Chapter 141 Her Eagle

Baiting the hook and paying no heed to whether there were any small silver fish in the pool, Yun Qing cast the line into the water, relying on her hand to perceive the subtle movements of the spider silk.

After letting out about six to seven meters of silk, she stopped releasing more and quietly waited for a small silver fish to take the bait.

She didn't have to wait long—about three breaths' time—before Yun Qing felt a fish bite. It clamped onto the bait and dashed away. The forceful tug of the fish made her hand, wrapped in spider silk, ache sharply.

Just as Yun Qing was preparing to expend her inner energy for a prolonged tug-of-war with the fish, she remembered her eagle. Since she had an eagle, she had to make use of it.

She communicated with the little black-feathered eagle in her mind: "Great Eagle, a small silver fish has taken the bait. If you want to eat fish right now, use your strength together with mine to pull it up. If you don't care when you eat, I will try my best to pull it up on my own, but my strength is small, and it will take quite a while."

It would indeed take quite a while, and based on its past experience, it did not want to wait that long; it wanted to eat immediately.

Using its spiritual sense to manipulate objects, the little black-feathered eagle forced Yun Qing to step backward.

Yun Qing felt a sharp pain in her left hand as she was pulled backward by an irresistible, tremendous force, retreating several meters in one go. At the other end, the small silver fish was yanked directly out of the water.

Small Silver Fish, Level 46;
Gathering Experience +920;
Obtained Small Silver Fish x1;

Under the suppression of the little black-feathered eagle's spiritual sense, the small silver fish pulled out of the water lost all strength to struggle, its body flying uncontrollably toward the little black-feathered eagle.

As the small silver fish drew near, the little black-feathered eagle skillfully removed the hook from its mouth, familiar with the process from the previous time.

Enduring the pain in her left hand, Yun Qing pulled the fishing line.

-20;
Combat Experience +60;

The little black-feathered eagle tossed the retrieved hook close to Yun Qing, swallowed the small silver fish whole, and said with a look of utter satisfaction, "Fish again."

Obtained: Low-grade Spirit Stone x1;

At this moment, Yun Qing was astonished to find that the yellow characters above the little black-feathered eagle's head had turned white. This meant that as long as she didn't court death, the little black-feathered eagle would not kill her.

Having temporarily saved her own life, Yun Qing calculated her gains and losses: nearly 1,000 gathering experience points, a small amount of combat experience, and a low-grade spirit stone. It could be said to be a bountiful harvest.

This fish was worth catching!

All she had expended was a tiny amount of inner energy used to make bait, and her left hand hurt badly.

Her gloves were still not thick enough. After preparing the bait once more, Yun Qing bound some wood and metal to her hand. Instead of using her hand to feel for bites, she would know a fish was hooked when something pulled her with tremendous force.

She cast the line again and began fishing. With the little black-feathered eagle helping to drag the fish ashore, Yun Qing's fishing speed was super fast.

One small silver fish after another was pulled ashore through the cooperation of human and bird. Seeing that she was only 500 gathering experience points away from leveling up, yet her dantian was nearly depleted of inner energy, Yun Qing communicated with the little black-feathered eagle: "Great Eagle, I have run out of inner energy. After catching this one, I need to recover my energy."

The little black-feathered eagle, currently enjoying its feast of small silver fish, was in high spirits. This fishing assistant was entirely to its liking, and it had no desire to lose such a good helper.

To prevent the fishing assistant from playing tricks, it said, "I stayed by Sunshine Lake for three days and watched you for three days. How many times you went to Sunshine Lake during these three days and what you did there, I am entirely clear on."

Yun Qing was greatly startled! The eagle had been watching her for this long. Given its unknown level, her invisibility could clearly be easily seen through by it. This meant that when she entered her immortal dwelling, even though she vanished, the little black-feathered eagle knew it. It might not know where she went, but it knew that wherever she vanished from, she would reappear.

Was a battle of endurance simply a test of who could outlast whom? It could easily wait outside for three days or even longer, but how long could she stay inside the immortal dwelling, which constantly required energy consumption?

Was the little black-feathered eagle just bluffing?

She had hoped to take advantage of its inattention to slip into the immortal dwelling and escape, but it seemed that would not be easy.

Moreover, the lake she guarded finally had a name—Sunshine Lake.

She cast the line once more. Human and bird cooperated again to pull up a small silver fish, completely emptying Yun Qing's inner energy. Then, she saw the wonderful system prompt:

"Congratulations, your gathering level has increased to Level 41."

Yun Qing truly didn't know whether she had been captured to fish for the eagle, or if she had captured an eagle to help her grind gathering experience and obtain spirit stones.

In short, the experience gained in the span of a cup of tea surpassed what she could achieve through two days of struggling on her own.

Since her character level had not yet reached Level 41, her inner energy was not fully replenished.

Packing away the spider silk and the hook, Yun Qing prepared to sit in meditation by the pool to cultivate.

Then she heard the little black-feathered eagle's voice: "Go wherever you want to recover your inner energy. Once you're done, come back and continue fishing."

This meant it truly knew that entering her immortal dwelling caused her to vanish!

Fortunately, there was a time dilation effect inside the immortal dwelling. Yun Qing gathered a large pile of grass by the pool, called out to the great eagle, and stepped into the immortal dwelling.

While they were at Sunshine Lake, the little black-feathered eagle hadn't paid deliberate attention to Yun Qing for those few days, nor had it figured out the mechanics behind her sudden disappearance. However, seeing that she could always emerge after a while, it merely bluffed her. Now, witnessing her vanish without a trace from such close proximity, it still felt a lingering anxiety that she might disappear forever.

After all, she had just given it a wonderful meal, though it wasn't quite full and she left it wanting more. The small silver fish in its belly weren't enough; even though it hadn't eaten this many in a very long time, it could still eat more.

Staring at the spot where Yun Qing had vanished for a long time, the little black-feathered eagle grew increasingly restless. Staring like this was not a solution.

It released its spiritual energy around the area where Yun Qing had disappeared. That way, if she passed through those places to escape, she would become tainted with its aura and be easily tracked down by it.

Having done this, the little black-feathered eagle happily flew over to a large tree by the waterfall to take a nap, waiting for the small silver fish in its belly to digest, and waiting for the fishing assistant to emerge with full inner energy to catch more fish for it to eat.

Inside the immortal dwelling, Yun Qing first ate and drank her fill, then fully restored her inner energy and stamina.

She processed all the grass she had brought into the dwelling into bait. All the mosquito venom needles and mosquito nutrient solution were manually crafted into anti-mosquito venom pills. However, her crafting experience was still a fraction away from reaching Level 41. Yun Qing turned her attention to the fish meat stored in her system backpack. She only needed to cook a portion of this fish meat to break through to the Qi Refinement stage.

For the past few days, she hadn't dared to cook outside for fear of danger. But right now, the most dangerous entity was her own great eagle; as long as the eagle didn't turn hostile, any other danger would be handled by the eagle.

With this thought, Yun Qing's mind stirred, and she stepped out of the immortal dwelling. The sky outside was growing faintly bright, allowing her to finally get a clear look at the place where she had been captured.

Before her lay a pool about a hundred square meters in size. At one end of the pool, a river several meters wide flowed deep into the forest, while the other end featured a waterfall about ten zhang high. Her eagle was currently dozing on a large tree not far from the waterfall.

If not for the system text prompts, it would have been genuinely difficult to spot the pitch-black creature.

Looking at the pitch-black eagle in the distance and the pitch-black dog at her feet, Yun Qing felt deeply depressed. All these creatures had colors resembling corpse-souls; couldn't she be given a pet of a different color?

The little black-feathered eagle knew the moment Yun Qing came out, but it was sleeping so comfortably right now that it didn't want to move.

Ordering her to catch fish for it required it to help pull the line, which was troublesome. In the future, she would definitely have to pull the line herself; it wanted to eat ready-made food.