Fishing

Without any clues or leads, finding a way out seemed to have hit a bottleneck for the time being.

As Lin Xiao walked along the path, he couldn't tell if it was just his imagination, but he felt the surrounding temperature had dropped somewhat.

Unlike inside the ice cave, heavy, continuous snow began to fall outside.

It snowed harder and harder, and the visibility around him was visibly decreasing.

So much so that Lin Xiao had to expend more of his divine sense to help him navigate.

The originally frozen ground was now entirely covered by thick white snow, making normal walking extremely difficult. Lin Xiao had already resorted to using the Air-Treading Technique to move forward above the snow.

Fortunately, he was just traveling at a normal pace, so despite continuously using the Air-Treading Technique, it didn't actually consume much spiritual energy.

As he walked, Lin Xiao suddenly saw many cultivators ahead, gathered around a very wide ice lake, fishing in the snow.

Half of the ice lake leaned against a massive snowy mountain.

Most of the cultivators were fishing on the flat shores opposite the snowy mountain. They packed the lakeside tightly. Each of them sat on a thick wooden stake driven into the meter-deep snow, leisurely casting their fishing rods into the lake.

From time to time, someone with a joyful expression would forcefully pull up their rod, and a nearly one-meter-long, silver-tailed, black-scaled large fish would be flung into a large sack beside them.

Seeing these people fishing here so harmoniously, Lin Xiao was confused.

This was his first time entering this secret realm. Although he had gathered a lot of information beforehand, he still wasn't very clear on many things, nor did he know much about the demonic beasts that were said to start appearing in the secret realm over the next few days.

After thinking it over, he decided to mingle with this group of cultivators first.

There was safety in numbers!

Moreover, he really wanted to catch the silver-tailed fish here! If he brought them back for Fuzi to cook, they might be even more delicious than the tiny dish served at the Immortal Fragrance Pavilion!

Lin Xiao looked around and found a lone cultivator who seemed approachable. He leaned in and asked quietly:

"Hey, brother, since there are fish in this lake, why don't you guys just use spells to catch them instead of fishing them up one by one?"

Hearing this, the man looked up and saw a very young lad. At a glance, he couldn't discern the youth's cultivation level, so he smiled warmly and said:

"Is this your first time in this secret realm, brother? This Ice Snow Lake is the only place in the entire secret realm that has silver-tailed fish, and it only has silver-tailed fish. However, for some strange reason, no spells can be used in this lake. The only way to catch the silver-tailed fish here is by normal fishing.

How about it? Do you want to give it a try too? You're quite lucky; this Ice Snow Lake just appeared today, and you managed to stumble upon it!

I have extra fishing rods here. I'll sell you one for cheap? Only one hundred spirit stones! The quality is absolutely guaranteed; it's exactly the same as the one in my hand! Think about it, one silver-tailed fish is worth fifty spirit stones! Once you catch your third fish, you're guaranteed a profit!"

Hearing his quote for the fishing rod, Lin Xiao cursed in his heart: So greedy!

But on the surface, he still smiled brightly and said:

"So that's how it is, thank you for your kindness, brother! However, I brought my own fishing rod, so I won't trouble you to part with yours." Saying that, Lin Xiao pulled out a fishing rod from his private storage.

This fishing rod was something others had suggested he prepare when he was gathering information in Yuanling City. Lin Xiao had checked the market price; ordinary fishing rods were around fifty spirit stones. Lin Xiao felt it was barely acceptable, and since catching one silver-tailed fish would cover the cost, he bought one.

Hearing this, the man looked slightly disappointed, but he quickly recovered and shifted the wooden stake beneath his buttocks slightly to the side:

"Come, come, brother, meeting is fate. I'll make some room for you, we can squeeze in together." Saying that, he stared at Lin Xiao with sparkling eyes and asked:

"I have large wooden stakes here that are very comfortable to sit on, only twenty spirit stones each. Does brother want..."

However, as he was speaking, Lin Xiao had already pulled out a massive wooden stake from his private storage that was even thicker than the one under the cultivator's buttocks. Under the man's watchful eyes, he firmly planted it into the snow.

Then, as if he hadn't heard what the man just said, Lin Xiao turned his head with a smile and asked:

"What did you just say, brother? The snow was too heavy just now, I didn't hear you clearly."

The man smacked his lips and said:

"You're amazing, brother. For your first time in this secret realm, you prepared really thoroughly!"

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

Fortunately, these people were at least cultivators at the eighth or ninth level of Qi Condensation and above. The thick snowflakes falling on them couldn't cover them into snowmen.

The moment each snowflake landed on them, it melted.

Not long after, Lin Xiao welcomed the first catch of his fishing life—a one-meter-long silver-tailed fish!

He didn't put it directly into his private storage; instead, like the people around him, he placed it into a large sack he had prepared in advance.

This large sack was also bought in Yuanling City. For fish as big as the silver-tailed fish, a large sack could hold about fifty of them.

However, although this large sack could hold a lot, it could only be used as a temporary transit station while fishing, because even though it held a lot, it couldn't store living creatures for a long time.

Generally speaking, it couldn't exceed forty-eight hours, otherwise, the living creatures inside would die.

Nearby, cultivators who didn't plan to continue fishing carried the same type of large sacks to a cleared-out large ice platform on the leeward side, where they started gutting the fish on the spot.

The gutted fish would then be placed into their storage bags.

There was no helping it; storage bags couldn't hold living creatures.

And spirit beast bags were too expensive, plus a single spirit beast bag couldn't hold a large quantity.

So they usually had to spare some time to gut them on the spot before putting them in their storage bags to take away.

Meanwhile, some cultivators who had empty spirit beast bags would put a few live silver-tailed fish into them. This way, they could sell them to the Immortal Fragrance Pavilion or those large families for a higher price.

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

"Can my private storage hold living creatures? I want to keep these fish and see if I can raise them back home."

[Ding—Congratulations to the host for unlocking the living creature storage area of the private storage. Note: This area can only store low-level creatures. High-level creatures that have developed spiritual intelligence (Spirit Awakening First Layer and above) cannot be stored.]

This truly was a system that only moved when you kicked it.

However, Lin Xiao was quite satisfied with this result.

With that, he immediately became fired up and threw himself into fishing with full enthusiasm.

Gradually, the number of silver-tailed fish in his large sack increased.

He had to admit that the atmosphere of this fishing group was pretty good; there was actually no snatching, fighting, or stealing.

He guessed that there were simply too many people here, so even if there were a few individuals with crooked intentions, they wouldn't dare to make a move under the watchful eyes of the crowd.