"Seriously, I didn't mean to look. Who knew you weren't wearing anything..."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, nothing... Hiss..."
On the bamboo forest path, Zhou Changqing followed behind Medusa, rubbing the black and blue bruises on his handsome face and muttering to himself.
The moment Medusa turned and narrowed her eyes at him, he quickly waved his hands in denial.
The sudden movement tugged at his injuries, and he instantly sucked in a sharp breath of pain.
Seeing him look as pitiful as a scolded child, a flicker of something passed through Medusa's eyes.
She retrieved two items from her Storage Ring and tossed them back over her shoulder.
Hearing the whistle of objects cutting through the air, Zhou Changqing instinctively caught them.
He opened his hands to find two jade vials.
"What's this...?"
Medusa didn't reply, simply continuing forward on her long legs.
Zhou Changqing had no choice but to examine them himself.
Upon opening one of the vials, a rich medicinal fragrance, mixed with a potent energy fluctuation, wafted out.
The moment he smelled it, Zhou Changqing knew exactly what it was.
"Dou Spirit Pills!"
His mouth fell slightly agape as he stared at Medusa's back in astonishment.
Although he wanted to ask why she would give him such precious pills, he saw she had no intention of explaining and wisely kept his mouth shut.
Looking at the two jade vials in his hands, Zhou Changqing thought for a moment and realized they must be the two left behind by Gu He.
He had assumed Medusa had either placed them in the tribe's treasury or given them to the eight great chieftains.
He never expected they would end up in his hands like this.
Suddenly, Zhou Changqing felt the beating was well worth it. He had gotten an eyeful and two Dou Spirit Pills in exchange.
Happily stowing the vials away, Zhou Changqing quickened his pace to walk alongside Medusa.
"Um, Your Majesty, what exactly happened back there? You should have successfully evolved, right? Why did you need lightning qi again afterward, and why did it trigger such an incredible phenomenon?"
Zhou Changqing voiced his lingering confusion, carefully observing Medusa's expression.
If he saw any sign of trouble, he was ready to bolt.
After all, this woman's hands were truly ruthless.
Medusa cast a cool glance at the young man beside her. After a moment of contemplation, she spoke slowly, "I didn't just evolve once, but twice. Naturally, it triggered two phenomena."
"Twice?"
Zhou Changqing was even more bewildered.
He recalled that in the original story, Medusa had only evolved once.
Her second bloodline evolution, into the Nine-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, didn't happen until much, much later in the story.
Could his lightning qi really be that amazing? Did it allow Medusa to directly evolve into a Nine-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python?
No, that wasn't right. The form her snake spirit had taken earlier was clearly that of a Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python.
While Zhou Changqing was lost in thought, Medusa answered his unspoken question.
"Do you know why I abandoned the Heavenly Flame method as soon as I learned your lightning qi could help me evolve?"
"Because my lightning qi is safer?"
"That is only one reason. The other is that a Heavenly Flame can only help my snake spirit's bloodline revert to its ancestral form. Your lightning qi, however, can not only purify my snake spirit's bloodline but also sublimate my own Snake-Person bloodline."
"Snake-Person bloodline?"
Zhou Changqing froze.
He didn't remember this being a plot point in the original story.
Even in the later stages, Medusa's bloodline was always centered around the Heaven Swallowing Python.
Her Snake-Person bloodline was never mentioned, aside from the possibility that the Snake-People tribe had migrated to the northwestern region from the Beast Realm.
It was essentially treated as an irrelevant detail.
But thinking back to Medusa's second evolution, to the radiant, divine-looking Snake-Person form and the celestial phenomenon it had caused, Zhou Changqing had a feeling this Snake-Person bloodline might be no less extraordinary than that of an ancient demonic beast ancestor.
It seemed the original story could be used as a reference, but it couldn't be applied rigidly to reality.
His eyes twinkled as he asked with a grin, "So, Your Majesty, does your evolved Snake-Person bloodline have some grand, impressive name?"
"No. The Snake-Person bloodline is just that, the Snake-Person bloodline. It is the root of my tribe. It has no other name," Medusa said, shaking her head.
Her Purple Nether Flame Serpent spirit could evolve into a Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python because the spirit itself was a descendant, possessing a trace of the Heaven Swallowing Python's blood.
But the Snake-People's ancestors were simply Snake-People.
Therefore, even after evolving, her bloodline was still that of a Snake-Person.
"Then has your Snake-Person bloodline brought you any benefits? Like a special ability, or an inherited bloodline memory?" Zhou Changqing pressed, unwilling to give up.
He was too curious. After all, this Snake-Person bloodline evolution had been able to trigger a phenomenon of heavenly flowers and golden lotuses.
Medusa considered this for a moment before replying, "There is no inherited memory, but there is indeed one special ability. You will find out what it is in the future."
With that, she fell silent.
She had been remarkably candid.
She would only say this much because it was the young man asking. If anyone else had dared to pry into her secrets like this, they would have died without ever knowing why.
Seeing this, Zhou Changqing didn't ask any more questions.
It was best to quit while he was ahead.
Besides, it seemed Medusa herself might not fully understand the nature of her own Snake-Person bloodline.
But now, Zhou Changqing was certain of one thing.
The special property within his lightning qi was effective for all living beings, not just a single race.
Snake-People and snake-type demonic beasts, while seemingly related, were not the same species.
...
The next few days passed, and Zhou Changqing returned to his usual routine.
He spent his days either cultivating or refining weapons.
One thing, however, remained constant: Medusa still came to him every day to request his lightning qi.
He had thought she wouldn't need it anymore after her evolution.
To his surprise, she claimed that both of her bloodlines could still be strengthened further.
Oh no. I've become Medusa's personal cheat code!
Fortunately, after her evolution, Zhou Changqing's freedom was no longer restricted. He could come and go from the Snake-People tribe as he pleased.
One day, Zhou Changqing was refining a weapon as usual.
His expression was focused, his perception carefully guiding the golden qi inside the refining cauldron to inscribe weapon runes onto the nascent blade embryo.
Just as he was about to complete the inscription, the surrounding worldly energy suddenly erupted into chaos.
Cracks began to appear on the weapon embryo within the cauldron, and it started to disintegrate piece by piece.
Boom!
Finally, as if it could bear no more, the weapon embryo exploded.
The entire cauldron, forged from Dou Qi, was blasted apart by the powerful impact and dissipated into nothing.
After the white light from the explosion faded, Zhou Changqing waved his hand, gathering the scattered material fragments and tossing them outside before falling into deep thought.
"It must be a material issue. The materials I have now are simply not strong enough to bear the combination of two different sets of weapon runes..."
"It seems I'll have to find some higher-grade materials. But there's nothing better in the Snake-People's treasury..."
"It's time to leave."