Chapter 38: The Slaughter of the Catfolk

"Doesn't seem to be any change. Could it be that he hasn't started yet?"

Guo Sheng, Liu Ya, and Bai Tianxiong walked side by side along the empty ancient street. Liu Ya, unable to keep her mouth shut, kept chattering. Ever since Xia Tianqiong left, three more rounds of the game had passed; they were now in the eighth round. Just like before, the mice were hiding and the cats were hunting; there was no sign of a mass slaughter of cat-people.

"Do you think he was just feeding us a line?" Liu Ya had initially held a good impression of Xia Tianqiong and was eager to recruit him into the Administration, but his tendency to withhold information in such a situation made her particularly disgruntled.

Guo Sheng gazed up at the pair of massive cat eyes in the sky, his expression consistently grave. "I doubt it. He has no reason to deceive us about something like this. He’s likely trying to figure out a way to hunt the cat-people."

Bai Tianxiong chimed in from the side, "The area shrouded by the domain is comparable to a township, filled with intersecting streets and countless courtyards. With tens of thousands of people scattered about and only one or two thousand cat-people among them, it's impossible for one person to find that many in a single round."

"You're right!" Liu Ya nodded quickly, a sense of shared resentment rising in her. "He's just one person. Even if all the cat-people stood before him, he might not be able to finish them all off. If he had just told us the truth, we could have helped him pull it off. But now? Let's just watch quietly and see how he hunts these cat-people and deals with the Cat Demon Specter."

Bai Tianxiong smiled faintly. "Once he realizes he can't do it, he’ll likely come to us for help."

The three walked along the quaint, atmospheric street, chatting and laughing. While this was a death game for others, for them, as long as they didn't encounter the Cat Demon Specter, there was no real danger.

As they passed a small alley, six or seven mouse-people suddenly lunged out. They were aggressive, each brandishing kitchen knives, wooden clubs, or things like table and chair legs.

"Kill the damn cat-people!" Without a word, the mouse-people roared and charged, attacking immediately. Their proficiency suggested this wasn't their first time.

"Leave this to me." Before Guo Sheng and Liu Ya could move, Bai Tianxiong acted first. A pale, long-haired figure drifted out from his body—it appeared to be a female specter. Like a wisp of blue smoke, she darted into the body of one of the male mouse-people.

The next second, the mouse-man’s eyes rolled back, his dark pupils seemingly vanishing. He dropped his weapon, clutched his own head, and twisted it with all his might. *Snap!* With a crack of bone, his head turned a full 180 degrees, and he died instantly.

The entire process took barely a second. The other mouse-people, who had been charging with such momentum, suddenly froze in their tracks, staring in shock at the corpse slowly collapsing to the ground.

"A ghost!" one of them shrieked, and they scattered in a panic. But they were no match for the flying female specter; she caught up to them one by one and killed them on the spot.

Guo Sheng looked at the corpses, suddenly sensing something amiss. These mouse-people dared to initiate attacks on cat-people, and they did so with organization and premeditation. Something felt wrong.

"Leave one alive." At his request, Bai Tianxiong had the female specter capture a live mouse-man.

"Section Chief Guo, what would you like to ask?"

"Ask them why they are ambushing us."

The captured mouse-man was a youth in his twenties. He lay paralyzed on the ground, trembling uncontrollably, terrified by the female specter. Bai Tianxiong squatted down and asked, "Why did you ambush us?"

"Please, don't kill me! I was forced into this!" The youth whimpered, his face full of misery as he begged for mercy.

Bai Tianxiong glared at him coldly. "Answer my question, or you die right now."

"We heard that only cat-people can survive to the end, and that if you kill a cat-person, you become a cat-person yourself."

"Who did you hear that from?"

"I don't know, all the mouse-people are spreading this rumor."

Bai Tianxiong looked up and exchanged a glance with Guo Sheng; both had the same suspicion. It was highly likely that Xia Tianqiong had leaked this information.

"Once the mouse-people know they can become cat-people by killing them, most will try to kill cat-people to survive, which will reduce their numbers." Liu Ya said this, then realized the logic didn't hold. "But if a mouse-person kills a cat-person and becomes one in the next round, the total number of cat-people remains almost the same. This is meaningless!"

Bai Tianxiong looked at his own cat claws, then at the youth’s mouse claws, and realized a possibility. "Cat claws are long and sharp. If mouse-people want to kill them, they have to team up. This means some cat-people won't be able to catch mice, and will eventually be killed by the power of the rules."

"If that’s all he’s got, he’s doomed to fail." Guo Sheng shook his head slightly, his expression filled with regret. "This might slowly reduce the number of cat-people, but it will never bring the total down below one hundred."

The cat-and-mouse game continued round after round. Guo Sheng's words were proven true: the number of cat-people decreased slowly, while the number of mouse-people plummeted. If things continued this way, the constant attrition between them would leave almost no survivors.

It wasn't until the fifteenth round that something unusual happened. Guo Sheng and his group were invited to join a team by other cat-people. They had originally intended to refuse, but upon hearing that the other side had already gathered hundreds of cat-people, they sensed something strange.

The three followed them to the gathering place and found nearly a thousand cat-people huddled together, discussing how to raid a mouse-person stronghold.

"I know what he's planning!" Guo Sheng’s eyes widened suddenly as he grasped Xia Tianqiong’s intent. Liu Ya and Bai Tianxiong realized it at the same moment.

In a certain courtyard, Xia Tianqiong had slipped in, avoiding the other mouse-people. A moment later, Huang Yu sneaked in to meet him.

"Brother, most of the cat-people are gathered in the courtyard to the southwest. There are about a thousand of them."

"Good work. I'll make sure you survive and leave this place."

Xia Tianqiong’s method for dealing with the cat-people was actually quite simple. He spread the rumors among the mouse-people to force them to fight back, while simultaneously leading a group of them to hold a specific area—creating a "safe zone" that deterred the cat-people. He then had Huang Yu inform the cat-people about the mouse-people's situation, forcing them to unite as well, lest they be wiped out.

After a few rounds, the mouse-people grew more numerous in their groups, and so did the cat-people. The number of mouse-people was always about twenty times that of the cat-people, and they grew slightly stronger after each round. Once they banded together, the cat-people couldn't kill them; in fact, they risked being killed themselves.

"Find a place to hide. Next round, I’m starting the cleanup." Xia Tianqiong checked the time; there were only three minutes left in the current round—not enough time to act. He had to wait for the next one.

Huang Yu looked nervous. "I haven't killed any mouse-people this round yet."

No sooner had she spoken than the young man pulled out a bronze mirror and gave it a flick. A bewildered mouse-man appeared right in front of her. It was one Xia Tianqiong had grabbed earlier specifically to help Huang Yu complete her task.

A warm feeling washed over Huang Yu; she hadn't realized he was so attentive.

Three minutes later, the fifteenth round ended. Xia Tianqiong rushed to the cat-people's gathering point. At this time, all the cat-people had lost their vision; they sat or leaned against walls, packed densely within several courtyards. He couldn't act yet, or he would trigger the death rules.

Xia Tianqiong leaped across the rooftops, observing the cat-people below. If the Cat Demon Specter were hiding among them, it would be troublesome; he would have to lure it away before dealing with the others. Fortunately, the Cat Demon Specter preferred to act alone and was not among them. He did, however, spot the officials and the Bai family members.

After a moment of thought, Xia Tianqiong teleported directly into the shadow behind Guo Sheng.

"Section Chief Guo."

Before he could finish, Guo Sheng, Liu Ya, and Bai Tianxiong were startled and immediately activated their respective specter arts. They couldn't see, and they were terrified of being ambushed.

"Don't worry, it's me. I have something to say."

Xia Tianqiong spoke again, and the three calmed down slightly, though they remained on high alert. They couldn't be sure if Xia Tianqiong might suddenly turn on them.

"I'm about to start killing the cat-people. You should leave this area as soon as possible to avoid collateral damage." Xia Tianqiong had considered killing the three of them, but they had stood their ground against a Fierce-level Cat Demon Specter; they were clearly powerful. Even though they couldn't see, their contracted specters could, and a surprise attack wasn't guaranteed to succeed. Thus, he chose to persuade them to leave to avoid conflict.

"Are you sure you can handle this alone? Do you need our help?" Guo Sheng’s tone had shifted from his previous arrogance to an uncharacteristically gentle one.

Xia Tianqiong asked, "You are cat-people too. How could you help me?"

"We can't help you kill them, but we can help contain them so they don't scatter everywhere." They had guessed Xia Tianqiong was going to slaughter the cat-people and wanted to contribute. If they could resolve the Cat Demon Specter, they would save themselves and two or three thousand mouse-people. For the Administration and the ancient families, being part of resolving such a massive supernatural event was a great achievement.

Xia Tianqiong didn't care about their ulterior motives; he only wanted to contract the Cat Demon Specter. "Fine. Then I’ll trouble you three."

They spoke without restraint, and the many cat-people in the courtyard heard everything clearly. Thinking that mouse-people had infiltrated their ranks, they began to shout and curse, and some tried to flee. But the time hadn't come yet; the cat-people still hadn't regained their sight and couldn't leave, which only sparked further chaos.

Guided by their respective contracted specters, Guo Sheng and his group left the gathering place and moved to the perimeter, tasked with intercepting any cat-people trying to escape.

Ten minutes later, the cat-people’s vision returned. It was time for the "cat-and-mouse" phase.

"Where are they? Where is that arrogant brat who said he was going to kill us all?"

"Did anyone see him?"

"Drag him out! I'm going to tear him to pieces!"

As soon as their sight returned, the cat-people began searching for the person who had spoken earlier. But after looking around, they found no sign of any mouse-people.

"Stop looking. I'm right here."

The cat-people turned toward the voice and saw an eighteen-year-old kid sitting atop a high horse-head wall. Before they could start cursing, the boy raised a bronze mirror.

Suddenly, everyone illuminated by the mirror was pulled into the air by a massive force and sucked into the glass. Xia Tianqiong was planning to go after the Cat Demon Specter, so he no longer cared about being seen using his specter arts. A courtyard packed with nearly a hundred cat-people was sucked in within seconds, and then he moved on to the next one.

"Brothers, it's work time!" As soon as the first cat-person entered the mirror space, the Takeout Specter pounced to tear into them, not forgetting to remind the other contracted specters.