Chapter 18 : My Animal Friends

Others didn’t know what had happened to the organization, but Zero did.

Over a decade ago, during experiments on his second phase, they discovered that negative emotions could amplify energy fluctuations.

They poured immense effort into this, producing many enhancement serums with side effects.

They called it the “X Elixir,” but Zero referred to it as “Concentrated Essence of Resentment.”

Recently, during transportation of the X Elixir between bases, a truck met with an accident, spilling an entire cargo of the serum.

If nothing unusual happened, more than ten wild mutated beings would soon appear in Yecheng under the influence of these drugs.

[Zero: It’s a bit complicated, but in short, if you encounter someone emitting black mist from their body, stay far away.]

Bai Xiaonuo sat on her bed, staring at the message just sent by her senior sister, completely baffled.

Someone emitting black mist?

If there really were such people, I definitely wouldn’t get close to them.

[Nuonuo: Got it, I’m going to sleep now.]

There’s class tomorrow morning, better get some rest.

Zzzz.

By the second week of the semester, Yecheng University had finally settled into its rhythm.

When the class bell rang, the classroom was filled with students quietly taking their seats, no longer whispering among themselves.

Bai Xiaonuo finally enjoyed a bit of peace, resting her chin on her hand as she looked out the window, her expression relaxed.

University life was definitely much easier than high school.

The classroom wasn’t big, and with just over forty students, it was cozy.

The counselor stood on the podium, surveying the students’ behavior, letting out a sigh.

A well-developed beautiful girl was slacking off, while a few classmates nearby stole glances at her.

A handful in the back row were secretly playing on their phones.

Other than that, the rest of the class was relatively respectful, at least pretending to listen attentively.

Considering they just returned from vacation, this was already quite good, thought the counselor.

“Let’s continue with the lesson, about military training…”

“Meow~”

A cat’s meow interrupted the lecture, and almost all the students turned their eyes toward the door — a white kitten was slowly walking inside.

No one paid attention to the counselor on the podium anymore; the classroom instantly filled with exclamations and chatter.

“Oh my god, such a cute kitty.”

“It’s a kitten! I’m dead.”

“How does the school even have a cat roaming into the classroom?”

“Didn’t you see the forum? Apparently, it’s the principal’s cat. It can go anywhere on campus.”

The counselor frowned, stepped down from the podium, and tried to pick up the cat, but just as she reached out, the little white cat nimbly sidestepped.

There was nothing to do now.

The counselor didn’t dare to be rough because the forum’s information was true — this cat really belonged to the principal.

The students below were amused, praising the kitten’s agility, calling its steps a dreamy Drunken Sword Style, leaving the counselor stunned.

Even Bai Xiaonuo’s attention was caught.

Slacking off in class and still getting some entertainment—there was nothing better.

But soon, her smile faded as the white kitten approached her, lightly jumped onto the desk, and with remarkable intelligence, meowed once.

Then the little cat’s paw took off the small bell from its neck and placed it in front of Bai Xiaonuo.

The entire class was dumbfounded.

“No way, it’s actually a little pervy cat.”

“The forum said it’s a female cat.”

“Then it’s a pervy little female cat!”

The white kitten didn’t care about the comments—it didn’t understand anyway.

After gifting the bell to Bai Xiaonuo, it jumped down and left the same way it came.

What… does this mean?

Bai Xiaonuo picked up the little bell.

It was finely crafted, definitely not cheap… Of course, price meant nothing to a cat.

The key point was why it had gone out of its way to give this to me?

“Ahem, alright, enough of the spectacle, classmates,” the counselor forced a calm tone, “life at our school is rich and colorful; you’ll see even stranger things later. Now, please listen as I continue…”

In truth, the counselor had never witnessed anything like this either, but as a responsible teacher, she had to appear knowledgeable.

“Military training has always been about strengthening the body, increasing discipline, and forging willpower. Also…”

Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock.

The sound of knocking on the window again drew the whole class’s attention.

Bai Xiaonuo glanced back and saw an unrecognizable bird flying in midair, flapping its wings as it pecked on the window.

The entire class stared at her, counselor included.

Fortunately, Bai Xiaonuo was fearless at crucial moments.

After a brief thought, she opened the window.

The bird flew to her desk and, like the kitten before, dropped a beautiful feather in front of Bai Xiaonuo before flapping its wings and flying away.

This time, there was no excited discussion—everyone was just a little stunned.

Bai Xiaonuo quietly closed the window and said to the counselor, “Teacher, shall we continue?”

“I…”

The counselor sighed softly and reopened the lesson plan. “Military training strengthens willpower and discipline, and it will give you perseverance and resilience for your future life…”

Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang.

The familiar knocking sounded again, this time from a squirrel perched on the windowsill, tapping with its tiny paws.

“Bai Xiaonuo,” the counselor said expressionlessly, “maybe you should just keep the window open.”

“…”

Like the previous animal friends, the squirrel jumped onto the desk, placed several pretty nut shells in front of Bai Xiaonuo, then left.

But after a while, the familiar knocking returned once more from the windowsill…

After a whole class, the counselor was completely drained, grabbed her book, and headed out.

The students were excited, having never seen anything so novel in their lives.

“Bai Xiaonuo, when did you make so many animal friends?”

“They’re so intuitive.”

“Is that a squirrel?”

“A Zhishi Magpie.”

Faced with everyone’s curiosity, Bai Xiaonuo shrugged, “I don’t know them either, it’s my first time meeting them.”

“Really?”

“Of course, maybe it’s just my personal charm.”

The ancestor who vaguely guessed the truth rolled her eyes in disbelief.

What made it worse was that quite a few people actually believed Bai Xiaonuo.

After class, the ancestor found a quiet place and shared her guess with Bai Xiaonuo. “Xiaonuo, those gifts might be betrothal presents.”

Bai Xiaonuo blinked in surprise. “What’s that?”

“Betrothal presents, marriage gifts. Haven’t you heard of them?”

“The thing with percentage-based execution?”

“…”

After the ancestor’s explanation, Bai Xiaonuo finally understood what was going on.

Yulinglong was a celestial fox, equivalent to a princess or young lady among the Demon race (Demon Clan).

When a Demon clan princess marries, the spirits of all creatures present their precious items as betrothal gifts.

“Of course, these animals haven’t reached the stage of cultivating into demons. At best, they have some spiritual energy,” the ancestor said, “They can understand announcements from great demons and know your news. Simply put, you can think of Yulinglong as the administrator who tagged everyone with an announcement in the group chat.”

Bai Xiaonuo blinked. “But we just started building a relationship.”

“Then who knows,” the ancestor said. “Who can say what the Demon clan are thinking.”