A bark of laughter escaped Shao’s lips once he saw the trout’s corpse float to the surface. Pride and emotional catharsis mixed in his expression as he shouted, “Take that you damn fish!”

Shao looked down at his arms, clenching his fists experimentally. He had never used that much of his strength before. Shao hadn’t planned to throw the harpoon that hard, but his anger at the line snapping and the truth just shared by Granny Daiyu caused him to lose control somewhat.

Ever since he had become a teenager five years before, Shao had always been stronger than other people. He was so much stronger, in fact, that he knew he couldn’t use all of his strength without destroying tools or seriously harming other people. Shao had not used all of his strength for several years, and the power he was able to utilize when he threw the harpoon surprised him.

“What are you waiting for!? Go retrieve the trout!” Granny Daiyu shouted once she saw Shao get lost in thought.

“Right,” Shao said a moment before dropping his straw hat to the deck and diving headfirst into the water.

“Oh, and make sure you bring the harpoon back!” Granny Daiyu called out.

Shao pretended he didn’t hear that. From the moment the harpoon left his hand, he knew it could not be retrieved. The harpoon’s materials could not possibly survive a collision of such force.

With three powerful strokes, Shao reached the trout’s corpse. He had to brush some shattered bamboo chips away as he got close to the fish.

It was even bigger up close, Shao thought. The massive trout was twice his length and four times his width. It had the size of a shark but the features of a trout, and all common sense told him that a trout should not be able to grow to such a size. Yet, there it was.

Shao swam to one side of the trout and began pushing it toward Granny Daiyu’s fishing boat. He paddled with one arm and used the other to push the large fish forward. The trip back to the boat took much longer and was much more physically demanding. Once Shao reached the boat, he moved to haul the trout onto the boat’s deck.

“No!” Granny Daiyu shouted. “You’ll capsize the boat if you try to haul that huge thing up here. We’ll tie it to the boat and drag it back to the village.”

After looping a rope around the trout’s tail, Shao lifted himself back into the boat. His thoughts were still focused on the feat of strength he had just exhibited when Granny Daiyu said, “Where’s the harpoon?”

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Slightly annoyed that Daiyu didn’t even mention the impressive power of his harpoon throw, Shao said, “It was destroyed when it hit the fish. Sorry.”

“Okay,” Granny Daiyu said with a smirk. “The cost of the harpoon will just come out of your half of the profit when we sell the fish.”

“No way,” Shao said, panicking. “I’ll just go out tomorrow and make a new one.”

“Fine, but you better not cut any corners. If the harpoon is shoddy, I’ll send you right back out.”

The two remaining members of the Lin family rowed back to shore, dragging a massive divine beast behind them. Naturally, neither of them knew that the gargantuan trout had spent the past twenty years cultivating ki in the ocean’s deepest depths. Since the wind was blowing eastward, they could not unfurl the sail. Either way, they made it to shore in just a few minutes.

When they arrived at the docks of Bluecrest Village, Yang Lin Shao began to tie their boat to a docking post with experienced hands while Granny Daiyu jumped onto the dock. Despite her advanced age, a life spent in physical labor had kept Daiyu’s body physically fit. Sometimes, Shao felt like she would outlive everyone else in the village.

“We need to get this thing out of the water before its blood attracts any predators,” Granny Daiyu said while looking at the trout contemplatively.

“I can handle it,” Shao said.

Yang Shao jumped onto the dock and hoisted the massive fish up out of the water like it weighed nothing at all.

“Lin Shao!” Granny Daiyu said in a warning voice. “How many times have I told you not to show off?”

“I’m not showing off,” Yang Lin Shao said with a frown. “I’m just moving the fish.”

He never understood why Granny Daiyu always acted like his strength had to be kept a secret. Sure, some people would be jealous, and some people at the yearly harvest festival might lose face when he beat them in feats of strength, but that didn’t mean he should have to spend the rest of his life holding back.

“Looks like you guys could use some help over here,” came a voice from the end of the dock. Shao turned to see his old friend, Yang Chu Haoyu, approaching the boat.

“Chu Haoyu!” Lin Shao shouted with a smile and a wave. “We’ll need some help to move this monster over to the fish market.”

Shao could have moved the trout to the fish market himself, but that would be showing off.

“Wow,” Chu Haoyu said with a low whistle as he approached the boat. “That thing must weigh more than three shi! We’ll need at least five people to carry it without dragging.”

Lin Shao squinted as he tried to remember what a “shi” was. Based on context clues, he recalled that a shi was a unit of measurement equivalent to a healthy adult man. Usually, fish were measured in jin, which were 1/120th the weight of a shi, so the measurement had temporarily escaped Shao’s memory.

Half a dozen other fishermen came out and helped them carry the monster fish over to the fish market. Lin Shao obediently held up his side of the fish without lifting any more than a normal person could handle. By the time they dropped the trout in the storehouse behind the Chu family’s shop, half the fishermen of Bluecrest Village had gathered around.