Chapter 1 Unnamed

Old Alam's hoarse voice echoed through the jungle, carrying a hint of regret and sorrow of a descendant of a fallen people, the flickering firelight seeming to transport Fang Senyan back to the story from thousands of years ago.

"After a series of compromises and balances, the Sun Cult and the Ouroboros Cult reached an accord. The ritual to inherit the power of the Sun Ladder was refined through countless trials, and its process became fixed: a sacrificial ritual – receiving the blessing of the Ouroboros God (being bitten by the snake) – absorbing a secret medicine primarily composed of Sun Ladder's dried leaf powder, and soaking in a lightless cave stream. This way, even if the warrior failed the test, they would die quietly under the effects of the Ouroboros venom, preventing them from losing control and harming others."

Hearing this, Fang Senyan finally understood. The progenitor virus hidden within the Sun Ladder possessed the characteristic of strengthening and recombining the genetic factors of organisms. However, most organisms either died or became terrifying, irrational monsters unable to adapt to its mutative nature. As for humans, only one in tens of millions had the constitution to withstand the virus's power! Even with the Dibayan's superior physique compared to modern humans, the chances of success were still pitifully low.

The venom of the Ouroboros was essentially like a catalyst in industry. It could significantly lubricate and neutralize the progenitor virus's damage to the human body, thus greatly increasing the success rate. When the Ouroboros tribe's sacred object was taken away by Old Alam, the most crucial link was lost.

Unfortunately, the remaining Dibayans knew nothing about viruses. Brainwashed by religion, they believed that piety could compensate for all mistakes, that God would control everything. Thus, they continued to perform the power inheritance ritual as usual during the full moon. The result was predictable: with an extremely low success rate, large numbers of biochemical monsters were continuously created.

Those chosen to inherit the power of the Sun Ladder were all elites of the tribe. After being infected, these elites were transformed into terrifying biochemical monsters that attacked the inner Dibayans. With this shifting balance, the devout Dibayans instead saw it as a test from the angered Sun God. Furthermore, directly consuming the Sun Ladder's powder had a small chance of producing successful individuals, and these lucky ones were seen as blessings from the Sun God!

The ritual, therefore, continued like drinking poison to quench thirst, forming a vicious cycle where "the greater the pressure from the front," the more "power inheritance rituals" had to be performed. If Fang Senyan hadn't appeared in time, it was likely that everyone in the Dibayan Great Marsh's inner region would have died in the variant's siege.

This was the truth behind the Dibayan tribe's decline after Old Alam and the others left!

Of course, Gurga and the others who suppressed the progenitor virus and successfully extracted power from it were naturally those who had "changed classes" four years before, when the Ouroboros was still present.

With this, the last mystery in Fang Senyan's heart was also resolved. The entire history and origins of the Dibayans were now clear. Fang Senyan looked at the horizon and nodded, "I understand. So, you'll let me have the Ouroboros?"

Old Alam looked at Fang Senyan with an expectant gaze, "Quickly drive this thing away from me! The sooner the better, but you must remember, you cannot use force. Otherwise, it will drive me to attack you, and you simply cannot withstand my attacks!"

A dark thought couldn't help but emerge in Fang Senyan's mind: the benefits of killing Old Alam, the direct bloodline of the Dibayan Empire's royal family. However, he quickly dismissed the idea. The space would surely consider the possibility of ruthless individuals slaughtering entire villages upon entering the world. Old Alam bore the heavy responsibility of continuing the royal bloodline and had managed to escape from the Dibayan Great Marsh's interior. He must possess excellent ancestral skills in greasing his soles and concealing his tracks. He shouldn't even think about forcibly killing him.

He observed the unremarkable little snake and tentatively reached out his hand. The sacred object didn't react at all. It seemed to completely disdain him, the attitude of disregard as if this guy wasn't worth wasting its venom on… Fang Senyan just tried to make bodily contact such as stroking it.

Old Alam shouted to be careful, but his body reacted by slapping Fang Senyan across the face, making him see stars, his nose bleeding, five finger marks clearly visible on his face, his ears ringing for a long time before he regained his senses...

Fang Senyan finally caught his breath and couldn't help but want to burst into curses. Seeing Old Alam look over with an innocent expression like Ouyang Feng with sausage lips from *Dong Cheng Xi Jiu*, he could only sigh deeply.

Having learned his lesson, Fang Senyan didn't dare to move his hands or feet easily anymore. He observed from a distance for a while but still couldn't find a flaw. He was, after all, just a sailor, not a zoologist. He couldn't possibly be completely familiar with the habits of snakes.

An idea suddenly emerged in Fang Senyan's mind, "It's impossible that this snake only bites Dibayans! That's right, the old man in front of me is only listening to the sacrificial process passed down from his ancestors and hasn't seen it with his own eyes. Could it be that this damned snake only bites people who have just been infected with the progenitor virus?"

With this thought, Fang Senyan took out his earlier harvest from the Sun Altar. Only then did Fang Senyan realize two very serious problems: first, although he had broken off half of the Sun Ladder's tentacle tendrils, the tendrils were still wrapped around the seedling. In other words, he had to take both the seedling and the broken tendrils from the mother plant together.

Secondly, the Dibayans inhaled powder ground from the withered leaves of the Sun Ladder. However, he had directly collected fresh leaves. According to normal botanical theory, the withered leaves would have a much lower virus content...

But now, Fang Senyan could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive and take things one step at a time. He tried to retrieve the Sun Ladder seedling from the space. Unexpectedly, this seedling, which he hadn't seen for a long time, was very restless even in his private space. Its roots had densely grasped the meteorite fragment Fang Senyan had brought back, seemingly absorbing the meteorite's energy very thoroughly.

And the mother plant's tendril wrapped around the seedling seemed to have been fiercely absorbed by the seedling as nourishment long ago...

"This… What to do? Should I first pluck a leaf from the seedling to try?" Fang Senyan pondered in his heart as he took out the seedling.

However, the moment Fang Senyan took the Sun Ladder seedling into his hand, the originally listless Ouroboros suddenly perked up and stood upright, expanding its head like a cobra, quickly flicking its red, forked tongue and making a threatening hiss!

Even more strangely, the Sun Ladder seedling also displayed extremely strong aggressiveness. It suddenly jumped from Fang Senyan's hand to the ground. Two tentacle-like roots whipped through the air with a whooshing sound. Half of its roots quickly burrowed into the ground upon contacting it, while the other half of its roots rapidly surrounded and absorbed the meteorite fragment.

Fang Senyan clearly remembered that the original Sun Ladder mother plant's leaves had only five colors, but now the Sun Ladder seedling's leaves already had seven colors! Now, the Sun Ladder plant seemed to be viviparous and had agile movement. However, it possessed roots and could be planted in the soil. It was difficult to define whether it was a plant or an animal.

Suddenly, a gray shadow flashed, and the Ouroboros actually launched an attack on the Sun Ladder offspring! It bit the Sun Ladder offspring's main stem!

Faced with the enemy's attack, the Sun Ladder "offspring" also refused to be outdone. Two tentacle-like tendrils tightly strangled the Ouroboros's body, pulling it fiercely, and even secreting that mercury-like powerful corrosive liquid, corroding the snake's body with sizzling sounds. The snake's skin was easily corroded through, even reaching into the flesh.

Obviously, plants had a much lower sense of pain than animals. Moreover, while the offspring was using its tentacles to continuously corrode and dissolve the enemy's flesh, it was also continuously absorbing the corroded nutrient solution, deeply understanding the true meaning of fighting a war to support the war. After being hurt, the Ouroboros was still very valiant and refused to let go.

Because the Sun Ladder "offspring's" stem was transparent due to its youth, one could clearly see thin strands of black liquid continuously being sprayed from the Ouroboros's two fangs, diffusing into the offspring, causing the Sun Ladder "offspring's" branches to twitch!

These two were originally incompatible roles. The Ouroboros's venom only had a paralyzing and controlling effect on humans, but it was not fatal. Instead, it inadvertently restrained the Sun Ladder, a rare plant with a unique virus! However, in the previous millennia, the contest between the two was indirectly carried out within the infected's body, not like now, where the virus and venom directly clashed! Such a result would inevitably end with the death of one side!

At this time, the two onlookers were stunned. Fang Senyan was most afraid of a lose-lose situation where he would end up empty-handed, while Old Alam most hoped that the Ouroboros would die. He feared that it would achieve a pyrrhic victory, then swim back into his body in a severely injured state to wildly suck his flesh and blood essence for a full course of Manchu Han Imperial Feast. The poor Old Alam, who now looked like he was sixty when he was barely thirty, would lose half his life even if he didn't die if it came back for another "full course meal"!