The possums charged in swarms toward the rat-men, pouncing on them and frenziedly gnawing at their flesh and blood, giving off a tragic sense of ants trying to shake an elephant.
But instead, this only provoked the rat-men's ferocity, they grabbed the possums and stuffed them directly into their mouths, and the latter didn't even have the ability to resist.
Blood splattered in all directions. Stimulated by the thick stench of blood, a few scavenger birds circled in mid-air.
But they were immediately torn to pieces by the Nether Crows.
Ren Qing was slightly puzzled.
Why did it feel like the possums summoned by the Restraint Officers' Hall were completely useless?
Moreover, the rat-men were undergoing intense bodily transformations by devouring flesh and blood, with quite a few already swelling to around three meters tall.
The reserve officers stationed closer looked at each other in dismay, but they didn't dare to act rashly and could only remain in place awaiting orders.
Hssssss-
After the rat-men devoured all the possums at hand, their hunger remained unsatisfied, and they immediately set their sights on the surrounding living humans.
One rat-man couldn't wait and charged at a dark-skinned reserve officer of the Restraint Officers, and the two tangled into a scuffle.
That was like the blowing of a horn, every rat-man, without prior arrangement, simultaneously rushed at the reserve officers.
The official Restraint Officers were positioned deeper inside the temple fair and were instead relatively safe.
Ren Qing swept his gaze over the four reserve officers, aside from Yan Jun, he didn't recognize the rest, and their strength was rather mediocre.
He also didn't know how Lin Cheng's injuries were.
After a brief moment of panic, the reserve officers each began to fight their own battles.
Even if they couldn't swiftly kill their enemies, they could still gain the upper hand.
Ren Qing couldn't possibly stand by and do nothing, several rat-men climbed up onto the rooftop, their blood-red eyes filled with naked killing intent.
But Ren Qing still stood in place, only shifting his stance slightly.
The rat-man opened its bloody maw, its four or five-meter-tall body leaping into the air, tiles scattering, the sense of pressure was immense.
Clang!!
The Great Miao Blade was unsheathed.
With a breeze blowing, Ren Qing moved several meters in an instant.
The rat-man's arm was severed, and the pain made it howl uncontrollably. Just as it tried to react, its other arm was also chopped off.
Ding!
Ren Qing flicked the blade's edge, and a crisp ringing of the blade echoed out.
Another rat-man attacked from behind. He sidestepped to evade and simultaneously drew his blade in a continuous motion.
The rat-man before him couldn't withstand even a few strikes before being cleaved in half, and the falling corpse attracted a frenzied scramble of bites from the surrounding rat-men.
In this situation, although the number of rat-men was continuously decreasing, their strength was constantly evolving.
The level of difficulty was rising sharply, to the point that it could threaten the lives of reserve officers.
The many reserve officers also realized that since they were positioned around the temple fair's perimeter, wasn't this mission also a form of evaluation? At the very least, it would involve rewards in Blood Crystals.
They had no choice but to grit their teeth and persevere.
Nether Crows circled in mid-air.
Lord Li appeared at a high point of the fertility Goddess Temple, beside him stood the four-armed, six-eyed Song Zongwu. The two sat calmly like anglers on a fishing terrace.
Song Zongwu asked, "Li Tiangang, are you so sure he'll fall for it?"
"Isn't he already here?"
Li Tiangang changed the subject and said, "It seems like there's a promising seedling among the reserve officers. Probably guided by Old Song, you, right? His strength is passable, but his control over his mutation is quite good."
"..."
Song Zongwu looked toward the composed Ren Qing, frowning deeply.
Li Tiangang's words sounded like praise on the surface, but actually carried a hint of belittlement, implying that some cultivators were overly cautious out of fear of further mutation.
But Song Zongwu had a feeling that with Ren Qing's talent, after not seeing him for so long, his strength couldn't possibly have only improved by this much.
In fact, the two of them had decided on a whim to take this opportunity to see what kind of material the reserve officers were made of.
Just then, chaos broke out.
A reserve officer who resembled a hyena was already heavily injured after being besieged by several rat-men.
He had originally thought the Restraint Officers' Hall would protect his life, but he soon discovered that the Restraint Officers had no intention of intervening.
The hyena cultivator immediately panicked, fearing he would die as a result.
He looked around, his thoughts stirring, and locked onto a nearby reserve officer, he charged toward him on all fours.
Indeed, some of the rat-men were drawn away, but the disturbance also caused more rat-men to pursue the hyena cultivator.
The hyena cultivator noticed Ren Qing, who was clearly more experienced in killing, and so he lured four or five rat-men along, preparing to solve everything in one go.
Ren Qing detected the hyena cultivator's intention to redirect disaster eastward, and killing intent surged in his heart, a cold smile forming at the corner of his mouth.
As the hyena cultivator got closer to Ren Qing, his body hair began to fall off, and his aura grew increasingly weak.
Rat-men lacked sufficient intelligence, so in their eyes, the prey's scent was no longer appetizing.
Instead, Ren Qing's vigorous blood and qi was like a torch in the night.
The rat-men decisively changed direction and pounced toward Ren Qing.
The shadows of five rat-men completely blocked out the sunlight.
The reserve officers were all somewhat astonished at the sight. Their gazes toward the hyena cultivator carried wariness, and they even instinctively distanced themselves from him.
Huang Ziwan was stunned for a moment, then rushed toward Ren Qing without thinking.
Muyi, however, was much more composed. Seeing Song Zongwu's expressionless face, he paid it no mind.
In everyone else's eyes, Ren Qing was already a man with one foot in the grave, but in reality, he didn't show a trace of panic. He even leisurely wiped the Great Miao Blade clean and sheathed it.
A mutated mouth opened a crack in his palm, letting out a strange laugh.
Ren Qing did indeed intend to conceal his Ghost Envoy Realm cultivation, for it involved many things and might be noticed by the Restraint Officers' Hall.
But hiding strength?
I've never once considered hiding my strength.
In this world, isn't it survival of the fittest? Only by demonstrating value can one obtain the resources to become stronger.
Besides, Song Zongwu was present, and with so many reserve officers gathered, wasn't the whole point just to conduct an evaluation?
Crack crack Crack crack..
The Dragon-Snake Spine stretched out.
Ren Qing lowered his head. The bone chain scraped across his cheek and directly pierced through a rat-man's skull, brain matter splattered down.
The bone blades of the Dragon-Snake Spine scraped against one another, producing a sharp, grating noise, like a rattlesnake preparing to strike.
The white bone chain formed a sealed spiral, completely enveloping the remaining four rat-men.
The hyena cultivator stared wide-eyed, his face filled with terror. No longer caring about anything else, he turned and fled in the opposite direction in a panic.
The rat-men's corpses were reduced to heaps of minced flesh, piled into a small hill. Ren Qing stood atop it, wielding a Dragon-Snake Spine dozens of meters long.
"Go..."
The Dragon-Snake Spine howled through the air, catching up with the fleeing hyena cultivator in the blink of an eye. It pierced directly through his shoulder and yanked him back.
The hyena cultivator let out a miserable scream, but no one showed a trace of pity. They all watched coldly. Huang Ziwan even clapped his hands and cheered.
However, Huang Ziwan was also a bit surprised. When did Ren Qing learn this technique? Could it be that raw talent really made that big of a difference?
The hyena cultivator was dragged in front of Ren Qing and, no longer caring about pride, began begging frantically for his life.
"Don't kill me..."
Ren Qing stroked his chin, noticing that even Song Zongwu wasn't stopping him.
Then what was there to hesitate about?
The Dragon-Snake Spine severed the hyena cultivator's limbs, then stabbed directly into his skull, brutally performing a frontal lobotomy.
The hyena cultivator's expression went blank, his intelligence had completely dissipated.
Only because the Supernatural Remnant couldn't be dealt with for the moment did Ren Qing refrain from taking his life.
Song Zongwu's six eyes glinted faintly red. A half-meter-long Nether Crow descended, seized the hyena cultivator, and soared into the sky.