Chapter 3: Swallowing Qi and Nurturing Divine Sense
Xu Hei awoke, not knowing how much time had passed.
His body was in tatters. Two pigs had rooted around him, grinding their teeth on his snake skin, producing a “creak” sound. They couldn’t bite through, so they retreated to a corner.
“Argh! It hurts so much!” Xu Hei convulsed in agony.
This was the most severe injury he had ever suffered. His body had nearly burst, his meridians were completely severed, his skin had entirely cracked open, and his Demon Core was gone.
The fact that he had regained consciousness was already a miracle.
He twisted his body with difficulty, crawling to the other side to avoid being rooted by the pigs.
“My Demon Core is gone.”
Thinking about this, Xu Hei almost burst into tears. It was the foundation of his cultivation, and now, it was completely destroyed!
However, he was suddenly startled.
Where his Demon Core should have been, there was now a small black cauldron, sitting silently.
The cauldron had eight legs and was round in shape, with intricate patterns on its surface. A dragon was carved around it, encircling the cauldron with its head and tail connected, looking lifelike, as if it were a living creature.
This cauldron was precisely the thing that the young man had called the “Demon God Cauldron.”
He could see what was inside his body, which was strange! His gaze could look inward and even extend outward. Even with his eyes closed, he could see an area ten meters around him.
It was as if a third eye existed in the void, allowing him to see everything around him without obstruction.
“Strange.”
Xu Hei shook his head. This was not an illusion; he could indeed see, just like how Chen Fan had spied on him before. Now he could spy on others in the same way.
“Divine Sense?” Xu Hei had this term pop up in his mind.
How he had developed Divine Sense was unclear. It was said that only legendary cultivators had Divine Sense.
At the same time, new knowledge appeared in his mind.
It was the circulation path of true Qi, each step clearly outlined, and somewhat familiar.
“This is that young man’s cultivation method!”
Xu Hei’s eyes lit up. He didn’t know what this cultivation method could do, but he was sure that it could heal his injuries!
Xu Hei was not a hesitant snake. After making up his mind, he immediately calmed his mind and began to run the technique’s path.
Gradually, threads of spiritual energy began to drift in from the world around him, intertwining to form a long dragon of spiritual energy that poured into his body.
This scene was exactly the same as when Chen Fan healed his injuries the previous night.
A tingling sensation spread through his body, alleviating the pain. Xu Hei let out a long breath, circulated the second path, and the spiritual energy flowed into his body, cycling through and slowly healing his wounds.
An incense stick’s worth of time later.
Xu Hei reopened his eyes and looked inside his body.
“It really can heal wounds!”
Xu Hei gasped, his heart racing.
In the wild, serious injuries usually meant death. Having a healing technique was like having an extra life. How could he not be excited?
Moreover, he had a vague feeling that this technique was mainly used for cultivation to enhance one’s level, with healing being just a secondary effect.
After just a brief session of breathing and nurturing, his body felt light and full of spiritual energy, as if he had ingested some kind of spiritual herb.
“Strange! My Demon Core has shattered. Normally, I shouldn’t be able to store spiritual energy.”
Xu Hei was puzzled. The spot where his Demon Core had been was now occupied by a cauldron. Could this cauldron have become the new Demon Core?
He tried to move his body to push the small cauldron out, but it didn’t budge. Xu Hei had to give up.
“Even a mere young man is so powerful. Humans are truly the spirits of all living things. I must never provoke humans again in the future!”
Xu Hei swore to himself and quickly left the pigpen.
Before leaving, he glanced at the three pigs. He figured he might as well go all out, swallowing the fattest one in a single gulp before swaggering away.
He fled into the wilderness and found a tree hole to crawl into, where he fell into a deep sleep.
……
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
During these days, Xu Hei continuously practiced the mysterious technique. His injuries were already healed, and he had expelled a large amount of impurities, piling up like a mountain. He had even shed his skin once.
This made him realize that the technique could not only heal but also improve his physique, cleansing and refining his body.
The only thing that dissatisfied him was that his body size had shrunk by half, now only over two meters long.
“A fat pig can be two meters long; how am I supposed to swallow pigs now?” Xu Hei frowned.
Snakes can swallow prey much larger than themselves, but there is a limit.
However, although his size had shrunk, his speed and strength had increased significantly. His flexibility also improved, allowing him to stretch several times his original length, giving Xu Hei some peace of mind.
With his previous experience, Xu Hei dared not venture into human towns again. He only hunted small prey in the wild.
Quickly, a few more days passed.
This day, Xu Hei suddenly opened his eyes. New knowledge had appeared in his mind.
—The cultivation system!
Human cultivators were divided into the Qi Refinement stage, Foundation Establishment stage, and Core Formation stage.
For demonic beasts, this corresponded to the First-Level Spiritual Beast, Foundation Establishment stage, and Demon Core stage.
“My current level is at the peak of the First-Level Spiritual Beast, equivalent to the peak of the Qi Refinement stage for humans.”
Xu Hei murmured to himself. This was the new knowledge he had just gained.
Ever since he had swallowed the Ren Dan and the Taoist priest, he occasionally acquired human knowledge. This time, it seemed to come from that young man named Chen Fan?
This suspicion was not unfounded. Recently, he had often dreamt of Chen Fan and simultaneously experienced some unfamiliar memories.
Moreover, there was another matter 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 level has instead increased.”
Instinctively, Xu Hei looked inward, focusing on the Demon God Cauldron at the spot where his Demon Core used to be.
Wisps of mist-like spiritual energy gathered within the cauldron. This was the spiritual energy he had acquired through his breathing exercises.
“It really did replace the Demon Core!”
Xu Hei was secretly alarmed. He racked his brains but couldn’t figure out what was going on. The human knowledge he had acquired offered no explanation for this situation.
But he didn’t have time to ponder it further.
The problem he was facing now was that he was hungry again!
His cultivation technique allowed him to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but mere spiritual energy wasn’t enough. He also needed a massive supply of Qi and Blood.
Demonic beasts in their cultivation cannot practice fasting; they need a large amount of food!
Xu Hei could only drag his body, glance down at the village below the mountain, shake his head, and turn to climb up the mountain.
He did not want to go back to the human world. It was too dangerous there; he would rather starve to death than go back to the pigpen.
Xu Hei extended his Divine Sense, searching for food along the way.
Throughout the entire afternoon, he ate a nest of bird eggs, a squirrel, and a wildcat. In pursuit of a hare, he even ran down the mountain.
These morsels weren’t even a third of what a fat pig could provide.
Xu Hei’s food demand was growing increasingly larger, and this amount of food wasn’t even enough to fill the gap between his teeth. He needed to hunt larger creatures.
Xu Hei glanced down the mountain again and spotted a watermelon field, lush and green, spreading across the mountainside.
The area was far from the village, with only one farmhouse nearby.
At this moment, Xu Hei suddenly noticed a pitch-black wild boar in the watermelon field, munching on a watermelon noisily.
The wild boar wasn’t very large, roughly one and a half meters long. Given Xu Hei’s current size, it seemed like one bite would be just right.
Xu Hei felt tempted.
He was now facing the first major decision of his life as a serpent demon: to prey on a large beast.
“Will attacking the wild boar be dangerous?”
Xu Hei hesitated. Under normal circumstances, he would avoid facing large beasts unless absolutely necessary. But he had no choice. His appetite was too vast. For survival, he had to take risks.
“According to the cultivation system, I am now at the peak of the First-Level Spiritual Beast. This wild boar has yet to awaken its intelligence, so its level is lower than mine! In theory, I should be able to take it down easily!”
Xu Hei had countless thoughts swirling in his mind. He wasn’t an ordinary beast; he could think, and this was his advantage. He needed to make good use of it.
“To be safe, let’s take it slow.”
Xu Hei finally decided to take a risk and hunt this wild boar.
He crawled to the edge of the watermelon field, wrapped his tail around a large rock, and cautiously approached.
On the way, he also put some small stones into his mouth.
In reality, given his strength, killing a wild boar wasn’t difficult. He had once been the snake king in this area, had devoured many people, and had also killed wild boars. But thinking back, he realized his survival back then was purely due to luck.
Now that he had gained intelligence, he needed to be more cautious. He didn’t want to get injured, and he feared pain.
When wild boars resist, they stomp with their hooves and ram with their tusks, making them quite terrifying. But of course, they were still not as terrifying as humans.
When Xu Hei got within a ten-meter range of the wild boar, he suddenly raised his neck, opened his mouth, gathered all the internal Qi within him, and concentrated it at his throat.
…
“Poof!”
A stone shot out from Xu Hei’s mouth like a cannonball, striking the wild boar on the head.
“Bang!” The boar’s head caved in directly, blood splattered everywhere, and it collapsed to the ground.
Xu Hei was overjoyed. He spat out another stone, creating a large hole in the boar’s head.
After approaching the fallen beast, he lifted a stone with his tail and smashed it down repeatedly, striking the boar’s head until it was a pulpy mess. Only after the wild boar had completely stopped moving, and no more blood was flowing, did he stop.
Xu Hei spat out the remaining stones from his mouth and breathed a sigh of relief.
“It should be completely dead, but even the dead can sometimes reanimate.”
Still feeling uneasy, Xu Hei proceeded to break all four of its limbs and crushed the bones of its entire body to prevent any chance of reanimation.
Only then did he feel at ease and began to measure the boar.
Comparing it to his own body size, he concluded it would be just right for one big gulp.
“It is said that wild boar meat is tougher than domestic pork. Hopefully, it’ll last a bit longer,” Xu Hei calculated in his mind. He opened his mouth wide and swallowed the boar whole.
The boar’s fur was rough, and its skin was tough, which meant it would take longer to digest. The upside was that it would stave off hunger for longer.
Xu Hei started swallowing from the head. Before long, only the boar’s two hind legs were left outside.
As the pork entered his body, Xu Hei could clearly feel a surge of heat rising inside him. The wild boar meat was rapidly digested and transformed into pure qi and blood, bringing a feeling of fullness. This was the benefit of consuming food!
Moments later, Xu Hei had entirely swallowed the wild boar. Suddenly, he began to cough violently. He opened his mouth and spat out a black crystal the size of an egg. It fell to the ground—it was a Demon Core.
“This is… the wild boar’s Demon Core?”
Xu Hei’s snake scales stood on end, his eyes widened in shock.
No, that couldn’t be right! How could a wild beast have a Demon Core? Could it be…
Staring at the bloodstains on the ground, Xu Hei finally realized, gasping in shock, “This was a Pig Demon?”
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