"Tonight, I'll try out the new trick on you."
Meow Meow crouched by the window of Clear Radiance Pavilion, his eyes gleaming faintly.
White Dew looked up at him.
She still had no idea what her cat master was planning. She only knew that his tone didn't sound like he had anything respectable in mind.
Meow Meow didn't explain much.
First, he used the Calming Bell to leave a soft chime inside Clear Radiance Pavilion. Then, through Holy Fire Resonance, he lured over several stray cats that often ran across the rooftops of the Crown Prince's Mansion.
These strays weren't Sacred Flame Spirit Cats yet.
They were simply drawn to White Dew's scent and hung around the Crown Prince's Mansion for scraps, so they could barely be considered peripheral cats.
"No fighting tonight."
"Just keep an eye on people."
"If you see someone wearing black and smelling of blood, follow them."
Meow Meow left them with a very simple thought.
The stray cats seemed to understand, more or less.
But after White Dew gave a soft meow, they all settled down quite a bit.
Meow Meow nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad."
"The Heavenly Dou Cat Net is up and running."
White Dew tilted her head.
Meow Meow looked at her again.
"You stay here."
"If Qinghe comes back, use the bell to let me know if anything happens."
White Dew nodded earnestly.
Once he'd arranged everything, Meow Meow leaped out the window.
Heaven Dou City was still far from quiet at night.
But as long as he stayed off the main streets, the sounds of people soon faded into the distance.
Meow Meow raced along the rooftops toward the outskirts of the city.
Once outside the city, he activated Moon Shadow Dash. His entire body became a pale streak, skimming over the grass toward the outer edge of Sunset Forest.
It still wasn't dawn when he reached the area near Black Water Marsh.
The Holy Fire Mark he'd left there last night was still in place.
The wooden chest was still there too.
But beside it lay the corpses of two polluted Hundred-Year Soul Beasts.
They must have been drawn to the stench of blood during the night, then torn each other apart.
Meow Meow glanced at them but didn't approach right away.
"As I thought, I can't leave this alone."
"If I bury this stuff for a few more days, even the low-level Soul Beasts nearby will go mad."
He first found a patch of tree shadow to hide in.
About half an hour later, footsteps finally sounded in the distance.
There were more people this time than last night.
Five Black-robed Soul Masters.
Two Soul Ancestors, two Soul Elders, and one Soul King.
The Soul King wore a gray cloak, with a small Black Eagle Copper Badge pinned to his chest.
When Meow Meow saw the insignia, his gaze immediately turned colder.
"The Black Eagle Crest again."
"Looks like Qian Renxue was right."
The Soul King leading them walked up to the wooden chest and said quietly,
"Take it away. Move quickly."
One of the Soul Ancestors asked,
"My lord, the Pollution has already spread here. If we let it continue, someone from Sunset Forest may notice."
The Soul King gave a cold laugh.
"What's there to worry about?"
"Unless Dugu Bo himself shows up, who's going to look into the nobles' residences just because some Soul Beasts on the outskirts have gone mad?"
Meow Meow's ears twitched.
Dugu Bo.
Of course he knew that name.
Poison Douluo, a Titled Douluo.
One of the people in the Sunset Forest area they absolutely couldn't afford to provoke.
If this place wasn't too far from Dugu Bo's territory, then these men were truly daring.
"The person behind them probably isn't just some minor noble."
Meow Meow made a mental note of that.
The five men quickly lifted the wooden chest.
But just as they were about to leave, a string of bubbles suddenly rose from the depths of Black Water Marsh.
Glug.
Glug.
The sound wasn't loud, but all five men stopped at once.
The Soul King's expression changed.
"Fall back!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the marsh exploded.
A long black snake covered in rotting mud shot out of the water, jaws snapping at the nearest Soul Elder.
The Soul Elder reacted a beat too slowly, and the snake clamped down on his shoulder.
"Argh!"
A scream rang out.
The Soul Ancestor beside him hurriedly struck, slamming a Soul Skill into the snake's head.
But the snake seemed not to feel pain. Instead, it bit down harder.
Meow Meow narrowed his eyes.
"A thousand-year Soul Beast."
"But the Pollution is heavy."
In the next instant, two Swamp Wolves and a Mud Armor Beast also emerged from Black Water Marsh.
Their eyes were bloodshot, and they all charged at the five Soul Masters.
Everything descended into chaos.
The Soul King reacted quickly, and five Soul Rings lit up beneath his feet.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black.
A standard Soul King configuration.
He struck with one palm, sending a Swamp Wolf flying.
The problem was that after being polluted, these Soul Beasts didn't feel pain and didn't know when to retreat.
The Swamp Wolf crashed into the mud, but quickly got back up.
"Don't get bogged down!"
The Soul King snapped.
"Take the chest and go!"
Meow Meow looked at the wooden chest and sneered to himself.
You want to leave?
Not happening.
He willed it, and the Holy Fire Mark he'd left on the bottom of the chest glimmered faintly.
The light was very dim.
So dim that no one else could see it.
But to the polluted Soul Beasts, that clean-burning fire was glaring.
Two of the Soul Beasts that had been charging at the Soul Masters immediately turned toward the chest.
The faces of the two Soul Elders carrying it went white.
"Why is it coming for the chest?!"
"Idiot, don't let go!"
The Soul King roared.
But it was already too late.
A Swamp Wolf pounced, knocking one of the Soul Elders off his feet.
The wooden chest rolled to the edge of the muddy water.
The lid jolted, and several bottles of black liquid tumbled out.
Two of them shattered on impact.
As soon as the reddish-black liquid hit the ground, the muddy water nearby began to boil.
Meow Meow's expression darkened.
"This stuff smells even worse than it did last night."
He didn't wait any longer.
The Calming Bell chimed softly.
Ding.
As the chime rang out, the polluted Soul Beasts all slowed for a moment.
At the same time, Meow Meow activated Moon Shadow Dash and darted straight to the chest.
He didn't touch the black bottles. Instead, he pressed the Holy Fire down around them.
Golden-white flames fell over the area, and the reddish-black liquid immediately began to sizzle softly.
Its chill, sinister aura weakened considerably.
Only then did the five Soul Masters notice him.
"A cat?"
The Soul King's face changed.
He seemed to remember something.
"It's that White Cat!"
Meow Meow's ears perked up.
"You know me?"
He didn't say it aloud.
He only wondered to himself.
Looks like the men from last night had sent word back.
Or perhaps someone on the Black Marsh side already knew that an unusual White Cat had been interfering with their plans lately.
The Soul King reacted swiftly.
"Kill it!"
A black Soul Skill blasted straight toward Meow Meow.
Meow Meow didn't try to block it head-on.
He activated Moon Mark Time Slow.
The Soul Skill's speed seemed to drop for a moment.
Meow Meow seized that instant, grabbed the small wooden case containing the black bottles in his teeth, and darted aside.
The Soul Skill smashed into the muddy water, sending up a spray of black waves.
"Quite the temper."
"Too bad your aim's terrible."
Meow Meow grumbled inwardly, but didn't stop moving.
He couldn't afford to tangle with a Soul King head-on for too long.
He only had three thousand years of cultivation. His tricks could annoy people, but if the Soul King pinned him down, he'd be in trouble.
So he shook the Calming Bell.
Ding—
This time, the chime rang out more clearly than before.
The polluted Soul Beasts all stopped at once.
Then Holy Fire flared in their eyes, briefly suppressing their fury.
The Soul Beasts didn't recover completely, but at least they stopped biting everything in sight and instinctively moved away from the reddish-black liquid.
The Soul King's face grew even grimmer.
"It can suppress the Pollution!"
Meow Meow felt reassured when he heard that.
Pollution.
These people really did know what this thing was.
"You're practically confessing without even being asked."
He put the wooden box into the Calming Bell's space, then turned and left.
The Soul King couldn't possibly let him go.
The fifth Soul Ring beneath his feet lit up, and the phantom of a Black Eagle spread its wings behind him.
"Trying to run?"
"Stop it!"
The two Soul Ancestors immediately moved in from either side.
Meow Meow didn't look back.
Several Wild Cats he'd lured over earlier suddenly burst out of the bushes ahead.
They didn't attack anyone.
They simply carried a few small pebbles in their mouths and tossed them in different directions.
Meow Meow had left traces of his Holy Fire Aura on the pebbles.
As several sparks of flame scattered, the Soul Ancestors instinctively lost focus.
Meow Meow seized the chance to dart away, slipping straight into the shadows of the trees.
"Useless!"
The Soul King cursed.
But before he could give chase, the depths of Black Water Marsh churned again.
The two bottles of Black Liquid that had broken just now had stirred something deeper beneath the water.
A shadow larger than the long serpent from before slowly rose from below the surface.
The Soul Masters' faces changed at once.
"A Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?"
"No, it's a polluted Ten-Thousand-Year Swamp Wyrm!"
Meow Meow glanced over from a distance, and his heart gave a thump.
He couldn't fight this thing here.
If a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast went berserk, the nearby villages and towns would suffer.
At that thought, he paused mid-stride.
"What a pain."
"Such a pain."
He looked back at the Swamp Wyrm breaking through the water, his mind racing.
There was no way he could kill it by force.
And there was no guarantee he could suppress it.
But letting it continue to be stirred up by the polluting liquid would only make things worse.
Meow Meow gritted his teeth and took out the Golden Feather Qian Renxue had given him.
"Let's borrow a little of your light."
He ignited the Golden Feather with Holy Fire, and a faint golden radiance spread in an instant.
The Soul Power imbued with divine attributes pressed down, forcing the Swamp Wyrm's violent aura to falter.
Meow Meow seized the moment and rang the bell.
The sound of the Calming Bell fell upon it alongside the Holy Fire.
He didn't try to tame the Swamp Wyrm. He simply burned away all the broken bottles of Black Liquid.
Once the source of the pollution was gone, the red light in the Swamp Wyrm's eyes faded somewhat.
It didn't charge onto the shore again. Instead, it sank into the water and slowly retreated into the depths of Black Water Marsh.
Meow Meow let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness."
"That Golden Feather didn't go to waste."
But using it had already caused quite a stir.
Someone in the direction of Heaven Dou might have sensed the fluctuations in Soul Power.
He couldn't stay here any longer.
Meow Meow immediately put away the fading light of the Golden Feather and turned to leave.
The Soul King still wanted to chase after him, but the Swamp Wyrm had only just retreated, and the water was still churning. He didn't dare leave.
All he could do was watch as the White Cat disappeared into the night.
"Damn it!"
The Soul King slammed his fist into a tree trunk.
"Report back."
"That cat has to be dealt with."
Meow Meow heard him.
But he didn't look back.
He hurried on until he had completely left Black Water Marsh, then stopped on a hillside.
He opened the Calming Bell's space and looked at the wooden box he'd just stolen.
There were still seven intact bottles of Black Liquid inside.
There was also a thin Iron Slip pressed against the bottom.
A few characters were engraved on it.
They were tiny.
But still legible.
[White Tiger Sample, Third Batch.]
Meow Meow's eyes narrowed.
"White Tiger?"
"Something from Star Luo?"
Heavenly Dou Nobility, the Black Eagle Crest, polluted Soul Beasts, the White Tiger Sample.
This trail was even more complicated than he'd thought.
As he stared at the Iron Slip, a faint stir suddenly came from deep within the Calming Bell's space.
It was as though something had been awakened by the words "White Tiger."
Meow Meow's heart stirred.
A faint white shadow emerged from the edge of the Golden Feather's fading light.
It wasn't a cat.
Nor was it human.
It was a tiny phantom White Tiger.
Its four paws were tucked beneath it, and its eyes were wary. Its aura was faint, as though it might dissipate at any moment.
Meow Meow froze.
"What are you?"
The White Tiger phantom looked at him. As if it had hesitated for a long time, it finally said softly,
"I'm not a thing."
"I'm... Jianbing."
Meow Meow: "..."
The name instantly sent all sorts of wild thoughts racing through his mind.
Jianbing.
White Tiger.
That name didn't sound like something an ordinary Soul Beast would have.
Meow Meow looked at the tiny White Tiger phantom before him, and an ominous feeling suddenly stirred in his heart.
"You said your name is Jianbing?"
The Little White Tiger nodded.
"Mm."
"Then why are you here?"
The Little White Tiger lowered his head.
"I don't know."
"I only remember that my home was in White Tiger Blood."
"Later, someone cut me apart."
Meow Meow fell silent.
White Tiger Sample.
Cut apart.
Pollution experiments.
This clearly involved the Star Luo White Tiger Lineage. It might even involve some sort of Soul Bone or Martial Soul bloodline experiment.
And the Little White Tiger phantom before him didn't seem like the remnant soul of an ordinary Soul Beast.
There was a strange bloodline aura about him.
Weak.
But extraordinary.
Meow Meow watched him for a long while, then finally sighed.
"Fine."
"Don't dissipate for now."
"When we get back, I'll ask you about it properly."
The Little White Tiger eyed him warily.
"You're not going to put me in a bottle too, are you?"
Meow Meow's eye twitched.
"Do I look like that kind of cat?"
The Little White Tiger hesitated.
"You look like... you're good at putting things away."
Meow Meow: "..."
It wasn't a nice thing to say.
But in a way, it was pretty accurate.
Meow Meow couldn't be bothered to argue with the Little White Tiger. He simply used the Calming Bell to set aside a small, quiet space for him, then used Holy Fire to suppress the lingering black aura around him.
The Little White Tiger seemed much more comfortable.
His form also grew a little more stable.
Once he'd finished, Meow Meow looked toward Heaven Dou City.
"White Tiger Sample."
"Black Eagle Nobility."
"Prince Xue Xing."
"And a little White Tiger remnant called Jianbing."
Meow Meow took a deep breath.
"Heaven Dou City really won't let a cat live in peace."
Before you continue