The rat's green eyes glimmered with hunger and malice as it crept closer to Zhou. He lay sprawled on the ground, ribs aching, breath shallow, his body too weak to even coil defensively. His fall from the structure had left him trembling, his muscles refusing to obey.
The rat halted beside him, whiskers twitching, its claws flexing in anticipation. Zhou closed his eyes, his mind numb with exhaustion, ready to surrender to the inevitable.
The claws arced downward—
—and then a sudden radiance burst from the blossom etched into Zhou's scales. A wave of light surged outward, hurling the rat back with a squeal.
The glow was not gentle. It seared through Zhou's veins like molten fire, forcing his lungs to expand, his heart to pound harder. His vision sharpened, his muscles tightened, and though pain still lingered, he could move again. His wounds closed partially, his Qi reserves surged to half, and his strength returned to nearly half of what it once was. But the blossom withered on his skin, its petals blackening, its sacrifice final.
Zhou coiled into a defensive posture, his eyes burning with grim determination. Across from him, the rat staggered upright, its body twitching with fury.
It screeched, saliva dripping from its fangs, and lunged. Zhou waited, calm in the storm. At the last instant, he unleashed Qi Burst. Sparks of energy crackled across his scales, the air itself snapping with static. The rat convulsed mid-leap, stunned.
Zhou struck. His jaws clamped down on the rat's body, fangs piercing deep. Blood filled his mouth, hot and metallic. Victory seemed close—until the rat retaliated with its own Qi Burst.
Agony tore through Zhou's body, his muscles spasming violently. But he had endured worse. He forced his Qi outward again, clashing against the rat's energy. The air between them shimmered with raw force, each pulse draining his reserves. His Qi plummeted to a quarter, but he managed to blunt the rat's burst.
The rat's core trembled, unstable, leaking Qi in violent pulses. Zhou's instincts screamed: It's going to explode.
But instead of detonating, the rat screeched and fled, its body glowing faintly as it used the last of its Qi to propel itself into the swamp's shadows. Zhou hissed, too weak to chase, his coils trembling.
He had survived. He had grown. But so had the rat.
Zhou slithers through the moss and damp soil of the swamp , tiredly , arriving at his small little hole abode.
He slides into his hole in one fluid motion , letting all the exhaustion hit , from his battle with the cat and now the rat.
Barely ten secounds after he entered his hole , his scales started contourting and shaking and white cracks appear on them , cracking like a glass mirror
The pain is excruciating , it was like being torn apart , Suddenly -- His core starts going rampant , the qi he aquired not too long ago started leaking from the crack in his core , destabilizing him further.
The white cracks continue spreading across his body as his core still leaks Rampant Qi.
Zhou attempted to stabilize it but it defied him , becoming even more ferocious . Bringing Zhou to the brink of uncounciousness.
Suddenly a warm glow emanated from his scales
It was the withered blossom
Although it had withered , it had a very small amount of residual energy , energy that started flowing through Zhou's Qi pathways , attempting to stabilize his rampant Qi
With the help of the residual energy from the blossom and Zhou's determination not to die , he managed to calm his raging Qi ... Just barely.
The cracks spread even more , engulfing his body and a bright light emerges...
A few hours later...
After a few hours, the light from Zhou's body finally dimmed. The cracks that had spread across his scales shattered outward, fragments of white husk falling away like broken glass.
What remained was not the same snake that had crawled into the hole.
His body gleamed with fresh, darkened scales, smoother and harder than before. His fangs had lengthened, sharper and more defined, and his coils felt heavier, denser with strength. The air around him shimmered faintly with residual Qi, the swamp itself seeming to recoil from his presence.
Zhou hissed, the sound deeper, more resonant than before. He had shed his skin for the first time.
Inside, his Core pulsed steadily, no longer cracked and leaking, but whole—larger, firmer, glowing faintly with blue light. He had stepped into the 3rd Layer of the Mortal Beast Realm.
But the breakthrough was not without cost. The blossom's glow was gone, its final energy spent. And deep within his Core, faint traces of instability still lingered, like shadows waiting to resurface.
Zhou coiled tightly, testing his new strength. Hunger gnawed at him again, fiercer than ever, but beneath it was something else—resolve.
He had survived the cat. He had survived the rat. He had survived his own unstable Core.
Now, he was no longer just a hatchling struggling to live. He was a beast on the path of growth.