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Translator: Tamon
The old snake didn’t know when he started having conscious thoughts. His only memory was being the infamous Old Snake King devouring over twenty lives around Snake Village.
Encircled by law enforcement and trapped by a Daoist, he still escaped with ease. Nothing could stop his rampage.
The man-eating Old Snake King became a legend in the local village, used to scare children from going out, never sleeping with the lights out, and making the snake catchers patrol throughout the night.
The old snake had no idea how many he ate, but he would never forget the two most recent kills.
The first was a young man, Ren Dan, chased down by a Daoist into the mountain.
“A human pill should have the sensibility of one. Are you that naive to believe you could escape after eating so many of my herbs?” The Daoist cursed from behind.
(Tamon: Ren Dan literally means human pill)
Ren Dan had been running for a day and night, too weary to continue. His wounded body fell to his knees before the Buddha statue of a crumbling shrine, pleading for divine intervention in escaping with his life.
The old snake found him so miserable, it gulped him down, ending his suffering.
The Daoist caught up just in time to see this and wailed. “No! My pill!
“Ten years I’ve wasted refining that human pill! Give him back!”
The old snake took pity for the Daoist’s desperate look and gulped him as well, offering him comfort by reuniting them in his stomach.
That was the old snake’s first memory.
From then on, his awareness of the world grew with the accumulation of the knowledge of the human world.
He now knew that snake catchers hunted snakes. Daoists trained in magical arts. Human pills were a type of pill nurtured to increase lifespan and cultivation.
And before he forgot, there were also bits and pieces of ancient knowledge he stumbled upon now and then.
“Humans love having names, so I’ll give myself one as well. I’ll be known as Xu Hei!”
He was enraptured by humans’ tale of Immortal Xu. Adding to the fact everyone kept calling him Old Black Snake, he put the two together and came up with Xu Hei.
He envied humans, their innate sentience and awareness. Xu Hei, however, had to go through who knew how many reincarnations to finally develop his sense of self.
He would cherish this life and survive at all costs!
The more one had, the greater the fear of losing it all. It made the once fearless old snake scared for his life.
“Humans are too dangerous. I better stay away. Savage beasts are scary too. I’ll just stick to harmless food.”
Xu Hei’s mind was made up to avoid any threat to his life—humans and savage beasts. He restricted his diet to consist of eggs, poultry, and livestock.
The next few days found Xu Hei skirting the villages and towns in search of chickens, ducks, fish, geese, and rodents.
As the days went by, the legend of the Old Snake King faded from the people’s memories, replaced with many missing livestock instead. The fishponds were almost emptied out, driving fear into the villagers and forcing them to keep their poultry locked at home.
With Xu Hei’s large appetite, eating several chickens in one gulp, the local fowl population took a nosedive.
…………
A month went by and Xu Hei was starving, having not eaten in a week.
These days were spent absorbing the rest of the humans’ knowledge and growing to six meters, as well as a demon core in his belly.
“Having a demon core makes me a demon.” Xu Hei chirped.
A demon core was similar to a human’s Dantian. It was his center. While only as big as a fist, it was his most precious possession.
Nurturing a demon core elevated him from the ranks of animals and into that of demons.
However, the excessive feeding of his hunting grounds led to his food source running out.
He wouldn’t even think about going large game hunting for fear of being hurt. He was perfectly content in avoiding deadly battles in the great outdoors by taking the easy way out and sneaking around to devour fowl.
“It’s been so long since I’ve eaten. I need to get some food.”
Xu Hei slithered his massive body towards Chen Town.
The settlement got its name from its most prominent clan, Chen Clan. It also helped to have a large farm with many, many livestock contributing to their great wealth. Having lived around for years, Xu Hei was aware of Chen Clan’s manor.
He sneaked around with utmost caution, not making any sound, as he crawled to Chen Clan’s backyard.
Many animals roamed around. Xu Hei flicked his tongue, tasting the air and relishing the scents of food that awaited him.
He smelled pigs!
They were his favorites—fat and nutritious. Just one would keep him fed for a month. Alas, he had one last hurdle to cross before he could reach them: the pen’s fence.
Since he awakened, he’d yet to enjoy the taste of pigs. He couldn’t risk it, far too afraid of humans to act. Until now.
“I’ll only have one and leave.”
The starved Xu Hei plotted, coiling his body to climb the roof like a leech to avoid making any sounds. Slowly but surely, he made his way to his quarry.
The pigpen was large, so he picked a corner and crawled over the wall. The pigs oinked at his appearance, retreating out of instinct, but they weren’t afraid. Soon, a few got curious and sniffed their way over, thinking he was food.
That was why Xu Hei wanted a pig for breakfast, noon, and dinner. They were too dumb to run away, unlike other animals he targeted.
Xu Hei dove right in, opening his maw to swallow one down his gullet.
With his large body, a python that swallowed humans once, the pig was more like a snack.
The pigs squealed in panic and scrambled away, into the furthest corner, having come to witness Xu Hei’s malicious intent.
Xu Hei spent a lot of energy and two minutes to feast himself on the pig, until his midsection bulged up.
[I better make myself scarce.] Xu Hei thought.
Should he, though? He was already here, wasn’t he? Might as well indulge a little.
The demon core sped up his digestion, so much so the pig wouldn’t last him half a day.
Xu Hei flicked his tongue and surveyed the area. All was quiet in the Chen Clan this evening, with even a snoring sound carrying over. As long as he kept the noise to a minimum, none would be the wiser.
On the off chance someone would visit the outhouse in the dead of night, he could easily make himself scarce.
His inner struggle over, Xu Hei gulped another pig. This one took a whole five minutes, and his body swelled even more.
The pigpen had a total of fiv-, three pigs. Too big to climb out, Xu Hei coiled up in a corner to digest his scrumptious meal.
He figured he should be done by dawn.
Two hours later…
Bang!
The door to the pen was kicked open, startling Xu Hei into shrinking into a ball behind the wall.
Splat!
A bloody body was thrown inside. The youth had somewhat dashing looks, marred by the many bruises and cuts. His breath was a faint whisper.
“Don’t tell me this garbage was beaten to death.”
“So what if he was? That’s what you get for going after Young Master Qiu’s girl!”
The two men brushed their hands and left.
The youth’s eyes were closed, his breath a hint and subsiding, until it ceased.
Xu Hei watched the human die.
He found him oddly familiar, most likely Chen Clan’s Young Master he had seen once.
Xu Hei climbed on the roof beams. Humans say death brought bad luck, and he wanted nothing to do with it.
He waited, up on the beams, for the two lackeys to get further before he left as well.
Then, the youth’s eyes snapped open.
“A twitching corpse!”
Xu Hei shrank as he recalled the saying. He held his breath, afraid to make a sound. The saying he learned was from the Daoist’s memories.
He witnessed the youth sit cross-legged, his eyes having a creepy gaze. “Chen Fan? Ha-ha, just like my immortal self’s name.”
Silavin: Just a novel I selected because I saw that the translator dropped this. Hopefully this gets popular enough so that the pace can increase.
For now, there will be 4 weeks of 10 chapters, then we will lower it down to 3 chapters a week and gauge from there.
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