"Sky Rat?"
Hearing the white jade rat's words, Ye Ling was slightly taken aback, "Why does that sound familiar?"
The Sky Rat, its tail dangling, swayed its body in mid-air and regained its confidence, smiling at Ye Ling, "To be honest, my true background is quite terrifying. If I told you, you might be scared to death!"
Wang Liren, standing nearby, felt that the Sky Rat was putting on an act again and scoffed, "You stinking rat, you talk a big game. One moment you're a spirit beast of the Lord of the Desolation, the next you're related to a rat before the Buddha. I'd like to know which of your words is actually true?"
The Sky Rat immediately retorted to Wang Liren, "Hey! Everything this great me says is the truth! It's just that what I said before was only the tip of the iceberg of my background. If I told you my true origin, I guarantee you'd all be scared to death!"
Ye Ling, seeing the Sky Rat's confident demeanor, couldn't help but smile, "Then tell me, what is your origin? If you truly scare me, I'll let you go."
"Do you speak the truth?"
Upon hearing Ye Ling's words, the Sky Rat's eyes lit up, and it stared at Ye Ling, asking.
"I do."
"Ahem, in that case, you should all lend me your ears!"
The Sky Rat cleared its throat and then said, "I am the foremost divine rat under the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan, an ultimate being personally enlightened by the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan!"
"Supreme Lord of the East Xuan?" Wang Liren asked, confused, "Who is this great figure?"
The Sky Rat disdainfully glanced at Wang Liren and said, "A country bumpkin like you, with only seventh-grade cultivation, naturally wouldn't know who the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan is."
"Listen carefully, the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan is the foremost powerhouse of the East Xuan Continent, capable of governing the Heavenly Dao above and shattering the Nine Netherworlds below. He is the number one person across all epochs, in heaven and on earth!"
"The Supreme Lord of the East Xuan could obliterate your Earth, which is located in the outer realms, with a single finger! And I am a divine rat personally enlightened by the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan, so my status is naturally extremely noble!"
Wang Liren added, "You keep bragging! Setting aside where this East Xuan Continent is, even if the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan you speak of is truly that powerful, and you are the foremost divine rat, how did you end up in this state, becoming someone's spirit beast?"
Wang Liren didn't believe a single word the Sky Rat said. The idea of obliterating Earth with a single finger was more boastful than anything even an Emperor had claimed!
Sakuraba Yue, having seen through the Sky Rat's true nature, glared at the Sky Rat, which was being held by Ye Ling, and said, "You've deceived me for hundreds of years, and now you still expect to fool us with these lies?"
"I've read through the ancient texts and myths of various countries, and there's no such thing as a Supreme Lord of the East Xuan."
After accepting the reality, Sakuraba Yue understood that Ye Ling was the one who truly held their fate. If he wanted to survive, he had to side with Ye Ling.
As for the Sky Rat, which had deceived him for centuries, Sakuraba Yue wished Ye Ling would crush it into a pulp right now!
Facing their doubts, the Sky Rat immediately defended itself, "There is naturally a reason for this! Back then, I was sleeping peacefully in my lair when the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan ascended to the heavens, directly tearing open a rift in the sky that spanned ten thousand miles. My lair happened to be within this spatial rift, and I was accidentally swept into it!"
"My Saint-level cultivation was shattered by the spatial rift, and I was cast adrift to Earth, where I was then taken in as a spirit beast by Arashi."
"If my cultivation were still intact, would I be in this predicament?"
Wang Liren taunted, "Keep on bragging. A ten-thousand-mile rift, Saint-level cultivation, why don't you say you have eyes everywhere?"
Ye Ling, watching the argument between the Sky Rat and Wang Liren, twitched his lips. He also recalled something about the Sky Rat.
Previously, when he was in the Demon Palace, out of boredom, he had gone incognito and arrived at an unknown small town. There, he encountered a mutated white mouse being chased by a cat demon.
That mutated white mouse had been touched by a trace of Heavenly Dao power. Seeing its amusing nature, Ye Ling casually saved it from the cat demon's jaws, and on a whim, he enlightened the little mouse, then gifted it to the local city lord, naming it Sky Rat.
This incident was merely a passing amusement during Ye Ling's travels. After enlightening the Sky Rat, Ye Ling quickly forgot about it.
Ye Ling never expected to encounter this little mouse on Earth!
However, at that time, Ye Ling had indeed caused quite a stir to return to Earth. Although the spatial rift he tore open was not as exaggerated as ten thousand miles, it was several thousand miles wide.
If the Sky Rat had accidentally been caught in the spatial rift, it was indeed possible for it to have landed on Earth.
Furthermore, time in the void was unstable. It was not impossible for the Sky Rat to have accidentally traveled to Earth a few hundred years ago.
Understanding this, Ye Ling was both amused and exasperated. He said to the Sky Rat, "I remember the spatial rift I tore open back then was in the Nine Heavens. If you had stayed honestly in your lair, how could you have been swept into the spatial rift?"
Exposed by Ye Ling, the Sky Rat did not blush and said, "Alright, actually, I was just curious back then. I came out of my lair to look at the Nine Heavens... Huh?"
The Sky Rat, halfway through its sentence, suddenly realized something and stared at Ye Ling with a blank expression, "N-no... you, you..."
"What did you just say?"
The Sky Rat thought it had misheard, its eyes filled with disbelief, its speech becoming faltering.
No... this is absolutely impossible!
How could he know about the Emperor?
No... he just said the rift was torn by him...
Is he the Emperor?
How could he be the Emperor?
No... I seem to recall hearing that the Emperor was going to a place of extraterrestrial civilization...
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through the Sky Rat's mind. Then, Ye Ling's face overlapped with the face of the supreme Emperor who had enlightened it back then, and the Sky Rat's body began to tremble violently.
I... I was showing off in front of the Emperor just now?
This is impossible!
The Sky Rat was so terrified it lost its soul, still unable to accept reality, and stammered to Ye Ling, "Are... are you... Your Excellency... the Emperor?"
If the Sky Rat weren't dangling and unable to move freely, it would have slapped itself hard to wake up!
This must be a dream!
Ye Ling smiled, "I didn't expect that the little white mouse I saved from the cat demon in Qingyan City would later not only become a Saint but also come to Earth to swindle people."
Boom!
As soon as Ye Ling uttered these words, the Sky Rat's mind exploded!
This was definitely the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan!
The incident of it being saved in Qingyan City was known only to it and the Emperor!
Now that Ye Ling had said this, the Sky Rat had completely confirmed Ye Ling's identity!
In an instant, the Sky Rat became incoherent with excitement, looking at Ye Ling with elation and exclaiming, "The Emperor! It's really the Emperor! I'm seeing the Emperor alive again!!!"
"I must be dreaming!!!"
The Sky Rat was overcome with emotion, while Wang Liren and Sakuraba Yue, upon hearing the conversation between the Sky Rat and Ye Ling, were completely stunned.
Ye Ling...
was the Supreme Lord of the East Xuan that the Sky Rat spoke of?