Chapter 2

With the assistance of the ten-thousand-fold time acceleration, Arin could be considered a chosen serpent, destined to soar to unimaginable heights.1

When the tiger spirit had glanced at him earlier, he couldn't move. Life and death were at the whim of the tiger.1

Arin didn't want to experience that helplessness again.

Living as a hero and dying as a ghost, he aspired to ascend to the celestial gates and transform into a dragon. From then on, he would transcend the ordinary and become holy, looking down on the world.1

"Let's get started," Arin whispered eagerly. "Activate ten-thousand-fold time acceleration."1

As soon as he spoke, the system began to work. A boundless light of time enveloped the foot-long, snow-white young snake.1Time in the cave began to pass quickly, with each moment feeling like a flick of a finger.1As time flowed, it drowned the sun and the moon, confusing the universe. Arin seemed to enter a strange, dreamlike space where he couldn't even feel the passage of time.1In just a few breaths, Arin noticed significant changes in his young snake body. Every cell in his body began to rejoice.1

His body squirmed, and the muscles stretched continuously. The young snake, which was only three centimeters long, suddenly grew to over a meter, and its body began to thicken.1

"This..."

Accelerating time by ten thousandfold, it seemed like only a few breaths had passed, but it might have been more than ten days. Calculated by shortening one year from 10,000 years, one day of Arin's practice was equivalent to a time span of twenty-seven years.1

Now, Arin's experience felt incredible. Every moment, his body underwent earth-shaking changes, as if a majestic force had been instilled into it. The power surged wildly within him, causing his small snake body to tremble, his blood to boil, and his flesh and blood to sublimate.1

In a deep mountain forest that was not peaceful at night, in a small cave, a young snow-white snake began to glow all over its body, growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.1

The ten-thousand-fold time acceleration was extremely terrifying. Several hours passed, and the small cave couldn't accommodate his body anymore. The soft soil cracked like an earthquake, and his glowing snake body broke through the ground like a seed sprouting.1

With scales all over his body, he exuded a natural cold aura. Not long ago, Arin was a three-centimeter baby snake. But now, he was several meters long, with snow-white scales exuding a cold breath, opening and closing with each breath, displaying the arrogance unique to top predators.1

If the Tiger King who patrolled the territory before came back, it wouldn't believe that this was the same little snake. The night had not retreated, and the pale moonlight still enveloped the earth. Everything remained intact, except for the snake undergoing earth-shaking changes every moment.1Over time, Arin's snake body continued to grow, stretching upwards. The cold aura intensified, and the surrounding temperature plummeted. The birds and beasts in the area sensed something terrible and let out uneasy roars. In the darkness, countless pairs of eyes looked in Arin's direction, revealing unbelievable emotions.1

The snake had grown larger than the naked eye could perceive, as if it had taken some magic potion. Time passed silently, unnoticed by anything else, but the birds and beasts seemed to see traces of time from the snake. Just a few glances, and it was as if they saw the alternation of seasons, the changes of time, the sun and moon being replaced. Everything disappeared without a trace, except for this snake.

Soon, it was dawn. Soon, it was dark again. In the blink of an eye, one day had passed. Arin, the snake, had grown from one foot to six meters, like a carp leaping over a dragon gate. The snow-white scales reflected a cold light like pig iron, exuding a dark and murderous air. The surrounding creatures shuddered with fear and anxiety, treating this place as a restricted area, not daring to cross the boundary.1

Even birds and beasts dared not fly over it.1"I'm going to molt," Arin whispered, knowing it clearly. For the mountain forest, it was just a snap of the fingers. But for Arin, it had been more than 27 years. In just one day, he had grown from a three-centimeter young snake to a six-meter-long boa constrictor. The iron-like scales all over his body seemed about to fall off just after growing.1Then, Arin's scales began to crack bit by bit, like undressing, slowly shedding. As soon as the snake skin cracked, a pale golden light burst out from his body, dazzlingly bright. This vision was very striking. The evolution of molting indicated that Arin, the snake, would be reborn, no longer what he used to be.1

"Squeak..."1

Suddenly, a large number of bats flew densely from the depths of the forest, swooping towards Arin, who was shedding his skin. Excited, they couldn't stop.

Arin opened his snake eyes with vertical pupils, and when he opened and closed them, the golden light shone brightly, extremely indifferent.1

"Is it the light from my body that attracts these bats?"1

These bats were covered in black oil, with big ears and pointed teeth, like vampire fangs. There were thousands of them.1"Hmph, seeking death," Arin thought contemptuously. He just glanced at them and then closed his eyes again, completely ignoring the flying bats.1

When the bats flew within five meters of Arin, something miraculous and strange happened. The bats, which were full of excitement, suddenly seemed hollowed out, flying slowly. As they got closer to Arin, they flew more slowly, making it difficult to move an inch. Eventually, they were frozen in the air.1

"Boom...!"1

A bat suddenly exploded, turning into blood mist in the air. Then, bats exploded one after another, turning into blood mist and floating in the air. Suddenly, there was a downpour of blood, and the whole forest was filled with the smell of blood.

"It's really foolish to break into the space of ten-thousand-fold time acceleration," Arin thought contemptuously. The time acceleration was beneficial to him, with every minute being a qualitative change. But for foreign objects, it was deadly poison. The five meters around him were within the time acceleration range. As soon as the bats entered, their bodies weakened immediately, crushed by invisible hands, taking away their lifespans.1

This was why Arin didn't care about the bats. They were dying; why should he stop them?