The entire world seemed to suddenly fall silent.
Inside the solid and cold concrete pipe, Tutu clenched her fists and was about to come out when she heard a deafening crash outside, causing dust to fall within the pipe.
Tutu quickly crawled out and let out a cry of shock.
Xuan lay on the ground, roughly gasping for breath, deep claw marks on his chest, and blood gushing in rivulets from his body. In the distant sky, the white cat extended its wings under the moonlight, a breathtaking sight that exuded a palpable sense of impending doom.
"Xuan..." Tutu knelt beside him, wanting to help him up but unsure where to place her hands, her body trembling with uncertainty.
"I'm fine," Xuan said seriously, looking into her eyes. "And I won't let anything happen to you."
Xuan gritted his teeth, sat up cross-legged, took a deep breath, and moved his right hand upward from his dantian[1]. A faint red light gathered within him and converged at his throat. A spherical red bead, surrounded by a cloud-like aura, was spat out from Xuan's mouth.
"You..." Tutu suddenly understood what was happening and grabbed his hand in panic, desperately shaking her head. "No! You can't!"
She’d barely finished exclaiming when a gust of wind tainted with the scent of blood descended from the sky. With each flap of those beautiful white wings, hell’s gates opened an inch wider.
Xuan tightly gripped the red bead in his palm and forcefully pushed Tutu away. Before he could get up, the icy wings struck his head. With an immense, stabbing pain, his mind rang with a buzzing sound, and his body felt weightless as his soul drifted into some distant void. He felt a burning sensation in his abdomen, as if a hand was reaching in, trying to hollow out his flesh and soul entirely.
The moonlit sky was not white or blue but slightly red, like the last hint of sunset. Within that sunset, there was a face, blurry but familiar.
The unscathed white cat swiftly descended from the air like a king, and its right front paw sank deep into his abdomen, in an absolute and victorious posture. Beneath its wings and sharp claws, Xuan was just an insignificant ant with its life and death in its hands.
The red bead slipped weakly from Xuan’s loosened right hand. Exhausted and barely able to move his lips, he looked into the white cat's eyes with regret but no resentment. He wanted to stand up again, but it was in vain. In his final glance, Xuan looked at Tutu, and the complexity in it was known only to himself. A cloud-like mist scattered from Xuan's body, and every inch of flesh and bone gradually shrank. In the end, he became a tiny black cat curled up on the ground.
"Xuan..." Tutu murmured.
She stood up from the ground, looking directly into the white cat’s eyes.
Fish and cats are fated archenemies. The only role fish can play is as food for cats. This is a universally accepted fact, a rule to be followed.
However, in the face of such a cat, Tutu smiled. That smile reminded people of the crystal clarity of the first dewdrop in spring or the warmth of the first flicker of a fire in a winter fireplace.
Xuan's inner core quietly slipped into her mouth.
The white cat retracted its claws, licked the fresh blood on them, and fixed its frosty gaze on the woman smiling at it.
Cats eat fish, and it was only natural.
The white cat's limbs flew across the ground, clearing the annoying obstacle that was Xuan. What it wanted was right ahead, easily within reach. What was even more remarkable was that its target had no intention of resisting, not even an attempt to escape.
Tutu was only a fish, even if she had lived for thousands of years. She was just a fish that loved ice cream. She didn't understand magic, killing, or even how to protect herself. There was only one thing she understood.
As the white cat's sharp teeth lingered with Xuan's taste, when its claws deeply sank into Tutu’s shoulder, she smiled more brilliantly than ever before. Her fair hands gently cupped the cat's face, and she kissed the mouth that intended to sever her throat—
Kai, I won’t leave.
Before closing her eyes, she spoke her final words to the white cat...
Footnotes:
[1] Dantian refers to the region in the body where a person’s Qi is concentrated. Qi is the vital energy which exists in all things.
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