It was a big one!
From the tremendous force of its struggle, Li Hao immediately realized that whatever was in the water was no small creature. His heart tightened, and he dared not take it lightly. Rather than yank the Fishing Line hard, which could twist the hook out of its mouth, he eased it gently after pulling it taut, then tightened it again!
In an instant, furious waves erupted across the still, pitch-black surface, churning over an area more than ten meters across.
Li Hao could vaguely make out an enormous dark shape being drawn up from the depths, struggling fiercely as it approached the surface.
The sinister shape was seven or eight meters long, and as it thrashed, the splashes and waves spread farther afield.
Keeping the Fishing Line taut, Li Hao alternated between easing and tightening it as before, slowly drawing the enormous dark shape toward shore.
The creature beneath the water seemed to sense something. It suddenly leaped out, revealing a huge, flat fish head with a mouthful of sharp teeth like countless sharpened bamboo spikes.
Its emerald eyes fixed a savage, vicious stare on Li Hao atop the fishing platform. When it saw that he was only a seven- or eight-year-old child, the ferocity in its eyes flared into fury.
"Ignorant brat! You dare fish for your Catfish Grandfather!"
The fish demon actually spoke in a human tongue, its voice shrill and grating. Instead of continuing to pull away, it swam toward shore at tremendous speed, and the taut Fishing Line instantly fell slack in the water.
"I'll eat you alive!!"
The distance of several hundred meters vanished in an instant amid the surging waves. Intent on swallowing Li Hao whole, the fish demon leaped up and charged toward the fishing platform some ten feet above the water.
As the fish demon came ashore, text appeared before Li Hao's eyes:
[Fishing experience +68] [Fishing Dao advanced to stage one]
At the same time, a wealth of fishing techniques flooded his mind.
But Li Hao had no time to absorb them. His scalp prickled as he forced his thoughts to focus on what was before him.
That foul-smelling maw was already within arm's reach. He could even see the tender pink flesh quivering inside the fish demon's throat.
Facing an enemy for the first time, Li Hao was startled and a little nervous, simply because the fish demon looked so ferocious. Fortunately, its movements seemed as slow as a tortoise to him.
At the Listening Rain Pavilion, he had collected three Body-Tempering Arts devoted solely to training his eyesight.
Their overlapping effects filled in one another's gaps, elevating his vision to an extraordinary level, far beyond what the Power Through Realm could offer.
He bit the tip of his tongue and quickly calmed himself. Then he turned sideways, bent at the waist, and reached out to seize the fish demon's sharp teeth before abruptly twisting around and hurling him away!
Everything happened in an instant, the entire movement flowing without a break.
With a bang, the fish demon crashed into the mountainside several dozen meters behind the shore, thrashing and slapping his tail against the ground.
"Y-you... what kind of monster are you?!"
Dazed senseless by the impact, the fish demon blurted out those trembling words.
He twisted his belly slightly. His years of cultivation made him sense the shadow of death at that moment. This fair, tender-skinned child of seven or eight was terrifying. He could not possibly be human; he must have been descended from some great demon's bloodline.
Li Hao froze at the fish demon's words, then burst out laughing.
Still, wary of any tricks the fish demon might possess that he knew nothing about, he decided to finish the fight quickly and lunged forward.
Pfft!
The fish demon's gills suddenly swelled, and he spat a mouthful of foul-smelling black sludge, as swift as a poisoned arrow.
Li Hao had already been guarding against unknown tricks. The instant he saw the black sludge leave its mouth, he pivoted his foot and dodged, then pushed off hard with both feet to close the distance at speed.
"Wait, spare me..."
Terrified, the fish demon tried to beg for mercy, but Li Hao's fist had already swung out, hammering into his forehead.
The terrifying shock of his physical strength alone made the fish demon's entire body shudder. With a crack, the skull caved in and shattered, spraying greenish brain matter from within. Li Hao failed to dodge in time, and quite a bit splashed onto him.
A powerful fishy stench rose up, making him feel sick.
No wonder the old man smelled so strongly of fish. With all those years spent fishing, this sort of thing had to be inevitable.
The fish demon's tail was still trembling and slapping the ground, but it seemed to be merely a nervous twitch, lacking its earlier ferocity.
To make sure he was not feigning death, Li Hao landed two more punches. Only when a hole had been smashed through the fish demon's head and brain matter was bubbling out did he stop and retreat from its side.
Looks like I'll need to bring a sword next time I go fishing, he thought.
Otherwise, if he ran into an even stronger creature, he might end up as bait instead of catching anything.
Of course, with Li Muxiu nearby, Li Hao was in little danger. The Golden Talisman the old man had given him had not even activated yet.
Still, Li Hao did not like relying on others for everything.
Only after dealing with the fish demon did Li Hao review the wealth of information that had entered his mind. Fishing techniques surfaced one after another, making him feel as though he had spent more than a decade fishing from the shore.
Reading the water, measuring the line, concealing the hook... all these techniques were now clear to him. Li Hao returned to the fishing platform, straightened out his rod and tangled Fishing Line, and baited the hook again. This time, his movements were much more practiced. A knead and a stroke of his palm wrapped the bait firmly around the hook.
Then he gazed at Black Lake. The once pitch-black lake now looked distinctly different to his eyes.
He could discern the slightest changes in the current and see seven or eight meters beneath the surface. Once the waves subsided, the ripples looked like patterns tracing the movements of the underwater currents.
From those currents, Li Hao judged that something was moving underwater farther away.
After two major disturbances, there was probably nothing left near this fishing platform. All the sizable creatures beneath the water had fled.
An idea stirred in Li Hao's mind. Instead of casting here and waiting, he chose to take the initiative.
Carrying his rod, he walked along the shore, occasionally studying the surface. The underwater currents allowed him to determine the direction of his prey.
Soon, after walking roughly a kilometer, Li Hao stopped at a place resembling the mouth of a bay. He selected a firm earthen ledge and cast his line.
Although he swung with all his strength this time, strangely enough, the heavy hook raised only tiny ripples when it entered the water, without the plunk it had made before.
Then the hook drew the line slowly down into the depths.
Li Hao crouched slightly and waited quietly.
Within just a few minutes, the float began to move.
Li Hao was not surprised. This cast had practically delivered the bait right to the creature underwater-food delivered to its door.
With a swish, the float vanished beneath the water. Ha, an impatient one.
Li Hao chuckled and abruptly lifted the rod. An immense force traveled up the line, but from the very first struggle, he could judge its strength: roughly two thousand jin. It was probably only a Power Through Realm fish demon whose intelligence had yet to fully develop. No wonder he had been able to faintly discern the disturbance it made underwater from a kilometer away.
He continued to lift firmly and pull gently.
Then he swayed the rod from side to side. Each tug set the hook more securely, making it harder to shake free.
After playing it for seven or eight minutes, Li Hao dragged the exhausted fish demon out of the lake.
[Fishing experience +23]
Once ashore, the fish demon lunged savagely at Li Hao, but he killed it with one punch and tossed it onto the hillside behind him.
Then he baited the hook again and continued fishing.
There were more beneath the water here.
"That Old Dragon is certainly cunning. He hasn't revealed the slightest trace."
High above Demon Lake, Li Muxiu's figure remained concealed in the sky. He held no fishing rod, only a nearly transparent line that descended vertically into the water.
His fishing skills had long since reached the point where he could read the line. Through its movements underwater, he could sense what was happening below-a technique no different from directly probing the depths with his soul.
He had already lowered the line with ample stealth, yet the Old Dragon had shown no sign of stirring.
The little fish demon Li Hao had caught earlier had been eaten by another fish demon. Big fish ate little fish.
But his aim was not to catch fish. It was to catch a dragon!
"Forget it. That Old Dragon must be sleeping soundly today. Who knows where he's hidden himself in this three-thousand-li Black Lake?"
Li Muxiu shook his head slightly and swept his gaze across the vast, rolling expanse of the lake, whose end lay beyond sight.
He sighed and reeled in his line, pulling up a fish demon more than ten meters long and covered in sharp spines-the bait he had been using to fish for the dragon.
With a flick of his finger, the fish demon shrank into a palm-sized, black-spotted fish, which he tossed into his fishing basket.
"I wonder whether that little fellow has caught anything. Hopefully he hasn't lost patience and failed to catch a single fish since."
Muttering to himself, Li Muxiu picked up his fishing basket and flew back the way he had come.
(End of chapter)
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