The electric eel was very docile after drinking the spiritual spring water. When Ye Ju finished pouring the spiritual spring water, the electric eel still looked at Ye Ju eagerly. Ye Ju was a little scared. Since childhood, she had been afraid of slippery snakes. The electric eel looked like a snake, and it was so big and frightening. Her voice stampered, "No~ no more spiritual spring water, I'll bring you some next time."
Xiao Bai suddenly whimpered and bared its teeth at the electric eel, looking fierce but harmless.
The electric eel straightened up, glanced at Ye Ju, and then sank into the water, swimming away in an instant. Ye Ju looked bewildered, wondering what had happened.
"Xiao Bai, what did you say to it?"
"Master, I warned it not to fight with me for Master. Master's spiritual spring water must be exchanged for treasures and Blue Scale Fish, not given away for free," Xiao Bai's voice carried a hint of pride.
Did those whimpers express so many meanings? Ye Ju was puzzled. True beasts are powerful, amazing! She gave Xiao Bai a thumbs-up. Although Xiao Bai didn't know what "thumbs-up" meant, Master was definitely praising it! Xiao Bai's tail wagged, clearly overjoyed!
"Splash! The water surface suddenly broke, and several Blue Scale Fish flew out, landing at Ye Ju's feet. They were all six or seven catties in weight. Ye Ju hastily used her ice blade to freeze them. It turned out the electric eel had brought up the fish with its tail. Xiao Bai jumped happily beside her, with suspicious drool at the corners of its mouth. The electric eel still held a pearl in its mouth. As if knowing Ye Ju was afraid of it, it spat it directly at Ye Ju's feet. The electric eel's head resembled a catfish, but it had three-centimeter-high horns on its head. Its blue eyes were as small as those of an electric eel on Earth. After spitting out the pearl, the small blue eyes gazed at Ye Ju, as if seeking a reward.
Ye Ju looked at the electric eel, as thick as a python and as thick as a water bucket, and kept reassuring herself: it's a fish, just a slightly larger one.
"Haha, thank you! Thank you for your gift."
"Master~ Master~ This is the inner core of a Blue Scale Fish, and it's even a thousand-year-old Blue Scale Pearl. Blue Scale Fish are strange; they shed their scales every ten years and their inner cores every thousand years. This one is probably at least five thousand years old," Xiao Bai's excited voice almost broke through Ye Ju's eardrums.
Ye Ju picked up the blue bead. It was about the size of a quail egg, warm and smooth like jade in her hand. She sensed it contained strong spiritual energy. Xiao Bai's injuries hadn't fully healed yet; she would feed it to Xiao Bai later.
"Xiao Bai, communicate with it and see if there are any more. I'll exchange spiritual spring water for it."
"Okay, Master!" Xiao Bai's cute, childish voice was adorable.
Xiao Bai whimpered a few times at the electric eel, and the electric eel nodded humanly. Ye Ju felt a headache coming on, this thing had become sentient. This world was truly fantastical!
"Master, this fierce beast says there's a lot in the water and told us to go get it ourselves." After saying that, it jumped into the water, looking at Ye Ju eagerly, practically impatient.
"Xiao Bai..."
Ye Ju raised an eyebrow, having good reason to suspect Xiao Bai was setting a trap, but there was no evidence. She put her things away and jumped into the water, foolishly following the fish and beast ahead. She no longer felt afraid; there were treasures! Her eyes sparkled just like Xiao Bai's. She dived to about ten meters deep. The water was very clear, and all sorts of fish could be seen. Groups of Blue Scale Fish, big and small, swam back and forth. Now she knew that if they didn't try to catch them, the Blue Scale Fish wouldn't go berserk; they were indeed quite docile.
Ye Ju discovered she could breathe underwater... Thinking that Xiao Bai was a Dragon Fox, it must be due to Xiao Bai!
"Xiao Bai, is it because of you that I can breathe underwater!" Ye Ju communicated with Xiao Bai using her consciousness.
"Yes, Master. I am a descendant of a dragon and a fox, possessing the water control ability of the dragon race. We have a soul contract, so we can use each other's innate skills. Master can also have water control abilities."
No wonder Xiao Bai didn't remind Ye Ju before entering the pool. This little guy probably thought Ye Ju already knew. It didn't know her master was a novice in cultivation.
Ye Ju recalled that the ice blade Xiao Bai used was the same as hers. Was her innate skill ice spiritual power! Then she could also use healing spells! Because Xiao Bai's other innate skill was healing. She thought of the white energy element in her Dantian's Qi Sea and decided to try it out later! She had hit the jackpot! She had gained another life-saving skill!
The pool was very deep. Ye Ju's dog-paddling swimming technique from school was too slow. The electric eel suddenly turned back. Ye Ju was startled, her heart skipped a beat: Had she fallen into this monster's trap, lured into the water to be electrocuted to death! Before she could regain her senses, it coiled its tail around her and she was riding on its head. The speed suddenly increased. Ye Ju exclaimed, leaning back, barely managing to grab its horns, and almost choked on water. Wasn't this thing a fish? Huh, why was its tail coiling around someone like a snake? When she adapted to its speed, Ye Ju had the mood to look around.
The pool was shaped like a gourd, narrow at the water surface. At a depth of ten meters, it suddenly opened up, and its width was visually estimated to be twice the area of the surface. Descending further for thirty meters, it suddenly narrowed, and she could see all sorts of fish swimming through the gaps in the rock walls on both sides. It was incredibly beautiful with all the colors! Now descending to about fifty meters, nearing the bottom of the pool, the view suddenly became more expansive. The bottom of the pool was about the size of three basketball courts, three times the area of the surface.
As she went deeper, the bottom of the pool was uneven, with strange rocks everywhere. Strangely, the water was very bright, with unknown aquatic organisms emitting light. Were those red coral trees? Were those white pearls? Whose sea had pearls piled up like that? Weren't they found in shells? Ye Ju was full of questions.
Suddenly, Xiao Bai ahead seemed to have discovered something! It quickly swam to the left and swiped at a clam as big as a frying pan with its paw. The clam shell broke open, revealing tender clam meat. It picked out a pinkish-white pearl and flicked it disdainfully with its paw, causing it to fall into the pile of pearls. Then it ate the meat with a big gulp. Seeing this, Ye Ju finally understood where the pile of pearls came from. They were regular visitors!
"I want them so badly, what should I do?" Ye Ju screamed in her mind. No woman could resist the charm of jewelry, especially not piles of it, so brilliant and radiant, almost blinding.
"Master~ Master~ Do you want these pearls? They're not edible," Xiao Bai, being telepathic with Ye Ju, knew her thoughts and said naively. It didn't understand why Master was so excited; these pearls were just pretty, had no spiritual energy, and tasted nothing.
"I want... I want them, but alas, I have nothing to carry them in?" Ye Ju looked depressed.
"Master, I have a way." After saying that, Xiao Bai swam over and inhaled, and the piles of pearls disappeared. It turned out they were collected in the Dragon Fox's spiritual space. This was also a unique skill of the dragon race. Dragons had a penchant for collecting treasures; they loved anything shiny and glittering, and without space skills, how could they store treasures? Xiao Bai hadn't inherited this habit from its father's line, but the dragon's innate skills were all passed down.
Ye Ju was truly impressed with Xiao Bai. What luck! The spirit beast she had casually contracted was so awesome! She was rich! From now on, she would have a place to hide treasures! Ye Ju tugged at the electric eel's horns, signaling it to stop. She directed Xiao Bai to collect them all.
After Xiao Bai collected all the glowing pearls, it swam forward with the electric eel and entered a two-meter-wide cave entrance, arriving at the electric eel's lair, which was also a cavern, half the size of a basketball court. The ground was covered in blue pearls. The electric eel set Ye Ju down, nudged Ye Ju with its head, signaling Ye Ju to take the pearls.
Xiao Bai could no longer wait; it had already grabbed blue pearls and swallowed them. If one looked closely, they would notice that the pearls in front of Xiao Bai disappeared rather quickly. However, after a while, Xiao Bai fell asleep. Ye Ju was startled and quickly picked it up, using her spiritual power to check. She discovered that it had too much spiritual energy and had fallen asleep from eating too much! This was a glutton!
Ye Ju couldn't bother with anything else. Now that she knew the electric eel had no ill intentions towards her, she pointed, indicating she wanted to return to the surface. The electric eel nodded, then carried Ye Ju and sped out of the water. Ye Ju patted the electric eel, having overcome her fear of it. She told it she would bring it more spiritual spring water next time and waved goodbye. She then packed her things and returned to the wooden house.