Wild cultivation begins with wielding the Taiyin talisman.

The sky gradually darkened.

The village was eerily quiet. Everyone had followed Ning Che's instructions and hidden inside their houses, doors and windows tightly shut, even the dogs were chained up inside. Occasionally, a few suppressed coughs and low sobs could be heard, but they were quickly swallowed by silence again.

Ning Che opened his eyes. He had already recovered to his peak condition, but unfortunately, Taiyin was nowhere to be seen.

The world was shrouded in darkness. He stood up, stretched the joints of his left hand, then drew the knife and held it in his hand.

The story of "Six Ears Listening to the Moon" unfolds once again.

The activity underground has changed.

The rustling sounds were no longer aimless wanderings, but began to converge in a certain direction. Like the brief silence before the tide recedes, and then—

From the direction of the granary, there was the sound of loose soil.

Ning Che has arrived.

He stood at the entrance of the granary, a knife held horizontally beside him, his breathing steady.

When the first rat demon emerged from its burrow, Ning Che acted almost without hesitation.

It was indeed as big as a cat, with glossy gray-brown fur and eyes that gleamed with an eerie green light in the darkness. Its mouth was open, revealing two rows of fine, sharp teeth, with stringy mucus between them.

A flash of light.

The rat demon's head remained open, its body having already lurched forward half a step before collapsing limply to the ground. Blood splattered on the muddy ground, emitting a pungent stench.

The second one rushed out immediately after, twice as fast as the first. It didn't go through the same hole, but darted out from another hole at the base of the wall, heading straight for Ning Che's right side, towards the empty sleeve.

He has some cleverness.

But the snow was already falling heavily.

The leaping rat demon collided with a sudden gust of wind and snow. Before it could react, its entire body was cleaved in two. Blood congealed on the remains, making the severed surfaces glow a bewitching red in the moonlight.

The third one didn't rush out.

Ning Che heard it scurrying back and forth underground, seemingly hesitant. At the same time, a large number of ordinary rats began to pour out from various holes, a dark mass, as if driven by something.

It wanted to use the rats as cover.

Ning Che did not retreat. He took a deep breath, channeled his spiritual energy into his left arm, and then slashed the ground with his sword.

It's not a slash, it's a shock.

The spiritual energy flowed through the blade into the ground, causing the soil within a two-zhang radius to tremble violently. The rats that had surged out were shaken senseless and scattered in all directions. Meanwhile, underground, a third rat demon let out a sharp squeak and was jolted out of its hole.

Ning Che stepped forward and nailed him to the ground with a single blow.

Three.

He looked up and waited for the fourth one.

Six Ears Listening to the Moon told him that the fourth one was still underground. But its location was shifting, not towards the granary, but towards—

In the center of the village.

Ning Che's pupils contracted, and he turned and ran.

It didn't intend to confront him directly, but instead bypassed him and headed straight for the villagers hiding in the houses.

Ning Che ran at full speed, the wind rushing past his ears. He heard a rumbling sound coming from the ground of a house ahead, as if the soil was being pushed aside from below.

almost.

He climbed over a low wall, and the moment he landed, he saw—in front of the house in the center of the village where patients were housed, the ground was rising, and clods of mud were rolling down.

Then, a rat much larger than the previous three crawled out from underground.

It was about the size of a small dog, and its fur wasn't grayish-brown, but a sickly dark purple. What alarmed Ning Che most were its eyes—not a ghostly green, but a murky dark red, carrying a kind of intelligence that didn't belong to ordinary rat demons.

It was actually an eighth-rank skill. Ning Che hadn't noticed anything amiss when he used Six Ears Listening to the Moon earlier.

It glanced at Ning Che, then grinned, revealing its teeth.

That expression could almost be described as a smile.

Then it opened its mouth, and a cloud of black mist spewed out, drilling into the crack of the door to the room.

As Ning Che smiled, he opened his mouth, and the golden sword energy, trailing frost, burst forth.

But the rat demon reacted incredibly quickly, its body lowering and glowing yellow, as if it were about to burrow into the ground.

Its movements suddenly froze.

Ning Che had already plunged his sword into the ground and was channeling his mana without regard for the cost, causing the freeze to spread rapidly.

At the last moment, it dodged to the side, and the sword energy grazed its abdomen, leaving a gap the size of half a palm.

At the same time, terrified screams came from inside the house.

Ning Che didn't chase after the rat demon. Instead, he rushed to the door, kicked it open, and forced most of the black mist that was still pouring in to dissipate.

The patient inside the house and the two villagers who were taking care of them were trembling with fear, but there were no new casualties for the time being.

Ning Che turned around.

The dark purple rat demon crouched on the rooftop ten steps away, staring at him with its dark red eyes.

It "chuckled" again, then spoke. The voice was hoarse and shrill, like metal scraping against a stone slab, but every word was clearly audible:

"The mountain guardian...can he kill me with just one hand?"

Ning Che immediately became more vigilant.

It can speak human language, so it is obviously not an ordinary eighth-rank rat demon.

He thought of the four-eyed rat demon in the rat swamp, and slightly adjusted his position to completely block the door of the room behind him.

Of course, in a one-on-one fight, even if this one were stronger than the four-eyed rat demon, he wouldn't be afraid. This was just necessary caution, in case it had any cunning tricks up its sleeve.

A dark purple rat demon squatted on the roof, its tail swishing leisurely like a cat sunbathing. It tilted its head, scrutinizing Ning Che; its dark red eyes held no murderous intent, but rather a scrutinizing interest.

"Don't be nervous." It spoke again, its voice still shrill, but its tone softened. "If I want to kill, I don't need to come myself. Once the poisonous fog is poured in, no one in this room will survive."

Ning Che didn't reply, but the energy of his Lung-Gold Sword was already about to burst forth.

The rat demon seemed unconcerned by his wariness and continued speaking to himself: "You killed three of my men, and I'm not angry. Those three idiots couldn't even beat a ninth-rank official; their deaths were just a waste of food."

It jumped off the roof and landed on the ground, about seven steps away from Ning Che.

"I'm not like those fools in the Rat Swamp who are being used as pawns." The Rat Demon's tone was clearly contemptuous. "They're trapped in that muddy mess, being used as watchdogs, and they think they're living a respectable life. How laughable."

Ning Che's eyes flickered slightly.

This demon did indeed have some connection with the Rat Swamp, but it was different from what he had imagined. It seemed that they were on different paths and could not work together, and his tone was quite disdainful.

"I am here to pledge allegiance to the Demon Lord," the rat demon said, his voice filled with an almost devout fervor. "The Demon Lord is about to return, and when he does, the world will be turned upside down, and the order between humans and demons will be rewritten—"

It's the Demon Lord again...

Ning Che unconsciously stroked the Crescent Moon Blade, his expression remaining unchanged.

"So you came to this village, killing and poisoning people, just to pave the way for your so-called demon lord's envoy?"

"Paving the road?" The rat demon scoffed. "No, that was just a side job. I came here because of you."