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.
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