Tan Xiao and Kong Xuan were right outside the office door, those inside were naturally able to hear the commotion, but not daring to come out and watch, even though Ah Jin had already started singing "Incense Ashes are Poisonous" in his heart.

Kong Xuan wiped his fingers on Tan Xiao, the barely noticeable ashes between them. Distinguishing the scent, he said, "A hint of thunder and fire? He knew how strong Tan Xiao's spiritual response was and immediately started guessing, going through the thunder techniques users in his mind. "Sa Shoujian? Or Wang Shan?"

Although they weren't from the same system, who didn't know that shamans were all-encompassing. Tan Xiao's spiritual response was extremely strong, and he had almost gone to invite the phoenix before.

Kong Xuan thought to himself that he still had Tan Xiao's good news in mind, not expecting to run into this kind of thing!

"Your sense of smell is so sharp." Tan Xiao exclaimed in amazement, "We have a piece of evidence, can you take a sniff? See if you can tell who the other party is."

He immediately thought of the bloodstain left by the terrier's owner. Wasn't this just the problem of not being able to find the person.

"Do you take me for a dog, stop changing the subject." Kong Xuan said impatiently, still focused on guessing the other party's identity.

"No, that ash was from when we encountered another Huodou. In order to catch it, Master Lü from 404 said he wanted to carry out a ritual. Originally it was for me to do, but I said I only serve one family god, so he came to set up the altar and perform the ritual. I just helped clean up the incense burner and got some ashes on me." Tan Xiao explained.

Hearing this, Kong Xuan's expression immediately changed, a hint of panic flashing by, then he dusted off his clothes and calmly said, "How many gods a shaman worships, I can't manage and am too lazy to care."

"..." As expected of you. Tan Xiao pondered for a moment, then continued from before, "Master Lü invited the Thunder Department deities. He said he had seen my photo, did you show it to him? You said before you didn't visit relatives..."

Kong Xuan: ".................."

Kong Xuan calmly said, "Bring the thing over and let me smell it."

Mu Fei immediately rushed out, holding the evidence sealed in an evidence bag. "It's this." Then realizing she was too enthusiastic, she said to the already somewhat awkward great god, "Definitely wasn't eavesdropping on purpose."

Kong Xuan held back for a while before finally coming up with an excuse. "Who in the three realms isn't concerned about the progress of the sequel to 'The Classic of Mountains and Seas', all asking about the author's condition, urging for updates."

"Oh oh, then you should tell them, it's already in the midst of a collaboration with the officials, with a resource library, definitely won't take two or three generations like before." Mu Fei echoed with a solemn face, absolutely not exposing anything.

Kong Xuan opened the evidence bag and sensed the aura inside, then said disdainfully, "Reeks of dog..."

"What dog smell?" Mu Fei wanted to say, could it be that the dog's owner was also a dog, but quickly reacted and took out a tuft of fur collected from the terrier. "Is it this smell?"

"That's right." Kong Xuan nodded. "Is this blood from the same dog?"

"...No." Mu Fei muttered, "Only the smell of one's own dog, isn't that equivalent to no smell, such a brilliant way to conceal tracks, this really is hard to deal with."

But it wasn't particularly unexpected. These days, who didn't have some secret tricks. Like the WeChat account Fang Zhu registered at the beginning, everyone couldn't find the IP either.

"Just bring out both dogs and have Kong Xuan interrogate them." Tan Xiao suggested. He still remembered that Huodou were born as messengers of the fire god and had some connection with the phoenix clan. Kong Xuan should have a lot of authority over Huodou.

"I'll contact them right away." Mu Fei said.

"Then I'll go feed the elder first." Tan Xiao walked towards the outer courtyard.

Kong Xuan immediately followed, looking at the food in Tan Xiao's hand. He didn't get angry, having wanted to ask for a while, with such a rough appearance... "Who's it for?"

Hilarious, anyway his meals never looked like this.

Tan Xiao was wearing a down jacket with fur trim today. He looked at Kong Xuan lightly through the fluff.

Kong Xuan stiffened. "What are you doing?"

He had only been away for a while, what was with Tan Xiao's look.

While in the heavenly realm, Kong Xuan would ponder every day what it would be like when he returned. In the blink of an eye, he was back in the mortal realm, and only then did the past time become clear. It turned out they had been apart for quite a few days, and he didn't even know what cases Tan Xiao had handled alone with Mu Fei during this time.

Smelling the Thunder Marshal's ashes had made him furious, but this feeling was secret, a subtle sourness. Kong Xuan didn't even say it out loud.

"Good thing you came back before the new year." It wasn't too late. Tan Xiao said with a smile, "Classmate Kong Xuan, happy new year. Hope that in the new year, all your wishes come true, your studies improve, and you only descend upon my altar."

He heard the sound of someone teasing a cat and walked forward briskly.

Kong Xuan followed with big strides after a beat, finding his ears a bit hot.

......

Walking out of the area restricted to tourists, Tan Xiao saw that Elder Baoping was indeed here and attracting the attention of passing tourists.

The orange cat was crouching on a corner of the roof, like a ridge beast. The tourists below were all taking pictures of it. "Meow meow meow, how did the kitty's ears get hurt, wu, must have been from catching mice."

"Does Laomei Temple provide worker's comp!"

Some people even made "choo choo" sounds at it, trying to lure it down, but the orange cat was not tempted at all.

Hearing the "choo choo" sounds, Kong Xuan let out a hum, a bit triggered.

Tan Xiao had wanted to call out to the elder, but noticed a grandmother and granddaughter. The old lady took the can of cat food from her granddaughter's hand, opened it, and said to the orange cat, "Huahua, Huahua, come down and eat."

The orange cat walked across the roof, its crystal-like cat eyes staring at the old woman for a few moments, then actually nimbly leaped down, looking up at her, causing the surrounding tourists to show envious looks. Sure enough, only with food would there be cats.

The old lady, supporting her granddaughter, squatted down and placed the can in front of it, watching the cat eat heartily. A smile also bloomed on her face as she carefully reached out and stroked the orange cat's bottom, where its tail connected.

Although the orange cat didn't make a sound, just silently licking the can, it raised its bottom high into her palm.

The old woman's granddaughter also reached out her little hand and stroked the side of the orange cat, carefully avoiding the cat's injured areas. "Grandma, how old do you think Huahua is?"

"Ah, probably over ten years old." The old woman narrowed her eyes. "When grandma was little, there was also a Huahua here, but that Huahua, it really liked to meow, every day meow meow meow, it should be this one's ancestor, hehe."

"Wow, Huahua also has grandparents." The little girl touched the orange cat's ears, while the cat still buried its head in eating, completely ignoring the humans' actions.

"Everyone has grandparents." The old lady looked at the can, "But back then, we fed Huahua with caught bugs or leftover vegetables, not like you now, with all kinds of cat snacks. We didn't even have many snacks for ourselves."

The orange cat quickly finished the can, then mercilessly leaped onto the wall and left, leaving only a plump back view.

Tan Xiao quickly pulled Kong Xuan and turned around the courtyard wall, whispering, "Elder!"

Elder Baoping jumped down and landed in front of Tan Xiao, looking up at the cat food in his hand.

"Can you still eat? Do you need to rest after just eating..." Before Tan Xiao could put it down, Elder Baoping had already dived into the bowl, making him sigh at doubting the elder's ability.

Because it was cat food, and hearing that the elder doesn't eat much raw food now, Tan Xiao only simply chopped the ingredients without adding any seasonings, steaming it and doing some simple plating. It naturally didn't look as fancy as the offerings he made for Kong Xuan.

Elder Baoping has been through hard times!

So unlike Kong Xuan who would nitpick about the appearance, the elder just ate in big mouthfuls with gusto, narrowing its eyes in satisfaction. Due to the squatting posture, the fat on its body was quite obvious.

It really can eat a lot, Tan Xiao squatted and rested his chin in his hand watching.

Kong Xuan lowered his head, "Hey, why are they calling you Huahua?"

Elder Baoping: "..."

The orange cat slowly raised its head and glanced at Kong Xuan. For a moment, Tan Xiao almost thought the elder was going to break its vow and curse "Damn it". But the elder still had self-restraint and continued eating silently.

"The elder has a great appetite." After feeding the cat, Tan Xiao took the bowl and went back. The bottom of the bowl was licked clean by Elder Baoping. "By the way, with the elder's cultivation, why not transform into a human form to cultivate?"

Liu Qingquan heard it and emerged from the ground. He was also quite senior and knew about it. "When Elder Baoping first cultivated a human form long ago, he was fair and graceful, a big attraction at the Laomei Temple. But he was constantly harassed by worshippers, even more than when he was a cat. Fed up, he simply transformed back into a cat.

"Who knew that later he found people would still confide in or make wishes to the old cat at the religious site, thinking it was spiritual. It made him feel like some dedicated NPC. So he directly became a mute cat, cultivating to stop speech, and rarely walked the path on the ground anymore."

"...So that's how it is." Tan Xiao only now learned that Elder Baoping had such past events. He had thought the elder simply wanted to cultivate ascetically.

"I've arranged the interrogation room, bringing up the previous Bidou case to interrogate separately." Mu Fei walked out of the office, holding her phone and said.

Since that's the case, they could begin.

The group walked towards the interrogation room. Mu Fei lowered her head playing with her phone when she suddenly heard a shout. Fang Zhu ran out from the break room, still shaken, wailing, "Where is my daughter?! I don't see her!! My daughter! Mu Zhenzhu*, where are you?!"

*T/N: Zhenzhu literally means pearl. It's like calling the baby pearl, 'Pearl Mu'

"...Who let you name her that." Mu Fei said, speechless. "With her premature body, I put her in the sink and set up a talisman array to absorb moonlight."

Only then did Fang Zhu let out a sigh of relief and walked over. Having just given birth, his face was still quite pale. "You scared me to death..."

Kong Xuan missed a few episodes and didn't know Fang Zhu had already given birth. Curious what this talisman pearl looked like, as it would also be included in their sequel, he asked, "Gave birth to a daughter? Let me see."

Mu Fei happened to be editing the page and raised her hand to show Kong Xuan. "I took a photo with the new camera. Looks good, right?"

Kong Xuan also couldn't tell why this could be called a daughter. The only pearl essence he had seen before was Lingzhu, who later reincarnated into Nezha. In that sense, it could be considered a boy pearl.

What annoyed him even more was that the camera Mu Fei mentioned was the one imitating his earlier, making Kong Xuan very disdainful. Ripples couldn't help but surface again. When he left, how did so many things he didn't know about happen.

Fang Zhu also leaned over to look, but with one glance, he saw that Mu Fei's page was clearly Xianyu*, with a long string of zeros after the price. He almost had a heart attack. "...How could you really sell our daughter for glory!"

*T/N: Online marketplace operated by Alibaba

Tan Xiao also tiptoed to take a look. "Wow, so powe- ah no, so expensive!"

Selling this pearl would directly allow Mu Fei to retire on the spot. But Fang Zhu still couldn't believe it.

"What are you anxious about?" Mu Fei calmly enlarged the details page. It turned out that it said [Flawless, not for sale, display only] at the top.

There was no helping it. That pearl was too beautiful.

At this moment, Mu Fei even felt that she vaguely shared the same mindset as the Peacock God. She felt there was nothing wrong with what she did.

The Peacock God went to the heavens everywhere showing off his spirit shaman, not allowing others to possess them, getting dissatisfied at the smell of incense ashes. Wasn't that equivalent to shouting [This is my amazing spirit shaman but flawless and not for sale, and none of you are allowed to possess]? Then what was wrong with her listing her daughter on Xianyu!