Chapter 138: Flag不要乱立

Ji Xiaoxi was staring at the large strange rat with a shocked expression. Clearly, even she, who frequently ventured deep into Dragon Concealment Mountain, had never seen a creature like it.

Hearing Zu An's words, she snapped out of her daze and quickly rummaged through her small bag, pulling out a pill and handing it to him. "Quick, take this. After you do, you shouldn't have to worry about the poison on me."

Zu An took the small blue pill and was startled. "This pill makes me immune to your poison? Aren't you worried I might do something to you?"

Ji Xiaoxi's face flushed. Her gaze darted subtly to his lower abdomen. "You're different from other men. Besides, we'll be in this secret realm for ten days. There's no guarantee we won't need to help each other, and it's simply not practical if you get poisoned every time we touch."

Zu An naturally understood what her gaze implied. He hadn't expected his unique condition to offer such an advantage. No wonder so many people in his past life pretended to be gay to get close to female friends – it drastically lowered their guard. The effect was truly impressive. "Did your father give you this pill?"

It was strange, considering how protective Ji Dengtu was of her, that he would make such a pill.

"I developed it myself," Ji Xiaoxi said, her face slightly flushed. "Over the years, I've learned a lot from my father, so I tried making it."

Zu An thought, 'No wonder.' Then, he suddenly realized, "Will there be any problems after taking this thing?"

Ji Xiaoxi quickly waved her hand. "No, no, not at all! The ingredients I chose are all very mild, so there won't be any side effects."

Zu An felt relieved. After swallowing the pill, the numbness, itchiness, and stinging in his hand quickly disappeared. He tried touching her clothes, and sure enough, there was no longer any toxic reaction.

Disbelieving, he touched her hair again, then pinched her cheek. Indeed, there was nothing amiss from start to finish.

"Ah Zu, you're hurting me," Ji Xiaoxi said with a slight pout, rubbing her cheek.

Zu An chuckled. "Nice skin."

"Squeak~ squeak squeak~" Just then, the strange rat's angry cries echoed from not far away.

It couldn't understand. These two weren't scared when they saw it; instead, they were openly affectionate, completely ignoring its presence.

Seeing it bristling with anger, the two finally came to their senses:

"Xiaoxi, do you recognize this creature?"

"I've never seen it before, but its aura doesn't seem strong."

"Hm, I think so too."

Although it didn't understand what they were saying, the strange rat felt the contempt in their eyes and instantly grew furious. Squeaking, it charged towards the two, its massive incisors bared and ready to bite.

Zu An and Ji Xiaoxi were both Rank 3 after all. Though the strange rat was fast, they easily dodged its attacks.

"Roughly Rank 2," Zu An estimated based on its displayed speed and strength. Such power posed little danger to him now, or even when he first went to Wolf Valley.

But what about those spines earlier?

As if to answer his question, the strange rat suddenly arched its back, its entire body seeming to swell to twice its size.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn't that its body had grown, but that its fur stood on end, making it appear larger.

"Look out!" Ji Xiaoxi suddenly exclaimed from beside him.

The fur bristling on the strange rat's back suddenly shot out, three hard spines flying directly towards Zu An.

"It's a ranged attacker too!"

Zu An dodged while complaining. With his current speed, even without using Sunflower Phantasm, he had no major problems.

He noticed a patch of fur on the back of its head that was distinctly different in color from the rest of its body. While the strange rat's fur was primarily brown, this patch was yellower, and the spines it shot seemed to come from these yellow hairs.

Seeing it had missed, the strange rat grew anxious, arched its back again, and shot out several more spines.

This time, Zu An not only dodged but also drew his long sword, using the opportunity to practice his swordsmanship's precision by deflecting several spines.

Why wasn't this creature attacking Ji Xiaoxi? Did rats also judge by appearance?

But when it came to looks, how was he any worse than her?

After several more rounds of futile shooting, the strange rat's small eyes darted around, and it turned to flee.

Zu An, however, leaped to block its path. "Don't go! I'm not done yet!"

The strange rat was furious and shot out three more, but they were once again calmly dodged.

The strange rat tried to escape again but was blocked. After several rounds, a large patch of fur on the back of its head had gone bald.

Rage points from the Golden-Furred Strange Rat +6, +6, +6, +6...

Zu An chuckled, realizing this creature could also provide rage points. He found it increasingly hard to stop.

After a while longer, the golden-furred strange rat was finally completely bald. Only then did Zu An, still not entirely satisfied, consider ending its life.

"Let it go, it's quite pathetic," Ji Xiaoxi interjected, seeing the strange rat's tear-filled eyes, which made her feel a pang of sympathy.

"Alright," Zu An agreed. He certainly wouldn't refuse a simple request from a cute girl. He waved his hand dismissively, and the strange rat, as if granted amnesty, quickly vanished into the bushes.

"I guess this world isn't that dangerous after all," Zu An remarked. He had been a little worried at first, but after fighting the strange rat, his confidence soared. "Maybe the academy was being overly cautious."

Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey. Having watched so many TV shows, he knew better than to jinx it.

Ji Xiaoxi shook her head. "This should still be the outer perimeter of the secret realm, so the beasts here aren't very strong. If we go deeper, we'll probably encounter tougher opponents."

Zu An hummed in agreement. At the moment, he was more concerned about Shi Kun's plan—how exactly did he intend to deal with him?

Would he act personally?

Probably not. High-ranking individuals like them wouldn't want to dirty their own hands.

Huh, why did I use the word "dirty"?

Just then, he suddenly heard a rustling sound and instinctively turned around. "Xiaoxi, do you hear anything?"

"No?" Ji Xiaoxi looked bewildered.

"Oh." Zu An returned to his thoughts. Shi Kun wouldn't want to act himself, and since Xue'er was here this time, she would definitely make a move. But after their last encounter, wasn't she afraid of experiencing the sensation of pregnancy and childbirth again?

It seemed there must be more than just her.

Rustle, rustle~

Another sound came, and this time, Ji Xiaoxi heard it too. Both turned around with wary expressions, and their faces changed simultaneously, for several more golden-furred strange rats had appeared in the grass.

If it were just a few, it wouldn't be a big problem, but as far as they could see, there were countless rats, their small eyes fixed on them. The sight was truly unsettling.

"How many are there?" Zu An swallowed.

"At least several hundred, I'd say. I can't see the back, but a thousand isn't impossible." Ji Xiaoxi was also a little flustered; girls tended to be more afraid of such creatures.

Suddenly, an unusually shaped golden-furred strange rat leaped out. It squeaked at a significantly larger companion, pointing towards the two. Although they couldn't understand what it was saying, they could clearly sense it was vehemently complaining about something.

"Doesn't this one look a little familiar?" Zu An's gaze fell on the bald patch on the back of its head.

"It looks like the one from earlier," Ji Xiaoxi swallowed, her nervousness evident.

The largest golden-furred strange rat let out several piercing screeches, and all the other golden-furred strange rats arched their backs.

Zu An's expression changed dramatically. He quickly grabbed Ji Xiaoxi's hand and bolted.

Are you kidding me? A few spines might be manageable, but hundreds or thousands? That would be no different from an arrow rain from an army. No matter how you dodged or maneuvered, you'd be pincushioned in minutes.

No sooner had they left than the area where they had stood, spanning dozens of feet, was completely saturated with spines.

Seeing them escape, the golden-furred strange rats became furious. Squeaking, they all gave chase. Wherever they passed, the waist-high weeds were flattened. From a distance, it looked like a wave pursuing the two.

"It's all my fault. If I hadn't been soft-hearted and let one go, this wouldn't be happening," Ji Xiaoxi said, her voice full of apology.

"It has nothing to do with you. No one could have known there'd be so many of them," Zu An reminded her. "Stop talking, you'll run out of breath."

The two ran for a while longer, but the golden-furred strange rats continued their tireless pursuit. While they couldn't catch up, Zu An and Ji Xiaoxi couldn't shake them off either.

"So what do we do now?" Ji Xiaoxi couldn't help but ask.

"Didn't you used to go deep into Dragon Concealment Mountain without any trouble? How come these darn rats are relentlessly chasing you now?" Zu An asked, curious.

"I forgot to take out the medicine while we were talking earlier. It's too late to take it out now, and they've already seen what we look like. Scent alone won't scare them away," Ji Xiaoxi replied. She didn't fully explain; she had a method that could make the rats ignore her, but she couldn't bear to leave Zu An in danger alone, so she kept running with him.

Zu An: "..."

He couldn't blame her. After all, who could have expected such a dangerous situation right at the secret realm's periphery? He wondered if the other groups were as unlucky as them.

Sigh, heading west really wasn't a good idea.

Noticing Ji Xiaoxi's worried expression, he tried to reassure her. "Don't worry, maybe they'll get tired after a while and stop chasing us."

After all, they didn't have any deep grudge; they had merely made one golden-furred strange rat go bald, not killed it. Unless this particular rat was the Rat King's son, he couldn't think of any reason why they would relentlessly pursue him.

However, after running for an hour, Zu An's heart sank. The rat swarm behind them showed no signs of stopping, and he was already starting to feel breathless.

"Ah Zu, I... I can barely run anymore," Ji Xiaoxi gasped, utterly exhausted.

"There's a valley ahead! With the cover and space to dodge, we can slowly contend with these darn rats there," Zu An's eyes suddenly lit up as he noticed a quiet valley in the distance.

He knew that in an open plain with no cover, facing countless rats from all directions, no matter how powerful you were, they could swarm you and pick your bones clean in an instant. All you could do was flee.

But a valley was different. With various obstacles, they could slowly maneuver against the rat swarm, as individual strange rats weren't that strong.

The valley didn't look far, but it was a true example of "running your horse to death chasing a mountain."

At first, Zu An held Ji Xiaoxi's hand and ran with her. But later, when she almost stumbled several times, he simply picked her up. Fortunately, she was small, and carrying her in his arms took no effort at all.

Held in his arms, Ji Xiaoxi's face instantly flushed. She had never had such intimate contact with a man before. She kept telling herself that Brother Zu was just trying to save her, and besides, he was different from other men...

Finally, Zu An reached the valley. A chilling aura immediately washed over them. He had been running for so long that his body was very hot, but this aura made him feel a little cold.

"What's going on?" Zu An paused, but he had no time to ponder the reason. He was already looking around, searching for a place to hide.

Just then, Ji Xiaoxi's surprised voice reached his ears: "Ah Zu, look! Those strange rats didn't follow us in!"

Zu An turned back, puzzled, and saw the golden-furred strange rats stopped several yards outside the valley's entrance. They were pacing back and forth at the mouth of the valley, looking agitated and uneasy, yet unwilling to proceed.

"Is there something terrifying in the valley that makes them hesitate?" A thought flashed through his mind.