Chapter 51: Slaying the Demonic Beast

Seeing the entrance to his cave dwelling reduced to a chaotic mess of debris, the high-grade Flame Rat was instantly consumed by fury. Its crimson fur stood on end, rippling in the wind like flickering flames.

Seeing that the Flame Rat had emerged, Old Ghost Feng immediately commanded his puppet to retreat, and both man and beast slowly backed away.

The Flame Rat opened its small mouth, and a powerful blast of fire erupted toward Old Ghost Feng. Seeing this, Old Ghost Feng did not panic; having dealt with this demon beast several times, he was well acquainted with its supernatural abilities.

As the fire approached, Old Ghost Feng quickly performed a hand seal, calmly releasing a water wall to block the intense flames. Once the fire was repelled, he applied a Divine Speed Talisman to himself and accelerated his retreat.

Seeing this detestable human cultivator—who had harassed its cave dwelling multiple times recently—attempting to flee again, the Flame Rat jumped forward in a rage to give chase. The high-grade Flame Rat was incredibly fast, quickly closing the distance with Old Ghost Feng and spitting out a dozen more bursts of fire, leaving Old Ghost Feng struggling to keep up.

Noticing that the Flame Rat had moved far from the cave entrance, Old Ghost Feng hurriedly shouted toward the distance, "Fellow Daoist Song, quickly block its retreat!"

Earlier, when the White Tiger puppet beast had first made its move, Song Qingming had already used the chaos to slip to the side of the Flame Rat's cave. Seeing Old Ghost Feng lure the beast away, Song Qingming quickly revealed himself and moved to intercept, blocking the Flame Rat's rear and cutting off its escape route.

With a wave of his hands, he released his magic tools, the Blazing Sun Sword and the Black Gold Shield. Facing a high-grade demon beast, he could not afford a moment of negligence and prepared to exert his full strength.

He had refined these two magic tools for many years, and they were now extremely easy to manipulate. The Blazing Sun Sword released a streak of fire that struck the Flame Rat's tail, causing its reddish-black tail to burst into flames.

Feeling the attack on its tail, the Flame Rat spun around and shook itself, instantly extinguishing the flames. Being a fire-attribute demon beast, it was naturally unafraid of fire attacks; Song Qingming's strike had caused it no real damage.

However, Song Qingming's attack did succeed in delaying its assault on Old Ghost Feng. Taking this opportunity, Jia Sixing, who had been hiding behind, rushed to support Old Ghost Feng, and the three of them surrounded the Flame Rat from front and back.

Despite the sudden appearance of the two men, the Flame Rat showed no sign of panic. Instead, it bared its sharp, thin teeth, becoming extremely violent.

After a brief standoff, the Flame Rat launched another attack. Flames surged across its body, and its squeaking mouth spat out a cloud of black fire. After drifting through the air, the fire cloud transformed into a mass of black mist roughly five or six zhang in diameter, lunging rapidly toward Old Ghost Feng and his companions.

"Watch out! That is the Flame Rat's unique technique, the Smoke-Fire Miasma!" Old Ghost Feng shouted to Jia Sixing. He was well aware of this technique; on the way here, he had already informed Song Qingming and the other of the Flame Rat's characteristics and how to counter them.

The most difficult aspect of dealing with the Flame Rat was this Smoke-Fire Miasma. Once enveloped by the mist, a cultivator would quickly lose all sense of direction. Furthermore, the miasma contained fire poison refined within the Flame Rat's body for years; if one could not escape for a long time, the toxic mist could even blind a cultivator's eyes.

Seeing the black fire cloud approaching, the two did not dare to be careless. Jia Sixing immediately released a high-grade Gale Talisman he had prepared in advance.

A whirlwind erupted from the ground, instantly sweeping away the black fire cloud above their heads.

Wherever the gale passed, even the stones on the ground were swept clean, exposing the bare mountain surface.

A single high-grade spiritual talisman cost at least ten spirit stones. To deal with this Flame Rat, Old Ghost Feng had specifically sought out the captain, Lu Yunfei, to exchange for this high-grade talisman to give to Jia Sixing. Seizing the moment the Flame Rat released its innate miasma, Jia Sixing used the talisman to blow the mist away.

The Smoke-Fire Miasma was a natal technique refined within the Flame Rat's body for many years. To use it again, the beast would require three to five years of rest and refinement.

Deprived of this technique, the Flame Rat's supernatural power instantly dropped by twenty to thirty percent. It began to panic and, seeing the tide turning, attempted to flee back into its cave.

As it turned around, it collided straight into Song Qingming's Black Gold Shield. Holding the shield with his right hand, Song Qingming braced against the Flame Rat's hard skull, while his left hand swung the Blazing Sun Sword toward the creature's neck. Unexpectedly, the Flame Rat extended the iron claws on its forelimbs and hooked his flying sword.

Song Qingming tried to retract the sword, but it was instantly wrenched from his grasp and slammed into the ground by the Flame Rat's paw. The impact left Song Qingming's left hand numb, and he was knocked several steps back by the force.

Even without using magic, a high-grade demon beast possessed an incredibly tough physical body. Had Song Qingming not practiced the Jade Profound Scripture, giving him a much denser pool of spiritual power than an average mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator, he likely would have been knocked back, allowing the Flame Rat to escape into its cave.

Once the beast entered its cave, even with the three of them working together, the cramped space would make it difficult to use their techniques. Relying on the terrain, the Flame Rat could easily escape even if it were outmatched. If that happened, their efforts would have been in vain.

Just as Song Qingming was struggling to hold his ground, Old Ghost Feng and Jia Sixing also unleashed their magic tools to attack the Flame Rat.

Jia Sixing seemed to have mastered an extraordinary footwork technique; he moved as light as a swallow, his feet appearing to tread upon purple clouds as he appeared and disappeared around the Flame Rat. Holding two short blades just over half a foot long, he continuously left bloody gashes on the creature's body.

Every time the Flame Rat attempted to retaliate, he evaded with his agile movements, infuriating the beast so much that it continuously spat flames into the air.

While Jia Sixing's attacks did not deal massive damage, they successfully drew a large portion of the Flame Rat's attention.

The primary attacker among the three remained Old Ghost Feng. With Song Qingming and Jia Sixing providing suppression, Old Ghost Feng's high-grade golden flying sword quickly severed one of the Flame Rat's tails. His White Tiger puppet also began to discharge continuous bursts of lightning, causing the Flame Rat to tremble incessantly.

Old Ghost Feng's metal-attribute cultivation techniques were second only to the rare lightning-attribute ones. His cultivation had long reached the peak of the sixth level of Qi Refinement, making his spiritual power even deeper than that of Song Qingming and Jia Sixing.

His high-grade flying sword was exceptionally sharp, and with the assistance of the White Tiger puppet, he had been able to retreat unscathed even when facing the Flame Rat alone in previous encounters.

This time, with the help of the other two and having broken the Flame Rat's most powerful technique, the Smoke-Fire Miasma, Old Ghost Feng quickly forced the beast into a continuous retreat. Whenever it tried to flee, Song Qingming and Jia Sixing would entangle it.

After a fierce battle lasting the duration of two sticks of incense, following a final, high-pitched squeal, Old Ghost Feng decisively decapitated the Flame Rat with a single sword strike. The three of them successfully concluded the battle.

After killing the Flame Rat, Old Ghost Feng cast a somewhat reluctant glance at its corpse before saying with a chuckle, "Haha, finally dealt with this monster. I shall go fetch the White Jade Flower; I leave this place to you two fellow Daoists."

(End of Chapter)