If it wasn't clever, then dead was dead.
At least he had already given it some help. He could face himself with a clear conscience.
After thinking through its abilities, Bai Chuan silently examined the various skills related to escaping.
In the end, he decided—
Agility LV2.
He chose this because when he had observed Zhang Daring before, he'd noticed the man didn't seem very fast. He was focused on strength.
Rats were known for their agility. Speed wasn't their strong suit, but against an ordinary human, they could easily leave them in the dust.
If it evolved an ability that boosted its speed, wouldn't it take off like a rocket?
It was already extremely nimble, and its intelligence wasn't bad either. Add a massive burst of speed to that—
Its chances of survival should increase considerably.
Even if it ran into Zhang Daring, as long as it was clever, it could leave him far behind with ease.
If it still couldn't survive after that, then it just wasn't much to begin with. Dead was dead.
As 2 points were used up, Bai Chuan's total dropped from 8 back to 6.
And at that moment, before his eyes—
The mouse that had been lying in his claws slowly stopped moving around. A powerful drowsiness gradually enveloped it, and it sank into the deepest sleep.
Without thinking, Bai Chuan gently set it down.
A thick, viscous liquid slowly seeped out from between its disheveled hairs, like a gel, gradually consuming it bit by bit.
"So this is what happened when I evolved before?"
Bai Chuan nodded in understanding, flicking out his forked tongue to see whether he could pick up any strange scent molecules in the air.
Unfortunately, he caught nothing. It was as if the liquid had no smell.
Not only was it completely odorless, but even when he stared at it intently and tried to scan it with the Panel—
It was no use.
Then he reached out a claw, hoping to hook up a little of the liquid for a closer look.
But the moment he extended a single claw and its tip touched the liquid—
A strange burning sensation flared where the mysterious liquid had touched his claw tip.
As the burning sensation spread, his claw tip crumbled inch by inch into dust, which drifted away on the air.
The decay continued to creep up his claw. Fortunately, only a little liquid had stuck to him, and the burning sensation soon vanished.
"What?!"
The sight shocked Bai Chuan. He stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what he was seeing.
What was this liquid? Why was it so terrifying?
Could a living creature really secrete something like this? Had he been wrapped in this stuff the entire time before? How had he been completely unharmed? Did it have some kind of recognition function?
For a moment, a whole new pile of questions sprang up in Bai Chuan's mind.
If this stuff was always like this, wouldn't that make his evolutions incredibly safe?
No, that wasn't right.
Perhaps it was only like this in the initial stage. Bai Chuan recalled waking up and breaking through the hard shell each time.
Those shells had been completely harmless.
He had even used them to hold food he hadn't finished eating.
Since nothing unusual had happened back then, he'd simply overlooked it.
But what exactly was this stuff?
After a while, Bai Chuan shook his head.
How could he understand something he was encountering for the first time?
Meanwhile, as Bai Chuan sank into thought—
The mouse was nearly completely covered by the thick, mysterious liquid.
Just then, he remembered the Ice Silkworm lying on the ground nearby, ignored by everyone... Oh, perhaps it wasn't an Ice Silkworm anymore.
What should he do with this thing?
He didn't dare eat it. After all, he owed the power of Frost Strike to its contribution.
But his upgraded ability, Symbiosis, was on the same level as its ability. That meant he could steal its power. So did that mean it could steal his back, too?
Eating it would just be asking for trouble.
Even if there was only the slightest chance of that happening, he had to prevent it.
If so, then the only option was to kill the insect and silence it.
With that thought, Bai Chuan reached out his guilty-looking great claw toward the Ice Silkworm.
Halfway there, he suddenly wondered: what if their powers got stolen from him the moment he touched it?
Better not to make direct contact himself.
So what should he do?
He looked around. The cave was practically empty.
Fortunately, there was still a large chunk of meat left over from what he'd brought back earlier. It was more than enough to wrap the insect in.
He grabbed the meat with a claw and wrapped the Ice Silkworm in it. The insect didn't resist at all during the process. Perhaps it had already lost the strength to fight back.
And then?
First, Bai Chuan unleashed a string of fierce electric currents into the bundle of meat. He only stopped when his own claw began to turn red.
After that, remembering that the humans might come looking for it—and that they seemed able to make use of corpses—he realized he couldn't leave anything behind.
Reducing it to ashes was the safest option.
As luck would have it, there was a liquid right here that could destroy a corpse without a trace. With that in mind, Bai Chuan picked up the slightly charred, foul-smelling meat and placed it on the viscous liquid.
In an instant, as the liquid vanished, the bundle of meat slowly decayed into dust as well.
"This stuff's pretty handy. If I ever need to dispose of a body, I can just find an animal and upgrade it a little. Wouldn't that make the perfect corpse-dissolving liquid?"
Seeing such astonishing results, Bai Chuan couldn't help praising it.
Its other functions weren't clear, but it was great at making corpses disappear.
Once everything was taken care of, Bai Chuan gave the little thing one last look, then turned and left.
The road of the jianghu stretched far and wide; let us part here. The mountains are high and the waters long; if fate wills it, we'll meet again.
If you survive and grow strong enough, our paths will cross again. And when they do, he'll be sure to shear you for another handful of wool.
After leaving the cave—
Bai Chuan got his bearings and headed toward the river again.
Now that he'd gotten what he wanted, it was time to run—and the farther away, the better. Ideally, he'd find somewhere untouched by humans.
After what had happened with the Ice Silkworm, he understood how desperately those humans craved strange insects and exotic beasts like him, creatures unlike ordinary wild animals.
He didn't know for sure whether he counted as one, but with a body like his, they'd certainly set their sights on him.
He didn't think he was being narcissistic or paranoid. It was simply the truth.
He even suspected that he might have been spotted by those humans when he secretly took the treasure before. After all, who knew what methods they had?
So perhaps this place was about to become the heart of a new maelstrom.
Now that he understood how serious the problem was, he also knew he couldn't take on all of humanity.
Besides, what he needed most right now was stability. Stability, and more stability.
Only a stable environment would let him keep accumulating points and evolving. And, ideally, it would have a wide variety of living creatures as well.
That left him with only one choice: run!
Run to the sea!
Uh, there won't be some ridiculous scenario where the rat mutates first. The protagonist hasn't even mutated yet, so why would I arrange that for a rat?
As for the mistake earlier... Uh, let's just say the ability gained through Panel enhancement mutated in accordance with its host...
Regarding the question of low martial arts, everyone has their own interpretation. By "low martial arts," I don't mean low-level traditional wuxia, but rather the degree of destructive power. Personally, I consider it low martial arts if someone can't blow up a mountain, can fight a hundred or a thousand opponents, but can't withstand a military charge.
Before you continue