I Became the Alchemy Master by Picking Up Trash-Chapter 215 - 213: Xi Yuan Tournament (Part 39)

Ye Qingting was pondering when a scream interrupted his thoughts.

"Ah, damn—!"

Cui Tianxiao’s face contorted in pain, clutching his left hand tightly, with blood dripping from the gaps between his fingers.

"What happened?"

"Something bit me!"

Everyone gathered around as Ye Qingting pried open Cui Tianxiao’s hand to see a half-inch-long wound on the palm, like it was cut with a sharp blade—clean and deep, exposing the tendons.

Blood dripped into the lake, and the calm surface suddenly started boiling like a pot.

Qi Ming pointed at the lake, exclaiming, "It’s fish! Look, transparent fish!"

With his reminder, everyone finally noticed there were many thumb-sized flat little fish in the water, spurred by the scent of blood, darting around this area.

The tiny fish were transparent throughout, with silver eyes, bones, and internal organs. It took careful discernment to spot them in the shimmering water.

Several transparent fish were greedily devouring the filthy blood and remnants washed off by the Defiance Team from the Red Fierce Ants.

When they encountered slightly larger debris, the transparent fish swam rapidly around it, using sharp, blade-like dorsal fins to carve the debris into bite-sized pieces. The fin that slashed Cui Tianxiao’s palm just now must have belonged to a fish moving rapidly. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Li Xing frowned; just a bit of blood and debris attracted so many transparent fish—how dense must they be throughout the entire Turquoise Pool?

Although she wasn’t a pessimist, the encounters since the competition started forced her to prepare for the worst.

——————

The camera relayed the image of the transparent fish back to the live broadcast, and the host, seeing the small fish only about an inch long, didn’t pay much attention.

"These little fish are completely transparent and don’t look threatening at all."

Lin Zhian: "On the contrary, they are more dangerous than Heaven Rank Water Beasts."

The host was shocked: "Ah? This..."

"These fish have flat bodies as sharp as blades, moving in swarms, turning any Water Beast into a skeleton wherever they go. That’s why they’re called Bone Scrapers."

The host was greatly alarmed: "So, so this is the Bone Scraper, the most dangerous of the freshwater Water Beasts?"

Goodness, how misleading are the images in the Water Star Beast Encyclopedia? They don’t even specify magnification, and all these years, Zhou Jun thought Bone Scrapers were giant fish capable of swallowing a person whole.

Understanding the origin of the transparent fish, the host was troubled too: "This means both teams’ chances of swimming to the island are gone."

Lin Zhian adjusted his glasses and stared silently at the live broadcast screen. With the appearance of Bone Scrapers, this competition was tougher than regular military drills; he really wondered if the event organizers had conducted a field survey in advance.

——————

At that moment, to the southwest of the Turquoise Pool, Chen Qi paced back and forth along the shore, feeling agitated.

He bore many blade-like scratches on his body, though the bleeding had stopped, the bloodstains on his battle suit were chilling to behold.

"I just can’t understand how such tiny fish, swimming in swarms, could be as powerful as the Sky Wind Annihilation Array of Chu Yunyi? If I had swum a bit slower earlier, I’d be having a taste of Meng Po Soup by now!"

The Desert Boat Team was the first to arrive at the Turquoise Pool. Since the brothers and sisters of the Shangguan family weren’t adept with the Wind Rolling Dust Formation, the team decided to swim across the lake.

To avoid potential attacks from large aquatic beasts, Bai Ling designated Chen Qi, the most physically fit and fastest, as the vanguard, having him swim out a distance first to scout ahead. This decision saved the Desert Boat Team from annihilation.

Chen Qi hadn’t even swum a hundred meters when a swarm of transparent little fish surrounded him, darting rapidly around his body, with their sharp dorsal fins slicing through his skin like razor blades.

The blood quickly stained the lake water red, and the taste of blood made the little fish even more frenzied, scrapping Chen Qi ferociously. He hurriedly enveloped himself with Earth Elemental Spirit, but the little fish’s dorsal fins could even cut through the petrified layer formed by Elemental Power. Alarmed, Chen Qi desperately swam back to the shore, a bloody mess by the time he emerged.

Chen Qi recounted the attack by the transparent fish swarm to his teammates, and Bai Ling immediately deduced that these tiny fish were the notorious "Bone Scrapers."

With such Star Beasts in the lake, swimming across posed a significant risk.

They had been here for several hours, unable to devise a strategy against the Bone Scrapers. The Lake Heart Island was right before them, yet they couldn’t reach it, causing much frustration!

Suddenly, Bai Ling’s eyes lit up and she asked, "Chen Qi, take out the Longtooth Warthog you caught this morning."

Chen Qi opened the space button, and a large, boar-like Star Beast appeared on the ground. The shoulder and hindquarters had been roasted and eaten, but it was mostly intact.

"We can peel off the Longtooth Warthog’s skin and make a raft!"

Chen Qi shook his head, "No way, even a hint of meat smell will lure those damned things over."

Bai Ling, confident in her idea, patiently explained, "We’ll singe off the hairs and flesh from the skin and wash it with my special decoction, which will hide the Longtooth Warthog’s scent to the greatest extent possible. Lin Yuan and Xian Yu can then use a talisman array to envelop the raft as a double insurance."

"If we still can’t fool the Bone Scrapers, we’ll toss chunks of Longtooth Warthog meat into the water to lure them away."

The group thought about it and agreed this strategy might work, considering a distance of twenty kilometers wasn’t too far, and surely the whole Turquoise Pool wasn’t filled with Bone Scrapers. Thus, the Desert Boat Team began preparing the raft following Bai Ling’s plan.

Southeast of the Turquoise Pool, Ye Qingting and Song Shurun were also discussing ways to reach the island.

Song Shurun believed the transparent fish had tiny mouths without teeth, classifying them as scavenging Water Beasts. As long as they avoided debris, the transparent fish wouldn’t mistake them for food and wouldn’t attack.

But Ye Qingting had a different view. If the transparent fish were truly scavengers, why evolve such sharp dorsal fins? In his opinion, the transparent fish were hunters, scavenging only when food was scarce.

Ye Qingting rejected the idea of swimming across the lake but couldn’t think of a better plan. Frustrated, they sought Li Xing once more.

"Ah Xing, what do you think we should do?"

Li Xing was also in a bind; the safest way was to fly across.

Out of the eight of them, only half had mastered flight skills, leaving the rest behind no matter how they split the group.

Putting that aside, even if they managed to bring everyone along, a twenty-kilometer distance was too far without any place to rest halfway.

Once they were exhausted and fell into the deep water, who knows if there were even more dangerous water beasts waiting?

Damn, if the competition allowed using flying devices, would she need to be racking her brain here?

Hmm, flying devices?

Wait, she might have an idea.