Wu Yuan hummed a cheerful tune as he dismantled the corpse of the Black Brocade Snake. He deftly stripped the meat from the bone, tossing the raw chunks directly into his mouth.

“Mmm. Not bad at all.”

The meat was unexpectedly tender, melting on his tongue with a glutinous richness and a burst of savory sweetness. It was high-quality fuel.

In moments, the terrifying predator was reduced to nothing but a hollow snakeskin.

Sated, Wu Yuan turned his attention to a small, black sphere he had excavated from the snake’s stomach. It was perfectly round and completely undigested. More importantly, it pulsed with a familiarity that made his whiskers twitch.

Wu Yuan scratched his head with a claw. “Is this… a Moon Spirit Grass seed?”

He racked his brain, and the realization hit him. This energy signature was identical to the Spirit Grass that had changed his fate.

“It must be a seed from that original plant. I was too busy running for my life to notice it, but Little Black here must have scooped it up.”

He didn’t bother questioning the biology of how the snake acquired it. The result was what mattered.

“Little Black, you truly were a brother to the end,” Wu Yuan sighed dramatically. “You knew I forgot to pack a souvenir, so you delivered it right to my doorstep.”

Feeling incredibly pleased with himself, Wu Yuan carried the seed into his burrow. He placed it reverently on a small shelf in his newly expanded storage room.

The shelf currently held two items:

The broken fang of the Black Brocade Snake.

The Moon Spirit Grass seed.

It was a shrine to his first victory.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered to the seed. “I’ll find a way to plant you. We’re going to be together for a long time.”

Belly full and future secured, Wu Yuan retreated to his “panoramic sunroof villa”—the nesting chamber with the ventilation hole—and collapsed onto his bed of dried grass.

He slept the sleep of the righteous.

The next night.

Wu Yuan sat in a meditative posture, sensing the Demon Power coursing through his veins. He began to operate his new cultivation technique.

“The Lunar Essence isn’t as thick as it was during the full moon, but it’s enough.”

By combining the White Fox’s breathing rhythm with the internal circulation path he had observed in his own body, he could pull moonlight from the sky and rapidly convert it into Demon Power.

He named it the [Fox Immortal Qi Condensation Method].

The name was partly to honor the fox who unwittingly taught him, and partly to set a standard for his own ambition. He wanted to be an Immortal. Who said a rat couldn’t become a Patriarch?

However, a glaring problem remained.

Aside from this breathing technique, he had zero inheritance.

“I don’t know my cultivation level. I don’t know any spells. I’m just swinging my claws around and hoping for the best,” Wu Yuan mused, feeling a wave of melancholy. “I’m flying blind.”

He wished he had a mentor to guide him. But since he didn’t, he decided to focus on what he could control.

“Time to clean up the neighborhood. Can’t have trash polluting my front yard.”

He had already designated the forest surrounding his burrow as his personal domain. It was time to evict the squatters.

Wu Yuan moved through the underbrush like a whirlwind.

Slash.

His claw flashed. A giant centipede, armored in chitin as hard as iron, was instantly bisected. Green ichor sprayed the dirt.

Stomp.

He brought his foot down on a beetle with ferocious, towering horns. The creature’s obsidian carapace shattered like glass, sending fragments flying.

Rip.

With a savage tear of his hands, a locust covered in venomous spines was decapitated.

This world was clearly not normal. The presence of demons meant the local fauna had mutated. The centipedes were 5 feet long; the beetles were as hard as granite.

But to Wu Yuan, they were just target practice.

“Satisfying!”

“Die, you disgusting bugs! All of you!”

The killing fever took hold. Wu Yuan tore through the brush like a tyrant purging his court of rebellious officials. Wherever he passed, corpses littered the ground.

Perhaps his killing intent was too potent. The remaining insects sensed the slaughter and fled in terror. Soon, the forest fell silent.

“The ants have been swept away,” Wu Yuan declared, shaking slime from his paw. “Now, let’s see if there are any ‘Fellow Daoists’ or ‘Seniors’ nearby.”

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the Karma Bead pulsed.

[Blue Information]

Wu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat. “Another upgrade?”

[Blue Information: The Owl has laid eggs. Consuming them can strengthen one’s foundation and aid in Bloodline Awakening.]

“Bloodline?!”

Wu Yuan froze. His mind immediately raced to the legends of his previous life—the Green Ox Spirit, the Jade-Faced Fox, the Bull Demon King.

“If there are bloodlines, does that mean there are Bloodline Inheritances buried in my DNA?”

“This intel… this could solve my ignorance problem!”

He wasted no time. He headed straight for the Owl’s territory.

Since the chase that nearly killed him, Wu Yuan had memorized the location of the bird’s nest. Initially, after awakening his Demon Power, he had arrogantly considered going back for a rematch.

But upon scouting, he had discovered the Owl wasn’t alone. It had a mate.

Wu Yuan, feeling a sudden pang of morality, had decided not to be a homewrecker.

“That wasn’t cowardice,” he had told himself. “That was the rat instincts talking. Timid as a mouse, right?”

“But today is different. I am stronger.”

“Besides, that bird and I have a blood feud. I stole its Lunar Essence; it definitely holds a grudge. I wanted to let it live, but to ensure my safety, I must cut the grass and dig up the roots!”

He nodded, satisfied with his hypocrisy. He needed a justifiable reason to raid the nest, and self-defense was a classic.

“Logic doesn’t matter. The motive does!”

Moments later, Wu Yuan arrived near the giant tree that housed the Owl’s nest.

The ecosystem here was thriving. Small animals scurried everywhere, far more numerous than in his own barren territory. But what caught his eye was the fruit.

A massive peach tree, heavy with lush foliage, stood nearby. It was laden with plump, ripening peaches. Even from a distance, the sweet aroma made his mouth water.

Wu Yuan wiped a string of drool from his snout.

“What a paradise,” he murmured greedily. “Truly, the virtuous shall occupy it. And I am very virtuous.”

The Owl was the local tyrant, hoarding resources that made Wu Yuan’s poverty-stricken burrow look like a slum. Envy burned in his gut.

He dug a quick observation hole and settled in to watch.

High above, the Owl flew out of its nest. It circled once, then dove. Seconds later, it returned, clutching a fox in its talons.

Wu Yuan squinted, and his blood ran cold.

The Owl had changed.

Its wingspan had doubled, stretching nearly two meters. When it dove, it looked like a dark storm cloud crushing the sky.

More terrifying were its talons. They shimmered with a dark, ominous light.

Demon Power.

Wu Yuan shrank back into his hole, eyes red with jealousy and fear.

“That feathered bastard found a Fated Chance too! It’s evolved!”

“No wonder the intel was Blue!”

Wu Yuan paced anxiously in his cramped hiding spot. “I thought I could just walk in and kill it. But look at that size! It’s huge!”

In the animal kingdom, mass was king. And now that both of them possessed Demon Power, the weight class difference was a fatal disadvantage.

“Thank god it didn’t see me,” Wu Yuan whispered, wiping cold sweat from his fur. “If it had attacked… I’d be dead.”

His ego, which had been inflated like a balloon after killing a few bugs, instantly deflated.

With the adrenaline fading, clarity returned.