Chapter 391: The Mountain God Temple! The Cat General! Aiding the Wicked!

The entire city of Wei City grew smaller and smaller beneath Li Yanchu’s feet. He was traveling swiftly, riding the clouds through the sky with his Cloud-Riding Immortal Art propelling him eastward.

Mountains and rivers stretched beneath him like a painted scroll.

After about an hour, he descended upon the peak of a mountain. Dense trees lined both sides, their leaves whispering in the wind like ghostly murmurs, as though something was quietly waiting for travelers to step into its trap.

Li Yanchu thought for a moment, then calmly set foot on the moss-covered stone steps leading upward.

At the top stood an ancient temple built from green bricks. There should have been grand doors once, but now they were long gone.

The place felt aged and abandoned; not entirely ruined, but clearly neglected for many years. Dust blanketed the inside, while fallen leaves carpeted the outside.

It had clearly been deserted for a very long time.

Rustle, rustle...

In the silent mountain, Li Yanchu’s steps crunched against the dry leaves as he entered the old temple. Above the entrance hung a weathered plaque, the faint outlines of three words barely visible:

Mountain God Temple

.

Once, those gilded letters must have gleamed bright gold majestically.

Inside, in the center of the hall, stood a mud statue of the deity: a human body with the head of a cat. The statue was covered in dust and cracks.

This was supposed to be a sacred shrine for a guardian mountain god, a place of incense and blessings. Yet, with its decay and silence, even under the daylight it gave off a sinister chill, a weight pressing down on the heart like an invisible stone.

“The image of this mountain god... could it be the Cat General?” Li Yanchu murmured, his eyes narrowing.

The walls were peeling, and on either side of the idol hung two wooden merit plaques.

The left one recorded the names of local gentry and merchants who had once donated funds for the temple. The right one listed the deeds of the mountain god.

Li Yanchu blew the dust away and read carefully. Then he couldn’t help but let out a quiet

hmm

of surprise. This temple was actually built during the late Xia Dynasty over seven hundred years ago!

He looked around again, astonished. For something that ancient, the structure was remarkably well-preserved.

The right-hand plaque described the mountain god’s deeds, mostly blessings of good harvests, fair weather, and peace for the local people.

But one record stood out: It told of a snake demon that had terrorized travelers in this region, and how the mountain god had manifested in divine form to slay it. Many villagers, it said, had witnessed the miracle with their own eyes.

After reading this, Li Yanchu finally understood where he was. This place was within the borders of Xuzhou Prefecture in a small town called Shilin, and the mountain was known as Mount Xiaofeng.

The trail of demonic energy he had been following had vanished completely the moment he stepped into Mount Xiaofeng. It seemed that the connection had been forcibly severed.

Li Yanchu guessed that the so-called

Cat General

must have sensed someone tracking him and had deliberately cast a spell to break the trail; after all, this was his own territory.

“

Meow... meow... meow...”

Just then, from within the desolate temple came the faint eerie, sharp cry of a wild cat. In many rural legends and ghost tales, cats were creatures of yin, embodiments of extreme yin qi, able to traverse freely between the worlds of the living and the dead. In the shamanic traditions of faraway Liaodong, practitioners even used cat heads and cat mummies as ritual instruments.

Outside, the wind began to rise, whirling up fallen leaves and making the branches rustle. It was as if the entire mountain had suddenly come alive.

Sensing this, Li Yanchu raised an eyebrow. Since the other party had already broken the Art of Pursuit, why choose to show himself now?

Outside the temple, gusts of demonic wind howled, and the cat’s cries weaved within the gale. It sounded sometimes distant, sometimes near, like sobbing whispers.

Whenever a demon appeared, it was almost always accompanied by such a wind.

Li Yanchu’s heart stirred. With a flick of his fingers, he activated the Wind Tamer. Instantly, the world fell silent; not a single breeze stirred.

Even the current abbot of Qingyun Temple doesn’t get such dramatic effects when he makes an appearance,

he thought dryly.

A demon shouldn’t be allowed to act so pretentious.

The meowing abruptly stopped, as if the creature itself was momentarily stunned.

Li Yanchu’s face remained cold as his gaze swept toward the dark, swaying shadows of the trees.

Then, accompanied by the faint crunch of twigs and leaves, a pair of gem-bright eyes appeared in the gloom. Out stepped an orange cat with a sleek and lithe body, its movements graceful, and its aura fierce and commanding, like that of a tiger born in the mountains.

“Mountain god?” Li Yanchu gestured toward the statue inside the temple. “Don’t tell me you’re the Cat General that this shrine worships.”

“Hmph. Merely the ignorance of humankind,” the orange cat said disdainfully. “I am who I am...”

“...‘a firework of a different color?’[1]” Li Yanchu interrupted.

The cat’s ears flattened. “Young Daoist, don’t interrupt when I’m speaking!”

Li Yanchu sneered. “Heh. This temple was built during the Xia Dynasty seven hundred and eighty years ago. You may speak like a human, but your demonic aura is weak at best. You can’t possibly be the true mountain god enshrined here. Don’t bluff.”

Just now, Li Yanchu had used his Qi Sight to examine the orange cat. Her demonic aura was faint, without the slightest trace of resentment or bloodthirst; clearly, she had not committed evil. She was merely a newly awakened minor spirit.

“Ignorant Daoist,” the orange cat snorted, raising her head at a proud forty-five-degree angle, her demeanor dripping with arrogance.

Then, she released a bit of her true power, and instantly, a surge of formidable demonic energy rolled out from her body, laced with a thread of incense-born divine will.

This aura was already far stronger than that of the mountain lord of Qingfeng Ridge.

It seemed this was her true power, merely concealed before. Yet, even now, there was no taint of blood or malice upon it.

“So you really are the mountain god of Mount Xiaofeng,” Li Yanchu frowned. “If that’s the case, why did you gift your fur to murderous demons and help them increase their strength?”

The orange cat tilted her chin toward the sky, eyes proud. “Why should I tell you?”

This cat’s personality is atrocious,

Li Yanchu thought dryly.

Aloud, he said, “I can see you still possess a pure aura, so I’ve spoken to you patiently. Don’t push it too far.”

The cat’s fur bristled. “Young Daoist, you’re playing with fire!”

Great,

Li Yanchu thought.

The cat version of a domineering CEO

[2]

.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and he said. “So you really refuse to talk?”

The cat hissed, “I refuse! What, do you think I’m afraid of you, young Daoist!?”

A gust of demonic wind whipped up, and in a blur, the orange cat’s figure vanished before reappearing outside the temple.

Li Yanchu followed swiftly, and his gaze darkened the moment he saw her. The first thing that caught his eyes were those cold, crimson pupils.

Before him stood the largest cat he had ever seen in his life; its body was nearly six meters long, tail was two meters long, shoulders rising over two meters high.

The sheer pressure it exuded was overwhelming. This was no ordinary beast, it was undoubtedly her true form.

“With this monstrous appearance,” Li Yanchu barked, “how can you still call yourself a mountain god? You’re nothing but a man-eating demon!”

“Hmph! I’ve done countless good deeds for the people,” the orange cat snarled, her voice cold and resonant. “Yet they stopped worshipping me long ago. What use is this title of

mountain god

? I was a demon to begin with!”

Li Yanchu’s tone hardened. “If you still wish to be venerated, then stop aiding evil!”

The orange cat’s voice boomed, filled with pride. “Hah! I have no need for the petty incense of mortals. I act as I please, and since when do I require your instruction!?”

Li Yanchu’s gaze sharpened. “Those two you aided are fiends attempting to found a

kingdom of demons among men.

By gifting them your power, you invite slaughter upon the innocent! Even if you don’t kill with your own claws, your sin remains!”

Were it not for the fact that her aura remained pure and unstained by malice, Li Yanchu would already have drawn his sword instead of wasting words on her.

1. “I am who I am, a firework of a different color” comes from the song “I” (《我》), composed and performed by Leslie Cheung. People use this line to express that they are unique and one of a kind. Here is a

video

of the song for your reference. ☜

2. Just to explain this for those of you who are not familiar with the Chinese domineering CEO trope, the cat uses a commanding, authoritative tone, which mimics the stereotypical domineering CEO character. Its warning “you’re playing with fire” is melodramatic and overbearing, and it’s a line often used by such characters in fiction. ☜