Chapter 24: Mouse Catching

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

The next day, at dawn.

A flash of morning sun cut through the sky and shed a pale glow.

The shadows of the beasts and ghosts walking in the darkness disappeared, and under the sunrise, the trees were lush and green, the birds cried in high pitch, and the forest was once again vibrant with life.

The air was filled with moist vapor and the faint scent of flowers and plants, and Bai Wushang inhaled greedily, calming some of his slight anticipation.

He was heading to the five rat traps he had placed overnight yesterday, ready to check the harvest one by one.

Soon, Bai Wushang pushed apart a thick grass, tugged on a thick vine rope, and pulled out the number one rat-trap cage that was half-buried in the earth.

“This one… is empty…”

He hefted the cage twice. It was empty with nothing.

Slightly disappointed, Bai Wushang put the cage back after replacing the fresh cheese flower.

Trap number two was under a fruit tree, not very far from here.

“Huh, it caught something!”

Just as he got closer, Bai Wushang heard a strange rattling in the cage.

Through the thin vine net, Bai Wushang vaguely saw a gray 30-centimeter-long creature scurrying around the cage in a panic.

[Name]: Gray Hairy Rat (Wild)

[Race]: Demon Beast Realm – Walking Beast Type – Gray Fur Rat Race

[Life Level]: Early youth form

[Bloodline Quality]: Mortal Bone Level, 2 Stars

[Status]: Restlessness

[Wisdom]: Very low

[Characteristic]: Bacteria

[Skills]: Digging holes, Gnawing

[Gourmet Cell]: 2

The gray-furred rat is a rather common rat-like transcendent creature… Unfortunately, it is only in its early youth stage, and doesn’t meet the requirements…

On second thought, Bai Wushang relaxed his frown. It’s okay. At least it shows that the mouse traps are feasible. Besides, these are also two points of gourmet cells. Anything is better than nothing…

Carrying the rat-catching cage, Bai Wushang found a small stream nearby, and drowned the gray-furred rat.

This was the most convenient way to handle it.

[Hunting Success, Gourmet Cell +2]

“Total of four points, 96 points to go. It’s a long way to go… I still have to keep working hard…” Bai Wushang murmured, while his hands and feet nimbly removed the rat skin and rat teeth. These two things could also be worth five or six gold coins. For his currently quite empty pockets, any amount he could make was considerable.

Three more cages—I won’t ask for much, just catch one!

With a heart full of anticipation, Bai Wushang continued to look through the remaining rat-catching cages.

Cage three trapped a freckled mouse, but unfortunately, it was also in the early stage of youth, which was too low for it to be useful.

The fourth rat-catching cage had been destroyed. From the marks, it was torn right through by sharp claws. It was most likely a late-stage or peak-stage rage creature, and Bai Wushang’s handmade cage alone couldn’t trap it.

Finally, in the fifth rat-catching cage, Bai Wushang found the mid-stage youth rat he longed for.

It was a small rock rat, only about 20 centimeters in size, and with gray and coarse fur.

Its bloodline quality was not low—enough to be a Mortal Bone level: four stars, which could be considered intermediate amongst the youth form.

Rock rats, a class of creatures with mighty sharp claws and teeth, were notorious for making holes and nests in large chunks of rock, for which they often destroyed some human buildings.

When Bai Wushang saw it, it had already bitten a small hole in the fifth rat-catching cage, and if he had come one step later, it might have run away.

Bai Wushang used a hard object to plug the freshly made hole, darted to the stream, and pressed it into the water the way he did before.

Rock rats were more afraid of water than the average rodent, and it lost all signs of life in just two minutes.

[Hunting Success, Gourmet Cell +8]

Carrying the intact corpse of the rock rat, Bai Wushang returned to the simple stone cave with full hands.

Taking out one material and auxiliary apparatus after another from his dimensional backpack, Bai Wushang rubbed his hands together, and prepared to craft the Mouse of Temptation officially.

The process described in the recipe was very detailed. Bai Wushang first used a dagger to break open the rat’s belly, pulled out the internal organs, and washed them. Then, after estimating the weight of about 10 grams of ink bamboo leaves and putting them inside, he simply sewed it together with the silk and wasp stings he had collected.

Then it was time to crush the phantom grass and the stramonium. It was nothing complicated.

As for the cooking pots and pans, Bai Wushang prepared an iron melon.

It was a poor-tasting ball-shaped fruit, a small half a meter in diameter, with a near-metallic texture on the outermost rind. It could briefly resist burning at high temperatures, and was a good choice for picnics.

Bai Wushang yanked off the calyx of the iron melon, which immediately revealed a head-sized hole, drained and washed the flesh inside, and poured in about 300 ml of water.

The powdered crushed flowers and herbs were mixed with water and constantly stirred, turning from blue and red until they took on a full purplish-red color, which took only three or four minutes.

Excellent, no mistakes so far. Next, cook it on a small fire!

Bai Wushang ignited the shredded wood, adjusting it slightly to keep the flames burning as low as possible, and then he placed the rat carcass in the pot before setting the whole iron melon on fire.

There is also the infusion of soul power into the ingredients, a practice somewhat similar to alchemy, but used on food… I never heard of it before. What kind of changes will it produce?

A trace of apprehension flashed across Bai Wushang’s face. If he were asked to cook food for humans, he would be able to do it aptly, but right now, it was the first time he cooked food for a transcendent creature, so he was inevitably a little bit impatient.

With the palm of his right hand near the rim of the pot, Bai Wushang began to slowly release his soul power while watching the changes in the pot with total concentration.

As soon as the soul power left his body, it automatically merged into the purple-red soup as if it was a cat that smelled something fishy.

And as the flames heated up, the infusion of soul power grew, and the pot gurgled and bubbled little bubbles.

In about five minutes, the iron melon shell was red, the soup inside was completely boiling, and the purple-red liquid was continuously seeping into the rock rat’s body, gradually staining the grayish-white flesh red.

After another moment, the feeling of soul power absorption suddenly disappeared, and no matter how hard he pushed, soul power could not enter the pot.

It’s all boiled?

Bai Wushang’s eyes widened as he realized that there was indeed no liquid left in the pot, and hurriedly extinguished the fire.

Carefully using the bamboo chopsticks to clip out the final product, Bai Wushang saw the flesh of the rock rat whose appearance had changed drastically.

At this moment, its body was slightly swollen, all its fur turned into crimson, and its pupils that should have lost their sparkle were inexplicably tinted with deep purple, making its overall appearance quite demonic.

[Transcendental delicacy Mouse of Temptation has been created, recipe completion 76%, no special effects triggered.]

[Effect 1: Serpent Gathering. Attracts youth form snake creatures, estimated duration 57 minutes, effective ground distance 3000 meters, high probability of attracting early stage, low likelihood of attracting mid-stage, very low likelihood of attracting late stage, zero possibility of attracting peak stage (effect aborted after being swallowed).]

[Effect 2: Serpent’s Delight. Youth form snakes that successfully swallow this will enjoy extreme pleasure and lose their mobility for 3-10 seconds].