"Oh my God, so many rats!!"
My legs turned to jelly, and I instinctively took a half-step back.
I had been bitten by rats on my toes before, and I had even been surrounded and attacked by a swarm of them.
With these gray, fluffy creatures, I had developed an immense psychological fear.
Seeing so many rats all at once nearly scared me into outright fleeing.
But in the forest, how could a person's legs ever outrun rats, especially when I was a pregnant woman with a big round belly.
In my urgency, I tapped into my survival instincts and scurried up the trunk of a pine tree.
The swarm of rats moved quickly, flooding over like a tide in less than ten seconds.
One after another, the little black rats hopped around the base of the pine tree, speaking human language, "This human climbed up the tree, do they think we rats can't climb trees?"
"She's so pretty, she must taste fresh and juicy."
"Let's figure out a way to bring her down and stew her for meat."
Clinging tightly to the trunk, I was up in the tree, nearly in tears from fear.
With such an enormous number of gnawing animals, a bite from each would be enough to strip me to a skeleton in less than ten seconds.
"Let's see whether I become your meal first or if you turn into roasted rats," I knew that my heavenly fire had suffered a setback and needed a long time to recuperate, and using it rashly would spell big trouble for me.
But now, my life was on the line, so I couldn't care less. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel(ꜰ)ire.net
For the first time without talisman paper in hand, I forced the heavenly fire within my body to the tips of my fingers, forming it little by little, "Po Qi to Swift Vajra..."
"Stop your impudence, our ancestor asked you to invite her, not to scare her," a naive-sounding young girl's voice suddenly intervened.
The formation of my heavenly fire halted midway, and I couldn't help but look curiously in the direction of the voice.
What I saw was a giant white rabbit hopping through the heavy snow, standing over two meters tall.
In front of me, it was a massive creature; its whiskers could pierce me like swords.
The little rats countered with their squeaky voices, "Who's scaring her? The ancestor didn't say we couldn't eat her; we've never tried human flesh before."
"I heard human flesh is delicious and sweet."
"Exactly, the people of the Lin Family are no good, no need to pamper them."
"Hey, Miss Rabbit, are you a rabbit spirit? Is the ancestor you're talking about a big white-haired rat?"
I had been hanging in the tree for over five minutes, and my pregnant body was just too heavy; I was barely holding on.
I needed to either make peace or roast these rats with my heavenly fire.
In any case, I had to get down from here quickly.
The rabbit said to me, "Don't ask about my affairs. Come down from there, and I'll ensure your safety; I'll take you to meet our ancestor."
"Oh, oh, oh... I'm coming down right now, right this second," I squinted my eyes, knowing full well that the rabbit's words might not be trustworthy and that it could be luring me down to feed the rats.
But every second now was critically urgent for me.
I had to take a risk, instead of wasting time and energy on pointless matters.
Growing up in a poor family, I often climbed trees to pick fruit to stave off hunger.
Climbing trees was a skill I was quite adept at; I descended swiftly and, before touching the ground, I landed in a fluffy mass—it turned out that the rabbit had stopped by the tree as I came down, "Grandmaster of the Lin Family, hold onto the fur on my back tightly; I can run very fast."
"Wait, I... I'm not ready yet, hey, why are you running all of a sudden... Ah... Ah..."