Sudden Change

In the mountains, time passed unnoticed, the days stretching long and slow.

Before he knew it, a month had gone by, and Bai Chuan had finally taken root deep in these mountains, claiming a territory of his own.

As for how he got that territory?

Naturally, he took it by force, by fighting for it.

When he first arrived, he hadn't yet decided which area to settle in, but then a fellow of his own kind crawled out—a King Cobra.

It hissed out a warning, "Hoo—hoo—," trying to drive him away, declaring that this was its territory.

That was how Bai Chuan realized he had intruded upon another snake's domain.

But was he the kind to just leave because someone told him to?

That warning alone made him decide to stay right here.

Having evolved multiple times by now, he was already a standout among his kind, so naturally he won the fight without much contest.

Worth mentioning is that aside from that initial territorial battle, the entire month had been a monotonous cycle of eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating.

This period was so peaceful that Bai Chuan almost wondered if this place was paradise.

After all, what he needed most right now was time, and back in his old area, something was always going wrong—here a crisis, there a threat—making him think everywhere was just as dangerous.

But thanks to this month of calm growth, his body had now stretched to five meters in length, roughly as thick as a human thigh.

At the same time, he had fully grasped just how powerful his digestion and absorption had become.

Before, it took him ten days to accumulate a little bit of points; now, he could do it in just six.

In other words, his evolution speed had nearly doubled.

So, after a month of evolution, just how strong was he now?

One look at his status panel said it all.

Name: Bai Chuan.

Race: King Cobra.

Lifespan: 8 years.

Points: 1 (91%).

Abilities: Final Length LV2 (Details), Snake Venom LV2, Agility LV2, Strength LV2, Energy Conservation LV1, Danger Sense LV1, Flexibility LV1, Scales LV1, Swimming LV1, Digestion & Absorption LV1...

Ability Structure Library: Rat, Sharp-Nosed Viper, Rat Snake, Frog, Grasshopper, Vine Snake, Water Snake...

Editable...

Compared to before, he now had two more LV2 abilities: Agility and Strength.

Agility came from the Wild Hare he had recently hunted again, while Strength came from a Wild Boar.

That's right—a Wild Boar. A small, lone piglet that had somehow gotten separated.

Normally, Wild Boars are herd animals, covered in a tough hide formed from hardened mud mixed with their own bristly hair.

Add to that their hard, sharp tusks.

Under normal circumstances, he would have had no chance to hunt a boar alone, and even if he managed to kill one by luck, he wouldn't have been able to eat it.

Because boars hold grudges. Offend them, and they'll camp out and guard the body.

So venomous snakes usually get nothing but trouble from boars—poison them, and you still can't eat them because they're too big to swallow.

And if a snake isn't quick enough to get up a tree, it can get trampled or rammed to death by the herd.

In nature, King Cobras and Wild Boars generally keep to themselves, never crossing paths.

But that time, he got incredibly lucky. Something must have spooked the herd, sending them scattering in all directions, leaving one little piglet alone.

When Bai Chuan saw that, he carefully scanned the surroundings, found no herd guarding it, and weighed the risks against the rewards.

Deciding the gain outweighed the risk, he took the gamble, bit the piglet with a single dose of venom, and swallowed it whole.

And that was how he gained the Strength LV2 ability.

Thanks to these two new LV2 abilities, his body had grown from three and a half meters to a full five meters in just one month.

You could say he got fat in one go.

Now, not only had his strength increased, but his speed had also skyrocketed.

His strength was now on par with a Wild Boar's, and while his body structure kept him from reaching a hare's 70 km/h, he could still hit 50 km/h.

Don't underestimate that number. The fastest crawling snake, the Black Mamba, tops out at just 20 km/h.

And the highest instantaneous speed a human can reach while running is only 44.722 km/h.

That alone shows just how absurdly fast he was for a King Cobra.

From today onward, if he ever ran into humans, he could easily escape with that speed alone.

Not to mention his strength, which was now a whole different beast—comparable to a Wild Boar's. If he combined that with his speed, even a simple charge would be terrifying.

Of course, he didn't dare go all out with his ramming just yet. It seemed his growth had been so rapid that his scales' toughness couldn't quite keep up with his current body.

In just a single month, he had grown strong enough to reach this point—it seemed it was time to hunt a few large raptors again.

After all, he had long grown tired of the monotonous, lifeless, colorless perspective of a snake.

Before, survival hadn't been guaranteed, so he could only prioritize evolving his physical strength. But now that his power had increased, it was time to consider auxiliary aspects.

He had been looking forward to avian vision for a very long time—and among birds, was there anything better than Eagles?

At the same time, he wanted to see if his current strength could easily hunt Eagles.

And as it happened, he knew exactly where a few Eagles' nests were.

As this thought crossed his mind...

The massive snake crawled back out of its cave. His body had long since outgrown any tree hollow, leaving him no choice but to settle for a cave.

In the green forest.

The serpentine body slithered forward, its powerful muscles barely concealed even by its scales—proof enough of the terrifying strength this giant snake possessed.

As his heavy, mighty form moved, it constantly emitted a rustling sound—the noise of crushing fallen leaves and grass.

Coupled with his unparalleled speed, whenever the sound arose, a pitch-black phantom would flash silently through the woods, its metallic scales gleaming beautifully and mysteriously under the dappled sunlight.

Bai Chuan advanced steadily toward the mountaintop, when suddenly his serpentine body came to a halt.

He slowly raised his snake head, staring to the side. His icy, cold snake eyes were filled with caution as his body began coiling up, while his neck suddenly swelled.

This was a bit of an unlucky start.

Bai Chuan's mood turned heavy.

Not long after, the sound of pounding footsteps emerged.

In the direction Bai Chuan was staring, a massive Wolf Beast appeared—its shoulder height a full eighty centimeters, its body length nearly one meter three. Its fur was gray all over, and its wolf eyes gleamed with fierce, predatory intent.

With the appearance of this Wolf Beast, smaller wolves began emerging from behind and beside it, each one smaller than the first.

One by one, the Wolf Beasts pricked up their ears, raised their tails high, and lowered their bodies.

Clearly, they had entered an attack-ready state.

Seeing this, Bai Chuan immediately understood that the first wolf was the Alpha Wolf of this pack. He counted quickly in his mind—seven wolves in total.

This was going to be troublesome. Having never fought a wolf pack before, Bai Chuan wasn't sure how things would turn out.

He tested the waters by raising the upper half of his body high, trying to intimidate the pack.

In an instant, his serpentine torso rose over two meters, his swollen neck making him appear even thicker and taller.

Yet this only caused a slight stir among the wolf pack, which quickly subsided after a low growl from the Alpha Wolf.