Chapter 1: Xu Yang_1

Dongting Lake, Cloud Dream Marsh, spanning over eight hundred li, where the smoke and waves stretch boundlessly.

In the depths of late autumn, the wind turns stark and chill, with fog thickening, hinting at the coming cold.

Among the reeds drifts wisps of cooking smoke from a dilapidated awning boat.

At the bow, in front of the cabin door, a man wearing a conical hat and draped in a straw raincoat sits on a small stool, fiddling with the small stove before him.

He appears very old, with white, withered hair peeking out from beneath his hat, his face deeply furrowed and spotted, marking the passage of time. His stooped figure is made more pronounced by the loose-fitting raincoat, exuding an air of twilight years, trembling on the brink of collapse.

An old boat and a decrepit fisherman upon Dongting Lake's vast expanse are not particularly unusual sights.

The old man sits at the bow, tending to the little stove, on which sits a small earthenware pot, simmering a pot of simple brown rice porridge, its inviting scent slowly wafting around.

After a moment, as the porridge boils, the old man reaches for a large bowl beside him, filled with various prepped shrimps and crabs, as well as rich orange roe and tender fish flesh, piled high.

The old man dumps the entire content into the pot; as the porridge roils, the dark shrimps and crabs gradually turn red, and the delicate fish flesh turns snowy white. A delicious, fishy sweetness mixed with the subtle aroma of the porridge spreads through the air. With a sprinkle of salt, it becomes truly appetizing.

In such a manner, after a short while, a pot of freshwater fish porridge is ready.

The old man takes a small bowl and sits at the bow, eating leisurely.

"Freshwater delicacies," indeed fresh, yet also genuinely fishy. To the land-dwelling peasants, it might be a rare delicacy, but for those who live on the water, it could become tasteless or even repulsive.

Xu Yang, however, doesn't mind and quietly savors this river fresh porridge he has been eating for who knows how many years.

As he eats, he reminisces.

How long has he been in this world?

Twenty years?

Thirty years?

No, it's been forty years, forty-five years and three months!

Reincarnation, the mystery of the womb, memories of past lives...

He has been in this world for a full forty-five years!

"Forty-five years!" Xu Yang sighs softly, pouring the remaining shrimp and crab into his mouth, shells and all, and chews.

He is a transmigrator, the kind who has been reborn through transmigration, having come to this world and become an utterly ordinary fisherman's son. At eighteen, he broke the mystery from within the womb, regained the memories of his past life, and confirmed his reincarnation.

Discounting the years before his memory returned, he, as a transmigrator, has been in this world for a full twenty-seven years.

Other transmigrators might have achieved greatness or even become world-shaking figures in twenty-seven years. They might have established dynasties or at least carved out a domain for themselves.

But Xu Yang... still remains a fisherman.

It's not that he hasn't tried, but this world is more dangerous than he imagined. The knowledge and experience of a transmigrator can bring many advantages, and even wealth, power, beauty, and companions, but they can also attract various dangers and potentially fatal threats.

In this ancient world under feudalism, with an entirely rigid class structure and nearly all pathways to upward mobility blocked, an unsupported fisherman's son revealing the advantages of a transmigrator would be like a child holding gold in a bustling market—it doesn't take much to predict the outcome.

So, for over twenty years, Xu Yang remains a fisherman... at least on the surface.

But in those long years, Xu Yang has been far from idle; on the contrary, he has accumulated a great deal.

Xu Yang

Lifespan: 45/145

Cultivation: None

Skills:

Eating (Chewing, Digesting, Essence, Strengthening, Unobstructed)

Sleeping (Calming, Nourishing Life, Strengthening Body, Seldom Ill, Longevity)

Breathing (Concealing Presence, Robust, Energetic, Life Extension, Longevity)

Cooking (Tasty, Dissection, Essence, Freshwater Delicacies)

Fishing (Guaranteed Catch, Fresh, Rare)

Boating (Swift, Unruffled by Waves)

Breeding (Training, Growth, Exotic Fish, Fish Eagles)

Disguising (Camouflage, Voice Modulation, Shrinking Bone, Concealing Presence)

Knife Sharpening (Sharpness)

Chop (Powerful)

Flying Stone (Accurate)

Swimming (Like a Fish in Water)

...

In those days, nearly every transmigrator had some sort of cheat, and Xu Yang was no exception.

He possessed an Attribute Panel!

Though this Attribute Panel didn't have a point allocation function nor experience quests, it could bestow or, rather, solidify Xu Yang's abilities.

The process of solidification was simple: as long as Xu Yang persisted in doing an activity over the years—be it trivial matters such as eating, drinking, sleeping, or breathing—the Attribute Panel would solidify it into a skill and generate various traits.

These Skill Traits had the power to turn the decayed into the miraculous.

Take eating as an example; Xu Yang's eating skill now possessed five Skill Traits: Chewing, Digestion, Essence, Strengthening, and Unobstructed.

The Chewing trait meant he could chew food more efficiently; with a powerful set of teeth, he could easily grind down not just the shells of shrimp and crabs but also pig and cow bones. Then, through the Digestion trait, he would quickly digest and absorb the nutrients to strengthen himself.

The subsequent traits, Essence and Strengthening, allowed him to gain more essence and nutrients from food, achieving stronger nourishing effects to bolster his body.

Where others could only absorb three to four-tenths of the nutrients in a pound of meat, he could absorb five to six, or even seven to eight-tenths, and the Strengthening effect from these nutrients could be exerted to its fullest, essentially doubling the efficacy.

As for the last one, Unobstructed... it simply meant his bowels were always clear, and he never needed to worry about constipation.

Okay, that might be considered a bit useless, but setting that aside, the effects of the other four Skill Traits were still incredibly powerful.

Combined with other skills such as Sleep, Breathing, Cooking, Fishing, and Husbandry, Xu Yang might still be an old fisherman at the bottom of society, but his physical condition far surpassed that of vigorous young men, and he could even match the legendary martial artists.

Indeed, legendary. To someone like him, a commoner, every martial artist was a figure of legend, beyond reach.

Apart from his robust physique, these skills also granted Xu Yang longevity and various ways to earn income. Even if he didn't utilize the knowledge of a transmigrator, with the fishing and hunting skills he currently possessed, he could become a wealthy man on the eight hundred li of Dongting Lake.

But, he hadn't done so because it was equally risky—there was a chance of skyrocketing to success, but also the possibility of ending up dead at the bottom of the lake.

With the help of the Attribute Panel, he could easily accumulate wealth in secret, gradually expanding without taking such risks that could bring disaster and threaten his life.

Therefore, after all these years, Xu Yang remained a fisherman, an old fisherman at that.

Due to living conditions and medical standards, the lifespan of ancient people was generally not long, especially for families living on boats. A person in their forties or fifties was considered old, and there were hardly any in their sixties or seventies. The hard labor of battling the elements often overtaxed their lives, making it difficult for ordinary people to reach such an age.

In the eyes of common folks, Xu Yang was already not far from the end of his life, and it wouldn't be surprising if he passed away any day.

But in reality, Xu Yang had just lived through less than one-third of his life and was in the prime years of his life, at the peak of vitality. Even if his lifespan didn't increase further, he could live another hundred years without illness or calamity.

Unfortunately, that was just theory. A fisherman over a hundred years old would certainly not be considered a cherished centenarian but rather a monster, and it wouldn't even take reaching a hundred years—within a few more years, he would attract numerous suspicions and prying eyes.

"Time is running out..."

Xu Yang sighed inwardly as he put the last shrimp into his mouth, chewing it into a pulp before swallowing.

Soon, a warm feeling rose from his stomach and spread to his limbs, nourishing his body.

A pot of river delicacy porridge, enough for two or three strong men, was completely devoured by him alone.

Yet, he only felt half full.

Unsatiated, Xu Yang stood up and picked up a medium-sized fish basket from the side before turning back into the cabin. He lifted a wooden board in the center of the cabin to reveal a hidden net cage.

Inside the cage, numerous fish swam, along with a few turtles and soft-shelled turtles. Xu Yang took the scoop net and carefully selected some to fill more than half of the fish basket. The rest he released from the net cage, and then he left the cabin, pushing the awning boat towards the shore.

He didn't propel the boat quickly, but steadily; the old awning boat calmly moved over the water and soon reached a dock.

Standing at the bow of the boat, Xu Yang looked at his reflection in the water, and saw an old fisherman with a hunched body, draped in a bamboo hat and straw raincoat, his face lined and spotted with age, staring back at himself.

No problems there.

Xu Yang nodded inwardly, secured the boat, then carried the fish basket on his back and clumsily climbed ashore.

On the shore, a minor official dressed in dark clothing was dozing on a reclining chair, idly fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan until Xu Yang arrived, at which point he lazily opened his eyes to glance at him: "Yo, Old Xu, still not dead yet?"

"Thanks to your blessing,"

Xu Yang, already hunched over, smiled and carefully took out a few copper coins from his chest, counted them back and forth, before finally placing them on the small table beside the official.

"Hmm!"

The minor official nodded, flicked the coins into a bucket with his fan, and then paid no further attention to Xu Yang.

Xu Yang didn't say much more either; carrying the fish basket, he headed for the fish market.