30: Rat Demon

Seeing Qin Yue agree, Senior Brother Bo Lun didn't say much.

"Give me the mission slip the General Affairs Hall gave you."

Qin Yue had seen this mission slip many times; it simply stated to go to Wangjia Village to eliminate a rat demon, with a reward of 100 contribution points.

The only thing Qin Yue couldn't figure out was why such a simple sentence had to be specially written on parchment, and why he had to carry it during the mission.

Bo Lun took the parchment Qin Yue handed him, let the Mystic Rune Horse sniff it, then handed the parchment back to Qin Yue, saying as he did so,

"The Mystic Rune Horse's nose is very sensitive; it can distinguish tens of thousands of scents. So the General Affairs Hall distributes a type of spice to all the places managed by our Holy Sect.

When they come to post missions, they just need to rub the spice on the mission slip, and the Mystic Rune Horse will naturally take us to the corresponding place."

After he finished speaking, he told Qin Yue to get on the horse.

"When we came to the Holy Mountain before, didn't we have to take a Body Protecting Pill? Don't we need to this time?"

Qin Yue asked as he mounted the horse.

Seeing Qin Yue get on the horse's back, Senior Brother Bo Lun also flipped onto his horse. "No, that time and this time are different. You'll understand once you officially join the Holy Sect."

After speaking, Bo Lun lightly kicked the horse's belly and let out a soft cry: "Fly."

The Mystic Rune Horse galloped forward two steps, then its entire body lifted off the ground, carrying Qin Yue and Bo Lun into the sky.

Cold wind assailed them, and white clouds drifted by; flying on horseback was another novel experience for Qin Yue.

This feeling was completely different from flying in an airplane. First, there was freedom; the world below was all in his sight, with no restrictions above, below, left, or right.

Second, it was cold. Qin Yue had to continuously maintain the circulation of his Blood Qi, otherwise, he would have frozen stiff long ago.

The Mystic Rune Horse flew high and fast. Qin Yue originally wanted to see the scenery of the cities under the Holy Sect's rule, but because it was still dark, he couldn't see anything clearly.

After flying for about an hour, the Mystic Rune Horse began to descend. Soon after, the two people and one horse landed on a small path.

The two dismounted from the horse's back. Senior Brother Bo Lun pointed ahead and said, "That should be Wangjia Village ahead. The rest is up to you. My only responsibility is to bring you here and pick you up. All matters concerning demon elimination need to be completed by you independently."

Hearing Senior Brother Bo Lun say this, Qin Yue knew it must be a rule of the Martial Academy, so he didn't say anything else. He just cupped his fists to Senior Brother Bo Lun and said, "Thank you, Senior Brother Bo Lun, for waiting for Junior Brother for a night. Qin Yue will try his best to successfully slay the demon tonight."

After speaking, he turned and walked forward along the path.

Qin Yue walked a short distance and arrived at Wangjia Village.

Because it was the middle of the night, the entire village was quiet.

Qin Yue had heard about rat demons from a Senior Brother at the General Affairs Hall.

Generally, as long as they haven't reached the Realm of a Great Demon, the individual strength of rat demons is generally not strong, but because they usually hide in holes, they are particularly difficult to catch.

Basically, missions to catch rat demons only have one chance to strike. If the first blow misses, the rat demon will hide, possibly for several days, or it might even move, in which case Qin Yue's mission would fail.

Although Qin Yue had just arrived in the village and was unfamiliar with the place, he didn't plan to communicate with anyone and immediately began to catch the demon.

This was also due to another characteristic of rat demons: you don't know where it is. If you discuss methods to deal with it with the villagers, it might overhear, making all your preparations in vain.

Some older rat demons, who had been caught in demon hunters' traps but escaped, would even flee in advance upon hearing news of a demon hunter's arrival.

The best bait for catching rat demons is cat meat.

When a rat becomes a demon, what it most wants to eat is a cat, but it has a natural fear of live cats, so what it likes to eat most is dead cat meat, especially freshly dead cat meat.

Qin Yue had inquired about the habits of rat demons when he accepted the mission, so of course, he had prepared a dead cat, but this dead cat cost Qin Yue a fortune.

This dead cat was bought from the Senior Brother Receptionist at the General Affairs Hall. Qin Yue himself certainly wasn't afraid to kill a live cat, but there were no cats in the Martial Academy.

In the end, Qin Yue could only buy it from the Senior Brother Receptionist. Because Qin Yue had just arrived at the Martial Academy, he had no contribution points.

The Senior Brother Receptionist generously allowed Qin Yue to owe him, saying he just needed to transfer ten contribution points to him after completing the mission.

Yes, one dead cat cost ten contribution points. One contribution point could buy ten packs of Blood Replenishing Powder. One pack of Blood Replenishing Powder sold for one tael of silver in Shiqiao Village. One tael of silver was roughly equivalent to more than a thousand yuan in his previous life, which meant this dead cat was worth at least 100,000 yuan.

Qin Yue strongly suspected that the Senior Brother Receptionist recommended this mission to him precisely because he could earn those ten contribution points.

Qin Yue first found an empty house. There were actually quite a few such houses in the village. Some belonged to people who had moved to the city, leaving their houses empty in the village; some were temporarily away selling goods in the city; others were out hunting or gathering herbs in the mountains.

Qin Yue chose to be inside a house rather than outside for several reasons:

One, in too open an environment, the rat demon wouldn't feel safe and wouldn't easily come out.

Two, it was inconvenient to hide on the street.

Three, the street was wide open, and there were too many places for the rat demon to escape, making Qin Yue afraid he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Qin Yue didn't set up rat cages or traps in the house. Rat demons were considered intelligent among demons; once it saw such things, it would realize there was a trap and wouldn't fall for it.

Qin Yue blocked all the doors, windows, and openings in the house, leaving only one for the rat demon to enter.

Then he used his Blood Qi to massage the dead cat, activating its physical vitality.

Finally, Qin Yue smeared wild mint on himself. He had learned about this in his Medicine Refining class; the book said it could mask scent.

After everything was done, Qin Yue placed the dead cat as far away from the opening as possible, then jumped onto the roof beam, lowering his Blood Qi circulation and breathing, waiting for the rat demon to take the bait.

The waiting time was the most prolonged. Fortunately, Qin Yue could keep his body still like it was on standby, while his mind could detach and move however it wished.

Bored, Qin Yue began to study what the owner of this house did and where they had gone.

Before Qin Yue could examine everything, there was suddenly movement from the rat hole he had left open!

A rat's nose cautiously peeked out of the hole. Feeling no danger, it scurried along the wall to the dead cat, took a bite, and then ran off.

But by the time it ran back into its hole, Qin Yue remained still, because Qin Yue realized that it was just an ordinary rat.

He hadn't expected the rat demon to be so cunning, sending a rat to scout ahead. If Qin Yue hadn't resisted the urge to act, his mission would have completely failed.

After a while, the rats came again. This time there were more than a dozen rats, and they rushed straight for the dead cat as soon as they emerged from the hole.

Seeing so many rats come out, Qin Yue hesitated, unsure if the real rat demon was hidden among these ordinary rats.

If Qin Yue were to jump out now and the rat demon wasn't among them, the mission would certainly fail.