Chapter 1

Xing Luo slowly opened her eyes.
Before her stretched a familiar scene, lush trees, blooming flowers, a land like a paradise untouched by the world.
This was the Demon Realm, her realm. She was Xing Luo, its sovereign and ruler.
So, had she actually survived the tribulation?
“Wuwuwu. Your Highness, may you rest in peace! We servants will miss you dearly!” A chorus of weeping broke through the stillness, loud and jarring to the ear.
Your Highness? Rest in peace?
What nonsense were they crying about? She was clearly alive and well! How dare her servants curse her like that?!
Xing Luo’s eyes turned cold as she snapped, “Meow!”, Wait. Meow?
That wasn’t right. She had meant to shout ‘Insolent fools!’, not. meow.
“Meow?” she tried again. Still a cat’s cry.
She froze.
She, the supreme ruler of the six realms, the mighty Demon Queen whose true form was a tiger, the king of beasts, was meowing like a kitten?! This was beyond humiliating!
Frantically, Xing Luo looked down at her hands, only to find soft, snowy-white paws.
Her forelegs were white, but her body fur was sleek black. Worse, she was tiny, absurdly tiny.
This wasn’t her body at all. She had somehow become a little black kitten, one that hadn’t even reached the level of transformation yet!
Panicking, Xing Luo tried to stand, but even on her feet, her field of vision barely rose higher than before.
Her mind buzzed in disbelief. No way, it can’t be!
She lifted her small head and glanced around. Not far away, a crowd had gathered, the sounds of crying drifting from that direction.
They were dressed in black and white, and the place was decorated in somber tones, it was clearly. a funeral.
Xing Luo immediately padded closer.
As she approached, she recognized familiar faces among the mourners, her subordinates, ministers of the Demon Realm, her elder brother Xing Liuche, and even envoys from other realms.
And at the center stood a beautiful ice coffin.
Her heart sank. She knew that coffin, it was the one she had crafted herself. As Demon Queen, she had long accepted that death could come at any time. Wanting to leave this world with dignity, she had personally made a coffin worthy of her station. She just hadn’t expected it to be used so soon.
So. the body lying inside that coffin, was that truly her corpse?
Xing Luo recalled: after putting all affairs of the realm in order, she had secluded herself to undergo her final heavenly tribulation.
It was the last and most perilous one, if she succeeded, she would step into immortality; if she failed, she would die.
Forty-nine bolts of dragon-shaped heavenly lightning, that was the test she had to endure.
She couldn’t even remember how many bolts she’d withstood before losing consciousness. It seemed she had failed after all.
Still, Heaven had not treated her too cruelly. It had granted her another chance, rebirth. Yet she had awoken in the frail body of a kitten with no cultivation, forced to start over from scratch. Xing Luo truly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
At least she had cultivated once before. This time, progress should come faster.
For now, she had no clear plan. She only wanted. to take one last look at her own body. But with so many people around, that was impossible.
So Xing Luo curled up quietly nearby, waiting for the funeral to end.
Only after a long while, when the crowd finally dispersed, did she stir again.