Ch 227: When A Terrifying Fisherman’s Unbending Will Maxes Out And Triggers Challenger, They Encounter An Inch-stopping Challenge

“Oh! I’ve got a bite!”

Bal saw his float bobbing rhythmically; he immediately raised his rod to reel in the line.

“Humph, caught one so quickly. I really am a fishing expert.”

Having said that, Bal gave a powerful tug on the rod, and a waterlogged, broken shoe appeared on his fishhook.

“Pfft…hahahaha, fishing expert, hahahahahahaha!”

Phia watched Bal pull up the broken shoe; she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Don’t laugh! Just say that the person who threw away this shoe is so inconsiderate. I’m protecting the environment; don’t laugh!”

“Okay, okay, environmental protection expert, hahahahahahaha.”

Bal casually threw away the broken shoe, put on bait, and continued casting. At this time, Philia’s fishing rod moved.

“Ah! Philia’s rod is moving!”

“Quick, Philia, quickly reel it in!”

Bal was happier seeing Philia catch something than catching something himself.

“No! It’s too heavy; Philia can’t pull it up!”

Seeing Philia’s little face turn red, Bal decided to help her. He reached out and grabbed Philia’s fishing rod, and after helping Philia stabilize herself, he helped her reel in the line together.

“Looks like a big one, but unfortunately, it met me! Ha!”

After Bal shouted and exerted a mighty effort, a large fish was caught.

“Wow, a fish! Such a big fish!”

Philia excitedly jumped up; other contestants who saw Philia catch the big fish also sent their congratulations.

“Philia, keep up this momentum, let’s continue to strive for the championship!”

“Okay! Father, your fishing rod seems to be moving.”

Bal turned his head; his float was shaking incredibly fast.

“Hehehe, I’ve got a bite! Come up!”

No skill, all stats. The so-called “one strong person can subdue ten accountants”（not）. Bal’s operation was simply brute strength. After reeling it in, Bal’s face looked a little ugly.

“Hahahahahahaha, a broken clay pot, hahahahahahaha, I can’t, you’re going to kill me with laughter.”

Phia laughed unrestrainedly; she pointed at the broken clay pot on Bal’s fishhook and laughed, clutching her stomach.

“No, dude! How did this thing eat my bait?!”

Bal placed the pot beside his foot. Catching garbage twice in a row had filled Bal with defiance.

“Third time’s the charm; this cast will be a success!”

After waiting a while, seeing Phia and Philia had both caught several fish, Bal was getting impatient when finally, the float moved.

“Whoa! I’ve got one!”

Bal grabbed the fishing rod; he stood up, and a flash of white light passed by. His fishing rod was gone. Turning his head, he found himself and Phia in the seabed, with Nia and Grey beside them.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! My fish!”

Bal knelt on the ground; he raised his hands above his head, his face full of frustration.

————

Let’s rewind time a bit and shift the perspective to Nia.

When Nia and the others entered the temple, a person who looked like a high priest approached Prince Heisem.

“Welcome, Prince Heisem. The account books have been prepared and placed in the inner room. Please examine them.”

“No need for formalities. You, go verify the account books.”

Heisem pointed at Nia and asked her to check the accounts. Nia bowed, and then went to the inner room where the account books were kept, led by an attendant.

“High Priest Houdini, I’ve recently heard that the temple has some complaints about Queen Heine.”

“Oh? Queen Heine, led by the hero, drove away the former evil queen Hydra. Her merits will be forever recorded in history. How could anyone speak ill of her? Prince Heisem, you must have heard rumors from those who have objections to the temple.”

“I hope it’s a rumor, but recently, the temple’s applications for funds have been more frequent than usual. To quell the suspicions of the ministers, I came here to verify the accounts.”

“That’s certainly thoughtful of Prince Heisem. To be frank, the temple’s expenses have indeed increased recently. The main reason is the earthquake caused by the former evil queen Hydra. That earthquake also affected the temple, and to eliminate safety hazards, we had no choice but to apply for funds from the royal city.”

“That explains it. I presume that the temple has recently recruited so many attendants to repair the temple.”

“Exactly, Prince Heisem is truly insightful.”

While Heisem and Houdini were bickering, Grey, taking advantage of the situation, had knocked out an attendant and changed into the attendant’s clothes.

“Damn it, I finally found a male attendant, but why is his clothing so revealing? How am I supposed to hide weapons? Seriously.”

Although the fabric was minimal, there was fabric nonetheless. At the very least, hiding a short sword or a dagger would be possible, so after muttering to himself, Grey went to another place.

“Stop.”

Just as Grey was searching for a target, a guard who looked quite burly, like a double-door wardrobe（not）, stopped him.

“Lord, what are your orders?”

“Go get me a bottle of wine.”

“Prince Heisem is currently verifying the accounts. It’s not a good time to drink, is it?”

“Just go when I tell you to, why so much nonsense? Anyway, that woman won’t find anything out.”

“Yes, I understand, Lord.”

Sensing something fishy, Grey immediately moved. He casually took a bottle of wine and brought it back to give it to the guard.

“You’re quite quick.”

“Thank you, Lord, for the compliment.”

The guard took out a straw and began to drink. After a few sips, he noticed that Grey hadn’t left yet.

“Why are you still standing there?”

“I’m just curious, why are you so confident that Prince Heisem won’t find any problems?”

“Are you new here?”

“Yes.”

“That explains it. The account books presented by the High Priest are all fake. The real account books are hidden elsewhere, hahahahaha hiccup.”

“I see, the High Priest is truly wise.”

Having said that, Grey left the guard. He activated detection magic, avoiding patrolling guards and priests along the way, until he finally arrived near a heavily guarded room.

“It seems this is an important place.”

Grey thought for a moment. He entered the adjacent room, applied the sand-liquefying potion Nia had prepared for him to the wall, and the wall turned into sand and flowed away with the liquid, allowing Grey to infiltrate the room.

“Holy…”

Looking at the piles of gold coins and jewels, Grey couldn’t help but exclaim. Then, he began to search and found the real account books.

“Take this to Heisem; this will allow us to get the High Priest.”

Just as Grey was about to leave, a guard peeked through a hole in the wall of the adjacent room.

“Who’s there!”

“Shit!”

Grey hugged the account books; he raised his dagger and slashed the guard’s neck, but the guards at the entrance had already heard the commotion, and many guards were rushing toward Grey.

Seeing that the situation was not good, he immediately charged toward the hall.

“Heisem, catch!”

“Who’s there?!”

Heisem ignored Houdini’s astonishment; she quickly ran toward where Grey had thrown the account books, caught them, and after flipping through a few pages, she let out a triumphant smile.

“High Priest Houdini, what is the meaning of this?”

“This…this is a fake account book he made to frame the temple!”

“High Priest Houdini, it’s not good! The account books were stolen!”

Houdini originally thought he could use Grey to frame the temple as a reason for Heisem to dispose of the account books, but the brainless guards shouting ruined Houdini’s plan.

Seeing that things were going badly, Houdini immediately had his men seal off the temple, but Heisem’s ambushing guards had already subdued Houdini’s subordinates.

“What’s going on?!”

“Houdini, if you had cooperated properly with the royal city, I could have turned a blind eye to your little affairs, but you overstepped your bounds, and I can’t let that slide.”

Heisem looked at Houdini triumphantly with the account books in hand; Houdini’s expression became calm, and then he laughed.

“Do you think I only had this much preparation?”

Houdini took out a black bead and threw it at the statue. The bead immediately merged into the statue, and the statue’s surface began to crumble, revealing its true form.

“This is!”

“Humph, I didn’t want to turn against you so soon, but this is your fault, Heisem.”

Houdini gave an order to the crumbling statue.

“Erase their minds!”

The crumbling statue received the order and immediately emitted magic fluctuations that could disturb people’s minds.

“Not good!”

Heisem reacted quickly; she summoned Poseidon’s Touch and deployed a defense; Nia also ran out to check because of the chaos in the temple.

“Nia, find a way to destroy that statue!”

“No way, I don’t have any weapons!”

“Think of something!”

“Got it!”

Nia raised her bracelet and shouted.

“Help me, Brother, Sister-in-law!”

A flash of white light passed, and Bal, wearing casual clothes and maintaining his fishing posture, and Phia, in a fishing posture, appeared before everyone. After seeing their surroundings, Bal knelt on the ground, raised his hands above his head, and shouted.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! My fish!”