Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 4

The rabbit was snow-white from head to tail, about one and a half palms long, and looked very round. At that moment, rather than being held, it was more like the young woman had lifted it by its two front legs and was dangling it before her eyes. Its long ears stood straight up, so of course it heard her soft words: “So fragrant.”
“You can smell it even when it is inside the golden bell? Looks like I can only share some with you.” The rabbit’s glossy black eyes rolled. Its captured front paws struggled to pat at its own neck. When its furry little paw pressed the golden bell hanging there, three finger-sized fried little fish, golden and clearly crisp, appeared out of thin air beside its paw.
The fried fish hung in the air, sending out waves of tempting fragrance. Fresh but not fishy, rich but not greasy.
The woman holding the rabbit looked about twenty. She wore white, with only black-and-orange cloud patterns embroidered at her waist. She looked clean and pleasant. Her thin gauze outer robe stirred lightly in the wind, giving her a faint air of floating like an immortal.
“A-Bai, I have told you many times not to eat so much food from the mortal world. It does no good for cultivation. If you are hungry, you can go to Qingxin Hall.” The woman glanced at the fried fish, then looked back at the rabbit. Her displeasure was obvious. Yet with her willow brows slightly furrowed and her almond eyes widened, she did not look stern at all. Instead, she seemed a little charmingly childish.
“Yuan Zhaoyang, I have told you many times too. From the first day we arrived at the Five Elements Sect, I knew we were doomed. What sect names its dining hall Qingxin Hall? Are they trying to let people eat or not?” The soft white rabbit waved a paw, and the three fried fish flew straight to the woman’s mouth. “Look at this. This is good stuff I found on the road. How can it be compared to the things Qingxin Hall just boils in plain water?”
Yuan Zhaoyang turned her face aside and stepped half a pace back from the fried fish. She still did not let go of the rabbit. She only frowned and said, “Qingxin Hall’s food is bland, but its ingredients are spiritual things. Since you cannot abstain from grain yet, eating some when you are hungry is best for you.”
“No, no, no! I will not eat at Qingxin Hall! White-water pork with white jade cabbage – whoever loves that can eat it!” The round rabbit twisted in Yuan Zhaoyang’s hands. Seeing that it could not break free, it suddenly shrank. In the blink of an eye, it was only half a palm long and slipped smoothly out of Yuan Zhaoyang’s grasp.
Before Yuan Zhaoyang could bend down to catch it, the rabbit had already turned into a streak of white light and fled. Before leaving, it did not forget to slap a big handful of fried fish out of the golden bell at its neck, circling Yuan Zhaoyang with them.
“…”
Yuan Zhaoyang wanted to follow, but she had to consider the place and situation.
Today was the first day of Yingxian City’s once-every-ten-years immortal sect disciple recruitment. The major sects had arrived in the city one after another and were beginning to divide their areas in the city center and set things up. Looking around, most of the people sent by the major sects were Foundation Establishment cultivators who had come out for training along the way. There were also a few lower-level Qi Refining disciples. Each sect had one or two Core Formation Masters along, both for protection and to serve as a warning.
Only the Five Elements Sect was different. Of those who came this time, the one with the highest cultivation was Yuan Zhaoyang, who was at perfect Foundation Establishment. Yuan Zhaoyang believed that even at perfect Foundation Establishment, she could fight an early Core Formation Master. But Foundation Establishment and Core Formation were still separated by an entire realm. Unseen by others, the Five Elements Sect had already fallen somewhat behind on this trip to Yingxian City.
There was no helping it. At this time, the Five Elements Sect truly could not spare a Core Formation Master to come to Yingxian City.
Yuan Zhaoyang knew that her cultivation, at least on the surface, was not enough. She had planned to act quietly and finish this disciple recruitment smoothly. The rabbit had made a rather big scene when it escaped just now, and divine senses from other sect stations in the city center had already noticed this place. Yuan Zhaoyang had no need to draw more attention. In any case, A-Bai would come back after she had played enough. If she ate some mortal food, then so be it. It was merely of no benefit. At most, she would have more mortal waste to deal with. It would not do any great harm.
What deserved Yuan Zhaoyang’s attention more was another matter.
Without changing expression, Yuan Zhaoyang waved her sleeve and collected all the fried fish the rabbit had released into her storage bag. Then she looked once more toward the west of the city.
By reason, after reaching Core Formation, a cultivator could abstain from grain. Yuan Zhaoyang, who was already at perfect Foundation Establishment and only one step from forming her core, had not eaten food in a very long time. But now she only felt that something smelled good. That strange fragrance shook her heart. Not only did a long-lost hunger appear in her belly, even her mind felt as if something were missing.
Yuan Zhaoyang forced down the urge to investigate at once and continued answering several Five Elements Sect disciples’ questions about setting up the recruitment grounds. At the same time, she watched the other sects around them. It seemed that besides her, no one had noticed anything unusual in the west of the city.
Could it be that it was not some heavenly treasure?
After giving instructions to the disciples, Yuan Zhaoyang walked aside, took a fried fish from her storage bag, and ate it. The little fish was fried crisp outside and tender inside. Even the bones were crunchy enough to chew. The salt was just right, and it seemed some fragrant seasoning had been sprinkled on after frying. It tasted very special, not fishy at all. Fragrant, fragrant, so fragrant. Yuan Zhaoyang ate several in a row before stopping. She licked her lips, clearly not fully satisfied.
The Five Elements Sect disciples who accidentally saw this were stunned. They could no longer tell whether they had misheard Senior Sister Yuan lecturing A-Bai earlier, or whether they were seeing things now as Senior Sister Yuan ate little fish with a face full of enjoyment and lingering hunger.
Only Yuan Zhaoyang knew that while the fried fish were delicious, eating them did not reduce the effect that fragrance from the city west had on her at all. It was still so fragrant. She was still so hungry. She even felt a little dizzy. Dizzy from hunger?
“I am going to look for A-Bai. Set things up as I just told you,” Yuan Zhaoyang said. In the end, she could not bear it. She casually found an excuse and openly walked out of the Five Elements Sect’s station.
The world was divided into four regions: the Eastern Sea, the Western Wastes, the Southern Union, and the Northern Territory.
The Southern Union was vast, rich, and full of resources. It had many sects. Human cultivators and demon cultivators lived in harmony there. Some established themselves separately, while many mixed within the same sect. It could be called the most inclusive of the four regions. Yet even though the overall situation was like this, the sects were not without friction.
Originally, the Five Elements Sect had deep foundations and treated its disciples generously. That created a good cycle, with talented people appearing generation after generation. It could be counted among the first tier of great sects in the Southern Union. But a little over ten years ago, the heavenly signs suddenly changed. Barriers appeared between the four regions, which had once been open to one another, forcibly separating them so people could no longer travel between them. Many cultivators who had been outside on training journeys could no longer return to their sects.
At that time, the Five Elements Sect had found a secret realm in the Eastern Sea and gathered seventy percent of its Core Formation Masters to explore it. Once they went, they were trapped outside the Southern Union by the barrier. The Five Elements Sect suffered a break in its Core Formation ranks. That was the greatest reason Yuan Zhaoyang, at perfect Foundation Establishment, was leading the team to recruit disciples.
Although the shortage of Core Formation cultivators in the Five Elements Sect was a sect secret, it likely could not be hidden for long. They had much grain and few soldiers, so on this trip, Yuan Zhaoyang was naturally even more careful.
As soon as Yuan Zhaoyang left the recruitment grounds being set up by the Five Elements Sect, she sensed several divine senses following her. Who knew whether they were interested because the strongest cultivator the Five Elements Sect had sent was only at perfect Foundation Establishment, or because they were interested in the Five Elements Sect itself.
No matter what, Yuan Zhaoyang still felt a pressing need to go look. If she did not, it felt as if she would miss something important.
From the city center to the east, then from the east around to the north, Yuan Zhaoyang made a full show of searching for a rabbit while also enjoying the local life of Yingxian City. At last, she slowly reached the western part of the city.
At that moment, Lin Mianmian was nervously planning how to use ten copper coins to buy two-thirds of a bowl of sauce-braised meat noodles.
Yes, sauce-braised, not soy-braised.
At first, Lin Mianmian had followed the smell of meat to the noodle stall and thought it was soy-braised meat. After looking closely, she discovered that the big chunks of meat were simmered together with thick bean sauce. Whenever someone ordered noodles, the Qiao family’s young man would deftly hook up a big piece of meat with an iron hook, slice off a piece with one smooth cut, and toss the meat back into the sauce.
The sauce had been simmered for a long time, mixed with meat until a rich fragrance drifted out in waves. Lin Mianmian found a downwind spot and stood there. It was practically self-torture.
Reason said that these ten coins were her survival funds and starting money in this other time and space. They were not much, but she could not spend them casually. Emotion said… Buy noodles! Buy noodles! Buy noodles!
Standing downwind, Lin Mianmian smelled the meat fragrance and struggled with herself while calculating. She did not notice that not far away, a crowd was surging toward them as if carrying something along, then surging away.
Cultivators were very different from ordinary people in both clothing and aura. Although the major sects had set Yingxian City as the place to recruit disciples, they basically did not wander around the city. Most landed directly in the city center, where the city lord had already cleared the grounds. For the next three days, only children who met the age requirements and their families could enter the city center. So someone like Yuan Zhaoyang, who had come out for a stroll, was a rare specimen. She instantly drew a crowd.
Of course, people looked, but they still held reverence for immortals. Within several meters of Yuan Zhaoyang, there was no one at all. Several meters away, however, there was a moving mountain and sea of people following her.
Fortunately, a cultivator’s five senses far surpassed ordinary people’s. Even through the crowd, as soon as Yuan Zhaoyang approached the west of the city, she found the source of that strange fragrance.
It was the person beside the sauce-braised meat noodle stall.
Yuan Zhaoyang could feel that divine senses were still following her. Although they held no malice for now, who knew whether problems would arise if she did anything unusual. Yuan Zhaoyang walked past not far from Lin Mianmian. Her pace did not slow, and she did not look even once. On the surface, all was normal. In her heart, waves were already crashing. The closer she got, the thicker that fragrance became. It almost had a magic power that made a person want to throw aside everything and pounce forward to seize it by force.
She had originally thought it might be resonance from some magic artifact suited to her, or perhaps some heavenly treasure. She had not expected it to be a person. So that feeling of almost being unable to stop herself from rushing over and grabbing something – what exactly did it want her to grab? Yuan Zhaoyang felt that her whole person… no, her whole cat, was about to become unwell.
Only when she gradually moved away from the west of the city, away from that person, did Yuan Zhaoyang’s nearly boiling blood cool a little. The heart-clearing mantra she had recited the whole way at least prevented her from doing anything strange in public. Still, using the heart-clearing mantra meant for resisting inner demons during tribulation here was truly… no person or demon would believe it if she said it aloud.
After returning to the city center, Yuan Zhaoyang felt that this one walk outside had tired her more than killing a whole mountain of demonic beasts. Every bone in her body felt weak and tingling, though all she had done was walk past one little girl.
Far away in the city west, the strange fragrance still lingered. The other sects seemed completely unable to sense it. Yuan Zhaoyang vaguely felt that perhaps this was an opportunity meant for her alone. But the feeling that surged up when she approached that little girl made it seem more like falling under a spell than obtaining an opportunity.
Yuan Zhaoyang hesitated. Yet on the path of cultivation, opportunity and danger often came together.
When cultivators began training, they usually took several months to a year to draw spiritual energy into the body and enter Qi Refining, after which they could live a hundred years. After several decades, they could reach Foundation Establishment and add several hundred years to their lives. If, within those centuries, they had the chance to form a core, they could live a thousand years.
Yuan Zhaoyang had originally possessed outstanding talent. She had taken human form early, and in only twenty-plus years had cultivated to perfect Foundation Establishment. Among those who cultivated alongside her, she was simply one of the best. Yet for some reason, in the following seventy or eighty years, she remained stuck at perfect Foundation Establishment, always one step away from forming her core. One cultivator after another from her generation surpassed her. Though Yuan Zhaoyang had spent many years at perfect Foundation Establishment and could fight early Core Formation cultivators, she still could not advance another step.
From genius to mediocre talent – the changing attitudes within the sect and the taste of it were hard to explain to outsiders. In the end, more than twenty years ago, Yuan Zhaoyang used a training journey as an excuse to leave the Northern Territory and eventually came to the Southern Union. When the barrier between the four regions appeared more than ten years ago and she could not return north, Yuan Zhaoyang settled in the Five Elements Sect as a guest elder. That was how this trip to Yingxian City came about.
That little girl affected Yuan Zhaoyang so greatly that even her soul seemed shaken. No matter what, Yuan Zhaoyang was very clear that this girl was certainly different to her. She did not want to miss her just like that. She had to look a little longer. Best of all would be to bring her back to the Five Elements Sect, keep her under her eyes, and study carefully what was going on.
However, the major sects had an agreement: when recruiting disciples in Yingxian City, everything depended on fate. Each sect could give a simple introduction to itself at its recruitment ground, and mortal children could freely choose which sect to try to enter. After a child chose a sect, that sect would test the child’s spiritual roots and aptitude.
Malicious competition between sects was forbidden. Sects were strictly forbidden from giving false information about themselves to mortals. They could not threaten mortals. Naturally, they also could not lure mortals with heavenly treasures, magic artifacts, magical treasures, or other cultivation resources.
In truth, the rule that aptitude was tested only after a sect was chosen already blocked most malicious competition for disciples. The rest were merely stricter additions.
That little girl looked about twelve or thirteen. In Yuan Zhaoyang’s view, a child of that age who appeared in Yingxian City had naturally come to enter an immortal sect.
But in Yingxian City, there were seven or eight large immortal sects recruiting, not to mention many medium and small ones. How could she make sure the girl came to sign up with her sect?
Suddenly, Yuan Zhaoyang saw A-Bai, who had returned to their station at some point. The snowball had returned to her one-and-a-half-palm size. In front of her floated an oily flatbread larger than her entire body, and she looked as if she wanted to throw her whole rabbit self onto it and gnaw. The scene was too much for words.
But Yuan Zhaoyang suddenly remembered the direction the little girl had been looking and the expression in her eyes at that time. It really was just like A-Bai now, wanting to swallow that flatbread in one bite.
“Ying Fu, I saw a Qiao family noodle stall in the city west just now. It looked good. Go invite them here and have them open in front of our grounds. Then make a fire banner and write this: The Five Elements Sect understands the hardship of mortals seeking immortality, so we have specially set up a noodle stall with free food. Anyone willing to enter the Five Elements Sect may eat until full for free. Say this at the noodle stall too, so the other customers will not wait.” Yuan Zhaoyang casually pointed to a slightly plump male cultivator. After speaking, she paused and added on purpose, “It is the stall with a big pot of sauce-braised meat. The one cooking noodles is a man around twenty. Do not invite the wrong one.”
“…Senior Sister Yuan, the sects in Yingxian City have an agreement. We cannot lure mortals with benefits,” Ying Fu said. He almost thought he had heard wrong.
“I know. Only cultivation resources cannot be used as lures. Those rules are carved on the stone tablet in the city. You can go check.” Yuan Zhaoyang’s eyes shone, and her lips curved slightly. “This is not luring. We are merely giving hot food to mortals willing to enter the Five Elements Sect. It will not affect the other sects.”
Ying Fu still wanted to say something, but A-Bai, already sprawled on the flatbread, waved a paw. A large bundle of gold and silver smashed through the air toward him. “Go. Take money.” Sauce-braised meat! Not plain-water meat! Just hearing it made her want to eat.
Just as Yuan Zhaoyang expected, when the noodle stall moved over and the explaining fire banner rose, several divine senses from the other sects glanced over and did not take it seriously at all.
If they were using heavenly treasures, magic artifacts, magical treasures, or other cultivation resources as bait, the major sects naturally would not agree. But one meal of noodles? Who would hastily choose a sect because of a meal? If a person on the path of cultivation chose a sect carelessly because of a bowl of noodles, then such a person was not worth taking anyway.
In the end, although immortal sects wanted to recruit more people, they also wanted good seedlings, not… gluttons.
No matter what others thought, Yuan Zhaoyang’s fingers trembled slightly. The strange fragrance grew thicker.
That girl had already followed the noodle stall to the outside of the Five Elements Sect’s grounds.