Chapter 48: Everything is Ready, Time for a Grand Fishing Spree!

Today's First Release: Chapter 048!
……

Fortunately, Yu Le had chimed in when Geng Xiao and the others were discussing the distribution of profits earlier, otherwise the magic cores of the 103 boulder-realm mane-demon rats would have been sold off.

Ordinary people had no way to use spiritual or magic cores once they acquired them; only the authorities, armed with scientific research methods, could recycle them. Through these scientific processes, the cores could be transformed into various derivative products applied to every aspect of people's lives.
These spiritual and magic cores were the key components for all sorts of scientific apparatus and warfare weapons.

However, these animal power cores, which ordinary people could not use, were of great use to Yu Le!

The Heavens Fishing Ground—Level 4 Fishing Ground was already open, but aside from using the Heavenly-grade bait gifted at the very beginning to fish once, he had not yet cast a single line in the fully opened Yellow-grade fishing ground!

"This time, I should finally get my fill of fishing!"

Regardless of his past or present life, an angler's expenses were never small.
The main components—fishing rod, fishing line, hook, sinker, and float—were all indispensable, along with auxiliary gear like landing nets and fish guards.

Putting aside the common phenomenon where skunked anglers never suspected their own lack of skill but instead blamed their gear, constantly purchasing new equipment, most fishing gear could be reused indefinitely unless it broke or was lost.
As for the daily consumables, none surpassed bait and fishing fees in terms of cost.

Yu Le understood this deeply, especially in this otherworldly realm. Previously, Zhu Kai's fishing ground could be considered the most rudimentary kind, charging per session with a fee of one hundred coins for six hours.
As for the bait, whether distinguishing between hook bait and groundbait, the daily consumption was quite substantial.

Although spiritual fish were easy to sell, their prices among various spiritual beasts were not particularly high. A regular first-tier spiritual fish, including its spiritual core, would only fetch three to five thousand credits, yet the difficulty of catching a spiritual fish was far greater than catching ordinary fish in his past life.

If one fished year-round without a break like Yu Le, the basic monthly expenses alone would amount to around five thousand. This meant that the fellow anglers sharing that fishing ground with Yu Le needed to catch at least one or two first-tier spiritual fish a month just to break even.
And that was just the most basic investment, excluding living expenses and the exploitation by Zhu Kai, the fishery owner.

If a natal martial soul snapped, it would incur an even greater additional expense.
Yet no one could guarantee a bountiful harvest of fish every single month, resulting in most anglers lingering in low-end fisheries operating at a loss, frequently facing complaints from their families.

Yu Le put the magic cores from the table into his system space, his mind stirring as he summoned the system: "Enter the Level 4 Fishing Ground!"

Before fishing, preparation was indispensable.
Compared to many other anglers, Yu Le now possessed an innate advantage: his primary fishing gear was already of top-tier configuration!
The Heavenly Martial fishing rod—whoever used it knew its worth.

However, everything else still needed to be purchased!

"The last time I entered the Heavenly-grade fishing ground, I was protected by the system's power, coupled with good luck. Otherwise, trying to catch a Heavenly-grade world fish would have been nothing more than a dream!"

During the time he caught the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, aside from the Crouching Dragon rod and the Heavenly-grade universal bait, all other equipment had been brought from the outside world. Normally, it would have been impossible to catch a Heavenly-grade world fish.

That occasion could be considered a newcomer's bonus.
As an angler, Yu Le naturally believed this firmly. He recalled when he first started fishing in his past life, using a simple wooden stick wrapped with fishing line to catch a huge silver carp—a joy of discovery he never found again after entering the hobby.
It truly fit the poetic line: *Desiring to buy osmanthus flowers and sail together with wine, it can never compare to the roaming days of youth!*

This time would be Yu Le's first attempt to fish in the Yellow-grade fishing ground. He was not catching ordinary fish from his past life, nor the spiritual fish of this world, but rather world fish capable of connecting the myriad realms of the heavens.
The world fish from the Heavenly-grade fishing ground had made him a dual-natal-martial-soul warrior and opened his eyes to the might of the heavens' fishing grounds.

Although the current Yellow-grade fishing ground fell far short of the Heavenly-grade one, it still held a powerful allure for Yu Le.

Arriving at the bait exchange store, which resembled an unmanned vending machine, most of the items sold were various types of bait, alongside other auxiliary tools.
There were specialized fishing lines, hooks, sinkers, floats, landing nets, and fish guards designed for catching Yellow-grade world fish.

The prices of these auxiliary tools were quite low, and unlike the graded bait, Yu Le spent only a single third-tier magic core to buy two complete sets.
Why buy two sets?
Because the lowest-tier magic cores in Yu Le's possession were third-tier, and the bait exchange store did not give change. The bundled price for a complete set of auxiliary tools was one second-tier spiritual/magic core, and the purchasing power of the store's magic cores operated such that a core of a higher tier was worth twice as much as one of the lower tier!

With the tools complete, the next step was to buy the bait.
Bait was divided into two types: universal bait and specialized bait. As for the purchasing method, universal bait was priced using spiritual/magic cores corresponding to the respective realm.
Specialized bait, on the other hand, could only be purchased using magic cores from the corresponding species of spiritual or demonic beasts.

Like inserting a coin, Yu Le dropped a third-tier magic core into the machine and first scanned the available specialized bait.
There were quite a few options to choose from. Based on the fact that the magic cores he held were all produced by mane-demon rats, one could roughly deduce that the world fish attracted by this specialized bait would physically relate to medicines, devices, or similar items associated with rat-type demonic beasts.
As for skill-based ones, they might either counter rat-type demonic beasts or mimic them.

The varieties were too numerous to easily list.
As for Yu Le...

"Specialized bait is too cumbersome to select unless I have some specific need, and I'm not familiar with the distribution of world fish anyway. There's no point."
"Right now, I lack everything while simultaneously needing everything. Targeted fishing for a specific type of world fish has little significance; it's better to just use universal bait."

A single third-tier magic core could be exchanged for four portions of Yellow-grade first-tier universal bait, two portions of Yellow-grade second-tier universal bait, or one portion of Yellow-grade third-tier universal bait.
Although Yu Le had plenty of magic cores, he didn't bite off more than he could chew, and first exchanged for four portions of Yellow-grade first-tier universal bait to test the waters.

Unlike the Heavenly-grade bait from before, which was only enough for a single cast, the quantity of these four portions of bait was quite decent.

"Ho, this is good. At least I won't feel bad about chumming now!" Yu Le smiled with delight.

Everything was ready, lacking only a fishing spot.

An angler possessed this one great quality: as long as there were fish to catch, the harshness of the environment didn't matter. As for loneliness, an angler was someone who relished that very solitude!

The Yellow-grade fishing ground was a solitary island in the midst of a vast ocean. Drawing on his past experience, Yu Le quickly found a suitable fishing spot.
Mixing the bait, chumming, adjusting the float, attaching the sinker, and casting the rod—all completed in one smooth motion.

Of course, before starting to flick the rod, lighting a cigarette was indispensable.
Amidst the curling wisps of smoke, Yu Le squinted his eyes, quietly watching the movement of the float.

He had used an entire pack of groundbait to chum the water. Based on experience, as long as there were fish in the vicinity, they should quickly be attracted close to the bait.

As expected, the bobbing float soon gave a reaction.
The tip of the Crouching Dragon rod dipped downward—a sudden subtle bite!

Yu Le decisively raised the rod, but the hook held only a portion of bait that had been nibbled away.
He didn't mind this in the least: "Cunning little fish."

Maintain the casting frequency!

Not yet familiar with the fish activity at this fishing spot, Yu Le, whose original purpose was merely to test the waters, chose a dual approach of chumming and rapid casting to quickly lure the fish in.
This was a game of wits between an angler and ravenous fish!

Following normal reasoning, one could deduce that in a Yellow-grade fishing ground divided into nine concentric fishing rings, the small fish in the outermost ninth ring where Yu Le currently sat should be the most numerous, and the fish activity should be quite lively.

Until the fishing line grew taut once more. With a cigarette clamped between his lips and holding the rod in one hand, well now, guess what happened?
The resilient tip of the Crouching Dragon rod was dragged downward, emitting a whirring sound.

This showed that the fish wasn't small. According to standard logic, this was the moment to tire out the fish, since larger fish were more likely to throw the hook during struggles or even snap the fishing line.
The fishing line Yu Le had chosen wasn't extremely thick, but it wasn't the thinnest either, and the same went for the hook.

Feeling the feedback transmitted through the Crouching Dragon rod, Yu Le, who had initially planned to play the fish, simply let out a scoff. Wielding the rod with one hand, he brute-forced the large fish struggling beneath the water surface right up into the air.

Splash~
The fish cleared the water without any hindrance. Judging by its size, it weighed at least a dozen kilograms, but to Yu Le, it was nothing impressive!

[Ding, you have caught a Yellow-grade first-tier world fish. You can break the boundary immediately, or place it into the fish guard first and kill it to break the boundary later.]

With the fish safely in the guard, Yu Le didn't rush to break the boundary. Based on his experience, the patch of water he had just chummed was entering its most frenzied feeding window.

"Come on, let's fish to our heart's content!"