Chapter 10: Rat Tide Approaches

Time flowed silently; the darkness outside the Wooden House remained still and oppressive. Li Qingxuan remained vigilant, gripping a Tang Sword, his gaze fixed on the open iron window in the Living Room.

He waited silently for half a day, seeing no movement at all. Li Qingxuan looked out the window again, but still no sign of rats.

After waiting half a day with no sign of the Rat Tide, Li Qingxuan grew restless. He sat on a stool, recalling the day's hustle, the battles with Weird Creatures, and the strain of trade negotiations; his body was utterly exhausted, and drowsiness washed over him like a tide, as if he could fall asleep any second.

Li Qingxuan rubbed his forehead hard, picked up the water bottle beside him, washed his face, and forcibly dispelled that heavy drowsiness.

"I still need to find someone; one person can't handle it all." Li Qingxuan lifted his spirits, opened the Private Chat list, hovered his fingertip over Li Feifei's name for a moment, then finally tapped it.

"Are you there?" Li Qingxuan typed quickly, "One person can't possibly face this dangerous world alone—why not move over to my place? Especially with such a large-scale creature attack!"

After sending the message, the Stone House held only the crackling of the campfire and his own heartbeat. Li Qingxuan leaned his head against the wooden chair, gazing blankly at the ceiling, easing his weary body and mind.

"Beep—"

The Control Panel's notification sound pierced the silence, and Li Qingxuan almost instantly opened the Private Chat window.

Li Feifei sent a message: "I can come over, but after I arrive, you can't force me, and I need a certain degree of autonomy; if I'm unwilling, I can leave at any time!"

Li Qingxuan immediately replied: "No problem—I'll first trade you some wood to keep you going. This side is temporarily safe; the Stone House's Protection Value is high! After the Rat Tide passes, I'll come pick you up!"

Seeing Li Feifei reply "Okay," Li Qingxuan traded 200 units of wood over, then stood up, walked to the heavy iron window, and peered out again through the Protective Railing.

Outside remained a dead silence of darkness; the forest across seemed swallowed by an invisible maw, not a whisper of wind left behind.

This suffocating silence was like an invisible alarm, permeating the air.

Li Qingxuan carefully closed the window, then sat quietly in the chair, waiting.

After an unknown span of time, just as Li Qingxuan felt unbearably sleepy and his eyelids began to droop, a faint yet clear sound suddenly slipped into his ears.

Though the sound was weak, in the quiet night it was unusually clear. Li Qingxuan's spirit lifted; he immediately opened the window and followed the sound, seeing in the forest's darkness a black mass seeming to writhe.

"They're here!" Li Qingxuan muttered under his breath. In the darkness, the black shadows grew more numerous, beginning to surge toward the Stone House.

Li Qingxuan could clearly hear the rats' scurrying and the sharp scrape of their claws across the ground.

The Rat Tide had finally arrived!

The rats' sharp claws scraped the Iron Gate with a clattering sound, as if frantically attacking the Stone House.

Li Qingxuan closed the window, stood behind it, took a deep breath, and steadied his heartbeat.

Li Qingxuan opened the Control Panel, stared at the Stone House's Protection Value, and instantly calmed; seeing the value drop slowly, he knew his Stone House's defense was strong—these rats wouldn't easily break in.

The rat horde surged like a black tide over the riverbank, the scrape of their claw tips on stone swelling into a grating, teeth‑on‑edge rustle.

They slammed into the Stone House's base, then split away like water hitting a reef.

More rat shadows rolled in the darkness, like boiling ink, actually flowing around the Stone House, carrying a suffocating stench as they surged from west to east.

Hearing that the Rat Tide wasn't violently assaulting his Shelter but kept rushing far away, Li Qingxuan felt doubtful: "Are they not coming for people?"

The rats' target seemed crystal clear; they ignored this island‑like Stone House, merely rushing madly. The Iron Gate was struck by the surging Rat Tide, emitting dull thuds, and their sharp claws left piercing scrapes on the gate, but Li Qingxuan remained unmoved, calmly analyzing: "These scattered attackers are more like spray caught in the main current, futilely slapping the reef."

He immediately switched to the Regional Channel, which had already exploded into chaos.

【Regional Channel, participants: /】

【Ling Qi: Damn! The woods to the east! The rats are all charging east into the woods!】

【Tian Guo: No! Not heading for the woods! They look like they're fleeing! What the hell is behind them?! Pitch‑black】

【Wang Wu: Help! I'm in the eastern mountain hollow! They're charging over!】

【Liu Xing: Hell! My Wooden House is being battered with bangs! The door's about to split!】

【Zhang Tianlin: I hear a strange sound, like… like wind】

【Liu Ruyan: Wah wah wah, a black cloud. They're eating the rats! No… not eating the rats… help!】

Watching the channel's user count plummet like beads from a broken string, Li Qingxuan's heart felt as if clenched by an icy iron hand; the ever‑dropping numbers resembled an inverted hourglass, each grain of sand foretelling the extinction of a life.

The chaotic messages in the channel pieced together confirmed his suspicion, yet the suspicion in his mind prickled his scalp with numbness.

He lunged back to the iron window, almost pressing his face against the cold Protective Railing, threw open the window, and stared wide‑eyed into the dark depths beyond the rat horde.

The forest opposite, once merely dead‑still darkness, now seemed to have come alive, rolling and writhing with something deeper and more heart‑pounding.

A lower, more viscous writhing sound drilled into his ears, like countless soaked heavy curtains struggling to drag through a mire.

Darkness was no longer a static backdrop; it had become a tangible, vital presence, rolling and swelling at the forest's edge, visibly devouring the rat horde!

Li Qingxuan's pupils contracted to a pinprick, his back instantly drenched in cold sweat; that rolling darkness was not mist, but a vast sheet of viscous, writhing, tar‑like wave—wherever it passed, the rats' scurrying and screams were swiftly swallowed and assimilated, leaving only the scalp‑tingling "shash…gurgle…" of sticky sound.

It swept over the rat horde at astonishing speed, the rats seemingly dyed black and frozen in an instant, while trees in the forest kept being snapped under pressure.

The scene Liu Ruyan mentioned of "eating rats" instantly took shape; Li Qingxuan saw in the rolling shadow distorted, limb‑ or tendril‑like outlines flash out, seizing several or even a dozen fleeing large rats and dragging them back into that writhing darkness in an instant.

He could even "hear" the faint yet bone‑chilling sound of bones being crushed and flesh sucked dry.

Even more horrifying, at the edge of that shadow devouring the rat horde, a fleeting glimmer of unknown origin made Li Qingxuan's pupils shrink to pinpoints! He saw a… humanoid silhouette! The outline, twisted and blurred, seemed forged from shadow itself, assuming an unnaturally inverted‑joint posture, prone on the ground, its head positioned… to gnaw at the rat horde!

That "humanoid" head lunged downward to bite! Accompanied by a clear, blood‑freezing "crack"—the sound of bone being snapped cleanly.

"Ugh…" Li Qingxuan's stomach churned; intense nausea and a bone‑deep chill left him barely able to stand.

This wasn't the Rat Tide! The Rat Tide was merely the prelude to disaster—an appetizer! They were just fleeing for their lives! The true horror lay in these silent harvesters in the darkness, reaping and devouring every living thing…!

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