Closer to My True Form Every Day

When Feng Yi woke up the next day, he felt like he had been punched in the face and hit over the head with a brick; he was completely in a daze. The nightmare he had the night before lingered in his mind. Before he could think about it, his attention was completely diverted, and he couldn’t care less about remembering the nightmare. Nightmares or whatever could be pushed aside. No matter how many dreams he had, they were all illusory, but the pain in his face was real! His nose was in pain! In fact, his whole face was hurting, especially his nose!

Feng Yi even suspected that he had fallen out of bed in the middle of the night and hit his face on the floor, breaking the bridge of his nose and suffering a concussion. There was dizziness, headache, and intense sore swelling of the nose. He had severe nasal congestion and could only breathe through his mouth. Thinking he had a cold, Feng Yi went to look for medicine in the medicine chest. After taking two steps, he realized that the symptoms were wrong… another organ was starting to evolve?

It seriously didn’t give him any time to react! It just attacked like that!

Feng Yi rushed over to the mirror. When he saw the swollen, unrecognizable face in the mirror, he opened his mouth wide and took a deep breath. This time, the effect was a bit big…

During the development of his fangs and venom glands, he could at least go out wearing a mask, but now that he was swollen like a pig, no mask could cover him! Not even a full mask!

Most importantly, it really hurt! Every part of his face hurt! His head was in such pain that his normal thinking was affected! It was as if there were countless drills in his mind.

Fortunately, he had stocked up yesterday when he felt the situation wasn’t right, so he didn’t have to go out. He could stay home and tough it out!

The fun he had going out yesterday had turned into pure misery at home today!

“What is it this time?”

When he lifted his hand to touch his swollen and deformed nose, it immediately felt like thousands of needles were piercing his nose. Feng Yi couldn’t even cry out in pain. His face was contorted, his veins were bulging, and it took him a while to recover.

He forced his eyes open to look at the pig’s face in the mirror. Looking closely, he could see countless thick and thin blood vessels under the skin, extending from the nose to all parts of the face. It was quite frightening.

So it was the nose this time? What would happen to it?

With trembling hands, Feng Yi took out the tea leaves that Uncle Mute had given him and brewed a pot of tea.  Although Uncle Mute always spoke vaguely and was always busy in various ways, he had still helped him a lot in this matter.

Originally, he wanted to chew the tea leaves dry, but any movement of his mouth involved a lot of nerves in his face. Especially when he chewed hard, the pain was very obvious.

While waiting for the temperature of the tea to cool down, he chanted silently in his heart:

“When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a great man, it always first frustrates his spirit and will, exhausts his muscles and bones…”¹Saying by Mencius/Mengzi, a Chinese Confucian philosopher often described as the “second Sage”. The rest of the saying is: “…exposes him to starvation and poverty, harasses him by troubles and setbacks so as to stimulate his spirit, toughen his nature and enhance his abilities.”

After exhausting his muscles and bones, that should be it… right?

When the tea was cooler, Feng Yi inserted a straw and drank in big gulps. The one-month period mentioned by Uncle Mute had not yet passed, so this tea still had some effect. The pain wasn’t as bad as before.

Eventually, Feng Yi calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief.

The nose was still working, as if there were countless nets and roots extending from it, connecting the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and brain together.

There are a lot of things involved this time, Feng Yi thought, feeling a bit worried. If my head is in so much pain and the brain is involved, would it affect my IQ?

Feng Yi searched his memory for the information he had researched earlier. If it was the nose, then it was probably that thing. Thinking about it, Feng Yi remembered the nightmare he had last night. It was still as clear as day to him. He had thought that he would grow heat-sensitive dimples, and he had even dreamed of a forked tongue, but none of that matched reality at all… No, there was a slight connection.

Feng Yi called the old butler.

“My nose may have started to evolve, but the range of influence is a bit large.”

Hearing these words, the old butler said calmly and comfortingly, “Your face is swollen? Don’t worry, you’ll recover after this round, and you’ll still be a handsome man. Your nose is developing, it should be considered… similar to a vomeronasal organ.”

Sure enough, Feng Yi thought in his heart.

The vomeronasal organ, also known as Jacobson’s organ, was a very special organ. The long, forked tongue of snakes wasn’t a sensitive taste organ, and the usual hissing and tongue sticking out was actually collecting odor particles in the air and sending them into the vomeronasal organ. The vomeronasal organ was connected to the olfactory nerve and the brain and could process stimuli.

It was said that a snake’s sense of smell was dozens of times stronger than a dog’s. Such a powerful sense of smell depended on this kind of organ. But in humans, it was generally believed that the vomeronasal organ was degraded. It existed in fetuses or infants, but it would gradually deteriorate and disappear with age, and couldn’t be used.

The study of the vomeronasal organ in human beings had always been a matter of controversy. No matter how much it was argued, this organ did not exist in adult humans, or the sense of its existence was very weak. No one knew what would happen if humans had the evolved version of the vomeronasal organ.

At present, Feng Yi’s previously devolved vomeronasal organ had re-evolved, and might even have evolved in a new way, making it different from reptiles and ordinary humans. As the old butler said, he was taking a different evolutionary path than ordinary humans.

“Will I still have a long forked tongue?” Feng Yi was a little worried.

The composition of the snake’s olfactory organs included the nasal cavity, the tongue, and the vomeronasal organ. The latter two were directly connected to each other.

Since the vomeronasal organ was developing, did it mean that he would also grow a long forked tongue?

Thinking about it further, to conveniently stick out the tongue frequently, there was an incision on the snake’s mouth scale, and the lip shape of some snakes was more like a pout.

If that was on a human body…

That image would be too beautiful…

Feng Yi felt a chill.

The butler let out a light chuckle. “Probably not. Your path of evolution is different from that of those wild beasts, and your level of evolution is higher.”

Feng Yi felt reassured.

“How long will this process take?” Feng Yi asked again.

With such a swollen face, he couldn’t go out or meet other people, otherwise, they would think he had been beaten up and call the police. But he couldn’t stay at home like this all the time, not seeing anyone and enduring the pain at the same time. If he really did that, he would probably lose his mind.

The old butler’s voice was full of merriment, “It won’t take long, only about two weeks.”

Feng Yi’s eyes widened.

Two weeks! He had to put up with this pig face for another two weeks! Of course, as long as people didn’t see it, it was fine, but he still had to endure the pain. He could only bear this suffering alone, no matter how reluctant he was. For two weeks, he’d tough it out!

“How should this newly developed organ be cared for during its development and growth?” Feng Yi asked.

“You’re better off not getting punched in the nose.”

“If my organ develops well, will my sense of smell be especially sensitive?” Feng Yi was curious.

If he had a snake’s super sense of smell, wouldn’t everything be “visible” to him?

The old butler smiled meaningfully. “Of course, you will ‘see’ another world.”

Feng Yi’s back turned cold: “T-There are ghosts?”

Butler: “…No.”

This boy didn’t seem very smart. Perhaps he had damaged some brain cells during the evolution process.

• 1Saying by Mencius/Mengzi, a Chinese Confucian philosopher often described as the “second Sage”. The rest of the saying is: “…exposes him to starvation and poverty, harasses him by troubles and setbacks so as to stimulate his spirit, toughen his nature and enhance his abilities.”