Chapter 33: Bloody Battle at the Warehouse, The Two-Boned Demon Rat!

"Uncle, Uncle, are you okay?"

Gu Xiaoyuan, still weeping, felt the weight in her arms lift, only to see Yu Le collapse to the ground. Beneath him, the floor was already soaked in blood.

"What happened to Brother Yu?" Su Rui, who had also sustained heavy injuries, scrambled over to them.

"His wounds are too severe." Gu Xiaoyuan caught a glimpse of the injury on Yu Le’s back—a gash so deep the bone was visible—and she gasped in horror. She couldn't believe he had managed to hold on for so long with such a devastating wound.

"Su Rui, find the medicine I gave Uncle!"

Ignoring the tears mixed with blood on her face, Xiaoyuan focused her healing energy, channeling it into Yu Le’s back. She watched as his flesh began to quiver and the wound slowly knitted together.

"It’s not here." Su Rui searched Yu Le’s entire body but could not find the small blue pill Xiaoyuan had given him earlier.

Fortunately, after Xiaoyuan’s initial treatment, Yu Le regained consciousness and whispered weakly, "It’s here..."

He had stashed the small blue pill in his system inventory and had completely forgotten about it until now. Quietly, he retrieved it into his palm.

"Quick, give it to him!" Xiaoyuan urged.

That pill was something she had painstakingly crafted using the healing power of her own Life Martial Art combined with other rare medicinal herbs. Even she didn't have any spares.

As soon as the pill touched his tongue, Yu Le’s body shuddered a few times. Almost instantly, the deathly pallor of his face vanished, replaced by a flush of life. The severe gash on his back and his other minor injuries began to mend rapidly under the pill's potent effects.

"What incredible medicinal power." Yu Le struggled to his feet, marvelling at his own condition. It was practically an elixir of immortality!

Xiaoyuan and Su Rui finally breathed a sigh of relief, but before they could even catch their breath, a roar from Han Yuesu echoed through the warehouse.

"Little Meng!"

The three of them tensed instantly. Setting aside their own dire situation, they rushed into the warehouse.

"Captain Han, we're here!" Xiaoyuan shouted.

***

*Bang!*

With a dull thud, a Bristle-Maned Rat, its mane coated in frost, was sent flying. Through the swarm of rats, the trio saw Han Yuesu and Meng Huai cornered.

Meng Huai lay in a pool of blood, his Life Martial Art—the Gale Spear—dropped beside him. Whether he was alive or dead was uncertain, but what made the trio turn pale was the sight of his missing arm.

Han Yuesu didn't appear to have suffered wounds as severe, but as she swung her two ice whips, her breathing had become ragged. Her hair, soaked with sweat, clung to her cheeks.

"Is that you, Xiaoyuan?"

As Han Yuesu turned to look, one of her ice whips was caught by a rat's claw. She was yanked off-balance and dragged toward the enemy. Forced into a corner, she had no choice but to shatter the ice whip.

As her Spirit Rhyme Ice Whip was a specialized weapon-type Life Martial Art, the destruction of the construct caused her to suffer a backlash. Although she still had one whip left, she felt powerless against the menacing Gold-Maned Demon Rat of the Cleaving Bone Realm. She was nearing exhaustion.

Fortunately, the Gold-Maned Demon Rat was also heavily injured. A gaping, bleeding hole in its shoulder—likely caused by Meng Huai—was still pumping blood, and one of its legs was stiff, likely frozen, which significantly slowed its movements.

However, aside from this Cleaving Bone Realm beast, there were still eleven Stone-Foundation Realm Bristle-Maned Rats.

The five members of the Burning Heaven Team and the twelve Bristle-Maned Rats were crammed into the cramped, debris-filled warehouse, both sides battered and bruised.

"Let's kill these bastards!" Yu Le didn't waste a word. He swung his Dragon-Subduing Rod and charged into the fray.

Before the rats could finish off the exhausted Han Yuesu and Meng Huai, heavy, resounding thuds erupted behind them. In such a confined space, and with the rats having no clue about the sheer weight of the Dragon-Subduing Rod, Yu Le fought like a god of war—those he struck died, and those he grazed were crippled.

In a flurry of strikes, five rats were already smashed aside or killed.

"Damn, Brother Yu is a beast!"

Su Rui, his confidence soaring, yelled and followed Yu Le, swinging his fists. "Come on, you rat pups, let's see who’s tougher!"

With a seven-foot rod in hand, who dared challenge him?

Just as Yu Le was fighting with sweeping, unstoppable force, the Dragon-Subduing Rod suddenly came to a halt.

***

The jarring counter-force made Yu Le’s hand go numb, nearly causing him to drop the rod as he stumbled back several steps.

He looked closely and saw the massive Gold-Maned Demon Rat—half a person's height when crouching and nearly 1.5 meters tall when standing—holding its claw-swinging pose. It had just parried the rod with a single blow.

Realizing it couldn't finish off Han Yuesu and seeing Yu Le as an unstoppable threat, the beast had shifted its focus to him.

"Yu Le, get back! That’s a Second-Bone Gold-Maned Demon Rat, and it has tempered both of its arm bones!"

The Stone-Foundation Realm corresponds to the Nine-Stone Strength level. The Cleaving Bone Realm involves the internal tempering of bones. In the human cultivation system, the body’s skeleton is divided into nine areas; once all nine are forged, one reaches the peak of the Cleaving Bone Realm.

These nine areas are the skull, neck, chest, spine, pelvis, arms, and legs.

Demon beasts of the rat variety share many structural similarities with humans, so their Cleaving Bone progression is quite similar. While a beast's cultivation naturally improves as a whole, reaching a specific stage of the Cleaving Bone Realm requires the tempering of one or more of these nine areas.

While humans choose their path based on their cultivation methods, demon beasts—or at least most of them—naturally prioritize areas based on their species or individual traits.

The Five-Bone Fire-Maned Demon Rat from the intelligence report was similar to a human fire-elemental Life Martial Artist; its priority was naturally its skull, which amplified its fire power.

The Gold-Maned Demon Rat before them, however, was different. Its metal attribute made it similar to Han Yuesu’s tool-type Life Martial Art. Its fangs and claws were stronger than an average Bristle-Maned Rat and shimmered with a metallic gold light.

At the Second-Bone stage, it had already forged two bone areas. If the Fire-Maned Rat was a spellcaster, this Gold-Maned Rat was a pure melee fighter. Naturally, it had prioritized its arm bones.

Having fully tempered both arm bones, the dark force it channeled through the blow sent Yu Le’s arms into a state of total numbness!

The Gold-Maned Demon Rat let out a squeak: *Squeak, squeak!* (The rod that the Stone-Foundation weaklings couldn't handle, I shall crush!)

Han Yuesu’s face remained icy. Dragging her only remaining ice whip, she stepped forward, intending to continue the fight.

Yu Le shook his numb arms, staring fixedly at the Gold-Maned Demon Rat. "Captain Han, leave this big rat to me. You and Su Rui take care of the rest!"

A Stone-Foundation Realm Seventh-Grade fighter taking on a Cleaving Bone Realm Second-Grade beast?