Chapter 33: Offspring Fusion Upgrade, Shadow-Eating Serpent
Jiang Yan’s expression was filled with joy. According to Zhao Yinman's notes, among the skills derived from the Sick Domain, the rarest were the Avatar-type skills.
Next were the cultivation methods, divination, and curse-type special abilities, while offensive and defensive types ranked last.
Having a Avatar essentially meant having another “self.”
And since it was an extension of the same consciousness, they could coordinate perfectly, effectively doubling one's combat strength.
Most critically, it was unafraid of death and could act as a substitute in critical moments.
“And my Avatar can even revive. If the cost isn’t too high, I could absolutely try a [Self-Destruct Flow] tactic.”
Various usage methods already surfaced in Jiang Yan’s mind.
The key advantage lay in its ability to hide within a shadow—completely unpredictable and undefendable.
“Pity that Old Man Chu has shut himself off. Otherwise, I could ask where it came from. In the future, I’ll need to pay more attention to Sick Domains or Historical Relics related to Xiangliu.”
Jiang Yan pondered. Even a faint bloodline was already this terrifying. He could hardly imagine the effects of a weak-grade bloodline—or even a regressed ancestral one.
Maybe… it really could give birth to an epic-grade, or even legendary-grade offspring.
Ding!
While he was lost in thought, another fruit fell off, transforming into a rust-red orb of light. It resembled a strange mask.
[Devoted Assistance]
[Skill-type Offspring]
[Quality: Normal]
[Description: Scarlet Iron Cauldron, a spirit creature of the cauldron, born with a belligerent nature. Once it locks onto an opponent, it will fight to the death until both perish together.
Or, if it defeats a powerful enemy, it may absorb ore from a brass vein to evolve into a Brass Battle Cauldron.
Transformed into a skill, by burning vitality and blood essence, battle intent surges, drastically boosting combat strength.
Prolonged usage reduces lifespan and causes loss of reason. Master of the Dark God Embryo is exempt from this side effect.]
[Combat… exhilarating!]
Jiang Yan didn’t rush back to the real world to perform the fusion. Instead, he summoned the [Shifted Shape and Reflected Shadow] and [Mouth of the Purified Altar] offspring.
In skill form, [Shifted Shape and Reflected Shadow] manifested as a small, white-furred ape, with an ignorant consciousness and no complete thought process.
Jiang Yan had long realized a problem.
As the number of skills increased, not only would the pull from the Historical Long River accelerate, but his mental focus couldn’t keep up. After all, unless upgraded to the mastery level, skills wouldn’t cultivate themselves.
An accumulation of many skills wouldn’t make him omnipotent—instead, it could make him bloated.
Therefore, subtraction was necessary.
By fusing similar or related skills, discarding the dross and preserving the essence, he might even generate special effects.
However, he couldn’t mix them randomly. That could cause conflict between offspring, and even if forcibly fused through the Dark God Embryo, it would affect the final product’s quality.
[Shifted Shape and Reflected Shadow] happened to possess both shadow and flesh control attributes—perfect as a mediator between [Dual-headed Shadow Venom Hook Snake] and [Devoted Assistance].
As for Mouth of the Purified Altar, that was a sudden stroke of inspiration from Jiang Yan.
After all, the item wasn’t high-grade and needed to be used separately each time to consume large amounts of flesh and blood for vitality.
If caught off guard in an emergency, he’d be stunned on the spot.
Might as well integrate it into a Avatar. Let it devour enemies to heal himself, gaining a terrifying endurance capability.
It could even grow alongside the Avatar!
A triple win.
Thinking this far, Jiang Yan muttered:
“My offspring—fuse!”
As the words fell,
The Dual-headed Shadow Venom Hook Snake understood its master’s will. Its two heads opened their bloody maws and swallowed the other three offspring one by one.
Swoosh!
Roots of the Dark Mother Tree spread forth, wrapping around it.
The latter also willingly embraced the “Mother Goddess,” beginning to fuse and gestate, transforming into a dark-golden fruit.
The next second, the fruit cracked open. What emerged was still a dual-headed serpent, but its appearance had drastically changed.
Black, mysterious rust-red patterns emerged across the pitch-dark scales on its body. Beneath the scales, there was white down invisible to the naked eye, exuding a faint metallic sheen, as shadows flowed through like water.
The once forked hook-tail had become more slender and sharper, resembling a soul-reaping sickle.
Each of the two snake heads was masked with a pale faceplate etched with rust-red mysterious patterns, gleaming with a chilling light, revealing only crimson eyes and gaping serpent maws, as if ready to devour all living beings.
Yet it wasn’t ugly—on the contrary, it bore a sense of mystery and inexplicable...
Sanctity.
Like an ancient serpent totem sculpted upon a bronze vessel.
Its status also underwent a tremendous Avatar.
[Avatar — Dual-headed Shadow-Eating Serpent (Mastery Level 1%)]
[Quality: Perfect]
[Description: A perfect-grade offspring, reborn after the Master of the Dark God Embryo fused four offspring.
The Shadow-Eating Serpent commands shadow. White down grows beneath its scales. It can freely travel through shadows, and its attacks carry a deadly venom. It possesses the urge to devour the shadows and blood vitality of lifeforms in endless combat.
Its bearer can control their flesh, gaining acute external perception and adaptability. It can adjust to various environments. Upon injury, it can heal by feeding, shedding, or long sleep, and its vitality will be fed back to the user.
By shattering one of the Avatar’s snake heads, or sacrificing one’s own blood and life force, combat strength can be greatly enhanced. The effect is stackable.
If a single head is shattered, it can be repaired by devouring the shadow of a living being. If both are shattered simultaneously, restoration requires blood and shadow from a snake-type Mutated Being above the Foundation Establishment Stage.]
[It is your loyal claw and fang.]
All skills had been fused, and it even inherited a sliver of Xiangliu’s undying trait.
It could substitute itself for bodily damage by sacrificing a head.
In other words,
Jiang Yan could sacrifice himself three times in critical moments.
“But if it really came to that, it’d be a crisis within a crisis.”
The chaotic aura in front of Jiang Yan dissipated, and he returned once again to the real world.
A streak of black light quietly slipped into Jiang Yan’s shadow.
The Coffin Spirit beside him was still alertly scanning the surroundings, eyes sharp, chest puffed out—
Every bit the image of a loyal Imperial Guard.
Another day of successfully carrying out its master’s command!
“Let’s go!”
Jiang Yan pushed open the door and stepped out.
It was deep into the night, and the number of people at the Dharma Assembly had peaked.
Outside, many waited to rotate into single rooms, organizing the gains of this trip.
Some of them included those from crooked paths and low-tier sects, hunting for targets.
Among them, a lean, shifty-eyed man squinted as he watched Jiang Yan step out.
He clearly remembered that this person went in carrying two large monster materials, yet came out empty-handed.
Even if one used wicked methods to refine blood vitality, it couldn’t have been that fast, right?
Unless…
A valuable storage artifact?
Greed sprouted in the man’s heart. He specialized in the art of theft. If he could land this big job—this year... no, even next year, he could rest easy.
Just as he prepared to follow, he suddenly saw Jiang Yan’s shadow rapidly stretch out beneath his feet.
In the blink of an eye, it morphed into a monstrous, terrifying dual-headed serpent shadow. Its crimson eyes stared coldly at him.
Their eyes met.
“W-what... is that!?”
The skinny man trembled all over, his jaw chattering. He felt he might be swallowed whole at any moment and buried in a serpent's belly.
In that moment, his life no longer belonged to him.
The serpent shadow moved.
Darkness surged forward like a tide, and he collapsed to the ground in fear, screaming:
“A snake! Help! Don’t eat me!”
Yet even after a long while, he hadn’t been eaten. Instead, laughter from his companions drifted over:
“You idiot, probably overdid it with some woman last night and now you're hallucinating. Where's the snake supposed to be, huh?”
“It was right there...”
The skinny man pointed toward Jiang Yan’s direction, but all he saw was a normal shadow swaying behind him.
As for the twin-headed great serpent from before, it had vanished without a trace.
As if it was just his imagination.
Smack!
The skinny man collapsed in a seated position and then gave himself a vicious slap.
Then, crawling and scrambling, he knelt on the ground, ignoring the strange looks from his companions, and kowtowed, saying:
“Thank you, Grandpa, for sparing this dog’s life!”
His bizarre behavior attracted quite a crowd.
Jiang Yan didn’t bother with the noise behind him and walked straight onto the street.
Moonlight bathed the earth, and the shadow behind him slowly stretched, gently swaying like a dancing serpent.
He chuckled softly and said:
“Welcome to the new world!”