The light of the sword is like the moon reflecting on Kyushu

The skinny soldier walked cautiously on the ice, cursing under his breath. He had also removed his armor, and was shivering in the cold wind.

At this moment, the lake surface where he was located was already sixty or seventy feet away from Chijiling, so he felt that Chijiling could not hear his curses!
The ice was very thin; a light stomp could crack it. If he hadn't been light, he probably would have fallen in long ago.

Fortunately, there wasn't much snow on the lake surface, so you could see the scenery in the water through the ice.

There was nothing beneath the ice.

If you jump in like that, you'll freeze to death and get nothing!

He kept pacing back and forth on the ice, searching for the ice holes left by the soldiers.

He had heard from some of the soldiers that some of those who liked to eat fish had asked experienced salt slaves to make holes in the ice. The location of those holes was incredibly precise; as long as you cast your net through them, you were guaranteed to catch fish!
But right now, the skinny soldier has no fishing net, only his two hands!

This is also one of the reasons why he hates Chijiling!

All he can do now is pray that he can catch the fish as soon as possible, then he will have completed his mission!
His intuition told him that the white-clad youth was deliberately making things difficult for him on the surface, but his real intention was just to give him a little punishment!

He didn't want to go into the water, but how could he catch the fish if he didn't go in himself?

On the shore, Feng Jiuxiao stood with his hands behind his back, quietly watching the skinny soldier clumsily walk on the ice. He said softly, "Venerable One, do you think I'm being a little cruel?"

Venerable White Lotus said, "Young Master, what makes you say that? That fellow himself said he wasn't afraid of the cold, and you didn't force him to say it! If he's not afraid of the cold, then what's so surprising about going into the water? Right, Sect Leader Linghu?"

Linghu Jing is still in a daze!

A problem that had been giving him a major headache was solved by Feng Jiuxiao! He was worried about how to get money to buy grain from the Tibetans, but when Feng Jiuxiao arrived, not only did he not spend any money, but the Tibetans even paid him!

Those Tibetan soldiers who he feared were nothing more than ants in front of Feng Jiuxiao! With just a casual remark, he made a usually arrogant Tibetan soldier jump into the frozen lake in the dead of winter, braving the cold wind!

Quiet!

Venerable Bailian asked again, and Linghu Jing was startled out of his thoughts. "Yes, he said he wasn't afraid of the cold, so they let him go into the water. If he said he was afraid of the cold, who would force him to jump in?"

The two of them put on a show, one singing and the other acting, while Chiji Ling could only smile wryly.

Feng Jiuxiao asked, "What is he looking for on the ice? An ice hole?"

Venerable White Lotus's eyes lit up: "That's right! He's looking for an ice cave! I didn't expect that you, young master, also knew that he was looking for an ice cave!"

Feng Jiuxiao said, "What's the big deal?"

Bai Lian smiled and said, "Young master, don't think it's simple. I've never seen fishing in winter. Would you mind explaining it to me?"

Feng Jiuxiao laughed and said, "What's the big deal? As you know, I was born in the north, so I naturally know how to fish in winter. There are only two ways to fish in winter: one is to fish under the ice, and the other is to ice fish. The method of fishing under the ice is to make some holes so that it is easy to put the net in."

Bai Lian asked, "How do I set up the net?"

"In practice, the process involves first using a long pole to push the fishing net into an ice hole. Once the net is fully submerged, another new bamboo pole is inserted into the water through another ice hole and connected to the end of the net. Then, a new pole is inserted into the third adjacent ice hole, hooked onto the net, and passed towards the fourth ice hole. This process is repeated, and the net meanders under the ice, eventually forming a closed loop. When the net returns to the initial ice hole after completing one loop, a vast and inescapable net has been quietly laid in the water."

"A single conversation with you is worth more than ten years of study. So this is how nets are laid under the ice."

Feng Jiuxiao thought to himself: Shenlong Island is the closest to the Khitan. When I was a child, I often sneaked out to the Khitan villages with my sixth uncle to watch them cast nets and catch fish on the frozen river. So I naturally know a lot about it.

He laughed and said, "Venerable One, please don't praise me anymore, or I'll get arrogant!"

Bai Lian clasped his hands together and said, "Let him float, who hasn't floated before? When I was your age, if I had your strength, I would have floated to the heavens long ago!" Just then, a scream was heard from the ice. The skinny soldier had fallen into the ice hole! He hadn't seen the hole under the snow, lost his footing, and fell in!

Chiji Ling frowned, thinking to himself: Why didn't this guy just jump down earlier? Why did he have to be so clever and try to find those ice holes!

The skinny soldier accidentally fell into the water. This was different from going into the water voluntarily; he was completely unprepared. The icy lake water instantly chilled his blood, causing his body temperature to drop rapidly. Moreover, with his mouth and nose sealed, the suffocating feeling terrified him! He struggled desperately!
Fortunately, his feet soon touched the bottom of the lake. He quickly adjusted his stance, regained his balance, and then slowly regulated his breathing. He leaped upwards with all his might, his head breaking the surface of the water. He took a few deep breaths and then plunged back into the water! Since he was already in the water, he just needed to catch a couple of fish as quickly as possible to finish his task!

He barely opened his eyes, and in the hazy light, he seemed to see a dark shadow at the bottom of the lake, surrounded by countless naked carp swimming around it! He swam towards the shadow with increased force, but the carp were not afraid of him at all; some even swam towards him. With lightning speed, he grabbed one! He tightened his grip, crushed its head, and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he grabbed another one and crushed its head again!

A burst of blood spurted from the fish head!

He saw the blood but didn't pay it any mind. With two fish, he could easily get away with it!

He adjusted his posture in the water and began to float upwards.

Unbeknownst to him, the dark shadow at the bottom of the lake was beginning to change! The shadow slowly expanded, and the blurry figure gradually became clearer—it was actually countless small fish!
Countless small fish gathered together, appearing as a dark shadow from a distance!
These small black fish, like sharks attracted by the smell of blood, instantly surrounded the two clumps of blood oozing from the naked carp!
The spot on the lakebed where they had just gathered was now revealed—a mangled corpse! A bloody mess! It was someone who had just fallen off the ice this morning! If the Black Tiger Gang members could see the black tiger tattoo on this person's arm, they would recognize him as their third leader.

At this moment, the leader of the Black Tiger Gang was venting his anger on his subordinates inside the tent!

"The third leader was here yesterday, how come he's nowhere to be seen this morning?"

A middle-aged man dressed like a scholar said, "Someone discovered last night that the Third Master was secretly heading towards Haixin Mountain!"

The Black Tiger Gang leader raised his thick eyebrows, his voice booming, and asked incredulously, "Really?"

Taking action without authorization is a major taboo for him!
The scholar said, "It's true! Little Six, you tell me!"

A Black Tiger Gang member stepped forward: "This is absolutely true! I saw it with my own eyes! The Third Leader was so afraid of being discovered that he crawled away!"

Crawling on the ice?

The scholar categorically denied it: "He's not afraid of being seen by others! He crawls because he's afraid of falling into the icy water! The ice is still very thin and can't withstand a person! When he lies on the ice, the force is distributed and it's less likely to break."

The Black Tiger Gang Leader said, "I don't care whether the ice is thin or thick, I just want to know where he is now?"

His biggest worry was that the third leader had already reached the Heart of the Sea Mountain and obtained the Heavenly Peng Egg first!

Xiao Liuzi said, "Chief, I saw the Third Master fall down with my own eyes, and he never came back up!"

"real?"

"real!"

The Black Tiger Gang leader stroked his chin and said, "So, the ice layer is still very thin, and we can't leave easily. Our food supplies are almost gone, and our money is almost gone too. We can't hold out for more than a few days. What do you think we should do next?"

The scholar, being his strategist, naturally knew that the gang leader had long harbored the idea of ​​robbing others, but didn't want people to criticize it as his own idea. So he immediately said, "It's definitely not good to just sit around and do nothing. Why don't we borrow some from others?"

The Black Tiger Gang Leader gave him a meaningful look, as if to say: You're the one who understands me best!

One of the disciples asked, "Then from whom should we borrow it?"

The scholar said, "The eight major sects have always been arrogant and have never taken us seriously. Even though the leaders of the Tianxing Sect of Young Master Liancheng of the Three Qin and the Tiandao Sect of Young Master Qi are dead, they are still bigger than horses. They look down on us. It's definitely not going to work if we ask them for help!" He said it in a very tactful way, even though he clearly couldn't beat them. "I think we can ask the Jingzhou Gang for help!" The Jingzhou Gang didn't have any powerful background, and only about five people came this time. If we don't ask them for help, who else can we ask for help?
The Black Tiger Gang leader said, "The Jingzhou Gang? Do they have a lot of money? Can we borrow some?" He meant that if the other side didn't have much to offer, it might not be worthwhile to "borrow" from them! For example, if we beat them all down, but then searched them thoroughly and found they didn't have a single copper coin, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
The scholar said, "Based on my observation, they should be carrying a considerable amount of money." A considerable amount of money means it's worth taking action! (End of Chapter)