Treasure hunting mouse's thousand tricks: digging for treasure and finding a pirate's nest
In the year 3025 of the Interstellar Calendar, the Seventh Cantilever's meteorite belt glowed with a faint blue light. Xiaodou lay on Ling Yuan's shoulder, his treasure-hunting radar vibrating wildly—not because of the map, but because the crater ahead was filled with chocolate coins.
"Warning! Pirate signal detected!" The mechanical cat adjutant suddenly sounded the alarm.
Xiaodou turned a deaf ear to him. As soon as his paw touched the pile of gold coins, a picture flashed before his eyes: the Pirate King, wearing a diamond-studded eyepatch, pointed a laser sword at the map and roared, "The key to the Concept Mouse is hidden in the third meteorite!"
"Ling Yuan! The map is in the third meteorite!" Xiaodou excitedly flicked his tail with fluorescent dust. "But first, let me eat some gold coins to fill my stomach..."
"No!" Ling Yuan grabbed his tail, "The Pirate King has set a mental trap—"
Before he could finish his words, the pile of gold coins suddenly turned into a sticky blue liquid, trapping the two of them in the middle. Xiaodou looked at his claws gradually solidifying and exclaimed in surprise, "I can touch things!"
Ling Yuan looked at him with a headache as he poked the liquid bubble: "That's the pirate's mental cage, don't-"
“Crack.”
Xiaodou bit off a bubble and his eyes lit up instantly: "It's blueberry flavored!"
The mental cage cracked open, revealing a metal treasure chest within. Ling Yuan watched in amazement as Xiaodou gnawed and scurried forward. Wherever his tail swept, the cage transformed into an edible jelly wall.
"So the pirate's mental power is sweet!" Xiaodou turned around with the treasure chest key in his mouth and slapped Ling Yuan's face with his materialized claws, "Praise me!"
The tips of Ling Yuan's ears turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, but when they touched Xiaodou's palm, his pupils suddenly shrank - there were the same star patterns as on his wrist, but the color was lighter, like a layer of frosting.
The moment the treasure chest opened, countless points of light burst forth, forming half a map in Xiaodou's paw. The next second, however, the meteorite shook, and a true pirate fleet emerged from behind it. Aboard the leading flagship, the projection of the Pirate King sneered, "How dare you steal my treasure map? Do you think the Concept Rat's key is so easy to obtain?"
"Run!" Ling Yuan picked up Xiaodou and rushed towards the spaceship, but was hit by a laser beam on the engine. Xiaodou looked at the blood oozing from his back and suddenly remembered the scene of Bai Yan in the demon world being injured while protecting him. His claws uncontrollably dug into the edge of the treasure chest.
"Ding! The host chews the divine power crystal, activating the 'Spirit Body Materialization' skill!"
The moment the mechanical sound rang out, Xiaodou's body suddenly became solid, with blueberry jelly still smeared on his round belly. Ling Yuan looked at him, his Adam's apple rolling, "Why is your tail furry?"
"No time to explain!" Xiaodou stuffed the map into Ling Yuan's pocket, "Use your deer-shaped pattern to open the jump channel!"
Ling Yuan was stunned: "How do you know..."
"Don't ask!" Xiaodou jumped onto the console and typed out a string of gibberish with his claws. "I also know you hid twelve packets of nut-flavored mental energy drinks under the bed!"
Ling Yuan's ears instantly flushed red, but the moment he released the pattern, a golden deer-shaped pattern of light illuminated around the spaceship. Xiaodou seized the opportunity to gnaw through the pirate's energy cable. Amidst the sparks that erupted, he saw the bespectacled man (Lin Shen) assembling a robotic cat in the lab.
"Catch that rat!" roared the Pirate King. "He swallowed my spiritual core!"
Xiaodou then discovered a blue crystal ball rolling in his stomach—the Pirate King's energy core. Ling Yuan dragged him into a crevice in the meteorite, but due to damage to his spaceship, he couldn't jump, and could only watch helplessly as the pirate fleet approached.
"I'm sorry," Ling Yuan lowered his head, his voice muffled, "I put you in danger again."
"What are you talking about!" Xiaodou slapped his face with his paw. "Have you forgotten that I'm a descendant of the Sky-Swallowing Rat?" He shook the crystal ball in his stomach. "At worst, I can just chew up their spaceships!"
Ling Yuan suddenly smiled and rubbed Xiaodou's ears with his fingertips: "Okay, then I'll be responsible for diverting the fire, and you'll be responsible for chewing-"
"Wait!" Xiaodou suddenly stared at Ling Yuan's collarbone, "Do you have a scar here?"
There was a light, crescent-shaped mark, identical to Lin Shen's scar from the modern story. Ling Yuan instinctively covered his chest, but at that moment, Xiaodou's treasure-hunting radar vibrated again, pointing to the pirate flagship's observation deck. There stood a man in a white coat, holding a piece of osmanthus cake in his hand. His profile was identical to Bai Yan's.
"Bai Yan?!" Xiaodou exclaimed.
The man in the white coat looked up, his gaze meeting his through the meteorite belt, a familiar smile forming on his lips. The next second, the pirate fleet suddenly turned their guns, firing several rounds at the meteorite where Xiaodou was. Ling Yuan rushed forward to protect him, only to feel the body in his arms become transparent again.
"Warning! The spirit body is running low on energy!" a mechanical voice screamed, "The materialization is about to fail!"
Xiaodou's claws scratched in the air and accidentally hooked Ling Yuan's tie, but when he touched the tie clip, a scene flashed: Bai Yan handed the tie clip to Lin Shen and said, "Take good care of him for me", and Lin Shen turned around and transformed the tie clip into a can of nuts for Xiaodou.
"So you two are really the same person..." Xiaodou muttered to himself.
Ling Yuan looked at his gradually transparent body, suddenly lowered his head, and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "Whether it's Bai Yan, Lin Shen, or me... We are all yours——"
Before he could finish his words, Xiaodou had already disappeared into the rift of time and space, leaving behind only a half-gnawed chocolate gold coin and Ling Yuan's loose tie.
When Xiaodou opened his eyes again, he found himself sprawled on a kang (earth bed) from the 1960s, clutching half a map of the interstellar universe. Written on the back of the map in demonic language was the following: "A deer appears in a deep forest, and the day the conceptual mouse returns to its place will mark the moment when the three souls unite."
From outside the window came the sound of the production team's broadcast and a familiar cough—the voice sounded very much like that of a fox demon elder from the demon world, who was shouting in dialect, "Whose rat stole the food coupons?"
On the interstellar pirates' flagship, a man in a white coat picked up the bell Xiaodou had dropped and traced the inscription on its inside with his fingertips: "Gift to Xiaodou, Bai Yan keeps it." Behind him, the holographic screen played the scene from the Demon Realm chapter where Bai Yan proposed, freezing at the moment Xiaodou shredded the marriage certificate.
"I finally found you, my concept mouse." He chuckled and put the bell into his chest pocket, where half a piece of ice crystal osmanthus lay, exactly the same as the tokens of Ling Yuan and Lin Shen.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
