Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 370 What Did You Understand?

As night fell, the bright moon hung high in the sky.

Just as that unfamiliar consciousness thought, Du Yi was indeed studying the new power he had sensed.

When he was fighting the wolf-headed swordsman, he had only subconsciously thought about it in that direction. But after returning to the city and telling the Seed of Creation about his heroic deeds, Du Yi, who had been passively reviewing the events, suddenly realized that something was wrong.

Strictly speaking, he shouldn't have won that battle.

It wasn't that he was boosting the enemy's morale while diminishing his own; the main reason was that when he reviewed the situation afterward, he realized the seriousness of the matter—putting aside everything else, given his handless and footless state, he would have to stretch out his body to make a move.

This means that the giant sword made from the teeth of an unknown behemoth posed a deadly threat to him.

Not to mention the wolf-headed swordsman's armor. When he slammed it down with his long tail, he felt its absurd hardness. He wasn't even sure if the wolf-headed swordsman was dead or not—at least the slam itself might not have killed the wolf-headed swordsman. All he could do was bury him in the ground and make him lose the ability to breathe.

Although, in terms of the outcome, he did win.

But thinking about the process...

How can a swordsman with absolute defense and absolute attack fight a snake without hands and feet?

If we only consider the combat strength of both sides, he really has no chance of winning. Especially when reviewing the situation afterward, no matter how hard Du Yi thought about it, he couldn't figure out how he could defeat an opponent who had activated invincibility. But when the battle started, during the fight, he didn't think about all that.

He instinctively swung his long tail; he knew it was the right thing to do, whether it was effective or not, he had to fight.

Because he was very weak at that time.

Because he is very weak, he has to use every method he can. Because he is very weak, whether it works or not is no longer important. Regardless of whether it works or not, he has to use it first. If he doesn't, he might die on the spot.

Thus, he, who considered himself weak, actually defeated the seemingly incredibly strong wolf-headed swordsman.

"This……"

Du Yi vaguely sensed that there might actually be another explanation behind this.

Especially when he saw that greatsword.

The bone greatsword was clearly made from the teeth of some giant beast. Du Yi could clearly feel the incomparably ferocious aura emanating from the teeth. Such a sharp blade, let alone the wolf-headed swordsman, would be considered a divine weapon even if it fell into Du Yi's own hands. If it weren't for the fact that the tooth size was a bit mismatched, Du Yi would have liked to break off one of his own teeth and put it in place.

Du Yi could clearly feel that this greatsword could make him stronger.

"But what happens after you become stronger?"

Du Yi continued thinking along those lines.

After becoming stronger, he should take better care of this tooth. After all, unlike his own teeth, who knows where this tooth came from? This means that if it wears down, it will be one less tooth he can use each time.

If he uses up this tooth, his ability to become stronger will cease; since he won't become stronger, it's equivalent to becoming weaker.

No one can accept becoming weaker, and Du Yi naturally finds it hard to accept as well.

"So... I actually need to make myself stop using this tooth?"

Du Yi suddenly felt something was off.

Even though he's become stronger, he deliberately chooses not to use his strongest tooth. This means that when it comes to actually fighting, he'll inexplicably be missing a tooth—he should be stronger, but in a real fight, he'll actually become weaker.

"Because of the concept of strength, one does not want to become weak; because one does not refuse to become weak, one becomes truly weak..."

Thinking about this, Du Yi started to feel a toothache. After all, the conclusion he had reached was rather bizarre.

The stronger something is, the weaker it becomes; the weaker something is, the stronger it becomes. This kind of thinking, which puts the cart before the horse, is really hard to understand, and can even be said to challenge Du Yi's inherent cognition.

Fortunately, Du Yi has always had a very high capacity for acceptance in this regard.

Just as he could accept the fact that he had turned into a snake, Du Yi had always been the type to accept things as they come. Simply put, if he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't bother thinking about it. All he needed to know was the outcome.

"Strong is weak, and weak is strong."

Du Yi already knew the outcome.

This also means that if it really has a need to become stronger.

Instead, he wants to learn to become weak first.

"This……"

Even if he skipped the thinking process and went straight to practice, Du Yi was still a little at a loss for where to start.

After all, voluntarily becoming weak is really a bit against human nature.

Constantly consuming external things to strengthen oneself is the instinct of all living beings, and Du Yi, as one of them, is no exception. However, if he were to weaken himself instead of strengthening himself, he wouldn't even have a clue how to do it.

If he can gain strength and become stronger by eating, how can he make himself weaker?

Does that mean he's going to starve himself and not eat a single bite of food, and that he'll become weaker?
"I have a feeling that I'll starve to death before I get weaker, right?"

Du Yi always felt that this was a dead end.

But if he didn't consider it from the perspective of eating, he couldn't think of any way to make himself weaker. After all, he was already without hands or feet, and it would be extremely difficult for him to use tools. Although his body was indeed huge enough, it was definitely not weak, but as for how strong he was, Du Yi didn't think he was that strong.

Neither strong nor weak, neither high nor low, Du Yi always felt like he was stuck in the middle.

"But... wait a minute?"

Du Yi suddenly realized something.

Strength is weakness, and weakness is strength.

Since he can't make himself weaker on his own...

Conversely, if he actively strives to become stronger, can that also be considered another form of becoming weaker?

After all, strength is weakness. As long as something is getting stronger, it is also getting weaker. At the same time, weakness is also strength. As long as something is constantly getting weaker, it is also constantly getting stronger.

"This……"

Du Yi felt like he was getting more and more confused, but he also felt that there was some truth to it—after all, that strange consciousness clearly realized this, which was why it didn't choose to take action itself, but instead chose a wolf-headed swordsman who looked like a weakling to kill him.

"But now, I have also mastered this power."

Thinking this, Du Yi took a deep breath.

He had clearly sensed the gap between strength and weakness, and although he couldn't describe it precisely yet, he had already drawn some kind of special power from it.

(End of this chapter)