Chapter 41: Furious Claw Lobster

  After leaving the Alchemist's cluttered courtyard, Rega quickly shook off the gloom of Twilight Village as he headed west.

  The mud underfoot became softer than ever before, and every step felt like a pair of soft hands massaging the soles. The sunlight shining down from the blue sky made Rega squint his eyes, taking a while to get used to it.

  The trees by the roadside began to thin out, replaced by patches of golden reeds. The autumn wind swept over, and the reed leaves swayed in unison, making a rhythmic rustling sound that cleansed Lei Ga's mind and gave him a sense of being in a paradise on earth.

  The oriole is singing on some branch, its voice light and melodious. However, having grown accustomed to the crow's cries, Laiya found that any bird calls were unpleasant to his ears.

  Such an idea couldn't help but make him laugh, and it had only been a day since he left the Crow's Tavern. He was already missing that arrogant black bird with its eyes full of pride... This was really too...

  Lei Ga couldn't describe the taste. He had been wandering since childhood, and his only relative was Cang Yue. After Cang Yue's death, he was left alone to face the world, but now Xie Pu and Wu made him feel like he had relatives again. Wherever Cang Yue's sword was, that was home, but now that the sword had been stolen, a new sense of home was being built in his heart.

  With this in mind, Leiga continued on his way and soon saw the narrow pass that Xu Lingtian had mentioned. The pass was long and narrow, surrounded by bare rock formations, with over a dozen deep wheel tracks crisscrossing the road surface. As Leiga crossed over the rock formations, he caught sight of a hidden river behind the rocks at a glance.

  The river water is very slow and almost inaudible, the river surface is wide but compared to the turbulent Bahe River outside Fenglin Village, it can be regarded as a small stream.

  Lei Ga looked around and found that he was not the only guest here.

  A boy of only seven or eight years old stared at him with big, round black eyes full of vigilance. His hair was wet and plastered to his forehead, and his body was also covered in water vapor, holding a fishing rod in his hand, with a bamboo basket woven from bamboo strips placed next to the rolled-up pant leg.

  "Robber?"

  The boy saw the long hilt of a sword protruding from Lyle's right shoulder and asked first.

  Lei Ga smiled faintly and replied: "A passerby."

  The boy disdainfully curled his lip, seemingly very disappointed in Lega's identity.

  "It would be better if you were a bandit, I'd throw stones at you and then jump into the river to swim when you chase me. That way, those big kids in the village won't look down on me."

  "So you're here waiting for the bandits?" Lai Ga asked with great interest.

  "Am I right in saying that your eyes are for breathing?"

  The boy puffed out his chest and waved the fishing rod in his hand, "I'm here to fish, this fishing spot is already my territory, if you want to fish, go somewhere else - Ah, I've been talking to you for so long, the fish got away!"

  The boy pulled up an empty fishing rod and let out a frustrated sigh.

  His way of speaking was old-fashioned and arrogant, but it made Leica think it was interesting, and the smile at the corner of his mouth became even more pronounced.

  "What are you smiling at? Don't you hurry up and leave? Are you trying to taste the power of a stone?"

  The boy bent down and picked up a fist-sized pebble and threw it at Leika.

  He didn't really want to hurt Leka, just scare him away. Plus, he was a kid himself and not very strong, so the stone flew slowly, and anyone with four good limbs could dodge it.

  Ke Lei Ga didn't dodge, he smiled slightly and quickly condensed his fighting energy on his right fist, striking the incoming goose egg stone with a loud crash.

  Bang!

  The hard pebbles instantly exploded into powder.

  The boy's mouth opened wide in astonishment, and he turned around to jump into the water to escape, but accidentally knocked over the fish basket by his feet, his legs softened, and with a thud, he fell to the ground.

  "Oh my goodness!"

  He let out a loud cry, his legs, arms and face were all covered in mud, the several blue crabs in the fish basket swaggered away with their claws held high back into the dark river.

  "Are you okay?"

  Lei Ga and Yan Yuese walked up to the boy and extended his right hand to him.

  "It's nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing..."

  The boy looked at Leica's right hand, which had just shattered the goose egg stone, with a lingering fear, and didn't dare to touch it for half a day. "I... I... I can get up by myself..."

  Lei Ga withdrew his arm and smiled at the boy, asking: "Now I don't have to go anywhere else, right?"

  "Then, of course..."

  The boy got up from the ground and cautiously asked Leiga: "B-big brother, are you here to catch pike too?"

  The spiny fish is a very cunning fish, Laga has seen this fish before, but never caught it. All the spines on this fish are grown on its back, like a ball of thorns, and its appearance is extremely ugly. However, after cooking, the meat is exceptionally fresh and delicious, and it's an indispensable delicacy on the noble dining table. One spiny fish can sell for at least one gold coin. This also explains why the boy refuses to leave this place until now.

  "No, I'm not here to catch pike."

  Lei Ga spread out his hands, indicating he didn't have a fishing rod in his hand.

  The boy let out a relieved sigh of relief, "That's good, that's good, now we can get along peacefully."

  Lei Ga blinked his eyes, and he found that the boy in front of him was quite clever, initially deliberately putting on a fierce appearance to fight for the fishing spot, but as soon as he saw that the situation was not good, he immediately changed his tactics, truly a small body with a big mind.

  "I'm here to catch lobsters, are there many lobsters here?"

  "Lobster?!"

  The boy hastily waved his hand, "Big brother, you're obviously an outsider who doesn't understand the situation. The crayfish in this river can't be caught casually, or it will provoke a very big crayfish——"

  "Hmm, I'm here to catch that lobster."

  Lei Ga answered casually while doing some simple stretching exercises, preparing to go down the river.

  The boy stared at Laga in surprise, his expression more exaggerated than when he saw the goose egg being smashed. "That lobster is bigger than your head, how are you going to catch it?"

  "Have you seen it?"

  "No."

  The boy shrugged his shoulders and said, "If I could see that big lobster, the other kids in the village would definitely worship me to death."

  Lei Ga smiled and opened his personal package, taking out that transparent underwater breathing agent, drinking it all in one gulp.

  "What are you drinking?"

  The boy asked curiously.

  "Underwater breathing medicine, it's a drug that allows you to breathe underwater without having to surface for air," Lega explained.

  "What's the flavor?" The child's concern is indeed different from adults.

  "Uh...it's a bit too sweet."

  To be honest, the fish oil in the medicine is really too smelly. When drinking the first mouthful, Leiga almost threw up.

  The boy looked at Lega with a face full of envy, "When I grow up, can I be like you too? Carry a big sword on my back, drink sweet medicine, and smash a goose egg stone with one punch?"

  Lei Ga just smiled kindly and didn't answer, stepping into the Dark River.

  The boy stood on the riverbank, staring blankly at Leka's back until Leka took a deep breath and dove into the water, disappearing from view. The boy then looked away with a defeated expression, skillfully baiting his hook, casting his line, and quietly waiting for a fish to bite... or for Leka to resurface.

  The surface of the Dark River is very calm, and the water temperature is not as icy and bone-chilling as the White River outside Fenglin Village.

  After Leiga completely entered the water, he finally reacted and realized that he didn't need to hold his breath at all. Xu Lingtian was indeed a master-level alchemist, and he could actually create such an unbelievable underwater breathing agent. Except for feeling slightly heavier while breathing, it was almost no different from being on land.

  However, the underwater breathing medicine only had a thirty-minute effect, and he had to get the angry lobster out as soon as possible. He swam with both hands, heading towards the bottom of the water, and soon found groups of black-shelled lobsters.

  These lobsters are lazily swimming in the water grass, and some of the lobsters' bodies have already exceeded the length of Lega's forearm. This is definitely because of the angry claw lobster, the fishermen dare not catch it, resulting in a surge in the number of lobsters, and almost the entire dark river has become a world of lobsters.

  Lei stretched out his hand over his shoulder, reached behind him, and the black giant sword came out of its scabbard with a clang. The heavy sword body was even more clumsy in the water, but fortunately, there were too many lobsters, and swinging it randomly could kill three or five at a time.

  The lobsters suddenly became chaotic and began to scatter in all directions. Leiga concentrated his fighting spirit, taking the jumping lobsters as targets for his sword practice, and started to display his moves one by one.

  In just ten minutes, he felt his wrists were no longer so stiff and the black giant sword was not so clumsy. The lobsters that could easily escape from under his sword before had almost all become the souls of his sword.

  Such progress speed even Lai Ga himself felt surprised. Water pressure will slow down his attack speed, but invisibly tempered his strength and delicate swordsmanship skills. This is a good place to practice sword, of course, if you can practice at the bottom of the White River with surging dark currents, the improvement should be greater. Lai Ga thinks it's necessary to ask Xu Lingtian for more underwater breathing potions when he gets back.

  As Rega gradually mastered the black giant sword, the number of lobsters decreased sharply, and the bloody smell in the dark river became more and more intense.

  Underwater breathing agents can help with breathing, but they can't avoid the bloody smell drilling into his mouth. Le Ga stopped his attack and thought about whether to return to the water surface for a while or swim further away to actively search for underwater caves.

  Just then, a violent tremor came from the soles of his feet, as if war drums were beating. The originally calm water flow also began to stir up anxiously, forming one after another treacherous whirlpools.

  Lei Ga hastily stabilized his figure, maintaining balance, and held the black giant sword in front of him, cautiously looking forward.

  A massive black shadow was rapidly closing in on him, its enormous body resembling a moving mountain. Before Leica could make out the true appearance of the mountain, the waves it triggered came crashing down on him like a sixth-order Dou Qi wave.

  Angry Lobster!

  Lei Ga couldn't think much, and hurriedly used the fourth-order Dou Qi in his body to resist, but his body was still tossed by the waves to the bottom of the water, rolling continuously in the water grass and mud for several rounds before stopping.

  That's amazing...