Pressing down the surge in his chest, Ye Tianxie read on through Xiaobei’s attributes.
Attributes: HP 1,000, MP 0, Physical Attack 300, Magic Attack 0, Defense 100, Accuracy 100, Evasion 5, Attack Speed 150, Movement Speed 150, all magic resistances 0%.
Xiaobei’s attributes drew a soft hiss of breath out of Ye Tianxie. Level 0… and a thousand health, three hundred physical attack!
That morning he had just seen the attributes of an Immortal Spirit-grade pet, the Frost Snow Wolf. For the same grade at the same level 0, the Frost Snow Wolf had 500 health, 500 mana, 150 physical attack and 180 magic attack — and Xiaobei’s health and physical attack were double that!
Its mana and magic attack, on the other hand, were something no ordinary living creature would ever show — 0!
Enormous health, enormous physical attack, enormous accuracy. Plainly this was a physical-attack creature, and about as pure a one as it was possible to be. Its attributes taken together were roughly level with the Frost Snow Wolf’s, but the extremity of its physical numbers meant the strength it could actually put on the field far exceeded the wolf’s.
Skills:
Meow-Meow Fist: Swings its cat’s paws, instantly landing four consecutive berserk attacks on a single enemy. Each attack deals damage equal to a normal attack. Costs 3% of health to use. No cooldown.
Xiaobei’s very first skill dropped Ye Tianxie back into shock.
Because that was four hundred percent damage on no cooldown at all… a four-hit chain!
Among all the ordinary classes, the highest damage multipliers belong to fire and lightning magic, whose basic skills deal a base equal to 200% of magic attack. After them come the Warrior’s All-Out Strike and the Assassin’s Backstab, at 180% of a normal attack. Ye Tianxie’s Dragon Rend Slash deals 200% attack damage and adds a violent concussive force with a high chance of knocking the target back or knocking it down — and it is no exaggeration at all to say that its overall effect beats any class skill currently in the game.
But… look only at the name of Xiaobei’s first skill and it would certainly raise a laugh, and be taken for a novelty. Look at what the skill actually does and the jaw drops — 400% damage, no cooldown of any kind. In effect, it stamped Dragon Rend Slash flat underfoot.
On top of which… Xiaobei’s attack speed was an astonishing 150. Attack speed is normally decided by the weapon: the Sword Warrior class runs at 100, one attack per second; the Archer at 120, 1.2 attacks per second; the highest of all is the Assassin, at 150 — three attacks in two seconds. The slowest is the Spear Warrior, at 80, which manages only four attacks in five seconds.
And Xiaobei had not only a brutally high attack figure and a brutal attack skill, but an Assassin’s attack speed as well… Which meant that, with equal attack power, the damage Ye Tianxie could do with Dragon Rend Slash in two seconds came to no more than a third of what Xiaobei could do with Meow-Meow Fist.
And Xiaobei’s skills were very far from stopping at one.
Meow-Meow Kick: Springs high and swings its cat’s feet to deliver a violent stamping kick to a single target. Base attack damage equal to 200% of a normal attack. Interrupts the target’s spellcasting or skill charge-up with 100% certainty. If the target’s defense attribute is lower than Xiaobei’s attack attribute, the target is kicked away with 100% certainty, with a 20% chance of being concussed and stunned. Costs 3% of health to use. Cooldown 5 seconds.
Ye Tianxie: “I…”
Meow-Meow Claw: Springs high and gathers force into its razor cat’s claws, then rakes down at the target’s body from above. Base damage equal to 200% of a normal attack. If the target’s defense attribute is lower than Xiaobei’s attack attribute, a powerful wound-tearing state is applied with 100% certainty, draining damage equal to Xiaobei’s attack power every second for the following five seconds. Costs 5% of health to use. Cooldown 10 seconds.
Ye Tianxie: （⊙o⊙）！！
Double damage plus five seconds of tearing… seven times over! The attack strength of this ordinary skill of Xiaobei’s was no less than that of his own finisher, the Dragon Tornado Hurricane Sevenfold Rend!
Meow-Meow Step: Xiaobei’s self-devised Meow-Meow instant-movement step. On closing with a target, it borrows the airflow around the target’s body to shift the orientation of its own, allowing it to move instantly and freely to the target’s front, back, left or right, leaving the enemy unable to keep up and thoroughly disoriented. An extremely powerful skill for ambush, evasion and harassment. Costs 1% of health per use. No cooldown.
Having read Xiaobei’s four skills, Ye Tianxie was choked into silence… If he could just about hold his composure over the first three, brutal as they were, then this “Meow-Meow Step” set the fires of envy burning in him in earnest. If an instant-movement skill this astonishing in effect and this free of any restriction on use had belonged to him, what a wonderful thing that would have been. Combined with his own talents and attributes, he could have taken the effect of a movement skill like that to a pitch that would break an enemy outright — but envy was all it could ever be, because Meow-Meow Step belonged to Xiaobei alone.
Besides those four skills, Xiaobei had four finishing moves that left Ye Tianxie staring for a very long time — that is right, four finishers!
Finishing Move — Rend · Light of Havoc: Effect unknown. Ability insufficient. Cannot be used.
Rend · Claw of Nightmare: Effect unknown. Ability insufficient. Cannot be used.
Special Skill — Dream Immortal Transformation: Effect unknown. Ability insufficient. Cannot be used.
Holy Forbidden Skill — Heaven-Above-Earth-Below I-Alone-Am-Supreme Universe-Invincible Super Meow-Slaying Fist: Xiaobei’s self-devised ultimate attack skill. Effect unknown. Ability insufficient. Cannot be used.
Ye Tianxie… had absolutely nothing left to say.
It was as though heaven had played a joke on him. With no preparation whatsoever, a strange little cat strong enough to take his breath away had planted itself across his path and then thrown itself at him, asking to be his pet. Holding this odd little cat as it burrowed determinedly into his arms, Ye Tianxie felt the sense of unreality growing stronger and stronger… because it really was far too strong. If it had merely been an ordinary little monster — or even if a creature of Immortal Spirit grade like the Frost Snow Wolf had asked to become his pet — he would have found it a great deal easier to accept.
There were reasons for how formidable Yaoyao was: in its own age the mightiest Dragon God had spent his life to seal it. And Xiaobei? A strange name, a strange origin, and attack skills that grew more hair-raising one after another… If anyone dared tell him this was just an ordinary little Immortal Beast, Ye Tianxie would take him for an idiot — no; even an idiot ought to be able to see it was out of the ordinary.
Every one of Xiaobei’s attack skills was single-target; it had no area attack of any kind. Add to that its brutally high accuracy and attack speed, and a Meow-Meow Step nobody could predict that would leave anyone dizzy and turned around — and its capability in single combat could only be called horrifying. Who could have imagined that a strange little cat with an appearance this adorable had power like that lying hidden in its body?
“Guoguo, did you know Xiaobei before?” Ye Tianxie asked, still somewhat dazed… though he had no expectation of getting the answer he wanted out of her.
Unexpectedly, Guoguo did not shake her head like a rattle-drum this time. She blinked and said, “Of course I know it. It used to be my very good friend.”
“Used to be? When was that?”
“Yaa! Guoguo isn’t telling master. Big sister said that if master doesn’t gather all seven Fate Cores, Guoguo isn’t allowed to tell you. Oh la la… yee-yaa, Xiaobei probably can’t see Guoguo any more now, or hear Guoguo’s voice… wuu…”
Ye Tianxie: “……” After a short pause, he suddenly asked, “Guoguo, answer me seriously… this big sister you talk about — is she Li Xian’er?”
As he asked it, his gaze turned razor-sharp in an instant and fixed hard on Guoguo’s bright eyes, watching for the least flicker of change in them. For reasons unknown to him, there were things he was perhaps not yet permitted to know. But when it concerned her… how could he be content to wait like this, silently, with no way of knowing whether the waiting had an end to it or not? He wanted to know who she was and where she had gone… even the faintest thread of a clue.
But to his disappointment, all that showed in Guoguo’s eyes at the sound of it was a small puzzlement. She blinked her innocent eyes and asked, her whole face a question, “Li Xian’er? Who is Li Xian’er? Why does master think she’s Guoguo’s big sister?”
Ye Tianxie drew his gaze back, shook his head, and asked nothing further. He picked Xiaobei up and set it in front of him, looking it over closely… and Xiaobei looked back up at him, its dark green eyes glittering as though a great many small stars had been set in them.
“Your name is Xiaobei?” Ye Tianxie asked, testing, with a thoroughly idiotic question.
“Meow…” Xiaobei had plainly understood him. Not only did it answer Ye Tianxie in a small, soft, melting voice, it actually nodded its head several times over… It was nodding. And as it nodded, a very endearing smile came onto its face.
Ye Tianxie began to feel that what was standing in front of him was not a strange little cat but a person…
Since it could understand what he said, Ye Tianxie went on asking. “Then where do you come from? Why do you want to follow me?”
“Meow?” Xiaobei tipped its head to one side, a questioning look on its face.
“Do you know a girl called Guoguo?”
“Meow?”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Meow…”
“……”
“……”
“Oh la la, master, there’s no use asking any more. Xiaobei isn’t the Xiaobei it used to be. It was Guoguo’s very good friend before, but it isn’t pretending not to know Guoguo — it really doesn’t remember. Guoguo can tell master a secret, though. Xiaobei, it…” Guoguo stopped there, plainly on purpose, and then changed course. “Xiaobei is very strong, you know.”
Ye Tianxie: “！@#￥%……”
He could not be bothered to ask any further. Guoguo might look like nothing more than a small girl not yet grown, easy to fool, but over this stretch of time together Ye Tianxie had come to understand her talent for keeping her mouth shut thoroughly enough. Direct questions, indirect questions, oblique approaches, sudden ambushes — he had even tried asking her when she was half asleep and befuddled… and had never once gotten anything he wanted to hear out of her.
He was like a man standing inside some strange and shifting circle, the whole of it turning for his sake, while he was the one person in it who could be said to know nothing at all… And all of it had been brought to him by his Xian’er. He believed Xian’er could not possibly mean him harm — but when, in the end, would he be able to get an answer out of her…
And as long as she could come back, it would not matter to him if he never knew the answer at all…
(End of Chapter 212)