Chapter 70: Breathing Fire to Fight Against the Cat Spiri (1/2)

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At first, only one or two bells swayed gently. Then, a large number of bells started to rock more violently, filling the room with loud noises. The four of us were completely astounded; none of us could move or say anything for a while.

I then noticed that the bell facing the window did not move. It was probably because the civet did not like the sun, so I asked Dali to pull the curtains up.

After that, I took out a marker from my bag. On the edge of the table, I wrote some common words above each bell. I thought it would be possible to communicate with the cat spirit with a makeshift Ouija board.

However, after only writing two words, I heard a plop behind me, and when I turned my head, Dali had fallen to the floor.

“Dali! What’s wrong?” I asked.

I quickly ran over to him, but just as I reached him, Dali suddenly grabbed my wrist and squeezed it with great strength. Then he slowly opened his eyes. They looked just like the strange eyes that the little girl had last night. Then the corner of his lips slowly curved up into a strange expression—like that of a humorless smile.

This shocked me to the core. I struggled and freed myself from his grasp and backed away from him as quickly as I could, but I was met with an even more bizarre sight—Dali jumped onto the table and squatted on it while licking the back of his hands.

The rest of us were stupefied. Wang Yuanchao pulled out his gun and pointed it at Dali. I pushed the gun down, signaling him not to do anything just yet. It would be best to just observe for a while.

I worked up my courage and asked, “Who are you?”

Dali did not pay any attention to me. He kept concentrating on his ‘paws.’ After asking him the third time, he suddenly turned around and let out an obvious ‘meow’ before pouncing at us!

We automatically stepped away, but it turned out that his target wasn’t us at all. It was the swamp eels which were still in a plastic bag on the floor. Dali buried his face into the plastic bag and started devouring the living eels inside. He chewed them and then swallowed them whole—bones and all. Although I knew that we had more pressing matters at hand, my first thought was whether Dali would choke on the fish bones.

I called his name with concern, and when Dali turned around, there was half an eel sticking out of his mouth. The eel was still alive and it writhed in his mouth, but Dali just sucked and swallowed it whole as if it was a noodle strand.

Once he’d had his fill, he sat on the floor, licked his hands and then wiped his face, just like how a cat would clean itself after a meal.

“Cat Spirit,” I said politely, “now that you are full, can you please return to your resting place?”

When he heard that, Dali suddenly lunged towards the cat figurine under the table and slammed it to the floor. As it rolled away, I thought, was the cat spirit trying to release its true body from the figurine?

Fortunately, the material that made up the figurine was hard and durable enough that it suffered no damage. It was probably made of porcelain and bone powder which contributed to its durability.

Dali continued to pounce on the cat figurine. Although the cat spirit had possessed a human body, its movements and behavior were still exactly like that of a cat. It seemed that Dali couldn’t grasp the figurine with his fingers but could only manage to push it around the same way cats pushed around a ball.

I didn’t know why he was doing it, but no matter what, this figurine was still important evidence for this case. If it got damaged or tainted, things could be set back and the case might never be solved, so I yelled, “We must block him from getting the figurine!”

Dali still had his eyes on the figurine and was busy stalking and pouncing at it. Wang Yuanchao jumped from a chair and threw himself at Dali. The two were then locked in a struggle. Dali snarled and hissed while violently clawing at Wang Yuanchao, trying to get away from him.

Wang Yuanchao blocked Dali’s attacks with his arms, and I could clearly see how Dali’s scratches left trails of blood on Wang Yuanchao’s skin.

I took advantage of the time when Dali was preoccupied with Wang Yuanchao to quickly pick up the cat figurine and handed it to Huang Xiaotao.

“Take it back to the evidence room now!” I ordered.

“What about him?” asked Huang Xiaotao in a panic, pointing at Dali.