Chapter 290 - Confirming Conjecture

Han Wu stared at the slab of meat roasting above the fire, saliva pooling at the corners of his mouth. He was cooking one of the enhanceable body parts dropped by the Hellhound called Sniffer Nose. This White body part heightened the sensitivity of one’s sense of smell.

He carefully tended the meat over the flames, but a sudden burnt smell made him pull it away.

“Did I burn it?” he muttered.

Holding the scorched Sniffer Nose in his claws, Han Wu hesitated. Still, he needed to test his theory, so he pushed past his unease and started eating it. The fist-sized flesh vanished quickly as his Dark Locust Stomach started the digestion process.

Han Wu carefully scanned his body for changes. A warm sensation bubbled up from his stomach and split into two. One stream flowed toward his nose, the other coursed through his four limbs.

He checked his interface to confirm the enhancement. The Dark Locust Stomach had improved by 0.03%, while his four Purple Swordwind Arms and Tigerman Legs each rose by 0.01%. The other body parts remained unchanged.

Joy surged through him as he realized that his conjecture was correct. Eating an enhanceable body part proved more efficient than consuming regular flesh.

Enhancing the Dark Locust Stomach by 0.01% normally cost 10 Demonic Origin, while boosting each of his four limbs cost 4 Demonic Origin. In total, he would have needed 54 Demonic Origin to match the enhancement gained from a single roasted White Sniffer Nose. This discovery was invaluable, considering one Sniffer Nose provided as much Demonic Origin as killing five Hellhounds.

“I have a lot of White Tough Teeth and some Blue Stone Hearts and Stone Marrow. I should be able to use them to gain a lot of Demonic Origin,” he muttered.

Han Wu dug into the small pouch where he stored the loot collected from slain demons. He picked up a Tough Tooth, rinsed it twice with water, then bit down hard. He chewed through the tough enamel painfully, breaking it into small pieces. After chewing, he drank water and forced the fragments down his throat.

A familiar energy soon rose from his stomach to his skull. Checking his interface, he noticed only his stomach had been enhanced by 0.01%, while the rest remained unchanged.

He refused to believe the effort had no effect, so he stuffed all the Tough Teeth into his mouth, chewed fiercely, and swallowed them. The energy in his stomach surged, boosting its enhancement to 0.08%. His skull’s enhancement also rose to 0.02%.

However, that wasn’t all. His keen senses alerted him that his teeth had somehow been reinforced. To test this, he bit into a Stage 4 Blue Stone Heart and was surprised to snap off a huge chunk. He had to admit that his teeth were now incredibly tough!

Without hesitation, he swallowed the Stone Hearts and Stone Marrow. The energy from digesting them surged through his body, boosting his stomach’s enhancement from 0.18% all the way to 18.6%. Even afterward, residual energy continued to improve it.

His other body parts grew stronger too. Most notably, he felt his newly grafted Hollow Spine heat up, as if it was strengthening, though he could not confirm this since it did not appear on his interface.

Han Wu digested everything within an hour. He felt satisfaction as he checked his interface to measure how far his body parts had enhanced. As expected, consuming these parts generated Demonic Origin far more efficiently than simply killing demons.

His contentment lasted until a rustling noise came from outside. He raised his guard and carefully peered out from his small cave. In the dim light, he spotted a massive python slithering nearby.

The python looked bizarre, bearing a bull’s head atop a snake’s body. Even stranger, each scale was composed of coiled snakes. Occasionally, these smaller snakes uncoiled and flicked their forked tongues, tentatively biting and attacking anything they touched.

A chill ran up Han Wu’s spine at the grotesque sight. He had never encountered such an ugly demon.

Suddenly, the python spoke in Demonese. “

Ssssss...

There’s the scent of another Demon Lord!”

This was no ordinary demon—the python was a Demon Lord!

“

Ssssss...

Just you wait. I will eat you whole when I find you.” Its snake scales unfurled as they sniffed the air with their forked tongues to determine where Han Wu was.

Han Wu nearly sprang from his hiding place at the sight of the python Demon Lord. Its grotesque appearance alone made his skin crawl, and he had to admit that a part of him wanted to kill it for that reason alone.

The python Demon Lord, unaware of how close it stood to death, continued its twisted game of hide-and-seek. Though it knew exactly where Han Wu was, it slithered in slow circles as if it were ignorant of his position. It wanted to draw out the moment, to let fear sink into its prey. It believed that fear made flesh taste sweeter.

It circled three times before deciding the time had come. With a sudden burst of energy, its speed surged tenfold. It almost seemed to glide above the ground as it lunged forward, jaws gaping, aimed straight at Han Wu’s hiding spot.

Han Wu was ready. The instant it struck, the Soul Shaver flashed in his grip, sending out a storm of wind blades. Its unique properties turned their light damage into a mix of wind and metal damage, slicing deep and inflicting status ailments like Bleeding and Crush.

The assault shredded the Demon Lord’s mouth into bloody ribbons, yet Han Wu didn’t stop. He switched to the Soul Reaper, swung the massive scythe in a sweeping arc, and cleaved the python’s enormous body in half.

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The Demon Lord roared in fury at the devastating wound. The countless small snakes that made up its scales broke free and swarmed toward Han Wu, but each one fell beneath the razor edge of his Soul Shaver. Moments later, the ground lay carpeted with their lifeless bodies.

Only then did the python realize it faced a foe who could counter every one of its techniques. It abandoned its severed lower half and tried to flee. With half its body gone, its speed spiked to a frenzied pace.

Han Wu matched its speed without effort. He slammed a foot into the ground, his Tigerman Legs propelling him forward in strides that devoured tens of meters at a time. When he closed the gap, he hurled the Defiant Sword. The weapon spun through the air and slammed into the Demon Lord’s skull, pinning it to the ground.

Even then, it refused to die. It thrashed violently and cried out in a pitiful, trembling voice, begging for its life. It even offered itself as Han Wu’s slave if only he would spare it.

Han Wu gave no reply. He gripped the horns on its head, using them like handles, and split its head and body apart down the middle.

Even a strong Demon Lord could not survive being cleaved in two. When the last shudder left its corpse, Han Wu saw the count drop to 101 and exhaled in relief. He had not expected it to take so much to kill just one.

Thankfully, he had succeeded. His spoils included the valuable body parts the Demon Lord had dropped and the thick coils of snake flesh strewn across the bloodstained ground.