Chapter 60: This Is My Husband Release Festival Extravaganza! (8/8)

Over the course of the night, Fishball wore a perpetually dark expression, repeatedly stung by Xiaomi’s occasional, astonishing remarks. She would curse inwardly, unable to voice her irritation, stifling herself to the point of nearly bursting a blood vessel.

Though his form had changed—now a great fox with wings—Fishball was still Fishball. His voice was the same, his presence unchanged. I adapted quickly.

Xiaomi, having finally gotten her hands on the mysterious egg that so fascinated her, had settled down a bit, but her gaze never left Fishball. She stared at him with unwavering intensity, relentlessly, as if she were determined to watch him every second. Any move Fishball made, Xiaomi would shadow him.

To me, it seemed Xiaomi had truly and single-mindedly fallen for Fishball, though she didn’t quite realize it herself, which explained her endless curiosity about everything related to him.

As for my own feelings on the matter—well, as someone a little less than pure (though I hate to admit it), I really don’t know what to say!

All I could do was watch Xiaomi eye Fishball like a car thief under surveillance: every time Fishball so much as twitched, Xiaomi would mimic him, continuing the vigil until dawn.

Even in her sleep, Xiaomi clung to Fishball’s tail, murmuring, “Eggy, meh—”

To think she was still dreaming about eggs!

I felt a little embarrassed for her. Fishball, pinned by Xiaomi’s grip, claimed he couldn’t move at all and told me and Little Cloud to go find Wangchuan on our own.

I didn’t believe him for a second. He just couldn’t bear to disturb Xiaomi by pulling his tail away and waking her up!

Such a flirtatious tomcat!

No—tom fox!

Cunning creature: after courting so many female cats, now he wouldn’t spare even Xiaomi!

But...I had to admit, Fishball truly was a good man. And as a spirit beast, he outranked the ordinary cats belonging to Wangchuan by far.

At least now Fishball was free, no longer under Wangchuan’s command, able to pursue any female he wished.

Still, I couldn’t help recalling the time Fishball was bewitched by a vengeful spirit and tried to have kittens with me.

Was he sure he could father kittens? Wouldn’t they be little foxes instead?

But then, imagining kittens with wings—so soft and adorable—ah, just the thought made my heart melt!

With a spring in my step, I padded forward, Little Cloud at my heels, as we set off to find Wangchuan.

When we found him, he was, as usual, eating his meal. Rebecca stood outside Wangchuan’s door, purpose unclear.

Thinking back, Rebecca had been demoted to Guardian Cat yesterday, yet she hadn’t returned to the Guardian Cat’s quarters.

Had she been standing here all night? Was she begging for Wangchuan’s forgiveness?

Tsk tsk, I thought to myself, it seemed unlikely she would be forgiven.

Wangchuan had delayed and tormented me, I realized now, just to give Rebecca some time to reflect.

Unfortunately, Rebecca hadn’t come to her senses. On the contrary, she’d become even more presumptuous, convinced that Wangchuan would always indulge her.

But in reality, Wangchuan was merely saving face for her in front of the other cats.

Now, with Wangchuan truly angry, even if Rebecca stood there humiliating herself in supplication, Wangchuan would not open the door to her.

So when we saw Rebecca standing there, we turned around and left without a word.

No matter what hardships someone faced, this was not the time to do something unnecessary.

If Wangchuan was angry and refused to let us in, we’d only end up as embarrassed as Rebecca.

If he wasn’t angry with us and allowed us in for a chat, how would Rebecca, left standing outside, feel? How would the others look at her?

Either way, it was not the right time to approach Wangchuan, so Little Cloud and I took a stroll in the small nearby park.

As we walked, we talked about many things.

Little Cloud had arrived here earlier and knew much more than I did. She shared her knowledge bit by bit, and I absorbed it slowly.

This place, she told me, had not always been called the Void Rift, but once bore the name the Illusory Realm.

The cosmos is vast, and all things have souls. Legend has it the heavens were once divided into nine realms, each interdependent, complementing and restraining one another, all essential to the balance and order of existence.

The Human Realm and the Ghost Realm: humans die and become spirits, spirits die and are reborn as humans.

The Spirit Realm and the Demon Realm: all things are born of spirit, purity or turbidity as their root.

The Immortal Realm and the Demon Lord’s Realm: spiritual beings ascend to immortality, demons grow powerful and become fiends.

The Divine Realm and the Illusory Realm: to be divine is to forsake emotion and love, to fall into illusion is to be consumed by resentment and dust.

Lastly, the Chaos Realm: chaos at the dawn of creation, self-contained balance, a fleeting dream that intoxicates mortals.

Little Cloud admitted she didn’t know much about these nine realms herself; she only knew that the Void Rift was once the Illusory Realm.

Like the Chaos Realm, the Illusory Realm was elusive, ethereal, impossible to find.

Now, people say there are only seven realms, because the Chaos and Illusory Realms have vanished from the world for thousands of years, fading from human memory to the point of being considered nonexistent.

Little Cloud said that long, long ago, something happened in the Illusory Realm. Its inhabitants were notorious for their unruliness, which made their cultivation progress much faster than the norm.

The Divine Realm, fearing the Illusory Realm would grow too powerful and upset the cosmic balance, allied with the other realms to suppress it.

What happened next, Little Cloud didn’t know; these were stories passed down from generations of old cats in Wangchuan’s care, tales from millennia ago.

Because Wangchuan disapproved of private gossip among the cats, the stories were always incomplete.

But it is said that, at the time, a powerful beast named Qiongqi—a vengeful, sinister creature cast into dust—was outraged by the Divine Realm’s unfairness and joined the Illusory Realm’s struggle.

Despite her intervention, under the combined might of the Divine and allied realms, the Illusory Realm gradually faded from sight, eventually becoming the small world of cats we know today.

Many cats speculate that Wangchuan is none other than the beast Qiongqi herself.

I was stunned by this, my mouth agape.

So Wangchuan was Qiongqi? I had never seen her true form, so I had no idea what Qiongqi should even look like.

Little Cloud went on to tell me that Rebecca had arrived in the Rift over three centuries ago, an unremarkable little cat at first.

By “unremarkable,” she meant Rebecca had been just a common stray like us, with a different name entirely.

But through her bravery, selflessness, and outstanding performance in battle, Rebecca won Wangchuan’s admiration and was appointed a Guardian Cat.

For many years, Rebecca devoted herself quietly to protecting Wangchuan.

Then, during one soul-molding ritual, something went awry. Rebecca defended her with her life, exhausting the last traces of her feline spiritual energy, reduced to a withered shell of a cat.

When Wangchuan recovered, she was genuinely moved and gave Rebecca a new body.

Rebecca was reborn with a beautiful feline form, noble and elegant, with sea-blue eyes—the loveliest of all the little cats, even in Wangchuan’s eyes.

Eventually, the time came for Rebecca to return to the human world.

Wangchuan restored her mortal body and sent her back.

Ordinarily, once a Guardian Cat left, there would be no return. But because she had spent so many years in the Rift, Rebecca knew many of the cats.

Once, when several Soul-guarding Cats were beset by rare demon beasts, Rebecca leaped to their rescue.

Now, demon beasts had the chance to ascend to the Immortal Realm if they cultivated well, rather than descending into depravity and becoming fiends.

But if they tainted themselves with human blood, that chance was lost forever.

Many demon beasts hesitated—but one, bitter and resentful, slaughtered Rebecca in a fit of rage.

Those killed by demon beasts would never have their souls restored, but would remain in a ghastly state, and even their reincarnations would bear the scars.

Rebecca had not been especially beautiful in life, but she had still been a normal human being; she could not accept the sight of her blood-drenched, tormented soul and wept endlessly, refusing to enter the underworld.

The little cats whom Rebecca had saved all went to beg Wangchuan for help.

Moved by the memory of the cat she had once exiled—never expecting such courage—Wangchuan made an exception, crafting for her a perfect new body modeled after a doll brought by Pei Mu.

From that day on, Rebecca took on human form, breathtakingly beautiful like a fairy maiden.

Because the rule forbade return after exile, she changed her name to Rebecca and became the only cat with free access to Wangchuan’s side.

After hearing all this, I was astonished.

So—no matter her feline or human form, it was all Wangchuan’s doing?

I had thought she was simply born that way!

But now I understood the whole story of Rebecca’s origins—she truly was a cat of remarkable courage, never yielding, no wonder Wangchuan favored her.

Even I could see her involvement in letting the vengeful ghost into the Rift.

And after she brushed against my neck, that red Soul Hunter plum blossom clasp appeared behind my collar.

All these coincidences pointed to Rebecca, and I knew it—so Wangchuan must as well.

I suppose Rebecca was, at heart, a good cat. Otherwise, Wangchuan would not have indulged her for so long.

If only she had not let blind love cloud her judgment, failing to see the path before her even after Wangchuan had given her so many chances.

I could only hope that Rebecca recognized her own mistakes now, and realized that Wangchuan still cared for her and was giving her another chance.

As we spoke, the conversation grew heavier. Little Cloud and I wandered on, somehow finding ourselves in the center of the garden.

From a distance, I saw a majestic statue standing tall. Pride swelling in my chest, I turned to Little Cloud.

“Little Cloud, come, let me introduce you to my husband!” I grabbed her paw and started running.

Little Cloud was startled, not knowing what I meant, until my paw landed on the statue.

“This is my husband! Well? Isn’t he handsome? Look at those paws! That physique! Those muscles! Those teeth! Flawless!”

Little Cloud listened to my enthusiastic spiel, frozen like a statue herself.

After a long moment, she stammered, “Qianqian...did you say...this is...your husband?!”