Chapter 1541: Double-Pupil Rat Advancement

The Soul-Devouring Golden Cicada is exceptionally difficult to advance. Even the one raised by Wang Changsheng, despite consuming a Nascent Soul-stage Ghost King, failed to reach the fourth rank. Everything has its pros and cons; while the Soul-Devouring Golden Cicada can slowly enhance its user's divine sense, spirit insects are inherently challenging to advance. This is even more true for an auxiliary spirit insect like the Soul-Devouring Golden Cicada, making its advancement particularly difficult.

"Haitang, you've done very well. The Soul-Devouring Golden Cicada is inherently difficult to advance, and it's already impressive that you managed to help it improve a minor rank."

Wang Changsheng put away the Soul-Devouring Golden Cicada. According to Hai Xinren from Myriad Beast Island, Soul-Devouring Golden Cicadas advance better when they are in pairs. She should not be mistaken.

Boom!

A deafening roar resounded, and dense clouds suddenly gathered, with strong winds swirling.

A massive thundercloud appeared without warning above Qinglian Peak. The thundercloud rumbled, accompanied by lightning flashes.

Wang Changsheng and Ye Haitang paused slightly. Ye Haitang was dumbfounded, while Wang Changsheng's eyes lit up.

Without a doubt, the thunder tribulation was drawn by the Dual-Pupil Rat. It had already consumed two Heaven Beast Pills, which should be enough to strengthen its bloodline. If it still didn't advance, it would be unreasonable, especially since it had devoured a considerable number of spirit herbs.

"Haitang, you must be very tired after rushing back from the Myriad Ghost Sea Domain. Please go back and rest first!"

Wang Changsheng said softly, his expression excited as he gazed at the thundercloud high above.

Since entering the cultivation world, the Dual-Pupil Rat had brought him many opportunities. If it reached the fourth rank, the Dual-Pupil Rat would play a crucial role in future treasure hunts and explorations.

Ye Haitang acknowledged with a sound, then transformed into a black streak of light and left Qinglian Peak.

In a courtyard planted with over a hundred spirit peach trees, each tree bore dozens of crimson spirit peaches, emitting an alluring fragrance.

A mound of earth rose from the ground, and the Dual-Pupil Rat burrowed out from beneath. After its body glowed with a yellow light, its size rapidly expanded, becoming as large as a small house. Its fur bristled, and its eyeballs darted around, resembling a giant hedgehog.

It let out a strange hiss and opened its gaping maw. A powerful suction force materialized, causing the hundred spirit peach trees to sway wildly. Countless leaves drifted down and flew towards the Dual-Pupil Rat.

The hundred spirit peach trees shook violently, branches snapped, and spirit peaches fell off, flying towards the Dual-Pupil Rat. Some spirit peaches, along with their branches, disappeared into the Dual-Pupil Rat's mouth.

The Dual-Pupil Rat's gaping maw chewed, emitting cheerful squeals.

Boom! A deafening thunderclap echoed from high above, and a hint of fear appeared in the Dual-Pupil Rat's eyes. It let out a pitiful squeak as the earth beneath it began to tear open. Countless specks of dust converged towards the Dual-Pupil Rat. In less than ten breaths, a yellow sphere, ten zhang in diameter, appeared in the courtyard, shaking continuously and still expanding in size.

After a colossal thunderclap, a silver lightning bolt, as thick as an adult's arm, descended from the sky and struck the yellow sphere.

With a loud bang, a large, scorched hole appeared on the surface of the yellow sphere, emitting hot steam. However, the yellow sphere soon emitted a dazzling yellow light, and the hole rapidly healed, as if it had never been there.

Rumbling thunder echoed, and thick silver lightning bolts descended from the sky. They continuously struck the yellow sphere, generating rolling airwaves and loud roars. The powerful airwaves kicked up a large amount of dust, making it look from a distance as if a thunder shower was falling from the sky. One thick silver lightning bolt after another struck the courtyard where the Dual-Pupil Rat was located.

Wang Changsheng stood on the eaves of a blue pavilion, looking out at the courtyard where the Dual-Pupil Rat was.

Unlike cultivators, whose greatest obstacle when advancing to the Nascent Soul stage is the inner demon trial, spirit beasts do not have an inner demon trial; as long as they can survive the lightning tribulation, they can advance to the fourth rank. Even if the Dual-Pupil Rat reaches the fourth rank, it's unlikely to transform into a human form. The demon race in the South Sea primarily consists of avian and bestial demons; rat demons are already uncommon, and high-rank rat demons are even rarer.

After about a quarter of an hour, the thundercloud was still over a hundred zhang in size. Amidst a tremendous roar, the thundercloud violently churned and suddenly transformed into a silver lightning python, over a hundred zhang long. The silver lightning python bared its fangs, its body flickering with dazzling silver electric arcs, as it swooped down from high above.

Boom!

Qinglian Peak glowed with a dazzling silver light, like a silver sun, visible from hundreds of miles away.

The powerful airwave directly leveled several courtyards. The hundred spirit peach trees were instantly shattered by the airwave, turning into countless tiny wood fragments that scattered everywhere.

Ten breaths later, the silver sun disappeared, and the smoke and dust dissipated.

An area spanning several li was leveled. The original gardens, pavilions, exotic flowers, and rare plants had all vanished.

A muffled sound came from underground, and the Dual-Pupil Rat burrowed out. A small portion of its body was steaming, and half of its fur was scorched.

The Dual-Pupil Rat successfully advanced to the fourth rank, but compared to before, it showed no visible changes.

Since it reached the fourth rank, it must have mastered a new divine ability. Considering it had just successfully passed its tribulation, Wang Changsheng didn't ask it to immediately display its new ability. He took out a blue sea snake over ten zhang long, with a waist as thick as a bucket, which had been dead for a long time. This was the corpse of a peak third-rank Blue Radiance Python.

The Dual-Pupil Rat squealed excitedly. After its body glowed with a dazzling yellow light, its size rapidly increased, becoming as large as a small house, and it began to devour the snake.

In less than fifteen minutes, the entire Blue Radiance Python was consumed by the Dual-Pupil Rat, leaving no bone fragments behind.

Full and content, the Dual-Pupil Rat quickly shrank and climbed up Wang Changsheng's pants leg to his shoulder.

"Congratulations, you've also reached the Nascent Soul stage. I hope you've mastered some powerful divine abilities," Wang Changsheng said with a smile, stroking the Dual-Pupil Rat's head.

Fourth-rank rat demons are extremely rare. Before the Dual-Pupil Rat advanced to the fourth rank, it had mastered Earth Armor Art and Earth Evasion Art. Wang Changsheng hoped it would master powerful divine abilities upon reaching the fourth rank, but it's hard to say, as the Dual-Pupil Rat evolved from an ordinary mouse.

As the saying goes, "A dragon gives birth to a dragon, a phoenix to a phoenix, and a rat's son knows how to burrow." Wang Changsheng merely held onto a hopeful thought. He had consulted some ancient texts about spirit rats; most spirit rats did not possess great divine abilities and found it difficult to reach high ranks. Of course, there was one type of spirit rat that possessed great divine abilities: the Heaven-Devouring Rat.

The Heaven-Devouring Rat is skilled at finding all kinds of rare heavenly treasures; even high-level restrictions cannot stop it. It is immune to blades and spears, and unharmed by water or fire. According to ancient texts, a mature Heaven-Devouring Rat feeds on true dragons and celestial phoenixes, though it is unknown if this is true.

The Dual-Pupil Rat is far from comparable to the Heaven-Devouring Rat. Wang Changsheng didn't have high expectations for it; even without great divine abilities, as long as it was good at finding rare heavenly treasures, that would be sufficient.

Within a single day, Wang Changsheng gained a fourth-rank spirit insect and a fourth-rank spirit beast, overjoyed beyond measure.

He put the Dual-Pupil Rat into his spirit beast orb and contacted Wang Mengfen, asking him to send people to rebuild the damaged structures.