CHAPTER 50: CHAPTER 50: FEMME FATALE

"When did you come in?"

"I’ve been here for quite a while."

"You’re a bird, crawling through the grass like that—could you be any more cowardly?"

"You don’t get it, this place is dangerous. Hurry up and come with me."

Wen Yan followed the Sparrow Cat as it burrowed through the undergrowth. After just a few steps, he suddenly ducked his head.

"Hold on, let me tie my shoelaces."

The Sparrow Cat paused in the grass to wait for Wen Yan. It waited for quite some time, but Wen Yan didn’t get up, so the cat got a bit anxious and circled back to him.

But as it approached Wen Yan, it suddenly saw Wen Yan gripping a branch as thick as a human forearm, wrapped with dense Yang Energy, and he swung it down hard onto the cat’s head.

The cat shrieked in pain and leaped up high.

Even in the darkness, with the full shape unclear, Wen Yan could tell that under the cat’s head, there definitely wasn’t the body of a bird—it looked much more like a Black Serpent coiled up.

The intense Yang Energy came crashing down, and that cat head, after taking the blow, gradually transformed into a snake’s head before Wen Yan’s eyes.

Wen Yan gripped the branch and, blessed with Yang Energy, swung mercilessly at the snake’s head.

He smashed the snake’s head to a pulp in one go. Only when the whole snake stopped moving did Wen Yan finally breathe a little easier.

Just then, he heard the faint fluttering of wings. Wen Yan glanced up at a tree nearby, where the real Sparrow Cat poked out its head, looking at Wen Yan with a freaked-out expression.

"You’re a cat, but you climb trees all day—how’s that look?"

"I’m just a sparrow, what’s wrong with flying into a tree! Oh, wait, why did you come in too?"

"You totally set me up. Why were you messing around watching those short videos for no reason?"

The Sparrow Cat hid up in the tree, eyeing the Black Serpent on the ground, licking its lips despite itself.

Wen Yan waved at the Sparrow Cat.

"Come down, I’ve got questions for you. What’s up with this Black Serpent?"

"You guys call it the Beauty Serpent. This thing can disguise itself with a fake head to lure people in. It poisons its target and feasts at its leisure. But its meat is tender and a great tonic. Its bile is good for the liver and eyesight—can even treat farsightedness and presbyopia."

"So it really is an illusion technique. Who knows if this thing’s actually dead?" Wen Yan hefted the big branch, ready to beat the rest of the Black Serpent’s body to pieces.

The Sparrow Cat couldn’t help itself and dropped down from the tree.

"Don’t, that’s such a waste."

The stick in Wen Yan’s hand curved mid-air and swung toward the Sparrow Cat.

The Sparrow Cat was ready for that. It tucked its wings and dodged, but Wen Yan’s other hand was faster—a slap sent the Sparrow Cat spinning to the ground.

The Sparrow Cat lay on the ground, rolling its eyes as Wen Yan poked its face with the stick. Resigned, it gave up resisting.

"I don’t know any illusion techniques—I’m the real thing, I swear."

"You’re a cat. Aren’t you afraid of being poisoned by eating snakes?"

"I’m a sparrow! So what if I eat spicy strips or whatever! I’m for real, stop hitting me. If you keep bashing the Beauty Serpent, it won’t be fresh anymore! This kind of thing is almost extinct from all the hunting—I’ve only ever heard about it, never tasted it."

Wen Yan double-checked, finally able to relax.

This Sparrow Cat was naturally argumentative. No matter the situation, call it a sparrow, it insists it’s a cat; call it a cat, it insists it’s a sparrow.

Wen Yan noticed this on the very first day they met.

Just now, that Beauty Serpent pretending to be the Sparrow Cat hadn’t argued even once—of course Wen Yan had to test it.

Besides, even if he was wrong, with the Sparrow Cat’s recovery, taking a hit wouldn’t kill it.

The Sparrow Cat took the slap and now brazenly shuffled over to Wen Yan. Its two claws grabbed and squeezed the Black Serpent’s belly with expert precision, yanking out its bile sack.

"Eat it while it’s warm—it’s at peak potency now. For people, not only does it cure nearsightedness, it even gives a bit of night vision."

Wen Yan frowned down at the bile, pointing at the Black Serpent on the ground.

"What about the rest?"

"The meat and skin are full of parasites, you can’t eat those." The Sparrow Cat spoke as it started with the pulped snake’s head, and like it was sucking up noodles, slurped down the entire Black Serpent in a few gulps.

"Aren’t there parasites in the bile too..." Wen Yan stretched out his hand, stimulated Yang Energy, wrapped it around the bile, scoured its insides and outs a few times, then swallowed it down in one gulp.

The fishy taste mixed with bitterness and a slimy texture—it was absolutely disgusting.

After swallowing, there was no special sensation. The surroundings were as dark as ever.

"I don’t feel anything."

"Dumbass, it’s not some immortal elixir. Of course there’s no instant effect."

"..."

Wen Yan fell silent for a moment, immediately shifting the topic.

"What’s really going on in this place? And don’t tell me you ’just so happened’ to see that video."

"What if I really did just so happen to see it, would you believe me?"

"Nope. If this short video is the entrance, there’s no way the Scorching Sun Department wouldn’t have figured it out by now."

The Sparrow Cat drooped its ears, sounding listless.

"Really, I saw the video and immediately felt something was off, but it was too late by then.

For regular people, that video is just a normal, entirely unremarkable local clip, with barely any views.

But for certain people, it appears completely different.

Like me—this little monster—and that Beauty Serpent from before."

Hearing that, Wen Yan suddenly felt a bad premonition.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if my gut’s right, this Domain is targeting every species except humans." The Sparrow Cat twitched its ears, lifted its head to give Wen Yan an odd look—both strange and excited—its whiskers trembling a little.

"So, you’re actually not human, right?"

Wen Yan inhaled sharply—for sure, being able to enter every Domain will mess you up sooner or later.

"That’s right, actually I’m from the Kingdom of Namike Starlight—you can call me Nami People."

"I knew it! You’re not human!" The Sparrow Cat was overjoyed, ears twitching blissfully.

Wen Yan was speechless for a moment—the Sparrow Cat actually bought it. Forget it. Even if he tried to explain that it was a joke, Sparrow Cat wouldn’t believe him anyway—it was better this way.

I’m not human, and you’re this happy... for what?

The Sparrow Cat was clearly delighted. Even its cold, eagle-like, owes-nothing-to-anyone swagger had gotten a little lighter.

In its mind, there were just too many people harboring malice and prejudice toward it, so finally meeting someone who seemed genuinely friendly—even if they were a scammer—was a stroke of luck.

Toward Wen Yan, it had always taken what he said with a grain of salt, but now that it knew Wen Yan wasn’t human, this was fantastic.

Now it could completely believe all the things Wen Yan had said before.

Plus, holding this huge secret about Wen Yan made it feel an indescribable sense of security.

Wen Yan had zero interest in the Sparrow Cat’s little calculations—he was still trying to figure out what to do next.

In the info from the Scorching Sun Department, there wasn’t a single Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Anomalous Creatures. Most of what little they did know about this Domain just speculated about the local homestays.

Or rather, all the speculation was built on "humans" as the default.

Usually, in his experience, Type III Domains are merged with the real world, and their internal rules definitely reflect something from reality—so all their theories obviously focus on people.

Who’d have thought that this Domain not only uses a short video as an entrance, but is tailored specifically for non-humans.

With the Scorching Sun Department’s current manpower, if any of their investigators could actually enter this Domain, that’d be a miracle—their starting premise is all wrong.