Chapter 29: Choice and Letting Go

Even after using this panel for half a year, Baichuan found that the thing seemed to be able to give him a little surprise at every moment.

Just like now—if it weren't for his overly curious nature and his love of getting to the bottom of its secrets, he might never have known that so much information lay hidden behind ability enhancement.

Still, the recovery of the ability was ultimately a good thing, saving him two points.

Although this also interrupted his desire to test whether enhancing the same ability again would cause another massive surge in body size.

Is this a mixed bag, perhaps?

Baichuan always felt as if he were the type to sell cheap after striking a bargain.

He scratched his head and continued enhancing.

Chanchao Jiaosha LV2, Flexibility LV2—these were the root of a python's strength and had to be enhanced.

As for Thermal Lip Pit LV2, a heat-sensing ability similar to the pit viper's loreal pit, Baichuan hesitated for a moment before deciding to enhance it after all.

Right now his heat-sensing range was still too small, only about twenty or thirty meters in radius; he hoped the python's sensing range would be a bit larger.

Then Baichuan looked at the ability "Energy-Saving Storage LV2," and this time he truly hesitated.

Because he didn't know whether to enhance it or not. After he had previously discovered that he no longer needed to hibernate,

he had carefully observed his own specific condition, and made a startling discovery: at some unknown point, one of his abilities had vanished!

That ability was the snake-specific "Energy-Saving Storage LV1." It was divided into two parts. First, energy-saving, which manifested as: the lower the temperature, the slower his metabolism, thereby conserving energy.

Storage, meanwhile, meant his digestive and absorptive capacity weakened, allowing him to retain food in his belly for extended periods.

Combined, the two caused snakes, once the ambient temperature dropped, to slow their metabolism and thus require less energy, allowing them to store the energy absorbed from food.

It could be said that, purely from a functional standpoint, it conflicted with what Baichuan now wanted.

Because he needed to digest and absorb quickly to grow his points, yet this ran counter to a snake's instincts.

So Baichuan guessed whether the disappearance of this ability was due to countless prior enhancements, causing this ability to vanish and freeing him from the need to hibernate.

Therefore, now that he saw this ability again, he couldn't help but hesitate.

Logically speaking, just looking at the ability's description, one would know to give it up—because it appeared to be nothing but negative buffs.

But no one could be sure whether losing this snake ability would cause problems down the line, whether it would be harmful to him—such as genetic collapse, genetic defects, or incompleteness.

This point especially worried him, ever since he learned that some ability enhancements could conflict with one another.

Moreover, during the previous flood, it was thanks to this ability that he didn't have to risk hunting in the rain.

It could be said that having this ability gave him a composed, unhurried confidence when facing certain survival problems.

So he really did have a bit of a headache.

Baichuan stared at the abilities on the panel for a long, long time.

He let out a sigh and ultimately decided to give up this ability.

Although he very much wanted to keep all of a snake's abilities—after all, people always fear change, fear the unknown—

But ever since he began evolving, his future could no longer remain that of a snake.

In his previous life, living in a country that proclaimed itself the "Descendants of the Dragon," he had cherished a longing for that wondrous creature, dragons, from childhood on.

Now, this had led his subconscious to evolve toward the dragon—first the bumps symbolizing future dragon horns, the forelimbs resembling dragon claws, and the thunder and lightning that accompany a dragon's command of wind and rain.

At some unknown point, he had unconsciously begun evolving toward the form of the mythological dragon. Though he was still just a shoddy imitation now—not to mention power, he didn't even have a complete form—

As long as he kept evolving, he firmly believed that one day he would truly transform into a real dragon.

And would a mythological creature like a dragon need to hibernate?

Absolutely not.

Besides, he thought of the source of his current ability template—a Burmese Python that, though powerful, had been killed off by him through hibernation.

Imagine: would he be willing to see that someday, someone else killed him off the same way?

If so, what was there left to hesitate about?

Finally, there were the remaining two abilities: Swimming LV2, which increased his swimming speed in water; and Saltwater Adaptation LV1, which allowed him to survive in seawater for a certain period.

After all, not every snake could survive in seawater; most snakes still preferred freshwater or even relatively dry regions.

If this were explained biologically, the essence of this ability was cellular osmotic pressure.

After enhancing this ability, Baichuan discovered that his body had gained a new instinct: subtly adjusting his own cellular osmotic pressure according to the water he was in.

In the end, for this evolution he selected "Zhongchang LV3," "Chanchao Jiaosha LV2," "Flexibility LV2," "Thermal Lip Pit LV2," "Swimming LV2," and "Saltwater Adaptation LV1."

With that, let the evolution begin.

He believed that after this evolution, he would be completely free of snake-like flaws, right?

With this thought, Baichuan once again fell asleep under the familiar drowsiness.

And the panel silently deducted 12 points.

The familiar viscous secretion appeared once more, wrapping him into a giant egg.

Evolution had begun.

……

This evolution involved an especially large number of abilities. By the time Baichuan awoke again, a month and a half had already passed.

Perhaps fortunately, this evolution encountered no accidents whatsoever, completing the metamorphosis without a single ripple.

"What an unprecedentedly wonderful feeling!"

With his eyes closed, Baichuan carefully felt his current body; he could sense the astonishing flexibility it now possessed.

In the past, when he had the Yanwang Zhiju, his body had actually been a bit stiff, and most of the time he could only dodge left and right, or coil along the direction of his bones.

He had only been bullying his own kind by relying on his massive serpentine body and venom.

But now, he could clearly feel that he could coil and bend however he wished.

Besides this, his heat-sensing vision had now astonishingly reached a range of 100 meters in radius.

Don't underestimate just 100 meters—bear in mind that previously his heat-sensing vision was only 30 meters in radius, and that was merely his auxiliary sense.

His truly powerful vision was those eyes — no matter how far, as long as the target was exposed in an environment without cover, he could easily lock onto the area where it was.

Then, after continuously closing in on the target, by relying on his heat-sensing organs he truly managed to approach the target's side without making a sound, without a single error appearing throughout.

But there's no need to talk about that now — he still had to shed the snake skin on his body sooner rather than later.

The thing was itching him to death.

(End of chapter)