“Meow-ao!”
You stupid human, get away!!
This voice… why does it sound so familiar?
Ruan Bai’s pointy little ears twitched as he turned his head to look toward the doorway.
He saw a tall man dressed in casual clothes with a tabby cat perched right on top of his head. The cat wasn’t very large, but it managed to completely block the man’s vision.
Blinded by the cat, the man stumbled around with an uncoordinated gait, frantically tugging at the feline on his head as if trying to yank it down.
The cat was thoroughly annoyed by this point and swiped a paw across the man’s lean forearm, leaving several pale scratch marks in its wake.
Judging by the restraint, the cat had clearly held back its strength; otherwise, drawing blood would have been the least of his worries.
Given how miserably the man was howling, he was probably hoping to make the cat feel guilty.
Wait, hasn’t he seen this cat somewhere before?
Before Ruan Bai could puzzle it out, the tabby cat was finally hauled off Luo Yucheng’s head.
Before the feline could even start acting up, it spotted the tiny kitten squatting on the sofa, its pretty, gilded cat pupils staring at them with intense curiosity.
“Meow-ao!”
Softie, I finally found you!
An ash-gray figure broke free from the embracing arms of the man holding it with lightning-fast speed. The cat dipped its waist, pushed off powerfully with its hind legs, and lunged straight toward Ruan Bai.
However.
Its fate was abruptly sealed as a hand reached out from mid-air to grab the back of its neck.
With an icy gaze, Huo Jiuxiao executed a smooth backhand toss, hurling the tabby cat right back into Luo Yucheng’s arms.
The Marshal’s voice was frigidly cold. “keep your cat under control.”
Chilled to the spine by the Marshal’s gloomy glare, Luo Yucheng instinctively tightened his grip around the little feline in his arms.
“Haha, well, you see, Marshal… I came over to check on Xiao Bai, because on starnet…”
“Meow-ao?”
Little Hua?
Ruan Bai stared at the tabby cat cradled in Luo Yucheng’s arms, disbelief written all over his face.
Why is Little Hua here?
Could it be that he messed up his spell formulation too?
But Little Hua was already a remarkably powerful little cat demon, how could he possibly botch a slumber spell?
The tabby cat swatted away Luo Yucheng’s hand and bolted forward without hesitation.
Ruan Bai watched him approach as well. Anyone could tell at a glance that the two cats knew each other, leaving Marshal Huo with no excuse to stop them as he stood nearby radiating waves of low pressure.
“Meow-ao~”
Softie, I finally found you.
“Meow-meow!”
It’s not that I didn’t want to come look for you, it’s just that stupid human kept holding me back.
“Meow!”
Ruan Bai smacked a paw right across the tabby cat’s face, his tone dripping with annoyance.
I told you not to call me Softie! Why are you so damn annoying?!
Among the little cat demons raised on the mountain where they practiced cultivation, Ruan Bai had been the smallest, milkiest, and both the best-behaved and prettiest of them all.
Back when he was little, Grandpa Tree Demon always loved calling him “Softie,” which led all the other monsters across the entire mountain ridge to call him Softie as well, making it sound as though they were addressing a helpless little kitten.
He was all grown up now and wouldn’t answer to that anymore.
“Meow-ao~”
Fine, then Bai-bai.
The two little heads huddled together, occasionally exchanging a few meows as they looked utterly content.
“I’ve never seen Little Hua act this nice to anyone else. Such an ungrateful little brat…”
Luo Yucheng’s tone was sour enough to pickle vegetables, envy, jealousy, and resentment practically written across his face.
Huo Jiuxiao’s expression turned glacial, his dark eyes pitch-black and heavy, his thin lips pressed into a hard line.
“Is there something you need?”
If not, take your cat and leave immediately.
The Marshal currently possessed none of his usual composure where emotions remained unreadable on his face; his irritation was spilling over completely.
Feeling the sub-zero, arctic-wind hostility radiating from the Marshal, Luo Yucheng looked utterly bewildered.
Why is the Marshal angry again?
Is this just another one of those incomprehensible quirks that comes with having 3S-grade spiritual power?
“Marshal, since the issue of Xiao Bai eating energy crystals can’t be kept under wraps anymore, we might as well make it public.”
Huo Jiuxiao’s brows drew together. “Explain.”
Luo Yucheng’s tone carried resignation, yet it was also laced with a hint of unspeakable excitement, his eyes gleaming with absolute determination.
“The Empire hasn’t welcomed a new intelligent lifeform in a very long time. Don’t you think this is a brilliant opportunity, Marshal?”
Although the Empire had enacted various animal protection regulations ages ago, no matter how strictly legislation was reinforced, scumbags always managed to harm these little lives out of sight.
He would never allow anyone to hurt his little tabby; the little guy was utterly spoiled, possessed a haughty and capricious personality, and always loved sneaking off outside on its own.
Since he couldn’t protect it every single second of the day, it might as well be brought completely out into the light.
With this thought, a dangerous flash of dark intent swept through the eyes of the usually frivolous young master Luo.
Huo Jiuxiao could easily deduce what Luo Yucheng was thinking.
Xiao Bai might still be a little monster. Granting him the status of an intelligent lifeform would indeed thrust Xiao Bai completely into the public eye.
Conversely, however, those lurking rats harboring secret designs would have to act with far greater caution if they wanted to make a move against Xiao Bai.
“Xiao Bai…”
The Marshal, intending to tell the little milk cat to behave, froze the instant he looked at the completely empty cushion.
“Never mind, let’s go to the study.”
The Marshal pressed his slender, powerful fingers against his brow, a quiet wave of regret blooming in his chest.
He shouldn’t have been petty with Xiao Bai just now. The little one was still young; what did he even understand?
The decisive and ruthless Marshal was unwilling to admit that he had felt upset simply because Xiao Bai refused to let him hold him.
Up in the Marshal’s bedroom, the little milk cat was sprawled across a pile of spiritual stones, munching away while listening to Little Hua recount his experiences.
Little Hua had arrived in this world two years ago, and initially, he too had attempted to track down Ruan Bai.
However, sensing not even a shred of spiritual energy in the air, he assumed Ruan Bai had yet to wake up.
Moreover, the interstellar era looked vastly different from the world he had previously inhabited.
At first, the naive little cat demon assumed this world consisted of just this single planet, figuring he would eventually find him if he searched slowly enough.
It was only later, after tagging along with a human named Luo Yucheng to explore, that he learned the Empire spanned eighteen star systems, with countless planets of all sizes tucked beneath each system not to mention the scattered, resource-poor little planets lingering in every forgotten corner of the universe.
Trying to find a single cat under conditions like that was practically a fairy tale.
“Meow-ao?”
Then how did you get over here?
Ruan Bai asked skeptically, probing, “Did you mess up your formation array too?”
“Meow-ao-ao!”
I have no idea. Grandpa Tree Demon sent me over, saying it was time for you to wake up.
Ruan Bai was left completely baffled. What did “time for you to wake up” even mean?
He had been asleep for who knows how many years; if Grandpa Tree Demon had genuinely cared whether he woke up or not, he would have roused him ages ago.
Why wait until now?
Still, the little cat demon’s overriding life philosophy was never to dwell on things he couldn’t figure out, and today was no exception.
Gazing at Ruan Bai lounging amidst the pile of spiritual stones, Little Hua’s envy was practically overflowing.
“Meow-meow!”
Bai-bai, where did you manage to score these spiritual stones?
Ruan Bai gave a casual, dismissive meow in response.
Huo Jiuxiao gave them to me.
He glanced at his own hoard of spiritual stones, then looked at his companion who couldn’t even maintain a human form, and with a pang of heartache, divided right down the middle to share half of them.
“Meow-ao~” Have some.
“Meow-meow!!”
Thank you, Bai-bai!!
The two little milk cats burrowed straight into the pile of spiritual stones, clutching the energy crystals in their paws and crunching away happily.
Meanwhile, acting on its owner’s direct command, Whale Media quickly released an official public statement.
First, it clarified that Xiao Bai was a genuine cat, entirely free of any technological fraud involving human avatar disguises, and followed up with an apology for prematurely banning the livestream room without thoroughly investigating the situation first.
A single stone stirred up a thousand ripples.
Public opinion across starnet instantly exploded into absolute chaos.