Choice and Letting Go

Even after using this panel for half a year, Bai Chuan found that it could still surprise him from time to time.

Take now, for example—if he weren't so curious and fond of digging into its secrets, he might never have known that so much information lay hidden behind ability enhancement.

Still, the recovery of an ability was ultimately a good thing, saving him two points.

Though it did interrupt his plan to test whether strengthening the same ability again would cause another massive size increase.

Was this a mixed blessing?

Bai Chuan felt a bit like he was getting a bargain and then acting smug about it.

He scratched his head and continued strengthening.

Coiling Strangle LV2 and Flexible LV2 were the core of a python's power—they had to be strengthened.

As for Heat-Sensing Lip Pit LV2, it was a heat-sensing ability similar to a pit viper's facial pit. Bai Chuan hesitated for a moment before deciding to go ahead with it.

Right now, his heat-sensing range was still too small, only about twenty or thirty meters in radius. He hoped a python's sensing range would be larger.

Then Bai Chuan looked at the ability "Energy-Saving Storage LV2," and this time he truly hesitated.

He didn't know whether to strengthen it. After discovering earlier that he no longer needed to hibernate, he had carefully observed his own condition.

And that's when he made a startling discovery: at some point, one of his abilities had disappeared!

That ability was the snake-specific "Energy-Saving Storage LV1," which had two parts. First, energy-saving: the lower the temperature, the slower his metabolism, achieving energy conservation.

Second, storage: his digestion and absorption weakened, allowing him to retain food in his stomach for a long time.

Combined, these two traits meant that when snakes encountered lower environmental temperatures, their slowed metabolism required less energy, allowing them to store the energy absorbed from food.

In terms of function alone, this directly conflicted with what Bai Chuan wanted now.

Because he needed fast digestion and fast absorption to increase his points, which went against a snake's natural instincts.

So Bai Chuan guessed that the disappearance of this ability might have been caused by countless previous enhancements, freeing him from the need to hibernate.

Now, seeing this ability again, he was uncertain.

Logically, just looking at the ability's description, he should abandon it—it seemed like nothing but negative debuffs.

But no one knew whether losing this snake ability would cause problems later, whether it would harm him—like genetic collapse, defects, or incompleteness.

This was especially worrying after he learned that some ability enhancements could conflict with each other.

Plus, back during the flood, this ability had saved him from having to hunt in the rain.

Having this ability gave him a calm confidence when facing survival issues.

So, he was genuinely torn.

Bai Chuan stared at the panel's abilities for a long, long time.

He sighed and finally decided to abandon it.

Although he wanted to keep all of a snake's abilities—after all, people fear change and the unknown—

But from the moment he began evolving, his future could never be just a snake.

In his past life, he had lived in a country that called itself "descendants of the dragon," and from childhood, he had held a longing for that mythical creature.

Now, that had driven him subconsciously toward evolving into a dragon: first the bumps symbolizing future dragon horns, the forelimbs resembling dragon claws, the thunder and lightning that accompany a dragon's command over wind and rain.

At some point, he had begun instinctively evolving toward the mythical image of a dragon. Even if he was still a fake—not just in power, but even in form incomplete—

As long as he kept evolving, he firmly believed that one day he would truly transform into a dragon.

And does a mythical creature like a dragon need to hibernate?

Absolutely not.

He also thought back to the source of this ability model: a Burmese python that was powerful but had been killed by him while hibernating.

Could he bear to see himself killed the same way one day?

With that in mind, what was there to hesitate about?

Finally, there were the remaining two abilities: Swimming LV2, which increased his speed in water, and Saltwater Adaptation LV1, which allowed him to survive in seawater for a certain period.

Not all snakes can survive in seawater; most prefer freshwater or even dry areas.

Biologically speaking, the essence of this ability was cellular osmotic pressure.

After strengthening it, Bai Chuan found that his body had gained a new instinct: to subtly adjust his cellular osmotic pressure depending on the water environment.

In the end, for this evolution, he selected Final Growth LV3, Coiling Strangle LV2, Flexible LV2, Heat-Sensing Lip Pit LV2, Swimming LV2, and Saltwater Adaptation LV1.

Now, let the evolution begin.

He believed that after this evolution, he would be completely free of a snake's weaknesses.

With that thought, Bai Chuan once again sank into familiar drowsiness.

And on the panel, 12 points were silently deducted.

Familiar viscous secretions appeared once more, wrapping him into a giant egg.

The evolution began.

This evolution granted an especially large number of abilities. By the time Bai Chuan woke again, a month and a half had passed.

As luck would have it, this evolution proceeded without any accidents—it completed without a single ripple.

"What an unprecedented, wonderful feeling!"

With his eyes closed, Bai Chuan carefully sensed his current body. He could feel just how astonishingly Flexible his body had become.

Back when he was still the Eye King, his body had actually been somewhat stiff. Most of the time, he could only dodge left and right or coil his body along the direction of his bones.

He had relied solely on his massive serpentine body and venom to bully his peers.

But now, he could clearly sense that he could coil or twist however he wanted—it all seemed possible.

Beyond that, his Heat Sensing Vision had astonishingly expanded to a range of 100 meters in radius.

Don't underestimate a mere 100 meters. Before this, his Heat Sensing Vision had only covered a 30-meter radius, and that was just one of his auxiliary senses.

His truly powerful vision came from those eyes. No matter how far the distance, as long as the target was exposed in an unobstructed environment, he could easily lock onto its location.

Then, as he closed in, he could rely on his heat-sensing organ to silently approach the target without a single error.

But enough of that for now—he still needed to shed his old snake skin.

That thing was itching him to death.