'Hmm... I wonder.' Yao Zi Chen thought so to himself.
"Hiss!" As he then proceeded to make some slight snake sounds out of interest. "Hiss! (If I could make some grass armour out of a few many strands of grass blades, then couldn't I just make a thick grass vine and steadily wrapping it around myself, instead of creating layers upon layers of grass sheets for a similar effect.)"
Both seems to have its own up and downs within the process of settling it up and steadily providing a certain level of defensive capabilities. Whilst, the grass sheet armour method does provide an even level of defence over a large surface, it's really just no different than just wearing multiple layers of clothing.
Meanwhile, the grass vines method is extremely thick in a sense, as you tried to wrapped a rope around your own body for some body armour, but in the end, it does sort of make Yao Zi Chen's snake body looks a bit more bulkier than usual.
Yao Zi Chen did indeed try to use the second method as to replace the thin layers of grass sheets with thick grass vines wrapping around the lower end of his snake body.
'Hmmm...' Yao Zi Chen thought so to himself, as he lightly swings his snake tail around and stare at it for minutes on end.
The wrapping of his snake tail with thick grass vines has indeed caused the appearance of his lower half snake body to greatly differs from his upper half. As the exterior of his lower half snake body is wrapped in a continuous spiral, leading towards the tip of the snake tail, which somehow gives off the appearance similar to that of a rattlesnake's tail.
However, despite Yao Zi Chen constantly waving his cheap rattlesnake tail knock-off around. It certainly did not produce any sort of rattling noise.
'However, what I certainly did noticed was that the lower end of my snake body is much heavier than usual.' He so to himself.
Yao Zi Chen then thought of an ingenious new idea. 'What if I continuously wrap the thick grass vines together at the tip of my tail until it forms some sort of a large spherical mass, much like a wrecking ball or a flinging mace.'
And he did exactly as that, as he then steadily created a large spherical ball of compressed thick grass vines at the end of his snake tail. If Yao Zi Chen were to possess legs at this moment, and steadily walk on all four limb, then his current physical appearance would be no different to the infamous dinosaur with a wrecking ball attached to the end of its own tail. An Ankylosaurus.
Ding!
Yao Zi Chen then heard the familiar sounds of the divine beast cultivation system prompt notification ringing withinside his head, and a blue virtual display screen panel then appears in front of him.
[Through an ingenious new idea, you have successfully created a new skill {Grass Wrecking Ball Lv.1} a derivative skill of {Grass Manipulation}! ]
[Congratulations, Player! You have successfully met the criteria and thereby unlocked the uncommon title {A Genius At Playing With Grass}! ]
"Hiss... (Ohoho...)" Yao Zi Chen made some slight snake hissing sounds.
He was pleasantly surprised upon reading the contents of the last couple of system prompt messages that he saw.
One of the criteria for unlocking the {A Genius At Playing With Grass} title is to create a certain significant amounts of achievement points in any sort of category that involves playing with grass, either create some sort of beautiful art sculpture or item/accessory made of grass, but in Yao Zi Chen's case. He made a couple of new grass related spirit skills, the first of its own kind that pretty much have not yet even existed within this world yet.
Tang San was the first of his own kind to create the grass armour-related spirit skill with his ice and fire poison river grass martial spirit essence within the original Douluo Dalu franchise, by steadily wrapping himself with his own blue silver river grass martial spirit essence to provide the maximum amounts of protection whilst he was busy fighting the hundred-thousands years old Nine-Knot Itchyosaur spirit beast.
However, this time it was Yao Zi Chen that created the grass armour-related skill. Though it may seem somewhat irrelevant at the moment, but the grass armour spirit skill will eventually become the most used defensive spirit skill for river grass spirit master in the near future when river grass spirit essence would then become popular.
• • •
It was now approaching dusk, with the sun gradually descending off into the horizon in the distance, and Yao Zi Chen then gently lowers his snake head down into the field of tall grass.
His steadily growing snake spirit beast body is quite hidden amongst the field of tall grass, completely camouflaged thanks to his grass armour-related skill, which is made from the same the very same materials as his surroundings.
'I'm bored.' Yao Zi Chen thought so to himself.
Despite his body still being extremely exhausted and mentally drained after having gone through a life-and-death battle with the twenty-seven years old Horned Rock Claw Squirrel spirit beast. He still could not fully contain the excitement of having been reincarnated into the world of Douluo Dalu.
And besides, back on Earth, Yao Zi Chen's bedtime was extremely late. Reaching passed midnight. In some cases, his gaming-watching live streams lasted well into the early morning, until the break of dawn and early sunrise.
Old habits do die hard. And no matter the body that he is currently in, whether he is still a human or a snake. Yao Zi Chen is Yao Zi Chen. And only his physical body has change, but his soul still remains the same as it onced was on Earth for the most part.
'I usually go to sleep after half one or two, way passed midnight, or when my eyes could no longer keep themselves open.' Yao Zi Chen thought so to himself.
He then continues upon that line of thought, 'But now I'm bored, with nothing else to do. Back on Earth, there were livestreams, gaming, and some entertainment to bide time, but here I don't really have anything.'
'And even if I do have something else to do. It is getting steadily quite dark, with no source of light besides the moon and stars out. I would barely be able to see anything in the dark.' He thought so to himself.
Yao Zi Chen lightly rested his snake head on the dirt ground, as he simply continues to self cultivate and practice meditation in order to further improve himself.
During the time that he was continuing to practice self-meditation and cultivation, Yao Zi Chen had noticed the odd pile of his old snake skin when he first shedded, but he didn't immediately acted upon his own self curiosity until he gradually grew board from long hours of self-cultivation, meditation, and training.
And now that he grew tired of it all, Yao Zi Chen then thought of something to himself. 'Isn't this the old shedded snake skin of before I successfully undergo body metamorphosis of transforming into a spirit beast.'
Yao Zi Chen thought, as he then manipulated a few grass strands with his grass manipulation spirit ability, and drag the pile and pieces of his old shedded snake skin on over towards his current location.
The old shedded snake skin was slightly translucent and light-yellowish in colour, with a thin crumbling texture akin to the dry skin upon a person's lips. It looks quite mesmerising at a glance, but due to the fact that the old shedded snake skin was not in a good enough condition and perfect shape. Its own value of worth was severely dropped.
'Hmm...' Yao Zi Chen then thought of something to himself.
'What if I were to wrap my old shedded snake skin around a thick grass vine. Wouldn't it make for a perfect target dummy to lure in for any unsuspecting large predator or prey to hunt.' He thought.
Yao Zi Chen then immediately puts his idea into action, as he instinctively conjures out a bunch of grass strands which then immediately intertwined together to form a single thick grass vine, which his grass manipulation spirit ability.
In which, Yao Zi Chen then manipulated the thick grass vine with his grass manipulation spirit ability, as the thick grass vine then wore Yao Zi Chen's old shedded snake skin like a sock.
Any piece that has fallen off from the old shedded snake skin can be somewhat stitched together with a single long grass stand to form a complete dummy puppet snake.
Ding!
Yao Zi Chen then heard the familiar sounds of the divine beast cultivation system prompt message ringing withinside his head, and a blue screen interface panel then appears in front of him.
[Skill proficiency has reached a designated degree! The skill {Basic Grass Stitching Lv.1} has been learned! ]
[Through an ingenious idea, you have successfully created a new skill {Basic Grass Puppet Mastery Lv.1}! ]
"Hiss! Hiss! (Omigosh! I've managed to obtain a new skill!)" Yao Zi Chen hisses, as he freely expresses his sense of enjoyment with his snake tongue.
Afterwards, Yao Zi Chen then maneuvers the grass snake puppet body towards himself, until it stood near inches away from his literal face.
Upon closer look, Yao Zi Chen could barely tell if the grass snake puppet body is even alive or not, distinguished from the real thing, and due to the poor lighting at night time. Yao Zi Chen could barely see the more finer details and the obvious design flaws of the grass snake puppet body.
'Well, I can leave that sort of stuff till morning when the sun is finally out and about, and there is daylight. I can barely see anything at night time.' He thought to himself.
Yao Zi Chen then finally closes his eyes and fell asleep, as his control over the grass snake puppet body then disperses. It then fell to the ground lifeless and still right next to the now-sleeping Yao Zi Chen.
However, just like how there are diurnal spirit beast like Yao Zi Chen, who are quite active during the daytime. There are also nocturnal predators and some spirit beasts who immediately become active the moment that the sun then goes down.
Like this little forest critter over here. A six to seven years old Grey Silver Rat spirit beast, could be seen hurriedly scurrying around upon the ground floor.
The Grey Silver Rat spirit beast does not look that much different from an ordinary rat in terms of perspective; apart from its own fur being unusually dark and grey, but gains a metallic sheen and silver lustre on its fur coat as they age.
Their spirit beast bodies would gradually absorb the iron compounds and the metal elemental qi from their diets. And a fully grown and a maturely evolved Grey Silver Rat spirit beast who has reached at least a hundred years of spiritual beast cultivation is able to fused the metal spiritual attribute qi energy into each strands of hair upon their bodies.
In the end, the Grey Silver Rat spirit beast would end up like some kind of spiky porcupine or a hedgehog, with the spiky metal coated fur acting as its own armour to deter large and fearsome predators from consuming it.
However, the lonesome Grey Silver Rat spirit beast has managed to caught the attention of an unsuspecting large avian-type spirit beast. A Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast.
The Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast then immediately stretches its own pair of wings aside, stretching as far as three feet is its usual wing span. As it then dives down from a large tall forest tree, with its hook-like avian bird claws opening up, ready to snatch the running Grey Silver Rat spirit beast withinside its grasp.
Within a matter of seconds, the Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast had swooped down from above the branches of a tall forest tree, and snatches a hopeless Grey Silver Rat spirit beast with its claw.
The claws of the Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast seems to be quite sharp, as they easily punctured through the layer of skin and flesh of the Grey Silver Rat spirit beast.
The Grey Silver Rat spirit beast then squeals quite loudly, desperately flaunting its own skewered body wildly around in an attempt to escape from the Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast's tight grasp, but it was already too late and was quite futile, as its own fate was immediately decided upon when it was first laid eyes upon by the Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast.
The Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast has already had enough of the Grey Silver Rat spirit beast's constant squeal and annoyance. So it then decided to immediately squash up the pest before it could up any more resistances.
The Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast then immediately increases its own grip and hold of the skewered Grey Silver Rat spirit beast. Like a squeezed-up stress ball, all of the air was then immediately pushed out of the Grey Silver Rat spirit beast's body, alongside with its own internal organs being steadily crushed to a pulp by the increasing pressure of the Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast's grip.
The Grey Silver Rat spirit beast then pitifully dies, having been crushed to death by the Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast's grip. The Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast then immediately drops the carcass of the dead Grey Silver Rat spirit beast to the group.
Thud!
The sounds of the dead carcass of the Grey Silver Rat spirit beast having lightly hit the dirt ground. Not before the Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast then immediately lands right next to it.
The Feather Wing Moonlight Owl spirit beast then gradually opens up its hook-like bird beak, and easily tore through the flesh and skin of the dead Grey Silver Rat spirit beast's carcass, before swallowing a big chunk of flesh down its quite narrow and small throat. All while, a couple of meters away is the still-sleeping Yao Zi Chen, who is sleeping so soundedly and peacefully without a care in the world.
The only time that Yao Zi Chen would be forcefully forced to wake up from his supposed slumber is when he senses a powerful spirit beast, with an intensely high spiritual energy pressure. Will he really tried desperately to run away.
Spirit beast are naturally sensitive to the fluctuations of spiritual qi, and onced a strong and powerful spirit beast had accidentally entered their territory and hunting grounds. The weaker spirit beast would naturally be forced to leave their own homes and territory in search of new grounds.
This would naturally cause a chain reaction, in some cases, with the group of fleeing weaker spirit beast eventually turning into something called a Beast Tide.
Beast Tides are often divided into two kinds of categories; with one being the above, with the weaker spirit beasts fleeing from the presence of another powerful spirit beast or lifeforms. Or another option is when a commander-tier spirit beast type would then show up and forcefully taken over the reign of the spirit beast territory, and ruling over many numerous spirit beast kind like a king and his subjects.