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"Hey! What the hell, where did you bring me?!" Alex yelled, his voice echoing across the familiar living room.
He looked around in utter disbelief, watching the bright Earth sunlight stream through the window and bounce off the old coffee table.
The Empress didn't even flinch.
She just shifted her weight on his old faded couch, crossing her long, bare legs as she casually turned another page of the manga.
The oversized anime t-shirt she wore dropped loosely over her chest, highlighting the smooth, pale curves of her thighs.
"I am simply enjoying your memories, my little vessel," she purred without looking up.
Her voice was smooth, lazy, and dripping with dark amusement. "The humans there were ridiculously weak, completely devoid of mana or true cultivation, yet their minds were brimming with such wild, wicked imagination.... I must admit, I am entertained."
"Get out of my head!!" Alex clenched his fists, taking a step forward. "Wait, don't tell me, all this time you've been busy reading all those manga's and Anime's I watched in my previous life?"
"Well what of it?" Finally, the Empress closed the manga with a soft snap and raised her eyes to meet his gaze.
Her glowing, slit-pupiled gaze locked onto him, instantly freezing the anger right in his throat.
The playful, teasing vibe around her vanished for a split second, replaced by the suffocating pressure of a supreme predator.
"I am inside your very soul, what do you expect?"
"Your past, your present, your future... it all belongs to me, nothing can escape my gaze!" she said, her lips curling into a wicked smile.
She stood up from the couch and walked slowly toward him. With every step she took, the modern living room began to crack and dissolve into black mist.
"However, I am not an ungrateful master," she continued, stopping right in front of him.
She reached out with a cold, slender hand, gently cupping his cheek and tracing her thumb across his lower lip.
"You did well today. You acted like a true enchantress, for once… As I said, I must reward you."
Alex tried to pull his face away, but her grip was like iron. "I didn't do it for you..." he gritted out.
"It doesn't matter who you did it for, darling. What matters is the result," she giggled softly, leaning in until her cool breath brushed his ear.
"To reward you for satisfying my taste, I have decided to gift you a new skill… Have fun with it!"
"Also if you do a good job, I'll reward you again… maybe I'll let you have fun with my body the next time?" Before Alex could ask what she meant, the Empress slapped her palm directly against the center of his chest.
A violent, freezing current of black energy exploded from her hand, shooting straight through his body and into his soul.
"Wake up now, little vessel," she whispered as the living room shattered into a million glass shards around them. "Go test your new skill... and make sure you show me a good show!"
"Gasp!" Alex jerked upright on his bed, his eyes snapping wide open, he looked around the dim bedroom, touching his own face to make sure he was actually back in reality.
"What the hell did she just do to me?" Alex muttered under his breath.
He could feel something new inside his mana circuit, it's like a dark chain of runes winding around his mana core that wasn't there before.
As those runes begin to dissolve into his mana core, he felt he learned a new skill that he could use, learned naturally similar to the Naagin Gene abilities he had awakened.
He immediately checked his attribute panel, focusing his mind until the familiar blue holographic screen appeared in the quiet room.
Right below his Flowing Spirit Sword Forms, a brand-new line of text glowed with a dark, violet hue.
[ Demon Snake Summoning Lv-1 (0/100) ]
"Summoning?" Alex whispered, leaning forward on the edge of the mattress as he studied the detailed skill description.
Unlike standard mage spells that could call upon wolves, golems, or elemental spirits, this ability was strictly bound to his unique Naagin bloodline.
There was a strict restriction on the creature summoned: they could only be snakes.
However, the trade-off was massive.
Instead of remaining static, the base level, combat strength, and absolute loyalty of the summoned serpents would scale directly with his skill proficiency.
As Alex read deeper into the system notes, he realized the skill was split into two distinct modes of operation.
The first was standard Demon Snake Summoning.
Activating this mode would open a temporary rift to summon serpents directly to his side.
For now, at Level 1, the vast majority of these summons would be mindless Demon snakes, beasts that had failed to evolve into true, intelligent Spirit Beasts.
Their sizes were completely randomized, meaning he could pull anything from a foot-long scout viper to a massive, twenty-foot long monster.
Even better, there was a hidden luck mechanic: every time the summoner cast the skill, there was a small, random chance of bypassing the restriction to summon a genuine, highly sentient Spirit Beast serpent, whose strength was not much lower than B Rank.
The second mode made Alex's pulse race. It was called Serpent Fusion.
However, fusion means the summoned serpent would die… So, most of the summoned serpents won't choose to fuse with them.
Instead of manifesting the snake in the physical world to fight alongside him, the summoner could forcefully draw the summoned beast directly into his own physical body.
By merging with the serpent, he would temporarily absorb its attributes, elemental resistance, and physical traits, fusing them into their own combat styles.
According to the Empress, this kind of skill was very famous among humans in her world, but the Empress clearly modified it to suit her own bloodline.
Additionally, as the skill level increases, the summoner could directly summon a True Naagin or a Naga, you had contract with to your side.
"Let's see what this skill actually looks like," Alex muttered, curiosity overriding the lingering exhaustion in his limbs.
He slipped off the bed, his bare feet pressing against the carpet.
He raised his right hand, pointing his pale palm toward the empty space near the wooden desk.
"Summon," Alex commanded softly. He channeled a small thread of his Void Yin mana into the dark runes circling his mana core.
Instantly, the air in front of the desk dropped by several degrees.
A circle of dark, violet light sketched itself into the air, hovering two feet above the floor.
The space inside the circle twisted, emitting a sharp, hissing static.
Hisssss! A sleek, pitch-black serpent dropped out of the violet portal, landing onto the carpet with a soft thud.
It was about five feet long, with scales that absorbed the bedroom light and eyes that glowed a faint, dull crimson.
It was clearly a low-level Demon snake, devoid of any higher intelligence, and radiating a faint, venomous chill.
Yet, the moment its crimson eyes landed on Alex, the beast didn't strike or hiss in defiance.
Crushed by the natural hierarchy of his Naagin bloodline, as the Queen of serpents, the summoned serpent immediately slithered forward.
It coiled itself obediently around the legs of his chair, lowering its angular head toward Alex's bare feet in absolute, unquestioning submission.
"Not bad," Alex murmured, feeling a direct, telepathic link connecting his mind to the beast's primitive instincts.
He could see through its eyes, sensing the vibrations of the room through its tongue.
As for the Fusion, he didn't try it, mostly because the snake was just a low level mutant beast, and couldn't improve his strength.
And unlike an ordinary human, he already possesses Naagin Bloodline, and didn't need to absorb the ability of a snake.
Alex already possesses them, and they are even superior to any demon serpent he could currently summon.
He deactivated the summoning and sent the snake back to where it came from, then walked into the bathroom, splashing ice-cold water over his face to clear the lingering heat from his skin.
When he looked up into the mirror, water droplets dripped down his collarbones and pooled in the cleavage of his breasts, down to his slender waist.
He closed his eyes for a second before he chose 'Yes' to simulate his Martial skill: Flowing Spirit Sword Forms Lv-4.