Chapter 355

At the Wangjiang Pier of the Huaihe Great Marsh, there lies a crab-farming bay famous far and wide.

On a clear, cloudless night, a few scattered sampans were moored quietly on the river surface, the water reflecting the silver radiance of the stars and moon.

The stalks of the silver grass drooped diagonally, their reeds brushing the river, with most of the fluffy catkins submerged in the water, releasing a layer of frost-white pollen that drifted away with the surging current of the Great Marsh.

Splash!

A long tail broke the reflection of the full moon, and the water waves swallowed the pollen.

A massive shadow swam beneath the water, stirring up layers of waves.

A thin braided rope hung around the fat catfish's thick neck, and its fins on both sides tightly clutched a bamboo fish basket as it hugged the riverbank of the Great Marsh in search of crabs.

The water current was gently stirred, fish and shrimp darted away, river clams closed their shells, and loaches hopped and hid into rock crevices.

A crab, which had been clutching a small fish and tearing it apart to feed, sensed danger; its eyestalks twitched, it dropped its prey, and it scuttled sideways on eight legs into a mud hole.

The fat catfish remained unhurried, wagging its tail to move forward, flicking its long whiskers into the hole; after a slight nudge, when it pulled them out again, a large, claw-waving crab was hooked onto the tip.

The crab brandished its hairy claws, firmly gripping the long whiskers, unaware that it had already been tricked and that a great disaster was imminent.

The fat catfish lifted the crab up to its front, pushed aside the lid of the fish basket in its arms to compare it with the large crabs inside, shook its head in disappointment, and flicked its long whiskers; the crab, weighing less than six taels, flew out of the water and crashed into the grass.

The crab, having narrowly escaped a calamity, struggled to flip over, pointed its sharp legs at the ground, and scuttled into the bushes.

The fat catfish closed the bamboo lid, wagged its tail to continue forward, and in the blink of an eye, found another large crab at a corner.

The large crab was holed up in its burrow, half-hidden and half-exposed, blowing bubbles, and clamped onto the twitching long whiskers, whereupon the entire crab was hoisted up by the whiskers.

A comparison.

The fat catfish happily collected the crab into the basket.

There are many full-time large-scale crab farmers near Wangjiang Pier, who have fenced off large areas of crab ponds along the shore.

Often, crabs move their eight legs to crawl out of the fences, slip into the Great Marsh, and breed with wild crabs.

Over time, the quality and quantity of crabs near Wangjiang Pier have become several notches higher than at other piers!

Round-Head, who was searching everywhere for a crab-catching treasure land, was the first to sense that this place was extraordinary, with many large and fat crabs.

However, by the time it informed its subordinates, the finless porpoises, of the news and went elsewhere to find a place to catch crabs, the fat catfish, having heard the rumors from somewhere, rushed over with its fish basket, forcibly intimidated and drove away the other finless porpoises, occupied the entire marsh mouth, and searched for large crabs alone.

Without a leader, the finless porpoises were unorganized and no match for the fat catfish at all; they dared to be angry but dared not speak, so they had to let the fat catfish do as it pleased and silently went elsewhere to catch crabs.

Having monopolized the treasure land, the gaps in the fish basket were already crowded with crab legs, and the full basket held at least a hundred of them.

The fat catfish could not help but let its imagination run wild, fantasizing about the Heavenly God's encouragement and praise for it.

Little did it know that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

"A fish that knows how to catch crabs? That is quite rare..."

The river bottom was filled with reefs, and the water plants were lush.

Two "burly" men, who were taller than Liang Qu's subordinate, the river chief Kou Zhuang, were hiding behind them, pointing and gesturing at the fat catfish.

They appeared to have no difficulty breathing underwater.

"Big Brother, the crabs in that fish basket are all huge, and those smaller than seven taels don't even make it into the basket. We've been out of the inner regions for a long time and haven't eaten crab. Now that it's autumn, the weather is crisp, and the crabs are full of roe and fat, it's the perfect time. Why don't we snatch that basket of crabs?"

The slightly smaller "burly" man, who was still about two meters and three tall, danced and gestured, describing what he had just seen.

"Don't delay our business. We came to the south to find the Reincarnated Dragon Lord. That fish looks strange and weird; I've never seen one before, don't know what breed it is, and it's so intelligent, it might be a rare species with an owner.

Don't forget the Black-Clad Commandant from back then, who rode a black turtle alone across the Great Marsh. Have you forgotten the series of events that followed?"

The second brother didn't care: "Big Brother, whether it has an owner or not is unknown for now. Even if it did, that black turtle of the Black-Clad Commandant back then was at least a great spirit monster. That strange fish right now is just a spirit monster, a whole grade lower.

We are so fast; we can just give it a quick blow, leave no traces, and even if we snatch it, no one will know. It'll be a case with no leads!"

He pondered for a long time.

Gurgle gurgle~~~

A muffled sound echoed in the water.

The big brother coughed twice.

The two of them had been traveling south for several days and hadn't eaten...

Ever since their lives became destitute and wandering, they hadn't eaten crab for a long time.

Suddenly recalling the delicious taste of crab meat and crab roe made it hard to forget, and their mouths watered.

"Second brother, what you said is not without reason..."

Bang!

Bang!

Two muffled sounds echoed in succession from the bottom of the water, like wooden sticks hitting rubber products.

"Strange, this fish is so thick-skinned and fleshy! It actually took two hits to knock it out, and my tiger's mouth is numb from the knocking!"

"Hmm, second brother, did it see our faces?"

"I don't think so, I acted quite fast..."

"Hey! You, you, I tried to advise you earlier but you wouldn't listen. Now that you've caused such a disaster, what should we do?"

"Ah? Then big brother, are you going to eat it or not?"

"Since things have come to this, eat!"

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

Sunlight spread over the Great Marsh.

A group of finless porpoises rushed in a stream, leaving trails of water, startling the schools of fish into darting everywhere and leaping out of the water.

A fisherman returning on a boat stood on the sampan, his feet swaying, and seeing the large fish leaping on the marsh surface, he was confused.

Under the Great Marsh.

Round-Head led its younger brothers, rushing back to Wangjiang Pier aggressively to settle the score.

After searching around, the finless porpoises below gave a response.

Unexpectedly, when Round-Head arrived, the fat catfish was lying on the ground fast asleep, its fish basket overturned beside it, completely empty.

After a whole night, how could it not have caught any crabs?

Round-Head was furious.

Monopolizing the field was one thing, as it was all for the Heavenly God.

Never did it expect the fat catfish to be so incompetent.

It wasted a good place to catch crabs, and in the end, it was empty-handed!

Round-Head flicked its fin, and a finless porpoise on the left understood.

It put down the fish basket, retreated a hundred paces away, aimed at the fat catfish sleeping soundly, and suddenly started a diving acceleration!

Its streamlined body left a large trail of water, covering the hundred-pace distance in an instant, and in the blink of an eye, its solid head slammed into the fat catfish's fat belly!

Boom!

The flat belly bounced like a wave.

A black shadow in the water flashed and disappeared, crashing into the riverbed, splashing up a large amount of mud and sand, shrouding the surroundings.

Who, who, who!

The fat catfish got up in a rage. It swam out of the dust, poked its head out to look around, and discovered that at some point, it had been surrounded by finless porpoises carrying fish baskets.

Round-Head swam forward slowly, the sun piercing through the water layer, plating it with a layer of dazzling golden radiance, looking down at the bewildered fat catfish.

Facing Round-Head, which cast a large shadow and was ruthlessly scrutinizing it, the fat catfish scratched its forehead with its whiskers, just about to quibble, when Round-Head threw down a fish basket.

The fish basket bounced twice, the bamboo lid fell off, and there was nothing inside; it was clearly an empty basket.

The fat catfish was confused. It observed for a long time, feeling more and more that the fish basket looked familiar, until it saw the broken braided rope, and its whole body trembled.???!!!

The wind blew across the pond, bringing out large wrinkles.

Duckweed drifted from east to west.

"You said, two people ambushed you, and their goal was to snatch the crabs?"

Liang Qu stroked his chin, lost in thought.

In the pond, the fat catfish nodded repeatedly, its fins on both sides hugging the fish basket, then patted the back of its head, rolled its eyes, and floated on the water surface with its fish belly up.