Chapter 39 – Serpent Transformation

“My Blackwater Profound Serpent cultivation level will advance to the Spirit Awakening Realm today!”

With a low murmur, Mu Lin immediately swallowed a drop—the fourth drop—of Blackwater Profound Serpent Essence Blood into his stomach.

“Boom!”

As the essence blood entered his stomach, a violent energy immediately radiated from Mu Lin’s abdomen, spreading throughout his entire body.

The energy of demon beast essence blood was extremely potent, but also incredibly fierce.

The first time he consumed the Blackwater Profound Serpent Essence Blood, Mu Lin’s body was torn apart from the overwhelming force.

Back then, it was Ma Daoren who intervened, alleviating Mu Lin’s pain and preventing him from crying out in agony.

Now, Mu Lin’s physical constitution had grown strong, and his understanding of the Blackwater Profound Serpent was profound enough. Thus, he could easily withstand this violent energy without anyone’s assistance.

“Hum!”

If someone could look inside his body, they would see that there was indeed a violent energy within Mu Lin, but it was tightly restrained by his flesh. Moreover, a powerful Divine Soul force, carrying a hint of dominance, skillfully guided this energy, making it circulate along the ∞ symbol.

Throughout this process, not a single trace of energy leaked out.

Perfect control—this was the strength of Mu Lin’s body and Divine Soul.

Of course, Mu Lin was giving it his all. And because he had merged with the Blackwater Profound Serpent Essence Blood, going all out, some unusual phenomena appeared around him.

Externally, Mu Lin’s eyes had transformed into serpentine vertical pupils, and subtle, dark scales began to grow on his skin and the backs of his hands.

The characteristics of the Blackwater Profound Serpent were beginning to manifest on Mu Lin.

Unbeknownst to him, as time passed, the Blackwater Profound Serpent Essence Blood within his body was gradually refined.

And as the essence blood was refined, the serpentine mutations on his body grew increasingly pronounced.

At a certain moment, as most of the essence blood energy was refined by Mu Lin, the concentration of his Black Mist Magical Power and Blackwater Profound Serpent Essence Blood reached a critical limit.

“Hum!”

If he had not yet undergone Spirit Awakening, this immense energy would have spontaneously propelled him to break through to the Spirit Awakening Realm.

Although Spirit Awakening had already concluded, the changes it brought to Mu Lin were profound enough.

—Vast amounts of Black Mist Magical Power surged into Mu Lin’s dantian, activating the serpentine patterns on the altar.

“Boom!”

Under the influx of immense magical power, the serpentine patterns were fully activated, and a new ability flooded into Mu Lin’s mind—Serpent Transformation!

As the name implied, Serpent Transformation allowed Mu Lin’s body to transform toward that of the Blackwater Profound Serpent.

The benefit of this transformation was that it greatly enhanced the power of Mu Lin’s Blackwater-based spells.

“Wait, there’s more…”

Upon careful perception, Mu Lin realized that he could not only transform his body into a serpent but also shape his spells into serpentine shadows.

In this world, ‘form’ held power. Thus, powerful spells often took the shapes of dragons, phoenixes, or colossal deities.

Certain renowned mountains and great peaks also possessed power.

This power of form meant that when spells took the ‘shape’ of a powerful being, they would receive subtle enhancements.

Mu Lin’s Mindscape – Sky Burial City was an example of harnessing the power of ‘form’ and ‘True Name.’

Although the Blackwater Profound Serpent was not as formidable as the Mindscape – Sky Burial City, it was still considered a relatively powerful demon beast. By imbuing its own spells with a serpentine form, this would enhance the power of Mu Lin’s spells somewhat.

“Hmm…”

As he continued to perceive, Mu Lin was pleasantly surprised to discover that, in addition to transforming his body and spells into serpentine forms, he also possessed the ability to transform his essence blood into serpents.

“This seems to be a skill exclusive to Paper Crafting. When I blow out a Paper Figure, if I use my own essence blood to write ‘Serpentman’ on it, the resulting Paper Figure will no longer be an ordinary one but will transform into a Paper Figure – Serpent Fang Soldier.”

Since it was Mu Lin’s essence blood that awakened it, the Paper Figure – Serpent Fang Soldier would possess some of the abilities of his main body, such as tough Serpent Scales and a degree of Water Control.

Admittedly, this wasn’t overwhelmingly powerful, but the transformation of essence blood into serpents would improve as Mu Lin’s strength increased.

If Mu Lin were to advance the Blackwater Profound Serpent Mortal Shedding Art to the Mortal Shedding stage, allowing the black serpent to evolve into an ink Jiao Dragon, then the Paper Figure – Serpent Fang Soldier would transform into a Jiao Dragon Guard.

“Interesting.”

This Serpent Transformation trait was quite decent, especially the ability to transform essence blood into serpents, which could enhance the power of Mu Lin’s Paper Figures.

However, he also noticed a drawback: each use of essence blood transformation would consume his essence blood, and his weakest attribute was his physical constitution.

“What a pity. I can’t afford to use this ability recklessly in daily life.”

Despite the drawback, after some consideration, Mu Lin still solidified the Serpent Transformation onto the Altar within his dantian, making it his innate Spell.

With the solidification complete, Mu Lin’s physical body and Black Mist Magical Power officially advanced to the Spirit Awakening stage.

After the advancement, Mu Lin opened his eyes.

Then, he discovered that, at some point, his body had entered a semi-serpentine state: vertical pupils, black scales, a serpent tail… With all these features, Mu Lin resembled a Serpentman.

Instead of immediately dispelling the Serpent Transformation state, Mu Lin first carefully perceived the differences between this state and his main body.

Soon, he found that in this state, his physical strength was greater, his adaptation to water-attribute Spiritual Energy was better, and he even gained the ability to breathe underwater.

“A specialized form, huh… The grade of the Blackwater Profound Serpent is ultimately too low. If it were an Ink Jiao Dragon, I’d be amphibious and aerial as well.”

Shaking his head, Mu Lin dispelled the Serpent Transformation and continued his cultivation.

But unlike before, this time, Mu Lin did not immediately practice the Blackwater Profound Serpent Mortal Shedding Art, nor did he cultivate the Vow-Power Heart Lamp that achieved three goals at once. Instead, he began practicing a Spell—the Substitute Paper Figure.

In fact, in the days following his Spirit Awakening, aside from his normal cultivation, Mu Lin had devoted all his remaining time to practicing the Substitute Paper Figure Spell.

Even though the Paper Crafting Scripture he obtained recorded many Spells, including essential ones like Paper Figure Curse and Paper Figure Soul Seal, Mu Lin still allocated all his time outside of fundamental Cultivation Method practice to the Substitute Paper Figure.

He did this for two reasons: first, Mu Lin feared death, and mastering the Substitute Paper Figure could transfer even fatal injuries away.

The second reason was that doing so offered a higher cost-effectiveness ratio.

Mu Lin hadn’t forgotten one thing: in his previous life, there was an anime that also featured a Clone technique. More importantly, besides being usable in combat, that Clone technique possessed another remarkable ability.

—Clones can also undergo training, and when the clones are recalled, everything gained from their training returns to the main body.

In Mu Lin’s view, this is nothing short of a divine skill, especially for Qi Refiners.

(End of Chapter)