Wayfarer

Chapter 6: Divine Fishing

Two days later, in the restaurant on the third-floor deck of the ship, Ye Dafu sat at the head of the dining table, surrounded by his lackeys as always.

"What did you find about that brat?" Ye Dafu asked one of his lackeys.

"I bribed a sailor and looked at his logs. He's called Xiao Nanfeng. He's sixteen, and at the fifth stage of Acquisition," one lackey volunteered.

"Sixteen years old—and only at the fifth stage of Acquisition? He was lying to us all this time, then?" Ye Dafu and his lackeys exclaimed.

Everyone had guessed that Xiao Nanfeng was weak by then, but not to this extent.

"Trying to enter the Taiqing Immortal Sect despite being this weak? Surely he wouldn't even be able to become a nominal disciple! What's he trying to pull?" Ye Dafu sneered.

"Boss, the three of us are in the same suite as he is, and I think he's quite strange," another lackey ventured.

"Strange?" Ye Dafu asked curiously.

"That's right. He hasn't left the room for two days. He's been studying the bargain scrolls that he got at the teahouse when we first met him—he only goes above decks at dawn to bask in the sun," the lackey reported.

"What scrolls are those?"

"They're a bunch of Taoist scriptures, the cryptic ones that talk about some nonsense and are impossible to comprehend. Our heads hurt just trying to skim through them! Also, while he was out on the deck, I looked through his belongings. Except for rations, all he has are these tattered scrolls, and he only has two sets of clothes. I think he really is just a poor bastard."

"A poor bastard? He wouldn't even accept an extra twenty taels of gold for the token. He must be dreaming of becoming a Taiqing Sect disciple—feh! If he's penniless, he certainly won't get far."

"The fact that a poor bastard like him dared to get arrogant against us—if I don't beat him up, I'll keep feeling annoyed whenever I look at him!" another lackey groused.

Ye Dafu nodded. It was clear that he was used to getting his way, and the fact that Xiao Nanfeng had made him lose face in front of his clique was particularly humiliating.

Meanwhile, Xiao Nanfeng was reading a scroll, the Art of Divine Fishing. It was no cultivation technique, but rather described an application of divine will as fishing bait by a fishing enthusiast.

Xiao Nanfeng was almost certain that the "divine will" mentioned in the scroll was an obscure way of referring to spiritual power. If spiritual power had been referred to directly, someone would likely have bought the scroll long ago.

"Divine fishing..." He had managed to cultivate spiritual power himself. Could he give the technique a try?

By the time he finished the Art of Divine Fishing, then meditated on the contents of the text, it was evening. Xiao Nanfeng walked out of his suite and strolled around the main deck before arriving at the fishing area at the back of the ship.

There were about a dozen youths patiently fishing.

Xiao Nanfeng walked up to the sailor responsible for supervising the area. "I'd like to borrow a fishing rod," he requested.

"It'll cost a tael of gold," the sailor replied.

Xiao Nanfeng: ... A tael of gold, just to borrow a fishing rod...?

Eventually, however, Xiao Nanfeng paid up. He wanted to confirm whether the spiritual manipulation described in the Art of Divine Fishing were truly possible.

He found a relatively isolated spot far away from others, leaned by the railing, and tossed the fish hook into the churning sea.

"Hey, lad, you didn't even put any bait on the hook!" a youth beside him couldn't help remarking.

Those around him also shot glances his way, but Xiao Nanfeng ignored them all.

Instead, he closed his eyes. He diverted a skein of spiritual power from the center of his forehead, winding it down the fishing rod and toward the hook.

Xiao Nanfeng couldn't see below the surface of the sea, but following the scripture, he concentrated on the skein of spiritual power he had drawn out from his mind and began to activate it.

Last time, he had used spiritual power to physically suppress a giant wolfdog by transmitting and infusing the emotion of fear into it, forcing it to remain still. This time, the emotion he wanted to invoke was greed, avarice.

No one but the fish noticed that Xiao Nanfeng's hook was glowing with pale blue light. When the fish sensed the bundle of spiritual power, they immediately swam toward the hook.

Despite the fact that the ship was traveling quickly, a large horde of fish had gathered around it.

"Look at all the fish! Have we passed by a horde?" one of the fishing disciples suddenly remarked.

"Quick, let's see who gets the biggest catch!" another disciple suggested.

A dozen disciples dropped their hooks into the sea at once, but despite the fish that were skimming the surface of the sea, none bit their hooks.

"How could this be? There are so many fish—why aren't they biting? My bait's specially made!"

"That's impossible! I can't believe I'm not getting a single catch," another disciple whined.

The bait all around the boat did smell good, but nothing was as appetizing as Xiao Nanfeng's fish hook. To the fish, the bait was a bundle of spiritual power, an amazing treasure that would allow them to transform into dragons if only they could claim it.

The fish all swarmed toward Xiao Nanfeng's hook, smashing into each other with their bodies in an attempt to seize the treasure before any of the others. None of the fish were willing to let the others succeed; a few of the injured ones weren't able to keep up with the ship, but more took their place instead.

The fish fought each other for the hook, none willing to relent.

Meanwhile, Xiao Nanfeng's face had gone pale. "This is a really draining technique... I've already used up half my spiritual power, and I can't keep going much longer. I suppose I'll have to call it off soon if nothing bites."

Just then, a black shadow appeared from amidst the fish, a two-foot-long creature with the body of a wyrm. Its eyes glinted golden, and it gave off such a fearsome aura that the smaller fish immediately scampered away.

The creature flicked its tail and sent two of the largest fish flying away with a smack.

It roared once, causing the nearby fish to quake in fear, unwilling to draw near. The creature swam toward the hook.

A shark, unwilling to let such a miraculous treasure out of its grasp, charged forward, but the monstrous creature sent a jolt of electricity at the shark. The shark twitched and spasmed as the jolt struck, then sank toward the bottom of the sea.

The creature roared again, electrifying the water around itself and paralyzing the nearby fish. They retreated slowly in fear, fright evident in their eyes.

Only when it saw no other competitors approach did the creature swim forward and regally bite down on the hook.

Xiao Nanfeng's rod suddenly grew taut, bending under the weight and force of the monstrous creature.

"What? How could this be?"

"So many fish, and they choose him?"

"His hook doesn't even have bait on it! Are these fish blind?"

"It has to be a big fish if the rod's curving to such an extent..."

While the fishing disciples grumbled at their bad luck, Xiao Nanfeng happily tugged at the rod in his hands.

An explosion of strength caused the creature to arc out of the water, into the air, and smash onto the deck.

The creature let out a huge quantity of electricity as it struck the deck. It was giving off a faint golden glow.

"Did I actually fish up a dragon? How ugly it looks!" Xiao Nanfeng murmured to himself.

"An eel, such a large eel! And it's golden?"

"No, this is no ordinary eel. Its surface is brimming with golden light, so it has to be a spirit eel!"

"A spirit eel, whose body contains a huge quantity of spiritual energy? An impossibly rare catch, and such a large one at that..."

The fishing disciples looked toward each other in shock.

The golden eel was writhing madly in an attempt to get back into the sea. Before Xiao Nanfeng could strike, however, the disciple who had been in charge of the fishing area pounced toward the eel with a sledgehammer directed straight at the eel's head. The eel twitched, then went still.

"You really are lucky," the disciple marveled. "This is a golden eel, worth hundreds of taels of gold."

"A golden eel?" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed in shock.

"Three hundred taels for the eel! Sell it to me, won't you?"

"I'll pay three hundred and fifty taels!"

"Four hundred!"

The fishing disciples continued to outbid each other, but Xiao Nanfeng shook his head. "I apologize, but I want to consume it myself."

"You want to consume it? You had better get it prepared quickly, then. It won't last long like this, and the spiritual energy will rapidly dissipate. How about this? The crew will help you cook it and allow you to absorb as much of the eel's remaining spiritual energy, but you'll have to give us half of it," the disciple offered, smiling.

"We have a deal!" Xiao Nanfeng agreed.

It certainly wasn't sensible to wait until they reached the island proper. The eel would have begun to decompose by then, and if he agreed to this deal, he'd have at least half the eel for himself. Furthermore, it would be a good opportunity to ingratiate himself to the disciples manning the ship.

"Excellent choice, lad. We're grateful for your generosity. Here's a badge. Bring it to the third-floor restaurant tomorrow morning, and we'll have the eel freshly prepared for you."

Clearly, the other half of the eel would end up in the crew's stomachs, but how it was divided would depend on individual merit.

"Very good." Xiao Nanfeng accepted the badge with a nod.

"Why don't you keep fishing a little? You might be able to catch another one," the disciple offered. He seemed to boast no small amount of authority; he directed the other crew members to bring the eel to the kitchen, then looked back at Xiao Nanfeng.

"Right, brother, how did you manage to catch a spirit fish with an empty hook? Please teach us!" The fishing aficionados all crowded around him, hoping to learn his trick.

"It was all luck. I'm afraid I won't be able to continue. Please, enjoy yourselves." Xiao Nanfeng bowed and departed.

He had expended too much of his spiritual energy. It was shocking enough that he had succeeded in catching a golden eel, and Xiao Nanfeng didn't think he could go on much longer. Using this technique drained his spiritual energy at a remarkable rate.

The other disciples allowed him to leave without much fanfare. Most believed that his catch had been out of pure luck, that there wasn't much that could be learned from him.

"If we keep fishing, we might be able to catch one of our own!"

However, by the time they returned to their rods, they found that the schools of fish had all dispersed.