Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

The morning light was like crumpled gold foil, slanting in through the cracks in the wooden house, weaving mottled light and shadows on the ground.

"Hmm~ meow~"

Xiaoqing's eyelashes trembled slightly, she slowly opened her sleepy eyes, stretched her limbs lazily, and let out a comfortable sigh.

"Hmm? Sister, are you awake so early?"

Just as she was about to turn over and sit up, her eyes inadvertently swept across the corner, and she found that her sister Mo Zi had already woken up and was leaning against the wooden window, staring out the window motionlessly.

Mo Zi was wearing a thin coat, her long hair casually hanging on her shoulders, and her profile was cast with a hazy halo in the morning light.

"..."

Her eyes were deep and empty, as if they were looking through the snow-capped mountains and towards some distant and unreachable place.

The breeze blew by, and the corners of her clothes fluttered gently, but it did not break her concentration at all.

"Sister, sister."

Xiaoqing called softly, her voice still soft and sweet as if she had just woken up.

She reached out and pulled at the corner of Mo Zi's clothes, but Mo Zi seemed to be lost in his own world, turning a deaf ear to her call, still maintaining the same posture, with a hint of sadness between his brows.

"Meow~"

The other kittens in the house were also startled by Xiaoqing's voice. Wusong rubbed his eyes and sat up, Dafei yawned and stretched, and Haipiao gently tidied up his scattered hair.

"Mm, this is such a comfortable sleep! I can enter the Da Zong today! Delicious food is waiting for me!"

Bai Tang was the most excited. He jumped up from the animal-skin rug, his eyes shining. He shouted loudly and jumped around the house to stretch his muscles. His tail waggled happily, just like a little animal that couldn't wait to go out and play.

"?"

Mo Zi's thoughts were finally interrupted by Bai Tang's noisy voice. She slowly turned her head and glanced at her companions who were gradually becoming more and more lively in the room. A faint smile appeared on the corner of her lips:

"Everyone, wake up! Wash up and get ready to go back to the fighting sect."

Her voice was calm, but there seemed to be a hint of absent-mindedness in her words.

After saying that, she turned around gently, her steps were a little slow, a trace of lingering sadness on her face, and then she walked out leisurely.

"Sister~"

Xiaoqing kept staring at her sister's back. Mo Zi's abnormal behavior made her feel worried.

She didn't have time to tidy up her messy hair or tie her loose belt. She lifted her sleeves slightly and followed quickly.

The cold wind blew fine snow into her face, but her eyes were always following the thin figure in front of her, and her steps became more and more urgent.

When Xiaoqing chased out on the snow, Mo Zi was standing by the frozen stream.

The morning light pierced through the clouds, stretching her shadow very long, overlapping with the distorted reflection under the ice to form a strange twin outline.

The sharp wind blew the snow particles across the ice, making a rustling sound in the silence.

"elder sister?"

Xiaoqing gently put her sleeves on Mo Zi's shoulders and approached with concern.

"You haven't been feeling well since last night... Are you feeling unwell?"

Her fingertips touched the thin dark purple clothes and she could feel the other person's body getting slightly cold.

"..."

Mo Zi still stared at the silver fish swimming slowly under the ice. After a long while, he spoke, his voice seeming to float from far away:

"Xiaoqing, do you believe...that there is something watching us outside of Cat Earth?"

She unconsciously rubbed the edge of the ice fan with her palm, and the collision between metal and ice made a crackling sound.

"It's like... there are eyes that clearly calculate our every move. Everything that should happen and shouldn't happen is all calculated by others."

"Uh~"

Xiaoqing was stunned and followed her sister's gaze. She saw that the trajectory of the silverfish's swinging was reflected in strange patterns on the ice, like some kind of ancient rune.

She subconsciously clenched her sleeves, causing the silk to wrinkle in her hands.

"But... even if such a being really exists, we won't let ourselves be manipulated. Hasn't the Xingluo Squad always been about breaking those 'establishments'? From Dongqiang Town to the Eye Sect, and then to the Body Sect, every time we've turned the tide, we've relied on our own strength."

"Do not!"

The dark purple eyelashes trembled slightly, and the reflection was distorted under the ice:

"But this time it's different."

When she turned around, the morning light illuminated the worries surging in her eyes.

"I can feel a force secretly prying the gears of fate. If the balance between chaos and rhythm is truly broken, what will become of Maotu..."

Her voice trembled and almost turned into a mutter at the end.

"Then let's rebalance it!"

Xiaoqing suddenly grabbed her sister's hand, and the ripples on her sleeves sparkled in the sunlight.

"Like you said, with companions by our side, nothing is impossible. Mingyue, Baitang, Wusong, Dafei, and Haipiao, we will face this together. Don't forget, we are the Xingluo Squad!"

The ice surface suddenly made a slight crisp sound. Mo Zi looked at the two cats' clasped hands, and his tense shoulders gradually relaxed.

"Yeah~"

Bai Tang's cheers came from afar, startling a group of snowfinches, whose feathers fluttered and fell on the frozen stream.

"Let's go."

Xiaoqing shook her hand,

"Maybe Bai Tang is already fantasizing about the delicious food in Dazong. Last time, he said he wanted to try all the grilled fish in Dazong."

"..."

A smile finally appeared on Mo Zi's lips, but when he turned around, his gaze unconsciously turned to the sky.

There, a few dark clouds were gathering quietly, as if foreshadowing the coming storm.

And in her sleeve, the ice fan was slightly hot, as if responding to some unknown call.

……

"Xiaobing~"

Mo Zi tapped the ice fan with his fingers, and fine rune ripples appeared on the black ice material.

With an ethereal humming sound, Xiaobing transformed into a stream of light and separated from the fan, leaving a translucent trail in the air.

Between the man and the instrument, the rhythmic force surged like a tide, and wisps of cold air began to condense in the air. The temperature within a radius of ten feet dropped sharply, and snowflakes actually hovered in the air, reflecting tiny rays of light.

"It's time to get out and move around."

Mo Zi whispered softly, drawing talismans in the air with his fingertips.

The suspended snowflakes suddenly began to spin and coalesce, and thousands of ice crystals seemed to be pulled by invisible threads, gradually outlining the outline of a phoenix.

The wings of the ice phoenix are layered, and each ice crystal glows with a faint blue luster. The frost marks dragged by the tail feathers weave ancient runes in the air, flashing with mysterious light.

"Wow! Sister Azi, it seems your rhythmic power has really recovered! You can even use it to transform into a human form!"

Bai Tang was so excited that he jumped three feet high, his tail wagging wildly, his eyes wide open.

"This Ice Phoenix is ​​so cool! It's a hundred times more majestic than Granny Silver's fat bird!"

"Don't talk nonsense!"

Da Fei pretended to be angry and slapped Bai Tang's head, but he couldn't help staring at Bing Feng in amazement.

"The transformation is so detailed that even the feather texture is lifelike. Sister Mo Zi, your strength has improved by leaps and bounds!"

"!"

Wu Song crossed his arms, his eyes filled with admiration:

"Not only that, look at the trajectory of the rhythmic energy flowing. There's not a single stagnation. Even the fluctuations in maintaining the transformation are minimal. It's indeed much stronger than before."

"These?"

Xiaoqing gazed thoughtfully at the constantly changing runes on the ice phoenix's tail feathers. She gently brushed her sleeves across one of them, and a thin layer of frost immediately formed.

"Sister, these runes... seem to contain some special power?"

"Ha~"

Mo Zi smiled lightly, raised her hand and stroked the crystal wings of the Ice Phoenix, and frost spread along her fingertips:

"I haven't fully recovered yet, but there's no problem taking you directly to Dazong now."

As she spoke, she condensed a rhythmic force from her fingertips, drawing the pattern of a teleportation array in the air. The light at the center of the array resonated with the ice crystal on Bingfeng's forehead.

"Hmm~"

The Ice Phoenix suddenly raised its head and let out a clear cry. Its wingspan was ten feet long, and the cold wind it stirred up rolled the snow on the ground into a huge snow tornado.

Those rolled-up snowflakes condensed again in mid-air and turned into countless ice butterflies dancing around the ice phoenix.

"Come up, everyone."

Mo Zi was the first to jump onto the back of the Ice Phoenix. With a light wave of the ice fan, a barrier of rhythmic energy with a faint blue light enveloped all the cats. The runes flowing on the surface of the barrier echoed with the patterns on the Ice Phoenix.

"Yoho~"

Bai Tang cheered and jumped up first. As soon as he sat down, he couldn't wait to urge:

"Let's go! I can smell the aroma of Da Zong's grilled fish! If we're late, others will eat it all!"

Haipiao was amused by his appearance and chuckled, then carefully sat down, holding onto the edge of the rhyme barrier.

"Oh, you meatball..."

Xiaoqing shook her head helplessly and followed, her sleeves hanging down naturally, contrasting with the flowing light of the ice phoenix's tail feathers.

"Well--"

Following another long cry, the Ice Phoenix soared into the sky.

The wooden house on the ground quickly shrank into a black dot, carrying the Xingluo class through the clouds.

The strong wind from high altitude hit the barrier of rhyme power, stirring up countless ice crystals, which shattered into glittering light dust in the sunlight.

Mo Zi looked at the vaguely visible Da Zong city wall in front of her, and the ice fan in her palm became slightly hot - she knew that the real challenge had just begun.

"You will definitely not be able to get through..."

Behind them, a pair of eyes in the void were watching all this, with a meaningful arc at the corner of their mouth.