Chapter 41: The Miraculous Effects of the Precious Blood

Finally, a minute later, the rat stopped changing.

Compared to when it first started, the rat had undergone a heaven-shaking transformation.

Its body was a full circle larger, looking much sturdier, and its sharp claws and the teeth inside its mouth had also become razor-sharp.

More importantly, he saw a glimmer of intelligence appear within the rat's eyes.

Such a look mostly appeared in high-intelligence animals like cats and dogs, and rats were certainly not among them, yet it had appeared now.

Of course, the most terrifying thing was still that inexplicable sense of closeness.

"Squeak!"

The rat suddenly let out a few cries, crawled over to Li Dao's hand, and obediently settled down.

Li Dao felt a stir in his heart and subconsciously chanted, "Stand up."

Ordinarily, as a rat, especially a wild one, it would be impossible for it to obey a person's commands, nor would it possess such cleverness.

Yet at Li Dao's command, this rat actually stood up obediently.

This scene made Li Dao's eyes light up.

"Roll over!"

The rat tumbled once across the stone table.

"Stand straight."

The rat stood up again, placing its two little paws neatly.

Suddenly, Li Dao's imagination ran wild, and he said, "Fly!"

The rat: "???"

It did not move this time, and instead gave Li Dao a deeply humanized look.

It seemed to say: Big brother, are you kidding me? I am a rat, I don't have wings, you're really making things hard for me.

Seeing that the rat didn't move, Li Dao said with some disappointment, "Even Shuke can pilot a plane, you're not cutting it."

The rat: Do you hear what you're saying, human?!

Li Dao picked the rat back up into his hand and looked at it closely.

"Could it be that this ordinary blood directly transformed into precious blood after undergoing evolution?"

Li Dao couldn't help thinking of Elder Tang; his blood seemingly possessed miraculous properties akin to Elder Tang's flesh.

Afterward, he studied the rat in his hand for a while longer.

Ultimately, he arrived at a preliminary conclusion.

That was, his current blood could indeed be called precious blood.

Presently, the precious blood could cause ordinary creatures to mutate. The exact limit was unknown, but for now, it was effective on creatures like rats.

At the same time, creatures that swallowed his precious blood would naturally develop a sense of closeness toward him and would obey his commands to a certain extent.

At this moment, he glanced at the wound on his fingertip, which had already completely healed.

Aside from the aforementioned points, due to the evolution of his blood, his own recovery ability seemed to have been greatly enhanced.

Previously, wound recovery required forming a blood scab first, which would then fall off before the wound could heal.

Now, however, the wound had healed directly, skipping the scab-forming process entirely.

As for any remaining functions, Li Dao was not yet clear about them.

It was also because the system's function was too simple and crude, only providing a straightforward, brutal infinite enhancement to his physique; the specific details still required him to figure them out on his own.

Still, a simple system was better; flashy systems only gave one headaches.

Li Dao looked down at the small rat in his hand and muttered, "I wonder how many drops of precious blood you can withstand, little fellow."

His blood could strengthen the small rat, but everything had its limits; infinite enhancement was certainly impossible.

Therefore, he now wanted to run an experiment.

Thus, Li Dao cut his finger using the same method and squeezed out a drop of blood. A strange fragrance quickly diffused into the air.

Catching the exotic fragrance of the precious blood, the previously quiet little rat instantly lit up its eyes.

"Squeak!"

Unlike the first time, this time the little rat did not blindly pounce forward.

Instead, it chose to stand on the stone table, looking at the owner of the precious blood with eager eyes while continually bowing its little paws together, as if begging: Please give it to me.

Seeing this, Li Dao was slightly startled. It seemed that the precious blood had developed this rat's intelligence even more noticeably than its physical changes.

He picked up the rat, and without needing him to do anything, the rat opened its mouth on its own.

Li Dao did not hesitate; he split open the nearly-healed wound on his finger once more, allowing the precious blood to drip down.

One drop... Two drops...

Three drops... Four drops...

Just as the fourth drop of precious blood fell into its mouth, the rat obediently closed it shut on its own.

Seeing this, Li Dao placed it back onto the stone table.

Upon landing on the table, the little rat let out a hiccup, its eyes dazed and its footing unsteady, looking much like a human who had gotten drunk.

Finally, it found a spot close to Li Dao and flopped down.

Right at that moment, changes began to manifest on its body.

Its body began to swell, and in the blink of an eye, it began to shrink again.

A short while later, the little rat's claws and teeth began to shed.

In the end, even the fur on its body was discarded by its system, falling off entirely.

Soon after, a miraculous scene occurred.

The changes in the little rat's body ceased, and it had shrunk to the size of a palm.

Meanwhile, the claws, teeth, and fur that it had just shed actually began to regrow at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A few minutes later.

When everything had fully grown back, the little rat gradually regained consciousness and opened its eyes.

This time, Li Dao clearly noticed that the intelligence in the little rat's eyes had become even more pronounced.

In his past life, Li Dao had seen a German Shepherd owned by a friend; it was very human-like and had very expressive eyes.

The intelligence in the eyes of the rat before him was now on par with that German Shepherd.

At the same time, Li Dao also discovered something.

After shedding its coat once, aside from its size, the little rat's appearance had also changed dramatically.

It no longer looked like an ordinary large black rat, but rather resembled the fancy rats he had seen in his past life.

Its fur was no longer pure black, but light gray, and only its back, face, and the areas around its eyes in the upper left and right corners were light gray, while the tip of its nose and everywhere else had white fur.

Looking closely, it was actually somewhat cute.

"Squeak!"

The little rat scampered over to Li Dao's right hand, which was resting on the stone table, and rubbed its head against it.

At this moment, Li Dao also realized that perhaps because the little rat had swallowed more precious blood, it had grown even closer to him.

"This little thing..."

After murmuring, Li Dao temporarily ignored the little rat and closed his eyes to sense his own body.

The effects of the precious blood were very peculiar, and they were definitely related to the substances within his blood.

According to the law of conservation, this portion of energy had certainly come from him.

Therefore, he wondered what symptoms he would experience from consuming the precious blood—in other words, what price he needed to pay. With his recovery ability, generating a few drops of blood back into his body was very simple, but if he truly didn't have to pay any price at all, that would be too exaggerated.

After sensing for a moment, Li Dao suddenly opened his eyes.

"Could it be..."

With a thought, Li Dao opened the system panel.

【Host: Li Dao】
【Physique: 126.03 (125.93)】
【Available Attributes: 0】

Upon seeing the changes on the panel, Li Dao instantly understood what was going on.

From the changes on the panel, the precious blood consumed should be his own physique.

However, it appeared to be only a temporary consumption, not a permanent one.

That made sense though; after all, he had never heard of anyone drawing blood and having their overall attributes permanently drained away. If that were really the case, it would be entirely unscientific.

Having solved the mystery in his heart, Li Dao let out a breath of relief.

The specific effects of the precious blood would still need to be tested slowly in the future, as there was no opportunity right now.

Glancing at the residue on his body caused by the previous blood transformation, Li Dao walked over to a well, stripped off his clothes, and washed up briefly.

At this moment, he noticed that the little rat had followed him over at some point.

It ran over to a puddle of accumulated water and, mimicking Li Dao's actions, scooped up a handful of water with its little paws and wiped it across its body, as if washing itself.

Seeing this, Li Dao raised an eyebrow, picked up a wooden ladle, scooped up some clean water, and placed it before the little rat.

"If you want to wash, use cleaner water."

Hearing this, the little rat glanced at the muddy puddle, then looked at the clear water, ran over, jumped right in, and started soaking to wash itself.

This scene amused Li Dao.

He had originally intended to release the little rat directly after the experiment, but seeing its current antics, it clearly wanted to follow him.

If the little rat still looked like that large black rat from before, Li Dao definitely wouldn't have wanted it, but now that it looked rather cute, he didn't mind as much and simply decided to keep it as a pet.

Just like that, man and rat washed up together under the moonlight.

...

A short while later, Li Dao brought the little rat back to the room.

He went over to Jiu'er first and saw that she was still fast asleep.

At this moment, Jiu'er seemed to be dreaming of something pleasant, revealing a silly smile and muttering, "Young master..."

Hearing this, Li Dao smiled faintly, leaned over, and tucked the blanket in for her.

Suddenly, Jiu'er mumbled again in her daze, "Young master, don't touch..."

Li Dao: "!!!"

His hand paused in mid-air, unsure whether to retract it or let it fall.

In the end, he tucked the blanket in properly for Jiu'er anyway, and pinched her dainty little nose before leaving.

"This girl, what kind of weird dreams is she having all day."

Walking over to his own bed, Li Dao lay down while placing the little rat on a nearby table, saying, "Don't make any loud noises tonight."

"Squeak."

The little rat suddenly let out a few soft cries.

"What do you want?"

"Squeak."

Li Dao saw the little rat pointing with its paw and realized it was pointing at a pillow.

"You want one too?"

"Squeak."

"Fine."

Li Dao handed the pillow over. The little rat sprawled across it, stretched out its four paws, and went to sleep comfortably.

Seeing this, Li Dao shook his head and closed his eyes to sleep as well.

A few seconds later.

He suddenly opened his eyes, with only a single thought in his mind.

How on earth was he able to understand the rat's squeaks?

...

Early the next morning.

"A rat!"

A piercing screech woke Li Dao up. Opening his eyes, he saw that Jiu'er was already awake, jumping around the room in a panic.

Right at her feet, the little rat was scampering about while squeaking.

"Young master, there's a rat!"

Seeing Li Dao wake up, Jiu'er immediately ran over, looking terrified.

Li Dao felt somewhat speechless as he felt Jiu'er's delicate body trembling.

She hadn't been afraid of the piles of severed limbs and corpses belonging to the Northern Barbarian cavalry yesterday, yet today she was screaming and shouting at a tiny rat.

"Alright, it's fine."

Li Dao looked back at the little rat. "Why are you scaring her first thing in the morning?"

The little rat nimbly climbed up the stool, hopped onto the table, stood up, and started squeaking away.

"You're saying she scared you first?"

"Squeak."

"And she hit you so you could only run?"

"Squeak."

"Alright, stop acting aggrieved, I'll apologize to you on her behalf."

Seeing the little rat's aggrieved little expression, Li Dao couldn't help laughing or crying for a moment.

Beside him, Jiu'er looked at her young master chatting with a rat in utter disbelief.

"Young master, you can understand what it says?"

"Mm."

"Then it's..."

"A pet I picked up last night, so don't be scared."

Hearing the word "pet," Jiu'er couldn't help saying with lingering fear, "But young master, that's a rat."

Li Dao smiled. "Take a close look at it first before you speak. It's not like ordinary rats."

Hearing this, Jiu'er cautiously took a careful look at the little rat.

Huh?

She wouldn't have known if she hadn't looked, but upon closer inspection, she realized this rat was different from the ones she had seen before; it was palm-sized, somewhat cute, and rather adorable.

"It's not scary, is it?"

"Mm-mm."

Jiu'er nodded. Once her fear subsided, her eyes filled with curiosity as she looked at the little rat.

Seeing the situation ease up, Li Dao continued, "Are you willing to accept this little fellow? If you don't accept it, I'll throw it away again."

With that, he made a motion as if to toss it.

The little rat: "!!!"

"No, young master!"

The moment he said it, he was met with Jiu'er's refusal. A moment later, she blushed and whispered, "It's actually quite pretty, let's keep it."

"Alright then, make up with each other."

Li Dao placed the little rat back on the table.

Hearing this, Jiu'er blushed as she cautiously approached the little rat, seemingly afraid of startling it, completely forgetting who had been making the other stomp their feet in fright just moments ago.

"Little rat, I'm sorry. It was all my fault just now for scaring you. Can you forgive me?"

Having said that, Jiu'er even put her hands together in a pleading gesture.

The main reason she did this was because she had never seen such a small and cute animal before; she was so curious that she desperately wanted to pet it.

Hearing this, the little rat seemed to understand as well. It glanced at the human before it, stepped forward, and sniffed Jiu'er, as if catching a scent that made its eyes light up.

"Squeak."

Seeing this, Jiu'er asked in confusion, turning back to look, "Young master, what is it saying?"

"It says it forgives you."

"Really?!"

"Really."

"Then can I hold it?"

Li Dao gave the little rat a meaningful look. Man and mouse seemed to share a telepathic connection, as the little rat jumped straight into Jiu'er's arms without hesitation.

After a moment, Jiu'er's surprised voice rang out, "Young master, it doesn't have a little pecker, it's a little female rat!"

A little pecker?

Li Dao wore a face full of question marks. When did this girl learn such bold and brazen language?