Chapter 9: This Is a Rebirth

After indulging in wild fantasies about the future, Baichuan finally calmed down and carefully calculated the Time.

Four days. Four more days. After those four days, he would welcome the next generation of points, and these points would mean his pace of growing stronger would accelerate from then on.

Thinking of this, he was almost impatient, wishing he could leap across these four days right now!

To make sure no accidents occurred, Baichuan decided he wouldn't wander around these few days; every day after eating his fill, he'd shrink back into his cave and stay there obediently.

……

Under these circumstances, Time flew by in the blink of an eye—two days had passed—and Baichuan's previously chaotic schedule had finally been readjusted.

That day, after eating a black rat snake as usual, Baichuan suddenly felt something was off about himself.

"Strange, why does it feel like my eyes are a bit weird today? Did I not sleep well?"

After muttering to himself, Baichuan shook his head, feeling more and more that something was wrong.

Because in the past, while he couldn't say his vision was crystal clear, at least within a hundred meters it was exceptionally sharp; but now his eyes seemed to have something coating them.

Everything he looked at was somewhat hazy.

Had he eaten something wrong? After all, during this period, to acquire ability models, he had eaten many living creatures he encountered, far exceeding the Eye King's dietary range.

Or had he fallen ill? Been parasitized by something?

Encountering such a situation for the first time in his life as a snake, Baichuan didn't know what had happened; at this moment his heart felt heavy.

With a heavy heart, and having eaten his fill, he no longer hesitated.

He crawled straight back to his nest. Meanwhile, because of the sudden problem with his eyes, he couldn't be sure about tomorrow—whether he'd still be able to go out hunting—so to guard against variables,

he did not activate his frenzied digestion that day.

This was the first time since coming to this world that he was grateful snakes possessed the ability to sustain themselves for a long period from a single meal.

……

When he woke the next day, Baichuan found the problem had grown more serious.

If yesterday his eyes were merely hazy, like seeing things with two or three hundred degrees of nearsightedness, today it was roughly equivalent to over five hundred degrees.

He could say that looking even slightly into the distance was a complete blur. The Eye King relied on vision to hunt; under these circumstances, let alone hunting, he'd probably have to be extremely careful even while crawling.

At this moment, he was suddenly glad he had prioritized strengthening the Danger Perception ability, because his keen hearing combined with his sensitive Xiuque prevented him from completely losing awareness of his surroundings.

However, under these circumstances, a premonition inexplicably arose in his heart, a feeling urging him to leave this tree hollow quickly, because the tree hollow was no longer safe for him now.

What he needed most right now was a narrow burrow or den that could barely fit him.

At this moment, Baichuan wasn't sure whether the premonition that had inexplicably appeared in his heart was correct, but after careful consideration, he felt it still had some rationality to it.

First, his tree hollow was located in midair, and it had originally belonged to a bird—it had just been usurped by him.

Now that his vision was nearly gone, if he encountered a bird in this state, he'd find it very hard to see clearly, dodge the bird's peck, and counterattack.

Moreover, if he didn't leave the tree hollow and return to the ground, he feared that if his vision completely failed tomorrow or the day after, getting down from the tree might become a problem.

If by some mishap he fell from the tree and was seriously injured, that would be laughable.

After serious consideration, Baichuan followed the premonition in his heart and carefully climbed down the tree.

He thought, perhaps this inexplicable premonition came from biological instinct?

This kind of instinct is truly incomparably mysterious!

……

Crawling carefully along the way—although this area was his territory, he was afraid invaders might appear at this moment.

Fortunately, because he had gone out hunting every day during this period, many animals had already grown familiar with and fearful of him.

Seeing him crawl past so brazenly, they were scared and scattered in all directions.

Therefore, after a full day of searching, he finally found a narrow and deep cave in the afternoon.

Once he had completely burrowed inside, the nerves he had kept taut for an entire day finally relaxed by more than half.

But up to now, Baichuan had discovered his vision had deteriorated even more severely, having reached a state close to blindness.

This discovery made his heart even heavier, and at the same time made him more emotionally sensitive.

For his sense of security, he coiled his snake body, with his head always pointing toward the cave entrance.

The two small bumps on top of his head kept sensing the movements outside, his forked tongue flicking continuously.

The venomous fangs in his mouth were always primed; the moment any accident occurred, they could shoot out and inject venom the next second.

He swore that whoever broke into this cave at this moment would not escape his frenzied attack.

The only thing he could be glad about now was that aside from the blindness, he felt no other abnormalities in his body.

Time passed slowly under these conditions.

From the Golden Crow setting in the west to the Jade Rabbit rising in the east, then to the Golden Crow rising and setting again.

Two full cycles of day and night had already passed.

Baichuan, whose heart had endured three days of painful torment, finally saw light once again.

At this moment, his heart was moved.

At this moment, it was as if he had experienced a rebirth.

At this moment, it was as if he had undergone a cleansing.

If he were asked to write a book at this moment, he believed he could fully write one that would make people weep and be deeply moved—"If You Give Me Three Days of Light."

And at this moment, he finally understood what problem had befallen him.

Because that abnormally taut, sore, itchy, and painful sensation in his body told him the truth.

This was the path every snake must traverse—shedding!

This was a trial every snake must overcome to grow!

The old skin ages, the new skin is born.

Don't wonder why Baichuan underwent shedding in such a short period of time.

The Song dynasty's Su Song, in his *Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica*, once recorded: "Snakes shed their skin at no fixed time; they molt whenever they become unclean, or after a heavy meal."

What this means is that when food is plentiful, or when the snake's body surface is dirty or its scales are damaged, shedding commonly occurs.

Once you've grasped the above point, think about what Baichuan has been doing during this Time.

Eating, right! Eating every day!

Even though most of the energy from this food was converted into points by the panel, don't forget that Baichuan, as a snake, doesn't have a strong absorption ability.

Even though most of the energy from this food wasn't absorbed and converted into points, but instead dissipated, his body was nevertheless wrapped in energy every moment without pause.

So this is also the reason why he has to shed his skin so quickly.

Once he'd grasped this point, Baichuan knew that what came next would still be a trial, because he had only just finished the prelude to shedding; next he still had to peel off that old layer of skin from his body.

The moment his snake body began swimming again, Baichuan immediately felt that his body had grown considerably larger.

If before he was only a little over three meters, now he was already over three and a half meters.

And in the days to come, he should still be able to grow quite a bit more.

But that would be a matter for later.

Since the most difficult, weakest moment of shedding had passed, Baichuan also wanted to return to that tree hollow from before.

Along the way, he deliberately sought out places with narrow branches and thick shrubs to thread through; his snake body wound and crawled, and the old skin on his body was either burst open by the strain and fell off naturally, or scraped off by all manner of branches.

It has to be said, this feeling of a layer of skin slowly falling off behind him as he moved forward was truly bizarre, yet carried a certain exhilarating release.

If Baichuan had to describe it, it would be like a gust of wild wind suddenly blowing on a swelteringly hot day, and you strip all the clothes off your body.

Stark naked, the wind blows and everything feels terribly sensitive, yet there's also that lightness you get after every bit of tartar has been cleaned out of your mouth.

(End of chapter)