Chapter 139: The Angler

Inside her cave dwelling, Yun Qing automatically practiced the Universe Luck-Cultivation Technique. As she meditated, she couldn't help but recall the earlier incident of catching the little silver fish, feeling deeply vexed by her behavior of contaminating the fish and then wasting a spirit stone to purify it.

Next time, she vowed, she would not strike the little silver fish with the Queen Mosquito's venomous claw; it would be better to use a container to trap it and let it suffocate!

Having recovered her internal energy, Yun Qing realized that the difficulty in fishing might stem from either the bait or the fact that the little silver fish were poisoned. With some time left, she decided to improve the bait stored in her system inventory.

She had eight pieces of bait remaining. Taking seven of them, she went to the alchemy room and used refining techniques to extract their essence while discarding the impurities, eventually forging them into a single piece of superior bait. It was worth noting that crafting this superior bait also granted her crafting experience, though it did not cause the system to automatically generate a recipe.

Once finished, Yun Qing left the cave, using her concealment and breath-holding techniques to head toward the lake.

No sooner had she appeared than she was spotted by the little black feather eagle. Her concealment technique could only deceive those within a certain realm; before the sixth-tier little black feather eagle, it was as if she hadn't used it at all. However, her breath-holding technique could deceive those up to two major realms higher. Seeing the angler appear, the previously listless little black feather eagle immediately became interested.

Fishing under the night sky, Yun Qing fixed the superior bait onto the hook and cast it into the lake. Last time, the spider silk had cut into her hands painfully, so this time, she had wrapped one end of the silk around her hand several times, having specifically reinforced her gloves.

Three breaths after the bait hit the water, Yun Qing felt something approach. The next instant, the other end of the spider silk sank violently.

Her bait had been snatched by a fish and was being dragged away.

After the bait was pulled several meters, the spider silk Yun Qing had released pulled taut. Feeling the strength on the other end, Yun Qing was certain that whatever had taken the hook was not a level 30-plus fish. As for its exact level, she would have to wait until she saw its true form.

She slowly let out more silk while guiding it toward the shore. Whether it was the better bait or her thicker gloves, the fish didn't feel as powerful as the previous one.

Yun Qing concentrated all her focus on her hands. About two minutes later, she sensed a gap in the creature's struggle and gave a sharp tug, pulling a palm-sized silver fish out of the water.

Little silver fish, level 43.

Wonderful! Just as Yun Qing swung it toward the ground, she felt a dangerous aura rapidly approaching. A negative status effect appeared: "Gaze!"

Oh no, this status prevented her from entering her cave dwelling. As the saying goes, those who walk by the river often get their shoes wet. Yun Qing scanned her surroundings, but could not detect where the enemy was.

Gathering experience +500.

The little silver fish had been pulled onto the shore. The next moment, a giant black bird with a wingspan of over a zhang (ten feet) appeared in the night sky. It was the gust of wind from its wings that revealed the enemy's location.

Red text appeared: Unknown, Level Unknown.

The little black feather eagle’s target was the silver fish. Its speed was incredible; from the moment the fish was pulled from the water until it landed, the bird had crossed the entire Sunshine Lake, dived down, snatched the fish, and prepared to leave without a moment's hesitation.

Huh? Why is the little silver fish so heavy?

The moment Yun Qing saw the system notification and the giant black bird, she felt her body lifted off the ground against her will, flying toward the lake. The black bird she saw was already a few meters above her.

As it turned out, the little black feather eagle had snatched the fish, but Yun Qing hadn't detached the hook. When the eagle took the fish, it carried Yun Qing along with it. Even with reinforced gloves and the spider silk wrapped around her, the weight of her two-hundred-pound frame caused her hands to ache intensely.

Yes, she weighed two hundred pounds. She had weighed herself while with the trade caravan; she didn't look fat at all, but due to her body refinement, her skin, bones, and muscles were incredibly dense, making her very heavy—likely over two hundred pounds by now.

The little black feather eagle flew over Sunshine Lake and noticed the spider silk connecting the fish in its beak to the person below. One end was wrapped around her hand, and the other was in the fish's mouth. Its spiritual sense detected that the little silver fish had sustained a minor injury, though it couldn't perceive what had caused it.

The person was not even ranked, and she was so bulky that she didn't look tasty at all; it had no desire to carry her off. The eagle swung its claw, slashing at the spider silk, hoping to make her fall into the lake.

Unexpectedly, the silk was incredibly tough. Its sixth-tier peak cultivation and razor-sharp claws could not budge it in the slightest. It didn't want to steal a fish and end up with a human attached, but since it couldn't cut the silk, it could have cut the fish—yet it preferred to eat the fish whole. Either the human would have the sense to let go, or it would have to cut off her hand.

Below, Yun Qing desperately wanted to let go. Although she hated to lose the silk and the hook, compared to her life, there was nothing she couldn't let go of—unless the silk was tied too tightly.

Unfortunately, it was tied too tightly. She had wrapped it firmly at the time to ensure the fish wouldn't pull the hook and line away, but now, because of that, she had been dragged along with them.

As for the "heroic act" of severing one's own hand to survive, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

The little black feather eagle, just about to take action, suddenly thought that this human's fishing skills seemed quite good. Perhaps it would be better to keep her and have her fish for it. The thought of lying on a large tree every day while delicious fish were delivered to it made the eagle quite pleased.

If the human didn't listen to it and refused to fish for it, it could simply throw her into a hyena den to be fed to the dogs.

Thinking of this, the little black feather eagle jerked its head, pulling her up another zhang, and grabbed her with its claws, flying toward its nest. There were more silver fish there, though the water was deeper and harder for it to catch them itself.

Yun Qing couldn't cut the silk, and the chance to escape by severing her hand had vanished; she was now completely held by the bird's talons.

As the giant bird carried her, Yun Qing felt its talons carefully avoiding her vital points. Her intuition told her the bird didn't seem to want her dead.

As long as her life was spared, there was hope. Knowing oneself and the enemy is the secret to winning every battle. In this cultivation world where information was scarce, Yun Qing asked in her mind to the missing Liu Liu: "Liu Liu, what kind of bird is this? Is it an eagle?"

"Liu Liu cannot answer this question at the moment. Perhaps you should rephrase your query..."

No hint scrolls or anything—it wouldn't even tell her what kind of bird it was.

Wait, she still had one scroll left: the Communication Scroll. Since she was at a life-or-death moment, using the scroll here seemed appropriate.

Yun Qing struggled to chant silently: "Use Communication Scroll."

The system prompted: "Please select a target for communication: Little Silver Fish, Little Black Feather Eagle."

So, this giant bird was a Little Black Feather Eagle. If the little one was this big, she couldn't imagine the size of the adult, nor did she know if this was a juvenile or if the species was simply called "Little Black Feather Eagle." The little silver fish was on its last breath, so she certainly couldn't choose it.

"Little Black Feather Eagle!"

A flow of light seemed to pass between Yun Qing and the eagle, and the communication scroll in her inventory vanished.

"Bang!" Just then, the eagle reached its destination, and Yun Qing was dropped from high altitude, crashing to the ground.

Constrained by the length of the spider silk, the eagle stumbled and was forced to land on a giant rock not far from the Sunshine Lake.