Chapter 94: Been Reverse-Cut

Da Wang got up the next morning and as usual went to the deck to review his body-tempering technique, then had breakfast. Qiao Ge said, practicing the body-tempering technique requires persistent daily effort.

Da Wang was practicing his moves on the deck when he felt something brushing his calf from behind; turning around, he saw it was a sea turtle. Da Wang laughed heartily, "You two are pretty familiar with me now, right? By the time…… it's bad!"

Wah, I forgot to unload them in Jiaodong!

Da Wang hurriedly called for Chen Cang, "What should we do? We rushed away from Jiaodong and forgot to sell them!"

Chen Cang thought Da Wang had grown fond of them and didn't want to sell, so he didn't mention it, "Just release them here, or…… take them back to Youzhou? I think halfway through the journey these sea turtles are still adapting to this sea's climate, showing no signs of discomfort."

Da Wang was reluctant to part with them.

These two big guys are especially easy to keep; along the way they could be called the weeding machines of the fishing nets. No matter how much seaweed is hauled up in the nets, they can clear it all, and they can also clean up any unwanted small fish and shrimp. Usually, aside from blowing bubbles, they just bask in the sun on the deck, completely unobjectionable—even the fishermen take a liking to them, let alone the auspicious blessings they have.

"The further north we go, the colder it gets. Don't you say they like warm seas? Or should we just release them?"

He didn't even want to leave his hometown for Youzhou, so these big sea turtles surely wouldn't want to live in the cold Youzhou harbor either.

Da Wang was reluctant, yet also afraid they might die.

When the ship set out again, Da Wang gave each of them an apple as a farewell.

"Go on and swim south~ Although there aren't many ships out in the middle of the sea, you still need to stay alert—don't let humans catch you again! Goodbye; I hope to see you again next time I go out to sea~"

Four personal guards lifted one each, finally getting the two big guys off the deck. Da Wang felt a little sentimental, didn't linger on the deck, and turned back to his quarters.

He moved two stools aside, dragged out the wide-eyed Winnie who was pretending to hibernate, "Hey! Although you don't actually hibernate, I still like you, I won't send you away. When you grow up…… don't bite me." His imperial father kept those bears that were too frightening; just a glance at them would make him shout.

Winnie was let out of the "big prison", happily rubbing against Da Wang, "Sniff, has lunch been moved up today?"

Da Wang looked at the silly bear in his arms, then suddenly lifted the now-hefty fat bear with two fingers.

"It's fine; as long as I master my body-tempering fist technique, I'll always be able to beat you……"

"No matter what his bear grows into, as long as he has the strength to suppress it, that's fine!"

At that moment, Da Wang resolved to train diligently in martial arts.

In the evening, when he set up his stall at the homestead as usual, leaning next to Qiao Yi, Da Wang cupped his chubby paw around his face and stared intently at Qiao Ge from beside him.

"Speak, what do you want to do?"

Da Wang leaned over, "Qiao Ge, do you have any other powerful martial arts you could sell me? Like swordsmanship or spear technique? I want to practice them together with body-tempering……" sweetly.

Qiao Yi actually admired Da Wang quite a bit—working so hard at such a young age, whether setting up a stall or training.

"Your body-tempering technique is already very good; your foundation is solid, what's the rush……"

Da Wang shook his head, "It's not that I'm impatient; I want to pick another set to practice alongside my fist technique. I need strong martial power to protect myself and those I want to protect around me."

The loafing Qiao Ge couldn't help but feel a bit ashamed seeing someone so young work so hard.

Seeing his strange expression, Da Wang pouted and spoke frankly, "……My bear is growing so fast; I'm afraid I won't be able to beat it someday. Every time I hold it, I feel it's heavier than the day before, and a growing bear is terrifying, yet I can't bear to give it up. When I was little, my older brother tricked me into going to the animal garden, where a full-grown bear scared me; I came back with a fever for several days……" He almost died. At that time, Wei Zhaoyi was still Wei Meiren; she sent a letter to Changzhou, her uncle found an excuse to make a trip to Chang'an, and had Zhao Bao sent to his side, after which things went smoothly for the next two years.

Qiao Yi: ……

Da Wang: "Tsk, the truth is just that unexpected~"

Qiao Yi shook his head, "No. How could the pet you've raised since childhood be like a strange animal? It won't hurt you. Are you worried its intelligence isn't enough? Feed it some beast-feed pills and it'll get smarter. Let me show you my flame leopard!"

Qiao Yi tapped his storage, and out came a dull-black leopard from somewhere.

The leopard lunged at Qiao Yi the instant it appeared, without pausing; the seated Qiao Yi reached out and pressed its head, "You see, it's not small either—it's a ferocious beast, but I've raised it on beast-feed pills; although it's only a low-grade spirit beast, it's very well-behaved."

That so-called flame leopard, held down by Qiao Yi, pretended to struggle with three legs while its hind paw sneakily reached for Qiao Yi's stall's bottle of Bigu Pill; it was obvious what it was after.

Da Wang was stunned: "……This is awfully clever!" It was more than just well-behaved.

Qiao Yi finally noticed, flicked the flame leopard's forehead, and said, "That's a Bigu Pill, just the bottle!"

Hearing the misunderstanding, the leopard instantly retracted its hind leg, acting as if nothing had happened, and affectionately crouched beside Qiao Yi's leg. Perhaps noticing how close its master and Da Wang were, the black leopard gave Da Wang a polite nod—no need to mention its demeanor.

Da Wang immediately forgot the leopard's roguish act, staring with starry eyes.

"That beast-feed pill, sell it to me!"

Who could resist this smart…… "What kind of flame leopard is this, where's the flame?" It's pure black!

Qiao Yi's face flushed, "……It hasn't been cultivated yet. In theory it could become a third-grade flame leopard, at which point it would tread flame patterns. In theory, as long as I keep feeding it beast-feed pills, in a few years it could rise to third grade, and with great fortune maybe even fourth. But it's still second grade now, as I said, a low-grade spirit beast."

Da Wang kept his starry eyes, "Enough, enough! It's already this smart—what more could it want? If it got any stronger and tried to become my master, what would we do? That beast-feed pill—if my bear ate it, could it understand my speech?"

"That's a mundane beast; its intelligence develops slowly, you just need to give it love and patience." Qiao Yi then produced another bottle the same color as the Bigu Pill, "Mundane beasts take the elementary kind, one pill a month is enough. My little flame normally takes the elementary kind every day, and only after three months do I give it an intermediate pill; intermediate pills have to be bought, I can't refine them yet."

Da Wang took it, the black leopard's gaze followed the bottle over, and he solemnly told it, "I bought it, I'm paying!"

Xiao Yan glanced away nonchalantly.

Qiao Yi: ……

Da Wang inquired about the price of the beast-feed pill; Qiao Yi said it's the same as the Bigu Pill, and Da Wang felt the pinch.

After the pang, he realized, "No, Qiao Ge, you have these pills—why are you still selling the Bigu Pill that nobody buys?"

Qiao Yi looked bewildered, "Here people come and go, nobody brings a pet along—selling pet food would be even less marketable than the human Bigu Pill."

Da Wang exclaimed anguishedly, "How could that be! Except for my place, hardly anyone goes hungry; what market does your Bigu Pill have? Your business sense is worse than mine—selling beast-feed pills would definitely sell better than the Bigu Pill. Listen to me, start selling them tomorrow; we may have no spirit beasts, but who doesn't keep a few cats and dogs?"

Qiao Yi: "……Can it work? Around here, beast-feed pills are harder to sell than Bigu Pills; I only know how to make the low-grade kind that anyone can make. It's just that the medicinal ingredients are expensive; otherwise it's truly worthless."

Da Wang nodded firmly, he was so poor he splurged on a bottle for his bear—let alone others who are well-off, like Bai Yang, who just has a dog.

For Da Wang, spending three hundred taels a month on one pill is no small amount.

The next day Da Wang met Wei Shen, "Cousin, are you confident in taming wild horses?"

Wei Shen was very wary, "Are you trying to dodge payment? I can tame any horse—just give it to me."

Da Wang was mysterious, "I suddenly recalled a precious medicinal herb; animals that eat it become clear-headed and nimble……"

Wei Shen waved his hand, "Your Highness, try fooling someone else; you know I don't have more than a hundred taels on me."

Da Wang fumed, "You're just planning to starve yourself back to Changzhou, aren't you!"

No matter, there's still Bai Li Heng.

………………New Chapter………………

………………New Chapter………………

new chapter

The treasure ship didn't keep sailing nonstop; they spent more time staying in the resource-rich deep sea.

When the ship remained motionless for a long time, Da Wang couldn't sit still; he already knew how splendid the underwater world was, and most importantly, he had yet to collect all fifty kinds of edible new marine life.

The Grand Tutor knew their stretch of sea was a thousand meters deep and would not let him go down no matter what; Da Wang could see his cousin wasn't entirely at ease either, so he gave up his stubbornness and instead clung to Chen Huai, who was steering the ship.

Finally, Chen Huai sailed east for a stretch, found a reef with water about a hundred meters deep; after Da Wang warmed up for half an hour, he lowered a small boat to accompany him into the water.

Compared to the pitch‑black, bottom‑less deep sea of a thousand meters, Da Wang also preferred the reef area nearby, which was always lively.

As soon as he entered the water, he saw a vast expanse of sea snails densely covering the rocks; relying on his immunity to all poisons, Da Wang reached out and touched them, while his other hand clicked to store them, immediately bringing up the prompt: 【Store the Veined Red Snail x22009 adult in the warehouse? Yes/No】

Da Wang found Meng Meng quite particular—each time it stored something in the warehouse, it was an adult of a species, letting the young ones go uncounted. Da Wang fully agreed; it was about leaving something for posterity, not wiping out a species by the roots. He'd heard that in two thousand years they'd have ten‑thousand‑ton supertrawlers dragging nets worldwide, leaving the ocean nearly plowed bare. Whenever Bai Ge saw a fish surpassing the local average, he'd salivate over the rich seas of the Great Jin.

While gathering the miscellaneous catch he'd picked up, Da Wang struggled to keep from laughing out loud, wondering how much income he was losing by not going into the water!

Da Wang had had enough fun, so he immediately checked the completion count for Mission Three—sure enough, it had increased by one to forty‑eight.

That meant they were edible, so they didn't need to be thrown away.

Da Wang had become adept at using Meng Meng's closed‑loop dictionary lookup; he no longer needed to carry that paper manual everywhere, at most using it to check how to cook something tastily.

In the reef area, shellfish were most abundant; in a short while Da Wang picked up three varieties of edible sea snails, big and small, and also caught some small yellow flower fish that they often snagged on their ship.

He didn't even overlook the seabed; when he spotted a large yellow‑brown shell, he casually picked it up as well.

The pop‑up storage prompt read: 【Store the Pearl Mother Shell x8422 adult in the warehouse? Yes/No】

Da Wang didn't mind; after confirming, he casually opened the slot to see if it was edible, and saw written there: Pearl Mother Shell, also called Pearl Shell, a bottom‑dwelling shellfish that produces pearls, its meat edible.

What?

Pearl, Youzhou pearl?

He recalled Bai Yang's words again: the deep sea, hardly trodden by humans, truly held who‑knows‑how‑much resources.

These days he felt fishing took no effort at all—just pick a spot in the deep sea, drop the net, and pull up a full haul. If he couldn't pick a spot, no problem; at most he'd drag a bit longer, and even if there were no good fish schools, they'd just be miscellaneous fish.

But when he easily picked up as many as eight thousand adult Pearl Mother Shells of a single species in the reef area, Da Wang gained a new appreciation for the deep sea's abundance.

Da Wang quickly produced the small handheld net Chen Cang had given him, bagged the Pearl Mother Shells already stored in the warehouse, floated them up, and while they drifted on the surface awaiting the escort's boat, the guards rowed over and hauled him aboard the skiff.

After wrestling back to the big ship, Da Wang was immediately caught by Zhao Bao to be sent for a hot‑water soak; before leaving, he didn't forget to hand his little fish net to Wei Shen, instructing his cousin to peel it himself.

Seeing it was a net of large shells, Wei Shen guessed Da Wang had found something tasty again and, resigned, took it straight to the canteen.

This net was quite heavy—"Still pretty heavy; hard on the little fatty to be able to lift it."

The attendant's face went wooden: "Chop at the waist."

Wei Shen said: "His Highness Prince You possesses immeasurable strength—truly a Martial Saint incarnate."

Zhang Tu, standing nearby: ……

Wei Shen casually grabbed an empty dining table, and the attendant fetched a few wooden basins and knives for him.

His cousin, busy working, couldn't keep his mouth shut: "…Little fox, all you know is ordering me around—does what I peel smell better? You can't stand seeing me idle, can you? Wang Hui! Look what this is?!"

"Hui, Hui Gongzi, could it not be pearls?"

Another also said it looked like that; this bunch of rough fellows had never seen pearls up close.

Waiting for the flushed, steaming Da Wang to come over from his bath, Wei Shen and his attendant stood dumbfounded before the two wooden basins on the table.

One basin held the shelled meat, the other a pile of glittering treasure‑like—pearls!

Da Wang lunged over, "They really are pearls!"

This bag of over a hundred twenty adult Pearl Mother Shells yielded over a hundred forty pearls—some none, some two or three each.

The largest could be fifteen or sixteen millimeters, the smallest as big as a small sesame seed, most were round pearls.

Da Wang reached out to touch them, but Wei Shen pressed his paw into the pearl pile so only his chubby wrist showed, took a glance, and said, "String them or wear them on that chubby wrist—either looks great, no wonder everyone loves pearls."

Da Wang: "……I have."

Da Wang stretched out his left hand to show his bracelet and compare it with the pearls in the basin; the shark pearl flashed a blue gleam in the sunlight, its luster also brighter. Hmm, if measured in silver, Da Wang also felt the shark pearl looked more valuable.

But these pearls aren't comparable to the shark pearl—there's no denying it, they're top‑grade.

"Yo, this kid's still quite refined."

……His attendant had already given up supervising the Second Young Master's mouth.

Da Wang's delight was beyond words; he began waving his arms, pointing at the rivers and mountains: "That basin you peeled—take it back to Changzhou for your aunt later; this basin, stir‑fried!"