Chapter 14: A Sudden Turn of Events

In the mountains, years pass unmarked; time flows on and on.

In the blink of an eye, a month had gone by, and Baichuan had finally put down roots deep in these mountains, claiming a territory of his own.

As for how he got this territory?

Of course, he took it by force—by fighting for it.

When he first arrived, he hadn't yet decided which area to settle in, but then a fellow of his kind crawled out—a Yanjingwangshe.

It let out a "hiss hiss" warning, trying to drive him away, telling him this was its territory.

At this, Baichuan realized he had invaded a fellow's territory.

But is Baichuan the sort to simply leave just because he's told to?

That warning only made him more determined to stay right here.

Having evolved many times by now, he was already a standout among his kind, and he won the fight without needing to give way.

Worth mentioning is that aside from that initial territorial battle, for this entire month he had lived a monotonous life of eating till full, sleeping till full, then eating again.

This stretch of peace was so extreme that Baichuan half-suspected this place might be paradise.

After all, what he needed most right now was Time, and back in that other area, something was always going wrong somewhere, which had led him to believe danger lurked everywhere.

But thanks precisely to this month of peaceful growth, his body had now grown to five meters long, with a girth roughly comparable to a human thigh.

At the same time, he had come to fully understand just how powerful his Xiaohua Xishou ability now was.

What once took ten full days to accumulate a single point now took only six.

One could say his evolution speed had nearly doubled.

And after a month of evolution, just how powerful had he become?

One look at the panel tells the whole story.

'Name: Baichuan.'

'Race: Yanjingwangshe.'

'Lifespan: 8 years.'

'Points: 1 (91%).'

'Abilities: Zhongchang LV2 (details), Sedu LV2, Minjie LV2, Strong LV2, Energy-Saving Storage LV1, Danger Perception LV1, Flexibility LV1, Scales LV1, Swimming LV1, Xiaohua Xishou LV1…'

'Ability Structure Library: Laoshu, Jianwenfu, Jinshe, Qingwa, Grasshopper, Tengshe, Water Snake…'

'Kedianji…'

Compared to before, he now had two additional LV2-level abilities: Minjie and Strong.

Minjie came from a wild rabbit he had managed to catch during this period, while Strong came from a wild boar.

Yes, a wild boar—a small one that had somehow ended up alone.

Normally speaking, wild boars are herd animals; they possess incredibly tough hides, formed from their own hair caked and hardened with mud.

On top of that, they have hard, sharp tusks.

Under normal circumstances, he would never have had the chance to take down a wild boar alone, and even if by some miracle he did, he wouldn't have been able to swallow it.

Because wild boars hold grudges fiercely—once you offend them, they'll hound you to the death.

So for a venomous snake, going after a wild boar is more trouble than it's worth; even if the venom kills it, there's no chance to eat it, because the body is too large to swallow.

And if a venomous snake is unlucky and can't make it up a tree in time, it can be trampled or gored to death by the herd.

So in nature, king cobras and wild boars generally leave each other alone, with no interaction at all.

But that time he was incredibly lucky—he didn't know what had happened to the boar herd, but it caused them to scatter in all directions, leaving one small boar separated from the group.

At the time, Baichuan saw this scene, carefully surveyed his surroundings, found no herd guarding it, and weighed the gains against the risks in his mind.

Finding the reward outweighed the risk, he took the gamble, killed the small boar with a single venomous bite, and swallowed it down.

And that was how he obtained the Strong LV2 ability.

It was precisely thanks to these two new LV2 Abilities that his body was able to grow from three and a half meters to a full five meters in just one short month.

One could truly call it a windfall.

It could be said that now, not only his strength but his speed had greatly increased.

In terms of strength, he possessed power no less than a wild boar's; in terms of speed, although his body's structure kept him from reaching a rabbit's 70 km/h, he had still hit 50 km/h.

Don't underestimate that figure—after all, the fastest-moving snake in the world, the black mamba, tops out at only 20 km/h.

And the highest instantaneous running speed a human has ever achieved is only 44.722 km/h.

From this, one can see just how absurd his speed is for a Yanjingwangshe.

One could say that from today onward, if he were unlucky enough to encounter humans, that speed alone would let him escape with ease.

Not to mention his strength was now nothing like before—comparable to a wild boar's—and combined with his current speed, a full-body charge alone would be terrifying.

Of course, he didn't dare go all-out ramming things right now, because his growth had been so rapid that his scales' strength seemed to have temporarily fallen behind his body's current state.

In just one short month, he had grown powerful to this degree—seems it's time to go hunt a few large raptors.

After all, he had long since had his fill of the snake's monotonous, colorless, lifeless viewpoint.

Before, survival wasn't guaranteed, so he had to prioritize evolving his physical strength; but now that his strength had grown, it was time to consider auxiliary aspects.

He had been looking forward to a bird's vision for a long, long time—and among birds, is there anything better than eagles?

At the same time, he wanted to see whether his current strength could let him take down eagles with ease.

And as it happened, he knew exactly where a few eagle nests were.

As these thoughts formed in his mind—

The massive snake crawled back out of its den. Now his body could no longer fit in most tree hollows, leaving him no choice but to settle for a cave.

In the green forest.

The serpent's body wound forward; even its scales could barely conceal the powerful muscles beneath—proof enough of the terrifying strength this giant snake possessed.

Its heavy, powerful body slithered forward, producing a constant rustling sound—the noise of leaves and grass being crushed beneath it.

Coupled with its unmatched speed, every time the sound rang out, a dark phantom would silently flash through the forest; those metallic scales, under the dappled sunlight, were beautiful and mysterious.

Baichuan pressed on toward the mountaintop, when suddenly his serpentine body paused.

He slowly raised his snake head and stared to the side, a pair of icy snake pupils brimming with vigilance; his body began coiling continuously, while his neck suddenly puffed up.

A bit of an inauspicious start.

Baichuan said, his mood somewhat heavy.

Not long after, a burst of galloping footsteps appeared.

In the direction Baichuan had been looking to the side, a massive wolf beast suddenly appeared—its shoulder height a full eighty centimeters, its body length nearly one and a third meters, its fur entirely gray, its wolf eyes bright and piercing, brimming with a fierce aura of choosing someone to devour.

Along with the appearance of this wolf beast, one after another, slightly smaller wolves began to appear behind and to its side.

The wolf beasts pricked up their ears, tails held high, bodies crouched low.

Clearly, they had entered a state ready to attack.

Seeing this, Baichuan immediately understood that the wolf from before was the pack's Toulang; he counted them carefully in his heart—a total of seven wolves.

A bit tricky—Baichuan, who had never experienced fighting a wolf pack, had no idea how it would ultimately turn out.

He tentatively raised the upper half of his body high, hoping to scare off the pack.

In an instant, the serpentine body, well over two meters, rose up; the puffed-out neck made it appear even sturdier and taller.

However, all of this only stirred up a slight commotion among the wolf pack, which subsided once more at a low growl from the Toulang.

(End of chapter)