Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 464: Ouroboros
There was nothing in the void, at least not to the Ignivas.

But just because they can't see it doesn't mean Du Yi can't see it, especially after he can clearly sense the heat. Du Yi can sense that the closest and largest heat source right now is the one that is closest to him.

An invisible and formless source of heat floats in the distant void, as if waiting for something.

What are you waiting for?

Du Yi raised his head.

"Aren't you leaving yet?"

"..."

Within the void rift, Upo Salas fell silent.

To be fair, it actually wanted to leave. The most important thing it should have done right now was to get out of this dangerous place immediately—and it did just that. The moment it realized the danger, it chose to flee far away.

Ultimately, it's not the type of creature that excels at direct combat. Since things have already progressed to this point, it's better to just leave.

Although the sunk costs are so high that they are painful to bear, cutting losses and leaving now is better than losing everything.

"So... what's going on here?"

Upo Salas suddenly felt that something was not quite right.

It should have been leaving, but it didn't move an inch. In fact, it kept moving backward!

The subspace that concealed it was retreating backward, heading towards the direction of the snake.

"Varied……"

It was at this moment that Upo Salas realized it.

The giant serpent on the distant planet has already opened its blood-red maw.

The giant mouth devoured all the heat around it, making the giant snake grow larger and larger. As its body expanded, the snake's mouth also grew larger and larger. Soon, the snake's mouth was visible on the planet, and it became clearer as the area expanded.

A tremendous suction force emanated from the snake's mouth, a result of its devouring of heat. Even though Upo Salas was currently hiding in the warp, it didn't mean that not a single bit of heat could escape.

Or perhaps, both it and that subspace have been captured by the giant serpent.

This also prompted Upo Salas to launch its desperate counterattack.

Since escape is no longer an option, it might as well fight head-on. Although it is much worse in combat, it still has a lot of reserves. Although all the reserves it takes out will disappear into that bottomless snake mouth, its reserves are just as bottomless.

"Then let me see just how much you can eat!"

With this in mind, Upo Salas opened up his subspace.

Weapons, armor, and of course, most importantly, the various races that control them, even the planets themselves—an endless treasure trove crashed down upon that gaping maw.

It would only take a moment for the giant snake to collapse and die from its own suffocation.

Upo Salas has this confidence in his collection.

However, it was clear that everything was still beyond his expectations. The giant snake continued to devour and expand, and no matter how much he threw in, the snake was still not choked to death.

That gaping maw was like a bottomless pit, with no end in sight.

It even quickly included it.

It didn't emerge from the subspace, but that didn't matter, because the subspace that contained it had already been swallowed up as well. The enormous serpentine body had long exceeded the planet's capacity. Right now, it was less like a serpent on the planet and more like a colossal serpent coiled around a small planet.

However, the devouring did not stop there.

As the subspace entered the digestive tract, Ubo Salas had already silently dissolved into the snake's stomach, and its collection suddenly expanded within the giant snake's body—a collection that Ubo Salas had accumulated over many years, which could even be described as massive.

As the snake digests its contents, these contents are rapidly converted into a massive amount of heat, which in turn acts on the snake's body, making the giant snake even larger.

In a daze, Du Yi felt as if he had seen the sun.

That should be the sun, at least the sun in Du Yi's memory. However, right now, this sun doesn't seem very big to him; it's more like a fireball that's emitting light and heat.

Even right on Du Yi's lips.

As its body grew larger, it even swallowed the sun.

As for those next to the sun, they are no exception.

The devouring continued, and what was being devoured was being rapidly converted into heat, which was then applied to Du Yi's body, making the snake's body even larger. Even Du Yi himself couldn't stop it—when the whole mechanism started, everything seemed to come alive and began to operate automatically.

Or rather, rather than saying that everything has come to life, it is more accurate to say that this is life itself.

The core of life is the most basic survival, which involves plundering all external energy to replenish oneself.

After realizing this, Du Yi made rapid progress on this path, or rather, he was born for it.

The person he is now is the most authentic version of himself.

"But... is this really me?"

As the enormous body continued to devour him, Du Yi felt a strange sense of detachment.

What is being devoured is the body itself, not something he does by his own will. He has never liked this kind of gluttony, nor has he ever been indiscriminate about eating raw or cold food. He has always had high standards and strict requirements for the food he eats. For example, back when he had nothing, he would deliberately light a fire to eat cooked food, simply because it was his last shred of dignity.

Food, ultimately, needs to have flavor to be enjoyable.

If you don't even care about the taste and just eat whatever you want, then eating like that can't really be called enjoyable.

"This is not what I want to do."

Du Yi began to forcibly stop this meaningless devouring.

"Even when you eat, you have to eat with relish. If you eat a lot without any flavor, it's just torturing yourself."

However, even if Du Yi thought that way, his body might not listen to him. After all, it was a life instinct, and Du Yi had previously overcome the final barrier of this instinct.

Life will find its own food, and the body will devour all sources of heat.

Realizing that his body was out of his control, Du Yi simply followed his instincts and suddenly turned his head to bite.

He bit his own tail.

The gaping maw no longer discerned the source of heat, and the long tail was swallowed up in an instant.

But as calories are ingested, the parts that were consumed grow back all the way up.

(End of this chapter)