“Suisui, don't gnaw on that! That's Seventh Senior Brother's boot!” Li Nanzhu grabbed the tail of the iron-toothed rat construct, but she used too much force. With a crack, Suisui’s tail snapped off.
“My new boots!” Duan Xianxing wailed, hopping on one foot. “Those cost me three spirit stones!”
Suisui tilted its head, looking at him with hollow eye sockets. It then silently picked up its broken tail and tried to press it back onto its backside. However, it pressed it on backward; the tip of the tail pointed forward, looking like a strange ornament.
Liu Qi’s lip twitched. “...Is it mocking us?”
Zhu Yinxi pressed a hand to his forehead. “I think it might just be... not very bright.”
Originally, Zhu Yinxi felt he wasn't much of a talker around outsiders, but over the past two days, he had been forced to speak more simply out of exasperation with this bone rat named Suisui.
Suisui seemed to understand and let out two indignant squeaks. It turned around and marched forward with a grand, majestic air—only to have its left foot trip over its right. With a clatter, it fell apart into a heap of bones.
The four of them: “...”
Li Nanzhu sighed and knelt down to help reassemble the bones. “Are we really going to spend our time in the Forest of Demonic Beasts playing a puzzle game?”
The others looked at one another and finally sighed. Since it was getting late, they decided to find a place to rest.
...
The group of four sat around a campfire, staring at Suisui as it struggled to piece itself back together.
It had just fallen apart again while chasing a firefly. Now, it was using its claws to scratch at its ribs, trying to align them with its spine. It ended up installing them backward, with the ribs poking outward like the quills of a startled hedgehog.
“Little Junior Sister, have you thought about why it's following us? Do the books say these things are attracted to living people?” Duan Xianxing poked the campfire and asked casually.
Li Nanzhu had no idea, but Zhu Yinxi closed his book and speculated, “Could it be because we are carrying high-grade metal objects?”
Li Nanzhu paused, suddenly thinking of the profound dark stone in her storage bag. She had kept it there ever since buying it from the black market. Could that be what was attracting Suisui?
Though she had a hunch, she couldn't take it out with Liu Qi present. She followed along with the conversation, saying, “Maybe it's interested in Seventh Senior Brother's Wait a Moment?”
Hearing this, Duan Xianxing immediately clutched Wait a Moment to his chest like a startled chicken. “This is my wife! It can't touch her! Not even its bones!”
Suisui turned its head toward Duan Xianxing. Inexplicably, Li Nanzhu saw a look of disdain in its eyes.
“Is it looking down on my wife?!” Duan Xianxing noticed it too. He lunged forward as if to grab Suisui.
Seeing this, Suisui instantly collapsed back into a pile of bones.
Li Nanzhu sighed. “...Seventh Senior Brother, stop scaring it. At this rate, we’ll be doing nothing but playing 'Assemble Suisui' every day in the forest.”
Duan Xianxing: “...”
His mother tongue was speechless!
How could a skeleton be such a drama queen!
But now, he could only resign himself to helping Li Nanzhu put Suisui back together again.
Liu Qi suddenly thought of something and pulled a fragment of star-patterned iron from his storage bag. “Since iron-toothed rats like metal, would it be sensitive to star-patterned iron?”
As soon as Suisui saw the star-patterned iron, its bones gave a rhythmic clack. It lunged forward with lightning speed, snapping its jaws onto the fragment, and then...
Crack!
Its lower jaw fell off.
The four of them: “...”
Li Nanzhu didn't know how many times she had sighed by now. She resignedly helped it reattach its jaw. “It seems it does react to star-patterned iron, but its intelligence hasn't caught up.”
Zhu Yinxi nodded. “In that case, we can try to let it lead the way. It might find a vein of star-patterned iron.”
Duan Xianxing rubbed his hands excitedly. “Great idea! Suisui! Lead us to more of this!”
Fearing Suisui might get lost, Duan Xianxing rummaged through his storage bag for a moment before triumphantly producing a small bell. He tied it to Suisui's bones. “This way, we can hear it wherever it goes!”
Suisui tilted its head, seemingly satisfied with its new accessory. It hopped a few times, and the bell rang with a ding-ling.
Seeing this, Liu Qi waved the star-patterned iron fragment again.
Suisui tilted its head in thought, even though it currently lacked an actual brain.
After a moment, Suisui turned and wobbled off in a certain direction. Midway, because its left leg was attached backward, it began walking with its limbs on the same side moving together, looking extremely comical.
Liu Qi pressed his hand to his forehead. “...Are we really relying on it to lead the way?”
Zhu Yinxi followed calmly. “We don't have any better leads anyway.”
But Suisui eventually stopped in front of a nearby large tree and began digging frantically.
“A discovery?” Liu Qi's eyes lit up.
Li Nanzhu leaned in to look. “...It looks like it just dug up a nest of ants.”
Suisui excitedly grabbed an ant and offered it to Duan Xianxing like a prize.
Duan Xianxing: “...Thanks, but I’m not hungry.”
Suisui let out a disappointed squeak and stuffed the ant into its empty ribcage, but the ant quickly fell through the hollow chest.
Li Nanzhu patted Suisui's head. “It’s too late today. Suisui can take us to look again tomorrow.”
Finally, the four of them discussed the night watch. Since Li Nanzhu was the only one at the Qi Condensation stage who needed sleep—and she was still a young girl who hadn't reached her coming-of-age ceremony—the other three agreed to rotate the watch, letting Li Nanzhu rest well.
The next morning, just as the four were about to pack up and continue their journey, another strange occurrence happened.
Poison spiders, which should have been solitary, appeared in swarms. A strange purple mist clung to their webs.
Most unsettlingly, the same twisted markings appeared on the abdomens of these poison spiders, as if they had been forcibly branded by some power.
“Get back!”
Liu Qi formed a hand seal and conjured a wall of fire, the searing spiritual energy incinerating the webs. Duan Xianxing took the opportunity to fire several bursts of sword qi, precisely piercing the compound eyes of the lead poison spider. Li Nanzhu also controlled vines to bind them, preventing them from dodging the attacks.
As before, the strength of these blood-eyed poison spiders was not high, and they were quickly dealt with.
Duan Xianxing briskly cut open their abdomens, extracting the venom sacs and mutated silk. He grinned and said, “The quality of these venom sacs is thirty percent better than normal poison spiders. Bringing these back to the city should be worth at least a hundred mid-grade spirit stones!”
Li Nanzhu also retracted her vines, her lips curving slightly. “True. Although these demonic beasts are strange, their strength hasn't exceeded our expectations.”
Zhu Yinxi frowned slightly. He wanted to remind everyone to be careful again, but seeing everyone's relaxed expressions and the bountiful harvest, he ultimately just sighed. “We don't know how these strange beasts keep appearing, but we should still remain vigilant. Don't be careless.”
Liu Qi nodded with a steady gaze. “Don't worry, Fellow Daoist Zhu, we won't act recklessly. However... the mutation of these demonic beasts is indeed fishy.”
“Who cares if it's fishy,” Duan Xianxing said with a laugh as he packed away the loot. “We can handle it and make a profit. Why not?”
Meanwhile, Suisui, who had been hiding behind Li Nanzhu, finally ran out. While the others weren't looking, it quietly pulled apart the bones of the spider corpses and stuffed them into its own body.
“Suisui.” Li Nanzhu quickly picked Suisui up. “These are everyone's spoils of war. You can't touch them without permission, understand?”
Suisui let out a pitiful squeak. Seeing this, Liu Qi chuckled. “I’m still counting on Suisui to help me find star-patterned iron. If Suisui wants these bones, let it have them.”
Zuan Xianxing and Zhu Yinxi also nodded. Although bones could be sold for money, they had grown to like Suisui over the past few days, so giving them to it was no big deal.
Suisui seemed to understand them. It struggled to raise its claws and bowed in thanks, squeaking twice before running back to the corpses to continue stuffing itself with bones.
No one knew how Suisui did it, but with a single tug of its claws, the bones easily separated from the flesh, which actually saved the group some effort in processing the remains.
After absorbing those bones, Suisui’s body seemed to grow slightly larger, and small spikes grew out of its back, resembling the eight legs of a spider.
“That's amazing. The bones just fused together like that?” Duan Xianxing poked Suisui. Perhaps because he had given it the bell yesterday, Suisui was now willing to let Duan Xianxing poke it.
“Perhaps this is how this kind of creature grows?” Li Nanzhu guessed. However, it was better to leave the area quickly, or the scent of blood would soon attract other demonic beasts.
Over the next few days, they encountered several more waves of mutated demonic beasts—silver-backed wolves emitting faint dark energy, red-flame birds with wings covered in strange runes, and even another spirit-siphoning vine, though this time there was no mother vine.
Each battle brought them a significant harvest: demonic cores, spirit plants, rare toxins... These resources, usually hard to find, now seemed to be delivering themselves to their door.
During these days of fighting, Li Nanzhu also felt the bottleneck of her Qi Condensation Great Perfection loosening. Perhaps before long, she could attempt to reach the Foundation Establishment stage.
“Today, this iron-clawed mountain cat's claws actually have thunder markings.” Duan Xianxing used Wait a Moment to pry off the blue-glowing claws, looking exceptionally excited. Such thunder-attribute materials were rare. He carefully placed them into a storage bag specifically for thunder-attribute items.
The storage bag originally used for demonic beast corpses was now full of various mutated materials.
“It’s just a pity we haven't found any star-patterned iron yet.” Liu Qi felt somewhat disappointed. Following Li Nanzhu's group, he had gained many good materials for refining, but thinking back on the path Suisui had led them on these past two days, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Duan Xianxing: “Suisui, are you sure it's this way?”
Suisui: “Squeak!”
Li Nanzhu: “...Is it really reliable?”
Liu Qi: “At least it’s more reliable than Brother Duan’s sense of direction.”
“Hey, don't be in such a hurry. We have plenty of time. We’ll find it eventually if we keep looking.” Duan Xianxing patted Liu Qi’s shoulder and looked at Suisui again.
In the course of hunting demonic beasts these past few days, Suisui had fused with many bones. Although its size hadn't changed much, its intelligence seemed to have improved, and it didn't fall apart nearly as easily.
“Squeak, squeak!”
Suisui seemed to have sensed something again and ran off in a certain direction.
“Suisui!”
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