Something is Wrong

At that moment, the lynx felt a heavy, soft body coil around it, locking it tight without giving it the slightest chance to resist.

Then, a warm current began to flow unceasingly from its neck into its body, spreading outward through every limb.

In that instant, alarm bells rang wildly in its heart; instinct told it that it was going to die, die!

Death—how terrifying it was.

The approach of death drove it to struggle madly, yet its once obedient and agile body now seemed unresponsive, frozen still.

And the constricting force grew stronger and stronger; it felt like it could barely breathe.

Its heart ached, its whole body throbbed with pain, its breath came short, and finally its head grew heavier and heavier.

A powerful drowsiness surged over it, overwhelming it—it wanted so badly to sleep...

In the end, it finally closed its eyes.

Outside, Bai Chuan could only feel that, as he exerted more force and time passed, he finally sensed the lynx slowly stop struggling. With a few twitches of its limbs, a trickle of blood began to seep from the corner of its mouth.

Under his constriction and venom, the lynx had finally breathed its last.

Only then did Bai Chuan loosen his coils around its body, and he was astonished to find that the lynx's form had already begun to warp and twist.

Seeing this, even Bai Chuan clicked his tongue in amazement. He hadn't expected that the constriction ability he used for the first time would shrink the prey so much that its bones deformed.

This strength was truly terrifying.

In his past life, Bai Chuan had once read a saying: felines were the most powerful and successful predators to evolve on the planet he came from.

This one wasn't a tiger, but it was no weakling either—at least among felines, it had a name worth mentioning, not comparable to those nameless nobodies.

That meant its bone and muscle structure were fairly excellent.

And now, he had easily killed one.

This signified that he was growing stronger.

After marveling at his own current power for a while, Bai Chuan extended two sharp claws and began frantically tearing off large chunks of flesh.

For a time, he ate with great relish, while the bloody scent spread wildly on the cold wind.

As he ate, Bai Chuan suddenly realized he was still missing something.

Right! Teeth.

Now that he was eating meat in big mouthfuls, it was like swallowing dates whole—no biting, no chewing, just gulping it down. It wasn't satisfying enough.

He decided that next time he evolved, if he had the chance, he'd get himself a pair of razor-sharp fangs.

Then, even if he didn't have time to pierce the prey's flesh with his venomous fangs and inject venom, as long as his fangs could bite open a wound, the naturally seeping venom could smear a little into the injury.

That effect wouldn't be negligible either.

Thinking this silently, Bai Chuan also quickened his eating pace.

By the time he was full, only a small hind leg and most of the warm organs—which he found somewhat hard to accept—remained of the lynx's body.

Strictly speaking, when devouring food, especially in winter, eating the prey's hot internal organs first was the best choice.

But he just couldn't bring himself to do it. It wasn't that they tasted bad, but the psychology of his past life as a human was influencing him.

After all, organs were still quite close to the animal's waste, so he found it hard to take a bite.

Plus, as a snake, he didn't need to prioritize organs over flesh anyway.

So let's just say he was being a little picky.

Of course, if he swallowed the whole thing whole, he wouldn't mind much—there's a saying: out of sight, out of mind.

Seeing it made him uneasy; not seeing it was fine. But ever since he'd taken to tearing flesh apart with his claws, he didn't much like swallowing whole anymore.

Because that way of eating was a bit too dangerous.

So it seemed animal organs were just not meant for him.

After eating his fill, Bai Chuan slowly faded away and left.

Only the still-blowing cold wind, the huge indentation in the snow, the patch of crimson on the snowfield, and the leftover organs bore witness that a snake-like creature active in winter had once been here.

Not long after Bai Chuan left, a furry, large creature with a yellow body, black stripes, and a white belly arrived.

It looked at the still-warm organs, twitched its nose as if sniffing something, then moved closer and began tearing into them with big bites.

In the days that followed, Bai Chuan once again lived a relatively peaceful life.

And as he grew more and more adapted to the winter climate and temperature, finding food became easier and easier.

Especially after he discovered large prey like moose, white-lipped deer, and roe deer, his food source suddenly became abundant.

With his now larger body, combined with invisibility, constriction, and venom abilities, he could kill prey silently and without a trace.

One thing worth mentioning, though: ever since he started leaving animal organs uneaten, a little tail had been following him around.

That time, he and it exchanged a distant glance from afar, and after finding that the other party made no further moves...

Given that the other party hadn't done anything out of line for now, and also somewhat wary of its strength, he temporarily ignored it.

He let it eat the leftover fresh animal organs he had.

And with this, Bai Chuan's size finally reached 6.7 meters, nearly matching the world's second-largest python.

However, as time passed, winter was slowly fading.

The temperature began to warm up gradually, the snow on the ground had long since disappeared, and even the ice in some places had started to show signs of melting.

Looking out, a hint of green had already sprouted from the dark, black soil.

All things were about to revive.

That day, Bai Chuan crawled out of his cave and made his way toward the stream, which had begun to flow with a gentle murmur.

Suddenly, he paused, staring in confusion at the stream, whose current had inexplicably shrunk again, and slowly looked upstream.

There, for some unknown reason, ice had formed once more.

"What is this?"

Wasn't winter supposed to be over?

Bai Chuan had clearly seen the ice melting just a few days ago, the last bits of ice drifting and dissolving with the current.

But now, for no apparent reason, it had frozen again!

The strangest thing was that he could feel an intense, biting cold emanating from the frozen surface—a chill nearly matching the coldest depths of winter.

Keep in mind, winter's cold was a natural phenomenon driven by the world's cycles, amplified by snow, frost, and biting winds.

It was, in essence, the vast and mighty force of the entire heavens and earth.

Yet now, a small frozen patch on a stream defied natural laws, radiating such frigid cold.

What was happening?

As the saying goes: When things go against the norm, there must be a monster at work.

In a season that had already warmed, such a resurgence of cold was almost certainly not normal.

Bai Chuan's expression grew serious. Could it be that this place, where he had stayed so long, still harbored some unfathomable mystery?