What does canon tell us about the One-Eyed Rat?
Weakest of monsters, a junior servant class creature, capable of shooting an energy beam from its single eye. It looks like an oversized rat, with claws sharp enough to tear through steel. Mo Fan used to mow down dozens of them during the Bo City disaster. Seems like there's nothing to worry about. But in reality, there is.
First off, Mo Fan is a battle genius. Second, even in that same canon, during his first mission as a city hunter, a single One-Eyed Rat nearly wiped out a team of beginner-level mages—one of whom had fire magic at stage three, and the rest at stage two. And these weren't green rookies either, but proper city hunters with team experience and combat training.
From my own experience, I can say: in a fair fight, a monster of the same level will always overpower a human. Just look at the Ancient Emperor who strolled into the Holy City like it was his backyard—tanked nearly all attacks without dodging, offed a curse mage and a bunch of advanced mages without even lifting a finger, punted Archangel Michael like a soccer ball, and only chose to die because Zhang Kong's soul was still barely holding onto the body. If not for that, the Holy City might not have fallen outright, but it would've been gutted—and all that from a mid-tier Emperor… who showed up without even bringing his army.
So yeah, the One-Eyed Rat is no Emperor. But I'm also nowhere near full power right now. At best, I could take down a pack leader—a weak one—and the sewers could have a lot of rats. So I prepared thoroughly, pulling from both my experience and textbooks to gather every bit of info on One-Eyed Rats. I've seen too many high-level mages get killed by low-tier monsters just because they let their guard down or ran dry on mana.
I dressed in sportswear, packed a bag with food and a change of clothes, and left the house without a word. It was my day off anyway—everyone would assume I'd gone for my usual run.
I made my way to a residential district, near my classmate Zhou Min's place, slipped into an abandoned factory, and from there descended into the sewers. In about three years, thousands of One-Eyed Rats and One-Eyed Wolves would pour out from this very sewer system to attack Bo City—led by rare, terrifying pack leaders. But for now, three years ahead of that disaster, there should be far fewer tunnels, and without the influence of the Fountain of Violence, it's unlikely I'll encounter anything besides rats.
Thanks to my second spiritual boundary, my magical perception was on par with a peak high-tier mage. Within half an hour, I picked up several flickers of mana at stage one of the basic level. Monster mana, unlike human mana, is always in motion unless they're hiding—because magic constantly sustains their bodies.
I counted four One-Eyed Rats. I began preparing a spiritual strike in advance, then cast my basic-level time element spell: double acceleration.
I sprinted around the corner and hit the rats with the spiritual strike. While they were still dazed, I conjured a light dagger in my hand. Light element spells at stage one don't pack much of a punch—I really should get myself an enchanted weapon—but for unarmored junior servants, this'll do.
I dashed forward, killed three, then noticed the last one a bit further off, just beginning to recover. I morphed the dagger into a blinding beam. The rat hissed and shielded its eye. I summoned another dagger and finished it off. Total time: five seconds. Four corpses.
I could've done it faster with Spatial Claws, but I need to build up muscle memory in this new body. And since no soul dropped, I kept running through the city's underground.
I didn't climb out of the sewers until four hours later, when the pendant finally absorbed a soul and began gathering fragments. Now I could focus on cultivation.
Thanks to my six elements, I could meditate an extra two hours per element per day—twelve total, compared to the usual two. For a normal person, it would take a year or two of daily two-hour meditation sessions to break into stage two of a single element at the basic level. That's about 730 hours per breakthrough.
With the pendant boosting my cultivation speed by 20%, I only need 584 hours. With twelve hours a day, I'll break through in 1.6 months per element, and reach stage two in all six within 9.6 months. And that's without any extra resources or further upgrades to the pendant. By the time of the yearly assessment, I'll definitely hit stage two in all elements. How far I can push things with added resources and pendant upgrades… that's worth testing.
—Speaking of resources… A predatory grin spread across my face.
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Parallel reality — Bo City — Mu Family Estate, near Mu Yuan's residence
Mu Yuan was feeling great. Today, his father had given him a triple batch of resources for his 18th birthday. He'd just entered the third year at Tian Lan Magic High, and half a year after graduation, he planned to hit stage three of the basic level. By age twenty-one, he intended to use the Holy Spring to break into the intermediate level. Even in the capital, they'd call him a genius.
Lost in dreams of glory, he turned a corner—only to take a brutal kick straight to the balls. While he was still blacking out from the pain, his attacker grabbed the resource pouch and disappeared.
Mu Bai would never know that, following this incident, Mu Yuan's adoptive father would nurse him back to health out of guilt. That guilt would blossom into affection, and Mu Yuan would never join the Black Church.