Infinite Professions-Chapter 130 - 51: Battling Giants

"Mmm~!"

In the deep of night, a strong urge to urinate swelled up, waking Zhang Tao from his dreams. In a daze, he got up and walked out of the cabin.

Experienced fishermen generally won’t leave the cabin at night; they usually open the cabin floor to relieve themselves.

There was no other choice; Dongting was vast and fraught with danger, especially at night. Who knew what accidents might occur? Naturally, if you can avoid leaving the cabin, you should.

The Zhang Family were also old sailors, knowledgeable of water rules, but Zhang Tao, being a youngster, lacked such awareness.

He wandered in a daze to the bow of the boat, unfastened his trousers, and began to relieve himself.

While doing so, he heard a strange sound emanating from beneath the cabin floor.

This made him a bit curious and he became somewhat alert; he glanced down in the cool moonlight.

He saw shadows gathering under the boat, swaying their long, armored snouts and bodies.

This is...

"Dad, Uncle!"

Zhang Tao’s eyes narrowed, suddenly alert. He dashed back to the cabin, intending to wake the two sleeping inside.

"Bang!"

Just then, a loud crash sounded; a long snout broke through the cabin floor. Father Zhang, caught off guard, was bitten on the thigh by that long snout, crying out in agony.

"Ah!!!"

"Dad!!!"

The horrific scene left Zhang Tao’s face pale. On the other side, Zhang Er jumped up in fright, seeing the long snout pulling Zhang Da desperately towards the water, he screamed in terror, "It’s the Piggy Dragon!"

He drew a sharp knife, attempting to rescue Zhang Da.

But before he could approach, the shadow in the water suddenly swung its body and tail, pulling the struggling Zhang Da into the water with a bubble sound, quickly disappearing from sight.

"Dad!"

"Brother!"

The sight stunned the pair beyond belief, not yet recovered before the boat rocked, numerous shadows swirling below, tearing at the cabin floor.

Seeing the long snouts emerging from the water, Zhang Er’s face turned ghostly pale. He finally came to his senses, and disregarding the devastated Zhang Tao, directly fled, rushing out of the cabin and jumping onto a small dinghy to escape.

Though the Zhang Family was not wealthy, they still had a large canopy boat and two small dinghies.

Zhang Er steered one, trying to set it off.

"Splash!!!"

A loud splash then sounded as a shadow burst from the water, directly dragging him in, churning up white waves and mingling with blood.

"Dad, Uncle!"

"No, don’t!"

"Help, help, ooh ooh...!"

Inside the cabin, Zhang Tao trembled in fear, tears streaming down his face, but he was unable to rise, watching helplessly as dozens of Piggy Dragons gnawed at the cabin floor, forcing him step by step into a deadly predicament.

Where was his youthful arrogance now?

He screamed in horror, struggled in despair, yet it was all in vain. Ultimately, a fierce shadow emerged from the water, seized him by the waist, and dragged him into the depths.

...

Late at night in a remote bay.

Shen Hex, cloaked in a raincoat, was quietly fishing.

Suddenly, there was an unusual movement underwater, causing ripples to appear.

Shen Hex remained silent, simply tipped his fish basket, sending dozens of fresh fish back into the water, only to see them swallowed by huge mouths before they could escape.

Scanning the area, his eyes glinted with Spirit Light as he saw a dozen Exotic Beasts gathered below, feasting eagerly.

Tuo Dragons!

Also called Piggy Dragons, a type of crocodile.

After understanding the Immortal Fate, Shen Hex knew there were some things he couldn’t intervene in, as it would easily attract attention.

Yet some troubles required his intervention.

Like this time, the two brothers of the Zhang Family were notorious troublemakers in the area. Although not as notorious as a bully like Chen San, they were still strong enough to oppress weak, unsupported fishermen.

Old Zhong was one such victim, constantly humiliated by Zhang Tao’s antics, yet too old to retaliate, forced into silence.

Originally, Shen Hex planned to endure it, not wanting to arouse suspicion due to the Immortal Fate.

But the Zhang Family invited disaster upon themselves. Not only did they bully Old Zhong, they secretly watched him fish at night.

Clearly, they found him out, spotting his fishing technique in his elder haze two months ago, and targeted the Zhang brothers trying to commandeer his Secret Technique.

This left him no choice but to take action.

Though he had to eliminate them, he couldn’t do so directly, lest it spark connections.

Hence, he sent out his recently cultivated Spirit Pets, a group of Tuo Dragon monsters reared for over a month.

These Tuo Dragons were accidentally discovered a month ago during night fishing.

Though they were like puppies in strength, Shen Hex contracted the Tuo Dragon leader to lead its group to settle some problems for him.

Because it is the Middle Thousand World, brimming with Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit, the leader of this Tuo Dragon Group was already somewhat unusual. After it formed a contract with him, even without professional bonuses and feed benefits, it was often fed various fresh fish by him, even rare fish species like tortoise fish.

In this way, with a month’s accumulation, it finally successfully upgraded, becoming a Tier One Spirit Beast.

Although it’s only Tier One and still an ordinary species, its combat power also saw a significant increase, at least solving several fishermen without martial arts was no problem.

Thus, the three members of the Zhang Family met their end in the belly of the fish!

But this only solved the immediate issue; it cannot provide complete peace of mind.

After all, this world never lacks those blinded by profit; without the Zhang Family, there’s still the Li Family.

Without an increase in power, great disaster will eventually come.

"That brat from the Zhang Family just teased me during the day, and by night he was attacked. Though it was the work of the Tuo Dragon Group, it’s hard to guarantee that no one will use this as an excuse to speculate."

"It’s better to err than to miss out. With the Golden Fish Gang’s way of doing things, if the Tuo Dragon Group becomes more active, someone will surely link today’s events and come looking."

"Even if we say this incident didn’t cause much impact, Old Zhong, who is over seventy, can’t live for many more years."

"Rowing a boat, fishing, and selling tofu; living past seventy in such a poor fishing trade is already rare, this in itself is suspicious."

"I must speed up the process!"

Shen Hex murmured, letting the Tuo Dragon Group rest in place while he rowed the black-awning boat to another water area.

The night was still deep, not yet halfway through, still leaving time to fish.

Shen Hex arrived at a carefully selected water area, without lighting a fishing lamp, and assembled fishing gear directly under the moonlight.

He had been in this world for over two months, using his fishing talent, he caught over a dozen tortoise fish and some rare species.

Aside from selling three tortoise fish at the market and feeding the Tuo Dragon Group, the rest ended up in his stomach, transformed into pure Primordial Qi by the Yuan-Devouring Skill to nourish this old and weak body.

After two months of hard work and accumulation, he eventually brought forth vigorous blood and vitality.

With vigorous blood and vitality, one can cultivate martial arts, and with his two lifetimes of accumulation, it was said to be effortlessly.

Now, he had already cultivated True Qi, although limited by being old and weak, not considered thick, it was still enough for him to surpass ordinary people, to see things at night with ease.

Under the cold moonlight, he picked up a carefully chosen bamboo rod.

This was a rare Iron Bamboo, discovered on a nameless island, its hardness rivaling metal and iron, he used True Qi to cut it down, usually hidden at the bottom of the boat cabin, not easily showing it to others.

Using this Iron Bamboo as a fishing rod, and taking a bundle of hemp rope, tying this finger-thick hemp rope on as a fishing line, finally took out some long nails bought at the blacksmith, manually bending them to make a few oversized fishing hooks.

Clearly, he intended to catch a huge creature, a super giant.

Finally, he even left the black-awning boat to board a small island reef.

With such fishing gear, if anything was really caught, the worn-out black-awning boat obviously couldn’t withstand, only able to set the battlefield on the island reef.

After selecting the position, Shen Hex opened the fish basket, took out a few pieces of fish meat, and hung them on the iron nail hook.

This wasn’t ordinary fish meat but over ten pounds of tortoise fish meat, he deliberately saved it as bait to catch a giant.

This over ten-pound tortoise fish has very firm flesh, Shen Hex selected a bony part, which ordinary fish find hard to bite, making it the prime choice for catching giants.

After hanging a piece of tortoise fish meat, Shen Hex swung the big whip, using the Iron Bamboo rod to cast the several-dozen-meter-long hemp rope into the deep-water area for lurking rod fishing.

To catch giants, one must fish deep and far because other than tortoise fish, other rare and high-grade fish seldom come ashore, they all move in deep water areas.

The allure of tortoise fish meat was extraordinary, tossed into the water for only a moment and then a great force came, the hemp line instantly snapped tight, directly pulling at Shen Hex’s Iron Bamboo rod.

But how could Shen Hex comply, immediately exerted power to raise the rod, without any maneuver, directly pulled hard.

One fish opened the heavenly gate!

"Bang!!!"

Suddenly, the water surface exploded, spray flying, a dark shadow was forcibly pulled out by Shen Hex, falling onto the island reef, wriggling vigorously, he looked closely to find it was a large green carp, about six feet long, possibly weighing a hundred pounds.

It’s a giant!

Pity, it’s only an ordinary species.

Shen Hex shook his head, stepped forward to punch it unconscious, then tossed it aside, ready to take it back later as a midnight snack for the Tuo Dragon Group.

No way, the green carp is too ordinary, though it reached six feet, it’s left like that due to the abundance of Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit and the nourishment of the great lake itself, lacking anything unusual, not worth forming a contract and cultivating, can only serve as added meal for the Tuo Dragon Group.

The first catch wasn’t very promising.

But it didn’t matter, Shen Hex wasn’t discouraged.

He checked the fishing line, removed the hook, hung another piece of tortoise fish meat, and continued to throw it into the lake.

Those who strive eventually succeed. As long as you don’t reel in, you won’t come back empty-handed!

"Plop!"

"Plop!"

"Plop!"

Thus, without knowing how long, most of the tortoise fish meat was used up, hemp rope fishing lines were exchanged twice, there were seven or eight big fish on the shore, but all were ordinary species, except for feeding the Tuo Dragon, held no value.

Shen Hex changed a new line and hook, strung the fish tortoise meat again, and cast out the rod again.

Spending so long to bait, with tortoise fish meat’s allure, the main target should be arriving, right?

"Bang!!!"

As this thought emerged, suddenly the water surface blasted open, the finger-thick hemp rope instantly tightened and straightened, moreover, a tremendous force acted, attempting to pull Shen Hex along with the rod into the water.