บท 18: Chapter 18 Carrot and Stick
"Professor, shall we continue to go deeper?"
"Professor... we're just like headless flies here!"
In the depths of the mountain forest, the research team that was being watched by the Spiritual Rat White had only traveled a few hundred meters when an accident occurred: a student carrying a backpack stumbled and slid several meters down a small slope.
Although he only suffered some scratches,
it made the rest of the companions contemplate retreat.
The deep and ancient forest looked quite beautiful, but actually staying in it made everyone feel uncomfortable all over.
Especially since the old hunter's hunting dog refused to move forward and even ended up exhausting the old hunter himself, forcing him to abandon the big job at hand.
These people had taken much delight in watching the old hunter struggle with his dog.
Now they were just as panicked and uneasy.
The leading professor still didn't want to leave empty-handed,
He aimed to reassure everyone and was preparing to offer them a grand promise.
Before he could voice his words, he heard a series of exclamations.
"Did you find a mouse?"
"No! It's a snake! Everyone be careful!"
The professor turned around and was shocked to see five or six brightly colored venomous snakes rush out from the bushes. As soon as they spotted the team, they immediately stopped moving and assumed an attacking posture.
These venomous snakes had been disturbed by Su Ping, who had come here and deliberately turned over their nest, herding them in this direction.
Su Ping, who was preparing to train a group of rats, didn't plan to spare the attention or let a single Spiritual Rat keep track of this team.
He intended to cause them a little trouble so they would retreat knowing the difficulty, yet without revealing any abnormalities on his side.
"Don't run! Stay calm, let's all slowly retreat together!"
A tall young man with a duckbill cap stood out, nervously waving his arms and positioning himself beside the professor.
The next second, before the others could react,
With White, the Spiritual Rat perched atop the tree branches, exerting its transcendental spiritual pressure, the snakes below were stimulated.
Screams came from under the tree, followed by the shouting and scrambling of footsteps.
After being bitten by the venomous snakes, the team quickly fled the mountain forest and received emergency treatment.
Luckily, even if they hadn't come prepared themselves, the hosts had arranged for snake medicine.
In Yushu City, which is close to a nature reserve, hospitals were also quite experienced in treating snake and mushroom poisoning.
No one in the team would lose their life to the venomous snakes.
But with this attack experience,
the team wouldn't dare to venture deep into the mountain forest again anytime soon.
It wasn't that no one had the wild idea to suspect that the mice they were investigating were the culprits.
However, such an obviously ridiculous guess couldn't even pass the group meeting stage, let alone be submitted as an official report for upper management's review.
"Now, there's no one to bother us."
Deep in the mountain forest, near a pond.
Su Ping sat cross-legged, smiling as he watched the teeming crowd of rats lying on the ground in front of him.
At the forefront of the rat crowd, Spiritual Rats White and Grey anthropomorphically stood upright, squeaking and lecturing to the group of rats.
About three thousand rats qualified to come before Su Ping, each one an elite among rats, smart and human-like.
Placed in the Immortal Cultivation World, these rats were like White and Grey, belonging to the category with spiritual sentience.
"Has the lifestyle of humans in the Information Age also affected these rats?"
"There are more sentient rats than I had imagined!"
"This is good news for my plans ahead!"
Su Ping saw that the timing was about right—the rats had submitted to the pressure of the two Spiritual Rats in a short time.
Next was to add the grace of delicious food within this layer of oppression.
The carrot and stick approach—whether transcendent or not, it still works wonders!
Su Ping took out the storage bag and pulled out over a hundred jins of additive-laced bread.
The irresistible aroma of the bread wafted through the air.
A commotion quickly arose among the rat pack.
Squeak!
Spiritual Rat White held nothing but disdain for these Otherworld brethren, immediately letting out a shrill squeal before darting into the midst of the rats as a blur, snapping off the head of one with a single bite.
Squeak squeak!
Rising on two legs, Spiritual Rat White swept across the rat pack like a foreman wielding a whip, unleashing the full force of its pressure.
It directly suppressed the disturbance.
With a cold snort, White then swiftly dropped to all fours and scurried to Su Ping's feet, looking up with an expression full of fawning.
"Eat."
Su Ping handed out two pieces of bread to White and Grey.
After they had their fill, it was up to them to distribute the food to the first three rows of rats.
Once the rats at the front had finished, they would then allocate the remainder to their fellow kind, thus establishing each team organization within the rat pack during the distribution process.
Afterward, Su Ping thought of a secret technique within the inherited knowledge obtained by the Rat Taoist and passed it on to White and Grey.
Squeak squeak squeak!
White and Grey activated the secret technique, and to their success, each formed a faint yet tangible connection with an elite rat!
This connection resembled the bond from the Beast Taming Skill Su Ping had used on White and Grey.
But it lacked the compulsory effect on both sides, merely creating a bridge for remote communication across the void.
That alone was sufficient.
The rat pack, doubly suppressed, submitted to White and Grey's commands from the depths of their souls.
This secret technique perfectly resolved the issue of command!
The only problem was that this Dharma Method also required the consumption of mana.
Even if the consumption wasn't large, the lack of Spiritual Energy on Water Blue Star and the sheer number of rats to be connected would be an issue.
Luckily, Su Ping wasn't one to fuss.
With a grand gesture, he spent 10 Fishing Coins to exchange for a bottle of mana potion.
Using the mana potion's ability for continuous mana recovery, White and Grey raced against time, and after consuming the entire bottle provided by Su Ping, they established connections with the three thousand elite rats present.
And so, beside a secluded mountain forest pond,
If anyone were nearby at this moment, they would be astounded, their mouths agape in disbelief.
For beside this pond, an astonishing sight unfolded: thousands of rats forming an "O" one moment, a "Z" the next.
And at another moment, they were even arranged into the complex Eight Gates Golden Lock Array!
Su Ping was rather enjoying himself—or rather, he was earnestly understanding the limits of these rat formations through practice.
He even had White and Grey each lead one thousand five hundred Rat Soldiers for a practice drill of a rat versus rat battle.
The victors would get more bread.
The losers could only drink water to nurse their wounds.
"When numbers are involved, even a rat fight can be quite spectacular."
"It's just that as individuals, they are still a bit weak."
"But there's no need to rush, once the Rat Taoist arrives at Golden Sparrow City and concocts the secret medicine to enhance the physique of rat-kind, these Rat Soldiers will have a promising future!"
Having made a connection with this group of rats, Spiritual Rat White and Grey no longer needed to stay there.
When Su Ping stood up, White and Grey immediately leaped to his shoulders.
Then, Su Ping donned his conical hat and picked up his fishing gear.
Since he was already here, he might as well try out the potential fishing spots along the way.
Otherwise, it would be a wasted trip!
Moreover, what if he chanced upon another Fishing Point?
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