First, set a small goal: survive for a hundred days!
In a pond deep in the mountains, a turtle the size of a dinner plate made up its mind.
He was Su He, an ordinary youngster from Huaxia on Earth in his past life, and in this life he had been reincarnated as an ordinary turtle in the Mystery Huang World, fortunately avoiding the confusion of birth and retaining the memories and wisdom of his past life.
At that moment, Su He's turtle body was buried halfway in the mud, with only two nostrils slowly bubbling air.
Around the pond, about twenty wolves patrolled back and forth, and not far away on the hillside, the Wolf King squinted, overseeing the entire pond.
All were searching for the turtle.
There was anger and murderous intent in their eyes, as if Su He had desecrated the Wolf King's ancestral grave.
But Su He hadn't really done anything, except for stealing the Wolf King's chance to transform into a human through the Demonic Fruit...
So petty!
In the Mystery Huang World, there were immortals, ghosts, divine gods, and demons, but the demons here were different from those in the legends of Su He's previous life.
Not just any beast had the opportunity to develop a human form and become a demon.
Beasts could only evolve into exotic beasts; they couldn't cultivate a human form.
Every sixty-year cycle in the Mystery Huang World, there would be a "Starfall," like a meteor shower, with light showering down upon the earth. Afterwards, Demonic Fruits would grow from the ground. The Demonic Fruit grew in three days, blossomed in three days, and bore fruit in three days. The ripe fruit resembled wrinkled, half-transparent dates.
Only by consuming the Demonic Fruit and absorbing it could one transform into a human form and become a demon.
The Demonic Fruit held a deadly attraction to beasts.
Half a month ago, a Starfall occurred, and a Demonic Fruit sprouted in the mud by the pond. The Wolf King led his pack, repelling all powerful rivals, waiting for the Demonic Fruit to ripen.
At the very moment of ripeness, a turtle suddenly stretched its neck out of the mud, plucked the fruit, and dove into the pond, never to emerge again.
The Wolf King was dumbfounded, watching helplessly as the turtle made its escape.
Then, the entire pack went berserk, plunging into the pond in a frenzy of dog paddles and wolf howls.
Lucky for Su He, he knew how to dive and stay at the bottom of the water, or else he would have been torn to pieces long ago.
This bunch of mutts, their swimming skills are quite impressive!
For the following seven days, the whole pack abandoned hunting, gathered around the pond, and from time to time wolves would dive into the water, dog paddling again and again, searching the pond.
The wolves knew that the hard-shelled reptile hadn't escaped. The scent of the Demonic Fruit still lingered in the vicinity.
They were determined not to give up until they found it!
Su He lay hidden at the bottom, motionless, as time ticked away second by second.
Finally unable to hold out, he gently slid his limbs out of the mud and glided to the water's surface, his nostrils peeking out from among the lotus leaves.
Inhale—
Exhale—
Inhale—
Exhale—
Escape!
The breath he exhaled carried the scent of the Demonic Fruit, instantly alerting the pack, and with a howl, the Wolf King led the wild wolves charging into the pond again.
Su He rushed towards the bottom of the pond. But instead of burrowing into the mud, he retracted into his turtle shell and became motionless.
The wolves' dynamic vision was too good, and stirring the muddy water at this time would have surely given his position away, so he decided to better to use the natural camouflage of the algae on his turtle shell to hide himself.
The wolves dog paddled for a while, found nothing, and one by one, unwillingly returned to the shore.
Su He stealthily surfaced to breathe again, and the wolves, who had just shaken off the water from their bodies, howled and dived into the pond once more.
After five or six attempts, Su He finally finished breathing. The suffocating feeling of oxygen deprivation completely subsided.
Taking in a belly full of air, he paddled gently with his four limbs and sank to the bottom of the pond again.
Just wait a bit longer, in at most another ten days the lotus leaves will spread across the pond and then it will be much safer. Also, with each passing day, Su He absorbs a bit more of the Demonic Fruit, making its flavor increasingly faint.
At the bottom of the water, a Big Salamander is hunting a crucian carp; the Big Salamander remains motionless like a mountain, resembling a Green Stone, and in the instant the crucian carp swims by, it bites down in one gulp, ready to swallow it whole.
Su He darts forward with a few strokes of his paws, bites the crucian carp, performs a backflip, paddles with his front paws, and kicks with his hind legs, toppling the Big Salamander and snatching the crucian carp away.
The Big Salamander tumbles several times at the bottom of the pond, finally steadying itself and looking towards Su He with a befuddled face.
This Turtle thing is stealing my food? Isn't it also on my menu?
Su He bites the crucian carp to death, tosses it aside, and stares at it unwaveringly. As for the Big Salamander behind him—who is the prey and who is the hunter, doesn't that depend on size?
If I were as big as a Grindstone, those wolves outside would be just a snack in minutes.
Su He stares at the crucian carp, and shortly after, a dice the size of a fist appears out of thin air, landing on the crucian carp and starting to roll.
Three points!
The single crucian carp suddenly transforms into three.
Damn my luck!
Su He casually sets the crucian carp aside.
This dice is his golden finger since crossing over.
Whenever Su He steals something from someone else, it appears, and the stolen object multiplies by several times.
The specific rules of multiplication Su He hasn't completely grasped yet; sometimes the quantity doubles, sometimes the weight, and sometimes even the volume.
Sometimes it's not about doubling but about raising to a power!
There's even a very small chance that it's not a quantitative doubling but a qualitative one!
Just like when he stole the Demonic Fruit from the Wolf King. Originally just a jelly-like semitransparent sweet date, after the dice rolled a five, the Demonic Fruit didn't multiply but changed from transparent to blood-red, rich and plump as if it were dripping with freshness.
It directly improved the Quality of the Demonic Fruit!
That's also why, after Su He had already eaten the fruit, its mere scent kept the wolf pack unwilling to leave.
Today, Su He wanted to improve the Quality of the crucian carp.
The Demonic Fruit had already been swallowed; it's like nurturing a fetus in his belly, the optimal time for development, a time when he can recklessly enhance his latent talents. A hundred days later, once the Demonic Fruit is completely digested and the talents are set, there won't be such a good opportunity anymore.
But the chances to improve Quality are too rare, occurring once every five or six throws wouldn't be bad.
The three crucian carps drift away with the waves, and the Big Salamander doesn't dare to snatch them up; it remembers, it was beaten by this shell-covered creature just yesterday!
Shaking its head, it turns and resumes hunting.
About two hours later, it catches a red carp; just as it's about to swallow it, that damn Turtle charges over again, snatching the carp with a bite, a push, and a swipe, and then disappears.
The Big Salamander bursts into tears, wailing like a baby.
Su He huddles to one side, and the dice once again appears, spinning and landing on the number four.
The carp didn't multiply, but this ordinary red carp suddenly emits an enticing fragrance that agitates half the pond.
Quality × 4.
The Big Salamander huddled to one side stops crying for a moment, its eyes suddenly changing, plunging like a hungry tiger towards the red carp and biting down.
Smack!
Su He slaps it away, not waiting for it to show its fierce expression for food, and with a twist of his Turtle head, he tears off a big chunk of the fish.
Delicious and incomparably tender upon entry.
The Big Salamander charges again, but Su He, with the red carp in his mouth, does a somersault, using the Turtle Shell to fend off the Big Salamander and enjoys his meal immensely.
On the shore, the wolves are in a frenzy, their howling heartbreakingly human.
There are treasures under the water as well, but the wolves cannot dive.