The Cat Demon Told a Story

Li Mo watched Ye Wen holding the pitch-black token and fell into deep thought.

He remembered this token. He seemed to have stolen it from some rich and powerful person.

He'd had it for several days, but there was nothing on its pitch-black surface. If that person hadn't seemed to treasure it so much, he would've thrown it away long ago.

Could this token have some special use?

Ye Wen kept staring at him, so Li Mo had no choice but to respond at once. He was afraid that if he took too long, Ye Wen would kill him on the spot.

"Kid, do you really think I wouldn't kill someone? You still dare to lie to me?"

Ye Wen looked at Li Mo and spoke coldly. He'd noticed that Li Mo's expression was unnatural when he spoke, and his tone was full of guilt. Ye Wen certainly wasn't going to believe his story.

"Ah, meow, meow~ We stole the token!"

The Cat Demon suddenly cut in.

"I left it with Li Mo. Strictly speaking, the token isn't mine either. I just found it in my territory.

"We couldn't figure out what it did, so we had Li Mo take it to human territory to look for information."

Interesting. Ye Wen still couldn't tell whether they were telling the truth, so all he could do was keep listening.

"Brother Cat, are you really going to tell him? Can we trust him?"

Li Mo suddenly looked at the Cat Demon and asked in a soft voice.

But they were so close that Ye Wen heard every word. Were they still planning to put on a two-man act?

Ye Wen didn't call them out. He simply sat there like a well-behaved audience member, watching the two of them—or rather, the man and the cat—perform.

The Cat Demon saw that Ye Wen's expression hadn't changed in the slightest and couldn't help feeling secretly dejected. Why was this young man so composed?

Did he have no curiosity at all? But now that the show had started, it had to keep going.

"In my territory—uh, my former territory—a zombie appeared. And not just any zombie. It was an Ancient Zombie, formed from someone who'd died at least ten thousand years ago."

Seeing no change in Ye Wen's expression, the Cat Demon could only continue.

"The zombie came from a deep, secluded gorge. It was always steeped in Death Qi, but I'd never bothered going there. Then, not long ago, after the world underwent a great upheaval, that thing walked out of the gorge.

"It was incredibly powerful. Oh, right! Its physical strength was as terrifying as yours.

"I don't know whether that was because it had turned into a zombie or because it had been immensely strong even before it died.

"Zombies, well, it hadn't gained sentience yet, but it had a zombie's instincts. It wanted blood.

"It tried to catch me and suck my blood, but I couldn't beat it. I had no choice but to abandon my old territory and flee.

"And that pitch-black token was something Li Mo stole from it the last time we went to investigate the zombie and see if it was still there.

"It came out and attacked us again, and Li Mo stole the token from its body!

"The gorge where the zombie appeared had also changed dramatically. It used to be lifeless, with Yin Qi soaring into the sky, but now it was teeming with life.

"I suspect there's a Spirit Eye inside the gorge. Before the world changed, it must have been giving off Death Spirit Qi. But after the change, that Spirit Eye must be giving off Life Qi."

At this, the Cat Demon stopped talking once again and watched Ye Wen's expression. Fortunately, this time he seemed to be thinking it over.

Ye Wen understood what the Cat Demon meant by Death Spirit Qi and Life Qi.

Spiritual Qi in this world had different attributes. Most of it had no attribute, or else the original Chaos Attribute, which could be absorbed and refined by any cultivation method.

But there was also spiritual energy with special attributes.

For example, Fire-attribute Demonic Beasts or Fire-attribute mages could absorb spiritual energy with the Fire Attribute. Skills cast using such energy would be stronger than those cast using spiritual energy without an attribute.

In other words, the spiritual energy in this world had the five elemental attributes of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, as well as the attributes of life and death. These were the most common special attributes of spiritual energy.

This was one of the reasons many Demonic Beasts could cultivate and use skills.

Not only could they inherit skills and cultivation methods from their ancestors through their bloodlines, they could also absorb spiritual energy with special attributes and thereby awaken new skills in their bodies.

Had this Cat Demon gained its Cage Grass skill because it absorbed Life Spiritual Qi?

Was that why it kept thinking about the gorge where the zombie had appeared? Because there was a spring inside that released Life Qi.

With that, the Cat Demon had explained the whole story from beginning to end.

By now, Ye Wen had also figured out a lot. That zombie was very likely the former City Lord of Demon Suppressing City!

Ten thousand years ago, a mysterious powerhouse had killed him there. By some twist of fate, his corpse had fallen into a spring of Death Spirit Qi.

After his body had been washed by Death Spirit Qi for ten thousand years, the great upheaval in the world had brought him back from death to life.

Or perhaps he had absorbed all the Death Spirit Qi in that spring, leaving only Life Spiritual Qi behind.