Mythology Returns! Starting with Folklore and Strange Tales

Chapter 78 Longevity Rat

Unlike the rat monsters encountered in the rat nest.

Most of the other rat monsters are strong and robust; you can tell from their size that they are rat monsters that have become spirits.

But the one in front of us was only slightly larger than a normal house mouse. Excluding its tail, it was about the size of a normal person's forearm. It would be startling if it were outside, but just looking at its size, it would only be startling.

The key point is that this small rat monster was dressed in a black patterned mandarin jacket and a small melon-shaped hat. Its old and decrepit face had lost its luster, and its fur and rat head looked like a piece of hairy, withered tree bark stuck to its bones.

It knelt obediently in the smaller tunnel on the wall, its front paws clasped together, holding four unlit incense sticks. Its devout little appearance was just like that of an old man offering incense.

Of course, it would be even better if the object of this devotion were not oneself!

In folk legends, there is a very simple rule regarding incense offerings: three for gods and four for spirits.

Whether the image is drawn on paper or placed for worship, whether it is righteous or evil, whether its name is known or not, as long as there is a desire to worship or pray, lighting three sticks of incense will allow one to reach the deity. As for whether the deity agrees or not, how to restore the image after receiving a response, and what consequences to bear, those are all matters for later.

As for the strange and mysterious, the Four Pillars of Destiny are required.

Whether it's kowtowing or burning paper money, the divine takes three, the cunning takes four.

The more common explanation is that three is a yang number and four is a yin number, with yang being superior to yin, hence the distinction. Or, it's said that it's easier to see the King of Hell than to deal with petty monsters. Gods, whether righteous or evil, generally won't bother with you unless you provoke them, but monsters, like purely evil people, never choose a reason to harm others.

Perhaps it was just because you glanced at its grave that it became attached to you!

Of course, due to differences in region and customs, the rules may vary slightly, but the general situation is basically the same.

As for the reasons behind this, those from Taoist schools, Buddhist schools, or scholars specializing in folklore can provide explanations.

But the rats in front of us were disgusting enough that they used such a strange method to worship Zhang Wei; who knows where they learned the method of borrowing the lifespan of the dead?

Although the lack of a medium makes this method less terrifying than the orthodox method of borrowing lifespan from the underworld, and it won't result in losing several or even more than ten years of lifespan with just one bow, each bow burns a few seconds of lifespan, and multiple bows burn several minutes.

Even the smallest amount of water can wear away a stone.

Zhang Wei, who was already feeling suffocated from the descent, looked even more gloomy.

The old mouse also sensed the danger.

But it was too old, so old that it only encountered its ancestor when it was nearing the end of its life.

Even with the secrets of cultivation passed down from the ancestor, the essence of the five grains and the moonlight were not enough to repair its body riddled with flaws.

In the rats' social hierarchy, there is no father-son or ruler-subject relationship like in humans; there is only pure survival of the fittest!

In times of famine, such an old creature would be devoured by the rest of the rats. Even now, with an ancestor providing endless food, it would still be decomposed before it died, for the sake of the cleanliness of the entire rat nest and for the sake of the clan's contribution.

Freshly made minced meat.

The grains that the rat monsters had consumed, mixed with their excrement, were made into various fresh and delicious meats to satisfy the hunger of the people on earth.

Because they were starving, they didn't care about the little bit of stuff mixed in with their food.

To put it bluntly, what didn't they eat on their journey of fleeing famine? Tree bark, grass roots, and even small cakes made of dirt to keep them from starving were all stuffed into their mouths. In comparison, the free meals at the Zhuangyuan Mansion were only slightly impure, the grains that had been drained of their essence were bland and tasteless, but the meat of the old rats served as a good cover-up.

They enjoyed the food, and the rat monsters were happy to see it.

After eating too much of this stuffed food, it's no wonder that the starving people gradually turned into half-demons with rat tails and rat fur.

Subtly and gradually, if you eat it every day, you can complete the transformation in about a month. If you only eat it a few times, there won't be any major problems, and it may even have a restorative and nourishing effect on the body. After all, the old rat is a rat monster that has gained intelligence and has some cultivation.

They could even eat for more than half a month. If a Buddhist or Taoist master helped, they could reverse the demonization. But as the saying goes, people who have truly experienced hunger are not picky. They are already grateful to have something to eat and not be hungry.

Once they possess demonic energy, someone will naturally pick them out from the starving people and change their identities to become townspeople, in order to prevent too many of the starving people confined to a corner of the town from noticing something amiss.

Besides this subtle method, the rat people in the town have another reason: their ancestor is constantly getting married.

Although a large number of young girls would be torn apart by the angry ancestor, the women who had given birth were able to settle down in Cai Town and raise a litter of rat-people after three months of pregnancy.

Because they ate well during their pregnancies, and the town's pharmacy also had the prescriptions, these women were able to re-enter the Imperial Scholar's Mansion and enjoy a second spring with their ancestors in less than a year.

Having become aware of the rules of the Zhuangyuan Mansion, and in order to ensure the smooth return of their daughters and guarantee the family's subsequent food expenses, the townspeople would arrange marriages for the women before they entered the mansion. The couples would then indulge in nightly revelry until seven days before their arrival.

Later, fewer and fewer young girls died in the mansions above, except for outsiders who knew nothing about the rules.

This is also the root cause that enabled the top scholar's family to hold weddings every day...

They are afraid of death and pain, and they want to hide but there is nothing they can do.

One day, an old rat, while munching on the remaining corpses in a mass grave outside the town, found a few tattered pieces of paper in an old man's arms, which gave these consumables a new way to survive.

Thus, the old rats, who were no longer useful, began to build their own small nests in the main nest. Using the air holes in the tunnel walls, they observed the rat hordes coming and going. Whenever they sensed a rat monster connected to them by blood, they would secretly kowtow to it in order to steal the lifespan of their rat offspring.

They didn't dare steal too much, fearing that their strong offspring would discover their tracks.

However, there were simply too many rats in the nest. Even though the consumption of the Yin Life was severely unequal, it was enough to feed the old, weak, sick, and disabled rats. Even the old rats who first discovered the nest and shared it had already shed their old and decaying appearance. Although they had to maintain a smaller size to avoid the main nest because of the Yin Life, they had also begun to shed their rat form and refined the transverse bone in their throats.

The old rat of today learned this later and is not proficient in evil magic. However, with the help of other rats to spread the word, the original strict requirements of worshipping the Yinshou, which required personal items and blood ties, have been simplified into what they are now.

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