Fishing

With no clues and no leads, the search for a way out seemed to have hit a dead end.

As Lin Xiao walked along the road, he felt, perhaps it was just his imagination, that the temperature around him seemed to have dropped.

It was different outside than inside the ice cave; a light, continuous snowfall had begun.

Moreover, the rain intensified, and the visibility in the surrounding area visibly decreased.

As a result, Lin Xiao had to expend more of his Divine Sense to assist in exploring the path.

The ground, which was originally frozen into ice, was now completely covered with thick white snow, making normal walking extremely difficult. Lin Xiao had already used the Air-Stepping Technique to move forward on the snow.

Fortunately, he was just traveling normally, so although he kept using the Air-Stepping Technique, he didn't actually consume much Spiritual Power.

As Lin Xiao walked, he suddenly saw a group of cultivators fishing in the snow around a very wide frozen lake.

The frozen lake is half-bordered by a large snow-capped mountain.

Most of the cultivators were fishing on the lakeside of the flat area opposite the snow-capped mountain. They crowded the lakeside with their bodies, each with a thick wooden stick stuck in the more than one-meter-thick snow, calmly casting their fishing rods in the lake.

Every now and then, you'd see someone with a joyful expression, forcefully lifting their fishing rod, and a large fish with a silver tail and black scales, almost a meter long, would be flung into a large bag next to them.

Seeing these people fishing so peacefully, Lin Xiao was puzzled.

This was his first time entering this secret realm. Although he had inquired about many things beforehand, he was still not very clear about many things, and he didn't know much about the Demon Beast in the secret realm that were said to start appearing in the next few days.

After thinking about it, he decided to stick with the group of cultivators for now.

I feel safer when there are more people around!

Moreover, he really wanted to catch Silver-Tailed Fish here! If he brought them back and cooked them for Fuzi, they might taste even better than that tiny dish made at the Immortal Fragrance Pavilion!

Lin Xiao looked around and found a lone cultivator who seemed easy to talk to. He leaned closer and whispered, "..."

"Hey bro, there are fish in this lake, why don't you just use Law Technique to catch them instead of fishing them one by one?"

Upon hearing this, the man looked up and saw a very young boy. At first glance, it was impossible to discern his cultivation level. He smiled warmly at him and said:

"Brother, is this your first time in this secret realm? This Ice and Snow Lake is the only place in the entire realm with Silver-Tailed Fish, and only Silver-Tailed Fish. I just don't know what's so special about this lake; no Law Technique can be used in it, only normal fishing can catch the Silver-Tailed Fish."

How about it? Want to try your hand at fishing? You're lucky, this Ice and Snow Lake just appeared today and you've already stumbled upon it!

I have some extra fishing rods here. I'll sell one to you cheaply! Only 100 Spirit Stone! The quality is absolutely guaranteed, exactly the same as the one I have here! Think about it, a Silver-Tailed Fish costs 50 Spirit Stone! Once you catch the third one, you're guaranteed to make a profit!

Upon hearing the price he quoted for the fishing rod, Lin Xiao thought to himself: What a rip-off!

But he still smiled and said:

"I see, thank you for your kindness, brother! But I brought a fishing rod, so I won't trouble you to part with it." With that, Lin Xiao took out a fishing rod from his private stash.

This fishing rod was suggested to him by someone when he was gathering information in Yuanling City. Lin Xiao looked at the market price and found that a typical fishing rod cost around fifty Spirit Stone. Lin Xiao felt that it was barely acceptable, and he could break even by catching just one Silver-Tailed Fish, so he bought one.

Upon hearing this, the man was slightly disappointed, but he quickly recovered and moved the wooden stake under his buttocks slightly to the side.

"Come on, brother, it's fate that we met. I'll make room for you, we can squeeze in and sit down." He then stared at Lin Xiao with bright eyes and asked:

"I have some very comfortable wooden stakes here, only twenty Spirit Stone each, brother, would you like some...?"

However, as he spoke, Lin Xiao had already pulled out a thicker wooden stake from his private treasury, even thicker than the wooden stake under the cultivator's buttocks, and steadily planted it into the snow under his watchful eye.

Then Lin Xiao, as if he hadn't heard what he just said, turned to him with a smile and asked:

"Brother, what did you just say? The snow was too heavy, I didn't hear you clearly."

The man smacked his lips and said:

"Wow, bro, you're amazing! You're so well-prepared for your first time entering this secret realm!"

Lin Xiao exchanged a few polite words with him, and then, like everyone else, sat on the wooden stake and began fishing in the heavy snow, becoming part of the fishing group on the Ice and Snow Lake.

Fortunately, these people were all cultivators at least at the eighth or ninth level of Qi Refining, so the thick snowflakes that fell on them did not turn them into snowmen.

Each snowflake melted the moment it landed on them.

Not long after, Lin Xiao had his first catch while fishing – a one-meter-long Silver-Tailed Fish!

Instead of putting it directly into his private stash, he put it into a large bag he had prepared beforehand, just like everyone else around him.

This large bag was also purchased in Yuanling City. It can hold about fifty Silver-Tailed Fish, the size of which.

However, although this big bag can hold a lot, it can only be used as a temporary stopover when fishing, because although it can hold a lot, it cannot hold live animals in it for a long time.

Generally speaking, it shouldn't exceed twenty-four hours, otherwise the creatures inside will die.

Nearby, some monks who had given up on fishing carried the same large bags to a large, cleared ice stone platform on the leeward side, where they began to gut and kill the fish.

The cleaned fish will be put into Storage Bag.

Unfortunately, Storage Bag cannot be used to store living creatures.

However, Spirit Beast Bag are too expensive, and a single Spirit Beast Bag can only hold a limited number of spirit beasts.

Therefore, they usually have to set aside some time to kill the animals on the spot, put them in Storage Bag, and then take them away.

Some cultivators who have empty Spirit Beast Bag will put a few live Silver-Tailed Fish into Spirit Beast Bag, so that they can sell them at higher prices to the Immortal Fragrance Pavilion or those large Lineage.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao asked the system in his mind:

"Can my private storage hold live animals? I'd like to keep this fish and see if I can raise it."

[Ding--Congratulations, host, you have opened the private living creature storage area. Note: This area can only store low-level creatures. High-level creatures with awakened intelligence (Spirit Awakening First Layer and above) cannot be stored here.]

This is truly a system that shakes when you kick it.

However, Lin Xiao was quite satisfied with the result.

So, he immediately got all fired up and started fishing.

Gradually, his large bag filled with more and more Silver-Tailed Fish.

It must be said that the atmosphere among the fishing groups here is quite good; surprisingly, there were no incidents of fighting, snatching, or theft.

There are probably too many people here; even if there were a few people with bad intentions, they wouldn't dare to do it in full view of everyone.