Chang Jiu studied the calico cat’s attribute panel for a long time, but she still couldn’t find anything else of use.
There was nothing about it in her memories.
Even the skill listed under “Golden Eyes” was one she had never encountered before.
While gently rubbing the soft little head, Chang Jiu issued a command in her mind.
“Use the skill ‘Golden Eyes.’”
“Meow.”
The little cat tilted its head, then nimbly leaped out of Chang Jiu’s arms.
With elegant, light steps, it walked a short distance away and stopped.
The next moment, it briefly closed its eyes.
When it opened them again, its pupils had turned a brilliant golden color, like two dazzling stars, with countless streams of light slowly flowing within them.
At the same time, a rounded outline of a cartoon cat’s head gradually appeared in Chang Jiu’s mind.
The little line-drawn cat head began spinning.
As its center, numerous points of light suddenly appeared around it, some bright and others dim.
Almost the instant the image appeared, Chang Jiu quickly began memorizing the important details.
“The cat’s head represents our current location…”
“There’s no golden light nearby, but I remember there are quite a few people guarding the outside. So the golden lights probably don’t represent people.”
“If they represented soul beasts, one this close would have already come out to attack us. Sang Biao and the others couldn’t possibly have failed to notice it. So it’s not soul beasts either.”
“There’s no golden light around the places where people live, but the lights in the upper-left and rear-right directions are especially dense…”
Although Chang Jiu’s body had been barely hanging on during the journey here, her mind had never stopped working.
Taking advantage of her short stature and inconspicuous appearance, she had stayed in the middle of the group and carefully memorized every road they had taken and the surrounding terrain.
The cluster of light in the upper-left direction was the brightest.
That was where the mine entrance was located.
Behind them was a heavily guarded warehouse, most likely a storage facility where the mined ore was temporarily kept. That explained why the lights there were slightly dimmer.
If that was really what the lights represented, then “Golden Eyes” was actually an incredibly rare treasure-finding skill in the game.
It could even use the brightness and density of the light points to roughly determine how many treasures were in an area.
Chang Jiu’s breathing quickened.
Back in the game, there had been ten legendary skills.
One of them was “Treasure Hunt”!
All game information was shared on the internal tester forum, so Chang Jiu knew exactly what “Treasure Hunt” could do.
It had a 24-hour cooldown and couldn’t determine the treasure’s level.
Even so, the tester who possessed it had practically dug up every hidden treasure vault on the game map, firmly securing first place on the wealth rankings!
Compared to that, wasn’t “Golden Eyes” actually even more useful than “Treasure Hunt”?
Chang Jiu quickly issued another command to the calico cat and conducted a rough test of the skill.
There was no cooldown.
Its effective range seemed to be limited to around a hundred meters.
And after roughly a minute, the calico cat simply closed its eyes and stopped functioning.
Chang Jiu stared blankly for a moment before realizing what had happened.
It had probably exhausted something similar to the mana bar in the game.
She casually scooped up the limp little cat and rubbed it a few times.
The cat narrowed its eyes comfortably and let out a soft purr.
“Your level is still too low, and the energy cost is too high. Looks like we need to level up first…”
In the game, there were basically only two ways to level up.
One was completing quests.
The other was grinding monsters.
But there were no NPCs in the Soul Realm waiting to give her quests.
That meant she could only grind monsters.
But what was she supposed to grind?
Soul beasts?
And how was she supposed to deal with those things?
With this frail body that looked like it could drop dead at any moment?
Or with this calico cat that didn’t seem to have any combat ability whatsoever?
This world didn’t even have a beginner village.
The moment she stepped outside, she could run straight into a soul beast capable of taking her life.
More importantly—
If she died here, there was no guarantee she would respawn like she would in the game!
“Yeah, no. I don’t think I’m ready to die just yet.”
Chang Jiu was still stroking the calico cat and thinking things over when a faint rustling sound suddenly reached her ears.
“Bang!”
At almost the exact same moment that the earthenware bowl hit the dirt with a dull thud, Chang Jiu quickly summoned the game system.
“Recall the summon!”
The weight in her arms immediately vanished.
The calico cat disappeared.
Chang Jiu quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, she could recall her summon into the summoning space whenever she wanted. At least that part still worked the same way as it had in the game.
After recalling the calico cat, she silently tightened her grip on the cloth rope in her hand and fixed her eyes on the person lying on the ground.
He was already awake.
His body shifted slightly, allowing some of the light that had previously been completely blocked to seep through the crack beneath the door.
He seemed extremely weak and in obvious pain, letting out two muffled groans as he slowly opened his unfocused eyes a sliver, trying to make out his surroundings.
The first thing he saw was Chang Jiu.
She gave him a friendly smile.
The faint light only illuminated half of her body.
To be fair, this version of Chang Jiu looked completely harmless. She was pitifully thin and small, with dirt covering her face and body. Yet her large, round eyes were bright and clear, reflecting that faint sliver of light like a quiet little kitten.
She looked utterly innocent and nonthreatening.
“You’re awake?”
The young man froze for a moment, clearly expecting to wake up to a soul beast rather than some little girl.
Even so, the wariness in his eyes didn’t lessen much.
He rasped out, “Where is this?”
Chang Jiu thought to herself that he didn’t sound very old.
Judging by his voice, he was probably only a few years older than her.
She continued answering pleasantly, “Mine No. 7.”
“Mine No. 7 is…”
“Qiuxu.”
Before he could ask anything else, Chang Jiu helpfully filled him in.
“We were kidnapped and sold to the mine. They were planning to throw us into the mine tunnels to lure out the soul beasts. You looked like you were about to die just now, so they were going to feed you to the soul beasts. But I saw you still had a breath left, so I dragged you back and gave you something to eat. I managed to save you.”
She deliberately emphasized the last part.
The young man frowned slightly.
The wounds on his arm really did hurt from being rubbed and pulled, suggesting that someone had dragged him across the ground.
He then laboriously turned his head.
Sure enough, beside his hand was a broken bowl containing some water and bits of steamed bun that had been soaked until soft.
It was only then that he realized there was something tied around his neck, squeezing tightly enough to make breathing difficult.
Chang Jiu didn’t even blink.
“I saw you had wounds on your neck, so I was afraid you’d lose air and suffocate. I just bandaged you.”
The unlucky man was covered in injuries, and his neck was no exception, with bloody wounds still scattered across it.
Her explanation sounded perfectly reasonable.
The young man was silent for a moment before rasping,
“Thank you. But…I don’t think my neck is going to leak air anytime soon. Could you…cough, cough…loosen it for me first?”
Chang Jiu obediently loosened the cloth rope.
When he looked at her again, most of the wariness in his eyes had disappeared.
“Thank you.”
He thanked her sincerely once again, his politeness almost out of place in Qiuxu.
“You’re welcome.”
Chang Jiu smiled sweetly.
On the side of her body hidden from the light, she casually slipped the broken brick she had been aiming at his temple back into her clothes.
At the same time, she relaxed the leg she had been keeping ready to strike at a certain particularly vulnerable area.
This guy really did look like he was on the verge of death.
Chang Jiu was fairly certain he couldn’t hurt her.
The two of them had been tied up and sold together, then locked in the same room.
And tomorrow, there was a good chance they would be thrown into the mine together as food for the soul beasts.
They really were two unlucky people who had managed to end up in the same boat.