He froze, not expecting Su Nian to actually say it out loud.

"Your name is Wang Zhi. You’re thirty-five years old, and your hobby is torturing cats."

Su Nian said this without any expression, her demeanor calm.

[Cat abuse? How disgusting!]

[He abuses cats and still has the nerve to ask why a cat is biting him? Are you serious? What’s wrong with you?!]

[What a shameless person!]

But after his initial surprise, Wang Zhi calmed down.

"I just do it for fun. It’s just curiosity, that’s all."

As he said this, his expression was relaxed, even a little innocent.

He looked completely unconcerned.

"Cats are very spiritual animals. Aren’t you afraid of karmic retribution?"

"What’s there to be afraid of? It’s just a cat!"

Wang Zhi’s tone was even a bit boastful and smug.

"I was scared at first, too. But then I discovered it’s a really good way to relieve stress."

"You just tie a thin string to the cat’s tail, tie the other end to a tree branch, and then take a rope and whip it a few times. Listening to that sound... it’s just so satisfying. I feel like all my stress just melts away."

Su Nian watched the man before her with cold indifference. Behind him, she could faintly see a cat hanging upside down, dark red blood dripping from the corner of its mouth. On the ground below was a pool of blackish blood.

The thin string around its tail had cut deep into the flesh like a sharp blade, separating bone from meat.

It was a cruel and extremely bloody scene. This was the first life he had taken, the first killing sin he had committed.

The moment Wang Zhi finished speaking, the bullet comments exploded. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

All sorts of curses came pouring in, but he couldn’t care less.

[How can such a disgusting person exist? You actually do this just to relieve stress?!]

[That’s a living, breathing life!]

[I’ve always believed that someone who doesn’t respect life doesn’t deserve to live!]

[He dares to kill cats today; who knows if he’ll dare to kill people tomorrow!]

[I have a cat at home, I can’t stand to see this. You’re a damn pervert!]

"Heh! Say what you want, I don’t care. You think those things are cute? I think they’re disgusting. I just want to kill them all!"

After speaking, he gave a dismissive wave, as if he couldn’t be bothered to argue with the netizens.

"Alright, Master, let’s just get this over with. How do we solve it? Money’s not an issue."

Su Nian looked at the lines between his eyebrows. His Palace of Wealth was filled with the aura of money, but his Palace of Misfortune was overflowing with black energy. It seemed he was also making money from torturing cats.

Su Nian: "You sell the videos of you torturing cats, don’t you?"

This time, Wang Zhi was truly surprised. ’This Master is actually pretty good.’

"Yeah! I never expected my stress-relief videos could actually make money. What’s that saying again? Turn your hobby into a career!"

His smug face bobbed around on the screen, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

But Su Nian noticed a faint scarlet patch on his neck, about the size of a silver dollar. It was inflamed and festering, with grayish scales.

’Is this ringworm?’

As if sensing Su Nian’s gaze, he unconsciously scratched it.

The next second, his tone soured, and he spoke to Su Nian with brazen entitlement.

"I’ve already paid you. You have to solve this for me today, no matter what!"

From the moment he appeared on screen, Su Nian had worn a cold, aloof expression.

Now, in her eyes, the black energy on the man’s face was growing denser, and the Cat Spirits behind him were multiplying.

They were about to devour him whole.

Su Nian nodded. "You’re right. But I’ve changed my mind. I’m not taking your case."

She acted decisively. She had originally received one Carnival gift, but she immediately sent back double the value, kicked him from the stream, and then blocked him.

The netizens in the stream were filled with righteous indignation.

[Host, you should have taught him a lesson!]

[So disgusting! What even is this guy?!]

[He actually said money isn’t an issue? All his money is dirty money!]

[Host, just finish him off, I’m begging you!]

Su Nian didn’t say a word in response to the doubt and anger in the bullet comments.

Wang Zhi’s face was overflowing with the aura of death. Those Cat Spirits would not let him go.

And after everything he’d just said on the stream, it was only natural that he would be doxed and cyberbullied.

But Su Nian felt not a shred of pity for someone like him. People like him deserved to die completely.

Su Nian’s expression was serene. "Don’t worry. The kitties won’t let him go. All living things have spirits. If it were for a necessary reason, that would be normal. But torture and slaughter will burden him with the sin of killing. His end will not be pleasant."

[Hearing the host say that sets my mind at ease!]

[This son of a bitch is a waste of air. Just die already!]

「Later.」

It was a pit about a meter deep. Inside, one could vaguely make out the shapes of several cats, though they had blurred into a single mass. A swarm of flies hovered overhead. But the strangest thing of all was that the pit was somehow imprinted with the shape of a person.

But Wang Zhi knew nothing of this. He was too busy being angry.

A cigarette dangled from his fingers as he cursed under his breath.

"These meddling damn netizens... what business is it of theirs? It’s not like I killed them!"

After that last stream, someone had captured an image of his face, and his personal information from the platform had been dug up.

But he had also gained quite a few customers.

At this thought, he took a smug drag from his cigarette. Because of that stream, he’d unexpectedly found a lot of like-minded partners and good customers!

Even though he was doxed, he was making good money every day by filming and selling his cat abuse videos.

’Whatever, let them cyberbully me. I don’t care anyway. It’ll just bring me more publicity.’

As he thought this, he scratched his wrist again.

"What’s going on? Why have I been so itchy lately?"

"It must be a skin disease from those rotten cats!"

「Three days later.」

His skin condition grew progressively worse. Sores began to fester on his body and face.

This was to be expected. Many of the cats he caught were strays that were already sick. And to attract more viewers, he made a point of getting his hands dirty. After being in close contact with creatures like that for so long, it was hard not to get sick.

His skin disease continued to worsen until coin-sized red patches covered his entire body.

A foul stench emanated from his whole body. He was festering to the point of being unrecognizable, especially his hands—the instruments of his evil—which had even begun to breed maggots.

Then one night, a security camera captured him staggering and crawling into a dirt pit—a grave the little kitties had long prepared for him.

"I heard that when they pulled him out, his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth were all full of dirt and sand. It looked just like he’d been bleeding from all seven orifices."

A young security guard said this secretively. He had stolen a few glances when the police came to investigate that day.

"Yeah, yeah! And what’s even creepier is that his body was covered in scratches, just like from a cat’s claws!"

Another security guard chimed in. He was a bit older and was so agitated he could barely hold his cigarette steady.

And on the part of his skin exposed by his sleeve cuff, a red patch was faintly visible.

Overnight, many people in the city came down with a strange skin disease.

Coin-sized patches, a festering stench, and excruciating pain caused immense suffering.

But the kitties knew... these were all bad people...