Chapter 12: Strange Fruit Ripened! Consume!

"Heh, this Soul-Seizing Pupil is truly useful!"

Lu Chuan heard a very charming voice ring out in his mind.

And following this voice, the giant green snake before him performed a corresponding gesture of submission, which made him very happy.

"The Soul-Seizing Pupil can make the weak submit while retaining their own thoughts; it really is a divine skill for recruiting underlings."

"Moreover, the underlings subdued through the 【Soul-Seizing Pupil】 can actually communicate directly in their hearts!"

After the giant green snake's voice rang out directly in his mind, Lu Chuan was exceptionally delighted, thinking to himself that this was truly great; in the future, when communicating with his underlings, he could issue orders directly instead of having to make all sorts of strange cries, like a chaotic dance of demons.

He did not know that the Soul-Seizing Pupil communicates directly via the souls of both parties, rather than the heart.

"Not bad, not bad, you little guy are quite sensible!"

Lu Chuan accepted the giant green snake's submission, now nodding slightly, a faint smile appearing in his eyes.

"A highly toxic snake like a bamboo viper is simply an unrivaled existence in the forest."

"As long as it is willing, it can completely hide among the trees and weeds, and no one would be able to discover it."

"It's a good thing I discovered it while it was staring at that Strange Fruit, otherwise I might very well have been ambushed too."

Thinking of this, Lu Chuan was just about to give an order to the giant green snake when he heard the other's voice ring out in his mind.

"Big Brother, it seems other fellows have come again; they are also here for this fruit, but they don't dare to come over."

Hearing this, Lu Chuan raised his head and scanned the surroundings with a calm expression; he truly did detect some auras, but they seemed to be deterred by the fact that both the giant green snake and he were here, so they did not dare to approach.

He nodded slightly toward the giant green snake and asked curiously.

"Are there any other strong enemies nearby?"

Now that he had a divine skill for recruiting underlings like the 【Soul-Seizing Pupil】, Lu Chuan felt that he could recruit a few more in the future; after all, the outside world was likely already in chaos.

Once humans stabilized the situation and resolved their internal conflicts, they would certainly take action against beasts like them; at that time, he did not want to fight alone, hence the idea of building his own force.

"Fighting alone has never been a good thing."

"Now, while the other beasts haven't really reacted yet, I can speed up my devouring and strive to increase my strength, but I also need a batch of usable subordinates."

Thinking of this, Lu Chuan communicated with the giant green snake in his heart.

"Tell me in detail."

"Big Brother, they... they are all right here."

Seeing the giant green snake look toward the direction of the fruit tree, he also looked over; he saw that this Strange Fruit tree had borne five fruits, each one round and crystalline—once fully grown, they were definitely not ordinary objects.

However, up to this point, only one of them had a different color and was emitting an alluring fragrance; it was clearly already ripe.

"Big Brother, you are looking in the wrong direction."

Hearing the giant green snake's reminder, Lu Chuan lowered his gaze and immediately narrowed his eyes.

Beside this Strange Fruit tree, there were actually several beast carcasses; it was clear they had been killed by the green snake because they coveted the Strange Fruit.

"Uh... alright."

Lu Chuan took a few looks and discovered that these beast carcasses had been quite strong while alive, but unfortunately, they had encountered the giant green snake and could only lose their lives.

Clearly, the giant green snake did not have his terrifying Rapid Digestion ability, so after killing them, it could only leave them aside.

This invisibly caused other beasts coveting the Strange Fruit to feel wary, and until now, no other beasts had disturbed them.

"Big Brother~"

At this moment, the giant green snake raised its head, pointed toward the direction of the Strange Fruit, and then rubbed against Lu Chuan; the meaning was that one Strange Fruit had already ripened, so hurry up and eat it! "I only became this big after eating this thing."

Hearing the voice in his mind, Lu Chuan was stunned for a moment.

He had originally thought the giant green snake had only experienced the Seven-Colored Light Rain; it turned out it had also eaten two ripe Strange Fruits, which was how it attained its current strength.

"You mean... the function of this Strange Fruit is very strong?"

"What function?"

Seeing the giant green snake's confused feedback, Lu Chuan chuckled and did not say much more.

Having been human in his past life, he would naturally occasionally express meanings that beasts could not understand.

After hearing the giant green snake's explanation, Lu Chuan slowly slithered forward; upon reaching the Strange Fruit, he immediately opened his mouth and bit it off.

Instantly, a current of heat surged rapidly through his body; although it was similar to when he leveled up, it was equally scorching, as if this current of heat could bring forth infinite power.

That heat current swept through his entire body, seemingly remodeling his physique unconsciously, making it stronger.

And at the same time, the system's notification sound rang out in his mind.

"Ding!"

"Congratulations to the host for a successful consumption, gaining 30 points of Evolution Value!"

For a moment, Lu Chuan was overjoyed; he hadn't expected that just by consuming a Strange Fruit, he would gain so much Evolution Value directly.

"This is faster than hunting hard, but... no wonder this bamboo viper was able to become so strong!"

"It ate two of them!"

After coming back to his senses, he looked at the remaining Strange Fruits, a scorching look clearly in his eyes, "If I can swallow all the Strange Fruits here, wouldn't I be able to level up again?"

"Sigh, it's a pity these Strange Fruits didn't all ripen at the same time, otherwise I would know the result right now."

As Lu Chuan pondered this, he glanced at the giant green snake, "Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to beat this guy either; it's fine as it is now."

"Anyway, guarding here, I just need to wait patiently; sooner or later, they will be mine."

Thinking this way, Lu Chuan slithered directly toward the beast carcasses on the ground; not being picky, he opened his blood-red maw and swallowed them.

After a short while, his belly became round and bulging again, as if it were about to burst, but after activating the Rapid Digestion ability, that ball-like shape deflated once more.

This scene left the giant green snake dumbfounded; it soon understood that this was the reason why Lu Chuan was also so strong.

"Bamboo... uh."

After swallowing these beast carcasses, Lu Chuan wanted to find a place to quietly digest his food, but he felt it was a bit awkward to keep calling it "bamboo viper," so he said directly: "From now on, I'll call you Xiaoqing; it's easier to say."

"Xiaoqing, watch this fruit tree well; don't let other fellows eat the Strange Fruit."

"Alright, Big Brother!"

Xiaoqing shouted excitedly, the voice sounding exceptionally dainty, as if she had the mannerisms of a young girl.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed, and Lu Chuan returned to the side of the Strange Fruit tree, followed by two giant bears.

Lu Chuan spoke telepathically to the giant green snake: "Xiaoqing, these two fellows are named Xiong Da and Xiong Er; they are our brothers from now on, so work well together."

These were the two giant bears he had subdued using the Soul-Seizing Pupil, and thinking the Strange Fruit was about to ripen, he brought them back.

At this moment, Lu Chuan looked up and saw that the Strange Fruit had finally ripened.

(End of this chapter)