Early the next morning, when dawn had barely broken, a thin layer of white mist still floated over Golden Lake.
Lin He yawned, pushed open the courtyard gate, and headed toward the lake with the coarse fishing net in his hand.
He had been excited for most of the night.
Seventy-one low-grade spirit stones in his pocket, and a genius wife at home who could draw a Fireball Talisman after a single glance-which transmigrator wouldn't throw back his head and let out three long howls with a setup like that?
But who was he, Lin He?
He knew full well that the tree that rose above the forest would be battered by the wind.
The waters of the cultivation world ran deep.
So he still had to keep up his ordinary-mortal persona.
He still had to fish.
"Morning, young fellow from the Lin Household."
He had just reached the lakeside embankment when he heard a raspy greeting.
Lin He turned to see Old Man Sun squatting on a bluestone by the lake, fiddling with his tattered fishing net with a woeful expression.
There were dark circles under the old man's eyes. Clearly, he hadn't slept well last night.
For an old hunter who had roamed the mountains unchallenged for decades, suddenly having to deal with water was simply worse than being killed.
"Morning, Elder Sun." Lin He grinned and walked over. "What's wrong? Can't get the net straightened out?"
"Ah, I really can't find my way around this business on the water."
Old Man Sun sighed, his weathered face wrinkling like a walnut. "I practiced by the water for half the night yesterday. The net twisted up like a fried dough twist every time I cast it. Didn't catch so much as a tiny shrimp."
Lin He patted the old man's shoulder. "Don't rush it. You have to develop a feel for this. Come on, I'll demonstrate it for you again today."
He had made up his mind to teach Old Man Sun.
After all, the old man had helped him a great deal on Green Mountain, and Lin He had long since counted him as practically one of his own.
The two had just reached the lakeside dock when a dark, burly, bare-chested man emerged from the nearby reeds.
"Brother Lin! Old Sun!" Shuigen smiled good-naturedly, revealing two rows of white teeth.
"Taking the boat out again today? Mind bringing me along? That cast I saw you make yesterday was incredible! I'd like to learn your technique. You can use my boat for free!"
"Sure, no big deal." Lin He waved a generous hand.
Herding one sheep was work, and tending two was work all the same.
The three boarded the boat.
Shuigen deftly picked up the bamboo pole and pushed hard. The black-canopied boat parted the clear ripples and glided steadily toward the center of the lake.
Old Man Sun sat in the bow, both hands gripping the gunwales for dear life. Clearly, he still held this swaying wooden platform on the water in considerable awe.
Lin He stood at the stern, bending his knees slightly into a horse stance, as steady as if his feet had taken root.
"Elder Sun, Brother Shuigen, watch closely."
Lin He lifted the fishing net, gripping its main line in his right hand and straightening its corner with his left. "You can't cast a net with arm strength alone. You have to use your waist, then put a deft flick into your wrist at the end to shake it open!"
Before he had finished speaking, Lin He abruptly drove through his waist, sending a terrifying burst of force up his spine and into his arms.
But he controlled it perfectly. The coarse fishing net traced a graceful arc through the air and spread over the water with a swish, forming a perfect, enormous circle before its lead sinkers rapidly pulled it beneath the surface.
"Good heavens..." Shuigen stared, his eyes fixed on it. "That net's so round..."
Old Man Sun clicked his tongue repeatedly as well, then said with a wry smile, "I can see how it's done, but if these old bones really twisted the way you did, I'd throw my back out for sure."
"You just need more practice." Lin He laughed it off and began slowly drawing in the net line.
While waiting for the net to settle, Lin He recalled Old Man Wang's boasting and asked casually, "Brother Shuigen, Old Man Wang said there are things immortals dropped at the bottom of Golden Lake. Is that true? That old fellow wasn't just having us on, was he?"
Shuigen's expression grew serious.
"Actually, Old Man Wang really wasn't making that up."
"You're outsiders, so you wouldn't know, but our Golden Lake isn't a naturally formed lake."
"Oh?" Lin He raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued.
"According to the stories passed down from my grandfather's grandfather's generation, several hundred years ago, an enormous golden meteorite fell from the sky, trailing a long tail of fire, and smashed straight into this land."
"The impact was like an earth dragon turning over. It blasted out a bottomless pit."
Shuigen gestured as he spoke. "Later, water welled up from an underground river and gradually filled it into the Golden Lake we have today. It's called Golden Lake because that meteorite was golden."
Old Man Sun listened, absorbed. "A meteorite fell from the heavens? Doesn't that mean there's treasure at the bottom?"
"Exactly." Shuigen sighed. "There really was a commotion here a few decades ago. They say immortals were fighting over on Green Mountain, battling until heaven crumbled and earth split, and some glowing things fell into our lake."
"Back then, fishermen from every village for miles around went mad. They dived down to search every day."
"A few really did stumble into dog-shit luck and fish out lumps of iron glowing green, jade thumb rings, and things like that. They sold them off and got rich overnight."
"What happened afterward?" Lin He asked.
This was important information. Relics from the Immortals' Mass Grave on Green Mountain might well have ended up here through the waterways or the shock waves of those battles back then.
"Afterward? There wasn't anything left afterward." Shuigen waved a hand. "There weren't many of those things to begin with. They were all fished out long ago. Besides, the water around the center is very deep, and there are undercurrents down below. Out of ten people who went down, eight could drown."
"Once that get-rich frenzy passed, everyone realized it was more practical to fish honestly and fill their bellies. Fishing up immortals' belongings depends entirely on whether Heaven grants you a meal. It's all luck."
Lin He nodded thoughtfully.
"Time to haul it in!"
Judging that enough time had passed, Lin He worked both hands sharply, pulling the fishing net out of the water bit by bit amid splashing water.
Splash-
Silver flashed inside the net. Several bighead carp and grass carp thrashed desperately in its pouch, looking to weigh twenty or thirty jin altogether.
"Good grief! Brother Lin, even your luck is incredible!" Shuigen hurried over to help empty the fish into the hold.
Lin He chuckled and was about to straighten the net for another cast when Shuigen suddenly pointed at a dark lump at the bottom and cried, "Oh! Brother Lin, don't move! You've got something!"
Lin He looked down and saw a hard-shelled creature the size of a washbasin tangled in a corner of the net.
Its dark brown turtle shell was covered in sharp protrusions like little mountain peaks.
The creature stretched out a thick neck, opened its mouth wide, and hissed threateningly at Shuigen, its tiny mung-bean eyes brimming with ferocity.
"A snapping turtle!" Shuigen's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh in excitement. "You don't see many of these in the lake! Judging by its size, it must be at least a dozen years old! It's a great tonic! The manager of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion in town loves buying rarities like this. This one would fetch at least two taels of silver!"
Old Man Sun leaned over as well and examined it. "That's one fierce-looking turtle. Must have a fine set of jaws."
Lin He stared at the snapping turtle. The longer he looked, the more familiar it seemed.
There was a faint white scratch on the third protrusion on its shell. Wasn't this the very snapping turtle he had mistaken for a monster in the reeds behind his courtyard two nights ago, only to discover it was a false alarm and casually toss it back into the lake?
"Hiss, hiss-" The snapping turtle seemed to recognize Lin He too. It drew its neck back a little and blinked its mung-bean eyes twice.
Lin He was amused.
Golden Lake was so vast, yet he had only tossed it in the day before yesterday, and a casual cast today had fished it right back out. The odds were simply lower than winning the lottery.
"Brother Shuigen, I'm not planning to sell this one." Lin He reached out and picked the snapping turtle up by its shell. No matter how wildly its four legs flailed in midair, it couldn't bite him.
"Huh? You're not selling it?" Shuigen froze. "That's two taels of silver! Enough to buy several sacks of coarse grain."
As Lin He looked at the creature brandishing its claws and snapping its jaws in his hand, an image surfaced in his mind of Goudan, the duck-headed, dog-bodied monster at home that did nothing but quack and wag its tail.
"I'm not selling it."
"This fellow and I have a fated connection, and it's got a tenacious hold on life. I'll take it home. It can keep that silly dog of mine company, and it'd make a decent door guardian too."
Shuigen looked pained at the loss, but since Lin He had caught it, he couldn't very well say anything more.