The white cat nded lightly on an angled branch above, its amber eyes fshing sharply in the darkness. Its snow-white fur gleamed like satin, noble and peerless, and its strong body was sleek and streamlined, each line smooth as a bullet.

  When Xuan first saw it, it was just a kitten, its soft fuzz yet to shed, looking like an amusing little snowball. It stood quietly behind a crowd of gray and bck cat yaokais, its snow-white coat making it stand out, innocent yet proud. Any cat youkai rger than it seemed to shrink by half an inch in its presence.

  Though small, it was fiercer than any other yaokai.

  In their first encounter, Xuan quickly recognized how unusual it was. Although it was defeated by Xuan, he didn’t escape unscathed, left with a deep, long wound on the back of his hand.

  After that, just like the seasoned masters described in novels and movies, it always waited until the very end to make its move. While the other cat yaokais were utterly defeated, it stood silently in the shadows, licking its sharp cws, indifferent to the fate of its companions.

  Xuan cshed with it for seven consecutive nights, and each time they met, its size and strength had noticeably grown from the previous night.

  In just seven days, it had become as powerful as a fully grown, agile leopard.

  At this moment, pale blue moonlight filtered through the tree branches, casting light over its back. Two strange bulges, one on each side of its spine, pulsed rhythmically under its fur. The white cat paused its licking of its front paw, suddenly lifted its head, and let out a roar toward the vast, ocean-blue full moon—a sound more terrifying than that of any tiger or leopard.

  A wind from nowhere immediately surrounded them, shaking the trees and sending leaves flying. Under the fierce gale, the once-fragile leaves turned into sharp bdes, stinging painfully as they struck his face. Above, a fiery fsh of light bzed, so blinding that Xuan had to shield his eyes.

  In that chaotic moment, he glimpsed an even rger shadow where the white cat had been.

  As the wind gradually subsided, Xuan lowered his hand, only to see a massive white figure silently nding in front of him.

  A pair of massive wings emerged from the white cat’s back, each white feather glimmering with flecks of golden light. Even the slightest movement of those wings sent a tremor through the darkness, filled with an earth-shaking menace. Its gaze fixed on the phoenix tree behind Xuan—the very pce where what it sought was hidden.

  From its eyes, Xuan easily sensed the killing intent. As it crouched to leap, Xuan clenched his eyes shut, pressed his right hand to his heart, and shouted an incantation no one could understand. His dark eyes turned blood-red, and his teeth and ears sharpened and elongated, while his body rapidly transformed, cloaked in a dense white mist.

  With a thunderous bang, the white cat, mid-pounce, was struck aside by Xuan, now transformed into a fierce bck cat.

  The impact was tremendous, sending the white cat hurtling backward. Its outstretched wings swept across a tree trunk, cutting a deep gash into the sturdy wood, leaving the entire tree teetering precariously.

  Xuan shook his head, but before he could get up from the ground, he felt a sudden chill above him—a sharp cw descended, sshing across his waist with a fierce pull.

  He didn’t feel pain, only the sensation of warm liquid spilling from his body. The white cat had torn a foot-long gash across his back, leaving the flesh raw and exposed. Gritting his teeth, Xuan twisted his body and, with all his strength, swung a cwed paw at the white cat. He, too, had razor-sharp cws, but instead of extending them, he struck the white cat's face with only the thick, padded part of his paw.

  This blow wasn′t fatal, but it was undoubtedly painful. The white cat yowled and rolled to the side.

  Xuan quickly stood up and reverted to his human form. Reaching back to touch the blood from his wound, he smeared it on the ground to draw a cross and commanded, "Shield, rise!” A faint red aura surged from the bloodied cross on the ground, spiraling upward to form a massive ring in midair.

  The white cat shook off the daze from the blow, climbed up in fury, its half-squinted eyes glowing, and hot breaths hissing from its blood-red mouth. Lowering its head, it pressed its front paws down and, in a fsh, charged at Xuan.

  With a dull thud, the white cat was stopped mid-air in an almost comical position, seemingly "stuck" in pce. The invisible shield, forged from blood, was camoufged like a spiderweb in the air, trapping it just a few meters from Xuan.

  Xuan rushed to the phoenix tree where he′d pced the seal, pulled TuTu out, and dragged her forward as they sprinted away. Blood dripped with every step they took, leaving a trail on the ground like footprints in an oil painting, stretching forward.

  The vil area was on a hillside. Past the slope and over a wall y a construction site, originally pnned as the vil's second phase. The foundation had been dug, but due to funding issues, the project was abandoned, leaving scattered steel beams and concrete everywhere. Xuan held TuTu's hand, weaving quickly through the disorder of steel pipes and concrete sbs.

  "If you cross this construction site, and there's a river you must take. The river will conceal your aura to the greatest extent. As long as you return to the Abyss of the Western Sea before it finds you, you'll be safe." Xuan ran while speaking with difficulty, "You can't stay any longer. You saw it, the Blue Moon Night; it's almost fully formed. Its eyes hold nothing but sughter. You two are destined enemies. Its instinct is to devour you.”

  The sound of rushing water came from not far away. In Xuan's eyes, there was a glimmer of hope.

  "Devouring me... might not be so bad," TuTu muttered to herself. "Staying one more day isn't the worst thing."

  Xuan's face darkened, more so than the deepest night.

  When they reached the center of the construction site, Xuan suddenly stopped, pushing TuTu aside with a sharp command: "Watch out!"

  A steel rebar with sharp edges fell from above, plunging into the ground between them, burying itself more than three feet deep. Behind them, the massive white wings shifted slowly atop a pile of tall steel rods. Underneath the wings, a pair of amber eyes locked onto the man and woman below. Amid the cshing sounds of metal, countless steel rods shot toward Xuan and TuTu like arrows.

  Xuan shoved TuTu into a nearby cement pipe, drew his short bde, and swiftly dodged the incoming steel rods. Stepping over the scattered steel and debris beneath his feet, he climbed toward the highest point where the white cat stood.

  The cold moonlight and rising wind filled the air as the night wind howled. At the highest point of the construction site, on a long steel pte, stood the white cat, its eyes gleaming with malice, while Xuan, battered and bloodied, faced it.

  Their eyes locked, life and death hanging by a thread.

  But in Xuan's eyes, there was no killing intent.