High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 721: Chapter 69: The Bloodbath Caused by the Tribute_1

How to be a Cat King, online waiting, pretty urgent...

On the shores of Lin Zhong Lake, in the depths of a small forest, Zheng Qing, who has transformed into a black cat, rests his paws on a low wooden stump, looking sorrowfully at the dozens of cats of differing sizes and breeds that surround him. He feels overwhelmed, as if ten thousand alpacas are stampeding through his mind.

It’s said that cats are a handful, toying with their owners in myriad ways to keep them enthralled and entertained.

But to Zheng Qing, he does not see these qualities in the cats before him. Instead, he only needed to beat up the biggest cat, and then all the remaining cats flocked to him to be pummelled. Honestly, he was quite pleased with this at first; after all, entering any place surrounded by a group of cronies certainly seemed fairly impressive.

But soon, he became tired of it all.

Cats are not genuinely social creatures. For reasons unknown, these cats from the school had gathered and even chosen a leader. However, most of them kept a subtle distance from each other - like a cluster of blooming dandelions, creating a harmonious scene when gathered, but scattering and going their separate ways at the slightest breeze.

This wasn’t the type of Cat King that Zheng Qing wanted to be.

Criticisms aside, Zheng Qing still enjoy the highest ’treatment’ within this group of cats. For example, if a cat catches a sparrow, it will bring the thickest chunk of breast meat to him as a tribute; or when two cats are fighting each other, a look from him is enough to bring the situation under control; moreover, the prettiest Persian and Ragdoll cats in the group are currently lying obediently around the black cat.

It must be stressed that this black cat has no intention of having a deeper, cross-species interaction with these beautiful kittens, he just thinks these long-haired little female cats are cute and comfortable to pet. Moreover, since there are always some cats around him, instead of giving his space to the muscle-bound, aggressive idiots, he might as well let these little female cats have it.

Initially, Zheng Qing planned to comfortably be an ambitious-less Cat King until the transformation potion’s effect wears off and then leave.

That is until a blue cat brought him a dead mouse.

Raising his eyebrows, Zheng Qing suddenly realized that he seemed to have missed something.

He stood up and hollered at the blue cat, ”Stop!”

”Bang!”

It was as if a bomb had fallen into the forest. All the cats, whether they were lying down, lazing, or wandering around, were collectively startled by this abrupt strange noise. The courageous ones baring their teeth at this noise, revealing sharp claws within their paws, while anxiously looking around; the timid ones, immediately hopping into nearby tree canopy, they only dared to poke their heads out to look down after finding a good hiding spot.

Zheng Qing was almost driven to distort his whiskers in annoyance.

They were nothing but a group of stragglers, running faster than anyone else at the first hint of trouble. What could you expect such creatures to do? Having these kinds of minions was truly the tragedy of a Cat King.

Luckily, he wasn’t really a cat, and wouldn’t have to put up with this for long.

After a pause, he finally gathered his thoughts amidst the chaos of the ’dispersing’ cats. With no apparent danger in sight, the cats regrouped slowly, grooming and scratching each other. As if nothing had happened at all.

The Black Cat watched them without a word, eventually giving up on lecturing them.

”Ahem!” he cleared his throat, raising a paw and pointed at the blue cat just now.

Because of the recent incidents, Zheng Qing realised that speaking human words might scare these cats, but he didn’t want to meow like a cat either. On one hand, it would seem silly if he made cat noises, he couldn’t bring himself to do so; on the other hand, and more importantly, he had no idea what sort of meanings are conveyed by different kinds of meows. This was indeed awkward. Suppose he meowed, and then several female cats shyly gathered around him, that would not be fun.

After pondering for a while, he simply stretched out his paw to start gesturing, hoping that the ’cats with rather high intelligence’ in front of him are indeed intelligent like people said.

”Mouse, I, want more!”

Zheng Qing pointed at the dead mouse on the ground, then at himself, and made a round shape with his claws, letting out a ’meow’ sound.

”Meow!” The Blue Cat nodded repeatedly, then turned around with a swoosh and dashed back into the forest.

Zheng Qing watched the Blue Cat’s retreating figure in satisfaction. When his gaze fell on the other lazily lounging cats, he paused, and then became furious: ”You, all go!”

He flung out several feet, kicking and pushing, rousing all the snoozing cats from the ground. Then he pointed at the dead mouse under the tree stump, meowing a few times.

The other cats complained with meows, hanging their heads and running towards the forest - even the Persian and Ragdoll cats were no exception, all being driven by Zheng Qing to catch mice.

Soon, the first to leave, the Blue Cat, returned.

It held a dead sparrow in its mouth.

The whiskers of the black cat twitched, as it stared blankly at the sparrow, speechless for a long while.

After the first one, then the second, third, and in a while, all the cats driven away by Zheng Qing dribbled back with their respective offerings.

Zheng Qing finally despaired of the intelligence of these stupid cats.

There were sparrow legs, plump caterpillars, big-tailed squirrels, and the occasional one or two mice - these were relatively normal offerings.

And then there was the eccentric one, who somehow dug out a nest of carrion beetles to present to Zheng Qing, which almost made him want to bite it to death and feed it to the beetles.

The most outrageous was the former Cat Leader, a Norwegian Forest Cat. Whether it was trying to show off its uniqueness or its bravery, it had brought a three-foot long grass snake to Zheng Qing!

When the snake rolled to Zheng Qing’s feet, it was not dead yet. Transparent holes in its neck were oozing blood, and its slender body was spasmodically twitching, throwing bits of grass and dirt all over.

The black cat took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.

Don’t be angry, don’t be angry, they’re just a bunch of stupid cats, it’s not worth it to stoop to their level.

Then he took another deep breath and slowly let it out.

Seeing the black cat’s action, the Forest Cat seemed to think it had done well, cheerfully moved closer, and with a swipe of its claw, it ripped open the grass snake.

Splash!

The snake’s blood, mixed with a few drops of oddly coloured fluid, splattered onto the black cat’s face.

The black cat could no longer suppress the agitation in his heart, he cried out, and pounced forward, striking the Forest Cat’s head with a slap. With his tail, he whipped it till it was dizzy. Then, in tune with its howling, he gave it a good and satisfying beating. After all, of all the cats, only this Forest Cat seemed to take a beating well- so, it got the honor.

After venting his anger, the black cat finally felt a bit better.