Chapter 39: The Cat Demon's Bizarre Splitting

Holding the bronze mirror, Xia Tianqiong teleported everywhere within the ancient city, searching for the remaining cat-people.

Having scouted during the previous rounds, he had a rough idea of the active ranges of the other cat-people groups, making them relatively easy to track down.

As long as he found them, a single flash from the mirror—whether there were three or five, or several dozen—would suck them all right into the mirror.

After killing them, he would keep the cat fur they had previously acquired, casting their corpses out of the mirror space.

This game round had not yet ended, and the vast majority of the cat-people had already been killed. Only a few stray ones remained hiding in remote corners, numbering fewer than a hundred now.

To be safe, Xia Tianqiong intended to hunt down the rest.

However, the Cat Demon Specter had set its sights on him, forcing him to give up the hunt.

The current round was still ongoing, meaning he was still a rat-man, while the Cat Demon Specter was a cat; cats hunting rats adhered to the rules.

The Cat Demon Specter moved with terrifying speed, sprinting across eaves and walls like a bolt of orange-red lightning, leaving behind only a blurred silhouette.

Had Xia Tianqiong not possessed the ability of shadow teleportation, he would have been caught long ago.

Although his teleportation destinations were random and his path zigzagged, no matter how he fled, the Cat Demon Specter always managed to track him down accurately.

Such was the function of the Specter Domain.

The human and the specter played a game of cat-and-mouse through the ancient town, staging a life-and-death pursuit that many people witnessed.

Suddenly, the Cat Demon Specter stopped atop a roof, coldly watching Xia Tianqiong across the street and halting its pursuit.

It was not that it wanted to give up, but rather that the time for this game round had expired, transforming Xia Tianqiong into a cat-man.

The Cat Demon Specter had to abide by the rules of the game; cats could not kill cats.

Standing on the ancient street, Xia Tianqiong felt his claws, ears, and mouth begin to change.

He was transitioning from a rat-man into a cat-man, yet he paid it no mind, keeping his gaze locked firmly on the Cat Demon Specter on the roof.

The Cat Demon Specter did not appear as a half-beast, but rather as a young woman with an exquisite figure.

Brown skin, slightly reddish pupils, and a mane of orange-red wavy hair made her look like a beauty from the ancient Western Regions. Paired with her fluffy triangular ears, she was both mesmerizing and enchanting.

"Meow~"

It let out a sudden cry, sounding just like a cat.

Then, a remarkably gory scene unfolded.

Its body suddenly split down the exact middle of its forehead, the cut tearing all the way down between its legs.

It looked as though it had been cleaved in two by a blade.

The cross-section of its body was a bloody mess, yet no blood flowed; instead, countless strands of flesh wriggled like worms.

The flesh rapidly regenerated, and a few seconds later, a brand-new half-body grew out from the severed surface.

Just like that, what was originally a single Cat Demon Specter had now split into two, and their appearances had altered as well.

That was not the end of it; both bodies split apart once more.

Two became four, four became eight, eight became sixteen, and the division continued. In less than a minute, after splitting a total of eight times, there were ultimately 256 Cat Demon Specter avatars.

Most peculiarly, these avatars included men and women, old and young, each with a completely distinct appearance.

Many nearby rat-people witnessed this spectacle, their faces pale with shock and panic.

These avatars were all in the form of cat-people, and they were destined to hunt down the rat-people.

When Xia Tianqiong saw this, the heart that had been hanging in his chest finally settled.

This was the exact transformation he had been waiting for; only at this moment would there be an opportunity to contract the Cat Demon Specter.

According to information from his past life, when the number of cat-people became too low while the number of rat-people remained vastly inflated, the game would fall into severe imbalance.

The Cat Demon Specter would then split into numerous avatars to act as cat-people and restore balance to the game.

Now, seeing it with his own eyes, it proved to be true.

The Cat Demon Specter itself was at the Fierce Specter rank, but following the division, its rank dropped, and the rank of each avatar varied.

They were predominantly of the Dread Specter and Malevolent Specter ranks, with the occasional Wild Specter rank mixed in.

Xia Tianqiong’s target was to find one specific, special avatar among them.

Once he contracted that avatar, he would be able to indirectly contract the original Cat Demon Specter when all the avatars eventually fused back together into the primary entity.

The game continued, and in this round, Xia Tianqiong was a cat-man.

Following a fifteen-minute visual deprivation, when his vision finally returned, the more than two hundred Cat Demon Specter avatars had vanished without a trace.

Clearly, they had gone off to hunt the rat-people.

Xia Tianqiong made no attempt to track down that special avatar; instead, he sought out an uninhabited courtyard.

Barring the front gate and standing in the center of the courtyard, he used the Delivery Specter’s specter-craft to materialize a plethora of fish-based dishes.

Braised carp, fish with pickled cabbage, boiled fish in spicy broth, steamed sea bass, stinky mandarin fish, and more filled the space, piled high.

In his past life, the Cat Demon Specter had descended several times, slaughtering countless people.

During its final appearance, a Hunter who had contracted the Delivery Specter was sucked into the Specter Domain, where he accidentally discovered that a specific special avatar harbored an extreme fondness for fish dishes.

He used food to lure this avatar into signing a contract with him, ultimately allowing him to indirectly contract the main body of the Cat Demon Specter.

This was precisely what Xia Tianqiong aimed to replicate now.

Scarcely two minutes after the food was laid out, a figure appeared atop the wall.

It looked like a child of eight or nine years old, though its gender was impossible to tell.

Its eyes were slanted, its mouth hung open, and drool constantly spilled forth—resembling someone with Down syndrome. At a single glance, it was obvious its intelligence was quite low.

Needless to say, this was that special avatar.

"Come on down, big brother will treat you to something delicious!"

Xia Tianqiong wore a smile, his tone gentle, much like someone coaxing a young child.

In the eyes of the little cat-child, there was curiosity, childlike innocence, and just a hint of vigilance.

These avatars of the Cat Demon Specter not only possessed distinct appearances, but also seemed to have their own nascent sapience, varying notably in intelligence.

Some were crafty, cunning, and bloodthirsty, while others were childlike, innocent, and endearing.

The little cat-child was clearly the latter.

It tilted its head in hesitation, its eyes fixed unwaveringly on the food in the courtyard as a continuous stream of drool soaked the front of its clothes.

"It's all for you, come and taste it! It's so delicious!"

Xia Tianqiong called out repeatedly, yet the little cat-child refused to climb down.

Looking somewhat foolish, its wariness remained thoroughly intact.

Clutching the bronze mirror, he considered sucking the little cat-child inside. Yet he worried about triggering some unknown rule; after all, the rules he knew might not encompass everything.

This moment was of paramount importance, and he could not afford a single accident.

After much deliberation, he suddenly took two steps back, putting distance between himself and the food.

This time, it finally worked!

Unable to resist the temptation of the food after all, the little cat-child dropped from the wall with a whoosh, scooped up a box of braised carp, and began to devour it.

Right at that moment, with a loud crash, the courtyard gate was forcefully shoved open.

Gu Sheng and his two companions strode in.

Seeing the little cat-child, a flicker of strange emotion crossed all three of their eyes, though they tried their utmost to conceal it.

"Mr. Xia, we were worried about your safety, so we came specifically to help you."

Gu Sheng spoke with righteous pretense, not even glancing at Xia Tianqiong, his gaze locked entirely on the little cat-child.

He had a gut feeling that everything Xia Tianqiong had done was for this very target.

"What could you possibly help me with?"

Xia Tianqiong’s expression turned icy; the intentions of these three were blatantly malicious.