The Cat's Being Tortured, Plain and Simple

Ye Bei lives in Pingyang Agricultural University. His home is a detached villa by the university's sports field, which is just over 200 meters away from an artificial lake.

Xue Ming had been here before, but every time he pushed open the door to Brother Ye Bei's house, he felt a strong sense of unease.

It's a kind of discomfort that's hard to describe.

--This house, reinforced with steel beams and carbon fiber, felt particularly cold and gloomy under the mist from the lake, as if it were not meant for human habitation. Just as Brother Ye Bei himself said, after acquiring the body of Chang Ghost, he said goodbye to the feng shui of normal homes.

Xue Ming thought to herself, perhaps this eerie house is more suitable for Brother Ye Bei.

After putting down her luggage and changing into comfortable pajamas, Xue Ming could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

As we mentioned in the previous sections, Hengyin City is like a large town in the western wilderness. For Xue Ming, this constant vigilance and caution forged his nerves as strong as steel.

But when he returned to Brother Ye Bei's house, he felt very relaxed. Apart from the house being a bit too cold and damp, everything was fine.

It was 2:40 a. m. The wall clock in the living room was ticking away, and the TV and carpet were spotless, as if someone had cleaned them thoroughly every day.

Ye Bei took two bags of dumplings from the refrigerator in the kitchen. The white cat beside him, familiar with the place, carried an iron pot, set up the stove, and turned on the gas stove to help start the fire and cook.

A shout came from the kitchen.

Are you still jealous?

The naughty cat immediately replied, "I won't eat it."

Ye Bei: "I didn't ask you, I know what you like to eat."

Xue Ming immediately said, "I won't eat it."

While tidying up the cabinets, Ye Bei asked, "Why? I remember you used to really like chili oil with vinegar as a dipping sauce."

Xue Ming explained in detail, "When I'm out, I often need to use my teeth. Without good tools, even opening a soda bottle is difficult—in places like cold storage, tools are often borrowed and passed around, and if I can't find suitable ones, I use my teeth to open packaging bags. Later, I stopped drinking vinegar altogether."

"You've worked hard, brother." Ye Bei's expression was complicated, and he didn't know what to say for a moment, "Come back and stay for a few days?"

Xue Ming was about to get up when Ye Bei gave him a look that told him to stay on the sofa and rest.

So he said, "I'll leave tomorrow."

Ye Bei: "So fast? Is something urgent?"

Xue Ming: "It's not urgent, but I need to prepare a lot of things; it's a matter of life and death."

Ye Bei: "Where to?"

Xue Ming: "Have you heard of Red Star Hill, Brother Ye Bei?"

Ye Bei: "No."

As she finished speaking, a pair of slippers flew out of the kitchen and landed right at Xue Ming's feet.

Immediately afterward, Ye Bei shouted, "Change your shoes! If my wife sees your shoe prints tomorrow morning, she'll definitely come and scold me!"

"Why... are they pink bunny slippers? Are they your sister-in-law's?" Xue Ming asked curiously, putting on the slippers only to find they were a size too big for her feet, clearly men's size.

Ye Bei: "Mine, I just like cute things."

The wicked cat scoffed, "He just loves making a fool of himself."

Ye Bei: "If you say another word, I'll use you as soup base!"

Upon hearing this, the naughty cat immediately became well-behaved; it's probably not the first time it's made cat food.

Two plates of dumplings were prepared and arranged in six rows on the table, presented beautifully and steaming hot.

Ye Bei pulled Xue Ming to sit down, and then they started chatting about everyday things.

"How is Bailu doing lately? I heard from you before that she had a strange illness. Are there any aftereffects?"

"No, my sister is fine. She's been studying hard ever since she went to the Nine Realms Station."

"She went to the underworld too? Why did you send your sister down there as well? That's not good. People always need a reason to see the sun. If I'm gone one day, and you spend all year underground, rarely coming back to the surface, you'll probably become very unhappy."

After saying that, Ye Bei told Xue Ming to eat it while it was hot, and gently tapped the edge of the plate with his chopsticks, making a crisp clinking sound.

"The natural order is yin and yang, yin and yang—we're not like the protagonists in some strange and fantastical tales, who can run all over the world and be busy all the time. Life isn't full of magical things; it's just about eating, drinking, defecating, and sleeping every day. If your sister is also in the underworld, we'll have fewer opportunities to meet in the future, and you'll probably have fewer opportunities to meet the sun too."

Xue Ming asked the question incoherently as he put dumplings into his mouth.

"Is sunbathing really that important? I've been active at Nine Realms Station for over half a year, and I haven't noticed any significant changes in myself."

"You certainly wouldn't notice it yourself." Ye Bei's eyes sparkled, like two black gems under the restaurant's incandescent lights. "I can see your spiritual pressure and spiritual energy fluctuations very clearly. I remember the Abyssal Railway has a rating system specifically used to measure a person's Madness Index, right?"

Xue Ming nodded. "Yes."

Ye Bei continued, "That makes sense. Since the underworld cares so much about whether passengers go mad, there definitely are some, and not just one or two, but a large-scale phenomenon. If you stay in the underground world for a long time, you might go mad too."

Xue Ming also cared a lot about this, so he was very concerned about the results of the inspection of the Polarized Sextant.

"Brother Ye Bei, I don't know why, but my Madness Index has always remained at the lowest level, almost non-existent."

"That's a good thing." Ye Bei said dismissively, "It proves you haven't encountered anything truly despairing yet, and haven't experienced strong emotional fluctuations. Your heart is very strong—what we call 'a calm mind and clear understanding' here. In Spirit Calamity environment, we also need this quality to combat fear, to discern the true form of the demons, to grasp their weaknesses, and to find their Achilles 'Gate of Death."

"Brother Ye Bei, you also know about the Gate of Death?" Xue Ming asked, increasingly curious.

Ye Bei smiled and said, "My unit and the Abyssal Railway connect directly to the National Security Bureau, so they're like sister units. The term 'Gate of Death Gate' was originally translated from the Chinese 'Gate of Hell of Ghosts,' but was ultimately named after the 'Gate of Death' in the Qimen Dunjia (a form of divination). Our respective superiors should be connected, especially the Research Station institute—if you frequently visit the 1773 Arcane Library, there should be quite a few 'Heavenly Secrets' and 'Literary Star' agents active there."

Xue Ming immediately pressed further, "Did Ming De build a railway on Chinese soil?"

Ye Bei pondered carefully, speaking cautiously, "As far as I know, there's only one."

Xue Ming: "Where does it lead?"

Ye Bei: "It's our headquarters, the Celestial Pivot Headquarters in the Greater Khingan Range. That place is freezing cold and sparsely populated, suitable for accepting harmless monsters—wait, we should call them calamity beasts. I'm not quite used to these new terms yet since the new management regulations were issued."

Xue Ming swept all the dumplings off the table, leaving not a single one.

Why weren't there any branch stations? Aren't there other transfer stations or railway networks?

The naughty cat was almost in tears. It tugged at Ye Bei's clothes and looked at Xue Ming with a different eye—this kid's cooking speed was really outrageous.

The naughty cat originally wanted to be polite, but unexpectedly, in just a few minutes, more than sixty dumplings were on the table, and fifty of them ended up in Xue Ming's stomach.

"Don't rush, don't rush, don't rush. I'm just ordering takeout."

While comforting his feline overlord, Ye Bei continued talking to Xue Ming.

"Why do you ask that? Do you think there should be something beneath our feet? Or is there some other meaning?"

Xue Ming replied, "It's the same question as before, nothing more. Why didn't Ming De build a railway station in its homeland, but instead recklessly traversed half of the Eurasian continental shelf?"

"There are many reasons." Ye Bei opened his phone, about to order takeout, but was struggling with the menu for the late-night meal. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the bloated figure of the Bad Cat. He vaguely remembered that when this beast was sealed away, the little white cat it had transformed into had an incredibly sexy and alluring figure. "I'll tell you one by one. Ming De definitely won't tell you these things. It's a monster that values pomp and ceremony."

Urged on by the naughty cat, Ye Bei spoke slowly and deliberately.

"The first reason is that there are too many magical things in the soil beneath our feet. It's not appropriate to dig them out. The general public has a low level of education and culture. If any monsters or monstrous beasts, like new-style pyramid scheme leaders, or people with demonic power or the power of bloodletting emerge, they would be a very dangerous and destabilizing factor for our densely populated city. So we simply stop digging."

Xue Ming thought of the United Kingdom vampires, based on Jack Martin's account, and corroborated by Robert Tang Ning.

These inhuman monsters have infiltrated the British Cabinet, offering their Blessed Holy Blood to many members of the bourgeoisie, and in this gloomy environment, they even seek to seize the power center of the Commonwealth.

This is a disaster from the underworld, a monster unearthed by Ming De, who lacked great virtue.

Ye Bei continued, "The second reason is that even if it does dig something up, we're all old acquaintances. Ming De's current appearance is a bit of a disgrace to ferocious beasts."

The naughty cat immediately burst into laughter. "Hahahaha! Hahahahaha!"

Ye Bei casually pulled out two pieces of bread and sandwiched them between his beast, and the naughty cat immediately stopped laughing.

"It's like you're laying mortar on a construction site, and suddenly one day your classmate comes over to announce their new house. Wouldn't that be a little awkward? For Ming De, it would feel the same way if it accidentally dug up the ancestral temple of some deity in our Chinese civilization and met that person."

This statement sounded quite unserious coming from Brother Ye Bei, but it did make some sense.

"The last reason is that it fears the control of Tian Shu—we always deal with calamity beasts swiftly and decisively, usually leaving no survivors, or at the very least rendering them harmless, just like this one."

Ye Bei picked up his master and saw that the two-winged tiger with the infamous name of Qiongqi had turned into a spinning drill, circling around the piece of bread on its neck.

"If it has the ability to create widespread Spirit Calamity and poses a safety hazard, our job is to eliminate that safety hazard. We would never allow the Taowu beast to build such a massive underground railway system on our own soil. If the [Philosopher Foundation] hadn't agreed to this, Tian Shu would have made it a protected animal, not a valuable commodity at the station."

The "precious objects" here refer to noble animals.

Xue Ming wrote all of this down in his logbook.

Ye Bei wanted to add one last piece of information.

"It doesn't dare to run wild inland. Tian Shu has left it a safe passage. If it ever decides it doesn't want to continue, it can return to our sanctuary, back to its warm and comfortable prison."

Xue Ming suddenly felt a little unwilling. "The BOSS isn't the kind of cat that just gives up easily. It's more stubborn than an ox and will definitely not settle for a life of leisure."

This ferocious beast risked its life to release its primordial essence to the passengers, transforming its spirit into Polarized Sextant, the arrogant and Ming De black cat, and the Red Mountain Stone given to it by the Hunter King.

It practically dismembered itself, resorting to every possible means.

It's almost impossible to make it want to back out.

Harvest season is the best answer; it would rather die than return to the retirement home in Tian Shu.

Xue Ming could vaguely recall the BOSS's voice and smile, as well as the monster's words and determination.

As times have changed, many monsters and beasts that were legendary in ancient times have come to be killed with a single cannon.

Even the most powerful Spirit Calamity can be resolved with nuclear warheads.

At this point, nothing on this planet is more powerful than human creativity.

Various observation instruments have had their veil of mystery removed.

Only those who are as steadfast as a rock can survive the turbulent currents of time.

If they were to return to the Tian Shu Nursing Home that Brother Ye Bei mentioned, the BOSS would probably be living a life worse than death.

--From the perspective of a craftsman who built the station facilities, BOSS is a very radical individual. The Nine Realms Station, as the departure point, uses a ring expressway built by a Soviet engineering team to welcome guests.

Even during the harvest season, it still fondly remembers the expeditionary settlements created by the Slavs of Red Star Hill.

Go outwards, go towards the Earth's core.

Heading to unknown places.

This kind of ambitious and unrepentant mindset is the essence of the Taowu.

Railways are like the blood vessels, bones, and muscles of humanity.

It flourished during the First Industrial Revolution, and with the rise of iron and steel plants, it became a relatively inexpensive means of transportation.

It has tracks, trains, and countless people who travel through it to distant places and return home.

Steel wheels and rails represent the roundness of the heavens and the squareness of the earth.

The boss has said more than once that this is its way of seeking the Dao.

It is impossible for it to give up its cause.

This is its [Dao Xin], which is connected with every passenger, becoming a complex network of countless souls and spirits, indestructible and unbreakable.

"You should have this too—" Ye Bei pulled back the curtain next to the shoe cabinet, looking from the entryway towards the door. Hanging inside were five or six identical spirit garments of the same design and size. "—This thing was made by our unit, called [Ji Ji Spirit Garment]. At first, I thought the name was unlucky, like, 'What kind of thing is this?' But later, I found it actually quite useful. It can protect us from ordinary Spirit Calamity."

Xue Ming followed and looked over. Compared with the spirit garments woven by Lady Fenxing, these clothes were different. They lacked embroidery and stitching, and did not have Lady Fenxing's enchantment, but their advantage was that they could be mass-produced.

"I've worn this outfit too, Brother Ye Bei. I remember it was purchased by the station's purchasing department as protective clothing for newlyweds—if you have Inspiration and need to release spiritual pressure, it can actually become an obstacle."

"What purchasing department?" Ye Bei curled his lip. "This is a deal it personally negotiated with Tian Shu. Occasionally, it sends disaster beasts to Tian Shu, and we send the Fenxing to the station. We're considered field agents, and it's a labor dispatch relationship."

"I see." Xue Ming seemed to understand something—it was probably because the BOSS felt ashamed that he personally went to Tian Shu to ask for favors in order to solve the problem of the new recruits' casualty rate. If passengers heard this kind of story, it would probably affect its glorious and great image.

Ye Bei cleared away the plates, took the takeout, and fed it to his feline overlord.

After he finished doing these things, he spoke with Xue Ming.

"I'm going to take a shower; I'm getting ready to go out."

Xue Ming: "Where are you going, brother? What are you doing?"

Ye Bei changed into his spirit clothes and took out a mission briefing from the shoe cabinet.

"Staying up late on New Year's Eve, in the dead of night, of course we're out fighting monsters. What else? Having a midnight snack and then exercising? Going for a midnight run?"