heavens, with a body like that, this fish had to weigh more than ten pounds.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Lu Qing continued gripping the fishing rod tightly.
With fishing, the closer one got to the end, the less one could afford to relax.
Otherwise, if the fish escaped at the final moment, he would probably still regret it for half the day whenever he remembered it at his eightieth birthday celebration.
However, despite all his caution, something still went wrong when Lu Qing prepared to bring the fish in.
He discovered a very important problem.
He had not prepared a landing net!
Of course, he could not really be blamed for that, because there simply was no landing net at home.
Forget a landing net—they did not even have a net bag.
Without a landing net, he could not simply scoop up the fish. Lu Qing could only continue wearing it out.
He waited until the fish had completely run out of strength, then had Xiao Yan hold the rod while he lay prone on the bank, intending to lift the fish up himself.
This was actually dangerous. With a fish of this size, if it still had any strength left, a single flick of its tail could very likely knock someone unconscious.
Fortunately, this fish had indeed been worn out until it had not a shred of strength remaining.
In the end, everything passed without danger, and Lu Qing still managed to lift the fish ashore.
"Brother, this big fish seems taller than Xiao Yan!"
When Lu Qing carried the fish onto the bank far from the river's edge, Xiao Yan compared their heights and immediately exclaimed in wonder.
"Looks like it is a little taller."
Lu Qing took a look, and it really did seem so.
This big fish was over a meter long. If held upright, it was indeed a little taller than Xiao Yan.
"Let me see what kind of fish this is."
Lu Qing saw that the big fish had a long, slender body. The scales covering it were neat and bright like armor plates, giving it an air of dominance.
He immediately used his Supernatural Ability to inspect the big fish's information.
Under his gaze, a dense white light soon emerged from the fish's body.
"It's white light."
Lu Qing felt a trace of disappointment.
He had been wondering whether such a large fish might have reached the Red-Light Grade.
But on second thought, he felt he had been too greedy.
If this big fish had been Red-Light Grade, it would have been another question altogether whether he could have pulled it up.
After all, he had only ever seen Red-Light Grade things twice.
One was Old Doctor Chen, and the other was Snow Silk.
Neither was ordinary.
Old Doctor Chen was a cultivator, while Snow Silk was an Exotic Treasure.
If this big fish had also reached the Red-Light Grade, who knew what special abilities it might possess.
In that case, it would be hard to say who would be pulling whom.
Perhaps he would have been dragged into the water in the very first exchange.
After calming himself, Lu Qing turned his attention to the newly appeared words.
Azure Armor Fish: A large fish clad in azure armor-like scales, a tyrant of the river. Contains a Fish Stone.
Rumor had it that a fully grown Azure Armor Fish had a Fish Stone in its throat. Once taken out, polished, and worn, it could soothe the soul and calm the mind.
When Lu Qing clearly saw the information on the strip, a surge of delight immediately rose within him.
A Fish Stone!
This big fish he had just caught actually had a Fish Stone! Lu Qing was not unfamiliar with Fish Stones.
In his previous life, he had once caught a wild black carp weighing over twenty pounds, and it had contained a Fish Stone.
At the time, a boss had offered him over ten thousand to buy it, but he had not sold it.
As for why, aside from liking it, it was naturally because there had always been a rumor in fishing circles.
That Fish Stones old enough could keep one safe and sound.
Lu Qing did not know whether Fish Stones from his previous life could truly keep people safe.
But the Fish Stone inside this Azure Armor Fish had been judged by his Supernatural Ability to have the effect of soothing the soul and calming the mind.
Ever since their parents died, Xiao Yan had slept restlessly at night. She often woke in fright from dreams and needed him to hold her before she could continue sleeping.
If the Fish Stone from this Azure Armor Fish was truly so miraculous, that would be wonderful.
In his excitement, Lu Qing nearly could not help gutting the Azure Armor Fish on the spot.
Fortunately, he still had his reason, and in the end he restrained himself.
"Brother, how are we taking this big fish home? The bucket doesn't seem big enough." Xiao Yan asked with some distress.
She had compared them just now. This big fish was much taller than the wooden bucket they had brought, and it simply could not fit inside.
"It's fine. Brother will twist up a grass rope later and carry it back directly!" Lu Qing said with complete confidence.
It was only a big fish weighing ten or twenty pounds.
He had already caught it. Was he supposed to be afraid he could not carry it home?
"So, are we still going to keep fishing?" Xiao Yan asked again.
That question stumped Lu Qing.
From his usual experience, after he had wrestled with that Azure Armor Fish for so long and dragged it all over the waters near the fishing spot,
the fish below should have long since scattered in panic. Even if there had been any left, they would have fled clean away.
But when he thought of the Blood Apricots he had picked earlier, he hesitated.
According to the information his supernatural ability had given him, Blood Apricots were a favorite food of certain rare fish.
As a seasoned fishing enthusiast, he was truly quite curious about these so-called rare fish.
What exactly was so extraordinary about fish that his supernatural ability had branded with the word "rare"?
Even this Azure Armor Fish that possessed a Fish Stone did not seem to have been called rare by his supernatural ability.
So just what was so rare about those so-called rare fish?
After wrestling with the matter for a while, Lu Qing finally decided to fish a little longer.
They were called rare fish, after all. What if they were not afraid of the Azure Armor Fish and had not been scared away?
Thus, with that sliver of hope in mind, Lu Qing filled a bucket with water, forced the Azure Armor Fish in headfirst so that it was barely submerged, then sat back down at the fishing spot.
Still, he had made up his mind to fish only a little longer.
If nothing bit after a while, he would head home. Otherwise, the Azure Armor Fish would not hold on much longer.
Dead fish did not taste as good as fresh, lively ones.
After setting himself up again, Lu Qing directly baited his hook with a Blood Apricot this time.
He cast the hook into the water and began waiting quietly.
Time ticked away, second by second. Before long, half an hour had passed.
The float did not so much as twitch, as though it had frozen in place.
"So the fishing spot really did get blown up. Even rare fish couldn't avoid it." Lu Qing sighed.
This outcome had not surprised him.
He had merely been clinging to a faint hope just now.
"Better head back."
Just as Lu Qing was about to pack up his fishing rod and go home,
he suddenly saw the float plunge violently beneath the water!
Before you continue