Chapter 1: Old Snake Begins to Understand the Ways of Cannibalism
Old Black Snake couldn't remember when he first gained sentience.
He only remembered that he was a notorious Snake King in the Snake Village area, infamous for devouring over twenty people. The authorities had tried to hunt him down, and even a Demon Subduing Daoist had pursued him, but none could capture him.
As a result, the legend of the man-eating Snake King spread through the village, scaring children into staying indoors and keeping the lights on at night, while the snake catchers stood guard through the night.
He couldn't recall exactly how many people he had eaten, but he remembered the last two vividly.
***
The first was a young boy named Human Elixir, who was being chased by an old Daoist and had fled into the mountains.
"Human Elixir, you owe me your life! After consuming so many of my herbs, how can I let you escape?" the Daoist cursed as he chased.
The boy ran for a full day and night, exhausted and covered in wounds. He knelt before a Bodhisattva statue in a dilapidated temple, crying and begging for protection.
Old Black Snake, seeing his pitiful state, swallowed him whole, ending his miserable life.
The Daoist arrived just in time to witness this scene and screamed in agony, "No! My elixir! I spent ten years refining that Human Elixir! Spit it out!"
Feeling a bit guilty seeing the Daoist's despair, Old Black Snake swallowed him too, reuniting him with the boy in his stomach.
***
These were the only memories Old Black Snake had.
From then on, he began to develop intelligence and gained a wealth of knowledge about the human world.
For instance, snake catchers captured snakes; Daoists practiced spells; Human Elixir was a human-shaped pill that extended life and enhanced cultivation.
He also learned about human stories, books, and all sorts of strange knowledge that surfaced intermittently.
"Humans have names, so I'll give myself one too. I'll be called Xu Hei!"
He liked the story of Xu Xian from the human world. People called him Old Black Snake, so he combined it to become Xu Hei.
In truth, he envied humans. They were born with intelligence, while Xu Hei had to go through countless reincarnations to gain his.
He decided to cherish this life and never die easily!
The more he had, the more he feared losing it. The once fearless Old Black Snake now became afraid of death.
"Humans are too dangerous. I should stay away from them. Fierce beasts are also scary. I'll stick to safer food."
Xu Hei made up his mind to avoid humans and fierce beasts. Eggs, poultry, and livestock would be his main targets.
In the days that followed, Xu Hei roamed the edges of small towns and villages, stealing chickens, ducks, fish, geese, and small rodents.
Days passed, and the stories of the man-eating Snake King faded, but livestock began to disappear in large numbers. Fish in ponds dwindled, making residents too afraid to let their chickens and ducks roam freely, keeping them all indoors.
Xu Hei had a huge appetite, capable of eating several chickens in one meal, which the village poultry couldn't sustain.
***
A month passed.
Xu Hei hadn't eaten for seven days.
During this time, Xu Hei had fully digested human knowledge, growing to five meters in length, with a demon core forming in his abdomen.
"With a demon core, I'm now a snake demon," Xu Hei rejoiced.
The demon core, like a human cultivator's dantian, was his core. Though only the size of a fist, it was his most precious possession.
The birth of the demon core meant he was no longer an ordinary beast but a demonic beast.
However, his excessive stealing had depleted his food sources.
He didn't dare hunt large beasts, fearing injury. Compared to the risk of fighting in the wild, he preferred being a petty thief.
"I haven't eaten in a long time. I need to find food in the town."
Xu Hei slithered his massive body toward Chen Family Town.
Chen Family Town was the largest town in the area, named after the prominent Chen Family, who had the most abundant food. Xu Hei, having lived there for years, knew the Chen Family's location well.
Xu Hei moved cautiously, making no sound as he entered the Chen Family's backyard.
The backyard housed many livestock. Xu Hei flicked his tongue, sensing the air, and his eyes lit up.
He smelled pigs!
Pigs were his favorite food—fatty and filling, one pig could last him a month. Unfortunately, pigs were kept in pens.
Since gaining sentience, he had never eaten pork, fearing discovery by humans.
"Just one pig, and I'll stop."
Xu Hei calculated, his stomach growling, as he slithered onto the roof beam, inching into the pitch-black pigsty like a leech.
The pigsty was large. He found a corner and climbed in along the wall. The pigs, sensing a snake, grunted and instinctively backed away, but not too frightened. Some even curiously approached, thinking it was food.
This was why Xu Hei liked pigs—they were dumb, unlike other animals that ran at the sight of him.
Without hesitation, Xu Hei opened his jaws and swallowed a piglet whole.
Xu Hei's large size allowed him to swallow a piglet with ease, just as he had once swallowed humans.
The pigs squealed in terror, retreating to the corner, finally realizing Xu Hei was dangerous.
It took Xu Hei great effort and two minutes to swallow the piglet, his body swelling into an oval shape.
"Time to escape," Xu Hei thought, but then had a sudden idea.
Since he had sneaked in, why not eat more?
With the demon core, his digestion speed had increased. This pig would be digested in half a day.
Xu Hei flicked his tongue, surveying the area. It was night, and the Chen Family was silent, with faint snores in the distance. As long as he didn't make too much noise, he wouldn't be discovered.
Even if someone went to the toilet at night, he could escape quickly.
With this in mind, Xu Hei wrapped around a fat pig and swallowed it. This time, it took five minutes, his body swelling like a small mountain.
There were only five pigs in the pen, with three left. Xu Hei couldn't move, so he curled up in a dark corner to digest.
***
By dawn, he would have digested most of it.
About an hour passed.
"Bang!"
Suddenly, the pigsty door was kicked open. Xu Hei, startled, curled into a small ball, hiding behind the wall.
"Thud!"
A bloody figure was thrown into the pigsty. It was a young man, fairly handsome but covered in wounds, barely breathing.
"Is this trash dead?"
"So what if he is? He dared to compete with Young Master Qiu for a woman. This is his fate!"
The two men at the door clapped their hands and left the pigsty.
The young man, eyes closed, took his last breath and died.
A human had died right under Xu Hei's nose.
The man looked familiar, possibly a young master from Chen Family Village, whom Xu Hei had seen before.
Xu Hei quickly slithered onto the roof beam. It was said that the dead were unlucky, and he didn't want to get involved.
The two men had just left. Xu Hei planned to leave after they were gone, never to return.
Suddenly.
The recently deceased young man opened his eyes.
"Zombie!" Xu Hei's pupils contracted, thinking of a term he had learned from the Daoist's knowledge, holding his breath, not daring to move.
The young man sat cross-legged, a look of surprise in his eyes, muttering, "Chen Fan? Haha, what a coincidence, sharing the same name as me."
Chapter 2: Immortal reborn in one gulp
"Canceling the engagement, a waste, Dantian destroyed...
Fine, since this Superior Immortal has inherited your body, I will naturally clear your name. Those who have wronged you, I won't let a single one go!"
Chen Fan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The injuries are severe. If it weren't for me taking over this body, you'd probably be dead by now. But this won't stop me... Hmm?"
Chen Fan suddenly furrowed his brows.
At this moment, Xu Hei was hiding on the beam, barely breathing, his heartbeat slowed to the minimum.
He had heard the boy's self-talk but couldn't understand a word of it. Just now, Xu Hei felt like he was being watched.
Since that feeling of being watched appeared, the boy had stopped talking, clearly having noticed him!
"Damn! He's onto me!"
Xu Hei's pupils contracted, a strong sense of crisis welled up inside him, his snake scales stood on end. This boy gave him an extremely terrifying feeling!
"Two pigs are missing from the pen, he must know I stole and ate his pigs!
This is bad! He's definitely going to kill me!"
Xu Hei's scalp tingled, feeling like a thief caught red-handed.
In these times, countless people starved to death on the streets. How precious were two pigs? The Chen Family would never let him off easily.
Moreover, with so many livestock and poultry missing nearby, they would surely suspect him!
It's over, it's over. Xu Hei felt his snake life was bleak, as if he could already see himself being skinned and dismembered, his corpse lying in the street.
And just then, an even more shocking scene unfolded.
The boy's near-death injuries were slowly healing, strands of Spiritual Qi from the heavens and earth were flowing into his shattered Dantian.
Gradually, the Spiritual Qi coiled around, forming the shape of a dragon.
"Haha, who would have thought this Demon Clan treasure, the Demon God Cauldron, would also be reborn with me! Great Void Ancestral Dragon, you miscalculated!"
The boy chuckled inwardly, never once glancing at Xu Hei.
But Xu Hei's mind was on the verge of collapse.
"He's starting to cast a spell, he's starting to cast a spell, he's going to kill me!"
Xu Hei didn't know what the boy was thinking, but the terrifying aura emanating from him was growing stronger and stronger, making Xu Hei's heart pound with fear. He was sure the boy was brewing some spell to kill him!
Xu Hei's eyes widened, his gaze shifting from fear to madness.
In the natural world, it's survival of the fittest—either you die, or I do! He had stolen the boy's pigs, and the boy would surely kill him!
"He's gathering power, he's going to deliver a fatal blow!
It must be, it must be!
If you want to kill me, then I'll have to eat you! I'll have to eat you!"
Xu Hei's eyes turned wild. He couldn't hold back any longer. If he didn't act now, once the boy's injuries healed and his power gathered, it would be his death.
This person had clearly noticed him but pretended not to see, just to avoid alerting him! Secretly gathering power to kill him stealthily—cultivators were all this insidious and ruthless!
This might fool an ordinary snake demon, but not Xu Hei!
Xu Hei's body was like a tightly wound spring, stretched to its limit! In the next moment, he shot out like lightning, rushing down like a gust of wind!
"Ahhh! You forced me!!!"
Xu Hei lunged, opening his blood-red mouth, biting towards Chen Fan, looking deranged.
Chen Fan: "???"
A foul wind blew, and in a flash, Chen Fan was swallowed into Xu Hei's belly.
***
Inside the snake's stomach, Chen Fan was still puzzled. By rights, he had deliberately released some of his immortal aura, which should have scared the opponent away.
However, he didn't panic, nor did he struggle. Instead, he snorted coldly.
"A mere first-level of Spirit Communion demonic beast dares to attack me? Truly courting death!"
His Divine Sense had long detected Xu Hei, but he had only given him a cursory glance, not taking him seriously at all.
Although he was in a young boy's body, the immortal aura and killing intent he exuded were enough to make any low-level demonic beast flee in terror, not daring to approach.
Yet, an exception occurred. This snake demon seemed different.
It didn't matter. Not to mention that Chen Fan had already recovered to the second level of Qi Refining, just with his immortal techniques, he could easily kill this snake demon a hundred times over.
"Boundless Sea!"
Chen Fan raised his hands, and an endless wave of energy erupted like a tsunami, surging out from his palms.
Xu Hei's snake body immediately swelled, ballooning up like an overinflated balloon, getting bigger and bigger!
Greed knows no bounds, and now Xu Hei's body was larger than an elephant. Even with the flexibility of a snake's body, it couldn't withstand such strain.
"Ahhh! I'm going to die!" Xu Hei screamed internally.
He didn't want to die!
He had finally gained sentience after countless reincarnations, having been a chicken, a duck, a fish, and finally becoming Xu Hei. He didn't want to die in vain!
Just for stealing two pigs, he faced the calamity of death. This was the cruel human world! Xu Hei regretted deeply. Had he known, he would never have eaten those pigs.
For the first time in his life, he felt the terror of humans.
"Buzz!" His Demon Core emitted a faint light, a force supporting his physical body, preventing it from bursting quickly.
"Ha!" Chen Fan spat out True Qi, striking Xu Hei's Demon Core. Xu Hei's once hard Demon Core shattered like fragile glass.
With his Demon Core destroyed, the intense pain nearly made Xu Hei faint. His consciousness blurred, his body on the verge of collapse, teetering on the brink of death.
A mere boy could easily kill him. Humans were more terrifying than he had imagined!
"Perfect, some snake meat to replenish my vitality," Chen Fan thought.
Suddenly, a pitch-black small cauldron emerged from his Divine Sense, landing at Xu Hei's Demon Core position, slowly rotating.
"Hmm?" Chen Fan was taken aback. This was the Demon Clan's treasure, the Demon God Cauldron!
Just as he was about to retrieve the Demon God Cauldron, he was shocked to find that his connection with it was severed.
In the next second, an immense and terrifying power erupted from the cauldron, sweeping out, protecting Xu Hei's body and smashing heavily into Chen Fan.
"How is this possible? Why would my Demon God Cauldron help this beast!!!"
Chen Fan let out a tragic scream. In that instant, his physical body shattered, and even his soul was about to be obliterated.
The reversal came too quickly, leaving Chen Fan no time to react. Facing the Demon God Cauldron's attack, he had no power to resist and was completely annihilated!
"No!! I refuse to accept this! How could a Superior Immortal like me... Ah!!"
Amidst his unwilling roars, he self-destructed his soul, vowing to smash into Xu Hei, but was absorbed by the Demon God Cauldron, completely turning into nothingness.
Everything returned to calm. Xu Hei's swollen, near-bursting body gradually recovered, lying like a heap of mud in the pigpen, his snake scales shattered, his meridians severed, barely alive.
"My Demon Core... is gone..." Xu Hei's vision went dark, and he fainted.
Chapter 3: Swallowing Qi, Breathing Exercise, Divine Sense Unleashed
Xu Hei woke up, not knowing how much time had passed.
His body was in tatters, with two pigs having taken a few bites out of him. Their teeth ground against his snake skin, making a "creak" sound, but they couldn't bite through and retreated to the corner.
"Pain! Such pain!" Xu Hei convulsed in agony.
This was the worst injury he had ever suffered. His body was nearly torn apart, his meridians shattered, his skin completely cracked, and his demon core was gone.
The fact that he could wake up was already a miracle.
He struggled to move his body, crawling to the other side to avoid being nudged by the pigs.
"My demon core is gone."
Thinking of this, Xu Hei felt like crying. It was the foundation of his cultivation, and now, it was completely destroyed!
However, he was suddenly startled.
Where his demon core used to be, there was now a small black cauldron, sitting quietly.
The cauldron had eight legs and was round in shape, covered in complex patterns. A Flood Dragon was carved on it, coiling around the cauldron, head to tail, lifelike as if it were a living creature.
This cauldron was the so-called "Demon God Cauldron" that the boy had mentioned.
He could see the things inside his body, which was strange! His gaze could look inward and outward, even with his eyes closed, he could see the area within ten meters.
It was as if there was a third eye in the void, allowing him to see everything around him without obstruction.
"Strange."
Xu Hei shook his head. This wasn't an illusion; he could indeed see, just like how Chen Fan had spied on him. Now he could spy on others in the same way.
"Divine Sense?" A term popped into Xu Hei's mind.
How he developed Divine Sense was unclear. It was said that only legendary cultivators possessed Divine Sense.
At the same time, some new information appeared in his mind.
It was the route for the circulation of True Qi, each step crystal clear and somewhat familiar.
"This is that boy's cultivation method!"
Xu Hei's eyes brightened. He didn't know what use this cultivation method had, but he was sure it could heal injuries!
Xu Hei wasn't one to hesitate. Once he made up his mind, he immediately calmed his mind and began to operate the cultivation method.
Gradually, strands of Spiritual Qi drifted over from the heavens and earth, intertwining and forming a dragon of Spiritual Qi that flowed into his body.
This scene was exactly the same as when Chen Fan was healing his injuries last night.
A tingling sensation spread through his body, the pain easing. Xu Hei let out a long breath, running the second route, Spiritual Qi entering his body, circulating, and slowly healing his wounds.
***
After a stick of incense.
Xu Hei opened his eyes again and looked inside his body.
"It really can heal injuries!"
Xu Hei gasped, his heartbeat quickening.
In the wild, severe injuries were almost a death sentence, but having a healing method was like having an extra life. How could he not be excited?
Moreover, he had a vague feeling that this cultivation method was primarily for cultivation, to improve one's realm, and healing was just a side effect.
After just a few moments of breathing exercises, his body was filled with Spiritual Qi, and he felt light and refreshed, as if he had taken a spiritual herb.
"Strange! My demon core is shattered, so I shouldn't be able to store Spiritual Qi."
Xu Hei was puzzled. The cauldron had replaced his demon core. Could it be that this cauldron had become his demon core?
He tried to move his body to expel the small cauldron, but it didn't budge. Xu Hei had to give up.
"Even a random boy is so powerful. Humans truly are the spirits of all things. I must never provoke humans again!"
Xu Hei secretly vowed and quickly left the pigsty.
Before leaving, he glanced at the three pigs, and in a fit of rage, swallowed the fattest one whole before swaggering away.
He fled to the wilderness, found a tree hole, and fell into a deep sleep.
***
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.
During these days, Xu Hei had been cultivating that mysterious method. His injuries had healed, and he had expelled a lot of impurities, forming a pile, and he had even shed his skin once.
This made him realize that the method not only healed injuries but also improved his physique, cleansing his meridians and purifying his marrow.
The only thing he was dissatisfied with was that his body size had shrunk by half, now only a little over two meters.
"A fat pig is two meters long. How am I supposed to swallow pigs now?" Xu Hei frowned.
A snake could swallow prey much larger than itself, but there was a limit.
However, with the reduction in size, his speed and strength had increased significantly, and his flexibility had also improved, allowing him to stretch several times his length. This gave Xu Hei some comfort.
With the previous experience, Xu Hei no longer dared to go to human towns, only catching small prey in the wild.
***
Soon, a few more days passed.
On this day, Xu Hei suddenly opened his eyes, and new knowledge appeared in his mind.
—The cultivation system!
Human cultivators were divided into the Qi Refining Stage, Foundation Establishment Stage, and Core Formation Stage.
Demonic beasts corresponded to the Spirit Communion Stage, Foundation Establishment Stage, and Demon Core Stage.
"My current realm is at the peak of the first layer of the Spirit Communion Stage, equivalent to the peak of the first layer of the Qi Refining Stage for humans."
Xu Hei muttered to himself. This was the new knowledge he had just acquired.
Since swallowing the Human Elixir and the Taoist, he had occasionally gained human knowledge, and this time, the knowledge seemed to come from that boy named Chen Fan?
This suspicion was not unfounded. Recently, he had often dreamt of Chen Fan, and unfamiliar memories would appear.
Besides, there was another thing that puzzled him.
"I lost my demon core, which is like a human losing their dantian. I should have become a cripple, but my cultivation has instead improved."
Xu Hei instinctively looked inward, at the Demon God Cauldron where his demon core used to be.
Strands of cloud-like Spiritual Qi gathered inside the cauldron. This was the Spiritual Qi he had absorbed through his breathing exercises.
"It really has replaced the demon core!"
Xu Hei was secretly shocked. He racked his brains but couldn't figure out what was going on. The human knowledge he had gained offered no explanation.
But he had no time to think about it.
The problem he faced now was that he was hungry again!
The cultivation method allowed him to absorb Spiritual Qi from the heavens and earth, but just absorbing Spiritual Qi wasn't enough. He also needed a large amount of blood and energy.
Demonic beasts couldn't practice inedia; they needed a lot of food!
Xu Hei could only drag his body, glance at the village at the foot of the mountain, shake his head, and turn to climb up the mountain.
He didn't want to go to the human world anymore. It was too dangerous there. He'd rather starve than go back to the pigsty.
Xu Hei extended his Divine Sense, searching for food along the way.
All afternoon, he ate a nest of bird eggs, a squirrel, and a wildcat. He even chased a rabbit down the mountain.
This amount of food was less than a third of a fat pig.
Xu Hei's food requirements were growing larger, and this was far from enough. He needed to hunt larger creatures.
Xu Hei glanced down the mountain again and spotted a watermelon field, lush and green, stretching across the hillside.
The field was far from the village, with only one farmhouse nearby.
At this moment, Xu Hei suddenly saw a black wild boar in the watermelon field, munching on a watermelon with loud grunts.
The wild boar wasn't very large, about a meter and a half long. Given Xu Hei's current size, it seemed just right for a single bite.
Xu Hei was tempted.
He was facing the first major decision of his snake life: hunting a large beast.
"Would attacking a wild boar be dangerous?"
Xu Hei hesitated. He didn't want to face large beasts unless absolutely necessary, but he had no choice. His appetite was too big, and for survival, he had to take risks.
"According to the cultivation system, I'm now at the peak of the first layer of the Spirit Communion Stage, and this wild boar hasn't developed intelligence, so its level is lower than mine! Logically, I should be able to take it down easily!"
Xu Hei's mind raced. He wasn't an ordinary beast; he could think, and that was his advantage. He had to make good use of it.
"To be safe, I'll take it slow."
Xu Hei finally decided to take the risk and hunt the wild boar.
***
He crawled to the edge of the watermelon field, wrapped his tail around a large stone, and cautiously approached.
Along the way, he also picked up some small stones and held them in his mouth.
In fact, with his strength, killing a wild boar wasn't difficult. He had once been the Snake King of this area, swallowing many people and also killing wild boars. But thinking back, he realized he had survived purely by luck.
Now that he had intelligence, he had to be extra cautious. He didn't want to get hurt; he was afraid of pain.
When he was within ten meters of the wild boar, Xu Hei suddenly raised his neck, opened his mouth, and gathered his internal energy at his throat.
"Poof!"
A stone shot out of his mouth like a cannonball, hitting the wild boar's head.
"Bang!" The wild boar's head caved in, blood splattering everywhere, and it fell to the ground.
Xu Hei was overjoyed and spat out another stone, smashing another hole in the wild boar's head.
He approached, raised the stone in his tail, and smashed it down hard, repeatedly, until the wild boar's head was a bloody mess, and it stopped moving, its blood no longer flowing.
Spitting out the remaining stones in his mouth, Xu Hei breathed a sigh of relief.
"It should be dead, but even dead, it might come back to life."
Xu Hei still felt uneasy, so he broke its four legs and crushed its bones to prevent it from coming back to life.
Only then did he feel safe enough to start measuring.
Comparing it to his own size, he found it just right for a single gulp.
"It's said that wild boar meat is tougher than domestic pig meat. I hope it lasts longer."
Xu Hei calculated in his mind, opened his mouth wide, and swallowed the wild boar whole.
The wild boar's fur was rough, its skin tough, and it took longer to digest. The good thing was that it kept him full longer.
Xu Hei started swallowing from the head, and soon only two legs were left outside.
As the boar meat entered his body, Xu Hei could clearly feel a surge of heat rising within him. The wild boar meat was quickly digested, turning into pure blood and energy, giving him a sense of fullness. This was the benefit of food!
***
Moments later, the wild boar was completely swallowed. Xu Hei suddenly coughed violently and spat out a black crystal the size of an egg, which fell to the ground. It was a demon core.
"This is... the wild boar's demon core?"
Xu Hei's scales stood on end, his eyes wide open.
No, how could a wild beast have a demon core? Could it be...
Looking at the bloodstains on the ground, Xu Hei realized belatedly, gasping in shock, "This was a Pig Demon?"