What's this?
Eighty coins just like that? The work of a fisherman for an entire day?
Liang Qu was thrilled; earning eighty coins so easily was a temptation too strong to resist.
However, it was indeed exhausting.
Controlling the water flow with thirty pounds of force felt like running a kilometer, leaving his stomach rumbling again.
After merging with the Marsh Spirit, there was a slight improvement in his physical fitness, but the foundation was still too weak, leaving him frail.
Taking advantage of the deep night, Liang Qu decided to rest a bit and try again later.
Uncle Chen struggled to get by with eighty coins because he had children and elderly to support.
But Liang Qu had no such attachments, making this income rather significant.
He wondered if he could double his earnings tonight.
Half an hour later, Liang Qu entered the water again.
With his innate Water Monkey abilities, his energy consumption in the water was minimal.
Swimming a hundred meters consumed as much effort as walking two or three hundred meters.
He could hold his breath for a solid seven minutes while moving, which was astonishing.
Unfortunately, it seemed like he used up his luck catching Yellowfish.
After changing his air supply four or five times and wandering for nearly an hour, he only spotted a Speckled Fish worth about a hundred coins.
The Speckled Fish wasn’t as valuable as the Yellowfish.
It was worth a hundred coins because of its large size, weighing a full ten pounds.
A ten-pound fish could burst with nearly a hundred pounds of force suddenly.
In his current state and with only thirty pounds of water manipulation ability, Liang Qu found it quite challenging to deal with such a fish, so he could only watch as it swam away.
"It seems I should bring a spear next time to handle bigger fish. But dead fish aren’t worth as much as live ones, and I don't have a net."
While contemplating in the water, Liang Qu unwittingly swam afar and reached a relatively shallow underwater shoal.
However, even in shallow areas, it was still more than ten meters deep.
"Huh, there’s lotus root here?"
Setting foot on the riverbed, he suddenly perceived a plant's stem with his senses.
Approaching it, he carefully identified it as lotus root.
Lotus root in over ten meters of water?
Liang Qu was greatly surprised.
Whether floating, standing, or submerged, plants require photosynthesis and respiration for growth.
The deeper the water, the less favorable these processes are.
Lotus roots demand high levels of light and oxygen.
As far as Liang Qu knew, they couldn't survive beyond two meters of water.
Recognizing the unusual growing conditions of the lotus root, Liang Qu felt a surge of excitement.
Plants rely on photosynthesis and respiration, but that's for ordinary plants.
Some treasure plants naturally fall outside this norm.
In this world filled with extraordinary forces, if this lotus root could grow so deep, it must be something special.
He’d heard rumors that Zhao, the master of a neighboring town, possessed a Cold Pool over ten meters deep, where Horned Water Chestnuts grew, which when consumed could extend life, attracting two Martial Artists to his side.
True or not, who knows?
Could he have stumbled upon something similar?
With eager anticipation, Liang Qu followed the growth network of the lotus root.
Upon investigation, he found it was indeed substantial, stretching over ten meters without finding its end.
Just as he was about to proceed, a large indistinct object appeared within his perception.
What was that?
What a large creature!
Liang Qu quickly halted, maintaining a safe distance.
The creature didn't react, seemingly oblivious to his presence.
Faced with a potentially valuable lotus root, Liang Qu hesitated for a moment, contemplating the idea of leaving but eventually decided to circle around cautiously, relying on his water sense.
The creature lurked in the mud, long, over two meters, but it wasn’t a fish.
It had four limbs, a long tail, and a slender body.
Three meters away, the detected outline was blurry, yet very distinct in form.
Liang Qu's eyebrows rose in surprise.
A Pig Dragon!
Pig Dragon was a colloquial term, essentially referring to crocodiles.
However, Pig Dragon was a catch-all name used by fishermen for all crocodile-like creatures.
The Jianghuai River had several crocodile species, but Liang Qu wasn't sure of the precise type buried under the mud.
In this area, the Grand Marsh Crocodile was probably the most common.
Having seen a Grand Marsh Crocodile before, Liang Qu felt it resembled a Yangtze crocodile from his past life, not very large, reaching two meters when fully grown and weighing just over thirty kilograms.
For an adult, this size wasn't much of a threat; its weight was its fatal flaw.
But that was on land.
Here, underwater, it was a different story, especially since Liang Qu was merely a malnourished teenager, not weighing much more himself.
Moreover—
"This Grand Marsh Crocodile nests right beside the lotus root. Could it be because it knows the lotus root benefits it?"
Upon careful examination, Liang Qu discovered signs in the mud indicating disturbance, exposing several gnawed lotus root segments.
Troublesome indeed.
Taking the lotus root would not be met with approval from the Pig Dragon, which had clearly made its home there.
Perhaps it wasn’t impossible to try?
After some thought, Liang Qu concluded it might actually be doable.
It wasn’t that he was blinded by greed, but in his past life he enjoyed watching a survival expert named Bifang, which gave him quite a bit of knowledge about animals.
He understood that crocodiles had a critical weakness: their bite force was immense, but their ability to open their jaws was pathetically weak.
An adult could hold a crocodile’s snout shut with one hand, rendering its terrifying power mostly useless.
Only humans had developed the dexterity to precisely grasp and hold objects, which even monkeys couldn’t manage due to their shorter thumbs, leaving crocodiles seemingly unbeatable in nature.
Presently, this "small" crocodile could be suppressed by Liang Qu’s water control abilities; combined with his weight advantage, it wouldn’t be able to perform its deadly spin.
It was already late October, and the cold of the water slowed down the metabolism of this cold-blooded creature, making it less active than in the summer.
Perhaps it was so sluggish that it hadn’t noticed him approaching.
With favorable conditions aligning, doing nothing would be a waste.
"If I could control it, it would be fantastic. Such a large beast could assist me in fishing, allowing me to sit back and enjoy the rewards. Always going into the water to fish is too cumbersome; it's not like I intend to be a fisherman."
Humans always yearn for more.
Having determined he could deal with the Pig Dragon, Liang Qu entertained an even bolder thought.
As if responding to his determination, the Marsh Cauldron in his mind trembled, and an unfamiliar glyph appeared glowing on its surface, resembling the ancient script for water.
More information flowed into him.
Blood Glyph: Dominate Aquatic Beasts.
Use blood to draw the water glyph on the beast’s body, granting a chance to become its master?
Incredible, the Marsh Cauldron had such capabilities?
Enlightened by this revelation, Liang Qu's eyes brightened, thinking that the origin of the Marsh Cauldron was truly astonishing.
If word got out, people might fight tooth and nail for it!
Now he couldn't possibly let the Pig Dragon slip away.
Having a subordinate would be of great assistance, and a four-legged crocodile was far more versatile than a fish.
Resolved, Liang Qu found a sharp-edged stone on the riverbed, roughly the size of a human head, and moved it near the Pig Dragon’s snout in the mud.
With a forceful push, he aimed it down.
The control over the river's water pushed the stone, parting the waterstream and sending it crashing onto the resting Pig Dragon.
The cooling weather caused the crocodile's blood to flow sluggishly, making it naturally slower to react.
Even more so when ambushed, it froze in place for a split second before feeling an intense, splitting pain.
Now’s my chance!
Liang Qu lunged forward, charging from behind the Pig Dragon.
He pressed the stone down, right arm muscles bulging with tension, while his left hand sliced across the stone’s edge with his fingers, drawing out streaks of blood.
As blood dispersed into the water, the metallic scent inflamed the Pig Dragon’s savage instinct, causing it to try desperately to straighten itself and thrash about, attempting to open its jaws for a bite.
But before it could, another burst of waterflow wrapped around its upper and lower jaws.
With the stone above and a waterflow restraining it, the Pig Dragon couldn’t manage to open its mouth, resorting to wild bodily flailings and tail lashes that beat fervently against the surrounding rocks.
Liang Qu held tight, his entire body taut like a bow strung to its limit, every muscle twisting and squeezing together, with blood vessels bulging, fully suppressing the Pig Dragon beneath.
Cold sweat trickled away with the water currents.
After twice exerting his water control at twenty pounds, Liang Qu’s stamina was nearly depleted, yet he dared not pause, quickly applying fresh blood across the Pig Dragon's back with precise strokes.
The blood threads clung steadfastly under some mystical force, unblurring as they traced the scales!
In the darkness, the blood shone bright as the Pig Dragon’s vertical pupils dilated, unleashing a wave of primal mental force onto Liang Qu's mind.
If water manipulation had drained his physical strength, the effort to control the Pig Dragon was mentally exhausting, like enduring several sleepless nights only to be forced into solving a series of math problems.
Liang Qu's head throbbed viciously, nearly blacking out from the pain.
Fortunately, beasts were beasts, and cannot rival human ingenuity.
In just a few breaths, an unusual mental link materialized within his consciousness.
The Pig Dragon's once dim eyes regained their luster and agility, but were no longer savage, now exuding a hint of spirit.
The Marsh Cauldron gleamed anew.
[Aquatic Beast Domination: Grand Marsh Crocodile, available for evolution.]
Liang Qu's gaze lit up with joy—he succeeded!
Pig Dragon?
Now it submits like a dog!
(End of Chapter)