When Steward Jin started speaking, the black cat's gloomy green eyes locked straight onto him, letting out a low purr from its throat.
As a spirit-talismans creation, the black cat's spiritual awareness was not yet sufficient to clearly target external situations and make precise reactions, but overwhelming malice was definitely something it prioritized.
Zhu Wenying replied even more coldly:
"Sorry, Nine Lives is not used to strangers."
Steward Jin had no intention of dropping the matter while he was ahead, instead deducing further based on what he had seen and heard:
"This little thing is so precious. These past few days, it's looked to me like you're the one serving it and relying on it.
"The array-restriction nodes were what you just carved onto the jade tablet, right? You clearly discovered them, yet you didn't cause any sabotage, and even returned the starlight stone you stole earlier. I can only interpret this to mean that information was left inside the array restriction, and you... it must be that the cat can 'see' it? Could you translate that for me?"
Even though Steward Jin was conversing with Zhu Wenying, his gaze had, at some unknown point, gathered entirely on Nine Lives, ignoring everything else.
Does it look like I'm extra?
The moment Steward Jin exposed Zhu Wenying's movements and demanded Nine Lives, a certain "mantis"—namely, Vice-Steward Lan—was hiding in a fairly complex piece of terrain not far away.
For the past few days, Zhu Wenying taking her "cat for a walk" had also been "walking" away her own patience.
She had once thought about using demonic corruption, ** and other methods to strike straight at the root rather than going through all these detours.
Possessing Vice-Steward Lan was a pre-arranged preparation.
The problem was that Zhu Wenying's own willpower was steadfast,