1: Reborn Sauerkraut Thunder Dragon

(The main plot of this book is a story about a fish hunting Dragon-Blooded Creatures, devouring them to increase its own Bloodline concentration, and unlocking its Bloodline Legacy.)

Eight Hundred Li Dongting Lake.

Gurgle, gurgle.

A few bubbles emerged from a cave beneath an ordinary pond, bursting into ripples on the surface.

Gao De felt himself being squeezed by heat currents from all directions, a bone-crushing agony.

He wanted to take a deep breath.

A burning pain came from his gills, but the water he inhaled offered no relief.

He wanted to roar wildly, but only strings of bubbles escaped his mouth.

His body was stiff and unresponsive.

He flailed about, his body twisting in a strange manner.

Gradually, the intense burning sensation faded, and a warm current emerged from within his body; his originally rounded form began to lengthen.

Once the changes completely ceased, Gao De regained his senses.

He moved his head with difficulty, examining himself with an extremely unnatural motion.

Did it work?

His originally black, fan-shaped fish tail had become elegant.

It was his own tail, but now it resembled silk.

Two thin whiskers sprouted from his rounded chin.

He could see his current appearance in the reflection on the water's surface.

A pitch-black, streamlined body covered in fine scales, with two golden thin lines running along his sides.

An extraordinary Wuyue.

Brand new sensations flooded his brain like a tide.

Water was not just wet. It was a web carrying countless pieces of information.

The vibration of a water beetle struggling ten feet away.

The faint chemical traces emitted by a rotting leaf.

The rhythmic pulsations caused by other creatures swimming nearby.

【Gao De】

Race: Wuyue

Bloodline: Dragon Fish (2%)

Talent: Hard Scales (White), Breath Concealment (Green)

Skill: Water Arrow Technique (Novice)

His human Soul was trapped in this primitive fish brain; although it had been several days, he still hadn't gotten used to this feeling.

A hunger struck him.

This was not a psychological desire to eat something.

This was the most primitive biological urge, coming from the depths of his Bloodline.

With the evolution of his body came a massive demand for nutrients.

A silver streak flashed past his cave.

It was a small fish, not even as large as his fin.

His body reacted before his thoughts did.

He lunged suddenly.

A clumsy and unrefined surprise attack.

He only bit into a mouthful of water.

The small silver fish vanished in an instant.

The hunger became sharper, turning into thorns in his belly.

He had to eat, or the intense hunger might devour his own body.

At this moment, another fish appeared.

It was a fish with a dark brown body, slightly larger, and much slower.

A small grass carp.

It was pecking at moss on a rock at the bottom of the water, completely unguarded.

Gao De currently had almost no strength to chase it.

He forced himself to stay still, allowing his black scales to blend into the shadow of a giant lotus leaf.

He waited.

The grass carp swayed closer.

Closer.

Now!

A white Water Arrow Technique shot out through the murky water, piercing the grass carp's body directly.

Seeing that he had hit the target, Gao De rushed up immediately.

His jaws clamped down hard on the grass carp's body.

A slight twisting sensation came from his mouth. The feeling of tiny bones being crushed was incredibly clear.

He moved his throat and swallowed it whole.

The fish, still twitching slightly, slid down his esophagus.

A wave of nausea assaulted his human consciousness.

But his fish body only felt satisfaction.

Immediately after, a mutation occurred.

A warm current, different from the pond water, spread from his stomach and instantly flowed throughout his body.

It was a comfortable, vibrant feeling.

Following that, lines of information appeared directly in his mind.

【Devoured: Ordinary grass carp.】

【Obtained Bloodline energy: 0 (Too minuscule to display)】

There was no cold mechanical voice, just... data. Pure information flow appeared in his mind out of thin air.

He digested this information without the slightest shock; he had seen this prompt more than once these past few days.

Ever since he first devoured his siblings hatched at the same time due to hunger, this Golden Finger that came with him had begun to appear in his vision.

He was a fish that could cheat!

Evolution.

Could he... grow limbs again? Transform into a True Dragon?

The hunger struck again.

That was a thirst for power, a greed for evolutionary energy.

He needed more.

He scanned his surroundings, his fish eyes becoming sharp and focused.

The other fish in the pond were not peers or neighbors to him.

They were walking energy packets.

His gaze fell upon another Wuyue.

That fish was almost identical to him, perhaps just a centimeter shorter.

He didn't recognize it; it must have arrived during his evolution.

This semi-open pond was his territory.

These fish were his initial accumulation.

He would devour them, leaving none behind.

He tensed his muscles, preparing to pounce on the unsuspecting kin.

Just as he was about to attack, a huge shadow covered the pond's surface, blocking the sunlight.

Gao De instinctively dived down, hiding under a cluster of dense water plants.

He looked up.

A figure jumped off a flying boat and landed by the pond.

It was a young man wearing a flowing white robe embroidered with cloud patterns, his long hair tied simply on top of his head with a wooden hairpin.

A Cultivator.

The word popped into Gao De's mind; this was an absolute intuition formed after reading a thousand novels in his previous life.

This School-style clothing, this otherworldly temperament. This was a world of cultivation.

And his pond was in the territory of a Cultivator.

This was both a deadly danger and a massive opportunity.

The young Cultivator seemed to be looking at the horizon with an indifferent gaze, as if waiting for someone.

The young Cultivator stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze cast indifferently toward the flowing clouds on the horizon, as if the pond beneath his feet and the billions of living beings within it were nothing more than dirt and dust.

Gao De held his breath—though as a fish, he didn't actually need to. He pressed his body tightly into the gap between the cold silt and water plants, even his two newly grown golden lines seemingly losing their luster. The instinct brought by the Dragon Fish Bloodline (2%) allowed him to perceive the invisible "field" around the white-robed figure better than ordinary aquatic creatures, a pressure that made him tremble from the depths of his Bloodline.

This was not a power he could contend with; he shouldn't even have a single thought of it.

Time passed in silence, with only the faint sound of water ripples lapping against the shore.

Suddenly, the young Cultivator's brows moved slightly, his gaze withdrawing from the clouds and turning to the pond. His gaze was not scanning, but... locking on.

Gao De's heart nearly stopped. Had he been discovered?

No. The Cultivator's gaze fell on the water surface just a few feet away from where Gao De was hiding. There, a fat carp with silver scales was happily playing in the water, making splashing sounds.

"The time has come." The Cultivator muttered to himself, his voice cold and without a ripple.

He did not use any Magical Artifact, just pointed his fingers like a sword and lightly tapped towards that carp.

Whoosh!

A condensed, substantial pale green Qi force shot through the air, accurately piercing the carp's skull. The water surface didn't even ripple much, and the carp stopped all movement, slowly floating to the surface as a smear of bright red quickly spread.

He didn't even take a second look, as if he had just casually cleaned up and crushed an ant.

After doing all this, he looked up at the sky again, resuming his previous posture.

The whole process took no more than three breaths.

Gao De, hiding in the shadows, felt cold fear and burning desire intertwining wildly within him.

Fear of the other's indifference to life, and the terrifying power of that casual finger. Compared to that, his Water Arrow Technique was like a child's toy.

But what he craved was that carp's corpse, and... the faint "aura" emanating from the young Cultivator. That aura came through the water, making the Dragon Fish Bloodline in his body heat up slightly, transmitting a kind of near-greedy palpitation.

【Detected ingestible target: Spirit Carp (Unranked). Contains meager Spiritual Qi.】

【Detected high-energy environment: Long-term activity area of a Cultivator. The water body contains trace amounts of Spiritual Qi, which can be absorbed passively.】

The flow of information appeared in his mind again.

Gao De stared fixedly at the carp corpse floating on the blue stone. That was not ordinary food; that was... a Essence Spirit like himself! Devouring it would surely bring benefits far exceeding ten ordinary grass carp!

His brain was screaming danger, and he stayed pressed to the bottom of the water, not daring to move.

The Cultivator didn't seem to care about this fish; he just "disposed" of it because he found it noisy. His attention was entirely on the horizon, as if waiting for someone or something more important.

On the horizon, a brilliant seven-colored stream of light arrived from afar, accompanied by a clear crane cry, landing steadily by the pond.

The light dissipated, and a female Cultivator dressed in neon clothes, with a stunning appearance, landed gracefully. She looked at the young Cultivator and smiled sweetly: "Senior Brother Wang Jue, sorry to keep you waiting."

Wang Jue's gaze lingered on the female Cultivator for less than an instant before moving away nonchalantly, his voice still cold: "Junior Sister Li is being too polite."

The female Cultivator, known as Junior Sister Li, turned her eyes, and her gaze fell on the faint red smear on the water, as well as the carp floating with its white belly up.

She covered her mouth and giggled, her voice like an oriole leaving the valley: "Senior Brother Wang is still the same, not showing any mercy even to these little things that have just awakened their spiritual intelligence."

"Revered Master has ordered that during the 'Water Purification' period, no Essence Spirit is allowed to grow within a hundred miles of the Sect, so as not to pollute the Spiritual Vein." Wang Jue replied indifferently, as if stating a fact that had nothing to do with him.

Water Purification!

These two words pierced into Gao De's mind like two ice picks.

He understood in an instant.

This Cultivator killed the fish not because he found it noisy, but because he was performing a routine task—cleaning up any creature in the pond that might evolve into a Essence Spirit!

That unlucky silver carp was precisely killed because a trace of Demonic Qi was born in its body.

What about himself?

He not only had the System in his body, but also the 2% Dragon Fish Bloodline! In the eyes of these Cultivators, wouldn't he be the number one target for cleanup?

A chill, far colder than the pond water, rushed from his tail fin to his crown.

This pond was no blessed land; it was a fenced-in slaughterhouse!

"I know, I know, Senior Brother is the most rule-abiding." Junior Sister Li pouted, her tone carrying a bit of helplessness and a bit of familiar closeness, "But then again, this carp looks quite plump; it's a pity to just throw it away like this."

As she spoke, she gestured to cast a spell to fish up the corpse.

Gao De's heart jumped to his throat.

Don't! Absolutely not! That's mine!

Wang Jue frowned imperceptibly: "It's just a mortal fish, tainted with turbid Qi, useless to keep. Revered Master is still waiting for us in the meditation room, don't delay."

His words were few, but they carried an indisputable weight.

Junior Sister Li's extended hand paused, then she retracted it resentfully, muttering: "Fine, fine, I'll listen to Senior Brother. But Senior Brother, this time when Revered Master teaches the 'Qingyuan Sword Technique', you have to go easy on me; last time you ruined my newly bought magic robe during the duel."

"Your skills are inferior." Wang Jue spat out four words and turned to leave, his white robe moving without wind.

"You!" Junior Sister Li stomped her feet in anger, but she was helpless and could only follow quickly, still muttering, "Wang Jue, you wood! Blockhead! You deserve to be single for a lifetime..."

The two figures drifted away, and their figures soon disappeared at the end of the path.

The terrifying pressure that had made Gao De almost unable to move also receded like a tide.

The entire pond returned to deathly silence.

Gao De remained pressed in the silt, motionless, like a piece of rotten dead wood.

He was waiting.

After a full stick of incense time, confirming that the two Cultivators had really gone far away, he slowly, and extremely carefully, poked his head out from the gap in the water plants.

Above the water, the Spirit Carp's corpse was still floating quietly.

A smear of bright red spread around it, and the smell of blood, mixed with a trace of extremely tempting, faint fragrance, drilled into Gao De's nostrils.

That was the smell of Spiritual Qi!

The fear remained.

But a more primitive, more domineering desire had completely overwhelmed the fear.

Evolve! Become stronger!

Only by becoming stronger could he escape the fate of being "purified"!

His human Soul was screaming a warning, telling him this might be a trap.

But his fish instinct, the Dragon Fish gene in the depths of his Bloodline, was roaring wildly, urging him to go forward!

Seek wealth in danger!

No! This is not seeking wealth, this is seeking survival!

A flash of determination crossed Gao De's fish eyes.

He no longer had any hesitation.

With a fierce flick of his tail, his whole body, like a black arrow leaving the bowstring, tore through the water and sped toward the Spirit Carp corpse floating on the water!

He only had one chance!

A moment later, deep in the cave, Gao De pressed tightly against the cold cave wall, swallowing the hard-won "Spirit Carp" in large mouthfuls. The warm current was ten times stronger than when he devoured the grass carp, surging within his body.

【Devoured: Spirit Carp (Unranked).】

【Obtained Bloodline energy: +0.3%】

【Skill "Water Arrow Technique" proficiency increased.】

Power was growing, and fear was settling.

Gao De knew that from this moment on, he was no longer just an ordinary Wuyue struggling to survive in the pond.

His path to dragon transformation had officially begun with this stolen first mouthful of spiritual opportunity. And the Eight Hundred Li Dongting Lake would be the first step for him to officially step into this world.