Chapter 107: The Serpent-Eyed Youth and the Rosy Boy (Including Bonus Chapter)

“Why can’t you just give me some if you can’t support so many offspring yourselves?” Qing Hu said.

“No way! There’s no chance,” the blue-scaled youth snapped, his teeth clenched in frustration, cheeks puffed out. “I’m trying to help you so you won’t be deceived by the Daoist court, and you’re thinking about my tribe’s descendants?”

“As if you care much about your own offspring,” Qing Hu retorted. “I remember the fish tribe lays eggs and then abandons them. Many fish eggs never even hatch before being eaten by other aquatic creatures. Some of your kind even sell their own eggs and fry, you know?”

“We’re not that kind of fish,” the blue-scaled youth growled through gritted teeth.

“Then what kind of fish are you?” Qing Hu challenged.

“I... we...” The youth stammered.

“Little miss, don’t bully him. It’s not like before anymore. Back when we had the vast Spirit Lake, many eggs hatched successfully. Now our habitat is cramped, and the spiritual energy is insufficient. So very few eggs hatch. Every little fish is precious.”

“But we can trade you some underdeveloped worthless eggs.”

“Just what do you plan to trade with us?”

“We don’t want purple gold coins.”

Another blue-scaled youth approached, slightly older and with a more mature face. He resembled the first, perhaps a relative, both bearing three blue scales on their foreheads—a clan trait of their fish tribe.

“Will this do?” Qing Hu pulled out a handful of small oranges.

“That’s acceptable, but not exactly what we want,” the youth replied.

“How about this?” Qing Hu produced a fist-sized blue beauty clam.

The youth’s eyes lit up.

“Blue beauty clam? How many do you have? For one this size, I can trade you ten fish eggs,” he said eagerly.

“No deal, too few. One hundred eggs,” Qing Hu immediately snapped, pocketing the clam.

“One hundred is too much. Look at our eggs—they’re each as big as a fist. Exchanging a hundred would be a huge loss. I won’t trade then.” The youth displayed one egg, truly the size of a fist, cradled in his hand.

Qing Hu examined it closely. Indeed, a fine egg, brimming with spiritual energy and vitality, though slightly underdeveloped. The hatchling would likely be weak and sickly, destined to become dinner.

“Ten is too few. Thirty, and I’ll trade.”

The youth thought for a moment. The other youth beside him pinched his arm—a signal that his younger cousin was about to lose control. Blue beauty clams could enhance the bloodline and foundation of their demon-like tribe, making them precious treasures for their young fish tribe.

Unfortunately, blue beauty clams were rare and hard to find. But considering the other party commanded a school of light swordfish, finding several clams might be normal.

“Thirty is a bit much. How about twenty?”

“Twenty won’t do, thirty it is.” Qing Hu grew impatient.

“Alright, thirty eggs for one clam. How many do you have?”

“Ten.”

“Okay, wait a moment. I’ll give you three hundred eggs.” The youth pulled out a small storage shell. “But you must return this shell to me.”

“This shell looks pretty good. How about I trade you an extra blue beauty clam if you give me this shell?” Qing Hu took the shell and examined it. It could house aquatic creatures, and best of all, had its own spring water source.

With this shell, she wouldn’t even need her premium beast-taming pouch anymore. Just a necklace with this small white shell—how lovely.

The youth rolled his eyes.

“Three blue beauty clams for one unused storage shell of mine. Its space is twice as big as the one in your hand.”

Qing Hu quickly produced three more blue beauty clams. Thirteen in total, she pushed them into his hand.

The youth was surprised but accepted the clams and handed Qing Hu a small white shell with special patterns.

Qing Hu made a small hole in the shell, tied it with a red cord, and transferred three hundred fish eggs into it, followed by over ten thousand small fish fry from her own stock.

The shimmering scales flowing swiftly made the two blue-scaled youths near her feel their scalps tingle and legs weaken, staring in horror. They couldn’t even form words.

So many sixth-rank light swordfish... This was nearly enough to rival their tribe’s entire strength.

“Little girl, you don’t have to be so terrifying. How can you keep so many sixth-rank light swordfish?”

With so many light swordfish, maybe she could break through limits and evolve a new alien tribe.

In the Eastern Wilderness, distinguishing between ferocious beasts and alien tribes comes down to civilization.

Ferocious beasts live primitively, eating, drinking, mating, and reproducing daily. Even if a tribe is wiped out, they have no regrets; extinction is common here.

Alien tribes have complex origins—some claim bloodlines from beyond the heavens, others are descendants of gods or demons with faint divine blood, resulting in strange appearances. Some emerged after divine or demonic beings fell, their blood seeping into the earth, awakening intelligence in ferocious beasts to evolve into civilizations and humanoid forms.

In short, alien tribes have countless origins. Humans themselves are considered an alien tribe with bloodlines from beyond.

Thus, the Eastern Wilderness’s hostility towards humans is justified; favoring them would be strange.

Qing Hu ignored their horror. After transferring her fish fry, she hung the shell around her neck and asked her fourth brother, who was already looking greedily at them, “Should we steam the fish eggs or braise them?”

“Braise them. I remember big brother has some six-whisker black carp eggs, each the size of a pigeon’s egg. Let’s stew them together.”

The siblings then looked toward their elder brother.

Qing Jin sighed, “Can’t you two eat a little less? We only got about a thousand eggs total. Calculate how many meals you have left—there are only about a hundred left now.”

“Then we’ll dig up more at home. Aren’t there plenty of six-whisker black carp?” Qing Hu said casually.

Qing Jin was helpless.

“Aren’t you afraid of driving the six-whisker black carp to extinction?”

Qing Hu immediately retorted, “They’re nothing like these blue carp. They reproduce incredibly fast, laying five or six hundred eggs at once. Their eggs start hatching immediately. The numbers are huge.”

“You still have six-whisker black carp? Weren’t they wiped out by the human Daoist court long ago?” The blue-scaled youth was surprised, not caring that Qing Hu had revealed her true form, but astonished that the six-whisker black carp still existed.

“Is the Daoist court more voracious than I am?” Qing Hu asked in surprise.

“No. The six-whisker black carp resisted fiercely at first but were gradually hunted down by Daoist experts. When we moved away, everyone said they were extinct,” the youth said.

“No way. We saw six-whisker black carp in Gan Water and Chang Jin Lake—how could they be extinct?” Qing Hu argued. They had only traveled a short distance along the waterway but saw five or six black carp schools.

Between Panlong Territory and East Li Mountain, in underground and surface water veins, there were many black carp schools.

To Qing Hu, extinction was impossible.

“Impossible! Black carp recovered faster than us?” The youth found it unbelievable.

“Whether recovered or not, we saw many black carp schools on our journey. They face no extinction risk.” Near Panlong Territory’s underground water veins alone, black carp numbered over a hundred thousand.

“Are there any among them that can transform into humanoid form?” the youth asked, somewhat lost.

“Never seen one.”

“Then they’ve fully reverted to ferocious beasts?” The youth didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or relieved. The black carp had once bullied the blue-scaled tribe when powerful.

“If you go near Wuding City’s waters, you’ll see them. If you want to help your relatives, you can catch some fry to raise,” Qing Hu suggested.

“Who wants to raise black carp? We can barely keep ourselves alive,” the smaller blue-scaled youth objected.

“Then why inquire about them?” Qing Hu asked, puzzled.

“Ahem...” The smaller youth was speechless.

“Excuse me, if you’re done trading, can we continue trading?” A snake-eyed youth approached, showing interest in Qing Hu’s storage bag.

“You want to trade blue beauty clams too?” Qing Hu asked.

“Yes.”

“What will you trade?”

“Spirit coins?” The youth presented a few pale yellow, somewhat murky crystals.

Qing Hu was speechless. The crystals were crudely formed, full of impurities, shaped like palm-sized discs—worthless junk.

Such trash spirit crystals weren’t worth her using her meager divine energy to refine and extract earth-element energy—it would cost more than it gained.

“I don’t want these,” Qing Hu said disdainfully, making the youth chuckle.

“Alright, maybe you don’t know the benefits,” he said, pocketing the coins and producing a pale pink-white fruit about the size of a palm, shaped like a baby sitting cross-legged with two blue-green leaves atop its head.

Qing Hu smelled its fragrance.

“This is called the Pink Baby Fruit. Eating one can promote a cultivator below the Golden Core stage up one major realm within three days. It’s painless and harmless, with no side effects. It strengthens your foundation, so no worries about further advancement,” he explained.

“How many do you have?” Qing Hu’s eyes brightened. This fruit was perfect for her mother.

“One can only be eaten once per being; the second has no effect, and it’s only for cultivators below Golden Core,” he said smiling wryly. “So you can’t just eat several to jump straight to Golden Core. They’re rare, so I need one hundred blue beauty clams for one.”

“Tell me quickly, how many do you have?”

“Five.”

“Give them all.”

“Do you really have five hundred blue beauty clams?” The youth doubted her.

Qing Hu pulled out a copper basin-sized blue beauty clam.

The snake-eyed youth gasped, breath quickening, eyes dazed. Nearby youths with sharp eyes also looked on in stunned disbelief.

This blue beauty clam must be centuries old. They were known for their ability to escape and invisibility, making them legendary treasures rarely obtained.

Qing Hu didn’t know they could fade into invisibility themselves. Her divine perception rendered such tricks useless—a dimensional superiority.

Light swordfish were masters of concealment, even more so after divine modification. If the clam was discovered, it wouldn’t escape or fight; it would only await its fate.

Caught by the swordfish school, the clams had learned to rapidly multiply—one pair could produce thousands of small clams at once.

With Qing Hu’s underwater dojo, the small clams would grow to egg-sized within days. By the time they returned to Panlong Territory, parts of the lakebed would be covered in blue beauty clams.

“How is this clam so big?” The snake-eyed youth was shocked.

“Want it?” Qing Hu asked, ignoring his question.

“Yes.”

“How many Pink Baby Fruits can you trade for it?”

“Cough, cough, this big clam is priceless, especially to me.” The youth eyed the clam nervously, afraid Qing Hu would take it back. “But I only have five Pink Baby Fruits.”

“Anything else?” Qing Hu asked.

“I have a golden wind spirit nectar. Drinking it gives a chance to gain the terrifying ‘Bone-Scraping Wind’ attribute,” the youth said, handing over a small copper-green vial. “I got twenty drops in a near-death adventure.”

“Deal.” Qing Hu agreed generously.

She handed the nectar to her fourth brother.

Qing Jin happily accepted the precious item. It was worth all the secret feasts Qing Hu had enjoyed with him before.

After the trade, Qing Hu quickly bit into a Pink Baby Fruit. “Tastes good, a bit small. Cough, cough, don’t feel any cultivation boost?”

“It’s a slow, lasting growth over three days. If your cultivation doesn’t rise a realm in that time, it could mean your foundation is too strong or your body absorbed all the fruit’s power, possibly causing a qualitative change or a physical upgrade,” the youth explained.

“Qualitative change seems unlikely, but I feel it’s good for the body,” Qing Hu said, pleased.

This fruit would save her months of reckless eating and hasten her third physical transformation.

Her constitution had improved from extremely weak to weak, then to normal mortal. Another transformation would make her a first-stage robust mortal, likely helping her grow taller.

“Is the fruit really tasty?” Qing Jin didn’t hold back and took a bite. “No cultivation increase either, but the medicinal power seems to nourish my organs and bones.”

“Same here, big brother,” Qing Hu said.

“You two have good physical potential. The fruit’s power is absorbed to improve your bodies first. Though it can boost cultivation by a realm, if your physique is promising, it prioritizes physical improvement. With a body transformation, your future path widens,” the snake-eyed youth said happily. If not for needing to qualify for the Xuantian Tower, he’d have consumed that big clam immediately.

The clam would help him trace his bloodline ancestors, enhancing his talent and lineage.

He had already cried out in excitement several times silently.

Nearby youths cast envious, jealous glances at him.

Ning Qi looked on enviously—Pink Baby Fruit was rare; seeing one here was unexpected.

“You’re really lucky. This fruit can be unseen in human territories for decades,” the youth said.

“This fruit grows in our tribe’s lands. It’d be strange if you saw it often. Our tribe rarely trades such treasures,” the youth said. “If not for trading blue beauty clams, I wouldn’t have brought it out.”

“Leave your contact info. Maybe we can trade again,” Qing Hu offered. She liked the fruit; even if it didn’t boost cultivation anymore, it was good for the body—she lacked physique, not anything else.

The snake-eyed youth’s expression shifted oddly.

“I only trade Pink Baby Fruit for good stuff.”

“Of course,” Qing Hu smiled. “If you have better things, come find me. I have plenty of good stuff. How about white-bellied snake dragon blood essence? I have three drops.” These were trophies from light swordfish during their stay in the mysterious sea domain.

The swordfish contributed things they valued highly.

The snake-eyed youth immediately became well-behaved. “Yes.”

“What else do you have?”

The youth sighed, conflicted and regretful. “Let me check with my tribe’s elders after I return and borrow some treasures for trade.”

“Who has time to wait? After the Xuantian Tower challenge, we’ll leave,” Qing Hu said, her expression darkening.

No good treasures, no messing around.

“Can I know where you live? I’ll bring treasures to trade,” the youth timidly asked.

“Hey, tell him how to get to our place,” Qing Hu said, pulling her elder brother over. She rarely memorized directions since she could return anytime using the dojo’s energy reserves.

Qing Jin sighed, “Do you know how to get to East Li Pass? Past the pass, walk west about four hundred miles—that’s my home, Panlong Territory. Or you can buy a map of the nearby human lands at East Li Pass to clearly find us.”

“I’ll definitely come. Save me a drop of white-bellied snake dragon blood essence,” the youth pleaded sadly.

“Better hurry. I can’t keep it long; it loses potency over time,” Qing Hu said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll prepare quickly and find you. Just save it for three months; I’ll arrive within that time,” the youth said.

“When does Xuantian Tower open? I need to calculate when I can return,” Qing Hu asked.

“In a few days. It stays open about three months, but most attempt it when it first opens for better rewards. After finishing, most leave. I’ll leave early too,” he explained.

“Alright, it’s settled then. I’ll save it for you,” Qing Hu nodded.

The youth smiled brightly.

“Can we trade for a drop of snake dragon blood essence too?” The blue-scaled youths finally recovered and showed interest.

“What treasures do you have?” Qing Hu asked.

“Spirit coins?” The blue-scaled youth asked timidly.

“Goodbye,” Qing Hu said, uninterested. Spirit coins were useless to her.

—Author’s note—

This is an extra chapter for the Lantern Festival. I’m running out of steam. Going out to eat tomorrow; updates depend on the situation.

Le Wen