Itchy, so itchy, unbearably itchy.
Aching, mildly aching, tight and uncomfortable.
"Ugh, this sucks!! I can't take it!"
Xu Chengxian squirmed restlessly.
He felt as though something was constricting his body—extremely uncomfortable, and he was desperate to break free.
The sensation was like wearing a shrunken, low-quality sweater… and wearing it inside out!!
It was choking his neck and making him itch all over.
The worst part? He didn't have any claws to scratch and relieve the itch.
After rolling around a few times, suddenly, inspiration struck. He quickly slithered over to the cave wall, found a protruding rock, and began furiously rubbing against it.
"Woo-hoo!! Haha!! That feels so much better!!"
"I'm rubbing!! I'm rubbing!! Rub-rub-rub!!"
Following the instinctive commands of his bloodline, he started from his mouth and nose—rubbing and scraping his snout, upper and lower jaws against the cave wall.
As soon as the skin at the corners of his lower jaw began to peel away, he immediately flipped his head back to rub the upper jaw.
Once the skin at both the upper and lower jaw corners had been loosened, the horn-like outer layer of his head began to peel away more easily.
Shaking his head vigorously, he then pressed his neck against the stone and resumed rubbing.
"Hm?"
As he turned his head, he noticed, not far from the muddy platform where the snake eggs lay, there were several cylindrical stone pillars.
They varied in size and had many sharp edges and corners.
Perfect for what he needed!!
Xu Chengxian's eyes lit up. With a quick twist of his body, he swiftly slithered over and began rubbing and scraping his body against the stones.
After a busy session of wriggling and grinding, the old skin finally peeled off smoothly.
"Whew!! That feels so much better!"
He lay flat on his back on the ground, letting out a long sigh of relief.
Every part of him—body and mind—felt refreshed and light. He was happier than ever as a snake.
He wiggled the tip of his tail experimentally and felt that it seemed thicker.
"Did I get bigger?"
The thinnest part of his tail, which used to be about the thickness of a chopstick, was now as thick as a finger.
He stood up—or rather, slithered upright—and stretched his body out. By rough estimate, he was now at least half a meter long.
The thickest part of his body was nearly as thick as a rolling pin.
He'd heard that snakes grow after shedding their skin, but he'd never heard of one growing this much all at once?!
Then another thought struck him—this was a world where demonic beasts existed. Maybe snakes of his kind just naturally grew this much.
He turned his head to glance at his "Empress sister" and "Daoist brother."
A faint glow still shimmered over their bodies, pulsing gently in rhythm with their breathing. Clearly, they were still deep in cultivation.
And they looked noticeably bigger too.
Though definitely not as much as he had grown.
Xu Chengxian felt reassured.
"They went through all that ruckus just now, and it was so noisy—yet it didn't disturb them at all?" How focused. Truly worthy of having once been an Empress and a Daoist.
Then he took a peek at his status panel.
[Host: Xu Chengxian]
[Race: Water-Repellent Serpent]
[Tier: Third Tier (To advance to Fourth Tier Demonic Beast, Blood Qi must exceed 500,000 points)]
[Blood Qi: 412,187]
[Physical Cultivation Realm: Mortal Body Stage (298/10,000)]
[Soul Cultivation Realm: Mortal Soul Stage (261/10,000)]
[Divine Ability / Combat Technique: Consume Qi, Transform into Blood (Divine Ability)]
[Refinement Points: 3/3]
"Over 400,000 in Blood Qi... and I only slept for five days?"
After quickly calculating how long it should have taken to accumulate that much Blood Qi, he arrived at the answer—and was stunned.
Then he had a surprising realization: "Huh? Did I just get smarter?"
"Smarter" wasn't exactly the right word—it was more like his mind had become clearer, sharper.
Then he noticed something odd on the panel.
"System, what's going on here?"
"Why is there now a 'Realm' listed after both Physical and Soul Cultivation?"
"And why did my Refinement Points go down by 3?"
They were the exact 3 points he'd received as a reward for completing the task!!
"What about the Spirit Seed?"
[Any unused Refinement Points exceeding the retainable limit will be automatically allocated to refining Blood Qi, thereby enhancing the Host's Physical and Soul Cultivation.]
[The surge in Blood Qi accelerates the Host's rapid growth and increase in size. As a serpentine being with the natural ability to molt, the Host is perfectly capable of withstanding the transformation.]
[When the condensation level of the Soul and Physical Cultivation exceeds 100, the cultivation realm is successfully unlocked.]
[Congratulations, Host, on entering the Cultivation Realm—you are now one of the demonic beings.]
[The rewarded Spirit Seed has been issued. Please check nearby for it.]
"So you don't have to transform into a human to be considered part of the demon race?" Xu Chengxian asked as he searched around.
[A demon is one who is different from the ordinary.]
[Those who are different yet lack intelligence are called demonic beasts or demonic plants.]
[Those who possess intelligence and understand the path of cultivation can be called demons. Among them, those capable of transforming their form are now referred to as the demon race.]
"Nowadays?" Xu Chengxian said. "Wasn't it different before?"
The system did not respond.
Since it wasn't going to answer, he didn't press further—after all, it wasn't that important.
He might as well take advantage of his clear-headedness to ask something more useful.
For example, judging from how the system had automatically allocated his unused Refinement Points to refine his Blood Qi, it seemed that the Physical Cultivation Realm and the Soul Cultivation Realm were being intentionally balanced out.
"System, do the two realms need to remain balanced with each other?"
[If there is too great a disparity between the Physical and Soul Cultivation Realms, it can lead to loss of control over the physical body, or the body may be unable to support the soul.]
"So that's how it is." Xu Chengxian nodded.
In other words, it was a matter of compatibility.
"What about the Divine Ability I awakened—[Consume Qi, Transform into Blood]? What's the deal with that?"
[Consume Qi, Transform into Blood: Allows the Host to directly refine all ingested energy as Blood Qi, nourishing both the Soul and the Physical Body.]
"No wonder."
No wonder, just before falling asleep, he thought he'd heard a notification about gaining increases to both Soul and Physical stats.
Being able to refine energy directly was certainly convenient—but the gains were a bit small.
Roughly speaking, it had taken him five whole days to digest a single bird egg, and the total increase across both the Soul and Physical Realms was less than fifty points.
That was nowhere near as efficient as using a single Refinement Point to consume Blood Qi.
Especially since getting Blood Qi was easy—just sleep for an hour and you're good to go.
"And besides, to get bird eggs, you have to raid nests, right?"
Some birds can actually eat snakes too!!
Not to mention, these eggs contained spiritual energy—they definitely had some kind of origin. They were apparently from some kind of… Snake-Hunting Bird?
So there are birds that eat snakes!!
It's not like he's useless or anything.
It requires no effort.
If you can grow stronger just by staying alive, why not just play it safe and lie low forever?
Xu Chengxian completely gave up on leaving the cave to go hunt for bird eggs.
A skinny… no, a scrawny little snake like him? Going outside would definitely be dangerous!!
"System, what's this seed?" He turned back and spotted the randomly rewarded Spirit Seed.
It was lying right next to the muddy platform where the snake eggs had been, quite conspicuous—in fact, it had already sprouted.
Two slender leaves, with faint strands of mist gathering around them. If you didn't look closely, you might think you were imagining it.
[Spirit-Gathering Grass.]
"What does it do?"
[Gathers spiritual energy. It can accumulate ambient spiritual qi and aid in peaceful rest.]
"Whoa!! This is great!" Xu Chengxian was delighted.
He slithered over, pushed the leftover eggshells aside, coiled himself up, and nestled his nose close to the little sprout, ready to drift back off to sleep.
Gurgle—
But the moment he closed his eyes, he realized he couldn't fall asleep at all.
He was hungry.
Getting hungrier by the second!!
Being hungry made it hard to fall asleep.
He glanced over at the little green snake and the little white snake—still no movement from either of them.
Weren't they hungry at all?
"They probably really aren't hungry."
The moment that thought popped into his head, Xu Chengxian answered it himself.
"No matter how powerful their cultivation techniques are, could they possibly compare to my Divine Ability, [Consume Qi, Transform into Blood]? Their digestion must be way slower."
The speed of digestion and the rate of energy conversion were clearly different.
Hmph, he ate fast and absorbed well!!
"…But I also get hungry way too quickly." (╥﹏╥)o
He looked around the cave. Other than dirt, there was nothing but walls.
Oh, wait—there was one other thing.
"I can't possibly eat my own shed skin, can I?"
[Ding!] The System has issued a new quest.]
[Wasting food is shameful behavior. Shed snake skin is edible. Please do not waste it.]
[Quest Objective: Eat your shed snake skin. Reward: Refinement Points ×2, Random Spirit Seed ×1.]
"…System, where's your dignity?" Xu Chengxian stared in disbelief.
Issuing a quest like this—forcing me to eat my own shed skin?!
[The System has no dignity.]
"…Hah." Xu Chengxian thought to himself. A system that makes you stronger just by sleeping? It's no surprise it doesn't have anything resembling dignity.
So… eat it, or don't?
Honestly, he'd never eaten snake shed skin before.
Why not give it a try?
What's the harm in trying?
Hm?
Hey, now—
Not bad at all!!
It had a satisfying chew to it, kinda like beef jerky.
"As expected, no one can escape the Law of True Satisfaction of His Majesty Jingze!" Xu Chengxian mused with his mouth full.
Before long, he finished off his own shed skin.
It didn't fill him up, but at least the hunger was gone.
Eyes closed, time to sleep—and sleep his way up to Tier Four Blood Qi!!
[Blood Qi +1… +1… +1…]
[Consumed Shed Snake Skin. Gained: Soul Power +3, Physical Constitution +5.]
[Blood Qi +1… +1… +1… +1… +1…]
...
[Congratulations, Host. You have advanced to Tier 4 Demonic Beast. Refinement Points +1.]
[Blood Qi +1… +1… +1… +1… +1…]
...
"Hiss hiss!"
"Haha!! I've broken through to the Second Tier!!"
"Back-to-back breakthroughs!! As expected of Me!!"
While Xu Chengxian was sound asleep, the little green snake woke up from its cultivation, its eyes sparkling with delight. It was extremely pleased with the results of this session.
Feeling the demonic power surging within its body, and then glancing over at that flower-patterned snake—now noticeably bigger and plumper—it couldn't help but mutter to itself:
"Ugly flower snake!! This time, I will beat the gallbladder out of you!! Unless you haven't grown at all!!"