Chapter 1: 001 Earthquake

The night was dark, the ink-blue sky dotted with a few sparse, fading stars that flickered tirelessly, watching over the sleeping, silent earth.

At four in the morning, the darkest moment before dawn, the entire world was plunged into deep slumber.

—BOOM—

With a massive roar, a three-story residential building located in the suburbs of City A instantly collapsed amidst a deaf-ening explosion, turning into a pile of ruins.

A hundred meters away, a woman wearing pink Mickey Mouse pajamas and slippers, clutching a golden-furred rat in her arms, crawled out of the exit of a secret passage, covered in dust and soot.

This woman was the mastermind behind the "Knowing All Under Heaven" intelligence agency—Lan Mufeng, codenamed God Rat. She was an ordinary-looking woman who was both greedy for money and fond of admiring handsome men.

"Knowing All Under Heaven" specialized in gathering information from all walks of life, including personal privacy, reselling it at high prices to reap enormous profits.

While making money, Lan Mufeng had also provoked many enemies. Both the black and white worlds loathed her, and countless people wished her dead, yet she managed to escape every time, narrowly avoiding danger by luck.

All this credit belonged to the golden rat in her arms, Xiao Jinzi, the King of the Rat Race, who could command all the rats in the world and had established the strongest and most invincible intelligence system in existence.

"That was really close. I almost became human meat spray. Those bastards from the Dark Mist Alliance really are endless. It was just selling their arms deal information from last month to the Italian Mafia; was it really necessary to set off a few bombs in the middle of the night to disturb my sleep? This is already the fifth time this month. It looks like I'll have to go abroad to hide for a while."

Lan Mufeng let out a yawn, grumbling indignantly under her breath.

Suddenly, the ground shook violently. A few meters behind Lan Mufeng, a massive crack appeared in the ground, stretching rapidly toward the spot where she stood.

"Oh no, an earthquake!"

Clutching Xiao Jinzi, Lan Mufeng sprinted in the opposite direction of the crack while wearing her slippers, complaining, "Xiao Jinzi, your rat subjects didn't even report something as important as an earthquake. It seems someone wants to replace you as the Rat King!"

"Master, I think you should stop trembling; escaping for your life is more important," Xiao Jinzi squeaked, communicating telepathically with Lan Mufeng.

In the face of natural disasters, human strength was insignificant.

Lan Mufeng felt the air in front of her fluctuate and distort intensely; then, her feet lost their footing, everything went pitch black, and she lost consciousness.

*

Autumn, the 132nd year of the Xingyao Kingdom.

At dusk, a drizzling autumn rain began to fall. The late autumn sky was unpredictable, the earth gradually turning a dim yellow and growing increasingly gloomy; combined with the raindrops dripping from the bamboo tips, it felt even more desolate.

In the Wutong Courtyard at the northwest corner of the Prime Minister's Mansion in the Xingyao Kingdom, the sound of two people whispering could be heard. Judging by the voices, it was clearly a master and a servant.

"Miss, it must hurt. Cui'er will apply the medicine for you." Through the dilapidated and old gauze-patterned window, the chilly autumn wind drifted into the room. One could see a small maidservant, about thirteen or fourteen years old, sallow-faced and thin, holding wound medicine with reddened eyes, standing hunched over beside a pale, bloodless woman.

"It will pass once I endure it. Apply the medicine." The woman's soft, gentle voice carried a hint of indifference. She was Feng Qingzhuang, the second young lady of the Xingyao Kingdom's Prime Minister's Mansion, who had long since grown accustomed to such things. At sixteen years of age, she held the title of the number one beauty of Xingyao.