"Elephant Head, are you alright?"
One of the dog-headed creatures, with wings on its back, raised its large sword and slashed at Ma Xiaoniu. Ma Xiaoniu frowned. "Damn it," he thought, "just because I'm not showing my teeth doesn't mean I'm a pushover."
The stick on the ground suddenly flew up on its own, a cold light flashed, and with a thud, the kobold's head was smashed into a pulp. The kobold's greatsword clattered to the ground, the corpse collapsed, and blood flowed everywhere.
Ma Xiaoniu snorted: "Tell the Demon Suppression Division to properly discipline its subordinates and not to kill innocent people indiscriminately, or else the Demon Suppression Division of Black Mountain City will be expelled!" The package and the stick flew to Ma Xiaoniu's back on their own. Ma Xiaoniu's figure rose up and walked away step by step through the void, and soon disappeared from sight.
Xiang Dadan was horrified. As far as he knew, only demon hunters of the second rank or above in the Demon-Slaying Division of Black Mountain City probably had such abilities. No wonder he had suffered a loss!
He flipped himself up and grabbed the tiger-headed man by the collar: "Tiger, I'm not in a good mood today. Go to Duan Honglou and find me seventeen or eighteen girls, or I won't let you off the hook!" With a light effort, the tiger-headed man flew far away and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Yes, yes, Elephant Head, I'll go do it right away!" Tiger Head Man quickly got up and left in a sorry state with the other four.
"Hmph! Useless thing!" Xiang Dadan slung the sledgehammer back on his back and led a group of followers toward Duan Honglou.
...
Ma Xiaoniu felt exhilarated as he walked through the air. Nothing in this world posed a challenge for him. His primary purpose in this world was exploration and enjoyment.
Black Mountain City is surrounded by mountains, with only a valley to the east providing access. The mountains are filled with ancient trees and wolf-infested forests, with babbling brooks and some places boasting beautiful scenery. However, the mountains are also a gathering place for demons and monsters. Not to mention mortals, even those with powerful cultivation rarely venture into the mountains unless there is an unavoidable reason.
A thunderous roar echoed through a valley deep in the mountains as a waterfall cascaded down from the outside of the mountain, forming a sizable lake in the valley. The lake was azure blue, shimmering with golden light under the sun.
There was a deck chair made of an unknown type of wood by the lake. Ma Xiaoniu lay on the deck chair with his eyes slightly closed, looking relaxed and carefree.
rustling~
Huh? Ma Xiaoniu opened his eyes. What was that noise? He turned his head and saw a yellow-green venomous snake, as thick as a water vat, slithering towards him from the valley entrance at an incredible speed.
A venomous snake? But this venomous snake looks rather strange, quite different from snakes on Earth. For example, although this snake is also thin and slender, it has a human face. At this moment, the blood-red eyes on the human face are staring intently at Ma Xiaoniu, and the long, thin tongue is hissing and retracting.
"Oh ho? You want to eat me?" Ma Xiaoniu chuckled and beckoned to the human-faced snake with his finger.
The human-faced snake was wondering what kind of monster was in front of it and whether it was edible when the monster beckoned to it with a finger. The human-faced snake was instantly dumbfounded. What the hell? Was it flirting with me? Didn't you know I was male?
The human-faced snake felt its dignity had been challenged and instantly flew into a rage. It stood upright, arched its back, and then pounced on Ma Xiaoniu like lightning, not caring whether it could be eaten or not, it just wanted to kill him first.
"when!"
The human-faced snake felt as if its head had hit a metal plate. In an instant, it felt dizzy and the world spun around it. Golden flowers bloomed everywhere, and specks of gold appeared in its two blood-red eyes.
The recent severe transcoding issues have motivated us to update faster. Please take a moment to exit reading mode. Thank you.
===Chapter Forty-Four===
Ma Xiaoniu looked at the enormous creature before him with great interest. He was particularly interested in the species of this world, and based on his previous experiences, he was certain that monsters existed in this world. So, was this guy a monster? It seemed he would have to ask him properly later.
After a long while, the human-faced snake finally recovered. In the instant it recovered, it swam backward at lightning speed, found a thick tree, coiled around it, and raised its head high, watching Ma Xiaoniu warily. It had already sensed the danger of its prey; it had been caught off guard and had never been caught in its trap before—a first in its entire snake life.
"Hiss~"
Ma Xiaoniu chuckled softly, quite cautiously, and beckoned to the human-faced snake with his finger. The human-faced snake suddenly realized that it could not control its body, and its body involuntarily floated towards Ma Xiaoniu until it stopped in front of him.
The human-faced snake was filled with fear, and its tongue moved even faster.
"Hiss hiss hiss~"
"Don't worry, my back is just a little itchy, and I wanted someone to scratch it for me." With a thought, Ma Xiaoniu noticed that the giant snake in front of him suddenly emitted red smoke. The smoke slowly dissipated, revealing a small boy of about eight or nine years old. The boy had red and yellow stripes on his skin, and his eyes were blood-red vertical pupils. Otherwise, he was no different from a human.
The boy looked at his hands and body, suddenly realizing something, and quickly ran towards the nearby lake. The reflection in the water left him dumbfounded. "Damn it," he thought, "my ultimate dream—to take human form—has actually come true? What is this?"
After a moment of stunned silence, the boy finally came to his senses and quickly ran to Ma Xiaoniu, kneeling down with a thud: "Thank you so much for transforming into human form, Senior! I, She Tian, will never forget your kindness!"
Snake Heaven? What a great name! Ma Xiaoniu nodded: "Stand up. It was just a piece of cake for you to transform. Besides, my back is a little itchy. Come on, scratch it for me." As he spoke, Ma Xiaoniu rolled over and pointed to his back.
Snake Heaven was even more bewildered. "Damn it, you made me transform just to scratch my back?" Thinking this, Snake Heaven felt even more that the person before him possessed extraordinary abilities. He quickly stood up and began to carefully scratch his back with his newly transformed hands.
"Mmm, not bad, so comfortable~" Ma Xiaoniu was satisfied and soon fell into a deep sleep.
When he opened his eyes again, the sun had already set, and the entire valley was pitch black. Snake Heaven was still scratching, but he didn't feel that a lot of time had passed. Although he hadn't transformed into human form before, he was still a real demon, so this amount of time was really nothing to him.
"Bright"
As soon as Ma Xiaoniu spoke, a beam of light suddenly appeared in the entire valley. This light spread rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, the valley was as bright as day again, with the source of the light appearing to be nowhere to be seen. She Tian looked at the sky, and it was still completely dark a couple hundred meters above the ground. Even the stars in the sky were clearly visible, and the boundary between darkness and daylight was distinct.
She Tian was even more shocked. He had previously thought that Ma Xiaoniu was a senior powerhouse with extraordinary abilities, but now he realized he was wrong. The person in front of him might not be a senior powerhouse, but an immortal. Otherwise, how could he have such amazing abilities? This was completely beyond his comprehension.
You've worked hard.
Ma Xiaoniu sat up and smiled at She Tian.
"No trouble at all! It's only right to serve my benefactor," She Tian quickly replied. He was joking; the other party wasn't just his benefactor, but possibly an immortal! An immortal! That was the dream countless senior masters had pursued their entire lives. She Tian looked at Ma Xiaoniu with shining eyes, his face full of admiration.
"I'll ask you a few questions," Ma Xiaoniu said with a smile.
"Please speak, my benefactor," Snake Heaven said nervously. The immortal's question must be very difficult to answer.
"Tell me, what kind of world is this in your eyes?" Actually, if Ma Xiaoniu wanted to know, he could understand it all at once, but wouldn't that be less interesting? Ma Xiaoniu didn't like that feeling; he preferred to explore step by step.
Huh? Isn't this a very simple question? No! Why would an immortal ask such a simple question? There must be a deeper meaning to this question! Snake Heaven's eyes darted around, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer.
"Haha, you don't need to overthink it, just answer honestly."
Snake Heaven really couldn't figure out Ma Xiaoniu's intentions, so he had no choice but to say what he knew.
"My benefactor, I have only recently taken human form; before that, I was a demon, so I have never been to the human world and know nothing about it. I'll only speak of what I do know. After I was born, I lived in the mountains for many years, in a daze. One day, a group of people came from outside the mountains. They made a fire and chatted at night, and I was very curious, so I hid nearby and eavesdropped. I heard someone say that the leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect, Black Dragon, and the head of the Demon Suppression Bureau, Huang Mingjue, a top demon hunter, were going to have a final battle at the Boundless Sea. They said it was because the Demon Suppression Bureau had killed too many demons, angering the leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect, which led to this battle. Then they talked about how corrupt and oppressive the people were within the Demon Suppression Bureau, and so on." Finally, they talked about how the fairies of this world came into being. According to them, it seems that there were no fairies in this world hundreds of thousands of years ago, and then one day they suddenly appeared. They talked and talked, but in the end, they couldn't come up with a clear explanation. As for the outcome of the battle at the Boundless Sea, I have no idea. Also, I know that on this continent, I don't know when it started, but the Demon Suppression Bureau and we fairies have become mortal enemies. Since I was born, my genes have carried hatred for the Demon Suppression Bureau. I also know that my mother died because of the Demon Suppression Bureau! "Snake Heaven's blood-red eyes were filled with hatred, his teeth were grinding together, and hatred was etched into his bones.
Ma Xiaoniu nodded, gleaning several key points from She Tian's words. First, this continent was called the Desolate Sky Continent, and there was also a Boundless Sea. Considering Earth's geography, Ma Xiaoniu deduced there were definitely other continents. Second, this continent had gangs composed of demons and gangs composed of humans, and the two were mortal enemies. Third, the origins of the demons on this continent seemed questionable; he needed to investigate that when he had time.