Chapter 16: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes Is Unusual

That evening.

The moment Cheng Han pushed open the door to his home, he immediately discovered that there were five birds neatly placed on the table in the living room, alongside a pile of bird eggs of varying sizes, numbering nearly twenty in total.

These were obviously Sheriff’s spoils of war.

“Meow~”

The black cat cried out while lightly swishing its tail, clearly showing off its achievements.

Over the past two days, every time it caught birds, it had received praise from its owner. As a result, the black cat’s enthusiasm for hunting had grown stronger and stronger. Today, its harvest was even greater.

Cheng Han generously praised it:

“Sheriff, you did an excellent job!”

He truly admired his cat’s abilities.

The productivity of this world was not particularly advanced, so meat and eggs were fairly expensive. If sold at the market, these things would be worth at least two silver coins.

When other people kept cats, it only increased household expenses.

But the cat he raised not only reduced expenses, it significantly improved his quality of life.

It had to be said—

People were different from each other, and cats were different from each other too.

Cheng Han crouched down and rubbed the cat’s head.

“You’re too good at catching birds. The bird population in Tai’an Minor Spirit Realm isn’t that large to begin with. Don’t catch birds anymore in the future, or you might drive them extinct.”

Naturally, the talk about extinction was just a joke.

Still, Sheriff had even learned how to raid bird nests. With its abilities alone, it was entirely capable of reducing the bird population in the nearby area by half.

“Meow~ Meow~”

The black cat responded twice, a trace of confusion visible in its eyes.

It was asking:

Then what should I catch?

After thinking for a moment, Cheng Han answered,

“Catch burrow rabbits from now on. Those things reproduce extremely quickly and love damaging farmland. The more you catch, the better.”

“Meow~”

The black cat let out a cheerful cry, agreeing to its master’s request.

Picking up one of the birds, Cheng Han asked,

“By the way, do you want roasted bird or braised bird meat?”

Yesterday evening, after he fed the black cat a cooked bird leg, it no longer wanted to eat raw bird meat.

This was hardly surprising.

Cooked food was easier to digest and gentler on the stomach. Cats were not stupid—they naturally knew which option was better.

The black cat tilted its head slightly to the left.

The gesture looked rather adorable.

Its meaning was:

The first one.

Without the Spirit Taming Residual Seal, Cheng Han definitely would not have understood Sheriff’s meaning. More and more, he found the black cat’s language incredibly interesting.

Cheng Han continued,

“I’ll also boil a few bird eggs for you in plain water, plus some vegetables and a small spoonful of rice. The nutrition will be more balanced. How about it?”

The black cat wagged its tail again.

“Meow~”

Smiling faintly, Cheng Han began preparing dinner.

He first poured a small amount of brown oil into the stove, then activated the True Flame Residual Seal and flicked his finger lightly.

A spark flew into the stove.

Whoosh!

Flames instantly burst forth.

He added a honeycomb fuel brick, and before long, the stove was fully lit.

Cheng Han whistled.

“Having supernatural abilities really does make everyday life much more convenient.”

After quite a bit of work, he prepared four dishes:

A plate of scrambled bird eggs with mushrooms, a plate of boiled bird eggs, two golden roasted birds, and a dish of stir-fried vegetables.

By ordinary standards, this meal could absolutely be described as luxurious.

Most families in this world only ate meat once every few days.

The previous owner of this body, for a very long time, could only get a little bit of meat at the school cafeteria.

Cheng Han portioned out some food and placed it before the black cat.

“Go ahead and eat.”

Sheriff rubbed against his pant leg before burying itself into the meal enthusiastically.

From the way its tail swayed from time to time, as well as the occasional purring from its throat, it was easy to tell just how satisfied it was with this dinner.

Tearing off a bird leg, Cheng Han took a bite and experienced the rich burst of oil and flavor across his taste buds.

He nodded in satisfaction.

The taste was excellent.

An hour and a half later.

Cheng Han woke from deep sleep and yawned.

He walked into the living room, opened his schoolbag, and took out a green leaf.

This was something left behind by the Grass Hound.

He was extremely interested in the strange phenomenon of vines transforming into animals, so he had picked up the leaf with the intention of using the Omniscient Eye to analyze it and accumulate some proficiency in the process.

Besides, if he managed to obtain another residual seal, wouldn’t that be a huge profit?

Sensing movement, the black cat crawled out from beneath the wardrobe and sat in front of its owner, curiously staring at the leaf.

After rubbing the cat’s head a few times, Cheng Han focused his attention and silently said,

“Analyze the birth mechanism of the Grass Hound.”

Since the leaf was a part of the Grass Hound itself, it was naturally an item with an extremely strong connection to it. Thus, the deduction succeeded on the first try.

A cool sensation spread across his scalp.

A phantom image slowly emerged:

Amidst lush greenery, a human figure walked up to a vine plant and rapidly stroked the vine stem once before turning around and leaving.

The stem twisted almost imperceptibly a few times before falling silent again.

For some unknown reason, the vision was extraordinarily blurry.

One breath later, the image vanished.

A notification immediately followed:

[Proficiency +6, current proficiency 76/1000, Spirit Value 6.3/13.8.]

Cheng Han’s expression turned grave.

“I originally thought the Grass Hound was merely a special organism born by chance. I never expected someone had secretly tampered with it.”

“This deduction granted six proficiency points and consumed 5.4 spirit points. The numbers are far higher than expected. This matter is definitely highly unusual.”

He sighed.

“But the vision is too blurry. That’s really troublesome.”

Past deduction visions had also been somewhat blurry, but at least they were barely recognizable.

This time, however, it was as though the image had been covered by frosted glass. He could not clearly see the person’s appearance at all.

And this alone proved how abnormal the matter truly was.

Cheng Han pondered another question.

“How can I drag this guy out into the open?”

After thinking for a long time, he decided on a clumsy but workable approach.

“The number of students who attended practical lessons in the botanical garden recently should be several hundred. That already narrows down the general range.”

“Then I can use the process of elimination to remove impossible targets. Whoever remains in the end must be the culprit behind the mutated vine.”

Carefully recalling the phantom image, Cheng Han roughly outlined the target’s physical characteristics before taking out a sheet of paper and recording them.

“First, judging from the chest and hairstyle, this person is definitely male.”

“Second, he’s slightly taller than me.”

“Third, his build is neither fat nor thin. That indicates decent nutrition, which indirectly suggests his family background should be around middle-class level…”

After analyzing for a while, he listed six separate criteria.

After reviewing them, Cheng Han smiled.

“There definitely won’t be too many boys matching all these traits. Combined with the Omniscient Eye, it won’t be hard to identify the mastermind behind the scenes.”

After resting for a moment, he began the first step.

“Deduce which class visited the botanical garden yesterday.”

This deduction was completely effortless. The result appeared instantly.

Third Year, Class Five!

Cheng Han wrote it down, then silently said,

“Deduce which class visited the botanical garden the day before yesterday.”

He repeated the deduction five times, identifying every class that had attended practical lessons over the past five days.

A total of seven classes.

Assuming an average of fifty students per class, that meant roughly three hundred and fifty people.

The next step was to observe the students from those classes and continue narrowing the suspects down.

Looking at the list, Cheng Han chuckled softly.

“No matter what kind of demon or monster you are, don’t even think about escaping this young master’s fiery eyes.”

(End of Chapter)