Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian watched as the light on the screen moved. Before that, the light cluster covered the whole range of the Forbidden City. Now, there was almost half a circle that was already out of the Forbidden City.
He thought in his heart that it was horrible. Before that, the elfins he had met were fixed on a particular position and didn’t move. That was the first time he had met a situation where the elfin was moving, and the speed of movement was quite fast.
Wen Li wasn’t walking very fast. She was quite slow carrying the orange tabby, and she would occasionally ask questions concerning the three types of viruses. Zhang Zian did not have the time to be delayed there any longer so he asked, “Something urgent has come up and I must leave. Where’s the exit?”
“Oh, that way,” she said, pointing northeast. “After you take a few turns, you’ll see it. It’s not far from the Gate of Godly Prowess.”
“All right, then I’ll go. Bye! If I have time I’ll come back again,” Zhang Zian said, distracted by his phone screen. He ran off.
“Ah! You’re running in the wrong direction! Just walk straight past this doorway, don’t turn. You’re heading to the Respectability Room!” she called out from behind.
Zhang Zian: “…”
“Meow, meow, meow! The Respectability Room is right!” Snowy Lionet could not contain itself.
“Ah? Why is there the sound of a cat calling?” Wen Li was confused and looked around. “There’s no cat around…”
Zhang Zian pretended to not hear her and prepared himself to jog the whole way. He left the Forbidden City from the Gate of Godly Prowess.
The northwest of the Forbidden City was Beihai Park, and directly to the north was Jingshan Park. The light circle had already left the Forbidden City and it was first running towards the northeast for a while before it turned towards the southeast. It ran into a very crowded area.
They had walked around the Forbidden City for the entirety of the morning, and it was now almost afternoon. There were a lot of people, and there were a lot of cars; the difficulty of finding it was increasing.
Galaxy was originally excitedly running right in front, but as soon as it left the Forbidden City and saw the large crowd in front, it hesitated.
Normally, Pi did not exercise, and after jogging, it was also panting.
Snowy Lionet was also like that. It was having a lot of trouble running with its short legs, and its fur was too long. It was very hot after exercising, and was asking to be returned to the phone.
Fina was not scared of people, and was rather athletic, but it was not willing to lower itself to chase another cat elfin. It was acting lazy and unenergetic.
Zhang Zian had to watch where the light was moving and also had to make sure they were not hit by a car. It was very hard to do all those things at once, so he had no other choice but to keep the four of them in his phone and leave only Famous, Old Time Tea, and Richard out.
This old city area had a lot of alleys and old style housing; sometimes he would also see courtyard dwellings, full of the old capital feels. The Warding Off Evil Cat seemed to be very familiar with the layout, and when it was walking through the streets and the alleys, it kept changing directions, which caused Zhang Zian to be tiredly running for his life.
The good thing was that Richard had flown to somewhere high to look for the cat. Old Time Tea had climbed up to the top of the walls and the eaves of the houses, and Famous was leading the way by following its scent; it could just manage to smell its faint scent. If Zhang Zian chased it by himself, he would have been left behind a long time ago.
There were quite a few times, according to Richard’s words, that the cat had run into a dead-end and had nowhere else to escape to. As they continued to chase it, it kept managing to find unknown, small roads, or even dog holes, or it would turn around and slide into another alleyway, causing him to not be able to trap it.
It was very strange, because his phone’s elfin radar was like Saiyan’s Dragon Ball Radar––it knew where the cat had escaped to, and then it would decide the path that would be the shortest distance to it. The elfin did not have a radar, though, so how did it know its movements so well? He kept failing to catch the elfin at the most vital moment, and he felt like his actions were all known by the cat…
At that moment, he noticed something else: No matter where he and the elfin ran to, he would always meet a stray cat. No matter where they were, whether it was between weeping willow branches, on the walls of the courtyards, on the roofs of old houses, there are all kinds of stray cats staring at him with strange eyes.
After they had met his eyes, the stray cats would swing their tails and ran away. The direction they ran to was very similar to the direction the Warding Off Evil Cat.
If one said it was a coincidence, it was not very possible. While he was running, more than 10 stray cats had done the same thing. It would be more convincing if one said that they had all become elfins together.
He could not help but think of an even more scary possibility: Could it be that the Warding Off Evil Cat was ordering the stray cats to observe his movements?
If it were really like that, then the observing operation had begun the day he had checked into the hotel. At that time, there had not even been any notification in the game that an elfin had appeared…
He was thinking as he chased, but he could not think of a solution no matter how hard he tried.
The loud panting in his ears made him slightly distracted. He turned his head to look and saw Famous running next to him. It was panting with its tongue hanging out.
When he took a look at Old Time Tea, Old Time Tea’s situation was better than Famous.’ Its breathing was stable, and the pace of breathing was normal. Even though it was like that, he and Famous were both still young, but Old Time Tea was quite old. Blindly chasing the elfin was clearly not the method.
As for Richard, the b*tch bird really knew how to take care of itself. After flying a while, it would land on the top of his head to take a break. It would constantly say dumb things, making him so angry that he wanted to drown it in fermented soy bean milk.
Just as he wanted to tell Old Time Tea and Famous to rest and take a breath, he was very surprised to find that the Warding Off Evil Cat’s speed seemed to have slowed down. It headed towards a street not far in front of him, and then stopped completely.
Could it be that it was also tired of running as well? That was also a possibility. They had chased for a very long distance already.
He became more energetic, and told Old Time Tea and Famous, “The elfin doesn’t seem to be running anymore. Let’s think of a way to capture it. We definitely cannot let it run away again! We need to at least get an explanation from it as to why it is watching us.”
Old Time Tea and Famous were all a bit tired, but once they found out it had stopped, they became more energetic.
They discussed their attack plan while facing the electronic map, and in the end decided to separate down three different roads to surround it. Famous was in charge of the left side, Old Time Tea was in charge of the right side, and Zhang Zian would continue in a straight path, but would slow down. When Old Time Tea came behind the Warding Off Evil Cat and blocked its escape path, they would show themselves catch it!
While they were discussing the plan, he gave a look to Old Time Tea and Famous. He then lowered his voice until it was very low, purposely avoiding the ears and eyes of the nearby stray cats.
Old Time Tea and Famous suddenly understood. The reason they had been running for so long was because the stray cats were carrying information to the Warding Off Evil Cat. It was no wonder they could never catch up to it.
But the stray cat could only see Zhang Zian; it could not see Old Time Tea and Famous. Since they were watching Zhang Zian, separating seemed to be the best option.
Now that they were finished planning, Old Time Tea and Famous ran towards the left and right alleyways.
