Cheng Xinzhan had not lied. In the baleful lair, the skin of his body had been burned away by true baleful intent, and the scale he kept against his chest had stuck to his flesh. When new skin grew, it enclosed the end of the scale containing the marrow cavity, which connected to his meridians and blood vessels and took root.
It was as though the scale had always belonged on his chest.
What puzzled him even more was that, while dispelling the true baleful intent in his body and cleansing his hundred apertures, he discovered that the scale seemed to have become an aperture of his own!
This aperture did not belong to the human Dao body and had never been mentioned in the Celestial Circuit Hundred-Aperture Inner Landscape Scripture. He did not know what use it had or how to open it.
The green dragon leaned over to look, blinking her large eyes. Of course, she could make nothing of it either. She merely nodded, indicating that he need not return it.
Cheng Xinzhan took something from inside his robes. He had brought it especially for today.
It was a white jade bottle, slightly translucent, through which the bloody glow within could be seen.
"This seems to be a Brocade Dragon's heart's blood. See whether it's of any use to you."
He held it out to the green dragon.
But at the sight of it, she backed far away and flicked her tail, signaling for him to take it away at once. She even breathed out, making a fire-blowing gesture.
Cheng Xinzhan understood. She was saying she feared fire.
He had expected this. The green dragon should be water-aligned and might not want this drop of heart's blood, but he had taken it out to ask anyway. After