Variant Medusa

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

Heaven Dou Empire, one hundred miles east of Heaven Dou City, Sunset Forest.

The sky was clear and the air crisp. The afternoon sun leaked through the gaps in the canopy, casting mottled shadows upon the ground.

The forest was a lush expanse of green, filled with towering, dense trees. Occasionally, birds and beasts would dart between the branches, their crisp cries quickly swallowed by the rustling of leaves in the wind.

Jiang Ci'an was concealed among the branches of a large tree.

At this moment, the domain of "Indifference" shrouded his entire body, completely masking his presence.

Simultaneously, concealment magic cast by Electrolux using his divine sense covered him. Gray-white energy patterns rippled like water, shielding his aura, body temperature, and even the sound of his breathing.

Under this dual protection, Jiang Ci'an was like a ghost wandering through the forest—unseen and undetectable.

He kept his eyes closed, the Eye of Life at the center of his brow wide open. It glowed with a faint golden light, scanning everything around him with "Perspective."

In his vision, this seemingly peaceful forest was teeming with countless life forces. Each one was outlined clearly in his sight, occupying its own territory in an orderly, non-aggressive fashion.

Sunset Forest was not large, far less vast than the Star Dou Great Forest. Consequently, the soul beasts within were generally of lower age, with the mainstream cultivation levels hovering around a thousand years.

Ten-thousand-year soul beasts were rare here, and their species were relatively limited.

Because of this, Sunset Forest had always been a popular destination for soul masters below the rank of Soul King to obtain their first four soul rings.

Jiang Ci'an watched for a long while before the Eye of Life at his brow slowly closed.

Opening his eyes, he took a map from his robes, spread it across the branch, and marked an 'X' over one of the areas he had circled.

He was conducting a search.

The internal soul beast encyclopedia of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect contained detailed records of numerous soul beasts, categorized by attributes and soul skill types—a truly comprehensive collection.

This was the foundation accumulated by the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect over ten thousand years. Even though the version Jiang Ci'an had purchased was not the complete internal edition, but rather the version sold to outsiders, the information recorded was sufficiently detailed. It far exceeded the ordinary guidebooks circulating on the market and was well worth referencing.

Yet, in this encyclopedia, the section on "Time" attribute beasts spanned only a few meager pages, far fewer than other elemental attributes. Even records of Space attribute soul beasts were significantly more numerous.

Furthermore, of the few Time attribute soul beasts recorded, the vast majority were already extinct.

Only one species remained.

That was... the Medusa.

Of course, not an ordinary Medusa.

According to the records, ordinary Medusa possessed the abilities of petrification and paralysis, allowing them to render prey helpless to be consumed.

However, certain Variant Medusa could possess the power to solidify time.

It was rumored that ten thousand years ago, the Poison Douluo Dugu Bo obtained his eighth soul ring from a mutated ten-thousand-year Medusa Empress, gaining the powerful soul skill known as "Time Stasis," which could directly freeze time within a certain range. It was incredibly formidable.

His primary goal for this trip was to find such a Variant Medusa.

Over the past month, based on intelligence he had gathered, he had scoured several potential habitats for Medusa colonies and successfully located three groups.

Unfortunately, none of them contained the variant he sought.

Standing up from the branch, Jiang Ci'an's gaze remained calm.

He naturally knew the chances of finding a variant were slim, so he had no intention of fixating on it and had prepared a contingency plan.

If he could not find a Variant Medusa, he would head to the Evil Demon Forest to search for a Time-attribute Evil Eye.

And if a Time-attribute Evil Eye could not be found either, he would settle for the next best thing: a more easily located Space-attribute soul beast.

Over the past month, Elder Yi had already calibrated the spatial coordinates of the Evil Demon Forest, allowing him to open a gateway and depart at any time.

If he could not find the Variant Medusa he wanted within ten days, he would divert his path to the Evil Demon Forest.

Of course, if he could help it, he did not want to go to the Evil Demon Forest.

Rare species like the Time-attribute Evil Eye were bound to exist in the core regions of the Evil Demon Forest.

There, the number of ten-thousand-year Evil Eyes, and even hundred-thousand-year ones, was certainly not small, and he was currently only level twenty.

In comparison, Sunset Forest was much safer. Excluding the forbidden zone of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, even ten-thousand-year soul beasts were scarce in the core area.

With the assistance of "Indifference" and Elder Yi's concealment magic, he could move through the entire Sunset Forest almost at will.

Glancing at the map to confirm the location of the next Medusa colony, Jiang Ci'an flashed, dropped silently from the branch, and activated "Perspective" as he swept into the distance.

Soon, he reached his destination.

Jiang Ci'an hid behind a large tree and closed his eyes. The Eye of Life at his brow glowed with golden light, his vision easily piercing through the layers of trees and foliage ahead to land beneath a shaded boulder in the distance.

There, a group of Medusa were gathered together.

Although Medusa possessed a humanoid upper body and a snake tail, they were essentially still snakes; they loved the cool and detested the scorching heat.

At a glance, dozens of Medusa were huddled in the shadow of the boulder. Both male and female, they had pale faces with gray-black scales distributed across their skin, and a mass of snakes writhing atop their heads—a terrifying sight.

Jiang Ci'an's gaze swept through the colony, identifying them one by one.

At a certain moment, his gaze paused slightly.

He had noticed a Medusa that was different from the rest.

Although at first glance the creature's scales appeared just as dull and gloomy as the others, under the perspective of the Eye of Life, those gray scales shimmered with a faint, silvery luster.

On its pale face, the snake-hair was also thinner and softer; compared to other Medusas, it looked almost malnourished, the kind of creature one would overlook at a single glance.

Jiang Ci'an's gaze paused slightly, his eyes confirming the truth.

This was a Variant Medusa!

Jiang Ci'an did not act rashly, his sight lingering on the Medusa's tail as he continued to discern its age.

The age of a Medusa is primarily determined by the length and thickness of its snake tail; for every thousand years of cultivation, the tail grows by one meter.

As for this one, its snake body was slender and its tail tip delicate; by visual estimation, it was just a little over four meters long.

In other words, this was a four-thousand-year-old Variant Medusa.

Jiang Ci'an's gaze remained fixed as he thought rapidly.

Over four thousand years was actually a bit on the high side for him right now.

However, at level twenty, coupled with the enhancement of his Body Tempering Method, he could absorb a standard thousand-year spirit ring without any pressure.

When factoring in the increased physical tolerance gained after fusing with the Gold of Life to construct his Spirit Aperture, as well as the increased capacity from the several pieces of top-grade Whale Rubber he had consumed beforehand...

It was slightly over the limit, but still within his range of endurance.

The powerful vitality brought by the Gold of Life was enough to allow him to achieve a degree of limit-breaking absorption; at most, the process would just be a bit more painful.

And this Variant Medusa was a rare find, one that could be sought but not necessarily found.

Since that was the case, there was no need to hesitate.