Chapter 35: Murder and Catnapping

"My name is Huang Yu. What should I call you, brother?"

The woman had been following Xia Tianqiong the entire time, refusing to leave despite being shooed away several times. "You're so calm—do you know what's going on? We haven't been transported to another world, have we?"

She chattered on incessantly, regardless of whether Xia Tianqiong responded. He felt a bit annoyed and wanted to simply teleport away. However, he was currently inside the domain of a Cat Demon, and if he were to use any supernatural abilities, he would be detected and likely targeted. He couldn't afford to use his powers until the final, critical moment.

"If you keep following me, I'm going to hit you," he said, stopping abruptly and glaring at her with a threatening look, hoping to scare her off.

Huang Yu was indeed startled and hurriedly retreated two steps. However, she didn't leave; she kept trailing behind him at a distance. She seemed convinced that following Xia Tianqiong was the safest option.

Xia Tianqiong ignored her and continued walking. Suddenly, a small orange kitten appeared from around a street corner and meowed twice at them. Footsteps quickly followed from behind, and a sturdy man emerged. Seeing two "rat-people," his face lit up with joy, and he ran over quickly. As he passed Xia Tianqiong, he slowed down, hesitated for a moment—perhaps judging that the man wouldn't be easy to handle—and continued running toward Huang Yu instead.

"Don't grab me! Please, I beg you!" Seeing the man rushing toward her, Huang Yu knew exactly what he intended to do and began to plead as she ran.

It was useless. The sturdy man quickly caught up, scooped her up, and threw her over his shoulder.

"Beauty, don't blame me! I have no choice. Who told me to be a cat and you to be a mouse? If I don't catch you, I'll die."

"I don't want to die either! Brother, save me! Save me!" Huang Yu understood that in this strange world, cat-people were destined to be the enemies of rat-people; the man would never show mercy. Her only hope for survival was Xia Tianqiong, who was also a rat-person.

Xia Tianqiong kept walking, unwilling to meddle. There was no need; among the sixty or seventy thousand people here, the vast majority were destined to die—it was merely a matter of sooner or later.

Suddenly, he turned to look at the orange cat standing at the street corner. This was a reward obtained by a cat-person in the previous round; it could be used to track objects or people and was considered a quite practical, special supernatural item. On a whim, Xia Tianqiong decided he wanted to seize it for himself. After a brief hesitation, he lunged forward and grabbed the orange cat.

"Hey, what are you doing? That's mine! Let it go!" The sturdy man shouted as he rushed over, still carrying Huang Yu with ease.

Xia Tianqiong ignored him, lifted the kitten by the scruff of its neck, and examined it in the air. The little creature was quite cute, looking exactly like an ordinary house cat. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it was formed from a single strand of hair. The kitten bared its teeth and meowed at him.

"This thing has already bonded with its owner; it won't recognize me even if I take it," Xia Tianqiong muttered to himself.

"Are you fucking deaf? Didn't you hear me?" The sturdy man charged over, his face turning cold. "I was going to let you go, but since you're seeking your own death, I'll just catch you along with her."

Xia Tianqiong turned to look at him, still not speaking to him, but instead said to the woman on his shoulder, "What was your name? Huang something? I can save you, but you have to agree to one condition."

"I agree! As long as you save me, I'll do anything," Huang Yu replied without even asking what the condition was.

The sturdy man, enraged at being ignored, rushed to the front of Xia Tianqiong and kicked out, shouting, "You little brat, looking like a stick, what are you posturing for? Watch me kick you to death."

He was over 1.9 meters tall, a head taller than Xia Tianqiong, and with his muscular build, it looked like an adult bullying a child. But Xia Tianqiong dodged the kick with a swift sidestep and then violently swiped his claws, leaving three long gashes on the man's leg, blood instantly spurting out.

"Argh!" The man cried out in pain, stumbled, and fell to the ground. He hadn't expected the unassuming boy to have such fast reflexes and such viciousness.

"You're a mouse; you're supposed to be caught by me. How dare you hurt me?"

"Who said mice can't fight back against cats?" Xia Tianqiong walked over and delivered a fierce kick to the man's head, knocking him unconscious.

Huang Yu stood up, still trembling, and thanked him repeatedly. "Thank you, you're a good person. I knew you wouldn't leave me behind."

"Don't thank me. This is a transaction."

"What condition do you want me to agree to?" Huang Yu asked cautiously, not knowing why a sense of anticipation suddenly welled up in her heart.

Xia Tianqiong held the orange cat in his right hand and pointed to the unconscious man with his left. "It's simple: kill him."

"Ah!" Huang Yu covered her mouth in shock. "You want me to kill someone? Why?"

"Enough talk. This is our deal. I've saved you, and now it's your turn to fulfill your end," Xia Tianqiong said coldly, sounding devoid of emotion. It frightened Huang Yu, yet for some reason, she couldn't bear to leave him.

"If I kill him, can I stay with you?"

"You aren't in a position to negotiate with me." Xia Tianqiong initially wanted to refuse, but thinking he might find a use for her later, he changed his tone. "Staying with me isn't impossible, but you'll have to kill again in the future. Are you willing?"

"I..." Huang Yu didn't understand why he would force her to do it when he was clearly capable of killing the man himself. She knew very well that as a weak woman, she couldn't survive this game of "cat and mouse" on her own. To live, she had no other choice. After a brief hesitation, Huang Yu walked toward the unconscious man and slashed his throat with her sharp claws.

At first, she was nervous. Although this was the second person she had killed, this time it was a deliberate act, which felt completely different. But as she watched the blood spray out, her anxiety inexplicably faded.

*It seems killing isn't such a big deal after all,* she thought. From this moment on, she no longer had any psychological barriers to killing.

Xia Tianqiong watched from the side and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. This woman appeared fragile, but once she made up her mind, she was decisive and ruthless. In chaotic times, only such people could survive and thrive. If she ever had the chance to bind a supernatural entity, she might become someone of significance in the future.

Putting these thoughts aside, he observed the orange cat in his hand. After the sturdy man died, the cat suddenly vanished, transforming back into an orange-red strand of hair. Activating such a supernatural item required the consumption of life force or, alternatively, Nether currency. He took out a small ingot of gold, poured all the Nether energy within it into the hair, and in an instant, the hair transformed back into an orange cat.

It was chubby, plump, and even cuter and more vibrant in color than before. It no longer bared its teeth at him in hostility; instead, it rubbed its little head affectionately against his palm.

"It really works!" Xia Tianqiong finally smiled. He hadn't been sure if he could re-bond with the cat, which was why he had needed to kill the man and test it. He hadn't expected it to work.

The reason he hadn't killed the man himself was due to a special rule of this game: if a rat-person killed a cat-person, they would transform into a cat-person in the next round. For other rat-people, becoming a cat-person was a blessing—they wouldn't be hunted and could hunt others instead, increasing their chances of survival. But Xia Tianqiong was here for a different purpose; his identity as a rat-person was more advantageous for his ultimate plan, which was why he had made Huang Yu do the killing.

"What are you doing? What's up with that cat?" Huang Yu asked, curious. Xia Tianqiong couldn't be bothered to explain. "Time is limited. Let's go."

"Where to?"

"To find cat-people."

"Ah, you want to kill all the cat-people?"

Xia Tianqiong hesitated. "We'll see."

He planned to seize a few more strands of cat hair before the end of the second round. These items were not only useful for himself but could also be sold or traded for other supernatural items or artifacts.