Xi Nian, the Devourer of Yuan, Appears

The setting sun was about to sink below the city, and with the dusk, light snow began to fall from the sky again.

Xi Nian headed home, and as he passed through the park, he deliberately glanced at the lawn.

The kitten that had been lying there in the morning was nowhere to be seen.

"In the dead of winter, good luck to you, poor little thing."

Xi Nian exhaled, patted the sausage he had stashed in his pocket, wrapped his jacket tighter around himself, and strode away.

But just as Xi Nian reached his apartment building and saw the elevator doors open, a thick line of confusion appeared on his face: "How are you here?!"

Xi Nian was full of question marks.

Inside the residential elevator, a little orange cat was curled up in the corner, having been lying there for who knows how long.

As Xi Nian appeared at the elevator entrance, the little orange cat seemed to sense him, yawned, rubbed its sleepy little eyes with its paws, and put on an innocent expression.

Xi Nian was a bit dumbfounded.

How did this cat know where he lived? No, this was probably just a coincidence!

Pretending not to see it, Xi Nian walked into the elevator on his own and pressed the button for his floor. In the meantime, several other residents entered the elevator. To avoid the kitten being stepped on, Xi Nian chose to stand in front of it.

The elevator began to ascend, with people coming and going.

During this time, Xi Nian stole a glance at the kitten lying on the floor behind him.

Mm, well-behaved, not making a sound.

Until they reached the sixteenth floor, where he lived.

Xi Nian hadn't moved yet.

The little orange cat, now awake from its corner, suddenly stood up first, slipped through the gap between his feet, and walked out of the elevator.

"No way?" Xi Nian's mouth twitched slightly as he stepped out of the elevator and looked at the kitten quietly crouching by his front door.

What was up with this cat?

"You're back."

Inside the house, Diana saw Xi Nian walking in with the kitten and was taken aback, asking curiously, "Did you pick it up?"

"Aunt, I was about to ask you the same thing—did you pick it up?" Xi Nian asked weakly.

"No." Diana shook her head bluntly. "In all these years, aside from picking you up once, I haven't picked up anything else."

"That's true." Xi Nian scratched his head, looking at the little orange cat that had made itself at home, and hesitated. "Aunt, can we keep it?"

Since it was already here and it was a cold winter outside, he really couldn't bear to kick it out again.

"I don't have any objections." Diana nodded. "But you'll have to be ready to take care of it from now on."

"Of course. Actually, I've wanted to get a cat for a long time." Xi Nian smiled, scooped up the little orange cat, and said without thinking, "From now on, you'll be called 'Little Huang.'"

The little orange cat blinked, completely unaware of how half-hearted the name was.

Aunt Diana, exuding a mature, wife-like charm, smiled and urged, "Go take a shower first; we'll have dinner soon."

"Got it. Let's wash together then, Little Huang." Xi Nian, on a whim, carried the little orange cat into the bathroom.

In the bathtub filled with warm water.

The little orange cat was surprisingly not afraid of water, lying dazedly by the edge of the tub as Xi Nian, completely naked, rubbed body wash into its light orange fur. Soon, it was covered in white foam.

When he got to the cat's belly.

Xi Nian flipped the little orange cat over, rubbing the soft, pale fur on its lower belly, and couldn't help muttering, "Little Huang, so you're a female..."

"Meow!" The cat, which had been squinting all along, suddenly got angry and viciously bit down on Xi Nian's finger.

Its slightly sharp little fangs pierced the skin, and a drop of blood fell onto the bathroom floor.

"Little Huang!" Xi Nian yelped in pain and quickly pulled his finger back.

As if realizing it had done something wrong, the little orange cat looked at Xi Nian's bleeding finger and showed a human-like expression of grievance.

"Alright, it's not your fault, but be careful next time—you can't just bite people." Xi Nian comforted and scolded it at the same time. Looking at his bleeding hand, now stained with cat saliva, he was about to rinse it with clean water when his body suddenly jolted!

"Wait, this feeling is..." Xi Nian's eyes widened in alarm as a familiar yet strange abnormal sensation swept over him.

His brown pupils, those of an ordinary human, abruptly shifted into cold, gleaming vertical slits!

The Lord of Kin had activated!

"Xi Nian?"

Hearing Xi Nian's cry from the bathroom, Diana quickly pulled the door open.

Almost the moment the door opened.

A hideous, barbed tentacle shot out like a spear, straight for her face.

Diana dodged with lightning speed. Following the tentacle's path, she looked into the bathroom and saw Xi Nian standing naked in the tub, with several terrifying tentacles writhing and stretching violently behind him, their edges lined with sharp, fang-like barbs.

In the corner of the bathroom, the little cat crouched on the ground watched Xi Nian, whose body had sprouted grotesque and terrifying tentacles, and her eyes couldn't help but light up.

"What exactly happened?" Diana asked, startled and uncertain.

"I'm not too sure either. Little Huang bit me, and my body ended up like this." Xi Nian smiled bitterly, looking at the tentacles extending from his back, writhing and twisting wildly.

"Is it the blood and saliva acting as a liquid medium, triggering the Lord of Kin's ability..." Diana glanced at the bloodstains on the floor and then at the little orange cat, still feeling utterly bewildered. "How could a cat...?"

Whoosh!

A tentacle suddenly whipped back instinctively, like a gaping maw of blood, and bit down on Diana's back!

Diana's heart jolted as she felt a terrifying suction force, like a miniature Black Hole, erupt behind her! She strained to break free, pulling her body out of the tentacle's Black Hole's range of attraction, but her clothes were instantly torn to shreds, revealing a perfectly sculpted, flawless form!

It wasn't just one tentacle.

Seven or eight other tentacles writhed and twitched madly, devouring towels, shower gel, a mirror, and the water in the bathtub at a visible speed. In less than half a second, they had swept clean everything placed in the bathroom!

The little orange cat pounced into Xi Nian's arms just in time, escaping disaster.

One of the tentacles coiled around Diana's slender, supple waist, and Xi Nian could clearly feel a wonderful sensation on the tip of his tongue.

Wait, why the tip of his tongue???

Pressing one of the tentacles firmly down with a hand to keep it from being sucked into its own Black Hole, Diana dared not pull too hard for fear of hurting Xi Nian. After a moment's thought, she quickly judged, "If this is that cat's ability, then now it should also be an ability you possess yourself. Xi Nian, try to control it!"

"I'm trying." Xi Nian gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

In the darkness, the sensations brought by the tentacles became even more vivid and detailed.

Soon, the tentacles sprouting from his back gradually calmed down, and the one coiled around Diana's waist slowly loosened!