Chapter 13: The Toad's Poison

In ancient times, heaven and earth nurtured all things. There were several types of creatures that were born with potent poison, and the toad was one of them. However, the toad's toxicity in ancient times was not the strongest among all poisonous things; whenever it vied with other poisonous creatures, it always lost. The toad was unwilling to accept this and resolved to become the most poisonous creature in the world, so it constantly searched bitterly for ways to increase its own toxicity.

By a stroke of luck, it learned that the demons of Mo Jie possessed the most poisonous things in the world; as long as one ate those things, one could become the "number one poison under heaven." Thus, the toad set foot into Mo Jie alone to search for the presence of the demons.

After arriving in Mo Jie, the toad discovered that giant man-eating flowers grew everywhere, and if it were not careful, it would be swallowed by those plants. Therefore, it could only crawl forward slowly, ensuring it did not startle those things. Until one day, it finally passed through the jungle filled with man-eating flowers and arrived at the entrance of a cave. From outside the cave entrance, it could already clearly feel the terrifying aura emanating from within. The toad knew that it was the aura of a demon, but it did not have the slightest fear. In order to become the most poisonous creature under heaven, it resolutely jumped into the cave.

The demon in the cave was sitting in front of a mirror, examining its own appearance. On the table beside its left hand sat a crystal-clear round plate, and on the plate were several bright red spheres that seemed to be beating rhythmically, with blood-red liquid flowing from them. The demon picked one up, put it into its mouth, and chewed it carefully, with liquid mixed with saliva and blood constantly flowing from the corners of its mouth. The demon's appearance changed visibly after eating that thing. The originally withered and wrinkled skin became supple and bright, appearing exceptionally beautiful in the mirror. The demon turned its head, examined itself in the mirror carefully, and giggled, clearly very satisfied.

The toad approached and asked, "Lord Demon, what is that thing you are eating?"

The demon was in a good mood; it glanced at the toad crawling at its feet and laughed, "This is the most delicious thing in the world, and also the most poisonous thing."

The toad said, "Is it even more potent than the poison of snakes and centipedes?"

The demon said, "How potent is the poison of snakes and centipedes?"

The toad said, "The poison of a centipede, even if an elephant is struck by it, will die immediately. The poison of a snake, as long as two drops are dripped into a well, can poison everyone in an entire village to death."

Upon hearing this, the demon laughed loudly and said, "What is that? What I am eating is the human heart; this is the most poisonous thing in the world. This poison of mine can not only spread, but it can also be inherited by the descendants of the poisoned. If one is struck by this poison, no matter who they are, they will willingly become my slave. This is the true poison."

Upon hearing this, the toad pleaded, "Lord Demon, I have always dreamed of becoming the most poisonous creature in the world. If you can let me taste a human heart as well, I am willing to do anything for you."

The demon laughed, "If you are willing to become my pet, I can feed you hearts every day until you become the most poisonous thing under heaven."

The toad nodded repeatedly and said, "I am willing! I am willing! Please allow me to become your pet!"

Just like that, the toad became the demon's pet. After it had eaten the nine hundred and ninety-ninth heart, its body underwent a massive change. Its size was exactly nine times larger than before, yet it was even more agile. Its originally pitch-black skin had now turned golden and brilliant, and beads of sweat secreted from its skin would immediately turn into gold beads like refined gold upon hitting the ground. The demon caressed the Golden Toad and said to it tenderly, "You have already become the most poisonous thing in the world. Go, my child, you should go to the human world and let all living things crawl at your feet."

The Golden Toad left Mo Jie and arrived at a village. Every place it went, the beads of sweat on its body would drip down and immediately turn into gold. Seeing this, the villagers regarded it as a god-like existence, sending it large amounts of food every day and building it a comfortable dwelling, all just to beg the Golden Toad to pity their toil and bestow upon them a few drops of the mucus from its body. The Golden Toad enjoyed this feeling of being served by others very much and was never stingy with its sweat.

Until one day, people from a neighboring village discovered the peculiarity of the matter and learned of the Golden Toad's existence, so they tried every possible way to invite the Golden Toad to their village. The Golden Toad felt that the people here were very good to it, so it refused the request of the neighboring village's patriarch. The people of the neighboring village were unwilling to give up and went to argue with the people of the current village, saying, "The Golden Toad should belong to both villages; it should not be monopolized by one village." The local patriarch naturally refused to agree, so people from both villages picked up weapons and started beating each other. Many were killed or injured, yet neither side had any intention of stopping.

The Golden Toad could not bear to watch and spoke up, "Do not fight anymore. I can bestow my sweat upon both of your villages at the same time, and the quantity will not be any less than before."

The people of the two villages then stopped and returned to their normal lives. However, in the previous fighting, the seeds of greed, jealousy, and hatred had already been planted in people's hearts, and this peace only lasted for a very short time. People from both villages coveted the gold beads possessed by the other side, and gradually, incidents of theft, robbery, and the like appeared. The conflict was ignited once again. This time it was far more intense than the last; let alone treating the people of the neighboring village as enemies, even people within the same village no longer trusted each other. In the end, it even reached the point where a father in a family would seize the grandfather's gold beads, and the son would come to seize the father's gold beads...

People were truly like they had been struck by a "poison" that could spread and be inherited, wanting to put everyone who competed with them for gold beads to death. The greed of the people far exceeded the Golden Toad's expectations, and even it could no longer control these people who were deeply poisoned. There was no final winner in this war; until the very end when the last two people perished together, they were still clutching the gold beads they had snatched in their hands...

No one came to bring food to the Golden Toad anymore. The Golden Toad walked slowly into the village; with every step it took, the sweat beads falling from its body scattered on the ground, turning into gold beads one by one. However, the corpses lying on the ground could never stand up to pick those things up again. Seeing the corpses all over the ground, it felt incomparably sad and lonely. So this was the power of the world's number one poison that the demon spoke of...

Suddenly, it saw a little boy crawling on the ground, moving toward it, as if he were coming to pick up the gold beads on the ground. The Golden Toad watched him silently, and tears could not stop flowing from its large eyes. The little boy arrived beside the Golden Toad; unexpectedly, he did not reach his hand toward the gold beads, but instead picked up a rattle-drum that had fallen on the ground and played with it, making a "dang-dang-dang" sound.

The Golden Toad's eyes lit up, and it asked the little boy, "What is your name?"

The little boy replied, "My name is Liu Hai. What is your name?"

The Golden Toad smiled and replied, "My name is Golden Toad."

The Golden Toad placed this only surviving little boy on its back, carried him, and disappeared into the twilight with every jump...

(End of chapter)