30: Dried up by fish

Wei Lan slowed her pace, walking shoulder to shoulder with Xiao Weiqing, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, revealing her fair face.

"Sorry about that."

Xiao Weiqing said, "It's fine, but wasting time isn't good. We've just stepped into the extraordinary, we shouldn't waste time, especially since our Extraordinary Talents are so good. Da Wei, you too."

Wei Lan nodded upon hearing this.

"Got it, Brother Qing."

Zhang Dawei replied, walking behind the two.

Half an hour later.

The three came out of the Food City and returned to their dorm.

Xiao Weiqing didn't waste a moment.

"Cultivate!"

Judging from today's situation, his Spiritual Qi was still not enough.

Currently, his Mental Energy and physical body couldn't be improved in a short time. He could only diligently increase the Spiritual Qi in his divine palace and refine his Qi Fire.

If he didn't seize the time, it would be difficult to achieve good results in the assessment, as there were only 100 spots in the Upper Academy after all.

He only earned 168 points today.

If the next 6 days were the same, he would only get 800-900 points, which wouldn't guarantee entry into the Upper Academy. Moreover, he couldn't guarantee catching a Dragon Fish over three feet every day.

According to the experience of the seniors on the forum, Dragon Fish would only become smarter, and these rookies would most likely not be their match.

Subsequently.

Xiao Weiqing began to Cultivate.

Calming his heart, steadying his Qi.

He skillfully began to circulate the Samadhi True Fire Spirit Refining Art.

The night passed without incident... The next day.

Xiao Weiqing and the others, along with most of the new Trainees, got up early, had breakfast, and took the earliest aircraft to Dragon Fish Platform.

Those with enough points all spent 30 points to rent a 15-meter fishing rod and headed straight to Dragon Fish Platform.

However, more people went to the other side of the Attic, where Dragon Fish fry were raised.

Among them was Li Fangnan. Although he didn't come up empty-handed yesterday, he only caught one Dragon Fish over a foot long, which wasn't enough for 30 points, so he couldn't rent a 15-meter fishing rod.

When Xiao Weiqing and the others arrived at Dragon Fish Platform, most of the Dragon Fish Platforms were vacant.

"Brother Qing, there are so few people today."

Although they were the first batch, there shouldn't be so few people, and most of them were still holding 10-meter fishing rods.

"It's probably because they don't have enough points. 30 points are not easy to get. Besides, many people probably came up empty-handed."

Xiao Weiqing's guess was correct. Most of the Level 3 Extraordinary Talent Trainees came up empty, and even some Level 4 ones failed.

"Wei Lan, the most important thing when pulling a big fish is persistence. Don't think about pulling it up all at once. If you can pull up a Dragon Fish over three feet every day, your points should be enough to enter the Upper Academy."

Wei Lan caught 7 or 8 Dragon Fish one or two feet long yesterday, totaling over 200 points, more than him. If she could consistently get one over three feet every day, she would definitely enter the Upper Academy.

"Got it, Brother Qing."

"Da Wei, you need to conserve your Spiritual Qi. If you feel like there are only big fish and you can't pull them up, rest for a while. Dragon Fish are so smart, they'll definitely go somewhere else if they don't see Spiritual Qi clusters. Then other small Dragon Fish will have a chance to come over, and that's when you cast your hook again."

"That makes sense, I understand, Brother Qing."

Subsequently, the few of them, familiar with the routine, began to battle the Dragon Fish. Compared to yesterday morning, today was truly a Hellish start for the Trainees undergoing the assessment.

Not only was it because of the larger size of the Dragon Fish, but also because there were too many monks and too little porridge. The number of people fishing for Dragon Fish this morning was half of yesterday's.

Logically, it should have been easier to catch them.

However.

That was not the case. The Spiritual Qi of these new Trainees was the 'porridge.' They encountered large fish, mostly over three and a half feet, and many were four feet long.

Because fewer Trainees came to fish, only these larger Dragon Fish came up to forage, while other smaller Dragon Fish waited aside.

"Brother Qing, it's noon. Let's go eat first."

"There probably won't be any opportunities this morning."

Xiao Weiqing nodded, "Alright, let's go eat first."

The three gained nothing this morning.

Zhang Dawei was no match for the large Dragon Fish at all. Most of his Spiritual Qi was drained, yet the Dragon Fish didn't bite the hook.

Wei Lan, on the other hand, was fine; her Spiritual Qi was sufficient. But when she encountered a Dragon Fish over 4 feet, she couldn't pull it up at all, and almost got dragged in herself. Thankfully, she gave up in time.

Attic Cafeteria.

The few of them were eating and discussing countermeasures.

Li Fangnan and a few others walked over, their faces pale, carrying their trays.

Xiao Weiqing asked, "What happened to you all? Your faces are so pale."

Ning Zhi looked dispirited, "You might not believe it, but I was drained by a few fish fry."

Li Fangnan plopped down on a stool, "What's so unbelievable? I'm worse off, I was drained by three fish."

"Oh, how so?"

Xiao Weiqing became interested.

"Brother Qing, you don't know, feeding Dragon Fish fry is not a human job. Those Dragon Fish fry come up and latch onto your finger, sucking your Spiritual Qi dry in minutes."

"Then you recover your Qi, and let them suck again. After a morning, I only fed about ten fish. I'm completely dazed now."

"Exactly, the most outrageous thing is that you only get one point for feeding a Dragon Fish until it's full."

"That's right, after sucking, the Dragon Fish even looks up at you, as if asking for more. Isn't that annoying?"

Everyone began to complain bitterly. It was utterly embarrassing, but thankfully, there were many people, so no one pointed fingers at anyone else.

Wei Lan chuckled, "How interesting, I'd quite like to try it."

"No, girl, don't even think about it. Just look at our fingers, you'll know."

Li Fangnan and the others extended their index and middle fingers. Their fingers were now swollen to about twice their previous size and hadn't gone down yet.

Zhang Dawei laughed heartily, "Hahaha, interesting. I'm going to take a picture and put it in the group."

"No need, someone already took a selfie and posted it in the group. Haven't you seen it?"

Zhang Dawei shook his head, "I was battling Dragon Fish all morning, didn't have time."

Zhu Dong asked, "By the way, how was your harvest this morning? Were the Dragon Fish easy to catch?"

"Don't even mention it, we got nothing. We encountered big fish all morning, mostly four feet long. We were no match at all, and my Spiritual Qi went to waste."

Qin Sheng said, "Xiao Weiqing, what about you?"

Xiao Weiqing shook his head, "No harvest."

Qin Sheng nodded, "It was the same on my side. I saw many Level 5 Extraordinary Talent users from the Prefecture City, and they also had no harvest."

"It seems now that our batch of new Trainees is completely at a disadvantage against the Dragon Fish."

"It should be better this afternoon," Xiao Weiqing judged.

"Oh?"

"How so?"

"This afternoon, those who came up empty-handed will all go to Dragon Fish Platform, offering a free buffet to the Dragon Fish."

"Those larger Dragon Fish aren't stupid. Instead of battling us, they'll go for the free food. This will give smaller Dragon Fish a chance."

"As the saying goes, 'men die for wealth, fish die for food.' The remaining smaller Dragon Fish will definitely take the opportunity to risk eating our Spiritual Qi clusters. We'll seize the chance to catch those Dragon Fish. If we're lucky enough to pull up two, we can basically achieve our predetermined goal."

"Brother Qing, I think what you said makes a lot of sense, but I feel a bit offended," a Trainee who came up empty yesterday said sadly.

"Agreed."

Other Trainees who also came up empty echoed helplessly.

"Hmph, I don't care!" Li Fangnan suddenly stood up and said.

"I swear I won't come up empty this afternoon. If this continues, I'll turn into a dried human."

"Exactly, what's there to be afraid of? I refuse to believe I'll keep coming up empty."

"That's right."

For a moment, everyone was agitated.

Xiao Weiqing also looked pensive. He felt the situation was not optimistic. If things remained as they were, he and Wei Lan still had a chance to join the Upper Academy, but he feared the situation might head in another direction.

In that case, he and Wei Lan would have no chance, because there were too few people from Anqiu City.

"Sigh, let's wait and see."