Liu Ming is transformed into a young swamp snake in a laboratory explosion. The moment he opens his eyes, corpse moths are gnawing through his scales and flesh!
He activates the Candle Dragon Pollution System, only to be told that its energy is down to 5%:
“Either devour and evolve, or become fertilizer in three minutes!”
He sprays poison at the moth swarm, but gets his tail scales burned through in return. He eats poisonous moss and awakens iron armor, only for a giant crocodile to bite off his tail!
In the depths of despair, he bites through the crocodile’s belly and devours its heart, evolving into a Black-Shelled Iron Python. Yet ominous black blood seeps from between his scales:
“Karma is burning through your body. You will die within thirty days!”
The mysterious Prison-Guarding Ancient Turtle emerges from the swamp. It taps the ground with a claw, solidifying the mud into a stele:
“Bring me a Pure Soul Lotus and the Candle Dragon’s Reverse Scale, and I will trade them for your life!”
Deep in the rotting-leaf swamp:
Acid rain from the Insect Mother eats through his black armor. He devours countless ants and creates Soul Thread Resonance, shattering the hive mind!
A nine-tailed fox disguises itself as his younger sister, drowning her in a sea of fire. He tears through the illusion, only to have the fox’s tail pierce his iron armor!
A bone serpent at the altar freezes time. He bites through its eyes and glimpses the truth behind the Candle Dragon’s Self-Devouring: what is called mending the heavens is really feeding them!
As a tribulation of lightning descends like bamboo slips from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and flocks of blood-winged birds give their lives to fill the crack in the sky,
he coils around the Candle Dragon’s remains, transforms into a black flood dragon, and soars skyward, crashing into the rift in the heavens:
“The Heavenly Dao treats all beasts like straw dogs? Then today, I’ll devour you and your broken Dao!”
