After returning from my cultivation journey, I built a farm through fortune telling.

Chapter 177

"Alright! You can fish normally now—this time, whether the fish bite or not is none of my business! They're free to do as they please!"

"What a good boy."

The egret seemed quite pleased as it patted its little head.

Then the little tiger demon saw that the fish that originally belonged to him was like it hadn't eaten for three hundred years. As soon as the bait was put in, it took the bait!
That worthless appearance is a real waste of the patient teaching I've put in over the past two months!

Upon seeing this, the fisherman surnamed Li, who had been out of commission for so long, suddenly felt his back pain and leg aches disappear. Even his nearly broken courage seemed to recover on its own. With a swift movement, he lunged forward, retrieved his fishing rod that was floating on the surface, pinched a piece of bait, hooked it onto the hook, cast it into the reservoir, and with a quick pull and reel, he...

It wasn't put away.

A powerful force nearly dragged him to the bottom of the water, but his fishing skills were professional. He immediately started playing the fish, and twenty minutes later, he dragged and pulled a grass carp weighing over fifty pounds ashore.

He looked at his fishing rod, then at the large bluefish lying on the ground, struggling for its life, with an incredulous expression.

Logically speaking, it's unreasonable that his fishing rod wouldn't break in such heavy rain!
But the fish was caught!
What a miracle!
He rushed over, pressed down on the fish's gills, took a selfie, and even had the reservoir owner film a video of him and the bighead carp.

The Air Force's more than twenty days of frustration have been swept away; it was all worth it!
Being able to catch such a large freshwater fish means he must have some standing in the fishing community!

As the fish were being caught one after another, the reservoir owner went from initial joy to astonishment to numbness. By the time Bai Lu and the others pulled up the four fish baskets from the water to settle accounts with him, his smile was rather forced.

He took out the scale that he had bought long ago for customers to buy fish, but had never used it once. He put a large basket on it, peeled the fish, and weighed it.

The heavy feel of it almost pierced his heart.

As they weighed the fish basket by basket, their hearts bled with each passing moment. After weighing the last basket, the reservoir owner's heart was still bleeding: "A total of 4,800 jin (2,500 kg). Do you want to take it away or return the fish?"

He watched as, apart from the fisherman surnamed Li and Bai Lu, they cast their lines and immediately reeled in the fish. He even calculated that the entire process, from baiting the water to playing the fish to pulling it up, never took more than five minutes.

Each fish caught weighed between 15 and 45 pounds.

That fisherman surnamed Li almost killed himself while reeling in a fish. He caught two fish in an hour. He had already managed to get one ashore, and the other was still battling wits with him in the water. But Bai Lu and the other two fished in like dogs, as if nothing could be easier.

"I'll give you back anything under 25 pounds, I'll take the rest." Bai Lu ignored his "my small business is about to go bankrupt" look.

After all, they paid money, and catching fish is their own skill.

"Okay," the reservoir owner said, forcing a smile.

At this point, the fisherman surnamed Li finally couldn't hold on any longer: "Masters, someone please save me! I'm being dragged down by this fish!"

Bai Chen went to help him get the fish out of the water.

Although the fisherman surnamed Li caught few fish, each one weighed over fifty pounds. Looking at the bright red numbers on the electronic scale, he excitedly shouted, "Wow! Exactly sixty pounds! Lucky me! Lucky me!"

Turning around, he saw the reservoir owner looking like he was about to die, so he quickly put his arm around his shoulder and pulled him aside: "Boss, let me give you a piece of advice, you should smile a little more. Whether it's a cat demon or a tiger demon, it's not something ordinary folks like us can handle. The master just came to fish and conveniently helped you settle this matter. Not only did you not pay him for his trouble, but you're also putting on this act for whom? What if the master gets angry and has that demon seal off your reservoir again? I bet you won't even have a grave to cry in!"

Oh my god!
The reservoir owner suddenly realized what was going on, his eyes widening in disbelief. That made sense! That made sense!

He's narrow-minded!
He immediately turned around, his expression changing completely. His smile was incredibly friendly: "Thank you so much for your help, Master. If you ever want to fish again, just come over! You caught quite a few fish, do you need me to help you transport them back?"

Bai Lu shook her head: "No need, thank you, boss."

The reservoir owner waved his hands repeatedly: "No need to thank me, no need to thank me, it's my pleasure! -- Your fishing fee has already been refunded, as for the money you'll get back for the fish -- Master, how about I add you on WeChat and transfer it to you?"

Bai Lu showed her WeChat QR code. After accepting the friend request, she saw the reservoir owner's transfer of 30,000 yuan and smiled, "Boss, you transferred too much."

If he were to return all 4,800 catties of fish, it would only amount to 24,000 yuan, not even counting the 15 fish she wanted to take, which weighed a total of 400 catties.

"It's nothing, nothing at all," the reservoir owner hurriedly said. "Master, you helped me resolve this trouble. I have no way to repay you. This is just a small token of my respect. I hope you won't find it offensive."

The egret said no more.

I accepted the money.

She overheard the conversation between the fisherman surnamed Li and the reservoir owner.

Firstly, there's the issue of the little tiger demon. If this isn't resolved, the reservoir owner's losses will be far greater than what he's experiencing.

Secondly, it was because she had inadvertently saved the reservoir owner's life. If the matter of the little tiger demon had not been resolved, the reservoir owner would have drowned in the reservoir for some reason in the near future.

So she accepted the money.

"Master, Master—" The fisherman surnamed Li approached, "My name is Li Wei, can I add you on WeChat too?"

He wondered if, after today's incident, he could break his bad habit of trekking over mountains to go fishing.
The answer is no.

So he planned to be prepared, just in case, so that a master could help him in a critical moment.

Egrets are not necessarily a bad thing.

Li Wei looked at his WeChat message and almost burst out laughing. He immediately gave the two fish he had caught to Bai Lu: "With such heavy rain, I'm afraid I can't handle eating them myself. I'll give them to you instead!"

Bai Lu declined at first, but finally accepted, exchanging two fish from her own fish for him. This time, Li Wei didn't refuse. After all, he had been out of work for so many days and needed to give his family an explanation. Besides, he had also posted about it on his WeChat Moments.

……

Bai Lu walked to Grandpa Xu's side, and Grandpa Xu nodded to her. The fish were very well-behaved today, which gave him no sense of accomplishment. He decided to stop fishing altogether.

"Okay, let's go home."

Bai Lu said to Bai Chen, seeing the reservoir owner about to release the fish back into the reservoir, she finally remembered something and said, "Wait—"

"What's wrong, uncle?" The reservoir owner froze. Could something have happened again?
The egret gently raised its hand towards the fish, and after a moment said to him, "It's alright, release them."

"……it is good."

The reservoir owner was puzzled, but obediently did as he was told.

Some of these fish were caught by Grandpa Xu, and they have been tainted with a bit of yin energy, which is bad for the fish and also bad for the people who eat them.

So she also cleaned the yin energy from the fish that Bai Lu and the others and Li Wei took away.

"Hey, hey, hey—" The little tiger demon jumped onto the egret's shoulder: "Did you forget something?"

The egret asked in confusion, "Huh?" "Me!"

Seeing the egret's lifeless state, the little tiger demon immediately pointed at himself with his paw: "Me! You overturned my pot, you have to take responsibility for me!"

Egret: This is so presumptuous!

What kind of power could she possibly have, to raise a tiger demon?
"I don't care! The fish in this reservoir have an endless supply of offspring. If it weren't for you interfering, they would have eaten me to the point of immortality! Now that I'm out of food, you're not taking responsibility. You're trying to kill me!"

The little white tiger raised its paw and pretended to wipe away tears.

Bai Lu rolled her eyes: "Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. You made the reservoir owner's business fail and almost killed him. With such a huge karmic consequence, you still want to become an immortal? Go wash up and sleep at the reservoir. You can have anything in your dreams."

Reservoir owner: "????"

What does it mean to almost kill someone? Is there something he doesn't know about this?
The little white tiger was speechless at the egret's words, then hugged itself with its two little paws: "I don't care! Either you give in to me, or you kill me!"

Egret: "."

The little white tiger looked at the egret with a wronged expression. Animals have keen senses and can tell whether a person is good or bad. Otherwise, it wouldn't have said such a thing. After all, if it were any other cultivator, they would have dared to accept such a thing!
“We humans have a Chinese idiom, ‘releasing a tiger back to the mountain.’ You are a tiger, born to belong to the mountains and forests. If I let you stay in my house, wouldn’t you become a house cat? That would lower your status!” the egret said earnestly.

"I do not care."

The little white tiger was surprisingly unaffected by provocation.

Under the little white tiger's unreasonable demands, Bai Lu was truly afraid of it. Just as she was about to agree, Bai Chen nudged her, saying, "Sister, you don't really want to keep this tiger demon, do you? It's a demon! Even if it's not a demon, it's still a national treasure! Keeping it is illegal!"

The egret looked at the little tiger demon: "Did you hear that?"

The little tiger demon remained silent, only covering its ears.

It doesn't understand anything about being a first-class or second-class citizen; it just wants to find someone to take care of it!

Bai Lu shrugged at Bai Chen, "You see, I can't do anything about it."

Bai Chen picked up the little white tiger: "You don't actually think we wouldn't dare do anything to you, do you?"

The little white tiger showed no respect to Bai Chen. It should be noted that the auras of Bai Chen and Bai Lu were vastly different. It revealed its claws, the hard and sharp tiger claws gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

Bai Chen: "."

"I didn't realize you were such a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong. You even showed your claws. If you're so capable, go ahead and show them to her."

Bai Chen turned the little white tiger's head to face Bai Lu. When the little white tiger saw Bai Lu looking over, it immediately retracted its claws and dared not act arrogantly anymore. It had just heard him call her "sister." They were siblings, and if it fought with him, she would definitely side with her brother.

"Little rascal!" Bai Chen gently patted the cat's head: "The mountains and forests are so free, and there are so many animals. You can catch whatever you want to eat, isn't that great!"

"Who said there's plenty of food in the mountains!"

When the word "food" was mentioned, the little tiger demon immediately felt aggrieved. If there was plenty of food in the mountains and forests, why did it mark the fish in the reservoir?
Could it be that it has a natural affinity for eating fish?!
Pshaw! It's not a real cat!

It was because there were fewer and fewer prey in the mountains that it took a lot of time to hunt each time, which almost affected its cultivation. That's why it came out of the mountains. It ate and slept by the reservoir for several days and found that raising fish in captivity was extremely convenient because it didn't have to look for prey everywhere. That's why it became interested in the fish in the pond!

As he spoke, sorrow welled up within him, and the dignified White Tiger actually shed tears.

Bai Chen: "."

I'm scared of it!

"If you want to come with me, it's not impossible, but—"

Bailu paused deliberately before continuing, "We've only known each other for an hour or two, so it's not appropriate to have such deep conversations. After all, who would bring a person or demon they've just met home? Would you take me to your cave?"

"Sure!" said the little white tiger, paw outstretched. "My den is right there!"

Egret: "."

A white tiger using the word "den" to describe its dwelling indicates it's in a rather mediocre situation. No wonder it's clinging to her; it seems it's looking for a long-term meal ticket!

but--

"I won't go see your place, but if you want to come home with me, there are conditions: a contractual relationship, you know that, right?"

The little white tiger remained silent.

It knows, but it doesn't want to know.

This little cultivator actually wants to form a pact with it, what a cruel heart!
It hesitated.

"If we're going to form a contract, it can only be a master-servant contract, with me as master and you as servant—"

"What!" The little white tiger was shocked. Humans really do love to take advantage of others and want to take it as a servant!

He's looking for a meal ticket, not a master!
In its little head, it's the master!

After all, cats in the human world can be called "cat masters," and the people who raise them are called "poop scoopers." As a majestic white tiger, a descendant of ancient mythical beasts, there's no reason for it to be worse off than them!

The little white tiger was sad and wanted to leave.

"Let me finish." The egret ignored the little white tiger's resistance: "If I'm not mistaken, you're about to experience your first heavenly tribulation and enter the Foundation Establishment stage, right? These next few years are the most important time for you. You don't want to waste time searching for food all over the mountains, do you? Form a contract with me, and I guarantee you won't go hungry for the next few years. Besides, I'm not forming a contract with you for life, only for five years. After five years, you can come and go as you please."

The little white tiger couldn't believe it: "Really?"

"Of course, forming a bond requires the certification of the Heavenly Dao. Do you think I could play tricks on the Heavenly Dao?"

Also.

The little white tiger thought.

If that's the case, it thinks it's alright!
The lifespan of demons is inherently long, and that of demons who have reached the Foundation Establishment stage is even longer. A mere five years of forming a pact with a human is nothing to brag about; it's just that it doesn't sound good to say it among their own kind—but if you don't say it and I don't say it, who will know?
The little white tiger agreed, and the egret led the fish to a place where they completed their contract.

The egret and the white tiger's souls were bound together, forming a mutually dependent relationship, but—

"Why do we have to bind our lives together for five years?" The little white tiger was dumbfounded. It realized that it had done something stupid.

(End of this chapter)