"Today is your fourth day in the imperial capital, Brierda."
"After you wrote down that principle in the classroom on Monday, barely a single day has passed, and it has already sparked enormous attention across St. Creti Monastery, meow."
Far away in Brierda, the capital of the Creti Empire, within the first-floor living room of an upscale professor's manor in the suburban academy residential district.
Lanqi was eating bread while watching the black loaf on the table give its punctual morning broadcast.
"All right, Boss Cat."
Lanqi was just about to press down on Boss Cat's head to conclude today's broadcast.
It was Tuesday, and he had to head to the fourth floor of the Elliott Building to continue his lecture. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays were his working days at St. Creti Monastery.
Suddenly, he felt Boss Cat adroitly raise a front paw, parrying his hand with a deflection technique as deft as Wing Chun.
Lanqi: "?"
"Yesterday, quite a few professors from the School of Magical Engineering came to hold discussions with you, expressing high recognition of your prowess and the contributions you will make to the empire,"
Boss Cat continued its report at a brisk pace.
"Among them, several amicable senior professors advised you based on their own experiences that more and more imperial figures will likely approach you in the coming days. You must safeguard your personal safety and clearly discern the motives behind each person seeking you out. They warned you to beware of the Silver Moon Restoration Society and Allied spies."
With that, it finally settled contentedly onto its four paws atop the dining table, staring back at the flabbergasted Lanqi.
The autumn morning sun of the empire spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, lending an air of languid ease to the classical two-story villa, while also illuminating Lanqi, who was frozen in place and questioning reality.
"Master Cat, you know martial arts too?"
Lanqi realized that ever since Boss Cat reached tier eight, making it comparable to a formidable tier-five magical beast, this broadcast couldn't be switched off so easily anymore.
"Of course! Back in the day, when I unleashed my Meow-Meow Fists, no stray cat dared fight me for food!"
The whole-wheat, sugar-free black loaf held its head high with pride.
There was a time when it was tier zero or tier one, its combat strength even weaker than an ordinary cat. Without a few real skills, how could it have ever filled its belly?
After all, its life as a restaurant proprietor before meeting Lanqi had been built from scratch through its own hard work, one step at a time.
"I see..."
Lanqi hadn't realized Boss Cat had once endured such difficult days.
Yet Boss Cat had relied entirely on itself, toiling for years before drifting to Ikerite to settle down and become a shopkeeper—a genuinely inspiring journey.
In contrast...
"Good thing you never ran into that person who used to steal food from cats by the city walls of South Vantina..."
Lanqi was just about to chuckle with a sigh and start his day in high spirits, but he froze halfway through the sentence.
It seemed the second half of his words couldn't make it past his lips, leaving him no choice but to bury his head back in his meal.
Better to just finish breakfast quietly and behave.
Still, had he not looked back, he would have almost forgotten that his very first casual chat with Talia—the one that started it all—had been about feeding cats.
Lanqi absentmindedly bit into his oat bread sandwich layered with ham, sliced pickles, a fried egg, and cheese.
Today's breakfast had been prepared early in the morning by Talia again; Lanqi knew after a single bite.
Her culinary style was clearly different from Boss Cat's. She didn't strive for extravagant dishes, offering instead a delicious breakfast steeped in home-cooked warmth.
"..."
After Lanqi thought this, he felt that his voice was restored, which surprised him a little.
It seemed that because he had recognized Talia as the one who made breakfast, she had suddenly grown pleased.
"Heh..."
Lanqi shook his head with a smile.
How could he fail to recognize who had prepared the food on the table?
Only Talia could make a breakfast with this kind of "taste of mom"—it was something that couldn't be achieved without centuries of seasoning.
Just as a chill crept up his spine, he hurriedly clamped down on his thoughts.
"By the way, Boss Cat, if you evolve to tier nine, won't you be invincible against anyone below tier seven?"
Lanqi asked, shifting his attention back to the little black cat.
"...Right!"
Boss Cat pondered it. Given its standard of being three tiers weaker than its nominal tier, a tier-nine Boss Cat might truly possess the strength of tier six. Add in the fact that a tier-nine entity could use tier-nine magic cards, and it would practically be invincible against anyone below tier seven!
Not only did it have low racial stats, it was also the weakest specimen among spirit cats, completely devoid of combat talent. Correspondingly, however, refining its frail body to achieve advancement required less cultivation and trial. Combined with its stroke of luck in pulling a space-attribute survival skill that allowed it to dodge countless disasters, it had simply slept its way to tier seven by virtue of lifespan alone.
Once it could clear the high-tier Shadow Worlds it originally had zero ability to enter—and with Lanqi boosting its contribution score—its level would probably rise faster than anyone else's in the group.
"Tier nine is a true divine beast. I've never dreamed of reaching that high, meow."
Boss Cat shook its head, remaining clearheaded.
Breaking through to the tier-nine divine realm required more than just reaching the limit of tier eight; it also demanded fulfilling two even more grueling conditions:
First, the power of faith tied to the true gods of the Divine Era. Second, an immortal token capable of bearing one's own legendary legacy.
This was why Sigrid desired to become the Pope. Once she attained the papacy of the Resurrection Church, on one hand, she would possess the power of faith from the entire Church; on the other hand, the Papal Regalia was an artifact potent enough to serve as an immortal token. Unifying and reigning over all branches of the Resurrection Church would give her everything needed to ascend to tier nine.
Aside from the theocratic path of pontiffs and popes,
one could take the imperial path: becoming the king or emperor of an enormous realm could likewise gather sufficient faith.
The other alternative was the heroic path: stepping forward in war to become a savior or protector of nations.
The difficulty escalated across these three paths, with the heroic path undeniably being the hardest. One had to emerge from a sufficiently dark and chaotic era, sought and venerated by countless living souls, before gathering enough scattered faith to ascend to the divine domain.
"You need to have dreams, Boss Cat. Don't you think a tier-nine kitty sounds super cool?"
Lanqi placed his hand on Boss Cat's small head and asked.
If he could take a cat and unleash world-shattering tier-nine magic, enemies would begin to suspect that Loren had not only survived, but had broken through to tier nine and returned with a vengeance.
Now that had the ring of a classic, blood-pumping epic.
"Meow..."
Boss Cat tilted its head, feeling as though its formerly placid heart had recently been stirred with all sorts of ambitions.
Lanqi was always telling it about impossible things, leaving an itch in its chest.
Outside the window, red maples dotted the lush green courtyard, their leaves swaying gently in the breeze with a soft rustle.
Beside the winding stone stairs of the grand monastery, towering ancient trees stood like guards drawn up in ranks, thick with foliage and deep-rooted.
Boss Cat gazed at the scenery. By the time Lanqi finished his oat bread, their breakfast hour had almost come to an end.
"Boss Cat, I need to work hard to reach tier seven too. Once I become a true expert in the realm of the Transcendent and Sacred, I won't be a little squishy anymore."
Lanqi flipped through today's Creti Central Daily to check on the latest war developments, muttering to himself.
At tier seven, both his physical stamina and mental fortitude would undergo a qualitative leap. Coupled with his magic resistance, it would be difficult for him to die even if he tried.
Since arriving in the Creti Empire, he had been filled with ambition and drive every single day, as if he had been reborn. He would strive onward, carrying Dean Loren's share with him.
"Meow, meow, meow, how does it look?"
Boss Cat scrambled onto Lanqi's shoulder, leaning in close to his cheek to read the paper alongside him.
"Not optimistic."
The more Lanqi read, the deeper his brow furrowed. From time to time, he took quick sips of coffee, intending to finish skimming before heading off to teach at St. Creti Monastery.
Originally, he and Nigel had agreed that if he needed to make contact with the Kingdom of Posen's intelligence operatives within the Creti Empire, all communication would be conducted through poems, advertisements, or lost-and-found notices placed in the Creti Central Daily.
However, now that he had lost his identity as the elderly publisher Lovia, and the identity of Professor Landry was relatively sensitive, it wasn't advisable for him to actively seek out Posen agents in the short term unless he desperately needed help.
Even so, Lanqi bought the Creti Central Daily every day. If he spotted a coded message from Posen intelligence, he would do his best to establish contact.
"Why does it feel like the Allied forces won't even last a month?"
The more Boss Cat read the battle reports, the more alarmed it became.
"In truth, the Creti Empire likely exaggerates its battlefield gains to bolster domestic confidence, while the Allied side omits details of imperial advances to mitigate public panic. Averaging the reports from both sides brings you much closer to reality,"
Lanqi replied.
Aside from the rapidly shifting strategic maneuvers, blitzkriegs, and large-scale offensives in the opening stages of a war, once both sides settled on their strategic objectives, conflicts tended to bog down into protracted stalemates and wars of attrition. Only after an extended period, when one side suffered a strategic collapse, would the tempo suddenly accelerate toward a decisive victory or defeat.
Currently, as the invading force, the Creti Empire had begun consolidating the strategic strongholds it had captured, deliberately slowing its advance to fully digest its new territory before launching a second offensive. Meanwhile, the United Council of Kingdoms had adopted a comprehensive defensive posture, mounting counterattacks only in localized sectors.
If fighting continued like this, it could easily drag on for years. Both the Creti Empire and the member states of the Council would be drained of vitality. And if the Blood Clan continued to cultivate strength in secret and infiltrate the empire throughout that time, the conditions for the resurgence of the Blood Moon Ruined World would ripen.
"I will oppose this war at all costs with everything I have. I cannot tolerate living beings being plunged into misery day after day. Peace is a boundless responsibility to all life. Only peace, and peace alone, can allow the world to blossom once more."
Lanqi set down the newspaper, clenching his fist with righteous conviction.
"But we still have zero leads on the Blood Clan, don't we, meow?"
Boss Cat felt as if the Blood Clan didn't even exist in the empire. After days of investigation by Lanqi, there wasn't a single shred of evidence.
This chilled it to the bone even more.
Brierda, the capital deep in the imperial heartland, was clearly the Blood Clan's lair, yet they held the answer without being able to find the steps that led to it.
"Actually, in the worldline the Goddess of Fate showed me, the Blood Clan didn't instigate the war until several months later, and by then, they were already bold enough to step out from the shadows onto the center stage. But now, the Blood Clan has chosen to remain hidden within the empire. That indicates their infiltration is not yet complete, and many high-ranking officials might not even realize the Blood Clan exists."
Lanqi stroked Boss Cat, telling it not to be afraid.
For now, failing to find the Blood Clan was of little consequence, as long as they steadily built up their own strength within the empire.
"Simply put: without my intervention, Hyperion would have been murdered by the Blood Clan, allowing them to bring Duke Mikhail under their thumb early on and rescue yet another troublesome Blood Clan Progenitor. Their rate of infiltration would have been nearly twice as fast."
He continued explaining to Boss Cat.
Lanqi's protection of Hyperion had not weakened the overall power of the Creti Empire; it had only affected the relative proportion of the Blood Clan's influence within it.
Even so, the Blood Clan was exceedingly cautious.
Their strategic choices showed that they would probably step into the open only when their degree of corruption neared eighty or even ninety percent; even at fifty or sixty percent, they would continue lying low.
Unless victory was guaranteed, they would never expose themselves, willing even to wait for the next opportunity—after all, time was on their side.
For Lanqi, the priority right now was figuring out which imperial factions had already fallen under the Blood Clan's sway and which remained untainted.
To defeat the Blood Clan, the best way was to leverage the power of the Creti Empire itself.
Thus, compelled by circumstance, he needed to climb a few rungs higher up the imperial ladder for the time being.
"Then I'm relieved. As long as it's part of your plan."
Boss Cat felt that being Lanqi's teammate made its heart race incessantly, but Lanqi truly was terrifyingly capable.
Across nearly every game patch, picking Lanqi was a no-brainer.
Lanqi set down the newspaper on the dining table, draped on a gray coat, and prepared to set out.
"Hop on, Boss Cat,"
Lanqi said to Boss Cat.
Boss Cat noticed that ever since Lanqi met his mentor, his dress style had been subtly influenced as well.
It trotted a few steps behind Lanqi.
"Lanqi, you haven't forgotten your mission, have you?"
Seeing how often a profound sense of enterprise and duty appeared between Lanqi's brows since arriving in the empire, Boss Cat couldn't help suspecting whether this kid had already begun thinking from the empire's perspective.
Whenever this kid threw himself into a cause, he had an obsessive streak—either go all-in or don't bother.
Back then, they had agreed he would just infiltrate the Resurrection Church to test the waters, but he ended up doing his absolute best to help the Overlord Bishop sweep the board.
He had practically been half a step away from becoming the grand president.
"Of course I haven't forgotten. I'm carrying out my mission at this very moment. A true ace spy must deceive everyone, friend and foe alike. Only at the moment of victory will I reveal my identity to the world."
Lanqi turned back, answering with utter conviction.
"True... that's how an ace plays..."
Upon closer reflection, Boss Cat agreed.
The more convincing Lanqi was as an imperial running dog, the safer it would actually be.
"Lanqi, you must become the most evil imperial running dog of all! You're different from everyone else—you shouldn't waste time on ordinary paths! You should deceive the whole world right to the very end, meow!"
The more Boss Cat thought about it, the more confident it felt in its role.
It was already a qualified Lanqi Trainer now. With Hubao not around, it was time to tap the accelerator and enjoy the ride!
Chapter 725