Although Yuchi Xiu had transmigrated as an Aorong resident whose primary main quest was to “guard the borders and combat man-eating demons,” he had not yet laid eyes on a real man-eating demon even once.
Aside from having to spend every day in terror beside a tyrannical feudal lord (who fortunately, after contracting feline habits, had become somewhat less terrifying), Yuchi Xiu had actually been living a transmigrated life akin to a flower in a greenhouse.
Therefore, even though Yuchi Xiu maintained a high degree of vigilance against the preposterous nature of this political intrigue novel world having accidentally caused the Prince to contract feline traits due to a casual lapse in speech he never imagined that the moment he pushed open the study door in the morning, he would find himself in an intense, lingering stare-down with a physical man-eating demon’s head, complete and authentic, rather than a prop model.
The instant his gaze met those dead, unblinking, bloodshot eyes, Yuchi Xiu finally understood: when a human is terrified to the extreme, they can neither scream out nor soil themselves.
Just by looking at that ferocious, grimacing face with its bristles standing on end, one could tell this was definitely no ordinary beast. Not to mention, it was stained with whitish and reddish matter that could be mud or brain matter. This bizarre thing looked precisely like an evil ghost crawled straight from hell; catching a single glance at it shaved ten years off a person’s lifespan.
The visual impact of this sudden scene was so overwhelming that it took a full half-minute for Yuchi Xiu to notice that, beneath the severed head lopped off by a sharp weapon, black blood was dripping drop by drop onto the luxurious carpet.
Looking closer, those eyes were entirely unfocused with dilated pupils, clearly dead as a doornail.
So it’s dead. Just as Yuchi Xiu felt a wave of relief, a conflicting thought hit him.
Wait a second… dead or alive, a man-eating demon’s head appearing out of thin air in the study is inherently supernatural, right?!
So why on earth is this wretched thing sitting right here…?
While his brain remained stuck in a state of system crash, warning windows flashed frantically in his mind: “Making a tender eye-contact with a dead man-eating demon’s head the moment I clock in is this a mandatory daily check-in feature for this political intrigue novel? What kind of expression should I strike right now to look like a counselor who remains unflustered in the face of crisis?”
At that exact moment.
The Prince, seated in that newly rearranged, highly secure armchair, spoke in an ethereal tone:
“For you.”
“Huh?”
The shock delivered by the head was so immense that Yuchi Xiu hadn’t even noticed the Prince’s presence. Startled into a shiver, he instinctively asked in return. The Prince repeated in his characteristically low voice:
“I said this is for you.”
Seeming to feel that this explanation was still insufficient, that steady, domineering voice immediately added another sentence:
“I chopped it off with my own hands.”
Having spoken, the Prince fixed Yuchi Xiu with a steady gaze that practically screamed, “Praise me quickly.”
No… why?!
Then again…
Yuchi Xiu stared at the direct superior before him, who had delivered such a hardcore, gruesome heavy gift first thing in the morning and generously admitted to doing it himself.
Did this lord look… just a tiny bit smug?
Anyone experienced with cats knows that although a feline master’s facial features cannot pull off exaggerated human expressions, you can sometimes miraculously sense their emotions.
The Prince right now was precisely like that.
Despite the fact that the Prince’s dignified, ruthless, and naturally imposing facial features remained entirely unchanged retaining that living-judge-of-hell face that only featured two modes: “terrifying” and “extremely terrifying”.
Whether judged by the height of his chin… or his broad-legged, commanding posture… or the aura radiating from him… every single cell in his entire body was screaming two words:
Smug.
If he genuinely possessed a cat tail right now, it would probably be standing as straight as a flagpole…
Yuchi Xiu suddenly woke up to a terrifying possibility.
A cat bringing back its personally hunted prey with a face begging for praise—
Isn’t this the legendary… “feline master’s repayment of gratitude”?!
Feline masters skilled at hunting frequently bring back “souvenirs” for their human servants.
No matter what kind of weird trinket the master bestows, the servant must pinch their nose and accept it; after all, this is the master’s way of expressing affection.
Generally speaking, wild village cats only bring back dead mice or sparrows… but this “cat” happened to be the Prince of Aorong, so the “dead mouse” he brought back happened to be a man-eating demon that was not only ferocious beyond compare, but also capable of slaughtering cities and annihilating villages.
Looking at it from that perspective…
The bloody head resting on the study floor, radiating an aesthetic of violence and terrifying presence, was suddenly invested with an entirely different layer of meaning.
Gifts bestowed by feline masters are usually an absolute nightmare to handle. Furthermore, this was a gift bestowed by a feline master holding the title of “Prince”…
I genuinely, truly have no clue how to handle this thing.
A second ago it was a man-eating demon’s head capable of stopping children from crying at night just by looking at its face; a second later, in Yuchi Xiu’s eyes, it had transformed into unrecyclable trash marked with a mental note of “I dare not touch this.” Meanwhile, the pool of black blood on the floor, which previously represented “good thing it’s already dead,” had morphed into a housekeeping nightmare of “Holy crap, this expensive carpet is never coming clean.”
Not only that.
Yuchi Xiu, currently calculating mentally how much silver it would take to clean up that puddle of blood, stole a sideways glance at the Prince.
The Prince was still staring at Yuchi Xiu with that subtle gaze written all over with “Praise me.”
With the gift-giver staring at him so eagerly, he couldn’t simply summon a servant to haul it out and throw it away…
Sigh… No matter what…
Frightening as its appearance might be, this was still a manifestation of the feline master keeping him in mind and offering a token of affection.
Yuchi Xiu faced the Prince—who looked so full of anticipation he was practically wagging an invisible tail—and said:
“Many thanks for the Prince’s bounty.”
Right. He wasn’t entirely ungrateful.
Grateful as he was… honestly speaking, could he just accept the thought and return this head?
Just as Yuchi Xiu was racking his brain to figure out how to clean up this messy situation:
Tap, tap, tap,
A knock sounded on the door.
Ah, right. Today was the day for routine briefings from the commanders of each camp.
Encountering something this stimulating the moment he clocked in had made him completely forget about this appointment.
Which meant… if he opened the door just like this, those military generals who hadn’t the foggiest notion that this was a “feline master’s repayment” would lay eyes upon this gruesome crime scene.
Absolutely not!
Ever since that previous incident involving “suspicions of a cut-sleeve romance,” he had already been tormented by idle gossip for days on end.
If they were to catch sight of this bizarre scene splattered with blood, not only would the rumors fail to die down, but they would inevitably mutate into some bizarre direction involving a serial killer or cult sacrificial ritual.
The blood on the floor could wait, but he had to conceal this severed head before letting them in.
In truth, if only a pool of blood remained, it would likewise trigger an entirely different wave of terrifying rumors, but Yuchi Xiu’s panic-stricken brain as an ant on a hot pan could no longer spin fast enough to process that.
No matter how anxious he felt inside, with Yuchi Xiu’s frail physique lacking the strength to truss a chicken, moving this bloody head entirely by himself was harder than ascending to heaven.
Thus, just as Yuchi Xiu prepared to seek help from the sole person present capable of moving such an object…
“Come in.”
He had forgotten that this “cat” was the source of all gossip to begin with, and the most unreliable creature on earth!
Before Yuchi Xiu could stop him, the moment the Prince finished speaking, the door was shoved wide open. Grand Commander Yuchi Che walked in, wearing his characteristic honest man’s face.
No, why is it this bro again…
Seeing this gossip-generating machine arrive right on schedule, a numbness spread across Yuchi Xiu’s scalp. Yet he still clung to a shred of fragile hope: although the odds were slim, what if he blocked the view slightly and they ended up blind enough to miss this thing? Just as he harbored this daydream:
Yuchi Che, who usually wore an easygoing, good-natured expression, instantly shifted his complexion.
“A man-eating demon’s head spotted in the direct southern sector! Protect the Prince!”
Accompanied by Yuchi Che’s furious roar:
Swish, swish, swish! Clang!
Six sabers slipped from their scabbards simultaneously.
The guards’ blade-tips pointed in unison toward the severed head lying on the study floor.
Naturally… such a massive head couldn’t be missed unless one were truly blind…
Witnessing everyone’s attention captured entirely by that head—which he desperately wished could instantly vanish into thin air—Yuchi Xiu covered his face with his hands in despair.
Then… the guards, who had previously glared murderously and locked their eyes onto the head, began to wear expressions of subtle perplexity.
“…It’s dead?”
“Completely dead, right?”
Muttering like spectators looking at a roadside curiosity, the guards slid their sabers back into their scabbards.
Grand Commander Yuchi also sheathed his weapon, tilting his head with a face full of question marks as he mumbled:
“Still… why on earth is this thing here…?”
“I brought it.”
The Prince spoke abruptly, causing the guards’ gazes to snap instantly and concentrate on the Prince.
The guards’ pupils underwent synchronized magnitude-ten earthquakes.
Yuchi Xiu could guess with his toes that these guys’ brains were undoubtedly spinning frantic scripts for a suspense thriller titled “Cold-Blooded Feudal Warlord Hosts Morning Audience in Study Alongside Bloody Head.”
Faced with everyone’s terrified gazes, the Prince delivered another blow with an exceptionally steady voice:
“I gifted it to my counselor.”
The moment those words dropped, the gazes that had just been locked on the Prince instantly pivoted in unison toward Yuchi Xiu.
Bathed in everyone’s gazes carrying ten thousand unsaid words, Yuchi Xiu closed his eyes in agony, seized by a powerful premonition the protagonist of the “next trending search” he so desperately craved was still going to be none other than himself!
Dear heavens, why on earth must you torment me like this…
“Little Xiu… Sob, the Prince actually… hiccup!… used a man-eating demon’s head… sob… to threaten you and terrify you…”
The moment Yuchi Xiu’s father, old General Yuchi Yuan, arrived, he started wiping away tears.
“This is not your fault.”
Yuchi Xiu’s mother, Lady Yuchi, patted Yuchi Yuan’s shoulder to comfort him.
“When all is said and done… it’s my fault for failing to stop him back then and letting Little Xiu take on this damned counselor job. It’s all my fault.”
Lady Yuchi closed her eyes with a look of profound grief. Standing nearby, eldest brother Grand Commander Yuchi spoke up:
“Even if he is the Prince of Aorong… I absolutely cannot tolerate this. How could he possibly… do such a deranged thing to our little Xiu…”