https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-168-A-Mere-Hundred-Dragons-Slain/12544004/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-170-Too-Much-to-Spend-Simply-Too-Much/12544006/
Chapter 169: The Elusive Hidden-Scale Fish
Chapter 169: The Elusive Hidden-Scale Fish
Calm and unmoving, the Water Dragon spirit beast remained still as the young cultivators stared at it intently. Lu Chen adjusted his breathing and drew out the Silver Splitter.
The short, silver-white blade of the sword slowly pierced into the dragon's abdomen.
Although the Water Dragon was a second-grade dragon, its abdomen was unprotected by scales, and it was not renowned for its defense. As such, piercing it with the first-grade Silver Splitter wasn't overly difficult.
Lu Chen gripped the hilt of the silver-white blade tightly and slowly but firmly made an incision.
Then, he probed the wound with his spiritual sense, searching meticulously through every muscle and bone.
"Got you!"
In a certain spot within the Water Dragon's body, Lu Chen's spiritual sense detected a slight abnormality, even though it appeared no different from the surrounding flesh. Without hesitation, he controlled that small abnormality, quickly extracting it from the Water Dragon's body before it could react.
A strange fish appeared on the ground.
The fish was about a foot long, with an elongated body that was semi-transparent. Within its body was only a single black lateral line, and on its head was a nearly transparent, large suction cup.
"What is this?"
"There really was another beast inside the dragon! Good eye, Brother Lu!"
The surrounding cultivators exclaimed in surprise as they saw the strange fish emerge from the Water Dragon's body.
Lu Chen remained silent. He took a piece of demon beast meat from a nearby bucket and placed it in front of the strange fish.
The fish, sensing an opportunity for survival, wriggled its body and swiftly burrowed into the meat.
"If I found you once, I can find you again," Lu Chen said coldly as he easily extracted the fish from the meat.
He had brought out the demon beast meat for two reasons: to prove to the other cultivators that this fish possessed the ability to possess and parasitize other beasts, and to take this opportunity to learn more about the strange fish.
A thought flashed through his mind.
【Hidden-Scale Fish, a first-grade demon beast. Weak in attack power but excels in stealth within water. Non-toxic and edible.】
【Usually parasites within water-attributed demon beasts. During their larval stage, the newly hatched Hidden-Scale Fish will seek an opportunity to enter the host's body through its orifices, silently merging with the host's body and absorbing its essence, blood, and flesh.】
"Hmm???"
Lu Chen was stunned when he first read this information.
"Brother Lu, what is this strange fish? How did such a large fish get inside the dragon's body?"
The others, though they also raised dragons and pythons in the Thousand Dragon Lake, prioritized their cultivation above all else. The rearing of these beasts was merely a means to earn Sword Seals.
As such, their understanding of spirit beasts was not particularly deep.
Lu Chen paused for a moment before deciding to tell them the truth.
"This strange fish is called a Hidden-Scale Fish. I've read about it in a book. It usually parasitizes water-attributed demon beasts and feeds on their essence, blood, and flesh."
"As for how it enters the host's body..."
"As far as I know, it enters through the host's orifices."
The faces of the crowd showed confusion as they looked at the Hidden-Scale Fish still struggling on the ground, and they couldn't help but feel a chill down their spines.
"But why didn't we find it? These dragons and pythons have been raised by us since they were young, and we occasionally check their bodies, but we've never found any trace of this fish."
One of the cultivators asked, puzzled.
"It's simple," Lu Chen replied. "The Hidden-Scale Fish has extremely strong stealth capabilities. It merges almost seamlessly with its host, and the only way to detect it is by using your spiritual sense to search slowly and meticulously at close range."
"As for the dragons, although they may sense that their essence, blood, and flesh are slowly being drained, they cannot detect the presence of the Hidden-Scale Fish due to its parasitic abilities."
"What kind of harm can the Hidden-Scale Fish, parasitic inside the dragon's body, do to the dragon?"
The people nearby pricked up their ears simultaneously, their attention focused on Lu Chen as this was also the question burning in their minds.
After all, each cultivator present had at least several dozen dragons and pythons under their command. If the Hidden-Scale Fish caused significant damage to their dragons, they would be in deep trouble.
"The harm isn't too severe," Lu Chen replied reassuringly. "It mainly affects the growth of the dragon and doesn't threaten its life."
The cultivators breathed a collective sigh of relief upon hearing this answer.
The young cultivator removed the golden ring from the Water Dragon's body, and a faint spiritual light emanated from the pale white dragon, covering the wound left by Lu Chen.
After self-treating its injury, the Water Dragon looked in Lu Chen's direction and let out a grateful roar.
Lu Chen watched as it disappeared beneath the water's surface, then snapped back to attention and continued drawing blood and inspecting the remaining dragons and pythons.
Fortunately, no new Hidden-Scale Fish appeared in the subsequent dragons, much to the relief of the young cultivators.
"Thank you for your hard work, Brother Lu," one of them said, handing Lu Chen a black cloth bag filled with a substantial number of spirit stones.
"You're too kind, Brother," Lu Chen replied.
"Although I discovered the Hidden-Scale Fish, there's no guarantee that there aren't other hidden creatures. I'll have to take the dragon's essence blood back to my cave and study it further," he added.
Lu Chen gave them a few instructions, smiling as he accepted the cloth bag. With his wealth of experience, he immediately noticed that the weight of the bag felt slightly off—it was noticeably heavier than the number of spirit stones the cultivator had mentioned.
He tucked the bag into his storage bag.
"Brother Lu, please take a look at mine first!"
"Brother Lu, look at mine! My dragons are the closest to this location!"
"Fellow disciples, don't worry. I'll inspect them all thoroughly," Lu Chen said gently.
With the dual temptation of spirit stones and dragon essence blood, how could he refuse?
He randomly selected a cultivator, who beamed with delight, and they headed towards the waters where the cultivator's dragons were kept.
With the experience from earlier, Lu Chen's blood-drawing inspection proceeded at a faster pace.
Out of the several dozen dragons and pythons, none exhibited any abnormal conditions.
Lu Chen wasted no time and quickly moved on to the next cultivator's dragons, his enthusiasm and energy unwavering.
Witnessing this, the cultivators were deeply touched, believing that Lu Chen was genuinely concerned about the well-being of their fellow disciples' spiritual beasts. Any previous unpleasantness was completely forgotten.
In this manner, Lu Chen tirelessly inspected all the dragons and pythons at a high intensity and frequency. In total, eight dragons and pythons were found to be parasitized by the Hidden-Scale Fish.
Each time an abnormality was discovered, the cultivators behind him would voluntarily increase Lu Chen's reward, offering him more spirit stones.
Lu Chen's storage bag gradually filled with dragon essence blood, the bottles and jars piling up to form a small mountain.
"Brother Lu, do you have any insights about these Hidden-Scale Fish?" a cultivator asked.
After drawing blood from the last dragon, Lu Chen had inspected every dragon in that stretch of water.
"I suspect that a captured dragon from the outside world had a Hidden-Scale Fish hiding within it. After being brought to Thousand Dragon Lake, the fish bred and multiplied at the bottom of the lake, slowly choosing their dragon hosts," Lu Chen speculated.
(End of Chapter)
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