Chapter 410 – Catching Fish in Emerald Creek Plains

“Delicious!” Vasida grabbed hers and took a huge bite right away.

Sylph ate with considerably more grace, praising Lilith’s breakfast effusively: “This suits Bi’er’s and my taste even better than last night’s cake!”

Bi’er agreed: “The red berry jam is so yummy!”

“Mine with honey and ghee is the real delicacy,” Lilith said.

Mo Lan found their taste preferences utterly incomprehensible.

Fortunately, the Lao Gan Ma chili sauce she had came from her Card Shop, so the flavor was authentic. Wrapped in the pancake, it tasted quite good.

After breakfast, they each took out their Grimoires to read, passing the time during the journey.

But as they read, they suddenly noticed the surroundings growing brighter.

The Sorceresses looked ahead. The endless layers of dark clouds that had stretched as far as the eye could see had, at some point, revealed a bright blue edge along the horizon.

As the flying carpet pressed forward, the blue edge widened into a blue band.

Before long, the flying carpet burst through the curtain of rain. Behind them lay layer upon layer of dark clouds, but ahead stretched clear blue skies for miles.

The visual impact was so striking that Mo Lan and the others couldn’t help but stand up.

Sylph even exclaimed in wonder: “So storm clouds really do have boundaries!”

“The terrain is flattening out, and there are more rivers and lakes. Have we entered Emerald Creek Plains?” Vasida asked.

Lilith checked the map stored in the route planning function and nodded in confirmation: “We should be in Emerald Creek Plains now.”

“Let me see where to find some good fish!” Mo Lan cast the Pathseeking Spell, then pointed to the northwest: “Let’s head that way! About ten kilometers in that direction, there’s a lake with plenty of edible freshwater fish.”

Lilith adjusted their flight path while asking: “Your Pathseeking Spell has reached Intermediate too?”

The Pathseeking Spell needed to be at least Intermediate level to divine such detailed location information.

“Mm-hm! It’s quite handy for finding common resources,” Mo Lan said.

The flying carpet flew several kilometers to the northwest, and sure enough, they spotted a large unnamed lake.

It was only half the size of Spring Sight Lake, but the water was very deep. Even from the sky, they could see schools of fish blowing bubbles at the surface.

Pointed fins broke through the water, shimmering with iridescent light under the sun.

“Rainbow-fin fish!” Mo Lan had her eye on this school of fish the instant she saw them. Now she understood why the Pathseeking Spell had guided her this way. “Lilith, activate the flying carpet’s invisibility and sound-dampening! Fly in closer!”

Lilith immediately complied.

Once they were above the school of fish, Mo Lan immediately cast a wide-area Electric Net.

She enveloped the entire school of rainbow-fin fish in it, carefully controlling the power output.

Before long, a full twelve large rainbow-fin fish floated belly-up on the lake’s surface.

She used the Levitation Spell to lift them all up. One went to the Book of Cards as card-crafting material, and the rest were temporarily stored in her spatial ring.

“What luck! Running into rainbow-fin fish right off the bat. Tonight we can have fried fish fins!”

Lilith swallowed hard: “They say rainbow-fin fish fins are rich yet not greasy—a true delicacy among freshwater fish fins!”

“There’s another school of fish over there!” Vasida pointed to another spot. “They dove down to the bottom!”

“Watch this!” Mo Lan pulled out a card and materialized it.

“Is that… fish algae grass seeds?” Lilith examined it carefully before recognizing what it was. “You have these too?”

“Found them in the Academy’s outer region,” Mo Lan said as she scattered the fish algae grass seeds. The seeds were light enough to float steadily on the water’s surface.

“They’re coming!” Vasida exclaimed. “Roundhead fish!”

“These would be perfect for chopped chili fish head!”

Before the roundhead fish could reach the seeds, Mo Lan didn’t hesitate to throw an Electric Net down, landing it squarely on the big head of the first roundhead fish to surface.

The crackling buzz of electricity rang out, and the roundhead fish was instantly knocked unconscious.

The remaining roundhead fish that hadn’t surfaced yet were scared off without a trace.

But one was enough. After Mo Lan stored it and fed it to the Book of Cards, she could now craft {Material Card – Roundhead Fish} at will.

Mo Lan then repeated the same technique and caught several more species of fish.

“Fish algae grass seeds really live up to their reputation!” Sylph said. “Herbivorous and omnivorous fish just can’t resist them.”

“I’ve collected most of the common herbivorous and omnivorous fish found here in Emerald Creek Plains. Next, I just need to find some carnivorous fish. Around here, there should still be pinecone fish, blue-horn fish, shadow-ink fish…”

Mo Lan counted off the fish species that could either be served at the dinner table or had other uses.

“Fish algae grass seeds won’t work on carnivorous fish, will they?” Vasida asked. “How do you plan to lure them out, Moira?”

“I have a way!” Mo Lan channeled her Mana and deployed the Magic Waterbed, spreading it as a thin layer across the water’s surface.

After waiting quietly for a moment, fish began to approach.

“Is that… the Magic Waterbed?” Vasida was thoroughly puzzled. “You can use a Magic Waterbed to lure fish?”

“I discovered it by accident in my fifth year,” Mo Lan explained. “Carnivorous fish are basically water-type magical beasts with a certain sensitivity to elemental force.

Every drop of water in the Magic Waterbed is water elemental essence, rich in the aura of water elemental force. It naturally draws them in.”

If not for the high crafting cost of {Material Card – Water Elemental Essence}, using Water Elemental Essence—which was even purer than water elemental essence—would have been even more effective.

Once enough fish had gathered beneath the Magic Waterbed’s water layer, Mo Lan called out: “Zhizhi!”

Zhizhi immediately gripped the Rainbow Belt and fired several Electric Nets at the water’s surface, stunning all the fish before stopping.

“Zhizhi’s belt is actually a magical item! Don’t tell me all those gemstones are magic gems!” Vasida asked in surprise. “I never noticed before!”

“That’s right,” Mo Lan said. “For Zhizhi’s safety, I used a rune combination that conceals energy fluctuations. When no Magic is being cast, you can’t tell it’s a magical item.”

“You actually made Zhizhi such an amazing belt! With that many magic gems, it’s at least an Advanced magical item, right?” Vasida said.

Mo Lan nodded.

Originally it hadn’t quite reached Advanced grade, but after adding the rune combination to conceal energy fluctuations and embedding several Advanced magic gems, it achieved Advanced quality.

Bi’er, perched on Sylph’s shoulder, fluttered her wings and took flight, her eyes brimming with envy: “Swoosh swoosh swoosh! That’s so cool!”

The Vampire Vine on Lilith’s wrist poked its head out, curling the tip of its tendril and half-heartedly poking at the back of Lilith’s hand.

Lilith and Sylph: “…”

Vasida suddenly felt relieved that her Egg Fried Rice was sleeping in its coffin and hadn’t come out.

Otherwise…

Using the Magic Waterbed, Mo Lan collected another batch of fish. The Book of Cards could now produce cards for essentially all the common fish species of Emerald Creek Plains.

“All done! Tonight we feast on a full fish banquet!”