Ji Xiaoxi was still staring at the humongous rat monster in bewilderment, having never seen them before despite frequently exploring the Hidden Dragon Mountain.

Zu An’s words snapped her out of her thoughts, and she quickly took out a blue pill from her bag and passed it over to him. “Hurry up and eat this. You should be immune to my poison once you consume it.”

Zu An was surprised to hear those words. “Are you certain you want to give it to me? Aren’t you afraid that I might attempt something once I’m immune to the poison on your body?”

Ji Xiaoxi’s face reddened as she said, “You aren’t like any other men. Besides, we’ll have to survive in this dungeon for ten days, so we’ll definitely need to look out for one another. It’ll be inconvenient if you get poisoned every time you touch me.”

Needless to say, Zu An understood what she meant by ‘you aren’t like any other men’. He didn’t expect that being impotent would actually bring about such a benefit. No wonder so many men in his previous life posed as gays to approach women. It turned out that, just by appearing non-threatening, one could greatly lower the guard of a woman. 

“Did your father give you this pill?” asked Zu An.

Considering the extreme lengths Ji Dengtu went to in order to protect her, it was unthinkable that he would prepare such an ‘exception’ as well.

“I concocted it myself,” replied Ji Xiaoxi. “I learned quite a bit from my father over the years, so I tried making it myself.”

Zu An nodded in understanding, but he quickly noticed another problem. “Is the pill safe? Are there any side effects from consuming it?”

Ji Xiaoxi quickly waved her hands and said, “Ah, don’t worry! I’ve chosen medicinal herbs with milder properties, so you don’t need to worry about suffering from side effects.”

Zu An was finally able to put aside his worries and swallow the pill. As promised, the numbing pain on his hand swiftly vanished. To test out the immunity effect of the pill, he tried touching Ji Xiaoxi’s robe, and was overjoyed to realize that the poison really wasn’t affecting him at all.

He tried touching her hair and pinching her cheeks as well, but the numbing pain was nowhere to be felt.

“Ah Zu, you’re hurting me.” Ji Xiaoxi rubbed her pinched cheeks as she complained irritably.

Zu An laughed off her complaint awkwardly, saying, “You have good skin.”

“Jip jip~ jip jip jip~”

The furious squeaking of the humongous rat interrupted them. It couldn’t understand how those two could remain so calm while in its presence, and even flirt with one another. It was as if they were treating it like it was invisible!

Its enraged protest brought Zu An and Ji Xiaoxi’s attention back to the present.

“Xiaoxi, do you recognize that rat over there?”

“I’ve never seen it before, but it doesn’t seem too powerful, based on the aura it’s emanating.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

While the rat couldn’t understand what the two were saying, it could still sense the disdain in their eyes. Knowing that it was being looked down upon, it flew into a state of fury. With loud squeaks, it charged toward the two of them, ready to sink its teeth into their flesh.

Unfortunately for it, Ji Xiaoxi and Zu An were already third rank cultivators. As fast as the rat was moving, the two of them were still able to dodge its charge with ease.

“It seems to be at the second rank.” Based on the rat’s speed and strength, Zu An was able to deduce its rough cultivation rank. If that was all it had, it wouldn’t pose much of a threat to him.

However, what he was concerned about were the spines that had been shot into the ground earlier.

On the other hand, seeing that its charge had failed, the rat suddenly stood upright, and it seemed to grow half again as large. Taking a closer look, however, Zu An realized that it was not its body that had expanded, but its fur was now standing upright, making it look larger than normal.

“Be careful!” Ji Xiaoxi suddenly exclaimed.

Three sharp spines suddenly shot out from the rat’s body toward Zu An.

“A long-range attack!” Zu An exclaimed as he dodged the spines with ease. With his current speed, even without resorting to Sunflower Phantasm, he could still easily deal with attacks from a second rank cultivator.

He noticed that there was a clump of fur behind the rat’s head that was yellowish in color, as compared to its overall beige-colored fur. The spines that had just been shot at him seemed to have come from the clump of yellow fur.

The rat grew even more agitated upon seeing that its attack had missed, so it arched its back and shot out a few more spines.

Same as before, Zu An dodged the spines, but on top of that, he also whipped out his sword to test the accuracy of his swordsmanship. With a slash of his sword, he successfully deflected some of the spines.

This is kind of weird though. Why isn’t this fellow attacking Ji Xiaoxi at all? Could it be biased toward good-looking people? I don’t think I am in any way inferior to her, though… 

The rat continued firing several rounds of spines, but not a single one of them struck home. It belatedly realized that it was outclassed, so it immediately turned tail and fled.

However, Zu An leaped forward to block its path. “Hey, don’t go! I haven’t had my share of fun yet.”

The enraged rat immediately shot out another three more spines toward Zu An, only for him to dodge them with ease yet again.

It tried to flee once more, only to be blocked off yet again. Just like that, the same scene played out several more times, and by the end of it, the rat was left with a huge bald patch behind its head.

You have successfully trolled Monstrous Golden-furred Rat for 6… 6… 6… 6… 

Zu An was amused. So, this fellow provides Rage points as well! Another reason not to stop then.

Encouraged, he continued messing around with the rat, and it didn’t take long for it to turn completely bald. It was only then that Zu An finally decided to end its life.

“Ah Zu, can we let it go instead? It’s so pitiful,” pleaded Ji Xiaoxi. The tears brimming in the rat’s eyes had evoked her sympathy.

“All right.” Of course, Zu An would never reject such a simple request, especially when it came from the adorable Ji Xiaoxi. He waved his hand, gesturing for the rat to get lost. Utterly relieved to be spared, the rat darted off into the forest right away.

“This world doesn’t seem as dangerous as I thought.” Zu An had been a little worried, but after this easy victory against the rat, he was now bursting with confidence. “Isn’t the academy being far too cautious?”

Pui, pui, pui! What in the world am I saying? After watching so many drama serials, I should know better than to raise flags!

Ji Xiaoxi shook her head and said, “We’re probably still in the outer perimeter of the dungeon, where the cultivation ranks of the vicious beasts tend to be weaker. As we head deeper in, we should encounter more troublesome enemies.”

Zu An nodded in response. At the moment, he was still more worried about Shi Kun’s planned assassination, as he didn’t know what to expect from him.

Would he attempt the assassination himself?

That’s unlikely. Those in positions of power like him wouldn’t be willing to sully their hands when they have underlings to do the dirty work for them.

Hm? Why did I call it ‘dirty work’?

It was then that he suddenly heard a series of weird rustling noises. He quickly turned to his companion and asked, “Xiaoxi, did you hear something?”

“Ah? I didn’t hear anything.” Ji Xiaoxi was confused.

“Oh.” Zu An nodded before returning to his thoughts. 

Snow entered the dungeon this time as well. If Shi Kun is unwilling to make a move himself, it’s likely that she would do the dirty deed instead. But after the previous fight we had, she should already be traumatized by the labor pains she experienced. It’s unlikely that she would act alone.

*Rustle rustle~*

The noise came again, and this time, even Ji Xiaoxi heard it too. The two of them turned their heads around warily, only for their faces to warp in horror. They found themselves faced with quite a few monstrous golden-furred rats.

‘Quite a few’ might be a major understatement, for there was a whole sea of beady little eyes staring at them. Such a sight was more than enough to induce panic in just about anyone!

“How many of them are there?” Zu An gulped.

“There are at least a few hundred of them, I’m sure. I can’t really see all the way to the back, but it could easily be over a thousand.” Ji Xiaoxi shared his anxiety. It was perfectly normal for a woman to be afraid of such things.

One of the monstrous golden-furred rats leaped out and began squeaking to the largest of its kind, its paws pointing toward the two of them. While Zu An and Ji Xiaoxi had no idea what it was saying, the indignant tone of its squeaks was more than enough to let them know that it was complaining about something.

“Don’t you think this rat looks a little familiar?” Zu An asked as he eyed the bald patch of skin behind the rat’s head.

“It seems to be the one we met earlier.” Ji Xiaoxi was incredibly nervous as well.

The largest monstrous golden-furred rat let out a few piercing squeaks, and the rest immediately rose onto their hind feet.

Realizing that things were going awry, he immediately grabbed Ji Xiaoxi’s arm and fled.

You must be kidding! If it’s just a couple of spines, we might still be able to handle it with ease. However, if there are going to be thousands of them, it’ll be just like facing a volley of arrows! No matter how I dodge, I would still be instantly turned into a porcupine!

A split second later, the spot where the two of them had been standing earlier was blanketed with spines. The monstrous golden-furred rats were furious to see that the two of them had dodged their attacks, and they immediately gave chase, squeaking with rage. Like an army on the march, they trampled everything that stood in their path. From afar, it looked almost as if a tsunami was crashing down on them.

“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t asked you to spare it, we wouldn’t have ended up in such a position,” said Ji Xiaoxi apologetically.

“It’s not your fault. None of us expected things to end up like that,” Zu An reassured her. “Let’s stop talking for now, lest we run out of breath.”

The two of them ran off for quite a while, but the pursuing monstrous golden-furred rats showed no signs of letting up. While they were unable to catch up, they were still hanging persistently onto their tails.

“What should we do now?” asked Ji Xiaoxi nervously.

“Weren’t you okay with entering the Hidden Dragon Mountain all alone? Why would these darned rats dare to chase you?” asked Zu An curiously.

“I was so busy chatting with you that I forgot to use the repellent earlier. It’d be too late to do it now since they have already seen us. Just the smell itself won’t be enough to deter them anymore,” replied Ji Xiaoxi. 

Actually, she had other methods to make these rats ignore her, but she couldn’t allow Zu An to brave the danger all alone. That was also why she was still running with him.

Zu An forced himself to remain silent.

He was frustrated, but he couldn’t bring himself to blame Ji Xiaoxi for this. None of them expected to face such a situation along the outer perimeters of the dungeon—or, to be more exact, there was probably no one else as unlucky as they to encounter such a thing. 

Ahh, maybe heading westward isn’t a good idea after all.

Noticing Ji Xiaoxi’s worried expression, he did his best to console her. “Don’t worry, they’re bound to give up soon!”

It wasn’t as if the rats bore a huge grudge against them. It was not as if he had killed their brethren; all he had done was to make one of the monstrous golden-furred rats go bald. Unless this fellow was the son of the Rat King or something, it didn’t make any sense for them to continue chasing him.

This thought of his was swiftly erased from his mind by the end of the second hour. Zu An’s heart had completely sunk by then. It was as if the army of rats knew no exhaustion at all; they continued chasing them fervently. 

“Ah Zu, I… I can’t run anymore!” Ji Xiaoxi was gasping for breath.

“There’s a valley ahead. We’ll have more room to maneuver around there!” Zu An’s eyes lit up as he caught sight of a valley in between two mountains dead ahead.

The problem right now was that they were running on a flat plain, with nowhere to hide at all. If they tried to fight the rats in a place like this, they would be swarmed in an instant.

However, it would be different in the mountains. There were all sorts of obstacles, giving them room to hide in and even launch counterattacks. After all, the rats weren’t too powerful individually.

There was just one issue—mountains tended to look deceptively close.

Zu An had been running while holding Ji Xiaoxi’s hand, but after she had nearly fallen a couple of times, he decided to just lift her off her feet completely, and carry her in his arms instead. It was fortunate that she was petite, so it hardly took any strength to carry her.

Being carried in such a manner made Ji Xiaoxi’s face redden in embarrassment. She had never been so close to a man before. She could only console herself over and over that big brother Zu was just trying to save her, and that he was different from other men… 

Finally, Zu An reached the shelter of the mountain. 

A freezing wind blew his way. His body was still burning hot from all the running he had done, but astonishingly, the cold gale blew all of his bodily heat away, leaving him shivering from the sudden chill.

“What’s going on?” Zu An was puzzled.

However, this wasn’t a good time to be thinking about other matters. He hurriedly scanned his surroundings for a good spot where the two of them could hide and recover.

Just then, Ji Xiaoxi suddenly exclaimed, with a hint of delight in her voice, “Ah Zu, look! Those rats aren’t following us here!”

Zu An turned his head around, only to see that the monstrous golden-furred rats had stopped just a few meters short of the valley. They were pacing around the entrance to the valley in frustration, but at the same time, they dared not to come in.

“Is there some sort of terrifying existence in the valley that instills fear in them?” murmured Zu An worriedly.