Bai Zhou's heart skipped a beat. Held up against Fang Xiaoxia's cheek, his body stiffened ever so slightly.
*Discovered?*
*What, do you have special eyes? Can you see things others can't?*
Bai Zhou was reminded of a memorable story from Wancheng's past.
It was about that same Grand Hypnotist Archmage who had traveled west in search of the true scriptures. He had three black-robed disciples, and the eldest possessed a pair of special eyes that could always see bizarre evil spirits invisible to everyone else—except that all of it had been an illusion the demons wanted him to see.
Because of this, the eldest disciple ran into danger time and again, bringing untold disasters down upon the red-robed Archmage. Fortunately, the Archmage had ultimately used his black-robed canon to cleanse and deliver every single one of those evil spirits.
The moral the story impressed upon the people of Wancheng was never to let your eyes be easily deceived by demons, and to preserve space for independent thought. Falling under demonic bewitchment would only invite retribution from the black robes—a literal invitation to burn oneself.
Right now, Bai Zhou felt like telling Fang Xiaoxia that story, warning her that knowing too much was hardly the mark of a wise person—
Yet he was certain she couldn't truly confirm his identity. Otherwise, she wouldn't have dared to hold him so close.
Thoughts raced through his mind, and Bai Zhou settled on the response best suited to the moment.
A second later, a look of blank innocence washed over the little cat's face.
He seemed completely detached, drifting in a daydream. No matter how close Fang Xiaoxia came or how intently she scrutinized him, he remained entirely unfazed, his clear eyes utterly vacant. *I don't know anything. I'm just a little kitty. What could a little kitty possibly understand?*
"Sigh."
After observing him for a long while, Fang Xiaoxia let out a soft, faint sigh, leaned in, and affectionately rubbed her cheek twice against his fur.
"Hehe... just teasing you."
"It would be great if you really were him."
"Even if you aren't Mr. Logger Vick, that's okay. You're the one I like just the way you are."
Many people have done things like that, haven't they?
Walking down an empty road and suddenly saying to the empty air behind you, "Come on out, I see you"; or staring intently into a dark corner while home alone, pretending you've caught an invisible creature spying on you; or whispering in a relative's newborn's ear, "I know you're a reincarnator. You still have memories of your past life, right? Blink if yes"—
It wasn't chuunibyou, nor was it sheer stupidity. It was simply clinging to the hope and fantasy that unknown anomalies might still exist in the world.
Otherwise, a mediocre life would stretch ahead with its end in plain sight, an unrippled future stripped of every possibility for change.
Fang Xiaoxia was no different right now. She had once fantasized that her toys threw secret parties and moved around on their own whenever she left the house—cowboys riding wooden donkeys into battle against flying mechanical dolls, playing statues whenever their owner turned to look...
And then, little by little, she had discarded those unrealistic daydreams.
Yet this time was truly different.
A black cat, perpetually battered and weak, mysteriously vanished and then reappeared, found unconscious beneath the costume discarded by Mr. Logger Vick?
Considering the glimpse she had caught through the window of Mr. Logger Vick's bizarre, limping gait, as if he were injured...
There was simply too much room in between for romantic imagination.
Unfortunately, the cat paid her no heed, and certainly showed no sign of transforming into a human before her eyes under the moonlight.
Though she giggled, a trace of disappointment lingered in the girl's heart. After all, the fantasy had been shattered.
Back when she watched television as a little girl, she had fantasized about meeting Baron the Cat from the Cat Bureau, having him swoop in with a bridal carry to rescue her from danger, chivalrous and refined.
Even better if he could transform into a human named Lord Alex Sebastian Shiro—the Knight of the Sacred Obsidian Abyss and Dark Sorrowfeather. He would carry a black umbrella, wear a tailored suit, stand tall and slender with distinct knuckles and faint veins showing through his skin, and say that her kiss had broken the wicked witch's curse. He would reveal he was actually the young master of a massive federal conglomerate, and had returned to offer himself in marriage out of gratitude...
"...Huh?"
At that thought, Fang Xiaoxia suddenly froze.
Her cheeks flushed pink, and her eyes sparkled every time she glanced at the black cat. But to Bai Zhou, the look sent an inexplicable chill down his spine. She definitely seemed up to no good.
"Is it... missing a kiss?" the girl muttered under her breath, her voice hesitating in a way that left Bai Zhou staring blankly.
Then, he saw her face slowly drawing closer in his field of vision.
*Oh no!* Bai Zhou cursed inwardly and began to thrash.
*No! Don't! I thought we were friends, and here you are harboring indecent designs on me!*
*My teacher is watching right outside! Don't drag me into a mistake!*
Without even a spare second to see what Crow was doing, Bai Zhou squirmed frantically in Fang Xiaoxia's iron grip, twisting his head away with a look of sheer terror.
At this moment, Bai Zhou truly regretted not eating more chives and garlic at the night market. A single breath right now would have served as a weapon to drive off his assailant.
Yet Bai Zhou also knew that as a Level 4 Destined who had awakened the pre-natal essence within his body, his flesh automatically carried out metabolic purification under the influence of spirituality. Far from emitting foul odors, he carried only a faint, sweet freshness. When ordinary people drew close, the scent grew more appealing the more they inhaled it, and prolonged exposure could even prolong life and foster dependence...
Fortunately, the girl reined herself in just in time.
Fang Xiaoxia suddenly pushed the struggling kitten away, shaking her head vigorously. "No, no, no... this is supposed to be my first kiss."
"Sorry, little cat, but I have to save my first kiss for that important person in the future—even though I don't know what that bastard is doing right now, whether he has a girlfriend, or why he hasn't come looking for me yet."
*Like it wouldn't be my first kiss too...* Held in Fang Xiaoxia's arms, Bai Zhou quietly rolled his eyes.
"Still, not transforming is probably for the best. If you really turned into a cat prince..." Fang Xiaoxia said to the cat, "I honestly wouldn't know what to do."
With her thin skin and crippling social anxiety, if the cat had actually shifted into human form, her brain would have short-circuited on the spot from embarrassment, leaving her unable to utter a single syllable.
And considering the undignified things she had just done to the cat, along with those wild, whimsical whispers... without question, she would have surrendered the apartment to him on the spot.
Fang Xiaoxia would have bypassed the stairs entirely, leaping straight out the window to make her escape. Even her habit of hiding in trash cans wouldn't have been enough to save her from the mortification.
She had experienced something similar once before, when a mysterious assassin wearing nothing but an apron—carrying a dozen phones, thick gold chains, and designer watches—had nearly become the new owner of her secret base...
Unforgettable to this day, that shock stood right alongside the sight of Logger Vick terrifying the smelly bears as one of the most vivid, indelible memories of Fang Xiaoxia's life.
*No, you won't get a cat prince, but you might get a wanted criminal packing a blade and a gun—and one whose face you know, at that...* Bai Zhou muttered silently to himself.
A little cat had no way to dodge human kisses. To protect his purity, Bai Zhou would have had to seriously consider turning into a human—though doing so might have scared the currently excitable girl so badly that she would faint dead away.
There was an old fable in *Eight Thousand Questions of Naughty Black Cat* about Lord Ye's love of dragons. In this new federal era, they could easily write a story about Xiaoxia's love of cats...
"Little cat, did I scare you just now?" Seeing the cat roll his eyes in sullen silence, Fang Xiaoxia grew anxious, worried that she had frightened the already injured, fragile animal.
Bai Zhou ignored her.
He turned his head away and gazed somewhat gloomily out the window.
The moonlight beyond was beautiful. Miss Crow was staring up at the moon, deeply absorbed, utterly ignoring Bai Zhou's gaze.
In that moment, Fang Xiaoxia looked at Bai Zhou, Bai Zhou looked at Crow, and Crow looked at the moon—while the veil of moonlight fell equally upon them all.
Bai Zhou suddenly felt bizarrely out of place, like an aloof black cat kept by a noble lady, perpetually indifferent to its mistress while sneaking out at every opportunity to rendezvous with the rats outside.
Except there was no noble lady here, and no rats either.
There was, however, one noisy crow.
*"Caw, caw, caw! Caw, caw, caw!"*
The crow curled its wings miraculously, propping them against its hips as it cawed twice at Bai Zhou, before clutching its belly and cawing again, as if mocking Bai Zhou's recent predicament.
"Don't ignore me... I'm sorry! Lord Cat!"
Seeing Bai Zhou turn his head away, wrapped in bandages, Fang Xiaoxia suddenly felt terribly guilty, remorse surging through her like a torrential river.
Desperate to win Lord Cat's forgiveness, the girl gently set Bai Zhou down on the bed, pulled out a pink piggy bank from somewhere, and presented it to the bewildered cat with both hands—
"Please forgive me, Lord Cat!"
Cradling the piggy bank, the girl prostrated herself on the bed, trembling. "This is the dowry my mom saved up for me. Even though she never lets me touch it, I'm willing to spend it on our friendship fee to buy you lots and lots of dried fish...
"If I do that, will you stop being mad at me?"
"Can we... please not stop being friends? Once I start working in the future, I'll pay friendship fees regularly!"
The timid girl cared so intensely even about a cat that she was willing to go to such lengths.
With the girl so close, the scent of her shampoo carried a richer milky fragrance, blended with a sweet and tart touch of passionfruit, drifting straight into Bai Zhou's nose.
*No, that really isn't necessary...* Bai Zhou thought wryly once more.
Childish sincerity often left people between tears and laughter, yet it was precisely that kind of sincerity that touched the heart most deeply.
As the moonlight fell upon the girl's prostrated, head-lowered figure, the sight was amusing, yet the trembling girl in her pajamas also brought a faint pang of sorrow to Bai Zhou's heart.
Longing for friends...
In Fang Xiaoxia, Bai Zhou caught glimpses of his past self.
Only, back then, not even the stray cats and dogs had liked him—who could blame them, when he had been stealing their food?
"...Meow."
Sounding almost like a sigh, Bai Zhou hopped lightly down from the windowsill and patted Fang Xiaoxia's shoulder twice with his cat paw as she knelt there.
Beneath the moon's gaze, the gesture mirrored a king tapping a knight's shoulder with a sword to bestow an honor.
Then, the cat's paw reached out and nudged the piggy bank on the bed twice.
Quite heavy... but never mind. Collecting cash wasn't very convenient in the body of a cat.
Bai Zhou shook his head with regret.
*"?"*
Outside the window, Crow could no longer stay composed. Her calm, aloof expression crumbled.
*Wait, that's her dowry! Were you actually thinking of taking it?*
*And you, silly Fang Xiaoxia! That's the dowry your mother prepared for you, put it away properly! What on earth do you think 'friendship' even is?!*
*One is an utterly unscrupulous black cat, the other an utterly foolish girl. I really need to rein the two of you in...*
Fang Xiaoxia, however, was overjoyed, her eyes completely filled with the aloof little cat.
Carefully picking up the bandage-wrapped black cat, Fang Xiaoxia shared her food with Bai Zhou as she sat back in her chair to watch anime together.
As they watched, her eyes sparkled as she introduced the anime's characters and lore to Bai Zhou, as if stepping into her element, convinced the black cat could truly understand her words.
Munching on fried chicken and potato chips while listening to the girl's chatter beside him, Bai Zhou took the opportunity to check his physical condition.
It was better than he had expected. Though his strength remained weak, most of his injuries were improving.
His humming spirituality had recovered significantly, circulating in an orderly rhythm through every corner of his body. While still a long way from his peak, it was enough to execute secret techniques and handle Level 3 Extraordinaries.
Against foes like the Black Warriors, he would no longer need to be as consumed with dread and caution as before. With pre-arranged rituals to assist him, handling them would be comparatively easy.
In a pinch, unleashing the Cursebound Colossus would be more than enough to handle most situations.
At the very least, the Major would never guess that Bai Zhou had grown this much overnight, which gave Bai Zhou plenty of room to maneuver.
The reason he thought of this was that it was already half-past eight in the evening.
With three and a half hours left until midnight, Bai Zhou had to prepare for the Major's compass tracking.
Though Bai Zhou didn't believe the Major would have the energy to spare for him right now, he couldn't rule out the possibility just in case.
The night deepened.
Moonlight flowed like water.
The girl in silly monkey pajamas curled up near the wall on the bed, holding the black cat tight in her arms.
Quietly opening his emerald-green, gem-like eyes in the dark, the black cat slipped out of the girl's embrace and hopped lightly onto the windowsill, making not a single sound from start to finish.
Just then, the sound of smacking lips came from behind, accompanied by the girl's sleepy murmur: "Kitty... please don't leave this time, okay?"
Moonlight poured in, illuminating Fang Xiaoxia as she curled around her own shadow.
She looked afraid of something, her brows furrowed even in her sleep—perhaps recalling the panic and helplessness she had felt when the black cat had abruptly vanished without a word before.
Bai Zhou looked back in silence for a moment. Remembering that his injuries were not yet healed and that he still needed a place to recuperate, he found himself nodding unconsciously.
*For the time being, I suppose it's fine...*
*At least tonight, I'll come back.*
Dragging his exhausted, injured body through half an hour of ritual preparations, Bai Zhou waited for company inside a quiet office building in the commercial district.
As expected, the Major made no move tonight.
Bai Zhou waited until one in the morning, but no fresh pursuit materialized.
It seemed to be a peaceful, uneventful night.
Yet a quiet Major unsettled Bai Zhou far more than a noisy one. When an adversary suddenly went dark, it was hard not to suspect he was brewing an even more terrifying plot.
The investigations into "Teacher Sun" and "Red Spider" needed to be put on the agenda as soon as possible.
Still, what should he do now?
Clearing away the traces of the ritual, Bai Zhou pondered the question.
*Then... go home?*
His eyes blinked twice, the thought springing unbidden into his mind.
The moment he realized what he was thinking, a strange tingling warmth brushed across his heart.
After all, he had never had a "home."
—Even if he didn't truly have one now either.
Before long, bathed in moonlight, the bandage-wrapped black cat set out on his return journey at one in the morning.
On the way back, Bai Zhou passed Yuanmeng Middle School, not far from Fang Xiaoxia's home.
Yuanmeng Middle School, Fang Xiaoxia's house, and her secret base—all three were within a single street of one another.
According to Crow, in the Federation this was called a school-district property, and the prices were usually exorbitant. Many people would rather take on crushing debt and skimp on food and clothing just to buy a tiny apartment in a prime location, exhausting their bodies with daily overtime.
Bai Zhou had never understood this before. After all, housing in Wancheng was first come, first served; when someone died, the next person moved in, much like the mass graves outside the city, completely untethered from economics.
If owning a house didn't make life more comfortable, but instead dragged people into poverty and hardship... did the person own the house, or did the house own the person?
Lacking a full understanding of Blue Star and knowing little about the Federation, Bai Zhou often harbored such naive, bewildered thoughts, which Crow would usually dismiss with a speechless pause and a terse "You wouldn't understand."
There were many such questions on Blue Star. Sometimes Bai Zhou thought this world was great, but other times he felt it wasn't so great after all.
*Whoosh!*
As Bai Zhou padded along through the night, the snapping of a cloak fluttering in the wind above his head suddenly interrupted his wandering thoughts.
At the same time, the sharp, hurried whistling of a grappling hook cut through the air.
Inexplicably familiar.
Bai Zhou's heart jumped. Walking along the corner, the black cat flinched and immediately darted into the shadows against the wall.
Next, Bai Zhou stealthily poked his little cat head out and looked up.
*That's—*
In the distance, Bai Zhou spotted a cloaked, masked witch swinging like a pendulum between skyscrapers, carried along by a broom-shaped grappling hook as she bounded and leaped with startling agility.
Her figure flashed across midair, casting a dashing silhouette onto the ground.
Her back soon receded into a tiny black dot, blending into the night. Yet from that brief glimpse, Bai Zhou keenly noticed that the masked witch seemed somewhat unsteady on her feet.
Right behind her—
Several eerie black shadows darted in close pursuit, weaving deftly through the towers.
The chasing figures vanished across the sky in a flash.
Yet Bai Zhou's gaze turned sharp.
That masked figure he had caught a glimpse of wasn't unfamiliar to him. Was she... the Gem Witch?
And those shadows behind her were Black Warriors?!
Puzzlement flickered in Bai Zhou's eyes, quickly followed by a spark of excitement.
Why hadn't those Black Warriors come looking for him tonight, but instead gone after this mysterious, powerful Level 5 Extraordinary?
The Gem Witch, who had once brought a wand suspected to have come from Zhuluoji for him to repair...
Was being hunted by Black Warriors?
What had happened?
Whatever the reason, the important thing was that those hunting the Gem Witch were the Major's Black Warriors!
Whoever was going up against the Major—
Bai Zhou was definitely going to jump in and back them up!
Chapter 159