Dry leaves rustled as more than ten iron-toothed rats scurried out from the bushes, frantically fighting over the withered vine remains on the ground.
These normally timid demonic beasts completely ignored the four of them, their crimson eyes fixed intently on the dissolving remains of the mother vine.
"Something’s not right." Li Nanzhu gripped the Wanxiang Brush. "The sap of the spirit-siphoning vine shouldn’t attract these iron-toothed rats, and their state is..."
Before she could finish, the lead iron-toothed rat suddenly seemed to sense something. It snapped its head up, its crimson eyes locking onto the direction where the four were standing. In the next moment, as if receiving an invisible command, the entire swarm of iron-toothed rats turned in unison and lunged toward them frantically.
"Watch out!" Duan Xianxing lunged forward, his long sword clearing its scabbard with a flash of silver light. Fortunately, these iron-toothed rats were only tier 1 demonic beasts of the lowest grade. He dispatched them all with a few casual swings of his sword.
The air was thick with a faint smell of blood. Liu Qi squatted down, using a dagger to poke at the carcasses of the iron-toothed rats. "These rats are strange. Their eyes are bloodshot and their fangs are black, almost like..."
"Like they're being controlled by something," Zhu Yinxi finished the thought, his gaze solemn as he looked deep into the dense forest. "And their choice of target was also strange. Their attack on us felt more like they noticed we were blocking their path."
Li Nanzhu suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. "If that's the case, were those iron-toothed rats just now... acting like scouts for something?"
The four of them fell into a sudden silence, hearing only the rustle of the wind through the treetops. Duan Xianxing sheathed his long sword, but his expression was more alert than before. "Second Senior Brother, your divine sense is the sharpest. Can you sense anything?"
Zhu Yinxi closed his eyes to concentrate for a moment, then suddenly snapped them open. "Move! Something is approaching—there's a lot of them, and they're fast!"
Almost the instant the words left his mouth, the surrounding bushes shook violently. A dense swarm of iron-toothed rats poured out like a tide, their crimson eyes flickering with an eerie light in the dim forest.
Even more alarming was that among the rats appearing this time, there were several mutated individuals that were significantly larger. Their fur had an unnatural metallic luster, and corrosive venom dripped from their fangs.
The four quickly leaped onto the nearest ancient tree, its thick branches swaying slightly. To their surprise, the iron-toothed rats had no interest in them up in the tree. Instead, they continued to frantically tear at the remaining vine fragments on the ground, making an ear-grating gnawing sound.
Leaning against the tree trunk, Duan Xianxing frowned in confusion. "That's weird. Why did those iron-toothed rats suddenly stop caring about us?"
Li Nanzhu stared at the swarm below, deep in thought. "They seem to only react to the remains of the spirit-siphoning vine..."
Liu Qi suddenly lowered his voice. "Wait, listen!"
From the distance, a faint rustling sound could be heard, as if something was moving quickly. The four of them immediately held their breath and focused, warily watching the source of the sound.
However, after waiting for a moment, nothing appeared except for the rustling of leaves in the wind.
"Strange," Zhu Yinxi narrowed his eyes. "I clearly sensed someone approaching just now..."
Duan Xianxing scratched his head. "Second Senior Brother, could it be that you're just too tense?"
Zhu Yinxi gave him a cold sidelong glance. "As a music cultivator, I am most sensitive to these sounds. I did not hear wrong."
Before Duan Xianxing could say anything more, Li Nanzhu suddenly shivered. "No... look at those iron-toothed rats."
The swarm that had been frantically gnawing on the vines suddenly stopped collectively, as if someone had pressed a pause button. Then, they all raised their heads in unison, their crimson eyes staring straight in one direction—exactly where the strange noise had come from earlier.
"Something is controlling them," Liu Qi said deeply. "And it's in that direction."
The four exchanged a look and tacitly suppressed their auras, hiding their presence.
However, after waiting for a long time, the expected controller never showed up. Instead, after a brief moment of stillness, the iron-toothed rats suddenly surged toward the northeast, vanishing into the depths of the dense forest in the blink of an eye, leaving only the fading rustle of crushed dry leaves.
"How bizarre..." Duan Xianxing sheathed his sword. "Those iron-toothed rats sure ran off quickly."
Li Nanzhu still gripped her Wanxiang Brush, her brow slightly furrowed. "Their movements were so uniform, it's almost like..."
"Like they were summoned by something," Zhu Yinxi finished, his gaze deep as he looked in the direction the rats had disappeared. "But since they didn't show any hostility toward us, there's no need to look too deeply into it."
Liu Qi dropped his defensive stance and brushed the dust off his sleeves. "The Forest of Demonic Beasts is full of strange things. It's better not to get involved in some matters."
"Luckily we killed those others quickly. Otherwise, if it had dragged on, we might have had to face both the mother vine and the iron-toothed rats at the same time." Duan Xianxing remarked, though the thought sent a cold sweat down his back.
A light breeze blew past, dispersing the lingering foul stench in the air. The four stood on the branches of the ancient tree, falling into silence for a moment.
The distant sound of birds chirping returned, and the forest resumed its previous tranquility, as if the rat swarm riot had never happened.
"Second Senior Brother and Brother Liu are right." Duan Xianxing was the first to jump down from the branch, kicking up a circle of dry leaves as he landed. "We should hurry and recover our spiritual energy. Continuing the exploration is what matters."
Li Nanzhu nodded slightly and was the last to leap down. She looked thoughtfully toward the direction where the rats had vanished, feeling that things weren't that simple.
She clearly remembered that the original work never mentioned any riot of iron-toothed rats. Was it because this plot point was too insignificant that the author didn't bother to write it? Or was it... that this world was undergoing changes outside of the original story?
But for now, there was indeed no need to investigate, so she set aside her doubts.
The four of them meditated for another hour, recovering about seventy to eighty percent of their spiritual energy before they began to move forward again.
"I say, Brother Liu, is that compass of yours reliable? Why hasn't there been any reaction for so long?"
Liu Qi was also somewhat helpless. If the compass were truly that reliable, he wouldn't have had to come here to test it.
They walked until noon, harvesting quite a few spirit plants and slaying several demonic beasts along the way. However, the star-patterned iron Liu Qi was looking for remained elusive. Eventually, the four of them reached a small stream to rest.
Suddenly, Zhu Yinxi's brow furrowed, and his fingers pressed against his jade flute. "Something is approaching."
Almost the instant his voice fell, three pythons as thick as buckets lunged out of the stream water. Their crimson tongues flickered as they struck straight for Duan Xianxing!
"Seventh Senior Brother, watch out!" Li Nanzhu cried out.
Duan Xianxing reacted instantly, performing a backflip to avoid the attack while calling out his life-bound sword, Wait a Moment. A flash of sword light followed, and the head of one giant python fell to the ground.
Liu Qi wasn't idle either. He quickly pulled a small silver crossbow from his waist and pulled the trigger. Three bolts whistled through the air, accurately pinning the second python's seven-inch mark.
Seeing its companions killed, the last giant python reared its head in fury. Just as it was about to attack, a sound wave struck it directly.
Zhu Yinxi simply blew a single note on his flute. An invisible sonic blade sliced through the air, and the giant python's body was instantly severed in two, blood spraying everywhere.
The battle ended so quickly that Li Nanzhu hadn't even had time to take out her Wanxiang Brush.
"These are blue-water pythons. Generally, even if someone enters their territory, they shouldn't be this aggressive." Zhu Yinxi walked to the stream to inspect the python carcasses. "These three pythons all had the strength of the early Foundation Establishment stage. However, based on their habits, they should live closer to the middle layer. They shouldn't have appeared here."
Liu Qi's expression changed. "Someone drove them out?"
Zhu Yinxi didn't answer, but his eyes grew solemn. He looked up at the distant thickets, where a dark shadow seemed to flash by.
"Pack up. We need to leave here as soon as possible," Zhu Yinxi said gravely.
Duan Xianxing flicked the snake blood off his sword and asked curiously, "Second Senior Brother, what's wrong?"
"I suspect we're being followed." Zhu Yinxi put away his jade flute. "It likely has something to do with those crazed iron-toothed rats earlier. We must be even more careful for the rest of the journey."
Li Nanzhu and Liu Qi exchanged a look, both seeing the worry in each other's eyes. Only Duan Xianxing remained optimistic. "What's there to be afraid of? If one comes, we hit one. If two come, we hit a pair!"
The unease in Li Nanzhu's heart was slowly amplifying. If these changes were happening in more than one place, then the Forest of Demonic Beasts would only become far more dangerous than it originally was.
Could it be because of the ancient cultivator's cave dwelling that Cang Dongqing was searching for?
But the cave's restrictions hadn't been triggered yet. For now, all they could do was wait.
The four of them moved quickly along the stream, the fallen leaves crunching softly underfoot. Suddenly, Liu Qi's compass let out a clicking sound.
"This way."
The four followed the compass's instructions and rounded a bend. Just as they stepped past some bushes, Li Nanzhu discovered several messy footprints imprinted on the mud ahead. They were a size larger than a normal person's, and the edges were tinged with an eerie purple-black color.
Liu Qi leaned down to inspect them, his finger tracing the air above the footprints. "It's a poison cultivator. At least three of them. From the looks of it, they must have just passed through recently." He hesitated for a moment. "Should we continue in this direction? We'll likely run into them."
"No need to fear," Duan Xianxing continued straight ahead. "If it comes down to it, we'll just fight. We're not afraid of them."
"True enough," Liu Qi chuckled, and the four continued their journey.
After another fifteen minutes, the crisp sound of a branch snapping came from the distance, followed by a bone-chilling chewing sound. The four held their breath and approached, parting the layers of foliage. They saw three corpses dressed in grey martial attire strewn across a forest clearing, surrounded by shattered jars and bottles. Even more horrifyingly, dozens of iron-toothed rats were perched on the corpses, frantically gnawing away. Several of them were clearly mutated, with sharp bone spurs growing from their backs.
"Disciples of the Thousand Poisons Sect," Liu Qi whispered. "Based on the attire, they should be outer sect disciples."
"Let's go around. I don't know what kind of mutation has happened to these iron-toothed rats." Zhu Yinxi frowned slightly. He really didn't want to even look at such filthy demonic beasts.
Just as the four were about to leave, the iron-toothed rats all looked up in unison, their crimson eyes staring straight at where they were hiding.
"Get back!" Zhu Yinxi held his jade flute horizontally, and a sonic barrier instantly expanded.
Almost simultaneously, three mutated rats from the swarm leaped up. Their bone spurs actually pierced through the sonic barrier, lunging straight at them!
Duan Xianxing's sword light was like a rainbow, slicing the pouncing rats in two. The foul-smelling blood splattered on the ground, corroding it and sending up wisps of green smoke.
"It's poisonous?!"
Li Nanzhu hastily performed a hand seal. Her Wood Vitality controlled vines to directly form a protective circle, shielding the four of them so that no poisonous blood could splash on them.
Fortunately, these iron-toothed rats still hadn't broken through to tier 2, but they were clearly much more troublesome than before. It took some effort before they were finally dealt with.
"What on earth is going on..."
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