Chapter Seventeen: Curiosity Killed the Cat

The Seven Strange Beasts were shocked. The Turtle-Serpent Daoist had been their companion in cultivation, now slaughtered before their eyes. In their fury and grief, each of their seven heads spat forth a Buddha bead. The beads, entering the void, shone with radiant Buddhist light, as if seven Buddhas had descended upon the world, reciting golden, luminous mantras of the Dharma.

The Tiger-faced Immortal’s expression grew solemn. He allowed these Buddhist symbols to enter his body, yet soon grew impatient, declaring, “The thing I hate most is becoming entangled in karma with the Buddhist sect. Even an ant, should the Buddha recognize it, becomes a Buddha!” As he spoke, the Tiger-faced Immortal’s entire body glowed with the same golden hue as the Buddhas; if this continued, he would certainly be converted.

Just as the Tiger-faced Immortal was about to be converted, a shapeshifter from the Luoguang Star suddenly appeared behind him. The frail figure, like a nail, stabbed directly into the Tiger-faced Immortal’s brow. Even a tiny nail driven into an elephant's head would enrage it—how much more so for a demon emperor of the immortal realm!

A roar, fiercer than a dragon’s, erupted from the Tiger-faced Immortal’s mouth, shattering the seven Buddha beads at once. The flea-like shapeshifter atop his head, in the tremor, tried to escape through instant movement. But the Tiger-faced Immortal, still enraged, uttered seven mantras in succession: Steadfast! Pain! Wound! Sever! Dissolve! Vanish! Scatter!

With these seven mantras, the shapeshifter’s protective shield revealed the figure of a young man, who then rapidly aged, reverted to his true form, and finally vanished entirely—his soul collected.

The Seven Strange Beasts were seized with terror. With the disappearance of the Buddha beads, their powers were gone. Before they could flee, their seven insect heads soared skyward. Just as these heads were about to be blasted apart by lightning from the Tiger-faced Immortal’s eyes, the silver head—the one who had given the Cloudless Treasure Silk—was pulled onto the ship by Bear Third’s silken threads.

That silver head wept uncontrollably; his six companion bodies had been destroyed along with the Tiger-faced Immortal’s wrath.

“You have suffered only a minor wound.”

Cloudless, gazing at the Tiger-faced Immortal who stared intently at him, felt exhilarated. Because he was acting on behalf of Heaven, all the slain cultivators’ merit was attributed to him; his long-stagnant cultivation was now surging, body refinement, forming, gathering elixir, small achievement—finally reaching the peak of the True Soul realm.

Moreover, his power was stirring restlessly, as though the death of a few more cultivators would push him to the Breaking God realm—the highest attainable within this space.

But Cloudless was not satisfied. Instead, he pointed skyward and cursed, “Damn it! Seventeen late-stage Breaking Gods, the strongest and most supreme existences, yet I’m stuck at the True Soul realm! Are you afraid that if I break through, I’ll escape this space?”

After cursing for a while, the heavens remained silent. Only Bear Third and the others stared behind Cloudless, for the Tiger-faced Immortal’s claw was striking—the ship, though seemingly quick to escape, was spinning in his grasp.

“What’s this? Because of the great formation, the power of Heaven can't enter!” Cloudless seemed to hear the aggrieved voice of a child, gazing into the feline eyes before him and feeling as if a cat were toying with a mouse.

He mimicked a cat’s cry—“Meow!”—then sheepishly said, “So you’re the Tiger’s teacher, Grand Cat Immortal.”

Even a demon emperor would find such words pleasing. The Tiger-faced Immortal glanced at the calm Cloudless, puzzled. “By rights, you should be afraid, begging for mercy, for soon your soul will be mine, and all your memories will no longer be secret.”

---

“Do you believe the Grand Cat Immortal's words?” Cloudless asked Bear Third, whose towering form stood thirty meters tall, thunder gathering around him.

It’s said that those who work with thread are meticulous; this silken treasure was his life artifact, but in truth, the thunder was his true trump card.

Fighter King, Limping Leg, and Willow Smoke were also present. “Tell me, is my body tougher, or are his teeth harder? Would he lose a few teeth biting me?”

The Tiger-faced Immortal seemed to hear the most amusing joke. With a wave, the repairs to the teleportation array on the meteorite were halted, and the puppet fixing it froze, as if its energy supply had been cut.

“I once followed my Lord Saint Sovereign for some time and witnessed many strange and bizarre events…”

“Enough! I already know the origin of Saint Sovereign; I know he treated you well. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have abandoned the demon emperor throne and risked descending to the lower realm. Why don’t you propose a condition—let me go?”

“Fine!” The Tiger-faced Immortal licked the blood on his lips. “Find Saint Sovereign for me. When I see him, I’ll fulfill my promise and complete our transaction!”

“Pick another!”

“I wish to ascend to the Divine Realm!”

Cloudless was stunned. Enter the Divine Realm?

Mortals envy immortals, immortals envy gods; but the true Divine Realm—if the Tiger-faced Immortal heard what it was really like, he’d probably never wish to go!

“In the three tiers—low, middle, and high—the Divine Realm is the highest, but in terms of dimensions, these three spaces are but a single dimension. Even if you enter the Divine Realm and become holy, you’re only a big shot in one dimension! Forget it—you may be a demon emperor, but you wouldn’t understand!”

Cloudless continued to persuade him, “One god, ten thousand immortals, a hundred million mortals! In the Divine Realm, you’d find it hard to even be a pet cat!”

Upon hearing this, the Tiger-faced Immortal’s paw tightened, gripping Bear Third’s flying treasure. Fighter King, Willow Smoke, and Flood Hawk unleashed protective spells, but it was a drop in the bucket—they could not withstand the Tiger-faced Immortal’s might.

His paw was about to crush the artifact when Cloudless suddenly uttered a mantra!

With his cultivation enhanced, Cloudless showed no trace of timidity. The mantra held no offensive power, yet the Tiger-faced Immortal was startled, hesitating—for Cloudless had recited the communication code between Saint Sovereign and himself!

“You and Saint Sovereign are bound by karma. I don’t know how he escaped the pursuit of the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, but you—cannot escape!”

As he finished, on the Waterfall Star, at the Sword Mountain Sect’s mirror-like site of heavenly tribulation, a remaining divine thunder cleaved open space, surged into the cosmos, then hovered above the Tiger-faced Immortal’s formation, searching for a gap.

“Hurry, send the divine thunder away!”

“A cat immortal not showing his power—you take me for a sick tiger!”

The Tiger-faced Immortal roared, and the treasure he gripped shattered. In the next second, the lingering divine thunder returned to the spatial rift and vanished.

---

The Tiger-faced Immortal’s feline paw trembled; he had never imagined he would face such a day. Once entangled with the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, he would be connected to Saint Sovereign.

The crucial point—being connected to Saint Sovereign meant nothing but misfortune! Saint Sovereign himself had said that all he experienced was illusion and emptiness. Anyone tangled with him would not escape the reckoning!

Willow Smoke, sharp-eyed, noticed that though Cloudless was calm and fearless, his heartbeat normal, the skin behind his ears was trembling and flushed—what did that mean?

Only men with guilty consciences, who are lying, have trembling and reddened skin behind their ears.

At this critical moment, Willow Smoke grew anxious. If the Tiger-faced Immortal noticed, he said, “This little woman’s Dao heart is too weak; she cannot face life and death calmly. Even if she ascends to the immortal realm, she will only be a supporting role!”

“Mm, you’re right!” Cloudless agreed loudly. Willow Smoke nearly cried out in fright, quickly nodding along.

With the threat gone, the Tiger-faced Immortal saw Cloudless dismiss the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, smiled slightly, released Cloudless, opened his mouth, and spat out an illusion formation—a Dream Bubble. He then looked at the stunned Nantian, Elder Ming, and the others.

With a turn, the Tiger-faced Immortal caught Elder Ming, who was too slow to escape. As he squeezed, Elder Ming suddenly transformed into a thick, blue-gray book.

The book began to chant spells, countless magical arts crackling against the giant paw of the Tiger-faced Immortal.

“A celestial book turned spirit!” The Tiger-faced Immortal exclaimed in admiration. Before he could inquire further, Cloudless, trapped in a bubble, seemed completely unaffected, walked out, and called, “Even clouds can turn into demons—so why not a celestial book? Why don’t you take it and observe for a few days?”

Cloudless’s voice shifted from loud to soft, for the Tiger-faced Immortal sprayed a series of bubbles at him—nine colors, instantly enveloping him.

“Hmph, this is the result of my life’s painstaking revision…” The Tiger-faced Immortal was about to explain where the illusion formation was strongest, but Cloudless, with seven hands and eight feet, combined over twenty bubbles of various colors into one giant bubble.

This bubble drifted slowly back to where it came from.

The Tiger-faced Immortal’s expression grew unprecedentedly grave. With effort, the book turned circular, a sheet of celestial paper appeared, sealed within the gemstone on his brow.

“Bear with me—I intend to play with you one last time.” The Tiger-faced Immortal had barely finished speaking when he couldn’t help but leap into the giant transparent bubble crafted by Cloudless, letting the illusion formation envelop him.

Nantian and the others were bewildered, including those on the left and right; none could comprehend this maneuver. When Cloudless fished out Bear Third and his companions, the four were still in a hallucinatory state, seeing enemies everywhere.

“Want to know why? It cannot be told.” Cloudless felt it unnecessary to explain the instinctive nature of cats—curiosity killed the cat is no idle saying.