Starting as a Snake: Defying Heaven with Invincibility

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After finishing his martial arts training, Xiao Long arrived in Qingyang Town three days later.

Now that he had broken through to the fourth level of a demon beast, combined with the Azure Dragon Tome and Fish-Dragon Shifting, anyone below the seventh level of the Body Refining Realm was no match for him. If he focused solely on escaping, even those at the ninth level couldn't catch up with him.

Moreover, he possessed the invincible artifact, the Midas Touch. As long as he didn't encounter a human at the peak of the tenth level of the Body Refining Realm, no one could threaten him.

The streets of Qingyang Town were narrow, with buildings closely packed together. Xiao Long activated the Breath Concealment Technique and swiftly moved through the roadside bushes. When he encountered open areas without cover, he used the Fish-Dragon Shifting technique to quickly dash across. Unless a Qi Condensing Realm martial artist was watching him closely, he would remain undetected.

Whoosh!

Xiao Long slipped into the backyard of a tavern named Qingfeng Tavern, the largest establishment in Qingyang Town.

Taverns were the best places to gather information. Since Xiao Long couldn't use the Soul Control technique for now, he had to think of a way here.

Passing by the kitchen in the backyard, the aroma of food filled the air. Xiao Long swallowed his saliva, suddenly feeling an urge to eat.

Ever since he stopped eating grains, he hadn't touched food for a long time and had forgotten what it tasted like. Reborn in the body of a demon beast, that long-lost appetite returned!

Humans, after reaching the sixth level of the Body Refining Realm, could completely stop eating and cultivate with Spiritual Qi. However, demon beasts couldn't absorb Spiritual Qi before practicing cultivation techniques; they could only devour food and refine it to enhance their cultivation. This was a biological instinct that couldn't be avoided.

Xiao Long thought for a moment, then darted into the kitchen. Seeing a delicious roast chicken on the table, he leapt up like lightning, bit into it, and swallowed it in one smooth motion before disappearing.

"That was amazing!" Xiao Long felt unusually excited.

He hadn't realized food could taste so good!

["You have devoured poultry and gained 9 experience points!"]

The system notification startled Xiao Long. Eating food could increase experience?

With this in mind, he dashed back into the kitchen. Taking advantage of the absence of people, he devoured all the dishes on the table, whether meat, vegetables, sweet, or spicy, leaving nothing behind.

["You have devoured vegetation and gained 3 experience points!"]

["You have devoured a level 3 demon beast and gained 37 experience points!"]

["You have devoured a level 1 demon beast and gained 19 experience points!"]

["You have devoured sweets and gained 5 experience points!"]

Xiao Long moved quickly, eating everything cooked and even raw, including many unprocessed foods, leaving nothing untouched.

Strangely, despite eating things larger than his own size, Xiao Long didn't grow and remained only half a meter long.

["You have devoured a level 3 demon beast and gained 67 experience points! You need 23 more experience points to level up!"]

Xiao Long noticed that his experience bar was nearly full, but the food in the kitchen was all gone.

[(System Notification: A level 3 wild creature is located 20 meters to the southwest.)]@@novelbin@@

"Someone's coming, time to go!" Xiao Long swiftly left the kitchen.

When the innkeeper's assistant came to the kitchen to serve the dishes, he found it empty. The table full of dishes had turned into a heap of empty plates, with a few plates on the ground spinning around.

"That was amazing! So amazing! Hahaha!" Xiao Long was extremely excited in the woodshed. Since his rebirth, he hadn't been this happy.

He realized he was becoming addicted to eating.

Besides the woodshed and kitchen, the backyard had many rooms where demon beasts were kept. These beasts had tender meat and were beneficial for cultivation.

Most demon beasts were between the first and third levels, with the occasional fourth-level beast being very rare.

These demon beasts watched as a snake slithered past, staring at Xiao Long with wide eyes, pleading for him to rescue them.

Xiao Long shook his head, ignoring these creatures. Being captured by humans was their own fault for being too weak. If they were strong enough, they could eat humans too.

Xiao Long entered the tavern from the back door and quietly crawled up to the second floor, curling up under a counter.

"Have you heard? Recently, the Fire Cloud Sect has been offering a bounty for killing Black Spine Snakes. Killing one and bringing the body to the Fire Cloud Sect can earn you spirit stones. A first-level Black Spine Snake can be exchanged for five lower-grade spirit stones."

"Is that true? Five lower-grade spirit stones are worth five thousand taels of silver. Normally, a first-level Black Spine Snake is worth a few hundred taels at most. Now it's almost ten times that!"

"I heard that the daughter of the law enforcement elder, Xue Wuqing, was killed by a Black Spine Snake, so he wants revenge."

"Nonsense! It was clearly a mysterious expert controlling snake demon beasts who killed her. A Miaojiang family controlling snakes in Fire Cloud City was exterminated because of it."

"Xue Wuqing is ruthless! I heard the Ask Sword Sect was also implicated and had to compensate with many spiritual treasures, emptying their sect's assets."

"There's nothing they can do; they're not as powerful. The Fire Cloud Sect is one of the four major sects in Tianfeng Kingdom. What is the Ask Sword Sect compared to that?"

"Xue Wuqing's daughter was a major troublemaker. It's good that she's dead!"

"Keep your voice down, or you'll lose your head if someone hears you!"

Xiao Long lay under the counter, listening for about an hour. The most discussed topic was the murder of Xue Wuqing's daughter from the Fire Cloud Sect.

The timing was three days ago, the exact day he killed that chubby girl. Could she have been Xue Wuqing's daughter?

If so, his use of the Midas Touch had triggered a chain of events, leading to countless deaths, and even making him a wanted criminal.

"What kind of nonsense is the Fire Cloud Sect?" Xiao Long was puzzled.

One of the four major sects in Tianfeng Kingdom? It's probably just a one-star sect. In his past life, he could have wiped out such a trashy force with a flip of his hand. Now they dared to offer a bounty to kill him, truly a case of a tiger falling to the plains and being bullied by dogs.

Another question lingered: he remembered no one being around at the time. How was he discovered? The cowardly man had become an idiot; it couldn't have been him who revealed it. The girl lying on the ground was indeed unconscious.

He opened the system's inventory and threw two spirit stones outside, placing them in a corner of the counter.

Then, using his Inner Qi, he transformed his voice into that of a strong middle-aged man and transmitted it into the ears of a lone drinker.

"Young friend, I've placed two spirit stones in the corner of the counter as a greeting gift. I want to ask you a few questions. If you answer truthfully, I'll reward you with ten more spirit stones."

The passerby looked around, finding no one paying attention to him, and couldn't locate the source of the voice. He glanced at the counter's corner and indeed saw two spirit stones on the ground.

He walked over, carefully picked up the spirit stones, returned to his seat, and smiled, "Senior, feel free to ask. I will answer everything I know."

To transmit sound through Inner Qi without being detected, he must have cultivated an extremely powerful concealment technique. Such a person couldn't be easily offended, and besides, no one would refuse spirit stones.

"Why do they say the killer was a Black Spine Snake?" Xiao Long asked.

This was his biggest question. He hadn't left any traces, so how did the Fire Cloud Sect know the killer was a snake?

Proofreader & Editor : Howard Wong