Art Always Shines

Night fell.

Mao City, City Lord's manor.

"My lord, it's time for dinner."

As the beardless steward of the City Lord's manor entered the study with a dinner tray, he also gently reminded.

"Now that those infants haven't been found yet, how can I eat?"

The speaker was a beauty in her thirties with her hair in a bun, wearing palace attire that outlined her slender and graceful figure and exquisite features, but her brows were furrowed with persistent worry.

Surrounding this beauty were cats of all varieties, including a tortoiseshell cat she cradled, which had heterochromatic red and blue eyes, making it look rather mystical.

The variety of colored cats surrounding her were of all breeds and coat patterns. Some were hugging the beauty's thighs, clinging onto her dress with their paws, refusing to let go no matter how the beauty walked around.

"My City Lord!

Humans are made of iron and food is made of steel, but you haven't eaten for over two days already. Even with your martial prowess, not replenishing for so long will take its toll."

The steward put the dinner tray on the table and sighed.

"Still no appetite."

Sighing, the City Lord sat in a nearby chair and pushed away the dinner tray on the table.

The tortoiseshell cat in her arms looked at the food, lazily meowing once. The other cats attracted by the food smell perceptively looked away.

"Shall I brew some hot tea?"

The steward asked. The beauty nodded, "Brew a pot."

"Alright, I'll go do that now!"

The steward was about to leave but was called to a stop by the City Lord after a few steps.

"Right, the Spirit Cat Festival starts tomorrow. How are the preparations? Is the list of cats nominated for the festival ready?"

"I'm overseeing the preparations for the Spirit Cat Festival, there are no issues. As for the list of nominated cats this year, it was submitted this morning."

"Bring it here for me to see."

"Of course, please wait a moment."

The steward left. The Mao City Lord who stayed behind stroked the cat in her arms, sighing involuntarily at the cats surrounding her.

"I wonder where those children could be now."

After a moment, the steward returned with a tea set and a list that he placed on the table.

The City Lord first picked up the list to read through while the steward poured tea for her on the side.

As soon as the City Lord opened the list, she saw a picture of a white cat wearing a golden pheasant coronet. Its eyes were like cast gold, its fur pure white without a single blemish.

Below the picture was the title and characteristics of this cat.

"General White?"

The City Lord raised her brows, reading through the list carefully again.

“Fur as flawless white jade without dust or dirt, eyes like cast gold, bright and spirited. Accompanied left and right by dogs, like a general riding a fiery steed, exceptional valor."

"This General White is the cat that exposed the human traffickers at North Market previously." The steward explained why this white cat was able to be ranked first on the list.

"It's a Spirit Cat after all. Being ranked first is only natural."

The beauty's lips twitched into a smile, lightening her previously heavy mood.

"My lord means?"

The steward's eyes widened in surprise. As he was busy with the human trafficking case previously, he didn't inspect the list closely, only gaining a superficial understanding to avoid embarrassment if asked.

"The bloodline of Chi Yu Xiao Fei Lian is said to be lost, didn't expect it to reappear in this world."

"Then, Sister Qiansui's side...."

The steward spoke softly. The beauty smiled wryly and shook her head, "You know Sister Qiansui's temperament. Even if I asked, she wouldn't say."

"But with this, I understand why Sister Qiansui frequently came to ask me to quell some unrest and help her gather medicinal ingredients."

"It must be for this little one!"

The City Lord flipped to the next page with a smile and saw the second picture of Chi Yu Xiao Fei Lian.

In the drawing, the cat wore a golden pheasant coronet while squatting on a golden fur dog with aquamarine eyes, revealing an extremely creepy smile.

"This is.."

Seeing this drawing, the City Lord was taken aback for a moment before looking to the description below.

"An extremely spiritual cat, scarily adept at imitating human smiles, bone-chilling to behold."

"However, spiritual cats are bound to differ from their peers. Perhaps this is one of the mystical traits of this cat that serves as the best identification!"

With the description below, the City Lord's smile froze as the steward also leaned over to take a look, rendered speechless.

After a long stunned silence, the steward squeezed out, "This Spirit Cat really...has personality!"

"Ah!" Closing the list, the City Lord tossed it on the table and rubbed her brows with a sigh, "I feel this little one won't be a peaceable one!"

"With the things Sister Qiansui, stuffy gourd, and my two elder brothers did twenty years ago, cultivators already put us on their blacklist. And now there's Chi Yu Xiao Fei Lian, I feel my Mao City's future is in jeopardy!"

"The nature of Spirit Cats is hard to fathom. My lord need not worry too much!"

"I hope so!"

"Will you attend tomorrow then?"

"I'll go take a look."

The beauty took a small sip of tea.

"I have to properly see this cat for myself. After all, among the Four Great Mysterious Cats, Chi Yu Xiao Fei Lian is the most mysterious, with the fewest records."

"My grandfather's own writing about Chi Yu Xiao Fei Lian in his Bestial Record: Mysterious Cats Chapter contained the least information. Now that there's a living one, I must go take a look no matter what."

"Alright, I'll arrange it for you!"

"Mmm!" The beauty nodded before absentmindedly sighing in admiration, "Grandfather's records state Chi Yu Xiao Fei Lian has a noble and aloof nature, mysteriously unpredictable like a fleeting glimpse of a divine dragon. I wonder about this one, if it's truly as aloof and unstained by the mundane as written."

...........

Wutong Temple, rear garden.

"Thirteen, thirteen, dig this up!"

Duke squatted on the dog's back, getting him to dig up the spot Duke selected.

The dog hastily dug into the soil, leaving behind a shallow hole. Duke threw in a pingpong ball-sized Sun Essence Pellet.

The Sun Essence Pellet glowed intensely with explosive aura like a powder keg about to blow.

As the pellet fell into the hole, Thirteen swiftly buried it under the soil.

Seeing Thirteen finish, Duke committed the pellet's aura to memory.

"Alright, let's move on to the next spot!"

"Aroo?"

Having buried the Sun Essence Pellet, Thirteen curiously asked the cat.

Why bury these pellets at these spots instead of eating them or throwing them out to explode?

"Striking directly now, though satisfying, would startle the snakes. It's better to stash these Sun Essence Pellets around Wutong Temple first. Even if we're discovered, we can still remotely detonate them to cause chaos for us to take advantage of..." Duke explained to Thirteen before suddenly exclaiming, "The upper room! We'll hide one on the roof too!"

Thirteen obediently went up to the room with Duke, who lifted roof tiles to tuck the pellet in before replacing them.

Duke had already buried fifteen Sun Essence Pellets in Wutong Temple's rear garden. He still had over a hundred and fifty more left in his black cauldron space.

These were the fruits of his frenzied overtime labor this afternoon.

With his current Internal Organs Realm cultivation and only an admittedly quick yet useless dog, rescuing the captive children from the enormous Wutong Temple would be extremely difficult.

It was better to lay the groundwork with these Sun Essence Pellets first. If discovered, directly detonating them would throw Wutong Temple into chaos for them to capitalize on.

Under Duke's direction, Thirteen buried Sun Essence Pellets all over as two-thirds of Duke's stockpile was arranged around Wutong Temple, even in its latrines.

"The remaining fifty should be enough."

Looking at the more than fifty Sun Essence Pellets in his black cauldron space, Duke stroked his chin.

The preparations this time were still too few. After tonight, there must be at least a thousand Sun Essence Pellets in the black cauldron space.

Even if it's less, it still has to be stocked with five to six hundred pellets.

It's too troublesome to use and refine them as needed!

Thirteen, meanwhile, stared at his own front legs covered in mud, on the verge of tears. On this journey, the cat actually made him dig in the dirt.

His paws were caked in mud and clumped together, quite uncomfortable.

Seeing the dog's dissatisfaction, Duke patted Thirteen's little head.

"Alright, endure it for now. It'll be better after tonight!"

With the cat's reassurance, Thirteen also let out a couple of whimpers.

"Okay, okay!"

"Now let's go back to that courtyard from before, that creepy courtyard!"

As soon as Duke said this, the dog got up immediately and rushed towards the courtyard they had visited during the day.

With his excellent speed, the dog arrived at the courtyard in just half a cup of tea's time.

When the cat and dog came to this courtyard, Duke and Thirteen couldn't help but shiver involuntarily.

The courtyard had seemed creepy even during the day when they came.

Who would have thought that coming here at night was like entering a graveyard, gloomy and terrifying, with an indescribable eerie aura lingering in the air.

"Awoo?"

Thirteen crouched on the eight trigram platform in the center of the courtyard, puzzled as to why Duke wanted to come here.

"Although we don't know where the entrance to the underground palace is, according to my calculations, it is very likely to be right under this courtyard."

Duke left the dog's back, and at the same time, because he had left the saddle, the connection between the dog's energy and his was also broken. The dog appeared out of thin air in the courtyard.

Without the cat by his side, Thirteen immediately tucked in his tail and curled up into a ball.

"Awoo!"

Cat Lord, what exactly are you trying to do?

"Break in!"

Seeing the trembling dog, Duke grinned.

The dog tilted his head. Break in?

You're not making me dig another hole, are you!

The dog's ears suddenly stood up, looking extremely unwilling.

"Don't worry, I won't make you dig this time. I have my own ideas!"

"Ahwoo?"

The dog thought of the earth ghost that could move freely underground. Could it be that you want to borrow the abilities of that freak?

"I won't use his power. That earth ghost was refined by a Wutong Temple cultivator, so recklessly releasing it could lead to undesirable consequences. So I'm using another method!"

Duke drove his inner strength, channeling power into his paws, and arrogantly slapped the eight trigram platform.

With just one slap, the eight trigram platform under the cat's paws immediately shattered, fragments of the platform scattering in all directions. At the same time, Duke's eyes narrowed.

This was because in the gap opened up by his forced slap, a few skulls were exposed, and when Duke focused his gaze inward, he couldn't help but gasp.

Not only were there several skulls above, below was densely packed full of them.

This eight trigram platform wasn't built with soil and rocks at all, it was clearly stacked with skulls!

As Duke scraped away at the platform, more and more skulls rolled out from under his paws.

Under the cold moonlight, the hollow eye sockets of the skulls met Duke's gaze.

Making the cat's eyes appear exceptionally sinister, his killing intent also boiling up.

"These scumbags!"