Likewise, Trunk Strength, Divine Dragon Tail Sweep, Self-Healing... all of these evolutions had reached the limit for his current size.
Continuing to evolve them further would only burden his body and inflate his energy consumption.
Therefore, if he wanted to continue improving, he had to address his sluggish movement.
How did dragons in mythical stories manage to convey such a sense of swift, boundless freedom?
Because they could soar through the sky.
They imparted a feeling akin to fish in water, gliding through the air with nothing to support them.
It was precisely this unique, gravity-defying flight that bestowed upon them such fluid, boundless agility.
“If I could fly and soar freely as well, I could go as fast as I wanted. Agility would never be a problem again.”
With that thought, Haoyuan found a direction.
Name: Haoyuan
Race: Flood Dragon (Custom)
Evolution Paths: 1. Aerial Flight (Incomplete) 2. Large Size (——) 3. Claws (Incomplete)
Energy: 12
He focused his attention on the Aerial Flight entry.
Evolution Path: Aerial Flight (???)
Energy: 12
“??? Huh?”
Haoyuan was stunned.
“Question marks?! Is the required energy so massive that it can't even display a number?!”
“That's ridiculous,” Haoyuan gasped in disbelief.
“Fine, then what about just slithering faster on the ground?”
Evolution Path: Nimble Slithering (??)
Energy: 12
“Even that won't work?!”
Haoyuan was startled, but seeing that there was one less question mark, enlightenment dawned on him.
“These represent difficulty levels! It means the energy is hard to estimate.
“Three question marks mean maximum difficulty.
“Two question marks mean very difficult.
“One question mark means difficult.
“But... is it really that hard just to slither nimbly?”
Haoyuan couldn't help but complain inwardly.
“This is way too tough.”
He hadn't expected speed to pose such a monumental challenge for a serpentine body.
“Wait, a serpentine body?”
A sudden flash of inspiration struck Haoyuan, as if he had grasped a crucial key.
“The panel displays difficulty and energy costs based on how I visualize the evolution.
“If a serpentine body requires this much energy, what about a dragon body?”
Evolution Path: Nimble Slithering (?)
Energy: 12
“As expected, one less question mark!”
Everything suddenly clicked for Haoyuan.
“Expecting a snake's body to maintain high speed and nimble movement as its size increases is asking for the impossible.
“No wonder my sluggishness barely improved back when I kept pumping points into speed. It was a physical constraint of my body all along!
“To move nimbly, my body likely needs to undergo a fundamental physical change.
“Visualizing this change with a snake's body requires immense energy, but visualizing it with a dragon's body reduces the energy cost and makes it much easier to achieve.
“Does this mean that in the panel's logic, a dragon's body is inherently suited for speed and agility?
“I see. In that case...”
Evolution Path: Nimble Slithering (?)
Energy: 12
“How long will it take me to achieve Nimble Slithering?”
This was clearly an organ-level evolution, which would undoubtedly take a considerable amount of time.
A few years? A decade? Decades?
Time could be a bottomless pit.
The horrifying implications sent a chill down Haoyuan's spine.
“Speaking of which... I don't even know how many years I can live, do I?
“If I die of old age before completing an evolution, wouldn't I be throwing my life and time away?”
A surge of urgency instantly peaked within his heart.
“Thought Evolution!
“Display Lifespan!”
Name: Haoyuan
Race: Flood Dragon (Custom)
Lifespan: 150 years
Evolution Paths: ...
Energy: 12
“150 years!”
Haoyuan felt completely numb upon seeing the figure.
“It's actually so short?! How am I supposed to evolve into a dragon with that?”
“Wait, no.” He suddenly came to his senses.
“An ordinary snake living twenty to thirty years is already considered long-lived, right? Pythons live fifty years at most. But I have a whole 150 years!”
That was already defying fate!
“So, what caused this change? Why can I live for so long?”
Compared to ordinary ancient snakes, his unique head, massive size, incredible muscular density and explosive power, perfect scales, formidable Constriction Strength, and so on...
Everything about him seemed out of the ordinary.
“Is it because of evolution?”
After pondering it, Haoyuan realized this was the only explanation.
“I get it now. As long as I keep evolving, my lifespan will continuously increase!
“Though simply growing larger probably won't cut it—that's just normal physical growth.
“Only by breaking past certain limits and triggering true physical changes does it count as evolution, which extends my lifespan.”
A sudden realization struck Haoyuan, and he felt he had unlocked another crucial secret.
“So Aerial Flight isn't impossible; it just requires too much time and energy right now.
“As long as I keep evolving toward a dragon and extending my lifespan, the day will come when I can transform into a true dragon and soar through the sky!
“Besides...”
Haoyuan's eyes lit up.
“Since evolving increases my lifespan, if I pursue multiple evolution paths, won't I live longer and longer? Then I'll have all the time in the world to evolve into whatever I want!
“Wonderful!”
Excitement coursed through Haoyuan.
“One day, I will stand at the pinnacle of this world!”
...
Crawling out from the underground cavern where he had been slumbering, Haoyuan took a long-awaited breath of fresh air outside.
His mind began to race with new strategies.
“Since Nimble Slithering requires a massive amount of energy, hibernation is no longer an option.
“Besides, I can also evolve Claws to boost my lifespan.”
After a full year of relentlessly hunting herbivorous dinosaurs, the local herbivores had become all too familiar with him as a new predator.
Large dinosaurs had begun checking the thickets before advancing, and juvenile dinosaurs no longer recklessly approached fern patches. Haoyuan's days of easy hunting were growing increasingly tough.
Natural cover on land was already sparse, and now that the dinosaurs were on high alert, his sluggishness was laid bare.
Once spotted, he couldn't catch them in a chase. If large dinosaurs checked the thickets, ambushes were impossible, forcing him to slink away in disappointment.
“Sigh, life as a dragon is tough.”
This time, Haoyuan decided to change his strategy. Instead of setting ambushes on land, he would ambush from the water.
Once the dinosaurs grew accustomed to aquatic ambushes, he would switch back to land attacks.
He'd wear them down to exhaustion!
“Still, launching ambushes from the water is a bit risky,” Haoyuan mused.
“Right now, the freshwater lakes, swamps, and rivers are crawling with crocodiles. They're numerous and massive—I'll have to handle them with care.”
With that in mind, using the sensory feedback from his dragon whiskers to feel the airflow and moisture, he left his familiar hunting grounds and headed toward unknown waters.
After slithering over several gentle slopes and pushing through vast patches of ferns, Haoyuan finally laid eyes on the swamp he had been seeking.
Dense mats of red and green duckweed floated across the swamp, intertwined with thick clusters of aquatic vegetation.
This obscured the depths beneath the surface, making it treacherous and unpredictable.
However, Haoyuan's attention was quickly drawn to something else.
Crocodiles!
Massive crocodiles ranging from two to nine meters long were sprawling lazily in the sun on sandbars or mudflats along the swamp, just as he remembered from his past life.
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