Kong Xuan clenched the dog wool felt, his anger surging. "Damn dog! It's nearby!"

"Smack!"

An orange cat suddenly fell from mid-air, landing on the Xiong Hui's head. It struggled to stand up, then nonchalantly licked its paws and walked away, even nodding at Tan Xiao.

It had also found its way back using its own abilities. Seeing Tan Xiao wasn't surprising; it had thought it seemed to have heard Tan Xiao's voice.

Xiong Hui: "..."

...Ugh, is there anyone managing them at all? Do temporary workers have no dignity?

"Elder Baoping." Tan Xiao also greeted. Seeing it sniff around, trying to find a direction to continue the pursuit, he stopped it. "Wait a moment."

Elder Baoping tilted its head and looked over. Meow?

Since the other party had set up a trap, Tan Xiao certainly couldn't fall behind. He grabbed Kong Xuan's hand, dug out the wool felt, and clenched it. He actually took out the Taiyin slingshot, wrapped the dog wool felt in a talisman, and said thoughtfully:

"It's so good at hiding, but it can never escape from something that came from its own body, right?"

Tan Xiao raised his hand and closed his eyes for a moment, letting the gentle breeze blow through his hair...

At the same time, the Xiong Hui slightly tilted its head. It seemed to hear a passionate song playing on the school broadcast on the other side of the wall.

Tan Xiao opened his eyes, his gaze sharp. He pulled the slingshot towards a direction.

Whoosh!

In rhythm with the music, the talisman-wrapped dog fur seemed to have a consciousness of its own, shooting fiercely towards the northwest. It opened an invisible net imperceptible to the naked eye, descending with an inescapable momentum from all directions, trapping a cute little dog that was trying to escape the enveloping range while holding a stick in its mouth.

When it came into contact with its fur, it even made a faint sizzling sound of burning.

"Woof!"

The Xiong Hui watched as Tan Xiao cast the spell to the rhythm of the rousing and invigorating music, feeling that its own hot blood was about to burn along with it.

Then, as the Yorkshire Terrier cried out, its location couldn't be more obvious.

Kong Xuan also couldn't hold back and directly transformed into his peacock form, pouncing and accurately stomping on the palm-sized little dog, his claws ruthlessly tearing.

"Don't kill it..." Tan Xiao went around the screen wall and ran behind the rockery of the garden's water feature. He saw that the Yorkshire Terrier already had a disheveled head, covered in dirt, with some of its fur even charred black.

He had just picked up the Yorkshire Terrier when he saw the security guard also coming over—hearing the barking of the little dog and even the flapping of wings, he came to check.

"Is this your dog, student?" The security guard looked at Tan Xiao with a suspicious gaze. The sound of the large bird could only be heard but not seen, leaving only a small dog. But looking at the dog, it seemed to have been brutally trampled. A lot of fur had fallen off its head. This young man's school uniform looked like he was a student from the nearby No. 1 Middle School.

Oh my, could it be animal abuse?

"This is our teacher's dog that ran out," Tan Xiao made up a lie on the spot, picking up the Yorkshire Terrier and affectionately petting its head. "Don't be afraid, I'll take you back."

The Yorkshire Terrier trembled.

The doubt in the security guard's eyes gradually dissipated, and his expression looked quite caring, not like someone who would abuse a dog. "Then you should hurry back... This dog seems malnourished with its sparse fur."

"Yes, right, okay, thank you, uncle." Tan Xiao held the Yorkshire Terrier intimately. As soon as they were out of the security guard's sight, the little dog was slapped out of Tan Xiao's arms by Kong Xuan with one palm. He looked even angrier than before.

As soon as the Yorkshire Terrier landed, an orange cat darted out and pounced on its head with a powerful leap, sitting on it firmly.

The Yorkshire Terrier whimpered miserably.

The orange cat's butt twisted rapidly eighteen times!

...And so the miserable cries nearly ceased.

Tan Xiao squatted down and slowly picked up a wooden stick, the very one the Yorkshire Terrier had been holding in its mouth.

This was...

Tan Xiao was very familiar with the texture of this wood. It was a twig used for spiritual punishment. Had the Yorkshire Terrier crossed paths with a fellow practitioner? Indeed, these days everyone was out catching dogs.

Elder Baoping lifted his chin slightly:

Recently, Qiyun Ridge had increased its manpower. It was while patrolling an area of Qiyun Ridge that he discovered the Yorkshire Terrier burying its head and digging frantically. Thinking it had found some treasure, it turned out to be a twig used as a proxy body. Unaware, it chased after him, running all the way into the city and even to Nanchu No. 1 Middle School.

Tan Xiao pulled Kong Xuan, who wanted to continue, and told him to change back.

Tan Xiao held Kong Xuan's sleeve with one hand, and with the other took out a phone from Kong Xuan's pocket—he hadn't brought his phone while running, but Kong Xuan had one on him. Just as he was about to notify the Bureau 404, another group of people had already rushed to the entrance of the community. "Tan Xiao!"

"Sister Mu? I haven't notified anyone yet, how did you know we were here?" Tan Xiao recognized from the bun hairstyle that the leader was Mu Fei, somewhat surprised.

"Today, Aperture was at your school. He said he saw you two running out and hurriedly notified me to come." Mu Fei looked around. "Is it the one? Where's the dog? Where is it?"

Fang Zhu also rolled up his sleeves, "Where is the Huodou? Let it hand over my great-grandmother's remains!!" He had a deep grudge.

Elder Baoping moved aside a little, revealing the barely alive head of the Yorkshire Terrier.

Mu Fei: "..."

Fang Zhu stared for a long time before recognizing from its size that this was indeed that Yorkshire Terrier. He hesitated for a moment, "...I'll beat it up later."

Judging by how it had provoked public outrage, it was quite sturdy for its size. Tan Xiao pulled the Yorkshire Terrier out from under Elder Baoping and handed it to Mu Fei.

"Not bad, how many times has it been beaten to death?" Mu Fei wondered how its head had become bald. Elder Baoping couldn't have sat on it and made all its fur fall out, right?

"Well, the great god just casually beat it...But why was Aperture at our school?" After handing over the dog, Tan Xiao recalled what Mu Fei had said earlier and was a bit confused. "Wait, was it you waving at me before? I thought it looked strange."

Aperture looked at Kong Xuan.

Kong Xuan: "..."

Tan Xiao: "...?"

Kong Xuan calmly said with his hands behind his back, "Aperture is the book illustration photographer I specially hired for you to take your author bio photo. Aperture, take another photo of the Huodou. This is a mixed Tiangou that also needs to be included in the illustrations."

"Oh oh!" Aperture hurriedly took a photo of the Yorkshire Terrier. Even the dog itself was ashamed and lowered its head, wanting to cover its face with its paws.

However, Aperture's shutter was so sensitive that he had already captured the shot in the time it took to speak.

Aperture displayed the sample photo with his hands. Tan Xiao glanced at it: if this image were to be included in the album, the three realms would probably think that the modern Huodou clan were all balding.

"And this too." Tan Xiao also gave the twig to Mu Fei to put in an evidence bag. He actually wanted to interrogate the Yorkshire Terrier himself, but at this moment, the broadcast from the school could already be heard—

"...Tan Xiao and Kong Xuan, please quickly come to the sports field for a group photo of the track and field athletes."

The broadcaster's voice carried a hint of helplessness, probably still unable to understand why there were students who had mysteriously run far away and couldn't be found.

Mu Fei was also quite shocked to hear this. "You were in a competition just now?" She had thought they had skipped class to come out. "No one noticed you ran off, right?"

How to put it, everyone had witnessed him running, but they probably didn't know what he was going to do.

"I guess they didn't notice. I was running the 3000 meters earlier." Tan Xiao almost forgot that he had previously erupted with a small universe, overtaking several people. "Oh right, I seem to have come in first, hahaha."

Even if Mu Fei didn't know exactly what had happened before, she couldn't help but remain silent. As expected of you.

"Then we'll head back to school first." Tan Xiao hurriedly pulled Kong Xuan to walk towards the school.

"Wait, I'm also going to witness the glory of the spirit master!" Xiong Hui wiggled and followed.

Aperture also consciously followed, preparing to record the entire process.

Mu Fei looked at the two of them. Since they were going, they might as well go. It wasn't their business anyway...

......

When Tan Xiao ran to the sports field, everyone had already lined up in formation. Music was playing over the broadcast, and only he and Kong Xuan were left. If they didn't come soon, the others would probably just take the photo directly. "Sorry for being late!"

The two of them joined the team. There were individual event photos as well as group photos. Tan Xiao and Kong Xuan were relatively tall and squatted together in the front row.

"Where did you two go??" Lin Yang had also finished his 5000-meter run. While squatting next to Tan Xiao for the group photo, he asked strangely, "I even went to the bathroom to look for you but didn't see either of you. What was so urgent?"

This... Tan Xiao really hadn't thought it through. There was no time to think about it just now.

Kong Xuan, reminded of this, also felt very aggrieved. This didn't conflict with him knowing the truth. "Yeah, why did you run?!"

"...?" Tan Xiao glanced at Kong Xuan and had a flash of inspiration. He slowly made up a story, "Actually, it was nothing much. It's just that at the time, Kong Xuan kept talking nonsense while pacing me. I got angry and ran farther away, not wanting to see him."

Kong Xuan: "..."

Lin Yang suddenly understood and also felt quite emotional. "Our Tan Xiao has such a good temper. He never got angry even when looking at Kong Xuan's test papers before. You must have said something dirty, right?"

Kong Xuan: "..."

After the group photo, Tan Xiao saw Xiong Hui observing seriously and found it a bit amusing. This wasn't even an awards ceremony. He walked over, wanting to tell Xiong Hui to go back. He had worked hard today.

No one could see Xiong Hui anyway, as his body existed between yin and yang, standing together with Aperture.

Hearing the familiar music, Xiong Hui sighed with emotion and said to Aperture, "It's a pity you didn't see it earlier. Can you visualize it if I describe it to your sensors? The spirit master, accompanied by this music 'The Chu Emperor Enters the Battle Formation,' reversed the Heavenly Stems, traced back the dog's fur, and captured the Huodou..."

Aperture: "Wow!"

Tan Xiao nearly stumbled on the spot. "Hey, don't make up random names...! This is the 'March of the Athletes!"