After his grandmother passed away, Chen Gaoyang was utterly heartbroken and terrified. From then on, he was truly living in darkness, completely devoid of light.
He couldn't even manage to live a normal life.
During that ti, Chen Gaoyang even considered following his grandmother in death. In the vast courtyard house, he was all alone, a blind man. He had lost the will to live. All the splendors of the world had nothing to do with him.
He struggled in despair, unable to pull himself out of the darkness.
Haitang watched all of this in silence. She had long grown accustod to seeing mbers of the Chen Family pass away one by one, but she couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for this young man, whose sight had been stolen by the heavens at birth.
Seeing him so heartbroken and helpless, she didn't know how to make him find his strength again.
Haitang had promised the grandmother to look after the Chen Family's last remaining heir, so she had to find a way to help Chen Gaoyang pull himself together.
But as a re cat, there was so little she could do. Thus, Haitang decided to take on a different identity to care for Chen Gaoyang.
After the seventh day of his grandmother's passing, Haitang appeared in Chen Gaoyang's world with her soft, gentle, and lodious voice. From that mont on, she was no longer just a pet cat guarding the Chen Family.
Her beautiful voice pulled Chen Gaoyang from the abyss of despair, giving him a new lease on life. He endured, struggled through, and learned to bravely face the future.
Spring turned to winter, and winter to spring. In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.
Then one day, Chen Gaoyang fell in love with that beautiful, lodious voice. He impulsively said to Haitang, "Will you be my girlfriend?"
In that mont, Haitang was just a little cat, her heart pounding with shock and fear.
But she knew she couldn't refuse Chen Gaoyang. His world was already lonely enough; he needed this emotional connection to sustain him.
And she gradually discovered that she, too, couldn't be without this young man she had watched grow up. His handso brows, his high-bridged nose, his refined features—they were all deeply etched into her heart.
At over a hundred years old, this Cat Spirit, who had long since gained sentience, found the stirrings of first love quietly blossoming within her.
And so, a cat accepted a young human man's confession. Of course, Chen Gaoyang had no idea that the one he had confessed to was rely a cat.
In his world, his girlfriend had a voice as lovely as silver bells. She must have the face of an angel, and when she smiled, it must be like flowers bursting into bloom.
It was her enchanting voice that drove away all the gloom from Chen Gaoyang's heart, making his world bright and open once more.
"Brother Gaoyang, from now on, Haitang will be your eyes, your hands, and your feet."
Haitang couldn't help but say this to Chen Gaoyang.
This wasn't just an ordinary sentence. It was a steadfast vow from a Cat Spirit to this human man, a pledge bursting forth from the depths of her soul.
But Haitang's heart had blossod too late. Although she was a noble Rank Two Creature, she had lived for too long, having guarded three generations of the Chen Family.
For this fourth generation, she no longer had enough lifespan left to continue her watch.
Yet this was the generation, the Chen Family mber, that Haitang most wanted to protect—the one she would protect with her own life.
Afterward, Haitang desperately threw herself into Cultivation, wanting to break through to beco a Rank Three Creature. Only then would her lifespan increase greatly, and she could also take on a human form to truly be Chen Gaoyang's girlfriend.
She wanted to give the lonely young man a warm embrace.
But Haitang couldn't break through. She couldn't take that final step. Moreover, Haitang could already feel her life force dwindling, like a lamp running out of oil.
She didn't have much ti left to live.
Then one day, Haitang happened to see a group of people passing by the courtyard house; they were all Human Awakened, and they were guarding a treasure that contained imnse power.
Haitang didn't see the treasure with her own eyes, but she sensitively felt the power it was emitting.
She needed the help of an external object to give her a final push.
So Haitang risked exposing herself and offending the hidden Bai Family to snatch the Snake King Stone.
After stealing it, Haitang swallowed it without hesitation. When she snuck back to the Chen Family's residence, she soon discovered that many snakes were slowly beginning to appear in the Chen Family Mansion.
Only then did she realize that what she had swallowed was a Snake King Stone.
Because of the Snake King Stone, she was now tainted with the aura of a special Snake Race. As long as she remained in the courtyard house, the entire compound would be overrun by swarms of snakes, turning it into a terrifying Snake Cave.
In the end, Haitang had no choice but to steel her heart and leave. It wasn't just because of the harassing snakes; she also feared retribution from the Bai Family.
Silently, she left Chen Gaoyang without a word of goodbye.
If she were fortunate enough to use the Snake King Stone to break through to beco a Rank Three Creature, then she would return like the Tianluo Girl to continue caring for Chen Gaoyang.
And protect him for a hundred years.
If she failed, Haitang was also prepared for a final farewell.
This was an all-or-nothing gamble. Haitang had no other choice.
Unfortunately, the Cat Spirit Haitang failed. She discovered that she couldn't control the Snake King Stone she had swallowed. Instead, she slowly began to be controlled by the stone, her mind becoming corrupted and her actions no longer her own.
The only thing she could do was get far away from the Chen Family Mansion—the farther, the better.
This was the story and the suffering of the Cat Spirit Haitang.
After hearing the whole story, Tu Xiao'an understood. He sighed with emotion. The Chen Family was lucky; they had taken in a stray cat and received her protection for four generations, with unwavering loyalty.
When it ca to Chen Gaoyang, the fourth generation, Haitang had even gambled away her own heart in order to better protect him.
Everything she did was simply because she wanted to continue protecting Chen Gaoyang.
They say that when God closes a door, he opens a window. For Chen Gaoyang, finding this Cat Spirit was perhaps the greatest luck and the best gift of his life.
Even after gaining sentience and becoming a Cat Spirit, she was still filled with a human-like kindness.
She had never hard a single person.
In ancient tis, legend tells of a Cat Demon that had achieved mastery in its Cultivation. It could take human form and delighted in taking human lives for its practice.
The Cat Demon liked to transform into beautiful won or handso n to absorb a person's life Essence. This was rather similar to the legendary Fox Demon.
But in a way, Cat Demons were even more difficult to deal with than Fox Demons.
This is because it could change its form at will, shifting between male and female without issue. A Cat Demon is a single entity of spirit and cat, possessing both Yin and Yang within itself; its entire being is a conduit for Yin and Yang.
It was said that if you were bewitched by a beautiful woman or handso man a Cat Demon had transford into, your death was certain. If you were entangled with a Fox Demon, you could easily drive it away by hiring an eminent monk or a master sorcerer. Even so fearless, tough individuals had their own thods for repelling Fox Demons (like Niu Tongren from *Strange Tales*).
But not a single person bewitched by a Cat Demon ever survived.
Later, an enlightened high monk offered a solution that was hardly a solution at all.
He said that anyone bewitched by this Cat Demon must eat cat at within three days to break the spell.
And not just any cat at would do. If you were bewitched by a handso man the Cat Demon had transford into, you had to eat the at of a female cat to break the spell. If you were bewitched by a beautiful woman it had beco, then you had to eat the at of a male cat.
If you got it wrong and ate the incorrect one, you would die instantly. It was all very mysterious and bizarre.
Of course, this was just an ancient legend. No one knew if it was true or not.
But in this vast world, anything is possible. Matters of ghosts and spirits don't just spring from nowhere, nor are they entirely fictional. There is always a way to deal with them.
Therefore, compared to a Cat Demon, this Cat Spirit Haitang was impossibly kind.
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