GRMFBS CH79

Fortunately, Wan Yan the kitty had only just started searching and had only just left Beiling Agricultural University, so the Lin Yuan Ghost King still had enough time to run.

Zhan Jinli thought it over, handed all the people carrying the “Curse Scales” anomaly to the Wan Yao Alliance, and then slipped back to Chaofu Mountain himself.

Wan Yan was following the power signature of the Curse Scales—so let him follow it. As long as he didn’t stay near anyone with Curse Scales, problem solved.

Silently, Zhan Jinli arrived at Chaofu Mountain and returned to the cold pool where he’d lived before reincarnation. The pool was formed by condensate of the purest yin qi—crystalline as emptiness, yet unfathomably deep.

He reached out and touched the water; a filigree of thin ice climbed from his fingertips halfway across his palm.

He lifted his arm, flexed his fingers; jeweled shards of ice pattered down, melted soundlessly into the pool.

He frowned. In a living body, entering the pool would be troublesome.

It wasn’t impossible, but it would cause a bit of a stir—no way to avoid alerting others.

He needed to move quickly, before word reached Wan Yan.

A gold‑crimson scale shimmered onto his brow, and a sunken, heavy aura stilled the air. He leapt into the pool; wherever he touched, the water crystallized into fish‑scale ice blossoms. The gold‑crimson fish‑shadow at his brow wrapped him and bore him straight to the bottom.

The pool bed… was a mess. The only intact thing was his stone bed—stamped all over with cat paw prints.

So Wan Yan really had torn the place up after he left!

Unruffled, Zhan Jinli formed a seal; the stone bed broke into a cloud of bubbles. He plucked out one bubble—inside was a glazed mirror. He pressed the glass to his brow, made another seal, and the bubbles re‑formed into his stone bed—still the paw‑print edition.

Back on shore, the Minghe Ghost King was indeed seated at the bank. Long rivers of blood flowed from the hems of her dress and sleeves.

“Brought you good news.” Her usually cool brows curved slightly. “Chongming went to drag Wan Yan off to work.”

…

Zhan Yan updated the Lin Yuan Ghost King on the cat situation, happily munching his way through the gossip.

Lin Yuan had no way to deal with Wan Yan—this blasted cat remembered food but not beatings!

He’d saved him with a demon core; he couldn’t very well beat him to death.

So Lin Yuan could only hide.

And the melon sprouted new seeds:

Wan Yan moved fast. He quickly found the demon who’d been received by the Wan Yao Alliance with the “Curse Scales,” and was about to force an answer about Lin Yuan’s whereabouts.

It was a blackfish spirit. As a kid, a cat had once carried him off; he’d escaped by sheer luck, but ever since, felines gave him a shadow. Facing the Wan Yan Ghost King now, he trembled, thinking—no one told him Wan Yan was a cat!

Wan Yan had no interest in toying with the blackfish spirit; he only wanted to know if he knew where the Lin Yuan Ghost King was.

As he pressed the question, a shadow appeared behind him.

Zhan Yunkai descended to land at his back and lowered his head.

Startled, Wan Yan’s fur shot up all over. He looked up to see a great bird’s head bent over him.

“Who are you?” Wan Yan-kitty fluffed once and smoothed back down. He didn’t turn around, just craned up to look at the big bird.

Zhan Yunkai found it amusing. Back when Wan Yan was a Di Ting, the two were somewhat acquainted.

Di Ting’s powers didn’t make him popular; saying he didn’t have many friends was putting it kindly. The Chongming bird had an upright nature and didn’t particularly mind him, so they could talk.

Zhan Yunkai had never seen Di Ting in his ghost king form; this little cat ball looked far different from the auspicious beast of old.

“You’ve forgotten me?” Zhan Yunkai asked.

Over there, the blackfish spirit was already bowing, trembling: “Your Majesty Chongming.”

Ah—now Wan Yan knew. He still couldn’t place him, just knew there was such a demon king in the Wan Yao Alliance.

“What do you want with me?” he asked, little cat face tilted up.

“Come back to Chaofu Mountain and help me with something,” Zhan Yunkai said.

Wan Yan shook his head. “No can do. I’m looking for Lin Yuan. Not going back.”

Zhan Yunkai didn’t care for the kitten’s protest. He reached out a claw and nabbed the cat.

Wan Yan, scooped into the Chongming Demon King’s grasp, didn’t behave—squirming left and right, then curling into a cat ball. But he hadn’t been able to beat Chongming before, let alone now.

“I curse you to shed!” Wan Yan fumed.

Zhan Yunkai: heh. As if that would scare him. He carried the cat straight back to Chaofu Mountain.

By the time they returned, Zhan Jinli had already left.

According to the Minghe Ghost King, the Chongming Demon King needed to find Bai Ze—there was plenty of work to be done—so Wan Yan wouldn’t be able to come to the human world for quite some time.

Zhan Jinli: Thank you, Chongming Demon King!

After Zhan Yan finished this round of melon‑eating, he learned that his dad had known the Wan Yan Ghost King back then. He also remembered how Wan Yan, to get a bite to eat, had cosplayed as a cat and chased him from Yunjin City to Beiling Agricultural—and had even blocked one of his dad’s chicken wings before!

Zhan Yan’s cooking came from his father. Maybe Wan Yan had eaten his dad’s food long ago—forgotten after losing his memory, but still feeling something familiar?

With Wan Yan hauled off by Zhan Yunkai, the campus wish‑cat naturally vanished. Fortunately, cats are elusive by nature, and the wish‑cat was the best of them; even before, it didn’t show up daily. Most people didn’t think much of it.

Gu Jiancheng, however, paid special attention to this cat.

He remembered Zhan Yan once dragging Duan Hong to bow to the little white cat for a wish—the wish‑cat’s fame really started after that.

Zhan Yan had been spouting nonsense to string along Duan Hong and Bao Qingshan at the time; Gu Jiancheng didn’t call him on it, but he remembered. Zhan Yan wasn’t someone who shot arrows without a target. Gu Jiancheng thought the kitten might have some mystery, but a perfunctory check turned up nothing anomalous. It looked like an ordinary stray—just smarter than most and with a better appetite; perhaps showing some signs of budding demonization, but for now, still an ordinary cat.

Lately Gu Jiancheng’s focus had shifted back to Black Nest; he didn’t have the bandwidth to investigate a stray cat, so he let it be.

Mostly, he hadn’t sensed malice from the little white cat. His hypersensitive danger sense hadn’t been triggered, either.

So Gu Jiancheng felt he could shelve the cat for the moment. Yan Yan was by his side—if anything happened, he’d have time to protect him. The cat stayed on campus, under his nose—if anything went wrong, he’d have time to stop it.

But now the cat had run off!

Gu Jiancheng’s paranoia exploded into a frenzy.

Where did the cat go? Why leave suddenly? What did it do beforehand?

Was it scouting? Laying hidden groundwork? Was an operation already in place?

Damn it! Gu Jiancheng felt he’d grown lax lately. In the world of Infinite, he’d never have let a suspicious cat roam around nearby for so long!

He tightened his strings again and started remediation—searching for the wish‑cat’s whereabouts and past tracks, checking whether it had set any traps on campus.

Zhan Yan: Heh. Go chase the cat, then!

It wasn’t until the next day that Gu Jiancheng realized Zhan Yan wasn’t engaging with him—mainly because, before, it was always Gu Jiancheng clinging to Zhan Yan. He’d been so relentless that Zhan Yan barely had a chance to act first. With that passive tether cut, it took Gu Jiancheng a moment to notice.

Zhan Yan wasn’t completely ignoring him—he answered when spoken to, they collaborated as usual on group work—but his demeanor was the same as toward any regular classmate.

Gu Jiancheng fretted. What to do?

The great Deep Shadow was a master at catching anomalies, but this was his first time dating—and his first lovers’ spat.

After studying a stack of love manuals and simulating it several times in his head, he waited for a moment when Duan Hong and Bao Qingshan were out to put it into practice.

He opened the dorm room door to find Zhan Yan standing beside the bed, head tilted—his hair had hooked on a bedframe hook!

He had natural soft curls, grew fast, and hated other people touching it. It’d been a while since he’d had a cut; it had grown out, and tangles were easy. Reaching up to grab something off the headboard, he’d snagged it—and it was hard to free. The more he fussed, the tighter it got.

Zhan Yan was just about to reach for the scissors when the door swung open. He turned at the sound, eyes going perfectly round.

Seeing him tugging his hair with those wide eyes, Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help laughing.

Zhan Yan: …so mad!

Gu Jiancheng stepped in and shut the door, suppressed a smile under Zhan Yan’s glare. “Want me to free it?”

“Scissors are right there—just cut it!” Zhan Yan huffed.

“That’d butcher your hair.” Gu Jiancheng moved in, took his hair in hand, and carefully worked the knot loose. Their heads were very close.

Focused on the tangle, Gu Jiancheng’s ear ended up right by Zhan Yan’s face.

Zhan Yan watched that ear slowly tint red. Finding it funny, he couldn’t resist blowing a tiny puff of air.

Gu Jiancheng’s hands paused. He turned slightly, gaze dark.

Zhan Yan felt a flicker of danger, and pretended nothing had happened.

“All done,” Gu Jiancheng said.

“Oh.” Zhan Yan straightened—only to feel his hair gently tug.

Gu Jiancheng had already let go; it seemed he’d just released a beat late.

Seeing the star‑core spark rekindle in those ink‑dark eyes, Zhan Yan cleared his throat and struck first: “Weren’t you out looking for the cat?”

Gu Jiancheng: …

He smoothed Zhan Yan’s messy hair. “I think that cat is off—it’s not right.”

Not right was exactly right! It wasn’t a real cat—it was the Wan Yan Ghost King!

Keeping a straight face, Zhan Yan asked, “What do you think is off about it?”

Gu Jiancheng ticked it off: “It eats like crazy. It can stomach things other cats can’t, is super picky, eats a lot, even helps find animals.”

Smart, yes—but nothing blatantly wrong. And he’d checked. Sure, a handful of big shots could suppress their aura and slip his scan, but who would be so bored as to masquerade as a normal cat to toy with college kids?

Gu Jiancheng figured it was his paranoia acting up again.

Zhan Yan was thinking too.

Gu Jiancheng was a materialist, certified by the Zhenshi News Club—he definitely wasn’t thinking “wish‑cat magic.” Aside from that, what would make him so focused on the wish‑cat… could he be lining up an observation subject early and prepping a graduation thesis?

And thinking back to how Gu Jiancheng had been combing the campus for the wish‑cat these past days—his vibe was exactly like those seniors who’d lost their study subjects!

Zhan Yan was alarmed.

No way. You can’t research this!