I jumped up. “How did you get here? Aren't you supposed to be in the capital protecting Little Raindrop?”

“Tch, Boss, are you kidding me? I’m a super robot, after all. Do you think that little task is beyond my capabilities?”

“Then how did you get here? Did you fly?”

Taozi replied, “Yeah. I told you I evolved for speed. This little distance is nothing to me. Get up, Boss, quickly. I sense something terrible has happened in Peach Blossom Village. We need to rush over and check it out immediately.”

If something terrible happened in Peach Blossom Village, I couldn't ignore it. It was, after all, the place where Taozi and I originated. I quickly got dressed and we slipped out of the hospital together.

I never imagined my sprinting speed could be this fast. Describing it as riding the clouds and mist wouldn't be an exaggeration. Once I got going, my leg frequency was unbelievably fast, as if Earth's gravity had ceased to apply to me. It felt a bit like flying. B-Class Supermen truly had some impressive skills.

What should have taken hours, Taozi and I covered in just over ten minutes. But according to Taozi, I had wasted more than ten minutes. Damn it, the little guy specialized in speed evolution; how could I compare? I was already quite content with my current velocity.

The cluster of peach trees at the village entrance had long been washed away by the flood, and the magical ancient peach tree catalyzed by the Energy Stone was not spared either. Thankfully, the houses were situated some distance from the valley floor, otherwise, the flood that day would have swept those away too. Peach Blossom Village had indeed suffered. The village was a mess, and the ground was littered with the scattered corpses of dogs.

Taozi spat, “Boss, take a closer look. Those are rat corpses, not dog corpses.”

I poked at the bodies carefully and confirmed they were indeed the giant rats I had seen during the flood that day. Their individual sizes were so large that they looked like dogs from any angle.

The village was eerily silent. I said to Taozi, “We’re too late. The Big Rats attacked Peach Blossom Village. I fear the villagers are mostly dead or injured.”

Taozi muttered to himself, “I should have foreseen this. The disappearance of the Energy Stone must have upset the balance of power here. With the constraint of the Energy Stone gone, the evolution of various life forms was bound to cause problems sooner or later. What a pity for the villagers here; they are all innocent victims.”

We were standing near Zhao Fen's house. The ground was strewn with dismembered rat corpses. The cold night wind of early winter swept through, giving me a shiver. Sometimes the wind sounded like human weeping, and other times like a sorrowful erhu.

A sharp, piercing chorus of squeaks—'Squeak-squeak-squeak'—tore through the strange night sky, followed by a rustling sound outside the village as a group of dark shadows rushed toward Village Chief Li Tieniu’s house.

“It’s the rats! Let’s follow them quickly,” Taozi urged.

Under the desolate moonlight, we saw a blood-soaked figure in the village chief's courtyard wildly hacking at the swarming rats with a sharp hunting knife. But for every giant rat he chopped down, two more pounced on him. It seemed the besieged man could not hold out much longer and was about to be torn to shreds.

At the critical moment, his figure flickered, and he astonishingly flew up from thin air—note, flew, not jumped. His movements were so slow and gentle, like watching a slow-motion film. I had never seen anyone jump so slowly; only flying could achieve such a state.

The person did not linger in the air but landed smoothly on the rooftop. After a moment of stunned hesitation, the rats, directed by a fat rat on the periphery, swarmed the house and began gnawing at it.

“The person on the roof is the Village Chief!” Taozi reminded me.

Regardless of what Li Tieniu had done in the past, the current conflict was between humans and these aberrant giant rats. I couldn't just stand by and let him be eaten by this horde. “I’ll save him. You stay back far away so the rats don't eat you.”

Taozi seemed wary of these giant rats and hung back far behind me. As soon as I appeared, I attracted the attention of the Rat King. I heard a few squeaks, and a contingent of the rats gnawing the house broke off to surround me. These fiends didn’t bother with introductions; they lunged at me, baring their teeth.

Facing the surging tide of giant rats, I felt no fear, as I had imagined. Instead, a fierce, primal impulse surged through my body—the instinct of a predator far more ferocious than these giant rats spotting prey. The blood pumped from my heart suddenly seemed injected with a stimulant, rushing to my limbs. My body was suddenly imbued with explosive power capable of leveling a large city. This strength made my blood boil, and with a great roar, I charged into the rat swarm.

Those standing on the perimeter could not see clearly what was happening inside the melee, but the constant flinging of severed limbs and torn flesh was enough to attest to the sheer brutality of the situation. The Rat King squealed incessantly, and more giant rats poured out of wall breaches, ditches, and even latrines. They quickly joined the fray, only to be swiftly dismembered and hurled out.

Soon, a small perimeter wall of rat carcasses encircled the battlefield. These mutant giant rats, utterly fearless moments before, were now stunned into silence. The Rat King’s squeaks grew louder, but the number of rats daring to charge into the fray grew smaller.

“Kill the Rat King first!” Taozi and Li Tieniu on the roof shouted at me simultaneously.

I tore a bloody gap through the circle of giant rats and lunged toward the Rat King. The Rat King wasn’t stupid; having watched the previous battle, it knew it was no match for me, so it turned and fled.

Li Tieniu tossed a hunting knife down from the roof. “Catch it, and kill it.”

The hunting knife spiraled down whistling. The Rat King had already bolted five or six meters away. By then, the knife was right in front of me. Too lazy to chase, I flew up and kicked the hilt of the knife. The knife, propelled by this extra acceleration, shot past me and struck the Rat King from behind with a sickening thud, ending its life instantly.

Just as I was admiring my stylish kick, Taozi chirped, “Boss, you’re showing off.”

Seeing their King dead, the remaining giant rats panicked and scattered everywhere. I shouted, “That’s bad! If these things escape into the mountains, they’ll cause endless trouble!” But they were darting about so quickly that I couldn't possibly chase them all. In desperation, a powerful surge of air gathered in my chest, forcing me to open my mouth and let out a long, heaven-piercing roar.

Perhaps my shout was too loud; Li Tieniu was startled and tumbled off the roof. Taozi also covered his ears, saying, “Why are you exactly like that dead snake? Can’t you do anything other than yell?”

I transmitted to Taozi mentally, Do you think I wanted to yell? Who knows what kind of substance is in that rogue snake’s flesh that passed all its bad habits onto me... Taozi, look! What are the rats doing?

The fleeing giant rats all turned around at once. They marched up to me, automatically lined up in several neat rows, bowed their heads, and lay motionless on the ground. A few timid ones were trembling violently, and some even soiled themselves.

Taozi shrieked, “Boss, there was something wrong with your cry! These rats are terrified of your roar! They are waiting for you to decide their fate.”

What? My shout scared them so much they lost control of their bowels? Was all that one-sided slaughter for nothing? What a waste of my clothes!

I asked Taozi, “Besides being loud, was there anything special about my cry? Why are they so afraid?”

Taozi replied, “There was something special. It matched the same frequency as that rogue snake’s call. I suspect these rats were frightened by that dead snake before. Boss, wait a moment; I’ll try to communicate with them.”

Taozi first sent out a brainwave communication signal. Who knew, while these rats had evolved physically, their brains were just mush, completely incapable of decoding Taozi’s signals. Taozi became frantic, squeaking 'squeak-squeak-squeak' at the rats out of frustration.

Finally, one robust-looking giant rat seemed to catch on. It stepped forward, out of line, and squeaked back at Taozi. The cat and the rat—no, the cat and the mouse—chatted back and forth for a long time before stopping.

Taozi signaled me mentally, “Boss, these rats were formerly farmed food for the python. They were required to deliver meat-rats to the python at set times and locations. If the python was in a good mood that day, it would often demand extra portions. Your cry is on the same channel as the dead snake's feeding signal. Furthermore, your earlier brutality deeply intimidated them. They now think you are the python reincarnated. They are lined up waiting for you to select which ones to eat.”

The ground covered in rat corpses was already disgusting enough, but Taozi suddenly bringing up the idea of eating made me nearly vomit.

“Hurry up and tell them to destroy themselves, so they don't stay in this world to harm humanity. As for whether you like eating rat meat, I won't stop you, but you’re not allowed to sleep in the same bed as me anymore.”

Taozi sounded displeased. “Do you think I like sleeping with you? When you have a girlfriend in the future, what am I—just following behind you in the dark? But whether they agree to self-destruct is still a problem. I’ll ask them first.”

Taozi then walked back to the giant rat from before and began squeaking. The rat’s expression shifted dramatically. It glanced cautiously at me, then began whispering back to Taozi. At first, Taozi’s face showed grim determination, but as the giant rat’s voice lowered, a few other rats joined the discussion group. Taozi nodded as he listened, then continued to ask questions, to which the rats squeaked answers.

Listening to their frantic squeaking, I squeaked irritably in my mind, Why can Taozi understand rat language but I can’t? Should I have understood snake language? What exactly did those two Energy Stones give me?

The giant rats circled Taozi, bowing and kowtowing. One even appeared to wipe away tears like a human. Taozi finally nodded. He walked out of the rat group and gestured for me to come over to talk, forgetting he didn't need to use his mouth to speak. What did it matter if we were close or not?

“Boss, I have a suggestion, not sure if it will work?”

“As long as you don’t tell me you plan to keep them around to eat slowly later.”

Taozi shook his head and spoke to me mentally: “That’s not what I mean. These mutated giant rats are terrified of you. If you want to kill them, they won't dare resist. But everything has two sides; good things can turn bad, and bad things can turn good. Rats are an enormous race on our planet. Their widespread distribution, massive numbers, and rapid reproduction rate are unmatched by any other species. If we, a super-being and a super-cat, are going to build something, we can’t rely solely on our own two hands. These mutated giant rats are extraordinary in intelligence, strength, and speed. If we can tame and utilize them, they would undoubtedly form an invincible force. Of course, I admit you have a super sister, but we are men, aren't we? We should achieve something ourselves to show the girls. What do you say?”

I stroked the cat’s head. “I absolutely agree with your last point, but you want to keep rats as pets? Are you crazy? Rats this big will turn into cattle if we let them grow. Then, they have ten offspring, who have a hundred, who have a million. The number will become so vast that the Earth can’t hold them—what will you do then?”

Taozi the cat calmly replied, “Boss, let me explain. These rats were intensely irradiated by the Energy Stone not long ago, and they have lost their ability to reproduce. They are one less for every one that dies; the situation you described will absolutely not happen. I roughly counted; the remaining rat population is around one hundred. Killing them would seem overly cruel, and it would also be a bit of a waste. My suggestion is to train them; they might be useful someday.”

An unbelievable suggestion. “You haven’t even considered where you’d keep this large group of dog-sized rats. What if they cause a plague? Besides, they require feed and management—I don't have that free time.”

“Boss, why don’t you let me handle this matter?” Taozi seemed to have been influenced by the rats’ reverence just now, as he was advocating for them so earnestly. But thinking about it, Taozi’s proposal was quite tempting. Moreover, asking me now to exterminate a group of completely submissive rodents—I really couldn't bring myself to do it.

I patted Taozi’s cat head and laughed, “Alright. I hereby appoint you Commander-in-Chief of the Rat Army. From now on, lead them to conquer the world. If someone digs a hole or a sewer in the future, everyone should pitch in to help.”

“Great, thank you, Boss! But the chores you mentioned should be handled by ordinary rats. Our Rat Army will be an elite force for grander things! Hehe, I certainly won't let your sister's robot outdo them.”

“Ah! Snakes!” Li Tieniu, who had been quietly standing by, suddenly shouted. Simultaneously, the previously subservient rat horde stirred up. Although their movement was disorganized, their speed was incredible. Within seconds, the hundred or so giant rats had surrounded us. However, they were all facing outward, seemingly intending to protect us.

Damn it, these creatures really are loyal to their master. I had just agreed to take them in, and they were already repaying the favor. It seemed my decision was the right one.

Outside Li Tieniu’s courtyard, a coil of giant snakes had appeared, each as thick as an arm. The longest were over ten meters long, and the shortest were six or seven meters, all flicking red tongues and raising their heads to glare angrily at the mass of rats.

Li Tieniu cautiously warned me, “Some of these snakes carry potent venom, and their hides are tough and thick—they are very hard to deal with. Our village organized people to kill one a few years ago, and more than ten villagers were injured.”

The villagers of Peach Blossom Village each possessed strange skills. The fact that one snake could injure more than ten of them suggested these snakes were unusual. Could they be the giant python's sworn brothers?

The snake horde coiled outside the courtyard but did not attack. I looked at Taozi, puzzled. “What’s going on? What do they want? Don’t you speak Beast Tongue? Go communicate with them quickly.”

Taozi replied, “These beasts’ brains evolve very slowly. Communicating with them is harder than climbing to heaven. Simple meanings require very complex sentences and gestures to express. I think you should communicate with them instead.”

I flicked Taozi’s forehead. “Go on, I wouldn't need you if I could communicate with them myself.”

Taozi walked off, saying, “Of course you can’t compare to me. I’m a creature that has evolved for hundreds of years; you’ve only had a few days! But if you were to evolve for a few hundred years, you’d become a god. However, I can’t guarantee you’d understand Beast Tongue.”

It seemed Taozi’s communication with the giant snakes was indeed difficult, not as smooth as his exchange with the giant rats. Taozi became agitated, scratching his ears and cheeks, pointing to the sky and drawing on the ground, frequently pointing at me. By the end, he was jumping around and lolling his tongue out erratically.

Finally, Taozi turned back to me. “Those guys want to inspect the merchandise. They’re worried you aren’t their Big Brother.”

I almost fell onto the ground. When did I become the Snake Big Brother? They must have mistaken a relative.