Chapter 62: Chapter 62
『Startled Swan, Roaming Dragon』!
Shen Xiuhan drifted down onto the reef like a leaf that had lost its weight.
He held his breath and stilled his mind, peering down into the water along the thread’s pull.
At the base of the reef, crusted with water-weed, there was a crevice. Nestled inside it, resting, was an unusual fish — its body clad in red scales, and atop its head a pair of small, crystalline, coral-like antlers.
A treasure fish!
Without the slightest doubt, a treasure fish of the water!
It resembled a bighead carp in shape, yet bore a pair of little deer’s antlers.
Never mind Shen Xiuhan — even an ordinary fisherman could have told at a glance it was no common creature.
In a flash of lightning and flint-spark.
A memory surfaced in Shen Xiuhan’s mind.
In Mei Hall’s study.
There was an ancient tome called “A Chronicle of Wonders Wrought by Creation” — compiled by the imperial court of the former Great Yang dynasty.
Within it were recorded all manner of treasure beasts, spirit medicines, and exotic water-creatures found in deep mountains and great marshes.
In his idle hours between training, Shen Xiuhan had leafed through it a few times.
And the fish before his eyes matched, to the last detail, one species of treasure fish described in the book.
『Antlered Bighead』!
Classified as a second-tier treasure fish!
Legend held that the delicate pair of antlers on its crown contained an astonishing concentration of water-and-wood essence.
If ground to powder and added to a pill furnace as a catalyst, they could dramatically amplify a pill’s potency, and even modestly improve the rate of successful refinement.
A superb supplementary ingredient for alchemy.
Gazing at the 『Antlered Bighead』 lurking in the depths, Shen Xiuhan’s eyes blazed bright, and a surge of excitement ran through him.
Since his last catch of the 『Silver-backed fish』, it had been a long time since he had seen a treasure fish.
He never expected that, on his way to dig up the 『Jade-Hearted Lotus Root』, he would stumble upon a windfall like this!
“What a stroke of luck…”
Joy though he felt, Shen Xiuhan did not rush to cast his line.
Instead, he crouched carefully atop the reef, studying the surrounding currents and terrain with care — making certain that once he struck, the 『Antlered Bighead』 would have absolutely no room to flee.
After watching for a while, a faint stir crossed Shen Xiuhan’s expression.
Looking down from above.
He could see that the 『Antlered Bighead』, at rest, was facing a direction that lined up — dead-on, not a hair off — with the Intelligence-marked location of the 『Jade-Hearted Lotus Root』.
“This…”
A peculiar look came over Shen Xiuhan’s face; understanding dawned.
‘A treasure fish with this level of awakened instinct must have sensed the treasure medicine growing here, and deliberately taken up residence beneath this reef to guard it.’
‘A pity for you — running into me today, I’m afraid it’s fish and lotus root both, taken in one haul.’
Atop the reef, Shen Xiuhan drew a deep breath, and his wrist gave a deft flick.
The crude green reed stalk and black thread slipped soundlessly into the lake — drifting down into the water without raising so much as a splash.
『Thousand Lakes Fishing』!
A scent fatally alluring to treasure fish spread silently outward.
Beneath the reef, the resting 『Antlered Bighead』 stirred as though it had caught the scent of some supreme spirit-thing. With a “splash,” it whipped its tail and shot out from beneath the rock.
In an instant, it had found the source of the strange scent.
It was only a rough, common black thread — and yet, in the 『Antlered Bighead’s』 eyes, it had become the most irresistible delicacy under heaven.
Without the slightest testing hesitation, it opened its jaws and bit down.
Hooked!
Shen Xiuhan’s expression sharpened. He drew in his breath, veins standing out on both arms, and hauled with all his strength!
Twang!
That thin black silk thread, under the reinforcement of 『Thousand Lakes Fishing』, became in an instant the toughest fishing line in existence.
Crash!
The water’s surface burst apart!
An 『Antlered Bighead』 — sheathed head to tail in crimson scales, as thick and long as a grown man’s forearm — was dragged bodily from the deep water by Shen Xiuhan.
Spray flew in every direction as it rocketed into the air!
The 『Antlered Bighead』 realized the danger at once. Its tail beat madly in midair — the force behind each blow enough to shatter stone and snap timber.
Shen Xiuhan’s eyes turned fierce. His fingers lashed out like a dark eagle’s talons, trailing a piercing whistle through the air — “smack!” — and clamped down precisely onto the 『Antlered Bighead’s』 slippery body!
Under that iron-forged grip, every bit of the 『Antlered Bighead’s』 resistance was no more than an ant trying to topple a great tree — it could not move another fraction.
“Hah… clean catch!”
Shen Xiuhan let out a breath, and looked at the treasure fish in his hand. His mind spun through calculations at speed.
Master had once said that treasure fish born of heaven and earth began losing their qi-blood the moment they left the water.
The 『Silver-backed fish』 he had caught last time had been in the dead of winter, and by sheer luck he had wrapped it in ice, which was why it had lasted as long as it did.
He had no such conditions now.
Moreover, Yunyi Island was a long way from Changyun County. Even aboard a Ji clan fast boat, the journey would take a full two hours at minimum.
If he tried to bring it back like that, at least half the medicinal potency would be lost — an utter waste of heaven’s gift.
“Forget it — I’ll just eat the thing here and now. As for the Jade-Hearted Lotus Root, that can be stored properly and taken back on my rest day, to see whether Master can refine it into pills.”
Shen Xiuhan made up his mind. A ruthless gleam flashed across his eyes.
His right hand shot out like lightning. Two fingers drove straight into the depths of the 『Antlered Bighead’s』 gills.
Force erupted — and with a savage outward tear!
“Krrk!”
With a muffled crunch, the 『Antlered Bighead’s』 central nerve was ripped clean through.
The treasure fish that had been thrashing up a storm of spray a moment ago went rigid — in an instant, all life drained from it, and it slumped limply down.
Fish in hand, Shen Xiuhan tapped off the reef and leapt to a secluded stretch of shore.
He gathered a pile of bone-dry deadwood and leaves, struck a fire with his flint, and skewered the roughly dressed 『Antlered Bighead』 on a sharpened stick, setting it over the flames to roast.
Having confirmed no eyes were watching, and that the fire would not easily die —
Without a moment’s delay, he turned and plunged back into the lake with a “splash.”
Following the pale-gold point of light in his vision, he dove straight down.
Though this was a rocky shoal, the treasure medicine’s marked location lay buried more than a dozen meters below the surface, lodged deep in a crack among the bedrock and silt.
Shen Xiuhan’s qi-blood cycled within him as he held his breath and swam downward.
The deeper he went, the dimmer the light filtering through the surface grew, and the colder the water became.
He swept his arms, parting curtain after curtain of dark-green water-weed that swayed in the current.
After a short while, a soft, gentle glow suddenly kindled in the murky depths.
Shen Xiuhan fixed his eyes upon it.
There, at the border of silt and bedrock, a three-jointed spirit lotus root — suffused with a lustrous, jade-like sheen, its entire body as though carved from the finest mutton-fat white jade — sat rooted in stillness.
The haze of spiritual energy it gave off stood out all the more vividly against the surrounding dark.
『Treasure Medicine — Jade-Hearted Lotus Root』!
Joy surged through Shen Xiuhan. He swam forward and, with the utmost care, working along the edge of the silt, drew it out whole — a few trailing rootlets and all.
Then his legs kicked hard, and like an arrow loosed from the string, he broke upward through layer after layer of water.
“Crash!”
Spray flew as he burst through the surface, drinking in great gulps of cold river wind.
He wiped the droplets from his face and studied the flawless jade lotus root in his hand — radiating an astonishing spiritual energy — and couldn’t keep the smile from his eyes.
“Treasure medicine, in hand!”
Shen Xiuhan carefully wrapped the Jade-Hearted Lotus Root together with the pair of crystalline, coral-like antlers inside his robe, and cinched it tight.
A rare treasure medicine like this — not a whiff of its aura could be allowed to leak.
That done, he strode over to the fire.
About a quarter-hour had passed.
The Antlered Bighead had been roasted until it sizzled and dripped with oil, its skin crisped to a golden brown, and a mouth-watering fragrance wound straight up into the nose.