Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 11

Ying Fu had just teleported Tian Xiaoyu’s parents out and hurried back. The moment he entered the Five Elements Sect’s barrier, he heard the announcement.
Wonderful. It was already the second warning. And there was this Giant-Palm Bear ice sculpture too. He had clearly only been gone for a short while, yet Ying Fu felt as if he had missed everything.
After grabbing another Qi Refining disciple nearby, Ying Fu finally understood where the problem had come from.
A-Bai. Again, A-Bai. Ying Fu’s feelings were very complicated.
More than ten years ago, when the four regions were separated and a large number of the Five Elements Sect’s Core Formation Masters were trapped in the Eastern Sea and unable to return to the Southern Union, many people in the sect knew about it. With so many Core Formation Masters gone for so long, at least the Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining disciples under them could not be kept in the dark. The Five Elements Sect was still a large sect in the Southern Union. Not only were there many sect affairs to manage, there were also many sect branches in various places that needed Core Formation Masters stationed there.
Back then, only those at Core Formation could enter the secret realm in the Eastern Sea. The Five Elements Sect had thought it was almost certain to succeed, so they gathered most of the Core Formation Masters from many positions in the sect and sent them in, leaving only those Core Formation Masters whose duties truly could not be shifted. Those far away could not return. The few Core Formation Masters remaining in the sect had to shoulder more responsibilities. The most important of those was teaching the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples within the sect.
There was a saying: the master leads one through the gate, but cultivation depends on oneself. Even so, people who had just begun cultivating would always encounter all kinds of problems. For Qi Refining disciples and even Foundation Establishment disciples, a Core Formation master who could answer questions and guide them was very important.
The Five Elements Sect had vast lands and resources. Most of the Core Formation Masters who had not gone to the Eastern Sea had stayed behind because they had to guard sect branches. They had not been able to go east then, so naturally they could not return now either. Within the sect itself, aside from Core Formation Masters in death seclusion, only a small handful could come out to teach low-level disciples. At the same time, many sect affairs also fell onto their shoulders.
That was why, after the four regions were separated more than ten years ago, the Five Elements Sect secretly recruited a group of Core Formation wandering cultivators into the sect. Together with the remaining Five Elements Sect Core Formation Masters, they took on the work of teaching low-level disciples. The Five Elements Sect’s great lecture hall officially began from that time. The sect also changed from disciples each following their own masters to unified large-class teaching.
At first, this change was clearly effective. At least the teaching staff suddenly caught up. But gradually, problems appeared.
The recruited wandering cultivators, for the sake of the resources the Five Elements Sect gave them, taught their classes seriously enough. But after class, if sect disciples asked too many questions, those wandering cultivators grew impatient. After all, to wandering cultivators, teaching class meant the payment and goods were settled. So many people coming to ask questions afterward was extra consumption of their cultivation time. The Five Elements Sect tried raising their treatment and asking them to spend more time after class guiding disciples.
But first, those wandering cultivators felt there were too many low-level disciples with too many scattered questions, wasting far too much time. The increase the Five Elements Sect offered was not enough to make up for it. Second… perhaps because they came from wandering cultivator backgrounds, they had not received systematic cultivation education themselves. Most had found their own way by trial and error. With their practical experience, they could still give lectures. But when things became as detailed as solving the cultivation problems each individual disciple met, the wandering cultivators struggled. Besides, they were not truly Five Elements Sect people. Teach one class, receive one payment. Why waste so much effort managing so many things?
Among those wandering cultivators, however, there was one exception. Yuan Zhaoyang.
The Five Elements Sect had secretly recruited a group of Core Formation wandering cultivators, yet Yuan Zhaoyang was the only one among them who had only reached perfect Foundation Establishment.
Qi Refining disciples were one thing, but some Foundation Establishment disciples whispered that Yuan Zhaoyang, who was also at Foundation Establishment, was not qualified to appear in the great lecture hall as a teacher.
But the truth was that Yuan Zhaoyang’s classes were the best. She explained deep things in simple terms. From theory to practice, everything was systematic and clear, easy to understand and accept. Compared with those wandering cultivators who, halfway through teaching, began bragging about how many strange lands they had crossed, how many demonic beasts they had killed, and how powerful the opponents they had defeated were, Yuan Zhaoyang’s classes were plain and simple, but also much more practical.
Roaming strange lands made people yearn. Killing demonic beasts made people cheer. Defeating opponents made blood boil. But after class, when they returned to their own rooms, what they needed was how to absorb spiritual energy more effectively, how to make spiritual energy circulate faster through the meridians without causing wear or hidden injuries, at what feeling in cultivation a medicinal pill should be taken for the greatest effect, and what steps were needed to expel pill toxins. At those moments, what they remembered was not the wandering cultivators’ unusual experiences and bravery, but Yuan Zhaoyang’s voice as she sat at the front and explained things slowly.
Those things were foundations. They were also details, and even reminders given without holding anything back. Yuan Zhaoyang’s classes soon became the most popular in the great lecture hall. The fact that she was always willing to stay for a long time after class to answer low-level disciples’ questions made people trust her even more.
In the Five Elements Sect, only those at Core Formation could take disciples. But in the hearts of the low-level disciples, Yuan Zhaoyang, at perfect Foundation Establishment, was clearly already someone who could be called a master.
Compared with the Core Formation Masters guarding branches in distant places, and the Nascent Soul Lords within the sect who were always in seclusion, Yuan Zhaoyang, who was willing to support them on the path of cultivation, was so real that they respected her and could not forget her. Yet Yuan Zhaoyang accepted no gifts and needed no one to do tasks for her. Their gratitude could only be poured into Yuan Zhaoyang’s only pet… A-Bai.
Speaking of which, it was said that A-Bai had also been one of the Core Formation Masters secretly invited into the Five Elements Sect back then. But A-Bai had never taught in the great lecture hall. People said that great demons at Core Formation could already take human shape, but A-Bai had never transformed in the sect. She had always followed Yuan Zhaoyang in the form of a little white rabbit, cute, harmless, and easy to talk to. Over time, everyone looked at her no differently from a talking pet. Especially because A-Bai loved food and loved being fed most of all, most of the disciples’ gratitude toward Yuan Zhaoyang turned into food and entered A-Bai’s stomach. Over these years, A-Bai had almost been raised by the Five Elements Sect into the sect pet.
More than ten years ago, Ying Fu had still only been a late Qi Refining disciple. It could be said that he too had cultivated to his current mid Foundation Establishment level through Yuan Zhaoyang’s classes. Not only did he revere Yuan Zhaoyang, he had also fed A-Bai many times in daily life.
Now, hearing about the good deed A-Bai had done, Ying Fu was both angry and anxious. He was angry at A-Bai’s good deed. They had already received two warnings. If she said a few more sentences, the Five Elements Sect would be driven out of this recruitment event. He was anxious because if Yuan Zhaoyang lost her temper over what A-Bai had done, low-level disciples like them would truly be stuck, unable to stop her and unable not to.
When the master faced the sect pet, who should they help? Ying Fu wiped his face. Why did he have to answer such a blood-vomiting question?
“Young lady, why don’t we go to the platform? You can first listen to our sect’s introduction. If there is anything unclear, you may ask me.” Ying Fu strode over and lifted the little white rabbit off Lin Mianmian’s instep. She was still clinging there! As expected, he would not give her the fried dumplings he had bought on the way back after sending the Tian couple out.
A-Bai knew she had caused trouble, so she did not use strength. She struggled only slightly, then gave up resisting. She had not done the task well and had even caused two warnings. A-Bai felt tired and unloved. She gave Lin Mianmian a gloomy look, lowered her head in sadness, and followed Ying Fu’s strength. Like an ordinary pet rabbit, she was lifted up.
However, in Lin Mianmian’s eyes, A-Bai’s dejection meant something else.
Lin Mianmian only saw the slightly plump man who had used wind to carry the noodle stall all the way here stride over. He took over the little white rabbit’s “work” and very roughly picked the rabbit up. The little rabbit no longer had any of her lively cleverness from before. It was as if all her strength had been lost, and she was carried casually in the man’s hand.
Based on Lin Mianmian’s experience from the apocalypse, forming an elemental body, such as drawing out a fireball or creating an ice sculpture, was much simpler than controlling the movement of an element. In short, although Lin Mianmian did not know the situation inside the Five Elements Sect, thinking about it, the big man who could use wind to carry objects and fly all the way without damaging anything should be stronger than a rabbit who could only sculpt a bear. Looking at the little white rabbit in the man’s hand, limp as if her cultivation had been crippled and ready to be slaughtered, Lin Mianmian instantly filled in a tragic drama: a little white rabbit who failed recruitment being punished, suppressed, and maybe even roasted and eaten.
“Wait…” Lin Mianmian could not hold back and stretched out her hands.
“What is it?” Ying Fu was about to put A-Bai on the table by the noodle stall not far away, but the little girl before him suddenly spread her arms and blocked him.
The rabbit had been caught because she had failed to recruit properly and caused trouble. If Lin Mianmian was willing to enter the Five Elements Sect, she could at least complete half of the rabbit’s task. They had spent so long causing trouble in the Five Elements Sect’s area, and those two warnings seemed connected to Lin Mianmian too. If she simply left now, who knew whether the Five Elements Sect would vent all its anger on the little rabbit? So now the question was, if she entered the Five Elements Sect, would she also have to bear the anger from those two warnings? And was it worth taking this risk for one little rabbit? Lin Mianmian calculated quickly in her heart. Reason told her that the earlier coincidences and the little white rabbit’s efforts to guide her seemed a little wrong. But looking at the little white rabbit before her, like a crippled rabbit, Lin Mianmian felt uneasy.
Cultivation was something Lin Mianmian had not yet entered, but even she knew that if she gave birth to an attachment now, even if she left, it would likely remain in her heart and trouble her. That was not a good thing.
For some reason, Lin Mianmian turned to look at the female immortal by the little wooden house. She saw the woman press her lips together without speaking, her expression also carrying some tension. It seemed… this female immortal’s cultivation was also lower than the big man’s. Lin Mianmian lost the last bit of hesitation, took a deep breath, cupped her hands toward Ying Fu, and said, “I am willing to enter the Five Elements Sect. May I ask…”
May I ask if you can lessen the punishment for this white rabbit?
Lin Mianmian had prepared her words. Lessen, not remove. She did not have such a big face as to ask for too much favor, and she could not anger the big man. But Lin Mianmian truly never expected that after she struggled and weighed things for that rabbit, even using her immortal path as a wager, that rabbit…
Before Lin Mianmian finished speaking, the rabbit being carried by Ying Fu, limp and with its head lowered as if knocked unconscious, suddenly straightened its small body. Its two drooping ears stood high, and its little eyes staring at Lin Mianmian shone like bright stars.
Lin Mianmian’s heart softened completely. She felt even more that her choice was right. Just as she was about to finish pleading, she saw that rabbit raise a hind paw and kick Ying Fu’s wrist. While the big man loosened his grip in surprise, she stepped on his face, used the momentum to perform a beautiful flip through the air, and landed on Lin Mianmian’s shoulder.
Lin Mianmian had no time to be shocked, and not even time to marvel at the softness on her shoulder, before she heard the rabbit’s joyful voice beside her ear.
“Oh my goodness, finally, we can eat!”
Wait. Something was wrong. Thinking of her grass body, Lin Mianmian was horrified.