Chapter Fifty-Three: There’s Something Unusual About This World

It was only at this moment that the banded krait sensed danger and instinctively opened its mouth. Its sharp fangs and potent venom had always been the most effective weapons against its enemies.

However...

In the face of absolute strength, it was still far too weak.

Lu Chen paid no heed to those venomous fangs. His thick, powerful claws crashed down on the krait’s head, unleashing a force of over a hundred pounds in an instant.

With a dull thud, the krait didn't even have time to utter a scream. Its head was smashed flat against the rock, reduced to a heap of indistinct, bloody flesh.

After swallowing this four-to-five-pound krait, Lu Chen sank beneath the lake’s surface to digest in silence, all the while waiting for his next prey.

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed since Lu Chen and the three juvenile saltwater crocodiles had moved into the hot spring valley. During this time, he had lived with remarkable ease and contentment.

By setting bait, he acquired ample amounts of high-quality meat each day.

Meanwhile, the number of snakes in the valley dwindled so rapidly it was visible to the naked eye. It wouldn’t be long before this place became the undisputed domain of the saltwater crocodiles.

Thanks to this bounty, Lu Chen’s growth had entered another brief period of explosive acceleration. In just a week, his weight had increased by ten kilograms, reaching a staggering forty kilograms.

Lu Chen was not yet a year old, but his weight now matched that of a six-year-old saltwater crocodile—and in strength, he had already surpassed them.

In the wild, the development of juvenile saltwater crocodiles was a process of slow accumulation and sudden breakthrough. To borrow a line from a poem Chen Beixuan had loved in his previous life: “The world does not recognize the cloud-reaching tree until it finally towers above all others.”

Normally, a one-year-old saltwater crocodile weighed around two kilograms—fragile and vulnerable, with a multitude of predators. Water birds, snakes, even all sorts of fierce fish could easily kill them.

It was a hellish beginning, demanding stealth and caution for survival. Over eighty percent of crocodile hatchlings perished at this stage.

At two to three years old, they might reach a length of 1.7 meters and weigh between ten and eighteen kilograms. Still, they were mere runts: pythons, felines, rhinos, hippos—any of these could kill them in an instant.

In truth, before the age of six, saltwater crocodiles were little more than weaklings with a combat strength of five. Even an ordinary human could subdue them with ease.

Only after eight years did they suddenly shoot up to three meters in length and a hundred kilograms in weight, finally beginning to show their true might.

After that point, their growth accelerated rapidly, and their combat strength multiplied. Even when facing the so-called kings of beasts—lions and tigers—they could fight on even terms.

When they reached the level of legends like Luolong or Gustav, cunning hunting skills became secondary; sheer size and power alone were enough to crush all opponents.

None could stand in their way—gods or buddhas alike. Every so-called predator became nothing more than a paper tiger.

Now, Lu Chen stood at the threshold of such an explosive period. As long as he accumulated ten thousand energy points and evolved to the third tier, he would truly become the little overlord of the estuarine marshlands.

The system panel clearly displayed his current total: 9,527 energy points, with a completion rate of 95.2 percent.

The krait he had just swallowed had contributed 10.6 points of energy. At this rate, another few dozen snakes would be enough to reach the required total for his next evolution.

During his hunts, Lu Chen had noticed that the snakes in the valley differed in many ways from those outside. They seemed larger, and their flesh yielded markedly more energy.

Lu Chen had even caught a few venomous snakes from outside the valley for comparison, confirming his suspicions. With similar weights, the valley snakes provided 0.5 to 1 more energy point per pound of meat.

In fact, when he had killed the Burmese python months before, Lu Chen had already sensed that there was something strange about this world.

That feeling was now growing ever more intense: separated by a single mountain, the energy content in snake flesh was so dramatically different that it defied common logic, falling well outside the range of normal biological variation.

Ultimately, Lu Chen set his sights on the valley environment. Some kind of mutation among the snakes was likely connected to the presence of the geothermal hot spring here.

Research in his previous life had already confirmed that hot springs contained many trace elements and minerals beneficial to human health, with unique effects in treating chronic illness and promoting overall wellness—sometimes even surpassing pharmaceutical treatments. They could improve constitution, bolster immunity, and prevent disease.

But this geothermal spring seemed to offer even more—perhaps containing mysterious substances unknown to humankind, which had triggered subtle mutations among the snakes of the valley.

As such, Lu Chen regarded the remaining snakes here as precious private property. Aside from the juvenile crocodiles, he allowed no other animals to touch them.

Unfortunately, Lu Chen was not the only one with an eye on the snakes—a giant golden eagle had also taken notice. That creature, too, seemed to sense something unusual about the snake population, and would swoop in to hunt them every few days.

For now, Lu Chen had no good way to deal with this. After all, the golden eagle was a raptor capable of hunting wolves and wild boars, with powerful talons that could easily crush a prey’s skull.

He couldn’t be certain whether his own “scale armor defense” attribute would withstand such an assault.

So, for the moment, he had no choice but to bide his time—at least until he evolved to the third tier.

While he waited, another nearly two-meter-long red-banded snake appeared near the bait.

Lu Chen devoured it as usual, finally filling his belly.

Having finished his hunt, he flexed his limbs and claws, his thick tail gently stirring the water as he swam toward the far side of the small lake.

That was where the geothermal spring surged forth.

From the moment he entered the valley, Lu Chen had wanted to understand exactly what substances in the spring water had caused these mutations among the snakes.

But in recent days, he had been busy excavating a new den and had put the matter aside.

Now, with the den complete, he was determined to investigate.

Half a minute later, Lu Chen reached the far end of the lake.

The water temperature here was distinctly higher—almost thirty degrees. As he swam, a wave of indescribable comfort spread through his entire body.

On the cliff at the water’s edge, two fathoms high, grew a sprawling banyan tree, even larger than the one above the riverbank cave he’d known before, covering at least a thousand square meters.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of aerial roots hung down all around, forming a forest from a single trunk—a sight both majestic and awe-inspiring.

The warm spring water gushed out from the base of the banyan’s roots.

As Lu Chen drew closer, he discovered even more snakes dwelling among the tree’s branches.

They raised their heads one by one, hissing threateningly at his approach.

With the stares of a hundred serpents fixed upon him, even Lu Chen felt a chill run down his spine. If they all attacked at once, he might well be in serious trouble.

Fortunately, the feared attack did not come.

A few seconds later, his body vanished beneath the water’s surface.

Thanks to the banyan’s thick canopy, sunlight rarely reached the water here.

Lu Chen dove down more than two meters, and darkness enveloped him.

Since reaching the second tier, his eyesight had improved far beyond that of an ordinary saltwater crocodile; even in the murky depths, he was barely hindered.

Beneath the lake, the banyan’s roots were even more numerous. Thick and thin, tangled in a dense web, some spanned more than a dozen meters, undulating gently in the current. At a glance, it looked as though countless monstrous creatures were swimming through the water.

A strange, instinctive unease stirred within Lu Chen’s heart.