Armipotent

Chapter 2274: Sloth

This pack leader underwent a full transformation. The first change came from the fur. The fur lost its darkness, bathed in brilliant golden light before turning to snow white. From the head down to the tail turned into snow white.

The tail underwent transformation, and six more tails grew up. At first, it was similar to the fur bunny tail, round and fluffy. But then it bloomed, growing longer and fluffier. It stopped growing after growing three and a half meters long. The end-tails, around thirty centimeters long, were dark, similar to its original dark fur.

The next transformation was the leg, another full transformation where two of its legs were absorbed into the body. The one pair of legs in the middle was covered in golden light before it disappeared into the body. That changed the fox into four-legged instead of six-legged.

The transformation was not over as the legs got bulkier under the golden light. Not just the leg, the body was also affected. The body got bigger after the initial transformation.

The result of the transformation was revealed as the golden light dispersed. The fur on the leg was gone, replaced with rose-gold scales covering its thigh down to the paw. The paw was also a combination of the fox and dragon. The fur on its body experienced a subtle change as the fur grew longer, covering half of the thigh.

The next change was on the head as a diamond-shaped pattern, like a seed formed on its forehead. Then there were two layers of line around it, flowing naturally on its forehead.

The eyes then started to change as well. Just like the legs, the transformation took off one eye in the middle. Now the fox had two eyes just like a normal fox.

Its eyes were originally all black, and it changed. The black eye turned into a golden-crimson with a black slit. It was similar to Tang Shaoyang’s eyes, but his eyes were crimson, lacking the gold color influence.

Then two pairs of whiskers grew. It grew from behind its nose, growing up to half a meter long, fluttering. The transformation was not over yet, but Tang Shaoyang was quite speechless. It was weird enough with the legs, and now the whisker as well.

A pair of horns grew up, ten centimeters above the eye. At first, it was a singular white horn, then halfway through, the horn branches started to grow around the horn. The pair of horns was around sixty centimeters long with several branches.

The transformation was not over as a wing frame grew on its back, matching the size of its body. It was the frame of a dragon wing, then the membrane and tissues started to form as they thickened.

Tang Shaoyang expected the color would be similar to the scales on its leg. To this surprise, the wings were completely black with a hint of gold. After the wing finished, it slowly retracted and folded into the body perfectly, and was hidden. That was right, the wing was not visible when it folded into the body.

That was when the creature opened its eyes. Its golden-crimson eyes locked on Tang Shaoyang as the remaining unique energy settled down inside its body.

The fox landed on its legs and yawned, revealing its sharp teeth. Without a warning, it jumped at Tang Shaoyang.

That caught Tang Shaoyang off guard, thinking he was being attacked. But he was wrong; he was not getting attacked. The fox tried to headbutt him, but he caught the massive fox in his head. The current fox was two meters tall and over six meters long with its tail.

[??? Wants to form a Companion Bond with you.]

A similar pattern was detected, but Sox and Somi didn’t share similar behavior. Only Envy and this one have acted like this so far.

”But why do you want to form a Companion Bond with me? This is the first time we met.”

That just came out of Tang Shaoyang’s mouth, curious.

”It’s because you are my master?”

The fox answered in a masculine voice. The answer sounded like a question because it was confusing that the master was asking something that obvious.

”That’s it?”

The fox paused for a moment before nodding, ”That’s it.”

Tang Shaoyang shrugged and placed his forehead against this fox’s forehead. Then he willed it, a will to form the bond with the fox.

[Congratulations! You have formed a bond with ”???”!]

”Can you put me down, Master?”

Tang Shaoyang released the fox as it went the other way, yawning. It walked into the barrier he used to protect Zara. Since the barrier deemed it an ally, it could go through. The fox stopped next to the portal and flopped down on the black snow, resting its head inside the snow afterward.

Tang Shaoyang watched the whole bizarre thing. It didn’t ask for a name, and it didn’t seem to be curious about the new transformation as well. After achieving the goal, it just slept next to the portal, inside the defensive barrier.

Now he recalled the fox’s voice. The voice was neutral, sounded like someone without a spirit, had no enthusiasm, let alone emotion. That was right, it was toneless with no emotion.

”Alright, I guess your name has been decided then,” Tang Shaoyang shook his head. There was no need to hesitate anymore. He named the fox Sloth.

He didn’t care that much about Sloth’s behavior since he confirmed something, his skill and energy. Using energy in his dantian affected the skill and transformation. He quickly recognized that the fox inherited Wise’s characteristics. That might be why the fox grew two pairs of whiskers, scaly legs, and a wing. It might be because of Wise’s influence on his energy in his dantian.

”How do I find out which one is stronger now?”

The purpose of the experiment was to find out which delivered a better transformation between his unique energy and Chaos Energy.

Tang Shaoyang turned toward Envy, ”So, what do you think? Who’s stronger between you and your brother?”

That was when he realized that Envy’s eyes never left the fox. She squinted her eyes in solemnity, seeming in a deep thought. But his question interrupted her musing.

”Stronger? Of course, I am stronger. I am the most dangerous predator in this world! I have wings, and he doesn’t...” Her voice faded as she seemed to remember that Sloth had wings as well. It was just not visible.

”Is he that strong?” Tang Shaoyang muttered in surprise.

Sloth was Rank 7 Calamity or maybe Rank 8 Calamity at best. Meanwhile, Envy was a Rank 10 strong Calamity. She might be stronger than the other Rank 10 Calamity. That was Zephyr’s assessment.

Envy was supposed to be stronger after the Demonification, yet Envy didn’t sound confident.

[Check the leaderboard. While it’s not reliable, we can use it as a measurement.] Vandir reminded Tang Shaoyang.

The Death King was more excited about the experiment than he was. Tang Shaoyang could sense that Vandir might come up with something, maybe asking for his unique energy in his Dantian.

He listened to Vandir and checked the Absolute Ranking leaderboard. He was surprised to find Sloth’s name was fifth in the list, right below Ophelia.

”Does that mean my unique energy is better than my Chaos Energy?” He muttered in a low voice.

The fox was originally Rank 8 Calamity, and the System deemed that Sloth was stronger than Sox and Somi, who underwent transformation with Chaos Energy.

[You can’t come up with a conclusion just after one experiment. You still lack data to draw a conclusion because I can come up with something as to why the transformation makes Sloth stronger than Sox and Somi.]

[Sloth might be stronger than Sox and Somi individually, but those two are still more dangerous than Sloth. Why? Because those two are still the pack leaders. They have an army that listens and fights for them.]

[Meanwhile, Sloth is no longer the pack leader. He is a single entity. Maybe that is a factor why Sloth had a drastic change and was stronger than Sox and Sox. You need to run another experiment with another pack leader before drawing a conclusion. Just like Sloth, you kill all the foxes, leaving the pack leader. This time you use Chaos Energy instead of your unique energy.]

[I am not saying your energy doesn’t have an influence on the transformation. Your energy is responsible for their physical transformation, tuning, and tailoring their power based on the energy you use for the Demonification. I could be wrong, but that’s the fun of experimentation.]

[Or maybe there are more factors that affect the Demonification we don’t know yet. We can’t cross out their bloodline as well. It might influence the transformation.]

Vandir was more enthusiastic about the experiment than Tang Shaoyang, for sure. If it was possible, Tang Shaoyang wanted to hand over the skill to Vandir, letting Vandir do the experiment, and he handled the fight instead.

[By the way, you have almost completed your Seven Deadly Sins project. You just need one more.]