Cat Garden (End)

Hu Mang soon obtained a blank divine dynasty official seal from the home of an "official cat."

An "official cat" was a purple-striped cat. Among solid-colored cats with tiger stripes, only yellow and tabby cats commonly bore them. Purple cats were extremely rare, and purple cats with tiger stripes were of official rank, bringing their owners official fortunes that reached prosperity and well-being.

Simply put, this was a cat in the system.

Commonly known as a Dakang cat.

The "blank official seal" could randomly appoint someone as a ninth-rank official of the divine dynasty.

If Hu Mang failed his "promotion," he could also use the seal to force a class change, though if he did, he most likely wouldn't become a "divine dynasty heavenly soldier."

According to Old Chen, the four most powerful "official positions" in Demon-Subduing City were the thunder officials of the Thunder God's Shrine, the patrolling heavenly soldiers, the prison wardens, and the demon-slaying swordsmen.

The "divine dynasty remnants" who held such positions also received the strongest blessings and wielded the greatest authority.

So, given a choice, a "Devil-Subduing Heavenly Soldier" was still the best option.

After freeloading off three house cats, Hu Mang could clearly feel the Cat Garden rejecting him.

According to the Cat Garden's rules, an outsider could only hook up with one demon-subduing cat spirit and take one treasure.

But a "yellow-haired delinquent" like Hu Mang was so astonishingly attractive that house cats had thrown themselves at him one after another, even offering up their "family fortunes" before recognizing him as their master.

In a sense, he had exploited a bug in the Cat Garden. After all, these were gifts freely given by the "house cats."

But Hu Mang could also sense that if he took one more item, the Cat Garden would kick him straight out.

So he knew better than to push his luck and stopped while he was ahead.

After Hu Mang had freeloaded off the property of three house cats, Old Chen and Zhou Tong finally managed to get their cats to recognize them as masters.

Old Man Chen chose a lion cat. Lion cats had long fur and large bodies, short, brushlike tails, and tall, fat frames. Though tame, they were clumsy.

This was one of the few Ding Fire Cats that could be made to "recognize a master" through feeding, though it looked rather dopey.

According to Old Chen, however, the cat had mismatched eyes, and if raised well, it could develop Yin-Yang Eyes.

But this "lion cat" was a pure glutton and felt no closeness to Old Chen at all, let alone enough to take him to its cat house for treasure.

Zhou Tong, on the other hand, had chosen an "owl" that was quite close to her and had taken her to fetch treasure.

Of course, "owl" was Hu Mang's description. According to Chen Sheng, it was a flying cat, with fleshy wings, the ability to fly, and excellent eyesight.

Hu Mang probed it briefly and discovered that the cat actually had Divine Sense!

With enough Spiritual Qi, all sorts of weird and wonderful things could evolve.

"How are those followers doing now?" Hu Mang asked softly.

The two of them were staying where they were not only to wait for Zhou Tong to fetch her treasure, but also for Chen Sheng to calculate the state of the "yin-yang houses."

If the previous group fought their way out of the "eight houses," Hu Mang wouldn't mind waiting at his ease for the exhausted enemy and making another windfall.

Old Chen calculated again and again with his Later Heaven Eight Trigrams diagram, then finally sighed. "Those people fought their way into the 'Jue' and 'Yan' houses among the eight, but they didn't enter the most dangerous Calamity House. They only returned to Li House, after which the 'configuration of the eight houses' stabilized again."

"In other words, either all of them died in the eight houses, or they found a way to leave the Cat Garden."

Hu Mang stroked his great spear and nodded silently. Since they had escaped, he would let it go.

Old Chen Sheng's expression also grew serious.

"It's actually just as well they escaped. Don't say this old man didn't warn you. I don't know how you obtained this immortal weapon, but once you take in this 'demon-subduing Ding Fire Cat,' you'll most likely be sent to the most vicious of the eight houses, Calamity House. Only by completing its trial can you take the path of Ding Fire subduing demons and Bing Fire forging generals, ascend to Heaven Mansion, and complete the promotion assessment."

"Calamity House is Fire House. Besides all the deadly transformations of the Later Heaven Eight Trigrams, you may also have to face the dangers in the other six houses. And if you're careless for even a moment in the process, a departed soul from the divine dynasty that died here back then will seize your body, drastically changing your temperament. At least half the 'divine dynasty remnants' in this city were promoted that way."

"Unable to endure the divine dynasty's promotion trial, they could only absorb the wills of the dead to survive, drastically changing their temperaments. Even a drastic change in temperament is a good outcome."

"Mm."

Hu Mang nodded. On this subject, the old man had been quite frank.

After all, if he died, the old man would have no powerful backer to cling to.

"Didn't you say before that only by being promoted to a 'divine dynasty remnant' would you have a chance to escape Demon-Subduing City? Don't you want to get out?"

"Of course this old man wants to escape, but-"

Chen Sheng hesitated, then finally sighed.

"Things aren't right in this city, not right at all. Something is wrong with the divine officials, and something is wrong with those old heretical ghosts too. At least, as far as I know, with how cautious those old ghosts are, there's no way they would all enter this place at the same time."

"There's something wrong with Demon-Subduing City too. The divine dynasty has been destroyed for so many years, so why did the city gates suddenly open wide and treasures emerge?"

Old Chen Sheng sighed again and carefully looked around before speaking.

"What worries me most is actually the Thunder God's Shrine, this 'Thunder God in the city'!"

"Thunder God?" Hu Mang paused and asked, "Isn't the Thunder God's Shrine operating without any problems?"

"The fact that there are no problems is the biggest problem!" Chen Sheng widened his aged eyes. "Though the Thunder God wasn't a particularly high-ranking official in the divine dynasty, he still guarded a region. If he had survived until now, how could the Buddhist, Daoist, and demonic factions not have destroyed him?"

"And there's He Chang. I suspect he failed to be promoted to 'thunder official' because of the Thunder God's Shrine too."

"The reason is simple. If He Chang had failed his promotion in the normal course of events, how could he have retained his self-awareness? Shouldn't his temperament have changed drastically after his body was seized?"

Hu Mang raised an eyebrow. He had overlooked that point.

"Then what are you saying?"

"As I see it, the only reason is that the Thunder God deliberately preserved He Chang's consciousness."

"Why would the local Thunder God deliberately preserve a living person's consciousness?"

Hu Mang and Chen Sheng exchanged a look, feeling that things were increasingly bad.

"So now you understand why this old man insisted on staying with you, and even urged you to come to the Cat Garden and risk a promotion. The reason is simple: if something really does happen in Demon-Subduing City, perhaps only a divine post outside the Thunder God's Shrine's system will offer a final chance."

Hu Mang said nothing. His murky yellow eyes narrowed slightly, and the yin-suppressing marks deep within them glimmered.

Even now, he still only half understood how he had transmigrated here or how to return, and now he had been caught up in some kind of divine conspiracy.

Interesting~

The feeling he had felt the first time he stepped into a life-and-death arena returned, setting his hairs on end and sending goosebumps erupting all over his skin.

Both fell silent, and the atmosphere grew a little heavy.

After a while, perhaps to ease the atmosphere, Old Chen laughed and changed the subject.

"I forgot to ask. Little Tong and I have chosen our demon-subduing cats. Have you chosen yours? Though you're very popular, Brother Hu, you can only pick one. Are you planning to choose one of those three from before?"

To Old Chen's surprise, Hu Mang silently shook his head.

"Huh? Why not? Then who are you going to choose?"

Old Chen was taken aback.

Hu Mang lifted his chin toward a Ding Fire Cat on the outskirts, not far away.

It was a fire cat that looked like a vicious beast, as large as a young leopard, with red fur like splashed blood. Its face, however, was covered in claw marks, and its fur stood on end where its flesh had been torn open, making it ugly and fierce.

It made no sound, merely staring at them with eyes so black their depths could not be seen. That gaze was not like one looking at living things, but at a corpse soon to be burned to ashes.

None of that was the point.

"A ferocious cat!"

Old Chen spotted the crucial detail at a glance, his gaze falling over the cat's entire body, especially the thick fur on its chest.

"A whorl on the chest, a cat's life is short. A leftward whorl brings dogs, a rightward whorl brings harm by water. Whorls all over the body bring violent ends and many calamities."

Old Chen paused.

"So, why?"

"All the other demon-subduing cats are staring at me and throwing themselves at me. He's the only one staring at this thing."

Hu Mang flicked the shaft of the Shattered Star Spear, producing a clear metallic ring.

Only then did Old Chen notice that the cat's gaze was not on Hu Mang, but on the spear.

"I suspect it has a connection to the spear's previous owner, so I chose it."

Old Chen nodded silently, agreeing with the idea.

Their only goal now was promotion to "heavenly soldier." Since this cat had a connection to the Shattered Star Spear, perhaps it would prove especially useful during the promotion to divine dynasty heavenly soldier.

"Do you still have that heavenly soldier's corpse from before?" Chen Sheng suddenly asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Leave it to this old man in a moment."

"...All right."

As Zhou Tong emerged from a cat house called the Wind-Catching Corridor, Hu Mang nodded and summoned the "corpse" from his Storage Bag.

Then, with a series of cracks and pops from his body, he shook off all the demon-subduing cats "rubbing against" him and scooped up the fire cat.

The cat showed no sign of resisting.

The man and cat vanished in an instant.

Chen Sheng first looked Zhou Tong over and found that the young girl was in rather sorry shape. A bloody gash deep enough to reveal bone had appeared on her left cheek, and there were another dozen or so cuts on her right leg.

Without asking what she had gained, Chen Sheng first took a hemostatic ointment from his Storage Bag and had her apply it. Only then did he look her over.

A trace of fierceness had appeared on the face of the once lively and adorable girl, and her gaze had grown much more determined.

"Not bad. You've grown up a little."

Then he went to attend to his own business.

Zhou Tong had originally had a bellyful of things to say, but when the words reached her lips, she swallowed them again. After a while, she still couldn't resist coming over.

Old Man Chen was "painting" something on the face of a corpse.

"Senior Zhou, what are you doing?"

"Touching up the yin makeup."

Chen Sheng answered without looking up.

But he soon gave a soft exclamation, his gaze sweeping over the bones exposed outside the corpse's "armor."

He knew something about bone structure, and the way these bones were shaped-

"So it was a female general."