My Will Rules Another World

Chapter 6: Standoff With the Cat

Ling Feng sat cross‑legged inside the cave, his mind racing for an escape plan. The roaring waterfall blocked the entrance, and the fire‑attributed kitten kept guard outside, refusing to leave.

He had broken through to the third layer of the Proud Dragon Art, and his depleted battle qi was slowly replenishing. Even so, Ling Feng knew very well he was still no match for that monster kitten. The beast’s terrifying fire‑element power was far beyond what he could withstand head‑on.

Peering out through the curtain of falling water, Ling Feng could clearly see the white kitten lying on the open ground. Its golden eyes never strayed from the cave opening for even a second. It would occasionally tilt its head, flicking its fluffy tail, yet its vigilance never faded.

“It really plans to wait me out,” Ling Feng sighed silently.

He could not stay trapped in this cave forever. Food and water inside were non‑existent. If he remained holed up here, starvation would finish him off sooner or later. The only way out was to pass through the waterfall, which meant walking straight into the kitten’s line of sight.

Ling Feng tested stretching out a hand toward the waterfall spray. The moment his palm neared the outside air, the kitten instantly raised its head, its body tensing, ready to pounce at any second. Ling Feng quickly pulled his hand back. Just that tiny movement had triggered the beast’s alert.

“This thing’s perception is absurdly sharp.”

Ling Feng leaned back against the cold stone wall of the cave and sorted through everything he knew. The kitten feared water, yet it could launch fireballs across the waterfall. Its flame attacks could not reach deep inside the cave, but the instant he stepped out from behind the water curtain, he would become an easy target.

He thought of his strange soul‑powered ability to absorb fire elemental energy. Still, he dared not rely on it blindly. That previous fireball had nearly overloaded his body. If the kitten unleashed a full‑strength blast, absorption might backfire and burn him from within.

Outside, the sun drifted westward. Daylight gradually faded into dusk. The white kitten grew restless. It meowed sharply several times toward the cave, as if shouting for Ling Feng to come out. Receiving no response, it paced back and forth across the ground.

Ling Feng remained completely still, holding his brea...

Three days had passed without a single bite of food for Ling Feng. He survived only on drinking water. He longed to hunt for something to eat, yet the situation gave him no chance. The kitten still kept watch by the waterfall. Ling Feng had considered slipping out to grab food while it was distracted, but any escape required passing through the waterfall curtain. The falling water would slow his movement. With the kitten’s terrifying speed, he would be caught long before he could reach the shelter of the forest clearing. Though the third‑layer Proud Dragon Art boosted his agility, the improvement was far from enough.

Ling Feng could only pray that the kitten would get hungry and go hunt prey, opening a window for him to flee. If this stalemate dragged on, his physical strength would keep fading.

Ling Feng kept his eyes fixed on the kitten, which lay motionless on the ground. Had it fallen asleep? This creature seemed to doze off easily under warm sunlight.

Ling Feng shifted with extreme caution. He dived beneath the water, swam past the waterfall, and followed the river downstream, staying submerged. The roar of the waterfall masked his movements as he let the current carry him away.

Believing he had gotten away safely, Ling Feng held his breath and stayed underwater. The moment he surfaced for air, a fireball came screaming straight for him. He ducked back under water at once, yet part of his hair got singed off. He had reacted just in time, or his face would have been badly scarred.

Helpless, Ling Feng swam back to the cave. Still, this attempt was not entirely fruitless. While underwater, he had spotted fish in the river and grabbed one on his way back. At least his food problem was solved. Now it was a battle of patience against the kitten.

Days slipped by amid their deadlock. Trapped inside the cave, Ling Feng had almost nothing to do but cultivate. He had confirmed a critical fact: this kitten did not need to eat ordinary flesh. It could survive purely by absorbing fire elemental energy floating in the air. No wonder it loved sunlight so much — it fed on fire essence radiated by the sun. No wonder Ling Feng had disturbed its “meal” that fateful morning.

Three full months had gone by since Ling Feng took shelter in the cave. A few days ago, his Proud Dragon Art had broken through once more. After careful calculation, he estimated he now held a fifty‑percent chance of escaping. He resolved to make his attempt today.

The kitten on guard by the waterfall suddenly spotted an object flying out from behind the falling water and darted after it. The instant it gave chase, a second figure burst from the waterfall and sprinted in the opposite direction — this was Ling Feng. The first flying object had merely worthless junk from his spatial pouch, used as a decoy.

The kitten quickly realized it had been tricked and spun around to pursue Ling Feng. Ling Feng’s speed was vastly improved compared to before. The kitten had grown crafty, and unleashed a fireball when it closed to five meters. Ling Feng was forced to dodge, breaking his momentum. Seizing this brief opening, the kitten rapidly closed the gap.

Ling Feng drew his greatsword and swung at the kitten. The beast dodged effortlessly and swiped at him with its sharp claws. Ling Feng could not match its raw speed, but he calculated its attack trajectories and force points, narrowly evading each strike.

Lingfeng swung the heavy greatsword again, yet he could not even graze a single hair on the kitten. Though he avoided most blows, one claw still nicked him. The fight dragged on. The kitten’s overwhelming speed rendered his sword strikes useless, while it kept landing small wounds on his body.

Ling Feng realized this bulky greatsword was useless in this fight. He stowed it back into his spatial pouch. Freed from the heavy weapon, his body moved with far greater fluidity. The kitten’s strikes began to miss more often. They wore each other down. Ling Feng deliberately guided the fight toward the waterfall. Once they drew near, he leaped backward into the cave that had been his prison for three months.

Ling Feng sat down to rest. The recent battle had sapped nearly all his strength. He had pushed his speed to the absolute limit just to evade every attack. He wondered where this tiny kitten got such boundless stamina. He pulled the leftover raw fish slices out of his spatial pouch and chewed them slowly. These were no delicately‑prepared sashimi, only plain raw fish fillets he had cut after removing the bones.

Eating this day in and day out had grown unbearably dull. It was all Long Tian’s fault for venturing into the wilderness without any fire‑making tools. If only he possessed Princess Xuerou’s fire magic… Wait. There was a beginner magic manual inside his ring. With his gifted mind, learning magic should not be too hard.

Ling Feng took out the only ordinary book stored in his ring — Introduction to Magic. After reading through it, he found the book only explained the essence of magic and how to sense magical elements. It contained no instructions for casting actual spells.

He gave up on learning formal magic and began cultivating. While circulating his energy, he noticed he had absorbed plenty of fire elements during the fight. From what he had read, magical elements were energy particles floating in the air. Absorbing and understanding these particles allowed one to wield their power.

Why did magicians chant incantations? Presumably to hypnotize their own spirit and boost their control. Magician’s meditation must serve to sharpen mental power. Simply put, magic meant using the spirit to manipulate ambient energy. Greater mental power granted access to more energy, while finer mental control let one unleash a larger safe proportion of that power.

Wielding this power required spiritual synchronization. The spirit had to resonate at the same frequency as magical elements. Sensing elements was establishing that resonance, and gaining an element’s favor meant resonance succeeded. Ordinary people possessed at least one compatible resonant frequency.

Ling Feng’s spirit was unlike ordinary humans’. He quickly found the resonant frequency matching fire elements. In theory, he could wield fire power, yet he had no practical idea how.

Ling Feng resolved to channel fire elements the same way he circulated battle qi. Battle qi was fundamentally energy too; it reshaped the human body and could be projected outward once cultivated high enough. He slowly guided his internal fire elements outward just like battle qi and gathered them in his palm. It worked. Flames ignited above his hand.

He laid a piece of fish over his palm, and it instantly burned to charcoal. He had yet to master heat control, so he tried again. Soon he could skillfully adjust the flame’s size and temperature. At last, he got to eat properly cooked fish.

After the meal, Ling Feng meditated to recover, preparing for another round of combat against the kitten the next day. He needed to polish his martial arts. Besides, his internal fire elements were completely exhausted. Deep behind the waterfall, fire elements were scarce. If he wanted cooked food, he had to replenish fire energy, and the most convenient source was absorbing fireballs from the kitten outside.

Outside, the kitten brooded over what had happened that day. It had waited three whole months by this waterfall. When something flew out from behind the falling water, it had burned with excitement. It dared not leave, for it could sense the human was constantly hunting for a chance to escape.

When it pounced on the flying object, it realized it was not the human. Right then another figure burst out of the waterfall, and it knew it had been tricked again. It spun around to chase Ling Feng and unleashed a fireball within effective range.

It had closed in on its prey, yet this human proved maddeningly tough. Though every sword strike was easy to dodge, none of its own attacks landed fatal wounds. Eventually it could barely hit him at all. The human was slower than it, yet he seemed to foresee every strike, dodging with pinpoint accuracy the moment it attacked.

This was a high‑grade magical beast with considerable intelligence. The fact that it was rethinking its combat tactics spoke volumes for its sharp mind.

Day after day, Ling Feng fought the kitten. Ling Feng refined his martial arts and movement skills, and the kitten also kept growing stronger. With time, both almost forgot why they fought; their daily clashes became rigorous training to hone their techniques.

Ling Feng’s mastery over fire grew more and more proficient. Eventually, he used his controlled flame to melt down his greatsword together with scraps of metal from his spatial pouch. Drawing on the super‑alloy formula he had known back in America, he forged a Tang dao. The blade featured a sword‑style sharp tip at the front, Ling Feng’s favorite design for this weapon.

Though limited by insufficient raw materials, this Tang dao could not reach the supreme performance of genuine super‑alloy, yet its quality was still remarkably formidable. Ling Feng named the blade Blowing Snow, after his favorite fictional character, Ximen Chuixue.

Now the kitten was the one forced to flee before Blowing Snow. Once it had hunted Ling Feng relentlessly, but now it was worn out and on the run under his swordplay. Still, the kitten could not bring itself to leave Ling Feng. First, driven by their constant fights, it had evolved from a Level‑7 magical beast to Level‑8. Its sharp instinct told it that staying near Ling Feng might grant it another evolution. Second, and far more important: Ling Feng cooked delicious roasted fish. After tasting it once, the kitten demanded two fish three times every single day. This odd habit made Ling Feng half‑convinced he was dealing with an ordinary house cat.

Ling Feng understood this world operated by the law of the jungle. He saw no rush to leave. Instead, he stayed within the Demon Beast Forest, continuing to sharpen his skills alongside the kitten. He would not depart until he judged himself truly ready.

For a long time afterward, two figures — one human, one kitten — clashed every day on the open ground beside the waterfall.