CHAPTER 71: SHADOW CAT

Chapter 71: Shadow Cat

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On the Hanxu continent, the variety of creatures was anything but low.

In fact, it wasn’t strange at all to occasionally come across a new creature.

Just thinking about the seas surrounding the continent, most of them were still unexplored, and so were the wonders hidden beneath them.

Even on land, a good portion of the territory remained unexplored, more precisely, much of the frozen lands were still untouched, and along with them, the vast number of mysteries lying there were still waiting to be uncovered.

If not for the fact that each of those mysteries usually demanded the sacrifice of countless lives, they probably would’ve been fully conquered by now, but that wasn’t the case.

That said, with such a huge number of creatures, there were also many possible ways to classify them, and among the many classifications, the one cultivators and experts liked the most was rarity.

Whether it was due to the low number of known creatures of a certain race, or because of a peculiar ability or physical trait, the reasons for classifying something as rare varied.

For cultivators, any creature that could provide some kind of benefit was considered precious and rare, and right now, what Zhu Rong was seeing in front of him was exactly one of those.

’heavens, am I hallucinating or what?’ he thought, his gaze locked on a certain cage in a dark corner of the long corridor filled with beasts and slaves, far from the visitors’ eyes.

Noticing Zhu Rongs interest in one of his products, the short merchant gave a wide smile, walking over and presenting the beast.

"Hahaha, Seems like this little product of mine caught your interest.

Come, let me show it to you up close," he said, walking toward it with Zhu Rong following behind.

"You’re quite lucky, actually. These creatures are always in short supply because of how hard they are to catch.

One of them came into my hands just a few days ago, and so far, almost no one’s had the chance to see it," he said, while pulling away the cloth that still covered part of the cage, finally revealing what was inside.

Immediately, a small creature came into view, with tiny body, completely covered in dark fur, with two soft, slightly pointed ears that twitched ever so slightly, and a black tail that swayed from time to time.

Its eyes, large and curious, glowed with an innocent greenish light as it looked at the two people standing in front of it.

Unlike the other creatures that either growled viciously, threatening the two humans, or just slept, having already lost hope and ignoring the world,

this small furry thing seemed to ignore the reality of its situation and looked like it was enjoying its time in the cage.

’A shadow cat, a fcking shadow cat!’ he thought, as his mind exploded the moment he laid eyes on the creature in front of him.

To the eyes of a normal person, this might not look much different from an ordinary cat,

but to those who knew their origins, everyone would run away the moment they saw one.

And why wouldn’t they? After all, this little monster was the reason several villages throughout history had completely disappeared.

It only took one to appear near a village for it to become entirely empty by nightfall.

These felines were known for their stealth and the absolute ruthlessness with which they eliminated their targets.

Encountering one during a journey was no different from a death sentence.

The one in front of him was just a cub,

but if an adult had shown up, no doubt chaos would’ve broken out in the capital.

These little monsters were cute, sure, but also merciless when necessary.

They were known to hold grudges against those who harmed them, and needless to say, kidnapping one of their cubs was exactly one of the things, that would trigger them.

He shivered just thinking about how those bastards had the guts to go and mess with shadow cats.

The merchant, however, didn’t seem bothered by any of that and continued talking.

"Getting our hands on a cub was tough, but our team is skilled in these kinds of jobs.

There’s no risk of any consequences, especially here in the city, where even its kind couldn’t easily sneak in," he said, praising himself and the skill of his men.

Zhu Rong wanted to kick him on the spot but held back the urge, saying simply:

"I see. It’s certainly quite an unexpected product, but I’d rather not get involved with it, since it’d just be a constant source of problems later on."

With that, he turned around and headed back toward the group of elves, now bought and ready to leave.

Seeing him give up on the product, the merchant’s mood dropped, but he didn’t try to force the sale.

He understood, after all, that dealing with this kind of creature wasn’t easy.

And anyway, it wasn’t like he didn’t already have clients in mind for this beast.

Despite their troublesome nature, the number of people who would want one wasn’t small at all.

He was confident he could sell it easily, he just needed to find the right buyer.

Zhu Rong didn’t waste any more time there and took the remaining elves back to the inn he had bought on the outskirts.

Just like with the previous group, he tore up their slave contracts and told them they were free.

That said, he didn’t stay long this time.

He left the other elves to handle getting them settled and explaining the situation to them.

Today had been a busy day, between the accademy and the work at the pavilion, he hadn’t had a chance to rest.

Not that he needed to.

Having reached the peak of his current cultivation stage, he no longer needed sleep,

but that didn’t mean he’d strain his body for no reason.

If he had the chance to let it rest a bit, he would.

’Hmm, Less than two weeks left until the mine expedition,’ he thought as he headed toward the academy.

He had decided to go there and see if he could take advantage of the chaos that was bound to break out there,

to gain a few benefits and maybe figure out what had caused the feud between the two families,

to the point that one declined and the other rose at terrifying speed.

The more he thought about it, the more the list of things he wanted to do sorted itself in his mind, in order of priority.

"Guess it’s about time I talk to Old Han, too."