The God of Cataka

87

Shen Zhu could not remember how long he had been unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he felt something thrust down his shoulders, his chest, his legs and one of his hands.

He moved his fingers slowly, something soft and warm was attached to his fingers.

Slowly he opened his eyes and found himself in a completely foreign place.

The ceiling above his head looks like a protruding fang. At the end of his feet was a huge hole like the mouth of a cave.

Not wrong anymore! thought. I was in a cave. But where is it?

He raised his head slightly, then bowed, examined himself and found his body bare-chested. The back of someone's hand was cupped in his chest. Shen Zhu stuttered and raised his hand that was attached to something. Someone's hand again. Shen Zhu jerked his head to the side and gasped. Something that pressed his shoulder turned out to be someone's head.

A girl in tight-fitting, shiny black clothes.

Shen Zhu jumped and sat down. Something that overstretched her legs also turned out to be the girl's feet.

Shen Zhu yelled and jumped while clasping the girl's hand.

The girl was aghast and sat down, "Sister!" pekik. "You're awake!"

Shen Zhu stood staggered while holding his head. "Xiao Mao!" hisses. At first he heard the voice of the cat in his head.

The girl in front of him got up from the bed carved from the stone like an offering altar in a temple, then drew closer towards Shen Zhu.

Shen Zhu inched away from her while looking at the girl with a frown. "You.." he finally recognized the girl. The girl he met in the hole in the Divine Forest. "Why are you here?"

"Of course to take care of you!" spray the girl with a look of annoyance.

Xiao Mao's voice again! shen Zhu thought as he held his head.

"Xiao Mao!" call him while looking at him. Looking for the existence of her little cat. But the whole place around him looked hollow and strange.

A thin fog floated up and a colorful light shimmered from a corner in the cave.

It was surrounded by a pond that lit up like an aurora with a stone wall that protruded like a giant fang.

The girl twirled her eyeballs with a look of disgust.

"Where is Xiao Mao?" Shen Zhu stuttered as the girl tried to approach him.

"Where are you still looking?" The girl was yelling at Shen Zhu's temple.

"You—" Shen Zhu gasped when he realized the voice of his little cat was not coming from his head, but coming out of the girl's tiny mouth. "Xiao... Mao…?"

The girl nodded with a childish look as she clenched Shen Zhu's arm.

"Imust be!" Shen Zhu brushed off the two hands of the girl who were writhing her arms.

"Haish!" The girl stomped on the backs of her feet while scowling and scaping.

"WILLARRRGH!" Shen Zhu groaned and jumped up and down with one leg while rubbing the backs of the other.

"Truly ungrateful," the girl grumbled as she pointed her index finger at Shen Zhu in a sulking style. "I've been saving you, taking care of you for ten years, you don't even recognize me!"

"Ten years?" Shen Zhu raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, Sir!" A fatherly shady voice interrupted them from the mouth of the cave.

Shen Zhu turned to the source of the voice and found a human-headed lion already perched at the mouth of the cave.

The Treasure Guard God Monster.

"How can you?" Shen Zhu flabbergasted.

"The time difference between the human world and the god-man is a thousand days" the human-headed lion told him. "Master had already been asleep for three more days in the god realm. Estimated time in the human world has already passed ten years."

"Why can I be in the god realm?" shen Zhu asked inexhaustibly.

"Goddess Lie Ren had no choice," replied the lion guard of the two realms as he glanced towards the girl in black, shiny tight clothes beside Shen Zhu.

Shen Zhu followed his direction with a puzzled expression.

"The Knight Alliance immediately hunted down Master after the Knight Trials" the lion said. "Every sect is condemned and everyone suspected of protecting the Lord is sentenced to prison. Hiding Master out there is very risky. The order of Lord's arrest and Lord's helpers has already spread throughout the continent."

"Help?" Shen Zhu frowned even deeper.

"A moment after Master was stabbed by the spear, Goddess Lie Ren escaped Master!" answer the lion guard.

Be stabbed? Shen Zhu gasped and suddenly riled up, suddenly recalling something. "Teacher—"

"Master don't have to worry," the lion said. "They're all fine. Master Teacher recovered a moment after Master was injured. As long as Master was unconscious, Goddess Lie Ren had always kept an eye on the situation of the Bao Sect and the Magi Sect. The Goddess also sent many messengers to protect all those whom the Lord loved."

Shen Zhu glanced at Xiao Mao with a guilty look.

"Wait a minute!" Shen Zhu suddenly raised a hand. Goddess Lie Ren? thought. Lieren means hunter.

Shen Zhu turned towards Xiao Mao once more and squinted his eyes. "You are the Hunter God that the Blood Sect's Sacred Elder said?"

"I'd rather you call me Xiao Mao," the girl muttered with a spoiled expression.

"Aren't you a monster?" shen Zhu asked unsure.

"Where are monsters this beautiful?" whining Xiao Mao as he stomped his feet on the floor like a sulking little girl.

"They say you're a godly heirloom," Shen Zhu muttered increasingly puzzled.

"Whatever the height of human spiritual power, not a single one is truly perfect," the lion guard sighed regretfully.

Shen Zhu turned his gaze again towards the human-headed lion.

"A moment after the Master came out of the portal, the keeper of the blood covenant land saw the appearance of Goddess Lie Ren," the human-headed lion told. "But his spiritual power is not enough to reach closer distances so they cannot communicate. So he can only guess and conclude based on what he understands. About the god's heirloom and about the appearance of a god which they later concluded as a possible error against the heavens."

"In other words, they thought I was running away the pet hunter god and the hunter god ended up hunting me?" Shen Zhu chimed.

"Yes," replied the lion guard.

Shen Zhu suddenly chuckled.

The human-headed lion sighed and shook his head.

Xiao Mao bought it.

"Then why are you tied up in a cave?" shen Zhu asked as he glanced at Xiao Mao with a mocking expression.

"God Zainan sealed it," explained the guardian lion.

"What?" Shen Zhu blinked and jerked his head to the side, throwing a sharp glare at Xiao Mao.

The girl tapped her two index fingers in front of her chest while bowing and blushing.

"Indeed, Goddess Lie Ren is an heirloom of a god. Pet of Lord Zainan," the guardian lion told. "Gorgon is a million years old!"