"...Didn’t you just tell me to call you Mouse Lord? Are you male or female?" Eli’s face darkened like gathering storm.

The mouse blinked. "Eh… that… of course I’m male."

Eli sighed. "…Damn."

The mouse flashed a hand sign. His human shell faded like mist, and he snapped back into a mouse. He patted his chest and wiped sweat from his brow.

"Eh… I built that look from the image you favor in your mind, mixed with my own. I can’t fully become human yet," the mouse exhaled, relief loosening his shoulders.

"Looks like you’ve got opinions. I’ll change back then." The mouse stood with hands on hips, a tiny general under lantern light.

"Sigh. Keep it this way. A naked body’s a bit much," Eli rubbed his brow, headache pulsing like a drum.

The mouse blinked. "Eh… I thought I saw a young human girl in your head. Aren’t you a bit…"

Eli lunged and closed his fist around the mouse. "You—don’t."

"…Oh. Okay…" The mouse hunched his shoulders, sheepish as a wet cat.

"Alright… I’ll call you Wangcai. ‘Mouse Lord’ doesn’t sit right," Eli said after a beat, voice steady as a blade.

"Huh? Wangcai? What does that even mean?" The mouse peered up at him, whiskers twitching with confusion.

"It’s nothing. Wangcai it is, Wangcai. Sounds nice enough, right, Wangcai? Mm. I like it. Done, Wangcai," Eli said, eyes flickering like stars on water.

The mouse rolled his eyes. "You’re just too lazy to think up a name, aren’t you?"

"Uh-huh. You can think that. Anyway," Eli grinned, easy as sunlight.

"Alright, Wangcai. Tell me. What happened back there? How did you slip past my spirit sense? How did you pull that off?"

The rat demon rubbed his face, melancholy pooling like dusk. "Nothing special. I just… hid. You can… emmm… take a look?"

Eli arched a brow. "Fine. Try it. I’ll see what’s what."

He wasn’t worried the thing would bolt. His confidence held like iron netting.

Eli flicked his hands. The mental prison binding the rat demon shattered like glass.

The rat dropped from midair, thumping onto the floor.

He sat dazed for a heartbeat, then pressed his palms together, fingers flying like wind over water.

Eli watched a mouse weave hand seals. The sight felt uncanny, like a sparrow reciting scripture.

A pale rune blossomed on the rat demon’s brow. The next breath stunned Eli.

The creature stood right there, yet his soul sense showed nothing—no shadow, no echo.

The rat demon shrugged. "See? Boss, that’s the trick."

Eli widened his eyes, then let a thin smile cut his mouth. "Now that’s interesting."

"How did you do it?" Eli crouched, gaze pinning the rat like a needle through silk.

The rat stroked his whiskers. He saw Eli’s urgency spark like fire in dry grass, and smirked. "Heh, take a guess~"

Eli: "……"

He straightened, smile bright as a drawn blade. "Wangcai, tell me—what’s worth more? Your life, or the secret?"

"Uwagh. Sorry, boss, I was wrong! Don’t kill me… I’ll tell, I’ll tell everything!" The rat’s eyes brimmed, and he kowtowed like a drum beat.

Eli’s mouth twitched.

Every time, a mouse doing that was pure comedy—like a puppet banging its head.

"Alright, alright. I won’t kill you. Stop begging. Speak. Let me see what’s what," Eli said, headache tightening like a knot.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

The next instant,

A blast rolled from the studio, thunder cracking open the air.

Eli and the rat clapped hands to their ears.

They stared toward the studio, eyes sharp as knives in rain.

Boom. Thud. Clang…

Demolition’s chaos rattled around their skulls, a storm of noise battering one man and one mouse.

"To hell with you! Trying to scare me?! Dragon-Burial Roar!"

Awoo—boom!

After that feral shout, scarlet Battle Aura condensed like blood into steel. It slammed the doors with another earthshaking crash.

The creature the red aura shaped wore a mouth fringed with writhing tentacles, like a nightmare jellyfish.

Strangely, the studio doors stayed whole. Complex talismans floated over the wood, warding like stars etched into night.

"Hmm? Still not opening for your mama? Fine. Suffer!"

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Flesh hammered wood. Each impact thudded like meat on a butcher’s block.

"Roar!" Another bizarre cry tore the air.

Its owner took a hit like a mountain falling, shock rippling the room.

The studio doors endured a siege of brutal force, level upon level.

Then—boom—the twin doors of fine timber and metal blasted off like cannon shells.

Under the stunned gaze of man and mouse,

Liqianyu stood wrapped in red Battle Aura, her fingers clamped around the head of something octopus-like.

She dripped killing intent. Her water-blue hair streamed like a river in wind.

"Huff… huff… A mere… mere seafood… you dare scare me? Hm?!" Liqianyu turned and saw more unknown tentacles sprouting inside.

"Oh? Plenty of siblings, huh?!" Her anger flared like a crown of fire.

Her scarlet aura shifted. It turned crystal-clear and blue, Battle Aura circling her like rings of ice.

"Die for me!"

She spun and flew back into the studio, swift as a hawk over waves.

The rat demon shrank behind Eli’s shoulder and burrowed into his hair. "My heavens… boss, the one you brought… is terrifying…"

Eli wiped sweat from his face and shrugged, helpless as reeds in wind. "Yeah. A human-shaped mama T-rex. The scary kind."

"Ma—ye…" The rat squeaked, fur bristling like needles.

Eli chuckled and let it drop.

Still, a doubt pulsed in him like a hidden spring.

Liqianyu hadn’t broken into the Sacred Rank. Yet that blue surge had called natural elements, the force only a complete Divinity could stir.

What in the world was that?

No wonder Li Gongxuan said she wasn’t simple.

So that’s the story…

Didn’t expect Mit to offer this much.

Eli lowered his gaze and smiled, like finding gold under sand.

He pinched the rat’s tail. "Hey. Are you filthy? You just dove behind me. Do you have fleas?"

"Relax, boss. I’m not some sewer rat. I dine on palace delicacies every day~ You know the palace’s environment~ No one’s tending it now, but I care about rodent hygiene."

"You won’t get caught?" Eli asked with a laugh, light as wind.

"Uh… you already know I’ve got that trick," the rat scratched his head.

"Enough. Back to your trick. How exactly do you do it?" Eli lifted its tail, set the rat in his palm, curiosity shining like a lantern.

"Uh. It’s no big deal. Someone in that studio taught me," the rat said, scratching.

"?!"

Eli whipped around and sprinted into the studio, urgency burning like oil.

Dammit. The little rat could’ve said that sooner.

What if Liqianyu beat them to death?

…

When Liqianyu dove back into the studio,

She found everything inside had changed, the world turned on its axis.

Nothing matched what she’d seen before.

The octopus in her hand twitched, dying. Its tentacles tried to coil around her wrist like vines.

Liqianyu arched a brow, then crushed it to pulp with one palm.

She scanned the surroundings and laughed. "Tsk, tsk. Now I’m unsure. Did you throw me with a teleport array, or is this all a mirage?"

She had rushed into a studio.

Now she stood on a tiny island in a vast ocean, salt wind biting like knives.

Before her rose a scaled-up twin of the octopus—blown up tens of thousands of times.

It heaved in the sea, waves lifting it like a god’s breath.

Those strange eyes looked her up and down, cold as glass.

Then a rasping roar.

Around the octopus, more titans surfaced—crabs and lobsters, hulks of shell and claw.

"………" Liqianyu watched the parade of giants rise from the deep and fell into a long silence.

"Uh… how to put it? Funny?" She smiled. "You think I’m scared? Bigger or not, it’s still seafood. What’s so special?"

She gritted her teeth and lifted off, legs cutting the air like blades.

Blue Battle Aura gathered at her hands like a river finding the sea.

"This time you won’t dodge!" Liqianyu bit off the words. "Mystic Dragon Shears!"

Roar!

A dragon’s cry ripped the sky.

But no extra energy spilled. Liqianyu herself became the projectile, a cannonball aimed at the nearest giant crab.

And…

It did nothing.

Her fist smashed the crab’s shell and left a tiny knuckle print.

Her Battle Aura sank like rain into sand, vanishing without a trace.

"Damn…" Liqianyu kicked it and flew backward. She landed on the little island again.

She shook her arm again and again. "Ow, ow, ow… What the hell is this?!"

Meanwhile, Eli and the rat demon barreled into the room. Paintings lay scattered like fallen leaves. A strange being waited there—a round crystal head, a long cloak trailing, body hidden in shadow.

It turned toward Eli and showed something like a smile, thin as moonlight.

"Hero, you have finally arrived."