As soon as Mo Fan flew out from the depths of the earth, the long-delayed feedback within his body finally arrived.
A surge of immensely powerful energy erupted within him, nearly pushing him to break through the bottleneck and reach the late stage of the Demon General.
However, to Mo Fan’s regret, it fell just short in the end.
“Hmm?”
“This is… a divine ability?”
“And three at once?!”
A flood of information poured into Mo Fan’s mind, filling him with joy.
He had initially suspected that devouring the venomous fang might grant him a divine ability, but he never expected to gain three at once!
These three divine abilities were: Deprivation, Regeneration, and Substitution!
Deprivation: A divine ability inherited from the ancient Calamity Serpent bloodline, granting the opportunity to seize a divine ability or technique from any cultivator in the world upon breaking through each major realm.
Regeneration: A divine ability inherited from the ancient Divine Deer bloodline, capable of rapidly healing injuries by consuming a portion of energy, and even regenerating severed limbs by expending a large amount of energy. In a sense, as long as enough energy is available, it could achieve true resurrection from death!
Substitution: A divine ability of the Demonic Silkworm, automatically triggered at the moment of death, with a certain chance of relying on partial bodily functions to revive and achieve the effect of substituting death. However, once the Substitution ability is triggered, whether successful or not, it will be permanently lost.
After Mo Fan fully understood the terrifying capabilities of these three divine abilities, he was so shocked that he gasped.
Deprivation was impressive enough, though its restrictions on seizing divine abilities or techniques were significant, making it far less versatile than Mo Fan’s Heaven-Devouring ability.
Regeneration, however, was truly fearsome, offering the potential for actual resurrection from death!
As for Substitution, this ability was exceedingly strange. It was the first time Mo Fan had encountered an ability that triggered automatically, and only at the moment of death!
This could hardly be described as merely stringent conditions. What exasperated him most was that Substitution was a one-time ability, and it wasn’t even guaranteed to succeed.
In other words, this Substitution ability carried an enormous risk of death!
In Mo Fan’s view, any one of these three divine abilities, taken alone, would be considered heaven-defying.
Yet, that venomous fang had acquired all three at once, leaving Mo Fan both shocked and enlightened. He realised it was all due to the creature’s bloodline-inherited divine ability, Deprivation.
Deprivation was strikingly similar to his Heaven-Devouring ability, though its flaws were significant, unable to continuously acquire divine abilities as Mo Fan could through Heaven-Devouring.
After understanding the details of the Regeneration ability, Mo Fan’s initial excitement gradually faded.
During his earlier battle with the venomous fang, Mo Fan had felt a sense of familiarity, and now he fully understood why.
It turned out that the venomous fang’s regenerative ability wasn’t its own but was, in all likelihood, taken from Lu Tantan’s!
In the past, Mo Fan had fought alongside Lu Tantan and naturally knew how tenacious that creature was. Its recovery ability was hardly inferior to the venomous fang’s, which had piqued Mo Fan’s curiosity back then.
However, Lu Tantan’s cultivation was far weaker than the venomous fang’s, so even with the Regeneration ability, it couldn’t match the astonishing display shown by the venomous fang.
Clearly, the venomous fang had stripped Lu Tantan of his regenerative ability before his death!
“Lu Tantan, do you remember that little toad from back then?”
“He said he’d avenge you.”
“Now… he has!”
Looking at the scarred ruins of the Great River Academy, Mo Fan suddenly felt disinterested, devoid of any sense of accomplishment from defeating his enemy.
After murmuring in a low mood, he rode the clouds and soared into the sky, leaving the place without looking back.
He had considered rummaging through the ruins of the Great River Academy to see if any treasures were overlooked. However, after probing with his demonic aura and finding nothing, Mo Fan lost patience.
After all, it had been some time since the fall of the Great River Academy. Even if there were any treasures, they had likely been taken by surviving human cultivators or opportunistic “lone wanderers.” How could anything be left for Mo Fan?
Moreover, this trip was for pursuit and vengeance. Mo Fan wasn’t entirely clear on the situation at Black Wind Mountain, so he needed to return and assess things, while also deterring any petty opportunists from acting rashly.
As for whether the venomous fang, with its Substitution ability, was still alive, Mo Fan had considered it but ultimately shook his head.
He believed the venomous fang couldn’t possibly have survived, especially given the infuriating flaw of the Substitution ability.
Of course, Mo Fan’s confidence that the venomous fang was dead stemmed from a key criterion: he had acquired its divine abilities!
In Mo Fan’s view, the Heaven-Devouring ability could only acquire another demon cultivator’s divine abilities by devouring them while alive, then fully breaking them down with the invisible force within his internal space.
This was the main reason Mo Fan was certain the venomous fang was dead.
On his way back, Mo Fan encountered numerous human cultivators.
However, their cultivation levels were unimpressive, with few capable of flying with artifacts. Like ordinary mortals, they moved hurriedly, so he paid them no mind.
Beyond human cultivators, Mo Fan also saw many mortal cities.
These cities varied in size, but their inhabitants all appeared fearful. Many were fleeing with their families, migrating further east.
The closer he flew to the Demon Spirit Mountain Range, the more displaced mortals Mo Fan encountered, resembling a mass exodus. Nearly everyone’s eyes were filled with confusion and fear about the future.
Soon, these displaced people began to converge, forming a massive wave of refugees!
Faced with this scene, Mo Fan felt no pity. There might have been complex emotions, but they ultimately turned to indifference.
If he were human, he might consider the broader fate of humanity and perhaps feel compassion for these people.
But in this life, as a demon, he could only view things from a demon’s perspective.
According to the White Tiger Holy King, the land of the Hundred Thousand Mountains originally belonged to the demon race. The humans here were later relocated, their purpose being to occupy the Hundred Thousand Mountains forever.
The Southern Border was merely the first step for humanity!
Without the White Tiger Holy King’s desperate fight, these pitiful refugees might have established a second, third, or countless more Southern Borders!
Until the entire Hundred Thousand Mountains were filled with human figures, the demon race would have to bid farewell to this world.
So, were these refugees worthy of sympathy?
Perhaps they were truly innocent, but in terms of the future destiny of the two races, from the moment they stepped onto this land and were born here, karma had already marked them. They were no longer innocent!
Though cruel, this was the truth!
Human thoughts were complex, and even Mo Fan couldn’t fully comprehend them.
After the fall of two great mountains, these mortals still clung to the Southern Border, believing life should go on as usual. Since those immortal cultivators had died, surely more powerful ones would arrive, so their fate should be secure.
But after witnessing or hearing of demon serpents recklessly devouring mortals, these people naturally grew terrified, leading to the scene Mo Fan now witnessed.
As Mo Fan left the Southern Border, in a snake cave beneath the ruins of the Great River Academy, a blood-red scale quietly began to glow…
