Leaving the tower behind, Bubai circled around to the tower’s window side, moving forward along the paved path nestled between the courtyards and abodes of other disciples.

  Around him, the quiet of the late morning was punctuated by the occasional chirp of crickets that were finishing their nocturnal serenade, some barely hidden from sight under the lacking light of the dreary winter weather.

  Well... "hidden" was merely symbolic.

  Even though the street lamps dotting the road were shut down, darkness wasn’t a problem in the eyes of most cultivators.

  This was especially true for Bubai, whose sharpened senses betrayed him and involuntarily picked up the spectacular view alongside every superfluous noise nearby…

  “Ha… deeper- deeper!” Smack! “Drink!” “Ex-ploooo-sion!”

  Obviously, there’s nothing strange going on. Ahem.

  Fortunately, Bubai didn’t have to listen to the “background music” for long because he soon spotted the goal of his itinerary.

  Ahead, a familiar orange-haired cat girl was squatting atop one of the dark street lamps, munching on a small small dried fish held in her hands.

  Her orange tabby tail swayed back and forth, reflecting her mood toward her snack.

  Suddenly, as if sensing Bubai's approach, her tail stood upright and her head snapped over, staring at him with wide eyes like a deer facing a headlight.

  Seeing Miss Meow, with a small fish half-sticking out from her mouth, frozen like a statue atop the lamppost, Bubai chuckled softly and beckoned to her with a wave.

  “Meow!” Miss Meow hastily gobbled up the fish and sprang off the lamppost with limbs outstretched like a flying squirrel, accurately falling just within Bubai’s reach, latching onto him with familiarity.

  Rubbing her face against his, Miss Meow purred softly in greeting. “Yummy fish is here!”

  Bubai smiled and ruffled her cat ears. “Xiao Mao, have you been waiting for long?”

  Miss Meow shook her head back and forth, her canine teeth sticking out in a cheery grin. “Not long, Meow just got here.”

  Bubai read her innocent face with zero traces of dishonesty, yet from his window, he had already noticed her waiting for at least his entire breakfast time, if not longer. She was really... a silly cat.

  Letting her simple fib slide, Bubai patted the cat girl’s booty, “Okay, let’s find another place to talk.”

  Miss Meow nodded and scrambled up, seating herself on her usual lookout spot on Bubai’s shoulder, fist pumping in the air.

  “Meow! Set off!”

  Her cheerful exclamation drew the attention of a few nearby disciples.

  Seeing the cat girl rocking on Bubai’s shoulder, many threw him meaningful looks before returning to their own morning businesses.

  Walking forward, Bubai received similar glances from others out for morning walks with their pets, but none bothered to disturb him, as if they had all decided to keep their distance.

  From time to time, Bubai felt the scrutiny of one or two gazes from the rooftops. He didn’t even need to look to know they belonged to the passing law enforcers.

  Despite all of this, Bubai still walked confidently as if unafraid to parade the fact that he was the cat girl's new favorite.

  Well, he indeed didn’t need to hide any longer. Some matters didn’t have to be kept under wraps.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  After all, there were more benefits this way.

  For one, being the favorite of a mascot known throughout the sect was also a form of protection.

  Of course, while planting the idea of his mission into others' minds was fine, there was no need to be too ostentatious about the real deals hidden under the hood.

  So, Bubai’s parade took them to the less populated North District, and he quickly found a good spot without frequent patrols.

  "Just here.”

  Hearing this, the cat girl on his shoulder hopped off her ride, plopping herself down on the ground.

  She then stared up at him with almost shining eyes that clearly conveyed, "This cat is hungry." Yet, the hungry cat still obediently sat there, waiting for instructions.

  Bubai almost couldn’t resist the cat’s cute, begging look, but he still got down to business first.

  “Since Xiao Mao has returned, I take it that the matter I entrusted to you have some success?”

  At his reminder, Miss Meow perked up and quickly opened the small orange pouch on her waist, dumping out its contents.

  Out dropped a familiar formation ball, now with some scratches over its surface, a few tiny dried fish, and finally—clack, clack—five spirit stones.

  Miss Meow then raised her hand to give him a military salute, “Meow! Ben Meow got what yummy fish asked for from owner!”

  Bubai fondly smiled, squatting down and giving the cute cat a rub on her head. “Good. Did Elder Mo say anything to you?”

  “Meow?” Miss Meow tilted her head as if thinking before saying, “Owner says… he expects meow meow more from yummy fish’s upcoming performance. If yummy fish does well, owner will give yummy fish more stones and more…”

  The cat girl peeked at the dried fish scattered on the ground and couldn’t resist sucking back a drool.

  Shaking her head a few times to snuff out the thought of eating her rare snack, Miss Meow looked back at Bubai and patted his head with her paws. Pon. Pon.

  “For Ben Meow’s future, yummy fish has to do well.”

  Bubai threw a glance at the three-inch fish that looked like a desert pupfish. “Is it delicious?”

  His interest instantly caused the cat’s tail to stand up, bristling in alert.

  Miss Meow hastily moved her paws to swipe up the few dried fish, staring at Bubai as if afraid the thief would take them away.

  Yet, after defending them for a short moment, her tail drooped and her trembling paws reluctantly held out one to the Bubai, “Meow doesn’t have a lot, but Meow can share one with yummy fish…”

  Seeing the cat staring at him with pitiful, watery eyes, Bubai chuckled and patted her head, “Xiao Mao can keep it.”

  At his promise, Miss Meow’s cat eyes narrowed in happiness and she retracted all her fish, quickly stuffing all her meager assets back into her pouch while declaring, “Meow! Nya take backsies!”

  Bubai rolled his eyes. “I won’t.”

  It does seem like the meat of the fish had been nourished by Qi, commonly known to enhance its taste and texture, but no matter how tender it was...

  The fish had been long dried out to preserve it. The residue Qi in the meat was definitely not enough to classify it as a treasure.

  Only a silly cat would find a dried fish like that delicious.

  Instead of the fish, Bubai was more interested in hard currency. So, he set his sights back on the small pile of spirit stones sitting not far from his feet.

  Is this charity to support him after the tidbits he deliberately leaked?

  Bubai recalled the posted reward on the task sheet in his mind.

  “Find lost cat in the sect. Commissioner: Mo Badao. Payment: 3 low-grade spirit stones, 10 contribution points.”

  Clearly, there was no jade slip for redeeming contribution points in this bestowal. Instead, he got an extra two spirit stones.

  This could be considered a slightly better reward, enough to offset a majority of the Qi he fed to the cat.

  Of course, this offset has taken into account his zero loss absorption thanks to his golden finger’s mysterious Qi absorption formation.

  For others at his realm, five spirit stones might not even be enough to cover their loss in cultivation base, let alone three.

  Regardless, the task still had takers because it was an outlet for disciples to convert their hard-earned cultivation base into hard currency for survival in this dual cultivation sect.

  For Bubai, this reward conveniently met the mark for his monthly tower rent, just like he asked this cat to fish for.

  It’s just that the fishy benefits for the cat girl was an unexpected bonus.

  It seemed the old man knew how to keep his pet in check. Proper rewards that hit the right spot always tend to drive loyalty in others.

  Before, it was fairly easy for Bubai to train and sway the cat to do his bidding, but with the old fritter taking back control, it would be another difficult game for Bubai.

  Well, let’s worry about how to handle that later down the road. This time, the benefits were already in hand.

  Bubai reached out to collect the five spirit stones into his storage pouch, taking the chance to fish for some news, “So, did Xiao Mao learn any interesting news this time?”

  “Nyahaha! Meow course!” Miss Meow preened at his question, her furry, orange ears perking up with pride.

  “Meow heard house fishie talking about a mew rule that’s going to be revealed at the next inner sect meow.”

  New rule for the inner sect exchange? Bubai arched an eyebrow, “Did they mention what it is?”

  “Nya.” Miss Meow shook her head. “Meow just heard from owner that it’s a meow from the royal fishies.”

  Oh? Something proposed by the Royal faction? Hmm… perhaps Shu Ling or Granny Shu will know? He’ll ask if he ever gets the chance.

  Bubai nodded thoughtfully. “That’s good to know. Anything else?”