Infinite Professions-Chapter 132 - 53: The Cold Winter

This time it was a horizontal transformation, from Tier One to Tier One.

But this is not surprising because the fisherman started too low and unable to advance to a Tier Two profession is reasonable.

Shen Hex did not dwell on it, and immediately began to check the information of the three new professions.

No need to say much about the Martial Artist, which is a Martial Dao profession transitioning from martial arts. Apart from the talent "Dragon Tiger Stance Skill" being slightly stronger than "Static Posture", it is no different than the Martial Artist before.

The Beast Master is the same, just a revision of the Spirit Control Master. Its talent "Water Beast Breeding" is not even as comprehensive and effective as the Spirit Control Master’s "Spirit Beast Feeder", so there is no need to consider it.

Therefore, there’s not much to say, Shen Hex directly chose Spirit Fisherman as his horizontal transformation profession.

Thus, his profession panel became...

Zhong Chuan (Shen Hex)

Profession: Spirit Fisherman.

Professional Rank: Tier One Level One.

Professional Talent: Fate Fisher.

Professional Skills: None.

Professional Items: None.

General Skills: Xingyi Fist, Spirit Control Scripture.

...

Tier One profession, simple and clear.

The fisherman advanced to a Spirit Fisherman, the development route does not need to change, still focusing on fishing, supplemented by Spirit Beast breeding, and then strengthening martial arts Spirit Control cultivation to enhance strength comprehensively.

Shen Hex looked outside and found the sky already bright. On the distant lake, boats occasionally pass by, and fishermen who slept well through the night begin to toil for today’s livelihood again.

He didn’t have much time to sigh, first stretched out the fish scale skin peeled before, tied the four corners and hung it on the cabin top, then moved the stove into the cabin, lit a small fire to smoke it slowly, trying to preserve this fish scale skin well to sew it into a soft scale armor.

After doing these, he took the small water tank previously used to store snakehead blood, and put the snakehead’s gills, fish bones, and viscera into it, mixed in some cooked coarse rice and stirred vigorously.

He was making bait!

The remaining old turtle meat from last night was running low. To continue catching spirit fish and hunting for huge ones, he has to prepare new bait.

The snakehead’s gills bone and viscera are just right, after all, it is a spirit fish. Even the gills and viscera, which are rather disdained parts, can serve as bait to lure spirit fish.

This is rather extravagant, especially the thirty-plus pounds of fish bone. If used for soup, extracting its essence might be more nourishing than soup made with a ten-year-old turtle, but now it’s being used as bait, really wasting a treasure.

However, Shen Hex had no choice, the fragrance of the spirit fish was too strong, unless he could solve this problem, for the next period, he wouldn’t be able to cook spirit fish over a fire.

Although being a spirit fish, the snakehead’s bones were extremely hard, they couldn’t withstand Shen Hex’s Martial Arts Gang Qi mixed with Dragon Tiger strength pounding, quickly mixed into a lump with gills, viscera, and coarse rice, emanating a pungent fishy smell.

Shen Hex didn’t mind, put it aside, sealed the tank mouth to let it quietly ferment as tonight’s bait.

Then he washed his hands, came to the front of the cabin, sat quietly on the stool, operated Primordial Skill secretly, and coldly watched the Jianghu.

On the other side...

"Brother Tao!"

"The sun is shining on your butt."

"Where are we playing today?"

"Still going to find trouble with that old immortal?"

Several teen boys pushed a sampan to Zhang Family’s mooring reed bay, but found no response, only faint blood and broken planks flowing out.

"Eh?"

"Strange, where does the blood come from?"

"And quite a few broken planks, is Brother Tao’s family repairing ships?"

The teenagers wondered, pushed the sampan into the reeds, then saw floating broken planks in the shallow bay, along with many boat items and also...

"Ah!!!"

One teenager screamed, fell onto the sampan, looking at the half face and fragmented limbs floating in the water: "Brother, Brother Tao!?"

"Ah!!!"

A sentence redirected everyone’s gaze, then they screamed in unison, each pushing away the sampan to flee.

Not long after the crowd left, several Black Awning boats arrived, a dozen fishermen drove their sampans to check the situation in the reedy shallow bay.

"This is..."

"Attacked by water bandits?"

"What kind of water bandits would break the ship apart?"

"Should have encountered water monkeys."

"What water monkeys, clearly it’s Piggy Dragon!"

"Piggy Dragon, that thing is like a little dog, could it bite Zhang Family’s big ship apart?"

"Who knows, there’s all kinds of things in Dongting Lake, maybe there’s a larger Piggy Dragon or some spirit monster."

"Don’t talk nonsense, there’s no spirit monster!"

Seeing the floating planks and remains, the fishermen discussed one after another, all quite terrified.

Zhang Family had two strong laborers and a large Black Awning boat, already considered wealthy among nearby fishermen, and even then the ship was destroyed with the people, showing the horror of the "spirit monster".

As fishermen, boat dwellers, inseparable from Dongting Lake, they were even more terrified of this, afraid there really was a rampaging spirit monster.

"Enough!"

Just as people were panicking, a leading middle-aged man spoke, suppressing everyone’s discussion: "No matter what it is, someone will deal with it. I’ll report this to the Government Office later."

"Government Office?"

People exchanged glances: "Would the officials in the Government Office care?"

"They likely will. The officials in the Government Office issued strict orders, when encountering such matters, make sure to report and leave nothing concealed, otherwise there will be severe punishments, same with Golden Fish Gang over there. So we must report."

The middle-aged man shook his head: "Don’t touch the belongings here. Also, seal the bay entrance for me, I’ll go notify the Government Office’s people to come."

After speaking, he pushed the sampan away.

...

Hearts about to rise, clouds wearily unpredictable, undercurrents surging.

But all of this had nothing to do with an old fisherman.

Rest upon sunrise, work upon sunset, several tens of days passed in the blink of an eye, reaching the cold winter twelfth lunar month.

Although Dongting is in the south, it is not too far south, and in winter, there can occasionally be frost and snow.

Today, a rare heavy snowfall has come.

Snowflakes are flying all around, covering the withered reed marshes in a layer of frost.

Though the lake water hasn’t frozen, it’s bone-chilling cold. Even seasoned fishermen choose to rest during this time, anchoring their boats in the reed marshes or on the tidal flats, lighting up fires to dispel the biting cold.

In such winter conditions, rarely a fisherman would venture out, fearing the harsh wind and cold, as fishing folk can’t bear such illnesses.

But for this reason, the price of fish in winter rises sharply, and some fishermen, driven by livelihood or tempted by huge profits, may risk going out on the water to fish.

Yet the most striking feature on Dongting Lake is not the fishermen’s dark ships but a brightly adorned painting boat.

Inside the painting boat, a fire has been set, warming the abode, cooking wine, meat, and meals.

A few young men and women sit around there, each draped in fur coats and cloaks, clearly of noble bearing. Around them, guards stand with their swords, further enhancing the display of dignity.

"As the saying goes: Autumn fish is fat, winter fish is delectable!"

A young man in green drank fish soup and then spoke eloquently to the people around him: "Do you all know why this is?"

"Oh?"

A young girl covered her mouth with a light laugh: "Does Grand Scholar Zhou have more guidance for us?"

"I wouldn’t dare call it guidance!"

The young man in green shook his head and began to explain to everyone: "The autumn fish is fat because, during autumn harvest time, there’s abundant produce, and fish need to store up for the winter, so they eat to gain fat, becoming extremely plump. But too much is as bad as too little; being too fatty makes them less tasty, not delicious!"

"This winter fish is different!"

He picked up another bowl of fish soup and commented along with everyone: "After the onset of winter, the lake water becomes cold, and the fat fish gradually slim down, but they are not too small, just right for tasting the freshness of winter fish, hence the term: autumn fat, winter delicious!"

"Wonderful!"

"As expected of Grand Scholar Zhou."

"Truly knowledgeable."

"Even eating fish has such depth."

Everyone laughed and joked at this.

"Just minor insights."

The young man in green smiled faintly and turned to look at the young man with a fox fur cloak over white innerwear in the center: "What Brother Xie does is the true great path, which Zhou Shen cannot reach."

"Haha!"

The Fox Fur Young Master laughed: "Brother Zhou, you flatter me."

The young man in green also laughed: "It is Brother Xie being humble."

"Alright, alright, how long are you two going to play humble?"

Seeing the two being modest, a young girl in red spoke up: "We came today to enjoy the scenery and not to watch you two intellectuals push compliments. Young Master Zhou, since you are a top talent of Yueyang Academy, can you introduce us to the landscapes of Dongting?"

"The landscapes of Dongting?"

The young man in green smiled: "Dongting is the remnant of the ancient Yunmeng, spanning over eight hundred miles, connecting the land of five prefectures. The expanse of water stretches infinitely, with complex water bodies, boundless views, but to me, the treasures in the lake are its essence."

"Oh?"

The young girl in red looked at him with curiosity: "There are treasures in this lake?"

"The lake’s treasure, it’s the fish!"

The young man in green laughed and said: "There are many treasure fish in Dongting Lake, not only are they delicious, but eating them is greatly beneficial. Unfortunately, they hibernate in winter, and fishermen rarely go out, so these treasure fish are hard to come by, especially the king of treasure fish, the Seven-Star Dragon Carp, which is said to lure even immortals."

"How difficult could it be?"

Immediately a young man in yellow spoke up: "A great reward will surely bring forth brave men. I’ll offer a thousand gold for treasure fish, and I guarantee we’ll taste it before sunset."

"Haha!"

The young man in green glanced at him: "Brother Chen truly has deep pockets, as expected of the Young Master of the Golden Fish Gang."

"Not at all, not at all..."

"Look!"

That young man in yellow was just trying to be modest when they heard a young girl exclaiming in surprise.

Everyone turned back, looking in the direction of the sound, only to see a young girl standing at the edge of the boat, pointing into the distance and saying: "What is that?"

Looking again, they saw outside the boat, in front of a reed marsh, a dark boat docked in the bay, and at its bow sat an old man, wearing a bamboo hat, a raincoat draped over his body, holding a Cyan Bamboo Pole, fishing in this cold winter.

At this moment, heavy snow was flying, covering the bamboo hat and raincoat. Although there was a stove beside him, the smoke was faint, seemingly giving little warmth. The old man sat there, seemingly frozen into an ice sculpture.

"This..."

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

Only a young man in white stood up, tapping a folded fan in his hand, saying: "The bamboo hat and raincoat, alone fishing on a cold lake, is quite a scene, quite a scene indeed. Which of you brothers can compose a poem?"

"This..."

"Brother Dong has such refined taste!"

Upon hearing this, some were tongue-tied, while others agreed.

But before any poem could be composed, the young man in the fox fur cloak sighed faintly: "Life is hard for the common people, life is hard!"

With that, he summoned a guard, tossing out an ingot of Yuanbao: "Go, buy some fish from him."

"Yes!"

The guard nodded and then turned to leave, not putting down a small boat. He directly leapt out, skimming over the water like a dragonfly, landing gently on the small dark boat: "Old man, my master wishes to buy some fish from you..."

"Puff!!!"

Before he could finish his words, a muffled sound was heard. The guard’s pupils shrank, looking down to see a Cyan Bamboo fishing rod piercing through his chest, with hot blood gushing out.

"You...!"

"Bang!!!"

Before he could voice his shock, that old man erupted suddenly, shattering the ice and frost around him, then using a lightening martial technique, rushed towards the painting boat on the water.

"Kill!!!"

Instantly, several water columns burst around the painting boat, with figures leaping from them, crashing directly into the boat, slashing swords and saber lights flashing everywhere.

"??????"

At the same moment, from another dark boat hidden in the withered reed marshes, Shen Hex, disguised also as a fisherman with a raincoat and bamboo hat, had a string of question marks popping up above his head.

What is happening?