The Cannon Fodder Also Has a Will to Survive [Rebirth] - Chapter 11

An Jiu reacted instantly. He clamped a hand over his mouth and crouched low, using the shadows of the building to minimize his presence.

A tense moment passed, yet the surrounding air remained deathly still. Peering cautiously from behind his cover, An Jiu saw that An Yunge was gone.

He must have left, right? I only leaked a tiny bit of my presence. Perhaps he thought it was just a patrolling demon cultivator? He seemed to be avoiding people to so surely, he wouldn’t come to investigate? An Jiu desperately tried to convince himself of this logic, slowly inching backward to make his escape. He had achieved half his goal; he could come back to find ‘Lin’ another time.

He had barely taken two steps when a profound, chilling sensation washed over him. His spine tingled, and his hair stood on end. Before he could react, a hand came to rest firmly on top of his head.

“Little Brother Jiu, why are you still so fond of skulking about like a common thief?”

An Yunge’s voice was pleasant clear and warm but to An Jiu, it felt like a brand of white-hot iron. He bolted upright in a panic, only to slam hard into An Yunge’s solid chest. He let out a sharp cry of pain, but a sudden, sharp sting at his neck followed. Darkness flooded his vision.

Before losing consciousness entirely, An Jiu had one final, fleeting thought: Why is everyone so obsessed with my neck?

As An Yunge caught the fainting boy, a twisted smile spread across his face.

Before An Yunge joined the sect, Si Xuanye had already taken three disciples.

• The eldest, Fang Yuhe, was far too rebellious to be groomed as a successor.
• The second, Xue Nian, lacked sufficient talent and was too indecisive to lead the Wan-Yan Sword Sect.
• As for An Jiu, his only value lay in his spiritual roots; he was merely a piece on the board.

An Yunge possessed a singular spiritual root, and his temperament was exactly what Si Xuanye admired. If his own talent could just take one more step forward, the position of successor would undoubtedly be his.

But An Jiu had fled. Fortunately, Si Xuanye had found a potted Welcome Pine in An Jiu’s room. The lingering aura on the plant had given the Master a suspect: The Demonic Emperor, Lin Jingyuan.

An Yunge had hatched a plan then and there. He wanted An Jiu’s spiritual roots, but he couldn’t play the villain. The path of the Sword Cultivator emphasized the purity of one’s heart and character. He couldn’t be the one to do the deed, he would let Lin Jingyuan do it for him.

In a foul, lightless room, crates were stacked floor to ceiling. These were crude wooden boxes, typically used for transporting livestock. The room was packed with hundreds of them, and the air was thick with the suffocating stench of living creatures, animal musk, and excrement.

A group of men in uniform entered and began hauling the crates out. Some were so heavy it took four or five men to lift them.

“What is the Pavilion Master doing?” one man grumbled. “Why are we buying so many beasts lately?” “Don’t you see how many of them are dying?” another retorted. Remembering the gruesome state of the dead animals, the first man shuddered.

“Stop talking! Do you have a death wish?” a supervisor barked.

The men jumped. One worker, startled by the shout, lost his grip. The corner of the heavy wooden crate slammed onto the floor with a loud crack. A gap splintered open in the wood. A cat-like blur darted out with lightning speed, vanishing into the gloom.

“What happened?” The supervisor approached, whip in hand. “Nothing, nothing! We just lost our footing,” the men stammered. The culprit quickly used his body to hide the hole in the crate. The supervisor glanced at the gap, figured nothing significant could have escaped through such a small hole, and let it go. Even if something had escaped, it was likely just a weakling.

The “weakling” An Jiu, was currently hiding in a rat hole, frantically licking his paws to soothe his terror.

He had woken up inside that crate next to a large, dead cat. For a while, his mind was a complete blank. Having no memories, he naturally accepted the reality that he was a cat and the dead beast beside him was his mother.

What An Jiu didn’t realize was that he had originally been a mere ball of warm light. It was only when the thought “I am a cat” took root in his mind that he transformed into a tiny, fist-sized orange kitten.

To him, the crate had been massive but cramped. In the dark, his feline night vision allowed him to see dozens of pairs of numb, hollow eyes surrounding him.

He stayed in that rat hole for two days. The dark room was eventually emptied, and in all that time, he hadn’t heard a single animal cry. Lacking memory or common sense, he didn’t find this strange. He only knew he was starving. Even without his memories, his subconscious told him that eating was the most important thing in the world even if he was currently just a kitten manifested from a soul.

He scouted the room, but it was too filthy to provide anything edible. Being a cat, his sense of hygiene was strong; there wasn’t even a clean place to step. Under the cover of night, he slipped out along the base of the wall.

Following his keen sense of smell, An Jiu found a room that didn’t stink. He squeezed through the gap beneath the door, hoping for food. The room was dark and filled with large cages containing strange, monstrous beings. He didn’t care about them; he only wanted a meal.

He noticed bowls placed before the captives. The bars were wide enough for his tiny frame to squeeze through. He was terrified, but hunger won out. He crept into a cage containing a creature with a human torso and a fish tail. The creature was sleeping in a giant crystal tank. An Jiu figured this was “safe” if the creature woke up, the time it took to climb out of the water would give him a head start to run.

However, the creature didn’t wake, and its bowl was empty. Disappointed, An Jiu moved to the next target.

Then, he saw a being that looked somewhat like himself. The figure had silver-white hair and a pair of furry, pointed ears on his head. He must be a cat too! An Jiu felt a strange sense of kinship just by looking at him.

He slipped into the cage and his eyes lit up the “cat-man” had two whole steamed buns in his bowl! An Jiu grabbed one in his teeth and prepared to bolt, but in the next second, he was hoisted into the air by the scruff of his neck.

“A stray?” The silver-haired youth with heterochromatic eyes frowned, his face full of distaste. But his expression quickly shifted to one of contemplation.

The tiny kitten in his hand had tucked in its limbs and tail, its ears flattened into “airplane mode,” and its wide eyes were filled with dread. Yet, even in its terror, it refused to let go of the bun.

The youth used his other hand to snatch the bun away. His mouth now free, An Jiu let out an anxious, muffled wail. The youth frowned again and, before the noise could attract attention, shoved the bun back into the kitten’s mouth. An Jiu muffled an “ow” and bit down hard on the food.

“Be quiet, and I’ll give you food,” the youth whispered, then mocked himself with a smirk. He must be going mad it was just a greedy stray; how could it understand human speech?

But An Jiu wasn’t a real cat. He understood perfectly. He nodded vigorously and, fearing the boy would change his mind, let go of the bun and opened his mouth as if to speak, but made no sound.

The silver-haired youth was stunned. “Could it be a human? Has their ‘Beast-Crafting’ ability reached the point where they can turn a human entirely into an animal?”

An Jiu didn’t understand that part. He just stared back with huge, dilated pupils, looking utterly bewildered. The youth wavered in his judgment again. However, it was clear the kitten understood speech, even if it didn’t understand specific terminology.

More importantly, the youth noticed something vital: this kitten had entered a room protected by a formation! Did that mean the kitten could leave this room, find the eye of the formation, and destroy it?

The youth grew excited. For the first time in a long time, he saw a glimmer of hope. But he needed to observe more. He set the kitten down. Instead of grabbing the bun immediately, the kitten walked to his feet and began rubbing its head against him.

Is it showing loyalty?

“Go on, eat,” the youth said. The kitten immediately stopped rubbing and began ravenously gnawing on the bun.

Now certain the cat was intelligent, the youth’s gaze darkened. He couldn’t let this little thing leave now. He reached down to pet the kitten, but since it was so small, he settled for using one finger to stroke its fur. An Jiu began to purr loudly, vibrating with happiness.

“Stay here,” the youth said softly. “I’ll save food for you every day, alright?”

An Jiu twitched his ears, tilted his head, and nodded while letting out a series of happy meows. Yes, yes, yes! As long as there’s food, everything is great!

Elsewhere, near the Forbidden Palace, An Yunge looked at the black mist shrouding the area and smiled with satisfaction.

Rumor had it that the Forbidden Palace was where the Demonic Emperor retreated when his “Heart Demons” flared up. For a man like Lin Jingyuan, his Heart Demons surely involved a past he kept buried deep. Anyone who knew of his past was invariably killed.

And An Yunge knew exactly how to thrust a person’s soul into someone else’s Heart Demon Realm.

He’ll be killed, won’t he? An Yunge thought. To witness another’s dark past without permission there is no coming back from that.