Chapter 178: Mainland Cults.

Ace stepped out of the little building and returned the staff, its tip still crowned with a sphere of light, to Shu Li.

Shu Li took it and studied Ace’s handsome face. “How did you know the statue was the Dark God?”

When Shu Li was still a cub, he had attended the Midsummer Festival for the first time and heard the Elven King play an Elven poem. It had drawn him into an illusion—or perhaps sent his soul into the past—where he had encountered the Dark God when he came to cause trouble at the Crystal Castle. Shu Li had remembered his face.

Even so, when he first saw the statue, he had only thought it looked familiar. He hadn’t connected it to the Dark God.

How had Ace, a human, recognized it at once?

“That’s right. How can you be sure?” the others asked.

“Have you heard of the most notorious cult on the continent,” Ace asked calmly, “the Hodehe Temple?”

“A cult?” Shu Li and his friends stared at him, then all shook their heads.

They had only recently left the Faerie Forest and knew little about the affairs of the continent.

Ace explained.

The followers of the Hodehe Temple worshipped the Dark God, Milojia Hodehe. They firmly believed that desires and ambitions should be indulged without restraint and that any means were justified in the pursuit of gain.

They dismissed every teaching of the Light God as hypocrisy designed to suppress human desire.

They had founded a holy order in Hodehe’s name and enshrined statues of the Dark God. Every day they prayed for him to return from hell, lead them in destroying the Light God and his followers, and become the true ruler of the world.

Ace’s first magic instructor had told him about a friend who had been drawn into the Hodehe Temple more than twenty years earlier. The friend kept a statue of the Dark God in his home, with a dark moonstone set in its chest. After long exposure to the dark power it released, he lost his humanity and brutally murdered his wife and daughter. When the local Magic Association learned of the tragedy, it sent magicians to capture him and bring him to justice.

The instructor had taken part in the arrest. Grief-stricken to see his friend led astray, he resolved to eradicate the Hodehe Temple. He wrote to the Magic Tower in the central court, asking its magicians to alert Magic Associations throughout the continent, destroy the cult, and cleanse and save the people it had deceived.

Terrified, the temple’s followers went underground and disappeared from sight for a time.

Ace looked back at the statue inside the building. “As for how I recognized it, I saw a sketch in my instructor’s notes. He copied the statue he saw, and it looked exactly like this one.”

The Little Fairies and young dragons were shaken by what their human classmate had told them.

The Human World was so complicated. Some people actually worshipped the evil Dark God!

Had they forgotten the War of the Gods ten thousand years ago? If the gods and the followers of the Light God hadn’t risked their lives to seal away the Dark God, the Austin Continent would have been devastated.

Shu Li could only shake his head.

Had the humans who believed in the Hodehe Temple been brainwashed like members of some predatory scheme?

How else could any reasonable person believe such inhuman nonsense?

With Magic Associations hunting down the Hodehe Temple, its followers had to keep their statues of the Dark God hidden.

The former owner of this land had plainly been a devoted follower. Afraid the Magic Association would discover the statue, he had buried it.

After all, Dalians had a custom of burying statues to protect their homes.

By coincidence, the spot he chose was a rats’ burrow. Drawn by the power of the dark moonstone, the rats had gathered there.

Why had the former owner’s son, Kehr, left the old house empty and sold it cheaply to Ram?

There had to be more to that story.

Perhaps he had discovered that the house was overrun with rats and too unpleasant to live in, which was why it had stood empty for five years. Then, after squandering his fortune and running out of money, he had taken advantage of Ram’s love of a bargain, sold him the land for a tidy sum, and made his escape.

Ram, meanwhile, believed the place brought him wealth. He would rather endure the rats than move.

How were they supposed to untangle this?

One rat was no great threat. Ten thousand could be a disaster.

Rats in the forest had natural predators that kept their numbers in balance. There were only so many cats in town. If the rats bred unchecked, they could spread everywhere.

Shu Li had noticed that Ram owned four cats. Yet while their owners suffered, all four hid beneath the sofa, trembling.

The Light Team had accepted Ram’s task. They needed to solve the problem properly.

After discussing it for more than ten minutes, they decided to find the rat king and persuade the rats to move their nest into the forest.

Rats weren’t like other animals. If they spilled beyond Ram’s courtyard walls, all of Kesheng Town would suffer.

“How do we find the rat king?” Disio asked.

With so many rats, he couldn’t tell which one might be king. They knew the language of the Beastfolk, but surely they couldn’t question the rats one by one.

Every rat around them was watching them warily.

“I think the rat king is in the little building,” Angel said.

“Are you sure?” Budno asked.

“We can ask,” Kumandi said. He stepped forward, switched languages, and spoke in fluent Beastfolk. “Greetings, Rat King. We are magic apprentices sent by the Magic Association. We have an important matter to discuss with you. Will you come out and meet us?”

The rats who understood him pricked up their ears and began squeaking among themselves.

After a long while, there was still no answer from the rat king.

Amanda scratched his head. “Should I give them a roar?”

A dragon’s roar could intimidate any animal.

Shu Li stopped him at once. “I don’t think we need that.”

If Amanda let out a dragon’s roar, he might shake the entire town. The Magic Association would come running, and how would they explain themselves then?

“All right.” Amanda shrugged and spread his hands.

“Is the rat king too frightened to come out?” Disio asked.

Frowning, Kumandi repeated his request in Beastfolk. Only the squeaks of baby rats came from the building.

“What do we do?” Shu Li asked, torn.

They couldn’t very well force it out.

Ace raised his staff. “Kindness matters, but it needs limits. We showed the rat king respect by asking to speak with it. Its silence is a refusal. In that case, it can hardly blame us for eliminating the infestation to complete our task.”

Shu Li stared at Ace’s flawless profile in surprise. He had never expected someone who seemed so gentle to have such a ruthless side.

But Ace was right. Kindness needed limits.

From the rats’ point of view, they had been minding their own business in their own territory. Then humans had appeared, torn apart their burrow, stolen their treasure, and killed their companions. That was a blood feud.

From Ram’s point of view, he had bought the land. Everything above and below it was his property, and taking the dark moonstone was his right. The rats overrunning his house infringed on his rights as its owner. Neither side was entirely wrong.

But this was human territory.

Too many rats could bring plague and threaten human lives.

Humans showed little mercy when they exterminated rats.

Shu Li didn’t want to condemn them all to death. The only way he could see was to persuade them to move together.

“Ace, do you need help?” Angel asked. He rolled his eyes thoughtfully and raised his staff as well. “I recently learned an offensive light spell. The rats would make good practice.”

Ace glanced at him, then nodded with a smile. “Let’s cast together.”

“Right!” Angel called.

“Wait for us!” Budno and Disio raised their staffs too, unwilling to be left out.

Amanda blinked and followed suit.

Shu Li’s mouth twitched. Putting on an earnest air, he said, “I’ll make the light sphere bigger so everyone can see.”

“Good!” his friends answered in unison.

Shu Li began, “Great Light God—”

“Humans, you’re asking to die!”

A shrill voice rang out from inside the building. A small gray rat darted out, followed by more than twenty large black rats bristling with hostility.

The gray rat leaped onto the threshold and bared its teeth at the intruders.

“This is my territory! What right do you have to tell me to leave? And now you want to kill my subjects? Squeak! You’re only a few magic apprentices. I’ll teach you a lesson!”

Red light rose in its eyes. A roar unlike any ordinary rat’s rumbled in its throat, and in the next instant its little body began to swell.

The Light Team stared.

“It’s advanced into a low-rank magical beast?” Shu Li exclaimed.

The dark moonstone must have done it a great deal of good. No wonder it hated Ram’s family so fiercely.

“Whoa! It’s huge!” Budno said, dumbfounded.

“Not as big as... us,” Amanda said with a grin.

The rat king kept growing. It passed the size of a cat, then a dog, and soon approached the size of a cow or horse.

“Ah! That’s getting a bit too big!” Disio cried. “The rats behind it are growing too!”

The Light Team retreated several paces as the bodies of the other twenty-odd rats expanded before their eyes. The little building couldn’t contain them; cracks quickly spread through its walls.

The enlarged rats jumped clear of the building and surrounded the apprentices, their eyes gleaming viciously.

More than twenty low-rank magical beasts were poised to attack, but the Little Fairies and young dragons remained calm.

Back home, they had often dealt with high-rank magical beasts. This was hardly enough to frighten them.

Ace, the human among them, kept his staff trained on the rat king, now as large as a cow. His emerald-green eyes were piercing.

“Squeak—roar!” The rat king scraped its sharp claws against the ground. “I’ll make sure you die here today!”

“Squeak, squeak!”

At its call, every rat on the property converged on the back courtyard.

In the sitting room, Ram’s family huddled inside the wall of air. When they saw all the rats run outside, hope lit their faces.

Had the seven apprentices found a way to get rid of them?

In the back courtyard, Shu Li watched thousands upon thousands of rats surge toward them like a tide. His scalp tightened. He gripped his staff, tempted to cast a silent spell.

Aaah!

So many rats!

The sight of them packed together was almost more than he could bear.

But he was the captain. He had to face the rat king calmly and hold his ground.

“Rat King, we came to negotiate in good faith,” he said in Beastfolk. “If you insist on fighting, we’ll see it through. Don’t underestimate magic apprentices.”

The rat king roared, rejecting the offer. It launched itself toward them.

They were only magic apprentices, people who could barely recite their spells. Interrupt the incantations, and they would be no more dangerous than ordinary humans.

The rat king and its warriors were seasoned fighters. Rats large and small attacked together, about to engulf the Light Team.

Shu Li reacted instantly. He swung his staff and shouted, “Go!”

The light sphere gathered at its tip for illumination shot forward.

The rat king shrieked in alarm. “Scatter!”

The larger rats were quick enough to pull back. The ordinary rats were less fortunate. The sphere struck the ground and burst like a bomb.

“Squeak, squeak!”

The rats caught in the blast died on the spot.

“Great Wind God Wendis Inor, I am Estel, your faithful follower. I ask you to command the wind elements to gather around me and build a protective wall of air.”

The blond apprentice recited the wind defense spell in a rich, elegant voice.

In an instant, a wall of air separated the rats from the Light Team.

Shu Li gave him a thumbs-up. “Nicely done, Ace!”

Their human classmate had reacted so quickly. While Shu Li’s light sphere startled the rats, Ace had seized the chance to put up a barrier around them.

Magicians were vulnerable in close combat. When a fight broke out, they either had to keep their distance or shield themselves.

Surrounded by thousands of rats, a wall of air was the best choice.

“Squeak—roar!” Furious that the apprentices’ barrier kept it out, the rat king raised its head and uttered something strange.

Dark power suddenly poured from the building behind it, filling the air.

Shu Li froze.

That dense dark power was coming from the statue inside!

“The rats have been corrupted by dark power,” Ace said coldly.