Dream Cat

After eating half a deer leg, Yuan Ming took the remaining cooked meat back to the treehouse. Finding that Hagon had yet to awaken, he pondered briefly before taking out a thumb-thick yellow bamboo tube from his robes.

He pulled out the wooden stopper and immediately held it beneath Hagon's nose.

A cool, pungent scent rushed straight into Hagon's nostrils. His nose suddenly wrinkled, and with a soft cry, he gradually regained consciousness.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming immediately moved the bamboo tube away and sealed it again.

After waking, Hagon sucked in a cold breath. The injuries on his body made him bare his teeth in pain, and it took him quite a while to recover his senses. Then he saw Yuan Ming standing guard nearby.

"Brother Yuan, you saved me again." Gratitude flashed through Hagon's eyes as he spoke.

After saying that, he struggled to sit up, only for Yuan Ming to press down on his shoulder and push him back.

"The wound on your stomach isn't light. It won't heal anytime soon, so don't rush to move. Tell me, what happened? Those two fellows from Hyena Hall weren't capable of hurting you."

Hearing Yuan Ming's question, Hagon did not answer at once. Instead, he slightly raised his head to look at his abdomen. Seeing that it had already been bandaged, he lay back down.

"If I hadn't been injured, they naturally couldn't have hurt me. I encountered a monster." A trace of lingering fear flashed across Hagon's face.

"A monster? Not a fierce beast?" Yuan Ming was immediately intrigued by that description.

"I... I'm not sure either. But that thing was definitely different from the fierce beasts we usually see. I don't think it was a fierce beast," Hagon said after a slight hesitation.

"What did it look like? Tell me," Yuan Ming said.

He had the Illustrated Guide to Common Fierce Beasts Zhao Tong had given him. Even if he had never seen the ordinary fierce beasts that roamed the Hundred Thousand Mountains, he was confident he could match them to their descriptions.

Yuan Ming wanted to see just what the monster Hagon spoke of really was.

At his words, Hagon took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes, as though carefully recalling what he had experienced earlier, or perhaps calming his own emotions.

Only after a moment did he open his eyes again and look at Yuan Ming.

"The thing that injured me was no more than eight feet tall. Its entire body was covered in long white fur, and it had black claws. When walking, it stood upright like a man, but when running, it used both hands and feet. It was like a Wildling, yet also like a beast. Most importantly, its roar sounded like a person wailing and crying. The sound alone made one's spine go cold," Hagon slowly described.

"Is that all?" Yuan Ming asked doubtfully when he saw that Hagon had stopped.

"Those are only its outward oddities. When I fought it, I discovered that not only was its body as tough as iron, it also seemed to feel no pain at all. In battle, it made no defense whatsoever. It fought without regard for anything, almost like a suicidal attack. My long blade had already chopped into its neck, yet it did not evade at all. It endured the blow head-on and severely wounded me with one claw. If I hadn't fallen beneath a waterfall and been swept away by the water, I would definitely have left my life there this time." Hagon shook his head, still shaken by the memory.

After hearing him out, Yuan Ming rubbed his chin with one hand and fell into deep thought.

"If it truly was as Hagon said, then it really was a monster." He carefully compared the details in his mind, only to discover in disappointment that the Illustrated Guide to Common Fierce Beasts truly contained no fierce beast matching it.

"Do you have any leads?" Hagon looked at Yuan Ming and asked.

Yuan Ming shook his head, then said, "I was about to make a trip to Toad Valley anyway. I'll ask Zhao Tong about this ghostly thing you described. He might know something."

"Alright." Hagon nodded.

"This is one of my temporary hideouts. Its location isn't particularly concealed, but ordinarily no one comes here. Rest here tonight. I'll keep watch," Yuan Ming instructed.

"Brother Yuan, great kindness needs no words. I will surely repay you generously in the future." Hagon clasped his fists and spoke sincerely.

"Let's not talk about that yet. Have something to eat." Yuan Ming smiled and waved his hand, passing over the half deer leg in his hand.

Late at night, the hazy light of a crescent moon filtered through the gaps in the treehouse.

Leaning against the wall of the treehouse, Yuan Ming ultimately could not resist his drowsiness and fell asleep. Moonlight draped gently over him like a gauzy veil, while his faint snores echoed within the treehouse.

Suddenly, what seemed to be a cat's meow rang out.

Yuan Ming jolted awake, his eyes flying open. Just as he instinctively tried to rise, he discovered that he could not move at all. For a moment, he felt as though his soul had left his body, unable to tell whether he was in a dream or reality.

In his daze, an ethereal woman's voice sounded intermittently. At times, it seemed like someone whispering in his ear; at others, like someone confiding through a door. It drifted far and near, elusive and uncertain.

"Strange..."

"Soul... what is it..."

"Interesting..."

There was an indescribably dreamlike quality in that voice. As Yuan Ming listened, his mind grew muddled, his eyelids drooped, and he gradually began to fall asleep.

Yet in the instant before he completely lost consciousness, a small silver-white shadow suddenly flashed past the gap in the treehouse door.

It seemed to be a cat with silver-white fur?

He slept through the night in a daze. Only when the next morning's light filtered through the gaps between the treehouse planks and fell upon Yuan Ming's face did he slowly open his eyes and awaken.

Rubbing his brow, he propped himself up and sat down. He could not help recalling last night's dream, and it struck him as somewhat absurd.

Yet beneath that absurdity was an uncanny sense of reality, especially that feeling of losing control as though his soul had left his body. The more he considered it, the less it seemed like a dream, leaving him unable to let it go for quite some time.

He shook his head, rose to examine Hagon's injuries, and found that they had already recovered considerably. Seeing that Hagon was still asleep, he had no choice but to wake him.

"I have to go out for a while. You'll need to be extra careful here alone," Yuan Ming instructed.

"Go without worry. I'll be careful on my own. You should take it easy too. From here on, both the Green Wolf Gang and Hyena Hall will probably target you," Hagon said with a nod.

Yuan Ming nodded at him, opened the treehouse door, and walked out.

But the instant he bent over and stepped through the doorway, Yuan Ming could not help freezing.

"This is... that Silver Cat?" An uninvited guest had appeared before him.

On one of the horizontal branches extending out from the treehouse's support, a Silver Cat with gleaming fur, about half a foot tall, was crouched two or three steps away from him. With a pair of golden amber eyes, it stared straight at him.

Its round little head, scarcely larger than Yuan Ming's fist, moved from high up to gradually lowering, as though it were carefully looking him over from top to bottom, leaving Yuan Ming greatly astonished.

Thinking again of last night's dream, a strange feeling arose in Yuan Ming's heart.

"You were the one speaking to me last night, weren't you?" Yuan Ming asked.

The Silver Cat watched him for a moment, then suddenly tilted its head slightly to one side. It looked as though it did not understand what Yuan Ming was saying, yet also as though it were looking at a fool.

"I really am... believing even a dream?" Yuan Ming laughed at himself in exasperation.

As soon as the words fell, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes. His body suddenly sprang forth like a cheetah, grabbing for the Silver Cat.

Just as his hands were about to touch it, the Silver Cat lightly leaped up, evading Yuan Ming's large hands by a hair's breadth. It then landed on his arm and leaped again like a dragonfly touching water, jumping onto another branch.

Yuan Ming pounced into empty air and clung to that horizontal branch, turning his head to look over.

The Silver Cat was walking along that branch with its head high and chest out, its catwalk carrying an openly contemptuous look toward him.

The way the Silver Cat walked was somewhat strange. Unlike other cats, which held their tails raised or curled, its long tail hung down and dragged along the ground, covering its rear tightly.

"I was looked down on by a cat?" Yuan Ming's brow immediately rose.

"Brother Yuan, what happened?" Hagon's voice came from inside the treehouse.

"Nothing," Yuan Ming answered.

When he turned back to look again, the Silver Cat had already vanished completely from sight.

"Now that I think about it, why does this cat look somewhat familiar? It seems like I've seen it somewhere before?" Yuan Ming scratched the back of his head and muttered to himself.

Inside Toad Valley, before a stone house.

Yuan Ming handed the supplies he had accumulated recently to Zhao Tong.

"How is it? Did you get hold of a swordsmanship technique?" Yuan Ming asked, a trace of anticipation in his eyes.

Zhao Tong looked up at him and shook his head with pursed lips.

"Our Jade Luo Cave isn't a sword cultivation sect. Techniques like that are scarce to begin with, so how could they be so easily obtained? I'm not afraid to tell you the truth: some of the cultivation techniques and secret arts sold in the valley are actually released by the sect elders in exchange for resources. We disciples merely earn a fee for running errands. How would we dare pass on techniques in private? So what you can buy depends entirely on luck. It depends on what the elders are willing to sell." Under Yuan Ming's questioning gaze, Zhao Tong explained helplessly.

"Then have there been any good goods recently?" Yuan Ming had already come to terms with it and asked.

"There actually have been..." Zhao Tong stroked his chin and thought for a moment, before his eyes suddenly lit up.

As he spoke, he rummaged through the chest behind him and took out a blue book, placing it before Yuan Ming.

"You're lucky, kid. This Shadowless Step was just given to me by Elder Lu recently. The resources you've accumulated with me are just about enough to exchange for it," Zhao Tong said with a smile.

"What is this technique used for?" Yuan Ming could not help frowning as he asked.

"This isn't an offensive technique. It's a movement art, and it will definitely be useful to you." Zhao Tong lowered his voice at once, speaking in a somewhat mysterious manner.

"I'm all ears," Yuan Ming said noncommittally.

"It is a cultivation method that can greatly enhance your body's agility. It cannot increase your mana cultivation, nor can it directly strengthen your combat power, but it can give you more means to preserve your life when fighting someone at close range," Zhao Tong explained.

Hearing this, Yuan Ming pondered in silence.

After learning that the Furring Technique had backlash, he had been eager to acquire a swordsmanship technique to improve his ability against enemies, hoping to kill fierce beasts without using the Furring Technique.

It would likely be difficult to find a swordsmanship technique now. If he learned this movement secret art instead, it would still be a good choice.

"Then what kind of effect does this Shadowless Step have when used?" Yuan Ming asked again as he considered it.