Alex asked a few more questions, trying to discern if they body cultivated only occasionally or maybe at night. But the answer was the same. They did nothing of the sort that could be considered body cultivation.
That confused Alex a lot more than anything else he had heard until now.
As he tried to think of other possibilities, Tara quickly looked below. “We—we should get out of here. There are more fish coming,” he said, his voice quivering a little.
Alex looked down as well, noticing smaller fish beginning to gather around.
“Oh, I do wish they would come,” he said softly. “But… let’s return. That might be for the best for now.”
They turned around and began swimming back toward the shore. Along the way, Alex handed over the large fish to Tara. “People expect you to get this, so you should bring it back. I’ll take the octopus.”
Tara’s eyes widened. “But you are the one who caught it.”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t want the recognition, nor do I care about the fish. For me, it is enough that I get the gem inside of these fish. The rest you can keep for yourself.”
Tara thought for a moment and slowly nodded. “I’ll have to continue to lie to them then.”
“Let me see what I can do to help you,” Alex said. “After we drop off the fish, take me somewhere with few or no people. I’ll see what I can do to help you.”
Tara got curious. “What can you do?” he asked.
“I can’t tell just yet. Afterwards.”
Once they arrived at the shore, Alex turned around to look back at the haze above the ocean, left behind by heavy steam coming off them. The hot day had only gotten hotter as noon arrived.
“Your father-in-law wasn’t joking when he said it was hot,” Alex said. “This is seriously absurd. I’ve never been in a place where the sun can get this hot.”
“Really?” Tara asked in surprise as he dragged on his fish. “Isn’t the desert hotter than this?”
“I’m not from the desert,” Alex said.
As they pulled their fish out of the water, once again there was a small group of people looking at them in surprise. For the second time, Tara had brought a massive fish back from the ocean. And this time, it was much larger than last time too.
A few of the children cheered upon seeing the large fish, while the older folks began congratulating him. A few of the men somewhat older than Tara began side-eyeing him with jealous looks.
Tara seemed to want to not have to deal with the people, so he remained silent and pulled on the fish, taking it toward the chief’s house. Three women came out from the house at that point.
The chief’s wife, Tara’s wife, and an older woman with a striking resemblance to Tara, whom Alex believed to either be his mother or a really old sister.
“Oh, my child! Look at that fish. You’ve done it again. You’ve done me proud.” Tara’s mother was a happy woman.
Mumu, his wife, came up to him and hugged him tightly. “That’s my husband.” She was quite proud too.
“Do we have anything to take the gem out?” Tara asked.
“I’ll bring the bone knife,” Mumu said and rushed back to the house. She came out with a sharp knife, which Tara used to pull out the beast core.
He helped Alex bring out the core too and handed them both to him. “I’ll teach you how to pray later on. I’ll have to help them with the fish for now.”
Alex nodded, finding it funny how easily the young man lied to his mother, wife, and mother-in-law.
Alex watched Tara carry the massive fish along with him, so there was no doubt he was a body cultivator in the slightest. But he had said there was no cultivation, so he wondered what else was going on.
After helping sever the fish a little, Tara left the women to deal with the rest. Making an excuse that Alex wanted to go look at more of the village, the two left to find somewhere quiet.
Along the way, Alex saw that the women were still in the middle of the lesson regarding how to make ropes. The young girls seemed a lot more bored now, having learned the same thing for over an hour.
Alex and Tara went over to another house where no one else would come.
Alex entered the house, tinier than the chief’s, and got a little curious. “Is this your house?” he asked.
“Yes,” Tara said. “Don’t worry, no one will come.”
“What about your father?”
“Died when I was little in an accident in the sea,” Tara said.
Alex looked at him. “Is that why you are scared in the sea?” he asked. “Do you think the same thing will happen to you as well?”
“Wh-who knows?” the young man asked. “I’m no better than my father. I might die the same.”
“The first step to failure is lack of self-confidence. If you go in there believing you will die, then you will give up at the first obstacle. You can’t put yourself in such a mindset,” Alex said.
The young man didn’t say anything. He sat by a bed and fidgeted with his fingers. “So, what do you want? Why did we come to this place?”
“I wanted to test something,” Alex said. “Can you punch me?”
Tara stared at him with a confused look. “Punch you? Why?”
“I just want to see something,” Alex said. “Just punch me in the chest.”
The young man didn’t do it initially, but Alex continued asking him again and again, which finally made him do it.
The young man punched Alex, but rather gently.
“That’s nothing. Give it your all. Punch me like you would want to punch the beast that killed your father.”
Tara punched again, harder this time.
“Not enough. Harder!”
The third time, he held nothing back and punched Alex as hard as he could.