"Ah, I messed up again, meow."
"I'm still not strong enough, meow..."
"So this is what death feels like, meow?"
Xiu Mi's consciousness was hazy. Her body was flat and long as a ribbon, drifting slowly through the vast, empty depths of space.
"The strong prey on the weak, Dad... Was I always one of the weak, meow?"
"I tried so hard not to get eaten, meow."
She tried to curl up, but her body wouldn't obey.
She couldn't do anything. Her consciousness just drifted away.
She was probably dead.
She'd heard that after death, the soul went to the Underworld. She wondered who she'd be reincarnated as... If she could choose, she'd still want to be a cat-kin.
Thinking back, Roa's place really had been fun.
If only she'd played a few more rounds of games with him before leaving.
"Xiu Mi."
Suddenly, a clear, bright thought entered Xiu Mi's mind.
She immediately came to her senses.
Her eyes moved along a long strip of curled skin, and she saw Lu Cang.
"Did you die too, meow?"
Lu Cang wore a faintly helpless smile. "Is that how people usually greet each other?"
"Looks like I'm not dead, meow."
Lu Cang stepped forward and touched Xiu Mi with one hand.
The long strip of skin began to move, curling back up to form her nimble little feet. It gradually spread upward, forming her ankles, calves... then her thighs, and higher still.
Her skin traced her outline anew.
"I don't know if this will work. If it doesn't, I'll have to find another way."
Lu Cang raised a finger.
Flesh began to grow from Xiu Mi's skin, and flesh and bone filled her out once more.
This should have been the domain of a healer.
Yet it was Lu Cang, who