The plaza was thronged with people, but the area around Li Ao had been cleared into a vacuum zone.
With the little kitten and his skateboard at the center, a very obvious blank area separated them from the surrounding tourists.
That was how it was supposed to be, but a sudden commotion made the crowd want to rush toward the center, only for the guards to block them from approaching Delphi’s honored guest.
Commotion, clamor—the atmosphere grew extremely tense in an instant.
“What’s going on?” Li Ao reluctantly licked the syrup in the cat bowl until it gleamed, then stood up on his two feet, peering into the distance like a vigilant meerkat.
“Your Highness.” The girl in the accompanying duo was clearly sharper; she half-squatted and said to the little kitten, “There are too many people here. Shall we go play somewhere else? There’s an amusement park up ahead where you can feed the pigeons.”
But in the midst of their conversation, a terrifying howl of agony erupted from afar. Immediately after, piercing sirens blared. Li Ao’s little ears shot straight up before he quickly flattened them, covering his head with airplane ears.
“Don’t hurt him! Someone, please save him!”
A woman’s shrill cry was muffled by the guards. She struggled desperately to break free, crawling forward.
But the power gap was too great, and she was ruthlessly dragged away from the scene.
As the crowd was pulled back, the figure on the ground finally came into view.
It was a young man collapsed on the ground, his body convulsing as his hands clutched his head desperately. His pupils were turning gray and white, the irises nearly vanishing, while his exposed teeth grew visibly longer.
This was a textbook case of onset.
It was Doom disease, humanity’s nightmare.
Once Doom disease reached the late stage of outbreak, it couldn’t be alleviated or suppressed. The excruciating headache would drive the patient insane, turning them into a zombie-like aggressor that attacked anything living indiscriminately.
It was a human genetic disease, typically following a long, dominant, phased progression. Like occasional migraines starting at twenty, intensifying around fifty, fully erupting hopelessly at seventy or eighty, then receiving a government mercy shot.
That was the classic trajectory of Doom disease—slow and torturous. The elderly could even endure it up to two hundred years.
But there were also acute cases, striking suddenly without warning. And the young man on the ground was one such victim.
Just a second ago, he had been strolling hand-in-hand with his newlywed wife at this honeymoon paradise, a happy smile on his face. The next second, unbearable pain tore through his mind.
“Don’t—” The guard got bitten by the woman and was shaken off. The short-haired woman threw herself into her husband’s arms, shoving desperately at his chest. “Hubby, wake up! Wake up!”
Tears streamed down her delicate face as she gripped his trembling head, choking out words, “Don’t let it take your sanity! Be strong—our baby hasn’t been born yet. You just said you’d decorate her room yourself…”
As if he heard her, the young man on the ground roared indistinctly, “Baby…”
“Yes! The baby!”
The short-haired woman clung to this lifeline like a straw, forcing a tearful smile and nodding frantically. She pulled his spasming hand and gently placed it on her belly.
“Just six weeks, remember?” Her voice trembled with hope and plea.
His rigid fingertips landed on her belly. The next second, his body jerked violently.
The gray-white in his pupils spread instantly. His facial muscles twitched, fingers bending backward into an unnatural, deformed angle.
“Careful!”
The guards reacted swiftly. A gun barrel rose in an instant, shooting straight through the hand about to claw into the woman’s abdomen.
The short-haired woman was terrified into a daze, collapsing to the ground for two seconds. Then she lunged forward again. She locked down her husband’s head to keep him still, her tear-streaked pretty face lifting to glare at the guards. “He’s a veteran… He fought on the front lines for three years and only just retired back to me… You can’t—you can’t do this to him…”
No one could remain unmoved. After all, such tragedies happened to everyone in the interstellar era.
But what could be done?
Nothing.
If these Doom disease patients weren’t killed on the spot, a single bite could spark a chain reaction of more outbreaks. One to ten, ten to a hundred—entire planets had fallen this way before.
“I’m sorry.” The guard said it, but his gun was already coldly locked on the young man’s head. “At this stage of outbreak, even euthanasia can’t stop it. Please step aside. I’ll count to three. After three, whether you let go or not, whether you’re clear or not, I’ll carry out my duty.”
“Sis, let go…” The crowd was cordoned off, but a strange woman broke through, tears streaming as she pulled at the short-haired woman. “Let him go…”
“One…”
The short-haired woman clenched her teeth, rejecting the touch. “No!”
“I understand…” The stranger still wanted to save her. “My daughter… She was euthanized at sixteen…” Who but someone who’d endured this would step forward in such danger? “There’s no way… Really, no way…”
Her tears fell even harder than the other woman’s. Many onlookers—men, women, young and old—had red eyes too.
“Two—”
“Damn Doom disease! Why must humanity suffer this?!”
In this extreme moment, the short-haired woman had calmed. She looked up at the stranger, said thanks, then pushed her away and firmly hugged her husband’s head again. “Shoot then. We’ll go together.”
“…” The guard’s molars ground tight. After a long pause, he forced out, “…One!”
“Don’t move!” Just as the gun was about to fire, a milky voice rang out, and time suddenly slowed.
The little kitten wasn’t as powerful as Lion Daddy yet; his control over spiritual power was still unskilled. Time didn’t fully stop—it merely stagnated motions in a small area.
They could still sense time flowing, even knowing someone had seized control of it nearby. This slow but clear awareness let everyone vividly see the pattering figure rushing over.
His big tail dragged behind as he ran with a lopsided gait that was adorably comical. His round, fluffy face showed a hint of little seriousness.
He dashed to the Doom patient’s side, first touching the short-haired woman’s hand. Then everyone heard him say, “Auntie, let go, okay? Let Li Ao take a look.”
The short-haired woman had never perceived her breathing so acutely. Time was so slow, slow enough to see the kitten’s face crystal clear. As she slowly released her grip, she heard her husband’s guttural growls from his throat…
“Spiritual power, I command you.” His two little paws pressed onto the man’s head. The next second, specks of starlight scattered out.
Time was so slow it was beautiful. Countless people saw it drift like fireflies, carrying hope into the Doom patient’s body.
The man’s body convulsed as his consciousness slowly returned. Like a bird trapped in a spiderweb, on the verge of death, he saw something tear the web from his body. It hurt, but after the pain came relief.
The gray-white faded bit by bit from his pupils. Li Ao pulled with his paws like threading a needle—no effort needed, just a light tug stripping away huge chunks.
People couldn’t see what he was doing, but they knew something was happening.
“All done!” Li Ao finished pulling the threads and hopped nimbly off the man. Time resumed the instant his four little paws hit the ground.
The crowd’s clamor burst back to life. The tears pooled in the short-haired woman’s eyes finally spilled, splashing onto her husband’s face.
“Xiao Qian…” The young man, now sane, had a square-jawed, upright face. He shot upright, pulling his unscathed arm around his wife. They embraced, sobbing loudly.
And that guard, trembling, unloaded his gun.
The bullet ejected with a crisp clink, hitting the cold ground with a faint ting.
Gun still in hand, he seemed to deflate, fingertips quivering as he pressed the back of his hand hard against his face, turning away to wipe fiercely.
He tried to wipe away whatever it was, but the tears only smeared more.
Who hadn’t dealt with Doom disease? His grandma had hidden grandpa’s outbreak, dooming the whole family. He’d gone home to visit his elderly parents—gone, all of them. In the interstellar realm, who hadn’t felt this pain?
This unconquerable human agony had ended in a little kitten’s paws.
“You, you…” The short-haired woman and her husband finished crying, wiping tears as they looked at the obediently squatting kitten. “Are you an angel?”
What was an angel? The purebred Eastern kitten tilted his round face up. “I’m Li Ao.”
Yes, he was Li Ao. The woman broke into a smile through her tears. “Ri-right… You’re Leo Regalis. I know…”
Before this, they knew of this little kitten. He was the child of Delphi’s monarch lost abroad—any net-connected interstellar citizen should know.
But after this, he wasn’t just Leo Regalis anymore. He was the little cat who saved her husband. He was called Li Ao.
“Dawn’s Li, Proud Frost Branch’s Ao.” The short-haired woman clearly memorized his name. “You are the cutest little cat in the world.”
The upright-looking youth snapped back to his senses and vigorously wiped his nose, ignoring his blood-drenched hands. He was practically ready to kneel and kowtow to the cat. “Little cat, thank you for saving me. You—I don’t know how you did it, but I… I feel like I’m better now. Really.” His words came out excited and muddled. “I’ve never felt this good before. Thank you, thank you so much. You’re the best cat in the world!”
“It was the little cat who saved him?”
“That’s great—it was the little cat—” The crowd erupted in cheers: “The little cat saved him! It was the little cat!”
Everyone in the square—regardless of nationality or faith—was celebrating the miraculous resurrection of a life.
Fierce Cat was showered with wild praise from the crowd and shifted his feet in extreme embarrassment. After a long moment, he still raised his paw and asked, “One dollar.”
“What?” The youth, fresh from his brush with death, grinned foolishly in confusion.
“One dollar.” Li Ao extended his pink paw pad. “I catch the yarn ball for you, you give me one dollar. That’s the deal!”
The short-haired woman came back to her senses. She abruptly turned, opened her satchel, and rummaged for any loose change. But in this day and age, electronic payments were the norm—hardly anyone carried cash anymore. She dug around for ages without finding any. Just then, the unfamiliar woman handed her a single dollar bill.
The short-haired woman froze. She pressed her lips together, fighting back another wave of tears, and hugged the woman tightly. Then, she gently placed the dollar into the little cat’s paw. “Thank you, Li Ao.”
This had nothing to do with a single dollar, yet he accepted only one.
They weren’t from Delphi, but the short-haired woman recalled the videos on Star Network. She pulled her husband down with her and dropped to one knee, forming a fist with her right hand to perform the standard Delphi rite of submission to the little cat.
“Thank you, Highness Li Ao. May your glory endure forever.”
One, two… Clearly, they weren’t Delphi citizens. Clearly, they had rejected the so-called backward monarchy. Yet they knelt anyway.
Because this had nothing to do with politics. It was about the being himself.
What this little cat before them could accomplish was beyond the scope of any human. He was fate itself—the light bestowed upon humanity.
“May your glory endure forever.”
