NOVEL NEXT chapter 12 - The First World (12)
Perhaps because Yun Mingchen's "useless young master" persona had deeply ingrained itself in people’s minds, the male servant only used one method to check.
After confirming that there was no defensive formation, he took out a piece of chicken breast from his pocket and unwrapped the plastic film. He intended to swap it with the boiled chicken breast Yun Mingchen had prepared for the little cat.
While the system was busy applying its tattoos, it poked its head out from its work, saying, [“Little beast, I’ve detected poison in the chicken breast!”]
Yu Tong didn’t respond, just tilted his head and watched the male servant’s actions.
The male servant pulled out a spare key and was about to open the small lock on the cat cage, but he noticed that the lock was already open.
He glanced at the little tabby cat, who was clinging to the edge of the cage, seemingly planning an escape. A cold smirk escaped his lips.
He was probably mocking the useless young master for being so careless that he forgot to lock the cat’s cage.
The male servant reached to open the cage, and at the moment the small iron door opened, two golden beams of light shot out from the iron bars, heading straight for his palms.
The golden light appeared without warning, and despite the male servant’s quick reflexes, he was unable to avoid them all.
One beam of golden light struck him, while the other hit the ground and turned into a small golden chain.
Yu Tong squatted in the cage, tilting his head to look.
“Xiao Ba, I think this little string is meant to catch the escaping little cat.”
[“Remove ‘think,’ you see the little cat’s tag on top. Let me see... it says ‘Xi Xi.’”]
The name tag didn’t say “little mutt,” which inexplicably made Yu Tong feel a little touched.
Perhaps worried about harming the little cat, Yun Mingchen had not set up an aggressive defensive formation.
No wounds appeared on the male servant’s body, and after a quick check, his face turned pale.
He immediately gave up on poisoning the cat and, with one hand, tried to close the cage door while the other hand quickly tapped away on his phone.
Yu Tong let out a meow and leapt up to the male servant’s head.
His angle was inconvenient to peek, so the system helped him look at the screen.
[“He’s about to send a message to Mr. Wen. In the input field, it says ‘The cat cage has a defensive formation, which seals the spiritual power while also having an alarm function. The young master knew someone would try to harm the cat, and he...’ The rest is cut off!”]
Just as the system finished speaking, the male servant sent the last few words.
Yu Tong furrowed his brow, knowing that the message must not be sent to Mr. Wen.
He turned to pounce at the phone, but the male servant beat him to it and pressed the send button.
The system, holding its cigarette, asked, [“Do you want me to block it... wait, the message didn’t go through!”]
Next to the newly sent message, a warning exclamation mark appeared.
Cold sweat appeared on the male servant’s forehead, and he noticed that his phone, which had been showing full signal, had mysteriously turned to no signal.
It seemed that when he opened the cat cage and triggered the defensive formation, it had also activated the signal blocking device.
Yu Tong couldn’t help but sigh to the system, ‘So cautious. Brother Chen really has the makings of a villain.’
After saying this, Yu Tong froze for a moment.
Brother Chen?
Now that he thought about it, the antagonist’s name also contained “Chen.”
It wasn’t uncommon to use “Chen” in names, but was he just overthinking it?
Before he could think too deeply, the male servant suddenly dashed to the window, opened it, and was about to jump out.
Yu Tong didn’t know why Yun Mingchen was pretending to be dumb, but he still thought this matter should be kept hidden from Mr. Wen.
Just as the male servant was about to step onto the windowsill, Yu Tong, thrown out the window, executed another cat-like pounce back onto the male servant’s face.
The male servant lost his balance and staggered.
Taking advantage of his instability, Yu Tong opened his mouth and sank his teeth into his head.
In the silent bedroom, several sharp cracking sounds rang out, the sound of the male servant’s skull fracturing.
The intense pain almost made the male servant scream, but he quickly formed a sword with his fingers and lifted his hand, trying to stab the little cat above him.
Yu Tong, still not far from the cabinet, executed a cat-like pounce. Before the male servant could hit him, he instantly vanished.
The male servant’s head was bitten into, creating a bloody hole. Blood poured out uncontrollably.
He covered the wound and looked at Yu Tong in terror. “You’re a monster? The book wasn’t wrong, the young master is really raising a monster!”
Yu Tong was stunned.
He used “raising” instead of “controlling,” so people knew about Yun Mingchen controlling monsters?
What book? What book is so powerful?
Yu Tong had no idea what the male servant had been through, but seeing the little cat-sized Yu Tong, the male servant’s face gradually paled, and his eyes filled with despair.
Instead of running away immediately, he pulled a sound transmission talisman out of his chest, intending to ignite it.
Yu Tong didn’t give him a chance to transmit the message and meowed loudly as he pounced.
The cat-like pounce was a hundred percent accurate, a skill that even Yun Mingchen at the early meditation stage couldn’t avoid, let alone the male servant, who was still in the body refinement stage.
The next second, a series of cracking sounds rang through the room.
It was the sound of the little cat tearing at the male servant’s neck.
Blood gushed from the wound, splattering onto Yu Tong.
The male servant’s body slumped, his empty eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
Yu Tong knew the importance of finishing off the target, so he climbed up and gnawed a few more times at the male servant’s head.
After confirming that the man was completely dead, Yu Tong jumped off the body. He bit off the male servant’s thumb, unlocked the phone’s fingerprint lock, and deleted the failed message.
He then used the system’s recording function to quickly save the chat history between him and Mr. Wen and others.
Squeezing out all the valuable information, Yu Tong crushed the phone and destroyed it. Turning back to the corpse, he began thinking about how a little cat should dispose of the body.
The system, still in a daze, couldn’t help but ask, [“You killed him?”]
The little cat’s body was too small, making it inconvenient to handle the corpse. Yu Tong panted heavily.
He had no time to chat with the system and casually muttered, “Hmm.”
[“You’re very calm. This isn’t your first time killing someone?”]
Yu Tong fell silent for a moment, then lowered his head awkwardly. When he lifted his head again, his body was trembling, and his round eyes were filled with the nervousness and unease after killing someone, making him look pitiful.
He took a deep breath, his voice tinged with a sob, “I’m not calm. I’m just too scared.”
[“...”]
“Blood sprayed into my mouth. It’s disgusting. Xiao Ba, what should I do? I killed someone and I’m so scared. Xiao Ba, help me. I’m so scared.”
[“...Stop saying that. You’re scaring me.”]
The system didn’t believe his words at all and planned to take some time later to check the host’s files.
After wiping off the blood, Yu Tong squatted down, tilting his head as he stared at the male servant’s corpse.
The system quickly accepted the fact that the host might have been a murderer in his previous life.
It curiously asked, [“The way you killed the male servant didn’t look like the work of an ordinary little cat. Weren’t you afraid Mr. Wen would see the footage from the surveillance?”]
Yu Tong stepped on a wet wipe, rubbing his cat paw back and forth to clean the blood off. Hearing this, he tilted his head and smiled, explaining, “The last time a monster came looking for Yun Mingchen, the bedroom’s surveillance was broken.”
“Last night, Yun Mingchen probably dared to test me in the bedroom to see if I was a soul snatcher. It was probably because there was a monster roaming the dorm area, disrupting the surveillance inside.”
[“So now the surveillance inside the room is also broken, and no one can see what happened in the bedroom?”]
The system thought for a moment, [“I don’t quite understand, what exactly are these monsters, and why do they only affect the surveillance?”]
“I don’t know about that either.”
[“Actually, I think you’re a bit impulsive. Yun Mingchen set up so many arrangements, which means he’s not only capable but also very clever. Even if you clean up the scene perfectly, he’ll definitely figure out it was the little cat who killed the man.”]
Yu Tong sighed in distress, “The defense formation’s alarm has already gone off, and over half an hour has passed. Yun Mingchen still hasn’t returned, probably because something’s holding him up, and he can’t return as planned. If I hadn’t killed the male servant, his cover would’ve been blown, and I had no other choice.”
“I don’t know [N O V E L I G H T] why the antagonist is pretending to be useless, but in his plan, his true identity shouldn’t have been revealed yet. I’m worried that if the mask falls too early, it will trigger a chain reaction that will make him go dark.”
The system muttered, [“True.”]
Seeing the host staring at
the body again, it curiously asked, [“Little Yu, little Yu, what are you thinking?”]
Yu Tong sighed, “I can’t move the body. I can’t dispose of it. I’m thinking about whether I can eat it.”
[“???”]
“Just kidding, I plan to burn the body. I’m calculating the best spot to start the fire. Don’t interrupt me.”
[“???”]
Several students died in the academy, and the cultivators who hadn’t entered the meditation stage were all required to return to their dorms for online lessons.
As they walked toward the dormitory area, they saw that Yun Mingchen’s room was on fire.
The academy was founded by three major families, and as a young master of the Yun family, Yun Mingchen had special privileges.
He lived in a detached villa with a well-maintained small garden, far from the other students’ dormitories.
Although the fire was large, it didn’t spread to the other dorms.
Fires weren’t uncommon in cultivation academies, as students often accidentally set their dorms alight.
But those incidents usually happened in the alchemy and weaponry academy dorms, and were rare in the swordsmanship area.
As the academy’s heartthrob, Yun Mingchen was very popular. Passing students flew over to help put out the fire and rescue valuable items from the room.
The master bedroom on the second floor was the worst-hit. A student council member went into the room and, after searching a few times, found a burnt body.
He took a photo with his phone and sent it to Yun Mingchen, [“President, your dorm’s on fire. The body seems to be your male servant, based on its build.”]
After a long time, a message finally came back.
Yun Mingchen: [“What’s that in the top right corner of the photo?”]
The student looked, [“It’s the cat cage crushed by the bookshelf.”]
He had just sent that when a new message popped up on the screen.
Yun Mingchen: [“Where’s the cat?”]
The student replied, [“Well… President, don’t you want to know what happened to your male servant?”]
Yun Mingchen: [“I’m deeply sorry about his death. I’ll investigate the cause of the fire and take care of his family. He wasn’t just my servant, he was an important family member to me.”]
Yun Mingchen: [“I’m so heartbroken thinking about his death. I really… I’m so sad, I just can’t talk about this painful matter anymore.”]
Yun Mingchen: [“Where’s the cat?”]