Chapter 20: Evolution, Growing Ever Closer to a Dragon

The next moment, a miraculous scene appeared.

On a smooth snake body, the bizarre, abrupt protruding lump on the front half actually melted away miraculously as a pair of sharp claws grew and formed.

His snake body no longer bulged abruptly; the body became smooth once again, except now the section where the claws grew was considerably thicker.

Countless precise, steel-wire-like tough muscles tangled together, giving this pair of sharp claws powerful strength support.

Seen from afar, the overall snake body now actually carried a strange sense of beauty.

On the dangerous-looking snake head, a pair of sharp eyes coldly gazed forward; below the head was a neck like a wide cloak draped over it, and further down was a pair of thick sharp claws propping up the upper body.

Add to that the two small bumps on top of the snake's head.

At first glance, it clearly already carried a hint of dragon's charm.

The only slight regret was that there was only one pair of sharp claws in front, while the rear was still a snake body slithering on the ground.

Baichuan looked at the compatibility: 78%.

This compatibility was already considered very high; one should know that whenever compatibility exceeds 50%, there basically won't be any negative effects.

Looking again at Baichuan's panel abilities, the Minjie LV1 that had just dropped earlier had once again returned to LV2.

Obviously, he had succeeded.

Since that's the case, then—

Fuse!

As a total of 4 points disappeared.

Baichuan once again fell into a deep sleep.

The familiar viscous substance was secreted once again, and in greater quantity than before, slowly and gradually completely covering this great snake over 5 meters long, forming a shape like a giant egg.

The gears of Time turned once again, and this time especially long.

Half a month later, underground cave.

"Crack—"

Accompanied by the sound of breaking, a ferocious sharp claw poked out from inside the eggshell-like thing.

Its shape: three claws in front, one claw at the back, with a long, sharp claw at the tip of the claws, sharp as a dagger.

Above the claws was a small forearm covered in hard, fine, dense scales and a keratinous layer.

Following the appearance of the sharp claws was a majestic, imposing giant snake-type creature.

"This is the feeling of having hands (claws) again? Too beautiful."

Baichuan stretched out his claws, brought them before his eyes to examine closely, continuously opening and closing those sharp claws, carefully savoring this wonderful feeling.

Now he felt as if he could easily grab prey, and with just a light tug, tear its skin and flesh apart.

Truly terrifying beyond compare.

He seemed to have grown considerably stronger again.

If it were the current him facing that pack of wolves back then, he felt he wouldn't need to run at all.

He would only need to Burst in an instant, close in on the prey unexpectedly, then thrust out his sharp claws like this, grab and tear at the wolf's throat, and easily kill them.

And his hard, thick scales and snake skin could easily block the wolves' claws; even if accidentally pierced by their fangs, he could twist his body and bite to inject venom, calmly waiting for them to lose resistance.

And even if he wiped out the wolf pack, countless wounds might appear on his body, but they could all recover completely within one night.

The current him was just this strong; not only strong, but also daring to trade injury for injury, as long as it couldn't instantly instant-kill him and make him lose resistance.

As long as it left him even a sliver of resistance, he could bite back and drag it into Yellow Springs together.

And is there an animal that can instantly instant-kill him?

No, there isn't!

Even kings like tigers or brown bears couldn't make him instantly lose all resistance.

Not to mention, snakes are famously tenacious in vitality; his unique nerves mean that even if his head is cut off, he can still bite back the moment you let your guard down.

He grew stronger and stronger.

The current him could be said to have completed the most primitive accumulation of capital; from now on, his speed of growing stronger would only get faster and faster, like a snowball rolling.

But those are all things for the future; right now he still had one thing he needed to verify.

Of course, before verifying, he felt he should go out and have a good meal first.

Baichuan glanced at his panel's lifespan and saw half a month had disappeared.

He then knew this evolution had taken half a month; previously it was because he had just woken up and was intoxicated by experiencing the feeling of having hands (claws), and combined with the lesson from last time, he hadn't actually noticed the hunger.

But now...

Two hours later, the well-fed Baichuan returned once again to his cave.

It had to be said, with flexible claws, his entire snake body was much more at ease; now he didn't need to use his mouth to bite for ordinary prey.

And he could also eat larger prey, because the current him could rely on his sharp claws to tear the meat into small pieces to eat.

From this point, his eating speed seemed to have increased quite a bit, and it was also much safer.

At the same time, because the prey became smaller and broken up, he found that his point growth speed had also increased a little.

As for the reason?

Baichuan thought briefly and understood.

The food becoming smaller, plus the outer skin being torn open, meant it became easier to digest in the stomach.

And the growth of points was ultimately due to absorbing the energy from food; thinking about it this way, the food becoming easier to digest was precisely the rate speeding up, wasn't it?

Was this considered an invisible benefit brought about by a chain reaction?

Baichuan smiled.

But it was time to test it out.

Thinking this, Baichuan lowered his head and looked at his tail. He'd use this spot to test just how sharp his claws were, and how well his Regeneration worked.

His ferocious claws slowly reached over, the sharp claw tips coming to rest on the scales.

As Baichuan began to slowly apply force, the scales on his tail gradually caved inward, starting to show visible deformation.

One part of force… two parts of force… five parts of force…

Only when Baichuan had exerted a full six parts of force did his scales and snake skin finally burst open with a soft "puff."

At the same time a sharp sting shot through him, but Baichuan ignored it and continued his summary.

Don't underestimate him just because he only used six parts of force — remember, this was with the sharpest tip of his claw.

In normal combat, how could he possibly stand still and let someone drive their claws straight in? Usually it's all grabbing and raking.

After testing the maximum limit of his defense against piercing, Baichuan finally withdrew his claws.

He spread his claws again and laid them flat on his tail — this time to test his defense against grabbing and raking.

First he used one part of force and raked across quickly.

After a sound rang out from the scales like the clash of metal on stone, not a single scratch was left behind.

Then two parts of force… three parts of force… five parts of force…

Only at eight parts of force did a violent pain strike, and his tail was finally raked open like torn cloth, bright red blood slowly seeping out.

"So that's how it is — the maximum I can defend against is seven parts of my own force. At seven parts, clear scratch marks had already appeared, and most of the scales had begun to shatter, but the underlying snake skin hadn't broken. At eight parts, it was cut clean through."

Baichuan concluded.

(End of chapter)