Chapter 136: The Beginning of Evolution

Whether it is or isn't, he'll know in the future. Baichuan didn't want to think about so much right now — just as before, when he didn't consider the source of the Strange Beast, the root of everything.

As long as he grew stronger, all the mysteries and secrets he couldn't figure out in the past would open their doors to him.

Everything — only by first becoming stronger did he have the right to consider it.

Having understood all the effects of his abilities, he now truly understood what those Light Points actually were.

They turned out to be a group of mysterious fungi, and the kind that had already undergone mutation at that.

Having realized this, the next part was the main event — he, Baichuan, was going to turn these abilities into his own!

Thinking of this, he slowly looked toward his ability model within the mysterious space, and without hesitation directly disassembled it and entered editing mode.

After finishing this, Baichuan first saved the ability model belonging to this bloodworm, then directly extracted its most important ability — namely, "Fungal Sovereign."

Then where would be the best place to put this ability?

Baichuan considered it briefly. Because this ability was too important, he decided to try every position and see which one had the highest compatibility.

And as he kept moving and checking, he ultimately discovered that it was the heart that had the highest compatibility.

Seeing this, he was first stunned, then immediately understood — perhaps it was because this ability would proliferate large quantities of mysterious fungi.

And this process, based on the state changes of that bloodworm before, as well as the basic principle that the stronger any ability was, the more energy it required.

Thus, to proliferate would inevitably require a massive expenditure of energy, and where was the fastest, most direct source of energy that needed no conversion — that would probably only be the heart.

The heart was the place all blood must pass through, and blood was the medium carrying energy — with this, there was no need to say more.

Placing it in the heart not only allowed direct absorption of energy, but the proliferated fungi could also be rapidly transported through the blood to any location in the body.

Since that was the case, Baichuan no longer hesitated, and directly placed it within the heart.

Clearly this was another ability whose changes were mostly internal — Baichuan didn't see any external change in the heart on his model.

After the most important ability was placed, he once again repeated his previous actions, and discovered that the best position for the second ability, "Characteristic Storage Library," was near the heart.

This ability was different from the first one that could attach to other organs — it was one that gave birth to an entirely new organ.

And the best position for this organ was naturally as close as possible to where the fungi were born.

Because the fungi born could carry the abilities within the Characteristic library.

With this, he placed it down once more, and instantly he saw a new organ appear on his ability model.

As for the last ability, it was distributed throughout the entire body — finally, Baichuan didn't need to check position by position again.

At this point, all abilities had been selected.

Baichuan confirmed there were no problems, then decisively chose to confirm payment.

Along with the disappearance of thirteen points, a wave of utterly familiar drowsiness surged toward Baichuan like a tide.

No longer his first time, Baichuan directly and naturally closed his eyes, falling into a deep slumber, and afterward a layer of viscous unknown liquid slowly covered his body completely.

Evolution began once again.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side.

The long-overdue rebel army and others finally encountered Huang Zhongtian, who had also departed, not long after Baichuan left the Duanlong Mountain Range.

At this, Huang Zhongtian, who had been in a dazed state ever since his conversation with Baichuan, was also stunned. After some communication between the two parties, they had a very pleasant talk.

Zhang Rang discovered that the equally down-and-out man before him had actually come into close contact with a true dragon, and that the true dragon actually possessed intelligence.

And Huang Zhongtian, in his daze, also discovered that the travel-worn man before him was precisely the Zhang Rang who had previously seized two provinces from the Great Zhou and given the disaster victims everywhere a place of shelter.

At the same time, during their conversation, he felt that the ideals of this rebel leader before him somewhat resembled the words that true dragon had once spoken to him.

After this, he, already in a state of confusion, decided to tell Zhang Rang part of the information the true dragon had shared with him.

He prepared to follow this man before him, carefully observing his words and deeds, to see if they matched what had been spread about him.

If they did, then how would it be for him, Huang Zhongtian, to assist him?

He clearly knew that he himself was not cut out for this in the first place — it was just that having climbed up from the bottom, he had always harbored compassion for the poor and suffering common folk at the lowest rungs.

Now if he met a suitable person, that would be good too — he could consider it as giving an account to the people of the world.

Of course, since the true dragon had treated him thus, the promise between It and himself he likewise told to Zhang Rang.

Zhang Rang had no objection to this.

After this, Huang Zhongtian joined Zhang Rang's ranks, and Zhang Rang no longer pursued the true dragon's footsteps.

The group began to return to the great province where the rebel army had suffered the most rout before, there to make a rallying call and once again gather truly like-minded brothers and sisters.

And this was also the reason Zhang Rang and the others did not appear again in Tiandu afterward.

Upon receiving the news that the Great Zhou had already been smashed by the true dragon, they immediately launched a vigorous war to seize provinces, and at the same time, because of the Great Zhou's destruction —

Now the entire Great Zhou was in utter chaos everywhere, with various warlords fighting amongst themselves, so much so that they had actually succeeded — today could truly be called flourishing with each passing day.

A flower blooms in two branches, each told separately.

Baichuan was evolving, transcending the mortal; Zhang Rang and Huang Zhongtian were rebelling, contending for the realm.

Time flowed on once again.

In the mountains there is no counting of years; the ages drift on slow and long.

In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

The seabed location where Baichuan had once stayed had long since become a steep little seabed hillock.

It was covered with all manner of seaweeds and corals; under the refraction of light from above the sea's surface, the seabed was a scene of beautiful tranquility, with countless fish coming and going, darting in and out, thoroughly at ease.

Unfortunately, this seemingly beautiful and peaceful day was to end today.

"Boom—"

"Boom!"

……

Accompanied by a series of muffled booming and crashing sounds, the once-beautiful seabed hillock was utterly shattered, breaking into a great many fragments that scattered in all directions.

In the violently churning, murky waters, a massive dragon head abruptly rose, its blood-red mane whipping wildly through the water.

Then a flash of white light beneath the surface, and the Jiao-snake's sharp eyes opened, filled with a crimson hunger!

In an instant, endless white Light Points erupted from the Jiao-snake's body, scattering in all directions; every living thing in their path vanished completely—not a drop of blood, not a single fragment of bone left behind.

As more and more Light Points erupted and spread, living creatures across an ever-growing stretch of sea began to disappear.

Within just a few minutes, centered on the Jiao-snake, every living creature with even a scrap of flesh within a three-kilometer radius of sea had vanished completely.

In an instant, an entire three-kilometer stretch of sea became a dead zone, devoid of any living thing, with only the faint sound of flowing water remaining.

If any other intelligent being were to come here now, they would surely suspect they had arrived at an absolute death zone—or, more likely, they would have already been unwittingly devoured by those terrifying white Light Points.

Only then did those white Light Points begin to slowly fade away.

Yes—death itself faded away!

The Light Points, which to those Strange Beasts were usually like a wellspring of life, were now nothing more than a one-time consumable in the Jiao-snake's eyes.

The kind that would make anyone watching feel a pang of heartache.

(End of this chapter)