Chapter 101: Big Fish
Just as the words left his mouth, thunder rumbled again in the sky.
Soon, the sound of pattering rain came from all around.
Strangely, even though the rain was heavy nearby, with the distinct sound of raindrops pelting the river surface incessantly, the top of this Nine Heavens Tree, this wide, flat treetop like a plaza with no end in sight, didn’t have a single drop of rain.
Chu Jiu looked at the sky in bewilderment, and the red dragons exchanged puzzled glances.
It was Big Can who, looking at the almost continuous rain columns in the distance, rumbled in a low voice, “In the rain, there’s something else.”
Something in the rain?
Big Can told Chu Jiu, “I’ll go take a look and be right back,” then leaped into the air, his figure disappearing into the heavy rain.
The remaining three dragons all had puzzled expressions.
The little Flowery Dragon spoke first, “Why did Big Can fly away?”
“And also, Chu Jiu, how did you know that the ‘Nine Heavens Big Shark’ lived in the sky?”
Chu Jiu said honestly, “Before, when I heard you say that ‘the dragons in the past never picked the fruit of the Nine Heavens Tree’ and ‘the fruit would disappear after thunderstorms,’ I had an idea that maybe some other creature in the sky ate the fruit.”
“But after all, that was just a guess.”
“Until just now, Big Can told me that he could sense a huge creature behind those clouds—”
“And this ‘huge creature’ also emitted a unique fishy smell.”
“So…”
Chu Jiu’s expression was certain: “Regarding the judgment of ‘fish,’ Big Can will definitely not be wrong.”
“Oh… so that’s how it is…” The youngest Flowery Dragon accepted Chu Jiu’s explanation without any difficulty.
After thinking for a while, the two high priest dragons also slowly said, “Indeed…”
“Just like our divine tree, because it leads to the sky, it is called the ‘Nine Heavens Tree.'”
“That shark, precisely because it lives in the sky, is called the ‘Nine Heavens Jiaolong,’ right?”
Just as they were speaking, Big Can had already returned.
It landed on the treetop, first shaking off the water droplets on its body, and only after shaking them all off did it run to Chu Jiu’s side, dropping a silvery, glittering thing: “Inside the rain, it’s all this.”
Chu Jiu looked closely—
Even though he had personally experienced all sorts of bizarre events, he couldn’t help but be surprised by what Big Can had dropped.
It was actually a fish.
A fish that wasn’t very big, but was still flopping around.
In the sky… it was raining fish?
Chu Jiu frowned and squatted down to pick up the fish.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for discovering the hidden material—Silver Fish Fallen from the Nine Heavens Sea.
Very, very delicious fish!
It has no small bones at all and can be eaten clean in one bite!
Whether stewed, boiled, roasted, or fried, it is an excellent delicacy!
What? You say this fish has any special effects?
Isn’t “very delicious” enough?]
Big Can raised its paw and wiped its face, “This rain only falls above the ‘Nether River.'”
“After this rain, the number of fish in the ‘Nether River’ will increase a lot.”
At this time, the Flowery Dragon rushed over, flapping his wings in surprise: “Wow, this fish looks so delicious!”
“But why is it raining fish in the sky? And this fish just happens to fall into the river water?”
Chu Jiu thought for a moment and said, “Kui’zai, you said before that ‘under the protection of the Nine Heavens Tree, even fire-breathing flying dragons who couldn’t swim or go into the water could easily scoop up fish from the river.'”
“I think, after this rain, there will be many, many of these ‘fallen from the sky’ fish in the Nether River.”
“At that time, even those of you who are not good at catching fish, as long as you have a net, you can easily catch fish—and they will be fresh, lively fish, not dead fish lying on the shore.”
The Flowery Dragon’s mouth hung wide open, as if he couldn’t believe this good news.
The two priest dragons also flew over at this time, looking at the fish in Chu Jiu’s hand and the “rain of fish” in the distance that was gradually weakening, their voices filled with awe:
“This rain, is it actually rain that delivers food to us?”
Chu Jiu said slowly, “Perhaps… this rain is also part of the ‘protection of the Nine Heavens Tree’…”
The Flowery Dragon looked at Chu Jiu again in great bewilderment, not understanding why this “rain of fish” would also be the “protection of the Nine Heavens Tree.”
Chu Jiu was about to explain when Big Can beside him mentioned, “The rain has stopped.”
“The big fish in the clouds is swimming over.”
*
They saw the clouds above becoming thicker and heavier, pressing down like ink blots.
This posture was enough to make anyone below the clouds feel fear and even flee for their lives.
But Chu Jiu stood still, without moving.
Because Big Can told him, “The big fish in the clouds has not emitted the aura of an ‘attacker.'”
The other three dragons were even less likely to move.
As dragons, how could they possibly run away?
They also flapped their wings and hovered in the air, looking up at the gradually descending “cloud.”
Just as the black cloud seemed about to fall directly onto the treetop, a crack gradually appeared in the clouds.
Chu Jiu’s heartbeat couldn’t help but quicken a few beats.
Was it about to come out?
The enormous creature living in the sky, the “Nine Heavens Jiaolong.”
What terrifying face would such a huge shark have?
Although Chu Jiu stood steadily, his hands couldn’t help but clench.
The two high priest dragons beside him also had a circle of diaphragm appear around their heads—that was a sign of adult dragons subconsciously gathering energy to breathe fire.
The gap gradually widened.
A huge blue and white shadow squeezed out bit by bit from the crack.
This…?
Huh?
Chu Jiu blinked.
This… um, it was a shark, no mistake. Big mouth, big teeth, big eyes, rough skin.
But… why did these parts, which should have been fierce and terrifying, look inexplicably silly and cute when combined?
If this were scaled down and put in that IKEA store with the blue background and yellow letter logo that looked like a big box, it would definitely be a star product that everyone would want to take home—a shark plushie!
Before Chu Jiu could say anything, the Flowery Dragon had already shouted, “Wow! Big shark! Is the big shark this cute?!”
This shout directly attracted the big shark’s attention.
The enormous shark, which had originally opened its mouth towards the purple fruit of the Nine Heavens Tree, instantly turned its head after hearing the shout, and its round, big eyes met the gazes of one human, one big cat, and three dragons.
Big Shark: …0_0
Chu Jiu: …
Red Dragons: …
After a while, the big shark’s mouth moved, and a “woo-ah” sound came from its throat.
Kakaba, sitting on the backpack, said, “Dang dang dang! It’s speaking!”
“It said: ‘I’ve already sprinkled the fish down. Can I eat this fruit now?'”
After hearing Chu Jiu’s translation, the high priest dragon immediately said, “Can eat, please eat, please take your time.”
However, the big shark didn’t immediately take a bite.
It stared at Chu Jiu and the red dragons, then “woo-ah”ed again, starting to speak:
“You’re all staring at me so… it’s a little scary…”
“I… I’m a little afraid to eat…”
The “scary” Chu Jiu and the red dragons decided to turn around, letting the big shark eat slowly without any pressure.
Soon, the sound of “slurp slurp” eating, along with “woo-wah woo-wah” praises, and a thunderous belch came from behind them.
It sounded like the big shark had eaten its fill.
After a while, the big shark said slowly:
“I’m full… thank you for the treat…”
“Hmm, it feels like it’s been a while since I last ate this fruit?”
“So delicious…”
Chu Jiu quickly turned back and asked, “Before, did you always sprinkle small fish into the river first, and then come over to eat this fruit?”
Big Shark: “Yeah…”
“I have an agreement with these little flying dragons. They plant big trees, and the trees bear fruit once a month. I come to eat the fruit.”
“Other food on the ground, I can only smell it, I can’t eat it at all. Only the fruit from this big tree can I eat.”
“Before eating the fruit, I sprinkle the small fish from the Nine Heavens Sea into the river.”
“Hmm, but I don’t know why, it seems like for a while, this tree hasn’t been bearing fruit…”
“Until today, when I was herding fish in the Nine Heavens Sea, I finally smelled the fragrance of the fruit! I immediately crossed the Nine Heavens Wall to come here and eat the fruit!”
Chu Jiu thought to himself that it all connected now.
This area had a special and complete ecological chain:
Dragons plant trees, trees bear fruit, fruit feeds the shark, the shark sends small fish to the dragons, the dragons eat the small fish and continue to plant trees…
Repeating in this cycle, life flourished endlessly.
The high priest dragon beside him also understood and sighed secretly with emotion.
Only the little Flowery Dragon was still confused, looking at this and then that, scratching his pink little head, still not understanding why it was said that “these fish are also the protection of the Nine Heavens Tree.”
Having figured out the reason, Chu Jiu thought that since it was a Nine Heavens Jiaolong that could reason and communicate, it would be much easier.
He had just used [Enemy Situation Scan] once and obtained the information on the [Nine Heavens Jiaolong]:
[This is a legendary creature!
It lives in the unreachable Nine Heavens Sea, herding large and small fish on its own.
However, through the connection of the “Nine Heavens Tree,” it can descend from the Nine Heavens Sea to the world where ordinary people live.
It is said that if it falls into ordinary bodies of water, such as the sea or lakes, a layer of sticky, transparent substance will automatically generate around it.
This transparent substance seems to have the miraculous effect of clearing various toxins?]
No mistake, the “transparent substance” mentioned here was the “mucus of the Nine Heavens Jiaolong” that Little Ku Physician needed!
As long as he could persuade this big shark to swim in the river or the sea for a while, he could obtain this precious medicinal material!
Chu Jiu took a deep breath and began a back-and-forth “negotiation” with the big shark through Kakaba.
When the big shark heard about the “sticky, transparent substance,” it grinned its shark mouth and laughed, “Hehehe? You actually know about that!”
“Yeah, yeah, if we soak in the water and swim, such a layer will indeed form around us!”
“My brothers, when they went swimming for the first time, were even scared by this mucus!”
Looking at the big shark’s attitude, Chu Jiu breathed a sigh of relief again: It was indeed a good shark that could communicate!
However, when Chu Jiu explained his intention and asked it to swim in the water for a while, the big shark looked left and right and didn’t speak for a long time.
Chu Jiu tentatively asked again, and the big shark stammered, “I… I want to go back!”
It actually flicked its big tail and, bringing with it a gust of piercingly cold wind, whooshed back into the sky!
The high priest dragon and the Flowery Dragon were both stunned.
Big Can, on the other hand, was furious and was about to chase after the big shark and “communicate” with it properly by dragging it back down.
Chu Jiu quickly held down Big Can: “Don’t fight!”
“You can try to track it, but absolutely don’t fight!”
“Also, if you feel the big shark’s aura disappear and you can’t track it anymore, don’t be reckless, come back immediately.”
Big Can responded and left.
The high priest beside him said, “Or should we negotiate with it again? For example, let it swim first, and then we’ll give it the fruit to eat?”
Chu Jiu shook his head: “That’s not appropriate.”
For this big shark, as long as it proposed, “If you don’t give me fruit to eat, I won’t send you small fish,” then the Dragon Clan would immediately be at a disadvantage in the negotiations.
Forget about collecting the medicinal material, even this hard-earned restored ecological chain would probably be broken.
Of course, if they didn’t consider the ecological chain, they could completely let Big Can forcefully “scratch” it and, while the big shark came to eat the fruit, tie it up and throw it into the sea.
Chu Jiu didn’t plan to use this trick unless it was absolutely necessary.
Just as Chu Jiu was pondering, Big Can flew back.
The black cat was a little dejected and told Chu Jiu that at first, the big shark’s aura did indeed linger in the air.
But after flying up a certain distance, this aura suddenly disappeared, as if the big shark had never existed.
And apart from the clouds, there was nothing around, no “Nine Heavens Wall” or “Nine Heavens Sea” at all.
Chu Jiu patted the big cat’s head: “It’s not your fault. The place where this big shark usually lives is probably somewhere we can’t find no matter how high we fly or how hard we look.”
“The ‘Nine Heavens Wall’ it mentioned is probably not a simple ‘wall’ or ‘barrier’.”
“In short… if we want to see it, we probably can only wait and see on the Nine Heavens Tree.”
Big Can scratched its claws and then rubbed its face against Chu Jiu’s face: “Aowu!”
*
That night, Chu Jiu didn’t return to the Dragon Clan tribe but stayed on the treetop to camp.
Just like the previous wilderness camping, he set up the tent and lit a bonfire.
In any case, the Nine Heavens Tree wasn’t afraid of ordinary fire at all, so he could safely build a fire.
Chu Jiu set up the iron pot on the fire and also arranged the barbecue grill, starting to prepare that day’s dinner—
Clear-stewed silver fish, charcoal-grilled silver fish, braised silver fish, pan-fried silver fish…
Dinner for the carnivore babies was an all-fish feast.
Chu Jiu wasn’t worried that Little Can would be possessive about the food. Chu Jiu knew that Little Can clearly understood that these fish were originally given to the Dragon Clan by the big shark, so it would be uncharacteristically generous.
In addition to fancy ways of eating fish, Chu Jiu also prepared fresh vegetables for Kakaba: “hairy vegetables” that grew on the banks of the Nether Jungle, tender and juicy, with the taste of spring in every bite.
And freshly squeezed “milk tea” for Glup-Glup.
The so-called “milk tea” was of course not real milk and black tea, but the juice squeezed from the fruits on the trees.
A few days ago, taking advantage of the completion of the sea dike and before the Nine Heavens Tree bore fruit, Chu Jiu took the spirit beast babies to explore the map of this area, increasing the exploration degree of the [Nether Jungle] area map to 60% in one go, discovering many interesting locations—such as a dead volcano and a geothermal area.
He also collected many fresh materials, such as this “milk tea fruit.” This dark brown fruit would release a sweet, brown juice when its outer shell was cracked open, tasting almost identical to the milk tea on Earth, and it was caffeine-free!
It was really a very suitable drink for the spirit beast babies.
However, the Dragon Clan seemed to dislike sweets very much, so this fruit had long been ignored, growing and withering alone deep in the jungle.
At this moment, the spirit beast babies present, including Little Can, were all slurping milk tea. Only the Flowery Dragon was gulping down fish soup.
After happily finishing a bowl of fish soup, the Flowery Dragon, who stubbornly refused to go home and insisted on staying at the campsite, raised his head curiously and asked, “Chu Jiu, Chu Jiu, why did you just say that the big shark will definitely come down again?”
Chu Jiu smiled and said, “Because it’s ‘fragrant enough’ here.”
Seriously, they had everything here: frying, grilling, boiling, and stir-frying. The aroma wafting from just one campsite was already comparable to a food street outside a university.
The big shark had said itself that it could only smell the other food on the ground, indicating that this fellow was actually quite greedy. Since it was greedy for food, there was no way it wouldn’t be completely tempted by these delicacies.
What’s more, all the grilled and cooked food this time was fish that had fallen from the Nine Heavens Sea, all food that the big shark could originally eat.
The Flowery Dragon grabbed a skewer of grilled fish, whooshed it all into his belly, and said thoughtfully, “Oh… so it’s because it’s a ‘greedy shark’.”
Chu Jiu said, “Not entirely.”
Besides being “greedy,” the reason Chu Jiu was sure the big shark would appear again was because he believed that the big shark from the Nine Heavens Sea must be very lonely.
When a lonely big shark smelled the fragrance and heard the cheerful laughter below, how could it not be tempted?
When Chu Jiu began grilling the second batch of fish, Little Can suddenly jumped from his shoulder to the ground and transformed into Big Can: “It’s here.”
The Nine Heavens Jiaolong had arrived.
Sure enough.
Before long, dark clouds blocked the moonlight.
The chilling dark clouds gradually split open, and a large, deep blue head poked out, revealing rows of white teeth: “You, what are you eating? Why is it so warm and so fragrant?”
Chu Jiu, who had been prepared, held up a large basin of grilled fish: “Want some of the small silver fish you sent?”
Drool began to drip from the big shark’s mouth.
But it still restrained itself with great effort, asking cautiously, “If I eat it, you, you won’t force me to go swimming in the water, will you?”
Chu Jiu: “No.”
The big shark grinned foolishly.
With a “woo-wah,” it effortlessly swallowed a basin of grilled fish.
Chu Jiu calmly brought out the fish soup: “This is soup made from the small silver fish, it’s also very warm and fragrant. Want some?”
The big shark smiled shyly: “Then I’ll have some.”
A pot of fish soup was instantly gone.
Chu Jiu quickly held out a pot of braised fish: “This is a different flavor. Want some?”
Big Shark: “Yes!”
Pan-fried silver fish, deep-fried silver fish…
All of them went into the big shark’s belly.
Finally, the big shark, hiccuping, wrapped itself in a large cloud of black mist, plopped down beside the bonfire, and lowered its head, saying, “Hic… you, you’re so nice…”
“Hic, I, I didn’t mean not to go swimming…”
“I, I have a reason…”
Chu Jiu thought for a moment and said, “Could it be… you can’t swim?”
Big Shark: “No, no, no, I can still swim!” “I swim very well in the Nine Heavens Sea!”
The big shark became even more dejected as it said this: “I’m… hic… you, do you have a big bucket of water here?”
Chu Jiu took out a bucket of water from his backpack and pushed it in front of the big shark.
The big shark carefully dipped a pectoral fin into the water—
In an instant, the entire bucket of water turned into ice!
The big shark’s fin froze directly with the water!
Chu Jiu: ?!
Spirit Beasts: ??!
Flowery Dragon: “Hiss, looks so painful…”
In the end, Chu Jiu had to use an iron chisel to break the ice before he could release the shark’s fin.
The big shark shook its pectoral fin and said, “You all saw it…”
“My body is just this special… as soon as I touch ordinary water on the ground, it immediately freezes…”
“Because everything around it freezes into a solid block, I also can’t produce that transparent mucus you want…”
“Sigh… I’m such a useless Nine Heavens Jiaolong…”
“Just eating and drinking for free and not being able to help…”
The big shark lowered its head and muttered complaints.
As it spoke, its eyes suddenly lit up: “However, I can ask my brothers for help!”
“They can swim in ordinary water!”
“I’ll have them give me the mucus, and I’ll bring it back to you!”
Chu Jiu was immediately delighted: “Your brothers? Where are they? How long will it take for a round trip?”
Big Shark: “Ah, they are on other planets!”
“We each live on our own planet!”
“A round trip… it’s very fast, probably only a thousand years!”
Chu Jiu: …
So fast.
Chu Jiu shook his head and said with a wry smile, “That won’t work, that’s not a time that humans can wait.”
“We still have to think of other ways.”
Hearing that it wouldn’t work, the big shark lowered its big head again: “Ah… so it won’t work.”
“Sigh… I eat your food and drink your drinks, but I can’t give you what you want… sigh…”
Chu Jiu said casually, “It’s okay, those things to eat and drink—”
Eh.
He looked at the big shark: “You said that ‘as soon as you touch ordinary water on the ground, it immediately freezes,’ but that pot of fish soup just now was also made with water from the ground?”
The big shark grinned, not having figured it out itself: “Huh? That’s right. Maybe because that pot of soup was hot enough?”
Chu Jiu immediately made a bucket of hot water.
He pushed the hot water in front of the big shark: “Try again.”
The big shark obediently put its fin into the water again.
This time, the water really didn’t freeze!
Its fin swam freely in the water for three full minutes! Only after a full three minutes did the water begin to freeze!
The big shark withdrew its fin, both surprised and delighted: “It, it didn’t freeze!”
Chu Jiu smiled:
“Yes, it didn’t freeze.”
“Big fish, I have a way for you to swim on land!”
