Chong Yin clicked his tongue, somewhat frustrated, and said, “Cultivate properly for me. Best if you can manage to take on human form, otherwise, keeping a foolish cat like you around serves no purpose at all.”
On the Chengling Continent, spirit beasts who reached the Golden Core stage of cultivation could use their spiritual energy to assume human form. But for a spirit beast to cultivate up to Golden Core, it needed sufficient spiritual roots, awakened intelligence, and no small measure of fortunate opportunity.
Bai Xiaonian had already examined his own body, it was nothing more than an utterly ordinary spirit beast’s body, one that didn’t even register any spiritual roots at all. Without spiritual roots, there was no cultivation to speak of.
Besides, having been given this second chance at life, Bai Xiaonian had no interest whatsoever in that exhausting path of cultivation anymore. This time around, he simply wanted to live freely and at ease, unbound by anything, and now that Chong Yin was providing for him, he genuinely lacked for nothing.
So once Chong Yin finished speaking, the kitten merely shook the pink ears atop his head, his eyes darting about, feigning complete ignorance of the matter.
Watching this, Chong Yin felt a flicker of irritation. He didn’t actually want the kitten to take on human form, all he wanted was a pet. Yet at this moment, he suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to understand exactly what this cat was always trying to say to him.
His curiosity had reached its peak.
“Little cat, why does this Heart-Guard Bell hang from your body? What exactly is your relationship to it?”
Ignoring the kitten’s obvious pretense of innocence, Chong Yin pressed on with his question.
The kitten let loose another round of perfunctory meows. Chong Yin couldn’t understand a word of it, but he could tell perfectly well that the cat was simply babbling nonsense to brush him off.
Chong Yin’s expression darkened. He suddenly reached out and lifted the kitten onto his palm. Just as the kitten tilted his head in confusion, the next instant, his little rear end received a firm smack.
The kitten froze, his round black eyes going wide, staring at Chong Yin in utter disbelief.
He, Bai Xiaonian, had just had his bottom smacked by his sworn enemy Chong Yin!
The indignity of it was unbearable. In that moment, Bai Xiaonian felt a wave of fury and humiliation crash over him all at once, his breathing growing ragged, his fur bristling, tail standing straight up, teeth bared as he hissed furiously at Chong Yin.
Chong Yin paid the kitten’s rage no mind at all. He tossed the kitten back onto the bed, smoothed the hem of his robe, and rose to his feet, looking down at the kitten from above. “If you refuse to tell me, then so be it. I have my own ways of finding out the truth of this matter.”
Still fuming, the kitten turned his head away, refusing to acknowledge Chong Yin.
Only after Chong Yin left did the kitten finally crawl off the bed and limp his way outside. He was hungry.
Bai Xiaonian had meant to head to the kitchen in search of food, but he quickly realized that, in his current state, actually finding any food would be quite difficult. He should have thought to tell Chong Yin he was hungry before letting the man leave.
Bai Xiaonian decided to try the main hall instead, hoping to beg some food from Chong Yin there.
But upon reaching the hall, there was no sign of Chong Yin, only Liu Huan, directing the maidservants as they tidied up the room.
Bai Xiaonian had a fairly good impression of Liu Huan. Whenever Chong Yin had been teasing him, Liu Huan had often helped him escape from the man’s grasp.
After a moment’s thought, the kitten limped his way inside, made his way to the hem of Liu Huan’s skirt, looked up at her, and let out a soft meow. “Meow~”
Hearing the sound, Liu Huan glanced down and saw the little kitten propping himself up, reaching out with his one remaining good paw to tug at the hem of her skirt.
Catching a glimpse of the kitten’s soft pink paw pads, Liu Huan, still just a young girl at heart, felt her heart melt completely. She bent down, scooped the kitten up off the floor, gently patted his head, and asked softly, “Do you need something?”
The kitten’s eyes lit up. He hurriedly patted his own hollowed-out belly with his short little paw, then let out a couple more pitiful meows.
“Are you hungry?” Liu Huan guessed, watching the kitten’s antics.
Bai Xiaonian’s eyes brightened further still.
This Liu Huan was far cleverer than Chong Yin, she’d figured out he was hungry with a single glance.
The kitten nodded his fuzzy little head eagerly, meowing softly and continuously, pitifully complaining to Liu Huan about just how dense Chong Yin was. Unfortunately, Liu Huan couldn’t understand any of it, and simply assumed the kitten was being affectionate with her.
Liu Huan’s heart had already turned to complete mush. Cradling the snow-white kitten in her arms, she felt an itch of affection building inside her. Glancing furtively left and right to make sure no one nearby was paying attention, she suddenly lowered her head, meaning to plant a kiss on the adorable little kitten.
This was something Bai Xiaonian had never anticipated. He had never once been kissed by a woman, not in this life, nor in his last!
Bai Xiaonian was thoroughly alarmed, staring in terror at the lips drawing ever closer. No matter how he thrashed his limbs, he couldn’t break free of Liu Huan’s hands, the strength of a kitten cub was far too insignificant against a human’s grip.
“What are you two doing?”
Just then, a cold, commanding voice rang out from the hall’s entrance.
Liu Huan froze mid-motion, then hastily dropped to her knees in a bow. “Your Excellency…”
Chong Yin strode into the hall, his expression far from pleasant, even carrying a faint trace of killing intent as his gaze landed on Liu Huan.
Liu Huan had no idea what she’d done to displease His Excellency. Her nerves tightened at once, and in that instant she frantically ran through everything she’d done over the past few days in her mind, confirming again and again that she’d done nothing improper.
Unable to figure out the reason, Liu Huan could only wait anxiously for Chong Yin to speak.
Chong Yin strode over and stopped directly in front of Liu Huan.
Liu Huan, her head bowed low, spotted the gilt-trimmed black boots halting before her and felt her heart lurch. She looked up, only to find the Demon Lord’s gaze fixed unblinkingly on… the cat in her arms.
Realizing what was happening, Liu Huan tried to hand the white ball of fur back to Chong Yin, but before she could even extend her arms, Chong Yin had already snatched the cat from her grasp.
Only once the kitten was back in his own arms did Chong Yin’s expression ease somewhat. He let out a cold snort and turned to sit down on the couch.
“Lecherous cat.” Chong Yin flung the kitten down onto the couch with obvious distaste, his expression dark.
Bai Xiaonian felt thoroughly wronged. How was he a lecherous cat? He hadn’t done anything at all.
The kitten whimpered softly and retreated to a corner of the couch, turning his round, fuzzy little back to Chong Yin in a picture of pure dejection.
But Chong Yin extended his long arm and scooped the kitten back over, his voice low and stern. “Do you understand that you are my cat?”
The kitten drooped his ears and tail in misery, curling into a ball around his injured paw, refusing to look up at Chong Yin.
Liu Huan, still kneeling on the floor for quite some time now and seeing that Chong Yin had no intention of acknowledging her, finally spoke up carefully. “Your Excellency, Xiao Niangao is hungry. This servant will go prepare food for him.”
At those words, the kitten in Chong Yin’s arms lit up, lifting his head at once, gazing eagerly at Liu Huan and letting out an enthusiastic string of meows, the likes of which Chong Yin had never once heard directed at himself.
The image of Liu Huan and the kitten in their intimate little moment surfaced again in Chong Yin’s mind, and his brow furrowed even deeper.
This cat, eating from one hand while eyeing another.
With that thought, Chong Yin suddenly reached out and pinched the kitten’s mouth shut, preventing it from making any more sound, and said coldly to Liu Huan, “Go prepare food. I’ll be dining as well today.”