Chapter Thirty-Five: The Roar of Wrath

The man with the cat’s face filled Hongye with a profound terror.

Bathed in moonlight, Hongye could see him clearly; aside from his upright stance, there was almost nothing human about him. Most especially, his hands—exposed in the pale glow—and his feline features were the very image of a black cat.

This monster, surrounded by a horde of cats, was advancing step by step, forcing the trapped Hongye into a corner with no escape.

Strangely enough, as this cat-demon-like man entered the midst of the cat horde, the previously feral beasts immediately grew calm and docile. They yowled at him in a fawning manner and even parted to create a path, allowing him to walk straight up to Hongye.

As the "cat-man" drew closer, Hongye saw more clearly that the clothes he wore were a chaotic patchwork—not proper garments at all, but hastily stitched together from bed sheets, quilt covers, scarves, and rags.

And in his hand… he was holding their luggage.

Inside that bag were the cigarettes they’d meant to gift the old squad leader, along with the medicine to suppress the white food gu. At first, Hongye wondered how their luggage had ended up in this "person’s" possession, but soon he understood. If the man could, by some means, drag himself under the stone man in an instant, then he could surely also make off with the cargo from the pickup truck.

After all, people are harder to move than cargo.

At that moment, Hongye felt certain this creature was a highway robber. The incidents Zhao Hong mentioned earlier—people turning to stone or into rats—were likely the handiwork of this very "cat demon." Those who had become stone or rats must have been abducted just as he had, taken to some unknown place.

With that realization, Hongye’s fear and despair soared to their limits.

Robbery was one thing—so long as no lives were harmed, they could surrender their belongings. But if this was to be a crime of lust, then all would be lost...

Just as Hongye trembled in dread, the cat-faced man had already come to her side. He crouched down slowly, gazing at the curled-up Hongye, then reached out a hand to grope her.

In the moonlight, Hongye saw those bent, hairy hands—clawed like a demon’s—reaching for her, and a wave of revulsion instantly overtook her.

Without thinking, she slapped the cat-demon across the face.

The cat-demon froze for a moment, but then, quick as lightning, struck back at the same spot.

His clawed paw sliced through the air with a whistle and struck Hongye’s face. Instinctively, she raised her hand to block the blow, but even so, she was sent flying sideways. Her right hand, which had blocked the attack, was torn open—the sleeve of her jacket split to reveal five long, bloody gashes.

After landing a blow, the cat-man suddenly fixed his gaze on the fresh blood seeping from Hongye’s wound, and at once, he went berserk.

He let out a guttural roar and lunged for Hongye’s chest.

That attack left Hongye utterly helpless; the speed was simply too great to avoid. Had she taken the brunt of it, at best her guts would have been laid open, at worst… she’d have lost all modesty.

But just at that critical moment, a whistling stone shot through the air and interrupted the "cat-man’s" assault.

The stone wasn’t large, but it split the night with a ghostly shriek and struck the back of the cat-man’s head dead-on!

With a resounding "crack," the stone ricocheted away, drawing blood in its wake.

The cat-faced man howled in pain, instantly abandoning his attack on Hongye and wheeling around to lead his horde into a defensive posture.

Behind him stood Wang Hou, his face flushed with anger, chest heaving.

Wang Hou was no ordinary man—he had served as a reconnaissance soldier in the regular mechanized infantry of the Southwest Military District, an elite among elites, his skills in scouting and tracking rivaling those of a cat.

In the grand military tournament, he’d placed second—out of a hundred thousand men, he was one of only two to hold that honor. A dual ace in technical and tactical reconnaissance, a master of mountain warfare and mobile scouting—in the old days, he’d have been the kind of man to claim a general’s head from amidst a million troops!

In short, aside from women, Wang Hou feared nothing. He’d take on a tiger if he had to, so what was a horde of spirit-possessed cats to him?

His arrival immediately changed the tide.

Wang Hou’s presence, full of power and confidence, instantly overawed the sinister cat-man, who seemed all too aware that this was no easy opponent.

As their eyes met, the cat-man uttered an eerie howl—a sound that was part feline growl, part human threat, instilling terror in the surrounding cats, who bristled, gathered into formation, and began to approach Wang Hou with low, restless growls.

Bathed in moonlight, Wang Hou snorted coldly, advanced in a light-footed stance, utterly fearless, and moved straight towards the cat horde.

Man and cats drew closer and closer.

When they were two or three meters apart, the two cats at the forefront could no longer restrain themselves—they leapt at Wang Hou’s face and neck.

Such direct attacks meant nothing to Wang Hou. Without even a glance, he sidestepped and punched, knocking both cats brutally from the air as if he were dancing.

One cat coughed blood, snarling and writhing on the ground; the other bolted into the underbrush and disappeared.

Two cats defeated in a single move—Wang Hou had just demonstrated his prowess to the cat-man in the simplest way possible.

His spinning counterattack threw the cat horde into disarray and left the previously aloof cat-man visibly shocked. After this test, the creature hastily howled, recalled his feline minions, and gathered them tightly around himself in a defensive posture, as if to ward off Wang Hou’s approach.

This behavior only deepened Wang Hou’s contempt.

Watching the cat-demon "huddle with his cats for protection," Wang Hou couldn’t help but laugh. He pointed at the craven creature and threatened, "Hand over the luggage and Hongye, or I’ll make sure your kind dies out!"

Wang Hou figured the monster was a coward—intelligent, perhaps, but not powerful—and, having witnessed Wang Hou’s skills, was clearly afraid and even showed signs of compromise.

So Wang Hou thought that a bit more intimidation would make the demon back down.

What Wang Hou didn’t expect was that his words had the opposite effect—his plan failed completely.

For reasons unknown, this perfectly ordinary threat provoked the creature to a frenzy. With a piercing scream, its eyes suddenly glowed blood-red. In the bleak moonlight, it moaned and glared so fiercely that even Wang Hou was stunned.

The monster’s inexplicable rage baffled Hongye and surprised Wang Hou even more.

Was it really worth losing control over a mere insult?

What followed left the two even more at a loss.

In its fury, the "cat demon" did not attack, but instead spun around and barked a series of commands at the cat horde—strange, chattering sounds that were neither quite human nor feline, perhaps not even a language at all, but some kind of animal-controlling incantation.

Then, Hongye witnessed a scene she would never forget.

Under the moonlit sky, a single cat in the drab horde suddenly began to glow with bright spots of light.

It was just one cat, but it stood out unmistakably.

And it was the glowing gray cat Hongye had seen earlier in the pickup truck.

Both Wang Hou and Hongye were as dumbfounded as we had been upon encountering the Lantern King.

Amazed, neither of them moved, but simply watched as the gray cat, haloed with phosphorescence, aroused their wonder.

The cat swaggered out from among its kind, halting before Wang Hou, gazing up at him with a docile expression, then looked back at its master.

The "cat demon," eyes burning red, silently reached into his bosom.

A moment later, the human-shaped cat demon produced a handful of… moldy glutinous rice.

In the moonlight, the white clumps of rice stood out starkly.

What surprised Hongye was that the rice seemed fresh at first, but as soon as the moonlight touched it, it began to blacken, mold, and even smoke, rotting away before their eyes.

The stench of moldy rice soon spread.

It was pungent and overwhelming, so much so that even Hongye, some distance away, caught a whiff of its acrid scent.

The foulness made Hongye nauseous, and she couldn’t fathom why this "demon" would carry such rotten stuff—neither man nor cat could eat it, and it would probably be poisonous.

But the cat-man didn’t feed it to himself or the glowing gray cat. Instead, he used a bent, clawed hand to sprinkle the rice over the gray cat’s body.

Then, he suddenly extended a finger like a sword and began to chant an incantation under his breath.

As the chant continued and the glutinous rice settled onto the cat, the gray cat’s body shuddered violently. Its phosphorescence blazed up, shifting from a ghostly green to a fierce, hellish brightness.

With the growing intensity of the glow, Hongye—and, like us, all who saw—realized that the lights shining from the cat’s fur were not light itself, but thumb-sized fireflies.

As the fireflies’ glow intensified, the cat, now covered in glutinous rice, suddenly sprang forward with a piercing howl, charging straight at Wang Hou!

This cat’s speed was a world apart from that of the previous ones.

Wang Hou, like me, was wholly unprepared for the gray cat’s first attack. When the cat was still five or six meters away, Wang Hou saw his own chest torn open—a gash ripped through his jacket and undershirt, straight to the flesh, as if a bayonet had swept across his chest.

After its successful strike, the cat let out a hellish roar and launched a second attack.

Again, Wang Hou failed to evade. Though he reacted the instant the cat moved, its mad speed was simply beyond human ability to match.

He could only watch as a streak of green light flashed past his left ribs, and blood began to flow.

Having struck twice, the cat was exultant. It raised a paw and licked Wang Hou’s blood from its claws, as if taunting and flaunting its triumph.

This display thoroughly enraged Wang Hou.

"Heh! You dare hurt your master Hou!" Wang Hou cursed and bellowed, tearing off his jacket to reveal bloodied, bulging muscles, and squared off against the "possessed" mad cat, roaring, "Come again!"

The gray cat, as if understanding human speech, immediately ceased its display.

It narrowed its eyes, studied this lunatic who feared nothing, and charged for a third time!

A strange smile flickered once more across Wang Hou’s face.

The gray cat would get no more chances.