151: Chapter 151 First, let's find a way to conjure up a leg for the chief of staff...

Chen Chen didn't move when Yi Chang's snake tail coiled around him.

The icy scales pressed against his calf muscles as they climbed upward.

The sensation was slick and oily, carrying the characteristic low temperature of a cold-blooded creature.

The hem of her white shirt slid up with her movements.

A large area where silver-grey scale patterns met snow-white skin was exposed under the pale blue glow.

Yi Chang tilted her head back, her icy blue vertical pupils shimmering with moisture.

"You said... deep contact could restore my bloodline concentration."

Her voice was kept very low.

Her forked tongue flicked out from between her lips and retracted twice.

Chen Chen looked down.

His gaze swept down from her collarbone.

Only two buttons of her shirt were fastened, leaving the neckline wide open.

Further down, below the small of her back, human skin vanished completely, replaced by dense silver-grey snake scales.

A snake tail over three meters long wound in a large circle on the floor.

The tip of the tail was currently hooked around his ankle.

Chen Chen fell silent.

For five whole seconds.

Yi Chang's movements stopped.

The daze in her vertical pupils faded, replaced by unease.

"...What's wrong?"

Chen Chen's hand pressed down on her fingers, which were resting on his abdominal muscles.

"Yi Chang."

"Hmm?"

"I'm not a picky eater," Chen Chen's tone was excessively flat, "but this tail of yours—"

Dead silence filled the cabin.

Yi Chang's vertical pupils dilated instantly.

Her silver-grey cheeks flushed red rapidly.

The heat burned from her cheekbones all the way to her ears, then down to her neck.

The snake tail jerked away from Chen Chen's leg.

Smack!

It slammed heavily against the cabin wall.

"You—!"

She shrank back two meters.

The snake tail coiled into a ball, wrapping around her tightly.

Only a bright red face and a pair of vertical pupils that looked ready to bleed were visible.

"I'm not a snake! I'm from the Snake Scale Tribe!"

"Your lower half is a snake."

"That's a temporary form!" Yi Chang's voice rose an octave, her synthesized voice trembling. "When a Snake Scale Tribe member's bloodline purity is high enough, they can fully transform—"

She stopped mid-sentence and suddenly shut her mouth.

Because her bloodline purity wasn't high enough.

A thousand years of exile, a dwindling tribe, and broken heritage.

She couldn't even maintain a full human form, let alone manifest legs.

Yi Chang's face turned from red to pale, then back to red again.

The snake tail behind her thrashed wildly against the floor, making the metal cabin surface thud loudly.

"I'm leaving."

She pushed herself up, about to rush toward the cabin door.

Chen Chen's hand clamped onto her wrist.

"What's the rush."

Yi Chang struggled, but couldn't break free.

The terrifying grip of 167 points of constitution meant she couldn't move half a step.

Chen Chen's other hand pulled something out of his silver-grade storage ring.

A dark gold metal blueprint unfurled in his palm, emitting a soft glow.

Yi Chang's struggling ceased.

Her vertical pupils locked onto the blueprint, contracting sharply.

"S-grade... Biological Fusion Chamber..."

"It can purify alien bloodlines, repair physical defects, and activate latent genetic sequences."

Chen Chen waved the blueprint in front of her.

"Including letting you manifest human legs."

Yi Chang's breathing stopped.

She froze on the spot.

The thrashing of the snake tail came to an abrupt halt.

Every scale on her body stood up, then slowly smoothed down.

"You..."

"The conditions haven't changed." Chen Chen released her wrist and put the blueprint away. "Once your transformation is complete, everything that needs to be given will be, not a bit less."

Yi Chang stared at him for five seconds.

Her tense back slowly slumped.

The snake tail gathered behind her.

The tip of the tail rested gently on Chen Chen's instep.

"...Okay."

Her voice was so quiet it was almost inaudible.

But Chen Chen heard it.

He reached out and patted the top of Yi Chang's head.

His hand met soft, fine silver-white hair that felt cool to the touch.

"Good girl."

Yi Chang's vertical pupils flickered.

The communicator rang.

"I've finished calculating the materials list."

Shen Wanbing's voice came from the second floor, raspy yet professional.

"Manufacturing the fusion chamber will take twelve hours. The live bloodline samples can be injected after startup. If we start now, it'll be ready by tomorrow noon."

Chen Chen glanced at the time.

01:47.

"Start working."

Fifteen minutes later, in the third-floor extension bay.

The refinery roared to life, and the temperature soared.

The S-grade manufacturing table's holographic projection displayed an exploded view of the fusion chamber's parts.

The structure of over a thousand precision components was three times more complex than the Void Annihilation Matrix.

Chen Chen grabbed Yi Chang by the back of her collar and tossed her into the temporary rest area next to the medical cabin.

Her six dying clansmen were also transferred from the fortress resettlement area and connected to life-support equipment.

"Once the chamber is built, all seven of you will go in together."

Yi Chang clutched the hem of her shirt, the light in her vertical pupils terrifyingly bright.

"...Thank you."

"Don't thank me, just remember you owe me."

Chen Chen turned and went upstairs.

System time skipped past midnight.

No, it was already past midnight.

Chen Chen paused for a step on the stairs.

A surge of heat exploded from deep within his spine.

Dense crackling sounds echoed from his bones for a full forty seconds.

The aching sensation of muscle fibers tearing and reorganizing spread from his limbs to his torso.

[Physical Overlimit settlement! constitution +10! Current constitution: 177! agility +5! Current agility: 83!]

177.

He flexed his fingers.

The muscles in his forearms bulged into exaggerated curves beneath his tactical long sleeves.

Veins protruded.

His body temperature spiked to over forty-two degrees.

The second-floor cabin door opened.

Two figures blocked the doorway, one on each side.

Jiang Yanxue.

The zipper of her black tight-fitting combat suit was only pulled down to below her chest.

A large expanse of snow-white skin spilled out from the collar.

Her dark red pupils glowed enchantingly in the dimness.

Her high ponytail swung behind her head, and she radiated the oppressive aura of a beast marking its territory.

Blood Rose.

The zipper of her deep-V black leather outfit was lowered to her navel.

Her wine-red wavy curls draped over her snow-white shoulders.

SS-grade Succubus Poison Body outputting at full power.

A rich, aphrodisiac fragrance permeated the corridor.

...

The cabin door closed.

The acoustic isolation layer indicator light turned green.

Su Xiaoqi lay on the sofa, chewing on mammoth tenderloin while looking up at the ceiling.

"It's quite lively today."

Qin Hongye came down from the fifth floor to get water.

She stopped at the top of the stairs for two seconds before silently turning back.

...

Two and a half hours.

System pop-ups exploded in rapid succession.

[Jiang Yanxue: agility +7, constitution +5.]

[Blood Rose: charm +6, constitution +5.]