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| The Husky & His White Cat Shizun vol 7 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou |
Volume 7 continues the hunt for Xu Shuanglin who has hid himself in the ancestral burial mountain of the Rufeng sect. Led by Nangong Si who is the only one who can open the mountain’s defences, the entire cultivation world head there, only to face a battle after another. Xu Shuanglin is more powerful than they believed, and he’s managed to harness the entire mountain, including the dragon at its heart, to his help.
It’s mostly Nangong Si’s story. He’s the last member of his sect and Xu Shuanglin—Nangong Xu—is his uncle. Time and again, he throws himself to defeating the mountain to help others reach its peak where Xu Shuanglin is hiding, facing not only the dragon but his most revered ancestor too. In a very moving scene, he has a chance to encounter his long dead mother, reanimated by Xu Shuanglin. But despite his constant sacrifices, the wrath of the cultivators against his sect doesn’t ease, not even at the end.
Mo Ran is having difficult time during the battle. He struggles with keeping the truth of his first life hidden while trying to use what he’s learned during it to help defeat Xu Shuanglin. At one point he’s poisoned with a substance that makes him relive scenes from his past life, trying to convince him he’s never left it, which really messes with his head. But when they finally reach Xu Shuanglin, he’s the only one who can reach through is madness, having gone through the same.
Mo Ran is the only one who realises too, that Xu Shuanglin isn’t the final boss, on top of which there’s a secondary player among the cultivators, who attacks at the worst possible moment. The one who suffers most is Shi Mei. Facing certain death, he gives a speech that I’m not entirely sure how to take. Maybe he wanted to give his piece of mind to Mo Ran and Xue Meng, or maybe he wanted them to act against him to focus on winning the day. Either way, it isn’t dealt with in this volume. (He didn’t die though, in case you’re worried.)
But just as Mo Ran starts to believe he might make it out of the mountain without facing his past, the worst happens. The past arrives, concretely. The last quarter of the book focuses on Mo Ran and Chu Wanning, as the latter finally learns about the other Mo Ran, in a very physical and painful way. But the volume ends before we learn what he thinks of it.
The most interesting twist is saved for the last couple of chapters. We learn where Chu Wanning comes from and it’s nothing I could’ve imagined. He had no idea of it either, but the aftermath of that is saved for the next volume. There’s also a twist about Mo Ran’s connection with Rufeng sect that stems from his past life (if I understood it correctly, which isn’t all that certain.) That’ll have consequences later too.
This was a mixed read for me. First three quarters was an endless battle that focused more on other characters than Mo Ran and Chu Wanning. It was interesting enough with its twists and turns and moving sacrifices, but much too long. The volume was saved by the last quarter though, that focused on the two main characters. The stunning revelations for both of them were enough to lift the volume back to excellent. If (when) the aftermath of that goes sideways, there’s a long road ahead for the two to happily ever after. I can’t wait.
