"So that's how things went."

Hao Ren sat on the living room sofa, recounting everything that had happened with the goddess to everyone. On the coffee table in front of him sat a rectangular cage made of wire (just dug out from the basement). The palm-sized miniature Vivian was frantically fluttering around inside, emitting all sorts of strange howls and occasionally tossing out a magic dart: its power was basically like a child's firework.

"From now on, this little thing will be living in our house... well, at least locked up in our house."

"Meow—I don't like this!" Gun lay sprawled on the coffee table, glaring at the cage. "Let me eat her!"

"You can't eat this thing, it'll give you a stomachache," Hao Ren said, rolling his eyes. He noticed that the cat girl had a band-aid on one of her cat ears, where she had been grazed by a corrosive blood dart. "Well, I can't say I don't understand your resentment."

Vivian looked helplessly at the miniature version of herself in the cage. The latter seemed to sense her presence and looked up, but there was no communication between the main body and the split self. The evil thought form immediately let out a hissing, "ha-ha" roar, looking extremely aggressive. "The goddess really knows how to give people difficult problems. She actually wants us to raise this... creature," Vivian said with a headache. "Putting aside everything else, what does she eat?"

Hao Ren suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu. He vaguely remembered that the last time the family researched this problem was when they had just hatched Doudou...

"I don't know, but she definitely doesn't eat chopsticks," he said casually. "But she bites everything."

"Speaking of which, does an evil thought form even need to eat?" Nangong Sanba stroked his chin. "Don't these creatures stay in seals for thousands of years without eating or drinking, and still come out able to sweep the world with blood and carnage?"

Lily immediately objected, "Of course she has to eat something. You said it yourself, that's the sealed state. When she's sealed, she doesn't expend any energy, so she's naturally not hungry. But if she doesn't eat anything when she's active, then that doesn't conform to the law of conservation of energy."

"Wait a minute, I'll try feeding her some leftovers." As Vivian spoke, she got up and went to the kitchen, returning with a few plates of leftover food from lunch. She picked out a few things she liked to eat and threw them into the iron cage, then watched with anticipation, like she was feeding a hamster. Lily, watching from the side, couldn't hold back her sense of weirdness. "Don't you think it's strange feeding a miniature version of yourself?"

Vivian didn't even look up. "I've been surprised enough since the day I found out I could split myself."

A few scraps of food landed near the miniature evil thought form. She paused for a moment, but the smell of the food obviously didn't arouse the little thing's interest. She immediately and furiously released large amounts of corrosive energy, turning the food scraps into a pile of coke, then hissed and roared threateningly at everyone outside the cage.

Lily pouted. "Looks like she doesn't eat it."

"Hey, never mind whether she eats or not, let me eat some," Hao Ren said, suddenly feeling hungry when he saw the food in Vivian's hands. He quickly took the tray. "I haven't eaten lunch yet. Raven 12345 talked my ear off about work for two hours, and didn't even offer me a drop of water..."

"This machine thinks your thinking is a bit off," the data terminal, which had been silent all this time, suddenly floated over and interjected. "This is a Xie Ling (evil spirit), after all. How could a Xie Ling eat normal food—this machine remembers that the essence of an evil thought form is corrupted and deteriorated source blood, right? So what she needs to replenish is definitely blood, and, uh, raw meat would probably work too."

Everyone looked at each other. Izhaks stepped forward and placed his hand above the iron cage. A faint green demon rune flashed in the air. The old demon revealed a thoughtful expression. "Mm, I can indeed sense a negative tendency of craving flesh and blood. Although it's very weak, this Xie Ling (evil spirit) is indeed in a very hungry state. She needs fresh flesh and blood to be satisfied."

The old demon's words were even more terrifying. Lily felt goosebumps all over her neck. "I knew it! I knew this kind of weirdo couldn't be raised. Her feed requirements are a bit too high,"

Hao Ren flicked Lily on the forehead. "High my ass. Vivian, we should still have some dumpling filling left, right? Just pick out a couple of scraps of raw meat for this little thing to try."

Lily was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized that that was actually possible. She glared at Izhaks. "Big guy, can you not talk so mysteriously? 'Fresh flesh and blood to be satisfied,' I thought she wanted to eat people!"

Izhaks scratched his bald head innocently, thinking that it was normal for him, as a demon king, to talk like that. Was he not allowed to have an occupational disease?

As it turned out, the evil thought form could indeed eat things, and raw meat was included in her diet.

The few pieces of bloody raw meat that Vivian brought were quickly eaten by the little thing, this useless Xie Ling (evil spirit) who was weak in every way only showing a bit of power when tearing at raw meat.

After the little thing was full, she let out a burp, anxiously circled the cage twice, and then began to cause more trouble with even more energy. Of course, she still couldn't open the cage.

At this time, Lily suddenly raised a constructive question. "Hey, do you think she needs to go to the bathroom?"

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat. "Your observation angle is as sharp as ever..."

"Let's observe for a few days first, I'll be responsible for taking care of her," Vivian sighed, finally accepting the situation of living under the same roof as her negative self. "I hope she's not as annoying as Hesperides."

After some meaningless research and observation, everyone left to busy themselves with their own affairs. The Nangong couple didn't finish work and come home until that night. They were also startled when they learned that an evil thought form had suddenly appeared, and quickly showed a strong interest in the little thing. But when they finally found out that she was just an irrational creature with whom no communication was possible, they stopped paying attention to the matter.

Only Gun showed a strong and lasting interest in the little Xie Ling (evil spirit), but this interest wasn't because the stupid cat liked the little thing, but because she still insisted that the miniature evil spirit was a mouse that she had caught, and she was waiting for dinner...

Night fell, all was silent, and everyone else in the house had fallen asleep. Hao Ren, however, was awakened from his sleep by a strange dream. He opened his eyes and saw a clear moonlight shining obliquely into the room. The sound of Doudou splashing water in her sleep came from the fishbowl on the table. He looked at the time and saw that it was not yet twelve o'clock, but he was wide awake.

There was movement coming from the living room.

Hao Ren casually threw on a coat and pushed open the door. Sure enough, he saw Vivian sitting on the sofa, in a corner that was not touched by the clear moonlight. The pale-skinned vampire girl was lost in thought in the darkness, her hazy figure resembling a Gothic oil painting. And on the coffee table in front of her was the iron cage.

The little Xie Ling (evil spirit) in the cage seemed to have no concept of going to sleep when it got dark. She was just as restless as ever, jumping up and down for a while, throwing magic darts everywhere for a while, and occasionally stopping to emit her own unique hissing "ha-ha" strange roar. If it weren't for the fact that she was so small and the noise she made was quite limited, this would be an extremely annoying source of disturbance.

"You're not asleep yet?" Vivian woke up from her reverie, giving Hao Ren a smile when she looked at him. "Was she the one who woke you up?"

"She's not loud enough to wake me up, I can't hear anything with the door closed," Hao Ren waved his hand. "I had a dream, oh, it wasn't anything big, just tossing and turning and couldn't sleep. What about you? Why aren't you sleeping?"

Vivian smiled. "I've always needed little sleep, and maybe it's because I just split myself... I feel like I don't need to sleep at all right now."

Hao Ren nodded, his attention still being drawn to the miniature Vivian who was constantly making a fuss in the cage. "Speaking of which, has this little thing not been quiet for even a moment?"

"Quite irritable, she's been causing trouble until now," Vivian shook her head. "But she was occasionally quiet for a few minutes in the middle."

"Oh?"

"She sometimes stares at that mouse hole in the corner and can be quiet for a while," Vivian shrugged. "It seems she really considers that mouse hole to be her home, and is angry at us for not letting her go home."

"Does she have such complex thought processes?" Hao Ren curled his lip, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a pair of bright eyes suddenly flash under the coffee table. "Gun, I'm giving you a direct order, you're absolutely not allowed to eat this little creature!"

A faint scratching sound came from under the coffee table, followed by a resentful muttering, "How can you be like this? Raising a cat and not letting it eat fish, and not letting it eat mice! There's no hope for my meow-life!"

Hao Ren and Vivian listened to the cat girl's resentful complaints and couldn't help but look at each other and smile.

"Let's go back to sleep," Vivian stood up, stretched, and picked up the cage, heading towards the basement. "I'll take her down there by the way, to avoid the noise. I'm not afraid of noise when I sleep."

"Then good night," Hao Ren said, but he stopped her as she was about to reach the door. "Oh, your soul..."

Vivian turned back and smiled. "I know, there seems to be something in my soul, but I'm not worried, because I know you can handle it."

"That's right, I can handle it," Hao Ren said with a confident smile, although it was inexplicable. Seeing the cage in Vivian's hand, he added, "Oh, one more thing."

Vivian stopped curiously. "Mm?"

"She really is staring at that mouse hole," Hao Ren pointed to the little Xie Ling (evil spirit) in the cage. "Can you put a binding spell or a tracking mark or something on her?"

Vivian nodded. "Of course it's no problem, she's pathetically weak, she can't resist almost any spell."

"Don't lock her in the cage, put a few curses on her. If she likes to stay in the mouse hole, let her stay in there, maybe she'll be quieter."