Seeing that the white tiger had given up on the idea of licking him clean, Bai Xiaonian let out a deep sigh of relief.
The kitten swayed his way forward, one paw still bandaged and unusable, forcing him to limp along. Watching this, the white tiger’s heart ached terribly. She lowered herself to the ground and leaned in, gazing at the kitten with worried concern.
The kitten, in turn, stepped forward and extended his good paw, patting the tiger’s head in a gesture meant to comfort her.
The tigress was instantly moved to tears. She reached out with one massive paw and scooped the kitten up, pulling him tight against her chest.
Bai Xiaonian: “…”
His fur. It was filthy now.
The kitten adopted an expression of pure despair, resigning himself to being tossed about and manhandled by the tiger.
After a good while, and only after the kitten struggled, did the tigress finally, reluctantly, release him. The moment his paws touched the ground, the kitten shot off, putting a good distance between himself and the tiger.
By now, the little white cat’s fur was thoroughly stained with blood, filthy all over. Unable to lick himself clean and refusing to let the tiger do it for him either, the kitten had no choice but to endure the discomfort.
After a while, the door of the cage was opened again. Bai Xiaonian looked up to see it was the same demon soldier who had first brought him to the Beast Garden. The soldier picked up the kitten and said, “It’s your turn now. His Excellency has said, if you win, you’ll be brought back tonight. If you lose, you’ll stay here in the Beast Garden and learn some proper discipline.”
Hearing this, the kitten’s fists clenched, metaphorically speaking.
This Chong Yin was truly far too vicious!
Nearby, the white tiger, understanding the soldier’s words, let out a worried, low growl and stepped forward, attempting to snatch the kitten away from the soldier’s grip.
The soldier shot her a cold glare. “Do you want to go back into the arena for another round?”
The tigress froze. Just remembering her time in the arena filled her with dread, she couldn’t bear the thought of enduring it a second time. But she couldn’t bear to see the kitten come to harm either.
She had long since come to think of the kitten as her own cub.
The kitten raised his one good paw and gave it a small wave in the tigress’s direction, signaling her not to worry. The tigress gazed at him for a long moment before finally, reluctantly, backing down.
Bai Xiaonian was carried into the arena. His opponent was a lean, powerfully built black panther.
Fully dozens of times larger than the kitten!
Bai Xiaonian craned his neck to look up at the imposing black panther and instinctively curled his body inward, his plump little form shrinking into a trembling ball of fur.
This Chong Yin, if he wanted him dead, he could just say so outright. Why go through the trouble of arranging this humiliating spectacle instead, pitting him against something this enormous? How was he supposed to win?
The black panther could crush him flat with a single step.
Bai Xiaonian silently cursed Chong Yin a thousand more times in his heart.
Before the match even began, a demon soldier carried the kitten to the small entrance gate of the arena. Once the gate opened, the match would begin, and he’d have to charge out through that gate to face the black panther.
Bai Xiaonian had already given up on winning. He drooped his ears and tail in defeat, utterly listless.
Just then, a commotion stirred among the spectator seats above the arena. The kitten instinctively glanced up, and the next instant, his eyes went wide. Chong Yin had arrived.
The handsome man wore flowing crimson robes, his ink-black hair loosely draped and swaying in the breeze, a lock at the crown of his head casually gathered with a jade hairpin. He looked every bit as devastatingly striking and otherworldly as ever.
It was clear the man had already bathed, though his expression remained far from pleasant, likely still simmering with anger over the midday meal incident.
Still, Bai Xiaonian felt plenty wronged himself, he certainly hadn’t done it on purpose.
The kitten fixed his tearful gaze on Chong Yin. Off in the distance, as though sensing something, Chong Yin turned his head toward the small gate of the arena.
But he quickly turned away again, not even waiting to see whether Bai Xiaonian would try to plead for mercy.
The demon soldier set the kitten down on the ground and gave him a shove toward the gate. The kitten resisted with all his might, digging his claws into the floor, scraping out several long, screeching gouges across the ground.
Soon enough, the match began. The small gate before them slid open with a snap, and Bai Xiaonian saw the black panther charging out with terrifying momentum on the other side.
Bai Xiaonian didn’t dare move at all, clinging to the doorframe with his claws, refusing to step outside.
From his seat in the distance, Chong Yin let out a cold laugh. “Truly a tyrant at home, but a coward out in the world. Utterly humiliating.”
With that, Chong Yin raised a hand, condensed a thread of spiritual energy at his fingertip, and flicked it toward the kitten. An invisible force shoved the kitten straight through the gate, sending him tumbling right to the black panther’s feet.
The black panther looked down at the kitten sprawled at its feet and gave the fluffy white ball a swift kick, sending it rolling across the ground like a ball.
Watching the kitten’s utterly spineless display, Chong Yin’s mouth twitched, and he pressed a hand to his forehead with a sigh.
Meanwhile, the black panther seemed to be having the time of its life, kicking the little furball around the arena. It wanted to keep going, but just then, the beast trainer’s horn sounded from somewhere nearby, signaling the panther to get on with the duel. Forced to stop, the panther fixed its gaze on the furball before it, killing intent flickering in its eyes.
The kitten clutched his tail pitifully, a couple of glistening tears welling up in his cat eyes.
But no matter how pitiful the kitten looked, the emotionless black panther wasn’t about to spare him for it. The panther crouched, its powerful hind legs coiling with muscle, breathing hard through its nose, its eyes locked with murderous intent on its prey.
Bai Xiaonian broke into a cold sweat. Given the current situation, he had no chance of winning at all, how was he supposed to keep his tiny life safe from the jaws of this fearsome panther…
The black panther let out a thunderous roar and lunged forward, its jaws opening wide, lined with jagged, menacing teeth large enough to swallow the kitten whole in a single bite.
But at that exact moment, the kitten kicked off with all the strength in his hind legs.
Perhaps because the black panther hadn’t taken the kitten seriously at all, it hadn’t unleashed its true strength, and that gave the kitten just the opening he needed. In the blink of an eye, his speed suddenly outstripped the panther’s own, and he leapt straight onto the top of the panther’s head.
Bai Xiaonian was terrified, but he still didn’t want to die, least of all in the jaws of some black panther. And so came this scene: the kitten, who moments ago had been trembling with fear, now stood perched atop the panther’s head, two fat tears still welling in his wide eyes, while his one uninjured paw raked viciously, again and again, across the panther’s face.
A panther’s eyes were its weak point, and the kitten showed no mercy at all, clawing straight for them without hesitation. The panther, realizing the danger just in time, instinctively squeezed its eyes shut, narrowly keeping the kitten’s claws from gouging them out entirely.
Small as this kitten was, barely two months old, palm-sized, its ruthlessness was shocking. No one could say for certain whether it was truly unintentional, or…
Everyone watching from the stands knew perfectly well that a panther’s eyes were its weakness, and they’d all seen exactly what the kitten had done, murmuring among themselves in astonished disbelief.
No wonder, this was the Demon Lord’s own pet. Even this small, it was ruthless and merciless.
Meanwhile, in his seat of honor, Chong Yin loosened his tight grip on the cup in his hand ever so slightly, then tilted his head back and downed the wine in one smooth motion.
“This cat,” Chong Yin murmured, turning the now-empty glass cup slowly in his fingers, a dark, unreadable flicker passing through his deep, narrow phoenix eyes, “truly isn’t one to be underestimated.”