24: Chapter 24 No Harming Cats

"Save me..."

Qi Ling dug his fingers into the mud. "I don't want to become... that thing..."

"Oh my, oh my." Gray Fur licked his paw. "What are you crying about?"

"Wusa Town is just ahead. We'll take you to see it; maybe it can cure this ailment of yours." As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Xi bent down and hoisted Qi Ling up.

"Let's go." The three of them walked along the gravel path, not going very far.

A scent drifted on the wind. First came the smell of cooking smoke, the charred fragrance of burning wood, carrying the false warmth of human life. Qi Ling's stomach twitched involuntarily, and sour fluid rose in his empty cavity. He hadn't eaten in a long time.

Ahead, in the heart of the canyon, lights flickered on.

Like scattered stars, they were strewn across the darkness. Some windows emitted a dim yellow light, while others were just oil lamps hanging by doorways, their flames swayed unsteadily by the wind. Between the lights, alleyways crisscrossed, and stone houses were packed tightly together, extending all the way to the deepest part of the canyon.

By the entrance to Wusa Town.

Wu Xi and the others saw a pair of eyes open in the darkness. Green, with vertical pupils, like two will-o'-the-wisps. Before he could even step back, a second pair, a third pair... high up, low down, to the left, to the right, green, yellow, gold—they lit up densely, layer upon layer, surrounding him in the center. There were no footsteps, no breathing, even the wind had stopped. Only those eyes hung in the night, unblinking, staring at him silently.

"Ulthar Cats Patrol Squad!"

Gray Fur introduced them: "The legitimate masters of this territory."

Qi Ling opened his mouth, squeezing out a few words: "These eyes..."

Wu Xi half-dragged, half-supported him, his pace steady and fast as he walked toward the town entrance, with the cat horde following on both sides. Green eyes flickered on and off, floating in the shadows. Hundreds, thousands of pairs, none of them making a sound.

They arrived at the town entrance, where a huge shadow stood. Upon getting closer, they saw it was a stone tablet, over two zhang tall, with eight characters.

"No one is permitted to harm cats."

Wu Xi stopped, looked up, and his gaze swept over the words. He turned his head and looked at Gray Fur. "What is the reason?"

Gray Fur grinned. "That goes back a long time ago."

"Back then, Wusa was very ordinary. On the edge of town, there was a dilapidated hut. An old man and The Old Woman lived inside."

"They never spoke or went to the market. They always huddled inside the house. They didn't even leave a crack in the door. They didn't light fires during the day, nor did they light lamps at night."

"But they had a hobby." Gray Fur's pupils constricted into thin lines. "Catching and abusing cats."

"Stray cats passing by, house cats wandering around—as long as they stepped within a hundred paces of the dilapidated hut, they were snatched away."

"The whole town knew, but no one had the nerve to say it out loud; it was an unspoken understanding."

Gray Fur was silent for a moment. "Until one day, a mysterious caravan riding camels arrived, a group of over twenty people with a dozen camels."

"The caravan stopped in Wusa to rest, intending to replenish water and sleep. In the group, there was a seven or eight-year-old boy whose parents had both died, and he had only a small black cat for company."

"The kitten wasn't big, pitch black all over, with amber eyes that would glow at night. But on the third morning in town, the cat went missing."

"The little boy ran from the east end to the west end, calling from the alleyways to the well, until his voice cracked, but he couldn't find a trace of the black cat."

"Until outside the door of the wooden hut on the edge of town, he found a patch of black fur, with a few bone fragments stuck to it, the bloodstains already darkened and scabbed over."

"The little boy cried until he had no tears left on the spot, and performed a mysterious ritual. Immediately, a huge vortex hung over Wusa, and in the center of the vortex, a shadow emerged—a beast-headed, human-bodied figure."

"It looked down upon Wusa Town, looking down upon every blade of grass and every stone on this land."

"That night, the caravan packed up their tents. There was no sound, no camel bells, no hoofbeats, no creaking of wheels rolling over the stone slabs. Over twenty people and a dozen camels were gone, without a sound."

"The next dawn, all the cats in town—big cats, kittens, black cats, white cats, tabbies, yellow cats, calicos, civet cats—not a single one remained; they were all gone."

"Where did they go? No one knows. No one saw them leave, no one heard any cats meowing. Overnight, Wusa became a town without cats."

"Seven days later, the townspeople slowly recovered and began whispering secretly. Someone remembered the dilapidated hut at the east end; it hadn't lit a lamp for seven days, no one had seen the old man fetching water for seven days, and no one had seen The Old Woman dumping waste for seven days. The chimney didn't smoke, the door didn't creak, and the whole house was deathly silent, without a sign of life."

"The mayor gathered his courage and called upon the blacksmith and the stonemason. The three of them carried clubs, walked to the wooden hut, and kicked the door open."

"The door opened, and a stench rushed out. There was no one in the house, and the bedding on the bed was folded neatly. The leftover rice in the pot was covered in green mold. There were no signs of a struggle, no bloodstains, no overturned tables or chairs."

"On the mud floor lay two skeletons, side by side. The human skeletons had their skulls facing the sky, their lower jaws hanging open as if they were still shouting something before they died."

"The flesh was gone, gnawed clean. Every bone was stark white and pristine, not a thread of meat to be found, shining with a damp, slick, and greasy sheen."

"The doors and windows were bolted from the inside; the bolts were iron and were jammed tight from within. The walls weren't broken, and the roof hadn't collapsed. There was only one kind of trace on the mud floor: paw prints."

"Thousands upon thousands of cat paw prints, layered over one another, covered every inch of the floor. Some were deep, some shallow, some big, some small. They had poured in from all directions, gathered here, and stayed here. They had completed a task here. Then they dispersed in all directions. Leaving not a single trace."

Gray Fur's voice became lazy again, and his tail patted against his knee. "From then on, an iron law was carved onto a stone tablet. In Wusa, no one is permitted to harm cats."

"Wusa became the Holy Land for cats in the Dreamlands."

"Cats poured in from all directions—in the alleys, on the rooftops, on the walls, on the stoves. No one drove them away, no one scolded them. In this town, cats are more precious than people."

Wu Xi had not spoken the whole time. At this moment, he opened his mouth.

"Are there any witnesses to this legendary event?"

Gray Fur raised an eyebrow. "There actually is one: the ten-year-old son of the town innkeeper, Atal."

"He is the only witness to the entire process. From the boy kneeling in the center of town crying, to the vision appearing in the sky, to the caravan vanishing, to all the cats in town disappearing overnight—he saw it all, not missing a single detail."

"What happened afterward?" Wu Xi asked. "Originally, there was a dilapidated stone temple at the east end of Wusa, covered in moss. It had been abandoned for who knows how many years. Atal pushed the door open, went inside, and began repairing it, sweeping the floors, and making offerings. He stayed there for decades."

"It is rumored that he unearthed forgotten myths, secrets of the Dreamlands, and taboos of the gods from moldy parchment scrolls." Gray Fur paused. "He is now the only High Priest of the Ulthar Cat Tribe, the person in the entire Dreamlands who understands cats the best."

Gray Fur finished speaking, and he licked his nose. His tail curled up, bending into a question mark.

"How about it? Exciting, isn't it?"