Chapter 11: The Big Rat

Faced with this heavenly might from nature, even Baichuan was powerless.

He could only curl up in the tree hollow and quietly watch.

In the end, he was still not strong enough.

Heaven's will does not follow human wishes; this rain continued for a full day and night, only easing up in the middle of the night.

But after resting for a day, Baichuan looked up at the sky and found it still gloomy, with thunder rumbling from time to time.

Moreover, the forked tongue he flicked out could still sense the extremely moist vapor in the air.

All of this indicated that the rain would probably continue.

Knowing that this break in the rain might be the only chance to go out for the time being, Baichuan also left the tree hollow and headed toward the ground.

Of course, it could no longer really be called the ground now, because after a day and night of rain, a layer of water over ten centimeters deep had already accumulated on the ground.

This amount of water was already extremely exaggerated; one must know this was not a city where humans lived in his previous life, where flooding was mostly caused by drainage systems being too old and unable to cope.

Fortunately, the impact on Baichuan was still not too great.

In the darkness of night, Baichuan moved along following the flow of the water.

At this moment, perhaps influenced by the heavy rain, animals sharing Baichuan's idea were not few.

So tonight's forest was extremely lively—lorises ambushing sleeping lizards, porcupines stealing jackfruit, Xinia catching snakes to feed their chicks, mongooses hunting scorpions…

Along the way, at the edge of his territory, Baichuan saw a massive, thick python of the same kind slither past, as well as an extremely agile black leopard and others.

But the two sides merely glanced at each other and passed by; clearly the other party gave way, and no conflict arose during this time—probably because both knew how dangerous the other was.

Besides, this was his territory, and it wasn't as if there were no other prey at the moment; there was no need to fight each other to the death.

In wilderness survival, everyone avoids unnecessary combat whenever they can.

Along the way, Baichuan didn't know what other members of his kind were thinking, but at this moment he had given up hunting large prey and only ate various small snakes or Qingwa and the like.

As for why, of course it was because of his safety awareness; as everyone knows, snakes are at their weakest when eating, and if they eat too full their combat ability will drop.

So along the way, he would climb up to the treetops from time to time, and return to the ground from time to time, always picking those easy-to-swallow and quick-to-swallow prey like snakes, frogs, birds, squirrels to eat.

Everything was done to maintain his optimal state, to cope with any situation—eating until sixty to seventy percent full, a level of fullness that wouldn't make his body too bulky.

Soon, he felt he had eaten about enough.

And at this time, thunder above the heavens grew more and more frequent; bolt after bolt of lightning illuminated the entire sky, causing the forest to flicker between light and dark, like a scene from a horror movie.

The rain was probably about to start again.

And Baichuan once more set out on his journey home.

……

The next day, early morning.

The storm arrived as expected, accompanied by a gale.

Fist-sized raindrops pattered against the leaves and trunk; even though Baichuan was curled up in the tree hollow, it still had some effect.

Fortunately, this tree was big enough, and the vigilant him directly used his snake body to block the entrance.

It had to be said, having a dry and comfortable environment during a storm was truly a blessing.

Yet conditions outside were not good; faintly, he heard wails and screams rising and falling amid the storm outside.

Afternoon

"Squeak… squeak……"

Baichuan suddenly heard a faint cry coming; in this cry he could even detect a hint of emotion—the sound of relief after escaping danger.

What was this?

Somewhat puzzled, he drew his body in; the cry was so human-like that he couldn't help but grow curious, wanting to check whether it was his own illusion.

He poked his head out and looked outside the hollow, only to find that the water level outside had already exceeded half the height of the tree he was in.

And at this time, just above the water surface below, a large rat had appeared, gripping the trunk tightly, its entire body of fur soaked, shivering in the howling wind.

It was also occasionally struck hard on the body by fist-sized raindrops, yet even so, it did not let out a single wail.

This discovery made him feel both startled and amused, and of course also a hint of pleasant surprise.

What startled him was that the water level had risen this high? It could already be said to be close to half the height of his tree hollow.

What amused him was the rat's pitiful expression and posture, which he found hard not to laugh at.

Speaking of which, this was the first time he had discovered that takeout could actually deliver itself right to his door.

But as the saying goes, a gift from heaven cannot be refused.

Since the heavens had delivered food right to his door, how could he, Baichuan, waste the heavens' kindness and let this plump, large rat go?

He had just been feeling that he hadn't eaten quite enough.

So he stretched out his head and reached downward.

"Squeak～?! Squeak——"

But this move of his startled the rat below into a fright; its front claws nearly slipped and let it fall, then it hurriedly gripped again, letting out the most pitiful wail of its life.

If it weren't currently soaked all over, Baichuan felt this rat could even perform a full-body hair-standing-on-end act right there on the spot.

In an instant, this rat fell into a dilemma with no way forward or back.

It looked down at the bottomless deep water below, where the current was extremely fast—a danger it had only just escaped after enduring countless hardships.

Then it looked up above, where a massive snake was approaching; just that terrifying snake's maw alone was enough to make its heart pound with terror.

For a moment, it fell into a dilemma, at a loss for what to do, so anxious that a large tear even rolled out of its eye.

Going down meant death, going up meant death; if this rat knew a bit of knowledge, it would probably sigh: stick out your head and die, tuck in your head and die, die either way. This is heaven wanting to destroy me!

Of course, it wouldn't need to choose for long.

Because to prevent it from escaping, Baichuan first slowly extended his head, inching closer step by step, giving the rat below enough safe distance, not entering its alert range all at once and forcing it to jump straight into the water.

Once he had crept close enough to be sure, he then burst his snake head out in one breath and bit it.

……

Inside the den, Baichuan first sealed off the cave's only opening, then released the big rat in his mouth.

That's right—he did not bite the rat to death on the spot.

As for injecting venom? Even less likely. Under normal circumstances, an Eye King would not inject venom into prey that posed no danger—after all, venom is precious, you know.

As for why, Baichuan could only say perhaps he was just too bored.

With no telling when this weather would let up, a snake like him cooped up here had nothing to do for entertainment; now that he'd finally run into something alive—

As long as it couldn't escape, why kill it in one bite?

It was only a scrap of meat anyway—keeping it around to stave off boredom was better, wasn't it?

Once he grew tired of it and got hungry, he could eat it then—no rush.

(End of Chapter)