The Rat Cultivator

Chapter 131: Mosquito Mother

The area surrounding the Corrupt Water Pool, once teeming with life, was now a ghost town. The local demon beasts were either dead or had long since fled, terrified of facing the Blood-Winged Black Mosquito swarm head-on.

By all rights, the Mosquito Mother should have become a local overlord of the Azure Spirit Mountain Range. Unfortunately for her, she had been discovered by Wu Yuan ahead of schedule.

Tens of thousands of Spirit Bees descended like a golden rain of arrows, buzzing incessantly as they forced the mosquito swarm down from the sky and back toward the pool. Individually, a bee was no match for a blood mosquito, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming. All they had to do was suppress the mosquitoes’ altitude.

Below them, the Fire Ants acted swiftly.

Guided by the Ant King, they sprayed formic acid into the sky like dense, fine rain. As the acid rose, it reacted with the unique spiritual signature of the swarm, transforming into a black, gelatinous fluid. This sticky web adhered to the delicate wings of the Blood-Winged Black Mosquitoes, fouling their flight and sending them spiraling to the ground.

Waiting for them was the black tide of rat demons.

Baring fangs and brandishing claws that flickered with spiritual light, the rats tore into the grounded insects. It was a massacre. Not a single mosquito could escape the multi-layered encirclement.

Wu Yuan’s plan was proceeding flawlessly. He had set out from Little Green Mountain at dawn, marching rapidly. By noon, the trap around the Corrupt Water Pool had snapped shut.

Inside the encirclement, the Mosquito Mother sensed that something was terribly wrong. None of her foraging scouts had returned. A deep unease stirred within her, yet she did not choose to flee.

In her view, the Corrupt Water Pool was her fortress. It contained her meticulous arrangements, her defensive systems, and the environmental advantage she needed to breed. How could she abandon her lair and flee in panic because of an unknown enemy?

She firmly believed the advantage was hers. She would fight to the death here.

Wu Yuan, observing from a distance, scoffed. A two-month-old Mosquito Mother is still too young and naive.

The Mosquito Mother looked at the enemies closing in from all directions and fell into a confused silence.

Her small, insectoid brain rapidly replayed the events of her short life. What mistake had she made? How had she offended a rat swarm, an ant colony, and a bee hive all at once?

No matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t find the answer. She had only been born a month ago! For the first few weeks, she hadn’t even let her children leave the pool, quietly cultivating her power. She had only authorized foraging expeditions less than half a month ago when the local resources ran dry.

She knew about the powerful Spirit Bee colony nearby and had deliberately ordered her swarm to avoid their territory. She had been careful. She had been prudent.

So why was she in this predicament? Was her Providence simply that terrible?

It never occurred to her that a single, overzealous subordinate, while chasing prey, had accidentally buzzed into Little Green Mountain. Attracted by the biomass of the rat demons, it had thought it discovered a rich new feeding ground and wanted to bring back a “local specialty” for its Mother. That single mistake had doomed them all.

Even in her confusion, the Mosquito Mother did not surrender. She quickly organized a counterattack, attempting to break the heavy encirclement.

A brilliant red light flashed from her body as she dissolved into the swarm like a drop of blood in water. The massive, black-red cloud of mosquitoes began to glow with a sinister crimson radiance.

Whoosh!

The bloody light swept out like a scythe. Nearby rat demons and spirit insects instantly withered, turning into desiccated corpses as their essence was drained in seconds.

The bloody light charged back and forth, rapidly draining large numbers of attackers to fuel the swarm’s regeneration. The number of mosquitoes began to climb, and the bloody radiance intensified.

From the rat lines, fireballs and golden needles shot out, smashing gaps into the mosquito cloud, but the effect was negligible against the regenerative power of the blood light.

Wu Yuan watched the carnage and sneered coldly.

“Greedy.”

“Even at death’s door, you still covet the flesh of my subjects?”

Several times, the Mosquito Mother almost succeeded in breaking out. But each time, instead of escaping through the breach, she would veer toward areas with higher concentrations of rat demons, unable to resist the urge to feed and multiply.

Wu Yuan looked toward One Ear in the distance. The scarred rat was gnashing his teeth, his eyes burning with hate.

“It’s about time.”

“One Ear! Launch the Soul Tide!”

One Ear nodded heavily.

The whip scars covering his body began to twist and writhe, morphing into numerous ghostly faces. They opened their spectral mouths and emitted a shrill, soul-piercing shriek that echoed across the Corrupt Water Pool.

Immediately, wisps of white mist rose from the corpses of the fallen rat demons.

Even in death, the rats of Little Green Mountain would serve their King.

Their souls rushed out of their shriveled husks, gathering in the sky to form a rolling mass of white mist—a Soul Tide.

One Ear flicked his rat-tail whip. Crack!

The demon souls turned their ferocious, hollow gazes toward the mosquito swarm.

Squeak!

The Soul Tide surged forward, engulfing the Blood-Winged Black Mosquitoes.

The bloody light that protected the swarm against physical attacks was utterly useless against spiritual assault. Any mosquito touched by the soul mist died instantly, its tiny consciousness extinguished.

Mosquitoes fell from the sky like black rain.

“How can there be a Soul Calamity here?!”

The bloody light condensed back into the shape of the Mosquito Mother. She screamed toward Wu Yuan’s direction, her voice vibrating with shock and horror.

Wu Yuan shrugged.

“You can stir up a Blood Calamity, so having a Soul Calamity as well is only fair… right?”

By the end of the sentence, even Wu Yuan felt a bit self-conscious. Two of the Ten Ancient Calamities appearing in one backwater swamp? The Azure Radiance Grotto-Heaven truly was a land of outstanding demonic talent.

Within the Soul Tide, the rat souls began to mutate. They grabbed the fading souls of the dead mosquitoes and stuffed them into their spectral bellies.

Immediately, translucent wings erupted from the rats’ backs. Jointed limbs sprouted from their abdomens, and black-red patterns—identical to the mosquitoes—appeared on their fur.

The new demon souls looked like horrific hybrids of rat and insect. They pounced on the swarm with renewed vigor.

This time, the slaughter was absolute. With each sweep of the Soul Tide, a massive chunk of the mosquito swarm simply vanished.

Seeing her army dwindling, the Mosquito Mother grew frantic. Her wings blurred, emitting a sharp, piercing buzz as she recalled every remaining mosquito to her side.

The survivors compressed into a tight, black sphere encased in a dense barrier of bloody light, barely holding the Soul Tide at bay.

Wu Yuan looked at the defensive ball with a hint of regret. “She’s learned to be smart. If she had charged the rat swarm a few more times, her greed would have wiped her out completely.”

The Mosquito Mother was now trapped in a dilemma. She couldn’t attack, and she couldn’t flee.

At that moment, the rat swarm parted down the middle.

A massive Pangolin slowly walked out, carrying a majestic white-furred rat on its back.

“Mosquito Mother,” Wu Yuan called out calmly. “Come out and talk.”

The Mosquito Mother hesitated. Finally, drops of blood flowed out from the defensive sphere, converging to form a human-sized mosquito avatar hovering above the water.

Wu Yuan studied the creature, his eyes narrowing in assessment.