Yan Liqiang stood under the waterfall with a bamboo basket in his hand, looking up, and used the bamboo basket to catch the iron-skinned mountain loaches rushing down from the waterfall. The slippery iron-skinned mountain loaches were finally restrained by the bamboo basket that was more than three feet high. In just a short while, more than ten iron-skinned mountain loaches were caught under the bamboo basket.
The iron-skinned mountain loaches kept jumping in the bamboo basket, and each one could jump up to a foot high in the basket. However, the bamboo basket in Yan Liqiang's hand was more than three feet high, so no matter how the iron-skinned mountain loaches jumped, they could not jump out.
It was at this time that Yan Liqiang had the chance to take a good look at the iron-skinned loach that he couldn't even catch with his hands.
From the appearance, the iron-skinned mountain loach is a bit similar to the ordinary loach, but its body is thinner. The body of the iron-skinned mountain loach is yellowish-brown with fine black patterns on it. What is particularly surprising is the texture of the skin on the surface of the iron-skinned mountain loach, which is like a layer of iron sheet, and there is also a layer of fine transparent mucus, which gives people the feeling of a layer of oiled metal.
Yan Liqiang had been walking under the waterfall for more than two hours before he finally heard Li Hongtu's voice coming from the thatched hut not far away, "It's almost done, bring the iron-skinned mountain loach over and put it in the pot..."
Hearing the sound, Yan Liqiang raised the bamboo basket, slid from the huge rock under the waterfall into the water, then swam to the shore, and ran to Li Hongtu's thatched house with the bamboo basket without putting on any clothes.
Li Hongtu built a fire in his thatched hut. As soon as he entered the house, he smelled a warm breath from the fire.
Right next to the fire, there was a large stew pot, the mouth of which was exactly the same size as the opening of the bamboo basket in Yan Liqiang's hand.
"Let me see how much you got!" Li Hongtu came over, rubbing his hands. He took a look at the bamboo basket in Yan Liqiang's hand and immediately smiled. "Not bad, not bad. We have two or three pounds, enough for a good meal. Put the bamboo basket upside down on the stew pot. Be careful. These iron-skinned loaches are too slippery. Don't let them jump out of the bamboo basket!"
"Okay!" Yan Liqiang said as he flexibly flipped his hand and turned the bamboo basket upside down on the stew pot. All the iron-skinned mountain loaches in the bamboo basket immediately slid into the stew pot.
"Don't move your hands away, cover it for a while..." Li Hongtu reminded quickly.
"Master, what's in your stew pot? I smell alcohol!"
"The thing in this stew pot is wine. Let's get these iron-skinned mountain loaches drunk first. And with wine, the iron-skinned mountain loaches will taste better when stewed. Hahaha..."
After a few minutes, Yan Liqiang took the bamboo basket off the pot when he felt there was no movement in the pot. The iron-skinned mountain loaches that had just been poured into the pot were no longer moving. Li Hongtu placed the pot on the burning fire and took out the bags of seasonings that he had prepared long ago from a wooden cabinet next to it, put them into the pot, added water, covered the pot with a lid, and then he sighed with satisfaction.
"Okay, go get dressed!"
"Then I will try the flavor of the iron-skinned mountain loach here at your place at noon today!" Yan Liqiang said with a drooling face.
"Well, I give you some credit..."
Yan Liqiang laughed and ran out of the wooden house. Two minutes later, after putting on his clothes, he returned to the wooden house and sat by the fire. Together with Li Hongtu, he stared at the stew pot on the shelf above the fire. "Master, did you often eat this iron-skinned mountain loach?"
"Nonsense, this thing is not something you can eat casually!" Li Hongtu rolled his eyes and glared at Yan Liqiang. "Usually these iron-skinned mountain loaches are in the caves, and it is rare to see them. Only in July every year, if you are lucky, you hear thunder and it rains heavily, they will swim out of the cave and be washed down. There are so many restaurants and hotels in the Imperial Capital City, go and ask how many restaurants can eat this thing. By the way, what kind of kung fu is that Ji guy teaching you these days..."
"Master Ji is teaching me the Gecko Wall Climbing Technique and the Lightning Thunder Step. He said that if I want to learn Kyudo, I must master these two skills first!" Yan Liqiang glanced at Li Hongtu's face and answered carefully.
"Well, the wall-climbing skill of that Ji guy is pretty good. It will be useful in the future if you learn it. It seems that he doesn't hide it!" Li Hongtu nodded and snorted coldly, "But his lightning-fast thunder step is just like taking off your pants to fart. Your current body movement, footwork and lightness skill are already pretty good. When you master the skills I will teach you in the future, your body movement, footwork and lightness skill will naturally reach a new level. You don't need to learn anything, you will be able to form your own. Why do you need to learn his lightning-fast thunder step..."
"Master is right!" Yan Liqiang followed Li Hongtu's meaning and smiled, just like coaxing a child, "Now I haven't learned your skills yet, Master, so I'll learn the lightning and thunder steps first. After all, it's always good to have many skills!"
"Well, let me ask you, has that Ji guy said bad things about me in front of you these days?"
"No, absolutely not. I've been with Master Ji these past few days, and he hasn't said a single bad word about you, Master!" Yan Liqiang shook his head quickly. "It's just that Master Ji once said that he and you used to be friends!"
"I don't have a friend like him!" Li Hongtu's face was full of anger again, but when he saw that it was Yan Liqiang next to him, he suppressed his anger, took a deep breath, and then waved his hand impatiently, "Okay, let's not talk about this disgusting thing!"
Seeing Li Hongtu's angry expression, Yan Liqiang's heart moved. Li Hongtu's thoughts appeared in his mind one by one like bubbles.
—Asshole, I treated you as my brother back then, but you stole my Xiaoying.
-asshole
-asshole
-asshole
—The Villain
—The Villain
Feeling the series of resentments in Li Hongtu's head at this moment, Yan Liqiang was sweating profusely. He could only laugh dryly twice and quickly terminated the "connection".
"By the way, do you know why I asked you to catch these iron-skinned loaches today?" Li Hongtu immediately changed the subject.
"This, didn't Master say that this is a tonic?"
"This is just one reason!" Li Hongtu shook his head, his eyes suddenly becoming deep, "But do you think that Master asked you to spend the whole morning catching iron-skinned mountain loach just because Master wanted to have such a good meal?"
Yan Liqiang was slightly stunned, "Master means..."
"Do you think you can pierce the iron-skinned mountain loach rushing down from the top of the waterfall with that spear now?"
Yan Liqiang shook his head without even thinking. "It's not difficult to stab these iron-skinned mountain loaches that fell from the waterfall, but the hard part is piercing them. I just found out that the skin of these iron-skinned mountain loaches is hard and slippery. Not to mention piercing them with the tip of a spear, even if I try to grab them with my hands, the moment my fingers touch them, they will naturally slip away from my fingertips. Also, when these iron-skinned mountain loaches fell on my shaking spear before, they actually jumped away without any damage, with almost no force at all. If you want to pierce an iron-skinned mountain loach with a spear, the difficulty is like using a spear to pierce a small oiled steel ball that fell from a waterfall. It's almost impossible!"
“That’s because you are not sure you have mastered the skill I taught you. If you really learn that skill, even if you are blindfolded with cloth and cannot see with your eyes, you will be able to pierce those iron-skinned mountain loaches hidden in the waterfall without any effort. When you can use that spear to pierce a pot of iron-skinned mountain loaches for me under the waterfall, you will be considered a master, and you will have learned my skill!” Li Hongtu said solemnly to Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang thought Li Hongtu was joking with him, but he soon found out that what Li Hongtu said was true...
After a while, the water in the stew pot on the fire started to boil, and a strange fragrance wafted through the thatched hut...
After eating iron-skinned mountain loach with Li Hongtu, he washed the dishes for Li Hongtu and cleaned the pot. By the time he was done, it was already noon. Yan Liqiang had just returned to his own courtyard when he saw Little Li running to his residence in a hurry, sweating profusely, "Captain Yan, Eunuch Liu wants to see you..."
"What's the matter? Why is it so urgent?"
"Several officials from the Imperial Capital came and said that you killed someone in the city last night and they want to arrest you. You are now in Eunuch Liu's courtyard..."
(End of this chapter)