Amidst the mountains, there was a small stream.
At this moment, on a rock in the stream, a pitch-black toad stared blankly at two milky-white stones in front of it.
“Half a year!”
“A whole half year, do you know how I’ve survived these past six months?!”
Mo Fan screamed in his heart, his toad eyes brimming with tears, overwhelmed by indescribable excitement.
It had been exactly six months since he arrived in this world, from starting as a tadpole searching for its mother to finally understanding the purpose of the golden coin in his mind.
On the rock before Mo Fan lay a golden coin.
The coin was round with a square hole in the centre, engraved with four intricate characters that looked like runes, which Mo Fan couldn’t recognise.
This golden coin had come with him to this world, and he firmly believed it was his cheat code.
Yet, over the past six months, aside from discovering he could store the coin in his mind at will, he found no other remarkable features.
Mo Fan refused to give up, unwilling to live out his life as just a toad.
Of course, he had considered ending it all, but his cowardice held him back, and he decided that even a miserable life was better than death.
In his view, even as a toad, he should aim to be one that could feast on swan meat, making this life worthwhile.
So, for six months, besides constantly dodging predators, he tinkered with his golden coin.
Now, he had finally discovered its use!
It could duplicate… stones?
But these weren’t ordinary stones. Mo Fan had never seen their like before.
He had found them in a nearby cave. They resembled jade, milky-white in colour, glowing faintly at night, and felt cool to the touch, unlike any other stone.
He also vaguely felt that being near these stones gave him a comforting sensation.
For this reason, Mo Fan had held one in his mouth, intending to bring it back to his cave as decoration.
But as soon as he returned to the stream, he suddenly felt the golden coin in his mind emit a faint glow, and then something new appeared in his mouth. Spitting it out, he was astonished to find an extra stone!
From one stone, there were now two.
Examining the golden coin, Mo Fan willed it back into his mind, then picked up one of the stones in his mouth again.
He wanted to test if it worked as he suspected.
Holding the milky-white stone, he waited quietly, mentally tracking the time.
After about a quarter of an hour, the golden coin in his mind glowed faintly again, and Mo Fan instantly felt something new in his mouth!
He quickly spat it out and, sure enough, found two stones again!
Looking at the three identical stones before him, Mo Fan felt an inexplicable joy. His eyes gleamed, and his scarlet tongue shot out, snatching a mosquito buzzing in front of him and retracting it like lightning.
If it could duplicate stones, could it duplicate other things?
So, with the mosquito in his mouth, Mo Fan waited patiently.
As for whether he found such insects repulsive, he no longer cared. If he did, he’d have starved long ago.
No choice—since he was reborn as a toad, he couldn’t afford to be picky like a human. This was Mo Fan’s greatest realisation over the past six months!
But as time passed—a quarter of an hour, then two—Mo Fan gave up, swallowing the mosquito as a small snack.
“It seems it can’t duplicate mosquitoes… What about other things?”
Mo Fan mused, then conducted several more experiments with grass, leaves, fish, shrimp, and even ordinary stones.
The results disappointed him. Numerous tests confirmed that it could only duplicate those milky-white special stones.
“Could these be some kind of special stone?”
Mo Fan pondered, unable to find an answer. For now, he held all three stones in his mouth and hopped into the stream, swimming toward his cave.
His cave was by the stream, hidden among a patch of weeds to shield him from fierce predators.
Mo Fan’s cave was far larger than those of his kind, partly because he was large himself and partly because he’d put effort into digging it out—a veritable three-bedroom, one-living-room setup!
The so-called three-bedroom, one-living-room was just four relatively spacious caves connected together.
This was his last act of defiance as a reincarnator.
Bringing the three stones into his “bedroom,” Mo Fan lay half-reclined on the damp ground, resting his head on the milky-white stones. Taking a deep breath, he felt the air seemed sweeter.
“Since these stones have special properties, could there be other treasures deep in that cave?”
Lying there, Mo Fan thought like a human, deciding to venture deeper into the cave at midnight.
Time passed, and midnight arrived.
This was when Mo Fan felt most at ease, far more relaxed than during the day, free from the oppressive heat.
“Croak, croak, croak…”
The calls of his kind echoed outside, signalling they were out foraging.
But Mo Fan disdained mingling with these “ugly creatures.” He hopped out of his cave and followed the stream toward the cave.
The cave wasn’t far from his own. After swimming in the stream for about half a day, Mo Fan reached its entrance.
It was called a cave, but it was more of a large cavern, with an entrance about a metre wide, smooth and polished, almost like it was burrowed by a giant reptile. Yet, the interior held some scattered stalagmites.
For Mo Fan, the size of a human head, this cavern was indeed a proper cave.
Peering inside, he saw only darkness, eerie and foreboding, which was why he hadn’t dared venture deeper last time.
“Hope I don’t run into any ghosts, or I’d be scared to death!”
“Wait… no, I’m a damn toad now, what ghosts am I afraid of?!”
Mo Fan muttered to himself, but his voice came out as “croak, croak, croak…” echoing loudly. He quickly shut up, finding it too noisy.
And frankly… too ugly!
Mustering his courage, Mo Fan hopped deeper into the cave.
Along the way, he spotted several more of those milky-white stones embedded in the cave walls, emitting faint white halos.
This time, Mo Fan resisted the urge to pry them loose and continued inward.
The deeper he went, the more milky-white stones he found.
After some time, as his eyes adjusted, he was utterly stunned.
In a massive cavern, countless milky-white stones were densely embedded, their glowing halos illuminating the entire space brightly!
But what caught Mo Fan’s attention most was a small tree amidst the rocks in the cavern’s centre.
On the tree hung three sparkling fruits. Even from several metres away, Mo Fan could smell their faint, sweet fragrance.
Those fruits were definitely extraordinary!
Mo Fan’s eyes flashed. He was certain because, beneath the tree, two massive creatures were eyeing the fruits hungrily.
One was a silver snake, as thick as a human arm and over a metre long.
The other was a red-backed centipede, equally thick but half a metre long!
Perhaps sensing a third presence, both creatures turned to look at Mo Fan, causing him to freeze in place.
