Red Moon World.
In a village at the edge of Jin Town.
Thud thud thud...
The sound of frenzied footsteps echoed incessantly.
If one listened carefully, they could discern that these were not the sounds of bipedal walking but rather those of a beast running on all fours.
Under the eerie red glow of the Red Moon, three or four mutated human children were hastily fleeing along the muddy path.
These three or four children were moving on all fours like beasts, but their expressions and movements were filled with panic.
Rustle rustle...
The sound of the leaves stirred by the wind arose.
However.
There was no wind today.
A green shadow flickered through the woods beside the path.
The next moment.
A giant green snake burst out from the center of the path.
The snake's gaping maw lunged towards the three or four human children, or rather, towards the monstrous children.
The monstrous children let out strange cries, sounding like the wailing of crows.
One of them opened its mouth, and from within spat out several Octopus Tentacles, thickly covered with sharp teeth, horrifying and terrifying.
As terrifying as this was, in the face of a maw large enough to swallow this monster child whole, it seemed rather futile.
Crunch...
The green snake easily devoured the monster child that had tried to resist, and in almost no time at all had completely chewed and swallowed it up.
But these few seconds were enough for the remaining three monster children to escape.
Green snake Yibai watched the direction in which the three monster children fled, making no move to pursue them.
"I've already eaten five monster children, and each time I devour a monster child, it takes a great deal of my strength to digest and significantly affects my speed," he mused.
"Forget it, once I have digested this one, I can come back another time, and besides..."
Yibai's thoughts were interrupted as he looked towards the sky, which was starting to show the first light of dawn; he knew day was soon to break.
The adult monsters would be returning.
The Royal Serpent does not linger beneath the crumbling wall.
"Time to go."
Yibai decided to leave.
Just as he was about to depart, he suddenly seemed to realize something and looked up into the distance.
In that direction, he smelled something.
This scent was not like that of a monster.
It was more akin to humans.
Survivors, perhaps?
Interesting.
Yibai had no desire to deal with the survivors of this world, at least not for the time being.
Upon knowing that survivors were about to arrive, he unhesitatingly chose to leave.
In a flash of light, his huge serpentine body vanished from the spot.
After he left...
Several figures hurriedly arrived at the spot.
"Let's go, I've already scoped out the place. At night, the fully formed monsters from the village go out to hunt, leaving behind only the small ones. We can certainly kill these little monsters and take the mysterious substances from their bodies."
"Move quickly, dawn is approaching."
The group of people were walking when they suddenly noticed chaotic battle traces on the muddy path.
What caught their attention were the tracks sunk three inches into the earth.
"What kind of animal left these marks?! A python? When the Red Moon descended, didn't all animals die? How could there still be pythons?"
"Could it be a transformed monster?"
"How could there be a monster of such level near this small village?"
"Then... could it be a Demon?"
Upon hearing this.
Everyone looked at the speaker as if they were looking at an idiot.
"I, I was just joking," said the man with an awkward smile.
Of these matters, Yibai, who had already returned to the Immortal Cultivation Realm, was unaware.
...
Immortal Cultivation Realm.
Yibai returned to the depths of the deep pool.
Once again, he used his smooth belly to rub against the ground, hastening the digestion of the food in his stomach.
Just like the last time, his actions caused a surge of irritating fire to spring forth in his abdomen.
These fires turned into bursts of irritable Qi, bounding up and down within his Royal Serpent body.
But this time, Yibai had some grasp of the situation; he attempted to control these bursts of Qi, leading them to his serpent head.
Under his stumbling control,
He actually succeeded in directing the bursts of Qi to his serpent head.
When these bursts of Qi reached there, they suddenly shook violently, and a sense of clear-mindedness welled up spontaneously.
It made Yibai unable to resist the urge to groan aloud.
Bang!
A crisp sound rang in his ears.
Yibai lifted his serpent head once more to look at the world.
The world seemed to have changed.
Yet, it seemed like nothing had changed at all.
"Royal Serpent, have you achieved spirituality?!!"
An astonished cry rose from beside him.
Yibai turned his serpent head to look.
Beside him was none other than the Old Tortoise, the Prophet.
"Prophet, what do you mean, achieved spirituality?"
Yibai asked.
"This situation, isn't it achieving spirituality? Royal Serpent, have you eaten humans?!"
The Old Tortoise exclaimed in shock.
"I have not eaten humans."
Yibai decisively denied it.
He hadn't eaten humans; he had eaten demons.
"Strange indeed, there's no evil aura about you, you truly haven't eaten any humans, but how could you transform so rapidly, achieving spirituality in one fell swoop without eating humans?"
The Old Tortoise, scratching his head, couldn't figure out what was going on.
"Evil aura, what is that?"
Yibai looked puzzled.
It was his first time being a demon, and he barely understood these things.
"Qi? Do you see anything about me?"
The Old Tortoise patiently explained.
At these words,
Yibai lifted his serpent head and looked at the Old Tortoise.
There didn't seem to be anything different.
But that wasn't right.
This Old Tortoise...
There seemed to be something different about him.
Yibai's vertical pupils suddenly constricted; he seemed to see wisps of black smoke drifting from the Old Tortoise's body.
He then looked at his own serpent form, with similar wisps of black smoke spreading over it.
The difference was that the smoke on his body was lighter, while that on the Old Tortoise was much denser.
"You, as a dragon kind, should see it by now, right? This is Monster Qi. The Monster Qi of those who have never eaten humans is as flawless as black smoke, but if one has eaten humans, it is tinged with red amongst the black. The red mixed in it is the evil aura."
"To possess Monster Qi, at the very least one must achieve spirituality. If you can see Monster Qi and have it on you, then you have achieved spirituality."
The Old Tortoise unraveled the mystery for Yibai.
Yibai listened with rapt attention.
Monster Qi, evil aura.
Achieving spirituality allows one to perceive Qi.
The demon's cultivation path begins with awakening spirituality, followed by achieving true form, and now he had successfully taken the second step.
However...
Yibai still had a doubt: demons have Monster Qi, do humans have human Qi?
He voiced his confusion to the Old Tortoise.
"Naturally, demons have Monster Qi, humans certainly have human Qi. In today's world where the way of humans thrives, thus the heavenly Qi is above, the earth Qi is below, and human Qi resides in between. For us demons, it's difficult, oh so difficult..."
The Old Tortoise began tirelessly to speak of the great difficulties of being a demon.
Yibai automatically ignored these complaints from the Old Tortoise, but he was very curious about this Monster Qi and human Qi.
Demons have Monster Qi, humans have human Qi, then what Qi do monsters have?