Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

The two rat spirits rushed to the entrance of Tianju Cave without thinking and shouted, "Listen up, humans inside, Emperor Nian has arrived. Come out and surrender quickly, and give us all the food. Otherwise, Emperor Nian will get angry and kill you without a burial place."

After these days of efforts, humans have made all the preparations. Not only has the cave gate been reinforced, but spears, bows and arrows, stones and other weapons have also been prepared. At this time, Qiu Zheng was sitting on the high platform in the cave. Suddenly, the old bamboo thin man who was guarding the cave gate came running to report: "Cave Master, disaster has occurred. You are right. The Rat King and the Rat Demon are here again, and the Emperor Nian is here too! They want us to go out and surrender! What should we do now?"

"Come on!" Qiu slapped the stone table and said, "I was just wondering what this Nian beast looks like. Skinny, go and call Ling, Ping, Zhi, Dong, Xi, Xia, Xing, Chen and all the warriors to gather together. We will go outside to meet the enemy later."

"Yes, sir! I'll go and inform everyone right away." After saying that, Lao Zhu took out his big horn and blew it, shouting loudly everywhere: "Everyone pick up your weapons and gather quickly, the Nian beast is coming to attack!"

Dong Hexia and the other hunters all followed Qiu's instructions and did not dare to go out far. They all worked nearby. When they heard the horn, they knew something big had happened and immediately returned to the meeting place in the cave to gather.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Qiu stood up and said to everyone: "All the people of Tianju Cave, all the warriors, just as I expected, the Rat King is here again today, and he brought the world's number one beast, Nian. Just now he spoke arrogantly in front of this door, demanding that we surrender and hand over the food." Having said this, Qiu paused, and scanned the crowd with his sharp eyes, and then said: "Although I have never seen the Nian beast, I am sure it is a difficult guy to deal with. As the old people often say: A single chopstick is easy to break, but ten pairs of chopsticks cannot be broken. As long as everyone unites as one and works together, no matter how powerful the Nian beast is, I believe we can defeat it."

"The cave master is right. In order to prevent humanity from being wiped out and food from being stolen, we must do our utmost to defeat the Nian beast." Xiaoxing raised his arms and shouted.

"Yes, do your best to defeat the Nian monster!" Xia Hechen followed suit and shouted. Then everyone followed suit and shouted slogans, the sound shook the sky and the crowd was excited.

Xi pulled Dong and asked, "Brother Dong, what if the beast is too powerful and we can't defeat it?"

“If you can’t defeat it, you will be eaten by the Nian beast.” Dong replied coldly.

"Ah?" Xi, Nan, Bei and others cried out in shock when they heard it.

"Xi, if you don't want to die, then fight with all your might, okay?"

"Got it, Brother Dong." Xi nodded with everyone else, looking determined to give it a try.

Seeing the high morale of the crowd, Qiu on the stage nodded with satisfaction, stroked his white beard, and said, "Okay! All warriors, listen up: pick up your weapons and follow me to attack the Nian beast. The rest of the elderly, the weak, women, and children, stay in the cave."

"Yes, sir!" everyone responded loudly.

Qiu led the way out, carrying a bow and arrow, a stone axe, and a spear. Behind him followed more than a thousand hunters including Ling, Ping, Zhi, Dong, Xi, Xia, Xing, Chen, etc. The three cave doors were wide open, and the two rat spirits were still shouting outside the door. When they suddenly saw the crowd rushing out, they were so scared that they turned around and ran away.

Dong got angry when he saw the rat monster, because the last time the rats came to steal food, Xiaoxing stole the limelight and became a hero praised by everyone. This made Dong extremely jealous and filled with anger. So when he heard that the Nian monster was coming this time, he was determined to steal the limelight, save face, and enhance his status in everyone's mind. Dong swung a stone axe, rushed over and shouted: "Damn it, you two rat thieves, stay away, I'll let you taste my power."

The two rat spirits fled in panic, and everyone chased after them. After a while, they arrived in front of the rat formation, and the two rat spirits disappeared into it. Dong, Qiu, Xia, Xing and others stood still and looked carefully. Today's rat group was more than last time, and it stretched out half a mile away. The rat king and the thousand rat spirits in the middle of the formation had fierce eyes, as if they were determined to win.

Qiu Da strode out to the front of the battle formation, pointed at the Rat King and cursed loudly: "You rat thieves, I let you escape last time, but you dare to attack me again this time. You really don't know what's good for you. If you don't retreat quickly, I will make sure that all of you rat thieves are beaten to death and become roasted rat meat. Not a single one will be spared."

"Humph!" The Rat King, relying on the support of Emperor Nian, became arrogant again and said, "You monkey-like humans, you are not afraid of this Rat King, but are you not afraid of Emperor Nian? Emperor Nian has come to fight in person. This Rat King advises you to surrender quickly, otherwise, there will be corpses everywhere and you will all be destroyed by Emperor Nian!"

"You little rat, where is the Nian beast? Why doesn't it come out? I'm going to shoot an arrow through its head." The subordinate said sternly with a bow and arrow in hand.

"Oh - Emperor Nian has arrived, Emperor Nian has arrived." A big rooster in the sky flew to the front of the formation and announced loudly.

Qiu and the others looked up at the big rooster, and they were all terrified. They had seen birds before, but never such a big one. This big rooster had a wingspan of more than ten feet, two huge claws three feet long, a head as big as a bucket, and gorgeous feathers. It flew in the sky, casting a shadow.

"Oh my God!" the man exclaimed, "What a big bird!"

"Wow! Such a big bird, and it can talk. It's really a bird spirit." Chen said.

“In my fifty years of hunting experience, I have never seen a bird spirit this big,” Zhi followed.

"Everyone be careful!" Ling shouted: "If this bird flies down, it will definitely grab a person."

Everyone was talking about it, all of them were shocked.

The Chicken King also knew that the opponent against the Rat King must be a human, so he corrected him: "Monkey-like human, I am the Chicken King. The king of all birds. I see that you are not surprised, so you should surrender to the Emperor Nian as soon as possible, otherwise you will become his meal."

"Hmph! You stupid chicken, let me tell you, we are upright people and will never surrender to the animal Nian. I advise you to turn back from your wrong path now and stop being an accomplice of Nian, otherwise, I will take your life." Qiu pointed at the Chicken King and warned him loudly.

"Oh oh..." The Chicken King couldn't help laughing and said, "Humans really like to talk nonsense. With your ability, can you take the life of this Chicken King? If you have the ability, can you fly to the sky?"

"You stupid chicken, let me show you how powerful humans are!" Qiu said, then he bent his bow and shot an arrow at the King Chicken.

Although the chicken king had never seen a bow and arrow and didn't know how to dodge, the arrow missed the target because it was constantly flying, hitting its tail and two feathers. The chicken king screamed in pain, and seeing Qiu was about to shoot again, he was so scared that his feathers stood up, and he quickly flapped his wings and flew behind the formation.

As soon as the Chicken King flew away, a path was cleared among the rats, and Emperor Nian came out on horseback, with a dog monster on the left and a pig monster on the right.

The Nian Emperor finally made his grand appearance, looking ferocious and frightening, and making people afraid. The humans on the other side were in neat formation, each one was mighty and majestic, and everyone was full of fighting spirit and heroic spirit. When the two sides met, the Nian Emperor saw that there was nothing special about the humans, except that they were taller than ordinary monkeys, so he did not take them seriously.

When humans look closely at the Nian beast, they are all terrified, and some timid ones almost wet their pants. Its huge body, thick and long horns, mouth full of sharp teeth, and thick and long tail make it look like a ferocious monster. Look at the horse king under his crotch, it is red like blood, many times larger than an ordinary horse, and as big as an elephant. The dog king on the left is snow-white without a single stray hair. It is bigger than a lion, with canine teeth interlaced, white and scary. The pig king on the right has shiny black hair. It is also huge, with fangs more than three feet long in its mouth, like an elephant, but lacking a long trunk. These beast kings are all extremely ferocious, making people tremble and their scalps numb.

Zhi scratched his head and said, "Master, with my hunting experience of more than fifty years, unicorns and nine-headed birds are considered very rare. I didn't expect that this Nian beast is even more peculiar - it has both fangs and long horns. It is a pure monster."

"Zhi, I think the monster Nian not only has sharp fangs and horns, but is also tall and big, with infinite power. If we are caught by it, it will definitely swallow us in one bite." Ling followed.

"Brother Ling, not only is the Nian beast hard to defeat, but the Dog King and the Pig King next to it are also huge and equally difficult to fight!" Ping said worriedly.

“Zhi, Ping, you are right.” Qiu nodded and said to Ling Heping and the others with a serious look: “Dear warriors, the Nian Beast and the Beast King who came today are both tough guys we have never seen before. They are definitely our strong opponents. Everyone must be careful when dealing with them!”

Although Xiao Xing had read a little about the Nian Beast in ancient books, he was still shocked when he saw the real thing. He couldn't help but shout, "The Nian Beast looks like this, so scary!"

Warriors including Dong and Xi also said that the beast kings were too scary. They talked about it a lot and all of them were sweating.

The Nian Emperor stared at the humans who only had hair but no fur, and his saliva flowed all over the floor. He snorted and asked contemptuously, "Are the new humans on the other side? You have no sharp horns or teeth, and you are really incompetent. How dare you resist me? I advise you to surrender quickly, and from now on you will provide food to me and be my slaves. I will eat less, how about that?"

Upon hearing this, Qiu spat at Emperor Nian and asked, "You monster, let me ask you, we humans did not provoke you, why did you come to invade us?"

"You monkey-like two-legged beasts, you really didn't know this before. Today, I will tell you: since Pangu created the world, I have been the king of this world, in charge of all living things in the world, and I have lived for ten thousand years. Therefore, you must pay tribute to me." Emperor Nian replied.

"Nian, you are in charge of animals, and that's fine. But we are upright human beings. How can we associate with an animal like you and pay tribute to you?" Qiu Linran replied.

"Aren't humans animals too? If they are animals, they must be under the jurisdiction of Emperor Nian." The dog-headed military advisor next to him interrupted, shaking his head.

"Let me tell you the difference between humans and animals." Xiao Xing couldn't help but answer: "Humans are smart and wise, while you animals are crude and stupid."

"Bah, you little brat really knows how to brag. I have lived for tens of thousands of years, but I have never seen anyone stronger than me." Emperor Nian spat.

"Yes, even if you animals live for tens of thousands of years, you still look the same. But after thousands of years for us humans, the world has changed a lot. There are man-made airplanes flying in the sky, flying faster than birds. There are man-made cars running on the ground, running faster than horses. There are man-made big ships swimming in the water, swimming faster than fish. There are countless all kinds of objects." Xiaoxing answered again.

"Jiji, you little kid has a really rich imagination!" Upon hearing this, Emperor Nian couldn't help but laugh out loud with his head raised.

"Oh oh——", "Woof woof——"... the Dog King, the Pig King, the Rat King, the Horse King and the Chicken King couldn't help but laugh.

This remark not only caused the Nian beasts to laugh at him, but even Qiu Hedong and the lower class people felt that Xing was exaggerating and full of imagination.

"What are you laughing at?" Xiao Xing said angrily, "We humans are just getting started now, and we will control the world in the future."

“Hmph!” Nian said disdainfully, “You can brag all you want. I don’t care how powerful you will be in the future. Now that you don’t obey me and don’t recognize me as your king, I will eat you all.”

"We will never surrender to you beasts. Let me tell you, although we don't have horns or sharp fangs, we have all kinds of bows and arrows and spears. Why should we be afraid of you?" Qiu raised the spear in his hand and refused again sternly.

"Ji Ji - you really don't know how powerful this emperor is! I'm going to throw you to the top of the mountain." Emperor Nian was so angry that Ji Ji yelled and was about to rush over to swallow Qiu in one gulp.