The Path to Soaring Begins

Under the moonlight, this venomous snake was none other than Bai Chuan.

As the saying goes, a gentleman seeks revenge even after ten years—it's never too late.

But Bai Chuan was no gentleman!

Yes, reason told him that his future held boundless potential. As long as he endured, he would one day be invincible, with nothing left to fear.

But that was then.

Why had he evolved so frantically, hunting day after day to accumulate points? Wasn't it to become more perfect and more powerful?

Only by evolving to greater perfection could he once again experience the beauty of this world. Only by growing stronger could he stop forcing himself to bend.

If not for that, why would he push himself so hard? He could just live like any ordinary Eye King, couldn't he?

It was precisely because his last life had been full of compromise and helplessness that in this life, he wanted to live freely, without ever bowing his head again.

It was just a medium-sized raptor. Did he really need to humble himself for that?

He was the King of Venomous Snakes, armed with human intelligence!

Was it really that hard to deal with a mindless bird of prey?

Yes, as a raptor, it held an innate advantage over ground-dwelling creatures. As long as it wasn't arrogant or careless, it could simply take to the sky and escape at the first sign of danger.

But could it really stay airborne forever without landing?

Not necessarily. Knowledge from the Great Explosion era of his past life taught him that no creature, no matter what it was, would tire and need rest as long as it was made of flesh and blood.

And that rest time was his best chance to strike.

Perhaps other animals knew this but couldn't act on it. He, however, was different. What was the greatest hallmark of human intelligence?

It was the ability to observe the current state of things, deduce patterns, and formulate solutions.

Over these three days, he first confirmed its range of activity. Then, drawing on his memory of avian knowledge, he quietly searched for its nest within that range.

Next, he pinpointed its resting schedule.

And so, after four days of searching, he had finally prepared everything.

In the dead of night, when birds sleep, he stepped onto its doorstep like an uninvited guest.

To do this, he had even altered the Eye King's usual routine.

Everyone knew that King Cobras were diurnal—active by day, resting by night.

But for revenge, he had turned into a nocturnal hunter.

Recalling the effort of these past few days, Bai Chuan wasted no more time. His serpentine muscles tensed, coiling with power.

With a sudden lunge, his dangerous, deadly fangs sank into the Goshawk's neck in an instant.

Then, rare for him, he wrapped his thick, powerful body tightly around the bird, paying special attention to binding its sharp talons.

Normally, when Eye Kings hunted, they rarely used constriction. Their thick scales and lethal venom gave them the confidence to simply bite down and wait for their prey to die.

Only in rare cases—Eye King versus Eye King—would they resort to coiling.

Of course, this also showed that the Eye King's constriction ability wasn't strong. But "not strong" didn't mean nonexistent.

From this, one could see how seriously Bai Chuan was taking this moment.

The searing pain finally jolted the Goshawk awake, but it was too late.

A raptor barely over fifty centimeters tall with a wingspan of just over a meter—how could it possibly be a match for a three-meter-long giant venomous snake king?

Not to mention that it was already tightly bound by his powerful coils, its neck bitten, its wings unable to spread, and its claws trapped.

Before long, Bai Chuan felt the prey in his grip weaken, its body slowly stiffening.

Only when he was certain the venom had taken full effect did he gradually loosen his coils. The Goshawk lay there, barely breathing out, with no breath coming in.

Then Bai Chuan shifted his head over, took a look at its crown, and nodded. Good—it was indeed bald in that spot.

That meant he hadn't targeted the wrong one.

Next, he glanced at the sky. Seeing it was still early, he began his feast.

He was probably one of the few venomous snakes to ever eat an eagle.

By the time Bai Chuan finished devouring the Goshawk and returned to his tree hollow, the sky was already beginning to lighten.

This was the time he would normally be heading out, but now it had become his rest period. He had to admit, these days of revenge had worn him out.

Still, it was all worth it.

Six days had passed, and he had already accumulated 60% of the points he needed. Soon, he would have points again.

As for how to use those points, he hadn't decided yet. He still knew too little about biology.

Thinking it over, he sank into a deep sleep.

By dusk, having slept for nearly a full day, he finally stirred awake.

The first thing he did upon waking was open his panel, then look toward the Ability Structure Library, where a new model had appeared.

Ability Structure Library: Rat, Sharp-Snouted Viper, Python, Frog, Goshawk.

After staring at it for a while, he casually tapped on the Goshawk model.

In an instant, a translucent blue Goshawk soared upward, landing before him and slowly rotating.

This was, in fact, the first time he had seen an Eagle model so directly.

Sharp eyes, a curved and sturdy beak, thick and fierce claws, a majestic posture.

One couldn't help but exclaim—what a magnificent bird!

At the same time, the Goshawk's abilities popped up.

Race: Goshawk. Ability Structure: Flight LV2, Claws LV2, Clairvoyance LV2, Digestion LV1, Strength LV1 (Chest Mutation), Avian Bone LV1 (Flight Mutation)...

"Hiss! So... so many abilities! There are actually three LV2 abilities, and... and... there's even..."

"Di! Ges! Tion!"

Looking at the incredibly rich panel above, Bai Chuan first drew in a sharp breath in amazement, unable to help but admire that Eagles truly were among the kings of the sky—even if not the top-tier raptors, their abilities were still this abundant.

Until he followed the list down and suddenly spotted an ability: "Digestion"!

At that moment, the surprise came too suddenly, leaving him too excited to speak.

After snapping out of it, he burst into wild laughter:

"Hahaha~ It really seems heaven is helping me! Truly, you plant flowers but they don't bloom; you stick a willow branch and shade grows. Finally, finally I've found 'Digestion'! Now the path to takeoff is fully open!"

It wasn't that he was overly excited—anyone who understood his panel abilities would know just what kind of leap he would make once he possessed the "Digestion" ability.

Before, no matter how much he ate, he could rely on the panel's passive ability to start a frenzy of digestion.

But unfortunately, no matter how fast he digested, if his absorption couldn't keep up, all the energy from digestion would just dissipate and be wasted.

It was precisely because of this, along with the fact that this panel ability could only be used once a day, that he needed ten whole days to accumulate a single point, and had to hunt frantically every single day.

But now it was different. Stronger digestion meant he no longer had to rely on the daily panel ability to digest; he could digest quickly at all times.

Stronger absorption meant he could absorb more energy each day, and more energy meant less time needed to accumulate points.

And what less time meant didn't need explaining—faster point generation, faster evolution into more powerful abilities, and even stronger LV2 abilities.

At this moment, in his extreme excitement, he didn't even bother with the Heat-Sensing Pit and Eagle's Clairvoyance vision that he had dreamed of day and night before.