Chapter 15: Fishing

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Along the way, there were plenty of ginseng roots for replenishing energy and bleeding-staunching herbs, but the deeper they went, the more the medicinal plants were shrouded in black miasma. Only a few herbs remained untouched by the dark aura, and even some of the trees were wreathed in it. The Poisonous Wheat Field must have lain abandoned for many years—now overgrown with trees and thickets, bearing no resemblance to a wheat field at all.

The captain scouted ahead, with the strong and youthful Ye Hai and Ye Tao bringing up the rear, while Yun Qing and the others walked in the middle. There was an air of danger to this place, so the group moved at a cautious pace.

Without slowing the group’s progress, Yun Qing would occasionally gather some ginseng or bleeding-staunching herbs that weren’t tainted by the black mist. Selling them was a secondary concern; gaining gathering experience was more important. To throw off suspicion, she would also now and then pick up a few small stones.

Yun Qing noticed that Aunt Sixth Ye would help herself to a few wild strawberries, green onions, ginger, garlic, and other wild vegetables along the way—but everything she picked was surrounded by the black miasma.

"Liuliu, the cook of Ye Village is not to be underestimated."

"Hurry and level up. Soon, you’ll surpass them."

"I hope that day comes soon."

Snakes were indeed the most common creatures here; soon enough, Yun Qing spotted another one not far ahead.

Snake, level 14.

This time, she remembered Ye Mingyu’s advice. With swift hands and keen eyes, she gripped a small stone, her aim settling on the snake—this was her first time attacking a moving monster. Without waiting for perfect aim, she hurled the stone at the snake.

“-15!”

“Combat experience +7!”

The stone struck the snake, and Yun Qing saw a “minus 15 HP” float above its body. What surprised her even more was that a single stone’s worth of damage actually granted her experience.

Ever since she’d arrived in this world, she’d only ever gained combat experience by killing monsters in one blow. She’d always thought you had to kill them to earn experience—who would have guessed that you could gain it just by injuring them?

This opened up all kinds of possibilities for exploiting the system’s mechanics.

"Liuliu, does this mean I could go beat up the neighbor’s kid? That way, I’d get combat experience, resentment points, and maybe find out if resentment points can be used in a lottery draw."

"Why pick on children instead of adults? Did the kid steal your roasted potatoes?"

At first, Liuliu had always been polite to her, but after traveling to this strange world, Yun Qing’s loneliness had her chatting endlessly with Liuliu, often about the most outlandish things. Even the system sprite had learned to talk back and sass her.

Yun Qing glanced at the members of the hunting party—almost all of them were martial artists. She’d be the one getting beaten up, not the other way around.

"Alas! With my low level, all I can do is steal roasted potatoes from kids."

"Then you’d better level up. Some kids are stronger than you."

Yun Qing: what a heartbreak.

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The snake had only taken a minor injury and was still alive. It quickly assessed the strength of both sides and slithered into the bushes to escape.

Ye Xiaolang gave his spear a light swing and threw it at the fleeing snake, killing it with ease.

With two nimble leaps, he retrieved his spear and tossed the snake’s body toward Yun Qing. “It’s best not to let prey escape. Some creatures hold grudges.”

Watching the snake corpse thrown her way, Yun Qing stifled a scream and hurriedly took two steps back to avoid being hit.

Why throw the snake at her? In her mind, Yun Qing silently deducted one point from her opinion of Ye Xiaolang. She plucked a few leaves, forced herself to overcome her discomfort, and placed the snake in her backpack. “Got it.”

The group moved on. Now that she knew hitting a monster with a stone granted experience, Yun Qing kept a small stone in her hand, ready to snatch up any combat experience that presented itself.

With a stone at the ready, she found herself walking behind Ye Xiaolang. Remembering how he’d thrown the snake at her, she was sorely tempted to lob a stone at the back of his head, just to see if she could earn any experience from it.

Whether it was her resentful aura or Ye Xiaolang’s sensitivity, as soon as Yun Qing entertained the thought of throwing a stone at him, he turned around and looked at her suspiciously.

Feigning innocence, Yun Qing asked, “What’s wrong?”

Ye Xiaolang shook his head. “You walk in front. I have a bad feeling.”

Yun Qing grumbled inwardly: What a keen sense you have. Not only do I have to walk ahead, now I can’t even hit you with a stone.

Grumbling aside, Yun Qing moved to the front. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t hit Ye Xiaolang; she still kept a stone in hand, ready to attack any small animals that appeared.

This successfully distracted her from the snake corpse she was carrying.

Unfortunately, the group spent the entire morning walking without encountering any more prey. They’d only killed four snakes in total, from which Yun Qing earned thirty experience points.

At noon, the hunting party reached a riverbank. The captain, Ye Mao, said quietly, “We’ll rest here for lunch.”

“Alright,” the others replied in hushed voices.

Yun Qing glanced at the roast potatoes and pork belly in her system backpack, then looked at the others. They didn’t seem to have brought any food or ingredients—so how were they planning to prepare lunch?

The captain and the five other hunters had already found spots by the river and sat down. Aunt Sixth Ye cheerfully took out the wild strawberries, green onions, ginger, garlic, and wild vegetables she’d gathered along the way.

Yun Qing wondered: Are we grilling snake with wild strawberries?

Ye Mingyu approached her with a hatchet. “Come, let’s cut some bamboo.”

Puzzled, Yun Qing wondered what the bamboo was for. Despite her curiosity, she didn’t ask. Since she had no hatchet, she simply nodded and followed Ye Mingyu.

Ye Mingyu selected a bamboo stalk about the thickness of a thumb, chopped it off at the base with a single stroke, then removed a long section as thick as a pinky from the top and handed the rest to Yun Qing. “Just break off the side branches.”

“Alright.”

Removing the branches was easy—no knife was needed, and she could do it by hand, though one stalk had quite a few branches.

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By the time Yun Qing had stripped one stalk, Ye Mingyu had already cut four more and was breaking off their branches.

In just a few minutes, the two of them were carrying five prepared bamboo rods back to the others.

Ye Mingyu whispered, “One for each of us.”

Yun Qing replied softly, “Alright,” still not understanding.

Following Ye Mingyu’s instructions, Yun Qing handed out her three bamboo rods to Ye Xiaolang, Ye Wenjing, and Ye Mao.

When she gave one to Ye Xiaolang, she couldn’t help but ask, but Ye Xiaolang just made a “shh” gesture, leaving Yun Qing even more confused.

“Liuliu, any idea what they’re about to do?”

“No clue, but it’s not going to be anything I like to eat.”

The hunters now took out some fine linen thread from their small packs, tying one end to the bamboo rod and the other to a small iron hook.

Yun Qing suddenly understood—they were going to fish.

But fishing was something anyone could do, wasn’t it? Could she and Ye Mingyu do it too?

With these questions in her mind, Yun Qing watched the others pluck a few green leaves nearby, roll them into small balls, and put them on the hooks.

“Liuliu, is that really bait? Isn’t that a bit too casual?”

“You don’t even know how to fish.”

“I don’t, but it still seems odd.”

Soon after, the group cast their lines, the hooks with the “bait” dropping into the water.

Yun Qing thought it would take a long time, but as the “bait” dissolved, they rolled more leaves into balls to continue fishing.

Just then, the captain, Ye Mao, stood up and pulled on his line.

There was a soft splash, and a fish over half a foot long appeared on Ye Mao’s hook.

How could that be? Yun Qing found it unbelievable.

Focusing her eyes, she saw that the fish was shrouded in black miasma.

Fish, level unknown.