Chapter 144: Ghost Form

Andy was pondering the newly acquired anonymous student card when he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder.

Though startled at first, he did not overreact. He could already sense the familiar, fluffy presence resting there—Catherine.

"Catherine, so you were home. Were you practicing invisibility just now?" Andy plucked Catherine off his shoulder, stroked her little head, and asked.

"Meow..." Catherine let out a vague response, then pointed at the anonymous card in Andy's hand and asked, "Andy, did you go out grinding quests again today? How are the gains today?"

Andy's old face flushed red!

"How else could it be? Practically nothing," Andy thought to himself, but aloud he said to Catherine, "The harvest was pretty good. I happened to take on a task from a wealthy patron today, and the reward is quite substantial." Then, shaking the anonymous card in his hand, he asked her, "Are your contribution points for studying wizard arrays still enough? Would you like me to give you some more?"

"You should keep them for yourself. I've been studying wizard arrays for a while now, and these past few days I even have some of my works consigned for sale in a shop. I've long been self-sufficient, and in a few days, I should have a fair amount of surplus," Catherine explained, then cast a stealthy glance at Andy's expression.

Inwardly, she let out a quiet sigh of relief. She had successfully diverted the topic—yay!

When Andy had walked in earlier, Catherine truly had been practicing wizardry. However, it was not invisibility as Andy assumed, but rather a new ability she had mastered after promoting to the Silver rank. It was her third form, following her cat form and human form—the spectral form.

Catherine had been able to perceive spirits since childhood, and after acquiring the Nether Cat physique, her perception of ghosts had been massively enhanced. Now, capable of transforming into a spectral body, her understanding of spirits had deepened further.

Unfortunately, knowledge regarding ghosts in this world was far too scarce. The vast majority of wizards were completely unaware of the existence of spirits, let alone possessing detection methods. Catherine had once searched using a magic mirror, yet found nothing regarding spectral knowledge. This forced Catherine to grope her way and figure out her understanding of spirits entirely on her own, bit by bit.

As for her ability to transform into a spectral form, Catherine had no intention of telling Andy. Because right up to the present day, she vividly remembered the terrified expressions of her parents when she told them at the age of five that she could see ghosts. They could accept the existence of wizards and supernatural forces, but they could not accept deceased people appearing around them in another form.

Although Catherine initially felt that Andy would likely accept and understand her, she didn't want to take the gamble. In fact, there was a topic between her and Andy that both had tacitly never brought up: whether the present Catherine was still Stein’s original apprentice Catherine at all. Was she a person whose soul possessed a cat and fortuitously became a Nether Cat due to bodily trauma? Or was she a monster derived from a ghost formed after death possessing a cat's body?

Actually, regarding this question, Catherine had already clarified her own existence and found her answer while passing through the soul illusion.

That was: who cares, I am Catherine anyway!

However, out of consideration for Andy's inner thoughts, she had always played down her ability to control death. Neither the wizardry related to this field nor the ghostly pets she had adopted had been mentioned to Andy yet.

Anyway, given his talent, he still had a very long way to go before coming into contact with this sort of knowledge...

Taking advantage of the gap while Andy—who remained blissfully unaware that he was being looked down upon by a cat—went to prepare dinner, Catherine began testing the new ability derived from her mastery of the spectral form: the ability to help spirits awaken their spiritual intelligence so they could recover their memories of their previous lives as quickly as possible. Even if they could not fully recover, they could at least be elevated to a normal human level of intelligence.

Catherine had grown thoroughly sick of keeping two low-intelligence ghosts as pets. Whenever she assigned tasks to them, she had to explain everything down to the absolute tiniest detail, and they possessed zero adaptability—they would do precisely what they were told and nothing more. It was a miracle they at least recognized the front door and hadn't failed to find their way back, degenerating into wild ghosts.

Transforming into her spectral form, Catherine imprinted some rune marks between the brows of her two pets. Xiaoming and Xiaohong were the names Catherine had given them. Under Catherine's assistance, their vanished memories began to resurface bit by bit in their hearts...

After Catherine and Andy finished their meal, she began to lie by the head of the bed, chatting with her pets and listening to them talk about their past lives.

Most of the time, Xiaoming and Xiaohong were the ones speaking, though occasionally Catherine would meow a couple of times in response.

According to Xiaoming and Xiaohong's accounts, Catherine learned that they had actually been students of the Grimm Academy's outer court before their deaths. However, at that time, they had just recently enrolled and were mere apprentices who had only mastered a few rank-0 spells. Naturally, they hadn't been called Xiaoming and Xiaohong back then; instead, one was named Julia, and the other was named Danny.

Because they were fresh enrollees, everything in the academy seemed fresh and novel to them. One evening, they were strolling together through the academy, never expecting that trouble would strike when they reached the foot of Mount Sheng.

A few aristocratic scions ambushed them, easily rendering the two of them unconscious using a couple of rank-1 spells.

The academy's monitoring wizard arrays were only set to detect rank-2 spells or high-energy-intensity spells exceeding fifty degrees, remaining unresponsive to low-level spells. After all, wizards required minor spells to assist them in daily life and experiments; if the monitoring array reacted every time a wizard cast a cleansing spell or a mage hand, the Disciplinary Department would be thrown into endless chaos.

Precisely because of this, those scions found their opportunity. They dragged the two girls up Mount Sheng, woke them up, and ignoring their bitter pleas, violated them. Amidst their assault, they laughed and chatted about how this wasn't the first time they had done such a thing, adding that as long as the girls served them well afterward, they could guarantee them a comfortable life in the outer court—promotion to the inner court wasn't entirely out of the question either.

Unfortunately, the two girls were in no state to care about what they were saying. Having suffered such a drastic, catastrophic upheaval in their lives, they were driven to complete despair.

Especially Julia. She thought of that boy who was devoted to her, who had abandoned his knight training to enter Grimm Academy for her sake and worked odd jobs in the royal capital to scrape together her tuition fees. That day happened to be the third day since she had agreed to be his girlfriend, and they had a date scheduled for the weekend. Feeling utterly unable to face him, Julia happened to spot a cliff nearby. Taking advantage of the moment when those men were lazily resting and chatting after the assault, she took a few quick paces and leaped off.

This infection drove Danny as well. Caught in a state of drastic emotional turmoil, she instinctively followed the example set before her. After the aristocratic scions recovered from their shock over Julia's action, she too followed in Julia's footsteps...

They knew nothing of what transpired afterward. But Catherine knew. Recently, while studying wizard arrays, she had heard a senior female student mention the incident on Mount Sheng. However, perhaps seeing that Catherine looked quite young in her human form, the senior student's account had been rather veiled, merely warning her not to wander up that mountain for no reason. Yet one thing Catherine did know for certain: those scions were still running wild out there, completely unpunished.

When she heard about it previously, it was someone else's misfortune, so Catherine hadn't paid much attention. But now that the tragedy had fallen upon her own devoted pets, it made Catherine tremble with fury.

Andy felt that Catherine was acting very strange today. Normally she was quite quiet, but today she kept meowing incessantly. He thought to himself, *You're not even a real cat, what on earth are you howling for?*

Then, hearing Catherine continue to yowl, he couldn't help remembering that it was March, and spring had arrived. He had heard that cats always went into heat. Could Catherine possibly be...

Andy grew excited, yet somewhat conflicted. Originally, he had intended to wait until Catherine reached adulthood next year before looking for an opportunity. But now... he felt more than a little sense of guilt.

At that moment, he suddenly noticed that Catherine had actually started shivering. Her reaction was unexpectedly severe—he couldn't wait any longer. Andy figured a man couldn't be choked to death by his own bladder; when the crucial moment arrived, acting like a beast for once wouldn't kill him!

Thus, he reached his hand out toward Catherine, hoping she had reserved enough transformation time today...

Before his hand even touched her, Catherine suddenly lashed out with her claw, ripping a massive tear across the quilt in front of her with a sharp *rip*. Then, her furious voice rang through the room: "Beast! Scum! You deserve to be gelded to appease public outrage!"

Andy's hand froze awkwardly in mid-air...