The comments said I was deeply affectionate, I just added points by using an alternate account.

A dense, purplish-black light enveloped it, and within the light, countless tiny spatial cracks appeared and disappeared.

Li Yan's eyes narrowed, and he took a half step back, his muscles tensing. He sensed that the life form within the ball of light was undergoing a fundamental transformation.

The light came quickly and went quickly.

The purplish-black light suddenly shrank inward and was completely swallowed up by an unseen black hole.

The corridor was deathly silent.

Only the broken crystalline structures on the walls silently testified to the horror that had just occurred.

Li Yan's tense muscles finally relaxed, but his large, round eyes remained fixed on the spot where the light had dissipated, filled with lingering shock.

Chen Guan also stared at that spot, his heart still pounding.

When the light faded, what appeared in the spot was not a more ferocious beast, but a... small leopard.

It was smaller than a domestic cat, with a deep dark purple body and fur as smooth as the finest silk, its star-like black markings so faint they were almost invisible.

Only the small, rhomboid lightning crystal on its forehead proved that it was no ordinary object.

It looked down blankly at its slender, small paws, and tentatively took a step forward, but its four short legs buckled and it almost fell over.

It hasn't adapted to its shrunken new body yet.

The majestic aura of a king's arrival was completely washed away, leaving only a comical clumsiness.

Leopard shook its head, finally accepting reality. It raised its head, its golden vertical pupils passing over Li Yan and locking onto Chen Guan.

The familiar scent of grass after the rain.

The next second, it opened its mouth, and a syllable, several times clearer than before and with a childlike tone, rang out in the quiet corridor.

"Hungry."

"Chen Gua... I'm hungry."

No sooner had the words left its mouth than its stomach rumbled, perfectly timed.

Chen Guan: "..."

Li Yan: "..."

The stark contrast between this enormous spectacle and the tiny, hungry kitten before us was simply too much to bear.

"Aww."

Seeing that Chen Guan did not react, Leopard barked again, its voice filled with urging and grievance.

It took its short legs and stumbled to Chen Guan's feet, skillfully rubbing its smaller head against Chen Guan's trouser leg.

Like a warm, fluffy ball acting cute.

Chen Guan then squatted down, stretched out his finger, and poked the leopard's head. It felt surprisingly soft.

He held the warm, soft little thing in his arms, his mind a complete mess.

Should we correct his non-standard pronunciation first, or should we address his imminent hunger?

"What did you call me just now?"

He didn't rush to feed them, but instead asked the question that mattered most to him.

The leopard raised its head, its golden pupils filled with clear innocence. It thought for a moment, then tried very hard to utter that syllable again.

"Chen...gua".

"Wrong."

Chen Guan's face darkened.

"My name is Chen Guan, the Guan as in coffin."

He pointed to himself, emphasizing each word carefully.

"If it's not a watermelon, call it again."

"Awoo?"

Leopard tilted its head, not understanding why the pronunciation of a word was so important, but seeing Chen Guan's serious face, it obediently opened its mouth.

"Chen... Guan".

The pitch is much better, but it's still not right.

Why is this child still thinking about food?

"It's a coffin, guan, first tone."

Chen Guan patiently taught him, as if he were teaching his own child to speak.

"Chen... coffin."

This time, the pronunciation was finally correct.

"right."

Chen Guan was finally satisfied. He took out a piece of roasted, sizzling meat from his storage space and offered it to the leopard.

Storage space is the best preservative; it will look exactly the same when you take it out as when you put it in.

"Correct answer, reward."

The leopard's eyes lit up, and it bit down hard. Its small body unleashed a swallowing force disproportionate to its size, and the piece of roasted meat, which was bigger than its head, disappeared in the blink of an eye.

It smacked its lips, licked them, and looked at Chen Guan with its big, watery golden eyes.

"I want more."

His speech is clear and his logic is sound.

Chen Guan looked at its round belly with some helplessness, but still took out a smaller piece.

"The last piece. I just woke up, don't overeat again."

"Um."

Leopard nodded emphatically, and once again swept away the remaining clouds.

Li Yan, who was standing to the side, witnessed the whole scene from beginning to end, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly.

It can speak human language and freely control its body shape; it's hardly a void creature anymore.

This is a completely new and never-before-seen intelligent race.

He had seen void creatures mutate; they devoured their own kind to strengthen themselves, growing more claws and thicker shells—this was all commonplace.

And right now, this new species' first official statement was actually to correct its owner's name and successfully get a piece of roasted meat in return.

All of this seems so unreal.

"What... what's going on?"

Li Yan pointed to the kitten that had finished eating two pieces of meat and was now lying contentedly at Chen Guan's feet, purring, and asked the question he had been holding back for a long time.

"A side effect of the promotion, I suppose."

Chen Guan stood up and made up a story on the spot.

After all, he didn't know what had happened, and he would probably have to consult an evil Hakimi who wished to remain anonymous.

Chen Guan bent down and picked up Leopard, who was feeling sleepy again.

It felt as light as a ball of cotton.

He weighed it in his hand, placed the little guy on his head, and then looked up at the spiral staircase leading to the twenty-fourth floor.

"Teacher, let's continue."

"Hehehe."

Deep within his consciousness, Baal let out a laugh of great interest.

"This little thing absorbed the power of the void, and you forcibly reversed its evolutionary path, now it has become a Frankenstein's monster that doesn't resemble anything else."

Although Baal doesn't have the same specialized understanding of small animals as the White Tiger, as a veteran player of Earth Online, Baal naturally has a good eye.

"Its original spatial abilities were too crude, incomparable to Guan Jinyue's. It was only good as an auxiliary tool. But now, after merging with the power of the void, its potential is limitless. Tsk tsk, this is something that little girl Guan Jinyue would kill for."

"What do you mean?"

Chen Guan asked in his heart.

"It means, take good care of yourself." Baal kept it a secret for a moment, mainly because he wasn't sure and was afraid of making a mistake and embarrassing himself.

Chen Guan didn't ask any more questions. Ahead of them, the last set of stairs leading to the top of the tower had appeared.

During the time they were talking, Chen Guan had already wiped out all the monsters on the road.

He admitted that these monsters had a good mechanism, but unfortunately his stats were better.

At the end of the stairs, there was a dazzling starlight.

The two stepped off the stairs.

The view before me suddenly opened up.

They were standing on a huge circular open-air platform, with a smooth, mirror-like black crystal floor beneath their feet and a slowly flowing purple galaxy overhead, within reach.

At the very center of the platform, the enormous red crystal, more than ten meters in diameter, was pulsating like a heart, each beat sending out an invisible ripple into the depths of the void.

Beneath that enormous crystal, a throne floats silently.

A figure sat regally on the throne.

It was a humanoid silhouette dressed in black armor, which surprised Chen Guan slightly. There weren't many monsters that looked so human.