Seven Cubs, Seven Fathers, Zero Days Off

Chapter 262: Chapter 260: Nine-tailed Cat Clan

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”A zhi!!”

Hu Tu shouted as he woke up.

He found himself lying on a bed in a room in the City Lord Mansion.

His face was pale, and he hadn’t yet processed what was happening...

Shen Yue, who had been waiting by the bed, spoke.

”You’re awake, Hu City Lord?”

Hu Tu’s head snapped around, and only then did he see Bai Chaosi and the members of the Flood Dragon Clan standing in the room.

It was as if they were all waiting for him to wake up!

He was a little shocked. ”You... What are you all doing here?”

He immediately recoiled in alarm.

”Why am I in the City Lord Mansion?”

Shen Yue looked at him.

”Are you perhaps wondering why you’re still alive?”

Hu Tu’s heart skipped a beat. ’That’s right, I should be dead!’

Before he completely lost consciousness, he had clearly seen his own blood essence seeping out of his body, draining away bit by bit.

He only had one life left at the time. After his blood was drained, it should have been impossible for him to survive.

But now, here he was, safe and sound in the City Lord Mansion...

Shen Yue sat down in a nearby chair.

”Relax. You’re not going to die.”

Last night, after subduing the Purple Rabbit, they had searched for the black-robed person.

They had scoured the hillside for miles but found no sign of a body or any other trace of them.

Then, at the foot of the mountain, they had discovered Hu Tu.

He had been lying on the ground, his blood essence almost completely drained, but he hadn’t been fully dead yet.

So, she had brought him back to the City Lord Mansion and treated him as well.

And although Bai Chaosi, Huang Ziyue, and the others had been severely injured, thanks to her Vitality Water, they had recovered quickly by the morning after a night of rest.

Hu Tu immediately understood.

”You saved me??”

Shen Yue’s gaze shifted slightly as she looked at him calmly, the answer self-evident.

’He never expected this woman to be the one who saved him!’

He glanced around at the others in the room, searching for a particular figure.

”Where’s Xiao Ya? Where is she? Where did she go?”

As he was asking, he noticed a purple rabbit lying at Shen Yue’s feet.

His pupils constricted. The rabbit’s fur was a shade so similar to the color of A zhi’s fur when she transformed into the Purple Rabbit...

And in the next second, he saw the bell hanging on the rabbit.

His expression trembled slightly...

Shen Yue reached down, scooped up the rabbit, placed it on her lap, and began to stroke it gently.

She didn’t answer him, instead getting straight to the point.

”I didn’t save you for no reason.”

”Tell me. What’s the real story between you and your sister, Xiao Ya?”

Hu Tu stared at the bell. He seemed to have realized something but didn’t dare to be certain.

He stared blankly at the rabbit in Shen Yue’s arms...

His expression shifted, as if he had confirmed something, yet found it difficult to accept...

Shen Yue didn’t rush him.

She knew that Hu Tu had likely already guessed that the rabbit in her lap was the Purple Rabbit.

Behind her, Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi also understood what Hu Tu was thinking as he stared at the Purple Rabbit...

The two of them also just sat quietly, waiting for Hu Tu to speak.

After a long moment, Hu Tu’s gaze moved away from the bell, as if he had found his answer.

His voice was somewhat weak.

”That bell... you found it in the hidden room, didn’t you?”

Shen Yue nodded directly. ”That’s right.”

Hu Tu looked at her. ”Then you must have seen the letters, too?”

He took a deep breath.

”That’s right. Xiao Ya and I are twins. She’s my sister, born from our mother’s womb alongside me, but she isn’t my mother’s child!”

At these words, both Huang Ziyue and Bai Chaosi furrowed their brows slightly.

’What does he mean?’

”You must find it strange. We were both carried in the same womb and born together, so why am I her child, but Xiao Ya isn’t?”

They all looked at him, waiting for his answer.

Hu Tu paused for a moment before continuing.

”Because she has no father. My mother is of the Cat Clan, a Nine-tailed Cat. She only had the ability to bear one litter in her entire life—just one.”

”But at that time, she gave birth to two in that single litter: me and her.”

Hu Tu spoke slowly, explaining that females of the Nine-tailed Cat Clan can only give birth to other Nine-tailed Cats. They only mate with male Nine-tailed Cats, making it impossible for them to bear the children of any other Beast Clan.

But Xiao Ya had appeared in his mother’s womb as if from nowhere, born alongside him for no reason at all.

Xiao Ya’s birth shocked the Nine-tailed Cat Clan, even plunging the clan into a state of panic.

It was something that hadn’t happened in thousands of years.

The clan leader tried to persuade Hu Tu’s mother to cast Xiao Ya out of the clan. The Nine-tailed Cat Clan had lived hidden from the world for hundreds of years, and they could not let any other Beast Clan know of their existence.

Nor could they allow another of the Beast Clan to appear in their midst.

This was because every member of the Nine-tailed Cat Clan possessed the ability of long life, but their spiritual power was exceptionally weak. If the world learned they could live long lives even without spiritual power, it would bring a cataclysmic disaster upon their already rare clan.

That was why, for thousands of years, the Nine-tailed Cats had never left the small island where they lived in hiding.

All Nine-tailed Cats lived on that island.

But Hu Tu’s mother was unwilling to send Xiao Ya away. After all, she was the child she had given birth to. Only after her repeated pleading was she allowed to keep Xiao Ya by her side.

But who would have known that less than three days after Xiao Ya’s birth, people on the island began to die.

Every single one of them died after having their blood essence drained dry.

Panic spread across the island. The clan leader sent people to investigate thoroughly, but even with the clan members taking careful precautions, the death toll grew day by day.

Until one night, Hu Tu’s mother discovered that the sleeping Xiao Ya was absorbing blood in her dreams.

Wisps of blood-scented energy drifted in from outside, flowing directly into Xiao Ya’s body and nostrils.

Hu Tu’s mother was terrified. She finally understood that the daughter she had borne was the culprit behind the deaths of their clan members.

She began to feel regret—regret for not sending Xiao Ya away.

To keep the clan leader from finding out, she tried to hide the truth, waking Xiao Ya up at random times every night after she had fallen asleep.

But this method was completely useless.

Deprived of blood essence for an extended period, Xiao Ya became irritable, flew into rages, and started screaming and shouting.

Then, during a clan meeting, she lunged at the clan leader, bit through his neck in front of everyone, and drained his blood.

The clan leader died on the spot.

All the clan members were horrified. They subdued the now-satiated Xiao Ya and threw her into a cage.

They also locked Hu Tu’s entire family in the dungeon.

The clan members discussed executing them to avenge the leader and the other clan members who had died.

They were locked in the dungeon, tortured and beaten day after day.

On the day they were to be executed, Xiao Ya unexpectedly broke free from her cage and massacred everyone.

The island was littered with corpses.

The entire Nine-tailed Cat Clan died that day.

Only their family was left.

His father looked at the horribly slain clan members, his mind completely collapsing. After cursing Xiao Ya as a monster, he killed himself.

And Hu Tu’s mother began to lose her sanity.

She took Hu Tu and Xiao Ya and left the island. The three of them wandered aimlessly.

As the days went by, it seemed Xiao Ya had grown up a little. She no longer needed to feed on blood essence.

She even learned to call him ”Brother” and call for her ”Mother.”

Just when Hu Tu thought they could finally live a good life with his mother and Xiao Ya...

His mother took advantage of his absence to lead Xiao Ya out of the cave where they lived.

She abandoned her deep in the mountains.

And after that, Xiao Ya was never seen again.