Returning to his cave dwelling once more, Mo Fan gained new insights and realised that the vibrant world outside was perhaps not as pleasant as his simple three-room abode.
At least here, aside from that damned scorpion demon plotting against him, there were no other dangers.
The outside world was different. During his brief trip down the mountain, lasting only a few days, he had faced multiple life-threatening situations, which made him sigh, “Truly, no matter how good things are out there, home is always best!”
As for the punishment of the rabbit demon Red Eye, he felt nothing but sympathy. As for his own penalty of being confined, it actually delighted Mo Fan.
This way, he no longer had to pay daily respects to that scorpion demon and could constantly monitor his dragon loach cultivation experiment. How wonderful!
Thinking of the dragon loaches, Mo Fan’s heart surged with excitement. Several days had passed, and he wondered to what extent those loaches had evolved.
Without hesitation, he went to the back door and leapt into the cold spring pool.
Soon, he reached the protruding stone wall where he had placed the bamboo basket.
With a glance, Mo Fan saw no signs of damage to the basket and felt relieved. He lifted the lid and looked inside.
What he saw shocked him greatly.
The dragon loaches in the basket were gone!
“Damn it, how could this happen? Did they all escape… wait, no! There’s still one!” Mo Fan exclaimed with joy, realising the loaches hadn’t disappeared but had turned transparent, nearly escaping his notice.
Upon closer inspection, he confirmed there was indeed only one dragon loach left, and it hadn’t fully evolved to the third stage, as there were still faint golden spots on its body that hadn’t completely turned transparent.
This meant the loach’s evolution was not yet complete!
Mo Fan also noticed remnants of other loaches in the basket, mostly fishbones and scales.
As for the spirit stones, they weren’t fully consumed either; a few remained.
“Could it be that this one ate all the others?” Mo Fan pondered, muttering to himself, “Judging by the spirit stone consumption, there shouldn’t be so many left. Yet there are… Does this mean the third stage of dragon loach evolution requires not only spirit stones but also cannibalism, devouring their own kind?”
This method wasn’t unfamiliar to Mo Fan; it was like raising venomous insects.
To test his theory, Mo Fan used spirit stones to lure more dragon loaches from the depths of the spring pool, cultivating them in another bamboo basket.
After finishing, he returned to his cave dwelling and spat out two orange-yellow gourds.
These gourds were the ones he had stolen from the thousand-year-old peach tree. There had been five gourds floating in the spirit wine pool, so Mo Fan knew without much thought that they were valuable.
He had intended to take all five wine gourds, but the monkey demon had stopped him.
Looking at the two gourds before him, Mo Fan had a vague sense of their value, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.
“I hope you don’t disappoint me!” he said, opening one of the gourds.
Instantly, a beam of colourful light shot out, accompanied by an intense aroma of wine that immediately invigorated Mo Fan.
“This is… Yellow Grade Spirit Wine!” Mo Fan gasped, then burst into laughter.
He hadn’t expected to actually steal Yellow Grade Spirit Wine. No wonder the monkey demon had chased him relentlessly.
He vaguely understood that the five gourds in the spirit wine pool likely all contained Yellow Grade Spirit Wine, probably belonging to the group of demon generals beneath the pool.
But too bad for them—these two pots of spirit wine now belonged to Mo Fan!
Without hesitation, he gulped down the contents.
Soon, an entire pot of Yellow Grade Spirit Wine was drained.
Boom!
The wine’s potency erupted like spring thunder in Mo Fan’s body, sending a surge of spiritual energy rushing towards his last frog leg.
“Ah…!” Mo Fan screamed, feeling as if his entire leg’s bones were being crushed, the pain making his whole body tremble.
But the next moment, the wine’s effect took hold, and a numbing sensation washed over him, dulling the pain.
In moments, his last leg was fully infused with spiritual energy.
At the same time, Mo Fan noticed all the demonic energy in his body converging in his head, coalescing into a swirling vortex.
In an instant, he felt a clearer connection to the spiritual energy of the surrounding world and sensed a vast, majestic force in the void.
It was fate, and it was lifespan.
Mo Fan was stunned to realise he could vaguely sense his lifespan limit—roughly a hundred years!
Shock turned to joy.
Though a hundred-year lifespan was merely the norm for ordinary humans, for him, it was precious.
After all, his true form was just a toad!
A toad’s lifespan was only twenty to thirty years!
Now, with his lifespan extended to a hundred years, several times longer, Mo Fan was naturally overjoyed.
He then noticed his vision and hearing had greatly improved. Even from several zhang away, he could clearly see a mosquito’s legs in the dark crevices of the cave walls!
He could even hear the sound of fish spitting water in the spring pool.
“Is this the Demon Ding Realm?”
“It’s truly beyond what a lesser demon can compare to!”
Mo Fan felt the power in his body—at least ten thousand jin of strength!
He felt he could kill a fierce tiger with one punch!
Now he finally understood why it was said that one wasn’t a true demon until reaching the Demon Ding Realm!
Demonic energy swirled around Mo Fan, and in moments, he transformed into a spiritual body, fully taking on a human form!
“Buzz, buzz, buzz…”
The sound of mosquitoes came from a distance, and Mo Fan instinctively opened his mouth.
Whoosh!
His scarlet tongue shot out two zhang, accurately snaring the mosquito and swallowing it.
“It seems the only demonic trait left on me is my tongue…” Mo Fan muttered. The Demon Ding Realm didn’t allow for a perfectly human spiritual body; some demonic traits always remained.
Like Scorpion Demon Heizi’s four hands, Black Fox Demon’s fox tail, or the horse demon’s… appendage from the Spicy Contest.
Mo Fan’s demonic trait was his toad tongue!
This pleased him. As long as he didn’t use his tongue to hunt, he was indistinguishable from a human!
With this thought, something occurred to him, and he looked down at his crotch.
When he saw that three-inch thing finally appear, he was moved to tears.
Damn, it wasn’t easy!
At the edge of the spring pool, using the water’s reflection, Mo Fan admired his new appearance.
Still an unremarkable bald man, but his skin was much smoother than before, and he was taller, about one meter seventy.
Though not tall among Black Wind Mountain’s demons, Mo Fan was content.
He then performed an inner inspection and found his internal space had expanded significantly, from five zhang to ten!
On a whim, he spat out a cloud of demonic energy, sending it forward. This time, it travelled a full five zhang before dissipating.
This meant Mo Fan’s spellcasting range was now a five-zhang radius around himself!
After his joy, Mo Fan looked at the remaining gourd of Yellow Grade Spirit Wine, his eyes flickering several times before he stored it away.
In the days that followed, he stayed in the spring pool, frantically duplicating spirit stones while feeding the transparent dragon loach with cultivated golden dragon loaches.
Days passed in a flash.
One day, as Mo Fan surfaced to breathe, he saw the face of Dog Demon Laifu.
“Lai Bao, the master sent me to say that tomorrow morning, you must join us to pay respects to him. No mistakes!” Laifu said arrogantly before turning and leaving without a backward glance.
“Are they planning to extract my poison again?” Mo Fan sneered inwardly, his eyes glinting with murderous intent as he muttered, “Fine, it’s time to settle some scores!”
