Leave a comment

Regardless of what methods one employed, the end goal was always to achieve victory.

Even though we wound up fighting, Meisian agreed to a temporary truce in the end. Speaking of which, I really had to thank Masrow and his Elders’ Consortium for their contribution to the cause…

Now that both parties had agreed to sit down and talk, the five Grand Elders all went their separate ways without another word, leaving the matter of negotiations entirely up to Meisian.

Strictly speaking, I had the power to just subjugate these Purgatory Shadowcats by force right now, assuming if this was all the power they held. That latter part was why I decided now was the time for a quick test. If this worked as I hoped, I should be able to just subjugate Meisian and her cats right now.

However, when I brought up this topic, Meisian flatly rejected it. In her words, she just wanted to be a carefree kitty. Masrow and his elders basically gave the same answer as well. They felt that if I was to become their master, they would end up being forced to do all manner of work, meaning they had no time for cards anymore. Putting aside the small details of why, both of them put up a strong united front against this idea.

Unfortunately, all it took was a few words to break apart this alliance.

I stepped out of my Devil King Idol alone and stood before Meisian. “If you won’t be my subject, I’ll get the golems to smash your castle.

“Hmph, if you think can, go ahead then. Don’t think for a second that we’re really afraid of you.” Meisian scoffed.

“Hey, let’s not be hasty here. If you smash our houses, we won’t have anywhere to play cards.” Masrow was the first of the elders to raise his complaints. “Let’s be civil here. Everything can be negotiated…”

“You spineless bunch of old cats!”

Seeing her own elders cave in so quickly, Meisian immediately went off on another tirade. However, these old cats’ had skins no less tougher than my golems. After a quick bit of embarrassment, they promptly returned back to their usual selves, even leaning in to whisper to Meisian. Who knew for certain what was uttered in that short instance, but the moment they were done, Meisian whipped her tail around disdainfully, then glared at me. “Do you think a threat like that would work on us? Do you really think that us Shadowcats don’t have an Overlord of our own? Just watch me…”

Yet before she could even finish her words, a voice of indistinguishable gender boomed from the horizon. “Little Meisian… my apologies, I can’t interfere this time…”

“…” Like a cat that just had her tail just stepped on, she began stomping down hard on her Elemental Segregation Platform, causing the listless Anmi beside her to suddenly jump up with a start.

“With your esteemed help, these big lugs wouldn’t pose a threat at all, why won’t you help us?”

“Because…I can’t…”

After that, no matter how much she called for that voice, no response was forthcoming.

Still, that didn’t stop her from yelling for a good long while before finally accepting the fact that their Overlord wasn’t going to help. Naturally, she had no way of knowing that it wasn’t that their clan’s Overlord didn’t want to help, rather it was that he didn’t dare to help.

As for me, that brief brush with an Overlord was more than enough to set me on edge. Just because an Eight-star wasn’t able to pierce through the defenses of my Devil King Idol, it didn’t mean that a Nine-star wasn’t able to. Furthermore, that was the first time I felt the aura of a Nine-star. While Lucifer’s clone gave me his word that they wouldn’t interfere in my conquest, there was still a slim chance…

“Blast it…” Meisian turned her fuming eyes back towards me, then turned around to glare at a decidedly lost Masrow. “Whatever, I won’t give up my blood either way.”

Having stated her position clearly, Meisian rode off in her platform. While she might have left Masrow behind like that, it didn’t mean that the Purgatory Shadows were now my subjects either. She was still the leader of the Purgatory Shadowcats. Plus, Masrow was just the head of the Elders’ Consortium, there were still multiple levels above him, like those Great Elders and that Overlord. Furthermore, the fact that the Overlord kitty even spoke up at all showed that he was against my plans to subjugate the Purgatory Shadowcats.

Lucifer’s clone might have given me his assurance that those of the Overlord tier wouldn’t interfere, but that was predicated on the fact that the Overlord still valued his life. If that Overlord truly didn’t care about his life or that of his race, there really was no chance of me living…

Since Meisian expressed her disinterest in the following matters, Masrow and I got down to discussing the next course of action. First, we had to work out the logistics of drawing out the blood I needed. Next came our mutual cooperation. That’s right. Cooperation. The terms had changed from serving to cooperating.

I didn’t have the power of an Overlord yet. And even if my golems were strong, I wasn’t all that keen about angering an Overlord, especially not after what I had just witnessed. Ferti’nier had even taken this opportunity to remind me that an Eight-star wasn’t even worth mentioning when compared to a Nine-star.

Nine-stars all had Territories of their own. What was a Territory? Well, it was like having the laws of the world aiding you. This power and authority was a bootleg version of a divinity’s realm. In some ways, possessing a Territory meant that one could exert limited control over the world’s laws, kind of like a Path, or Dao, in those cultivation novels.

Naturally, this control was limited to simple operations, but this was still a major step up in power.

Every Territory was unique. That was because each Territory was linked to one’s own natural talents. So how strong was a Nine-star? Ferti’nier had this to say…

While it was true that an Overlord’s power had its limits as well -it couldn’t just very well destroy all seven hundred of my golems in an instant- it could still inflict heavy casualties on them. Having done that, the Overlord could just run away to recover their strength before coming back to finish the job. It wasn’t like I had the means to actually stop an Overlord from escaping. Only someone of the same strength could do that.

In short, if I were to meet a particularly suicidal Overlord, I was done for.

For the time being, I had Sinmosa and her family stand guard outside with the golems while I brought Mo Na and Jeerah into the castle.

By using Meisian’s name to contact Gaiuz, I was sure that blasted siscon would fly over in an instant. Without Meisian’s own cooperation, all the blood had to be drawn from Gaiuz.

Next, came the matter of the Warhorses. Masrow requested that Meisian broach this subject with their Overlord, who pretty quickly accepted the matter. Naturally, this came with conditions: I had to swear that I wouldn’t find trouble with them in the future.

But should some Purgatory Shadowcats find working under me attractive, there was nothing stopping them from serving me either. Given their lackadaisical nature however, I really didn’t dare to let them handle any matter alone. And even if I were to throw something on them, they would most likely mess it up.

If I needed someone to mess things up for me, these kitties were definitely the first choice. As for the rest… ha ha ha.

In other words, all that talk about allowing me to recruit volunteers was basically a joke. In some sense, I wasn’t even sure if I should get them to help in the war against the Warhorses. But if not them, who else?

Either way, the matter with the Purgatory Shadowcats was basically at an end. All I needed to do was to wait for Gaiuz to give me his blood. After ensuring that this matter was set in stone, I could then proceed on to the Hellhounds. As long as I had the Hellhounds on my side, those horses were basically in the bag.

“Sister! I’m here, your older brother is here to see you…” In less than two days, that blasted siscon was already here. Before even entering the guest hall, I could already hear his cat voice echoing in my ears. “So our little sister already misses her big brother, huh. I just knew that Anmi fellow wasn’t dependable. I bet he’s already dead on the platform, or maybe he has already run away…you…what are you doing here?!”

Still seated atop his Elemental Segregation Platform and blathering on to himself when he entered the hall, Gaiuz’s cat face immediately darkened when he saw who it was seated in the guest hall -me.

“You…you traitor!”

Gaiuz immediately tried to ram me with his platform. But before Mo Na and Jeerah could step in to help, Masrow and the other elders already had the platform surrounded. With no other choice left, he stopped the platform and began eyeing his surroundings. Realising that Meisian was nowhere to be found, he glared back at me, eyes practically spitting fire as he yelled. “Don’t get in my way! And where’s my little sister? She said she wanted to see me, so why isn’t she here to welcome me?”

“Brother, you big dumb cat, what makes you think I would ever say that?!” Unexpectedly, Gaiuz’s yelling actually brought out Meisian. The little black cat’s voice came echoing from above. I raised my head to have a look and found her and Anmi descending from the ceiling on a miniature Elemental Segregation Platform. Before she had even landed, she was already expressing her displeasure at having Gaiuz here, “How stupid can you be? Don’t tell me you’ve already lost the ability to distinguish between a lie and the truth?”

“Little sister! Oh, how I’ve missed you…” Gaiuz had clearly missed the barbs in her words. Right now, all he had in his head was the adorable little cat figure of his little sister.

“What a coincidence, I don’t miss you at all.” Meisian lowered her body and bit down on a certain contraption lying by her side. Having done that, she tossed it down at Gaiuz, “This is for you.”

Shameless Self-promotion

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.