William Thompson looked at the little mouse in front of him and suddenly noticed that its tail seemed to have been broken before, and it must not have been long ago, because although the wound had healed, there was very little fur on that part.

A familiar memory flashed into William Thompson's mind, and he blurted out, “Are you the little mouse that stole my spoils?”

“Zhi!”

“Damn, how did you get so big?” William Thompson was stunned. When he first saw it, it was only palm-sized, and he had subdued it with a single binding spell. It had only been a few days, and now it had grown a whole size, and its speed had become freakishly fast. He had spent so much effort and still couldn’t handle it. Did this guy somehow get some April fat?

“Zhi!” The little spirit beast looked at William Thompson's shocked expression and squeaked excitedly.

Thinking about it, William Thompson was even more surprised. “Shit, can you actually understand what I’m saying?”

“Zhi.”

William Thompson raised a trembling finger: “How many is this?”

“Zhi.”

He raised two fingers: “How many is this?”

“Zhi.”

He raised three fingers: “How many is this?”

“Zhi.”

William Thompson wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Thank goodness, I thought you could really understand me.”

“Zhi zhi.”

……

Chapter 13: Immortal Artifact

As for why the little spirit beast had suddenly become so powerful, William Thompson couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard he thought. But William Thompson had his eyes on its speed and sense of smell. To be able to find the formation’s Celestial Stone within the “Blazing Fire Heaven Array,” its sense of smell could definitely rival Erlang Shen’s Howling Celestial Dog. If he could tame it, wouldn’t treasure hunting in the future become much easier? Of course, the most important thing was that he could use its sense of smell to lead himself out of this illusion array that had trapped him for days.

Thinking of this, William Thompson grinned mischievously. Regardless of whether the little spirit beast could understand him, he squatted down, put on an innocent look, and took out a handful of immortal cores from his storage ring.

“Little guy, follow me from now on and you’ll eat well and drink well.”

The little spirit beast saw the colorful immortal cores in William Thompson’s hand and immediately squeaked excitedly. It didn’t care how fiercely this person had treated it before, and with a gust of wind, it rushed over.

William Thompson only saw a flash before his eyes, felt his hand lighten, and the immortal cores were already piled up behind the little mouse. William Thompson couldn’t help but exclaim inwardly—this speed was truly extraordinary, far faster than his own flying sword, which made him even more determined to tame this little thing.

Watching the little creature gnawing madly on the Celestial Stone, William Thompson couldn’t help but feel a pang of heartache. This little thing had stolen and snatched a total of six Celestial Stones from him, and he only had a few to begin with—losing even one made William Thompson feel the pain. But now he couldn’t afford to fall out with this little thing, since his hope of getting out depended entirely on it.

William Thompson waited by its side for a long time, but the little thing still showed no sign of stopping, waving its paws and devouring the Celestial Stone and immortal cores with all its might.

Already not fully recovered, William Thompson was starting to feel drained. The little thing had interrupted him when he had only recovered half his spiritual power, and then he had set up the “Blazing Fire Heaven Array.” But the worst was the mouthful of blood he had spat out—that had drawn on his nascent soul’s power, an overdraft of strength. If he didn’t replenish it soon, his cultivation would definitely regress.

But with this little thing around, William Thompson didn’t dare to casually take out the Celestial Stones. He could only pick up Cold Light and carve a simple spirit-gathering array on the ground, then infuse it with his own spiritual energy to activate it. He settled into position and began to recover.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before William Thompson awoke from his meditation. He felt that his spiritual energy had almost fully recovered. Turning his head, he saw that the little thing was nowhere to be found. William Thompson was alarmed—the little thing must not run away, or else he’d have no idea how many years he’d be stuck in this illusion array.

He silently blamed himself, thinking he should have made a deal with the little thing before meditating.

Just as he was about to stand up, he suddenly felt something on his thigh. Looking down, it was the little thing, lying on his vital spot, eyes closed and sleeping soundly.

“Damn.” William Thompson’s mouth twitched. This little thing really knew how to pick a spot.

As William Thompson moved, the little thing slowly opened its eyes, looked around sleepily, and started squeaking noisily.

William Thompson grabbed its long ears, set it on the ground, and cursed, “You little bastard.”

“Zhi zhi!”

Ignoring the little thing’s protest, William Thompson began to examine the tree hollow. The entire hollow was at least fifty meters in diameter, and the surface he was on looked as if it had been sliced cleanly by a blade. Looking up, William Thompson could only see pitch darkness above.

This tree was hollow. William Thompson was shocked. There were no signs of decay on this tree—who had hollowed it out so perfectly?

Summoning Cold Light, William Thompson flew upward.

“Zhi zhi!” The little thing squeaked anxiously below, then leapt up in a flash and landed steadily by William Thompson’s feet, wrapping its tail around the sword.