"Meow meow?"
"Meow meow meow!"
"Meow meow meow meow!!"
Before Bai Ling could open the door, the meowing arrived first. After opening the door, 6 cats of different colors and shapes were in her home, circling around...
"Uh? I don't run a cat shelter."
The leading black cat transformed into human form and pounced on her, licking Bai Ling's face.
"You finally came, meow."
"Stop, don't lick me, so much saliva, ah!"
Bai Ling forcefully removed the girl cat.
"I don't even know what to call you."
"Just call me Maomao. They are the helpers I found, but they're too weak and can't maintain human form for long, so they'll just follow us in cat form, meow." (tl/n: Maomao - literally Catcat)
"Shall we set off now?"
"Okay, meow."
Just as they were about to leave, the door suddenly opened. Chi Xiaoyu walked in with a puzzled expression, looked around, then stepped back out and closed the door. After confirming she hadn't gone to the wrong place, she opened the door again. The three people and five cats looked at each other awkwardly.
"Um? Is Lin Bai here?"
Chi Xiaoyu scanned the two, carefully looking at Bai Ling.
"Are you... Bai Ling?"
Bai Ling quickly shook her head.
"I'm not. I'm just passing by. I have to go now!"
Chi Xiaoyu frowned, looking at the device in her hand flashing red light. There was an anomaly in the house.
"Where's Lin Bai? Why are you all here?"
"It's like this, Lin Bai asked us to help him catch the anomaly at the school."
"Really? How did he contact you? Where is he?"
Chi Xiaoyu obviously didn't believe them.
"Anyway, he's fine. We're about to leave now. If there's nothing else, we'll be going!"
"Wait, I'll go with you..."
"Huh?"
"Meow?"
No matter how Bai Ling tried to persuade her, Chi Xiaoyu stuck closely behind her.
"Why would a human follow a group of anomalies like us, meow..."
"She helped me before, so this time I'm helping her..."
Chi Xiaoyu looked at Bai Ling.
Arriving at the school perimeter, Maomao carefully sniffed around.
"Not right, she's not here anymore. Follow me!"
Maomao revealed sharp claws and, in human form, crawled on the ground, racing forward. Bai Ling could keep up with her anomalous body. After running for a while, Chi Xiaoyu put her hands on her hips, a bit tired. Can't you wait for me...
"Hey, air-drop my exoskeleton armor here, at the Jie Yuan Shrine..."
○
Jie Yuan Shrine
A cat girl was crawling nearby, sniffing around, searching for something.
"Are you really a cat?"
"Of course, meow, if I'm not a cat, do you think I'm a dog?"
Chi Xiaoyu caught up, panting.
"Indeed, a bit like a dog..."
Maomao pulled out a student ID.
"Found it! This smell belongs to that anomaly!"
It was a student ID... with the name Jiang Xin.
"Looks like she's inside."
"Jie Yuan Shrine? Why would she be in a place like this..."
"Let's go in and see."
Bai Ling took the lead.
Looking at Bai Ling's back, Chi Xiaoyu smiled.
"You've changed a lot in just a few days. Weren't you quite scared before? Was that red light from last time you?"
"No."
"I see. I originally thought that Anomaly King was you. What type of anomaly are you?"
"I'm the starving type."
"Pfft!"
Chi Xiaoyu laughed.
"Why don't you become my contracted anomaly?"
"No."
Chi Xiaoyu walked up and touched Bai Ling's cheek, examining her carefully.
"You're quite pretty. I happen to be able to contract one more. I'll make sure you get plenty of benefits!"
"No."
Bai Ling didn't dare. Imagine the scene: Chi Xiaoyu summons her contracted anomaly and Lin Bai appears...
"Eh? Why not? We get along so well!"
Chi Xiaoyu wasn't giving up, so she launched her offensive!
"Become my contracted anomaly, and first, I guarantee you'll eat well. Second, you'll get professional training. When you need to advance, we can help you. Isn't that great?"
"Advance?"
Bai Ling asked, latching onto the key word.
"You don't even know this? Anomalies need to meet certain conditions to advance... The specific conditions depend on your type. Everyone's conditions are different. This anomaly has probably set up this whole scheme for advancement..."
"There's such a theory?"
"Remember the burnt anomaly we met the first time?"
"So?"
"His advancement condition was either to have a house built with blood bricks, or to absorb the blood of people in the blood house. Reaching a certain amount would also allow advancement... So after the house was built, he became a C-grade anomaly and gained an anomalous domain..."
"Am I also a C-grade anomaly? Where's my anomalous domain?"
"Not all anomalies have one... Maybe you don't."
"It's right in front of us, meow!"
Suddenly, the shrine began to change. A phantom of a man walked over, making a wish to a magpie, then dropped a few coins into the shrine's box...
"I hope this semester, I can find different girlfriends and experience different lives!"
This person was Zhou Zhiqiang...
An ethereal voice sounded...
"After Zhou Min's unrequited love, I amplified her feelings of betrayal by her friend, making her break down and jump."
"Li Jiayu was a strong person. Originally, no matter how I manipulated her emotions, it had no effect. But fortunately, Zhou Zhiqiang was a greedy person, not satisfied with a relationship with two people. I appeared in his dreams, telling him that if he put Li Jiayu's personal items in my specially made soul jar and sealed it with yellow earth, he could find another relationship. Having lost half her soul, Li Jiayu was easily induced to commit suicide by jumping."
"I controlled Jiang Xin and was his girlfriend for a while."
"And then, to avoid attracting your attention, I faked my death and left that area. But I didn't expect you to find me so quickly."
"Finally, I've collected three corpses of different emotions, all loving the same man."
Suddenly, three coffins rose from the shrine. The coffins slowly opened, and three different anomalies stood up abruptly, but didn't make a sound... Only a series of distant echoes could be heard.
"The first anomaly represents jealousy, unrequited love."
"The second anomaly represents self-blame, living in the shadow of a friend's death caused by oneself."
"The third anomaly represents deception, without a single word of sincerity."
The surrounding scene changed, continuously rotating, arriving at a small village. The three corpses wore red veils and red wedding dresses, sitting in three directions, with large "double happiness" words pasted behind them...
"I was originally going to wait for Zhou Zhiqiang to lift one veil, using one corpse as the main body to become a B-grade anomaly..."
"I didn't expect you to arrive first. Hehehe, today no one will leave alive!"