Wu Yuan stood atop a massive boulder, barking orders as he directed the chaotic symphony of the rat swarm. Below him, thousands of bodies moved in a frenzy, tearing into the earth on the western slope.

“Dig! Dig like your lives depend on it!” Wu Yuan shouted, his voice amplified by his Qi. “Our goal is to riddle every inch of Little Green Mountain with our tunnels! No stone left unturned!”

He paused, scanning the exhausted, trembling bodies of his subordinates. They were on the brink of collapse.

“One more month!” he promised, raising a claw. “Push through this month, sleep less, and work harder! In return, snake meat and Lunar Essence will be in unlimited supply!”

The promise of food and power acted like a stimulant. The swarm, previously teetering on the edge of total fatigue, surged with a renewed, desperate vitality. Dust clouds rose as claws met stone with redoubled fury.

Wu Yuan had a meticulous plan. He was directing them to expand the existing ore vein tunnels, burrowing deep into the mountain’s roots. This new network would serve as a vault for his most precious resources: the Spirit Grass seeds, the remaining Spirit Stones, and the Spirit Copper.

Fortunately, the swarm had already stripped the surface veins of all accessible Spirit Copper. Now, their task was simply to backfill the old mining shafts.

On the surface, the operation looked innocuous. The cavern would appear to be nothing more than a simple underground farm for the immature Snake Tooth Rice. These crops couldn’t be moved without killing them, so Wu Yuan left them as a decoy. Unless an intruder possessed piercing vision or specific detection arts, the true wealth of the vein would remain buried beneath the guise of a humble agricultural site.

With the logistics handled, Wu Yuan turned his attention to his army.

He withdrew his entire stock of Moon Spirit Grass, distributing it exclusively to the most vicious, battle-scarred rats in the swarm. Intelligence and obedience were irrelevant for this batch. Wu Yuan needed monsters. He needed killers.

He was forcibly inducing evolution, creating a squad of “Rat Monsters” to serve as his vanguard—and his cannon fodder.

Meanwhile, the core leadership—Big Old Black, One Ear, and Gray Skin—were given Spirit Stones. Their orders were simple: Cultivate. Absorb. Level up.

“Since we are going to snatch the Emperor’s Sap right under the noses of Great Demons,” Wu Yuan thought, his eyes cold, “we might as well gamble everything on a single throw.”

His target was the Great Azure Boulder at the summit.

He speculated that the highest point of Little Green Mountain would receive the densest concentration of the Emperor’s Sap. Even if he was wrong, the high ground offered a strategic advantage for absorbing the essence from the surrounding area.

Time slipped away like sand through claws. One month passed in the blink of an eye.

For thirty days, Wu Yuan poured every ounce of his resources into the swarm. The results were terrifying. Aside from his three lieutenants, he had successfully force-evolved 20 new Rat Monsters.

Wu Yuan stood before his creation, a satisfied smirk curling his lips.

The 20 elite rats were vastly different from their kin. Their bodies were sleek and agile, rippling with unnatural muscle. But it was their eyes that told the true story—blood-red, dilated, and filled with a madness that bordered on total collapse. Saliva dripped constantly from their jaws, sizzling slightly as it hit the ground.

For the last ten days, Wu Yuan had starved them.

No meat. No grain. He had fed them nothing but raw Spirit Copper.

The metal strengthened their bones and claws to iron-like hardness, but the lack of sustenance had driven them insane. Their reason was gone, consumed by a hunger that clawed at their insides. They were no longer animals; they were living weapons, wound tight and ready to snap.

Keeping them from tearing each other apart had been a nightmare for the lieutenants.

Big Old Black approached Wu Yuan, his whiskers twitching with anxiety. He looked at the drooling berserkers, then back at his king.

“Boss,” Big Old Black whispered, his voice trembling. “What is the plan? These guys… we can’t hold them back much longer. If we don’t let them kill something soon, we’re going to have a mutiny on our hands.”

Nearby, One Ear stood guard, his expression fierce. He glared at the restless elites, his fur bristling. Just hours ago, he had been forced to tear three of them to pieces to quell a riot. Without that brutal display of dominance, the swarm would have already imploded into chaos.

Gray Skin was absent, still leading the labor units in the deep tunnels, preparing the final escape routes.

Wu Yuan took a deep breath, his expression turning solemn.

“I gathered you today because the time has come,” he announced, his voice steady. “Survive tonight, and we change our fate.”

He had kept the truth of the Emperor’s Sap from them. He knew the nature of beasts—and of intelligent beings. The Emperor’s Sap was a treasure capable of “Defying the Heavens to change fate.” If his subordinates knew the true value of what fell from the sky tonight, their loyalty would crumble instantly.

Right now, they feared him as the Rat King. But in the face of godhood, fear might not be enough.

As for motivating them? Wu Yuan didn’t bother. In his eyes, aside from the foolish weasel Little Yellow, every creature on this mountain was an expendable resource.

Wu Yuan turned his gaze to the peak. The Great Azure Boulder sat there, silent and ancient.

Seeing it, his mind drifted back to the night he watched the white fox worshiping the moon. He felt a sudden pang of nostalgia. How much had changed since he was just a weak, hiding observer?

He turned back to the swarm.

They covered the entire summit, a living carpet of black fur that blotted out the lush green of the mountain. A month of grueling labor and harsh culling had reduced their numbers from thousands to a mere 800.

But these 800 were survivors. Every single pair of eyes reflected a savage, hungry light.

Wu Yuan raised his paws. He cast the [Spirit Awakening Technique].

Invisible ripples of Qi washed over the squad of 20 berserkers. The Lunar Essence acted like cooling water on red-hot iron. The madness in their eyes receded slightly, replaced by a temporary, fragile clarity. They stopped growling and looked to their King, awaiting orders.

“The clarity won’t last long,” Wu Yuan muttered to himself. “But it will last long enough for them to die for me.”

The celestial anomaly had not yet begun, but the atmosphere around Little Green Mountain was already thick with tension. The air hummed with spiritual pressure.

The local wildlife had sensed it.

Driven by instinct and the allure of a “Fated Chance,” monsters from all corners of the territory were converging on the peak. The clever ones had already deduced that the Great Azure Boulder was the prime location.

A shrill cry pierced the air.

A massive Eagle Monster descended, riding a gust of wind to perch on a high branch. Its metallic talons dug into the wood, and its sharp eyes locked onto the summit, assessing the competition.

Below, the trees shook violently. A troop of Demon Monkeys burst from the foliage, chattering and screeching. They surrounded the rat swarm, jumping up and down, baring their fangs in a display of intimidation.

To the left, two massive Wild Boar Monsters snorted heavily, their tusks gleaming. They scraped their hooves against the dirt, eyeing the other beasts with restless aggression.

And in the shadows of the forest, three Leopard Monsters prowled silently. Their golden eyes glowed in the dim light, bodies low to the ground, waiting for the moment to strike.

The mountain had become a powder keg. Most of these creatures had arrived in packs, forming alliances of convenience.

Wu Yuan narrowed his eyes. Of all the threats gathered here, his gaze lingered longest on the screeching troop of monkeys.