Capítulo 61: A Catsith
*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*
Qing Fang didn't even open his eyes as he heard a splash of water, signalling that Nu Li had returned.
He was in quite a foul mood. There were a lot of Blood Laws left over after the second tribulation, enough to cultivate normally for just under a year!
But, with the wooden crown, that would be shortened down to a mere two months. Or so he thought...
Qing Fang found that now he was cultivating Stage 3 Laws, the effect of the crown had weakened slightly. Although Qing Fang was annoyed, he was understanding. After all, if the treasure had effects regardless of it being a Stage 1 or Stage 9 Law, it would be a godly treasure.
He found that before it increased his cultivation by fivefold, and now it was only fourfold. Qing Fang guessed that when he was Stage 6 it would have virtually no effect. That meant it was merely a worldly treasure.
From Stage 6 and above, cultivators had the strength to break world barriers and traverse the Mortal Realm. Beneath them, cultivators were stuck in a world. So, treasures for world-bound cultivators were called worldly treasures. For those above, they were called heavenly treasures.
However, if it could help Qing Fang get to Stage 6, it was already an amazing treasure in the eyes of most cultivators. However, that awe would diminish in the eyes of the true rulers of the Mortal Realm.
So, now Qing Fang would end up cultivating for three months. However, he didn't mind as he didn't intend to rush his cultivation. If he could help it, he wouldn't consume pills as they would lower his comprehension.
Previously, to reach peak Stage 3 at the young age of twenty-four, he had consumed many pills and used many treasures. His cultivation wasn't healthy, but Qing Fang was desperate to get stronger.
However, that was him from the past. Now he had an affinity and a comprehension for cultivation that was definitely top-notch. But even now, Qing Fang didn't imagine himself becoming Stage 9. After all, that realm was too high up in the sky.
Qing Fang stopped thinking as he felt a gaze of draconic eyes upon him. It seemed his slave wanted to tell him something. Little did Nu Li know, that Qing Fang could see him through his own eyelids due to his higher Stage 5 eyes...
"Speak."
"Ah? Uh, yes." Nu Li was rather surprised as he didn't think Qing Fang noticed him, he looked to be in deep cultivation.
"Master, I have explored a bit of the marsh. We are about twenty kilometres from the city walls to the west, however, the east seems to go on forever."
Qing Fang opened his eyes as he heard this. He was indeed interested in the surrounding areas. After all, he would eventually run out of cultivation resources and he wasn't eager to reenter the city after his last fight.
That Baron, as well as the Stage 5 Explosion path human. There seemed to be endless troubling figures in the city, and Qing Fang knew he didn't yet possess the strength to do as he liked. He didn't even know much about the fabled City Lord, he hadn't even seen him.
"Go on forever?" Qing Fang questioned.
"Yes. It winds down into the earth and I couldn't continue as the cultivation beasts got stronger and stronger. In fact, I luckily escaped a Stage 4 beast." Nu Li said with care. He knew the interests of his master. It was one thing: blood.
The more, the better. Nu Li had learned. And if he could get stronger blood from stronger people, his master would be happy.
"Master, do you intend to go down there?" Nu Li asked with a bit of consideration. He knew that there might be beasts even his master couldn't face head-on.
"Hmmm." Qing Fang hummed out loud, which confused Nu Li. Normally, his master only spoke as much as he had to. Looking up, he saw his master's eyes locked directly behind him.
Nu Li turned but didn't see anything. There were only the two natural treasures and the pond. The water was shimmering, as it normally would...
'Hold on.' Nu Li's expression became solemn as he saw the water shimmering. He didn't cause those...
He wanted to turn to look at his master, but it was too late!
A huge white arm cascaded over his head, dazzling claws extended! He reached just a few meters from Nu Li with dazzling speed and Nu Li could only see a white blur!
However, as the claws of his master fell, they didn't hit thin air as it looked like they would! They smashed down onto the air that seemed as though it was solid!
"Meow!" A dangerous hiss came from the empty space before black smoke seemed to come gushing from between the void! And in moments, the outline of a large cat became shrouded in a shadowy mist!
The long claws of his master caught the cat by its scruff and pinched it until blood wetted the grey fur of the baby feline. Although the cat was one and a half meters tall, it seemed like a mere domestic cat before the towering Qing Fang!
Nu Li watched with incredulous eyes as the cat was plucked from the ground and taken overhead to his master! The deadly claws of the Stage 4 cat were madly clawing at the air and narrowly missed Nu Li's head, making him shiver!
"What a cute little thing!" Qing Fang exclaimed with a wide grin that made Nu Li frown. Was this cat special?
The shadowy mist receded into nothingness and revealed the true form of the cat. It looked almost exactly like a cat, if not for its abnormally large eyes and disgustingly skinny frame. Its grey fur was short and made the cat look malnourished, however, Qing Fang knew exactly what it was.
The white claws extended as far as they could from the paws of the cat as its yellow eyes surrounded a slit that seemed to be screaming with a warning towards Qing Fang!
"Hmm." Qing Fang laughed a bit as he saw the creature dare to be so arrogant before him. He never liked cats anyway. The way they strolled around annoyed him to no end. They were mere beasts, nothing more.
Qing Fang's claws dug into the scruff of the cat's neck and fiercely grasped its spine before wedging two claws between the vertebrae and slicing them cleanly! He felt the thing struggle madly in his grasp as if it had a chance of escape, making his eyes gleam with ridicule.
Qing Fang threw the thing to the floor, before Nu Li.
Nu Li watched the small thing twitch from time to time, letting out whelps and death thralls that just didn't sit well in his heart. The little thing was right before him and paralysed to do anything, its large eyes looking to his for help. Its little breaths escaped rapidly as its body heaved up and down.
Nu Li looked down ashamedly.
"Master, do we have to kill it? Is there any way we can use it?" Nu Li looked up to his master with eyes that looked to the floor, at the cat. He asked seriously, almost pleading to his master.
He didn't feel right about this. After all, it was still just a baby. And not long ago, it wanted to play with him innocently. The thing meant no harm and just wanted to live...
"Hahaha. Hahaha!" However, the sickening laugh of his master echoed and Nu Li looked to the floor. He regretted asking, now he looked weak before his master. After all, Nu Li was still a part dragon. He cared about people looking at him with dignity.
"Oh, Nu Li. You want to save this thing?" Qing Fang said with a haughty expression.
"You want it to grow up and kill you with a glance?" Qing Fang's voice took a darker turn as he whispered scornfully and made Nu Li shiver.
"N-no..." A quiet whisper answered.
"Then why do you want to save it?! Slave, don't be stupid. I can't have my slaves be idiots!" Qing Fang harshly spat. He seemed to be reaching the end of his tolerance. Nu Li was terrified as his master wasn't normally this expressive, but he seemed to be uncensored here...
"Nu Li, listen well. This thing cares nothing for you. Look at its lifeless eyes, it wants nothing but food and power. Now it will whimper so it can growl later. Humans are much the same." Qing Fang said as he looked down on the lowered head of the dragonman.
"Don't play the fool in this game of power." Qing Fang sniped one last time at Nu Li before taking a milder expression.
Qing Fang twisted his claws in the air and the cat seemingly writhed in pain while being completely still and silent. Its mouth opened wide in a scream and its beastly eyes were soulless.
From the depths of its mouth, nose and ears; thick streams of blood cascaded out like a heavenly river. The cat seemed to want to shake, but it was powerless. Its eyes fell into the back of its head and its back eventually stopped twitching as the thing was completely drained of blood and its corpse blew into dust.
Naturally, Qing Fang was drinking the deep-red blood religiously. It was more fuel for his three-month seclusion.
The wailing face of the baby cat seemed to contain much more emotion for Nu Li as he simply couldn't accept this! However, he was restricted to an ugly expression and clenched fists.
Qing Fang watched him apathetically. He had already said his piece. If the stupid dragon couldn't take enlightenment from it, then it was his loss.
However, Qing Fang had bigger things on his mind. It was the cat.
'Hoho. So this seems to be the nest that the Qing Clan were desperately trying to find. Well, there won't be a nest for them to find after I'm finished.' Qing Fang thought sinisterly.
Indeed, when Qing Fang was a part of the Qing Clan and took missions regularly, this was the biggest topic!
The Catsith nest.
The Elders of the Clan would always reward anyone for the location of a specific beast, the Catsith, very heavily. Whenever they were found across the planet, Elders would go themselves to acquire them!
Qing Fang did not know why they attached so much importance to Catsiths at the time, but now he thought he knew!
Those yellow eyes were very similar to those huge yellow eyes that he had seen that night when he tried to escape the city!
'So that beast is a Catsith? I could feel soul power fluctuations reaching out to me from it, so it is definitely a Stage 7 existence. Is this why the Clan was desperate for any Catsiths? Because of this Stage 7 one?' Qing Fang pondered.
'Well, it makes sense. Each planet only has room for one Stage 7. I guess the Patriarch has been trying to find the beast's nest through its offspring so he can kill it. But...'
Qing Fang's eyes shone as he suddenly understood! With a Stage 7 cultivator that could scan the entire planet with his soul, there was no way that this hidden city could go unnoticed. That was, unless, there was another Stage 7 forcefully hiding it with their soul!
And the Stage 7 Catsith that "guarded the city" was actually guarding its nest! With the power of its soul, the Qing Clan Patriarch could never find this place, let alone anyone else from the Qing Clan!
Qing Fang beamed with understanding! Of course, the Catsith wouldn't let him leave the city if he could compromise the position of its nest! Qing Fang was sure that the only reason he didn't burst into a cloud of blood back then was because the Stage 7 Catsith felt he had an unlocked soul as well!
Although, its motives were unclear to Qing Fang as to why it wanted to speak with him. Beasts at that level definitely had intelligence, and Catsiths we're inherently intelligent as well. The one he just killed was still stupid as it was just a baby.
But, they were a formidable beast! Catsiths were born with Stage 4 strength and had mystical abilities that defied cultivation sense! Qing Fang had just seen the baby hide itself in shadows and become invisible! This was not something a human cultivator could do, even if he cultivated Shadow path!
When hunting orders came for the Catsiths for the Clan back then, it was widely known that Stage 5 minor elders had to hunt the babies, and only Stage 6 Elders could fight the adults!
However, Qing Fang internally felt something was wrong. How could the Clan share its planet with a nest of cultivation beasts! Obviously, the Patriarch was stronger than the Stage 7 Catsith, otherwise it would be the Qing Clan that was restricted to a single hidden city!
The motives of the strong... Qing Fang wasn't qualified to ponder them yet.
"Little Li, its only use was death." Qing Fang said in a kind voice but Nu Li didn't believe it for a second! He found himself hating his master! Yes, he hated him!
He was just such a monster...
"However, you have to stay here with me now! If you go out, you will be killed. After all, the little cat's parents will come to this place." Qing Fang said with his kind voice. He just felt like practising.
Thinking of the parent Catsiths, Qing Fang was not afraid! He was eager! The reproduction cycle of the Catsiths made it so the parents will be a single Stage above the children up the ancestry line! So when the Stage 5 parents came here, they will only be food for cultivation.
Having a newborn kitten meant that the parents were at most middle Stage 5, probably lower Stage 5! They were sheep to the slaughter after Qing Fang's second tribulation!
Qing Fang turned to Nu Li and spoke.
"Come, cultivate with me."
Nu Li's brands shone like the sun and Qing Fang's kind smile deepened into something scary. It seems his slave didn't like him. What a shame...not.
But, the dragonman's legs moved as he sat behind Qing Fang's left flank. This was courtesy when cultivating as a group. You would sit behind the left side of the person you were cultivating with if they were stronger than you. If you have the same strength, you would sit by their side.
And so, Qing Fang aimed to finally empty his stomach after so many delays and interruptions...
...
Deep in the marshes that winded down into the earth.
The place seemed extremely dark and cold. The sludgy earth turned into hard rock and the wetness from the marsh above fell down into the cold, huge cave. The place was wet, dark and cold; the perfect nest for a Catsith.
Suddenly, from out of the darkness, a large cat suddenly materialised. Its beastly eyes looked about with intelligence and looked beside it at another large cat that suddenly appeared.
"Darling, why hasn't Yu'er come back from the surface yet?" A screeching language that couldn't be understood by anything but a Catsith came from the mouth of the smaller cat.
"Don't tell me you told him he could go up there? If he starts to like the heat, what will I tell the elders? That one of their descendants wants to be a tiger?" The larger cat screeched in reply.
They walked alongside each other and eventually, scarce rays of light illuminated them. Their eyes were yellow and their slitted pupils were scarily thin in the darkness. However, in the light, one would see that the cats stood five meters tall. They were incredibly large and could swallow a human with one bite.
"Don't say things like that. He's just going through a phase. He's still a kitten, after all, he can't even speak yet. I will take him to see one of the elders when he comes back so I can teach him how to act." The smaller cat replied, seemingly the mother.
"Yes, that sounds good. How long does he normally stay up there?" The larger cat, seemingly the father, asked. His thin legs that seemed malnourished almost broke the stone beneath him as he walked.
"Just a few months at a time, barely anything. We will smell him as he comes down." The mother said without regard.
"Of course." The father said. His eyes cut through the darkness and went deeper into the huge cave.
Eventually, the marshes would turn into a cave that was incredibly dark and cold. So dark and cold that even Stage 3 human cultivators might not survive here.
Walking down many passages that seemed clawed from the stone, the two Catsiths came upon a large gathering of others like them.
The two were right at the bottom of the hierarchy as they were first-generation parents. A beast's power improved with his age alongside cultivation so the older they were, the stronger. And so, if you didn't have any grandchildren, you were weak. It seemed strange to humans, but to most cultivation beast races, it was normal.
The more descendants you had correlated to your strength accurately.
And reflected in the beastly eyes of the two, hundreds of Catsiths lay about. They were all incredibly strong and much larger than the two, reaching tens of meters tall. They could even feel the aura of an elder Catsith.
Elder Catsiths were just one level below the great ancestor that guarded their nest. They were a symbol of might and raw power, though Catsiths were graceful and intelligent beasts.
*3,013/3,000 words*
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