Han Zheng, his mind a swirling mess, felt that familiar jolt of warning from his sinful tree. It was the same unsettling feeling as when he'd been caught before. Confusion wrestled with him—why now, why this same dread?
But instincts screamed louder than confusion.
Without a second thought, he lunged forward. A snake, mouth agape, lunged with him, a cavernous maw ready to swallow him whole.
Han Zheng survived by mere inches.
He whipped his head around. A colossal snake, pure dark green and python-thick, coiled behind him. It hissed, a chilling sound.
Han Zheng's mind was chaos. *Shit. How did this python appear behind me? I barely dodged it. I would've been food.*
His face tightened, a struggle to rein in his raw fear.
He dropped into a defensive crouch. There was no escape; the snake was nearly ten meters long, its scales like hardened steel.
The python wasted no time. Its tail, a blur of motion, swept through the air like a sharp wind, slamming into Han Zheng.
His body refused to obey, flung backward, crashing against a stone. His eyes bulged, jaw clenched, a trickle of red escaping the corner of his mouth.
He held on, just barely.
"Ahhh… it hurts like hell. My backbone feels broken." The pain was unbearable, but sheer willpower ignited something within him.
He fumbled for the dagger at his waist, struggling to push himself up.
The python hissed again, then lunged, its mouth open wide. It swallowed Han Zheng whole, not giving him a chance to defend himself.
Inside the suffocating darkness, Han Zheng held his breath. His mind spiraled.
*Less than an hour in this world, and he was swallowed alive by a python.*
But he wouldn't lose.
The python applied immense internal pressure, and Han Zheng groaned, teeth gritted.
He held his dagger tight, slashing wildly, a frenzied attack against the python's insides. Slash after slash, he pierced the python's skin.
This dagger was impossibly sharp.
The python felt it. It hissed, thrashing. This was new. It had never struggled to kill its prey before.
It squeezed harder, and the fight became a brutal contest of wills.
Han Zheng, seeing the python's response, knew it was working. A flame roared in his chest.
"Haha! You'll die, stupid python!" Han Zheng laughed, a thrilling, almost manic sound, even in his deadly predicament.
He finally cut through the python's skin, tearing free of its body. He collapsed just outside the dead serpent, its movements ceased.
"Finally dead." He lay on the ground, gasping for air, "hah, hah, hah…" His body was caked in blood, a sight he wasn't accustomed to. This was new.
But inside his mind, something shifted within the sinful tree.
A green fruit with strange patterns appeared, pulsating with an ominous aura.
A thought echoed in his mind:
**Karma has taken root. Your first kill in this world. The fruit now bears.**
**Emerald Serpent Fruit – converts blood into poison, grants immunity to poison.**
The sinful tree's voice resonated within Han Zheng, and a smile stretched his lips.
He mumbled, "Finally, my real entry into this world."
Without hesitation, his soul merged with the sinful tree. The Emerald Serpent Fruit, the size of an apple, hung heavy.
Han Zheng plucked it.
"This feeling is truly amazing," Han Zheng thought.
He bit into the fruit. The taste was vile, coupled with that unsettling, ominous sensation. It was like pure poison.
He gulped it down quickly, the taste irrelevant.
**Moments later, the changes began.**
Han Zheng lost control of his body.
"Ahhhhh…!" He screamed, a raw, animalistic sound.
Han Zheng's nails dug into his palms. His skin began to change, like a shedding serpent's, itching intensely.
His eyes bled green, pupils slitting like a snake's.
His veins pulsed green, his blood boiling, growing hotter and denser.
The pain was immense, unbearable, far worse than anything he'd felt inside the python. It was a whole different level from his previous fruits.
He tore a piece of cloth, shoving it between his teeth.
He fought to control his emotions. His mind saw things differently now, his urge for blood surging like a beast.
After a grueling internal and external struggle, the pain in his mind and body finally subsided.
Ten minutes later, he sighed, "Hah. Finally. The pain's gone. That was hellish."
Foreign memories flooded his mind like water, an immersive experience of a serpent's life.
The serpent was born near a lake, immense even from birth. Darkness surrounded it, but ancestral memories guided it.
It devoured its own shell. On its second day, hunger rose.
It roamed the lake, finding a giant centipede with its young. The urge to eat them consumed it.
It struggled at first, but its massive body gave it an advantage, and it swallowed the centipede and its offspring whole.
Its hunger quelled slightly, and it found a way to trap its prey.
But fate was cruel. On only its twelfth day of hunting, it met Han Zheng.
Though the serpent sensed danger, it still attacked, meeting its demise.
"What the hell? That was just a child serpent? And it was that big?"
Han Zheng, a man from modern times, found it unbelievable.
He pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on the changes within himself.
---
"Huh, what's this?" His skin was peeling, revealing new skin that was fairer and smoother, and surprisingly, it wasn't painful.
He felt his body strengthen tenfold. He now felt confident; if he faced that same serpent again, he could fight it directly.
His senses were even sharper. He could see clearly now, and his eyes, though still green with strange serpent patterns, retained a human essence.
He now possessed the serpent's ancestral memories, giving him an understanding of this world.
He even had the urge to eat raw meat.
This was a world where people absorbed qi, a form of energy, through various methods.
Those who absorbed qi were known as cultivators.
Beasts and demons also absorbed qi but through different means.
The memories revealed sects and clans that ruled.
The serpent was from an ancient bloodline, living and hunting in forbidden forests.
This ancestral method was how memories were passed down through generations.
There were immortals, divine beasts, and demonic beings.
But in the ancient era, during the last great war between demons, divine beasts, and immortals, the demons became extinct.
There were demonic sects, righteous forces, and even neutral forces.
And some information about the forbidden forests and their creatures.
His thoughts swirled, and he observed the changes in his body.
Han Zheng's lips curved into a satisfied smile. This was the reward for his near-death experience.
But now, another problem.
He had to shed this skin.
Through the serpent's memory, Han Zheng located a lake. He knew there might be more dangerous and venomous creatures there, but with his enhanced body and senses, his confidence soared.
He could sense someone even with his eyes closed, a 360-degree awareness.
Han Zheng stripped off his clothes and jumped into the lake. He grabbed a small stone and used it to peel off his old skin.
It wasn't painful.
The residue, like sloughed-off tissue, floated away.
He emerged from the lake, dressed again, and saw his reflection.
He was remarkably handsome, with smooth, white skin. His dark hair had a greenish tint, and his physique was muscular.
He remembered the fruit's trait—his blood would turn venomous.
This was a good thing for survival.
---
But then, a strange feeling.
The lake was calm.
*Could I be mistaken?*
He checked with his senses, finding nothing amiss, yet his gut screamed that something was wrong.
He pushed the thought aside.
His stomach growled, a hunger so profound it felt like he hadn't eaten in a month.
He returned to where he'd killed the serpent.
With his dagger, he cut branches and leaves from a nearby tree, gathering them.
Using stones, he created friction, a spark, and then a fire.
He carved a piece of the serpent's meat, peeled off the skin, and grilled it.
He ate until he was utterly content.
"Hah… Finally, I'm full. I feel truly alive now."
But another question lingered:
But another question lingered: who was the person whose body he'd taken over? He had no memories of them.
He touched his chest, a subtle unease creeping into his thoughts.Why does it feel like something's watching… from inside?
Then came a whisper—not from the forest, not from the shadows—but from within his own mind.
"You may have my body… but I'll take everything else."