Sovereign of the Three Realms

“What a pity, what a pity. What a pity that the bloodline of the ancient Goldbiter Kingrats tribe has decayed so much that as they lived on, the word ‘king’ present in their ancient ancestors’ names has disappeared entirely. Remember, you’re the descendents of the Goldbiter Kingrats. Being called the Goldbiter Rats now is indubitably the greatest insult to your ancestors.”

“What do you mean?” The Goldbiter Rat King’s gaze was cold and sinister.

“What do I mean? The race of the Goldbiter Kingrat was the smartest and most ancient tribe with the most magniloquent speech. To think that their descendents have become so unreasonable and are unable to communicate at all!”

“Communicate? You humans slaughter us spirit creatures, and yet you want speak of communication?” The Goldbiter Rat King laughed coldly.

“Every injustice has its perpetrator, every debt – its debtor. Don’t prattle as though you spirit creatures don’t brutally kill one another. Natural selection, law of the jungle, these are the rules of survival. Spirit creatures hunted by humans, humans devoured by spirit creatures. This is the rhythm of life that’s remained unwavering for millennias.”

“You’re correct, and as such we’re going to devour you!” The Goldbiter Rat King sneered.

“Devouring me is of no difficulty, all of you can accomplish it. However, you’d be unable to evolve to the Goldbiter Kingrat bloodline, and will forever remain an ignoble race, forever deposed of becoming kings of the spirit creature world. To think that the ancient Goldbiter Kingrat once dominated the heavens, now that was a stupendous race! What a pity, what a shame.”

“Huh, will we be able to evolve to the Goldbiter Kingrat if we don’t devour you? Human, this king knows of your wily and crafty ways, please do not insult the intelligence of the Goldbiter Rats’ tribe! You think a few words in the ancient beast language will be enough to convince me? Dream on!”

“Haha, indeed, indeed. But I still have to say, as a king of the Goldbiter Rats, you’re just a bit taller in this mass of dunces. You’re still the Goldbiter Rat King, just the king of some Goldbiter Rats. You shall never be a Goldbiter Kingrat. Remember, although there’s the word ‘king’ in both names, the difference in the order of these words is tantamount to the difference between heaven and earth. No matter how you send a call for a tide of rats, it will never change the fact that you’re just the king of Goldbiter Rats, and not a true ruler of the ancient and noble Goldbiter Kingrats!”

The Goldbiter Rat King was a bit anxious and angry from embarrassment, but it still contained its anger, “Human, just what are you playing at? I have no interest in only recounting my ancestors’ history with you. Our Goldbiter Rat race has an innate heritage of memories and knows well the origins of our bloodlines. Our bloodline is inferior and we can’t evolve to the Goldbiter Kingrat, that much is true. However, as inferior as our bloodlines are, we’re still not prey that you humans can hunt at will! If you want to hunt us, you must pay the price!”

“It looks like you are indeed a race of inferior intellect. As a king, are your eyes also only filled with hate and not the slightest bit of consideration for the future of your race?”

“Future of my race? You, a human, want to talk to me about the future of the Goldbiter Rats? Do you not find that laughable?”

“Not at all.”

“And what gives you the right to say that?” The Goldbiter Rat laughed coldly.

“Because, perhaps I can help you evolve into an ancient bloodline and evolve into the Goldbiter Kingrat.”

“Preposterous!” The Goldbiter Rat King didn’t believe him at all. “We can’t evolve into an ancient bloodline even with the heritage of memories. How dare you, a human with no relation to my tribe, speak so brashly?”

“I have my ways. You have the heritage of memories, that much is true, but you know not how to call upon your memories. You know none of how to select superior bloodlinesnor how to cultivate them. Only the combination of both superior bloodlines and the heritage of memories will give rise to the chance of evolving a true Goldbiter Kingrat! Only when the Goldbiter Kingrat appears will your race have the chance to become the true rulers of the spirit creature world!”

“How… how do you know all this?” The Goldbiter Rat King wavered. It had been firmly resolved to not trust any humans at all.

Even though Jiang Chen understood the ancient language of the beasts, it hadn’t planned on trusting Jiang Chen either.

However, it vacillated in this moment.

Because, Jiang Chen’s words were indeed all of the Goldbiter Rats’ deeply held secrets. If one wasn’t familiar with the deeply held secrets of the Goldbiter Rats, one wouldn’t be able to talk of superior bloodlines, heritage of memories, and all that.

“I said that I happen to understand a few of the secrets with regards to evolving bloodlines. Perhaps, I can help you!”

“Do you think I’d believe you?” The Goldbiter Rat King was on its guard.

“Why not take this gamble? Besides, devouring the lot of us just means a meal of flesh and blood. Having us isn’t too much, not having us isn’t missing out. This kind of gamble is a lossless proposition for you. If you win, the payout will be enormous. If you lose, then you just lose out on eating a few humans.”

Jiang Chen wore a faint and relaxed smile on his face as he continued, “I’m not looking down on you, but the level of your bloodline is really too low. I don’t see even a single flying Goldbiter Rat amongst you. This is enough to prove just how low your bloodline is. If you don’t proactively try to evolve yourselves, there will be no difference between you and ordinary rats in the future. You’ll become meals for other spirit creatures sooner or later and have absolutely no future to speak of!”

These words hit the Goldbiter Rat King where it hurt the most.

The Goldbiter Rat King unexpectedly didn’t retort back because he understood that the human was actually correct in his words. The quality of the bloodline of his race was becoming poorer and poorer. Although they looked quite awe inspiring in the tide of rats, it was merely because they had superior numbers.

The aura emitted by a truly fierce spirit creature would be enough to suppress a tide of rats!

In the world of the spirit creatures, bloodlines were very important. A low level bloodline meant potential was low and that strength would be low. Without strength and status, one would be oppressed, hunted, and devoured.

These were the rules of nature.

“Human, are you really speaking truly?”

“I said that I know a few things about the evolution of bloodlines, but I don’t guarantee anything either. Therefore, I say that you can take a gamble. I too am gambling.”

The Goldbiter Rat King’s thin eyes looked at Jiang Chen, “Human, if you hadn’t known the ancient beast language, I wouldn’t have appeared just now. If you hadn’t spoken of the secrets of my Goldbiter Rat tribe, I wouldn’t have spoken that much to you. You’re right, if I lose, that just means I miss out on feasting on your flesh and blood. If I win, the entire race benefits. Regardless of anything, I’ll take this gamble!”

Jiang Chen’s words just now had greatly impacted it psychologically. Jiang Chen had said that it was just a Goldbiter Rat King, and not a Goldbiter Kingrat.

Jiang Chen had been too right about the difference between the two.

He said that as a king, it only knew hatred and vengeance, and possessed none of the vision to consider the future of its tribe. Those words had a huge impact on the Goldbiter Rat King.

When a race was at their level, they were actually already at an extremely low level. In the spirit creature world, they were almost the lowest level of existence. They could only exist beneath the ground and couldn’t fight any spirit creature for territory. They also didn’t have any right to demarcate a zone of their sphere of influence.

They were bound to only live beneath the ground and scurry and skitter to any place they could find.

This was the tragedy of their race. They only felt the slightest bit of self pride when facing humans.

When the tide of rats had churned over the land just now, they only felt a vague pleasure in surviving when they saw the humans’ death struggles when being swallowed.

However, they were very aware that the humans that came here mostly possessed ordinary levels of training. They too were the lowest level in the true world of martial dao.

A true person with power at the apex of existence would be able to destroy them all with a single divine art.

Dan Fei was completely flabbergasted by Jiang Chen and the Goldbiter Rat King’s communication. She’d never thought that a human could actually speak to a Goldbiter Rat King.

And they’d carried on their conversation for such a long period of time!

Although she couldn’t understand it at all, but she could feel that the Goldbiter Rat King’s attitude was slowly softening and compromising.

“Just how many more secrets does Jiang Chen have? No wonder he could identify the problem with the Five Winged Phoenix Dragon, and do it so carelessly. Judging from his conversation with the Goldbiter Rat King, it’s obvious that the knowledge that Jiang Chen possesses isn’t as simple as he’s described. If he really did receive tutelage from a mysterious expert when he was young, just how frightening would the level of existence of this expert be?”

Dan Fei’s mind was in complete disarray. She’d been a bit unaccepting of Jiang Chen in the Tutor’s Manor, and although the lordmaster had a high opinion of Jiang Chen, Dan Fei was still a bit reluctant to accept that.

She’d always felt that the lordmaster valued Jiang Chen as a talent because the young of the Skylaurel Kingdom were simply too good-for-naught, and not because Jiang Chen was that special.

However, the matters that’d happened over and over again had destroyed Dan Fei’s suspicions and conquered her mulishness.

She seemed to understand now why those mortal rank spirit creatures had circled around them whenever they saw Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen actually knew how to communicate with them!

One could only imagine the level of shock within Dan Fei’s heart. She and the lordmaster both raised spirit creatures and knew how hard it was to communicate with them.

In Dan Fei’s eyes, it was almost impossible for humans and spirit creatures to communicate with no barrier at all. Even the lordmaster thought it impossible.

The spirit creatures they raised could at most crudely communicate through gestures and understand a few orders.

At many times, it was just a type of accordance and not true communication through language.

At the end of the day, humans and beasts were of two completely different worlds and cultures. Their languages and thoughts were far too different. Unless one learned the other’s language or understood the other’s thought, it would be impossible to communicate with one another.

However, no one had ever heard of the existence of a beast language within the Skylaurel Kingdom, not even within any of the neighboring sixteen kingdoms.

“Has Jiang Chen really learned the beast language before? Otherwise, how can he communicate with them?” Dan Fei’s mind was filled with all sorts of doubts as her curiosity towards Jiang Chen subtly increased by a lot.

If even Dan Fei was thus, Ye Rong and the others found it even harder to believe. It was a good thing that they were tactful and stayed within the corner quite timidly.

They couldn’t help at all in this moment. The only thing they could do was not add to the mess and not infuriate the tide of rats, giving them a reason to attack.

And then —

The only thing they could do was to silently pray that Jiang Chen could convince the Goldbiter Rat King.