Owen Bertram had already made a harvest, but looking at the sky, it would still be a few shichen before the sun would set. He decided to be lazy and head home.
The Little Loach disagreed, wriggling in protest, "I haven't had enough to eat yet, you just said you're going to find me more food!"
Owen Bertram threw it back into the river: "Go do it yourself, catch whatever you want to eat."
Little Loach swam back and forth in the water a few times, seemingly upset and accusing the elder brother of being irresponsible before eventually sinking down to search for food on its own.
Owen Bertram lay down by the river, covering his face with a grass hat that he had woven. The village radiated a cold and gloomy atmosphere throughout, but the recently found stone plaque emitted a warm feeling from his chest. This warmth was unlike the warm current shared by the Little Loach, more like experiencing a bonfire lit by one's side in the cold outdoors.
Owen Bertram dozed off before he knew it.
Every night, he spent the first half on edge, only sleeping during the latter part. He had to be busy during the day, making life rather tiring.
Without the pressure of the Life Saving Tax and the warm feeling around him, Owen Bertram slept soundly.
But suddenly, he was awakened by a feeling of agitation, thinking there was danger. He quickly got up and pulled out the bone dagger, crouching down in a defensive posture.
All was quiet around him, and Owen Bertram immediately realized: it's the Little Loach!
From the river hundreds of feet away, water splashed and whirlpools formed one after another.
Owen Bertram lent his soul to the situation, almost cursing out loud.
Deep within the river water, the Little Loach stubbornly bit onto a Two-headed Eel!
The eel was as thick as an adult's leg, half a yard long, with sharp teeth and blood-red eyes.
This creature was the overlord of the river, only slightly weaker than the Dominant Ferocious Fish.
Have your recent meals gone to your head? You dared to provoke such a ferocious creature!
As he cursed, Owen Bertram held the bone dagger and dived into the river, swimming quickly toward the Little Loach.
The Little Loach must have used a "cunning" ambush tactic, biting onto one of the Two-headed Eel's necks and then swimming with all its might, dodging the bites of the other head.
However, the Two-headed Eel was massive, using its powerful strength to drag the Little Loach. The two fierce creatures stirred the water, the eel continuously snapping at the Little Loach, which was beginning to lose its strength, nearly getting bitten a few times.
Owen Bertram arrived in the water, just as fast as any fierce fish, drawing a straight waterline, and charging into the battle with the bone dagger slashing into the eel's body.
The Two-headed Eel had noticed the intruder and its tail curled towards Owen Bertram's neck.
But it didn't expect the bone dagger's sharpness to be unmatched, even capable of cutting through ordinary magical instruments, let alone its body.
Chichi-
Blood gushed as a deep wound was sliced into the Two-headed Eel's body.
In pain, the Two-headed Eel's tail tightly wrapped around Owen Bertram's neck.
Warm currents surged from Owen Bertram's abdomen, but instead of feeling suffocated, he felt more powerful and courageous. He grabbed the Two-headed Eel, and the bone dagger slashed down once more on the wound.
Chichi-The two-headed eel was severed in half!
However, the creature's vitality was incredibly tenacious. Even though it was cut in two, its tail remained tightly wrapped around Owen Bertram's neck, and its head violently lunged at Little Loach, biting it.
Owen saw the blue blood oozing out of Little Loach's body, causing his heart to ache. With one hand, he grabbed the eel's tail around his neck and forcefully tore off the eel's back half, before swiftly swimming over and stabbing the eel's head through with a vicious thrust.
The putrid, bloody water dyed the surrounding river red. Owen picked up Little Loach and dragged the two-headed eel's corpse back to shore as fast as he could.
Little Loach's body was marked with two rows of fine toothprints, almost making Owen cry. Luckily, this fellow had been growing fat recently, otherwise, this bite would have been enough to cut it in half.
Little Loach appeared sluggish, lacking its usual liveliness. However, it gritted its teeth and swallowed one of the eel's heads.
Owen was so frustrated he began to scold: "All you do is eat! Don't you care about your life? If I had been just a little bit late, you would have been eaten!"
"Did you really have to catch something so big? Wouldn't it have been better to find a few Fierce Fish and be satisfied with those?"
Little Loach ignored him and continued to eat. Owen's mouth gaped open in shock. Though he knew that this fellow could eat things much larger than itself, a two-headed eel was a bit too much, right?
As Little Loach consumed the eel faster and faster, the wounds on its body gradually improved. By the time it completely devoured the two-headed eel, its injuries had fully healed!
It seemed like Little Loach... was stuffed once again, so it started rolling around on the ground.
Owen put it back in the gourd and held the now heavy gourd in his hand: "I need to get a bigger gourd."
An intense, familiar warmth emanated from Little Loach's body, swirling around Owen's body, before sinking down into the special text below his lower abdomen, making it even clearer and more solid than before.
Owen was a bit surprised. He had thought the warmth in the large acupuncture point below his abdomen had already reached capacity. Apparently, it could still be compressed.
On the way home, Owen suddenly realized something: He had killed the two-headed eel?!
At the time, when Little Loach encountered danger, he didn't hesitate to rush into action, without thinking about anything. But that creature was the undisputed overlord of this small river!
At least seven or eight adult pearl divers from the village had lost their lives at the hands of this creature. It was an existence on the verge of becoming a demon beast, just like the Dominant Ferocious Fish.
Upon reflection, killing this ferocious creature had not been as difficult as he thought.
The role played by Little Loach was minimal, if anything, it almost hindered him.
"Am I really that strong?" Owen couldn't quite believe it, "How about... going to the Great River to challenge the Dominant Ferocious Fish?" This was merely a thought. Little Loach might have eaten too much and become dazed, but Owen wasn't dazed enough to try.
Upon returning to the village, before approaching his home, Owen spotted a disheveled middle-aged man standing outside the village. He was dressed as a warrior, with protective wrist guards wrapped around both hands and broad, powerful shoulders.
After hesitating outside the village for a moment, the man resolutely strode into the village.
From afar, Owen noticed that after the man entered the village, there was a brief flash of illusory firelight around him, perhaps triggered by the Cold Poison. It disappeared so quickly that one might think it was just a trick of the eye.
"Hey, kiddo--"
The middle-aged man waived and called to Owen, who stopped in his tracks. Despite being over a hundred yards apart, the man closed the distance in just a couple of steps.
"Uncle," Owen replied, adopting the same naïve and foolish demeanor he had used when dealing with the group of young cultivators before.