A Drastic Evolution

Ding!

After undergoing two bloodline awakenings, he now more or less knew what to do by the time the holographic screen popped up. Though surprisingly, unlike the first bloodline awakening, which gave him 4 evolution paths to choose from, and the second bloodline awakening, which gave him 3 evolution paths to choose from, this third bloodline awakening…gave 5.

________

Please choose which bloodline you would like to awaken:

[Crimson Void Mosquito]

[Void Blade Mosquito]

[Void Erudite Mosquito]

[Void Traverser Mosquito]

[Dark Void Mosquito]

________

"Hmm…" As Bell looked at the names of the various evolution paths he could choose from, he noticed that all of them had the word 'Void', further proving the idea that the names of subsequent evolution paths were related to the previous ones. "It seems like the evolution to Shadow Devourer Mosquito didn't have that much of an effect on the names of these evolution paths I can choose from."

"Is it because the subsequent names of evolution paths are based on the first one you evolve into, or is it because the previous evolution I chose didn't have much of an effect as a whole on my species?" Muttering this to himself, he eventually thought that there wasn't much of a point mulling over it.

With that, he moved onto identifying the various choices he had.

"Identify [Crimson Void Mosquito]."

Ding!

"The Crimson Void Mosquito is the direct evolution of the Shadow Devourer Mosquito, having greater siphoning abilities than its predecessor. Naturally, such a species would be rare, but with its rarity comes great power. If the owner chooses this bloodline, their stealth would be boosted by a slight amount while their proboscis would undergo a massive evolution. On top of that, the owner's already learned [Mass Siphon] skill would undergo an evolution, allowing the owner to siphon even more blood in a short amount of time, proportional to the owner's siphoning efficiency," the system soon explained, to which Bell instantly crossed out as a possible evolution to take.

"Identify [Void Blade Mosquito]," Bell soon commanded, to which the system responded, "The Void Blade Mosquito is the direct evolution of the Shadow Blade Mosquito, having greater offensive abilities than its predecessor. Naturally, such a species would be rare, but with its rarity comes great power. If the owner chooses this bloodline, their stealth would be boosted by a slight amount while their wings and proboscis would turn into weapons made for combat, tempered multiple times to become incredibly sturdy. On top of that, the owner would gain access to the ability [Void Barrage], an evolved version of the skill [Barrage] that allows the owner to deal a string of attacks without allowing the enemy to dodge."

"Although having an offensive skill is nice…it still isn't a skill that's suited to my current body," Bell muttered, crossing out the Void Blade Mosquito to evolve into as well.

"Identify [Void Erudite Mosquito]," Bell commanded, allowing the system to explain not long after, "The Void Erudite Mosquito is an incredibly rare evolved variant of the Night Walker Mosquito, having greater sensitivity towards qi than its predecessor. Take note that this variant only exists in ancient texts, so this knowledge might work in or against the owner's favor. If the owner chooses this bloodline, their stealth would be boosted by a slight amount while their sensitivity towards qi would be greatly boosted. On top of that, the owner would gain access to the ability [Strengthened Qi Root], which allows the owner to absorb more qi than other beings in the same amount of time."

"Hoh? A bloodline related to qi?" Bell said as his interest was piqued. Since he had now reached the necessary amount of Constitution needed for cultivation, such a bloodline like this would be nice to have to speed up his cultivation. Nevertheless, he moved onto the next bloodline, wanting to take note of all his choices.

"Identify [Void Traverser Mosquito]," he soon commanded, to which the system said, "The Void Traverser Mosquito is the direct evolution of the Shadow Flight Mosquito, having greater movement speed than its predecessor. Naturally, such a species would be rare, but with its rarity comes great power. If the owner chooses this bloodline, their stealth would undergo a slight boost while their wings undergo a massive transformation, allowing themselves to fly at higher speeds. On top of that, the owner would gain access to the skill [Blessing of the Void], which allows the owner to fly at even higher speeds for a certain amount of time."

"Yeah…I don't really need this. I'm already moving at a very fast speed," Bell said not long after, crossing out the possibility of choosing this evolution path. With that, he said to himself soon after, "There's only one more bloodline left. If this bloodline doesn't offer anything useful, I guess my choice is decided, then."

"Identify [Dark Void Mosquito]."

"The Dark Void Mosquito is the direct evolution of the Shadow Lurker Mosquito, having greater stealth abilities than its predecessor. Naturally, such a species would be rare, but with its rarity comes great power. If the owner chooses this bloodline, their stealth would undergo a massive boost. On top of that, the owner's already learned [Stealth] skill would undergo a massive evolution, which allows the owner to temporarily shroud one's presence against stronger beings," the system soon responded, allowing Bell to finalize his choice.

With a solemn tone, he commanded the system, "I choose [Void Erudite Mosquito]."

Whoosh!

And so, with his evolution path for the third bloodline awakening decided, a massive amount of dark energy soon condensed around Bell once more. Unlike at the second bloodline awakening where a hint of dark red energy could be seen, a light blue energy instead mixed with the dark energy, giving off the feeling that the energy was glowing in the night.

Seeing this, Sixth Void went silent as he felt a familiar feeling from the energy that was condensing around Bell. Though, even though he went silent, that did not mean that he was excited since the familiar feeling he felt…was qi!

Without hesitation, this mix of dark and light blue energy was absorbed by Bell's body, allowing it to undergo some drastic changes as a strong wave of pain washed over his body. Fortunately, this wave of pain only lasted for a short while before disappearing, being replaced by the usual wave of pleasure that came after.

Bit by bit, the structure of his body was gradually being modified, with the first change being the color of his body. Unlike before where it was jet-black, his body now took on a dark violet color, giving off the feeling that he was made out of polished dark metal. Not only that, his body had even gotten bigger, his size after the enlargement being double his original.

After drastic changes on the external side of things, multiple things now went on in the internal side of things, with the most surprising one being done by the light blue energy. Unlike the dark energy, which modified his body structure and enlarged it, the light blue energy instead allowed Bell to discover that there was more to his insides than what he originally thought.

As the light blue energy coursed through the various blood veins littered in his body, it gradually gave him the feeling that there was another set of pathways that existed in his body, with multiple larger areas that seemed to be blocked. Although he was not sure as to what they were at the moment, he knew for certain that this new set of pathways had something to do with qi.

After shedding light on the new pathways that existed inside his body, the remaining light blue energy then made its way towards the most vulnerable part of his body, the brain. Even though Bell could not help but worry as to what the light blue energy might do, he was certain that the system wouldn't do anything that would harm him.

After some time, the light blue energy had arrived at his brain, enveloping it as a whole before focusing on a certain spot inside his brain. Gradually, he felt that there was something sprouting out of his brain, though it was not visible through the naked eye at all. In fact, Bell felt that he could only see this thing because of the light blue energy that was nurturing it.

Eventually, the nurturing process was over as this thing that had sprouted from his brain soon separated itself, allowing Bell to get a better look at it. With just one glance, one could see that it was a light blue branch with two smaller branches protruding out of it. Naturally, he could not help but wonder what this new thing was.

In any case, his evolution wasn't over yet as the light blue energy soon made its way to his forehead, seemingly calling forth more energy from the surroundings to finish his evolution. At first, Bell thought that the light blue energy would only call a few more motes of energy to finish it. Never once did he expect that instead of calling a few motes, over a thousand motes of light blue energy soon condensed in the area before making its way towards his forehead.

"What?!" Sixth Void, who was watching Bell's evolution process from slightly afar, could not help but be at a loss for words as the amount of qi that was entering Bell's body was far greater than what one could absorb at the beginning of their cultivation. He even felt that this amount of energy was more than enough for a person to reach the peak of the first realm and even break through the second!

Of course, for Bell, he thought that such a massive influx of energy entering his body would bring him a lot of pain. Instead, he felt anything but that as he felt something forming on top of its forehead. Eventually, the influx of light blue energy had disappeared as a white dot appeared on his forehead, making Bell feel like this was where his qi would enter.

In any case, the majority of the evolution process was finally over, save for the influx of information that assaulted his mind soon after, allowing him to learn about the skill [Strengthened Qi Root].

"Ah. So that branch thing near my brain is called a Qi Root," Bell said as he looked through the information given to him by the [Strengthened Qi Root] skill. After reading through it, he obtained a bit more information regarding the Qi Root, but only superficial information. With that, he decided that it would be better for him to ask Sixth Void about it since he was more ahead in cultivation.

Though, just as he was about to move closer to Sixth Void and ask him about cultivation stuff, a massive sleuth of notifications soon appeared in front of his field of vision, leaving him no choice but to read through all of it.

Ding!

[You have completed your third bloodline awakening!]

[You have evolved from Shadow Devourer Mosquito (Rank 2) to Void Erudite Mosquito (Rank 3)]

[You have obtained the innate skill 'Strengthened Qi Root'.]

[Your lifespan now lasts one year.]

[Constitution +0.2]

Of course, the first few notifications were the normal ones that came after he evolved to the next rank. Though, what surprised him the most was the fact that his lifespan did not triple just like in his previous two evolutions. Instead, this evolution extended it enough for him to live for a year. Although a year was quite short in the grand scheme of things, to Bell who was just about closing in on his third day in this world, it was still a lot of time.

After these notifications came more notifications…which left him confused and excited at the same time.

[You have obtained the 'Lifespan' stat. You can now manually extend your lifespan.]

[You have obtained the innate skill 'Vitality Siphoning'.]

[You have obtained the 'Qi' stat. You can now cultivate.]

[You have obtained the 'Qi Root' stat. You can now see how fast you can cultivate internally. Your current Qi Root is 'Two-Branch Mortal Qi Root'.]

[You have obtained the 'Origin Marrow' stat. You can now see how fast you can cultivate externally. Your current Origin Marrow is 'Mortal Stage 1'.]

[You have obtained the 'Constitution Multiplier' stat. You can now see how much your qi will boost your power.]

[You have obtained the 'Internal Cultivation Realm' stat. You can now see how strong your cultivation is for the soul. Your current internal cultivation realm is 'Qi Sensing Stage 1'.]

[You have obtained the 'Internal Cultivation Technique' stat. You can now see the internal cultivation technique you're practicing. Your current internal cultivation technique is 'None'.]

[You have obtained the 'External Cultivation Realm' stat. You can now see how strong your cultivation is for the body. Your current external cultivation realm is 'None'.]

[You have obtained the 'External Cultivation Technique' stat. You can now see the external cultivation technique you're practicing. Your current external cultivation technique is 'None'.]

[You have obtained the feature to upgrade your Qi Root, Origin Marrow, internal, and external cultivation technique.]

As he processed and organized the information he had obtained from the system notifications, Bell eventually let out a deep sigh filled with excitement as he muttered to himself, "A wide world definitely awaits me."