Chapter 117 The Cat's Outing

As evening deepened and lights twinkled in windows, "Gun" still hadn't returned home.

Hao Ren had already led everyone in a search around the house, including "Gun's" usual favorite nooks and crannies and a couple of trees, but there was no sign of the black-and-white idiot cat. At first, everyone thought the cat was just having a momentary fit of madness and had wandered a little further than usual, but as the time grew later and later, and the critter still hadn't shown its face, Vivian started to get worried.

"'Gun' hasn't gotten into trouble, has he?" Vivian craned her neck to look out the window. "I heard there are a lot of dog thieves lately..."

Nangong Wuyue didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "But 'Gun' is a cat."

"Same difference," Vivian waved her hand. "That guy's routine is usually pretty normal. How come he hasn't come home today?"

Of everyone, Hao Ren was actually the most calm. Although he had led people in a search, he wasn't worried about the cat running into trouble at all. "Don't worry, that thing has no other merits, except for being damn lucky. Besides, he was a stray cat to begin with. Before he came here, he'd already been wandering outside for more than two years. I've always thought it would be normal if he suddenly ran off and never came back... Maybe he's out there reminiscing about his youth today."

"A cat reminiscing about his youth?" Nangong Wuyue looked at Hao Ren with a strange expression. "Why don't you say he's out there finding himself?"

At this moment, a commotion came from the doorway, followed by several low dog barks. Lily quickly ran to open the door. Through the gap between Lily and the doorframe, Hao Ren saw a dark mass of figures squatting on the open space outside. Sure enough, it was that girl's paparazzi corps again.

When Lily went out to look for the cat in the afternoon, she had conveniently issued a mobilization order to the entire city's dog population through her trusted ministers (Lvdou, Doubao, Wangcai, Prince Reinhardt, and other lackeys). Who would dare disobey the South Suburb Dog King's command? So those without owners came directly to assemble, and those with owners threw tantrums and pretended to be sick. A mighty army of lackeys gathered in front of the Hao family courtyard at exactly 8:30 in the evening. Hao Ren was a little dumbfounded when he saw this scene: he hadn't even felt that worried yet, but Lily had already gathered such a huge formation.

He saw South Suburb Dog King Liu Lili squatting at the door, communicating with a group of lackeys with "wangs" and "woofs," gesticulating from time to time, seemingly describing "Gun's" size and breed. And Lackey Number One to Number N squatted in a row in front of her, reporting one by one according to the order of seniority, looking for all the world like a large, organized, and disciplined gang. Vivian crossed her arms and sighed, "It's good to know another language... I can't understand what they're 'wang'-ing about."

Hao Ren stepped forward and patted Lily on the shoulder. "Is it that serious? 'Gun' just ran off for half a day."

"It's serious," Lily pointed to "Doubao," who was squatting at the front of the line. "Look at him."

Hao Ren looked down and saw that the one known as the South Suburb's Fiercest Dog (former), the fierce dog who commanded all the stray dogs in the entire district before Lily came here, was in a sorry state. A third of his fur was missing in patches all over his body, there were two bloody scratches on his face, and his front paws were covered in blood, as if they had been gnawed on by some ferocious beast. "Doubao" himself seemed to know that he looked bad and barked softly twice before lowering his head, no longer meeting Hao Ren's gaze.

Hao Ren clicked his tongue. "Did he finally meet a lion after fighting with Shih Tzus all day?"

"Doubao" was the bully of the dogs in the South Suburb, and usually committed many misdeeds. The most typical one was that he liked to bully all kinds of Shih Tzus...

"He was beaten by 'Gun'," Lily said quietly. "Chased and beaten for half a street..."

Hao Ren was immediately shocked.

Although he wasn't as deeply involved with the dogs as Lily was, he knew the situation of the famous stray cats and dogs in the South Suburb. "Gun" usually swaggered around in the wild cat groups, but the only one he was afraid of was this fierce dog named Doubao. No matter how capable "Gun" was, he was still just a cat. Whenever he met "Doubao" on the street, he was always beaten back home. So when he heard Lily's words at this time, he was immediately stunned.

And Lily even repeated it to prevent Hao Ren from disbelieving. "He was beaten by 'Gun'. Doubao met 'Gun' on South Street this afternoon. He went up to cause trouble as usual, and was instantly beaten so badly that his own mother wouldn't recognize him. It's said that 'Gun' was in a very strange state at the time, running around looking for something, and his eyes were glowing red—Landlord, did 'Gun' eat something wrong?"

"No..." Hao Ren said hesitantly, but he vaguely believed that something supernatural had happened to his cat: he was in contact with supernatural things all day long himself and had long been aware that strange things could happen around him. To be honest, he wouldn't even be surprised if "Gun" suddenly drove a UFO back and said he was going to rule the earth.

Lily communicated with her lackeys for another round, and finally, seeing that the nearby residents had turned on their lights, it was likely that the commotion here was about to attract unnecessary attention, so she dismissed the dogs. She shook her head with a little regret. "The last one to see 'Gun' was Prince Reinhardt. He saw the cat dart into the wilderness, so it's probably hard to find now."

Hao Ren blinked, unable to figure out what that crazy cat was up to.

A gust of cool wind swept in. Vivian had already transformed into her vampire form, and a swarm of small bats circled around her. "Let me help search. 'Gun' has been in a fight, so there should be the smell of blood on him. My bats are better at searching for blood than your dog noses."

Lily bared her teeth in dissatisfaction, but in the end, she didn't say anything.

Watching Vivian's bat swarm disappear into the night sky, Hao Ren could only hope that those little guys could really find the blood scent on "Gun." He had already realized that something unforeseen had happened to his cat... Most likely, it was still related to the world of the supernatural.

Seeing that everyone around him looked serious, Nangong Sanba couldn't help but stand up. "Is there anything I can do to help? I'm a demon hunter, I'm good at searching."

"Your half-baked searching skills are better left unused." Wuyue unceremoniously dismantled her older brother's platform.

Hao Ren also shook his head. "Vivian's bats are enough. If even she can't find him, most likely no one else can help. If you have time, continue teaching Doudou how to use the power of a demon hunter."

After Nangong Sanba boarded the pirate ship... that is, joined the group, Doudou, the unprecedented demon-hunting fish, finally had an instructor. Although Nangong Sanba himself was also half-baked, Hao Ren didn't intend to turn Doudou into a professional demon-hunting fish (looking at her foot-long body, it was impossible to train her to any effect): he just needed someone who knew the basics to teach Doudou how to control her innate skills.

And Nangong Sanba was obviously a little stumped by this first task. He sat on the sofa, staring at Doudou on the coffee table with big eyes and small eyes. The little thing was very obedient to her dad, so she didn't run around, but she didn't understand what Nangong Sanba was doing, so she just looked curiously at the other's big face, occasionally flapping her tail to show that she was listening.

Nangong Sanba scratched his hair. He felt that he must be the most unprecedented instructor since the emergence of the demon hunter species: he was actually teaching a fish how to use power...

"Let's start with the basics, how to gather your mental power on a weapon. This basic training can make your mental power controllable and no longer scattered. If you want to control your other abilities in the future, this basic training is essential," Nangong Sanba finally remembered what his old man had said when he was teaching him and began to educate Doudou in a serious manner. He took out a small hand crossbow. "This is a demon hunter's weapon, but besides fighting, it's also a tool for practicing mental power. Look at these symbols, hold up the hand crossbow, and touch your forehead with this silver nail..."

Doudou obediently held up the super-giant hand crossbow for her. After wobbling and lifting the thing up, she found that her forehead couldn't touch the "silver nail" at all: she was too small, not even as big as the hand crossbow...

Doudou struggled for a long time and found that she couldn't do it, so she decisively shifted her attention. She began to fiddle with the mechanism on the hand crossbow and the un-nocked bowstring. There was a "bang" as the string sounded. The hand crossbow didn't move much, but Doudou slid half a meter off the coffee table... She had shot herself out.

Nangong Sanba sighed. "Okay, it looks like I have to design a set of smaller tools for you."