Zhou slithered into the hole in the city wall, his nose twitched as he entered , it smelt of moss and dirt After a few minutes, he laid the strange pouches in a row. One by one, he slid his tail inside, dragging out whatever they hid.
There were some shiny crystals and far more shiny crystals emanating Qi , making Zhou almost ... Salivate? , along with some low quality plants, Fractured a pill furnace and a Jagged technique manual Titled Lightning Pulse and an Half burnt and covered in blood instruction manual Titled Begginers guide to alchemy and the last book was a cultivation manual titled Basic Qi circulation method
The strange markings meant nothing to Zhou. He couldn't even count, let alone understand the symbols carved into the covers.
Zhou nudged one of the strange cloth bags with his snout. It was far too small to hold the glittering stones he had pulled from it, yet when he pressed his head inside, the space stretched wide, like stepping into another hole. He hissed softly, unsettled. These were not bags—they were little worlds stitched shut with human tricks.
Turning his attention to the shiny stones , his hunger surged causing him to salivate just looking at them , in one swift motion , he gobbled them up in one bite .
Zhou's body convulsed as the stones dissolved inside him.
The blue light spread through his veins like fire, searing every scale, every bone. His Core swelled, cracks spider‑webbing across its surface before knitting back together, stronger, denser. His skeleton groaned, lengthening, hardening.
He writhed in the dirt, hissing in pain and ecstasy. The Qi was too much, too wild—his body was not meant to consume so many stones at once. For a moment, he thought he would burst apart.
But then… it settled.
His scales gleamed faintly, harder than before. His fangs tingled, sharper, dripping with venom that sizzled against the stone floor. His body stretched—twelve inches now, thicker, heavier.
Zhou lay still, tongue flicking. The manuals and furnace meant nothing to him. The plants smelled bitter. But the stones… the stones were food. Power.
He coiled protectively around the pouches, his slitted eyes narrowing.
From outside the wall, faint echoes of battle still carried on the wind—screams, roars, the clash of steel. The tide had not ended.
And Zhou knew: if he wanted to survive in this world of men and beasts, he would need more. More stones. More blood. More corpses to feed his core
Storing the items he got from the pouches in the hole , Zhou went out of the hole to continue the fighting.
As he stept out he was once again greeted by the smell of fresh blood and fresh flesh as man and beast covet one anothers lives, the smell of human blood is intoxicating.
Explosions still dot the sky , The white fox and the core formation cultivators are equally matched and their fight is no where near the conclusion.
Zhou continues slithering around the battle field till he found the corpse of a dead cultivator , and then , a strange hunger arises , a thirst for blood and flesh.
Without a second thought , almost on instinct , Zhou started Devouring the human cultivator , starting with his neck , ripping a part of it out as blood spreads everywhere , Zhou starts drinking the leaking blood like water , occasionally eating a part of the body like skin
After a few minutes , Zhou had eaten half of the neck , then moved on to the chest , he slowly tore into the chest of the cultivator bit by bit , revealing its heart under the ribcage . Zhou slithered under the ribcage and started eating the heart , the most succulent part , which if he could talk , It filled him with an odd sensation of euphoria
Zhou's Core pulsed violently as the blood burned through him. But this time, something else stirred. A second hunger, deeper, older. His vision blurred, and for a heartbeat, he wasn't himself.
A memory not his own flickered—hands clutching a sword, a voice shouting a name, the taste of fear. Zhou hissed, thrashing, the vision vanishing as quickly as it came.
He lay trembling, tongue flicking the air. He had eaten flesh, Qi, and something more. Something he could not name.
His body trembled but a strange ecstasy was accompanied with the pain , Although consuming cultivators is costly both mentally and physically ,its necessary.
Suddenly : A shadow moved nearby. Another beast, drawn by the scent of blood, approached in the smoke on the battle field , hidden
Zhou hissed loudly as it , as if trying to say "This is mine"
From the smoke and blood, a slender shape slid into view. Scales shimmered faintly silver under the moonlight, her eyes gleaming with intelligence far sharper than any beast Zhou had seen. She did not lunge for the corpse—she only watched, tongue flicking, as if tasting the air around him.
Zhou hissed, coils tightening. But the stranger's gaze was calm, almost amused.
"Strange little worm," her eyes seemed to say. "You are not like the others."
Then, with a flick of her tail, she coiled nearby—not attacking, not retreating. Simply watching.