“This Cat Demon must be an outsider. It wandered into Little Green Mountain recently. It wasn’t in any of my previous intelligence reports.”

Wu Yuan paced back and forth in his cave, his whiskers twitching with anxiety. “And based on its aura… at the same cultivation level, I stand absolutely no chance against a Cat Demon. This is trouble.”

A blue panel floated in his mind, the text glowing with an ominous light.

[Blue Intelligence: A refugee Cat Demon. Starving. In 3 days, it will discover the rat swarm and devour the colony.]

Wu Yuan narrowed his eyes, analyzing the prophecy.

“Blue Intelligence… The last time I saw a threat level this high was when I was still a pup.”

He remembered that day vividly. A snake had slithered into the nest. If not for the [Karma Pearl]’s warning allowing him to flee in advance, he would have ended up in the serpent’s belly just like his siblings.

“A Blue threat means a death probability of at least seventy percent. I can’t fight this thing head-on.”

He reread the text. In 3 days. Starving.

“That’s the key,” Wu Yuan muttered. “There’s a time buffer. I still have a chance. But first, I need to confirm exactly what I’m dealing with.”

Wu Yuan crept toward the coordinates where Little Yellow had found the fur.

It was a small, picturesque hill facing the sun. Recent rains had washed the landscape, leaving the vegetation lush and the air crisp. At the summit, a wild peach tree stood in full bloom, its red blossoms dancing in the gentle breeze.

Wu Yuan burrowed into a concealed hole nearby, settling in to wait.

“Meow.”

The sound came out of nowhere.

It wasn’t a distant call. To Wu Yuan’s enhanced hearing, it sounded like the creature was whispering directly into his ear.

His entire body went rigid. His fur stood on end. He hadn’t heard a single footstep. He hadn’t smelled a scent until it was too late. The predator had simply appeared.

Terror, primal and overwhelming, nearly forced him to bolt from cover. But he bit his tongue, forcing himself to remain still.

Calm down. If it had truly spotted me, I’d already be dead.

He waited. Silence returned to the hill.

Cautiously, inch by inch, Wu Yuan poked his head out of the hole.

“?”

His eyes widened.

“A… tuxedo cat?”

“And a house cat at that!”

The Demon Beast was patterned in black and white. A black ‘mask’ covered the upper half of its face, extending down its back, while its nose, chin, and belly were a pristine, snowy white.

But the most arresting detail wasn’t its fur. It was the object around its neck.

A silver collar, shimmering in the sunlight, with a small metal tag dangling from it.

Though the cat looked gaunt and its fur lacked luster, its gait remained elegant. It walked with a haughty, measured cadence, showing none of the frantic scurrying typical of stray beasts.

Suddenly, the cat stopped. Its head snapped toward Wu Yuan’s hiding spot. Its eyes narrowed fiercely.

It opened its mouth.

Whoosh!

A crescent of azure wind sheared through the air.

It had seen him!

The [Wind Blade] flew like a streak of cyan lightning. It struck the burrow entrance an instant later, slicing a deep, jagged fissure into the earth. Dust and pulverized rock billowed into the air.

The cat stared at the dust cloud for a moment. Seeing no movement, it sniffed dismissively and resumed its walk toward the hilltop.

Its destination was a shrub laden with blue-purple berries.

The cat plucked a few berries with its teeth. It hesitated, a look of profound distaste crossing its face, before reluctantly swallowing them.

The berries were bitter, but the scent of the rat demon lingering in the air was savory. The cat’s stomach gave a low, rumbling growl. The hunger was becoming impossible to ignore.

Wu Yuan, having fled through a back tunnel the moment the cat tensed its muscles, watched from a safe distance, his heart hammering against his ribs.

“That was close,” he breathed. “It’s incredibly sharp. And that [Wind Blade]… the cutting power is terrifying.”

Yet, despite the close call, a smile slowly crept onto Wu Yuan’s face.

“A domestic cat with a collar… eating berries… moving with elegance…”

“I know how to deal with this.”

Wu Yuan rushed back to the Vein Cave and immediately sounded the assembly.

He raided his personal stockpile, bringing out the dried bird meat and the preserved spider legs.

These were high-energy foods rich in Demon Power, precious resources even for him. A few bites could sustain him for days. Giving them up pained him, but he couldn’t afford to be stingy now.

His plan was simple: Bribery.

Based on his observations, this Cat Demon hadn’t been a stray for long. It hadn’t adapted to the filth and brutality of the wild.

Wu Yuan remembered his own transition to the wild. It had been a painful, dirty process. But this cat still kept itself clean. It preferred nasty berries over hunting dirty insects. It was clinging to its former dignity.

But dignity has a limit. In a few days, starvation would break it. If it found Wu Yuan then—a walking, talking meal rich in spiritual energy—it would abandon its pride and devour him.

That was the “Great Crisis” the intelligence predicted.

So, Wu Yuan decided to preempt the hunger.

High up in the peach tree, the Cat Demon lay draped across a branch, gazing at the distant sky with melancholic eyes.

It thought of its soft bed. The premium spirit food. The warm hands of its owner.

Its stomach let out a treacherous roar.

“Sigh.”

“To think I, a noble descendant of a prestigious lineage, have fallen to this state.”

“I finished my supply of Pills days ago. I haven’t had a proper meal in… has it been 3 days?”

The cat rested its chin on its paws. “I have never suffered such grievances!”

It looked down at its dirty paws and sighed again. “But I cannot continue to wallow in past glory. I must focus on the present.”

Its eyes hardened. Survival first.

“That rat demon I saw earlier… I should have chased it.”

“An early Qi Condensation rat. A bit filthy, but… barely acceptable.”

Suddenly, the cat’s ears swiveled. Its body went taut.

It looked down the hill.

There, emerging from the tall grass, was a sea of gray. Hundreds of rats, moving in an organized phalanx, covered half the slope.

At the very front stood the large rat from before.

The Cat Demon stood up on the branch, wind gathering around its jaws.

“You again?” the cat sneered, its voice dripping with arrogance. “I was too lazy to chase you earlier, yet here you are. Did you come back to deliver yourself to death?”

The [Wind Blade] in its mouth pulsed, ready to fire.

Wu Yuan’s heart seized, but he stood his ground. He raised his front paws in a gesture of surrender.

“Please, do not misunderstand!” Wu Yuan shouted in clear human speech. “We have come to offer tribute to the Great Cat King!”

The cat paused. The wind magic in its mouth flickered but didn’t vanish. It narrowed its eyes, surprised to hear a rat speak so eloquently.

Seeing the hesitation, Wu Yuan kicked Big Old Black. “Go.”

Big Old Black was trembling so hard his teeth rattled, but he feared Wu Yuan more than death. He grabbed the woven basket filled with meat and scurried forward.

The cat watched the procession with suspicion. Its gaze darted between Wu Yuan, the terrified fat rat, and the basket.

It took 10 agonizing seconds for Big Old Black to reach the base of the tree. He dropped the basket and scrambled back to Wu Yuan’s side, practically rolling over his own feet in his haste to escape.

The cat didn’t attack.

Wu Yuan exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He bowed slightly.

“These are delicacies I have carefully prepared for you, Great King. They are rich in Demon Power and have been cleaned thoroughly. No other dirty rats have touched them.”

The cat looked at the food, then at Wu Yuan. It noticed that unlike the other filthy rodents, Wu Yuan’s fur was glossy and groomed.

Clean, the cat noted with approval.

Wu Yuan was obsessed with hygiene, frequently using Demon Power to scour his fur. Before coming here, he had even taken a bath.

It was a gamble—delivering himself as a potential snack—but it seemed to be paying off.

The Cat Demon leaped down from the tree, landing silently beside the basket. It sniffed the contents.

It selected a preserved spider leg.

Instead of gnawing on it like a savage beast, the cat used its claws to peel back the hard shell with surgical precision. Then, it opened its mouth.

Whoosh!

A controlled jet of crimson flame shot from its throat, searing the meat. A savory aroma instantly filled the air.

The cat began to eat the cooked meat with elegant, small bites.

Wu Yuan watched, his blood running cold.

The rat swarm behind him chittered nervously.