“La la la….”
Humming a cheerful, nonsensical tune, Bai Yi walked along the streets of the old city district, stepping on each concrete paving stone one by one, as happy as a primary school student on a field trip.
It was after-dinner walking time. It was already early December, and the temperature in Yuanyang City had dropped sharply. It had snowed just two days ago, and there was still unmelted snow on the eaves.
There weren’t many people in the old city district to begin with, and most of them were elderly. In this kind of weather, unless necessary, they didn’t want to go out and face the cold wind and remnant snow, challenging their old arms and legs. As a result, the entire street seemed excessively empty.
The world seemed much quieter in Bai Yi’s perception.
Whenever he walked among crowds, those intense emotional colors and mental impacts that always rushed towards him – red, white, purple, like spilled paint – were now distant due to the absence of people. All the noises, shouts, and low murmurs were also weakened by at least several degrees due to the physical distance before entering Bai Yi’s mind.
This was enough for Bai Yi.
Most of the time, he felt like he was immersed in the deep sea, surrounded by a mental ocean on all sides. Now, away from the crowd, he could temporarily surface. Even though dark seawater still soaked his surroundings, at least he could breathe some air.
“What wonderful weather. Indeed, I love winter the most~”
Bai Yi happily curved his eyes, hopping and stepping on the paving stones beneath his feet. Even the cold wind blowing in his face felt refreshing and pleasant. He couldn’t help but make an exclamation he had made countless times before. “I really wish there was only me in this world.”“…” Suddenly, a faint, barely noticeable purring sound from near the flower bed at the corner of the street’s end crept into his ears.
“!” It was as if a small light bulb lit up above Bai Yi’s head. His lazily squinting eyes instantly opened wide, and he “swished” his head around, his gaze accurately capturing the target.
Under a large patch of dark green leaves hanging from the edge of the flower bed, a familiar cat was curled up into a ball, looking like a small lump of coal. Because it was lying on the leeward side and sheltered by large green leaves, it was sleeping soundly, occasionally letting out comfortable purrs.
As Bai Yi’s gaze fell upon it, the black “lump of coal” suddenly shivered involuntarily, as if sensing something, with all its fur standing on end!
“Oh my, look what I’ve found?”
The sleeping cat was chasing after cooked but escaped dried fish in its dream when suddenly, an extremely familiar and detestable voice cheerfully sounded above its head.
“?!!” The entire cat was startled.
A shadow fell over it.
In its suddenly opened round cat eyes, a pale, casual face with faint dark circles was reflected. The face wore a brilliant smile that somehow always gave people a sense of ill intent.
The young man lowered his head to make eye contact with it. Those deep, dark eyes blinked gently at it, long eyelashes fluttering, and then he winked. “Caught you red-handed, you cutie~”
“Meow!” The cat instantly puffed up in terror.
It was all too familiar with this detestable two-legged creature before it.
Due to its young age and weak body, every time it wandered to a new place, it couldn’t compete with others of its kind. Occasionally, it would encounter some foolish two-legged creatures who were deceived by its appearance and offered food, but that was often snatched away by stronger cats, leaving it hungry… It had finally found this perfect new territory with great difficulty. Since coming here half a month ago, it hadn’t encountered any other cats competing for territory or food.
The two-legged creatures here were also easy to trick. As soon as the lord cat commanded, they would immediately offer food to please it.
Such a good life was the pinnacle for a stray cat.
Until recently, when it encountered this detestable two-legged creature, its infinitely good peak cat life came to a complete end.
Recalling how a month ago, out of curiosity, it had jumped onto the second-floor window sill of that old apartment and saw this strange two-legged creature talking to himself and performing alone, it was greatly confused.
Just because it was too shocked by this scene, the lord cat let its guard down and was suddenly captured by the two-legged creature. Not only was there no delicious food offered as tribute, but it was humiliatingly petted from head to tail, directly flattened into a cat pancake. Only after this detestable two-legged creature had played enough did it manage to flee in terror.
Since then, it had been circling around that apartment building every day.
Who knew that not long ago, while it was comfortably lying in its newly discovered best sunbathing spot for an afternoon nap, it would be caught red-handed again by this mysteriously appearing two-legged creature.
This time, not only was it once again flattened into a cat pancake, but it also tasted the darkest cuisine it had ever experienced in its life!
The cat’s soul trembled!
And after the first time, there was a second time, and a third.
No matter how the lord cat tried to hide, this two-legged creature seemed to be equipped with a cat-detecting radar, always able to find it precisely.
One dark cuisine after another tortured it to the point of doubting its cat life.
… Cat sighing.jpg
Now, it could very keenly sense the “malice” from this two-legged creature. Every time it woke up startled from its sleep… without a doubt, the two-legged creature must have appeared!
Sure enough, just as its eyes opened, a hand was already reaching towards it, the movement so practiced that it sent chills down the cat’s spine.
Danger! Lord cat! Danger!!!
A strong alarm sounded, and the cat sprang up with a jolt, its paws pushing off the ground, its back arching. The entire cat darted out, its lightning-fast movement resembling a miniature black panther, not at all like an ordinary cat.
In mid-air, it almost became a black phantom.
The lord cat could almost imagine the bewilderment and confusion on the face of this detestable two-legged creature as it grasped at empty air!
—Hmph, stupid two-legged creature, it was no longer the weakling that could be manipulated at will!
Although looking back now, it didn’t understand why it had been so weak and foolish before, actually being bullied by those so-called peers without any wisdom, and repeatedly toyed with by this detestable two-legged creature… But now, for some unknown reason, its increasingly strong and agile body and recently awakened wisdom had given it unprecedented confidence.
The previous possible terror had faded, and the cat was now itching to act. Not only to escape, but also to play tricks on this two-legged creature.
Bet you didn’t expect this, stupid two-legged creature. The lord cat now… has super-evolved!
“—Meow!!!”
A terrified meow brought everything to an abrupt halt.
In the instant the cat leaped up, Bai Yi casually reached out his hand, sweeping through that phantom like scooping up a goldfish. When he stopped, there was a frantically struggling cat in his hand.
“You’ve evolved even better than I imagined. In less than half a month, not only has your physique completely changed, but you’ve also awakened considerable intelligence?” Bai Yi carefully examined the cat in his hand, his deep black eyes filled with curiosity.
“…So far, I haven’t noticed such obvious changes in other animals. At least the current spiritual energy concentration isn’t enough.” While turning the cat over to examine it, Bai Yi pondered, “So, the key isn’t spiritual energy, but the effect of the dark cuisine, huh.”
After the game instance [Land of Art], Bai Yi’s dark cuisine skill had already been fully elevated, crossing from an ordinary skill into the realm of extraordinary skills—
Dark Cuisine Lv1
- Emotion Infusion: You, who genuinely love food, infuse special emotions into your cooking. Those who taste this food will be infected by the emotions in the dish, falling into states of ecstasy, anger, irritability, grief, madness, and various other emotions.
The degree of infection and duration depend on the mental strength of the consumer. No negative effects remain after the emotions subside.
- Soul Stirring: By investing spiritual energy as ingredients while cooking, it will trigger different special effects, causing beneficial or detrimental states in the consumer. It can drive people into mental frenzy or cure spiritual pollution. A mental-type skill that can cause permanent effects.
- Depression/Healing: A special depressing cuisine that combines healing and dark cuisines, featuring characteristics of both.
During consumption, the eater will continuously make will saves. Passing increases mental attributes by 1, failing decreases them by 1. If mental attributes rise to a certain level, they gain the “Absolute Rationality” state buff; if lowered to a certain level, they fall into a state of complete insanity.
[Note: Being able to elevate an ordinary life skill to an extraordinary level, you undoubtedly possess amazing talent in dark cuisine. This is your fortune, but others’ misfortune. Every diner willing to taste your dark cuisine is a rare animal worth protecting. Please cherish them.]
In the past, no one except Bai Yi himself could survive tasting his dark cuisine. Moreover, for some reason, there wasn’t even a single stray cat or dog in this neighborhood, leaving his eager desire to feed with nowhere to go. The dishes he made could only be regrettably self-consumed.
After upgrading to an extraordinary skill, Bai Yi discovered that he could actively control the properties of every dark cuisine he made, whether beneficial or detrimental effects. It was no longer like before, where he could only passively cause indiscriminate damage.
This reactivated his long-dormant desire to feed.
The ball of black coal-like fur before him, being the only stray cat in this neighborhood where no other stray animals could be found, and the only cat daring to run into Bai Yi’s apartment, naturally became the only “cat choice”.
Over this period, Bai Yi had fed it no less than ten times.
Now, the fact that this cat was still alive and kicking, and even had amazing transformations in physique and intelligence, was living proof.
—Proof of his superb culinary skills and the wonder of his cuisine!
“Long time no see~” He had been frequently running between the apartment and the Seventh Hospital lately, and hadn’t come out to catch cats for many days. Bai Yi grabbed the cat’s paw that was swinging at him, skillfully kneaded it twice, then shook it. He gazed into the round cat eyes and greeted enthusiastically, “Perfect timing, I’ve made a new flavor of pan-fried dried fish today. Aren’t you super excited?”
“…Meow.”
The cat, unable to struggle with its paw held, doubted its entire cat life. It meowed weakly, like a fish placed on a chopping board, having apparently lost all joy in life.
“It seems you’re indeed very excited~” Bai Yi became even happier. He magically produced a round, cat paw-shaped lunchbox from his coat pocket and placed it in front of the cat. “Here you go, your dried fish has arrived!”
As the round cat paw-shaped lunchbox was opened, as if a dark seal had been broken, an indescribable aroma immediately wafted out.
The dried fish, neatly arranged in two rows, lay stiffly in the lunchbox, looking rigid, pale, and bizarre, oddly giving people a sense of déjà vu of lying in a morgue. Bright red sauce was smeared on the surface of the dried fish like fresh blood.
An indescribable mental impact hit like a wave.
The cat felt dizzy, the world before its eyes distorting.
In the distorted world, the smile on the corner of the young man’s lips holding the lunchbox looked so twisted, ferocious, and terrifying.
For a moment, even those well-cooked dried fish seemed to struggle and move in the lunchbox, their dead fish eyes turning slightly, coming back to life. Perhaps this was the legendary #strange light emanating from fish eyes#?
“Here, eat up quickly~” The dried fish drew closer.
“Meow? Meow meow meow!” Suddenly, the cat let out a terrified scream, its round eyes showing an expression as if it had seen a ghost. Its small head forcefully leaned back in a tactical retreat.
…Don’t touch me!!!
Unfortunately, despite the cat’s desperate struggle, it couldn’t escape the evil claws and could only tearfully eat all the pan-fried dried fish.
In that terrible taste and bizarre mental impact, even this small cat’s soul seemed to be elevated.
These terrifying dried fish, with each taste, felt like a test of its will, strange hallucinations stimulating every inch of its soul. Combined with the taste that challenged the cat’s palate, it was simply inhumane torture for the cat!
Hello? Is this 110? Please arrest this cat abuser quickly!
……
“Happiness is just~ this~ easy~”
Another day of joyful feeding, Bai Yi sat down on the steps next to the flower bed, holding the cat that had become a cat pancake, his humming tune becoming even more cheerful.
The coal-like cat ball lay motionless in his arms, as if it had lost all dreams in its cat life.
Sunlight fell on its jet-black fur, seemingly permeating a layer of extremely dark ink. A faint halo, barely discernible to the naked eye, flowed at the tips of each strand of fur.
The young man holding the black cat hummed strange rhymes, one hand casually stroking the black fur, making the halo flow more smoothly. It was like untangling a knotted ball of yarn into individual strands.
His slender five fingers were transparently white, with a jade-like quality, never tainted by the slightest debris or dust, as if these things simply couldn’t touch his skin.
“Purr purr…”
Unknowingly, comfortable sounds came from the black cat’s nose, and a human-like expression of enjoyment appeared on its face.
The spiritual energy between heaven and earth continuously gathered towards the man and cat, seeping into every pore, almost forming a small vortex around them.
If Li Fufeng and other “transmigrators” saw this scene, they would probably doubt their entire existence…
Because this was a realm that even the city lord of Daliang City they had seen hadn’t achieved – a state of completely shedding the mortal body.
And in the legends of the twelve cities, this was the necessary path towards becoming an immortal, the first step from ordinary to extraordinary.
Bai Yi took out his phone at some point, placing it on his knee, scrolling through various news with the cat.
The recent news wasn’t particularly special, still the usual entertainment headlines. The only additional change was brought by Bai Yi himself – in the twenty days since the appearance of the Five Domain Fog Area, the bodies of more than twenty missing persons had been found successively.
At this time, the beneficial effects of spiritual energy on the human body had also been verified by scientists from various countries. Although they were still unclear about the nature of spiritual energy, with the outbreak of the spiritual tide and the rise in global spiritual energy concentration, the improvement in air quality everywhere and the increased comfort people felt when breathing spiritual energy were obvious results.
Online, various experts expressed their opinions, talking at length, leaving netizens confused and bewildered. In the end, they only knew that as long as it was beneficial to them, it was fine.
As for whether there were any more miraculous research results, they would not be made public under the tacit agreement of various countries’ officials.
Even the deaths of the missing persons were suppressed by public opinion.
So the news Bai Yi was scrolling through now was all kinds of silly news.
He commented as he scrolled, not feeling bored at all.
“Oh my, foolish humans!” Seeing something, Bai Yi shook his head and couldn’t help but poke the cat, here and there, disturbing the drowsy cat who had to open its eyes again, “You feel the same way, right?”
Later, seeing something else, he woke the cat up again.
“This news is quite interesting, don’t you think?”
Not long after, he once again extended his mischievous hand to poke the cat. “Wow, is this the legendary cat pancake? I can do it! I’ve learned it, I’ll try it next time!”
The phone screen was directly pushed in front of the cat’s face. In the video, cat-shaped dough pieces molded into various poses were vividly and adorably displayed. The video’s owner was carefully placing these dough pieces into a hot, sizzling oil pot.
“Meow!” The poor cat, opening its drowsy eyes, first saw this scene and instantly bristled.
Bai Yi, showing no sympathy, burst into laughter. He maliciously brought the screen closer to the cat, allowing it to see the entire process more clearly and in detail.
The cat: “…”
…Although I’m a cat, you’re truly a dog!
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