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Surprisingly Enough(NOT), Common Sense Is Overpowered in a Cliché Cultivation World
🕑 Added 2023-11-06 16:50:48 +0000 UTC47. Spirit Devouring Rat~
The sky was full of stars, and Ning's figure was hidden in a lush tree in the forest. He was currently waiting for the spirit-devouring rat to appear.
He had started guarding the area two days prior, 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. Especially after living comfortably as the family head, he had admittedly lost his touch. 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.
"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 give upon 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 position of the beast 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.
*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 Ning 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.
"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. A mixture of paralysis poison and dissolving poison further damaged the beast.
Although Ning failed to outright kill the beast, it bought precious time for Patriarch Luo's group to close in.
"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 Order 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.
"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 his poison after the breakthrough? I call it Bullshit.
From his tests, he knew that his poison was good enough to affect even a sixth-stage beast, but this rat not only seemed unaffected, but it also seemed to expel it after the breakthrough.
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 dark qi and avoided the arrow with pure speed unbefitting its cultivation and size.
"Damn, this rat has another innate talent besides poison resistance?" Ning couldn't help but feel that something had gone wrong.
Monsters usually need to tap into their bloodline to awaken their innate talent. For that, they need high cultivation and much luck. But now, this seemingly normal rat not only seems to possess poison resistance but also a skill for high-speed movement. Truly, this guy is a hax.
"It seems I 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? 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 a Movement skill. Status: Out for blood. Verdict: Slightly 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.
...
Thanks for reading~
Comments
Lon
This story have been quite fun so far, you gotta love the extra that is heavily talented just because they don't act like all other people in the world.
NostalgicTime
The rat could've been a future pet/companion of the protagonist that would've had a transformation into a loyal harem member due to a primordial bloodline giving it shape-shifting abilities and supreme power and all that crap. Unfortunately for the rat our MC has the Mold Breaker ability.
Ekko
This Rat gave me MC Pet-Vibes...well Ji Ning seems to be usurping the protagonists Fate with his own, since the moment he used the Tao to buff himself
angie bell
their no such thing as overkill when it comes to spirit beasts of any type no matter the size i hope this rat wasn't to be the protagonist's challenge with a treasure in its nest. I wouldn't be surprised if spirit rats have a few nasty tricks for after death like their spirit attracting more of its kind or type kind of curse or pulling a wasp pheromone trick.
Persepolis
Despite other comments, I find the story to be really fun right now. The humor is right up my alley
neco
While I enjoy this story at the moment I would implore you Author, to not forget the premise of the story. The last few chapters gave me way to much genius protagonist vibes to feel comfortable. If I want to read a standard Xianxia then there are many more choices
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