Chapter 75: The Eve of Evolution

If it could work, then from now on—

He wouldn't have to worry about the venom being useless, and could release it when slicing open targets with his blade-like dorsal fin?

When the time came, whether coiling around them or charging past at high speed, he could release venom the moment he cut open the enemy.

Thinking of this, Baichuan realized this idea still had feasibility, so he tentatively began editing the placement of his abilities.

However, the next moment he discovered this idea was unworkable, because his body was too large.

Even though the amount of venom had increased considerably, the venom glands still couldn't stretch enough to cover the entire dorsal fin, because his body was too long.

So it seemed he could only try placing them on his claws.

But this time, it failed again…

Because those claws of his, inherited from an eagle, were basically nothing but bone and scaly keratin layers—there was no flesh to speak of—and simply couldn't accommodate the much-enlarged venom glands.

Placing them there would inevitably affect the flexibility of his claws after evolution.

Looks like eagle claws are a bit outdated now.

Baichuan sighed. With his growth, he found that the strength of these claws was also somewhat insufficient. Compared to his relatively thick, powerful body, they were far too slender.

In all of nature today, only the tiger's forelimbs had impressive strength, and their agility was also high—perfect for propelling the body across land.

If he could combine the tiger's front paws with the eagle's sharp claws in one body, he'd have both the tiger's terrifying front paws and the eagle claws' flexible gripping ability.

Perhaps then he wouldn't have to worry about the claw issue.

But for now, it seemed he could only make do.

So where should he place them?

After thinking it over, Baichuan suddenly remembered—

Since Sedu was a liquid-like substance, and the Ice Frost within him was also something similar to a liquid, could the two be mixed together?

When the time came, he could both spray the venom directly as a breath and add a sustained damage effect to the follow-up of his Ice Frost power.

Just imagine—in that moment facing the enemy, he'd fire off a high-pressure water line, first piercing through the target. If the target died, wonderful, all's well that ends well.

If this move failed to kill them, merely breaking the skin, and they even withstood the Ice Frost—wouldn't it then be the venom's turn to shine?

This whole chain of follow-up effects, even if it couldn't kill the enemy outright, could disgustingly whittle them to death.

And he'd avoid the danger of getting struck on the head during close-quarters lunging and biting.

Beyond that, he could also spray it onto the ground, reshaping the terrain into a field of ice spikes coated with deadly venom.

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Baichuan directly pulled out this ability and changed its position again.

Unexpectedly, this time it actually worked!

Along with a shift in the model, Baichuan discovered that the pair of glands representing Sedu had appeared beside the Ice Frost pouch, flanking it on the left and right.

Two thin ducts connected to the delivery channel through which the Ice Frost was squeezed out.

This meant he could both spray the Ice Frost mixed with Sedu, and spray it without Sedu.

Simply perfect!

After resolving this issue, Baichuan next looked at the other abilities on the shark's Ability Panel.

Needless to say, Siyao LV3 was definitely needed. He'd been longing to tear into big chunks of meat and free up his claws for ages.

He just didn't know whether this ability would conflict with the crocodile's Kenyao LV3.

Would the Kenyao ability disappear? Or would the compatibility be insufficient? Or would evolution simply be impossible?

This doubt suddenly popped into Baichuan's mind.

Without hesitation, he directly pulled out this ability and placed it into his ability model to take a look.

However, a strange scene unfolded.

On the mouth of his ability model, dense, sharp triangular fangs suddenly sprouted.

These triangular blade-like teeth directly occupied the positions where the sparse fangs from the Kenyao ability had grown.

But astonishingly, the Kenyao ability didn't disappear—instead, it stubbornly sprouted four long, sharp canines at the four corners of his wolf-like maw, top and bottom.

In other words, at this moment he simultaneously possessed fangs for tearing and canines for crunching.

The sight before him utterly stunned Baichuan, and he couldn't help blurting out: "It can actually work like this?"

Immediately, delight surged in him. Now his teeth combined both the tearing and crunching effects in one!

Truly perfect!

After placing these two most important abilities and confirming there was no conflict, Baichuan continued examining the rest.

Mm, the next one was Shuizhong Ganzhi LV2.

Baichuan thought about it and realized this ability was also needed. He, a former land creature, had now come to the ocean.

So inevitably, his perception system from the land would naturally be subject to certain limitations.

This wasn't a factor of his own, nor was it the ability failing—it was the influence of the external environment.

After all, not every region of the water had a Photosynthesis zone where he could use light to see everything clearly at a glance, as he could on land.

As Baichuan went deeper, once he passed two hundred meters below the sea surface, the photosynthesis zone would inevitably vanish from his field of vision.

The surroundings would fall into total darkness—a place sunlight couldn't penetrate. Perhaps… no, it should be said that those sharp eyes inherited from the Banzhu of the skies would absolutely have no use there.

Not only that, his keen Xiuque would likely be mostly useless, because his sense of smell relied on the snake's forked tongue to capture scent molecules in the air—what could it possibly capture in water?

So at that point he could probably only rely on his heat-sensing system and his keen hearing.

But the sensing range of his heat-sensing system was too small.

So without an underwater perception system, he might become a very sharp-eared blind man.

So it seemed, to thrive in the ocean, underwater perception was indispensable.

As Baichuan extracted this ability and placed it into himself, his body ability model didn't undergo any major changes this time—only a faint, smooth linear groove appeared on each side of his sleek, elongated snake body.

Just like the shark's lateral line.

This line extended from his neck all the way to the tip of his tail.

After choosing this ability, this shark didn't have many other abilities left to pick.

Digestion and Absorption he already had, so there was no need to choose it again.

As for Dunlin LV2, Baichuan tested it and found that this ability conflicted with his own Linpian LV2, so he could only choose one of them.

Either Dunlin or Linpian.

So Baichuan could only express his regret. As for which one's defensive strength was greater, no one could be sure before it actually evolved, but since both abilities were at the same level, even if one was better, it probably wasn't by much.

No need to waste two points on that. If the Dunlin ability had been LV3, he would have chosen it on the spot without hesitation.

Finally, he looked toward the ability he'd wanted most all along — Magnetic Field Perception!

(End of Chapter)