It was only after landing on top of the black panther’s head that Bai Xiaonian had discovered its weak point, and he was now clawing frantically at its eyes.
It wasn’t that he was being cruel, if he hadn’t struck first, the panther would have bitten him to death without hesitation.
Trying to protect its eyes, the panther gradually descended into flailing chaos, eventually rolling onto the ground and covering its own head with its paws, desperate to keep the persistent kitten from clawing at its eyes again.
Thrown clear off the panther’s back, the kitten hit the ground and immediately bolted for the small gate with everything he had.
He simply wasn’t a match for this massive black panther, all he could hope for was to buy himself a little time, and with the panther down, this was his best chance to flee.
The onlookers assumed the kitten would seize the moment while the panther was down to deliver a finishing blow and claim victory. Instead, they watched the kitten turn tail and run, farther and farther away…
The crowd stared, dumbfounded, unable to make sense of what the kitten was doing, until they watched it dash straight through the very gate the match had begun from, then hop up and, with one paw, huff and puff its way through pulling the iron gate shut behind it.
With a resounding clang, the iron gate slammed down, and the kitten was finally safe.
The kitten stood proudly before the gate, chest puffed out, watching with obvious smugness as the black panther finally struggled back to its feet in the distance. He even let out a few taunting meows, then turned around, swishing his little tail and wiggling his rear end at the panther.
The whole display reeked of insufferable self-satisfaction.
The crowd silently buried their faces in their hands.
Who could have imagined the Demon Lord’s little cat would turn out to be like this.
As one, the crowd’s gazes turned toward the Demon Lord in his seat of honor.
Chong Yin’s handsome face had already gone dark as the bottom of a pot. He crushed the glass cup in his hand to pieces, then let out a furious, bitter laugh. “Utterly worthless creature.”
He’d actually hoped to watch this cat finish off the panther, clearly, that had been foolish of him to expect.
A moment later, Chong Yin rose unhurriedly and made his way toward the backstage area of the arena.
Meanwhile, the black panther, humiliated at having been so thoroughly outwitted by a mere cub, was thrashing about on the ground, roaring in fury, its beast trainer unable to restrain it.
This panther ranked among the top fighters in the entire arena, being made a fool of by a mere cub was simply too much to bear.
Meanwhile, the kitten remained perched at the iron bars, watching the panther’s spectacle with obvious delight, laughing so hard his belly ached, his whole body trembling with each giggle, his fluffy little tail swishing happily behind him.
By the time Chong Yin arrived, this was the sight that greeted him. But what he actually saw was a kitten trembling, which he mistook for fear. Chong Yin’s brow furrowed slightly, unable to help but recall the earlier image of the kitten in the arena, tears welling in its terrified eyes.
Chong Yin let out a slow sigh. He said nothing, simply stepping forward and scooping the kitten up into his arms.
Having rolled around the arena floor, the kitten was thoroughly filthy. Watching Chong Yin, a man with an obsessive aversion to dirt, pick up the kitten without a moment’s hesitation, Liu Huan, standing nearby, stared wide-eyed in shock. She meant to speak up and offer to take the cat and carry it for His Excellency instead.
But Chong Yin showed no intention of letting Liu Huan step in. He held the kitten to his chest, lowered his eyes to study it, and arched an eyebrow. “Were you scared? Do you understand what you did wrong?”
Bai Xiaonian didn’t expect Chong Yin to suddenly appear there, and being scooped up so abruptly left him rather flustered. He flailed a paw wildly in a moment of panic, accidentally tearing a hole clean through the fabric of Chong Yin’s sleeve.
At the sound of tearing cloth, the atmosphere, which had only just begun to ease, turned tense once more.
Aware that he’d caused trouble yet again, the kitten silently covered his own head, curling into a ball and burying himself deep in Chong Yin’s arms, as though he’d simply shut himself off from the world.
After a long moment, Chong Yin let out a slow sigh.
“Fine. I’ll let this one slide.”
With that, he carried the kitten out of the arena.
Only after a long while did the kitten finally dare poke his head out from Chong Yin’s arms, gazing up at him in confusion. “Meow?”
Was that really the end of it?
Chong Yin understood the kitten’s meaning perfectly well. He raised an eyebrow. “What, do you want to go back in and experience it again?”
At that, the kitten shook his head furiously, his fuzzy little head wobbling back and forth like a rattle-drum.
As they walked, Chong Yin continued, “I’ll let it go this time, but you need to remember your place, instead of constantly disrespecting me, clawing at me, spitting on me, destroying my belongings…”
“Do you have any idea? If any of these things had been done by someone else, they’d already have been hacked into eight pieces and fed to the dogs.”
The kitten in Chong Yin’s arms drooped his ears, and it was unclear whether any of this registered with him at all. But Chong Yin seemed to notice the kitten’s displeasure, his cheeks had puffed out slightly, and his already round face looked even more like a perfect little ball now, though undeniably adorable all the same.
Bai Xiaonian genuinely was upset. He knew perfectly well that his current standing placed him below Chong Yin, that much was simply fact. But in his heart, he disliked Chong Yin’s insistence on emphasizing the gap between their stations. Perhaps it was because, before his rebirth, he’d been accustomed to roughhousing and squabbling with Chong Yin without any regard for rank at all, even back then, when one of them had been the Demon Lord and the other an obscure, unaffiliated cultivator, neither of them had ever cared about such distinctions.
But two hundred years had passed, and everything had changed. Chong Yin had changed too.
Bai Xiaonian let out a silent sigh, then flopped listlessly against Chong Yin’s chest, no longer responding to anything the man said.
He was living under someone else’s roof now, what right did he have to make demands? He was nothing more than a cat these days.
Watching the kitten’s dejected, forlorn posture, Chong Yin, for some inexplicable reason, felt a flicker of displeasure at seeing the cat stop baring its teeth at him.
Chong Yin pressed his fingers to his brow, thinking to himself that he must have gone thoroughly mad, letting this cat get under his skin like this.
…
Back at the main hall, Chong Yin’s manner toward the kitten showed no visible change, if anything, he had an entire table of fish prepared for it.
But this time, the kitten’s eyes held no spark, looking utterly unenthused, barely giving the feast more than a passing glance.
Chong Yin didn’t get the reaction he’d been hoping for, the kitten’s usual delighted, eager, pleading gaze, and his brow furrowed, a chill settling over him.
This cat had truly been spoiled rotten.
Chong Yin set the kitten down on the table and took his own seat nearby, but neither man nor cat made a move, neither reached for the food.
Liu Huan, attending nearby, had no idea what had transpired between the two of them, but sensing the faint, oppressive pressure radiating from the Demon Lord, she broke into a cold sweat, her legs going weak.
Liu Huan stepped forward carefully and said softly, “Your Excellency, allow this servant to serve you some food.”
Chong Yin said nothing, not even lifting his eyelids.
Liu Huan froze mid-motion, swallowing hard, not sure of what to do.
Just then, the kitten beside them stirred. He scrambled up, let out a soft meow toward Liu Huan, then pointed with his paw at a plate of dried fish before him.
Liu Huan understood at once, quickly picking up her chopsticks to place a piece of dried fish into the kitten’s own dedicated little bowl.
The kitten swished his tail, his earlier listlessness vanishing entirely, and began happily eating the fish from his bowl.
Chong Yin glanced over at the kitten, his brow furrowing, and let out a cold snort before finally beginning his own meal.
But Chong Yin’s appetite had already vanished entirely. Throughout the meal, the kitten kept his distance from him, and whenever Chong Yin tried to engage with him, the kitten simply flopped back down, listless, without so much as a glance in his direction.
Liu Huan watched this, her nerves stretched to their limit, but fortunately, the Demon Lord didn’t lose his temper, he simply seemed to be in a foul mood, and after only a few bites, he swept his sleeves and strode out of the hall.