The Jianghu Road is Long, Farewell

If it wasn't clever, it would die, and that would be that.

At least he had already given it some help; he could face himself with a clear conscience.

Having settled the matter of abilities, Bai Chuan silently reviewed various escape-related skills.

He finally decided on—

Agility LV2.

The reason he chose this was because, when he had observed that Zhang Daring earlier, he noticed the man wasn't fast, leaning instead toward strength.

Rats were known for their agility; while speed wasn't their strong suit, they could easily outpace an ordinary human.

If it evolved a speed-related ability, wouldn't its speed take off?

It was already quite nimble, and its intelligence and instincts weren't lacking. If speed were added on top of that, its chances of survival should increase significantly.

Then, even if it ran into that Zhang Daring, as long as it was a little clever, it could easily leave him far behind.

If it still couldn't survive, that would prove it was nothing special—dead was dead.

With the consumption of 2 Points, Bai Chuan's Points dropped from 8 back to 6.

And at that moment, before his eyes, the rat that had been staying in his claws gradually stopped squirming, slowly enveloped by a powerful drowsiness, sinking into the deepest sleep.

Instinctively, Bai Chuan set it down gently.

A thick, viscous liquid began to seep slowly from between its matted fur, like a gelatinous substance gradually eroding it bit by bit.

"So this is what it was like when I evolved?"

Bai Chuan nodded his snake head in understanding, flicking out his forked tongue to try and catch any strange scent molecules in the air.

But he caught nothing—it was as if the liquid had no smell.

Not only was there no scent, but he also stared intently at the liquid, trying to scan it with his Panel.

Unfortunately, that was useless too.

Then he extended a claw, trying to scoop up a strand of the liquid to examine it.

But unexpectedly, the moment he stretched out a single claw and the tip touched it, he saw that where his claw tip had come into contact with the mysterious liquid, a strange burning sensation appeared.

Along with that burning sensation, his claw tip began to rot inch by inch, turning to dust that drifted away with the air currents.

And it kept spreading up his claw. Fortunately, the amount of liquid was limited, and the burning sensation soon faded.

"What is this?!"

This shocked Bai Chuan. He stared wide-eyed at the scene, hardly daring to believe it.

What exactly was this liquid? Why was it so terrifying?

Could something like this really be secreted from a living creature? He had been wrapped in this stuff before? And he had come out completely unharmed? Did it have some kind of recognition function?

For a moment, a flood of questions surged through Bai Chuan's mind.

If this stuff was always like this, then his safety during evolution would be off the charts.

No, that wasn't right.

Maybe it was only like this in the earliest stage. Bai Chuan recalled the image of breaking out of the hard shell every time he woke up.

That shell had been a harmless, hard casing back then.

Because he had once used it to hold leftover food he hadn't finished.

And since there had been nothing unusual about it at the time, he had overlooked it.

But what exactly was this stuff?

After a long moment, Bai Chuan shook his head.

How could he, who was experiencing it for the first time, possibly understand?

Meanwhile, as Bai Chuan was lost in thought, the rat was about to be completely covered by the thick, mysterious liquid.

Just then, he remembered the Ice Silkworm lying discarded on the ground nearby... Oh, maybe it wasn't an Ice Silkworm anymore.

What should he do with this thing?

He didn't dare eat it recklessly—after all, he owed his ice power to its contribution.

But his enhanced ability, "Symbiosis," was on the same level as it. That meant he could steal its power, so didn't that also mean it could steal his back?

Eating it would be asking for trouble.

Even if the possibility was only a sliver, he had to eliminate it.

That being the case, he had no choice but to kill the bug and silence it.

With that thought, Bai Chuan extended his wicked great claw toward the Ice Silkworm.

Halfway there, he suddenly wondered—what if the moment he made contact, it got snatched away from him?

Better not touch it himself, then.

So what should he do?

He glanced around the cave; it was practically empty.

But fortunately, the chunk of flesh he had brought back earlier still had a large piece left, more than enough to wrap up this bug.

So he grabbed the flesh with one claw and wrapped the Ice Silkworm inside it. Throughout the whole process, the Ice Silkworm offered no resistance—perhaps it had already lost the strength to fight back.

And after that?

Bai Chuan first unleashed a series of fierce electric currents onto the wrapped flesh, not stopping until even his own claw began to glow red.

Then, thinking that those humans might track him here—and since they seemed able to use corpses—he couldn't leave any trace behind.

Only grinding bones to ash and scattering them would be truly safe.

As it happened, there was a liquid here perfect for erasing all evidence. With that in mind, Bai Chuan grabbed the now slightly charred, stinking flesh and placed it onto the viscous liquid.

Instantly, as the liquid vanished, the lump of flesh slowly began to rot and crumble into dust.

"Not bad," he couldn't help but praise at the sight of such an impressive effect. "If I ever need to dispose of a body in the future, I'll just grab an animal, give it a quick enhancement, and bam—the best corpse-dissolving liquid around."

Though its other functions were unremarkable, its ability to erase evidence was top-notch.

After handling everything, Bai Chuan took one last look at the little creature, then turned and left without looking back.

The road of the jianghu stretches far—farewell here. Mountains high, rivers long; if fate allows, we shall meet again.

If you manage to survive and grow strong enough, we'll cross paths once more—and when we do, you'll be getting fleeced by me again.

After leaving the cave.

Bai Chuan oriented himself and set off once more toward the river.

Now that he had what he wanted, it was time to run—and the farther, the better. Ideally, to a place with no human presence at all.

After the Ice Silkworm incident, he understood just how desperately those humans craved strange insects and beasts that weren't like ordinary animals.

He wasn't sure if he counted as one, but just based on his appearance alone, he'd definitely be targeted and coveted.

He didn't think this was narcissism or paranoia—it was simply the truth.

He even suspected that when he stole the treasure earlier, he might have already been exposed to those humans. After all, who knew what kind of methods they had?

So perhaps this place was about to become the center of a storm.

Now that he understood the gravity of the problem, he was no match for the entire human race.

And what he needed most right now was stability—stability, and more stability.

Only a stable environment would allow him to keep accumulating Points to evolve, and ideally, that environment should also be rich in diverse lifeforms.

That left him with only one choice: run!

Run into the sea!

Uh, let's not have some cliché like a rat mutating first—the protagonist hasn't even evolved yet, so why would that be arranged for a rat?

As for the earlier mistake... well, let's just say the ability granted by the Panel mutated according to the host...

As for the question of low martial—everyone has their own understanding. Here, "low martial" doesn't refer to the traditional wuxia kind, but rather the level of destructive power. In my personal view, it means you can't blow up a mountain, you can fight a hundred or a thousand enemies, but you can't withstand a military charge—that's low martial.