As he was busy preparing, Ning suddenly remembered something.
Since Patriarch Luo said he posted a mission in the sect regarding the extermination of this rat, for which he was currently preparing, someone might also set off to complete the mission.
"This might be a problem..." Ning muttered, his thoughts turned quickly.
Surely, Patriarch Luo should also have thought of this, right?... probably not.
Ning knew that Patriarch Luo was too invested in this rat, and that thought might have slipped through his mind.
"Now, the messenger should have just reached the sect if nothing went wrong along the way." Ning calculated before shrugging, "Well, if I finish the quest fast enough, then I can go back to the sect and clarify the matter."
Exterminating rats was the most basic RPG quest; surely it won't take too long, right?
...
Two days...
It had been two days since Ning had started guarding the area, but who knew that the spirit-devouring rat would not come to attack? So for the past few days, he had been just counting the stars. Well, not literally, but you get the point.
This spirit-devouring rat sure is taking its sweet-ass time...
Patriarch Luo, perched on a neighboring tree, broke the silence. "Brother Ning, it's already gotten so late. Perhaps the rat won't show up tonight either."
His face was also quite unsightly. Camping outside for two days straight had taken a toll on him. He had admittedly lost touch, especially after living comfortably as the family head. So much so that even perching on trees had become uncomfortable.
As for why they were perching on trees? Ning just liked having the high ground against his enemies. It totally had nothing to do with memes, I swear.
"When we seek someone in need, they rarely appear, but when we don't need them, they're always right there. It's already a rule at this point. So, please have some patience."
Ning was also helpless in this matter.
Who would have thought that the spirit-devouring rat would not obediently arrive to steal from the Spiritual Farm? It really did not have a conscience, making him waste his days in naught.
Ning sighed.
Ah! How he wished that the spirit-devouring rat would appear in front, ready to deliver its head on a silver platter.
"Brother Ning's words hold such high wisdom as usual." Patriarch Luo had still not given up on climbing on this golden thigh. He would have continued to flatter, only for Ning to silence him with a gesture.
"Stay back," Ning whispered, his keen eyes catching a flicker of movement in the shadows.
Ning had ordered all the guards except two mortal guards to move back. Even the two mortal guards only stood in front of the spiritual farm and were ordered not to take a step into the spiritual farm.
It was just a simple precaution if the beast expected something amiss, not sensing any guards present. Of course, a beast that is only equivalent to the mid-stage would not have high wisdom, but Ning didn't want to trigger its beast instinct.
So, since everyone was back, it was obvious what was crawling in the dark.
[Eyes of the Hawk]
Ning's eyes became a shade darker with the influx of spiritual qi as he finally took in the appearance of the beast. The rat was about the size of a teenage male, its fur was dark, and its eyes were blood red. It was happily eating away at the spiritual crops growing without a care for the world.
Ning took out his bow and aimed it at the beast.
On the side, Patriarch Luo suddenly noticed that Ning seemed elusive all of a sudden, as if he had become a ghost. It was very hard to sense him.
Patriarch Luo was surprised but kept quiet, seeing Ning nod.
The Spirit Devouring Rat possessed a sharp sense. So, Ning suppressed his presence to the lowest level and took aim.
Ning grasped the beast's position with his own special sense, and the qi started surging around the arrow as if circling that arrow like a coiling dragon.
[Snipe]
Ning released the arrow.
A flash of silver light shining in the moonlight suddenly launched towards the Spirit-devouring rat. The rat seemed none the wiser to the attack, but just as the attack neared it, it suddenly turned towards the arrow.
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*Squeak*
The rat felt its instinct go haywire. It tried to run away, but the silver light was already upon it, as the arrow injured the beast.
Hmm?
Ning was surprised by this. He had failed to one-shot it. It's not that he had never missed killing his enemy with a single arrow, but this time the conditions were too perfect, his preparation was seamless, and the rat was also obviously unaware of the hidden danger, but it still managed to dodge it.
"Such movements. Is it luck or..." Ning's thoughts turned naturally. "Then again, the poison..."
Ning's thought stopped, seeing the rat suddenly shriek aloud, clearly not affected by the paralysis poison he had coated his arrow in.
Poison Resistance? Hmm...
Ning narrowed his eyes and gestured to Patriarch Luo to initiate plan B.
"The beast is wounded. Move in, quickly!" Patriarch Luo rallied the guards to attack the injured rat.
If Ning couldn't take it down in one shot, Patriarch Luo's group would encircle and finish the job lest it escape. It was their contingency plan, discussed in advance.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst - Ning understood this well, especially in a world filled with unpredictable mysteries.
As guards converged on the wounded rat, Ning remained vigilant. He set aside his doubts and unleashed a barrage of arrows.
[Spiral Arrow.]
Arrows flew, but the rat, despite its injuries, retained its ferocity. Its tail parried some arrows and dodged others, but a few arrows still managed to sneak in, further slowing down the beast.
Although Ning failed to outright kill the beast, it bought precious time for Patriarch Luo's group to close in. Especially, he had been able to swiftly guide the beast away from the fields and line it up straight toward Patriarch Luo.
"You cannot run away this time, you foul beast," Patriarch Luo spoke facing his mortal enemy. He quickly took out something from his spiritual bag.
"Since you have regarded this place as your own, get buried here," Patriarch Luo was just a third-stage Qi cultivator, so his own prowess would clearly not be enough. But as a family that has existed for a while, they had their own trump cards.
[First Tier Talisman, Fireball]
With the infusion of spiritual energy, the talisman shone as the spirit Qi gathered from the air and gathered around him to form a fireball, emitting heat.
The flame distorted the air and quickly enveloped the weakened beast with blazing heat.
It seemed to be over, as there was a faint smell of burnt meat.
Feeling the dead silence, the surrounding guards suddenly burst into cheers.
"We did it!"
"Finally! The retribution is at hand!"
But these cheers were suddenly broken by a shout.
"Patriarch Luo, GET BACK!"
It was Ning. With his eyes like the hawk, he realized that something was wrong. Very wrong.
*SQUEAK*
The seemingly dead rat squeaked aloud, suddenly getting a surge of vitality from somewhere, as the surrounding spiritual Qi rushed towards the beast.
"T-this...Everyone RUN."
Patriarch Luo was stunned, but he still managed to shout before retreating a dozen steps back, his son in tow.
The situation had changed.
On the verge of death, not only did the Spirit Devouring Rat not get weaker, but instead it had somehow challenged the fifth stage and seemed to break through the next stage all within a single moment.
Ning's lips twitched looking at this scene. How has breaking through on the verge of death become as common as cabbages? Is this beast a protagonist, too?
Also, did he just see the spirit-devouring rat expel all its poison after the breakthrough? I call it Bullshit; breakthroughs didn't work like that.
Still, Ning did not stay stumped for long. He did not have the luxury to ponder too much right now. Especially since he saw the rat damn near revive from the state of death.
[Snipe]
More arrows flew aiming at the still rat, but nothing. The spirit-devouring rat squeaked, as it flared its monster qi and avoided the arrow with pure speed unbefitting its cultivation and size.
"Another innate talent besides poison resistance?" Ning's lips twitched.
Ning couldn't help but feel that something had gone wrong. Extremely so.
Monsters usually need to tap into their bloodline to awaken their innate talent. For that, they need high cultivation and much luck. Even then, the majority would only unlock a single innate talent, and most of the time, they were trash-type talent. But now, this seemingly normal rat not only seemed to possess poison resistance but also a skill for high-speed movement. Truly, I call hax.
"Anything goes style, huh? It seems I will also need to bring out the big guns." Ning once again took aim, this time using more than half of his remaining spirit Qi at once, powering the arrow.
This arrow was different from the previous one, as this was one of his special arrows, made from the fifth-stage beast he had killed once.
These arrows were few in number and could hold his pure Qi in high amounts. Its power was naturally amazing.
Feeling the sudden sense of threat, the rat had no chance to celebrate its breakthrough, as it quickly used its innate talent to speed up. Remembering those arrows that had injured it so badly, a trace of madness accompanied the spirit-devouring rat.
"Such sharp instinct! How did it even locate me?" Ning thought before he sighed, "Y'know at this point, I am not even going to ask."
Ning muttered as he charged the arrow a bit more, his pure Qi coiling around the arrow.
*Squeak*
The rat seemed to disappear at once; Ning could barely see the movements of the beast. It quickly accelerated towards Ning.
[Innate Talent: Fast Movement.]
Ning's eyes narrowed, but he did not move from his position at all, instead focusing on the beast.
"Only one chance, huh?" Ning resolved himself, as he waited for the beast to come near himself.
Spiritual Sense.
If he can't see the beast, then it's simple, just track the slightest change in space itself. Playing with this new sense, he knew that the time limit was only 9 seconds until he started to feel the pressure from the information sinking in.
He had to wait until the last seconds to dodge the beast; otherwise, he could only run away at once.
It was a gamble, but one he was willing to take.
[Spirit devouring rat, fifth stage?, possesses Two innate talents: Poison resistance and Movement skill. Status: Out for blood. Verdict: Quite Dangerous]
It didn't take more than 10 seconds for the rat to appear in front of Ning under the blessing of its innate talent. The beast didn't hesitate to launch an iron tail at the tree Ning was in. The tree collapsed under the weight of the attack, but the rat did not find the corpse of the hateful human that attacked it.
Left, right, no, it suddenly looked up, finding the visage of the hateful human whose silver arrows were pointed towards it. Feeling the danger closing in, it tried to run away once again, but Ning had already calculated it to the seconds.
With a fluid motion, his slender fingers released the charged arrow. The shaft hummed through the air, a silver streak of lethal intent. Time seemed to slow as the arrowhead zeroed in on its mark—the skull of the spirit-devouring rat.
Then, with surgical precision, the arrow struck. It was a clean, close-range headshot.
The spirit-devouring rat's shrill cries shattered the stillness of the night as it succumbed to the inevitable.
The last scene it saw was several more arrows nearing it.