They tried to climb up the tree trunk, but unfortunately, there were only so many rats that could climb up the tree trunk at once. Zu An was stronger than each of them, and he also had the advantageous high ground here. As a result, he could basically kill one of them with each slash.
The leader of the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats stepped atop one of the boulders and began squeaking away. Soon, they abandoned their initial plan to climb up the tree and instead began to nibble away at the tree trunk. Once the tree was felled, they would pounce forward and tear those two humans to shreds.
Hearing the wood gnawing sound coming from below, Zu An started to panic a little. “Xiaoxi, do you have any poison that can knock all of them out?”
Medicine and poison were two sides of a coin. Considering her competence in medicine, it was likely that she was fairly well versed in poison too.
“I do have something like that,” replied Ji Xiaoxi hesitantly.
“???’ Zu An.
He was just asking out of desperation, not really expecting much out of it, but who could have thought that she really had something like that? If that’s the case, why didn’t you use it earlier? We wouldn’t have to end up in such a desperate position in the first place!
Seemingly seeing through the doubts he had in mind, Ji Xiaoxi explained meekly, “I didn’t think that they have done anything too overboard to justify that. Strictly speaking, we were the ones interrupting their peaceful lives. It feels wrong to poison them to death.”
“…” Zu An.
She’s simply too kind! I really can’t imagine how in the world she managed to survive in this dangerous world to this day with that kind heart of hers.
“What if the tree falls and we get eaten by them?” asked Zu An.
Ji Xiaoxi hesitated a little before replying, “I don’t know. They might just retreat soon. If things really come to that point, I… I’ll poison them.”
Zu An knew that Ji Xiaoxi’s personality, and he felt that it would be going too far to force her to do something that went against her conscience. In truth, things weren’t that dire yet either. He could use Grandgale the moment the tree felled to escape. At the very least, they should be able to break out of the rats’ encirclement.
As for whether they would really be able to escape from the rats or not, he would leave it to the calling of fate.
The two of them didn’t notice that when the corpses of the killed Goldenfur Monstrous Rats fell on the floor, their blood seeped through the ground at an unusually swift pace. There were no puddles of blood at all.
A while later, one of the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats was in the midst of nibbling on the tree trunk when it suddenly cried out in misery.
Zu An quickly took a look, only to see a bone palm striking through its back. As crimson blood flowed down the white bones, it created quite an eerie spectacle.
This sinister event only marked the first of many soon-to-come deaths. More and more screams of agony echoed throughout the mountain valley as the other Goldenfur Monstrous Rats fell to the same fate, penetrated by a white palm.
“Where did those things come from?” Zu An was appalled. He felt like he was watching a horror movie unfolding right before his eyes.
“Big brother Zu, I’m afraid!” Ji Xiaoxi subconsciously hid behind Zu An’s back as she gripped his sleeves tightly.
“Xiaoxi, don’t be scared. I’ll make sure to protect you well,” consoled Zu An.
He was flustered by the unexpected happenings too, but somehow, the presence of a woman in need tended to embolden the guts of a man. He couldn’t allow himself to show cowardice before Xiaoxi.
He carefully examined the situation and soon figured out what was going on.
These bone palms hadn’t appeared out of nowhere; they were rising from the ground. They weren’t just limited to the area around the trees. Where his eyes could see, the soil was loosening as palms rose up and strike at the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats.
“Just how many of them are there?!” Zu An gulped.
Panic devoured the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats. Coming under such a frightening assault, how could they still be in the mood to nibble on the tree trunk? They fled for their life right away, but to their dismay, it was futile. White hands rose from the soil to grab their legs.
The rats squeaked in desperation, but those bones, despite looking so brittle that they would snap at any moment, harnessed terrifying strength that they couldn’t break out of.
Soon, skeletons began rising from the ground. They weren’t entirely bones yet; most of them were still half covered in flesh, and there were traces of clothes to be seen on them. It was just that their clothes had mostly decomposed from being buried for far too long.
It might be much more accurate to term them as ‘zombies’.
The zombies picked up the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats in their hands, brought them up to their mouths, and began munching down on them. Blood splattered all over the air. The mountain valley was swiftly dominated by two sounds—the despaired cries of the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats and the ripping of flesh.
It was as if hell had descended upon the world.