Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 16

A-Bai used her clan’s signature life-bound ultimate move and summoned half a table of little rabbit kits. In the end, not only was Lin Mianmian not cowed, she laughed even harder than before. Now she looked as if she was about to faint from laughing.
So… what was funny? A-Bai wiped the fur around her mouth with one paw. Mortals were so annoying. They could not feel this rabbit’s power at all.
The rabbit was angry, and the consequences were serious.
Lin Mianmian, whose heart was trembling from the cuteness of the little rabbit kits, still could not stop laughing. On this side, A-Bai, feeling that she had been underestimated, snorted and struck.
The little rabbit kits, originally piled together like fluffy balls and squeezed close, scattered under A-Bai’s waving paw, hopping here and there. Now most of the table was covered in fur balls.
Before Lin Mianmian could sigh over how movingly cute a group of little balls hopping around was, she saw all the little rabbit kits turn toward her in unison and open their mouths in perfect order.
In an instant, it seemed a strong wind swept past. Lin Mianmian could not help closing her eyes. When she opened them again, she was truly shocked.
Around her, with herself as the center and a diameter of about half a meter, the ground was covered in tiny ice needles that glittered under the sun. They were as fine as silver needles, packed densely into the whole area, avoiding only Lin Mianmian herself. The ice needles were so dense that it seemed a third needle could not fit between any two of them. The closest ones to Lin Mianmian were pressed right against her shoes, stabbed deep into the ground.
So the wind that had struck her face earlier had actually been the force raised by dense ice needles shooting in.
Very powerful.
Stronger than the ice ability users from the apocalypse.
“How about it? Now you have seen the power of us Phantom Silver-Haired Rabbits from the Great Snow Mountain in the Northern Territory!” Lin Mianmian’s shock was obvious. A-Bai shook her fur and hummed twice in a very good mood.
This cultivation world truly was powerful and interesting. Lin Mianmian’s heart warmed slightly, but when she thought of her own spiritual root, it cooled again.
“A-Bai really is powerful! So the word phantom refers to these little rabbits, right?” Although Lin Mianmian felt a little disappointed over her spiritual root, she adjusted quickly.
A-Bai nodded. She pointed one paw at the little rabbit kits that had lost direction and were hopping around the table, then pointed at the Giant-Palm Bear ice sculpture that still stood and had not melted. Proudly, she said, “Do not look down on them because they are small. Every one of them has Qi Refining cultivation. You saw that attack just now. Even the Giant-Palm Bear from before could be stabbed into a honeycomb.”
As for the fact that those little rabbit kits existed for only a short time, could only attack once, and could only pierce a Qi Refining-level Giant-Palm Bear, A-Bai felt there was no need to explain that to Lin Mianmian.
In truth, after hearing A-Bai’s explanation, Lin Mianmian did look at the little rabbit kits with a little more respect.
When Lin Mianmian reached down and worked hard to pull one of the needle-like ice spikes from the ground, that respect deepened even more. She had thought the ice needles were merely needle-sized, half-buried in the ground with only sharp tips exposed. But once she truly pulled one out, Lin Mianmian discovered that while it was indeed as thin as a needle, its length was dozens of times longer than an ordinary silver needle, almost as long as a person’s arm. No wonder A-Bai said they could pierce the Giant-Palm Bear.
Lin Mianmian touched the somewhat sharp tip and decided she should properly praise those little rabbit kits. Earlier, she had only looked at the surface. That had been too rude. The cultivation world was a world that looked at strength, not faces.
Mm. But just as Lin Mianmian looked toward the table, the insight she had just summarized scattered with a bang.
Where were the little rabbits that had formed neat ranks, held ice needles in their mouths, faced the enemy with determination, and possessed Qi Refining cultivation?
What were these little fur balls rolling together in twos and threes, hopping in groups, and even standing to groom themselves only to lie down and play dead halfway through?
Lin Mianmian wordlessly reached out and nudged back onto the table a silly rabbit kit whose body was half hanging over the edge and about to fall. The latter had very good sense. It rubbed its head properly against her fingertip before hopping back to the rabbit group and flattening a little rabbit kit that had been playing dead.
“Uh… so what are they doing now?” Lin Mianmian watched two little rabbit kits secretly hop into A-Bai’s big fruit basket. Mm. There were already three inside, gnawing fruit until the fur on their heads was red.
“…Oh, after one attack, they are useless. In a little while, they will turn back into fur. If you think it is messy, I can clean them up early.” A-Bai did not seem very satisfied with the scene of rabbits hopping everywhere either. She waved a paw, and the little rabbit kits burst softly and turned back into strands of rabbit fur, drifting back to A-Bai’s paw.
Lin Mianmian had no time to stop her. The little rabbit kits had already been turned back into rabbit fur by A-Bai. Watching A-Bai casually make a piece of ice, wipe clean a few strands of fur that had been stained with red fruit juice, then put them away casually, Lin Mianmian felt a pain in her chest.
Those adorable little rabbit kits. Lin Mianmian clutched her heart.
After A-Bai put away the fur and raised her head, she saw Lin Mianmian’s sorrowful face.
Back when she tricked Lin Mianmian over from the Ten Thousand Demons Sect grounds, A-Bai had already known Lin Mianmian liked small, fluffy, harmless-looking, cute animals. Earlier, pretending to be angry and turning out those rabbit kits to show off had also partly been meant to comfort Lin Mianmian after the blow from her spiritual root aptitude. But A-Bai had not expected that after seeing how lethal those rabbit kits were, Lin Mianmian would still like and approach them so much. Sure enough… as expected of a litter cleaner chosen by the Ten Thousand Demons Sect.
“Even if I did not put them away, they would soon turn back into rabbit fur. Do not mind too much. They do not actually have their own consciousness. Their earlier movements used me as the main body and were unconscious actions. They are not real living beings.” A-Bai felt that Lin Mianmian feeling sad about this showed a weak will, but for some reason her heart softened, and she could not help comforting her. “If you feel bored without them, just look at me more. If that is still not enough, when we return to the Five Elements Sect, the outer valley has plenty of small animals.”
Knowing that the little rabbit kits had only been A-Bai’s reflections and had no life of their own, Lin Mianmian felt much better.
“What kind of small animals?” Lin Mianmian looked at A-Bai. Mm. If the little animals were all as adorable as this rabbit demon before her, then even with her weak spiritual root aptitude, her days would at least have some fun.
Copper-bodied Mountain-Earthworms, best for turning soil? Sharp-beaked birds with beaks like hoes, good for driving to sow seeds? Water-Spraying Bees with round bell-like bodies, fast at pollinating? Mm… or Scarlet Essence Five-Scaled Fish? Stone-footed White-Skinned Pigs? Or Half-Moon Silver-Powder Rats? No… the pink half of the moon was the mad-rat side. No matter how cute they looked, that would not do.
A-Bai had joined the Five Elements Sect as a Core Formation Master and had never lived in the outer valley. She usually did not go to the great lecture hall either, and knew little about the living environment of low-level disciples. At this moment, the things she could remember were only a few representative creatures of the outer valley. But Lin Mianmian was definitely not interested in any of them.
Although A-Bai did not know what Yuan Zhaoyang meant by fragrant, and had not completely understood why Yuan Zhaoyang insisted on keeping Lin Mianmian, she knew Yuan Zhaoyang wanted her to watch this little girl. This little girl was too important to Yuan Zhaoyang. Important enough that even now, after she had entered the Five Elements Sect and had the Five Elements Sect’s name over her head, Yuan Zhaoyang still could not fully relax.
Whether to steady this little girl according to Yuan Zhaoyang’s wishes, or because Lin Mianmian did have places that made A-Bai soften for a moment, under Lin Mianmian’s expectant gaze, A-Bai smoothed her ear fur and threw all the creatures she had just remembered to the back of her mind. She coughed lightly and answered, “Just normal animals. Little rabbits, little dogs, little field mice… mm, little cats and the like. Whatever animals you like, we have them.”
A-Bai, the great Core Formation rabbit demon, for some reason could not look straight at the increasingly bright eyes of mortal Lin Mianmian.
Mm. We have them all. We will go catch them on the way back. A-Bai unnaturally rubbed her face with a paw. Feeling guilty, she glanced at Lin Mianmian, then at the little wooden house not far away, and secretly made plans.
Inside the wooden house, Yuan Zhaoyang, who was circulating the heart-clearing mantra while unable to resist releasing divine sense to listen to that person and rabbit, could only laugh coldly in her heart.
The little animals had not yet been caught, and A-Bai, feeling rather guilty, quickly ended the topic of the outer valley. To divert Lin Mianmian’s attention, she pushed her over to the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s grounds to play.
Mm. It was definitely not to show off that she had succeeded in stealing someone.
The Ten Thousand Demons Sect area, which had been emptied earlier by the sudden appearance of Niu Wanli, was now packed full of people again. After all, some time had passed since noon. The teleportation array should still be continuously sending people and demons into the plaza.
Replacing Niu Wanli at the Ten Thousand Demons Sect’s table was a large man with a powerful build. His muscles nearly burst his robe, and even sitting down, he was taller than Lin Mianmian standing. The man’s beard was so thick it almost connected with his hair, and he did not seem very concerned about the situation in the grounds. He only reached into the big vat beside him with his hand and pulled out things to eat.
Mm. That big vat looked familiar.
Lin Mianmian had just remembered where she had seen that vat when the big man stood up with a delighted face and waved his large hand, still coated in honey, at A-Bai by her foot. “Rabbit!”
A-Bai: “…” She really did not want to go over.
However, neither one person nor one rabbit had expected that the big man had originally wanted to ask A-Bai for more honey, but after A-Bai clearly said there was truly only this one vat, he actually took out two small jars, scooped two full jars from the big vat, and gave them to them. He said it would be a pity if they could not eat such good honey. Good things had to be shared.
Who wanted honey with bear saliva?
Although that was what they thought, facing the big man who was clearly reluctant to part with the two jars of honey yet still warmly pushed them forward, one person and one rabbit could not say even half a word of refusal.
Just as A-Bai put away the two jars of Giant-Palm-Bear-saliva-flavored honey and decided that next time she passed the Ten Thousand Demons Sect she would bring another vat of good honey over, a little yellow cow about her size trotted over.
“Yo, rabbit!” The little yellow cow grinned.
Perhaps it was because they had lived among humans for too long, but why were the demon race’s greetings so tiring for a rabbit?
A-Bai sighed. “…Heh, cow.”
Niu Wanli did not notice A-Bai’s helplessness at all. He turned his head to look at Lin Mianmian.
So was the next line going to be “Yo, grass”?
Although Lin Mianmian felt that the demon race’s simple and rough greeting style was rather cute, she knew in her heart that Niu Wanli would not greet her like that. Because in his eyes, she should be human.
Sure enough, when Niu Wanli saw Lin Mianmian and then looked at the words above her head, his mouth opened even wider with delight. “Hello, human!”
“Hello. My name is Lin Mianmian.” Lin Mianmian deeply felt the same helplessness A-Bai had felt earlier.
Cow, bear, rabbit… grass. They chatted about how honey could be processed to taste better. In the end, Bear Tongzhang, who gained a lot of inspiration from Lin Mianmian, transformed into the little white bear from earlier under Niu Wanli’s repeated urging and wriggled up onto the picture to take his shift. Before leaving, he did not forget to leave behind a handful of pitch-black, spike-like objects as a thank-you gift for Lin Mianmian.
“Bear loves eating and is poor, so he does not have much. But this bear fur is pretty good for refining artifacts.” Niu Wanli shook the fur on his body and changed back into his cow-headed human form. “Ah, it was exhausting on the picture. They kept making me perform plowing.”
Lin Mianmian glanced at the Ten Thousand Demons Sect grounds, which had suddenly emptied by more than half, and could not bear to say that he should go perform plowing.
A-Bai naturally would not say that either. But she did agree with Niu Wanli’s explanation. “Yes, even the fur we demons shed is good material for artifact refining. This bear fur is not bad. You can tell it came from the back of the paw. Good stuff. I will keep it for you first. When you draw spiritual energy into your body and can use a storage bag, I will give it back to you.” After speaking, A-Bai put the bear fur into the golden bell.
It had to be said that walking around the Ten Thousand Demons Sect did bring gains. Besides the bear fur, when they left, Niu Wanli also gave Lin Mianmian a clump of cow fur as a meeting gift.
Lin Mianmian felt rather embarrassed. She always felt that with her useless spiritual root aptitude, perhaps she would never reach the point where she needed to use this demon fur.
A-Bai had originally planned to bring Lin Mianmian around the Ten Thousand Demons Sect to look at fake little animals and cheer her up. She had not expected that after walking one circle, the aura of the person beside her would sink even lower.
After A-Bai deliberately guided her several times, Lin Mianmian finally asked the question that had lingered in her heart for a long time. “Can the spiritual testing stone be wrong?”
The spiritual testing stone was something any sect in the cultivation world, and even stronger wandering cultivators, could make. The testing stones of a great sect like the Five Elements Sect had gone through many rounds of testing before being put to use. Naturally, A-Bai answered without thinking, “Of course not.”
But as soon as the words left her mouth, A-Bai suddenly remembered something and realized that she had spoken too absolutely.
It had been too many years. She had almost forgotten. Spiritual testing stones could indeed be wrong. Hadn’t she seen one mistake with her own eyes?
Back then, not long after Yuan Zhaoyang transformed into human shape, when they entered Cangming Mountain in the Northern Territory, that spiritual testing stone had been wrong once.