Chapter 68: The Purpose of the Shell-like Substance?

After this, he would have no further entanglement with these humans, and could easily slip into the ocean and grow freely.

From then on, no one would come looking for him out of the blue.

No—more accurately, as long as he never showed his face again.

They would never know there was such a bizarre great snake in this world, one that had not only stolen their treasure but also made a fool of them.

Only then could Baichuan truly escape the whirlpool of the Ice Silkworm affair.

In the parlance of fantasy cultivation novels, he, Baichuan, had found a scapegoat to take over his karmic ties.

After all, if he didn't dispel their suspicions and give them a sacrificial lamb, he even suspected that even if he fled into the ocean, they might still find him.

After all, these humans were terrifying enough to inhabit even desolate swamps—who would find it strange if one of them also survived on the ocean or an island?

Especially given their supernatural origins, they really might be capable of that.

If they discovered his extraordinariness, with an entire dynasty's machinery running at full tilt, no one could say what would happen.

He, Baichuan, was still not strong enough; before such a vast dynasty, he was still far too insignificant.

So to be safe, it was best to find a sacrificial lamb.

Conveniently, he now knew exactly what these humans were using as his appearance to search for him.

In that case, with the Ability Panel at his disposal, wouldn't crafting a look-alike snake be as easy as pie?

If they were searching for a true Dragon Species, he, Baichuan, might not have had a single way to handle it—but unfortunately, they were searching based on his appearance.

That made things easy.

After all, all they knew was a Yanjingwangshe with eagle claws, which they suspected was a Dragon Species; beyond that, they knew nothing.

Whether it was truly a Dragon Species or not—no one dared to judge until they had caught it.

Once this sacrificial snake was caught, they would focus their attention on this clawed snake; who would then care whether it was truly the Strange Beast that had taken the Ice Silkworm?

And even if they eventually discovered it was only a look-alike, they wouldn't suspect that behind this unlucky creature lurked him, Baichuan.

After all, who would imagine a snake possessing intelligence? In nature, a mutated snake with claws was already rare enough—how could two similar ones possibly appear, with one of them immensely powerful?

Baichuan, a former human in his past life, understood humans deeply… no, or rather, he understood that so-called wise men harbored a certain arrogance: an unshakable faith in their own deductions.

Even when some parts were wrong, they would find reasons and excuses for themselves, doing everything in their power to patch the logic back together.

So he didn't need to be meticulous about every detail—just an approximate size and appearance would suffice.

Even if they discovered this clawed Yanjingwangshe possessed no great power,

they would come up with their own excuses—something like the Dragon Species hadn't yet awakened its true power.

In the end, the error would never lie in their deduction, but in some aspect that hadn't been fully investigated.

But all that had nothing to do with him, Baichuan.

If he didn't possess something as miraculous as the Ability Panel, considering all this on his own, he probably wouldn't have thought of this angle either—he'd just have assumed it was an accident, because the truth was simply too outrageous.

This was probably the limitation of one's horizons.

So they would never trace it back to him, Baichuan, and then he would truly be free of worries.

What a pity, though—he had to sacrifice this unlucky little snake, a fellow of his own kind.

Baichuan shook his head with a hint of regret, but of course, giving it up was absolutely impossible. If a man doesn't look out for himself, heaven and earth will destroy him.

No matter who it was, anyone who dared to obstruct his path to becoming a dragon, anyone who stood in the way of his evolution, would become his enemy.

From now on, whether you live or die depends on yourself.

Baichuan gazed at this struggling Yanjingwangshe, muttered a line to himself, then extended a pair of sharp claws to pull it straight, robbing it of any resistance.

Then, within his piercing snake pupils, a black line flashed, and the familiar Ability Panel popped out from the snake's body.

Because the size difference between the two wasn't outrageously extreme, staying here this long had allowed him to complete the scan.

Of course, scanning so quickly might also be because rescanning an already-scanned ability model was considerably faster.

He had tested this out on Zhang Dadan.

'Species: Yanjingwangshe.'

'Abilities: Zhongchang LV2 (details), Sedu LV2, Energy-Saving Storage LV1, Qiangzhuang LV1, Flexibility LV1, Scales LV1, Swimming LV1…'

The long-absent, familiar Ability Panel appeared before Baichuan's eyes, leaving him momentarily dazed.

So he had already become this powerful.

Only at this moment did Baichuan truly realize that he and his fellow species might no longer count as the same species.

The difference between them was like heaven and earth.

Perhaps, the current him could be called: a strange snake walking the path toward becoming a jiao.

After a brief daze, Baichuan came back to himself and, without further hesitation, selected his own Ability Panel and directly copied out one set of his Lizhua LV2 and Qiangzhuang LV1 (Xiongqiang Yihua).

Accompanied by the familiar onset of evolution, the Yanjingwangshe, pulled straight and hanging from his claws, slowly stopped struggling and sank into the deepest sleep.

Evolution had begun.

Having encountered this situation more than once, Baichuan, seeing this, slowly released the Yanjingwangshe from his claws, letting it be covered by the viscous fluid that began to secrete.

Presumably, when it woke, it would be able to bear his karmic burden.

This snake's current size was a little over three meters, while his own size back then had been around five meters—though the gap was somewhat large.

But don't forget, every time evolution involved physical-strength abilities, the evolution target would naturally be enhanced by the ability, causing its size to increase.

So when this snake woke up, its size would inevitably grow to just over four meters.

Furthermore, snakes' size changes mostly manifested in length; girth changes weren't particularly obvious. And back then, he had lifted a large portion of his body off the ground, not lying completely flat.

The traces left behind therefore wouldn't be overly long—after all, he had been very cautious about traces back then.

In this way, the size traces of the two wouldn't be too obviously different; after all, a snake's trail was a continuous resting mark, and without seeing it in person, who could be a hundred percent certain of the size?

Of course, there was one final, most important point—the real reason Baichuan could truly set his mind at ease: the shell-like substance left behind after evolution!

Based on the information he now had, he was a hundred percent certain his old nest had been found, which meant they would inevitably discover the shell-like substance he had left behind.

If there was still any chance of confusion before, once this appears, it will be ironclad proof!

Because normally, how could two creatures capable of leaving behind special shell-like remains possibly appear in nature at the same time?

And as luck would have it, the traces were similar in size.

So once they find this, even if the size differs somewhat, as long as it's not too outrageous, they probably won't be suspicious.

After one last glance at the Yanjingwangshe that had already transformed into a giant egg shape, Baichuan decisively left.

Now, everything he needed to set up had been arranged.

Whether this last snake would use this newly acquired power to escape, never getting caught by that group of humans, and rise to greatness.

Or whether it would be caught before long, killed for its blood and eaten.

None of this had anything to do with him anymore.

Let them fight it out among themselves!

With that, Baichuan twisted around and left directly.

(End of chapter)