Talent Evolution

The earth was frozen beneath a bitter sky, and the north wind howled.

A new month had begun, but the snow had yet to stop.

Inside the tunnel.

Once Su Changsheng swallowed the Wraith Beast Blood Food, every step of the shedding process was complete. What came next was up to fate.

At that moment, his soul relaxed completely, and physical and mental exhaustion surged over him like a tide.

He felt groggy, weak, and sleepy.

After using every last Hard Skin Talisman rune and forcing down a little blood food, Su Changsheng collapsed onto the stone bed. His vision went black, and he sank into a deep sleep.

His external shedding was complete, and the changes within gradually began to unfold.

Inside his yao body, the Wraith Beast Blood Food was gradually digested as time passed. The strange rules, maddening information, and other mysterious powers it contained seeped, bit by bit, into every inch of flesh and every newly grown snake scale.

Gradually...

Streaks of black light wound across his skin, flickering in and out of sight. Mysterious markings, like patterns bestowed by heaven, slowly spread over his entire green yao body.

His aura sometimes soared, sometimes plummeted to rock bottom. At times, he faintly exuded waves of madness and distortion; at others, he was peaceful and serene, offering a sense of reassurance.

And so, deep within this tiny tunnel, all manner of incomprehensible changes continued to emerge and unfold inside his yao body.

As the saying went, no years passed in the mountains, while a thousand years had gone by in the world outside. Time flew, and half a month passed in a blink.

A sudden series of cracking sounds startled the groggy Su Changsheng awake.

Though he had slept for over half a month and his mind was still muddled, the warning string in his head remained taut. The moment he heard the unusual noise, his soul snapped out of its stupor.

His surroundings were dark, and his vision was still somewhat blurred.

He keenly sensed a faint, evil, distorted aura right beside him. The scales at the tip of his snake tail involuntarily stood on end, and his scalp prickled, as though death were closing over him.

Danger!

In a flash, before he could think, he activated the Stone-Shattering Art and threw a punch through the air!

Boom!

The tremendous force thrust the surrounding air outward, forming an immensely powerful shock wave.

The violent tremor swept away the evil, distorted aura around him before finally striking something.

Soft, furry, and slippery!

An enemy really had burrowed its way inside!

Su Changsheng was fully awake now. The instant the Stone-Shattering Art struck, he opened his mouth and spat out a breath of freezing air, sealing a large area ahead in ice.

Squeak!!!

The intruder managed only a brief, shrill scream before it cut off abruptly, frozen within.

Yet Su Changsheng remained on guard, not daring to be careless in the slightest. Only after two or three full seconds passed without any further hint of danger did he relax a little.

He fumbled beside him for a Flame Talisman and activated it. By the bright light of its flames, he could finally see the state of the cave.

"Is this... a Rat Demon?"

Su Changsheng paused in surprise.

On the rock wall not far away, a rat the size of a basketball lay encased in black ice.

Half its body was still inside a hole in the rock wall, while the other half had only just poked out.

After confirming that the Rat Demon was dead, Su Changsheng pulled the black block of ice free with his demon power. He looked at the tunnel in the rock wall, whose depth he could not determine, hesitated for a moment, then blocked it with a huge rock.

Only then did he turn his attention back to the black ice.

The Rat Demon inside was hideous. Many parts of its body were twisted and severely mutated. Numerous slippery tentacles grew from the top of its head, and its neck was covered in fine, closely packed slits resembling mouths. Even its tail had twisted into the shape of a morning glory.

Strange, disgusting, distorted.

Enough to terrify any yao!

Even sealed in ice, it still faintly radiated that mad, distorted, evil aura.

This was no longer an ordinary Rat Demon, but a more dangerous Mutant Demonic Beast.

He did not know whether he was imagining it, but he kept feeling that something sinister lurked within the Rat Demon's evil aura.

Like the yin energy of the Black Tiger Yao's Wailing Ghosts.

"Did it happen to burrow past here, or did it follow a scent inside?"

Su Changsheng frowned.

Everything had happened so suddenly. From sensing the evil aura in his sleep to instinctively attacking, whether with the Stone-Shattering Art or his innate freezing power, it had all taken place in a flash, driven by instinct.

There had been no time to think.

Now that he considered it, this Mutant Rat Demon's appearance was exceptionally suspicious. It should not have passed by merely by chance; it seemed more like a deliberate intrusion.

Perhaps he had caused some disturbance while shedding. The bloody process could easily have drawn monsters with keen noses to follow the scent. Or perhaps his failure to leave home for so many days had caught the attention of certain monsters.

There was also the possibility...

"The tunnel isn't safe enough either!"

Su Changsheng sighed.

No matter where this Mutant Rat Demon had come from, the fact remained that this tunnel was no longer safe.

But under the present circumstances, he had no other option for the time being and still needed to live here. Compared with the stone house, which let drafts in from every side, the tunnel's safety was not yet a major concern.

Still, he could not let his guard down.

Besides, this Mutant Rat Demon clearly was not strong. It was merely equivalent to a Half-Demon at the peak of level one, or level two at the absolute most.

As long as Su Changsheng was careful and avoided being attacked by a swarm of these things, wouldn't he have another source of food?

At that thought, his gaze on the Rat Demon in the ice suddenly grew fervent.

"Wait..."

"Why is the ice black?"

In the dim surroundings, he only now belatedly realized that the ice's color was abnormal.

Compared with his previous innate snake saliva ice, the ice formed by his freezing breath now had a faint black tint within its transparency, as though someone had mixed cheap ink into it.

It was not completely black, merely a little darker than before. Moreover, the blackness within the ice could still flow. At this moment, wispy strands were spreading inward, continually corroding the Mutant Rat Demon's body.

Numerous patches of its skin had already been eaten away, leaving pits that made it even more disgusting.

"Hiss!"

"The toxin contained in the Little Poison Dragon Shedding Talisman."

"A new talent?"

With a moment's thought, Su Changsheng understood what this was, and delight surged through him.

Without bothering to study the Rat Demon or examine the gains his body had made from this shedding, he opened his attribute panel and looked straight at the talent field.

Snake saliva ice: proficient → Minor poison breath: beginner

His talent had actually evolved!

Pay-to-win had worked!

With the attribute panel's help, Su Changsheng soon gained a rough understanding of minor poison breath.

As its name suggested, when he unleashed his innate freezing power, he could mix a weak toxin into it. Its specific effect was to add a corrosive attack while the target was frozen.

The toxin was very weak, leaning more toward mild corrosion at its current stage. Perhaps as the talent's level increased, the added toxin would become more powerful.

Even so, he was extremely satisfied. After all, his previous snake saliva ice had been utterly commonplace, the most widespread talent among all low-ranking snake Half-Demons.

Although minor poison breath was not particularly powerful at first, it was still countless times better than that ordinary, common stuff.

Free stuff couldn't compare with paid stuff.

Boss Ma truly hadn't deceived yao!