Wu Shattered Star River

The sky gradually darkened, the night air grew cool, and the Jiang Family Town was illuminated by newly lit lanterns.

Jiang Long, sitting cross-legged under a large tree outside the small courtyard, felt a sudden and inexplicable unease.

Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao hadn't returned all day, and neither had Jiang Han, which made him feel that something was amiss.

The Third Elder had instructed him to guard this small courtyard, and he dared not abandon his post, so he could only wait anxiously.

Half an hour later, a tall and sturdy young man strode over, and Jiang Long hurried to meet him, asking, "Jiang Xiong, have Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao returned?"

The tall and sturdy young man was called Jiang Xiong, Jiang Long's cousin, who had recently broken through to the seventh level of the Purple Mansion Realm.

He lived up to his name, being as strong as a bear. He shook his head and said, "No, I went to check again just now, and neither of them has returned. I even made a special trip to Jiang Han's house, but didn't see him either."

"Could something have happened?" Jiang Long frowned slightly, saying with some worry.

"What could have happened?"

Jiang Xiong shook his head and said, "Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao are both at the sixth level of the Purple Mansion Realm, and Jiang Han is only at the fifth level. Brother Long, don't overthink it. I reckon those two must have sneaked off to the Du Family Town's gambling house to have fun, and they should be back tomorrow morning."

"Hmm…"

Jiang Long thought about it and felt that it made sense. Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao had always been fond of gambling, so it was normal for them to sneak off to Du Family Town to play. He waved his hand and said, "Alright, you can go back first. If they still haven't returned by tomorrow morning, take Jiang Xie and the others to look for them."

Jiang Xiong acknowledged and left. After Jiang Long patrolled the surroundings, he returned to his room and fell into a deep sleep.

… …

Jiang Long didn't sleep soundly that night, but Jiang Han basically didn't sleep at all.

After digging a pit and hastily burying Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao, Jiang Han didn't return to Jiang Family Town, but instead found a dilapidated temple at the foot of the mountain to spend the night.

After eating some dry rations and cultivating his Xuan energy for a while, he lay down on a broken wooden plank, preparing to sleep.

It was the first time he had killed someone, and he had killed two people in a row. Awakening a powerful bloodline ability made him extremely excited, but at the same time, he was worried about the reaction from Jiang Family Town, as well as his younger sister Jiang Li, and how to hunt Phantom Rats next…

Various chaotic thoughts filled his mind, making it difficult for him to fall asleep, and he only fell into a deep sleep in the latter half of the night.

As soon as the sky began to brighten, Jiang Han woke up.

After thinking for a long time last night, he didn't have a very good plan for how to hunt Phantom Rats.

Phantom Rats were also first-order demon beasts, not very valuable, and not very strong in combat, but as the name suggests, the speed of these Phantom Rats was very abnormal.

Jiang Han had seen Phantom Rats a few times before, but these demon beasts almost disappeared in a flash, and he didn't even have time to react before the Phantom Rats vanished.

Over the years, he hadn't heard of any effective methods for hunting Phantom Rats. These first-order demon beasts were very vigilant, and would immediately run away if anyone appeared near them.

With Jiang Han's current combat power, using the Berserk Power ability, killing Phantom Rats would be very easy. The problem was that Phantom Rats wouldn't give him a chance to attack at all, and would immediately run away when they saw him, making them impossible to catch up with.

"I should buy a Xuan Iron Beast Cage first!"

After pondering for a while, Jiang Han only came up with one idea, which was to use a beast cage to lure them. If he could lure the Phantom Rats into the beast cage, then hunting them would be much easier.

After replenishing his strength, Jiang Han didn't dare to return to Jiang Family Town, but instead traveled for half an hour to Du Family Town in the west.

After arriving at Du Family Town, he spent some silver to buy a Xuan Iron Beast Cage, and also bought some dry rations, before hurriedly entering the mountains, heading to Turtle Ridge near Du Family Town.

This time, his luck was very good!

This morning, Jiang Long saw that Jiang Hu and Jiang Bao hadn't returned, so he had Jiang Xiong take three of his cousins out of town to look for them. Jiang Xiong and the others entered the mountains from the Jiang Family Town side, so if Jiang Han also went this way, there was a high chance that he would run into them.

After Jiang Han entered Turtle Ridge, he carefully searched for a long time, but didn't find any Phantom Rats. He immediately decided to go to the adjacent mountain peak to continue searching.

He didn't find any Phantom Rats on the second mountain peak either…

Half an hour later, Jiang Han finally found a Phantom Rat on the third mountain peak.

Whoosh!

Unfortunately, as soon as Jiang Han discovered a Phantom Rat, the little thing turned into a blur and disappeared. He quickly tracked it down, but after searching the area, he didn't find anything.

Phantom Rats weren't small, with bodies about a foot long, covered in white fur, and tails with barbs. Their speed could at least be compared to warriors at the ninth level of the Purple Mansion Realm, making it very difficult for Jiang Han to search for them.

After continuing to search for another half an hour, Jiang Han found several Phantom Rats on this mountain peak, but each time he just saw them, the Phantom Rats would disappear in a flash, giving him no chance to hunt them.

After running around for half a day, he was hungry and tired, so he ate a little dry food, then climbed up a large tree to rest with his eyes closed, and soon fell into a dream…

Soon, he was awakened from his sleep by a slight noise, and he immediately opened his eyes to investigate.

Soon, he saw a Phantom Rat appearing in a bush nearby. The Phantom Rat was gnawing on the roots of a plant, making a slight noise.

Jiang Han didn't rashly attack the Phantom Rat, but instead patiently observed it. After a moment, he was overjoyed!

He had made an amazing discovery—Phantom Rats seemed to only look for the roots of a certain brown plant to eat, and had no interest in other plants or wild fruits.

"Good!"

Jiang Han was greatly excited. He jumped down from the tree quickly. The Phantom Rat not far away sensed the danger, and with a flash, instantly disappeared from its spot.

Jiang Han went over and pulled out the brown plant, chopped off the roots, and then quickly searched around for this brown plant.

After a stick of incense's time, he collected several roots of the brown plant, put these roots into the Xuan Iron Beast Cage, threw it into the bushes, and then climbed up a tree to wait quietly.

This wait lasted for half an hour!

Finally, a white shadow flashed by and rushed directly into the Xuan Iron Beast Cage.

As soon as the white shadow entered, it triggered the mechanism of the Xuan Iron Beast Cage, and the iron door of the cage slammed shut. A Phantom Rat was seen frantically scurrying around in the cage, with its afterimages filling the cage, as if there were a dozen Phantom Rats inside.

"Got it!"

Jiang Han jumped down from the tree, looking at the Phantom Rat in the cage, overjoyed.

"Die!"

Jiang Han inserted his long knife through the gaps in the beast cage, and hacked wildly at the Phantom Rat inside the cage. After confirming that the Phantom Rat was dead, he opened the cage and took the Phantom Rat's essence blood.

"Refine!"

After Jiang Han refined the Phantom Rat's essence blood, he immediately visualized the Heavenly Beast Cauldron, and after confirming that the pattern of the Phantom Rat on the Heavenly Beast Cauldron was brighter and clearer, he happily began to clean up.

Carrying the beast cage to a nearby stream, he cleaned the blood off the beast cage. Jiang Han followed the same pattern, continuing to set up traps, waiting for the next Phantom Rat to walk right into the net.

More than two hours later, the sky gradually darkened.

Jiang Han put away the Xuan Iron Beast Cage and walked down the mountain contentedly. He had lured and killed four Phantom Rats in one afternoon, and he had now mastered the trick. If he could successfully hunt six more tomorrow, he would be able to awaken another bloodline ability.