Book 6: Chapter 4: Thunder Rolls, Wind and Rain Raised
Book 6: Chapter 4: Thunder Rolls, Wind and Rain Raised
Streets would be filled with a feast of fish, cups raised in festivity, beautiful peach blossoms falling around.
When he thought of this scene, Lin Xi couldn’t help but smile as well. “This really will be an extremely beautiful scene.”
Xu Sheng gave the two large stone vats in front of the riverside terrace a look, also saying with a smile, “It’s already a bit late tonight, tomorrow, I’ll bring over two more large stone vats. Otherwise, if there are more Black Sturgeons or Ironhead Dogfish and other fish, you won’t be able to raise them all here.”
“Then I must thank you ahead of time.” Lin Xi looked at this dark faced youngster who laughed extremely happily. After expressing his gratitude again, he asked, “How many silvers for all of this?”
Xu Sheng stared blankly for a moment, as if he never expected Lin Xi to ask this. However, Lin Xi immediately apologetically explained, “I know that this is an exchange between friends, talking about silver really is a bit inappropriate… but in my position, there are quite a few people who are eyeing me. If I don’t mention these things, I might have people make an issue out of nothing.”
Xu Sheng remained silent for a bit, and then nodded.
“Even though it is a bit more troublesome, why let our moods be affected because of those people? It’s better to just remain happy.” Lin Xi pointed towards the large leather bag that was shaking fiercely in the clammy large net, saying with a smile, “Even when I purchase these in the fish market normally, I’ll still feel extremely happy, let alone today when you saw me as a friend, catching them just for me, I’ll obviously feel even happier.”
Because Lin Xi spoke sincerely, when Xu Sheng thought about his cultivator identity, he immediately understood the meaning behind his words. For cultivators like him, a few silvers really weren’t as valuable as these things, together with Lin Xi now truly considering them as friends, the bit of gloominess felt by this dark faced youngster who was born in the marketplace, his body carrying a fishy smell immediately vanished without a trace, a happy smile appearing on his face once again.
“What Sir Lin says is correct, it was me who attached too much value to the worth of silver, this type of secular thing.” He scratched his head in a bit of an embarrassed manner, and then said, “Tomorrow, I’ll call someone to bring over a bill, calculate everything properly.”
Lin Xi waved his hands, saying seriously, “Since we are friends now, when we aren’t handling public affairs, there’s no need to always call me Sir Lin, just saying my name is enough. To be honest, for just a trifling Enforcer like me to always be called sir, it really is hard to get used to.”
When he heard Lin Xi’s words, Xu Sheng began to mutter a bit to himself, saying with a resolute voice, “Okay, then from today on, I’ll call you Big Bro Lin.”
Lin Xi had a forced smile on his face, “Xu Sheng, your age should be a bit greater than mine, right?”
“On this Breath River, whoever has abilities and can convince everyone, we will view that person as our elder.” Xu Sheng looked at Lin Xi, saying seriously, “Just like Second Grandpa Zhang, his age isn’t the greatest among their brothers. Right now, on this Breath River shore, the one who has left all of the brothers making a living on this river convinced, is Sir Lin alone. Forget about everything else, just the fact that even Second Grandpa Zhang cannot make Cormorant Weng come out to help him catch fish alone is already enough to explain many things.”
Lin Xi and Principal Zhang came from the same place, they didn’t have any of the deeply-rooted concept of seniors and juniors to begin with. When he heard Xu Sheng say this, he didn’t really plan to persist with it either. Right at this time, there was a guest who paid a visit to this small building. Someone asked with a clear voice, “Excuse me, if I may ask, is Sir Enforcer here?”
Xu Sheng didn’t stay any longer, saying his goodbyes and leaving.
Lin Xi responded. He first undid the large net and the leather bag, placing the Black Sturgeon and Ironhead Dogfish into the two large vats first.
These five massive Ironhead Dogfish were truly vicious. When they were thrown into the vat, they continuously moved about, becoming even more violent, always creating splashing noises, continuously stirring up the water.
When he arrived at the entrance, there was a wizened middle-aged man who stood there calmly, in a set of ordinary rough cloth military uniform, in his hands an oil paper umbrella. However, when he saw Lin Xi walk out, he bowed slightly, clearly possessing an excellent and outstanding feeling.
“I am someone from Yuhua Family.” After bowing slightly, this ordinary looking middle-aged man instead directly stated his identity and purpose in coming with an extremely calm expression. “I know that you came from the northern mountain holy land and even saved Yuhua Tianji’s life, our Yuhua Family owes you a great favor. However, are you sure that you wish to use this favor now? Forgive this one for speaking forthrightly, but your current situation doesn’t seem bad enough to the point of needing to use our Yuhua Family’s favor.”
Lin Xi sized up this individual from Yuhua Family under the night sky.
He knew why the other party would come at this time. It was because he handed the command banner that represented the Yuhua Family to the Ministry of Appointments member Jiang Wenhe who carried out the final review of his public declaration, having him help him contact Yuhua Family’s people, and this was why Jiang Wenhe was able to complete the official document as fast as possible, and then reported sick, not even Town Supervisor Dong and Lian Zhanshan seeing him.
He could also hear the good intentions and pride behind this Yuhua Family member’s words.
Yuhua Family’s people also had absolute qualifications to feel pride, Lin Xi could also understand this type of pride. It was like someone was given a mountain, yet it was only used to smash a mosquito to death, this naturally made one feel annoyed, feeling that they were being an idiot.
“I didn’t actually wish to have Yuhua Family help me get rid of these matters at my side, it is just that Yuhua Family should know that I have parents and a little sister in Deerwood Town. I will return to meet them soon.” Lin Xi looked at this outwardly ordinary calm man, carrying warm and gentle emotions as he calmly explained, “For me, they are what I truly care about, I don’t wish for anything bad to happen to them. However, they are only ordinary people, I cannot always remain at their side either. This Silver Hook Lane case left me a bit stirred, so the favor I wish Yuhua Family to help me with… is to ensure that they can remain safe.”
The calm middle-aged man’s brows furrowed slightly, slowly nodding, saying, “This return of politeness isn’t that great.”
“I know that for Yuhua Family, it isn’t a great matter, but for me, it is instead extremely important.” Lin Xi laughed. He gave this calm man a bow of respect, and then said, “That is why I must trouble mister to help me with this.”
The calm man bowed once more, saying, “Even if there is only one person left in Yuhua Family, we will still ensure that your entire family is safe, that is unless you commit a great nine clan execution sin.”
Without saying anything else, after this calm man bowed, returning the greeting, he then turned around to leave, disappearing into East Port Town’s darkness.
Lin Xi knew that this type of promise from Yuhua Family was even more effective than the promise of one of Yunqin’s ten thousand membered armies, which was why he felt even less worry, feeling even more at ease.
When he saw this calm male’s rear figure disappear, he then walked towards the riverfront terrace.
The fish fillets had already been cut in his room, so they needed to be eaten quickly, or else the taste would change. Meanwhile, the Ironhead Dogfish’s meat amount, for this meal, was also about right. He was only worried because the two stone vats were rather close, thinking that he should get some stuff to cover them. Otherwise, with the Ironhead Dogfish’s savageness and ability to eat, if one or two ended up in the Black Sturgeon’s vat on the side, those five Black Sturgeon disappearing in the end, then Xu Sheng and the others’ efforts would have been for nothing.
With only a single look, Lin Xi saw that there were two Black Sturgeon fish whose bellies were exceptionally bloated. One of their bellies seemed to have something connected to it.
When he looked carefully, there were mung bean sized, black pearl-like objects.
“Black Gold Seeds!”
After staring blankly for a moment, Lin Xi reacted, releasing a cry of surprise.
The roe of Black Sturgeons!
These two whose bellies were exceptionally swollen were female fish with roe in their bellies.
The effects of this type of Black Sturgeon roe, for cultivators, were several times greater than Black Sturgeon flesh. Moreover, the taste of the roe was known to be especially great, the price itself also extremely high to begin with, true exceptional flavoring of some great restaurants.
Originally, that Ironhead Dogfish’s meat was already enough for a meal, but Lin Xi immediately got stirred up. He couldn’t help but wish to try out just what kind of flavor these ‘Black Gold Seeds’ recorded in Green Luan’s manuals had. As such, he quickly grabbed a plate, fishing out the female Black Sturgeon that already released some of its roe.
With a stroke of his blade, sparkling and translucent roe flowed out from this fish’s belly, quickly filling up the plate, roughly two jin in weight.
When he thought about how if, while he was cultivating tonight, the other Black Sturgeon’s roe also completely flowed out, there might be some changes to them, and how he should be able to finish another two jin, Lin Xi decided to catch the other one as well, removing all of the roe from its belly.
He returned the two Black Sturgeon females back into the vat. After covering the water vat with some things, Lin Xi was rather excited as he brought the two large plates of ‘Black Gold Seeds’ to his room.
These ‘Black Gold Seeds’ preparation was extremely simple. After just being washed in simple brine, they could be directly eaten.
After quickly preparing them, Lin Xi scooped up a spoonful of it. After just chewing a bit, the black pearl-like roe jumped about in his mouth. The soft shell broke apart, wave after wave of extremely delicious juices began to continuously spread through his mouth.
Lin Xi’s face immediately revealed a deeply moved expression.
This type of ‘Black Gold Seed’ not only didn’t lack any fishy smell, it wasn’t viscous either. When the liquid entered his mouth, it quickly dissolved, the soft shells that needed to be chewed a bit left one with a different type of aftertaste.
He didn’t add any seasoning, yet its taste already exceeded the broths carefully prepared by restaurants.
One bite of the Ironhead Dogfish whose flesh was fine like snow, one bite of the ‘Black Gold Seeds, even more so made him experience delicious flavors rarely seen in his past world.
Because there was enough food, Lin Xi ate until he was full, his belly starting to stick out a bit.
Moreover, after finishing these things, there was still an Old River Lump being slowly stewed in a large pot, which was likely another new type of taste. Moreover, in his opinion, the issues that needed to be urgently dealt with had already been dealt with, so this meal left him feeling extremely satisfied.
These ‘Black Gold Seeds’ really were great mending food for cultivators after all. Last time, when he ate fish while pursuing the enemy, he didn’t feel much after eating a large half of an Ironhead Dogfish. Only now, after eating an entire Ironhead Dogfish and two plates of roe, did he feel waves of warmth flowing through his entire body as he walked up to his room, as if there was an endless amount of energy gushing forth.
Originally, according to the cultivation plan Lin Xi set for himself, he prepared to use Xu Shengmo’s fine bronze small box to practice for two hours. However, when he sensed the vigorous blood and qi within his body, he instead directly assumed various stances, cultivating the Green Luan Twenty-Four Forms and the ‘Glorious King Destroys Restraints’ Luo Houyuan passed onto him, making his own energy and soul force flow extremely fast, bringing even greater benefits to his body.
The flow of blood, qi, and soul force, the spread of energy throughout his body, this was an extremely mysterious process.
Soon afterwards, Lin Xi was completely immersed within.
This early summer rainy season, the weather over Breath River was unpredictable to begin with. After cultivating for less than an hour, rumbling noises sounded from above, thunder sounding indistinctly.
The storm above the river suddenly became even greater.
Huala huala sounds of wind and rain interweaved with the rumbling of thunder. Lin Xi only felt as if the qi, blood, and soul force within his body also resonated, flowing even more freely, his body surging with even greater heat.
He decided he might as well push open the chamber’s window, walking outside.
He began to completely immerse himself in cultivation in the howling wind and torrential rain.
Under the raindrops, his skin and bones all seemed to be continuously struck by tens of millions of small hammers, his entire body starting to feel stronger and stronger.