Chapter 84: Infiltration

Nian Zhi’an borrowed some points from the System to exchange for a Life-Extending Pill. Afterward, she discovered that her new body was gradually becoming controllable. She moved her hand and then barely forced her eyes open.

She found herself locked in a cage placed on the back seat of a car, with a very low field of view. She lowered her head for a glance and, as expected, saw a pair of furry paws.

The sensation of turning into an animal wasn’t unfamiliar to her. Nian Zhi’an had scampered across the ground and soared through the skies in various forms before.

While they were still on the road, she closed her eyes and began receiving the original host’s memories. The original owner of this body was a Pallas’s cat Demon who had cultivated for a century. Not long ago, she had faced her first Thunder Tribulation in her demonic life. Unfortunately, without guidance from elders or protective treasures, she had charged headlong into the lightning and nearly been obliterated, her soul on the verge of dissipation.

Because the System had selected her body, it had repaired her nearly scattered soul as payment and sent it into reincarnation.

She had to admit that in this world, Nian Zhi’an shared a strange affinity with heavenly thunder.

The two little demons sitting in the driver’s seat and the passenger seat seemed to be from a sea race—she could smell the damp, salty tang of the ocean from far away.

…Just thinking about the sea made Nian Zhi’an unable to hold back a sigh.

“Awoo…”

“Did you hear something?” The merfolk in the driver’s seat alertly lifted her head and glanced into the rearview mirror.

The merfolk in the passenger seat paused for a moment. She twisted around directly to stare at the cage in the back, hesitating as she said, “Was that you?”

“…Meow?”

The plump little beast in the cage let out a weak “meow,” looking completely harmless and oddly ugly-cute.

“…” The girl in the passenger seat stared at her. After a long moment, she breathed a sigh of relief. “See? I told you it’s a cat!”

Nian Zhi’an shot the girl a glance. She suspected this merfolk already knew she wasn’t a cat but was desperately avoiding reality.

“Really…?”

“Didn’t you hear it meowing? No problem. It’s a bit… fat and ugly, sure, but it’s still a cat! Kitty, meow again!”

“…”

“Come on, meow once! Quick, quick! Big sis has some cat treats here!”

“…Meow.” The little beast in the cage let out an utterly emotionless meow.

“See? That’s the sound of a little kitty!”

The merfolk driving frowned, feeling like something was off, but with her weekly quotas pressing down on her, she could only hypnotize herself into suppressing that nagging unease.

“Bringing such an ugly cat to the Clan Leader—won’t she get mad?”

“…No worries. I’ve seen reps from other areas catch even uglier dumb cats, and the Clan Leader just had them released. Relax. Compared to those, this one’s kinda ugly-cute. What if it suits the Clan Leader’s tastes?” The merfolk girl in the passenger seat turned back to the bristling “cat” in the cage. “You gotta be good and obedient, okay? Our Clan Leader has a whole yard with tons of caretakers to scoop litter and feed the kitties. Endless cans of cat food and treats, too. If you win her favor, you’ll live in luxury forever—no more wandering hungry or getting bullied by other animals! So do your best!”

“…That way, we wouldn’t have to crawl through people’s pipes hunting cats every day.” The merfolk girl in the passenger seat sighed again. That last bit was her true thought.

She brainwashed every little kitty she caught like this, though none besides Nian Zhi’an had ever understood a word.

Nian Zhi’an endured the pain in her legs and curled up in a corner of the cage. These little merfolk probably didn’t know that their Clan Leader, Zuo Yuanxi, wasn’t actually a cat lover. At first, she had even disliked felines. It was only after her dao companion pestered her relentlessly, amid swirling cat hair and desensitization therapy, that she had grudgingly made peace with cat-kind.

Zuo Yuanxi had suffered such a huge loss at the paws of one cat—at least in her view, it had even derailed her path to immortality. So why else would she be rounding up cats on this scale? Luxury and riches? Nian Zhi’an didn’t buy it.

“Why’d the cat suddenly stop moving?! Oh no, oh no, oh no! Hurry—drive to the pet hospital!”

The round Pallas’s cat Demon twitched. She couldn’t go to a pet hospital—if her identity got exposed, reaching Zuo Yuanxi would be much harder.

“Meow~”

The plump, round “cat” lifted its head and let out a dainty meow.

【Pfft…】

“Abandoned System Processing Factory.”

The System received Nian Zhi’an’s sullen voice.

Tch, the irritable Great Demon King hadn’t changed a bit. The System cut off contact with Nian Zhi’an, then retreated to the System Space to laugh its fill.

“This cat… the longer you look, the cuter it gets. If the Clan Leader doesn’t want it, how about we keep it?”

The Pallas’s cat Demon barely restrained herself from baring her fangs. Foolish fish—you two little fry aren’t even enough for a snack. And you want to keep me?

“Forget it. You kill everything you try to raise. Do some good deeds and let the poor thing live.” The driving merfolk shot back.

“Sigh… Fine.” The merfolk in the passenger seat dejectedly turned her head back.

In the end, since the little “kitty” was lively and her leg injury was just superficial—no broken bones—the two merfolk simply bandaged it and skipped the pet hospital. They drove straight to the Clan Leader’s seaside villa.

At some point, the merfolk clan’s Clan Leader had taken up permanent residence on land. She had abandoned the far more comfortable and luxurious Undersea Palace for a lavish villa right on the coast.

These little merfolk couldn’t see the Clan Leader themselves. They handed the cat cage to her butler and then had to bid farewell to the “little kitty.” The one who had been in the passenger seat hugged the cage reluctantly—this was the first “kitty” that hadn’t lunged, scratched, and bitten upon smelling their fishy scent, and she had really taken a liking to the little guy!

It wasn’t until her companion dragged this embarrassing thing away that the butler took the cage.

The butler wiped the sweat from her forehead and lifted the cage to inspect the little creature inside.

“So fat.” The butler studied it for a while, then sighed.

“…” Stay calm, stay calm. Until she confirmed Zuo Yuanxi’s identity, she couldn’t give herself away. Nian Zhi’an struggled to tuck her paws away.

“But…” The butler hefted the cage, then chuckled. “The weight feels off. Looks like you’re not just chubby—you’re fluffy.”

Hmph!

The bristling furball in the cage shrank back down without thinking.

Even though it clearly wasn’t a cat, the butler still carried the cage inside and placed it with the others. This little one was so cute—what if the Clan Leader liked it?

The butler found a spot to set the newcomer down, then shut the door to the Cat Waiting Room. Suddenly, a cold, powerful aura appeared behind her.

The butler was unfazed by now. She turned calmly and bowed slightly. “My lady, would you like to see this week’s new cat delivery?”

The tall woman addressed as “my lady” by the butler seemed somewhat out of control. Her pupils were tinged with blood, and her silver ear fins faintly peeked through her hair. Ignoring her ferocity, the merfolk clan’s Clan Leader looked like a beauty straight out of a fairy tale.

“No…”

Zuo Yuanxi pressed her hand to her forehead, a flicker of pain crossing her eyes.

What had just happened to her? Why was she suddenly here?

“My lady? You need rest now.” The butler produced a gourd and poured out a pill, handing it to Zuo Yuanxi.

Zuo Yuanxi swallowed the pill, barely reining in her rampaging power.

“Rest? I’ve rested for centuries already.” Zuo Yuanxi forced a cold laugh. “Thanks to her, I can keep resting straight through to my end.”

The butler kept her head lowered. She never dared interject about the late wife—that was the Clan Leader’s one taboo.

As for that late wife… she was hard to judge.

From the merfolk clan’s perspective, even the clan’s harshest punishment wouldn’t have been too much for her.

“New cats arrived today?” Zuo Yuanxi glanced toward the Cat House, an inexplicable restlessness stirring in her heart.

“Yes.” The butler assented, then added, “My lady, why not tell the young ones your specific requirements? They’re searching blindly like this—another few centuries might not turn up what you need.”

“And perhaps look for house cats instead…”

On the Clan Leader’s orders, the entire merfolk clan had turned the world upside down searching for cats. But what kind did she want exactly? What breed? Regular cat or cat demon? She hadn’t breathed a word.

The cats that had been screened were imprinted with the scent of merfolk before being released, to prevent them from being caught again the next time. This process had continued for several centuries, but they still hadn’t found the cat the clan leader wanted. Going on like this wasn’t a solution.

The butler merely raised her head slightly and noticed the clan leader’s ugly expression. She knew immediately that she’d said the wrong thing and apologized at once. “This subordinate misspoke…”

“I know. Searching like this is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

The butler felt an indescribable pressure in each word from the clan leader.

“But I don’t know… I do know she wouldn’t become someone’s pet.” Zuo Yuanxi let out a self-deprecating chuckle. She raised her head and glanced at the cat house. If she went inside now, she’d only frighten every cat in there to death. With that faint trace of mercy in her heart, she chose to come back another day. “I’ll come take a look in a few days.”

“She?” The butler’s heart jolted. She had a vague, ominous premonition.

She knew the clan leader had never let go of what happened with the late wife. It was just that now her hatred outweighed her love, which had twisted her into such a violent personality. The clan leader hadn’t been like this before.

It couldn’t be… related to the late wife, could it?

She remembered that the clan leader had started sending people to search everywhere for cats not long after the late wife died.

But the late wife had already perished under heavenly thunder, her soul scattered to the winds! The clan leader couldn’t possibly be so obsessed as to search for a cat whose soul was scattered to the winds, right? That was a cat with no chance of reincarnation. The clan leader wasn’t crazy yet… She was probably just overthinking it.

The butler patted her forehead and then hurried after Zuo Yuanxi’s departing footsteps.

Late into the night, Nian Zhi’an—who’d waited all day without seeing Zuo Yuanxi—used her plump little paw to open the cat cage.

After sensing Zuo Yuanxi’s aura, she’d been anxiously waiting for her to come inside, but the other woman had turned and left instead. It looked like she’d have to wait several more days before coming back. Unable to bear waiting any longer, Nian Zhi’an had the system send her a map so she could take the initiative.

In the pitch-black and foreboding villa, she used her small and nimble body to slip silently through the place.