[Thirteen days later.]

***

Sometime in the dead of the rat's lay huddled together soundly sleeping in their small confines. Needless to say, it was dark in the cave. Were Wu Niu awake, he would most probably struggle to see much of anything.

Wu Niu slept fully clothed. His forearms were trapped in thick bracers made from carved stone clasped shut by crude twine. Atop his robes, large plates of stone squeezed his frame together shoestring. Much like his stone bracers, he wore stone greaves around his shins that layered over his orange baggy harem pants.

Wu Niu decided to fashion the stone apparel as weights for training. He had grown accustomed to wearing the turtle shell boulder, so he decided to step it up a notch. Although now he slept with weights on due to their inconveniently slow process of taking them on and off.

Wu Niu moaned in his sleep.

"N-No, please don't die… M-Moth—"

Snap. Crunch.

Wu Niu shot up to the oddly familiar sound at his door. It was a sound not too dissimilar to wood snapping. Whatever It was, it was just on the other side of the bamboo door.

It was extremely dark and hard to see. If it weren't for Wu Niu's improved vision, he wouldn't have been able to see whatsoever.

Jumping out of bed, Wu Niu scurried over to the table as covertly as possible. Grabbing his knife from off the table, he backed against the wall beside the door and waited silently.

Crunch. Rip. Crunch.

-That sound. I know it, but what is it?

Suddenly the door started violently shaking, causing Wu Niu to react by lifting his flint knife in preparation to strike. Soon after, a loud snapping sound came from the door, followed by chewing.

-A panda is eating my door?! If it is just a panda, I'm sure I could take it. Plus, pandas aren't very aggressive. So, I might not even have to.

Right as Wu Niu was about to turn the corner to try and shoo the creature off, he heard a faint noise from behind him.

Squeak.

One of the rats had awoken from the sound of raucous chewing. The other rats awoke soon after, squeaking up a storm. The creature on the other side of the door heard them, and in response, let out a low pantherine growl.

-What?!

Wu Niu jumped back behind the wall.

-A Demon beast!

Wu Niu finally grasped the danger of his situation. As he did, the demon beast began to rip and tear away at the bamboo door to get inside.

-Which one is it? Panda… feline...

Adrenaline surged through Wu Niu's body as he realized what type of demon beast it was.

-A panda-tiger. Should I…?

He knew it would be impossible to take on a demon beast of its caliber, and yet for whatever reason, he felt a strange compulsion to do just that.

-No, I'll die for sure…

-Won't I?

Another and conflicting thought entered Wu Niu's mind.

-Quit being a coward and fight!

His initial thought process fought back.

-No way!

-Do it!

-No!

-Do it!

-No, I won't do… it.

-…

-Pathetic.

The panda-tiger is a 1-star demon beast, the lowest possible star for demon beasts other no stars at all. Despite this, one star is no laughing matter. Even the weakest 1-star demon beasts have a body comparable to the "Martial" body tempering stage.

The "Martial" body tempering stage is two stages above the "Purity" body tempering stage. Without a specialized qi, there was no way Wu Niu would even be able to cut through the dense skin of the Panda-tiger.

-It's in my best interest if I just cut my losses.

Slapping himself in the face, Wu Niu refocused on the matter at hand. He knew he couldn't win, so there was no point in wasting any more precious time thinking about it.

-Alright, I'll use the rat's as bait for the demon beast and then find the right moment to escape

The demon beast was most the way through. Saliva dripped down from its mouth as it fantasized about devouring the delectable rats.

Grabbing his waterskin and clipping it to his belt, Wu Niu positioned himself behind the bamboo table in wait.

-Damn. I hate that I have to do this, but I'm going to have to abandon this place. Once it gets in, it'll most likely turn this place into its den.

Ripping the door off the wall, the panda-tiger crept toward its juicy pray.

As came into view, Wu Niu observed that it had the body shape of the tiger and the patchy black and white coloring of a panda. It was also larger than a normal animal. Even larger than a panda bear.

The demon beast powerfully pounced the cage, skillfully tearing apart the bamboo construction with its nifty paws. The rats squeaked and rattled in their cage with abject terror. This worked only further excited the demon beast's primal hunger.

-I was actually starting to like those little guys.

Wu Niu carefully tiptoed out the door and around the corner. Once out, he carefully moved down the path toward the river for one last time.

With one misplaced step, a sudden sound sprang out from underneath Wu Niu.

Snap.