Chapter 97: Martial Arts Small Success, Underwater Mire

The Jianghuai marshlands.

The Fatty Catfish swam freely in the water; the thrill of the current brushing past its sides was incredibly refreshing, like soaring through the sky.

None of the large fish could swim as fast as it; it shuttled through the water like a black lightning bolt, causing schools of fish to flee in panic.

The Fatty Catfish flicked its long tail and, in the blink of an eye, rushed to the side of a grass carp weighing over ten jin.

The massive momentum scared the grass carp into turning to flee immediately. Just as it turned a corner, the Fatty Catfish appeared before it again, baring its teeth and making a move to bite.

After turning dozens of times, the grass carp was exhausted and could no longer swim, floating listlessly in the water.

After teasing it for a while longer, the grass carp showed no further reaction.

The Fatty Catfish felt bored and flicked its tail, sending it flying with a burst of immense force.

The grass carp shot straight out of the water, trailing a string of crystalline splashes in the sunlight, flying quite a distance.

*Bang! *

The grass carp slammed into a fishing boat.

The fisherman on the boat was scared out of his wits and nearly jumped into the water to escape, but when he looked back, he saw a large grass carp had inexplicably appeared on his boat.

It was clearly alive, its gill covers moving, yet it seemed to have no strength at all, lying motionless without a struggle, as if it had voluntarily come to the boat, awaiting its fate of being caught.

The fisherman, who hadn't caught a fish all day, looked at the empty river surface. Dazed, he pondered for a moment before suddenly kneeling on the bow and kowtowing.

"Thank you, River God, for your grace!"

The Fatty Catfish underwater didn't understand why. It scratched its forehead with its long whiskers, finding it very amusing, and dove back into the water, knocking several more large fish onto the boat.

*Boom, boom, boom. *

The large fish were forced to fly out of the water, landing continuously on the deck with a *thudding* sound—the most melodious and pleasant sound the fisherman had ever heard in his life.

A miracle!

A true miracle!

Every time one fell, the fisherman knelt and kowtowed, his expression incomparably excited, bordering on devout.

"The River God has manifested! The River God has truly manifested!"

The seventh day of the first lunar month.

The apprentices were still on spring break and wouldn't return until tomorrow; only Liang Qu and Hu Qi remained in the martial arts hall's practice arena.

The sound of wooden sticks striking echoed incessantly, each strike turning into a blur.

After about a quarter of an hour, the Qi and blood in Liang Qu's body were completely dissipated. He leaned on the short stick in his hand, panting heavily.

Hu Qi rubbed his wrists, his heart filled with stormy waves.

He had held back quite a bit, and his offensive wasn't dense, yet he hadn't managed to disrupt Liang Qu's rhythm in the slightest.

The Qi and blood in his junior brother's body hadn't been exhausted due to a disrupted rhythm, but rather through solid, consistent effort from start to finish.

How long had his junior brother been in contact with the Force-Generating Method? Half a month?

To refine a Force-Generating Method into instinct and reach small success in half a month, without being disrupted by rhythm?

It was simply too exaggerated. Ordinary people would need at least two or three months. But Hu Qi had watched Liang Qu go from clumsy to proficient, slowly improving. Especially after the first few days, he seemed to have suddenly grasped the knack, and his progress was particularly rapid.

One is one, two is two.

This matter could not be faked.

It wasn't just the Force-Generating Method; even the fighting style was the same. As long as Liang Qu could restrain his emotional impulses during combat, he could fight quite decently.

The Master's ninth disciple—truly extraordinary.

Whether crossing the river or being crossed, he was of dragon stock.

Hu Qi thought of Liang Qu's fate, feeling a sense of emotion, and then inexplicably thought of the goal Master Yang had set during the New Year's Eve dinner.

The junior brother had already been targeted by the sword; he feared it would be his turn next year.

Hu Qi felt no unhappiness; it was a good thing for his junior brother to be capable.

A single tree cannot make a forest, and his junior brother was a man of loyalty and righteousness. If he became capable, it would be helpful to all the disciples.

Having someone in the imperial court makes it easier to be an official—a truth even a three-year-old understands.

Liang Qu leaned on his stick, panting, still feeling exhausted. He sat down on the ground, not minding the dirt.

"Can't do it anymore, Cao Shixiong. I'm out of strength. Let's stop here for today."

"There's still half a day left, and you're stopping? Once the apprentices return tomorrow, there won't be such a quiet environment. Although your fate is good, you must never be lazy or slothful. The path is walked one step at a time."

Liang Qu chuckled. "To tell you the truth, Cao Shixiong Hu, I plan to try and break through the Flesh Barrier this afternoon."

Hu Qi stared, dumbfounded. "So fast? Didn't you say at the New Year's Eve dinner that you still needed half a month?"

"That's right, but I caught another treasure fish yesterday. I've been insisting on medicinal baths every day, and I've spent several tens of silver taels. The progress is much faster than I originally thought."

Liang Qu's matter-of-fact tone left Hu Qi silent. After a long while, he said dryly, "Then I'll grant you a half-day leave."

"Haha, thank you, Cao Shixiong Hu. I'll be off first. When I return, I'll bring you a good fish to eat."

Liang Qu felt energized again. He flipped himself up, patted the dust off his backside, and left.

In reality, he wasn't going to break through the barrier. The original half-month expectation was estimated based on the conditions of taking medicinal baths and eating treasure fish. It was impossible to advance by half the time after just a bit of operation.

What Liang Qu was truly going to promote.

Was Refined Ze Ling.

The two beasts had been helping to find big guys these past few days, and they finally had a harvest this morning.

Liang Qu had a premonition that after Refined Ze Ling's promotion, the changes brought about would be immense, and his physical fitness would see a leap-like improvement.

Incidentally, breaking through the Flesh Barrier would be a natural consequence.

It didn't count as lying to Cao Shixiong Hu.

Two quarters of an hour later, Liang Qu was already steering his covered boat onto the water.

After resting for a while, he summoned the three beasts.

The Fatty Catfish and Bu Neng Dong surfaced one after another, followed closely by Quan Tou.

Quan Tou's size was getting larger and larger; it was no longer appropriate for it to lie on Bu Neng Dong's head.

"Nothing happened these past two days, right?"

The Fatty Catfish thought of the fishermen who had knelt down two days ago, and the behavior of many fishermen passing through that water area afterward, each time performing the kowtow ritual. It flicked its whiskers and shook its head firmly.

Nothing happened.

The fishermen themselves were too strange, kowtowing to the air.

Liang Qu nodded. He was just afraid that the two beasts would forget themselves after evolving, especially the Fatty Catfish, which was the most foolish and would have a bad influence if accidentally seen by others.

It wasn't that big trouble would occur—there were plenty of strange things underwater—but Liang Qu had always operated on the principle that more trouble is worse than less.

He sat on the edge of the boat, gratified. "I've thought about it a few times these past two days. Since you two have evolved, it's not very appropriate to keep such childish names. So I've decided to give you two new names. The original names can just be your nicknames."

Change names?

The two beasts didn't understand. They had never compared them and didn't feel there was anything wrong with their names, but they didn't refuse either.

Given by the Heavenly God, that meant they were good!

"Bu Neng Dong, from now on, your formal name will be Tie Mu Shan! Fatty Catfish, from now on, your formal name will be Xiong Ya Jiang! Ah Bu, Ah Fei—these two will be your nicknames from now on!"

Liang Qu was full of self-satisfaction.

He had spent many days thinking of these new names; they both fit the beasts' characteristics and sounded imposing.

Tie Mu Shan, Xiong Ya Jiang?

The two beasts felt they sounded impressive without understanding why.

Did they seem to sound better than their original names?

Regardless, it was enough to show they were happy.

The two beasts splashed water, circling the covered boat, while Quan Tou, who had nothing to do with it, clicked its double pincers to help build momentum.

Liang Qu felt even more that the names he had chosen were a stroke of genius.

"Let's go, let's go see the place where you two found the big guy. Whether we succeed today depends on whether you found the right spot! Whether we eat well and drink well depends on today!"

Liang Qu took Fu Bo and Qing Lang, jumped into the water, and first pulled a hemp rope from his waist, tying it to Ah Bu, letting Ah Bu lead him.

Nowadays, unless Liang Qu manipulated the water flow to assist his propulsion, his natural swimming speed couldn't compare to Bu Neng Dong.

But manipulating water flow consumed physical strength, and quite a bit of it, so it was better to let Bu Neng Dong lead.

This guy was big and strong, fierce as could be; dragging a boat with a crocodile was a small matter.

Ah Fei saw this and brought its head over, also trying to perform.

Liang Qu thought that two-wheel drive might not be impossible, but the experiment showed it still didn't work.

Ah Fei's skin was too smooth; the rope would just slide off once tied. Unless he built a special saddle to put on its mouth in the future, it wouldn't stay on.

He wrapped the rope around his wrist, and "Quan Tou" took the opportunity to clamp on. Bu Neng Dong surged forward, dragging a man and a crab forward rapidly. The speed was extremely fast, with Ah Fei following closely behind.

Soon, the water depth exceeded fifty meters, but Liang Qu felt no discomfort at all.

Merging with the Water Monkey Refined Ze Ling not only greatly reduced his oxygen consumption underwater but also made him not fear the pressure.

The intensity he could feel was about the same as an ordinary person diving to about ten meters.

Not to mention the two beasts; it was all a small matter.

But as they continued to go deeper, a strange place appeared.

The surrounding water plants became more and more numerous, very lush, reaching a person's waist, as if walking in a lush meadow.

He picked one to taste; it was just an ordinary water plant. Truly strange.

The silt underneath was even softer, and one step down felt like stepping into a swamp.

In the bottom of the water, there were truly all kinds of strange and peculiar terrains, no worse than on land.

Liang Qu was dragged to a silt area without any water plants around.

In his perception circle, he felt vaguely that a huge creature was hiding beneath the silt.