Diving into Golden Lake

Twenty meters beneath the surface in the deep waters of Golden Lake.

Bone-chilling lake water enveloped Lin He completely, yet his body felt no discomfort at all.

This feels fucking incredible. Lin He released a tiny bubble, secretly reveling in the sensation.

He did not even need to deliberately hold his breath. His body had automatically switched to a mode of minimal consumption. The water pressure around him, enough to rupture an ordinary person's eardrums and make their chest feel tight, pressed against his blade- and spear-proof flesh like a full-body massage from an expert masseur.

In the dim, somewhat murky depths, his eyes seemed to have automatically switched to night vision. His sight was astonishingly clear.

Five meters away, a school of silver fish no bigger than fingertips darted back and forth; ten meters away, several transparent freshwater shrimp clung to a sunken log. Farther down, in the cracks between mud and sand on the lakebed twenty meters below the surface, Lin He could even see the yellowed roots of aquatic weeds with perfect clarity.

Didn't Old Man Wang say someone once fished a lump of iron glowing green out of Golden Lake years ago? Lin He stood on the soft lakebed silt like an old fellow strolling through his own back garden, his hands constantly rummaging through mud and gaps between stones. Where are the immortals' relics? The Law Treasure fragments? I haven't even found a broken glowing bowl.

He turned over more than a dozen large rocks in succession, but found nothing except mud and rotting tree roots-not so much as a cultivator's hair.

Thinking about it, that made sense. Golden Lake was an enormous crater formed by a golden meteorite falling from the sky. Its waters covered an astonishing area, and the undercurrents at the bottom were complicated. Even if some Law Artifact really had fallen here during the battle between immortals decades ago, trying to blindly feel it out with his bare hands was no different from fishing a needle out of the sea.

Just as Lin He was about to give up and move elsewhere, he caught a sudden movement beneath a slab of bluestone out of the corner of his eye.

A dark blue shape was trying to burrow into the sediment.

Lin He's gaze sharpened. His right hand flashed through the water like underwater lightning, slicing through the current with a swish and precisely pinching the back of the shape's neck.

Click!

The creature reacted extremely quickly, whipping a claw back and clamping viciously onto Lin He's thumb.

Lin He did not even frown. What a joke. His flesh could withstand even a Qi Refinement Realm wind blade head-on. A mere crab wanted to break through his defenses?

He brought his hand up before his eyes and grinned.

It was a crab the size of a large soup bowl, with a dark golden shell and two enormous claws gleaming with a faint blue light. It was clamped tightly around his finger, but its claws had not hurt Lin He in the slightest. Instead, they creaked and grated under the strain.

A Golden-Backed Blue Claw Crab? Lin He recalled the rare Golden Lake delicacy Old Man Sun had mentioned during an earlier chat.

Apparently, these creatures were extremely difficult to catch in Golden Lake's deep waters. They were astonishingly strong, shredding ordinary fishing nets with a snip, and their meat was exceptionally delicious, with a faint trace of spiritual potency that nourished Blood Qi.

Lin He twisted his hand around and stuffed the crab into the coarse-cloth net bag at his waist. Since he was already here, he could hardly go back up empty-handed.

He rummaged through the nearby piles of rocks a while longer. Relying on his extraordinary eyesight and agility, he pulled out another three equally plump Golden-Backed Blue Claw Crabs in succession and stuffed them all into the net bag.

These big catches will definitely fetch a good price if I take them to Shopkeeper Wu at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, Lin He calculated inwardly. Even if I can't trade them for spirit stones, getting a few dozen taels of silver to buy lean meat would still be good.

At the thought of spirit stones, a brilliant idea suddenly popped into Lin He's head.

Salvaging things by hand is far too inefficient, but there are definitely good things down here in Golden Lake. How did I forget that fellow!

Lin He's eyes lit up.

Ever since the snapping turtle named Ingot in his backyard had eaten supreme-grade spirit rice, ancient golden inscriptions had been appearing on its shell! Even more absurdly, that fellow could sense low-grade spirit stones buried beneath the mud-a treasure-hunting radar come to life.

Since Ingot was fished out of Golden Lake too, maybe it can sense the immortals' relics on the lakebed? The more Lin He thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. When I get back, I'll feed it its fill of the third-generation supreme-grade spirit rice Fairy Su grew. Raise troops for a thousand days to use them for a single moment. After eating so much of my good rice, it's time it came down here and shone.

His mind made up, Lin He lingered on the lakebed no longer and kicked hard with both legs.

Boom!

A cloudy burst of water exploded from the lakebed silt, and Lin He shot straight toward the surface like a deep-water torpedo.

Splash-

Breaking through the surface, Lin He grabbed the edge of the old black-canopied boat he had rented.

Aboard the boat, Old Man Sun, who feared the water, was clinging desperately to the gunwale. His face was deathly pale, and his eyes had reddened with anxiety.

"Oh, my dear mother and ancestors!" Seeing Lin He's head emerge, Old Man Sun let out an enormous sigh of relief, his voice trembling. "Young fellow Lin, you're finally up! You held your breath down there for well over half a double-hour! I-I thought a water monkey had dragged you away. I was just wondering whether I should burn some spirit money for you!"

"Don't curse me, Uncle Sun." Lin He grinned. With a light push of his arms and the splashing of dozens of jin of water, he vaulted nimbly onto the deck.

He casually untied the coarse-cloth net bag at his waist and tossed it onto the planks with a thud.

Old Man Sun took a closer look, and his cloudy eyes instantly widened into perfect circles. "Hiss-Golden-Backed Blue Claws?! And such big ones? Young fellow, these things usually hide in cracks between rocks in deep water, and they're as crafty as ghosts. You caught them with your bare hands?!"

"Just lucky. Ran into a few that didn't know better." Lin He wiped the lake water off his face and picked up an oar. "Come on, let's head back."

Half an incense stick later, the black-canopied boat approached the reed-marsh dock west of Golden Lake Village.

Lin He had just looped the mooring rope over a wooden post and was preparing to step ashore with his net bag when he heard a dry cough full of official airs.

"Ahem... isn't this that Lin boy who's just moved to Emerald Mountain Village?"

Lin He looked up and saw a middle-aged man in a somewhat worn silk robe standing on the dock with his hands behind his back. He wore a mustache that drooped to either side, and two peasants stood behind him with their arms folded, giving Lin He sidelong looks.

Lin He knew this man: Zhao Fugui, the village head of Golden Lake Village. He was a local tyrant through and through. Relying on a tenuous family connection to a constable in town, he had often squeezed money out of these resettled outsiders. He was the sort who would burst into bloom at a scrap of sunshine and take a wooden club for a needle.

Zhao Fugui's mung-bean eyes rolled and settled on the net bag in Lin He's hand.

Having spent years around the waterways, he recognized the supreme-quality Golden-Backed Blue Claw Crabs at a glance and could not help swallowing.

"Lin boy, not bad luck. Your very first day in the water, and you've caught something this good." Zhao Fugui stepped closer with a smile that never reached his eyes, drew ten copper coins from his sleeve, and casually tossed them onto the deck with a clear clink.

"Just in time. Two distinguished guests from town are coming to inspect the village tonight, and I was worrying about having nothing good to serve with their wine. As village head, I'll take it upon myself to buy these crabs from you. Take these ten copper coins and hurry home to buy a few jin of coarse rice. No need to thank me."

Zhao Fugui spoke as though this were only natural, reaching out for Lin He's net bag as he talked.

Behind Lin He, Old Man Sun's expression changed, and he secretly tugged at the corner of Lin He's clothes. In a mortal village, the village head was the local emperor. Offending Zhao Fugui would make life in Golden Lake Village difficult from then on.

But who was Lin He?

His body was now impervious to blades and spears. He had slaughtered three bottom-rung bandit cultivators from the cultivation world as easily as killing chickens, and he carried more than eighty low-grade spirit stones.

Lin He did not move, merely watching coldly as Zhao Fugui's hand reached toward him.

Smack.

Lin He suddenly raised his hand and gave the back of Zhao Fugui's hand a seemingly casual pat.

"Ow!" Zhao Fugui screamed like a pig being slaughtered and jerked his hand back. The bones in the back of his hand felt as though they were about to crack, and the pain sent cold sweat pouring from his forehead.