Chapter 23: An Unexpected Surprise, Evolution Once More

After the Electric Eel was swallowed, Baichuan, having accomplished the purpose of this trip, raised his head and looked at the thick fog that had already begun to dissipate, knowing that dawn was about to break completely.

Thinking that he had already been away from the cave for several days, he decided to head straight back and prepare to begin evolving once more.

Thus, the great snake left the shore and slithered into the forest.

Moving swiftly along the way.

Soon, Baichuan suddenly paused and stopped.

He turned his snake head around and crawled back; not far in, he stopped in front of a large tree and climbed up along the trunk.

In the end, he stopped near a branch where nothing existed.

"What is this?"

Clearly, at this moment his eyes told him there was nothing here, just an ordinary tree branch, but his heat-sensing vision saw a heat source right here.

Its shape was elongated, with one end long and sharp, and on the side of the thick part there were four small heat points.

He stared here and thought carefully for a while; a sudden flash of understanding rose in his heart — could it be…

"Smack!"

The next moment, a light slapping sound rang out — that was the sound of claws striking the tree trunk.

Accompanied by a wail, Baichuan felt violent thrashing in his claws — that was the prey he had caught struggling.

"As expected."

Baichuan muttered to himself as he looked at the small creature in his claws that was slowly beginning to reveal its form.

At this moment, if he were not a snake, he would have wanted to laugh up to the sky a few times — this is what you call a pleasant surprise!

This is what you call a pleasant surprise!

Previously, he had always wanted to seek out this kind of magical creature, but unfortunately had never encountered one.

He had already given up hope, yet now he had stumbled upon one by sheer blind luck.

Do you know what this animal is called?

Bianseyong!

If we say that among all the abilities possessed by every creature in nature there exists a compatibility between them—

Then which abilities have the highest compatibility? Based on your own abilities, what ability do you most want to complement yours?

If this question were posed to Baichuan, he would surely answer: the Bianseyong's invisibility!

Deadly venom + invisibility.

What a match made in heaven!

It is simply one of the most troublesome and feared abilities in all of nature, one that makes animals turn pale at the mere mention.

Think about it — a creature perpetually in an invisible state yet wielding lethally potent venom, a terrifying being like a specter in the forest, drifting ceaselessly through the entire woodland.

Tell me, who would dare act arrogant? Who would dare sleep soundly?

Feeling arrogant, are you? Crowing wildly, are you?

Fine — tonight he'll turn invisible, sneak into your nest, and hit you with something vicious.

If you add human intelligence to the mix, then from the mighty tiger above to the weak little white rabbit below—

Which one could escape disaster?

As the saying goes: a tiger's backside is not to be touched.

If Baichuan had possessed such an invisibility ability back then, even if he were still in his very earliest state, he would still dare say that even a tiger's backside, he could touch whenever he pleased.

Perhaps this way, the speed at which he evolved and grew stronger would have been even faster than now.

"Truly, just as I was dozing off, a pillow appeared — looks like I'm getting another trump card." Looking at the struggling Bianseyong in his claws, Baichuan sighed with a smile.

Then, without further ceremony, he crushed it and swallowed it into his belly.

Baichuan, who could truly be said to have double good fortune, set off on his return journey in high spirits.

……

After a day's time, Baichuan once again returned to the familiar luxurious cave.

He directly opened the panel, selected the Electric Eel and Bianseyong models in turn, and the next moment their abilities popped up.

'Species: Electric Eel.'

'Abilities: Muscle Electric Generation LV2, Electric Current Protection LV1, Diving LV1, Qiangzhuang LV1, Electric Current Detection LV1, Naili LV1…'

……

'Species: Bianseyong.'

'Abilities: Huanjing Moni LV2, Qixi Shoulian LV1, Climbing LV1, Organ Aberration (Tongue)…'

……

"The abilities are really few — apart from a few that are either especially useful or especially powerful, they're basically mediocre. But wait, is the scientific name of the Bianseyong actually 'Bianseyong'? Learned something new."

Baichuan looked at the sparse abilities listed above and couldn't help but mutter a few complaints.

However, the Electric Eel was able to achieve a status in nature where it almost had no natural predators with so few abilities — one had to admit, some abilities really are overpowered.

After muttering a few complaints to himself, Baichuan first took a look at the points he currently had remaining: 'Points: 23 (3%).'

Only then did he begin to prepare for enhancement.

The familiar interface descended once more; after thinking it over carefully, Baichuan decided that the Electric Eel's "Muscle Electric Generation" was a must.

As the thought fell, he saw the Electric Generation ability of the Electric Eel immediately fly up and drop into Baichuan's model.

The next moment, a prompt popped up:

"Please select the evolution slot for the ability."

Along with the panel's prompt, Baichuan saw two Light Points connected to each other by a line appear on his own model.

"What is this?" Baichuan was first stunned, then after fiddling and experimenting for a while, he understood that this was asking him to choose the slot for the ability's evolution.

Because the Electric Eel's Electric Generation ability was LV2, Baichuan discovered that this ability could at most evolve a special electric-generating muscle two meters long on his own body.

At the same time, once he chose to evolve too many of these special muscles, it would even affect his Strong LV2 ability level.

Once he chose the limit of two meters, his Strong LV2 would drop to LV1.

This was a conflict between abilities.

After understanding this point, he directly zoomed in on his own model, looking at the torso where the Electric Generation ability was located, where a large pile of neatly arranged sheet-like muscles had now conspicuously appeared.

And between the sheets there existed a strange tissue connecting them.

And the previously normal muscles had long since disappeared.

Looking at these sheet-like muscles, this suddenly made Baichuan think of something—a battery!

Yes, seeing this, he also recalled the knowledge about electric eels from his previous life.

The reason electric eels possessed Electric Discharge ability was because there existed a special electric-generating cell in their body called an "electroplaque."

These electric-generating cells formed sheet-like muscles in its body like small batteries, and these sheets were arranged in an orderly manner as if following some rule.

A single one's Electric Discharge ability was not strong, but when combined, the voltage and current became powerful.

At this point, Baichuan finally understood why there was an ability conflict.

Because these electric-generating muscles had mutated, they were left with only one function—Electric Discharge.

This specialized muscle occupying his body would affect the muscles that normally provided him with strength, so a chain reaction occurred, and his strength decreased.

So the question came: should he choose the Electric Discharge ability like a superpower, or a powerful physical body?

Baichuan considered carefully and seriously for a while, stating that he chose the Electric Discharge ability, but would not choose to evolve it to the full two-meter length.

He would only choose one and a half meters at the tail section; given his current body length of over five meters, setting aside one and a half meters to evolve Electric Discharge was still quite a bargain.

Because the modification of the tail section did not affect him particularly greatly—after all, most of a snake's tail was used to assist with balance and crawling.

So the specialization of the muscle modification was harmless.

(End of this chapter)