I Can Merge Techniques-Chapter 98 - 94: Scouting, an Old Grudge at Fishermen’s Pier

Chapter 98: Chapter 94: Scouting, an Old Grudge at Fishermen’s Pier

"How much for this mandarin fish?"

"Three hundred copper coins..."

"Are you robbing me? Look, its gills are already pale! Two hundred fifty copper coins!"

"Sir, this is a mandarin fish! The flesh is as tender as a clove of garlic, with no fishy smell, few bones, and thick meat. I can’t go any lower than three hundred copper coins." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The sounds of haggling, arguing, and cursing rose and fell in waves.

The shouts of fishmongers, the chants of laborers, and the crash of boats mixed with the crude curses from the Blood Saber Sect’s overseers. The sounds wove together into a never-ending wave of noise that made one’s head pound.

The air was thick with a fishy stench so heavy it was almost tangible.

It was the vapor from the Black Water River, the reek of fish and shrimp, and the sour smell of decaying creatures, mixed with the stench of human sweat and the pier’s foul mud—a combination so thick it was choking.

These smells mingled together like a damp, sticky net, blanketing the entire pier and seeping into everything.

The place was like a giant, boiling cesspool—filthy, bustling, and filled with the most primitive struggles for survival and blatant exchanges of self-interest.

Chu Fan sat down at a tea stall, ordered a bowl of tea, and silently watched the pier’s entrance.

’It really is different from before...’

’There are far fewer men from the Blood Saber Sect!’

Chu Fan’s gaze shifted to the "little mountain village."

People came and went in the "little mountain village," but the former liveliness was gone.

Everyone passing through seemed weighed down by their thoughts—as if they all knew that after the Demon Fiends’ massacre of the Blood Saber Sect last night, an even greater storm was about to break.

Chu Fan scanned his surroundings, comparing the scene before him with his memories.

’The forest borders the river both upstream and downstream. If trouble really starts, escaping into the woods as fast as possible would be the best plan.’

’The only question is whether the strongest expert guarding this place is at the Entering the Realm of Strength.’

’I’ll have to grab a few people and ask.’

He was currently 97% through the Bone Marrow Forging realm. He planned to break through in the next few days and achieve the Second Limit Break with his Twelve Forms Fist before making a move.

Once he broke through the Bone Marrow Forging realm, killing someone in the Bone Tempering Realm would be easy, whether he used his Twelve Forms Fist after its Second Limit Break or his Ninefold Thunder Shock Saber at the Great Success level.

But if he encountered someone in the Entering the Realm of Strength...

Chu Fan recalled the day he saw the Seven Stars Gang’s Incense Master, Zhou Tianci, practicing his fists. In the past twenty days, his own strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, but he still wasn’t completely confident he could win in a close-quarters fight against such an expert.

Only by creating distance and using his Moon Eclipse Arrow at the Great Success level would he be confident in killing an expert of the Entering the Realm of Strength.

Now, all he lacked was a powerful bow.

"Well, if it isn’t Chu Fan."

A somewhat familiar voice suddenly spoke up. "Haven’t seen you out on the river fishing in months. Where have you been?"

Chu Fan looked up, his brow furrowing slightly.

The young man before him, sleeves rolled up and carrying a fishing net, was named Hong Zhen. He was the eldest son of the master who had taught him how to fish.

The moment he saw that face, Chu Fan’s gaze sharpened.

In an instant, distant, hazy fragments of memory, like silt stirred from the riverbed, swirled to the surface of his mind, painfully clear.

Two years ago, during a spring of endless, dreary rain.

He had buried his mother and father, who had died one after another from illness, and then sat numbly in the old, empty house for three days.

Finally, he sold off everything in the house of any value. Clutching the few thin copper coins, still warm from his body, he followed the recommendation of his neighbor, Zhao Hu, and sought out Master Hong, a renowned Fisherman on the Black Water River, hoping to become his apprentice and find a way to survive.

He still remembered what Master Hong had looked like back then...

Clenching a long-stemmed pipe between his teeth, the man had squinted, looking his scrawny frame up and down with eyes full of judgment and calculation.

The apprenticeship fee Master Hong demanded was shockingly high.

It was only because Zhao Hu pleaded desperately at his side, nearly talking himself hoarse about how honest and hardworking Chu Fan was, and how he had no one to rely on, that Master Hong grudgingly lowered the price.

For the next six months, Chu Fan was little more than a slave to the Hong Family.

His so-called apprenticeship consisted of being barked awake before dawn each day to follow Master Hong out on the river in his old boat.

He did all the hardest, dirtiest work: rowing the sculling oar, casting the nets, hauling them in, and cleaning the boat’s hold.

The heavy fishing nets often tore the flesh of his hands to a bloody pulp, and the icy river water made his joints ache.

Meanwhile, Master Hong would stand at the prow with his arms crossed, berating him for being too slow.

But his real trade secrets—how to read the water patterns to find schools of fish, how to cast the nets for a bountiful catch—he refused to teach him even a sliver of it.

After work, a mountain of chores awaited him in the Hong Family’s courtyard: chopping firewood, hauling water, and mending the tattered fishing nets.

Master Hong and his equally shrewd son, Hong Zhen, ordered him around like a work animal.

The food they gave Chu Fan was the coarsest wheat cakes, occasionally served with a few pickled vegetables.

As for the fish, the Hong Family would stuff themselves until their mouths glistened with oil, yet they wouldn’t spare him so much as a single bowl of fish soup.

It got so bad that Chu Fan, starving, often had to run to the Fang Family’s congee stall outside the city gates to beg for porridge alongside the vagrants.

Many of the fishing techniques he eventually learned came from old fishermen at the pier who, unable to stand the sight of his treatment, would secretly offer him a few pointers behind Master Hong’s back. Only then did he slowly begin to get the hang of it.

He gritted his teeth and endured this for a full six months.

With the help of other fishermen, he was finally able to go out and fish the Black Water River on his own.

Now, looking at Hong Zhen’s face—a face that had once filled him with fear and dread—Chu Fan’s eyes turned cold.

His Qi Blood Power began to circulate instinctively.

An aura befitting a Martial Dao Cultivator emanated from his entire body.

His eyes, in particular, were soul-piercing!

"..."

Hong Zhen had been about to sit down casually, but the moment his eyes met Chu Fan’s, his body went rigid. He felt as if he’d been plunged into an ice cellar.

For some reason, he suddenly had the feeling that this kid he used to order around could kill him with a single slap.

The feeling was incredibly unsettling.