Half a Year

In the days that followed, Bai Chuan once again returned to a peaceful life, slowly accumulating points.

With his crawling speed increasing and his digestive ability improving, he also expanded his territory outward once more.

As for where the expanded territory came from? Naturally, it came from encroaching on other creatures' territories.

And encroachment meant battle—after all, no matter how vast this mountain range and forest were, they couldn't hold more creatures than they already did.

Every area had its overlord. Before Bai Chuan expanded his territory, to the east of his original domain was a pack of wolves; to the west, a herd of wild boars; to the south, a black bear; and to the north?

There was a great river that branched in all directions. He even suspected that the small stream where he used to drink water in his original territory was a tributary of this river.

He had once seen a beautiful feline covered in black spots on the opposite bank of the river—a leopard, perhaps a leopard?

As for now, maybe because he had slaughtered a wolf pack earlier, the eastern side had freed up quite a bit of territory.

And the territory he expanded occupied that area.

So, during this period, he had experienced quite a few battles—some he initiated, others he had to fend off.

For a time, his scales were covered in new scars.

At the same time, because he had evolved vision similar to what he was used to as a human, he no longer had the visual weaknesses of a snake.

So Bai Chuan began trying to collect some creatures with extremely powerful traits, like ants.

Unfortunately, ideals were beautiful, but reality was harsh.

These small animals were too tiny, and Bai Chuan didn't dare to just swallow them recklessly—he was afraid that eating them randomly might end up killing him.

After all, many illnesses come through the mouth.

So... collecting models in this area was too difficult, and he gave up.

Because the scanning rate was too slow. And Bai Chuan had no hands to make good tools for preserving ants and other small insects so he could scan them continuously.

So, after spending a whole day painstakingly staring and scanning most of one, only to have to rest because he couldn't hold on, the target would run away by the next day or even that same night.

Thus, the plan failed again.

Fortunately, he hadn't held high hopes for this—after all, with such a disparity in size, who knew if those ability structures would have compatibility issues?

But he had gained some insight into compatibility.

He found that most ability structures with low compatibility seemed to involve external limbs.

But let's not get into that.

By now, he realized he had fallen into a predicament: not enough points, no particularly powerful abilities to boost his combat strength, and surrounded by tough opponents.

After discovering this problem, he thought it over for a whole night and realized that his evolution time was still too short, and his foundation was lacking.

Because he had grown too fast.

It seemed he needed to settle down for a while and wait until his points became sufficient.

At the same time, he had roughly formed a plan in his mind—a plan that would greatly aid his future battles.

But it required careful thought and planning.

And that also took time.

Time passed slowly.

In the blink of an eye, half a year had gone by.

That day, by the great river.

A few sika deer were cautiously drinking water, heads lowered, while one of their companions kept watch.

Their dark, lively eyes constantly scanned their surroundings, afraid that a predator might suddenly strike from behind, or a massive creature might burst out from the water.

But just then, beneath the water's surface.

With a "gurgling" sound and a series of rising bubbles, a huge shadow swam over from below—its shape like a snake or a dragon, incredibly agile.

Soon, it seemed to spot its target, suddenly pausing its movement and swimming toward the shore.

At that moment, the sika deer were still obliviously drinking water, completely unaware of the approaching danger.

"Boom!"

The next moment, a loud explosion rang out, and crystal-clear water splashed everywhere, turning into a fine rain over this small area.

Accompanying the curtain of water was a giant snake with its mouth wide open. The scales on its back were pitch black, gleaming with a metallic luster, looking incredibly tough.

Only its belly had a few sets of golden ventral scales forming mysterious patterns, shining brilliantly under the sunlight.

This sudden turn of events and the gaping maw right in front of them terrified the sika deer, and they all bolted away in panic.

For a moment, dust flew everywhere, and the little rabbits and squirrels drinking nearby also vanished without a trace.

The culprit behind all this secretly chuckled in his heart. This was none other than Bai Chuan, half a year later.

Ever since he had successively strengthened his diving and underwater breathing abilities, he liked to plunge into the water whenever he had the chance, trying to get rid of the psychological shadow from half a year ago.

During this time, after accidentally scaring a group of animals when he came ashore one time, he suddenly found a way to relieve stress—by startling these drinking animals, letting him vent the pressure building up inside him.

Looking at the masterpiece he had created, Bai Chuan chuckled to himself for a while before preparing to leave.

Suddenly, he froze. The corner of his eye caught something on the ground.

He looked down and saw a mess everywhere—footprints and mud stains scattered all over.

And amidst this chaos, an anomaly appeared: a small sika deer lying collapsed on the ground.

"Huh? What's going on?"

A little deer lying on the ground? Bai Chuan didn't remember attacking it. Could this be some kind of animal insurance fraud?

Bai Chuan leaned in with his snake head and carefully examined the small sika deer sprawled on the ground, finally understanding the situation.

This sika deer was probably a young one, barely an adult. It must have been startled by him for the first time, but its courage was too small—he had literally scared it to death.

"Good grief... that's... that's really timid."

Realizing this, Bai Chuan was speechless. He never thought that playing a casual scare game for fun could land him a meal. How amusing.

He took a closer look at the deer's size and found it was just right for him to swallow whole, so he didn't hesitate.

Looks like he saved himself a day's hunting.

In the cave—a super spacious, luxurious cave dug out by Bai Chuan himself.

A massive snake, 5.3 meters long, was coiled up inside.

Yes, 5.3 meters.

Over the past six months, even though he hadn't strengthened any physique-enhancing abilities, his body had naturally grown to 5.3 meters in length, and his thickness had increased considerably as well.