Plague Rat narrowed his eyes. "Tough mouth you've got there."
He sneered. "Fine. If you want to do this the hard way, Lord Rat has plenty of ways to make you talk."
As he spoke, he condensed a wisp of dark green plague fiendish qi.
"This is Lord Rat's secret recipe. Just a tiny bit, and you'll be covered in human-face sores. You'll rot and fester until you're itching to tear your own skin off."
"How about it? Scared?"
While threatening him, Plague Rat forcibly injected the fiendish qi into the small demon's body.
The small demon was so terrified that his eyes rolled back, and he nearly fainted.
However, several breaths passed.
The small demon blinked once, then twice.
The wisp of fiendish qi swirled inside him like a single drop of water falling into a massive vat. It sloshed around twice and then simply dissipated.
Not only did he not develop any sores, but there wasn't even a single red dot.
The long-eared demon looked at Plague Rat in confusion.
"???"
Plague Rat was utterly shocked.
He looked at his hand in disbelief, then back at the small demon.
What was going on?
Had Lord Rat's plague lost its effect?
That made no sense. He was at the first transformation of eerification. This small demon looked like a third-stage at most. How could he be immune to his fiendish qi?
Refusing to believe it, Plague Rat gritted his teeth. "Fine, you're trying to play me? I don't believe I can't break you!"
He summoned a massive surge of fiendish qi, this time even imbuing it with a trace of festering divinity, and violently shoved it in.
Sizzle—
The small demon shuddered as a burst of green light flared across his body.
Then... nothing happened again.
He continued to stare at Plague Rat with eyes that were clear yet filled with a certain stupidity.
Plague Rat was completely dumbfounded.
How could there be a demon in this world that wasn't afraid of the plague?
"Forget it."
Frowning, Plague Rat tossed the small demon onto the ground.
In a dump like the Southern Region, demons dealt with toxins year-round and were generally resistant. Perhaps they had some special knack for resisting poison and plague.
Since magical attacks weren't working, he would switch to physical force!
"You won't tell me where the human-livestock is, right?"
A murderous glint flashed in Plague Rat's eyes. "Then I'll just rip your limbs off one by one and see if you still find it hard to speak!"
Cackling, he reached out and grabbed the small demon's arm, pulling with force.
Right then, a powerful surge of vegetation spiritual qi tore through the air like a green whip, accurately striking Plague Rat's wrist.
The spiritual qi carried no killing intent, but it contained a force of endless vitality that actually neutralized the claw strength formed by Plague Rat's fiendish qi.
Plague Rat felt his wrist go numb and instinctively let go.
The spiritual qi took the opportunity to wrap around the small demon, gently lifting him and setting him down safely over a dozen meters away.
Plague Rat raised an eyebrow and turned around.
Behind the thatched hut, a group of people slowly emerged.
Leading them was a woman.
She wore a light green silk dress that accentuated her slender and graceful figure. Atop her head was a pair of long ears tied with delicate orchid hair ribbons.
She was exquisitely beautiful, with eyebrows like distant misty mountains and eyes like autumn ripples. Her skin was so fair it seemed almost translucent, and her entire being exuded a gentle, quiet scholarly aura.
In the demon-infested Southern Region where most things were grotesque, seeing a female demon who had achieved such a perfect human form was nothing short of a miracle.
Behind the female demon, in addition to the timid long-eared demons who had fled earlier, there were demons of other species.
There were squirrel spirits, a small deer demon, and even two pangolins that hadn't yet taken human form.
They all looked very weak and cowardly, currently hiding behind the woman and peeking out.
And among these demons, Plague Rat actually saw two humans!
A man and a woman, wearing tattered coarse clothes. They were skin and bones, their eyes vacant and numb.
"So they really were hiding here!"
Plague Rat's anger flared. He was unhappy.
Not just because his captive had been rescued, but because he could sense that this seemingly frail female demon was actually stronger than him!
Her vegetation demon qi was as deep as an abyss and as vast as an ocean—at least at the level of the second transformation of eerification.
Wasn't it said that both masters of Poison Flame Mountain had gone to the Great Demon Assembly?
Plague Rat cursed in his heart. Where the hell did this great demon king come from?
Was it like that common saying where the 'Two Great Masters' actually consisted of three people?
But Plague Rat didn't back down.
Based on his experience, these plant-based demons were usually support-type entities who weren't good at fighting.
Just like those three idiot flower demons his master insisted on bringing along; they were useless for anything other than looking pretty.
This female demon might have a higher cultivation, but what could she really do to him?
"Who are you? Why have you trespassed into our clan's habitat and harmed my people?"
The woman stepped forward, shielding all the demons and the two humans behind her. She looked at Plague Rat with a solemn gaze.
She introduced herself as Su Xue. Though her voice was cold, it lacked any real intimidation; instead, it felt soft, as if she were trying to reason with him.
Plague Rat clapped his hands, shaking the dirt off his body, and tilted his head back arrogantly.
"I'm your Lord Rat!"
"I'm here to wipe out your Auspicious One. If you're smart, hand over the human-livestock now. Otherwise, Lord Rat doesn't mind making you all rot into piles of sores."
Su Xue's mind raced. Although she was a demon king, she was not skilled in combat.
She forced herself to remain calm, showing no emotion on her face.
"This place is under the jurisdiction of the Poison-Wing Eagle King. There has never been any large quantity of human-livestock here."
"You have likely come to the wrong place. Please leave at once to avoid disturbing the Eagle King. It wouldn't be pleasant for anyone involved."
"Wrong place?" Plague Rat pointed to the two humans behind her.
"Then what are those two? You think Lord Rat is blind?"
"Poison-Wing and that plague chicken have scoured every human-livestock in the Southern Region. If they aren't hidden here, where would they be? Stop trying to play tricks with Lord Rat!"
Su Xue's heart tightened. Had Poison-Wing been exposed?
Plague Rat sneered, his patience exhausted. "Refusing the easy way, are we?"
"Lord Rat says rot!"
He threw his arms wide. Wherever his Great Plague Heaven passed, rolling fiendish qi surged like signal fire.
He wanted these ungrateful demons to experience the feeling of human-face sores blooming everywhere!
Su Xue's face turned slightly pale as she mobilized the demon qi within her.
The surrounding spirit fields instantly seethed. Countless medicinal herbs grew frantically, transforming into massive green pythons that stubbornly resisted the erosion of the Great Plague Heaven, shielding all the demons and the two humans behind her.
The moment the green medicinal pythons touched the fiendish qi, they emitted bursts of clear fragrance.
The scent seemed to be the nemesis of the plague. Plague Rat's corrosive fiendish qi was actually neutralized by this fragrance.
Not only did the herbs not wither, but they even began to bloom. Pollen scattered, purifying the fiendish qi layer by layer.
Plague Rat was choked by the thick smell of medicine and sneezed several times, his eyes tearing up.
"Achoo."
"Dammit, what is this crap?"
Plague Rat felt like he had met his match. To hell with it, this Poison Flame Mountain really was his natural enemy!
In truth, Su Xue wasn't having an easy time either.
To protect her clansmen and the humans behind her, she had to focus all her energy on maintaining the Guardian Auspicious God Destiny.
She had to protect everyone's lives.
With every collision, she had to consume a massive amount of her origin to purify the fiendish qi.
Su Xue's face grew paler, but she still stood firmly at the front, refusing to yield an inch.
She could sense that Plague Rat's fiendish qi was very different from that of the Southern Region demons.
The demons of the Southern Region almost all had thick demon toxins in their energy.
But this rat's fiendish qi, while possessing toxins and corrosive properties, was fundamentally different. She couldn't see through it.
Rate on N.U.
