Chapter 53: The Pressing Matter at Hand

As the old woman spoke, she suddenly came to her senses—this enormous shell-like object?

Could it be that this Strange Beast hadn't been born long ago?

Thinking of this, she directly squatted down and cradled this shell-like object, which was enormous relative to her.

"She Po, what are you doing?" The young man beside her grew anxious at the sight—such a massive object must be terribly heavy, and if the old woman lifted it like that and accidentally hurt herself, what then?

He hurriedly said:

"Why don't I help you with it?"

Who would have thought the old woman refused outright, shaking her head as if guarding a treasure: "No, no need, this is an astonishing discovery.

She paused, seemingly organizing her thoughts, before saying: "Look, the fact that this cave's interior can accommodate people like us tells you just how enormous this Strange Beast is. Such a massive Strange Beast, and a snake-type one at that—it's unheard of in this world. Most importantly, it might have only just been born not long ago."

"R-really." Listening along, it was unclear whether the young man had actually taken it in; he scratched his head and chuckled.

"But unfortunately we must have come at the wrong time, that Strange Beast has long since left." The old woman sighed, "Go get the map…"

"She Po! Bad news!"

Just then, a young man wearing a small cuirass rushed over from outside, his face full of panic.

The moment he drew near, without even pausing to catch his breath, he blurted out a string of news:

"Four li outside the forest, a large group of people has appeared. Their clothing and appearance seem to be from the court."

"What?" She Po's eyes went wide at this, and then, as if realizing something: "Could it be him?!"

……

"Where on earth have I ended up?"

At a fork in a river, an enormous snake-like creature raised its slender neck from the water, quietly gazing at the two diverging channels ahead.

This was none other than Baichuan, who had already drifted along the river for two whole days.

After two days of going with the current, he still had no idea where he had ended up.

What now lay before him were two enormous forks in the river.

The river flowed gently, stretching beyond the limits of sight in a single glance; no one knew whether the river's end lay at the sea or at some other terminus.

So which path should he choose?

He tilted his snake head, closed his eyes, and casually picked one side—anyway, as long as it got him a bit farther from humans, that was fine.

Immediately after, his enormous snake head plunged back beneath the water, his slender serpentine body slowly forming an arch above the surface before sinking under, sending up countless sprays of water, his hard scales dazzlingly brilliant beneath the sunlight.

……

At dusk, Baichuan, who had caught a big fish, helplessly crawled back onto the riverbank, his eyes full of resignation.

As he crawled, he kept his mouth wide open, and from time to time streams of water could be seen spilling out from his great maw.

He seemed to have forgotten one thing—previously he had been a land snake, and although he had now evolved many abilities and could breathe and sleep underwater,

he had overlooked the most important thing: he couldn't eat underwater…

Although generally those who could breathe underwater could also eat in water, his Underwater Breathing worked by breathing through the skin beneath his scales.

Previously his dens had all been on land, and the food he ate was mostly from land as well; he rarely hunted underwater, so he hadn't paid much attention to this point.

On top of that, later he had been on the run with little Laoshu, and had been floating on the water surface the whole time, and when hunting he had to carry Laoshu's share too, so there was even less chance to eat underwater.

Now that he was completely free, and had just caught prey underwater, he had originally intended to start eating right away.

But who would have thought that the moment he opened his mouth to begin his meal,

before he could even eat the food, he nearly got fed full by the river water itself.

Fortunately he reacted in time, hurriedly closed his mouth and scrambled toward the shore; of course, he didn't abandon the food he had only just managed to catch.

It seemed that before he entered the sea, there were still two pressing matters he had to resolve.

One was the enhancement of his digestive ability, and the other was an ability that would let him eat underwater.

But how exactly to resolve these two aspects? For the moment, Baichuan had no clue either.

For digestion, perhaps he could go find another eagle-type, a more powerful eagle-type, and try to obtain its model?

As for eating underwater, he could try a fish…

Thinking of this, Baichuan suddenly recalled that he seemed to have not checked his current Ability Library for several days.

Indeed, these past few days he had encountered too many things—particularly after running into humans and having to flee, and having to flee with a burden in tow, and along the way strengthening his Ice Frost ability, and having to try out new abilities, and so on.

So much so that for a moment he had forgotten that he had actually eaten quite a few good things, and presumably should have gained quite a few useful new abilities.

Thinking of this, Baichuan silently opened his panel and headed straight for the Ability Library.

【Ability Library: Laoshu, Jinshe, Qingwa, Grasshopper, Tengshe, Lynx, Hedgehog, Pudu, White-lipped Deer, Caiman, Jungle Cat, Grass Carp, Spotted Deer, Loach…】

At a single glance, an incredibly rich array of ability models was reflected in Baichuan's eyes.

"So before I knew it, I've already accumulated this many abilities."

Seeing this, Baichuan couldn't help but sigh, a deep sense of accomplishment welling up in his heart.

Seeing so many ability models, for a hoarder-type hamster like him, was indeed something to be proud of.

"Spotted Deer?"

The moment he saw Spotted Deer, Baichuan couldn't help but think of its beautiful antlers, and of the descriptions of dragons in his memory.

There is a beast whose form is that of a tiger-beast with eagle claws, a snake's body, and fish scales, soaring through the azure sky; its name is True Dragon.

Speaking of dragons, one inevitably brings up the True Dragon's magnificent and beautiful dragon horns.

So should he evolve those as well?

After thinking it over, Baichuan decided to forget it for now—his points were already few. From the current perspective, those horns wouldn't be of much help to him.

Perhaps when he had more points in the future, or if he could discover some great use for those horns, evolving them then wouldn't be too late.

Next, Baichuan opened each of these ability models one by one to inspect them.

He hadn't expected that this check would actually turn up something good!

【Race: Caiman.】

【Abilities: Crocodile Bone LV3 (Banzhu), Zhongchang LV2, Ken Yao LV2, Digest LV2, Scale Armor LV2, Diving LV1, Swimming LV1, Mianyilv LV1, Ambush LV1, Energy-Saving Storage LV1, Renwei LV1.】

Among the lavish array of abilities, Baichuan's eye was immediately drawn to Digest LV2.

Without a doubt, this was one of the abilities he currently needed most.

But apart from that, besides this ability, Baichuan felt that there were several other abilities he wanted as well.

Take Crocodile Bone, for example — it was said that a crocodile's bone hardness was ten times that of an ox bone, making it arguably the hardest-boned creature among animals.

Another example was the biting ability crocodiles relied on for survival — among the animals he knew of in his previous life, this was one of the strongest biters.

It was said to easily reach over 2,000 pounds — 2,000 pounds being roughly 907 kilograms, a bite force approaching one ton.

How exaggerated. If a bite force like this clamped down on a human or any animal's flesh, how many could withstand it?

(End of Chapter)