Seeing the incoming blur resembling a missile, Bubai swiftly exerted force with his legs, sending sand splashing as he dodged backward, narrowly avoiding the attack.

Fwoosh! In front of him, the sand exploded upward like a funnel before cascading back down like a wave!

Maintaining his focus on the enemy's location, Bubai continued his retreat.

However, before he could gain much distance, his eyes narrowed as the curtain of sand suddenly tore apart, revealing a phantom that swiftly zoomed straight toward his left side, leaving blurry afterimages in its wake!

Preparing to dodge to the right, Bubai suddenly hesitated because the phantom images abruptly vanished! His instincts blared when he felt an air current from his right side!

No, the phantoms were just a distraction! The real attack was from-

Bubai's eyes involuntarily turned right, only to find nothing - his senses picking up the enemy suddenly appearing on his other side!

His eyes shot over, barely catching a glimpse a furry paw encased by Qi-

Oof! Bubai felt a palm pat his stomach, the force causing him to involuntarily spit out some saliva. Cough-

“Meow? So hard?”

His body was hard? Please! An attack encased by Qi – that was a proper strike of a Foundation Establishment cultivator!

If his body was weaker, perhaps he would’ve crumbled to his knees or end up incapacitated from that single attack!

Unfortunately, despite managing to withstand the assault, the impact force still knocked him up into the air!

Fwoosh! As a curtain of sand rose alongside his ascent, Bubai sensed a hand hooking onto him from behind, pulling him further upwards!

In a matter of moments, he found himself high up in the air with no room for resistance!

Whoosh! The sandy landscape quickly shrank below as he was towed away, the dilapidated sandstone structures of the outer sect whizzing past in rapid succession.

Merlin's beard, isn’t flying prohibited in the sect?! Law enforcers, where you at?!

Oh yeah, this was the outer sect...

Not long after the journey began, Bubai felt the grip on him suddenly loosen, and his body was thrown outwards with the momentum!

His heart clenched as he tumbled through the air, quickly assessing the rapidly approaching rooftop of an unknown battlement-like structure.

Instinctively, he twisted his body just in time to break his fall with a roll-

In a fluid motion, Bubai bounced up from his roll, crashing into the sandstone wall with a Merlon design, barely halting his momentum and preventing himself from flipping through the gap in the wall.

Stabilizing himself, he immediately turned around.

With just one glance, Bubai immediately locked onto his enemy - a petite, slender woman, her skin smooth as butter.

Her beauty need not be mentioned. Instead, it was the two furry cat ears perched on top of her head that instantly captured his attention!

Cosplay? No- Bubai saw those ears quiver ever so slightly before shifting from an upright to horizontal position.

Some information he read in the books immediately surface in his mind.

Beastman – a known race of this world, descendants of a powerful beast with a human.

Their origins within the world itself remained unclear, but he was sure they were exceptionally rare in the nearby territories.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

According to the books, they only appeared here sporadically as rare goods sold by traveling merchants.

As for where these merchants originate from, there was no mention, but he learned they stop by every five years.

Regardless, even with the limited info, Bubai understood: those ears atop her head were, indeed, real cat ears!

This lady was a beastwoman!

Bubai’s thoughts were promptly confirmed as his eyes trailed downward.

Skimming over the pet collar, his gaze eventually passed over the fur that partially wrapped around her athletic bosoms, down to her slender waist revealing a bare belly and the black leathery hide serving as a mini skirt, barely covering the upper part of her long legs.

And behind those toned legs, he confirmed the furry orange cat tail swaying back and forth as the beauty was engrossed in digging through the embroidered green pouch in her hands-

Hold up. Bubai touched his empty waist. That’s his storage pouch!

“Meow! Ben meow has never seen an inner disciple so poor!” The catwoman bared her canine teeth at him, a clear display of her dissatisfaction.

Bubai took the jab with a smile, “Uh, senior-”

“That’s Miss Meow for you!” The catwoman wrinkled her nose, placing her hands on her hips.

Bubai kept his smile, “Er, Miss Meow, it’s rude for a lady to search another man’s pocket-”

“Meow! Ben Meow nya a lady! Ben Meow a cat!”

Bubai's lips twitched slightly in response. Okay, whatever you say.

Nodding in agreement, Bubai’s eyes trailed after his storage pouch being tossed back and forth through the air, afraid it might be thrown over the edge. “Um, Miss Meow, may I have my storage bag back?”

Miss Meow skillfully caught the bag in her hand, extending it in his direction, “Meow, okay…”

Huh? So easy to talk to? Bubai took a couple steps forward vigilantly.

Seeing no problem, he ventured forward, Miss Meow watching him with interest the entire way, her cat tail raising straight up.

Just when Bubai was about to grasp the pouch from her extended hand, her hand retracted with high speed, hiding the pouch behind her back as she stared at his face, licking her lips, “But only after you feed Ben Meow.”

Well, of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. But, feed her? He had no cat food.

“Miss Meow, I don’t-”

Suddenly, his danger senses tingled again, and before he could instinctively evade, a force tackled him to the ground!

Thud! Ow.

Though the slight pain didn't bother Bubai much, he narrowed his eyes, staring at the catwoman now sitting on top of him. Instinctively, Bubai reached out his hand, intending to push her away.

However, his hands passed through the woman sitting on him! It was just a phantom!

Not only that, he felt a bit breezy down there…

When did she- Looking further down towards his legs, Bubai found the catwoman already laying on top of him, effectively trapping his legs in place. So fast!

Kun. Kun. He sensed the cat sniffing and prodding her soon-to-be meal playfully. “Ben Meow didn’t find any good fish for a long long time. Hopefully little fish won’t disappoint.”

Little fish? Oh no, he’s a big fish now.

...

After Miss Meow was satisfied with her fishy meal, she licked her curled hands, her cat eyes narrowing in pleasure, “So delicious meow.”

Then, before Bubai could react further, a piece of paper was slapped right onto his face, completely obscuring his vision.

“Meow, you can take that to claim the reward from Ben Meow’s owner.”

When he pulled the paper off his face, the catwoman had already vanished.

Examining the paper clutched in his hand, he saw a human-palm-sized cat’s paw imprinted on it like a stamp. However, he was still able to make out the content below the paw print. It was the lost cat task commissioned by Elder Mo…

Bubai’s lips twitched. Elder Mo isn’t even in the sect. Even if he is, does he even dare to go claim the reward?

What? Go tell the old guy: “Hey, this is your grandson’s replacement. I just fed your cat with delicious sausage. Please pay me.”

Well, that is certainly going to go well. Unless that old man had some strange fetish, he’ll be lucky if he doesn’t get slapped to death.

Getting up, Bubai went over and picked up his storage pouch, dusting it off as he checked inside. “Phew, nothing was stolen.”

Well, he made sure to not bring much anyways. It was just his mask, robe, and... lots of sand.

Scanning the flat sandstone floor, devoid of any entry point, Bubai's eyes finally locked onto his pants, which had been flung off to the side.

After putting on his pants and hanging the pouch back on his waist, Bubai stuffed the lost cat task sheet back into his pant’s pocket. Then, he walked over to the see-saw wall, peering out from the opening.

Bubai’s eyes widened slightly when he saw how far he was from ground level.

He was probably on one of the sandstone watchtowers of the outer sect! This was one of the shorter towers of the sect, but it was still multi-story high!

Bubai took in the late noon scene of sandstone houses lining the roads, each eventually leading to the inner sect's grand sandstone archway, “The view is nice… but how am I going to get down?”

With a light tap of his foot, he leapt up on top of the ledge, effortlessly balancing himself. He then hopped over the gaps, scouting the perimeter of the tower.

After completing a full round trip, he observed that there were no stairs or ladders of any sort. The wall also didn't have bricks conveniently jutting out like buildings within a certain assassin-themed game.

Clearly, this scenic spot couldn’t be reached on foot alone.

This was no problem for Foundation Establishment cultivators and above, but for Qi-refiners, if they happened to climb up somehow, then the only way down seemed to be...

Standing on the wall, Bubai stared down at the large pile of hay at the bottom of the tower.

“…”

No way... is he going to make that leap of fate?