I Have 10 Equipment Slots-Chapter 134 - 102: You Made Me Do This

Hm?

"What’s going on?" Gu Zheng asked impassively.

"This..."

Chen Donghe was also a bit dumbfounded. He reached out and poked the pocket-sized rat, whispering, "Treasure, don’t sleep yet. I’ll let you sleep all you want after we find the Demon Fiend. Treasure? Treasure?"

The pocket-sized rat remained motionless, as if it were dead.

Seeing this, Tang Jingtiao, Xu Heng, and Liang Tianpeng looked at one another in confusion.

"Ahem."

Liang Tianpeng, feeling awkward as well, bowed to Gu Zheng and explained, "It wasn’t like this before. This Silver Rat is usually perfectly fine at Demon Hunting, and very efficient, too."

"Then what’s wrong with it now?" Gu Zheng raised an eyebrow.

He could sense that the pocket-sized Silver Rat’s heart was still beating, and its aura hadn’t changed much. If anything, it had just become much more restrained.

"Well..." Liang Tianpeng couldn’t explain, so he had to turn and look at Chen Donghe.

Chen Donghe was at his wit’s end, both angry and anxious. His face flushed red without him even realizing it.

"You little bastard, if you keep playing dead, I’ll take away all your bean oil and never give you any again!"

"SQUEAK SQUEAK~!"

The pocket-sized rat, which had been lying motionless with stiff limbs, suddenly shot its legs into the air, flipped over, stood up straight, and began waving its front paws at Chen Donghe, squeaking incessantly.

"Phew."

Chen Donghe let out a sigh of relief.

As Tang Jingtiao, Liang Tianpeng, and the others watched this unfold, they were left speechless.

So it was just playing dead?

Gu Zheng also found it amusing. ’This little rat is quite intelligent.’

Although it wasn’t a Spirit Beast yet—its aura was a far cry from Pang Hu’s—it could transform into one at any moment.

Exotic Beasts existed even before the Celestial Change.

They were just incredibly rare.

After the Celestial Change, Exotic Beasts began to appear more frequently, but finding and taming one was still no easy task.

Chen Donghe’s pocket-sized rat, with its ability to find Demon Fiends, was a particularly outstanding example.

’It probably wasn’t just playing dead earlier. It was frightened.’

’The Meatball Demon Fiend is a second-rank Demon Fiend. It’s no wonder the little rat was scared stiff smelling its aura for the first time.’

...

"Alright, alright, you can still have your bean oil, but you can’t just play dead whenever you feel like it. Got it?"

Chen Donghe sighed and poked the pocket-sized rat.

"SQUEAK SQUEAK~!"

The pocket-sized rat swatted Chen Donghe’s finger away with its paws, hopped twice on the spot in a huff, and gave its body a shake.

"SQUEAK~ SQUEAK~ SQUEAK!"

"...Fine, it’s all yours, all of it." Chen Donghe promised, concluding his negotiations with the tiny rat. "Now, it’s time to get to work."

"SQUEAK!"

The pocket-sized rat raised its head and nodded vigorously. Then, it cautiously approached the Meatball Demon Fiend’s aura, its small eyes wide and unblinking, its body trembling slightly.

Suppressing its fear with all its might, it finished sensing the aura, then lifted its head and sniffed hard at the empty air in all directions.

The next moment, it whipped its head toward Gu Zheng. "Squeak~"

"Correct. I still have a few wisps of the same aura on my hands." Gu Zheng opened his palm, showing it to Tang Jingtiao, Xu Heng, Chen Donghe, and the other two men.

"Ahem."

Chen Donghe, embarrassed, poked the pocket-sized rat. "Not here. Is there any of this Demon Fiend’s aura anywhere else?"

"SQUEAK SQUEAK!"

The pocket-sized rat batted away Chen Donghe’s finger with a paw, then leaped gracefully to the ground.

It then quickly scurried up a nearby tree, standing first on a branch, then at the very top, sniffing vigorously at the air.

After a moment, it let out a "squeak" and took off, running north.

"It found it!"

Chen Donghe said excitedly, "Lord Gu, Silver Treasure has found the second-rank Demon Fiend! We just need to follow it."

"Good."

Gu Zheng’s expression turned serious. As he responded and followed the pocket-sized rat, a thought crossed his mind.

’So it’s actually still alive!’

SWISH!

WHOOSH~ WHOOSH~

Gu Zheng was in the lead, with Xu Heng, Liang Tianpeng, and the other three men behind him.

The group of six chased the pocket-sized rat, rushing north along the mountain path.

Every so often, the pocket-sized rat at the front would stop, sniff the air for a moment, and then continue onward.

The chase continued until they had crossed the border of Xuanhe County and entered the territory of Divine Water County.

Upon entering Divine Water County, the pocket-sized rat suddenly accelerated, darting forward like a silver streak.

Gu Zheng kept pace with ease.

Tang Jingtiao, Xu Heng, and the other three were not having such an easy time. Each of them had to erupt with their Divine Wondrous abilities and break into a sprint just to keep from being left behind.

The group of six crossed two mountain peaks.

The pocket-sized rat running up ahead suddenly stopped.

"SQUEAK SQUEAK~!"

The little rat stood upright on a rock on the ridge, its paws gesturing rapidly toward a town hidden among the mountains ahead.

"Silver Treasure says we’re here."

Chen Donghe wore a solemn expression as he said in a low voice, "That second-rank Demon Fiend is in the town just a few hundred meters away."

"Good."

Gu Zheng nodded in thanks. "You all wait here. I’ll go and take care of it."

"Yes, sir!" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Chen Donghe, Tang Jingtiao, Xu Heng, and the other two men quickly bowed and answered in unison.

"Be careful, my lord!"

Gu Zheng nodded, then pushed off the tips of his toes, his figure flitting away. In just a few flashes, he was at the entrance to the town.

The moment he stepped inside, Gu Zheng sensed a peculiar energy permeating the air.

But there wasn’t a single person on the main street.

The surroundings were eerily quiet; not even the chirp of an insect or the call of a bird could be heard.

The stench of blood, however, was thick in the air, though not a single corpse was in sight.

Gu Zheng concealed his aura and lifted off the ground, floating in mid-air. He moved slowly, following the peculiar energy to the center of the town, where he stood before the main gate of a large hall and finally saw his target.

Corpses!

The spacious courtyard and the interior of the grand hall were filled with piles of bodies.

A rough estimate put the number at nearly a thousand.

A dark, arm-thick tentacle pierced through each and every corpse.

The tentacles twitched and pulsed, as if breathing, siphoning the essence and nutrients from the bodies.