Chapter 48: A Great Tonic

[Golden Loach: A strange fish, golden all over, good at burrowing.]

[Contains spiritual charm, its flesh is delicious and nourishing, can nourish yin and replenish yang, a great tonic.]

[According to legend, Golden Loaches always appear as a male and female pair, inseparable, and never roam alone.]

Looking at the loach-like creature in the bucket, its body glowing with a white light tinged with red, Lu Qing was pleasantly surprised.

Sure enough, this fellow was a strange fish.

And it was a strange fish of the same level as the Red Moon Carp.

What surprised Lu Qing even more was the information on the third note.

These Golden Loaches always appeared in pairs and never alone.

In that case, there was another Golden Loach under the water!

Although he didn’t know if the other Golden Loach had been scared away by the commotion just now, Lu Qing still wanted to try.

He once again hung a Blood Apricot fruit on the hook and sank it to the bottom of the water.

He had thought he would have to wait a long time this time, or even that it would be in vain.

However, to Lu Qing’s surprise, not long after the hook was put down, he saw the float sink violently into the water.

“So fast?!”

Lu Qing was a little caught off guard, but he reacted quickly and immediately grabbed the fishing rod.

Next, there was no suspense.

After another struggle of strength and courage, another Golden Loach was caught by him.

Looking at the two Golden Loaches in the bucket, Lu Qing fell into silence.

It seemed that he had still underestimated the attraction of the Blood Apricot to strange fish.

Something that could be called a strange fruit by his special ability was indeed unusual.

He didn’t know what was so strange about it that it could attract these strange fish to devour it one after another.

Lu Qing put away a few Blood Apricot fruits, planning to find some time to ask his master if he knew about this strange fruit.

Hanging another Blood Apricot fruit, Lu Qing continued to fish.

However, this time, his luck was not so good.

He waited for a long time, but no more fish took the bait.

Not to mention strange fish, even ordinary fish were not seen.

“Strange, could it be that these strange fish have a sense of territory? Each time, only one kind will appear?” Lu Qing was a little strange.

He thought for a moment, lifted the hook, and replaced it with a worm.

Sinking the hook into the water again, this time, a fish bit the hook very quickly.

With a beautiful flick of the hook, a small white fish dangled in the air, constantly wagging its tail.

Looking at the small white fish on the hook, Lu Qing fell silent.

“You’re really everywhere.”

Feeling that there should be no more strange fish below, Lu Qing did not switch back to the Blood Apricot.

Instead, he continued to fish with worms.

After a while, after continuous casting, he had caught dozens of small white fish.

With so many small white fish, plus the ones left at home, it should be enough for the small black beast to have a good meal.

After catching enough food for the small black beast, Lu Qing prepared to put away his rod.

It was a bit of a pity. He had originally wanted to catch one or two big fish for the small black beast to have a full meal today.

But he didn’t know if it was because of the Golden Loaches, but the big fish were nowhere to be seen today.

Even when he switched to corn in the middle, there was no movement.

If he couldn’t catch them, there was nothing he could do. He could only wrong the small black beast and let it continue to eat small fish. Anyway, the taste of small fish was also very good.

“Xiao Yan, let’s go, time to go back.”

After packing up his things, Lu Qing carried the bucket and shouted to Xiao Yan, who was lying on the grass not far away, playing with something unknown.

“Coming, brother.”

The little girl ran back happily, holding a small bouquet of wild flowers in her hand.

It turned out that she had gone to pick wild flowers just now.

“Brother, look, these are the flowers I just picked. Aren’t they pretty?”

Xiao Yan held up the bouquet in her hand to show off to Lu Qing.

“Pretty.”

Lu Qing nodded. Seeing some grass leaves on the little girl’s head, he casually picked them off.

“Hee hee, I knew brother would like them.”

Xiao Yan was praised and was immediately delighted.

Seeing the little girl’s happy appearance, Lu Qing’s heart suddenly moved.

“Xiao Yan, do you feel bored accompanying brother to fish every day?”

“What is bored?” the little girl tilted her head and asked in confusion.

“Uh… I mean, do you feel unhappy?” Lu Qing changed his wording.

“No, as long as I’m with brother, Xiao Yan won’t be unhappy,” the little girl said with a serious face. “There are flowers to pick here, and butterflies. It’s so much fun!”

“…Alright.”

Lu Qing had nothing more to say.

He had originally thought that if Xiao Yan felt bored, he would consider leaving her in the village to play with other children next time he went fishing.

Anyway, after meals, she often ran out to play with her friends in the village.

Now that she didn’t feel that way, he would talk about it later.

After returning home, he poured out the small fish, leaving only the two Golden Loaches in the bucket. Lu Qing fell into deep thought.

He was considering how to deal with these two Golden Loaches.

Should he sell them or keep them to eat himself?
In fact, Lu Qing was more inclined to eat them.

First of all, if he sold them, his master had no time to go to the city recently, and he didn’t know how long these two Golden Loaches could live after leaving the river.

If they died in a couple of days, wouldn’t that be a huge loss?
Secondly, he was not as short of money as before.

Strange fish were rare and hard to come by. It felt like a bit of a loss to sell them.

The last point was that the effects of the Golden Loach made him very tempted.

According to the introduction of his special ability, this Golden Loach was a great tonic.

Now, his Body Nourishing Fist had been mastered, and stepping into the Qi and Blood Realm was a sure thing.

The only thing he lacked was that because of the serious illness before, his body had always been relatively weak, and his foundation was not good.

These two Golden Loaches might be able to make up for this shortcoming.

After pondering for a while, Lu Qing finally decided to keep both Golden Loaches to eat.

However, although he decided to eat them, Lu Qing did not intend to enjoy them alone.

Instead, he prepared to take them to the small courtyard on the half-slope tomorrow to enjoy with his master.

Last time, he had originally wanted to give the Red Moon Carp to his master, but in the end, he sold it for money.

After becoming a disciple, Lu Qing had not been able to repay his master in any way, only receiving favors.

This time, he had managed to catch a strange fish again, which was a good opportunity for his master to have a good taste.

Lu Qing’s plan was very good. However, an accident happened at night.

After Xiao Yan fell asleep, the small black beast came to scratch the door again.

Lu Qing brought out a basin of fish as usual and placed it on the ground.

What he didn’t expect was that the small black beast, which would usually go up and feast on the fish as soon as he put it down, did not go forward this time.

Instead, it twitched its nose a few times, and then its eyes lit up, as if it had discovered something, and it circled around Lu Qing.

After circling a few times, it sat there and quietly looked at him.

“What’s wrong, not eating? I even added more fish for you today,” Lu Qing said strangely.

Had this little thing changed its nature? It didn’t even care for fish anymore?

“Aow!”

The small black beast suddenly let out a soft cry, which startled Lu Qing.

This was the first time he had heard this fellow cry out.

He had only heard its voice in the first few nights.

But at that time, it was a low growl with a warning meaning, which was very different from the current cry.

Now it was a bit like a cat’s meow, tender and cute, and quite pleasant to listen to.

But Lu Qing didn’t have time to care whether the small black beast’s voice was pleasant or not.

Because he found that after this little thing cried out, it stared straight at the house behind him.

To be precise, it was the direction of the kitchen in the house.

Remembering the small black beast’s behavior of smelling him just now, a thought suddenly rose in Lu Qing’s heart.

“Could this little thing be…”

(End of this chapter)