Chapter Sixty Millennium Mouse

  "Boom!" The turtle cannon in the hands of the Diamond Cannon fired. I hastily retreated and composed myself, only to see a pig-sized animal shot straight through by the Diamond Cannon, which then darted back into the pile of white bones.

  "Clang", the steel needle fell to the ground. I and Ginga Cannon retreated a few steps back to outside the door, looking at each other in dismay. The divine turtle cannon's steel needles couldn't even hurt it.

  "How can there be such a big mouse? Are you familiar with it?" Jin Gang took out the bullets from his pocket and loaded a few more.

  A yellow animal with a body as big as a domestic pig, short legs, sharp mouth, small eyes and long whiskers suddenly jumped out of the pile of white bones. What is it if not a mouse?

  "Very much like a Xishu mouse", I quickly recalled in my mind, that Mouwangdao people had encountered similar animals on their way to steal the Jiuyang Pine, which was an ancient relic. Legend has it that it is a hybrid of Kunlun Lingxi and San Sheng Mouse. Of course, legends are just legends, mice can't be related to rhinos, but this giant mouse's name is indeed Xishu mouse, it should be a rare species that has survived from ancient times to the present, its huge body shape may have undergone changes after having some Taoist practice.

  "Switch to a different tactic, guns can't hurt it." Just now, when the Gatling gun fired, I noticed that the giant rat emitted a yellow spiritual energy outside its body, which buffered the huge impact of the steel needles.

  Jin Gang pulled out his gun and raised an eyebrow, turning around to go back in. I quickly grabbed him "Don't be hasty, let's probe the bottom first."

  After finishing, I pinched the key to gather energy, forcing the spiritual energy inside my body to its limit, causing a blue glow to appear outside my body. The Diamond Cannon also followed suit, releasing its own dark red aura and exchanging a glance with me before turning around and entering the iron gate once again.

  Our approach is very simple, to show this mouse our strength. This mouse has been alive for many years, its spiritual intelligence is complete, and the Taoist priests of the Tang Dynasty should have abandoned it long ago. Now, the remaining aura is just the spirit of the body. So, I and Jin Gang Cannon want to cast a spell first to establish our dominance and see how it reacts.

  "Does Lao Yu understand human language?" Jin Gang Pao asked me as he walked a few more steps.

  "Should be able to, what's wrong?" I asked softly. Cheng Feng Dao people lived in the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, at that time this mouse had already cultivated to perfection, later in the Tang Dynasty it even tried to break through the Purple Air Mysterious Barrier, such a high cultivation should understand human language, if not being abolished by those stargazing Taoists, after crossing the Purple Tribulation, it can even transform into human form like Long Xuanfeng.

  "That's easy! Hey, come out, we're good people and won't hit you!" Jin Gang Pao suddenly shouted loudly.

  The yellow gas in the white bones fluctuated slightly before returning to calmness. The heart was panicked and disordered, and the fluctuations of the breath revealed its hidden fear.

  I took a glance at the golden cannon next to me, you son of a bitch are still a good person, it was you who just fired and shot someone's house.

  "Don't be afraid, we're just passing by and mean no harm. Show yourself." I said in a soft ancient tone. This mouse has been trapped here since the Tang Dynasty, even if it could understand human language, it would definitely not understand the northeastern accent of Shandong dialect from Jin Gang Cannon.

  After I finished speaking, I concentrated and sensed for a moment. This time the yellow spiritual energy in the pile of white bones fluctuated more strongly, but it returned to calm after a moment.

  "Your bird language is useless too." Jin Gang Cannon said with a sneer.

  "Disperse!" I said expressionlessly. The two of us were surrounded by a red and blue aura, which made it seem like we were trying to intimidate him, but no matter how you looked at it, there was no sincerity.

  "With a flick of his sleeve, he retrieved the spell and said: 'We three are disciples under the Purple Sun Observatory's Three Saints True Person. If you can understand human language, show yourself immediately.' The Three Saints True Person of the Observatory Gate was already a renowned figure in the world of cultivation a thousand years ago. I brought up his name for two reasons: to identify ourselves and to tell it that we are not Taoist disciples. The Interception Sect is more merciful and tolerant towards demonic beasts than the Taoist sect."

  "I didn't hear anything, my senior brother said..." Jin Gang Pao was about to shout for help when I pulled him back beside me. Because I clearly felt a strong fluctuation in the aura ahead. Good heavens, I mustn't say the wrong thing, what if those Daoist priests who messed with it back then were also from the Interception Sect?

  "Rattle... rattle... rattle..." Just as I pulled the cannon to my side, the pile of white bones in front of me suddenly collapsed, and a rat tail as thick as a child's arm stretched out from the front, sweeping away the white bones piled up in the tomb. As the dust settled, the cannon and I turned our heads to look forward, stunned by the scene before us.

  A gigantic yellow-haired hamster crouched on the tomb path, a thick and heavy chain extending from its neck to somewhere in the darkness. Upon closer inspection: the hamster's body was as large as a pig, with golden-yellow fur, sturdy limbs, a pointed mouth, long whiskers, and a red rhino horn protruding from the center of its nose, about several inches long.

  "What are you doing?" I turned my head and surprisingly found Jīn Gāng Pào wanting to draw his sword.

  "It's belly is moving up and down as if it's gasping for air, let's take the initiative." The mouse crouched on all fours, lying flat on the ground, its abdomen contracting violently and panting rapidly.

  "Is your family's luck running out?" I said, pressing down the cannon, not in a good mood. The strange movements of this mouse seemed to me more like it was rushing towards me to pay its respects and kneel down.

  "If you understand human language, nod your head at me." I said sideways.

  "Does 'greeting' mean nodding?" Jin Gang Cannon looked at me in surprise. He knew what "greeting" meant because the giant mouse in front of us had suddenly nodded its huge head after hearing my words.

  "What's your name?" Jingang Cannon was curious as soon as the guard was lifted.

  The mouse heard the words of the golden cannon and raised its head, revealing a puzzled expression in its chicken-egg-sized eyes.

  "Get out and bring in the 'good guy' and White Wolf." After being described as a good person by Jin Gang Cannon, I have been jokingly calling him that. The strange beast in front of me didn't seem to have any malicious intent, but I started to worry about Mu Rong Zhui Feng and White Wolf who were still outside.

  "Lao Yu, your dog isn't listening to me." Jin Gang Pao pulled Mu Rong Zhui Feng's hand and walked in, standing behind me.

  "White Wolf, come!" I shouted loudly. In an instant, the white wolf outside the iron gate rushed in and ran to my side, barking loudly at the crouching mouse on the ground.

  The crouching jerboa is not afraid of the white wolf in front of it, and remains motionless in the face of the wolf's barking. I reached out to stop the wolf's barking: "Old Cow, did you see that? Your good friend isn't afraid of this jerboa at all."

  Murong Chui saw the giant rat and was surprisingly unafraid, instead curiously sizing it up from head to toe.

  "Look, this little mouse seems to be afraid of her too!" I turned my head and found that the mouse in front had changed its lying angle and was constantly nodding at Murong Chuiyun.

  The beastly crowd has a strange feeling, this rat may feel that Murong Zhuiyun's Tao is the highest among our group, so it pays homage to her. I guess it must not be able to sense that the person with the highest Tao is actually a madman.

  "What's that old thing doing lying there?" Jin Gang pointed at the hedgehog in front.

  "It's as if it's kneeling down to pay respects to us." I examined the mouse's neck, where a chain was embedded, entering from one side of its pelvis and exiting from the other. The wound had long since healed, with the chain having grown into the flesh over time.

  "Hey, no need for formalities!" Jin Gang's childishness had not faded, and he imitated the emperor's tone from TV, flipping his right hand over.

  The mouse turned around and saw the cannon, but didn't stand up.

  "No need for courtesy, we will naturally find a way to release you from your confinement." As the saying goes, "Courtesy is sought from others." This humble mouse must be seeking something. The fact proved that my analysis was also quite correct, and after I finished speaking, the mouse finally stood up.

  "My grass, is this a hamster?" After standing up, I and Jin Gang Cannon even had to look up at him.

  "It wasn't a rat to begin with." I plucked up the courage and walked closer to the hamster. The hamster saw me approaching, lowered its head, and in its eyes there was no ferocity, but rather a dull expression.

  "Old Yu, is anyone feeding it?" Jin Gang Pao looked at the white bones on the ground, and last night's tiger was left with only a tiger head.

  I shook my head and looked up at the hamster "How can you fill your belly?"

  The rhinoceros mouse heard my question, retreated a few steps, lay down on its stomach, closed its eyes, and in an instant, a strong fragrance was emitted from the horn above its nose.

  I suddenly realized that the inner elixir forms of the demonic beasts were not the same, most of the inner elixirs were round and hidden inside the body, and a few had the shape of claws, horns, or scales exposed outside the body. The rhino horn on this mouse should be its inner elixir. It was using its own true yuan to lure prey, no wonder it hadn't made any progress in its cultivation from the Tang Dynasty until now, it had been scattering its spiritual energy all over the place just to get food.

  "Lead the way!" I pointed forward, the pungent smell of rat droppings mixed with the stench inside the tomb made my eyes almost impossible to open. The priority was to get out of this smelly place first.

  The rat heard what I said and got up, running towards the inner tomb passage. The chain on its body dragged against the bricks, making a clanging sound. It seems that the tomb passage is not short.

  "Old cow, what are you doing?" I was just about to take a step, but found Jīn Gāng Pào crouching beside the pile of white bones, fiddling with something.

  "This thing is worth money!" Jin Gang grabbed a few tiger bones and stuffed them into his backpack. "Lao Yu, you're not really going to let it go, are you?"

  "It shouldn't be bad, let's just put it there if it fits." I said with a quick pace following up.

  The path to the tomb is about a few dozen meters long. It wasn't until we ran closer that we discovered there was another huge and heavy iron gate at the end of the path. On either side of the iron gate, there were two giant bronze rings in the shape of beast mouths, and the chains on the rat's body were strung through these large bronze rings.

  "It's done, whether to let go or not, it has to be let go!" Jin Gang Pao walked into the iron gate and examined it for a while. To enter the door, one can only break the lock chain on the mouse's body.

  "It's steel!" The rat crouched on one side of the tomb passage, and I picked up one section of the chain with my military knife to scrape it and identify its material.

  "Didn't you say it was Xuan Tie? How did it become Gang?" Jin Gang Cannon put down his backpack.

  "In ancient times, people referred to metals not as accurately as they do now. Gold, silver, copper and iron were all collectively known as 'gold'. At that time, smelting technology was not advanced, and the purity of iron was not enough. Occasionally, when a few pieces of high-quality steel were refined, they were called 'mysterious iron'! I closed my eyes and thought about how to open this fine steel chain."

  "Old Yu, give me the detonator!" said Gang Cannon as he pulled out several tubes of TNT explosives. In case of an emergency, we had prepared a few tubes of explosives. The TNT explosives were very safe and would not explode even if they were set on fire unless the detonator was triggered. Gang Cannon carried the explosives while I carried the detonators.

  "Who do you want to blow up?" I couldn't help but laugh and cry "The shockwave from the explosion can kill it, hurry up and put it away."

  "What to do?" Jin Gang Cannon looked at the explosives in his hand, then glanced at the cowering mouse beside him. The mouse didn't have any ferocious or brutal beastly nature, but rather seemed a bit silly and pitiful, so Jin Gang Cannon didn't want its life either.

  "Let's see its true power now!" I stepped forward and pulled out Gujian Dangiang from the backpack of the Golden Cannon.

  "What else can I take if I break this?" Jin Gang Pao's face was reluctant.

  "This really proves it's not a sharp sword!" When I first got this ancient dry sword, I tried its sharpness and couldn't even cut down a small tree. Later, after finding the Ling Stone among the chess pieces, I experimented with Captain's chair, which ended up making him sit on a small stool for three days.

  But taking it to cut steel and iron is the first time, in theory, a divine soldier like this should be able to cut through chains, of course, on the premise that this sword in my hand is not a fake.

  I pressed the mechanism and drew out Gan Jiang, the mouse that was lying beside it stood up alertly, staring at the ancient sword in my hand with tension. It could be seen that the Yang energy and Jue energy emitted by Gan Jiang made it feel uneasy.

  I pointed at the sword and then at the lock chain wrapped around the copper ring, forcing my spiritual energy into Gan Jiang, gritting my teeth and closing my eyes before slashing down!

  "Is it broken?" I tensed up and didn't dare open my eyes, afraid of seeing the ancient sword's tragic breakage before me.

  "It didn't stop, it went in..."