Chapter 117: The Ambition to Become the World's Banzhu

At this moment, he truly understood where the negative effects of the Martial Stone lay, and at the same time was glad he hadn't recklessly eaten it directly.

Otherwise, he couldn't guarantee what would happen.

It was just a pity, though — this poor Tu Yihao and its kin were gone just like that.

Shaking his head, Baichuan didn't pay it much mind, merely dragged it out and buried it.

He didn't dare casually eat a creature with collapsed genes — what if a genetic infection occurred, he'd have nowhere to cry.

The next day, the seventh day of the total waiting Time, he woke in the early morning to a crisp sound.

Then he saw a mottled tiger emerge, its two eyes green with hunger.

At the same time, he also saw from its body an intense magnetic field reaction, emitted because of the electric current.

Baichuan wasn't surprised by this, because he himself was the same after every evolution.

He directly tossed the food he had long prepared beside this ravenous tiger, and immediately saw it wolf it down.

Five minutes later, the little tiger, having eaten all the food, slowly raised its head and stared at Baichuan while licking its tongue.

At this moment, Baichuan saw a trace of ill intent in its eyes, along with a strong eagerness to try.

He knew well that this little kitty had probably gained new power and was starting to get cocky, thinking it was something.

Since that was the case, he ought to sober it up, and at the same time test its strength.

Thinking of this, Baichuan narrowed his sharp eyes, gazing intently at the kitty that was overestimating itself.

But just then, the tiger leapt in a few bounds to the Martial Stone's side and nuzzled my claws with its head in a fawning manner.

"Hm?"

The Martial Stone was stunned, then laughed helplessly — looks like that fellow hadn't gotten cocky to that extent,

I smiled and extended my claws to pat its head, then grabbed it up, and as a white line flashed in my eyes, that tiger's panel popped up once more.

However, the abilities beneath the panel hadn't changed in the slightest — only the ability I had given it through devolution was missing.

Having already had some premonition of this, the Martial Stone wasn't too disappointed.

Of course, there was still some momentary gloom.

But thinking about it, it made sense — if it really could be changed that easily,

then the whole Great Zhou wouldn't have developed a craze of madly pursuing Strange Beasts.

Everyone would have one, everyone would possess a Strange Beast. Even the poorer ones could splurge and use them as mounts, or for beast-fighting.

Sighing, the Martial Stone stopped thinking further — since this experiment was already half done, one ought to see things through to the end.

The observation that should be done on this tiger still needed to be done.

So Huangmei once again began recording observations.

The first day, the devolved tiger showed no mutations, only some curiosity about the strange new abilities it had.

The seventh day, the tiger seemed to have figured out how to use the electric current on its body — its whole body would occasionally crackle with current, making the fur on its body stand on end from the electricity, leaving it baffled for a while, constantly rubbing itself against trees and rocks.

The eighth day, nothing unusual, just getting used to the permanently upright fur on its back.

The seventh day, nothing unusual, but its running speed seemed to have increased considerably, and it began using electric attacks while hunting.

Huangmei believed it might be because the current stimulated its muscles, causing it to Burst and grow stronger.

The seventh day, nothing abnormal, but the tiger, thanks to its increased speed and strength, was becoming increasingly less stealthy in its hunts.

It would often spot prey from afar, approach slightly, then charge out, bite it, and electrocute it to death.

At the same time, that day it seemed to get cocky again, wanting to test my strength, so once more I pinned it to the ground with one claw, where it struggled helplessly and could only whine for mercy.

The eighth day, nothing abnormal.

Huangmei thus ended the observation — for now, although the tiger hadn't mutated, it had successfully survived.

It was just unclear whether it was because of my edits to it, or because of individual differences, or a special constitution, or sheer luck.

The only thing known was that enlightened creatures seemed to live a bit longer than ordinary ones — this could be seen from the comparison of those two rabbits.

But given the small sample size, he didn't dare be a hundred percent sure it was the effect of enlightenment.

There were too many variables at play here, and he couldn't keep up with them all at once.

This, perhaps when he had free time in the future, he should conduct experiments on a larger scale.

It could be said that his experiment on Baichuan was somewhat of a failure — perhaps he truly didn't possess that kind of ability.

But fortunately, these weren't major problems — since he didn't have that ability, why not plunder others' results?

He refused to believe that across all of Great Zhou, over so many years, no one had ever conducted experiments in this area — and experiments generally left records.

If nothing else worked, he could guide a few humans with that kind of ability to conduct experiments, and when they succeeded, he would directly plunder the results and find a chance to understand them.

This way, he would be standing on the shoulders of giants, fully able to obtain all kinds of special abilities.

But all of that could only be considered after he stood at the pinnacle of the world — otherwise, he feared he'd just be making a wedding dress for someone else.

Even if he had none of that, as long as he could plunder all the Strange Beasts within Great Zhou's territory once, he estimated he would soon be unmatched in the world.

Not to mention, he also wanted to investigate just what this dynasty, standing for a thousand years without falling, relied on for its confidence.

The foundation of all the supernatural — Great Zhou must certainly know this information!

Intuition told me that if he could figure out those two things, the help to him would be unprecedented.

For example, taking a whole small step forward on the path of transforming into a dragon.

Or, for instance, Great Zhou's lofty position today would shift to become mine.

And I would become the true master of this planet — this world would be my front garden, my ability material library!

At that moment, in the eyes of the snake-like, dragon-like monster, burned an inextinguishable ambition.

The once-mighty great snake now harbored the magnificent ambition of plundering the world's Banzhu status.

Now, I prepare to leave.

A day earlier, after sorting through the harvest from this trip, Wu Shi had taken a look at the big kitty that had been reluctant to part, and then left.

As for why this big brain-tiger was reluctant to part.

There was a way — anyone who, during those few days, never stopped petting him, even helped him catch the freshest innards from beneath his prey, and fed them to him, would even be granted a sliver of power.

And all he had to do was lie there without moving, just be stared at and observed from time to time, and he would have everything.

To ask him to leave that kind of comfortable life, he too was reluctant.

Perhaps, after that tiger truly birthed a fragment of wisdom, it might even write a tiger world's "Peach Blossom Spring Record," who knows.

But those things had nothing to do with Wu Shi anymore; after fulfilling his own two great wishes.

He was also retreating toward the area where he had originally been.

This was the final battle of his journey; arriving here also meant that he was truly drawing close to human habitation, about to truly enter the eyes of humans.

From here on out, either he would get what he wanted, or it would be a battle against the entire Great Zhou — there was no room left to maneuver.

As for how things would actually go once the fighting started, Wu Shi didn't know either, but he firmly believed that the one who would still be standing at the end was absolutely him.

That was the confidence he had honed step by step over all these years.

(End of chapter)