Everything was getting better.

After a day of genuine suffering, Shen Cong had adjusted — both psychologically and physically — to his new body.

December 17th. Sunrise.

No hair anywhere on his body. No teeth. No fingernails. No toenails. The crawling sensation that had plagued him for days was gone. The low fever had broken. Aside from his appearance, he felt entirely normal.

When he made a fist and tested the force behind it, a single phrase surfaced unbidden:

“I went bald, and I got stronger.”

The strength that moved through his limbs was clearly beyond twenty-bull. By how much, he couldn’t precisely quantify — without fingernails, striking anything properly was awkward, and without teeth, chewing required the improvised metal dental plate he’d fashioned and wedged into his gums. Full-force testing would have to wait.

A check of his gums showed new teeth already emerging at the root lines. The two front teeth in particular had metal tips visibly breaking through. He wasn’t actually toothless — he was between sets. Human beings went through one tooth replacement in their lives, milk teeth replaced by permanent teeth. He was going through a second. The permanent teeth being replaced by something new.

He named them iron teeth. An iron person’s teeth.

Evolution was remodeling him from the inside out.

Activity Pearls had driven a third physical development — height from 177cm to 190cm, body composition improved throughout. Now this: a second tooth replacement, iron teeth displacing permanent teeth. Both were challenges to the basic biological assumptions about what “growth” meant for a human body.

With his health restored, his emotional state stabilized. The anxiety and irritability of the past two days cleared away. Whatever his appearance became, the goal was the same it had always been: strength and survival.

“Move out.”

The snow had melted substantially. Only slush remained — roughly half a meter deep. No obstacle for Great Vajra.

“Understood.” Zhao Zilong’s voice from the jeep. Her vehicle would struggle in the slush, but with Great Vajra breaking the path ahead, the risk of dropping into hidden holes was much reduced.

Both vehicles rolled out into the wet, slowly. Speed was impossible in this terrain — every meter of progress required active steering adjustments to track the buried Provincial 312 road. Without GPS or satellite navigation, dead reckoning through a featureless snow-covered landscape was its own discipline.

As a driver, Shen Cong had developed a reliable instinct for road geometry. Two hours of careful progress brought them to Zhangshan Township. North of Zhangshan lay Ershi Li Long Mountain.

He stopped. Rest break. Drone up.

The image came back, and he frowned immediately.

The four-legged snake from two days ago was lying in the middle of the route approximately one kilometer ahead — sprawled between two low ridgelines, tail occasionally slapping at the slush, entirely at ease in the winter sun. Its skin had shifted from the snow-white of the blizzard to a blue-green that made it almost indistinguishable from a snake at distance — just four legs and a slightly thicker body proportion.

“Four-legged snake, one kilometer ahead. It’s blocking the road.”

Old Wei put binoculars on the target and confirmed. “Blue-green. Just lying there having a nice day in the sun.”

“Three options,” Shen Cong said. “One: wait for it to leave — unknown timeline. Two: detour through the township roads to Longshan Township — poor road conditions. Three: push through — not recommended. The creature appears powerful.”

Zhao Zilong didn’t hesitate: “Option two. Longshan Township.”

Fine. Either option was equivalent to Shen Cong. He turned onto the township road network toward Longshan Township — higher elevation, more snowmelt, the road surface actually visible in places.

The threat wasn’t over.

The radar picked up high-speed movement approaching before they’d gone far. The four-legged snake had found them.

He hit the brakes and brought Great Vajra to a full stop. Walkie-talkie up immediately: “Stop. Move to my right side. Engine off, stay quiet. The snake followed us.”

He deployed the stabilizer legs — additional ground anchors to prevent the vehicle from being overturned if struck. Running wasn’t a good option against something this fast and this large. The viable outcomes were two: the creature lost interest in a stationary metal object and left, or Shen Cong killed it.

Was he afraid?

No.

He was excited.

He’d never felt much fear of evolved beasts. Not truly. Since entering the Lv1 era, his teeth had come out and new metal ones were growing in their place, his hair had shed and his bones were converting. Great Vajra’s solid-state Activity was steadily increasing the vehicle’s structural strength. He was genuinely stronger than he’d been a week ago — and he’d been a Beyond Three-Star Talent before that.

A fully evolved individual with human intelligence and the ability to use tools. Whatever needed to fear something in this encounter, it wasn’t him.

He had never run from an evolved beast he could fight. Couldn’t fight: run. Could fight: fight.

“Colonel Chen, what do we do?” Zhao Zilong’s voice, tight through the walkie-talkie.

He was already suited up in the Half-Activated Armor, positioned under the roof hatch, watching the camera feeds.

“Stay quiet.”

The four-legged snake came into frame.

It moved the way lizards ran — body low, head forward — and stopped at a hundred meters out. It appeared to be studying Great Vajra. Head pointed, very like a large snake’s profile. Body size firmly in Heavyweight territory on appearance alone.

Shen Cong’s muscles were set, Pepper Water ready.

The creature at a hundred meters didn’t take an attack posture. It looked left. It looked right. It seemed curious about Great Vajra rather than threatening.

Rustle.

It opened its mouth. A large, round tongue emerged and licked across its own eye.

That confirmed it beyond any doubt: a snake couldn’t do that, and a snake’s tongue was forked. This was unambiguously a lizard.

The creature began moving closer. One hundred meters. Seventy. Fifty.

He took a breath and made the decision — stop waiting, initiate first. He reached for the roof hatch.

The four-legged snake opened its mouth wide and regurgitated.

A carcass came out — something that had been an animal, now unrecognizable, covered in mucus and partially digested. Deeply unpleasant to observe.

After regurgitating, the creature used its head to push the mass of carcass and slime forward. Toward Great Vajra.

Shen Cong stopped reaching for the hatch.

He picked up the walkie-talkie. “Did you see what the four-legged snake just did? What is it doing?”

(End of Chapter 246)