Ruan Bai, who had been hugging the spiritual stone and preparing to take a bite out of it, froze when he heard those words.
Tree Demon Grandpa had always said that humans were terribly crafty, and that a little cat demon with so little worldly experience like him should avoid getting too deeply involved with them; not only was it easy to get scammed, but it would also entanglement him in unnecessary karma.
Huo Jiuxiao naturally caught the little cat demon’s hesitation. Without batting an eye, he upped the ante: “The escape pod’s energy bay was damaged, leaving only these few energy crystals. I can only spare you one; the rest need to be used to power the communicator.”
The Marshal’s voice was dripping with temptation: “Once we leave this place, you can have as many as you want. I even own an entire planet dedicated to mining energy crystals.”
Ruan Bai hugged the spiritual stone in his arms tighter. Hearing that he could have as many as he wanted, his eyes instantly lit up.
“Meow!” I agree to go with you.
Tree Demon Grandpa, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to either, but this human was just offering way too much QAQ
Marshal Huo was in a great mood. He loaded the remaining energy crystals into the escape pod, and the energy from the crystals began repairing the communication device.
As soon as the communicator repair was complete, he rapidly confirmed his identity, inputted his current coordinates, and the successful transmission prompt appeared. He immediately cut the connection, he certainly didn’t want to be caught by a traitor before his subordinates managed to locate him.
If those people on the capital star knew he was still alive, how was he supposed to gift them a proper surprise later on?
Huo Jiuxiao’s mecha had been blasted into space debris. The escape pod had brought him down in an emergency descent, but it lacked the power to pierce back through the thick atmosphere and travel across deep space.
To leave this place, he had no choice but to wait for rescue.
As for what was happening out there right now? It would amount to nothing more than what happened in his past life.
Rescue, barring any accidents, would likely arrive by evening.
After all, taking the little cat demon away meant he also had to prevent it from escaping midway. The Marshal turned his head to look at it.
The moment he turned, he received quite a shock.
He saw that palm-sized kitten lying sprawled on its back, clutching the energy crystal—which was practically as big as its entire body and gnawing away at it piece by piece. In just this short span of time, it had already devoured more than half of it.
Before he could even recover from his shock, he watched as that energy crystal, touted throughout the entire interstellar world as the hardest natural substance, was chipped away with a “crunch” by the kitten’s rice-grain-sized little white teeth.
Noticing Huo Jiuxiao staring at him fixedly, Ruan Bai raised his head with a puzzled look, still chewing on a piece of energy crystal in his mouth.
After swallowing it down, he tilted his head: “Meow-aow?” What’s wrong? If nothing’s up, kitty is going to continue eating its spiritual stone.
Huo Jiuxiao walked over and pried open its jaws. Confirming that its bite force was indeed terrifyingly real, he simply let it be.
The mere thought that he had almost been bitten by those tiny steel teeth made even the storm-seasoned Marshal feel a slight chill running down his spine.
Although Huo Jiuxiao, as a 3S-grade mental power user, possessed an extremely high level of physical durability, no matter how one looked at it, his body wasn’t harder than an energy crystal.
“Xiaobai, you…” The reborn Marshal felt a rare trace of nervousness in his heart. “Do you want to come with me?”
Although Xiaobai had agreed earlier, it was mostly for the sake of the energy crystals. He wasn’t certain whether, once the rescue fleet arrived, it would truly be willing to leave the place where it had lived for so long and choose to leave with him.
Even if it changed its mind later, he could technically kidnap it and take it away by force, but if he did that, this little creature would probably end up hating him.
“Meow!” Of course I’m going! Didn’t I already agree to it before?
Or are you planning to renege on your debt?!
You’re not planning to raise me anymore?!!
Ruan Bai stopped gnawing on the spiritual stone entirely.
For the sake of his future blissful life, he looked up at Huo Jiuxiao, his tail tip flicking gently back and forth, straightened his body, and opened his two front paws in a standard “hug me” posture.
Huo Jiuxiao was slightly stunned: “You’re really willing to come with me?”
“Meow!” Willing, willing! With so many spiritual stones around, anyone who wouldn’t be willing is a fool.
Ruan Bai let out a meow, then eagerly stretched his paws forward a bit further.
The Marshal looked at the little cat ball desperately reaching its paws toward him, and with a flash of inspiration, picked the kitten up.
“If you come with me, you’ll be my cat. You have to be well-behaved, otherwise…” Otherwise I’ll just break your legs, then it probably wouldn’t be able to run away anymore.
A dark, sinister thought lingered in his mind. The thought of this little cat having no choice but to stay obediently at home waiting for him to return, unable to go anywhere else, made the look in Huo Jiuxiao’s eyes grow increasingly deep and unfathomable.
Ruan Bai settled down contentedly in his arms, completely oblivious to the dark and twisted thoughts running through Huo Jiuxiao’s head.
Just as he was preparing to resume gnawing on his spiritual stone, Huo Jiuxiao pinched his paw.
Ruan Bai: ???
What are you doing?
Are a cat’s paws just anything you can grab at will?!
“Since you’re coming with me, let’s establish three rules first.” The Marshal put on a strictly professional, serious expression.
Ruan Bai squatted on the bed and tilted his head, seemingly asking what “three rules” meant.
“You have to be obedient when we get outside. You can’t let anyone know that you understand human speech, and absolutely no one can find out that you’re a little cat demon,” the Marshal said earnestly and with deep gravity.
If people discovered that Xiaobai was a cat demon, endless trouble would follow right behind.
It wasn’t that he feared trouble; it was just that despite guarding against everything, he was terrified of this little creature getting hurt.
Ruan Bai stared upward, meeting his gaze fixedly for a long moment, before abruptly pulling his paw back, turning his body around, and presenting his round little butt toward him in flat refusal.
No way. What a joke, asking him to pretend to be one of those unawakened, foolish cats?
That’s impossible! Absolutely impossible!!
Huo Jiuxiao: “…”
That rejection method was certainly straightforward.
Marshal Huo, who was always used to his word being law, felt a deep sense of helplessness for the very first time.
If this were one of his subordinates, he would have had them thrown straight into solitary confinement by the backhand.
“I’m not trying to restrict you on purpose. The outside world is very dangerous.”
After a moment of thought, the Marshal resorted to the thoroughly unethical tactic of intimidation: “I’ve lived this long and you’re the only little cat demon I’ve ever found. If anyone else discovers you, they’ll capture you and slice you up for research.”
Ruan Bai: !!!
The fur all over the tiny white furball stood completely on end. If he couldn’t be discovered, then he just wouldn’t let himself be discovered. At worst, he would just munch on more spiritual stones, transform into human form, and then go out to roam around freely.
He drooped his little tail in low spirits and agreed.
Seeing him yield, Huo Jiuxiao felt greatly cheered. He shoved the half-chewed spiritual stone back into the kitten’s arms and set about organizing the remaining usable supplies.
Ruan Bai resumed his loafing posture and went back to gnawing on his spiritual stone.
“Crunch, crunch…” The sounds rang out in a rhythmic cadence.
Mm, delicious. His body felt warm all over, and he could feel his spiritual power returning bit by bit.
His own strength was also beginning to recover slowly, meaning it wouldn’t be long before he could transform into a human.
With that thought in mind, the kitten gnawed even more happily, its little tail wagging back and forth.
“Marshal! How are you? Are you injured? Is it serious? Do you need me to bring a medical pod over…”
Ruan Bai, who had finished his crystal and was feeling a bit drowsy, was startled awake by that booming voice.
Curiously inching closer, he shook the messy fur on his body from his nap, extended the very tips of his claws slightly, and hooked onto Huo Jiuxiao’s trousers to climb upward.
During this process, he could still hear that voice continuing to ask questions without stopping.
“What’s the planetary environment like? Can it permit spacecraft to land?…”
Huo Jiuxiao didn’t answer right away. Noticing Ruan Bai’s movements, he simply scooped the kitten up and placed it directly onto the control console.
Cutting off the other person’s stream of chatter: “Landing permitted.”
Standing atop the console, Ruan Bai looked toward the screen and saw a man dressed entirely in black looking with an expression of intense excitement at the human he had picked up.
The Imperial military’s uniform was pitch black, tailored with clean lines, accented with golden ribbon-like decorations on the shoulders, and fitted with a dark belt carrying a strong metallic, futuristic aesthetic.
Ruan Bai curiously extended a small paw and patted the screen.
Qin Lang on the other end of the communicator: “!” Is that a cat?
Such an adorable little kitten!
Seeing Qin Lang keep darting his eyes toward the little furball, and noticing that Xiaobai was also staring right back at him, Huo Jiuxiao felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort rise in his chest.
The invincible, undefeated Marshal didn’t even know that this feeling was called jealousy.
That didn’t stop him from finding his own adjutant rather displeasing to the eye. Reaching out, he plucked Ruan Bai down and set him squarely on his lap: “Be a good boy, stop acting up.”
Qin Lang stared with a ghost-seeing expression at his own Marshal the very definition of gentle intolerance, a man who famously acted as the natural enemy of gentleness and carried a chilling aura around his speech.
Huo Jiuxiao trapped Xiaobai out of Qin Lang’s line of sight, his tone turning cold and sharp: “The traitor is Feng Hui. Keep him under control until I get back to handle it. Also, mobilize the entire Thirteenth Legion and head back to the capital star.”
Qin Lang straightened his posture by reflex, the expression on his face turning solemn: “Yes.”
Feng Hui was the Marshal’s mecha maintenance specialist on the battlefield and had followed the Marshal for several years. He couldn’t understand why Feng Hui would betray the Marshal.
When the Marshal’s mecha malfunctioned, none of them had suspected Feng Hui, assuming it was simply internal sabotage caused by a hidden spy. Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that the mole would turn out to be one of their own brothers.
“Marshal, the royal family is preparing to hold a memorial service for you on the capital star,” Qin Lang said with an air of indignation. “Tch, they really can’t wait.”
They hadn’t even found the person yet, but they were already rushing to confirm their own Marshal’s death.
That way, even if the Marshal returned at a later date, his military authority would long since have been carved up and divided cleanly away.
When the time came, if the royal family hypocritically trotted out the excuse of wanting to let a hero rest in peace while holding the memorial service,
not only could they reap a wave of public favor and goodwill, but they could also secretly kick their own Marshal while he was down, questioning why he hadn’t returned sooner if he was fine, causing the entire nation’s citizens to worry over him in vain.
“No need to stop them. I will attend in person.”
Qin Lang instantly beamed with delight. The Marshal attending the memorial service hosted by the royal family for him wouldn’t that serve as a brilliant slap across their faces?
They proceeded to discuss several military matters, which effectively lulled Ruan Bai straight to sleep.