You Can Call Me a Fishing Buddy, but Stay Away from My Spot

Lin Yuan caught three more fish.

The first was a ten-year loach, too slippery to hold. The system gave him the Loach Movement Technique, and he could now glide across mud.

The second was another ten-year grass carp. He released it, and his Soul Power rose to level six.

The third...

The float plunged. The pull was so strong it nearly dragged him into the river.

Lin Yuan braced both feet against a rock on the bank. His rod bent into a full moon, and the taut line hummed.

The thing in the water darted left and right, churning the river as though it were overturning seas and rivers.

"Get your ass up here!"

He straightened his back and whipped the rod up. A black fish over three feet long burst from the water, its scales dark as ink and its mouth packed with fangs. Its tail lashed, spraying water all over Lin Yuan's face.

[Ding! Thousand-year Soul Beast: Black-Armored Fang Fish. Fishing difficulty: Hard. Evaluation: Host, you're lucky to be alive.]

Lin Yuan said, "...Next time, you can just compliment me."

System: [Friendly reminder: This fish may be released or killed. Release reward: Complete Soul Ring formation progress +20%.]

Lin Yuan crouched beside the Black-Armored Fang Fish as it thrashed on the bank. Its eyes glared at him, full of ferocity.

"What are you looking at?" Lin Yuan tapped its head. "Want me to stew you right now?"

The Black-Armored Fang Fish slapped him across the face with its tail.

"...Release it." Lin Yuan wiped the water from his face. "Quick. Get this menace out of here."

The black fish slipped into the water and vanished with a flick of its tail. The system notified him that his Soul Ring progress had been credited.

Lin Yuan stood and shook out his soaked sleeves. Then he turned around.

A middle-aged man stood behind him. Who knew how long he had been watching?

The man was around forty, tall and thin, with round glasses, meticulously combed hair, and an old robe washed almost white. He had the air of someone who knew a great deal and earned very little.

Yu Xiaogang.

Lin Yuan recognized him: the leading theorist on the Douluo Continent, Tang San's first teacher, known as Grandmaster.

Grandmaster stared at the fishing rod in his hand, eyes shining and lips trembling as though he had seen a ghost.

"Young man," Grandmaster said, crouching down and lowering his voice, "that fish just now..."

"It got away." Lin Yuan's expression did not change.

"No!" Grandmaster seized his wrist with surprising strength. "That fish clearly turned into points of Soul Power light and entered your body. I saw it myself! Your Soul Power Level is at least six. You started with zero innate Soul Power and shot up to level six on the day your Martial Soul awakened? That contradicts the third of the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul..."

"Grandmaster," Lin Yuan interrupted, "is that theory of yours even legitimate?"

Grandmaster said, "...What?"

Lin Yuan pulled his wrist free and slung the rod over his shoulder. "Let me ask you something. In all your years studying Martial Souls, have you ever seen someone whose Martial Soul was a fishing rod?"

Grandmaster shook his head. "No. There has never been any record of one."

"Then what did you just see?"

"I..." Grandmaster opened his mouth and froze.

"You saw something you'd never seen before." Lin Yuan patted his shoulder with the gravity of an old man. "So either your theory needs revising, or..."

"Or what?"

"Or there's something wrong with your eyes. I suggest you find a doctor in town."

Grandmaster's mouth twitched. "What sort of way is that for a child to talk..."

"I'm telling the truth." Lin Yuan cast his line back into the water. "I fish, you watch. We keep out of each other's way. Fair?"

Grandmaster did not leave. He dragged over a rock, sat beside Lin Yuan, and took a battered notebook and half a pencil from his robe.

"What bait did you use just now?"

"None."

"Impossible! How can you fish without bait?"

Lin Yuan turned to him, his expression sincere. "Grandmaster, have you ever fished?"

"...No."

"Then don't ask. You wouldn't understand anyway."

Grandmaster took a deep breath, scribbled several lines in his notebook, then asked, "When you were playing that fish, you raised your left hand, pressed down on the rod with your right, took three steps back and one forward. What technique was that?"

"Playing a fish," Lin Yuan said. "Basic stuff for an angler."

"Impossible! I've read every text on Soul Beast hunting on the continent. No combat technique matches those movements."

Lin Yuan sighed, turned toward Grandmaster, and looked at him seriously. "Because it wasn't a combat technique. It was a fishing technique."

The hand holding Grandmaster's pencil trembled slightly.

"If you insist on asking, I'll tell you." Lin Yuan counted on his fingers. "Waiting for a bite is watching the float. Gauging the fish's size is testing the bite. Lifting the rod the instant it takes the hook is setting the hook. Pulling against it is playing the fish. Drawing it to the bank once it tires is bringing it in. Lifting it out at the end is landing it. It's a whole process, and it has nothing to do with Soul Power. Just experience."

Grandmaster's lips trembled even harder.

"So," Lin Yuan concluded, "of course you can't fit fishing into Soul Master theory. Each trade is a mountain apart, Grandmaster."

Grandmaster was silent for a long time.

Long enough that Lin Yuan thought he had left.

Then he heard a trembling voice. "Young man... could you teach me?"

Lin Yuan's hand jerked. He nearly threw his rod into the river.

He turned and found Grandmaster gazing at the rod as though it were his first love.

"What did you say?"

"Teach me to fish." Grandmaster adjusted his glasses, utterly solemn. "I'm willing to become your disciple."

"..."

"My Soul Power is only level twenty-nine, but I have a solid grounding in theory. I can help you analyze how your Martial Soul works, study Soul Skill combinations, plan your cultivation..."

"Stop." Lin Yuan raised a hand. "You're almost fifty, and you want to become the disciple of a six-year-old? Are you serious?"

"The one who knows is the teacher," Grandmaster said firmly. "You know something I don't. That makes you my teacher."

Lin Yuan stared at him for three seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"Fine. But I have two conditions."

"Name them!"

"First, don't call me teacher. Call me your fishing buddy."

"...Fishing buddy?"

"Right. Anglers call each other fishing buddies, regardless of age or seniority." Lin Yuan held up two fingers. "Second, I need a favor."

"What favor?"

"Do you know the headmaster of an academy?"

Grandmaster nodded. "Of course I do."

"Pass along a message for me." Lin Yuan lifted his rod, and a ten-year crucian carp broke the surface. "Tell him a boy with a Trash Martial Soul wants to enroll. His Martial Soul is a fishing rod, and his Soul Power is level six. Ask if he'll take him."

"No need to pass along a message." Grandmaster stood and dusted off his backside. "I'll take you to the academy tomorrow morning."

"You can make that decision?"

"I can." Grandmaster turned to leave, then looked back after a few steps. "Don't be late tomorrow. And..."

"What?"

"That fish... can I have it? I'd like to study it."

Lin Yuan looked at the crucian carp in his hand, then at Grandmaster's aging face, brimming with curiosity.

"Take it." He tossed the fish over. "Remember, fishing buddies can share their catch, but they don't ask about each other's spots."

Grandmaster held the crucian carp, bewildered. "Spots? What spots?"

"My fishing spot." Lin Yuan walked toward the village with his rod over his shoulder, without looking back. "If you sneak over to steal my spot, our friendship is over."

Grandmaster stood there holding the fish. He looked down at the crucian carp, then at Lin Yuan walking away, and suddenly broke into a grin.

The carp thrashed in his arms and splashed water all over his face.

Meanwhile, as Lin Yuan returned to the village entrance, he ran straight into Tang San.

Tang San carried a jug of wine, apparently for Tang Hao.

"Catch anything?" Tang San asked.

"I did."

"How many?"

Lin Yuan thought for a moment. "Three."

"Where are they?"

"I released two and gave one away."

Tang San frowned. "Then what was the point of spending all afternoon fishing?"

Lin Yuan patted his shoulder as he passed. "For the fun of it."

"..."

"You're still young. You wouldn't understand." Lin Yuan took two steps, then stopped and looked back. "Oh, right. Aren't you going to register at the academy tomorrow?"

Tang San froze. "How did you know I was going?"

"Guessed." Lin Yuan waved and headed home. "See you tomorrow."

Tang San stood in the dusk, watching Lin Yuan's retreating figure. He remembered the fishing hook that had swung back and forth that afternoon.

He looked down at the Blue Silver Grass in his palm. Suddenly, his Trash Martial Soul did not seem quite so useless.

At least it was better than a fishing rod, right?

It had to be... right?