Closer to Revealing My True Self
Chapter 159 - 131 Shedding_1

Chapter 159: Chapter 131 Shedding_1

A thick mist filled the stone path as a figure moved slowly, but only the upper half could be seen.

The serpentine body appeared and disappeared intermittently, surely a sight that would terrify the uninformed to ascension on the spot.

Feng Yi had been doing well these past few days. Ever since he personally experienced the function of this stone path, he spent most of his days here. The stones soothed his muscles and delighted his spirit.

In the last two days, the unusual sensation in his tail had grown stronger, the feeling of being bound becoming more pronounced.

Besides, Feng Yi also noticed an increase in secretions at the corners of his eyes, with no signs of inflammation or infection—appearing overheated, but actually quite normal considering the changes in his body.

After crawling around the stone path, Feng Yi took a bottle of eye drops from the shelf nearby and dripped some into his eyes, closing them as he leaned against the boulder to relax.

Lately, he often experienced bouts of impaired vision, as if a layer of something obstructed his sight. Initially, Feng Yi thought it was due to exhaustion, or changes related to shedding his skin, which would disappear after the molting was complete. However, once, when drowsy and yawning, the tears that welled up in his eyes flushed out a significant amount of residue along with the tears, and his diminished sight was restored to normal.

Only then did Feng Yi realize that he didn’t have to wait until the shedding was complete; he could rectify the weakening vision at any time!

Feng Yi didn’t consider this a serious problem. When his vision weakened and he clearly felt something blocking it, a few yawns to generate more tears could wash away the impurities.

That is until his butler handed him a bottle of eye drops.

Intentionally formulated for Feng Yi to rinse his eyes, it was a 500 mL bottle.

Perhaps unable to bear watching Feng Yi’s crude treatment any longer, the butler looked at his eyes with a pained expression, "You should take care of your eyes."

After resting with his eyes closed for a bit, Feng Yi applied a few more drops of the eye drops, took a tissue to wipe the corners of his eyes, removing some grime and a small amount of secretions from the meibomian glands.

Leaning against a nearby rockery, Feng Yi moved his tail.

The constriction in his lower half intensified, making forward movement increasingly slow and difficult, as if encased in an outer shell.

His emotions were easily swayed, and external noises could provoke an exaggerated response.

That’s why these past few days, during activities downstairs, Feng Yi saw few others, including Bing. Besides mealtimes, Bing didn’t linger around aimlessly; all four of them kept their distance from him.

Of course, this wasn’t to say that they were afraid of Feng Yi, but they had been cautioned by the butler that the Boss’s temper might easily erupt these days. If anyone ran afoul of him, they were to brace for the consequences. The butler’s arrangements were also meant to provide Feng Yi with a more tranquil environment, minimizing distractions.

Feng Yi was now easily stirred by any disturbance, although he managed it rather well. He could feel an undercurrent of aggression, a surge of irritability, flashing out intermittently.

Two kingfishers flew into the garden.

Feng Yi opened his eyes, and a hostile glare flashed through his erect pupils.

Though he quickly suppressed it, the ferocity had already startled the kingfishers into flight.

Feng Yi adjusted his mood and found a suitable spot on the stone path for a midday nap, lying down to sleep.

His phone on the shelf rang with a new message notification.

He had set it to Do Not Disturb mode, with certain times exempt from calls and notifications, but it wasn’t in that mode at the moment.

Feng Yi moved over lethargically to check the notification and opened it to find a message from Bai Lu.

[Brother Yi! Want to go to a resort? A friend told me about a new resort in the western suburbs of Yang City. Let’s go and have fun. Don’t worry about the expenses for food and stay, it’s on me!]

Feng Yi replied: [No time, you guys go have fun.]

[That’s too bad, I heard it’s really nice there.]

A little while later, Bai Lu sent another message:

[Brother Yi, how are the koi fish doing at your place?]

Feng Yi: [Haven’t paid attention.]

These past days, Feng Yi had been busy with the matter of tail shedding and hadn’t been distracted enough to pay attention to how the koi in the landscape pond were growing.

Feng Yi asked him, "Are the few that you took still doing okay?"

Bai Lu: "Well... alright, I guess. They’re a bit out of sorts and not in great spirits, but their eating is still normal."

After Bai Lu chose and took away some fish that day, he placed them in an aquarium. After just a couple of days, he noticed the fish were looking listless and guessed that the aquarium might be too small, so he moved them into the fish pond in his family’s yard.

After changing locations, the koi’s spirits somewhat revived, but compared to the koi pond at Feng Yi’s, they were still much weaker.

Bai Lu always felt they had lost their sharpness and had become much duller.

And they had lost weight.

Bai Lu even consulted some friends who knew about raising koi, but none could provide a clear explanation.

So it must be a feng shui problem!

That’s what Bai Lu told his dad and ended up getting slapped for it.

During this time, the Bai Family’s shops were continuously introducing new products and business was booming. Plus, a bit of marketing for old-time’s sake made several of their viral new products sell exceedingly well.

With such strong financial luck! How could he say there’s something wrong with their feng shui!

Boss Bai told Bai Lu that the fish weren’t growing well probably because they hadn’t adapted yet and given some more time they would recover.

Feng Yi had said the same thing to Bai Lu.

"Give it some more time, maybe they’ll perk up more once they get used to the new environment, it’s still early days."

Since everyone said so, Bai Lu stopped worrying about it for the moment and continued to ask:

"Brother Yi, are you really not going to the resort? I heard you can fish there! And there are BBQ parties and wild fun at night!"

After hearing about Feng Yi’s stories, several of Bai Lu’s friends were interested in making his acquaintance. Feng Yi was close in age to them and had also grown up in Yang City, so some of them had heard of Feng Yi before and weren’t complete strangers. With someone organizing a trip to a newly developed resort, they took this opportunity to get to know Feng Yi and asked Bai Lu to extend the invitation.

"You all go have fun, I still have things to do."

"Alright, Brother Yi, just let me know if you change your mind. Or else, I’ll go check it out first and send you some photos and videos, then you can come over if you’re interested?"

"Okay."

After putting down his phone, Feng Yi returned to where he was lying before, flicked his tail, and sighed while looking at it.

Who’s in the mood for fun! Who has the heart to go out and play!

In his current state, he felt too timid to go out, with too many worries, and one careless move could reveal his true form. If he were to reveal his true form in front of everyone, that would be game over!

If I’m to play, it has to be carefree! It has to be fun!

Worrying about this and that, such a way of playing is dull.

And night-time BBQ parties...

It’s like poking exactly where it hurts! How long has it been since I went out at night!

Taking a deep breath, Feng Yi thought to himself, once he finished shedding, he would go out and revel!

That day, Feng Yi woke up in the morning, his head resting on the tip of his tail.

He flicked his tail, lazily rolled off the bed, his tail turning into legs, planning to walk downstairs. But his legs felt as heavy as if they weighed a ton and were hard to move, so he changed back.

Being in tail form made it a bit easier to move around, but even so, he was sluggish, and the feeling of restriction was worse than it had been the previous days.

After putting on a set of clothes, Feng Yi went downstairs.

The dining table that had been in use for the past three days was now accompanied by another taller one, perfectly fit for Feng Yi’s current stature.

He finished his meal at a snail’s pace and then slowly scraped his tail on the cobblestone path.

He had a feeling that the time had come.

Despite his sluggish movements and a bit of stiffness, Feng Yi was in a good mood.

After sloughing his skin today, he could go out and have fun tomorrow!

The cumbersome and rigid tail crawled slowly across the stone, the thin layer between scales and stone becoming progressively clear, gradually peeling away bit by bit as it frictioned against the surface.

Feng Yi didn’t deliberately look back, but the sensation of slowly shedding a layer of constraints was unmistakably clear.

The hissing sound of the stones rubbing against his scales was, at this moment, music to Feng Yi’s ears.

Starting from a semi-petrified state, he began moving ever more swiftly and with increasing ease.

Until suddenly, feeling a lightness in his body, Feng Yi turned his head but did not see a complete sloughed tail skin.

When he turned, the layer of "skin" that had shed was already in a semi-dissolved state.

This "skin" was composed of cells that were being rejected because they couldn’t keep up with the pace of evolution; once they separated from the scales and left the body without energy to sustain their cellular form, they would disintegrate at an extremely fast rate.

In other words, once detached from the body, they would turn to dust and complete their final self-disposal.

In just a few moments, the shed layer of "skin" had disintegrated into fine dust.

After a few washes of the stones later on, these fine particles would be swept down the drain along with the dirt that drifted in from other places.

As he watched the dispersing dust, Feng Yi redirected his attention.

What he was most concerned about now was—

He had finally completed his slough!

It was a process of purifying impurities and a process of concentration.

Unlike naturally sloughing snakes, he wouldn’t undergo a noticeable increase in body size after shedding his skin, but he could feel his body becoming stronger!

Even every single scale was filled with a sense of power!

His control over his tail was much stronger than before, and he no longer had to worry about it appearing without his notice!

Taking a deep breath, Feng Yi flicked his tail, transformed it into legs, but then quickly turned it back into a tail.

He wasn’t wearing pants.

But of course, none of that mattered, as he could continue to move in his original form.

Taking a long sigh of relief,

he felt a level-up change in his body, every muscle throbbing with power, stronger than ever before!

Feng Yi casually picked up a stone beside him.

Squeeze!

It didn’t budge.

Squeeze again!

This time, a bit of stone powder emerged.

Feng Yi stared at the stone in his hand, the scene before him almost unbelievable!

Is this the sense of power?

Was the intense feeling of strength after sloughing my skin just my imagination?

Did my instinct run away from home again?

How could I have sensed it wrong?!

A scent drifted by, attracting Feng Yi’s gaze.

The butler was already waiting at one end of the stone path.

Seeing Feng Yi approach, the butler’s face showed a warm smile of relief and affection: "Bing has already prepared the food, you can eat at any time."

Feng Yi was actually feeling hungry. His appetite had waned these past two days due to the sloughing, but now it was back!

"I’m going upstairs for a shower first."

Once Feng Yi left the stone path and turned off the mist humidifier built into the artificial mountain, opened the sun-shading cover above, everything returned to its original state, except for some extra dust in a certain area, leaving no other trace.

If Bai Lu came here again and saw the stone path, he would still know nothing of what had transpired.

Feng Yi took the elevator to the second floor; without anyone else around, he transformed into his human form. This was more relaxing, energy-saving, and convenient.

Look in the mirror.

His eyes seemed even sharper and colder.

As for the rest of him, there didn’t seem to be any noticeable changes.

Feng Yi headed to the bathroom, thinking of taking a shower.

After sloughing his skin, he decided against a lengthy bath in the tub, as he had broken into a sweat and his upper body was coated with some grime.

Feng Yi stepped into the shower, letting the water from the showerhead wash over him.

After a while, Feng Yi reached up to remove the showerhead from its bracket to rinse more thoroughly.

Crack!

The handle of the showerhead he grasped broke off.

Water sprayed Feng Yi in the face.

Gazing at the broken showerhead in his hand and the somewhat deformed pipe end,

Feng Yi: ???

After turning off the shower and carefully finishing up in the tub, Feng Yi didn’t immediately go downstairs. Wearing his bathrobe, he stepped out to the terrace, picked out one of the decorative stones from the flowerbed, and squeezed it slightly.

Pop!

The stone in his grasp shattered into small pieces.

Feng Yi: "..."

So, it wasn’t that I lacked strength, it’s that the stone I used for sloughing was exceptionally hard.