Dragon Fishing

It was a big one! From that immense struggling force, Li Hao instantly realized the thing in the water was no small fry. His heart chilled, and he did not dare take it lightly. He did not yank the fishing line hard—that would easily pull its mouth crooked and let it slip the hook. Instead, after pulling it taut, he eased it in an orderly, gentle rhythm, then immediately tightened it again! In an instant, furious waves suddenly surged over the pitch-black, placid surface, the churning ripples spreading over a vast area more than ten meters across.

Li Hao could faintly see a huge black shadow gradually being dragged up from the bottom, violently struggling and resisting near the surface.

The black shadow was ferocious, seven or eight meters long. As it struggled, the splashing waves it raised spread even farther.

Li Hao kept the line taut and, using the same method as before—slackening and tightening by turns—dragged that enormous black shadow slowly toward the shore.

The thing under the water seemed to sense something. It abruptly leaped out of the surface, revealing a flat, massive fish head and a mouth full of sharp teeth, like countless sharpened bamboo spikes.

Its emerald-green eyes stared ferociously and savagely at Li Hao on the fishing platform. When it saw he was only a child of seven or eight, the vicious gleam in its fish eyes suddenly turned furious.

"Ignorant brat, you dare fish for your Catfish Grandfather!"

This fish demon could actually speak human words, letting out a shrill, ear-piercing voice. Not only did it stop struggling in reverse, it suddenly swam rapidly toward the shore, and the previously taut fishing line instantly went slack in the water.

"Watch me eat you!!"

The distance of several hundred meters closed in the blink of an eye beneath the surging waves. This fish demon wanted to swallow Li Hao alive, and it leaped up, charging toward the fishing platform about ten feet above the water.

As the fish demon came ashore, words appeared before Li Hao's eyes:

Fishing experience +68

Fishing Dao raised to level one

At the same time, numerous fishing techniques flooded into his mind.

But at that moment, Li Hao had no attention to spare for absorbing and digesting them. His scalp tightened fiercely, and he forced his thoughts to focus on what was before him.

That foul, fishy monster mouth was already close at hand; he could even see the trembling pink tender flesh in the fish demon's throat.

This was Li Hao's first time facing an enemy, and while he was secretly startled, he was also somewhat nervous, simply because this fish demon truly looked savage. Fortunately, its movements were as slow as a tortoise in his eyes.

In Listening Rain Pavilion, there had been three body-tempering arts recorded that cultivated eyesight alone.

They overlapped with one another, filling gaps and patching omissions, raising his vision to an extremely high level, far beyond what the Power Through Realm possessed.

At that moment, he bit the tip of his tongue and quickly calmed down. Immediately after, he turned sideways and bent at the waist. Li Hao reached out, grabbed the fish demon's sharp teeth, then abruptly turned and swung it out!

All of this happened in an instant, the entire movement completed in one smooth breath.

There was only a bang as the fish demon smashed into the mountain dozens of meters behind the shore. Its tail thrashed hard against the ground as it flopped about.

"You, what kind of monster are you?!"

The fish demon had been smashed until the seven meats and eight vegetables spun in chaos, yet it actually spat out such a shocked and trembling sentence.

It twisted its fish belly slightly. Its years of cultivation made it feel the shadow of death at this moment. This fair, tender-skinned, white and delicate child of seven or eight before it was too terrifying. He absolutely could not be human; he had to be the bloodline descendant of some great demon.

When Li Hao heard the fish demon's words, he could not help but pause, then burst out laughing.

But to guard against the fish demon having some method he did not understand, he still decided to end the fight quickly. His body suddenly shot forward.

Pfft! All of a sudden, the fish demon's gills bulged fiercely, and immediately after, a mouthful of black, foul-smelling old mud sprayed from its mouth, swift as a poisoned arrow.

Li Hao had long been secretly on guard against unknown methods. The instant he saw the black mud leave its mouth, his foot suddenly twisted aside, dodging it. Then both feet exerted force, and with one fierce stomp, he rapidly closed the distance.

"Don't, spare me..."

The fish demon was terrified and wanted to beg for mercy, but Li Hao's fist had already smashed out, hammering down on its fish head.

The terrifying shock force of his physical body alone made the fish demon's body tremble fiercely. With a crack, its skull caved in and shattered, and blue-green brain matter splattered out from inside. Li Hao did not have time to dodge, and quite a bit splashed onto his body.

A thick, foul fishy stench came over him, making him feel somewhat nauseated.

No wonder the old man always smelled of fish. Fishing all year round, this sort of thing was unavoidable in the end.

At that moment, the fish demon's tail was still trembling and slapping the ground, but it seemed to be only a nervous twitch, its strength no longer as fierce as before.

To prevent it from playing dead, Li Hao added two more punches. Only when a hole had been smashed into the fish demon's head and brain matter was gurgling out from inside did he stop and retreat, leaving the fish demon's side.

He thought to himself that when he came fishing next time, it seemed he would also have to bring a sword.

Otherwise, if he happened to run into an even more formidable big fellow, he might fail to fish and become bait instead.

Of course, with Li Muxiu beside him, Li Hao basically would not be in any danger. Even now, the golden talisman the old man had given him had not been triggered.

However, Li Hao did not like relying on others for everything.

After dealing with the fish demon, Li Hao finally looked back over the many pieces of information that had just appeared in his mind. Many fishing techniques surfaced one by one, making him feel as if he had already spent more than ten years fishing by the shore.

Reading the water, measuring the line, hiding the hook, and so on... all sorts of fishing skills were clear in his chest. Li Hao came to the fishing platform, tidied up the rod and the tangled fishing line, then baited the hook and lifted it again. This time, however, his technique was even more practiced. With a rub and a stroke of his palm, the bait firmly wrapped around the hook.

After that, he gazed at Black Lake. The previously pitch-black lake now showed distinct changes in his eyes.

His gaze could make out the faint changes in the current, and he could see seven or eight meters below the water. After the surface ripples settled, the remaining patterns were like some kind of design in his eyes, depicting the direction of the undercurrents below.

Through these undercurrents, a judgment surfaced in Li Hao's mind. In a place relatively far from here, something was moving under the water.

As for the area near this fishing platform, after two major disturbances, there should not be anything left. All the weighty fellows under the water had already run off.

Li Hao's heart stirred. He did not cast his rod here and wait quietly, but instead chose to take the initiative.

He carried the rod and walked along the shore, his gaze occasionally fixing on the water. Through the undercurrents below, he could judge the direction of the prey.

Soon, after walking about a thousand meters, Li Hao stopped at a place that looked like the mouth of a bay. He chose a solid earthen platform and cast his rod.

And this cast, though he swung with all his might, was strangely quiet. When the heavy hook entered the water, it only raised small ripples and did not make the earlier ding-dong sound.

Afterward, the line was pulled by the hook and slowly sank to the bottom.

Li Hao crouched slightly and waited in silence.

In just a few short minutes, the float showed movement.

Li Hao was not surprised. This hook was equivalent to delivering the bait directly to a spot not far from that fellow under the water, takeaway brought right to its door.

With a whoosh, the float was swallowed into the water. Heh, this one was an impatient fellow.

Li Hao chuckled and abruptly lifted the rod. A huge force came from the end of the line, but at the first moment of the struggle, Li Hao could sense and judge it: roughly around two thousand catties. It should only be a fish demon of the Power Through Realm, its intelligence not yet fully revealed. No wonder the movement it caused under the water could be faintly glimpsed even from a thousand meters away.

He still chose to lift heavily and pull lightly.

Afterward, the rod swayed left and right. Each tug made the hook set more firmly, making it harder to slip free.

Soon, after playing it for seven or eight minutes, Li Hao dragged the exhausted fish demon out of the lake.

Fishing experience +23

The fish demon that came ashore pounced ferociously at Li Hao, but he punched it to death and flung it onto the hillside behind him.

Then he continued baiting the hook and fishing.

There were still more under the water.

"This Old Dragon is rather crafty. It hasn't revealed the slightest trace."

Above the demon lake, Li Muxiu's figure was hidden high in the sky. He had no fishing rod in his hand, only a nearly transparent line hanging straight down into the water.

His fishing skill had long since reached the level of reading the line. Through the movements of the line under the water, he could sense the situation below. This technique was no different from directly searching with the divine soul and peering into the depths.

He had already lowered the line with enough concealment, but in the end, that Old Dragon made no movement at all.

The little fish demon Li Hao had fished up earlier had been eaten by another fish demon. Big fish ate little fish.

But his goal was not fishing fish. It was fishing a dragon!

"Forget it. It seems that today, this Old Dragon is probably sleeping soundly and resting. This three-thousand-li Black Lake—who knows where it has hidden itself."

Li Muxiu shook his head slightly and swept his gaze over the thousand-li surging lake surface. He could not see the end at a glance.

He sighed, withdrew the line, and along the way dragged out a fish demon more than ten meters long and covered in spikes. It was precisely the bait he had used to fish for the dragon.

At that moment, he flicked a finger, and the fish demon's body instantly shrank, turning into a palm-length little black-spotted fish, which he tossed into the fish basket.

"Wonder if that little fellow got any results. Hope he didn't lose patience and fail to catch a single one afterward."

Li Muxiu muttered, picked up the fish basket, and flew off in the original direction.