Before the blade could even complete its arc, an ice-cold spike condensed from spiritual energy shot through the air and knocked it violently off course. In the next instant, Consort Yi herself was struck by a blast of spiritual energy and sent sprawling to the ground, her internal organs shattered, blood spraying from her mouth.
Chong Yin withdrew his hand, rose from the couch with the kitten still cradled in his arms, and walked over to Consort Yi at an unhurried pace. His cold, phoenix eyes flicked briefly toward her, and then he called for someone to bring him a longsword.
Consort Yi lay collapsed on the ground, unable to rise. Seeing Chong Yin accept the sharp blade from an attendant’s hands, despair and terror flooded her chest. She struggled to drag herself backward, desperate to flee, but the next instant, Chong Yin’s blade came down without mercy on the very arm that had held the dagger.
At Consort Yi’s agonized scream, her severed arm dropped to the floor, blood spraying in every direction. Yet none of the surrounding guards so much as blinked, they’d long since grown accustomed to such sights.
The Demon Lord’s reputation for brutality and cruelty was no exaggeration. He might spend his days appearing elegant and unhurried, showing little emotion most of the time, but cross him even slightly, and the consequences were beyond imagining.
A single drop of blood splattered onto Chong Yin’s hand. He frowned, his eyes filled with distaste.
The snow-white kitten in his arms remained shielded by his wide sleeve, still clean and pristine, sleeping peacefully undisturbed.
A servant nearby hurried over with a handkerchief. Chong Yin took it, wiped his hand clean, and said flatly, “Drag her away.”
The demon soldiers acknowledged the order and quickly hauled the now-unconscious Consort Yi out of the hall.
The floor was left in complete disarray. Chong Yin, with his obsessive aversion to filth, couldn’t bear to linger in such a scene, and carried the kitten out of the main hall.
Looking down at the kitten still sleeping soundly in his arms, Chong Yin felt an inexplicable irritation stirring within him, and so he made his way toward the palace’s back garden, where the fragrance of flowers hung thick in the air, thick enough to mask the lingering scent of blood.
The moment they arrived at the garden, the kitten in his arms stirred slightly. Chong Yin glanced down, only to see the kitten had simply shifted position, rolling over to expose its soft belly before continuing to sleep.
Chong Yin arched an eyebrow and pressed a finger against the kitten’s belly. “I’ve avenged you, and here you are, sleeping soundly and comfortably.”
Still, as for the matter of trespassing into the forbidden zone—Chong Yin had no intention of letting the kitten off so easily for that.
Perhaps this cat shared some connection with Bai Xiaonian after all.
Chong Yin had checked earlier, the Heart-Guard Bell had not taken on a new master. And if it hadn’t recognized a new owner, how could it possibly have attached itself to a kitten of its own accord?
As Chong Yin pondered this, the kitten in his arms finally woke.
Noticing that Chong Yin had drifted into an uncharacteristic daze, Bai Xiaonian felt a mischievous urge stir within him. Rather than announce that he’d woken, he quietly extended a paw instead.
But the next instant, the kitten froze. Staring down at his own paw, now wrapped into a ball of bandages, he found it difficult to accept what he was seeing.
The slightest movement sent a jolt of pain through his little paw.
The kitten’s heart broke. His ears and tail drooped, and glistening tears began to swirl in his round black eyes.
“Awake?”
The man’s low, pleasant voice sounded from above. A large hand reached over and gently pinched the kitten’s drooping ear.
Already irritable, Bai Xiaonian shook his head to fling off the annoying fingers pinching his ear, then flopped back down, burying his face into his paws, looking utterly miserable.
Watching this display, Chong Yin couldn’t help the corner of his mouth curving upward, a hint of mischief creeping into his eyes.
“It’s only a broken paw. What’s there to be so upset about?”
At those words, the kitten’s entire body jolted, his eyes flying wide open in disbelief as he looked up at Chong Yin.
“Meow…”
The kitten let out a trembling cry, then slowly, hesitantly extended the bandaged paw, staring at it again and again.
All he’d felt was pain, no other sensation remained. Could it really be true…
Chong Yin put on an expression of deep sorrow and sighed. “Your paw couldn’t be saved. It’s already been amputated.”
At Chong Yin’s words, Bai Xiaonian felt as though he’d been struck by lightning. Cat tears burst forth instantly, and the kitten was overcome with grief.
Being a cat was already hard enough, without a paw to feed himself, how was he supposed to survive?
Watching the kitten’s heartbroken display, all of Chong Yin’s earlier irritation vanished at once.
“Enough. No need to be so upset. I can guarantee you a lifetime of wealth and glory, what use would a paw be to you anyway?”
The moment he finished speaking, Chong Yin’s hand was met with a vicious swipe from the little tyrant’s remaining claws.
The kitten’s mouth twisted with fury, glaring daggers at Chong Yin.
Chong Yin shrugged innocently, the corner of his mouth curling into a pleased little arc, entirely unbothered by being scratched.
Eyeing the kitten’s one remaining functional paw, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Little cat, that paw of yours is being far too unruly. Perhaps I should have it removed as well, then you’d simply need to behave as my obedient little pet.” As if that would ever happen.
The little tyrant was thoroughly furious now, letting loose an urgent stream of meows, no need to understand a word of it to know just how filthy the insults were.
Since he couldn’t understand the kitten’s speech anyway, Chong Yin simply pretended not to hear, continuing on as he pleased. “You should count this as an honor, little cat. This hand of mine has only ever held you.”
Bai Xiaonian could no longer stand to listen. Of course, this Chong Yin had clearly been born just to torment him.
Who did this man think he was dealing with? He, Bai Xiaonian, had once been the Demon Lord himself, his cultivation ranking among the very best across the entire Chengling Continent, a towering figure once revered and feared by all. How could he possibly end up as some kept little trophy, endlessly at odds with this Chong Yin of all people?
Bai Xiaonian’s pride simply couldn’t accept it. Furious, he scratched at Chong Yin a few more times, though Chong Yin dodged them all with ease, which only made the kitten angrier still. He thrashed about, trying to leap down from Chong Yin’s arms to the ground.
But the kitten had forgotten about his injured paw, and in his struggling, he jostled the wound, letting out a pained yowl before quickly clamping his good paw over the injured one, not daring to move.
Chong Yin patted the kitten’s head. “Serves you right for bringing it on yourself.”
Angry and wronged all at once, the kitten turned his head away, refusing to acknowledge Chong Yin any further.
Chong Yin let out a soft laugh and glanced up at the sky. After all this commotion, dusk had already settled in, the golden light bathing the kitten’s snow-white fur in a warm glow.
Carrying the kitten, Chong Yin strolled leisurely back toward the palace, asking along the way, “Why did you enter the forbidden zone, and how did you manage to get in?”
The kitten, still fuming, had no intention of answering Chong Yin, besides, Bai Xiaonian genuinely had no idea that place had been forbidden, nor how he’d managed to get inside.
He simply buried his head and said nothing.
Chong Yin frowned, mildly displeased. He reached out, meaning to discipline the kitten, but upon seeing the bandages wrapped around its paw, he clicked his tongue and let the matter go.
“Fine. I’ll ask you again tomorrow.”
…
Bai Xiaonian discovered that a bell now hung around his neck, the very artifact he’d worn on his person constantly before his death.
Bai Xiaonian had always had a fondness for the tinkling sound of bells, and he adored this particular one especially. He didn’t expect that, in being reborn, the bell would find its way back to him as well.
Now that he was a cat, his love for the sound of the bell had only grown stronger. Early one morning, before the sky had even begun to lighten, the kitten busied himself fiddling with the bell around his neck, the constant jingling disturbing Chong Yin’s sleep.
Using his one uninjured paw, the kitten batted at the bell around his neck, the fluffy white ball of fur rolling all over Chong Yin’s body, one moment plopping his rear end down right on Chong Yin’s face, the next swatting a paw against his cheek.
Chong Yin endured it for as long as he could, until at last his patience ran out entirely. His long, narrow phoenix eyes snapped open, glaring with cold menace at the kitten still recklessly courting death atop his head.
Completely unaware of the icy killing intent radiating behind him, the kitten happily cradled the bell, entirely absorbed in his own amusement.
And so, in the very next instant, a large hand suddenly reached out and snatched him up.