Siblings, Night Fishing for River Monsters

The first option had to be ruled out immediately.

Wreak havoc upon the world and oppose the cultivators? Not worth considering.

Though he had been hiding ever since being trafficked here and had barely gone outside,

from the scraps of conversation among the Demon People, he had learned that after dozens of cycles of rise, fall, and renewal in cultivation systems, this was the pinnacle of the immortal path in the hundreds of thousands of years of recorded history.

It was the greatest age.

For even that group of supposedly extremely rigorous scholar-cultivators to be willing to describe it with the word "greatest" showed just how dazzling this era was.

The realms of this world were divided into:

Five Bodies, Four Organs, Three Origins, Two Phases, One Mind, Transcendence.

Put simply,

even Ning Zheng, a novice who had obtained a cultivation technique through "good luck" and secretly cultivated it, had only just entered the First Body of the Five Bodies Realm, yet he could remove his own head and kick it around like a ball without dying.

His theoretical lifespan was eight hundred years.

The average lifespan and all sorts of abilities in this world completely overturned his worldview.

Then he looked at the second option.

A trace of envy immediately appeared on Ning Zheng's face.

"Tsk! This person's luck is terrifyingly monstrous. He's clearly an ordinary person of unknown origins, yet he carries an Immortal Dao Fruit that grants eternal life?"

If he could steadily drain him and capture him as another family member, he would be a strengthened version of Ning Jiaojiao. The daily stable returns would be enormous!

He would recoup the cost in just over a month, then rake in profits like mad?

Ning Zheng fell silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

"This tiny Luck Value transaction does not give me complete control over the person himself. It merely uses these savings to obtain a chance encounter with him when he arrives here."

The difference was as vast as trading for a meeting with the richest man alive and directly becoming the richest man alive.

If he wanted to obtain that Immortal Dao Fruit, it would probably require far more than that tiny bit of Luck Value.

"I need to be able to control him before I can drain him every day. But I might control him for a time, not for a lifetime. I've never seen anyone with 5,000 points of Luck Value before. His luck must be unimaginably good."

He continued pondering it. Sitting in his chair and gripping his Bronze Sword, he slowly shook his head.

"Kill him outright and seize the Immortal Dao Fruit?"

"But whether I can kill him is one matter. Even if I successfully killed someone blessed with immense luck, could I truly keep such a holy object?"

"It would probably flee immediately. If I wanted some means to intercept and retain the Immortal Dao Fruit, based on experience, I'd likely have to spend some unknown, astronomical amount of additional luck."

He was very calm.

The greater the reward, the greater the risk.

If one lacked the ability to swallow an opportunity, it became a disaster instead.

Ning Zheng decisively looked away. Hesitating for even a second would be disrespectful to the savings his Fellow Villagers had crowdfunded for him.

His Fellow Villagers had raised him for so many years before finally saving up enough capital for him to leave the village and do business. If he lost it all, he would truly have failed his hometown.

His gaze settled on the third option, and surprise appeared between his brows.

A group of little Blacksmiths?

Perfect. Diligent and willing to work without complaint—those words meant they suited the work of this Sword Forging Manor.

But how could that be possible?

The weapons those Demon People forged sometimes used their own lifespans, bones, skin, flesh, and blood as materials. They involved all kinds of great horrors and bizarre things, crueller than torture itself. How could anyone happily accept such work?

Yet after comparing them several times, he silently chose the little Blacksmith.

"I choose three!"

Nothing happened. The waters remained calm and the winds still; the opportunity did not appear immediately.

It would not arrive at once, but would appear around him with a certain degree of plausibility.

He was not in a hurry. He made a circuit around the mountain and spent some time tidying up the battle site at the manor, working nonstop until afternoon.

At sunset, he went straight down the mountain and returned to the courtyard house in the village for the night.

"I'm back."

"Ah, welcome back." Ning Jiaojiao opened the door and ran over in delight.

"Is dinner ready?"

Ning Zheng sat down and placed his sword and coat on the chair beside him.

"Of course it's ready. It's the River Monster we caught from the well last time. It's delicious." Ning Jiaojiao sounded somewhat aggrieved. "It's full of spiritual energy and very nourishing, but we're almost out of it."

Already almost gone?

Ning Zheng fell slightly silent, his joy fading.

Food truly was a major problem.

Though nonhumans like Ning Jiaojiao also ate flesh and blood to increase their Cultivation Level, they could use the yin energy of the earth veins to maintain their basic yin-spirit forms.

Ning Zheng was the only living person in the entire village, so eating was indeed troublesome for him.

Besides, there were already barely any cultivation resources. Without meat rich in spiritual energy to replenish himself, his cultivation speed would be extremely slow!

Fortunately, there was an Ancient Well in this courtyard connected to an Underground River. There were fish beneath the well, which was also why Ning Zheng had chosen to live in this courtyard.

Ning Zheng set down his chopsticks, thought for a moment, and immediately said,

"How about this? Tonight, you bite the fishhook again. I'll lower you down, and you can swim another circuit through the river beneath the well. Once a big fish bites you, I'll pull you back up. We'll fish for River Monsters."

"You want me to go down again? That game where I play the bait isn't fun. When those River Monsters bite me, my feet hurt so much."

Ning Jiaojiao grumbled unhappily. "Your fishhook is so big and thick. It hurts so much when it hangs from my chin, and you keep pulling and pulling from up at the well opening."

"You've worked hard. We siblings rely on each other for survival—we have to eat, don't we?"

Ning Zheng sighed. Fortunately, Ning Jiaojiao was not alive, and her vitality was incredibly strong. Otherwise, he would not have chosen to use her as bait. "You don't want our family to go hungry either, do you?"

Ning Jiaojiao rubbed her stomach. "Right, we have to eat. I'm so, so hungry. Without food, no, we'll starve to death."

"Brother, you go out to work every day, so you should eat more." After thinking about it, she held out the meat to him with pleading eyes. "Mother said I wasn't worth much and would have to marry off sooner or later."

"Father and Mother aren't here, so don't worry about that. Secretly eat a little more." Ning Zheng smiled.

In this ancient demon-and-monster world where the people could barely survive, only the men and laborers in a household could eat more, because they had heavy work to do. Women often went hungry.

That was likely how life had been in Ning Jiaojiao's village before she died.

After all, she still retained her memories and logic from when she had been alive.

"Thank you, Brother." Ning Jiaojiao cheered and picked up another piece of meat. It looked tender and juicy. She ate it in tiny bites, cherishing it immensely and chewing for a long time.

"Eat your fill so you can work." Ning Zheng merely smiled. After dinner, he and Ning Jiaojiao took a fishing rod to the well to prepare.

The hook was a huge iron hook borrowed from Butcher's house next door, the kind used to hang pig heads. It was extremely sturdy.

"Bite it."

Wuu!

Ning Jiaojiao carefully held the hook in her mouth and slowly descended through the mouth of the well.

Moonlight reflected upon the well opening, ripples spreading across the dark pool.

Gurgle—

That was the sound of entering the water.

Holding the fishhook in her mouth, Ning Jiaojiao's legs gradually transformed into a scaled fishtail. She elegantly swam forward into the dark Underground River channels stretching in all directions ahead.

Most River Monsters lived in rivers beneath the countryside or in subterranean dark rivers.

They were not very intelligent and mostly emerged at night. Covered in scales, they resembled huge frogs, with dark green eyes. They were hideously ugly, but their flesh was tender and extremely nutritious.

They had no teeth. Once they swallowed prey, they would never let go, and it was precisely this trait that kept them from coming off the bait.

More than ten minutes passed. Ning Zheng sat quietly by the well, gripping the fishing rod.

Suddenly.

The rod jerked violently.

"It took the bait."

Ning Zheng fiercely yanked the rod with both hands, pulling like mad.

"It's coming up, pull it up quickly!"

Before long, Ning Jiaojiao cried out as she surfaced.

Ning Zheng hurriedly looked down into the well and found that a River Monster's huge mouth had clamped tightly around her waist. Its round little green-bean eyes were dull and clear, and it refused to release its bite.

"Pull, pull! We caught a big fish today!" Ning Jiaojiao screamed below. Her hands helped too as she transformed into some bizarre crawling creature and frantically climbed up the well wall.

After a flurry of effort, Ning Zheng collapsed in the courtyard, panting heavily. The foolish River Monster that would not release its bite had already been smashed to death.

It was quite large. There was enough food for three days.

"Wow! Brother, big fish, big fish! Our family gets to eat big fish again!" Ning Jiaojiao cried out, hugging the River Monster foolishly and laughing happily.

"Life will get better and better."

Ning Zheng smiled.

If Ning Zheng had not been so lucky as to find food this way, a living person simply could not survive in this Spirit Manor.

But constantly using Ning Jiaojiao to catch big fish with a small fish was not a long-term solution. Perhaps he needed to find other live bait.

After all, people were not grass or trees. After spending so much time together, he truly did feel some heartache for her.

Compared to those living people with unfathomable hearts, the resentful souls whose behavior followed clear logic and their former lives were far less likely to betray him. He also regarded Ning Jiaojiao as his companion, much like the cats he had kept at home in his previous life.

By the time he had cured the meat, it was already deep into the night, so he went to sleep early.

The next morning.

BOOM!!

A meteor streaked across the sky, trailing blazing flames as it crashed into the mountain behind the village.

"It's here? That was a bit delayed."

Ning Zheng did not even eat breakfast. He hurriedly put on his coat, grabbed his sword, and rushed toward the back mountain to see what great opportunity capable of changing his life had arrived.

When he reached the destination,

he found a huge black meteor crater. Within it sat a peculiar square black box, which he lightly touched with his hand.

A cold, mechanical voice suddenly sounded:

Scanning current environment.

Error detected. An unknown mutation has occurred in the time-travel program. Forced activation in progress.

Your assistant, Xiao Ai, is launching the "Sword Forging Competition" for you.