Emerging from the pill furnace, Mo Fan saw no sign of the red-backed centipede or the little girl, and his heart shouted, “Perfect chance!”
Just as he was about to flee the alchemy room, he spotted a book on a nearby chair.
His eyes gleamed, and his scarlet tongue shot out, snatching the book from a few metres away. With it in his mouth, he bolted out the door.
Outside, he realised he was in a cave, dry and constantly radiating heat, which he found uncomfortable.
Not daring to linger, Mo Fan fled desperately, escaping the cave after what felt like ages.
Outside was a patch of overgrown weeds. As he leapt out, he heard the faint sound of flowing water nearby.
“A stream?”
Overjoyed, Mo Fan hopped toward the sound.
Sure enough, after passing through a bamboo grove, he found a winding stream stretching into the distance.
“Toad demon, where do you think you’re going!”
A furious shout came from behind.
Turning, Mo Fan was startled.
The plain-dressed girl, sword in one hand and half a red-backed centipede in the other, was charging toward him.
“You little wretch, I’ll remember this grudge! Don’t let me catch you next time!”
Mo Fan spat out a threat, then plunged into the stream, vanishing with a swift dive.
The girl stood by the stream, searching for a while but finding no trace of him. Finally, she stomped her foot and gave up.
Meanwhile, after diving into the stream, Mo Fan encountered a massive carp.
To escape the so-called immortal sect faster, he clamped his front claws onto the carp’s eyes, perched on its head, and held on tight.
In pain, the carp frantically swam downstream.
After some time, the current surged, and Mo Fan’s eyes widened in shock.
He was riding the carp in mid-air!
Looking back, he understood why.
The stream was on a high mountain, and it ended here, forming a waterfall that plunged straight down!
With a scream, Mo Fan and the carp plummeted.
Splash!
Water sprayed from the pool below as Mo Fan and the carp sank underwater.
…
Among the vast mountains, a stream wound along. With a splash, the water rippled, and a bald man’s head emerged, swimming to the shore, revealing a toad’s body wildly mismatched with the human head.
Mo Fan casually tossed the carp, half a body longer than himself, aside.
The carp was long dead, but Mo Fan, not one to waste, had brought it along.
Looking around, the mountain was gone from sight, confirming his escape.
He hopped to the stream’s edge, squatting on all fours, and peered at his reflection in the water.
Large eyes, slightly dark and rough skin, but distinct facial features, like a boy of fourteen or fifteen.
“Is this me?”
“Not bad looking, I suppose, but why am I bald?”
Mo Fan frowned.
His human-like face wasn’t handsome but wasn’t ugly either, ordinary yet appealing in a lasting way. The only issue was his lack of hair.
Even odder, he had no neck; below his head was a toad’s body, looking somewhat bloated and bizarre.
This was Mo Fan now, truly taking on some demonic traits.
“Am I a demon now?”
Mo Fan muttered, still unclear, though he vaguely felt those innate spirit fruits were extraordinary, or he wouldn’t have transformed so easily.
He also noticed other changes.
First, his size had grown several times larger.
Before transforming, he was only human-head-sized, but now, squatting, he was as big as a millstone!
If he stretched his hind legs, he estimated he’d be about a metre tall.
Though still short by his past life’s standards, this thrilled him.
It proved his size could change, not fixed.
Then, recalling something, he summoned a faint airflow in his mind. Mist formed around his human head, and it morphed back into a toad’s.
This was a transformation ability he gained after becoming a demon, allowing him to switch between his true form and a human-like one.
After playing with switching heads for a bit, Mo Fan stopped, keeping the human head, and spat out the beast-skin book he’d swiped from the alchemy room.
Flipping through it, he lost interest.
He couldn’t read a single character. The script resembled oracle bone inscriptions but couldn’t be deciphered that way, so he gave up, sucking the book back into his mouth.
This ability to store items in his mouth was a natural talent gained upon transforming, called “Swallowing Heaven.”
The name was grand, but it only meant a strange space in his body for storing items.
Whether this talent had other powers, Mo Fan didn’t know, as he hadn’t fully grasped its mysteries.
After introspection, he found the space was only a few metres large, useful only for storage so far.
Still, Mo Fan was quietly delighted.
No more worrying about leaving treasures behind.
He thought if he’d had this ability in that cave, he could’ve taken all those milky-white stones.
Though he still didn’t know what those stones were, he was sure they were treasures.
Introspection was another ability gained after transforming, though it seemed mundane compared to Swallowing Heaven.
He attributed it all to the airflow in his body. Could it be demonic energy?
Mo Fan shook his head, still half-understanding, and hopped to the carp. His scarlet tongue shot out like an arrow, wrapping around the fish and dragging it over.
Though the carp was much larger, Mo Fan’s demonic strength was immense.
He bit into it, chewing scales and flesh.
Though raw, he felt no nausea, only tasting fishy flavour.
“Guess becoming a demon improved my appetite. In my past life, I couldn’t have stomached raw fish.”
Mo Fan mused, then noticed another change: his teeth could shift, becoming sharp or flat using that inner force, delighting him. Eating would be less fussy now.
“No wonder myths say demons eat humans. With these sharp fangs, who wouldn’t panic?”
Pondering, Mo Fan thought of humans. Since this world had immortals and demons, were there ordinary humans too?
If so, he could learn to read from them, solving the mystery of the beast-skin book.
Excited, Mo Fan began imagining a thrilling future.
Since he was a demon now, becoming an immortal was out of reach, especially with this world’s immortals being so ferocious…
