A mutant? What did that mean...
Bai Jie queried internally, but this time the system offered no prompt.
It had four skills, and its Vitality was higher than his. Even though Bai Jie knew Vitality wasn't equivalent to combat power, he still treated this with the utmost seriousness.
He shifted the information display aside and looked at the Golden Mountain Toad itself.
Its back was pitted and bumpy, covered in slime and protruding fleshy nodules. The ridges above its ears jutted out like a pair of horns. Even more unsettling were its gem-like crimson eyes.
The danmaku at that moment:
[Is this the Golden Horn King that soloed fifteen centipedes two days ago? I came here after seeing the short video online.]
[Well, it only swallowed twelve — but that's still impressive. It stomped the other three to death.]
[Nyx is so big now. No way Golden Horn King can swallow her, right?]
Suddenly, without even waiting for Zheng Yueling to give the order, the Golden Mountain Toad moved.
It stepped forward. Its back and abdomen rippled, and then both sides of its mouth suddenly bulged.
PTOO!
A crisp sound rang out, followed by a dark-green watery arrow shooting across the air.
Bai Jie was on high alert. All eight legs arched and launched him in a violent sidestep, dodging the water arrow.
A toad with ranged attacks?!
But what shocked Bai Jie even more was yet to come.
Seeing its first strike miss, the Golden Mountain Toad let out a "Croak!" and inhaled. Its body instantly expanded to half again its original size.
It leaped, let out another "Croak," and forced another inhalation. Its body had now swelled to more than double — like a basketball — occupying half the space in the breeding box.
Bai Jie was horrified!
The danmaku also instantly exploded:
[What the hell?! Did Golden Horn King activate Multi-Size Jutsu?!]
[This is beyond a normal toad at this point, right? How did Yueling even get her hands on this?]
[This is an actual Gu insect, isn't it? Never thought I'd see one in a livestream!]
[Golden Horn: Don't let the dopey face fool you. I trained at Mount Myoboku.]
FWIP!
The Golden Mountain Toad shot out its long tongue at lightning speed. The toad's tongue was coated in thick, sticky mucus, and its tip bore a sharp flesh hook. Before Bai Jie could even react, it had latched onto the spider's back.
Then it reeled Bai Jie through the air, flying straight toward the toad's gaping maw.
Bai Jie couldn't break free for the moment, but in that same instant, he launched out over a hundred urticating hairs.
The Golden Mountain Toad's tongue retracted without slowing and swallowed the tarantula whole, leaving only one or two fuzzy spider legs half-dangling outside its mouth.
"Ah, Nyx has actually been swallowed in one gulp." Zheng Yueling narrated with a tone of concern — but with absolutely no intention of intervening.
"Dear viewers, a feeding Golden Mountain Toad is far too dangerous. There's really nothing I can do."
In the danmaku, the fans of Nyx the Tarantula wailed in despair.
The Golden Mountain Toad remained motionless, slowly working its mouthful of prey down toward its stomach.
Meanwhile, the protagonist of this drama — Bai Jie — had calmed down. His two great fangs began dripping a mixed venom, the secretion rate ramping up faster and faster.
Corrosive Venom!
Bai Jie's venom now also included digestive fluid with dissolving properties.
The effects of Corrosive Venom were immediately apparent. The Golden Mountain Toad began to tremble faintly, then thrash violently.
Bai Jie wasn't having a great time either. The stomach acid inside the Golden Mountain Toad's gut burned and seared his body, bringing both immense pain and a desperate sense of crisis.
So he, too, struggled for dear life inside the toad's belly.
The Golden Mountain Toad clearly hadn't expected its opponent to have such a trick up its sleeve. Even the protective mucus lining its stomach — which normally shielded it from its own digestive acids — proved helpless against Corrosive Venom.
Its insides convulsed, trying to vomit Bai Jie back out.
But Bai Jie, while pumping in Corrosive Venom, was also tearing and biting at the tender flesh of the toad's innards. At this point, he'd gone blood-crazed. He simply braced his eight legs against the stomach walls and refused to come out.
"Hmm?" Zheng Yueling raised an eyebrow. She sensed a turning of the tables.
The danmaku at this moment:
[What the heck — is Golden Horn King having indigestion?]
[As expected, Nyx's toxicity is no joke either. Enough to kill him from the inside out.]
Several minutes later, the Golden Mountain Toad that had forcibly swallowed the tarantula reaped the bitter fruit: death.
Its crimson eyes had gone completely dim. Its body shrank and withered. A massive spider — glossy ink-black all over, with pink urticating hairs and a blue-violet laser pattern on its back — crawled out of the toad's mouth.
Even though it bore plenty of burn wounds from the stomach acid, Bai Jie had pulled through.
Calmly and unhurriedly, Bai Jie spun a ground web and wrapped up the toad, which had now shrunk back to its original size.
Disgusting as it was, for the sake of evolution, Bai Jie resolutely chose to eat.
After silently finishing his meal, amidst the witch's endless stream of gift acknowledgments, a system notification appeared:
[Species evolution conditions met. Evolution will now commence.]
Bai Jie sank into a deep sleep.
...
This livestream accumulated a total of 40,000 viewers and naturally drew the attention of certain... special observers.
Inside an ancient, dim, and cavernous room.
"This spider seems to be on the verge of mutation. It would make an excellent Gu insect."
"Once the spider mutates, we could consider acquiring it."
"Mm. A pity about the Golden Mountain Toad we gave her, though."
"It can't be helped. That's Gu raising — only through slaughter can Gu creatures grow stronger."
...
Bai Jie felt as though he were bound by ropes. No... not ropes — more like a coarse sack.
But the sack didn't seem all that tight, so Bai Jie began struggling to break free.
After a series of rustling, scratching sounds, Bai Jie finally saw light.
And indeed, it was already broad daylight! Bai Jie hadn't expected to sleep for so long.
Looking at the large husk of shed skin beside him, he realized he'd just gone through molting.
God, that felt refreshing...
Though he currently felt somewhat weakened, this sensation of rebirth was genuinely wonderful. More importantly, Bai Jie was brimming with confidence in his own strength.
It was as if he'd shed not just his skin, but his mortal coil — stepping into a whole new stratum of life.
He immediately summoned his Status Panel.
[Name]: Bai Jie
[Title]: Night Goddess Nyx
[Species]: Pink-Toed Laser Venom Spider (Mutant)
[Vitality]: 1
[Skills]: Venom Arrow Shot Lv.1 (NEW), Corrosive Venom Lv.4, Urticating Hair Kick Lv.12 (MAX), Spider Silk Lv.12 (MAX), Bite Lv.12 (MAX)
[Talents]: Poison-Refining Gu, Spirit-Devouring Body
[Satiety]: 50%
[Body Length]: Leg Span 43cm
First, his species had changed. Like the Golden Mountain Toad, he was now a mutant — though Bai Jie roughly guessed it signified a life form distinct from ordinary insects.
As for "Pink-Toed"... Bai Jie silently extended his perception to his eight legs.
Sure enough, the joints and tips of his spider legs had turned pink, while the rest remained inky black.
Moreover, his legs had not only grown longer, but his front legs seemed to have some kind of sharp, hard substance developing. Perhaps further Vitality growth would reveal what it was.
So Bai Jie turned his attention to the [Vitality] field. He had a feeling that the number "1" carried deeper significance.
At that moment, a system prompt suddenly appeared:
[Vitality]: A comprehensive metric measuring an organism's physical constitution and life potential. Using an average adult human as a reference, their Vitality value ranges between 0.95 and 1.2.
Bai Jie understood. So his Vitality was now comparable to an adult human's?!