Chapter 164: Catherine: I Feel Like My Future Life is Bleak

After being untied from the noose, even someone as thick-skinned as Catherine found it a bit too much to bear. Her face flushed, and she stammered in a soft, flustered voice to defend herself: "I—I was just too busy admiring the scenery around Master’s home! My entire attention was captured by the wisterias on the wall, so I got snagged and hoisted up. This is totally magical, and completely normal!"

Vayne looked at Catherine with the gaze one might reserve for a person with special needs, waved a hand, and said, "To think that a Senior Martial Master would actually fall for such a trap. It's fine, Senior Sister, you don't need to explain anything. I understand, I totally understand..."

"No, you don't understand! Stop looking at me with that gaze full of warmth!"

"..."

Ling Mo paid no attention to their bickering. As he looked at his small wooden cabin, a wave of profound emotion washed over him. Ever since he last saw a tyrannosaurus rex go charging out in pursuit of prey, he hadn't returned to this home in nearly a month. For over a decade, he had countless times thought of leaving this wretched place, but now that the time to leave had genuinely arrived, looking at these familiar sights once more unexpectedly stirred a deep sense of reluctance within his heart.

Noticing the subtle shift in Ling Mo's mood, Vayne and Catherine stopped their squabbling and began to earnestly examine Ling Mo's home. Starting from the spot where Catherine had been hoisted up, a winding path paved with warm white stones led all the way to the front door of the wooden cabin. Walking barefoot upon these stones produced not even a hint of chill; instead, it offered a gentle, comforting warmth. The cabin was roughly fifty square meters in size, featuring a classic layout of a single bedroom and a living room. In terms of architecture, it was the epitome of a traditional woodland cottage. The only unusual detail was that the doors, windows, and roof had been painted white with some unknown dye, while the walls alternated between honey-yellow and brownish-red, making the overall appearance resemble an oversized candy house.

"What is this? I thought that since Master is such an absolute powerhouse, the place he lived in would look like something out of barbarian legends, covered everywhere in mysterious totems and decorated with the skulls of all sorts of hunted beasts," Catherine muttered in utter astonishment. "I never expected it to be this kind of fairy-tale, girlish style of architecture. I'm utterly shocked."

Vayne's expression grew somewhat serious. She carefully scrutinized the wooden cabin and said with a tone of certainty, "This is the 'Karki' style that was all the rage in Norway fifty years ago, right? Back then, Norway was undergoing a massive women's liberation movement, which even influenced daily necessities and architectural styles to lean toward feminine and girlish aesthetics. I wouldn't have guessed that Master actually favored this sort of thing."

Hearing this, Ling Mo smiled and said, "I didn't build this cabin myself; I merely live in it. It was constructed by my... well, my ex-girlfriend. She was born in Norway, so naturally, she chose this architectural style. Besides, back when she was building the house, she complained that my aesthetic sense was flawed, so she completely excluded me from the project, refusing to let me touch even a single piece of wood."

"I never imagined that this former mistress would have such a girlish heart," Vayne said, gently stroking the outer wall with a trace of admiration. "Based on what I know, this candy-themed color scheme is extremely rare. Achieving it with natural materials requires an extraordinary amount of patience. It seems that when the mistress built this little cabin back then, she must have poured her heart and soul into it."

Ling Mo smiled silently without elaborating further. He opened the door and made a gesture inviting Catherine and Vayne to step inside. Upon entering, the two discovered that the spacious interior lacked any partitions whatsoever; it was completely open from end to end, appearing remarkably vast and sparse. Aside from a bed, a table, and a chair, there was nothing else. A pile of woven plant baskets sat in the corner, which presumably contained the food reserves Ling Mo had mentioned.

Noticing the expressions of surprise on Catherine and Vayne's faces, Ling Mo asked, "What? Does it feel like the interior furnishings don't quite match the ornate style of the exterior?"

The two nodded in unison. Ling Mo walked over to the pile of baskets, squatted down to sort through them, and spoke without looking back, "The original interior decoration was quite gorgeous, resembling a princess's room. What left the deepest impression on me was a chocolate-colored wardrobe that looked as though it had been cast from actual chocolate... But one day, after my ex-girlfriend and I had a falling out, she dismantled everything inside and took it all away with her. She didn't even spare the chair she liked to sit on, leaving me with nothing but this meager assortment of things."

...Could this former mistress possibly be so petty?

Vayne and Catherine complained silently in their hearts. Glancing around, Vayne asked with some hesitation, "That former mistress hasn't lived here for many years, right? Over such a long time, has Master never thought about adding anything to the place?"

"To be honest, for a grown man like me, this handful of furniture is more than enough. Plus, after she left, I didn't have much of a mind for it, so I just made do," Ling Mo said as he continued rummaging through the baskets, picking up various items only to look at them dissatisfied and put them back down. He turned his head to the two women and said, "The things in the baskets are a bit disorganized. I need to find something suitable for you two to eat first. Wait a moment, just make yourselves comfortable and sit wherever you like."

---

Though he told them to sit wherever they liked, there was only a single chair available. Vayne and Catherine exchanged glances. Vayne gently dusted off the seat, and sharing the chair evenly, the two slowly sat down.

Once seated and casting their eyes around, they finally appreciated the exquisite detail of the house. Even though all the movable parts had been stripped away, the remaining floors, walls, and the carvings on the fireplace alone gave an impression of refined elegance, creating a sense of exceptional comfort and harmony. In particular, the double bed, with its warm-toned frame matching the surrounding walls, radiated a deeply cozy atmosphere. If a few cute decorative items were placed around it, it would be almost identical to the bed of Catherine's dreams.

The more she looked at it, the more fond of it Catherine became. Unable to control herself, she stood up and dropped right onto the wooden double bed.

It was unexpectedly soft? Catherine was startled inwardly. Whatever kind of magical beast's fur was spread over this wooden bed, it lacked the stiff texture of ordinary animal pelts, feeling instead as soft as the finest velvet quilt. She bounced on it lightly, examined the bed frame more closely, and praised, "Even though Master's rough treatment has made it a bit aged, the design sense of this bed is so strong! Especially the patterns on the headboard, which emit a faint glow and are as arcane and mesmerizing as rune formations from a magic array... Pfft-ouch!"

Catherine suddenly let out a miserable scream. The moment her bottom had touched Ling Mo's bed, those highly arcane patterns had suddenly flared several times brighter, and amidst a brilliant flash of light, a pale black phantom had materialized out of nowhere! The moment she appeared, without a single word of nonsense, she delivered a half-step crushing punch that sank deep into Catherine's stomach!

This strike carried immense force, causing Catherine to shriek in agony and double over like a boiled shrimp before tumbling off the bed. Clutching her stomach, she lay flat on the floor, convulsing and unable to get up for a long time! Catherine swore to herself that she definitely hadn't let her guard down this time. From the very instant the short-haired woman's phantom appeared, she had been completely on alert and prepared for battle! However, she simply couldn't keep up with the opponent's movements!

Her vision could only vaguely capture the figure charging toward her. Relying on instinct, Catherine reached out blindly in an attempt to grab the assailant, but the phantom easily sidestepped the motion. In the next instant, with a blur before her eyes, she felt an agonizing pain in her abdomen and involuntarily collapsed to the ground, groaning in misery!

After knocking Catherine to the floor, the phantom showed no intention of letting her off easily. Instead, she bent down and subjected the prone Catherine to a barrage of punches and kicks! The combat prowess of this phantom was vastly superior to Catherine's; no matter how much Catherine struggled or shielded herself, the phantom's strikes landed with infallible precision upon her body! To make matters worse, none of her blows hit vital organs, instead striking the exact spots that caused the most excruciating pain! Within the span of a mere second or two, Catherine's consciousness blurred, and she was nearly driven to tears!

Seeing that Catherine had completely lost the strength to resist, the phantom finally spared her, straightened up, and stood tall. Only after the phantom came to a complete halt did Vayne, standing off to the side, get a clear look at her: the phantom was shockingly a short-haired woman with an expressionless face!

Because she was a phantom, the short-haired woman was pale black from head to toe, tall with slender limbs, and dressed in form-fitting combat attire that completely outlined her exquisite figure. Particularly eye-catching were the two heavy mounds on her chest—though how she managed to prevent those two masses of flesh from interfering with her combat maneuvers remained a mystery. Although her facial features were somewhat blurred, they still exuded an imposing aura, and upon first glance, the phrase "dominant ice queen" immediately sprang to mind.

Lying on the floor, Catherine groaned for quite a while before the aching sensation throughout her body began to recede. Slowly propping herself up, she had barely managed to speak when out of the corner of her eye, she saw the short-haired woman's phantom charging forward once more!

Was she going to get beaten up again?

A wave of bitterness washed over Catherine. Resistance was futile, so she could only shield her head and face with her hands, adopting a legendary defensive crouch. After waiting several seconds, however, the expected tempest of blows failed to arrive. Peering upward cautiously, Catherine saw that the short-haired woman's phantom was being firmly grasped by Ling Mo. Even so, the phantom continued to struggle violently, trying desperately to break free and land another kick on Catherine.

With the utmost speed, Catherine scrambled to her feet and retreated all the way to a corner, keeping as much distance from the female phantom as possible, and said with a crying lilt in her voice, "Master, what in the world is this thing?! I didn't even provoke her, why did she beat me up without a single word?!"

"This is my... ex-girlfriend."

Catherine and Vayne let out a simultaneous gasp of astonishment: "Her?!"

---

Ling Mo gave a bitter laugh, pointed at the short-haired woman he was pinning down, and said, "To be accurate, this is merely a wisp of her phantom. Although both she and I cultivate the martial path, we follow different routes. I specialize in the power of the physical body, with all my abilities rooted in my own physique. Before she transitioned into a martial artist, however, she was an arch-mage-level illusionist. Consequently, she excels far more in energy manipulation and self-invented the skill 'Phantom Incarnation,' which allows her to create a phantom avatar to fight alongside her. This phantom's power is far too weak, which is why I hadn't sensed her presence for decades—to think she would use her own power on something so boring. She's just as tedious as she was back then..."

"A boring place?!"

Hearing Ling Mo's remark, the short-haired woman in his grip abruptly ceased her struggle. She turned her head back, her tone laced with furious indignation as she retorted, "How is this boring?! This is the proper use of power, alright? If I hadn't secretly hidden a phantom incarnation in this bed, how else would I have caught you bringing another woman into my bed?!"

"...What?!"

This declaration left Ling Mo utterly dumbfounded. Seeing that he remained silent, the short-haired woman's phantom gained even more momentum: "You have nothing to say for yourself! I am merely a wisp of consciousness left behind, and the trigger condition is precisely 'another human female climbs onto this bed'! Back then, I originally intended to take everything in the house with me, but fearing that a lazybones like you wouldn't know how to take care of yourself and would end up sleeping in the trees forever, I reluctantly left the bed behind, but—!"

The volume of the short-haired woman's phantom rose by an entire octave: "But! This bed is for you alone to sleep in! Not even one extra person is allowed! I absolutely cannot accept you bringing other women back, and I refuse to accept this wild woman living in my house, using my things, lying on my bed, and sleeping with my man! Just the thought of you rolling around on this bed with some shameless hussy from who knows where makes me—makes me want to go mad!"

Ling Mo's voice carried a hint of exasperation: "When you were moving things out earlier, dragging your feet for so long and claiming you needed more time for nostalgia, you were actually just leaving behind this phantom?! You sacrificed one-sixth of your energy purely to check if I had found a new lover?!"

"That's right! All that talk about loving only me was just a bunch of lies! I knew you'd end up finding someone new!" the short-haired woman's phantom shouted righteously. "Look, didn't this phantom come in handy after all? I just gave that shameless woman a sound thrashing, making her howl in pain—so satisfying! Absolutely wonderful! Hmph, now she'll never dare to touch my bed again!"

Listening to this exchange from the side, Catherine felt an overwhelming surge of grievances welling up in her eyes, making her desperately want to shout at the top of her lungs: Mistress, I am wronged! I only thought the bed looked pretty; I never once harbored the thought of sleeping with your man! I'm merely his disciple, and this beating I took was truly unjust!

Yet she dared not abruptly interrupt the dialogue between Master and Mistress. She watched as Ling Mo glared coldly at the dark silhouette for a moment, let out a dry laugh, and said, "You're merely consoling yourself with this. With the meager power remaining in this phantom, I could crush you with a flick of my pinky finger. Afterward, I could simply continue holding my current girlfriend and do whatever loving acts we please right here on your bed. At most, you've only delayed the process by a few minutes—what possible use was that?"

"How dare you?! Aren't you afraid I'll launch another encirclement against you? The last time, I beat you down a realm and made you flee, and this time I will make sure you have no way to escape!"

"Rest assured, I have no intention of doing that." Ignoring the short-haired woman entirely, Ling Mo retrieved a length of rope from a nearby basket and proceeded with blinding speed to hogtie the phantom, stringing her up in the air. He chuckled, "I plan to string you up just like this, directly facing the bed, and then perform right here on this bed with my current girlfriend for your viewing pleasure—using your favorite posture from back then, how's that? Are you happy?"

"You surnamed Ling, I will kill you with my own hands!" After shrieking this sentence, the short-haired woman's phantom suddenly grew calm, a faint smile touching the corners of her lips. "Did you really think I didn't know this phantom couldn't stop you? The moment those prior conditions were triggered, this bed and this house would automatically begin charging up to detonate! Why do you think I bothered wasting so much breath talking to you? Hehe, the charging is complete now, and even you cannot prevent this house from blowing up! Take that wild woman and get lost! Go for your trysts wherever you like, just don't let me lay eyes on you two wretched dogs!"

Even as the phantom spoke, dazzling brilliance erupted from the floor, walls, ceilings, and every single corner of the wooden cabin. Wild, violent energy surged throughout the confined space. Ling Mo's expression shifted instantly; grabbing Vayne and Catherine by the collar, one in each hand, he lunged straight through the window. Amidst a blinding glare of white light, Catherine—being dragged along backward—saw clearly that even while strung up in the air, the short-haired woman was still flashing a feral smile at her. In the next instant, the white light within the phantom merged seamlessly with the blinding radiance inside the house, triggering a cataclysmic explosion!