Crater

The flames rapidly engulfed it as it howled in agony, struggling frantically.

The tsunami from the fiery sea atop the mountain of corpses crashed down at that exact moment.

Raging waves of fire swept across the area. The pseudo-wyrm let out a final, despairing shriek before falling dead silent.

Gasping for breath, Haoyuan didn't dare rest for a single moment. He grabbed the pseudo-wyrm, slammed it onto the ground, and began to feast voraciously.

With the very first bite, the horrifying amount of energy contained within its flesh amazed his taste buds.

His spirits lifted, and he devoured it ravenously.

The data on his status panel kept updating rapidly.

Finally, he had accumulated enough energy.

Evolutionary Path: Icy Mist (??)

Status: Ready to Complete

Without a moment's hesitation, he completed the evolution. The instant it finished, all of Haoyuan's stat caps rose once more.

Icy mist gushed forth, combining with Wind Grace to extinguish the raging inferno across the forest.

He finally had a way to control the extinguishing of fires.

“Phew...”

Exhaling a long breath, Haoyuan finally relaxed. “Fortunately, I saved most of the energy and didn't let the fire burn it all away.”

By the time he finished devouring the entire pseudo-wyrm, he had evolved Thunder, Water Surge, and Molten Body, as well as reinforced his dragon roar.

Combining dragon roar with Wind Grace produced quite a formidable effect.

As for Molten Body, it was an evolution specifically tailored to counter creatures like these.

“Aren't you afraid of fire? Now that my entire body is made of fire, let's see how you play with me.”

Thinking this, Haoyuan activated Molten Body to observe its effects.

Molten gold light gleamed between the gaps in his scales, adding a fiery heat to his lustrous white body, making him look even more majestic and divine.

With a simple thought, the magma-like molten gold light erupted into bright flames.

The flood dragon seemed to bathe in fire, exuding a mythical aura.

In particular, his amber eyes of molten gold had now transformed into flaming eyes of molten gold. When fully activated, they shone like radiant gems, dazzlingly bright.

Even in broad daylight, their glow was striking; the moment he closed his eyes, the small patch of world around him seemed to darken—though it was merely an illusion caused by the sudden shift in light.

Admiring the changes in his body, Haoyuan was immensely satisfied.

Next time, he could consider using his body as bait to give those monsters a little surprise.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, he knitted his brows.

On his neck and chest, the large patch of flesh surrounding the three bloody wounds had failed to manifest Molten Body.

Even stranger, along the edges of that flesh, the flames of Molten Body would suddenly flicker and go out, only to reignite moments later.

Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, this flickering spread outward, layer by layer.

The unaffected patch of flesh slowly began to burn inward along with those reigniting flames.

It seemed that given enough time, the entire patch of flesh would transform into the form of Molten Body.

Haoyuan gasped, feeling a chill run down his spine as his scalp went numb.

In an instant, he recalled the pseudo-wyrm biting into his neck and chest, as well as the three hideous, rounded tentacles that had driven themselves into his wounds.

A wave of nausea washed over Haoyuan. Were there really monsters like this in the world?

They could replace your entire body at the cellular level without you even noticing.

By the time you realized it, they would already control your entire body, effectively becoming "you."

“Disgusting!”

Gritting his teeth, Haoyuan extended his claw, endured the excruciating pain, and gouged out a large chunk of his own flesh.

A gruesome, bloody wound gaped open across his neck and chest.

Haoyuan squeezed his eyes shut, his entire body convulsing and twisting in pain.

Exhaling with great effort and pain, a solemn look flashed in his eyes.

He opened his status panel.

Name: Haoyuan

Race: Flood Dragon (Customized)

Lifespan: 50,000 years

Evolutionary Path: 1. Immune Recognition (??) 2. Self-Healing (...+) 3. Aerial Flight (???)

Abilities: Water, Fire, Wind, Thunder, Icy Mist, Molten Body

“Not enough energy to evolve Immune Recognition. I need to eat more.”

Gritting his teeth, Haoyuan swallowed the chunk of flesh he had just gouged out of his own body.

He then turned around and began eating the pseudo-dragons.

Once he accumulated enough energy, he evolved the Immune Recognition system, allowing his cells to distinguish self from non-self.

The immune cells within his body instantly detected the uninvited guests, spontaneously assembling an immune army that surged from all corners of his body to devour and digest the monster cells.

Even if a monster cell successfully replaced an immune cell, the immune army could still distinguish friend from foe.

Mercilessly, they drove the monster cells into a chaotic retreat, completely routing them. Before long, every single monster cell was devoured by his immune cells.

His Self-Healing ability kicked in, and tender sprouts of fresh flesh grew and intertwined, slowly repairing his bodily damage.

“Evolution at the cellular level is pretty incredible!”

Haoyuan stroked his chin, lost in thought.

Watching a massive chunk of his flesh melt away and then regrow was a strange, subtle sensation that filled him with wonder.

“In the future, I can consider evolving my body's cells and physical durability, much like martial arts cultivation—tempering blood and qi, forging bronze skin, iron bones, golden organs, and jade marrow...”

“Mhm, it'll definitely require a massive amount of energy. Bronze, iron, gold, and jade are just metaphors; the core is still cellular strength.”

After eating all the monsters in the forest, Haoyuan saved his remaining energy. His body grew to twenty meters long.

“Let's check further ahead. That monster flew in from up front.”

Haoyuan slithered out of the forest, crossed the connecting plain, and traveled for a long time before arriving at the foot of a gravel slope.

He didn't encounter a single monster along the way; it seemed the pseudo-wyrm had mobilized them all to fight him.

Atop the gravel slope was a massive pit filled with freshly overturned, dark gray soil.

“A crater?”

However, there was no heat emanating from it; instead, it felt quite cold.

Haoyuan suddenly remembered that more than a month ago, many meteors had appeared in the sky.

Back then, he had marvelled at the magnificent sight, but looking back now, it was probably a mass crash-landing of these disguised monsters on the planet.

“They dropped from beyond the atmosphere, yet they're afraid of fire?”

Puzzled, Haoyuan rummaged through the crater for clues.

Sure enough, he managed to dig up a pile of skeletons.

“Just skeletons?”

Furthermore, the owner of these skeletons didn't resemble a dinosaur.

“Could it be some kind of unknown creature?”

For survival, he had eaten plenty of creatures with large skeletal structures, but he had never seen skeletons like these.

“Then again, it might not even be native to this planet. Maybe it's an alien creature?”

After all, since those disguised monsters could replace cells, perhaps they had already replaced other organisms before arriving on this planet.

He kept searching.

He overturned the soil in the crater once more, digging deeper.

Finally, he found some biological tissue.

Clearing away the dirt and sand above it, a turquoise creature was revealed before him.

It had a massive head equipped with sharp teeth and tentacles, no limbs, and a bulging belly, as if pregnant.

“It really is an alien creature!”

Haoyuan was absolutely certain he had never seen such a creature before, whether in his past life or his present one.

“But what's inside its belly?”

Using his claw like a blade, he sliced open the alien creature's belly. A viscous, yellowish-white liquid flowed out, likely its blood.

Slicing deeper, he finally touched a tough, flexible membrane.

“This must be it.”

Haoyuan sliced open the alien creature's belly, finally revealing the full picture.

Lying inside the membrane was actually a green pseudo-wyrm!

However, it was a hatchling.

“What's going on? These monsters give birth? And they use an alien creature's belly to do it?”

Haoyuan was thoroughly bewildered.

He searched the surrounding area, checking every visible spot. Once he confirmed he hadn't missed anything, he grabbed the alien creature's carcass and swallowed it whole.

He had saved up plenty of energy; if anything went wrong, he could just use it to evolve.

The moment it went down his gullet, his Energy Points surged. Haoyuan froze for a second, a spark of delight bursting from his eyes.

“Good stuff!”

“I can't let those skeletons go to waste later, either.”

This creature actually yielded far more energy than ordinary pseudo-dragons—almost as much as the pseudo-wyrm!

After finishing off the alien creature, he picked up the green pseudo-wyrm hatchling.

Unexpectedly, the hatchling suddenly sprang to life, squirming in Haoyuan's claw while screeching frantically, opening its mouth as blue light gathered inside.

Without hesitation, Haoyuan took a few bites, and the hatchling went docile, moving no more.

Mhm, its energy shared the same source as the pseudo-wyrm, though infused with some strange additional energy.

“It feels like a replica, just mixed with some energy from the alien creature. No wonder its skin is green.”

“Tastes pretty good.”