The Thieving Spirit Rat

He took a grill, charcoal, and a great many skewers of Two-Headed Silver-Ringed Python back meat from his Qiankun Pouch.

He sprinkled on his secret marinade and grilled the meat until the flavor had soaked in.

The sight of the golden, crispy meat, fragrant enough to make one's mouth water, only made Shen Mo feel hungrier, his mouth practically dripping with saliva.

"Smells amazing!"

He patiently grilled the tender back meat until it was golden and crispy, then carried it to the stone table in the pavilion.

After taking a seat on a stone stool, he took a jar of wine from his Qiankun Pouch.

Green Mystic Spirit Wine.

Senior Brother Guo had given it to him as thanks for providing him with an opportunity.

Guo Zhao had given Shen Mo four jars in all. Normally, he thought the wine too precious to drink.

But now, after just breaking through, with delicious grilled meat for company, the sound of the tide on the river and a cool breeze drifting by, he felt that not bringing out a jar to drink his fill would be a crime.

"Mm."

He took a long swig of wine, then picked up the grilled meat and began to feast all by himself.

[You drank a mouthful of Green Mystic Spirit Wine. Your cultivation has improved.]

[You drank a mouthful of Green Mystic Spirit Wine. Your cultivation has improved.]

[You ate two jin of Two-Headed Silver-Ringed Python meat and finally began to feel a little full.]

[You drank a mouthful of Green Mystic Spirit Wine. The wine's power gradually spread through you, steadily stabilizing your newly achieved breakthrough.]

After glancing at the stream of notifications appearing on the information panel, Shen Mo closed it and stopped checking.

Then he reached for the jar of Green Mystic Spirit Wine, intending to take another couple of hearty swigs.

But when he lifted the half-empty jar, he discovered it was completely empty.

"What?" Shen Mo froze, looking bewildered. "I definitely hadn't finished it just now. Could I really be drunk?"

"Green Mystic Spirit Wine shouldn't be this intoxicating."

As he puzzled over it, he looked up at the grilled meat on the stone table.

He was instantly dumbfounded.

"Where'd my grilled meat go?"

There had originally been two or three jin of grilled meat on the table, but now nearly half of it was gone.

"This is downright spooky!"

He could have blamed the wine mysteriously disappearing on a lapse in his memory.

But now the meat had vanished too. Shen Mo finally realized something was wrong.

He looked around. Everything was quiet and deserted, with only the sound of the tide breaking against the shore. But soon, Shen Mo heard a strange noise.

"Chomp! Chomp!"

It sounded like someone—or something—was chewing.

"Under the table!"

After pinpointing the source, he leaned down and stuck his head beneath the table.

A huge rat was hiding there!

Its entire body was reddish, its fur short and sparse, and a pale-gold tuft stuck up from the top of its head. It looked rather foolish.

It looked like a rat, but its body was nothing like the scrawny little creatures one usually saw. On the contrary, it was as fat as a cat.

When Shen Mo spotted it, it was clutching a large piece of meat in its slender forepaws and eating with gusto.

When it noticed Shen Mo staring, it paused.

The man and rat stared at each other. The air between them grew strangely still.

"A Gold-Devouring Rat?" Shen Mo was taken aback at first.

His surprise quickly turned to indignant fury. "You've got some nerve, stealing food right from under my nose!"

Gold-Devouring Rats were supposed to feed on metal and mineral ores. They weren't supposed to like mortal grains, meat, or other food.

Shen Mo was puzzled. He could only attribute it to how delicious his grilled meat was.

It had even tempted a Gold-Devouring Rat, a creature that usually ate nothing but ore.

"Chomp!"

"Chomp!"

The reddish-yellow rat stared at Shen Mo for a full ten seconds. Then, when he made no move to drive it away or attack, it seemed to relax.

It went right back to gnawing on the stolen grilled demon beast meat, completely treating Shen Mo like thin air.

"This little rascal..."

The sight left Shen Mo torn between laughter and exasperation.

He'd seen a few Gold-Devouring Rats in the Guardian Cave Abode over the past few days.

But most of them were timid. As soon as anyone spotted them, they either fled the scene or toppled stiffly onto the ground and played dead.

They were worlds apart from this brazen rat, which wasn't afraid of people at all.

"Forget it. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll let you off!"

After thinking it over, he decided not to chase the beast away.

Eating alone was satisfying, but it could also feel a little lonely.

Having a beast to share his meal with added a touch of homey warmth and fun.

I'll just consider it my treat. Shen Mo didn't try to snatch the grilled meat back from it.

It hadn't eaten much, anyway.

But it didn't take long for Shen Mo to realize just how badly mistaken he'd been!

He'd only just returned to the table and eaten for a little while when the rat, which had been secretly eating beneath it, polished off all the stolen spirit meat.

After finishing, it didn't leave.

It sprang straight onto the stone table and stared fixedly at Shen Mo.

"You're done eating. Why aren't you leaving?"

"What do you want?"

Shen Mo paused mid-chew and stared at the foolish-looking rat. In its tiny eyes, he seemed to read what it was thinking.

An utterly ridiculous thought occurred to him. Shen Mo tentatively asked, "Are you still hungry?"

"Mm-hmm!"

The rat seemed to understand him. It bobbed its head eagerly, then spread its slender paws in a gesture of asking for more.

Clearly, it wanted Shen Mo to hand over the few remaining skewers of grilled meat, too.

"..."

In the end, Shen Mo tossed the meat he had left to the intelligent rat.

"Chomp! Chomp!"

The rat's eyes lit up at the sight of the grilled meat flying toward it. It opened its mouth and gobbled the meat down as if it were a priceless treasure.

Less than half an incense stick later, the last piece of meat was gone, too.

Shen Mo had expected the rat to be satisfied and leave happily. Instead, it simply stood there in a daze, staring at him with its little bead-like eyes. It rose onto its toes and craned its head up, as if waiting for him to serve it more meat.

"Still hungry?"

This was ridiculous!

Shen Mo clicked his tongue in amazement. The rat was certainly big, but it had just eaten at least two jin of grilled meat.

That was enough to fill even an adult's stomach.

Yet its belly hadn't changed at all. Its appetite was like a bottomless pit.

"If you're still hungry, that's too bad. I'm out!"

This time, Shen Mo didn't indulge it. He spread his hands with an irritated look to show that all the meat was gone.

The rat was highly intelligent, and at Shen Mo's answer, a hint of disappointment showed in its eyes.

"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!"

It let out several cries. Once it realized Shen Mo really had nothing left, it reluctantly held its belly and waddled away.