The appearance of a big rat stirred the White Tigerâs interest. His gaze sharpened, as if ready to fight the rat king at the drop of a hat.
âRelax, Little White. Heâs on our side,â Jiang Chen chided with a smile.
Little White licked his lips. âThis big rat is pretty interesting. I really feel like a good fight.â
Heâd been a little depressed. He was the youngest among the four sacred beasts and the weakest in combat. Heâd always wanted a good brawl, but never had a suitable candidate available to him.
But this rat king, while a little weaker, was almost at his level. The prospect of such an opponent raised his spirits.
The rat king grimaced. âThe Astral White Tigerâs bloodline is invincible head-on. Please donât bully a poor Goldbiter Rat.â
The tiger deflated like a balloon. âSo youâre a coward. Whatâd you grow so big for? What a waste. Seems like a fightâs not in the cards.â
Jiang Chen laughed. âAlright, let me introduce him. Heâs the Goldbiter Rat King, you can call him Ole Gold. His tribe descends from the ancient Goldbiter Kingrats, a tribe capable of swallowing everything in creation. No one dares provoke them. Theyâre not that strong individually, but you canât outbreed them, and will end up overwhelmed by their sheer numbers in the end. Thatâs their greatest asset.â
Goldbiter Kingrats!
The four beasts werenât strangers to that name thanks to memories from their heritage. Their expressions turned unnatural. They certainly didnât want to provoke Goldbiter Kingrats either.
And descending from the Goldbiter Kingrats, it wasnât out of the question for the Goldbiter Rats to evolve back into their ancestors.
âOle Gold, I trust youâre not unfamiliar with the four sacred beasts?â
The crafty rat king chuckled. âHehe, Iâve always admired such noble and lofty existences. Everyone, please offer your support to me in the future, since weâre all on the young lordâs side.â
The Vermilion Bird looked at the rat king, all smiles. âOle Gold, how many descendants does your tribe have right now?â
The rat king thought it over, then shrugged casually. âAll in all, about three to four hundred millions?â
The birdâs smile vanished instantly, but reappeared almost as fast. âYoung lord, I know now what card you were talking about.â
The Black Tortoise also grew interested, âLegends speak of Goldbiter Kingrats swallowing all of the heavenly planes, leaving nothing and no one untouched. Even the strongest metal can become their food. Is that true?â
âIt is.â Jiang Chen smiled. âOle Gold, Iâm headed to the Immortal Sacred Land. A battle against golden demons is perhaps waiting for us. Itâs a good opportunity, but also a trial. Maybe more than half of your tribe will die afterward, but the survivors will be greatly strengthened. A golden demonâs body is comparable to metal, itâs great nutrition for your kin. What say you?â
The rat kingâs narrow eyes glinted keenly, betraying his intense desire.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Because of its incredible fertility, his tribe had never been afraid of death. Instead, opportunities to strengthen their bloodline were what they lacked most.
They would throw themselves without hesitation at any such chance.
Each strengthening was a transformation for the entire tribe, a transcendence of their limits.
They had evolved time and again after meeting Jiang Chen. Their combat ability was now at least a hundred times higher.
There was no end to such evolution, or at least, they hadnât met such a ceiling yet. There was still enormous room for them to grow.
âYoung lord, we arenât called Goldbiter Rats for nothing. I might not be that confident if you pit me against a demon forefather, but we canât miss out on large scale battles. As long as they number less than one hundred thousand, I guarantee weâll gnaw them to the last until thereâs not a trace left!â The rat king nowadays spoke with new-found confidence.
His tribe was longer the same the same one Jiang Chen had first met back then.
âVery well. Ole Gold. I rarely see this kind of zeal in anyone. Thatâs what I like most about you. This battle will be a good chance to see what your tribeâs made of. Show me that nurturing you for this long was well worth it,â responded Jiang Chen serenely.
The sacred beasts were fully aware of how powerful this card was.
Wasnât the Goldbiter Rat tribe the golden demonsâ nemesis? Against the golden demonsâ unmatched physique, innumerable human cultivators would have lost their lives.
But for the Goldbiter Rats, the same physique was a choice morsel.
Jiang Chen quietly departed three days later, the sacred beasts in tow.
As for An Kasyapa, heâd already left one day prior.
Jiang Chen had entrusted the Divine Veluriyam escape talisman to the man. Not that he couldnât have used it himself, but the Measure of Heaven could roughly serve the same function, so the talisman wasnât strictly necessary.
He traveled light. The sacred beasts stayed hidden while he did his best to look like a wandering cultivator to avoid unwarranted attention.
Although Immortal was the closest sacred land to Winterdraw, it was still quite a distance away. To avoid the demonsâ eyes and ears, he chose not to use an airboat, opting to fly by himself instead. The speed of his journey inevitably suffered for it.
Demons were omnipresent along the way, but there was still no signs of a large-scale mobilization. Many places showed signs of frequent demon presence, but hadnât been fully captured yet.
In fact, quite a few defending forces seemed plagued by internal conflicts. Many had ulterior motives and wanted to fish in troubled waters. The situation didnât seem all that pressing outwardly, but in reality, imminent danger lurked just below the surface.
Jiang Chen slowed down once he approached the sacred landâs territory. Golden demons were obviously much more active in the vicinity. He spotted many of their patrols, while human cultivators were a rare sight this close to the border.
It was extremely difficult for humans to draw near. Trying to slip inside incognito seemed too complex a task to be realistically feasible.
But he wasnât in a hurry to attack. Judging by the current situation, the sacred land hadnât been fully captured yet. There was still room to salvage the situation.