Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Chapter 294 Tangyuan (Sweet Rice Balls)

The city lord's mansion had been completely reduced to ruins after the battle.

The once magnificent pavilions and towers have been completely destroyed.

Within a radius of a hundred feet, there was no longer a single intact building; only broken walls and lingering blood mist swirling in the wind.

The remaining disciples of Xuan Yin Zhai have long since disappeared.

Chen Mo stopped in his tracks as soon as he stepped out of the City Lord's Mansion area.

A monster the size of a small mountain blocked his path on the street ahead.

This monster has a human face and a rat's body.

Her face was that of an old woman, her skin like the bark of a thousand-year-old tree, covered with age spots and wart-like protrusions.

Sparse white hair hung down from the top of his head, fluttering gently in the wind.

Beneath the face was a bloated rat-like body.

Its gray-black fur is rough and thick, with a row of uneven bone spurs growing on its back.

Its limbs are short and thick, and its claws are sharp as hooks, deeply embedded in the yellow mud of the ground.

Around it crouched dozens of monsters with human bodies and rat faces, some male, some female, some old, some young.

Those monsters were only the size of an ordinary person, with hunched backs, and some even wore the red flowers of Chang Le City.

The flowers had withered, their petals charred black, as if they had been burned.

Rat Granny?

Why is this monster blocking its own way?

Chen Mo frowned slightly, his right hand already touching the pole of the merit banner.

The shadows beneath my feet began to churn, ready to erupt at any moment.

Unexpectedly, the rat-like old woman did not show any malice. Instead, she extended her front paws and bowed to him.

The monsters around them also bowed their hands, adopting a fawning posture.

Chen Mo remained vigilant, but also didn't act immediately: "What is it?"

"Gurgle~"

The old demon rat turned around and walked towards the back.

After walking a few steps, she turned back to look at him again, gesturing for him to walk together.

Chen Mo hesitated for a few moments, then followed at a distance.

The man and the rat walked through the dilapidated streets of Chang Le City, exited through the collapsed city gate, and walked for about half an hour along a weed-covered path.

A low hill appeared ahead, and at the foot of the hill was a dark cave entrance, which looked like a naturally formed cave.

The cave entrance was surrounded by moss and ferns, a stark contrast to the desolation within Chang Le City.

The old woman stopped at the entrance of the hole, pointed inside, and then crawled in first.

Ok?

Chen Mo stopped outside, scanned the inside with his divine sense, and only entered after finding nothing unusual.

The cave was surprisingly dry and clean, and the passageway was wide enough to accommodate the bloated rat's body.

After walking several dozen steps, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a fairly large underground cave.

Several pieces of glowing minerals were embedded in the cave wall, emitting a soft fluorescent light.

On one side of the cave, some dry grass and soft moss were piled up, forming a simple nest.

Inside the nest, a baby mouse was curled up.

It is only the size of an adult's fist, and its body is black and white, like a miniature panda cub.

It looks like a hamster, except that its ears are pointed and its tail is twice as long as that of a regular hamster, and it is thin and soft, curled up on its side.

Chen Mo looked down at the little thing, his eyebrows slightly raised.

The old mouse squatted by the nest and gently touched the baby mouse's body with the back of its hooked claws.

The movement was surprisingly light, a stark contrast to the thick, sharp claws.

The baby mouse was awakened, and groggily opened its eyes. It first looked at the old mouse, then tilted its head, curiously examining Chen Mo.

After watching for a few seconds, it climbed out of the haystack, sniffed in Chen Mo's direction, and sneezed slightly.

The old woman mouse stretched out her forelegs and gently pushed the baby mouse to Chen Mo's feet.

"What do you mean?"

Chen Mo glanced at the little guy looking up at him, pondered for a moment, and then turned to look at the old woman.

"Gurgle."

The old mouse squeaked and used its claws as pens to scratch the ground, leaving marks.

He quickly sketched a simple picture.

A large rat pushes a small rat toward a human-shaped object.

A cross was drawn next to the big rat, indicating that it cannot leave.

A smiley face was drawn next to the little mouse.

After finishing the drawing, it pointed to the black and white baby mouse and made a gesture as if to take it away.

"Your descendants?"

The old woman rat nodded, then shook her head, and began to gesture with her two sharp claws.

Unfortunately, after all that effort, Chen Mo still couldn't understand what it was saying.

After gesturing, the other person looked at Chen Mo with anticipation.

In his dim, yellowish eyes, the shrewdness and cunning of before were gone, replaced only by a humble plea.

The young mouse seemed to sense the old demon rat's emotions, and ran back to Chen Mo's side from his feet, climbing up his paws to his shoulder.

It rubbed its little head against the old woman's wrinkled face, making a soft "squeak" sound.

The old woman gently stroked the baby mouse's back with her paw and pushed it back to Chen Mo's feet.

This time, it left two crooked characters on the ground, barely legible: "Take away".

"Forget it, I have no interest in being its foster father."

Chen Mo shook his head without hesitation: "You should find someone else."

The old woman stood there, stunned, seemingly not expecting such a response.

Its sharp claws scratched the ground a few more times, trying to write something more to move Chen Mo.

But even with its claws hovering in mid-air for a long time, it couldn't write a single word.

It offers too little.

Having lived in the Ghost Realm for so many years, all I've accumulated is some junk.

Those items might fetch some money if given to an ordinary cultivator, but this person in front of him probably wouldn't even look at them.

The only thing we could offer was that baby mouse.

But they don't want it.

The old mouse squatted at the entrance of the hole, its head drooping, its gray-black fur appearing dull and lifeless in the firefly light.

The baby mouse seemed to sense her disappointment and ran over to rub its head against her big paws, as if trying to comfort her.

Chen Mo stood to the side, hands behind his back, watching the old man and the young man with a blank expression.

So many people have entered the Ghost Realm, why doesn't this Rat Woman go find them?

Why did it have to come to me?

He's not a soft-hearted person. With such a burden, having to take care of his every need, from food and drink to toileting, how could he possibly have the time to spare?

"Farewell." Chen Mo turned and walked towards the cave entrance.

A hint of anxiety flashed in the old woman's eyes, and she stretched out her forelegs and grabbed the hem of his clothes.

With its other claw, it quickly wrote on the ground: "Wait, I have something else."

Chen Mo looked down at the claws gripping his clothes, then saw the words on the ground and stopped in his tracks.

Could this guy really be hiding something good?

The old woman loosened the corner of her clothes and pointed her forelegs to a narrow passage deep in the cave, signaling him to follow.

One person and two rats traversed the narrow passage deep within the cave, winding and turning for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

The passageway widened as we walked, and the air grew increasingly humid, with the faint sound of dripping water audible.

At the end of the passage was another stone chamber.

This stone chamber is much smaller than the previous one, only about the size of a room.

Unlike other caves, this cave has a natural opening in the dome, allowing sunlight to shine down at an angle and cast a shadow in the center.

In the very center of the stone chamber, there is a pool.

The pool wasn't big, only about the width of a washbasin, and its walls were made of bluish-white stones.

The water in the pool was crystal clear, and you could see a seed lying quietly at the bottom.

The seeds are about the size of a thumb, dark brown in color, and covered with patterns on their surface.

There was a strange vitality hidden inside, but it was well concealed.

If it weren't for his exceptional mental strength, he really wouldn't have been able to discover it.

What caught Chen Mo's attention was that several roots had already grown from one end of the seed.

The roots are as thin as hair and as white as snow.

It was exactly the same as the roots that Gu Yunzhou had manipulated before, only shrunk by countless times.

Chen Mo squatted by the pool and reached his hand into the water.

The water was cool, with a slightly sweet smell, and contained no spiritual energy fluctuations; it was just ordinary spring water.

"What are these? The seeds of the sacred flower?"

The demonic rat crouched beside him, carving words on the ground with its claws.

"Another mother variety of the sacred flower."

After carving these words, it continued to carve: "There are two mother plants. Only after one withers and dies can the other have a chance to sprout."

Chen Mo's brow furrowed: "The one that withered was the one Gu Yunzhou used?"

The old woman nodded.

What is the connection between them?

It continued writing with its claws, the ground rustling: "For some reason, only one sacred flower is allowed to survive in this space."

Chen Mo stared at the line of words for two breaths, then turned to look at the spirit seed at the bottom of the pool.

This thing looks ordinary, but I never expected it to have such a big background.

Is the spirit hiding itself?

"But what's the use of it? I don't practice corpse dissection techniques."

Chen Mo straightened up, patted the water droplets off his hands, and spoke with a nonchalant tone.

He had absolutely no interest in Gu Yunzhou's unorthodox technique of merging himself into the flower.

If what grows from these seeds is that kind of thing, it's better not to have them at all.

The old woman rat shook her head hurriedly, her sharp claws slicing rapidly across the ground.

"It's not a corpse dissection method; the sacred flower absorbs essence and blood to produce spiritual liquid."

"The elixir can prolong life."

"It can also assist in breaking through realms."

Now it was Chen Mo's turn to be stunned.

Prolonging life?

The value of this thing goes without saying.

Moreover, it can also assist in breaking through realms. The combination of these two effects is enough to drive those old monsters who have been stuck at their bottlenecks for many years crazy.

He looked down at the seed at the bottom of the pool, quickly calculating in his mind.

I just don't know what the growing conditions are like for this thing.

If you're too demanding, then it's like a chicken rib – useless.

Seemingly sensing Chen Mo's question, the old woman used her forelimbs to gesture towards her chest, indicating that she needed to be nourished with blood.

"How long will it take to nourish it with blood?"

It held up one finger.

"A month?"

The other party nodded.

"Would it be alright to use someone else's blood essence?"

The old woman's sharp claws paused on the ground for a moment before she continued writing: "That's fine, but the first time you need to use your own blood to make it recognize you as its master."

Chen Mo raised an eyebrow slightly. Recognizing a master?

Many high-level spiritual plants require watering with essence blood at the beginning of their cultivation to establish a certain connection between the seed and the cultivator.

Once grown up in this way, one can always be aware of the other person's condition.

"After recognizing a master, can one use other people's essence and blood to nourish oneself?"

It nodded, then added a line: "Yes, if you die, it will wither away too."

Chen Mo pondered for a moment, his expression constantly changing.

The demon rat squatted to the side, staring at him intently, not daring to make a sound to disturb him.

The baby mouse also looked up at Chen Mo, its bright black eyes full of curiosity, wondering what this human was struggling with.

After ten breaths, he finally spoke.

"One last question, why did you choose me?"

Chen Mo looked at the old woman with a calm and composed gaze.

He was about to ask that question earlier.

He wasn't the only outsider to enter the Ghost Realm. Yin Sutang from the White Bone Cave, along with that group of feng shui masters, numbered at least a dozen people.

Why did the Rat Woman target him instead of everyone else?

Its claws continued to carve into the ground, "The magic within you is very pure."

"Those outsiders are all corrupted, their magic is mixed, and they are full of malevolence."

"Yours is different. Although your magic is also of the Yin and Cold path, it is very pure."

"Like mountain spring water, not a stinking ditch."

Chen Mo's lips twitched slightly, unsure whether to laugh or scold.

"She's still young and needs clean spiritual energy to nurture her. If she follows those people, it will be a waste of her talent."

Chen Mo looked down at the little guy squatting at his feet.

Its black and white fur is soft and fluffy, and its eyes are black and bright, making it more intelligent than ordinary mice.

"So you're after my spiritual power? Not because I killed Gu Yunzhou?"

The old woman nodded and added another line of text on the ground: "Killing Gu Yunzhou proves you are strong enough, and your spiritual power is pure, which means you are suitable to raise it."

I want both.

"Alright, deal."

Chen Mo no longer refused and took out an ebony box from his storage space.

The red flower seed inside, which had been taken from the tailor shop, had now completely withered.

The petals were charred and curled, crumbling into powder at the slightest touch.

He poured the withered seeds out of the box and scooped out the mother plant from the pond.

Chen Mo was slightly taken aback when he got his hands on the seeds.

There was no spiritual energy fluctuation, not even a faint aura.

If you threw it into a pile of pebbles, no one would recognize it as a seed of a spiritual plant.

Chen Mo looked at it over and over again. If he hadn't sensed the vitality inside earlier, he would have really suspected that the old woman had just given him an ordinary fruit pit to fool him.

"this one?"

The old woman nodded and carved words on the ground: "Before recognizing its master, it is just an ordinary seed. Only after recognizing its master can you sense its extraordinary nature."

Chen Mo suspiciously bit his fingertip and dripped a drop of blood onto it.

The moment the blood fell on the seed's surface, the dark brown seed coat suddenly glowed with a dark red light.

A few breaths later, the light faded, and the seed returned to calm.

But he could sense that there was a faint connection between himself and the spirit seed.

Seeing this, the old woman with the rat's face gave a stiff smile and carved on the ground, "Your blood has recognized its master; from now on, use..."

"Other people's blood will also be fine."

"It knows who its owner is."

"Okay, but what's this little thing called?"

Chen Mo put the wooden box into his storage space and looked down at the baby mouse crouching at his feet.

The old demon rat crouched on the ground and used its sharp claws to carve out two words: "Tuan Tuan".

Chen Mo's lips twitched slightly.

"Tuantuan? Too ordinary, looks like a ball of yarn."

When the baby mouse heard the words "ball of yarn," its ears twitched, seemingly dissatisfied.

"Let's call it Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls). It's black and white, like sesame Tangyuan."

It tilted its head, its bright black eyes filled with confusion, clearly not knowing what tangyuan were.

Seemingly sensing the casualness in Chen Mo's tone, it wagged its tail behind it, as if to say: Whatever, whatever makes you happy.

As the old woman watched this scene, a hint of relief flashed in her dim eyes. She then carved another line of words on the ground: "Tangyuan, a good name."

Chen Mo bent down and stretched out his right hand to the little guy squatting at his feet. "Let's go."

Tangyuan hesitated for a moment, then crawled up his fingers onto his palm.

Its body is as light as a ball of cotton, and its fur is soft and warm.

Seemingly sensing that parting was imminent, a thin layer of mist appeared over his bright black eyes.

Its whole body was curled up into a round, fluffy ball, with only its ears still sticking out and twitching, occasionally making a soft "squeak" sound.

Chen Mo straightened up, held the glutinous rice ball in his palm, and looked at the old woman.

"I'm leaving now, but I'll bring it to see you when I have time."

The old demon rat nodded vigorously, a light shining in its murky yellow eyes.

The cave fell silent, with only the sunlight streaming through the crack in the dome, illuminating the empty pool.

And those few lines of crooked writing by the pond.

"Go, the world outside is vast."

It gently erased the line of text with its claws, then wrote another sentence, which no one saw.

"Thank you."