Everything happened so quickly that Mu You didn't even have time to pull out his pocket watch before he felt his head enveloped by a vast ferocious mouth.
In that moment, Mu You felt a sense of despair. However, he didn't feel the expected pain of his skull being pierced. Instead, the terrifying monster seemed to pass through his body as if through a mold.
"Huh?"
It took Mu You a moment to react, but then he noticed a flicker of light coming toward him.
He barely had time to lift his hand when something soft and furry crashed into his chest.
Having backed away earlier, he was already half over the handrail. This additional force completely offsets his balance and he tumbled down from the railing.
"This is the third floor..."
Feeling his body plummeting at a rapid speed, Mu You quickly reached into his pocket and pressed his pocket watch.
In the next moment, time bent back to five seconds before.
Mu You found himself back at the entrance of the third-floor staircase, half-crouched and checking the breathing of the unconscious young man on the ground.
Coming to his senses, Mu You immediately rolled and hid himself in the shadows beside the staircase.
Leaning against the wall, Mu You took a deep breath. He knew that the creature was waiting around the nearby corner to ambush him.
The creature was cunning and seemed to recognize that Mu You was the strongest among the humans. So, it deliberately lured him upstairs using the young man's scream, and then planned to ambush him.
However, the creature's final method of attack was to knock him downstairs. It intended to kill him by a fall...
Which meant the creature's actual offensive capabilities were not strong. At least, it couldn't deal Mu You with a fatal blow in a short time and could only resort to this crude strategy.
The terrifying monster from just now... it clearly didn't have a physical body. It must have been some form of illusion, purely to provide cover for the creature's real body.
With all this in mind, Mu You decided to act stealthily rather than confront the creature. He silently slipped downstairs and took the corridor on the second floor around to the staircase on the other side of the building.
Ascending to the third floor from this side, Mu You crouched at the corner of the staircase, took out his Magic Wand, and quietly cast a trap spell on the ground.
Mu You then sneaked to the fourth floor, and through the corridor there, returned to the staircase on the other side.
Looking down from above, the building was "L" shaped and the edge of this side extended out a little.
He crouched below the handrail on the fourth floor at the bend, and discreetly peeked down.
From his position, he could see the entirety of the third-floor staircase entrance below.
It was dark down there, almost pitch black. But Mu You, with his enhanced vision, could faintly make out an animal's figure amidst the darkness.
It was a cat!
Quietly lurking in the shadows of the corner, its tail hanging down, body slightly arched, back legs crossed, one front paw raised, it was in the stance of a predator lying in wait for its prey.
Unfortunately, the prey it was waiting for never came, and it lost patience. Its tail started to twitch erratically, a clear sign of restlessness.
Mu You softly drew out his Mithril Bow, pulled back the bowstring, attached an anaesthetic needle to the formed arrowhead, and then aimed down at the cat.
Whoosh!
At the moment the arrow was released, the cat seemed to sense something. It glanced up and reflexively jumped back, narrowly dodging the incoming arrow.
"Too bad!"
There was no time for Mu You to sigh. Seeing his aim missed, he immediately stood up, stepped on the handrail beam, and leaped down to the third-floor corridor.
"Roar!"
Upon spotting Mu You, the cat swiftly transformed back into the ferocious beast from before, roaring and lunging at him, leaping over the railing again as if it wanted to knock him out of mid-air.
But this time, Mu You wasn't going to fall for it. He held his pose as the beast charged at him without flinching.
As expected, the beast passed straight through him, causing no hindrance whatsoever.
Mu You successfully stepped onto the railing of the third floor, made a nimble jump into the corridor, and landed smoothly.
"Meow!"
Almost like it had been waiting for this chance, the cat launched an attack from the shadows the moment Mu You touched ground. It waved its paws around and aimed a bite toward his neck.
Mu You swiftly performed a rollover dodging its lunge. The cat's claws caught on his stab-resistant suit, causing no harm. At the same time, his hand quickly darted out to seize the back of the cat's neck, hoping to subdue it on the spot.
But to his surprise, the cat was incredibly agile. It let out a shriek and rolled over in mid-air, wriggling free from Mu You's grasp. Once landed, it didn't dare engage in combat with Mu You anymore. Instead, it dove into the shadows of the corridor and bolted away.
Mu You chased after it relentlessly, occasionally sending an arrow from his Mithril Bow, which the cat effortlessly avoided with its elusive S-shaped maneuvers.
Of course, this was a result of Mu You deliberately holding back. His intention wasn't to hurt the cat, but to keep it under continuous stress, diverting its attention from the trap ahead.
The chase quickly led them throughout the entire third floor corridor.
Just as the cat rounded the corner of the stairs and prepared to make its escape downstairs,
"Snap!"
The sound of the trap closing echoed, followed by a series of frantic scratching and howling.
Mu You moved over to find a wooden carved cage shaking crazily on the floor. But no matter how fiercely the caged cat struggled, it couldn't break free.
Upon closer inspection, Mu You recognized the caged cat as an American Shorthair, an alluringly slim and long one!
The evenly distributed tiger stripes, the brass-colored eyes, the M-shaped pattern on its forehead. The pedigree was quite pure, which, from its growling expression, made it look like a furious little tiger.
"Meow...Roar...Hiss..."
Clearly, the American Shorthair was agitated. While frantically pawing at the cage, it also puffed up its fur and exhaled deeply, warning Mu You to keep his distance.
"Wait, don't be scared. I'm not here to harm you. I am the Watchman you were talking to the other day. I'm here to rescue you..."
Mu You shielded his eyes with his hand, looked away and began to speak in the previously prepared clumsy Star Spirit Language.
Throughout the fight just now, he had vaguely discovered that the cat's illusion abilities only seemed to take effect when someone was directly staring at it. In other words, as long as Mu You didn't look directly at the cat, its illusion abilities wouldn't kick in.
"Meow?"
The American Shorthair paused for a moment, stopped struggling, and let out two meow sounds.
But this time, when the meowing sounds reached Mu You's ears, they weren't just cat noises, but something he could understand.
"Meow? Watchman? Nonsense, you're clearly the Fool! You notorious outsider...Yet you speak Star Spirit Language? Who are you?"
"Huh?"
Mu You was even more surprised than the American Shorthair: "You can speak Chinese?"
"What are you talking about? I know nothing about any Chinese language. This communication is telepathic, meow. All domestic familiars get telepathic communication training before being sold. Once they master it, they can directly communicate with other beings telepathically." The American Shorthair meowed again.