Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 39

Lin Mianmian stared blankly at the riverbank, where the Red Essence Five-Scale Fish killed by Zihui were piling up higher and higher.
Back when the apocalypse had just begun, social order collapsed overnight. Ability users and mutated people had not yet fully learned to use their new powers and were still not strong enough. Ordinary survivors had even more trouble facing a world that had changed in a single night. For a long time, even though bases of all sizes were built as quickly as possible in many places, animals, water, and soil had all begun to mutate. Animals that could be raised normally before the apocalypse were almost impossible to find, and normal plants from before the apocalypse were also very hard to grow.
It was at that time that mutated animals and plants gradually began to be discovered by survivors. Research into where mutated animals and plants came from had never stopped in the apocalypse. But until Lin Mianmian was betrayed by the base and sent to Central City, she had never heard a final answer.
For a long time, however, there were two theories in the apocalypse that sounded more believable.
One was that mutated animals and plants were, just as their name said, mutated from similar species on Earth. This theory used gene comparison percentages as proof. But anyone who had studied a little knew that bananas and humans still had about five percent DNA similarity. Those listed percentages were actually not very convincing.
The other theory was that mutated animals and plants came from another planet. Like the virus that suddenly turned people into zombies, they were part of an alien plot.
But after the Food Classic officially spread, to ordinary people, where these mutated animals and plants came from was no longer that important. What mattered was that people could finally break through the difficulties of planting and raising food. They no longer had to keep eating away at old stores.
Unfortunately, even if people could find the strange animals and plants introduced in the Food Classic, capturing, killing, and even transplanting them was never easy. After all, the Food Classic only described the look of each animal or plant and how to cook it. It did not mention their weak points or hunting methods at all. So for quite a long time, besides repeatedly broadcasting the contents of the Food Classic, the bases also broadcast large amounts of experience gathered from collecting mutated animals and plants. Of course, it was only the part they felt would not affect major benefits if released. Research like the base’s work on urging mutated plants to grow, which Lin Mianmian and the others had done, was basically base secret information and would not be shared with other bases. It was easy to imagine that the experience about collecting mutated animals and plants spread among the major bases was only a small part of the whole.
The Food Classic made everyone value mutated animals and plants more, but hunting and raising them could not be done in a day.
Back when the strongest ability users in every area had only just reached level three, Lin Mianmian heard an announcement on the base broadcast. Another base had discovered Red Essence Five-Scale Fish and was asking nearby bases for support in catching them. After that announcement, Lin Mianmian never heard a follow-up on the broadcast. But later, people from her own base who had gone to help returned, and the rest of the story spread from them.
It was said that two level-three ability users, more than ten level-two ability users, and quite a few level-one ability users and mutated people went that time. Not counting ordinary people, there were probably a full fifty or sixty people. After all, ever since the contents of the Food Classic began to be proven true, hunting mutated animals and plants had always been popular work. In the end, when they arrived, there were about fifty or sixty Red Essence Five-Scale Fish. After one fierce battle, almost everyone used up their abilities, and they only killed one fish.
Not only were the scales on this fish extremely hard, but its flesh was also so tough that blades and spears could not pierce it. Ordinary hooks and fishing nets were completely useless. If the fish could not be brought ashore, ability attacks sent into the water would already lose a great deal of power. Those thick-skinned, tough-fleshed fish were not harmed at all.
It was said that at first, a metal ability user and a strength-type mutated person refused to believe it and went directly into the river. They were squeezed to death on the spot by the dense school of fish. The only fish killed at that time had been pushed ashore by a level-three water ability user working together with the lower-level water ability users present, separating a stretch of water with the fish inside. Just the impacts from that Red Essence Five-Scale Fish struggling against the water prison made many low-level ability users cough blood on the spot. The level-three water ability user also almost exhausted all his power.
A Red Essence Five-Scale Fish this hard to catch was only a low-level ingredient in the Food Classic. From this, one could see how difficult dealing with mutated animals and plants was. Fortunately, later, ability users and mutated people continued evolving, while mutated animals and plants kept their original forms. Gradually, people could hunt more and more mutated animals and bring back more mutated plants. In the long run, humans should have become the survivors of Earth in the end.
It was just that Lin Mianmian did not get to see it.
Before this, in Lin Mianmian’s view, cultivators were indeed stronger than the ability users from the apocalypse. But looking at this today, perhaps she had still underestimated the degree of that strength.
Because of the Copper-Thread Snails, the Red Essence Five-Scale Fish gathered in this not very wide river channel numbered in the hundreds, perhaps even more. Just the fish corpses on shore now should already be two or three hundred. Yet at a glance, the fish school in the river was still dense and crowded.
The deaths of so many companions made the fish, who had originally been comfortably eating Copper-Thread Snails, grow restless. Some Red Essence Five-Scale Fish seemed to have sensed something wrong and began ramming the riverbank. Others discovered the culprit floating in the air, who kept casting nets and making their companions disappear. They began leaping upward, trying to ram Yuan Zhaoyang.
“Red Essence Five-Scale Fish count as a rather united group-living fish species. Normally, there are no loners.” A-Bai at least had not forgotten her duty to explain. As she spoke, she lifted a paw and pointed at Yuan Zhaoyang, who stood on a wooden board under her feet and seemed to have flown a bit higher. “So even though they can feel their companions being caught ashore, no fish will leave out of fear. Instead, losing companions makes them more anxious, even angry.”
“Right now, most of their hatred is focused in the air. As their companions grow fewer, they will become angrier and more desperate. So if you ever have a chance to catch fish in the future, remember to observe the fish school’s condition. Do not stay at one height the whole time. The Red Essence Five-Scale Fish look stupid now, and netting them one batch at a time seems easy. But if they hit you once, heh, you will suffer plenty.”
The youngest, Wang Minger, leaned closer to Xiong Lanlan. “Do all the fish have to be caught?”
“Not all of them. Only the adults.” A-Bai pointed at the spider net in Yuan Zhaoyang’s hands. “The mesh was made that large so that when the net is lifted and shaken, the little ones can leak out. In a few years, there will be another good school of fish.”
“How pitiful…” Wang Minger’s eyes filled with tears, and she gently held Xiong Lanlan’s leg fur.
“The weak are prey to the strong. It is the same everywhere.” Zihui, whose arm had grown sore from killing fish, straightened up and looked seriously at Wang Minger. “If they are pitiful, then are the Copper-Thread Snails they ate pitiful? If the Copper-Thread Snails are pitiful, then are the Stone-Ears eaten by the Copper-Thread Snails pitiful? If you want to survive well, you have to work hard and become stronger. The fewer beings that can defeat you, the safer you are. This rule is the same for fish and for us.”
Originally, with a fish-transporting array, they would not have needed to net them one by one and kill them one by one. Zihui’s arm was aching from the little scales on the Red Essence Five-Scale Fish heads, so when she taught Wang Minger, her tone was a little more serious than usual.
“It is fine. Do not look.” Xiong Lanlan pulled Wang Minger over and hung her back on her leg fur, covering the little child’s eyes with one paw.
Some words sounded cruel, but they could make those who were awake even more awake.
“May I help? I helped my father slaughter chickens before.” Among the newly entered disciples, a boy of about ten stepped forward.
“I often cooked at home too… I can help gut fish.” The second to step forward was the girl who had asked Zihui during the first dry-bun distribution whether they could eat the fish in the river. She looked very capable at housework.
When there was one, there was two. When there was two, there was three. One new disciple after another stepped forward and listed their “skills,” such as having made traps, hunted rabbits, or shot sparrows with a slingshot. They all expressed that they wanted to help.
The Red Essence Five-Scale Fish had hard scales all over its body. But once the small, reddest scale in the center of its head was pried off, it died. Because the Red Essence Five-Scale Fish had hard meat and many bones, even Qingxin Hall did not use it for soup. So normally, after the little scale was pried off, the fish corpse would be burned with fire. In the end, other than the four remaining scales on its body, everything would turn to ash. They would only need to pick up the scales scattered on the ground. This was why Zihui let the fish corpses lie all over the ground and did not put them away. Once they finished catching the fish, Yuan Zhaoyang would burn them on the spot, take the scales, and be done.
It was good that everyone wanted to help, but it was completely unnecessary. Zihui was just about to refuse when Yuan Zhaoyang, who had been floating above the river and had seemed not to pay attention to this side at all, suddenly spoke.
“Go strip the scales. Do not go near the live fish in the nets that have just been pulled up.” Yuan Zhaoyang paused and waved a hand. A small knife of nearly the same shape stuck into the ground beside each new disciple’s foot. “By the time I finish catching these fish, however many scales you strip will count as yours.”
Although Red Essence Five-Scale Fish scales were only low-level materials, these newly entered disciples were also completely poor. Even a fly was still meat. The children from poor families understood this most clearly.
As soon as Yuan Zhaoyang spoke, many disciples cupped their hands to thank Senior Sister Yuan, picked up the knives, and walked toward the mountain of fish corpses.
The reward for catching these Red Essence Five-Scale Fish already included a large number of fish scales. Yuan Zhaoyang’s offer only came out of her own share. A-Bai and Zihui had no objection, and the disciples felt even more that Senior Sister Yuan was considerate and kind.
But no one knew that Yuan Zhaoyang had not said this because those disciples had simply expressed their hearts. It was completely because she had noticed Lin Mianmian standing to the side, looking at the fish corpses. Lin Mianmian seemed shocked by the scene, but also seemed as if she wanted to go forward and look more closely.
Maybe she wanted to look and touch?
Just like that, Yuan Zhaoyang willfully gave Lin Mianmian a step that allowed her to observe the fish corpses up close.
Lin Mianmian stepped onto that step at once.
Red Essence Five-Scale Fish…
Lin Mianmian slowly reached out and touched a fish corpse. Her fingers lightly circled the place on the fish’s head where Zihui had removed the scale. This was not the first time Lin Mianmian had seen the corpse of a Red Essence Five-Scale Fish. It looked almost exactly like the one she remembered seeing from far away on the base truck. If it looked the same at a glance and was actually the same too, then the scale Zihui had removed should store energy like a zombie crystal core. In the apocalypse, it would have become the energy core of a mutated animal. A metal-element energy core…
If it were wood element. If it were wood element…
All right. If it were wood element, she no longer had a wood-element core.
Lin Mianmian’s thoughts were in chaos. Suddenly, an idea flashed through her mind. Not necessarily. Perhaps… perhaps it was not necessarily gone?
Lin Mianmian was so shocked by the possibility that had flashed through her mind that she almost felt her view of life was about to be overturned again.
Most of the disciples had already reached the mountain of fish corpses with knives in hand. Only a few still hesitated.
Among them was Wang Minger, who was hugging Xiong Lanlan’s leg fur tightly.
“If you do not want to go, then do not go.” Xiong Lanlan felt the force pulling at her leg fur. She frowned and comforted the child in her rough voice.
“Will Bearbear die?” Wang Minger’s weak voice drifted out from inside Xiong Lanlan’s leg fur.
Xiong Lanlan looked confused. “What?”
“The weak are prey to the strong.” Wang Minger raised her head. Earlier, she had been trembling while hugging the leg fur, but now there were no tears on her face at all.
“Oh, probably not.” Xiong Lanlan scratched her head. “No one eats bear demons, right?”
“I do.” A dark green thing like a flat stone slowly moved over. Gui Changshou stretched out his head and smiled. “When I become stronger, I will roast you and eat you.”
“Rotten turtle, are you tired of living?” Xiong Lanlan pressed one paw onto the little turtle.
Wang Minger trembled like the last leaf on an autumn tree. “Just like how wolves ate Father?”
“…Father?” Gui Changshou struggled out from under the bear paw. “What father?”
“So, it is just like Senior Sister Zihui said. Bearbear eats me, turtle eats Bearbear, and then turtle will also be eaten by someone else…” Wang Minger lifted her head and quietly looked at Xiong Lanlan.
“Uh…” Although Xiong Lanlan had said it many times, she did not actually want to eat a child. Now Wang Minger’s logic had made her a little dizzy.
“Is there something wrong with how you are educating this child?” Gui Changshou kept feeling something was about to go wrong.
“If I am the strongest,” Wang Minger murmured while clutching the bear’s leg fur, “then whoever I want to eat, I can eat.”
“In theory… that is correct.” Gui Changshou answered without thinking.
After receiving confirmation, Wang Minger looked at Xiong Lanlan. Then she grabbed the bear’s leg fur and sat down on Xiong Lanlan’s foot.
Xiong Lanlan was baffled. “Who do you want to eat?”
No one answered Xiong Lanlan’s question.
Yuan Zhaoyang, who was floating above the river, Zihui, who was stripping fish scales, and A-Bai, who lay in her soft nest chewing a chicken leg, all seemed to sense something. At the same time, they looked toward Xiong Lanlan.
Xiong Lanlan: “…Why did she fall asleep just like that?” She shook her leg.
Before the leg could move, a little turtle flipped over onto it and stopped her.
Standing on the bear’s foot too, Gui Changshou looked surprised. “Hey, is your kid drawing spiritual energy into her body? Look. There is a little wind swirl above her head.”