When I touched back down on the peak of the Glittering Mountains, thankfully, there wasn't a rat in sight.

I sighed a breath of relief. If the spiritual red lotus pond I'd spent so much time putting together had been full of rats when I got back, I would definitely have released my terrifying immortal rage! ARRRRGH!

Thankfully for everyone within a hundred-li-radius, the pond was sparkling and clean, and so were the shiny red lotuses. All right. No mass destruction in revenge for my pond today, then.

However, there was still one rat in sight.

On top of the large pile of gold, jewels, and jade figurines outside of my cave, was sitting a shiny green jade rat figurine with a very ugly smile.

I flew over on Destiny Blade, hopped off, then snatched this figurine up and started to strangle it—or hold it tightly, whatever it is when you're holding a precious stone figurine around the neck.

"If you don't speak right now, I'm gonna throw you in my spiritual pond! And you don't want that! Because it would hurt! A lot!"

The figurine seemed to twitch a little under my jade immortal fingers, but it didn't speak.

"All right, then. Suit yourself!"

I went over to the glittering spiritual pond, which was thankfully self-cleaning because I didn't want to permanently sully it with a demon's aura. No, that would be gross.

I dunked the little figurine under and held it there. Immediately, boiling bubbles started popping up on the surface of the pool.

"Yeah! I told you! It hurts, doesn't it? I'm not taking you out until you reveal yourself, you little shit! I can stand here all day! Better yet, I could let go and let you fall to the bottom of the pond for some eternal torture? How does that sound, huh?!"

The bubbles started turning scarlet and coming up faster, like the rat was on fire.

Suddenly, a garbled noise came from the bottom of the pond. Even though it was kinda hard to hear what it was saying from under the pristine water, it was clearly saying the words "STOP!" and "MERCY!" over and over again. I pulled up the little statue.

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"Speak, demon. I can tell you're only a mid-tier demon at best. Who are you? How'd you get stuck in this tiny jade figurine thingy?"

The rat statue was finally moving. Its tiny rat mouth coughed, spewing out steaming spiritual water.

"What kind of temper is this from an immortal? You're a phony immortal! Immortals can't swear and drown demons like a barbarian! Especially women immortals!"

"Hey! D'you want me to make good on that idea of tossing you to the bottom of my spiritual pond? Tell me who you are, you little rat-shit demon, before I force it out of you!"

The rat figure shrieked in offense.

"Excuse me?! Rat-shit demon? What kind of insult is that? Offensive! OFFENSIVE! I am an ancient, great demon — mid-tier is an understatement, you immortal fool! My name is the demon Yao Mo! I was once known all over the cultivation world for my talent at overrunning cultivation sects with rats! I even ran the great Jade Heaven Sect over with rats once, long ago, and almost caused its destruction! TEE-HEE! That was fun! Until that son of a bitch, Du Yun, sealed me in this stupid but very comfortable rat statue! Pah! Curse that man and eighteen generations of his family!"

I squeezed the rat figurine, causing it to squeal in pain.

"Hey! What did you just say? The Jae Heaven Sect? Du Yun? Little mid-tier ratshit demon, do you know who I am?"

"Pah! Ouch! Who are you, you phony immortal?"

I dangled the little demon figure over the spiritual pond.

"I am Immortal Xia Yue. My adoptive mother is Lady Du of the Jade Heaven Sect, and the Jade Heaven Sect was where I was raised. If it is true that you nearly destroyed my sect, you owe me and my sect big-time."

"Pah! So what? You want me to overrun someone you don't like with rats? Sure! I'll do it! You'll be first!"

"Maybe I should just drop you in the pond and forget about you...that temper's really getting on my nerves, heh..."

"No! HEY! PHONY IMMORTAL LADY! Don't drop me in that nasty pond! It's bad for my jade rat skin!!! HEY!!!"

I paused just before dipping the statue in again.

"Listen here, ratshit demon Yao Mo. You're going to do what I say, when I say it. You owe me. From now on, you're my demon wild card. You get to live in these mountains without me destroying you permanently, and I get a demon helper. Got it? It's a pretty good deal for you, since I probably should just vaporize you instead. Also — if you try anything funny, you're going straight into this here spiritual pond for eternity. Understand, Wu Zai? That's your new name now, too."

The rat demon shrieked in offense, shaking in my hands.

"Wu Zai? Rat thief? MY NAME IS NOT RAT THIEF! MY NAME IS NOT RAT SHIT! RELEASE ME RIGHT THIS INSTANT! I'LL RUN OVER YOUR WHOLE PHONY MOUNTAIN WITH POISONOUS RATS! WE'LL SEE WHO'S MORE POWERFUL — "

I plunged Wu Zai down into the water again, and he screeched.

"ALL RIGHT! FINE! FINE! I'll serve you. But ONLY until my debt is paid? Got it? ONLY UNTIL IT'S PAID!"

Great! I had myself a new wild card to call on. I doubted I'd actually need the help of this little mid-tier ratshit demon Wu Zai — Yao Mo, but having him around meant I would get to mess with him in return for what he did to the Jade Heaven Sect and Lady Du's ancestor until I was satisfied that he'd suffered enough in return.

Plus, now there was some company around.