Book 5 - Chapter 10: The Search for Lightning (2)

Zhou Xin thanked, “Thank you Brother Lei.” Despite only being in his early teens, he knew that with a boat, when he grew up, he could immediately get married and start a family, a boat was everything for a family here.

XinFeng gently rubbed Zhou Xin’s head as he laughed, “You’re my little brother, for a brother to gift something to his brother, thanking is unnecessary.”

Zhou Tong knew this was XinFeng’s repayment to Zhou Xin for saving his life, he didn’t say much and started preparing dinner.

Boss Zhang carried a jug of spirits in his hand and a bamboo basket in the other with lively prawns inside, he laughed, “I’m here, little Xin, prepare the prawns in this basket for your brother.” Even after meeting only a few times, he already knew XinFeng’s fondness of prawns.

XinFeng enjoyed this lifestyle very much, he knew he couldn’t live like this forever, but he could at least enjoy it for a bit.

Zhou Xin busied himself preparing the prawns, using a knife to cut and remove its waste, these were methods XinFeng had taught him, originally the people here did not bother themselves with it. While he did so, Zhou Tong started a fire and first steamed a pot of rice then lifted the net at the back of the boat which carried the live fish they caught, retrieving a few large Red Bream Fish and a Great Green Fish, before putting it back down, carrying the fish back to the front of the boat.

Boss Zhang wasn’t lazing around either, helping to wash the salted vegetables and fish as he spoke, “It’s no wonder the Zhong Family is wealthy, for them to gift a new boat so casually, hehe, in the past I had to labor for seven years to get such a small boat, while little brother only needed to open his mouth.”

XinFeng smiled slightly and changed the question, “Boss Zhang, why do I only ever see you around, where’s your family members?”

Boss Zhang looked quite old, seemingly already fifty years old, but he was actually still thirty. He smiled bitterly, “My family? I’m just like boss Zhou, no, I’m more relaxed than he is, I only need to feed myself, hehe, boss Zhou still has a nephew while I’m alone, incapable of finding a wife to feed.”

Zhou Tong laughed, “Don’t you love freedom, what’s with the unsatisfied expression.”

Boss Zhang replied, “I’ll need a house on the market to get a wife, I can’t bear to have her follow me to live on a boat, with winds and rain running rampant, it’s not a good life.”

Zhou Tong shook his head, “Others are running around with their wife and children and then there’s you with so many excuses, you just don’t want to be nagged at don’t you, it’s much better being alone.”

XinFeng smiled as he watched the two of them go back and forth with each other. The fishermen here actually lived pretty good lives, with a single boat they could feed themselves, as long as they could work, they could eat, the lake here was like their self-replenishing treasure chest.

XinFeng decided on cooking himself, he had already gotten tired of the bland taste of the food here.

They didn’t have onions, sauces, or even the seasonings he knew about, but as he lived in Tiger Cliff Castle, he used to find wild onions and grew some himself, those he had kept in his Hidden Lun space without throwing away as it barely took up any space, there was even some sauces inside which he had made himself. He had liked a very heavy taste and extremely disliked bland food, the food here was made with a pinch of salt, and it’s taste completely relied on the ingredient’s freshness.

The most frustrating thing was that the food here only had a small pinch of salt, he barely could even taste the saltiness in the dishes, he would rather eat the smelly salted fish and vegetables, but he also had a different type of hatred towards the smelly vegetables, but anyways now he had become friends with these fishermen, he wanted to start cooking his own meals.

He was planning to make braised prawns, taking out the big piece of fatty oil, which he had extracted from bulls, he quickly melted it in the pot, creating aromatic mists.

Zhou Xin, boss Zhang and Uncle Zhou all shouted out at the same time, “How nice, what a nice smell!”

Throwing the onions in the pot, he then added prawns inside, with a ‘Cila’ sound, a fragrant smell floated over.

Zhou Tong and boss Zhang both stared at him while Zhou Xin looked on with sparkles in his eyes, saying, “It smells really good! Really good! How can prawns smell so good?”

Adding salt and seasoning, XinFeng wanted to make a fragrant plate of salty prawns without caring about the preference of others, he wanted to cook what he liked.

He quickly finished cooking the prawns and he started braising the fish, using the bull oil again, he then used miso to braise it, and in an instant, the braised Star Lake Python meat was done, that fragrance had attracted almost everyone on the pier, each of them sniffing nonstop as they discussed the source of the smell.

Zhou Xin’s chin was dribbled with saliva, this was his first time feeling just how tempting prawns were. In the past, he held no regards to prawns, to him it was inferior to fish and the main reason for his dislike was the hassle of ridding its shell, cooking prawns required too much time and effort.

It was a scrumptious meal, Zhou Xin almost swallowed his own tongue while uncle Zhou and boss Zhang praised endlessly, despite its heavy taste, it was extremely to their liking.

XinFeng asked, “Uncle Zhou, teach me how to sail tomorrow, hehe, now that I have a boat, it would be a waste to not use it.”

Zhou Tong immediately agreed, sailing wasn’t hard, one only needed some techniques but the main thing one needed was strength, something XinFeng did not lack, his strength was what a hundred Zhou Tongs couldn’t match.

The second day, rain was still pouring but it was different from the raging rain and winds yesterday, the rain today was obviously gentler.

Bringing Zhou Xin with them, Zhou Tong and XinFeng sailed the new boat to an empty space which was only a few hundred meters from the pier, boss Zhang had also followed, according to him, after eating XinFeng’s meat, he who were simply lazing around should at least help out.

The boats here relied on rowing for its moving force, it was placed at the back of the boat, and moving it only required a bit of technique and not too much strength, XinFeng quickly learned how to move forward and to turn. XinFeng was an extremely fast learner, causing both Zhou Tong and boss Zhang to sigh, they both started learning how to sail since young and had only accumulated their skills until now, they haven’t met such a fast learner like XinFeng before.

Noon was quickly over and after eating simply for lunch, XinFeng continued learning, at night, XinFeng could already control the boat with ease.

When XinFeng had attempted using his full strength, Zhou Tong, boss Zhang and Zhou Xin had been all scared silly. The boat shot out like an arrow as it made ‘Gaga’ sounds and as he was testing it, with a ‘kacha’ sound, the paddle broke in half.

XinFeng smiled bitterly, “This paddle isn’t sturdy.”

Zhou Tong and boss Zhang were speechless, this paddle was perfect for normal humans, putting so much strength into paddling as a practitioner, it would be strange if it didn’t break.

Luckily it wasn’t too far from the pier, with half a paddle, they had slowly paddled back.

Quickly, the Zhong family sent over a new paddle made of steel which could even be used as a weapon, much less a simple paddle.

After practicing for a few more days, getting used to the feel XinFeng bid his farewell to Zhou Tong and boss Zhang before paddling away from the market.

On the boundless lake, a small boat moved forward like an arrow shot from a bow.

XinFeng was heading towards the source of thunder and lightning, paddling with all his might as he chased after a lightning area, despite having rainstorms at some places, it lacked lightning and thunder, he needed thunderstorms, which were beneficial to his training.

Under the rain, XinFeng who wore only bull skin pants baring his upper body experienced a cool feeling on his body, it had already been a week since he left the market but he still hadn’t found a thunderstorm, this made him feel rather depressed as he complained in his heart, this stupid rainy season isn’t even comparable to the thunder snow storms at Tiger Cliff Castle!

In the beginning when the old man Lei Bao searched for thunder snow storms, it seemed very easy, but he didn’t know that if he were in the old man Lei Bao’s position, he probably wouldn’t even find one, thunder snow storms were much rarer than normal thunderstorms.

Occasionally XinFeng would see flashes of light and sounds of thunder but after rushing there, there would only be rain.

He had once again found another place and rushed over, luckily the paddle had been replaced by one made of pure steel, if not, with his strength, he would break it again. The small boat on the water’s surface seemed to be on the verge of lifting off, with XinFeng’s calculations, his speed was similar to a speedboat’s in his past life.

Barefooted and bare chested, XinFeng was extremely fast in paddling, the water here seemed boundless with every inch being rained on, his vision blurred but the distant flashing of lighting and rumble of thunder was evident to him.

Chasing after lighting was extremely difficult.

As thunder boomed even more, XinFeng became more and more excited, activating his Lun power, XinFeng paddled faster as the speed of the small boat was raised another level, if there were protruding boulders or something similar to it in front, it probably could smash the little boat.

The light of the flashing lightning became clearer as XinFeng prayed silently for the thunderstorm to not disappear.

After ten minutes, the little boat entered the range of the thunderstorm.