Miao Yi shook his head helplessly, then turned around to gather a large pile of dry branches before starting the fire again. He then felt out a spear from his storage ring, and pierced it through the large piece of meat that Charcoal had thrown over, racking it over the fire to roast.
As for the almost cooked meat in the ash pile, Miao Yi naturally would not eat it. Thus, he picked it up and chucked it in front of Charcoal.
Immediately, Charcoal took a large mouthful and it seemed to fit his palate. Just that relatively to his, the portion of the meat that Miao Yi had seemed too little; he finished it with just two bites.
In the Sea of Constellations, the night was still. Shooting stars trailed in silence through the night sky.
Under the ancient trees shrouding the night sky, fireflies gently and lazily hovered abound. The world was indeed beautiful.
Beside the fire, Miao Yi was busy flipping and roasting the Octopus Spirit's meat. One swarm of little ones left after eating their fill, and another batch of them arrived to munch on the raw meat; by the side, Charcoal was swishing his serpentine tail as he lay waiting.
This was truly a night fit for a play!
A few li away, a figure about two metres tall, a gray rat with fierce teeth, crawled out swiftly from the cave of a cliff.
Coming to a halt at the entrance of the cave, it lifted its bearded nose and sniffed the strange smell in the air. After verifying the direction, it scuttled out the cave entrance with a swish, crawling at a breakneck speed.
After getting closer to the source of the peculiar fragrance, a white light flashed across the giant rat's body, transforming into a slender, shabby man, crawling on the ground. He touched the moustache at the corner of his mouth and clambered up from the ground. Then, floated light as a feather in the direction of the firelight.
Finally, he hid behind a large tree, furtively poking out half his head to covertly spy at the scene by the fire.
With a dragon steed as a mount, in addition to Miao Yi's appearance, the Rat Spirit determined that he was a human cultivator. Except why was that dragon steed fat to this extent? It was simply inconceivable, and today, it really opened his eyes!
Human cultivators who dared come to the Sea of Constellations alone were uncommon. However, he reckoned that he wasn't that strong; the true experts among human cultivators could soar through the skies and would not use dragon steeds as their leg strength.
But the Rat Spirit still did not dare to act blindly without thinking. He shifted his head to glance at the mantis that had climbed from the tree trunk onto his arm, and did not pay it any heed. He continued to stare at Miao Yi who was by the fire's side, his eyes flickering as he mulled over some thoughts.
Miao Yi, still roasting his meat by the fireside, raised his brows. He had already received the message transmitted by the little one. He remained silent for a while as he waited for the little one to get ready. After that, he suddenly turned his head to look towards the large tree where the Rat Spirit was hiding.
Alarmed, the Rat Spirit did not expect that he had been discovered by the other party in this location. He was about to make his escape when all of a sudden, a stinging sensation spread out from his shoulder and a netherworldly aura that greatly chilled human souls invaded into his body in a flash.
The Rat Spirit opened his mouth, his expression stunned as his body collapsed to the side.
Miao Yi on the other hand, had already dashed forth. He swiftly removed the silver spear stuck into the ground by his side, and eventually descended to the side of the collapsed crafty-looking man. He was about to raise the silver spear in his hand to strike, but the sight of a white light flashing along the other party's body greeted him. In an instant, he had turned into a giant rat.
Miao Yi was taken back. It turned out to be a Rat Spirit of the White Lotus Realm. After thinking it through slightly more, he still thrust the silver spear in his hand down.
He stabbed two times in quick succession through the two forelimbs of the Rat Spirit, before releasing a fine steel chain, an item from the Octopus Spirit's storage ring. Before this, he had wondered how the Octopus Spirit did not find it troublesome to have so much junk around, now he finally had some use for it.
He threaded the fine steel chain through the wounds of the Rat Spirit, tying them up before dragging the Rat Spirit to the fireside. Then he stepped on the Rat Spirit's body, invoking his art to dispel the chilling aura of the netherworld from within the Rat Spirit's body. He did not dispel everything and left half of it behind, just in case.
The Rat Spirit quivered uncontrollably for a while, gradually regaining consciousness. The moment his eyes opened, he immediately saw the speartip that Miao Yi readied at him.
The Rat Spirit was shocked beyond measure. Without hesitation, he turned to flee, only to realize that the speed of the transcendence energy present inside his body had became rigid and sluggish. Thus, he found it difficult to utilize its power.
Miao Yi gave a cold laugh, as Charcoal promptly dragged the other end of the fine steel chain, running in the opposite direction.
Tethering Charcoal to be the ship's driving force, definitely wasn't something he was willing to do. But this kind of work in ensnaring someone, he was extremely interested and well pleased with himself as he ran happily.
What a jest! Even a Blue Lotus rank cultivator would not dare compare their strength with a dragon steed, let alone a mere Rat spirit of the White Lotus realm; and what's more, the Rat Spirit was already in his trap.
If not for Miao Yi stopping him, Charcoal would have been very interested in dragging this giant rat to death.
"Ouch!" The Rat Spirit cried out in pain, finding that both his two forelimbs had been bound together and shackled. With a rustle, he was promptly dragged before Miao Yi by Charcoal.
The speartip in Miao Yi's hand was thrust into the thigh of the Rat Spirit with a 'pop'! It lanced through the thigh, nailing him to the ground. "Giant rat, you're welcome to try and run again for me to see!"
A white light flashed by, and the Rat Spirit once again transformed into a shabby man. He trembled as his body cowered, hugging his impaled thigh with arms shackled by the fine steel chain. He lifted his head to stare at Miao Yi.
He was grimacing in pain, yet he still managed to say menacingly, "Brat, can't you see what this place is? You dare to hurt your Grandpa Pi? I see that you must be tired of living! Hurry up and let your Grandpa Pi go! If Grandpa Pi is happy, perhaps I can spare your life. Otherwise, all hell will break loose on you!"
"Your life is in my hands and you still have the nerve to be stubborn!" laughed Miao Yi coldly. He pulled out his spear, and pressed the bloody speartip against the Rat Spirit's head, ready to thrust straight through.
The Rat Spirit's expression immediately crumpled as he cried out oddly, "Great Immortal, please have mercy! Great Immortal, please spare me! I admit my mistakes! I admit my mistakes!"
This bastard had been stubbornly refusing to admit his problem earlier, and even tried to appear as though he was really something. But nobody would have expected that Miao Yi didn't even need to torment him much, only scare him a little, before he immediately cowered. It turned out that he was just a terrified shit. A sheep in wolf's clothing.
Miao Yi found it ridiculous as he pressed the speartip against his head, saying expressionlessly, "Didn't you say that all hell will break loose on me? Where is the disaster coming from? If you can't explain it properly, I will immediately peel off your skin and remove your core!"
"Great Immortal, please spare me! I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Without any need for him to expend any effort, the Rat Spirit promptly confessed to everything in a rattle.
The Rat Spirit's name was called 'Pi Junzi'. He had cultivated for more than three thousand years, and shockingly had a White Lotus Ninth Grade cultivation, not far from breaking through to the Blue Lotus realm. His cultivation base was much higher than Miao Yi's.
Formerly, within this radius of a hundred li was Pi Junzi's territory. However, three hundred years ago, a 'Madame Wu Hua' suddenly emerged from the sea, defeating him and seizing the territory.
But Madame Wu Hua did not like staying on land, so she only treated this terrestrial territory as a temporary residence. She would occasionally leave the sea to go ashore and walk around leisurely. The territory was still pushed to Pi Junzi to watch over, thus Pi Junzi became Madame Wu Hua's diminutive land-based general, making rounds around the mountain.
However, this was very much in line with Pi Junzi's intentions. He was still the one looking over the territory and in addition, he had gained a benefactor. When encountering strong enemies invading his territory, he could still find Madame Wu Hua to help. As such, he had lived a comfortable life.
The hell he had called out to Miao Yi, was referring to the benefactor behind him, Madame Wu Hua.
"Madame Wu Hua..." muttered Miao Yi as he pondered. Within this radius of a hundred li, was it all Madame Wu Hua's territory?
But the range of hundred li also included the place where he had slaughtered the Octopus Spirit. He remembered her mentioning his intruding into her territory. At the same time, the Octopus Spirit also came from the sea, so he couldn't help but ask, "This Madame Wu Hua you mentioned, was it an Octopus Spirit with multicolored spots and a Second Grade Yao cultivator?"