Book 6: Chapter 3: Xu Sheng Delivering Fish

Lin Xi returned to the riverfront small building in the middle of the night.

Only after setting up another ring of ‘dark bells’ around the small building, did he grab both the Old River Lump and the remaining Ironhead Dogfish, starting to butcher them, clean out their innards.

‘Dark bells’ was an alert method taught by Green Luan Academy, using some threads and other hard to detect objects to produce sounds, arranging them in the surroundings. As long as someone didn’t take the normal path, enter through the front door, then a sound would easily be produced, alerting him ahead of time.

When Xu Chengfeng previously sent out those assassins, it was precisely because they made contact with Lin Xi’s simple but effective arrangement that allowed him to notice them ahead of time, allowing him to react promptly.

While setting up the ‘dark bells’ around the riverfront terrace, Lin Xi saw that there were sixty to seventy fishing boats that gathered on the distant river surface, brightly lit, looking extremely lively. Lin Xi already asked Elder Mo for guidance, but he didn’t know what occasion these fishermen were celebrating either, only learning that this type of scene wasn’t normal.

Lin Xi didn’t think too much of it either. After cleaning up the Old River Lump and Ironhead Dogfish, he removed the turtle’s shell and chopped it up, then placed it into a large pot, adding some medicinal goods to stew first.

This Old River Lump’s meat was enough for him to eat for two whole meals, the sand and stones had already been vomited out when it was in the pot. Now, another twelve hours or so of slow stewing were needed in order to completely remove the smell and cook the meat soft, let it produce a fresh fragrance. At that point, it would be easier to absorb, displaying its greatest effects for cultivators.

By starting the stewing now, he could drink the soup and enjoy the meat tomorrow morning.

After starting to stew the Old River Lump, Lin Xi began to cut fish fillets with a knife, tonight’s dinner was precisely this Ironhead Dogfish.

Lin Xi was extremely focused while cutting the fish fillets.

The knife in his hands moved across the fish’s body in an extremely stable and quick manner. He did his best to cut the thickness and density of each fillet to be exactly the same.

This naturally purely had to do with the texture of the fish when he ate it.

Apart from being influenced by Tong Wei and the others who always repeated the phrase ‘where can’t one cultivate’, making Lin Xi start paying attention to cultivation matters at all times, it also came from the pressure originating from Wei Xianwu.

Even though he led those armored horsemen over, in the end, he silently left after being pointed at and berated as a brute. However, ever since he first met this officer in front of Silver Hook Lane, he already sensed the most direct killing intent from his body.

This great case, because of Jiang Rui’s interference, already became an iron case that was difficult to overturn. This military officer and the Three Towns Battalion Commander Xu Ningshen might not be able to escape investigation either. If he treated Lin Xi unfavorably further, even if people above wished to interfere, there was no way they could protect him. However, from the expression this military officer had when he left, Lin Xi still felt like he wouldn’t leave the matter at that.

Just like how for most people in Yunqin, Green Luan Academy was this world’s most mysterious and indescribable holy land, cultivators were also existences above ordinary people.

Ordinary cultivators who weren’t employed by the royal court were always one of the biggest sources of headaches for the Yunqin royal court.

These cultivators had strength exceeding normal people, yet to a certain degree, weren’t suppressed by the law either. They often roamed about freely, their whereabouts hard to track down, even if they killed someone today, it was unknown where they disappeared off to tomorrow, so most homicide cases involving cultivators were difficult to investigate, they were even harder to apprehend and bring to justice.

Yunqin Empire’s territory was so large, and this world wasn’t as developed as Lin Xi’s previous world either. On top of all of this, there were many places the army couldn’t reach or didn’t have jurisdiction over.

Wei Xianwu was definitely a cultivator, just the flow of blood and air when he breathed enough for Lin Xi to sense the explosive power within his body.

As long as it was a cultivator, it was enough reason for Lin Xi to remain vigilant.

Even though Lin Xi didn’t know Wei Xianwu’s concrete cultivation level, judging from Wei Xianwu’s gait that even paid attention to cultivation and the pressure his body constantly gave off, Lin Xi felt that it might very likely be above his own.

If it wasn’t for the Divine Pear Longbow and Dendrite Iron Arrow, if he had to face the enemy normally, just that black raincoat man on the river might be a formidable foe. Looking at Wei Xianwu’s status and the powerful confidence he exuded when he bowed his body, and even the way he spoke to him, Wei Xianwu’s strength should only be higher than that person’s.

Because of his natural detachment towards the affairs of the royal court, Lin Xi understood why Vice Principal Xia sent him out even more clearly.

There is cultivation in everything… If the heart’s uneasiness became hard to quell because of some unfavorable information or pressure from one side in the royal court, then in the future, when he was on the battlefield, how could he remain an unmoved mountain, moreover stop temporarily in the enemy’s territory, recover one’s exhausted soul force?

Lin Xi tried to control himself like how he controlled a bowstring, finely tempering himself.

The entire Ironhead Dogfish in his hands quickly became a skeleton. After removing the useless fish head, Lin Xi placed the other bones into the large pot, stewing it together with the Old River Lump, starting to heat the fish fillets in a pot of water on the side that was already boiling.

This time, because he prepared some seasoning, the heated fish fillets’ taste became even more wonderful.

Just when he ate a larger half of the fish fillets, the hunger in his belly gradually sated, he suddenly heard the sounds of a boat moving along the river outside this riverfront small building.

A dang sounded. Soon afterwards, a metal tapping sound could be heard.

“Xu Sheng wishes to meet Sir Lin.”

The instant his brows furrowed slightly, a voice instead sounded clearly, entering his ears.

Lin Xi stared blankly, descending the building, but saw that it was a black canopy fishing boat that stopped in front of the riverfront terrace. Xu Sheng stood right at the front of the ship, two fishermen dressed in woven rush raincoats currently moving two springboards onto the terrace.

“Sir Lin.”

When they saw Lin Xi walk out from the small building, Xu Sheng and the two fisherman immediately bowed respectfully.

While looking at the three people who greeted him respectfully, Lin Xi was a bit stunned, returning the greeting and saying, “Xu Sheng, coming up the river like this, what did you need me for?”

“Sir will understand as soon as you take a look.”

Xu Sheng smiled. He gestured towards the two fishermen behind him with his hand, and then they immediately revealed expressions of excitement. A fisherman first removed a large net from the cabin, dripping wet with the river’s water, and then followed the springboard up onto the terrace. The other fisherman was a bit nervous and careful, bringing out a leather bag that had many holes poking out, inside of it a rather ferocious living creature that continuously tossed and turned about, making the entire fishing boat that wasn’t all that small rock back and forth. It seemed like he couldn’t drag this huge leather bag ashore alone either, now waiting for the previous fisherman to come back and help him out.

Lin Xi saw that what was inside the previous fisherman’s large net were five large black fish. He could tell with a glance that these fish were like ordinary sturgeons, but they were just too large, and their bodies were flatter and longer. Lin Xi immediately cried out in alarm, “Black sturgeon?!” The moment these two words left his mouth, he immediately understood why Xu Sheng came looking for him.

“Did you come specially to help deliver me these fish?!” Lin Xi raised his head to look at Xu Sheng, a bit pleasantly surprised.

For cultivators, they truly never got tired of food, there simply wasn’t enough to eat, not scared of not being able to eat it. Eating these things every single meal, for cultivators, they were great mending food, the most beneficial things. Perhaps not even the cultivators in the imperial palace could do this.

Originally, Lin Xi felt like eating an Ironhead Dogfish today was still not enough. Now that he saw these five Breath River black sturgeon which were at least a hundred jin in weight, difficult for this fisherman to even drag on shore, it was at least enough for Lin Xi to eat another three meals.

“I previously heard Second Grandpa Zhang say that Ironhead Dogfish and Old River Lump were both extremely useful for Sir Lin, so I asked around about what Sir Lin was looking for that day in the fish market. I heard that you asked about snowflake fish and black sturgeon, but felt like this was quite difficult, because snowflake fish, even though they weren’t hard to find, they are small in size, while the black sturgeon are located in the very depths of the river, extremely hard to catch, only by relying on moving nets deep along the ground, and then using some light and special bait is there a chance to catch any.” When Xu Sheng saw Lin Xi’s pleasantly surprised appearance, he also became happy, saying with a smile, “Today, I gathered with some friends to give it a try, see how our luck went, who would have thought that even Swallow Descent Town’s Cormorant Weng was invited to give some pointers. In the end, we actually had the fortune of capturing five of them!”

Lin Xi was stunned. He couldn’t help but look towards the river surface where the fishermen were gathered not long ago. Now, he saw that those fishermen already scattered, starting to head towards various shores, so he immediately reacted, “Those fishing boats were actually you all helping me catch fish?”

“It was just all of us doing some happy things.” Xu Sheng nodded. He looked at the fishing boats scattered across the river surface, saying, “Today, everyone was extremely excited, quite a few friends even agreed to go back and drink our fill.”

Lin Xi felt a bit of an indescribable feeling inside. When he saw this happy dark skinned youngster, he asked, “Who is Swallow Descent Town’s Cormorant Weng?”

“He is an old fisherman who used to raise cormorants to catch fish, his methods extremely great, the best at catching fish that are extremely difficult to catch. He was able to establish a large residence in Swallow Descent Town purely by relying on fishing. However, because of rheumatism, he has already stopped, it’s been more than ten years since he worked on the river, so us juniors could only hear about his past fishing achievements, unable to personally see him set his hand at the work.” Xu Sheng recalled the scene from just now, saying excitedly, “Only someone like Sir Lin can make him take the initiative to come out, let us see his skills.”

While speaking, he pointed at the large leather bag next to him in excitement, saying, “Sir Lin, can you guess at what is inside that bag?”

“Is it Ironhead Dogfish?” While looking at the vicious and powerful movements inside the leather bag, Lin Xi guessed at the contents. He couldn’t help but take a deep breath, saying this.

“These are precisely Ironhead Dogfish.” Xu Sheng laughed heartily, saying, “Turns out the reason why Cormorant Weng could catch these Ironhead Dogfish was through a type of special steel bar cage. These fish could get in, but couldn’t get back out. Otherwise, even if more sturdy steel wire dragnet was used, they’ll still be easily jammed by the rocks at the bottom of the river, breaking if pulled too hard. Cormorant Weng said that no one has been able to catch these Ironhead Dogfish these years, so there might be quite a few to catch again. As such, he even taught us the method of making those steel bar cages, having us make a few, when the time comes, he is even willing to come back to the river to give us some pointers, have us place them in places where the Ironhead Dogfish have higher chances of frequenting, so if nothing unexpected happens, we can catch some more. Cormorant Weng is so full of admiration towards sir that he doesn’t even hesitate to pass on these special secret skills.”

“I’ll help.” When he heard Xu Sheng say these things, and then saw how much the two fishermen were struggling with that large leather bag, Lin Xi walked up, picking up the large leather bag with one hand. At the same time, he was immediately shocked. “Why is it so heavy?”

Xu Sheng said with a chuckle, “Cormorant Weng said that since it was the first time he returned to the river after more than ten years, in front of all these people, if he only caught one or two, it would be shameful in front of sir and everyone, so today, he caught five in total. He also said that as long as his limbs were still rather nimble come next spring, he could get on a boat. With Dragon King Zhang controlling the boat, he would ride on Dragon King Zhang’s boat, help sir catch a good amount of snowflake fish. That is when snowflake fish are most plentiful, and also the most luxuriant. However, because the shoals of fish are dispersed, and since they also move quickly, he needs Dragon King Zhang’s extremely fast and portable small boat to catch a large amount in one go. I also said to him that in that case, if he really can make that trip, I will serve as the host, hold a Hundred Fish Feast on the river bank, perfect for watching the riverside’s peach blossoms, how wonderful would that be!”

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