Chapter 3

The secret that Ye Zhen could understand the language of beasts was discovered by him a few months ago.

Ye Zhen himself didn't know how it happened, but on a certain day a few months ago, after his evening practice, he felt his cultivation progress was slow, which made him anxious and unable to sleep. So he went to a nearby hill to clear his mind.

While deep in thought, he suddenly understood the chirping of the small beasts in the forest. At first, he was greatly startled, thinking there might be something wrong with his ears.

After carefully studying and pondering for a few days, Ye Zhen confirmed this fact—he could understand the language of beasts.

Whether it was the squeaking of mountain rats, the grunting of wild boars, or even the roaring of tigers, as long as Ye Zhen focused, he could understand their meanings.

At first, when Ye Zhen discovered he could understand the language of beasts, he just found it amusing.

Whenever he felt frustrated and irritable due to slow cultivation progress, he would calm down and listen to the sounds of nearby rats, mountain cats, foxes, and even snakes.

The silly meanings they expressed were quite amusing, always making Ye Zhen feel more relaxed.

However, half a month ago, when Ye Zhen was feeling frustrated and came to this hill, he overheard a conversation between a pair of rat brothers living under the rocks, which gave him an idea.

He suddenly realized that this amusing little secret might really bring him something.

Every night at this time, Ye Zhen would come to this hill and always hear the rat brothers discussing their plans to go to a certain place for a delicious meal.

The delicious meal of the rats held no attraction for Ye Zhen, but one night, when he peeked out, he was stunned by the size of the rat brothers before they went out for their meal.

Giant rats!

Huge rats!

Over a meter long, slightly larger than a mountain cat, with a long, thick tail like a child's arm, and a pair of incisors like sharp weapons, gleaming in the moonlight.

What shocked Ye Zhen even more was that when he stepped on the entrance to the rat den, the rats actually attacked him. A branch as thick as a child's arm that Ye Zhen picked up was bitten in two by the rats.

The rats' teeth were as sharp as knives!

Ye Zhen was thoroughly shocked.

By his knowledge, the appearance of these rats was the most common, gray mountain rats, which usually grow to the size of an adult's palm at most.

But now, they had grown to nearly a meter long, looking particularly terrifying and strange.

There must be something unusual, absolutely something unusual.

After listening to the rat brothers' conversations for several days, Ye Zhen discovered that they always went to a certain place for a meal at midnight, without fail.

Ye Zhen vaguely felt that the reason these rats had grown so large might be related to the food they fought over every night.

This food might be some kind of heavenly treasure.

Only the legendary heavenly treasures could make these ordinary gray mountain rats grow so large, almost becoming fierce beasts.

Thinking of this, Ye Zhen couldn't help but be excited.

Having grown up hearing many stories of poor boys accidentally finding heavenly treasures and becoming rich overnight, or dying because of wealth, or becoming great masters overnight, Ye Zhen naturally understood the value of heavenly treasures.

Even in the Qiyun Sect, heavenly treasures were very precious, unlike the herbs used to boil Blood Essence Soup, which were grown by the miscellaneous disciples.

Ye Zhen was not foolish and naturally wanted to find this heavenly treasure by following the rats.

At the same time, this discovery made Ye Zhen realize that his ability to understand the language of beasts might really bring him extraordinary gains.

It was because of this discovery that Ye Zhen insisted on his dreams and his father's wishes when facing his parents today.

One was to persist in his childhood dream of soaring through the sky, and the other was to not let this unique secret go to waste.

After a year of cultivation in the Qiyun Sect, Ye Zhen knew that cultivation speed was not only influenced by bloodline talent but also by the availability of cultivation resources.

And now, Ye Zhen might be able to obtain cultivation resources that others did not have because of this secret.

After discovering the secret of the rat brothers, Ye Zhen would come to the rock above their den every night at midnight, listen to their voices, and then follow them.

However, the speed and agility of beasts in the forest were far beyond what Ye Zhen, a first-level Blood Cultivation practitioner, could match.

Every time he followed the rats, he would eventually lose them.

However, Ye Zhen was not stupid.

After tracking them for over ten days, Ye Zhen had roughly determined that the rat brothers' activity range was within ten miles of this rock.

Moreover, after so many days of tracking and searching, Ye Zhen had already ruled out many places, leaving only two or three directions.

Ye Zhen estimated that even if he lost them again, he could find their destination within a few days using the process of elimination.

Squeak! (Go!)

A rat call, and two giant rats with bristling fur like steel needles appeared below the rock, disappearing into the iron pine forest in a flash.

Ye Zhen moved quickly, following them.

The first part of the journey was familiar to Ye Zhen, so he didn't worry about losing them. After about a hundred breaths, the sound of the giant rat's paws on the pine needles suddenly disappeared.

Rushing to a forest hollow, Ye Zhen's expression changed; he had lost them again.

This forest hollow had many paths leading in all directions, and every time, Ye Zhen lost them here.

However, Ye Zhen was not panicked. Over the past few days, he had searched many possible directions the giant rats might have taken, and now only three directions remained unsearched.

One direction was a ten-meter-high cliff at the edge of the forest hollow, another was a stream to the left of the hollow, and the last was the towering trees inside the hollow.

The stream had already been ruled out by Jiang Cheng, as he had never found any water marks on the giant rats.

That left the cliff and the towering trees in the hollow.

Ye Zhen first looked at the towering trees in the hollow, then shook his head; it was unlikely, and the search would be too difficult.

The ten-meter-high cliff was very likely to hide a heavenly treasure, but Ye Zhen had already searched the cliff face and the area below it once, finding no trace.

After some thought, Ye Zhen found a suitable spot and began to climb down the cliff face. Today, he was well-prepared.

Ye Zhen clung to the cliff like a large spider, slowly moving, his eyes gleaming as he searched the cliff face in the moonlight.

Fortunately, with the foundation of a year of hard training in the Qiyun Sect, Ye Zhen could easily climb the cliff. Otherwise, even if he knew there was a heavenly treasure here, he could only look at the cliff in despair.

Suddenly, Ye Zhen's eyes lit up as he saw a gray-black rat paw print on a slightly protruding rock on the cliff. His expression turned to one of joy.

"Found it!"

To track the giant rats, Ye Zhen had put in a lot of effort.

He had specially prepared a type of ash that was hard to wipe off and had sprinkled it around the entrance to the rat den several days ago.

This way, whenever the giant rats stepped on the soil, they would leave gray-black paw prints.

Ye Zhen had observed that the distance the giant rats could jump was about three to four meters. Seeing this paw print, he immediately searched the area within four to five meters.

After a few breaths, Ye Zhen found a faint paw print on a patch of moss. These paw prints disappeared on a protruding rock.

After searching for a while, Ye Zhen's eyes widened as he discovered a moss-covered crevice.

Under the night sky, the moss was gray-black, and the rock crevice was black. If not for his hand slipping, Ye Zhen might not have noticed the crevice.

The crevice was not large, but it was wide enough for Ye Zhen to pass through.

The height of the giant rats was about the same as Ye Zhen's body width, so he wasn't too worried about whether he could pass through.

Carefully moving through the crevice for several dozen meters, Ye Zhen suddenly smelled a foul odor, and a natural cave large enough for a person to pass through appeared.

The scene before him instantly made Ye Zhen freeze.

At the end of the cave, a crystal-clear, almost translucent stone pillar hung, emitting a faint glow, shining like a treasure.

The tip of the stone pillar was covered in water, as if it could seep out at any moment.

Below the tip of the stone pillar, on the rock, was a small, egg-sized depression, which was empty.

Around the rock, there were bones of various wild animals.

Some were completely fossilized, some were still partially decayed, and there was a snake and a fox, both relatively fresh, as if they had died only a few days ago.

However, without exception, the snake and fox were covered with marks from the rats' teeth.

At that moment, the two giant rats that Ye Zhen had lost were extending their short, red tongues, fully focused on waiting for the water to seep out from the tip of the crystal-clear stone pillar.

The sound of Ye Zhen stepping on the animal bones instantly startled the two giant rats waiting for the stone liquid to drip.

The two giant rats instantly turned, their tails lashing like whips, their sharp incisors bared, and their red eyes fixed on Ye Zhen.

Squeak!

In the piercing rat call, the two giant rats leaped into the air, their sharp incisors bared, and attacked Jiang Cheng from both sides.