The Foundation of Survival

Taihua Crocodile has been brought under control; can evolve.

Can evolve? Clutching his groggy head, Liang Qu could not care to inspect it closely. He hurriedly surfaced for air, gulping down breath after breath for nearly half a quarter-hour before his body finally felt better.

"Looks like I can't use control recklessly. If I use it too much, I'm afraid I'll turn into an idiot. And failure is even more dangerous."

Yet the Ze Cauldron's notice that it could evolve made Liang Qu deeply curious. A Taihua Crocodile was nearly at its two-meter limit—could it evolve even further?

Communicating with it again, the Ze Cauldron blossomed with light.

Eighty points of Marsh Essence could be consumed to evolve the Taihua Crocodile into a Jiaomu Crocodile.

Eighty points? Was that a lot or a little?

Liang Qu had no concept of it. Besides, he did not have a single point of Marsh Essence on hand, so he could only give up for now.

After resting for a while, he entered the water again, eager to inspect the lotus roots that seemed to be Treasure Plants—the main prize of this trip.

Breaking off a section from the mud, Liang Qu had the Zhu Po Long come closer and eat a piece.

Paddling over with its little claws, the Zhu Po Long shook its head and swallowed the piece in great gulps.

Feeling the Zhu Po Long's delighted emotions through their Mental Link, and recalling the gnaw marks on the lotus roots above, Liang Qu became certain that the lotus roots truly were good stuff. They were not poisonous. The crocodile lying here had not been a coincidence.

With the test complete, he no longer hesitated. He snapped off a section, wiped away the mud, controlled the water so it would not flood his mouth and nose, and took huge bites.

After working so hard tonight, the flatbread he had eaten had long since been digested. His stomach rumbled again. If refining the Marsh Spirit had not improved his physical condition a little, he would probably have become the flickering candle in the wind he had been when he first arrived.

Liang Qu did not want to experience that kind of suffering again.

Hunger was the hardest thing in the world to endure.

The lotus roots in the deep water had none of the usual lotus root's excessive slime or strings. Carrying a faint watery freshness, they tasted utterly unlike ordinary lotus roots—crisp as apples and unexpectedly delicious. He could finish a whole section in just a few bites.

And once they entered his stomach, they turned into a warm current. The three fingers he had cut while controlling the creature were actually healing slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye! It really was a Treasure Plant! Liang Qu was overjoyed. This Treasure Plant seemed to lean toward healing, though. Since he was not badly injured, its energy instead went to make up for the deficits left by his long hunger.

Even without a mirror, he could feel his vitality and spirit improving. He no longer looked as gaunt and withered as before, someone everyone avoided at the sight of him.

Unfortunately, he lacked a more detailed understanding. Perhaps its uses did not stop there? Marsh Essence +0.1

Marsh Essence!

This was Marsh Essence? Liang Qu's eyes widened as he stared at the prompt before him in disbelief. He had never expected the Marsh Essence he had been longing for to come so easily.

He had thought obtaining a healing Treasure Plant was already a pleasant surprise. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected the surprises to not end there.

Wait, one section of lotus root gave 0.1. If he ate all of it, wouldn't that amount to several points?

Liang Qu was overjoyed. He dug out several more sections and ate them all in one go, but after testing it out, the result was not what he had hoped for.

Marsh Essence could indeed be obtained repeatedly, but not every lotus root contained it. Only those near the spot beneath the Zhu Po Long had it; those farther away did not.

There were around twenty-three truly useful sections. Including the two he had already eaten, that was equivalent to 2.5 points of Marsh Essence. Unfortunately, a section of lotus root was quite substantial. After trying several pieces just now, he could not eat any more.

Let's first see how much 0.2 points of Marsh Essence can raise the fusion rate, Liang Qu thought.

So far, the Water Monkey Marsh Spirit had helped him immensely. It had been so formidable the moment he refined it, turning him from a flickering candle in the wind into someone who no longer worried about food and warmth. What would happen once the fusion reached one hundred percent? As for the Zhu Po Long's evolution, as a fierce beast of the water, evolution was naturally good. But with the lotus roots as a comparison, Liang Qu now understood just how outrageous eighty points of Marsh Essence was. It was utterly like using a cup of water to put out a cartload of fire; he could only seek an opportunity later.

At a thought from Liang Qu, the Ze Cauldron suddenly trembled, and several pale-blue motes drifted upward.

A Spirit Monkey Shadow appeared behind him. As if they had found their destination, the motes flowed through the air and merged into it.

Cauldron Master: Liang Qu

Refined Marsh Spirit: Water Monkey (White) (Fusion: 5% ↑)

Marsh Essence: None

River's Favor: None

Water Beast Control: Taihua Crocodile (Can evolve)

Evaluation: The Water Monkey Marsh Spirit originated from the great Lord of the Huai River Waters. It can awaken a small person of slight nature and frail life.

"It doesn't increase immediately?"

Liang Qu gazed at the arrow beside the fusion rate and frowned slightly. Still, he could indeed feel himself becoming closer to the water environment. The fusion presumably would not take too long, which was passable enough.

Obtaining Marsh Essence was easier than he had imagined. As long as he could obtain it, there was no need to panic. Sooner or later, he would fill it up.

White Streak in the Waves Zhang Shun could stay underwater for seven days and seven nights. It was not too much to expect his Water Monkey to last three days and three nights, was it? At that thought, more than half of Liang Qu's unease about coming to another world vanished.

No matter how indifferent his former world had been, if someone truly seemed about to starve to death, giving them one or two steamed white buns was nothing. But here, the scarcity of supplies had made standing by without lifting a finger the norm. On top of that, with no relatives or friends by his side, he had truly been lost and uneasy in the beginning.

A certain famous centenarian had once said that people lived simply to find peace of mind.

With his skill in water, Liang Qu at least had the foundation to survive and make a life for himself.

Surfacing for air, Liang Qu looked toward his newly acquired little brother—the Zhu Po Long!

Though its thick hide had taken a savage blow from a stone, it had suffered no real injury at all. At this moment, it lay quietly in the water, no different from a family dog. Through the Mental Link, it was even more understanding than one.

Evolution was impossible. Eighty points of Marsh Essence was far too much. But it was still a Zhu Po Long, so it was bound to be a good hunter!

Then Liang Qu looked at the sluggish Zhu Po Long and slapped his forehead. "Damn it, it really is about to hibernate!"

Success was Xiao He, failure was Xiao He.

Because of the cold weather, his new little brother's blood had slowed and its movements were sluggish. The emotions it conveyed were utterly listless. It was not that it could not burst forth with strength, but that was simply its normal state now. Having it help with fishing would probably be a stretch.

"You can't move when it gets cold, so I'll call you Cannot Move from now on. Fine, keep lying here. Be a Gatekeeper and bite to death all the little fish and shrimp that come sneaking over to eat!"

Having gained a name, the Zhu Po Long wagged its tail and burrowed into the mud. Once the water settled, the place looked exactly as it had in the beginning. No one would ever guess that a Treasure Plant lay hidden beneath it.

Marsh Wilds Landing.

Liang Qu surfaced and looked around. Once he had confirmed that no one was nearby, he picked up the Yellow Croaker and headed home.

The Marsh Wilds Yellow Fish was not like the sea fish of his previous life, which died as soon as it left the water. Liang Qu tied its head and tail together with reed leaves, which counted as using the Bow Fish Technique and kept the fish alive and fresh even out of water for a long time.

Walking down the road, Liang Qu was in high spirits. He felt as though he was carrying not a fish, but a heavy string of Copper Coins.

To make a go of things, he really did need some kind of Golden Finger. A few hours ago, he had still been lonely and lost. In the blink of an eye, life no longer seemed so terrible. At the very least, he was already better off than most ordinary commoners in Yi Xing City.

Eighty coins was no small sum, but winter was coming. He needed two sets of clothes, since what he wore was already in tatters. There was also salt, rice, soapberries, stools, pots, bowls... Uh. Liang Qu suddenly felt that eighty coins did not seem like all that much.

Still, now that he had the ability, life would always get better.

Another key problem now was—no boat! If a man had no distant worries, he would soon have worries close at hand.

After refining the Water Monkey Marsh Spirit, his ability to enter the water had improved dramatically. Even without a boat, he could catch valuable goods. But without a boat as cover, once or twice might be fine; over time, people would surely grow suspicious.

Even if you had Innate Talent for fishing and knew the movements of every fish school, could you really be this outrageous?

Without even a boat, was he supposed to rely on diving into the water to fish through the freezing days ahead?

His own family had originally had a boat, but it had unfortunately been snatched away by a hoodlum called LaiTou Zhang.

LaiTou Zhang was a notorious scoundrel in Yi Xing City. Because he had learned fists at a Martial Arts School for a couple of days, he ran rampant and domineering, and no one dared provoke him.

After Liang Qu's "father" died, the greatest asset in the household—a Black Awning Boat—naturally caught his eye. Claiming that Liang's father had borrowed money from him for drinking when he was alive, and that Liang Qu now had to repay the debt, he seized it.

A fishing boat was practically a fisherman's lifeblood. They ate and slept aboard it. The family's home had four Yellow Earth walls because so much of their household property had been kept on the boat! What the hell? Who would borrow money for drinks from a hoodlum and scoundrel?

Yet because everyone feared LaiTou Zhang's fists, no one would stir up trouble for an orphan like him. They could only let it happen.

Even more infuriatingly, LaiTou Zhang had come again afterward, saying the boat was not enough to repay the debt, and had robbed him of every last bit of his remaining three dou of rice!

Was that not another kind of wiping out an orphaned household?

Every dead end he had faced had been forced upon him by that bastard!

"I need to find an opportunity to take my things back. That will make it easier to conceal my Golden Finger. Once I save enough money, I'll go to town and learn martial arts, see exactly what wonders Martial Masters possess. Once I have a good status, things will become much easier."

While Liang Qu pondered, he unknowingly reached his own doorstep. Yet to his surprise, someone had long been waiting for him there.

"Young master, how have you considered the matter?"