Snake Transformation Spell

The feverish storm upon the Wasteland devoured everything in the swamp with invincible dominion. Before evening had even arrived, the last drop of water on the swamp's surface had vanished completely.

At this moment, the Crocodile Warriors had thoroughly become targets. Upon the utterly parched ground, their hard armor had become a complete burden. Without water to assist them, their entire bodies grew heavier and heavier.

Some of the weaker Crocodile Warriors did not even need the Corpse Dragon to attack them. Severe dehydration of their hides had already robbed them of seventy percent of their combat strength.

The Wasteland was slowly revealing its most merciless side.

Some rejoiced while others worried. The dry river was filled with screams of people fleeing in defeat, yet less than half a li away, increasingly unrestrained laughter rang out from the camp.

The warehouse under the Cannon Slave Corps' command was becoming more and more abundant at a visible rate.

At the same time, the entire slave corps' logistics division sprang into action at full throttle. They began dragging the Crocodile Warriors who had been entered into storage out, binding them to torture racks. Before the slave corps set off, they had to select a batch of goods fit to present to their commander.

Every member of the slave corps was thrilled. Such a massive influx of slaves meant substantial dividends for them. As for the Cannon Commander, though he too was smiling, his smile was steady and restrained.

His eyes had never left Karen.

The more than eight hundred Crocodile Warriors before him were not the main course. What truly stirred his heart was the Medusa surrounded by those Crocodile Warriors.

Right now, he was like a well digger, merely waiting for the final spring of clear water to gush forth.

His eyes were fixed on the teleportation passage connected to the Corpse Dragon, as though waiting for the first Medusa to emerge. Perhaps his attention was too focused, for he had not noticed at all that the soul of the person on his right ear was quietly undergoing a transformation.

Li Ziran still lay motionless on the Cannon Commander's ear, but his soul had now twisted into a spiral like a braided twist. Parallel to him was a transparent soul with a human body and snake hair. The two souls continuously revolved in parallel spiral formations, bursting out strands of shattered transparent lightning.

The lightning danced along the spiral tracks like willow catkins. Every time it collided with a soul, a peculiar message naturally spread out.

A triangular Transformation Array outline, graded arcs, an elliptical structure, focal distance...

One unfamiliar term after another appeared in Li Ziran's mind, transforming into geometric knowledge he could understand. These geometries linked together, forming a vast magical array.

From afar, it looked as though a gigantic python had joined head to tail, forming a perfectly closed ring.

Within the ring, three slender water snakes neatly divided the circle into three regions. In every region were one tiny snake pattern after another.

Snake Script!

A language belonging solely to snake creatures began to take shape. Just as he had mastered the frog clan's writing, Li Ziran began to come into contact with these unfathomably mysterious characters.

These words differed from every language he had mastered. Every stroke seemed to be sketching a snake's life.

Sinister, wicked, carrying an icy and mysterious air.

Li Ziran closed his eyes, letting his spiritual power flow slowly with his thoughts. The mysterious Snake Script characters naturally took shape in his mind, like little snakes coming alive one after another and automatically filling the paths meant exclusively for them.

A colossal array was completed in one smooth stroke.

Li Ziran abruptly opened his eyes and pointed his staff at himself. A jet-black radiance suddenly scattered around him, wrapping around the Cannon Commander in an instant like an exploding balloon.

[Snake Transformation Spell]

Li Ziran called out softly. In that instant, the black light drilled beneath the Cannon Commander's thick fur like spilled mercury.

Something bizarre happened. The Cannon Commander was wrapped in a layer of black slime. His thick elephant trunk gradually shrank, his dense fur visibly receded into his body, and his two tusks turned into specks of fluorescent light within the black glow. His enormous body slowly lengthened inside the black slime, while a layer of sleek, translucent black skin gradually emerged.

He looked smooth as a pufferfish.

The abrupt change stunned everyone in the underground space. They had been solely focused on collecting slaves, never expecting their commander to suddenly turn into a water python.

"Who?! Karen, you bastard, you ambushed me!"

The black-light slime on the water python's surface kept swelling, transforming into a Fire Elephant that roared madly. Yet it was swiftly wrapped in black light again, desperately trying to squeeze it back into the shape of a water snake.

"All of you, heed my command! Kill him!"

The Cannon Commander roared viciously and charged straight at Karen, seemingly intending to crush him into powder with his immense body.

Yet his form was constantly changing, one moment a giant elephant, the next a gigantic water python, while his body kept tumbling forward.

At the same time, Fire Elephants began pouring wildly into the underground space through its entrance.

Bang!

The great door slammed shut.

Li Ziran had no mind to consider why the Cannon Commander had decided Karen was responsible. Every time the Cannon Commander rebounded, the snake-shaped array he had constructed tore away a huge portion of his spiritual power.

In a single breath, Li Ziran felt his spiritual power reach its limit.

But at that moment, he sensed an unusual change. His eyes actually caught sight of a trace of transparent soul within the Cannon Commander's bloated body.

This...

The soul had changed?

Li Ziran could not believe it. This completely defied the nature of the Transformation Spell.

Everyone knew that the Transformation Spell always targeted a creature's physical body.

The moment he looked over, he instinctively activated the Devouring Curse. The giant snake soul abruptly shot out, opened its blood-filled maw, and lunged to devour Karen in the distance.

Li Ziran only felt a hurricane pass through his body. Every pore on him seemed to have been pierced by fine needles, bringing excruciating pain.

How terrifying!

He had merely grazed the soul's outermost skin, yet his own soul had nearly collapsed.

However, his depleted Spirit World rapidly became full again. In that brief instant, he had caught a small piece of the soul's outer layer.

He had mastered the Transformation Spell, but he was clearly only half-trained. He simply could not completely transform the Cannon Commander into a python.

What a pity. The other party's soul was too powerful; he could not swallow it at all.

He subconsciously looked toward Karen. He wasn't dead, was he?

Yet when he looked over, he found a faint vortex around Karen. The giant python kept winding its enormous body around him, but could not penetrate the depths of his soul.

Karen was very calm, calm like a god of death.

Terrifying!

Li Ziran had only brushed the edge of it and had nearly scattered apart, yet Karen could withstand a frontal impact.

He now understood that he and this Bauhinia Flower commander were not on the same level at all.

Pop! Pop!

Like balloons bursting, the Fire Elephants closest to Karen abruptly turned into pythons one after another. Before they could even stabilize their forms, the souls within their bodies were drawn by an inexplicable force into the vortex above Karen's head.

This was... the Devouring Curse?

Li Ziran was dumbfounded. This was clearly the Devouring Curse he had only recently mastered, yet Karen wielded it far more thoroughly and with far greater power.

Within the span of an inch of time, ten Fire Elephants had become idiots.

Run!

Li Ziran could not care about anything else. This was the opportunity he had waited so long for.

Karen was devouring ordinary Fire Elephants, which proved he too could not withstand a Fire Elephant's assault head-on. But this deadlock would not last long.

A dog-eat-dog fight was beyond Li Ziran's concern, and had little to do with him anyway.

He had already gained plenty this time. He no longer cared about the corpses; the most urgent matter was getting as far away from these two behemoths as possible.

He slid down along the giant snake's skin. The instant his feet hit the ground, he stretched his legs and ran madly toward the exit.

"Catch that human! He's the one behind this!"

A powerful Fire Elephant understood Li Ziran's importance and directly blocked the cave entrance. Fishman laborers closed in from all directions in a fan-shaped formation.

Li Ziran pointed his magic staff forward. The first three Fishmen to charge at him were wrapped in green mucus and transformed into plump little frogs.

Frog Transformation was truly useful.

But such a method could not stop the slave corps swarming like hornets. Behind him, the giant elephant commander was struggling without pause and was gradually returning to his Fire Elephant form.

"Catch him! Don't let him escape!"

The roar shook the entire space. The elephant's two eyes were filled with blood, as though an invaluable treasure were slipping away. Yet his form was still changing, and Karen had even entangled him.

The shout was like ghosts from the netherworld howling behind Li Ziran's head, as though his skullcap were about to be torn off.

Li Ziran did not dare hesitate. His spiritual power poured out like a waterfall, transforming every creature that came near him into a frog.

But it was all futile. These slaves, who had spent their lives rolling along the edge of life and death, did not fear transformation at all. As the giant elephant commander gradually recovered his original form, they became more and more frenzied.

Li Ziran's spiritual power shrank at a visible speed, but he was still far from the exit. Moreover, the giant elephant commander's shouts had drawn the guards on the surface down as well.

In the blink of an eye, the entire underground space was surrounded so tightly that not even water could pass through.

At this moment, let alone escaping, even moving was incredibly difficult.

"Quick, use Snake Transformation, Li! Follow Karen's example—you have to devour souls!" Annie cried anxiously in his mind.

Li Ziran suddenly understood. He was now a Witch Doctor who knew the Devouring Curse. He did not dare hesitate further and began using his spiritual power to build the Snake Transformation Array.

Outline, division, Snake Script filling!

Damn it.

What should have been completed in one smooth stroke went wrong while he was writing a Snake Script character, and the entire Transformation Array crumbled apart.

Again!

Outline, division, Snake Script...

His spiritual power traced a tiny curved snake in a tricky arc, but the instant the Snake Script entered, cracks began appearing throughout the array. The cracks spread, finally splitting the entire array in two.

He had failed again.

Constructing an array with spiritual power was far less stable than doing so on canvas. A failure on canvas meant only one failed rune, but within a spiritual power field, one failed rune meant the entire array was completely ruined.

Li Ziran hated himself. How could Karen create a devouring vortex, while he could not even accomplish the simplest Snake Transformation?

Too stupid.

"Calm down. You can do it. You're the strongest man in the Wasteland I've ever seen. Make yourself calm down quickly," Annie shouted in his mind. "Imagine the Frog Transformation you drew. It was easy."

Li Ziran gave a bitter smile. How could it be easy, especially while surrounded by so many Fire Elephants and Fishmen?

But he knew he had to succeed now. His gradually emptying Spirit World told him he had no spare strength left to experiment here.

His spiritual power formed a closed outline in the shape of a giant snake. At the nodes, the spiritual power divided into three, splitting the circle into three equal portions. The three streams of spiritual power continued spreading, forming nine specific small patterns within each triangular space.

The first Snake Script character took shape, then the second, then the third. As more and more Snake Script characters were drawn, Li Ziran's confidence slowly returned.

When the final Snake Script character entered the array, a hazy gray radiance spread outward from Li Ziran.

At that moment, Li Ziran opened his eyes and pointed his staff forward.

[Snake Transformation Spell]

The Fishman in the front row directly transformed into a water snake, and at the same time, Li Ziran saw a familiar transparent curve.

His staff lightly traced a beautiful arc.

[Devouring Curse]

That transparent soul was lifted like a noodle, spun once through the air, then slipped smoothly into Li Ziran's mind.

With a slight tremor, a burst of fresh spiritual power nourished him.