The Archfiend

The little kitty was suffering inside.

It had brought the Maine Coon here to make that guy online who had disregarded cat rights apologize, but instead, it had gotten swept up in a treasure snatching battle midway through.

In a moment of softness, the little kitty had let the Maine Coon save the human who might have been killed, never expecting that the human would display absolute strength and slaughter all the demons.

Amid the demons' dying cries, every creature outside the courtyard broke down and began fleeing this place at all costs. Naturally, that included the Maine Coon and the stray cats it had stationed as guards.

But how could stray cats tainted with a trace of demonic aura have ever seen such a spectacle? At the first opportunity, they abandoned the little kitty and chose to flee for their lives.

The little kitty had wanted to escape too, but it was smaller than even those demonized rats. One careless moment, and it might have been trampled to death by the panicked demonized animals.

Left with no choice, the little kitty could only hide in a corner and tremble, hoping the Maine Coon would notice it was missing and come rescue it.

Yet the sight it least wanted to see still occurred next. It was caught red-handed by the owner of the courtyard, who even pinched the scruff at the back of its neck in a pose that grossly violated cat rights.

The little kitty wanted to resist, but before this man who seemed to be a Void-Refining True Lord, no amount of fury could become anything more than cute, ingratiating cries.

Hearing the little kitty's soft, sweet, obedient meows, Shen Yuan immediately revealed a gentle smile.

This palm-sized little kitty looked less than a month old. It must have been brought here during the disturbance caused by the demonized animals just now.

If such a tiny kitten were left here unattended, it might very well get carried off by a big rat.

Thinking this, Shen Yuan reached out and tapped the little kitty's pink nose before casually asking,

"Little one, how about following me from now on?"

The little kitty was struck as if by lightning.

This guy definitely knows who I am. He's deliberately asking this to coerce me into becoming his spirit beast.

Damn it, this is a modern society! Why are there still old fossils who disregard cat rights and want to take others as spirit beasts?

The little kitty was furious. Even with Shen Yuan gripping the scruff of its neck, it still wanted to resist.

But the next moment, Shen Yuan gathered the little kitty into his arms, and his right hand skillfully scratched beneath its chin.

The blissful sensation, as though it spread from the base of its tail all the way to the crown of its head, directly interrupted the little kitty's train of resistance. Though it consciously struggled, that wonderful feeling still made it sink into it instinctively.

"Meow!"

"Alright, I'll take that as your agreement." Shen Yuan held the little kitty, narrowed his eyes slightly, and chuckled.

Shen Yuan had merely been talking to himself while teasing the cat. He had never imagined that this little kitty could understand him.

Besides, this pretty kitten did not have any tag or marking on it. Shen Yuan had planned from the beginning to bring it home and adopt it.

But to the little kitty's ears, Shen Yuan's self-talk took on an entirely different meaning.

Damn human! He actually used this method to beguile me, lowering my guard so I'll agree to an unequal treaty!

Unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!

The little kitty was enraged beyond measure.

But when Shen Yuan carried it back into the courtyard, the little kitty that had still wanted to resist instantly cowered.

In everyone else's eyes, the courtyard before them was merely somewhat messy and otherwise unaffected.

But in the little kitty's vision, this courtyard was filled with the despairing wails of demons before their deaths, as well as the lingering souls left behind after space had been torn apart.

When the Spirit Tide had only just returned, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth had not been sufficient to support the birth of ghosts. These lingering souls would vanish like smoke the moment the sun rose.

Yet in the little kitty's eyes, those wailing demonic lingering souls were an incomparably terrifying sight.

Throughout the entire courtyard, only around Shen Yuan could a patch of pure land remain. Wherever Shen Yuan went, whether fragmented lingering souls or despairing wails, all vanished in an instant.

It was the fear the demons had retained while alive. The dread that pierced deep into their souls made them afraid to offend Shen Yuan even after death.

The little kitty trembled as it watched everything before it.

As long as a cultivator reached the Qi-Refining Realm and mastered basic spells such as the Spirit Communication Technique and Yin-Yang Eyes, they could see lingering souls that ordinary people could not.

With Shen Yuan's strength, he could certainly see these lingering souls. Dispersing them would be no more than a matter of thought.

Yet Shen Yuan had not done so. Instead, he allowed the lingering souls to wander through this courtyard, as though it were some obvious malicious amusement.

Archfiend!

He's absolutely a great archfiend!

The little kitty was afraid.

It stuck up its rear and buried its head deeply in Shen Yuan's embrace, not even daring to look directly at the handsome young man before it.

In the little kitty's eyes, someone with such malicious tastes had to be a notorious archfiend of the demonic path from the previous Qi Tide Era.

For people like that, death was merely the beginning.

They lit soul lamps with souls, making them wail for a hundred years as their souls dissolved.

They sealed souls within their flesh, forcing the souls' consciousness to watch their own bodies rot together with their souls.

They refined Blood Zombies, allowing them to retain their awareness as they slaughtered their own relatives, until they became emotionless killing machines through repeated breakdowns.

Those were merely the most basic methods of the demonic path. True archfiends were far crueler and far more terrifying than it could imagine.

While green hills remain, there will always be firewood to burn! As long as I live, one day I'll escape the archfiend's clutches.

The fear in its heart made the little kitty completely abandon all thoughts of resistance.

At least on the surface, the little kitty tried to play along with the archfiend, lest the archfiend use it to light a sky lantern.

Completely unaware of what the little kitty was thinking, Shen Yuan glanced at the little furball with its rear stuck up and its head buried in his arms. He only assumed the cat was stressed from arriving somewhere new, which was normal, so he paid it no mind.

Looking around the dilapidated courtyard, Shen Yuan vaguely felt that the air was somewhat chillier than usual. Other than that, there was nothing unusual.

Carrying the little kitty back into the house, Shen Yuan no longer had the mood to continue cultivating after what had happened tonight.

Though he did not know the exact reason the demons had gathered, Shen Yuan still guessed that their gathering was related to the Pot-Heaven Divine Ability seed drawing in and exhaling spiritual energy.

Just the portion fed back by the divine ability seed had already caused the vital essence within Shen Yuan's body to surge. If he devoted himself to digesting it, his strength would certainly rise another step.

Before he finished refining the vital essence over the next few days, there was no need for Shen Yuan to cause any more commotion.

Setting the little kitty on the table, Shen Yuan looked at it and suddenly had an idea.

"Since you're already my cat, you should have a name of your own to distinguish you."

"Since you're so black, how about calling you Little Black?"

Though the little kitty had already prepared itself to play along with the archfiend before it, upon hearing that name, its beautiful heterochromatic eyes could not help rolling dramatically.

"You don't like it? I think it's a pretty good name." Shen Yuan was somewhat troubled.

After thinking for a while, Shen Yuan's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Right, your fur coloring is Black Cloud Treading White Snow. If you're male, I'll call you Black Cloud. If you're female, I'll call you Bai Xue. What do you think of that name?"

Before the little kitty could respond, Shen Yuan once more grabbed it by the scruff of fate and began inspecting the little kitty's private parts to determine its sex.

The bewildered little kitty had not even come back to its senses. Only after Shen Yuan set it down and announced the name Bai Xue did it wake as if from a dream and let out a grief-stricken, indignant cry.

"Wuu!!!"

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