"You dare to lick it?" the fat woman yelled angrily from the window upstairs and hurled the duster in her hand directly at Huang Yi!
In her panic, the mother cat quickly picked up Huang Yi and dashed towards the end of the street, soon disappearing around the corner.
After running wildly with Huang Yi in her mouth for some time, the mother cat slowed down and hesitantly looked back at the fat woman’s window.
The streetlight cast its light on her delicate body, creating a long shadow as the night breeze brought a chill.
If she left the fat woman, she would no longer be a precious pet but a despised stray cat.
If she were to return to the fat woman, she would have to give up Huang Yi, her own offspring.
Huang Yi actually hoped the mother cat would abandon him and let him wander the world, since he was a player and it didn’t matter where he went. But the mother cat was different; as an NPC, it was safer for her to return to the noble’s home.
The night wind grew stronger, blowing the mother cat’s fur back and revealing her sapphire-like eyes.
In the end, the mother cat made her decision. She tenderly looked down at Huang Yi, eyes filled with maternal love, and with him in her mouth, she ran towards the distance.
Between her owner and her child, she finally chose her child.
Huang Yi’s fragile life was thus steered onto a different track by the Spirit Cat.
...
"Look! There’s a Spirit Cat! Come catch it; it will fetch a good price!" While the mother cat was running, a few vagrants suddenly appeared on the street. One of them, with sharp eyes, spotted the mother cat, a glint of greed flashing in his eyes, and he quickly signaled his companions to surround her.
"Yeah, this indeed is a Rare Spirit Cat, a noble’s favorite pet. But the little one seems of impure breed, let’s just catch the big one," another vagrant commented and reached out his filthy hands towards the mother cat. His expression under the dim streetlight looked utterly ferocious.
Huang Yi’s heart sank. He had just been born and lacked even the ability to protect himself, let alone the mother cat; instead, he had endangered her!
Frightened, the mother cat contracted her body and clutched Huang Yi tightly. With a powerful leap, she scaled the wall and disappeared into the depths of the night, leaving the vagrants lamenting helplessly below.
Huang Yi’s heart finally eased; the mother cat was safe for now. However, this was not a permanent solution. He needed to grow quickly so that he could be truly independent, without being a burden to his mother.
Running nonstop, the mother cat carried Huang Yi securely in her mouth. All he could hear were the endless sounds of wind, the world shaking into a blur of lights and shadows. Silver moonlight, pale starlight, and orange streetlights all merged, receding swiftly.
The night deepened as the mother cat leaped across streets and rooftops, her silhouette under the moonlight appearing as an Elf, leaving behind streaks of shadows as she ran towards the outskirts of the city.
Finally, the mother cat, with Huang Yi in tow, ran out of the city gates. Beside them was a dim light, swaying back and forth in the night wind, casting the mother cat’s shadow flickering and appearing somewhat desolate.
The mother cat looked back at the small city behind her with a wistful gaze, swished her tail as if to say goodbye, and then sprinted off into the distance, vanishing completely into the depth of the night.
For a Spirit Cat of such noble birth, the safest place was where no humans dwelled, so she chose to leave the human cities and run toward the wilderness, facing the entire world alone.
The mother cat kept running forward, trudging through mountains and rivers, wandering the world under the starlight. She raced through weed-ridden wastelands, crossed babbling brooks, traversed the endless plains, and walked through long, cold nights, finally arriving in a forest at dawn.
The mother cat had exhausted her last ounce of energy, and her beautiful white fur was covered in dust, turning dirty and losing all traces of her once elegant and luxurious aura. She lay down on the ground, her soft little paws clutching Huang Yi tightly, and began to lick him gently with her tongue, her tired eyes filled with affection.
As she licked, she slowly closed her eyes and gradually fell asleep.
At this moment, the edge of the sky was tinted with the light of dawn; a new day was about to begin.
Huang Yi lay in the mother cat’s embrace, watching the surrounding jungle warily. The jungle was fraught with danger, which could descend at any moment.
Huang Yi wanted to grow up quickly. The traditional way was to gain experience by fighting monsters, but clearly, he couldn’t kill any beasts now. Moreover, being a cat, he had numerous inconveniences; he had paws instead of hands and couldn’t wield weapons; he couldn’t make human sounds, and was unable to chant the spells of his skills... In short, all his strength was essentially suppressed, unable to be exhibited.
It seemed that being a top-level Rare Race was not so easy, facing a pile of troubles from birth.
However, the Spirit Cat was just the Beast King’s first form; at level 20, the Beast King would undergo an evolution. Perhaps by then, he could evolve into a humanoid form, and everything would return to normal.
The sky gradually brightened, and the breakfast time at Rose Prison was approaching; Huang Yi had to return to the real world.
Huang Yi looked at the mother cat, hesitated for a moment, but finally extended his little tongue and gently licked her, then immediately logged off, disappearing from the world.
The mother cat still slept deeply, embracing a child who didn’t exist.
...
Huang Yi opened his eyes and returned to the real world.
What met his gaze was the moldy ceiling, the air deathly still around him. Rose Prison was a corner forgotten by the world, where even time seemed unfelt, with only the desolate air remaining.
The suicide rate in Rose Prison had always been high. Although the death penalty had been abolished worldwide ten years ago, being incarcerated in Rose Prison was not much different from a death sentence. The criminals here, if they didn’t take their own lives, would eventually be driven mad.
Huang Yi lay on the bed, looking up at the little window high in the cell. At this time, the morning sun was rising outside, casting a beam of golden light through the window into the cell, warm and comforting.
"Mealtime!" Just then, the voice of a prison guard sounded outside the iron door.
Huang Yi got up, slowly stepped out of the darkness, went to the door, and picked up the plate of greens and white rice that never changed.
"In a few days, you’ll be transferred to the common cell," two guards stood outside, watching Huang Yi warily, and reminded him.
The response they received was still silence.