BXBX NOVEL Chapter 86 - 60: Innate Talent_1
Several days later, in the Blackwater River.
In a place where the muddy waters spread like marshland.
Within the murky dark water, a faint green light flickered.
A Green Fish, nine feet long and almost ten feet in length, was engaged in a fierce battle with a fat, black-bellied and white-stomached catfish.
This fat catfish was only six feet long, but its body was extremely wide and chubby, resembling an overturned large water jar with rows of sharp spikes in its mouth, akin to a rasp, which were the catfish’s unique teeth.
Although its body was bulky, its movements weren’t clumsy. On the contrary, it was very agile, churning the muddy waters fiercely.
But its opponent was even more remarkable, covered in scales and armor, shining with a bright green light. With a nine-foot body that seemed to possess the strength of a Jiao Dragon, capable of turning rivers and seas, its strength and speed surpassed that of the fat catfish.
After an intense struggle, the catfish was covered with wounds, with all sorts of scars across its black skin and white belly from bites, slaps, and head-on collisions.
In contrast, the Green Fish appeared vibrant, with its Green Jade Scales sleek as new, showing no sign of damage.
“Gurgle gurgle!”
Although it was at the end of its tether, being a carnivorous species with extreme ferocity, the fat catfish lunged forward once more, biting towards its opponent’s tail spine.
However, the Green Fish turned its body like a dragon, and with a forceful flick of its tail, it smacked the thousand-pound catfish away, dazing it and leaving it unable to regain control.
Afterward, it no longer wasted time. It whipped its body, charging headfirst. Its nine-foot form shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, along with a burst of surrounding water, heavily crashing into the snow-white and fatty belly of the catfish.
The belly of the fat catfish was truly remarkable; as big as a drum, thick with fat, and its outer skin incomparably tough and extremely slippery. Ordinary attacks landing on it wouldn’t harm the fish but rather risk getting entangled by its belly, being tightly twisted like dough, or directly repelled, leaving the attacker either dead or injured.
It was the catfish version of the “Cotton Belly” martial arts!
But at this moment, faced with the opponent’s head charging like a cannonball, its catfish belly was of no use. There was no chance of entanglement or repelling; it couldn’t even dissipate or transfer the force of the attack. It was directly hit, its innards shattered and its backbone and fish bones crushed.
“Blurp blurp!”
Blood spurted out, and within the muddy water, one less of the five overlords remained.
Xu Yang didn’t dare to delay and leapt forward, feasting heartily.
In terms of taste, catfish is a species whose quality can vary greatly. The delicious ones are extremely good, while the distasteful ones are extremely bad, affected by water quality, environment, and diet, among other factors.
Luckily, the water of the Blackwater River was quite good, resulting in the meat of this catfish being of high quality too—rich but not greasy, without any earthy or rotten smell. Instead, it was tender and sweet, a true delicacy. It was delicious just like the previously consumed Lobster King, each having their own merits.
“Gurgle… not bad!”
After satisfying his hunger, Xu Yang laid down again, flipping onto his belly and drifting with the waves.
The Green Fish was large-bodied and preferred tranquility over activity, especially after eating when it just wanted to lie down.
Although Xu Yang’s consciousness was in absolute control, his bodily instincts still had some influence on him.
As a result, he had become much lazier recently, often sleeping after eating, like a salted fish.
But fortunately, this was limited to this body; his main self wasn’t affected.
If this animal instinct were to spread to his main self, turning it into a salted fish as well, that would be a major problem.
While lying on his belly and drifting with the waves, enjoying the post-meal relaxation, Xu Yang was also contemplating his next move.
The five overlords of the deep waters, the easiest to deal with, the Red-back Lobster King, and the Black-skinned Fatty Catfish, had been taken care of, leaving the Giant Turtle, the Electric Eel, and the Scaly Snake as the three tough nuts to crack.
Who would be the next target?
The Giant Turtle?
That creature was like a small hill, its shell so unimaginably hard that he would likely not be able to bite through it even if it just stood there and let him chew.
The Electric Eel was even less approachable.
Ordinary electric eels were killers in the water; this Demon Monster-level electric eel was certainly so. In Blackwater River, aside from the Giant Turtle, there probably wasn’t any demon monster that could withstand its electric
shock.
Not to mention, these creatures liked to swarm. Apart from the Demon Monster-level Electric Eel King, there was also a bunch of Spirit Monsters and Alien Beast-level large electric eels. Should they gather and discharge electricity together, even the Giant Turtle would turn tail and flee.
And the Scaly Snake?
No, no, that creature possessed a deadly poison and was also gregarious. It commanded a group of Spirit Monster and Alien Beast-level venomous water snakes. Although they may not be able to bite through his Green Jade Scales, they were still highly dangerous.
Xu Yang thought and thought, and eventually realized that of the remaining three, none were easy to bully.
It was to be expected—if they were easy to bully, they would have been wiped out long ago and not have made it to this day.
In fact the Lobster King and the Fatty Catfish were also troublesome. The lobster shell and claws, the belly and mouth of the catfish, were all formidable in offense and defense. It was just that he had a counter for them…
Wait, a counter?
Xu Yang’s eyes hardened, and he suddenly had an epiphany.
All things in nature, all living beings, have their checks and balances!
Every creature had its strengths and also its weaknesses.
As long as he exploited their strengths and avoided their weaknesses to strike their vital points, he could easily resolve dangerous enemies.
Take the Lobster King and the Fatty Catfish as examples; their strengths were the lobster shell and claws, and the catfish belly and mouth.
The lobster shell and catfish belly served as defense, which were broken through by Xu Yang’s sharp fangs and the power of Fish-Dragon Form, while the lobster claws and catfish mouth were countered by the Green Jade Scales, unable to breach his defense.
This was a case of biological counters.
Without such counters, and simply comparing raw strength and speed, they would never have been defeated so swiftly.
Likewise, could Xu Yang find a way to counter the Giant Turtle, the Electric Eel, and the Scaly Snake?
If it were ordinary demon monsters or Green Fish, then certainly there would be no way.
After all, the various advantages of a creature are innate, born with them. To change them later in life would require thousands of years of evolution and reproduction through generations—it simply wasn’t possible to achieve overnight.
But Xu Yang was no ordinary demon monster, no ordinary Green Fish!
Form Supplementing Form!
Evolve and grow!
He would give himself the abilities to resist poison and electricity, to tackle that group of electric eels and scaly snakes.
The electric eels and scaly snakes’ most fearsome traits were their electric shock and deadly poison. Robbed of these two tactics, they would be no different than the Lobster King and the Fatty Catfish—simpler to deal with than one might think.
So, how to gain abilities to resist poison and electricity?
Xu Yang pondered for a moment, then turned around and disappeared into the darkness of the water.
After only a short while, he caught a big fish with a dark green back and a snow-white belly.
This was… a pufferfish!
Over the past few years, Xu Yang had tried almost every type of fish, turtle, shrimp, and crab in the Blackwater River.
The only thing he hadn’t tried was a pufferfish.
No way around it, this thing was highly poisonous; who would want to deliberately make themselves uncomfortable?
Moreover, Xu Yang was not entirely sure whether the “Form Supplementing Form” would grant him poison resistance.
After all, it was about supplementing form, not adaptive evolution. Eating pufferfish in excess did not guarantee enhanced poison resistance; it could instead fortify other aspects, such as the pufferfish’s shape, or its ability to bloat its body.
All of these were possibilities.
Therefore, Xu Yang hadn’t actively consumed pufferfish to boost his poison resistance over the years.
But now he wanted to give it a try, since he had practiced the Fish-Dragon Transformation, his constitution was robust, he could afford to risk it.
Just a small pufferfish, it surely couldn’t poison to death his demon monster level Fish-Dragon Form… right?
Looking at the alien beast level big pufferfish in his hand, Xu Yang hesitated for a while before deciding to let it go and caught a regular pufferfish to bring back.
Then…
“Gurgle!”
A single bite, crunch crunch, and then he swallowed it.
With his current size, a regular pufferfish was too small, hardly different from a slice of sashimi.
“Seems like… I don’t feel anything?”
After eating the pufferfish, he waited for a while, but no reaction occurred.
Seeing this, Xu Yang became bolder, turning around and catching a big alien beast level pufferfish.
“Crunch crunch!” “Hmm… seems like there’s a bit of a sensation now, let’s have more!”
“Crunch crunch crunch!”
Xu Yang swam a circuit in the deep waters, devouring several alien beast pufferfish.
Then…
“Gurgle gurgle!”
He felt the world spin, stars danced before Xu Yang’s eyes, and he flipped over onto his back, his belly facing upward as he floated towards the surface.
He felt the effects!
However, being of Fish-Dragon Form, his physical strength was formidable. Xu Yang quickly regained consciousness and, powering through discomfort, found a secluded spot to lay low, closed his fish eyes, and deeply fell asleep.
Thus, three months later.
In the Blackwater River…
Numerous alien beasts and even Spirit Monsters fled in panic, trying to escape the terrifying figure glowing with an eerie green light behind them.
But how could they escape faster than this apex predator? In an instant, a Spirit Monster level pufferfish was overtaken by the green glow, its head bitten off and devoured with relish.
In a blink, the Spirit Monster pufferfish, the size of a small grinding wheel, was eaten clean.
Not satisfied, it then turned around, attacked, and bit a pitch-black water snake.
“Crunch crunch crunch!”
Xu Yang munched on spicy strips while calling up his Attribute Panel.
Xu Yang
Species: Green Fish (Dragon Species)
Cultivation: Skin and Flesh Realm
Lifespan: 4/99
Skills: Swimming, Eating, Breathing, Sleeping, Taoist Skills, Martial Arts…
Cultivation Technique: Martial Arts Scripture Fish-Dragon Transformation.
Talents: Green Jade Scales, Fish-Dragon Form, Immunity to All Poisons.
Overall, not much had changed, only a new “Talents” section had been added.
What are talents?
According to Xu Yang’s understanding, these were the innate abilities of alien beasts, which were not skills, couldn’t be honed into traits, and could only be cultivated like a Cultivation Technique or improved through “growth” and “devouring.”
As for whether these could be transferred to his main body, he did not know yet since he had not experimented.
In general, these talent abilities seemed to be unique to “alien beasts” and closely related to the growth of their bloodlines—the purer and richer the bloodline, the stronger the talents.
Presently, Xu Yang had awakened three talents: Green Jade Scales, Fish-Dragon Form, and Immunity to All Poisons.
Green Jade Scales was a talent he had obtained through his own growth, Fish-Dragon Form was the result of practicing Fish-Dragon Transformation and devouring Dragon Blood, and Immunity to All Poisons was the hard-earned result of his recent “Form Supplementing Form” endeavors.
During these three months, he had eaten pufferfish, gnawed on poisonous snakes, and occasionally ventured into the territory of Scaly Snake to provoke its underlings, experiencing the sensation of snake venom injection. Thus, with Heaven’s fair retribution, he finally reaped his rewards.
Talent – Immunity to All Poisons!
It specifically countered poisons!
Scaly Snake, here I come!
Xu Yang let out a long howl, wriggled his body, and headed straight for the snake’s den..