Chen Yan's voice sounded from nearby. He had come over at some point but hadn't joined in. Instead, he offered a pointer. "Don't worry about keeping the hide intact. The Gold-Devouring Rat's fatal weak point and energy hub are three fingers' width below the back of its skull, where the bone is thinnest."
"Send your Mystic Ice Sword Qi in there to disrupt the connection between its brain and energy channels, and the beast core will come loose on its own."
"The tendons connecting its incisors to the gums will contract naturally after it dies. Just find the seam between the tooth root and jawbone, then pry with a bit of finesse. You can remove the teeth intact without cutting."
As he spoke, he casually tapped a spot on another giant rat's corpse with his toe.
Bai Lingshuang focused and followed his instructions.
Sure enough, after she sent a targeted stream of icy sword qi into the spot, she removed the second beast core much faster, with less energy lost.
The incisors were much easier to retrieve, too.
"So that's how it works."
She replied softly, her movements growing more practiced.
Putting classroom knowledge to practical use like this... felt pretty good!
The novelty of her first successful extraction soon gave way to the practical desire to gather loot more efficiently.
The two of them calmly collected precious materials that would have made many warriors outside green with envy, as if harvesting fruit in their own backyard, on the edge of the rat nest—which had been fraught with danger moments ago but now lay deathly silent.
"Three heroes, this is the place! The area where those 'Outsiders' are often seen!"
A traveling merchant in a coarse cloth jacket, with a thin mustache, nervously pointed toward a charred, desolate