The Dog Called to Account

Pu'er buried her feline face back into the pillow, covering it with her front paws. Curled into a ball, her tail thumped behind her rhythmically. Karen reached out and stroked her back. "Your fur is really glossy now, and so soft and sleek. Quite pretty." Pu'er gave a twitch of her body. She was mad, beyond coaxing. "I brought back quite a few things. Those crystal coins you mentioned last time—I bought plenty in Samsara Valley. I left them with Alfred, so you and Kevin can go grab some whenever you need." Pu'er still didn't turn around. "All right, being chubby is a kind of cuteness too, isn't it?" "You're just laughing at me on purpose," Pu'er mumbled, her voice muffled. "I don't believe someone of your caliber can only come up with something as lame as 'being chubby is cute.'" "Heh." Karen reached out again, picked Pu'er up, and placed her on his lap. Pu'er pouted, rolling her eyes upward to glare at him. "Come on, let's see how much progress our young mistress has made lately. Show us a Fireball spell so I can broaden my horizons." "Hmph!" Pu'er turned around to face forward, her two feline paws rubbing together in midair. Before long, a massive fireball materialized, as large as an entire writing desk. Yet as it hovered, there was no scorching heat radiating outward, nor any risk of the carpet catching fire. This meant Pu'er was exercising exquisite control over any leak of flame energy. Pu'er flicked a paw sideways. The fireball instantly divided into twelve smaller spheres, which began shifting and arranging themselves into a new formation. Fire-attribute energy interlaced between them, instantly unfurling the power of a magical array. Karen was taken aback at the sight. Setting up a formation at the level of spellcraft? Using fire-attribute power to construct a formation that amplified fire-attribute power—how terrifying would the stacked effects be? As the array took shape, the walls and ceiling of the entire bedroom were bathed in crimson light. If the formation were triggered, a massive fireball larger than this entire bedroom would emerge—no, not merely a fireball, but something akin to an eruption of molten lava. Karen looked down at Pu'er. Pu'er rested her head on one paw, casually waving the other now and then as if paddling at the air. Even Bernard had admitted that Miss Pu'er was a genuine genius. Furthermore, Karen had sensed Bernard's fear of Miss Pu'er. How could a Rank 9 being within a family faith system, bound by the limitations of an ancestor's power, inspire fear in the master of Dark Moon Island, and even clash with a former Temple Elder like Xiti? Because Pu'er possessed power that no ordinary Rank 9 in a family system could ever attain. Just like Grandfather's Inquisitor rank or his own Servant of God rank, Pu'er possessed the ability to vastly broaden her power horizontally within the same realm, because she was a genius. "All right, that's enough." "It won't burn the house down." Pu'er clenched her paw, and the fireballs vanished one by one until the bedroom returned to calm. "You really have made immense progress. With you at home, I'll be much more at ease." "So you're treating me like a ferocious watchdog beast?" "More like a senior elder watching over the family's core sanctuary." "Heh heh, I like that title." Pu'er chuckled, then looked down at herself and asked, "Am I really a lot fatter?" "Plumpness is a form of beauty too. Being too skinny isn't good." "Right, that's what you told Eunice too—that too skinny has no texture." "So just how many times have you eavesdropped?" "Aiya, not that many! I was just curious about how things were progressing between you and my great-great-great-great-niece. Oh, no, not curious—concerned." A knock sounded at the bedroom door. "Young Master, lunch is ready." "All right." Xili carried in a low dining table and set it on the floor, then began arranging the dishes. Crouched half-down, her back was turned to Karen. Her black dress traced a plump, rounded curve, clinging snugly to her body like the most captivating notes of a piano melody, playfully dancing. Pu'er gestured with a cat paw. "I think she gained way more weight than me." "Having a bit of meat on your bones is good. It's harder for illness to bring you down. Dying patients in hospital beds are almost all emaciated; how many have you ever seen who are plump and chubby?" Pu'er blinked, curious. "Where do you come up with all these bizarre theories?" Karen stood up. "Let's see what's for lunch." Pu'er huffed, annoyed by Karen changing the subject. She blurted out, "Big Butt, raise it a little higher! Your young master is coming over." Xili was long used to the spoiled young mistress antics of this cat. Or rather, working in a household like this, even a girl who had come from the slums had cultivated a steady, unflappable composure. Passing by, Karen casually rapped Pu'er on the head with his knuckles. Pu'er clutched her head, looking utterly aggrieved. For lunch, Xili had prepared tofu with scallions, stir-fried bitter melon with sliced meat, stewed beef brisket with potatoes, and a bowl of seaweed and egg drop soup. "Thank you, Xili. After being away for so long, what I missed most was the home cooking." "Young Master, it's my duty." "Big Butt is thrilled to bits," Pu'er muttered. Pu'er leaped off the bed onto the carpet, glancing left and right in confusion. "Huh, where's the stupid dog?" In Pu'er's mind, under normal circumstances, the stupid dog would always be squatting nearby, watching Karen with an honest, goofy grin. "Call Alfred in," Karen instructed. "Yes, Young Master." "Where's the stupid dog?" Pu'er trotted to the study, only to find Kevin staring up at the ceiling, looking like he was pondering the meaning of dog life. He was an extremely sensitive dog. Earlier, when Karen had looked at him while holding a cup, Kevin had clearly sensed something different in his gaze. This was also because after returning from Samsara Valley, Karen had often called home at night from the Zeliya Hotel in the Dinge Region. While he could be certain no one had wiretapped the calls before he set out for Samsara Valley, he couldn't guarantee it upon his return; he had been undergoing routine debriefings and attending banquets at the time, so he had only shared brief summaries with Alfred, avoiding any real secrets. Consequently, Kevin had no idea that Karen had already met his "good brother," Lord Dal. "Stupid dog, come on, listen to the story!" Pu'er urged. Kevin shook his head, then came over anyway and silently crouched beside Karen. As Karen ate, his peripheral vision swept over him, sending another icy shiver down Kevin's tailbone. Alfred walked in and sat cross-legged on the carpet. He took out his notebook, uncapped his fountain pen, and got ready. When others took meeting minutes or notes, it was often just going through the motions. But not Alfred—he was recording his forthcoming spiritual nourishment. When Karen finished his meal, Xili came in to clear the plates and refilled his glass with iced water. Karen then began recounting his recent experiences in detail. Up until the point where he led the two squads to the Mourning Pool, Pu'er, Kevin, and Alfred listened quietly, as this long stretch was a relatively normal narrative. When Karen described the dream where he saw Linda and the eyes of the Mural God... Pu'er raised her head, and Kevin began wagging his tail. Alfred swiftly wrote in his notebook: "At this moment, the Great Being laid eyes for the first time upon a living entity known as a 'god.'" After finishing his account of the interaction with Linda inside the dream villa, Karen paused and took a sip of water. Pu'er asked in confusion, "Why do I feel like Linda is a bit strange?" "Woof!" "The stupid dog says he thinks so too." Karen analyzed, "I think Linda still retains her own consciousness, but this isn't about initiative, split personality, or avatar control. Because she merged her consciousness into the Mural God, she can't directly manipulate or influence it. The most she can do is make your scalp or the back of your hand itch slightly as you walk across the living room." Alfred spoke up: "Young Master, this subordinate has a different guess." "Go ahead." "This subordinate believes it might be that Linda's self-consciousness sublimated at a certain moment." "How so?" "This subordinate read the Order Weekly subscribed to by the household, and my little society also gathered some intelligence regarding the battle in Samsara Valley. From this limited information, this subordinate feels that the Mural God did not give off the true sense of a deity." "Woof! Woof!" "Mm, Kevin says that in that state, the Mural God wasn't truly resurrected in the strict sense—it was more like an autonomous reflex of the vessel. In short, this subordinate believes that if I were a believer of the Church of the Mural God, seeing such a Mural God would leave me somewhat disappointed. "Rielsa might still be formidable—she could single-handedly slaughter her way through the core region of the Church of Samsara—but in the end, she is not the Mural God they believe in. "And who would be the first to sense and conceive such a thought? Undoubtedly Linda, who is closest to Rielsa. "At this point, this subordinate would even venture a bolder guess: if we separate Rielsa and the Mural God, treating them as distinct entities, Linda undoubtedly stands on the Mural God's side. And Rielsa herself, in her current state, might also be suffering from a split cognition." Having reached this point, Alfred turned to Kevin and asked, "Kevin, do you have anything to add?" "Woof woof woof woof woof!" "All right. Kevin says that is the side effect of a church system. A god relies on a church as an anchor to gain more support and empowerment. But at the same time, receiving brings restrictions; for a god, it is also an invisible shackle. "Young Master, this aligns with what this subordinate thought earlier. Rielsa was the former Mural God, while Linda is one of the Mural God's wills. When Rielsa could no longer bear the mantle of the Mural God, the Mural God itself began seeking a new bearer for the divine crown. "This subordinate believes this is the true root of Linda's conflicting states." Pu'er looked at Alfred. "Radio goblin, when did you convert to the Church of Principles?" Alfred replied, "My loyalty to the Young Master is unadulterated by the slightest impurity." Karen took a painting from his pocket, unfurled it, and said, "Perhaps Alfred's hypothesis is truly correct." If Linda in the painting represented the "Mural God," did that mean the "Mural God" had chosen Piaget as its next successor? After everyone finished examining the painting, Karen resumed recounting what followed. When he mentioned how he had completed the Order-ization of all the power within his body... "Meow!!!" Pu'er leaped up excitedly and cried out: "I knew something felt different lately! Before, when I took tonics, it was just refilling an existing reservoir. But lately, the same amount of tonics fills it to a much lower level than before! I thought I'd built up a tolerance to them! "It's not tolerance—my capacity expanded! Hahahahaha-meow!" Pu'er leaped right onto Karen's shoulder and wrapped her paws around his face. "Oh, my little Karen, honestly, ever since you were tiny, I knew you were brilliant!" "Is it possible that the one you saw back then wasn't me?" "Don't get bogged down in details! If you hadn't just eaten, I'd gladly light a fire myself to roast a plate of chicken wings for you, feed them into your mouth one by one, and catch the chicken bones for you! "In short, you can hardly imagine the joy in my heart! The shackles on me—the Ancestor Allen family faith system—have transformed into a church faith system because of you! Hahaha, once I recover, I won't be the old me anymore; I'll be a brand-new me! "World, prepare to tremble! "Because an even mightier Pu'er Allen will return in the near future!" Karen reached up and lifted Pu'er down. He understood the cat's excitement. She was a genius who had always been confined; though she had roamed far and wide on adventures, in truth she had been serving a life sentence in prison. Now, she finally had the chance to be released from prison and write a new chapter of her life. "This is wonderful. I don't even need to change faiths. Thanks to the symbiosis contract, I can even borrow your Order power! Hahaha, praise Diss! "Besides, Karen, I still have many fine great-great-great-great-nieces! "Hmm, if you're interested in a great-great-great-niece, that's fine too. Even though they're a tiny bit older, quite a few men love charming, mature women, don't they?" "Are you spouting nonsense again?" "I just think it'd be such a shame not to pass down this upgraded Ancestor Allen bloodline to more descendants!" Alfred chimed in, "Actually, there is someone else who could do the job." Pu'er naturally understood who Alfred was referring to, and immediately retorted, "But right now I'm a cat!" "Yet one day, you will turn back into a human." "No, radio goblin, you can't calculate it like that! Purely in terms of reproductive efficiency, a woman needs ten months of pregnancy, usually having one child at a time, with twins or triplets being exceedingly rare. "Whereas a man can sow seeds nonstop over ten months, rat-tat-tatting away..." *Smack!* Pu'er clutched her head. "Why hit me again?!" Karen said to Alfred, "Check the novels Pu'er has been reading lately. I suspect she's been corrupted by bad influences." "Me, corrupted?! When I was adventuring all over the place back then, even if I never married, what haven't I seen? What wouldn't I know?" Pu'er retorted, thoroughly indignant. "Back in the day, my girlfriends and I often discussed which race was better hung dow—Mmph, mmph, mmph!" Karen covered Pu'er's mouth. She squirmed in discontent, a dim layer of crimson light rippling across her body. At the same time, phantom silhouettes of several chains of Order appeared at Karen's feet. The crimson light vanished from Pu'er instantly, and she shot Karen a fawning look. The chains at Karen's feet dissipated as well, and he released his hand. Pu'er obediently sprawled across Karen's lap and purred, "Mhm, little Karen, go on. I feel like the rest of the story is going to be even better." Karen recounted how, after leaving the Mourning Pool, he had summoned a castle to hold off their pursuers. Hearing this, Pu'er glared at Kevin and said, "Stupid dog, look! It's all your fault! Why should our little Karen take the blame for the things you did back then?" Kevin flattened himself against the floor, a fawning expression on his face. Next, Karen recounted how, to evade their pursuers, he took the initiative to lead his squad into the Blazing Valley, where he encountered Lord Dal. As the interactions and conversations with Lord Dal unfolded, Kevin—who had been lying flat on the floor—widened his canine eyes, his entire body trembling. Especially when he heard that line: *You're a dog raised by my original self, aren't you?* Flecks of saliva began spilling from the corners of Kevin's mouth. If circumstances permitted, he would have run to the Gate of Samsara himself to snuff out that mental imprint! When Karen paused his narration to take another sip of water, Kevin stood up and was just about to bark when Pu'er cut him off: "All right, stupid dog, no need to explain. The fact that Karen's first act upon returning home wasn't stewing you in a pot means he's forgiven you, right, Karen?" Kevin gave Pu'er a grateful glance, then turned his head toward Karen. "He is him, and you are you. I can tell the difference. Don't carry any mental burden. I'll also do my best to hide the grudge in my heart so you won't be able to tell." "Woof~" Alfred took the initiative to lighten the mood. "Young Master, looking at it this way, did Kevin's experiment succeed?" "Woof woof!" "Kevin says it proved the theoretical feasibility." Karen nodded. "Still, for now, it doesn't hold much meaning. It's not like we can haul the Gate of Samsara into our house so Kevin can continue his research." Everyone laughed, and Kevin joined in with a sociable grin. "Right, there's one more thing. I almost forgot—this little guy." Karen spread his palm, and a chain of Order appeared upon it. What differed was that a black entity was bound to the chain. Qianmei emerged from Karen's body. It first turned to look at Karen, only to immediately shrink away in instinctive terror. It then turned toward Pu'er, but sensed an aura very close to Karen's on her. Next, it shifted toward Alfred, where it also detected an aura remarkably similar to Karen's. After all, Pu'er was Karen's symbiosis contract partner, and Alfred was Karen's believer. Yet Qianmei was violent to the core; it needed an emotional outlet to vent its sinister malice. Finally, Qianmei fixed its gaze on Kevin. This dog carried none of Karen's aura! A ferocious aura emanated from Qianmei. It lunged in front of Kevin and reared its body, looking down from above to project an existential threat of a higher lifeform. Having been suppressed all afternoon, Kevin raised his bald crown and let out a low, gravelly: "Woof!" At that sound, Qianmei froze. It was a high-tier lifeform born from within the Gate of Samsara. Though still in its infancy, it possessed an extraordinary sensitivity to soul signatures. In that moment, it sensed a vast, despair-inducing terror emanating from Kevin. Qianmei's body rapidly deformed, ultimately coiling itself tightly like a mosquito coil. Even coiled like that, it shivered violently. Kevin raised a paw and pressed it down upon it. Qianmei fawningly spiraled upward, gently twining itself around the dog paw with immense care and deference, practically acting like a dutiful, loving comforter. Just as Kevin was about to show off to Karen how he had subdued this interesting little thing for him, Qianmei—believing it had secured the backing of a truly supreme powerhouse—shot upward, climbed atop Kevin's bald head, and hissed a venomous, viper-like provocation at Karen, the one who had kept it pinned, bound, and sealed all this time! "Sssssssssssss!!!" Kevin: "..."