Yue'an turned his fluffy little bottom towards the Marshal in protest.

Ji Xiuyun resisted the urge to give that ball of fluff a squeeze.

"It's for your own good," the Marshal appealed to emotion.

"If you can't read, you won't even be able to buy things," he reasoned.

However, Yue'an turned his head and meowed defiantly, not appreciating the sentiment.

"You can buy things for me!" the cat seemed to say. "Why all this unnecessary talk?"

Ji Xiuyun thought for a moment, then added, "If you can't read, you won't be able to understand those food recommendations either."

"And buying energy crystals on the black market too."

Yue'an's resolve shamefully wavered.

Ji Xiuyun couldn't always be available to accompany him, after all, he was the Marshal of a nation. His status demanded corresponding responsibilities.

Yue'an understood this point quite well—even his first owner, that little girl, had to carry her backpack to school on weekdays. How much busier must a national Marshal be?

Yue'an wasn't the type of cat who would die of loneliness when his owner wasn't around. He had a very clear understanding that Ji Xiuyun would be busy with work in the future.

So, asking someone to translate food recommendations or help buy energy stones on the black market was fine once or twice, but it clearly wasn't practical to rely on others every time.

Ji Xiuyun watched the tip of Yue'an's tail swaying slightly and continued, "If you can't read, you won't even understand how to earn money."

"Meow!"

Yue'an stood up, shaking his fur.

Fine, I'll learn!

It's just reading, isn't it?

Back then, he had managed to learn under the fierce gaze of a group of human cubs!

It's just relearning once more!

Yue'an puffed out his little chest and placed a paw on the childishly illustrated book clearly meant for preschool education.

Then the book emitted a sound: "Sun."

Yue'an jumped in fright, darting to the corner of the sofa, eyeing the book warily.

The Marshal turned to look at him, then gently tapped a word on the page.

The book spoke again: "Galaxy."

Yue'an looked up at the expressionless Marshal demonstrating, tapping one word after another.

"Earth."

"Venus."

"Jupiter."

"Saturn."

Yue'an: "..."

Alright, alright, I get it!

Ji Xiuyun watched as the startled little cat, who had shrunk into a ball, bravely ran back and started tapping the talking book in imitation.

After setting the parameters on the protective cover that came with the talking book, he turned back, satisfied, to continue pondering the cat tree problem.

The light pen was a very useful tool for interior and environmental design.

It could draw directly in the air, and you could see what you'd drawn by wearing special glasses.

The strokes drawn by the light pen had excellent photosensitivity. After choosing the built-in material effect and coloring, you could immediately see the finished effect through the matching glasses.

Generally, after having a rough design concept on paper, one could take the light pen to do on-site design comparisons.

But no matter how useful the light pen was, it couldn't compensate for the Marshal's lack of design skills.

Ji Xiuyun wore the glasses, slowly wandering around the not-so-large living room for two laps. Referring to those cat tree product illustrations, he crookedly covered most of the living room.

After finishing, he looked around. The Marshal, who always had a mysterious self-confidence in himself, turned to look at Yue'an, who had already completed six sets of questions on the protective cover and torn open more than thirty bags of snacks.

Then Ji Xiuyun gently placed one lens of the glasses in front of Yue'an's eyes.

Yue'an, who was biting a cookie while tapping the words on the seventh page, was stunned: "Meow?"

The Marshal bent down to pick him up: "Come and take a look."

Yue'an curiously poked out his head.

The Marshal asked flatly, "How is it?"

Yue'an looked at the jumble of crooked lines and was at a loss for words.

Ji Xiuyun turned to look at him.

Yue'an maintained silence: "..."

Ji Xiuyun looked at the white ball in his arms expressionlessly for a while, before speaking again, the topic jumping a thousand miles away: "What do you want to eat tonight?"

"Meow." Yue'an turned his head towards his little snacks.

"You haven't tried the staple food of Xintes Star yet," the Marshal reminded.

Yue'an turned his head back, nuzzling Ji Xiuyun's chest.

"Meow!"

Take me to eat!

"Mm."

Ji Xiuyun nodded slightly, then put the lens in front of Yue'an again, turning his little head towards the cat tree he had drawn.

He asked again: "So, what do you think?"

Yue'an: "..."

The Marshal spoke calmly: "The staple food of Xintes Star tastes very good."

Damn it!

How can you be like this!

Are you not allowing a cat to think your drawing is ugly?!

Although his heart was filled with intense fluctuations, Yue'an still nuzzled Ji Xiuyun's chin, expressing agreement very much against his will.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Mm, I think it's very good too."

The Marshal was finally satisfied.

He rubbed Yue'an's head, his expression and tone unchanging as he mused, "So silly."

Yue'an: ????

Let me tell you.

People like you, back on old Earth, would have long been bagged by cats and clawed to death.

Ji Xiuyun didn't realize at all that he had once again been marked for revenge by this adorable little cat.

This Marshal, full of mischief inside, always liked to tease others a bit in some harmless matters, and then watch with a straight face as the other person became uneasy due to his serious expression.

The seven legion commanders directly under him had been the hardest hit areas suffering from his antics over the years.

Now, the Marshal found his life-saving cat particularly interesting—more interesting than those seven commanders who had become old hands, maintaining poker faces identical to his no matter how he teased them.

Ji Xiuyun sat back on the sofa with Yue'an in his arms, casually ordering a bunch of things Yue'an didn't quite understand.

Then, taking advantage of this free time, he stroked the cat while sorting through his communication device, which had a mountain of unread messages.

"Thanks to you..." the Marshal said.

In the past, it would have been considered a miracle if there were more than ten unread messages in his communication device.

Now, because of Yue'an, all those who had his contact number had popped up one after another.

The vast majority were asking about Yue'an.

The Marshal didn't even open those messages whose titles clearly indicated idle chatter, directly swiping them away for deletion.

Among the inquiries, there was one title that stood out.

The sender was the Information Security Department.

The message came with an attachment titled "Final Draft of Publicly Released Cat Information for Review".

The gist was that they hoped the Marshal would review it, and if there was anything that needed modification, please take the time to reply.

The Marshal paused, not immediately clearing it away mercilessly like the other messages, but opened it.

Then he swiftly struck out a large amount of information about the hunting methods and diet of animals in the Felinae subfamily and Felis genus.

He only left information about those ferocious large carnivorous felines.

The data mentioning that animals in the Felinae subfamily and Felis genus had very weak combat abilities was also struck out, leaving only the outlines related to their closeness to humans and their status as one of the most popular pets of ancient Earth humans.

All in all, the remaining information, when viewed as a whole, would only make people think that cats were small, agile animals with cute and soft appearances, very close to humans, yet with earth-shattering combat abilities.

There was a certain risk, but the one bringing this risk was Ji Xiuyun, hailed as the God of War.

People wouldn't consider such a risk as a risk at all.

Ji Xiuyun considered Yue'an's special nature while deleting information.

He wanted to give ordinary people some psychological preparation, lest Yue'an unleash some terrifying power and cause panic among the masses.

Then the Marshal replied to the Information Security Department's inbox with the heavily redacted information.

As for how the receiving end felt about the reply, that was beyond the Marshal's consideration.

The Marshal was very busy.

He had to consider Yue'an's education, how to make a cat tree, where to take Yue'an for dinner, the upcoming military meeting, and how to explain to the Empire what happened during his disappearance and why he returned unscathed...

The Marshal pondered these things while continuing to clear his inbox.

Then he saw a very familiar sender that made him feel nauseous just by looking at it.

Ji Xiuyun expressionlessly opened the message from the Science and Research Department, read the strongly-worded demand for him to hand over the heritage of ancient Earth to the state, let out a rare snort, replied with a firm "No," and then decisively deleted the message.

The Marshal had a deep-seated grudge against the Empire's Science and Research Department.

It traced back to fifty years ago, when the young Marshal, then only forty years old and holding the rank of colonel, was officially incorporated into the Empire's expeditionary force and underwent a physical examination.

At that time, the young Marshal had just arrived on the Imperial Star with his parents from a rural planet where military registration wasn't very strict. He hadn't had a detailed gene level test before—after all, the backward equipment on the rural planet would only show "qualified" or "unqualified."

In the grand universe era, the gene levels of most humans remained between C and E. B and above basically meant one could be stamped as suitable for a military career.

Level A was considered excellent, and S was top-tier.

The Empire's Shield, Marshal Kevin, was an S-level top-tier genetic body.

For humans, gene levels were largely determined by innate factors.

Although it was indeed possible to improve gene levels through breaking physical limits and certain drugs, let alone the scarcity of such drugs, just breaking physical limits was almost equivalent to dying once.

Throughout history, only the founding emperor of the Xintes Empire had been able to improve his gene level through his own power.

As for innate SS-level genetic bodies, looking across the universe, whether other countries were hiding them or not, the Xintes Empire didn't know. But as one of the most powerful countries in the current universe, they only had Ji Xiuyun as an SS-level.

The people at the Empire's Science and Research Department were in a frenzy at the time, completely disregarding the face of the military department, and directly took Ji Xiuyun back to the research institute.

The Science Department people might present a noble facade of dedication to scientific pursuit in public, but what inhumane experiments they conducted in private, others might not know, but how could Ji Xiuyun not know, having witnessed and even experienced some of it firsthand?

Daring to set their sights on Yue'an, they should consider whether they have that capability.

Unlike him, who was human despite his high gene level, Yue'an wasn't human, nor was he an ordinary cat. This was a character who could munch on energy crystals without blinking.

If Yue'an became unhappy and a thunderbolt directly obliterated the entire Science Department, Ji Xiuyun wouldn't consider it a big deal, he might even find it satisfying.

None of the higher-ups in the Empire's Science Department were decent. Their conflict with the military and the military's science division wasn't new either.

The Marshal had long since fallen out with these people, only giving them face in front of the media.

The whole Empire knew that the War God Silver Blade looked unfavorably upon the Empire's Science Department. If there was any problem the military science division couldn't solve, he would rather go to a reputable private science academy than to the Empire's Science Department.

Refusing to hand Yue'an over to them was just tearing this facade a bit more.

The Marshal looked at the deletion completion prompt and leisurely added this new account to the blacklist.

Opening the blacklist, there was a neat row of accounts all named "Empire Science Department," very satisfying for those with OCD.

Yue'an crouched on the Marshal's leg, diligently tapping the children's primer in front of him, completely unattracted by Ji Xiuyun's actions.

Then the Marshal watched as his cat, in just twenty minutes, chomped through two pages of words, completed the related questions in the protective cover system's question bank, and very smoothly obtained ten packs of snacks.

Our Yue'an's intelligence is quite remarkable.

He turned his head towards Ji Xiuyun, ten packs of snacks lined up, his two sky-blue cat eyes clear and cloudless.

"Meow!"

Yue'an was so proud!

Proud to the point his tail tip was swaying!

The Marshal thought for a moment, but still rubbed Yue'an's head and praised him: "Impressive."

Although the Marshal's tone was flat and perfunctory even when praising, Yue'an, long accustomed to his way of speaking, happily accepted the compliment.

The white ball of fur brought the unopened snacks to Ji Xiuyun's hand, rolled over to show his belly, and swayed his tail waiting to be fed.

The Marshal opened the packaging, clicked on the previous social page, and paused as he looked at the various copyright requests sent to his account by the platform in the backend.

It seemed he also needed to consider getting a light brain for Yue'an and opening an account.

But light brains and accounts needed to be bound to identity credentials, and given Yue'an's current publicly announced identity, getting an independent identity credential was clearly inappropriate.

Moreover, Yue'an hadn't fully learned to read yet, so the idea of opening an independent identity account wasn't realistic.

So it still had to be under his name.

He'd need to go to the household registration department to apply for a light brain and account subsidiary to his, specifically for Yue'an's use.

The Marshal was thinking about this when he very naturally put the thing in his hand into his own mouth.

"Meow!!!"

Ji Xiuyun snapped out of his thoughts and looked down to see Yue'an's deeply accusatory gaze.

"..." Oops.

The Marshal maintained his expressionless face, pretending as if nothing had happened, quickly opened another pack of snacks, and swiftly stuffed Yue'an's mouth.

And he activated his level 99 topic-changing skill.

"Yue'an." The Marshal dragged the light screen in front of him to Yue'an, pointing at the terms on it, "Copyright application."

Yue'an, munching on snacks: "Meow?"

"They'll share money with you, see if you want to agree." The Marshal pointed to one of the messages, "This is a copyright application for your merchandise image."

Then he moved to the next one: "Commercial copyright application for your photos and likeness."

"This is about your..."

The Marshal counted down one by one, stopping at the last one, "Commercial copyright application for your derivative works."

"Meow?" Yue'an curiously poked the last one.

"It's using your image..." Ji Xiuyun took the opportunity to click into the example page for him.

His words came to an abrupt halt.

Man and cat looked at the small suggestive image on the example page of a uniformed marshal with a cat-eared, cat-tailed pretty boy, falling into a dead silence.

Ji Xiuyun: ...

I shouldn't have changed the topic.

I should have chosen to watch Yue'an wail and pound my chest with his pink paw pads.

Tch, miscalculation.

Yue'an: ...

What's wrong with you humans??

Want to see my Nine Yin Meow Meow Claw in action?

I'll teach you what it means to be honest, friendly, cat-loving, and dedicated!

Neither man nor cat spoke.

The scene was extremely awkward.

After a long while, the Marshal was the first to raise his hand, rubbing the head of the kitten in his arms, and casually clicked to report the image.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he very calmly pressed the reject button for Yue'an.