1002 Inside a Fish

"The Northern lights?" Alex turned to look towards the north. "There was light there?"

"Yeah, It used to shine in the night, like a second sun," she said. "Well, maybe not as brightly."

"What was there?" Alex asked.

"Don't know," she said. "I doubt anyone knows. As far as I know, it was there before I was born. Probably since before even father was born."

"Oho, what are you guys talking about?" the chief appeared right next to them as he jumped from the other side of the canyon.

"We're talking about the Northern lights, father. Do you know since when it was in the north?" she asked.

"Well, the Northern lights go as far back as the sun and moon, I suppose," he said. Every piece of knowledge that gets passed down always speaks of the Sun, Moon, Sacred flames, and the Northern Lights."

"May I ask how old are you exactly, chief?" Alex asked.

"Hmm, I haven't kept track of my own age for a while now. 110 maybe? 120? I should be around that age," he said.

"What is the oldest a person has been able to live out here?" he asked.

"Hmm, my father lived for about 175 years. I heard someone from the Serpent oasis managed to live to be about 300 years," he said. "I think those that live by the shore in fact live much longer, but I don't know how much."

"I see," Alex said. If a person's life expectancy was so short compared to Qi cultivation, then he could be certain that the knowledge passed down from generation to generation in this place actually didn't go too far back.

"Are you hungry, young man? We are about to cook a fish. It's a feast tonight," the old man said.

"I'm not exactly hungry, but I would love to eat something if you don't mind," Alex said. "Of course not. Come, I will show you around now."

"Father, I'm showing him around," Li Yun said as she grabbed onto Alex's arms again.

"Fine, fine, just follow me," he said. Since he had tested Alex's strength, he was fine with his daughter's public infatuation with Alex. Anyone would do that after finding out how strong Alex was.

Alex walked along with them as he didn't want to seem disrespectful. His spiritual sense was moving wildly, however, looking at everything he could in the tribe.

With how small the tribe's living area actually was, Alex's spiritual sense was covering it all. And yet, he still couldn't find his father.

He did find 2 things that took away his attention. The first was the phoenix flame that burned in the center of the giant room at the center of the tribe.

This was the sacred flame that the tribes bet their lives upon. Alex could even see some wounded folks being kept nearby who were being healed by it.

Other than that, he could also see the fish that was being prepared at the moment for cooking.

Inside the fish was something that he was way too excited to find.

Alex walked ahead of the other two, increasing his pace as he entered the room.

The man who was working on the fish was cut open the guts and was on the way to pull out something spherical from inside the fish.

Alex walked straight to the man and said, "hand it to me."

The man had been someone who had seen Alex fight, so refusing was the last thing he was ever going to do. So, he brought out his hand and gave the item to Alex.

Alex looked at it with fervent eyes. "A beast core!" he thought. He couldn't imagine finding a beast core in a place like this, but he had found one.

Although, it had to come from a fish that was not from this continent.

"Do you have some water to wash this off?" he asked.

"There's some over there," the chief said.

Alex quickly walked up to the hole in the ground that was used to hold water. He quickly washed the blood off the beast's core and with zero hesitation, ate it.

"What?"

"Don't eat that!"

Both the father and daughter shouted at the same time as Alex ate the core. The core reached his stomach and dissipated into some energy.

The fish that the core belonged to seemed to have a high cultivation base in the Self-tempering realm, so all Alex got was very low Qi, which was something he could fortunately use.

He wasn't really intending on using that Qi and wanted to keep it unused, but a portion of it still disappeared, stolen by a hungry mouse that wanted his body back.

"Are you okay?" Li Yun came up to him and asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Alex said.

"Are you sure? Why the hell would you eat that?" she asked. "Do you even know what that is?"

"Oh, it's alright. I can eat these," he said.

"How?" the girl couldn't understand. Everyone who was young and curious would try and eat that since it smelled so good, and each time they would have a horrible case of nausea and fever, followed by an upset stomach and constant vomits.

That were some of the first things that were taught to the children not to eat as the fish cores had unfortunately come to be used as a children's plaything.

"Right, do you perhaps have more of these?" Alex asked her.

"Um, we don't get many of that in the fish," she said. "But there should be quite a few outside with the children if they didn't already throw them away. Why do you want it?"

"I would love to have them if you don't mind," he said.

"I will go around and ask, I guess?" she said.

Alex thanked her. He waited around with the chief, talking for a bit as they watched the fish being cut open.

They realized that they had yet to introduce themselves to each other, so they did. The old man's name was Li Yanxiao, and his family had been chief for ages.

"Oh right, do you have some good tailor? I need to have some clothes made for me," Alex said.

"Clothes? We have some good tailors that can make you some clothes. Although we don't have fabric and only leather and fur, so you will have to make do with that," he said.

"That's fine. I just need proper clothes," Alex said. "Also, can you make it out of this?"

Alex tossed out the snake corpse that he had killed some nights ago.

The moment the snake appeared, the old man was shocked. "Where did it come from?" he asked.

"I have a place where I can keep it," he said. "It's what us cultivators do regularly."

The old man walked up to the snake's corpse and touched its skin. When he did, his eyes went wide.

"You killed this beast?" he asked.

"I did," Alex said.

"Amazing," the old man said. "This is so strong, and you somehow managed to kill it."

He turned to look at Alex. "Don't worry, we can make the best clothes for you with such a material."