NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26: Fireball Technique × Grilled Fish
Chapter 26: Fireball Technique × Grilled Fish
After parting with Ling Niang, Li Xi hurried back home. At this moment, the house was empty, as her nieces and nephews had been sent to Uncle Li San’s house again.
Before she left in the morning, her sister-in-law had told her, “Xi’er, after you finish with your spirit field, you can come back home. But since you need to practice the Fireball Technique, it’s up to you whether to bring the three little ones back home or not.”
Li Xi had originally thought that even though she needed to practice the Fireball Technique, it wouldn’t take all her attention, so bringing her young nieces and nephews back would save Uncle Li San some trouble.
But then she suddenly remembered that Song’er, that little troublemaker, would cause mischief whenever no one was watching him, and Xing’er and Bai’er always followed his lead. She might not be able to manage these three children, so she gave up on the idea of bringing them home.
Speaking of which, it was Uncle Li San’s turn this year to look after the children from various families during spring plowing, but the adults from each family would also help take care of his spirit fields. Moreover, people felt bad about troubling his family for nothing, so they would each pay appropriate compensation and often bring over some of their home-grown vegetables. Overall, it was a fair arrangement.
Thinking of this, Li Xi felt even more at ease staying at home to practice the Fireball Technique.
As the first fire-attribute technique, the Fireball Technique’s hand seals included a total of ten finger seals, which wasn’t particularly difficult.
Although Li Xi had inexplicably developed a bit of persistence towards the Fireball Technique, she ultimately had more insight into spirit techniques related to farming, so practicing it proved to be quite challenging.
Because the Fireball Technique couldn’t help develop spirit fields or benefit plant growth, she wanted to practice it well but really had no handle on it. The hand seals of the Fireball Technique were meant to depict the traces of fire in nature, which she couldn’t understand, so her progress was very slow.
Even today, when she had decided to practice diligently for a whole day, she was often absent-minded, completely unlike when she practiced the Spirit Rain Technique, Green Spirit Technique, or Dust Micro Technique, where she was much more focused.
Because she really didn’t understand!
Look, while practicing, she was surveying her family’s entire courtyard, noticing the dull gray walls, and started thinking: “Maybe I should plant some flowers and plants to decorate the courtyard walls this year? These bare walls don’t look good at all.”
She was so lost in thought while practicing that she didn’t even notice when she made a mistake with the hand seals.
“No, no, don’t get distracted, hurry up and practice!” She suddenly came to her senses, remembering she was still practicing the Fireball Technique, and quickly cheered herself on.
This time, she focused all her attention on practicing the first hand seal over and over again.
“Huh?” She seemed to have discovered something.
“This hand seal looks like a little dog!” She carefully observed the shape made by her fingers.
So she started to make the other hand seals one by one, trying to see what other animals they might resemble.
“The other hand seals don’t look like anything,” she said, a bit disappointed after trying all of them.
“I’ve been hearing you muttering. What looks like what?”
A clear voice came from the courtyard wall.
Li Xi immediately turned to look, and sure enough, there was a person leaning on the wall, with only their head and hands visible.
It was Li Wen Ze.
Li Xi relaxed and jogged over.
“Brother Wen Ze, you’re done with your work? So fast?”
Li Wen Ze pointed at the sky: “It’s not early anymore, we’ve been busy all morning.”
Li Xi followed his finger and looked at the sun in the sky. “Oh, it’s already this late. I was so focused on practicing that I didn’t notice how much time had passed.”
“Judging by the time, you should be practicing the Fireball Technique now, right?” Li Wen Ze thought for a moment.
Li Xi asked in surprise, “Brother Wen Ze, how did you guess?”
“That’s easy. Because at this time last year, I was also practicing the Fireball Technique!”
Li Wen Ze found Li Xi’s surprised wide eyes amusing.
“Oh, right.” Li Xi rubbed her nose.
“So, how far have you gotten with your Fireball Technique practice?” Li Wen Ze asked with interest.
If he hadn’t misheard earlier, this girl didn’t seem to be practicing seriously.
Hearing this, Li Xi felt a bit embarrassed. “Well, I’m quite familiar with the first hand seal now.”
“Isn’t that just the beginning?” Li Wen Ze was a bit surprised. Today was already the tenth day of the spring break, with only three days left before it ended. Was this little girl so carefree?
“No, no, I practiced yesterday too,” Li Xi defended herself.
Hearing Li Xi’s words and considering her behavior, Li Wen Ze had a good idea of the situation.
“You’re not interested in the Fireball Technique, are you?” he asked.
“I have a tiny bit of interest, but I don’t really understand it,” Li Xi answered honestly, seeing that Li Wen Ze had asked.
Seeing Li Xi’s honest expression, Li Wen Ze seemed to understand something.
Li Jiang had often chatted with him about his family members and told him quite a bit about Li Xi. He knew the little girl was only interested in farming and tended to procrastinate on other things.
However, looking at the little girl’s demeanor, it seemed she really did have a bit of interest in the Fireball Technique, but this interest wasn’t enough. At the same time, she couldn’t understand the hand seals of the Fireball Technique very well, so her practice hadn’t been effective.
“Since you’ve already practiced all morning, why don’t we go find today’s lunch together?”
Li Wen Ze smiled and changed the subject.
Li Xi immediately felt relieved and said happily, “Sure, Brother Wen Ze!”
She was very curious about what kind of lunch they needed to go find together.
As long as she could temporarily put aside the Fireball Technique, she was happy to do anything.
She ran out of the courtyard gate, closed it properly, and set off with Li Wen Ze.
Unexpectedly, Li Wen Ze led her to the bank of the Clear Creek River.
This stretch of the river wasn’t deep, and the current was relatively gentle. In summer and autumn, many adults and children would come here to swim.
“Brother Wen Ze, what can we eat here?” Li Xi was puzzled.
Li Wen Ze smiled and said, “Haven’t you already seen it?”
“We’re here to eat fish?” Li Xi was even more confused.
They could catch fish from the river, but there was no pot or stove here. How could they eat?
As if seeing the confusion in Li Xi’s words, Li Wen Ze’s smile grew wider: “We’re going to have grilled fish today.”
“Brother Wen Ze, you even know how to grill fish!” Li Xi exclaimed in surprise.
Li Wen Ze was pleased by Li Xi’s surprise and responded very modestly: “Just a little, just a little.”
“Today, Brother Wen Ze will teach you a fishing method. Pay attention and learn well.” Li Wen Ze confidently walked to the riverbank and pulled out a water plant from the bottom of the river.
Without any extra movements, he simply held the water plant and put it back into the water, but didn’t let go of the end of the plant.
“Can you catch fish like this?”
Li Xi’s head was full of question marks.
Just as she finished speaking, a fish directly bit onto the part of the water plant that was underwater.
“Ah!” They really caught a fish! Li Xi exclaimed.
Li Wen Ze lifted the fish out of the water. It was about the size of a palm and was still biting the water plant even after leaving the water.
However, Li Wen Ze shook his head, pulled the fish off, and threw it back into the river.
“This fish is too small. Let me catch a bigger one.”
So he repeated the same technique, dangling the water plant back into the river.
Soon, another fish took the “bait.”
It was still a small fish.
Li Wen Ze fished several times in a row, and finally caught a large carp over a foot long.
“This one will do. It’s enough for us to eat together,” Li Wen Ze nodded with satisfaction.
Li Xi, who had been watching Li Wen Ze continuously catch fish, was now stunned. Was fishing this simple?
This wasn’t fishing, Brother Wen Ze was practically shopping for fish!