The secret of being able to understand beast language was something Ye Zhen discovered several months ago.
Ye Zhen himself did not know how it happened, but it was around a certain day a few months back.
It was approximately around the time when Ye Zhen's cultivation had a breakthrough from the Early Stage of Force Training to the Mid Stage of Force Training, after evening lessons ended, he felt his cultivation was improving too slowly and was so anxious that he couldn't sleep, so he went to a nearby hilltop to get some fresh air.
While deep in thought, all of a sudden, he understood the chattering beast language of the small creatures in the mountains and forests; at first, he was quite startled and even thought something was wrong with his ears.
After cautiously studying it for a few days, Ye Zhen finally confirmed it—he could understand beast language.
Whether it was the squeaking of mountain rats or the grunting of wild boars, or even the roaring of tigers, as long as Ye Zhen concentrated and listened carefully, he could understand their meaning.
At first, when Ye Zhen discovered the little secret that he could understand beast language, he thought it was amusing.
Whenever his cultivation was not progressing and he felt irritated and restless, he would calm down and listen to the sounds of nearby rats, mountain cats, foxes, and even snakes.
Their expressions, filled with a somewhat foolish meaning, sounded quite funny to listen to, always able to lighten Ye Zhen's mood.
However, half a month ago, as Ye Zhen was feeling annoyed at night, he arrived at this hilltop and overheard a conversation between two rat brothers living under the rocks, and that gave Ye Zhen a flash of inspiration.
Ye Zhen suddenly realized that this amusing little secret might actually bring something to him.
Every night at this time, when Ye Zhen arrived at this hilltop, he could always hear the rat brothers planning to go somewhere for a delicious feast together.
The rats' idea of a delicious feast naturally held no appeal for Ye Zhen, but one night, when he poked his head out to see the size of the rat brothers as they emerged from their nest for their feast, he was shocked.
Gigantic rats!
Huge rats!
Measuring up to one meter, slightly bigger than a mountain cat, with long tails as thick as a child's arm, and a pair of incisors like sharpedged weapons gleaming with a chilling light under the moon.
What shocked Ye Zhen more was that after accidentally stepping on the entrance to the rat's hole, the rats actually attacked him. A thick Iron Branch Pine stick, as thick as a child's arm, picked up casually by Ye Zhen, was bitten through by the rat brothers in one bite.
Their teeth were as sharp as knives!
Ye Zhen was thoroughly astonished.
From his knowledge, the appearance of the rats was absolutely the most common and ubiquitous grey mountain rat, which generally grows to the size of an adult's palm.
But now they had grown to nearly one meter in length, which looked extraordinarily terrifying and strange.
Something was definitely amiss.
After quietly listening to the conversation of the rat brothers for several days, Ye Zhen discovered something odd about them—they went to feast on some so-called delicacy every midnight without fail.
Ye Zhen had a suspicion that these two rats had grown so large possibly in connection with the gourmet food they scrambled for every midnight.
Such a delicacy could very well be one of those Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.
Only the legendary Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures could make these grey mountain rats with very ordinary bloodlines grow so huge, almost turning into fierce beasts.
With this thought, Ye Zhen's heart began to throb with excitement.
Since he was a child, Ye Zhen had heard many stories about poor boys finding Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures by chance and becoming rich overnight, or meeting their demise due to wealth or becoming great masters overnight; he naturally understood the value of these treasures.
Even in Qiyun Sect, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were precious items, unlike the medicinal grass used for making Blood Essence Soup, which was cultivated by the servant disciples.
Ye Zhen was not a fool and naturally wanted to follow the rats to find this kind of treasure.
At the same time, this discovery made Ye Zhen suddenly realize that his little secret of understanding beast language might bring him an extraordinary harvest.
It was this discovery that led to Ye Zhen's determination in front of his parents during the day.
One reason was to pursue his childhood dream of soaring through the skies and to fulfill his father's wish; moreover, with this unique little secret, he couldn't just let it go to waste, right?
A year of cultivation in Qiyun Sect had made Ye Zhen aware that the cultivation speed, apart from being influenced by Bloodline Talent, is heavily related to whether one could possess abundant cultivation resources.
And now, Ye Zhen might be able to acquire cultivation resources that others had never had, all thanks to his little secret.
After discovering this secret about the rat brothers, Ye Zhen would come to the rocks above the rat burrow every midnight, quietly listen to the sounds of the rat brothers, and then follow them.
But the speed and agility with which animals move through mountains and forests are hardly something a Martial Artist at the First Stage of Blood Training like Ye Zhen could match.
Whenever he tried to follow the rat brothers, Ye Zhen always ended up losing track of them.
However, Ye Zhen was not foolish.
After over ten days of following them, Ye Zhen had already roughly determined the range of activity of the rat brothers—it was within ten miles of this rocky mountain.
Moreover, after so many days of tracking and searching on his own, he had crossed off many places, leaving only two or three directions to go.
Ye Zhen estimated that even if he lost track of them again, he would be able to use the process of elimination to find the nightly destination of the giant rat brothers within a few days.
Squeak! (Go!)
With a squeak, two giant rats with back fur standing up like steel needles appeared below the mountain rock and instantly disappeared into the Iron Pine Forest.
His figure flashed, and Ye Zhen quickly followed, cat-like in his movements.
He had already memorized this first stretch of the journey, so there was little risk of losing them. After about a hundred breaths, the sound of giant rat paws on pine needles abruptly vanished.
Rushing to a dip in the forest, Ye Zhen's face changed—he had lost them again.
This hollow was crisscrossed with paths in all directions. Every time, it was here that Ye Zhen lost track of them.
However, Ye Zhen was not panicked. Over these days, he had already searched many of the directions the giant rats could have taken; now, only three remained unchecked.
Of the three possible directions, one was a ten-meter-tall cliff at the edge of the hollow, another was a stream to the left, and the third was the towering trees within the hollow itself.
The stream had already been ruled out by Jiang Cheng, for he had never found water marks on the bodies of the giant rats.
That left only the cliff and the dozen towering trees in the hollow.
First, Ye Zhen looked towards the towering trees in the dip, then shook his head; that seemed unlikely, plus the search would be too difficult.
The ten-meter-high cliff, on the other hand, was very likely to conceal Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Nonetheless, Ye Zhen had already searched there, including the cliff face and the base of the cliff, without finding a single trace.
After some thought, Ye Zhen began looking for a suitable spot and slowly started to climb down the cliff face, well-prepared for the day's task.
Ye Zhen moved like a large spider, hands and feet firmly gripping onto the cliff and shifting slowly, his bright eyes scanning the rock face under the moonlight.
He was fortunate to have a year's worth of bitter cultivation at the Qiyun Sect, which enabled him to climb the cliff with ease. Otherwise, even if he had known about the treasures, he would have had no choice but to sigh in frustration from afar.
Suddenly, while searching, Ye Zhen's eyes lit up upon spotting a faint grey-black rat paw print on a slightly protruding spire of rock. His expression turned to one of surprise and delight.
"Found it!"
Ye Zhen had put a lot of effort into tracking these giant rats.
He had specially prepared a type of ash from plants and trees that was not easy to rub off and had sprinkled it around the entrance of the rat burrow days ago.
With this, if the giant rats left their hole and stepped on the ground, they would leave behind grey-black paw prints.
From his observations, Ye Zhen knew that with one leap, the rats could cover a distance of three to four meters. Upon spotting the paw print, he immediately began searching within a radius of four to five meters.
In just a moment, Ye Zhen found another faint paw print on some moss. The trail of prints led to a protruding rock and then vanished.
After searching for a while, Ye Zhen suddenly widened his eyes, discovering a crevice covered in moss.
In the darkness of night, the moss was gray-black, and the crevice in the rock was also black. If not for his hand grasping emptiness, Ye Zhen would not have found this crevice.
The crevice was not large, but it was big enough for Ye Zhen to pass through.
Considering the height of the giant rats was similar to Ye Zhen's width, he wasn't overly concerned about being able to pass.
Carefully navigating through the crack for several dozen meters, when a foul stench hit his nose, a natural cave suddenly appeared, large enough for a person to pass through.
The sight before him stopped Ye Zhen in his tracks.
A translucent crystal pillar, looking like the tip of a bamboo shoot, was half-suspended at the end of the cave, radiating a soft glow, as luminous as a gem.
Droplets heavy with moisture clung to the tip of the stalactite, seemingly ready to seep out at any time.
Under the tip, there was a small depression in the rock the size of an egg, but it was empty.
Around the rock, various bones of wild animals were scattered.
Some had completely decomposed into bones, others were in a semi-decayed state, and there were a snake carcass and a fox's body, both looking relatively fresh, as if they had died only a few days ago.
Without exception, though, both the snake carcass and the fox's body were covered with marks of rat bites.
At that moment, the two giant rats Ye Zhen had lost track of were stretching out their blood-red, short tongues, intently waiting for the moisture to seep from the shining stalactite tip.
The sound of Ye Zhen stepping on animal bones instantly startled the two giant rats waiting for the droplets from the stalactite.
The two rats turned around in a flash, their tails whipping like scorpions, their sharp front teeth bared fiercely, and their blood-red eyes fixed intently on Ye Zhen.
Squeak!
Amid the ear-piercing squeal, the two giant rats leaped through the air, their sharp teeth glistening, and pounced towards Ye Zhen from both sides.