Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

Then, he bowed down to the serpent god before him.

“Great serpent god, I have nowhere else to go.”

"Now I have nothing left, and I only hope that you will have mercy on me and allow me to stay and live in the holy mountain."

……

After a moment of silence, the thunderous sound rang out once again.

"First of all, don't worship me like a god, that would hinder our communication... Also, the mountains are a large place, and I have never said that people are not allowed to live in the mountains."

At this point, the thunderous voice paused.

"But have you really thought this through? You've seen the situation in the mountains; there's nothing there that can be used as prey... If you really want to live in the mountains, you'll only be able to eat berries from now on, since things like honey are a bit hard to find."

"Having berries to eat is enough."

The young Ignis bowed once more.

"I just wish there was a place where I could spend the rest of my life."

"Alright."

After thinking for a moment, Du Yi agreed to the savage's request.

As long as this wild man can endure the harsh life in the mountains, that's fine. As for himself, having another neighbor to talk to is a good thing for him.

After all, he felt a bit lonely having to eat all the delicious food he made by himself. Occasionally, he would want to share the joy of cooking.

What Du Yi didn't expect was that, not long after, he had more and more neighbors.

Chapter 27 What do the Ignis eat today?

When he first began his reclusive life, the young Ignis was quite disheartened.

After all, this kind of thing, though called seclusion, is really just waiting to die. Every day, he eats something to sustain his life, and then quietly waits for time to pass and for death to come. When he was fleeing for his life, he once thought that this kind of life was the best.

But after actually living such a life, the young Ignis realized that it was no life for a human being.

In the past, every time he opened his eyes, he knew what he had to do, whether it was to hunt wild beasts or to kill giants. He at least knew where he was going and who he was going to kill. But now, every time he opened his eyes, all that awaited him was utter confusion.

Where to go? I don't know.

Who are they going to kill? Nobody knows.

He didn't need to go anywhere or kill anyone; he just needed to find some berries to fill his stomach, and then sit on the rock, looking at the distant sky.

He continued living like this until he died of old age.

He doesn't need language, because no one will talk to him, and he doesn't need a name, since no one will call him by his name.

They don't even need to live.

Because no one cares whether he is alive or not.

As the days went by, he increasingly wanted to talk to the serpent god. He wanted to seek answers from the serpent god's wisdom, or perhaps just have a casual chat—but clearly, the serpent god had no time to talk to him. The serpent god was busy with his own affairs, and he couldn't even see his shadow.

"But thinking about it carefully, since we're both in the deep mountains, the snake god's life must be similar to mine."

Thinking about this, the young Ignis began to ponder.

Both of them lived in the mountains, but after only a short time, he was already on the verge of collapse.

On the contrary, the snake god, who had lived in the mountains for so long, was completely unharmed.

"Perhaps... the wisdom of the serpent god lies within it."

Comparing his own life with that of the serpent god, the young Ignis vaguely felt that he had grasped something.

However, just as he was preparing to try to imitate the life of the snake god.

But a new group of people fled into the mountains.

"What are you..."

Looking at those people in tattered clothes, whose faces still showed signs of fear, the young Ignis was momentarily confused.

Poachers like him who fled into the mountains... didn't they all come in one by one? When did it start happening in groups?

And just looking at how these people are traveling with their families, including some newborns, aren't they afraid of any dangers in the mountains?

"Please...save us!"

Upon discovering the young Ignis, the terrified people rushed over and immediately prostrated themselves on the ground, refusing to rise for a long time.

"Since you live in the mountains, you must be the one in charge of managing the sacred mountain! Please give us a way to survive! I beg you!"

"I, this, no, sigh."

The young Ignis was caught off guard and in a flurry of activity.

However, through the cacophony of these people's accounts, he gradually came to understand what had happened outside the mountain.

Just as he chose to go into seclusion, preparations for another harvest festival began in the distant city of Ignis—in reality, preparations involved collecting offerings from house to house as a way to show respect to the serpent god, and every Ignis resident had to offer something.

Although the amount of offerings required each year has increased, this year, the royal family is demanding an unusually large amount of offerings.

"Fifteen harvest festivals in just five months?"

The young Ignis was dumbfounded, which made him think for a moment that the royals had all gone mad.

But these unreasonable orders were resolutely carried out by the mages. Even though many Ignis people had received weapons training and some had even returned from the front lines in the north, they could only grit their teeth and hand over the little food left in their homes when faced with the mages' slapping hands.

“They said it was for the snake god… so we had no choice but to come and find the snake god.”

A mother holding her child said this.

"We don't care if the serpent god wants to eat us. We just want to know why. We've never skimped on our offerings for the harvest festival every year. Why is the serpent god still trying to kill us?"

"This, how could this possibly be the serpent god's idea..."

The young Ignis shook his head repeatedly. Judging from his interactions with the serpent god, the serpent god found it troublesome even to acknowledge them. These Ignis, including himself, had never been taken seriously by the serpent god.

On the contrary, it was those royal families who forcibly requisitioned sacrificial offerings...

"Are they crazy?"

The young Ignis was completely baffled.

No matter how you look at it, those mages shouldn't have done that. Given their wisdom, he didn't believe they couldn't see the consequences of carrying out such an order.

"What exactly happened in Ignis City?"

----------

In the distance, the city of Ignis.

The mage named Akakage followed behind the larger figure and cautiously entered the deep palace where only the king could reside.

Yes, like those saber-toothed tigers, he was also brought to Ignis City by his mentor, Sadok—partly because the saber-toothed tigers were gone, and the ranch no longer existed, so there was no point in him staying there.

On the other hand, it's because the city of Ignis needs manpower.

As for the reason for needing manpower, it was naturally to collect offerings. However, to Akakage's surprise, the number of offerings to be collected this year was exceptionally large. In the name of the Serpent God, a large number of offerings were collected from the city and then piled up in the royal family's treasury.

Such unusual behavior naturally raised his questions, after all, celebrating the harvest festival fifteen times in a row was too outrageous.

Moreover, having already become enemies with the snake god, do they really need to celebrate another harvest festival?

"It is precisely because we are now enemies of the serpent god that we need to collect so many offerings."

A broad figure in front of Chi Ying laughed.

"Of course, these offerings are not for that serpent... Our offerings are, of course, for our own gods."

As he said this, Instructor Sadok led Crimson Shadow through the porch.

That palace was originally reserved for the king, but it didn't matter anymore—after all, in Akakage's view, the palace's ceiling and even its outer walls had been completely demolished.

Instead, there was a gigantic humanoid figure, as large as the palace itself.

"Giant, giant, giant, giant!"

Upon seeing the enormous humanoid figure, Akakage began to tremble.

Recalling those legends about the frozen land in the north, he even once thought that those ferocious giants from the north had already attacked.

But at that moment, Mentor Sadok smiled and shook his head.

"Giants? Even the giants of the northern tundra could not possibly have such a majestic figure."

“Those savage barbarians are no match for Him; this is our giant.”

"This is our giant, our king."

"This is our god."

Chapter 28 The Colossal Titan

Smelling the aroma of food, David Day opened his eyes.

Previously, even he would have needed several hours to eat a saber-toothed tiger, but now, he only needs to grab the roasted saber-toothed tiger and put it in his mouth to bite off half of the tiger's body in one bite.

But one saber-toothed tiger was clearly not enough, so two more mammoths were brought in. However, for David Day, these mammoths were just a few more bites.

With his current enormous size, even a whole mammoth would be far from enough to fill his stomach.

"So... this is what it feels like to become a god?"

David Day waved to the magicians, and more food was brought in—they didn't even need to clean up any food scraps, because David Day hadn't even left any bones.

A massive influx of food poured into the palace, eventually filling David Day's stomach. The countless foods provided David Day with immeasurable nutrition, while also continuously repairing the hidden injuries all over his body.

Yes, it's a hidden injury.

To grow to such a massive size with a mortal body ultimately comes at a price.

David Day initially had no idea how to make himself grow larger. Although he was already the tallest Ignis before, the human body ultimately has its limits.

"Could this be the dividing line between mortals and gods?"

David Day once thought so.

But he immediately realized that he still had hope.

That was a severe injury left to him by the Serpent God. That devastating crushing force almost shattered all the bones in his body. It was only because he was incredibly lucky that he managed to return to Ignis City and have the opportunity to recover.

As his injuries began to heal, David Day noticed that his already tall frame seemed to have grown even larger.

"This……"

At that moment, David Day realized the key to growth.

To grow bigger, simply eating more isn't enough. After all, his body is already functioning normally, and even if he ingests food, there's nowhere for the nutrients to go.

However, when he was injured, it was a completely different story.

Bones that have been broken will become stronger after healing, and muscles that have been damaged will become more solid after recovery.

"To grow, you must experience setbacks."

"Only after destruction can new life be born."

After recovering, David Day felt that he had understood everything.

The understanding of destruction and rebirth is undoubtedly an absolute truth of the universe.

After understanding the theory, the next step was naturally to put it into practice. Every day during this period, he would have his high-ranking mages simulate how the Serpent God had crushed him, leaving him severely injured. After that, he would eat a large amount of food and absorb a massive amount of nutrients to enhance his body's recovery ability, allowing the injuries that were evenly distributed throughout his body to heal completely.

And through this repeated crushing and healing...

He has finally achieved his current enormous size.

"With my current physique, I should be able to rival the gods, right?"

David Day thought for a moment, then shook his head.

Not enough, still not enough. He remembered the enormous snake that had crushed him, and he could still vaguely feel the sensation on his face—given the sheer size of that snake, even a single scale was probably larger than an Ignis.

Although he is already quite large now, he is still far from being truly enormous.

"My body is getting bigger and bigger, and I need to eat more and more after each serious injury."

David Day gets a headache every time he thinks about this.