landbeastnovel Chapter 328 - 315: The Stray Little Black Cat
Chapter 328 - 315: The Stray Little Black Cat
"We haven’t seen it recently, so everyone thought it had died out here. But it looks like it’s still alive."
After speaking, Yuan Ge took a cat food bowl out of his Beast Taming Space and placed some rosy, freeze-dried Spiritual Flesh inside.
He then placed the cat bowl at the base of a large tree.
Meanwhile, the Night Demon Cat beside him had secretly released the power of Nightfall, stretching its paws into the air.
RIIIP—
With a swipe of its small paw, it tore a piece from the night sky, shrouding the forest floor below in an unnatural darkness under its complete control.
It was a darkness so complete that not even the light from the nearby road could penetrate it.
Under its control, only the cat food bowl at the foot of the tree was visible, like a solitary beacon in the night.
As it called out to the little cat in the woods again, a few seconds passed before the black cat hidden behind a tree began to stir.
Gu Ming learned it was a clumsy, silly-acting cat that no one had adopted. It had been a stray this whole time but had somehow managed to survive, which was quite lucky for a stray.
He remained silent, secretly extending his Divine Sense to wait by the cat bowl.
The world outside the immediate vicinity of the cat food bowl was shrouded in pure darkness, where nothing could be seen.
Even though Gu Ming’s Divine Sense had an ability akin to seeing through walls and could normally perceive things a hundred meters away, he couldn’t penetrate the Perfection Level Nightfall Skill at all.
As long as the Night Demon Cat chose not to reveal its position, you were effectively blind.
Before long, the clumsy little stray padded over to the tree, its awkward steps bringing it into the faint glow emanating from the bowl.
Gu Ming finally got a look at the Little Black Cat.
It had two long, pointed ears, and its fur was a pale black overall.
The tips of its ears and tail looked as if they had been corroded by Dark Power; the fur there was a deep, profound black, nearly identical to the absolute darkness surrounding it.
It moved hesitantly, its legs able to crouch and leap almost like a person’s. It would take a hop, then pause to look around.
Even after reaching the food bowl, it lifted its head and meowed, as if looking for its benefactor.
When no other cat responded, it gave up its search and lowered its head to nibble on the freeze-dried food.
It ate like a poor creature that hadn’t had a meal in days, gobbling up the food in the bowl.
Watching it wolf down the food, they wondered just how many days it had gone hungry.
"How long has it been like this?" Gu Ming asked softly.
"About half a year now," Yuan Ge replied in a low voice. "Every time I see it, it’s half-starved to death, but it always manages to pull through."
Lu You stopped stroking her Insect Baby, her heart aching as she watched the little cat eating in the woods.
From the road outside, in the area not shrouded by Nightfall, came the sound of passing traffic.
The driver Yuan Ge had called arrived nearby and honked, signaling for Gu Ming to get in.
Yuan Ge knew he couldn’t waste Gu Ming’s valuable time, so he said,
"Please, get in the car, both of you. I can handle feeding it. You should head back."
"There’s no rush. I want to watch for a little while longer."
Gu Ming waved his hand dismissively. He didn’t leave, his focused gaze fixed on the cat in the woods.
It seemed as though neither the taxi waiting behind him nor the allure of returning to the academy for Cultivation could tear his eyes away from the cat.
After ten or so seconds, the driver was growing very impatient.
Yuan Ge glanced around and saw that Gu Ming was still completely engrossed. With a sigh, he walked over to the driver, apologized, and canceled the ride.
When Yuan Ge returned, he saw that the cat had licked the bowl of freeze-dried food clean.
"A wild Spirit Cat that’s survived on its own for months... has no one tried to adopt it?" Gu Ming asked abruptly.
Gu Ming kept staring at the little cat, as if it possessed some captivating quality.
Yuan Ge found this a little baffling.
"Well..." he recalled, "some people at the university did try to catch it, but they never managed to. After a while, everyone just gave up."
The cat was a little unusual, come to think of it.
Whenever anyone tried to catch it, it would vanish in a flash.
It would reappear some time later. Only friendly Pet Beasts could get close; ones that looked fierce would scare it off.
That was also why Yuan Ge had told them to speak softly, as human voices could frighten it away.
Just then, the Little Black Cat let out a soft cry, as if thanking the Night Demon Cat that had helped it from within the darkness.
It looked so clumsy that Gu Ming didn’t think it would be that hard to catch.
Then, right before their eyes, it effortlessly blended into the surrounding darkness. Its body seemed to dissolve into the grassy ground, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
If Gu Ming wasn’t mistaken, it seemed to have transformed into a shadow, slipping into the night and disappearing completely.
’This is a Dark Attribute Spirit Beast!’
For a split second, Gu Ming thought it was a Night-series Pet Beast.
Only after seeing that move did Gu Ming understand why people had tried and failed to catch it.
A kitten that could melt into shadows at night wasn’t something an ordinary Beastmaster could capture.
And the High-star Beastmasters who had the strength to capture it wouldn’t have given it a second glance.
"What breed is that cat?" Gu Ming asked.
Yuan Ge answered, "It’s a One-star Little Cat Demon, a Dark Attribute pet.
"My Night Demon Cat has been looking after it recently, and through that subtle influence, it managed to learn the Shadow Escape Skill."
"It wasn’t born with Shadow Escape?" Gu Ming pressed.
"No. At least, the first time I saw it, it didn’t know how to use Shadow Escape to get away. It was just really lucky, and nobody could catch it."
Standing nearby, Lu You found it a little strange that Gu Ming was asking so many questions.
’Could he have taken a liking to it?’
Lu You couldn’t help but replay her memory of the cat.
The little cat with long, pointed black ears... its fluffy body was terribly thin, its ribs clearly visible. And its tail was incredibly long and slender, almost twice the length of its body.
It exuded a distinct dark aura, but beyond that, there was another Power—one that felt familiar, yet was extremely well hidden.
’What was that?’
Lu You had a feeling that Gu Ming might know what it was.
As for Gu Ming, he was stroking a restless Cyan Treasure. The little snake’s tongue was flicking in and out rapidly.
It wasn’t a sign of aggression from Cyan Treasure, but a thrill of surprise at discovering a creature with a compatible Attribute.
After all, Cyan Treasure was a Light Grass Dual Element Pet Beast.
The kitten appeared to be a Dark Element type on the surface, but it possessed another Power within.
Even when Gu Ming’s Divine Sense had gotten extremely close, piggybacking on the bowl’s aura, he hadn’t been able to get a complete read on it. That other Power was too weak, completely obscured by the Dark Power.
’Thinking back on it,’ Gu Ming mused, ’its other Attribute Spiritual Root probably hasn’t developed yet, stifled in the cradle by its malnourished body.’
’So, what is the other hidden Attribute?’
’A Grass Element Spiritual Root?’
’Or Light Element?’
Gu Ming was deeply curious.
However, this information alone wasn’t nearly enough to warrant such focused attention from him.
「Outer Disciple encounters a Chaos Creature, the Star of Dark Calamity. The Night Demon Monarch uses Nightfall on it.」
「The Chaos Creature is completely immune. Its powerful Chaos Dominance Talent ignores the suppression, allowing it to move freely within the darkness.」
「The Chaos Creature snatches your Heavenly and Earthly Treasures and escapes. You have lost an opportunity to confront the Chaos Creature directly.」
The reason Gu Ming had been so focused was because this cat had suddenly appeared in his system’s narrative. Its description was of a caliber he had never seen at the Cyan Wood Beastmaster Academy.
In the system’s eyes, even the Pet Beasts in the academy’s adoption groups were nothing more than ordinary creatures.
Their species names were either identical to their real-world counterparts or completely unremarkable.
Yet this little cat—in reality just an unadopted stray—was a far cry from its description in the system. It reminded him of Cyan Treasure and Ah Kun.
In the eyes of university students, especially those in the Capital, a kitten like this was considered rather plain before its abilities had a chance to evolve.
Adopting it came with many risks. It might have some strange illness, or a bad temperament that would make it difficult to integrate into a home. These were all major issues.
Gu Ming had also been considering personality when thinking about adopting a Pet Beast from the academy.
He was worried about bringing in a pet that wouldn’t get along. After all, the current residents of his home were all friendly and lived in harmony; he couldn’t just bring home a feral kitten with a violent temper.
But seeing its clumsy demeanor, combined with the wildly exaggerated species name from the system, planted a seed of an idea in Gu Ming’s mind:
’Should I form a contract with this kitten?’
But he couldn’t quite make up his mind.
Afterward, Gu Ming and Yuan Ge searched for a while longer but found no trace of it. They had no choice but to set the matter aside for now. In any case, it would still be wandering the area, and Gu Ming could always come back to check on it.