13: Chapter 13 They're even gnawing on bones? We have to find them and kill them!

"What?"

"What big cat, what rat?"

Li Feipeng rolled over and got up, shouting loudly, "Who's shouting nonsense?"

A cat is a cat, a rat is a rat.

What does 'big cat rat' even mean?

So, is it a cat or a rat?

Besides, don't you know you shouldn't shout randomly at night?

It's easy to cause panic among the clan!

The old Clan Chief and several young men also rolled over and got up.

"Everyone, watch the children!"

The crowd lit torches.

They also loudly asked who was shouting nonsense.

At the same time, they told the clan members not to panic and not to run around.

"It's me! It's me!"

Old Loach stumbled and scrambled his way over, shouting as he ran, "I saw a rat as big as a cat! Right over there, right by the grass curtain!"

"When did you see it?" the old Clan Chief asked.

"Just now!" Old Loach yelled, pointing to the side with his hand, "Right there! They were crouching there, several of them, circling around the grass curtain we're living in. I saw them clearly!"

"Several of them?" Li Feiyu frowned. "Old Loach, are you sure you weren't seeing things?"

Their houses weren't built yet.

Right now, everyone was living in a large shed made of grass curtains.

The grain and the clan's valuables were also all stored together.

Day and night, several young men were responsible for patrols and vigilance.

Never mind being in unfamiliar territory; even back in the village, they would organize the young men to take turns patrolling.

Everyone had the necessary sense of vigilance.

Especially those on patrol.

They all had families; they were guarding their own people.

They wouldn't be careless or neglect their duties.

He had just led a patrol around tonight.

That's why he suspected Old Loach might have been half-asleep and seen things.

Or maybe something had tricked his eyes.

He couldn't help but mutter, "Should have bought a rooster earlier, killed it to keep some blood for warding off evil."

Thinking again.

Or keeping one around would be good too.

If there's any movement, a rooster will crow.

But then he reconsidered: they were on the Evil God's territory. The Clan Chief said keeping a rooster might violate a taboo.

"I wasn't seeing things!" Old Loach became anxious upon hearing this. "The past couple of nights, I slept with Li the Second and the others. These past few days, I've been hanging with them during the day too. At night, my eyesight is especially sharp!"

"What were you doing running outside in the middle of the night?" the old Clan Chief spoke up now.

"I couldn't sleep!" Old Loach slapped his thigh. "Clan Chief, Li the Second and those guys kept poking me awake several times at night before. I got used to waking up."

Kicked awake, he'd go out to pee.

Then get kicked awake again, and go again.

It became a habit.

These past few days, Li the Second and the others had been summoned to the mountaintop by the Mountain God.

But he hadn't corrected this habit yet.

Hearing this, the old Clan Chief nodded.

It was Old Loach.

This old fellow wasn't sleep-addled either.

"Let's go take a look," the old Clan Chief said, telling people to get the knives. He divided Li Feipeng and the others into two teams.

One team stayed guarding inside the shed.

If the rats were really as big as a cat, as Old Loach said, they could probably break in and snatch a child away.

They had to be careful.

The other team followed him to check the situation.

When they went over and looked, they knew Old Loach wasn't lying or mistaken.

There was a patch of footprints on the ground.

Seeing the old Clan Chief frown deeply.

"These do look like old rat footprints."

The others came over to look and nodded.

Rats were something they often saw.

But the size wasn't right.

The biggest one was as large as a child's palm!

"Clan Chief, could they be field voles from the land?" someone said.

The old Clan Chief shook his head.

Even field voles weren't this big.

He thought for a moment and said, "Raise the torches high, everyone search carefully. See where all the rat footprints lead."

After some investigation.

They discovered these footprints had circled the grass curtain shed more than once.

They also found a few small gaps that had been pried open.

Furthermore, around their three bone plows, there were actually tooth marks!

Clearly, they had been gnawed on.

The plows were left in the field.

They hadn't been brought into the shed.

Some of their other farming tools were also left here.

After all, the area was isolated, with no village in front or behind; besides their clan, there was no one else.

And besides humans, no one else would farm.

Even if mountain demons and monsters came out, they wouldn't steal these things.

They never expected them to be gnawed on.

"Quick, check if they're damaged!" the old Clan Chief said urgently.

These past few days, they had relied entirely on these precious treasures.

With the bone plows, land reclamation was proceeding very smoothly.

The vegetables from the day before yesterday, the grain from yesterday, were all planted.

Today they had cleared several more *mu* of land.

In a few more days, the cleared farmland would be close to fifty *mu*.

The light shield on the boundary marker was still spreading continuously; they could keep reclaiming land.

Before the spring plowing season, they might be able to clear over a hundred *mu*.

Plant millet, plant soybeans, and focus on wheat.

And these snake bone plows were also very useful for digging irrigation channels.

Later, when they found the water veins, they could clear another dozen *mu* of paddy fields to plant rice.

Then they'd have the grain to feed the entire clan.

Just thinking about this made him laugh in his sleep.

But damn it!

Something actually dared to gnaw on his treasures!

"Vile things!"

"Damnable, plague-ridden beasts!"

The old Clan Chief gnashed his teeth in anger and cursed.

"Even bones are not spared from their mouths!"

After checking, they found that some of the tooth marks on the bones were too deep, having cracked one of the bones. His eyes even turned red with fury.

Fortunately, the well was covered with a stone slab.

It hadn't been ruined by the rats.

"Find them!"

"We must find them!"

The old Clan Chief said hatefully, "Find them and kill them!"

Though filled with furious hatred, after shouting, he added, "No, go back first, go back. We'll deal with it when it's light."

Old Loach said those things were rats as big as cats, and they had circled their grass curtain shed several times without being detected.

They definitely weren't ordinary rats.

They were probably spirit rats.

Besides, rats usually appeared in groups.

Better not go looking for them in the middle of the night.

If they got surrounded, it could be dangerous.

The Clan Chief made the decision; Li Feipeng and the others, of course, had no objections.

Worried the spirit rats might return, the group decided to carry all the bone plows back.

"Heavens! Damn them to hell!"

"These are treasures bestowed by the Mountain God."

"How could they be ruined by those spirit rats!"

The Clan Chief followed behind, still unable to resist cursing.

Returning to the grass curtain shed, he told people to go to sleep. He also told several strong men not to patrol outside anymore but to guard inside the grass shed.

He himself didn't sleep either. Kneeling on the ground, facing the direction of the mountaintop, he started muttering.

In his mouth, he called upon the Mountain God, cursed the spirit rats, and voiced his worries.

Worried the spirit rats were scouting and would return.

When that happened, they might injure people or steal grain.

He hoped the Mountain God would provide protection, and best if He could know where these spirit rats came from.

Then burn them all to death in one fire!

...

Mountaintop, inside the temple.

Feng Yifan couldn't help but rub his ears.

He was cultivating when he heard Clan Chief Li's muttering.

After the last sacrificial ceremony, this old man who presided over it had clearly become much more devout.

Now he actually thought to ask him for help.

However, what he requested wasn't difficult for him.

Besides, he was also very curious: when did these uninvited guests come to Little Yao Mountain?

"They probably ran over from the neighboring mountain range."

With a thought, Feng Yifan followed several unfamiliar auras and tracked them.

Unexpectedly, he found the spirit rats' nest underground on the other side of the mountain foot.

"...Oh damn?"

"Why is a person tied up in the rat nest?"