Chapter 3: Bebe’s Origins
Above the vast, boundless Dark Forest, a black blur streaked across the sky in an instant.
Bebe’s small eyes held a trace of grief and fury.
“They must die!” Bebe gritted his teeth, but he still flew first toward the place where Linley was cultivating in seclusion.
“Whoosh!” In broad daylight, despite the stationed troops, a nearly indistinct blur flashed by and vanished, entering the underground secret chamber complex. The ordinary soldiers didn’t even notice a magical beast slipping into the underground secret chamber.
In the living room of the underground secret chamber complex.
Barker had already left. Linley and Delia weren’t in a hurry to cultivate either; they quietly waited for Bebe’s arrival.
“Boss.” With a voice tinged with tears, Bebe leaped directly into Linley’s arms.
“What’s wrong, Bebe?” Linley and Delia were both very surprised.
In Linley’s arms, Bebe lifted his little head, his bright, spirited small eyes looking at Linley. “Boss, my father and mother are both dead, wuwu…” Bebe had always been worried about this, never expecting it to end this way.
“What happened? Explain clearly,” Linley said quickly. “Don’t cry.”
Linley could sense that Bebe’s mental age was still like a youth’s, far from reaching adulthood for his race.
Bebe nodded and said, “I’ve already seen Grandpa Beirut. Grandpa Beirut told me that my father was a Gargoyle Behemoth Rat and my mother was a Shadow Rat. They were both very powerful, both having reached the ninth rank. But they were still killed by someone. They’re the ones who killed my parents.”
“Who killed them?” Linley asked in confusion.
“The Stellar Sword Saint, Tillon, and the Earth-style Grand Magus Saint, Rudy.” Bebe gritted his teeth as he spoke.
Linley was startled.
He immediately recalled the Saint-level battle that happened in Wushan Township when he was eight years old. Linley had clearly heard the two Saint-level experts shouting at each other in anger. That Saint-level warrior was Tillon! And that Grand Magus Saint was Rudy.
“They killed your parents?” Linley thought about the timing.
It was precisely because of that battle that Linley, while trying to save his little brother Wharton, was hit on the head, and his blood entered the Coiling Dragon Ring. This allowed Grandpa Doehring to emerge from the Coiling Dragon Ring, and Linley began his path of magic cultivation. About half a year after starting his training, he discovered Bebe in the abandoned ancestral courtyard of his home.
“Half a year… yes, considering Bebe’s growth rate. In half a year, a newborn baby rat would have grown to about the state I saw him in.”
Both the timing and everything else matched perfectly.
Linley had always been puzzled back then: why were those two Saint-level experts fighting in a place like Wushan Township? Now it seemed it had something to do with Bebe’s parents.
“Why did they kill your parents?” Linley pressed further.
Bebe sobbed as he answered, “Boss, the Dark Forest is the lair of rat-type magical beasts. Although there are many rat-type magical beasts in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, they are far fewer than in the Dark Forest.” Linley nodded inwardly at this. Rat-type magical beasts were naturally good at reproduction.
Only in magical beast gathering places would there generally be rat colonies.
“Although there aren’t many, there are still over ten million rat-type magical beasts,” Bebe said. The Dark Forest could easily produce a few hundred million rats from just a portion of its population, while the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts had only over ten million—a huge difference in numbers.
Bebe continued, “In the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, there were no Saint-level rat-type magical beasts. The leaders of that colony of over ten million rat-type magical beasts were my parents—a ninth-rank Gargoyle Behemoth Rat and a ninth-rank Shadow Rat.”
Linley and Delia understood.
Among ten million rat-type magical beasts, having a pair of ninth-rank rats was about right.
“The Stellar Sword Saint, Tillon, and the Grand Magus Saint, Rudy, both wanted to tame a magical beast for their own use. The Stellar Sword Saint, Tillon, discovered my father and mother and tried to tame them. After all, taming them would mean controlling a colony of over ten million rats.” Bebe’s eyes were full of hatred.
Linley fully understood Tillon’s thinking.
A colony of over ten million rats would be as powerful as an army of millions. Compared to a ninth-rank Black Dragon or a ninth-rank Gargoyle Behemoth Rat or Shadow Rat—all ninth-rank magical beasts—most experts would likely choose the ninth-rank Shadow Rat or Gargoyle Behemoth Rat.
“The worst part was that my mother was pregnant at the time,” Bebe said through gritted teeth. “The Rat King is proud. My father, relying on the Gargoyle Behemoth Rat’s strong defense, held off the Stellar Sword Saint, Tillon, to let my mother escape.”
A Gargoyle Behemoth Rat’s defense was terrifying. Killing a ninth-rank Gargoyle Behemoth Rat was difficult even for most Saint-level experts.
“My father was the Rat King, so of course the Stellar Sword Saint wanted to tame him. They fought. But my father refused to submit and kept battling… In the end, my father was killed by the Stellar Sword Saint.” Bebe wept.
The pride of a Rat King leading an entire colony was unimaginable.
And he was buying time so Bebe’s mother could escape.
“Shadow Rats are famous for their speed. My mother, a ninth-rank Shadow Rat, was very fast. Even while pregnant, she took advantage of my father’s fight with Tillon to escape the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, fleeing westward until she reached Wushan Township.”
Linley’s mind cleared.
“My mother, perhaps worried I would be in danger, gathered her magical power and gave birth to me early,” Bebe said, tears welling in his eyes. “Grandpa Beirut said that for us God Eater Rats, if born at full term, we should have the strength of a sixth- or seventh-rank magical beast right from birth.”
Linley was puzzled.
God Eater Rat? What kind of race was that? Was it Bebe’s species?
But seeing Bebe’s state, Linley didn’t interrupt him. He decided to ask later.
“By making me be born early, my mother’s body was severely damaged. In that state, she told me to stay in that ruined courtyard and not run around. As a baby rat, no one would know my true nature. She told me to eat stones there and grow up quietly.”
“My mother told me then that she was from the Beirut clan, and so I was part of the Beirut clan too.”
Bebe said angrily, “To avoid dragging me into it, my mother left me there and continued fleeing westward. But unfortunately… she was discovered by the Saint-level expert Rudy. Rudy naturally chased after my mother immediately, trying to make her his magical beast.”
Linley could fully imagine the situation.
“My mother was a ninth-rank Shadow Rat, but having just given birth to me, her strength was greatly reduced. She desperately fled eastward, but then Tillon arrived. As a warrior, Tillon used his speed and skill to catch my mother first.” Bebe grew even more agitated. “Then Tillon and Rudy fought over the ownership of the ninth-rank Shadow Rat.”
Linley now understood everything completely.
The Stellar Sword Saint, Tillon, had caught the Shadow Rat, and Rudy wanted to take it back. They fought in the eastern sky above Wushan Township. That great battle brought disaster to Wushan Township, and even Wharton was nearly crushed, saved only by Linley’s intervention.
And Linley, by chance, had the Coiling Dragon Ring recognize him as its master.
“Yes.” Linley immediately recalled the events of that year. He had clearly heard the Stellar Sword Saint, Tillon, roar in fury: “Rudy, if I can’t have it, you won’t either!”
Then Tillon’s hands blazed with light, and the explosion resounded through the heavens and earth.
“Right. Shadow Rats are generally small. They can grow a bit larger when fighting, but normally they’re about the size of Bebe—twenty centimeters, palm-sized.” Linley now knew the full truth.
At that time, Bebe’s mother was held in Tillon’s hand. But Tillon was over a thousand meters away from Linley, and Linley couldn’t even see Tillon’s figure clearly, let alone what he held.
Shadow Rats were famous for speed and strong attacks, but their defense was weak, far inferior to a Gargoyle Behemoth Rat.
With the Saint-level Tillon’s battle qi raging, killing a ninth-rank Shadow Rat that had just given birth and was greatly weakened was an easy task.
“The truth is out!”
Linley now fully understood why the two Saint-level experts had fought in the eastern sky above Wushan Township. The thing Tillon had roared about—“Rudy, if I can’t have it, you won’t either!”—was Bebe’s mother.
Half a year after that battle…
Linley met Bebe.
And thus began the legendary journey of Linley and Bebe.
“No wonder, no wonder.” Linley also understood why Bebe said his enemies were Rudy and Tillon. Without Tillon, Bebe’s parents wouldn’t have died. Without Rudy, Bebe’s mother might not have been forced to her death.
Linley looked at Bebe.
Bebe’s eyes were full of tears and hatred. “Those two bastards, I will definitely kill them.”
“Hmm?” Linley suddenly had a new set of questions.
Bebe’s father was a ninth-rank Gargoyle Behemoth Rat, and his mother was a ninth-rank Shadow Rat. Why was Bebe so powerful? Bebe was nothing like a Gargoyle Behemoth Rat or a Shadow Rat. His strength had easily reached such a terrifying level and was still growing.
Secondly…
Back then, only Tillon, Rudy, and Bebe’s dead parents might have known the details.
But Bebe had just returned from the Dark Forest. How did that Deity-level expert in the Dark Forest know? Could a Deity-level expert’s soul force extend from the Dark Forest to Wushan Township, ten thousand miles away?
Even if it could, would a Deity-level expert keep his soul force spread out constantly? If he had witnessed this, why didn’t he save Bebe’s parents?
“Bebe, how do you know all this?” Linley pressed. Delia also looked at Bebe in confusion.
“Grandpa Beirut told me,” Bebe replied.
Linley asked doubtfully, “This Lord Beirut is a Deity-level expert, but he can’t know the past, can he? How did he know about this? And it seems he knows it in great detail.”
Bebe explained, “Boss, it’s like this. After Grandpa Beirut discovered me, he sent the Violet-Gold Rat King to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts to investigate among the rat colonies. Then Grandpa Beirut himself personally searched the memories of Tillon and Rudy.”
“What?” Linley and Delia both exclaimed in shock.
Searching memories?
The Necromantic Grand Magus Saint, Sessle, could do that, but once done, the target would immediately have their soul scattered and die. Yet the Stellar Sword Saint, Tillon, was still alive and well. Just a few years ago, Olivia had become famous by defeating him.
Moreover, if either Tillon or Rudy had died, Linley would certainly have heard about such a major event.
“Grandpa Beirut is very powerful,” Bebe explained. “He said that as long as someone hasn’t become a Deity, their memories are completely exposed before him. Even Saint-level experts, he can read their memories without them noticing at all.”
Linley couldn’t believe it.
This… was simply too outrageous!
Being able to read a Saint-level expert’s memories without them noticing—Linley felt this was far beyond what a mere Lesser Deity should be capable of.
“Grandpa Beirut is the number one expert in the Yulan Continent plane,” Bebe explained. “Absolutely number one. Even the War God and the High Priest have to listen to him. Even the plane supervisor, Hodan, wouldn’t dare offend Grandpa Beirut in the Yulan Continent plane.”
“Grandpa Beirut is the king of the Yulan Continent plane,” Bebe added.
Linley and Delia exchanged glances. Linley suddenly recalled what the three Violet-Gold Rat Kings had said when they invited Bebe back then—they had also said that Lord Beirut was the king of the Yulan Continent plane.
“Grandpa Beirut is the first God Eater Rat in countless planes! Even the name ‘God Eater Rat’ was coined by Grandpa Beirut himself,” Bebe said proudly. “And I am the second God Eater Rat in countless planes!”