"I'm an official employee of the Relevant Department!"
"Not some wandering mercenary!"
The black cat leaned forward, its head nearly pressing against the witch's nose, its dark-red eyes fixed fiercely on her. Jiang Yu stared back without moving an inch or taking a single step back.
After a long while, the black cat finally snarled, "So... how much are you planning to pay?!"
"One thousand jade coins." The witch assessed her little treasury and answered decisively.
It was a very sincere offer.
Ten jade coins equaled a publicly funded student's annual scholarship, enough to cover all their expenses at school for a year. Fifty jade coins could rent a spacious storefront in Beta Town or buy a detached villa in a remote location. Three hundred jade coins could support an ordinary wizard's purchase of all the resources needed to advance to Registered Wizard. One thousand jade coins was more liquid capital than many small Wizard Families could scrape together on short notice.
But the black cat scoffed at the witch's offer.
"Pah." It lifted its chin slightly, its whiskers drooping downward in a very discourteous fashion, and replied slowly, "A thousand jade coins might be a lot to wizards, but to me, it's far too cheap... It's nowhere near enough for risking my life alongside you."
As if it felt that had not been clear enough, the black cat immediately added, "What would a cat need that much money for?"
Below the city walls, amid the battlefield.
The smoke around the two craters had slowly dissipated, revealing scorched crater walls and many unconscious figures. They were wizards and demons knocked out by the impact.
At the center of the craters, the pitch-black arrivals were slowly reviving, extending countless writhing tentacles.
Cries of alarm rose from around the craters, from many