Mo Fan didn’t linger long in the spring pool, as he soon heard Lai Fu’s shouts.
When Mo Fan surfaced, he found Lai Fu standing at the back door, watching him.
“Lai Bao, how long have you been back? Why didn’t you call out to your brother?”
Lai Fu looked at Mo Fan’s head poking out of the water, somewhat displeased, and said, “My stomach’s growling with hunger. Hurry up and get me some fish, you promised!”
“Don’t worry, brother, I’ve got it, I’ll catch some fish for you!”
Mo Fan wasn’t annoyed and dived back into the spring pool, soon catching over a dozen fish and bringing them ashore.
“What, just this? Not even enough to fill the gaps in my teeth!”
Looking at the dozen or so inch-long fish, Lai Fu’s face was full of disdain.
“This spring pool is too deep, the fish have gotten cunning after I caught so many, hiding in the depths and refusing to come up,” Mo Fan said apologetically, though it was intentional.
He knew he couldn’t feed this greedy dog too much, or it’d cause endless trouble later.
Seeing Mo Fan didn’t seem to be lying, Lai Fu reluctantly said, “Fine, fine, it’s not much, but it’ll barely do for a meal.”
“Don’t you ever go hunting?”
“Aren’t the plump deer and sheep in the forest much better than these fish in the pool?” Mo Fan asked casually.
“What do you know? With so many demons in Black Wind Mountain, the prey around here’s either been hunted to extinction or scared off. To really hunt, you’d need to travel dozens of miles, and that’s exhausting!” Lai Fu replied.
“I see.”
Mo Fan nodded, then casually added, “By the way, I heard from Brother Dali that there’s a silver fish in the nearby river, quite extraordinary, with spiritual energy in its flesh. Eating it can boost our cultivation. Is that true, brother, have you heard of it?”
“Silver fish… you mean the dragon loach. I’ve heard the master mention it, it’s true.
They say the dragon loach is a great tonic, naturally absorbing free spiritual energy.
But the really impressive ones are the third-stage ones,” Lai Fu said.
“Third stage?”
“You mean the dragon loach has several stages?” Mo Fan’s heart stirred, and he pressed further.
“Yep, the master told me the dragon loach has three stages.
The first stage is silver, with spiritual energy.
The second stage is golden, with denser spiritual energy, almost comparable to low-grade spiritual herbs.
The third stage is transparent, with spiritual energy comparable to yellow-grade spiritual herbs!”
“So powerful? If we could catch a third-stage transparent dragon loach, how great would that be!”
Mo Fan was genuinely shocked, and a few schemes formed in his mind.
“Forget it!”
“Those dragon loaches live in the Black Water River, where the water’s deep and the current’s fierce. Even someone as great as the master wouldn’t dare go in easily. They say only spiritual herbs can lure them out, but it’s not worth the cost.
The dragon loach’s flesh is delicious. Whenever Black Wind Mountain holds a grand feast, the Great King sends his trusted aides to the Black Water River to lure some with spiritual herbs for the banquet, but they’re mostly first-stage, and even then, it’s not guaranteed. It wastes a lot of herbs,” Lai Fu snorted.
Mo Fan’s heart stirred.
He knew of the Black Water River, having learned from chatting with the demons these past few days that it was a hundred miles beyond Black Wind Mountain, the largest river in the Demon Spirit Mountain Range. Its lower terrain drew many streams from the range into it.
“If the dragon loach is unique to the Black Water River, doesn’t that mean this spring pool connects to it?”
Mo Fan mused to himself, thinking it highly likely given the pool’s depth.
His heart raced. If true, didn’t that mean he was sitting on a treasure trove?
Could he use spiritual stones to lure out second or even third-stage dragon loaches?
The thought set Mo Fan’s heart ablaze; this could be his chance to grow stronger quickly!
After chatting with Lai Fu, who went off to daydream, Mo Fan waited until midnight before diving back into the spring pool, using spiritual stones to lure the dragon loaches from its depths.
Over the entire night, Mo Fan lured about twenty dragon loaches, all first-stage, but to maximize their spiritual energy, he practically fed them spiritual stones.
After losing a dozen stones, Mo Fan’s cultivation made a major breakthrough, touching the bottleneck of his second demon transformation, thrilling him.
Such success in one night boosted his confidence. If he kept this up, breaking through to the Demon Warrior realm in a month wasn’t impossible!
Mo Fan also hatched a bold plan: to feed the dragon loaches with spiritual stones to see if he could trigger their transformation!
But to do so, he couldn’t let the mountain demons know, and he’d need a net to trap the loaches underwater.
So, the next day, after the demons paid their respects to Blackie Demon Warrior, Mo Fan approached a few, requesting a net.
Facing their doubts, Mo Fan simply said a net would make fishing easier, and if anyone wanted fish, they’d need to help him get one.
The demons had long craved the pool’s fish.
Tired of mountain game, they wanted a change, but lacking water skills and Lai Fu’s shamelessness, they couldn’t ask Lai Bao to work for free.
Now that Lai Bao brought it up, the demons were delighted and didn’t hold back.
Black Wind Mountain’s rough demons had no fishing nets, so Dali led Red Eyes and Chacha to gather bamboo from the forest, weaving several large baskets on the spot.
Though baskets were less effective than nets, they were better than nothing for Mo Fan, who even wove a lid for one.
Promising the three demons, Mo Fan carried the baskets back to his cave.
“Brother Lai Fu, want to catch fish with me?” Mo Fan offered.
Lai Fu glanced at the bottomless pool, shook his head like a rattle, and grinned awkwardly, “Nah, you go ahead. I’ll nap. Just catch a few extra fish for me to eat.”
“Alright!”
Mo Fan nodded. Seeing Lai Fu head to a nearby room, he grabbed the baskets and leapt into the pool.
At the protruding rock wall, Mo Fan opened the lidded basket, placed it before him, and tossed two hundred spiritual stones inside, filling most of it.
Looking at the heavy basket, still uneasy, he tied it to the rock wall with rope to keep it from sinking deeper.
“Here’s hoping for a good haul!”
Mo Fan took a deep breath, ignored the basket, and swam upward with the others to catch fish.
He understood the need to keep up appearances. Having promised Dali and the others, he had to follow through to avoid suspicion.
In about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Mo Fan nearly filled the baskets before swimming back down.
Returning to the rock wall, he was stunned to see a huge school of silver dragon loaches swarming around the basket’s opening, trying to squeeze in.
“So many?”
Mo Fan was dumbfounded. There were at least hundreds of silver dragon loaches!
And that was just outside; there were surely dozens inside!
“I’m rich, truly rich!!”
Mo Fan’s face lit up with joy. He opened his mouth, unleashing his “Sky Devour” divine ability on the loach school!
Instantly, a terrifying suction force erupted from his mouth, enveloping the loaches. Though a dozen or so fled in fright, most were caught, sucked into his internal space.
Mo Fan planned to release and eat them later to boost his cultivation, but to his shock, the loaches, once inside, were rapidly broken down by an unknown force.
In moments, they dissolved into nothing, not even a bone left, while immense spiritual energy surged within Mo Fan!
“This… this is…”
Mo Fan was stunned. He never imagined Sky Devour could break down living creatures, leaving their spiritual energy for his use.
This unexpected boon thrilled him, but then two terrifying energies surged from his abdomen to his arms, followed by excruciating pain, as if his arms were being shattered inch by inch and then reconnected.
When the pain subsided, Mo Fan found his hands had transformed into a spiritual form, indistinguishable from human hands!
Overjoyed, he hadn’t expected to achieve his second demon transformation like this!
