A Promising Future

Inside the underground cave.

After awakening the Nine Infants Bloodline.

His beast avatar was affected, and its body length surged directly to over thirty meters, turning it into a true colossal creature.

The nine snake heads were governed by a unified consciousness, yet each could do different things independently. Multitasking was a piece of cake. With nine brains, whether he was studying or working, his efficiency was now several times greater than before. The improvement to his aptitude was especially astonishing!

"Now that I've awakened my bloodline, I can be considered to have some ability to protect myself. It's time to leave this comfort zone and explore other places. If I keep hiding here and working behind closed doors, it won't do my growth any good." Li Chang'an estimated the energy within his body and found that it was roughly equivalent to that of a ten-thousand-year soul beast. Of course, his actual combat power was certainly not limited to that of a ten-thousand-year soul beast.

With this level of strength, he had gained a basic ability to protect himself in the Soul Beast Forest. Besides, he had nine lives. Even if he encountered an unimaginably powerful enemy and died unfortunately, he could revive. Since that was the case, there was nothing to fear.

Just as he twisted his Snake Body and prepared to leave the underground cave, however, he discovered that the passage he could once exit with ease had become exceptionally narrow for his current self.

After all, in his Nine Infants form, setting aside the nine long snake heads spread apart, even the lower half of his tail, which had split into nine heads, had become exceptionally thick and massive. It was no longer the slender Snake Body it had once been.

"It'd be nice if my body could shrink a little."

This thought surfaced in Li Chang'an's mind.

The next moment.

His massive Snake Body truly began to shrink like a deflating ball. In the blink of an eye, he went from a colossal creature over thirty meters long to a tiny thing less than three meters in length. And he was still shrinking.

"What's going on?"

"Why did I suddenly get smaller?"

"Stop! Stop!"

"This size is enough!"

Li Chang'an hurriedly thought to himself, Stop shrinking!

His shrinking body immediately stabilized, maintaining a length of around one meter.

"It actually stopped?"

"Can I control my body and make it grow or shrink?"

"The Nine Infants Bloodline has an ability like this?"

He was extremely surprised, because this ability to grow and shrink had not become an instinct that he understood when he awakened his bloodline. Thus, he had always believed that Nine Infants' abilities were only controlling water and fire, along with possessing nine lives.

But now, it seemed that this ancient Exotic Beast bloodline inherited from his previous life was probably not as simple as he had thought. It should possess some abilities that he had yet to discover.

For example, back when his main body had just raised its head above the lake's surface, he had seen the entire world connected by strange "threads." Everyone was like a puppet on strings, their bodies covered in threads.

This should also be one of Nine Infants' abilities. It simply was not as obvious as Nine Lives or controlling water and fire, which was why he had failed to notice it from the beginning. After all, he had only just awakened his bloodline.

"Forget it. I'll head out first."

Li Chang'an decided to leave the underground cave first. After all, even if he wanted to test his abilities, this cave was not a good place for it. The vast world outside would be better for testing their effects.

Twisting his thick Snake Body, he slowly slithered toward the cave entrance.

He passed through the long tunnel.

Soon, he crawled out of the underground cave and onto the surface.

One of his heads parted the bushes concealing the cave entrance, while the remaining eight scanned the surroundings. Eighteen pairs of eyes took in every direction, front and back, left and right, observing the entire world without a single blind spot.

After confirming that there was no danger.

The rest of his Snake Body slowly emerged from the passage.

"Let's see whether my strength also shrinks along with my body in this smaller form." Li Chang'an swung his long tail and lashed it viciously against the ground like a whip!

Boom!

The seemingly small snake tail struck the ground with a thunderous blast.

With a single tail strike, the ground caved in to form a massive pit, while countless fine cracks spread through the surrounding area!

"It seems shrinking my body doesn't affect my physical toughness or strength." Li Chang'an was relieved. In some novels he had read before, when people shrank, their strength and physical toughness shrank along with them. He remembered one particularly powerful unlucky fellow who had been stepped to death by an ordinary person after shrinking.

What if his shrinking ability was also that bizarre? Wouldn't he need to prepare in advance?

Fortunately, the test showed that shrinking his body would not affect his original physical toughness or strength.

"Let me think. How did I shrink earlier?"

Li Chang'an recalled the sensation of his body shrinking before, and his body immediately began to expand like an inflating balloon.

In the blink of an eye, he returned to being that giant beast over thirty meters long.

"Since I can shrink, can I grow larger too?"

He began imagining himself becoming bigger.

At first, there was no reaction.

But soon, he could feel the energy in his body being rapidly consumed, followed by his body beginning to expand!

In the blink of an eye, his body length surpassed forty meters.

This was still far from the limit.

As his energy was consumed, his body continued expanding and growing larger.

Until all the energy in his body was exhausted.

Li Chang'an had now transformed into a hundred-meter behemoth!

His massive lower Snake Body coiled into a circle where he stood, while nine long snake heads lifted slightly and swept their surroundings. Just by raising his upper body, he had already risen above the forest canopy, his gaze reaching the tops of the trees.

As far as the eye could see, there was an endless green sea of trees.

"Shrinking my body doesn't consume energy."

"But enlarging it requires additional energy."

"And there's a time limit to this enlargement. Once the time runs out, I'll return to normal."

Li Chang'an sensed the state of his body, his long, thick tail twitching slightly.

In an instant, the ground around him shook. Countless trees swayed and toppled in every direction, as though an earthquake had struck.

"Still, although it consumes energy, enlarging my body also increases my physical strength and raw power proportionally. This isn't some useless shell that only looks impressive! I've genuinely become stronger."

"If that's the case, then once I have enough energy in the future, won't I be able to grow as large as I want? Even becoming as enormous as the World Serpent from mythology, large enough to encircle the entire world, might not be impossible." Thinking of this, Li Chang'an could barely contain his excitement.

This ability to grow and shrink had truly given him a tremendous surprise!

In his view, this ability was already worthy of being called a divine power. Its effect was similar to the mythical divine ability, Heaven and Earth Transformation.

He just didn't know whether this growth ability had a limit.

If there was no limit, and the only determining factor was how much energy he had, then it would be utterly insane.

That would mean that as long as he had enough energy, even growing large enough to eat planets like candy—or bite off half the universe in a single mouthful—would not be impossible.

The future was full of promise!