Chapter 158: Reclaiming the Wasteland

"It's the Rat People."

Rod, with his sharp eyes, spotted signs of ground collapse on the mine tunnel path ahead.

Moving closer, he found that beneath the collapsed crack lay a suddenly open space.

It was clearly the underground city area of the Rat People.

Extending his perception, he sensed this area was limited, not the super-large underground city of legend.

He could also perceive over a dozen Rat People expanding outward.

Clearly, this underground city was still under construction.

Not long ago, the Witch Dimia had driven them away; now it seemed the Rat People had no intention of keeping their promise.

They were even secretly building an underground city beneath Shi Ying Town.

"Look! I told you there was treasure!"

"What's an underground city of Rat People worth as treasure? Continue forward or go down?"

"Down!"

"Didn't you say there was a ritual seal needing to be broken?"

"You don't know. The Rat People have special techniques to prevent collapse; that's why they can keep building underground cities. Without a mage, we can only force our way through the ritual seals inside, risking collapse. Although I have certain methods, if I take the Rat People's treasure, won't I save one?"

Very good.

Very fitting for Naga's greedy nature.

Truly a wise race that would pick a pocket even when just passing by.

Rod couldn't let this group of fellows cause chaos underground beneath Shi Ying Town either.

"We sneak down and eliminate them one by one,"

this land-dwelling Naga suggested.

Rod shook his head.

"Why make it so troublesome?"

Having spoken,

he leaped down through the crack.

Boom!!

He landed in a horse stance.

A huge curtain of dust rose up, centered on him.

The Rat People noticed the commotion, turned their heads, saw a human, and were instantly terrified.

They chattered endlessly.

Rod didn't understand a single word and had no desire to.

He drew a single-handed sword emitting dazzling Jin Guang, swinging it like lightning.

A sharp blue sword wave broke through the blade, accompanied by a piercing shriek with a trailing long tone, flashing through the air.

Squeak—

In an instant, it sliced a Rat Person's body in half.

Blood and entrails immediately scattered all over the ground.

【Screaming Sword Wave】.

This skill reminded Rod of the sword qi seen in martial arts TV dramas.

He very much liked this ethereal feeling.

Just standing still, he could kill enemies from a distance.

Squeak—

Squeak—

Squeak—

Continuously, blue sword waves flew out rapidly.

In no time, all the Rat Person laborers were killed.

Immediately, he looked around, beginning to search for treasure fluctuations continuously emitting spiritual or magical energy.

"Techniques to prevent collapse aren't necessarily treasure,"

Eve said.

Just now, she had fixed a rope above to allow the two of them to return smoothly.

She didn't expect that in no time, the Rat People below were all dead.

She wasn't surprised either.

This fellow was terrifyingly strong; absolutely do not regard him as an ordinary sixth-order.

Quickly,

the two discovered a slight anomaly in the soil at the central position.

Just as they were about to move forward,

intense spiritual fluctuations came from the side.

Eve had no time to dodge in time and was about to activate the magic ring in her hand.

A large hand grabbed her waist, pulling her behind him.

Gazing at that towering back, she couldn't help but be dazed for a moment.

Bang!

A green spiritual arrow struck this new owner's sword, exploding into a cloud of green poison mist.

"It's poisonous. You can handle it, right?"

She came back to her senses, immediately pulled out a bottle of potion and handed it over.

Rod smiled.

"What I mean is, can you handle the venom yourself? I'm not afraid of it."

"Looking down on me?" Eve was a little displeased that her kindness had gone unrewarded. "I've already learned 【Toxic Spray】—how could something this small possibly—"

As she spoke, her expression changed slightly.

She hurriedly downed the antidote potion.

"Something's off. The poison mist is really strong; I'm actually reacting to it. You sure you don't need it?"

Although inhaling the poison mist wouldn't cause much real harm—at most a brief numbness—the Naga Princess greatly valued her life.

Rod, however, turned his head with an ambiguous expression.

"You're saying you know 【Toxic Spray】?"

"Yes, what of it?"

"New condition for the bet: if you don't have it, you'll have to keep using 【Toxic Spray】 while you eat."

"."

Hiss hiss hiss!

The spiritual arrows came again.

This time it was a multi-shot.

Rod merely swung his arm, and the arrows flying in one after another were sliced apart in succession.

"Interesting, human."

From midair came a low, hoarse voice.

He looked up.

It was a ratman slightly larger than the reclamation laborers, clad in a pale-green leather cuirass, a hard bow in his hand with fine engravings and brimming with powerful spirituality.

By now he had already drawn the bowstring fully, aiming at Rod.

Curiously, what was nocked on the bow was not an arrow, but a rusted iron sword.

It too carried no small spirituality.

"See how you handle this!!"

A spiritual pressure at the high stage of the sixth tier slammed down brazenly!

The moment it was unleashed, the spiraling wind pressure instantly kicked up a massive cloud of dust.

Twang!

The rusted sword left the string.

Rod was not afraid in the slightest; he raised his sword to meet it.

Clang!!!

【Sharpness Judgment Triggered】

【'Sacrifice Sword' Sharpness: 45】

【'Starfire Lei Ting (Damaged)' Sharpness: 68】

【Result: Failure!】

Crack!

The gold-gradient blade immediately split open with a large notch.

"Oh?"

Immediately following came a tremendous boom, kicking up a huge blast wave across the ground.

It engulfed Rod in an instant.

The bowman ratman rode the blast wave and landed on a jutting rock not far away.

"Heh, laughable human, daring to clash head-on with my divine arrow."

His expression was contemptuous; he had already pronounced the verdict on this battle.

He then looked at the rope hanging down from the cave ceiling and let out a long sigh.

"If not for the mishap in the Ruined City, why would we have to take such risks and make our lair here."

At that thought, he looked at the ratman corpses chopped into pieces.

He immediately felt irritated again.

"Damn it all—chopped up like this, how am I supposed to bring them back and eat them?"

Having thought this, he was about to descend.

Then he saw an arc streak upward out of the dust about to settle not far away.

Immediately following came a blue slash-wave hurtling toward him with a piercing shriek!

Squeak—

The ratman was scared out of his wits, tumbling backward in panicked disarray.

But he was standing on a lone rock with no path behind him at all, so he went rolling and tumbling down to the ground in a sorry heap.

He then felt a searing pain across his back—his flesh had clearly been sliced open.

"Impossible?! A mere beginner-stage sixth tier!"

He looked up, his soul still unsettled.

Only to find that the human had already vanished.

He hurriedly released his perception.

"There!"

Thwip!

He raised his hand and loosed an arrow.

"Has anyone ever told you that the way you talk to yourself is pretty dumb?"

The voice suddenly came from right by his ear.

The rat-man whipped his head around in panic, only to see the gold sword with the chipped notch already raised high, about to fall the next instant.

His face went vicious; with a vicious grit of his teeth he didn't bother blocking, and rapidly drew back the bowstring.

Come on!

Die together!

It was clearly a stance of dragging Rod down with him to the grave.

But rat-men were born cowardly, and had never been able to produce any decent warriors — let alone a bowman like the one before them?

As if toying with him.

By the time the spiritual nature of 【Multi-Shot】 was fully unleashed—

That gold sword still hadn't fallen.

And just as the rat-man's face broke into delighted surprise, he watched the three spiritual arrows fired point-blank touch the other's skin, then snap apart layer by layer, not even leaving a white mark!?

"What—"

Thwack—

The gold sword fell, splitting him in two.

(End of chapter)